Controversial Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant is seeking damages for alleged defamation. The Truth Defense Obviously Does Not Apply In Australia
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant sues over ‘scum of the earth’ slur ...Although that's too nice of a name for him!
A
SHAMED rabbi forced to step down from a string of posts after
vilifying and intimidating victims of child sex abuse is now suing their
spokesman for defamation.
Meir Shlomo Kluwgant had to
resign as Australia’s top rabbi in the wake of the child abuse royal
commission’s probe into Yeshivah College in East St Kilda.
He now
claims Phillip Weinberg, who acted as spokesman for the victims,
defamed him in telephone calls to Adass Israel School secretary Avraham
Weiszberger in June and July last year.
Adass Israel School in ElsternwickIn
a writ filed in the Supreme Court, Rabbi Kluwgant claims the first
call took place just days before he took up the post of CEO and
principal of the Elsternwick school.
Rabbi Kluwgant alleges that
during the call, Mr Weinberg told Mr Weiszberger that he (Kluwgant) was
“the scum of the earth” and “one of the worst people” he had heard
about.
He claims Mr Weinberg suggested he was unsuitable for the
job and that the school was making a big mistake employing him and
encouraged Weiszberger to contact other members of the Rabbinic Council
of Australia and New Zealand to obtain further details of his poor
character. The Rabbi alleges further defamatory comments were made in a
second call where Mr Weinberg allegedly stated the school was “on the
right track” by distancing itself from him.
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant labelled the father of a child sex abuse victim a “lunatic” who neglected his children.Rabbi
Kluwgant claims Mr Weinberg suggested that he was of such “unsavoury,
unscrupulous and distasteful” character that he should be sacked, being
unfit to hold any office at a school.
He claims the alleged
statements injured his reputation and breached court orders made in
December 2015 restraining Mr Weinberg from making derogatory comments
about him.
He is seeking aggravated damages and damages for lost income and for the alleged contempt of court.
He
claims the alleged statements injured his reputation and occupation and
breached court orders made in December, 2015 restraining Mr Weinberg
from publishing or sharing certain documents, or making derogatory
comments about him to anyone.
Rabbi Kluwgant alleges Mr Weinberg
has refused to correct, retract of apologise despite being asked to do
so and is seeking aggravated damages and damages for lost income and for
Mr Weinberg’s alleged contempt of court for breaching the earlier
orders.
Mr Weinberg could not be contacted and is yet to file a defence.
Rabbi
Kluwgant resigned as principal of Adass Israel in August last year. His
appointment prompted the most powerful rabbi in the ultra-Orthodox
community to make an extraordinary call for further consultation, after
abuse victims asked the school to reconsider.
Former Adass Israel School principal Malka Leifer, who is now in hiding in Israel.Victims
had expressed alarm in 2015 that Rabbi Kluwgant was teaching religious
studies at Beth Rivkah Ladies College, operated by the Yeshivah Centre,
saying it was evidence the centre was not serious about tackling abuse.
Earlier
in 2015 Rabbi Kluwgant resigned as president of the Organisation of
Rabbis of Australasia, lost his position on Victoria Police’s
multi-faith advisory committee and resigned as general manager of
cultural and spiritual services at Jewish Care.
The royal
commission heard that he had labelled the father of Yeshivah College
abuse victim Manny Waks a “lunatic” who neglected his children, and told
another victim who called on Jewish leaders to confront the child
sexual abuse crisis to “remain silent”.
Adass Israel School was
previously mired in controversy when former principal Malka Leifer fled
to Israel in the middle of the night when she was accused of molesting
her students in 2008.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
last month promised to take a fresh look at extraditing Ms Leifer to
Australia, where she is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse.
In late 2008, at a meeting with academics at the London School of Economics, Queen Elizabeth II asked
why no one seemed to have anticipated the world’s worst financial
crisis in the postwar period. The so-called Great Recession, which had
begun in late 2008 and would run until mid-2009, was set off by the
sudden collapse of sky-high prices for housing and other assets —
something that is obvious in retrospect but that, nevertheless, no one
seemed to see coming.
*(For the record, I did see it coming in the summer of 2006, and told everyone in my inner circle and in my organization. The pattern of consumer spending started to decline rapidly as the banks dramatically cut back on home equity loans - PM)*
Are
we about to make the same mistake? All too likely, yes. Certainly, the
American economy is doing well, and emerging economies are picking up
steam. But global asset prices are once again rising rapidly above their
underlying value — in other words, they are in a bubble. Considering
the virtual silence among economists about the danger they pose, one has
to wonder whether in a year or two, when those bubbles eventually
burst, the queen will not be asking the same sort of question.
This
silence is all the more surprising considering how much more pervasive
bubbles are today than they were 10 years ago. While in 2008 bubbles
were largely confined to the American housing and credit markets, they
are now to be found in almost every corner of the world economy.
As the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan recently warned,
years of highly unorthodox monetary policy by the world’s major central
banks has created a global government bond bubble, with long-term
interest rates plumbing historically low levels.
He
might have added that this bubble has hardly been confined to the
sovereign bond market. Indeed, stock values are at lofty heights that
have been reached only three times in the last century. At the same
time, housing bubbles are all too evident in countries like Australia,
Britain, Canada and China, while interest rates have been driven down to
unusually low levels for high-yield debt and emerging-market corporate
debt.
One
reason for fearing that these bubbles might soon start bursting is that
the years of low interest rates and avid central bank government bond
buying that spawned the bubbles now appear to be drawing to an end.
The
Federal Reserve has already started to raise interest rates — on
Wednesday it hiked the benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point
— and has announced a schedule
for reducing the mammoth amount of government securities it holds. At
the same time, with the European and Japanese economic recoveries
picking up pace, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan
are hinting that they are likely to soon follow the Fed’s lead in
tightening monetary policy by raising rates.
Other
reasons for fearing that the bubbles might soon start bursting are the
fault lines in a number of major economies. Italy has both a serious
public debt problem and a shaky banking system. Brazil is experiencing
political turmoil while its public finances are on a clearly
unsustainable path. China has a housing and credit-market bubble that
dwarfs the one in the United States at the start of this century. And
both Brazil and Italy will be holding contested parliamentary elections
next year.
This
is not to mention the economic dislocation that could result from a
termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or from the
accentuation of other protectionist tendencies, whether by the United
States or by another big country. Nor is it to mention the risk that
events in the Korean Peninsula could spin out of control.
Economic
policymakers seem to have lulled themselves into a false sense of
security by trusting the stricter bank regulations put in place after
the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. They seem to be turning a blind
eye to the dominant role that so-called shadow banks (hedge funds,
private equity funds, large money market funds and pension funds) play
in the American financial system now. Unlike the banks that were covered
by the Dodd-Frank regulations, these institutions are lightly regulated
— but, as we painfully learned in 1998 when the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management had to be bailed out, are subject to deposit runs just like banks.
It
is too late for policymakers to do much to prevent bubbles from
forming. However, it’s not too early for them to start thinking about
how to respond in a manner that might free us from the boom-bust cycles
that we seem to be experiencing every 10 years. They could, for example,
create a program that in a severe downturn would give every citizen a
cash grant to be spent at their discretion, what Milton Friedman called
“helicopter money.”
It’s
unclear, however, whether the world’s largest economy can take the lead
this time. The Trump administration’s budget-busting tax cuts risk
overheating markets even further and limiting the government’s ability
to respond when the bubbles pop. This heightens the risk that when the
bubbles burst, we’ll be forced to rely yet again on artificially low
interest rates, which will set us up yet again for another boom-bust
cycle.
Subprime delinquency rate for non-bank lenders back near recession levels
A
Perella Weinberg Partners fund has been sitting on an IPO of Flagship
Credit Acceptance for two years as bad loan write-offs push it into the
red. Blackstone Group LP has struggled to make Exeter Finance profitable, despite sinking almost a half-billion dollars into the lender since 2011 and shaking up the
C-suite multiple times.
And Wall Street bankers in private say others
would love to cash out too, but there’s currently no market for such
exits.
In the years
after the financial crisis, buyout firms poured billions into auto
finance, angling for the big profits that come with offering
high-interest loans to buyers with the weakest credit. At rates of 11
percent or more, there was plenty to be made as sales boomed. But now,
with new car demand waning, they’ve found the intense competition -- and
the lax underwriting standards it fostered -- are taking a toll on profits.
Delinquencies on subprime loans made by non-bank lenders are soaring toward crisis levels. Fresh investment has dried up and some of the big banks, long seen as potential suitors, have pulled back from the auto lending business. To top it off, state regulators are circling the industry, asking whether it preyed on borrowers and put them in cars they couldn’t afford.
“The
PE guys sailed into this thing with stars in their eyes. Some of the
businesses have done fine and some haven’t,” said Chris Gillock,
managing director at Colonnade Advisors, a boutique investment bank. But
right now, “it’s about as out-of-favor a sector as I can think of.”
The apparent turnabout represents a sobering shift
in what has been a booming market. Since the turn of the decade, buyout
firms, hedge funds and other private investors have staked at least $3
billion on non-bank auto lenders, according to Colonnade. Among PE
firms, everyone from Blackstone and KKR & Co. to Lee Equity
Partners, Altamont Capital and CIVC Partners waded in.
Many
targeted smaller finance companies that often catered to the least
creditworthy borrowers with nowhere else to turn. Overall, subprime car
loans -- those extended to people with credit scores of 620 or lower --
have increased 72 percent since 2011. Last year, about 20 percent of all
new car loans went to subprime borrowers.
It usually works like
this. Subprime finance companies first borrow money from the big banks
and then compete for loans from car dealers. They make their margin from
the spread between their funding costs and the interest they can
charge, minus operating expenses and whatever losses occur when
borrowers can’t pay. What they don’t keep on their books usually gets
bundled into bonds and sold as asset-backed securities. Some will also
sell loans to banks or brokers to raise cash.
For many PE-backed subprime lenders, which invested heavily
to expand, margins have shrunk as delinquencies spiked and auto sales
peaked.
In some ways, buyout firms can only blame themselves.
Because of the limited time to show a return on their investments,
usually four to six years, there was immense pressure to grow. That led
many finance companies to loosen their standards -- like lengthening
repayment periods and lending to borrowers with lower credit scores --
to gain an edge as car sales roared back from the depths of the
recession and competitors jumped in. Many pushed into “deep subprime,”
the riskiest part of the business that’s grown in recent years.
Take
Exeter. The company, which is licensed in all 50 states and works with
roughly 10,000 dealerships, was unprofitable from 2011 -- when
Blackstone took a majority stake -- through 2015, according to S&P
Global Ratings. That’s even as the PE firm invested $472 million to help
Exeter expand and cycled through three CEOs at the lender.
On a
pretax basis, S&P said Exeter turned a profit last year, and Matthew
Anderson, a spokesman at Blackstone, says the company will do so again
in 2017. He added the New York-based firm hasn’t tried to sell the
lender.
Blackstone may look to unload Exeter later next year, said
a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified
because it’s private.
Bad loans remain an issue. This year, a rash
of delinquencies in two bonds stuffed with loans that Exeter made in
2015 caused the securities to dip into their extra collateral to keep
investors whole.
Another example is Flagship, which Perella
Weinberg bought in 2010. (Innovatus Capital Partners, which manages the
lender on behalf of Perella Weinberg, was formed by former Perella
Weinberg managers last year after they split from the firm.)
‘Satisfactory Return’
As
its loan portfolio surged to almost $3 billion from just $89 million in
2011, bad loan write-offs mounted and left the company with losses last
year. Since then, it’s been forced to cut back origination and tighten
underwriting standards. Kroll Bond Rating Agency said in November it
expects Flagship to post another loss this year before returning to
profitability in 2018.
“We’re concerned about the company’s ability to earn a satisfactory return,” S&P said in August.
That
might not bode well for Flagship’s initial public offering, which could
potentially provide an exit for its owners. The IPO has languished and
its prospectus hasn’t been updated since July 2015.
Representatives for Perella Weinberg, Flagship and Innovatus declined to comment.
In hindsight, the planned sale may have come a year too late.
Santander
Consumer USA Holdings Inc., whose investors included KKR and Warburg
Pincus, went public in January 2014, turning then-CEO Thomas G. Dundon
into a billionaire. (He didn’t respond to a request for comment.) The shares have lost about a quarter of their value since then as the lender restated earnings going back to 2013 and agreed to pay almost $25 million to two states to settle a probe into predatory lending. Santander says it has improved its governance, risk management and capital buffers.
Perfectly Timed
“Tom
Dundon at SC timed it perfectly,” said Dan Parry, co-founder of Exeter
who now runs TruDecision, a fintech firm that serves car dealers and
lenders. “Others haven’t been that fortunate.”
Indeed, while
subprime delinquencies of 90 days or more have stabilized at banks, the
rate at non-banks is close to the highest since 2009, according to the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which noted the industry’s hasty
underwriting standards.
Many of the large banks that provide
funding to subprime auto lenders have taken notice and become far more
conservative in doling out credit lines, says David Knightly, a
vice-president at Innovate Auto Finance, which buys loans from
dealerships and auto finance companies to help them raise cash.
“From
a standpoint of subprime auto right now, if you’re small, people aren’t
lining up,” he said. “Everybody’s trying to guess when the next 2008
is.”
Bigger subprime auto lenders can still turn to the capital
markets. Sales of subprime auto ABS have reached $25 billion, topping
last year’s total and almost triple the amount in 2010. They’ve also
shored up finances by lending to borrowers with stronger credit, said
Amy Martin, an analyst at S&P. That in turn has buoyed shares of
some of the biggest ones in recent months.
Martin expects a lot of
mergers as car sales slow. In the meantime, PE firms have largely
lowered their expectations for a big exit and are trying to make their
companies leaner to extract a dividend or sell the loan portfolios.
“Nobody
wants to pay much more than book value” for these companies, said
Colonnade’s Gillock. “It’s not a disaster, but it’s a failure.”
Bitcoin Starts New Year by Declining, First Time Since 2015
Updated on
Bitcoin is already having a bad year.
For
the first time since 2015, the cryptocurrency began a new year by
declining, extending its slide from a record $19,511 reached on Dec. 18.
The
virtual coin traded at $13,624.56 as of 5 p.m. in New York on Monday,
down 4.8 percent from Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That’s also a fall from the $14,156 it hit Sunday, according to
coinmarketcap.com, which tracks daily prices. The cryptocurrency
fluctuated in early Asian trading on Tuesday.
Wrong Foot
Bitcoin is having an unusually bad first day of the year
Source: Coinmarketcap.com
Percentage changes
reflect bitcoin's rise or fall on Jan. 1 compared with the previous day.
The figure for 2018 reflects the cryptocurrency's price as of 3:45 p.m.
in New York.
Bitcoin got off to a much stronger start last year, and then
kept that momentum going, helping to create a global frenzy for
cryptocurrencies. It rose 3.6 percent on the first day of 2017 to $998,
data from coinmarketcap.com show. It ended the year up more than 1,300
percent.
That rally
drew a growing number of competitors and last month brought bitcoin to
Wall Street in the form of futures contracts. It reached the Dec. 18
peak hours after CME Group Inc. debuted its derivatives agreements,
which some traders said would encourage short position-taking.
Today, President Donald J. Trump commuted the prison sentence of
Sholom Rubashkin, an action encouraged by bipartisan leaders from across
the political spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi to Orrin Hatch.
Mr. Rubashkin is a 57-year-old father of 10 children. He previously
ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country’s
largest kosher meat-processing company. In 2009, he was convicted of
bank fraud and sentenced thereafter to 27 years in prison. Mr. Rubashkin
has now served more than 8 years of that sentence, which many have
called excessive in light of its disparity with sentences imposed for
similar crimes.
This action is not a Presidential pardon. It does not vacate Mr.
Rubashkin’s conviction, and it leaves in place a term of supervised
release and a substantial restitution obligation, which were also part
of Mr. Rubashkin’s sentence.
The President’s review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case and commutation
decision were based on expressions of support from Members of Congress
and a broad cross-section of the legal community. A bipartisan group of
more than 100 former high-ranking and distinguished Department of
Justice (DOJ) officials, prosecutors, judges, and legal scholars have
expressed concerns about the evidentiary proceedings in Mr. Rubashkin’s
case and the severity of his sentence. Additionally, more than 30
current Members of Congress have written letters expressing support for
review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case.
Former High-Ranking DOJ Officials Who Have Expressed Support for Review of Mr. Rubashkin’s Case
Attorney General Bill Barr
Attorney General Edwin Meese III
Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Solicitor General Seth Waxman
FBI Director Louis Freeh
Current Members of Congress Who Have Expressed Support For Review of Mr. Rubashkin’s Case
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Representative Steve King (R-IA)
Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
Representative Richard Neal (D-MA)
Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Representative Tom Marino (R-PA)
Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Representative Ted Poe (R-TX)
Representative Jared Polis (D-CO)
Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL)
Representative Tom Reed (R-NY)
Representative Tom Rooney (R-FL)
Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Representative Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)
Click here to read letters expressing support for review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case.
Rabbis and family members eulogize Aliza Azan and her three children, who perished when their Flatbush home went up in flames. (For not extinguishing the menorah before they went to bed.)
הלווית בני משפחת אזן, בבית העלמין בחולון
The four victims of a Flatbush fire were laid to rest on Wednesday in Holon, Israel.
Aliza Azan and her three children, died in their Sheepshead Bay home when their Hanukkah menorah caught fire early Monday morning and their entire house was consumed by the flames. They were flown to Israel after a crowd of mourners proved too large and distraught for a pre-flight memorial ceremony to be held in Brooklyn, and the funeral was held Wednesday morning.
The father, Yosef Azan, is a well-known figure in his community. He
was critically injured and is hospitalized in New York, unconscious and
breathing with assistance. Azan's wife, Aliza, 39, as well as his
3-year-old daughter Henrietta and his sons Moshe and Yitzhak, aged 11
and 7, were killed in the fire. Two additional children, Shilat and
Daniel, ages 16 and 15, are also hospitalized.
Aliza's father, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, served as Damascus' Chief Rabbi
and was a well-known rabbi in Holon before he moved to Brooklyn this
past year.
Thousands of people attended the funeral, and Holon Chief Rabbi
Avraham Yosef said, "We cannot eulogize on Hanukkah; the eulogy will
need to be said during the week of mourning. This was such a beloved
family. The father, and his wife, have great merit, and raised all their
descendants to live a life of Torah and follow G-d's commandments. They
have great merit."
Halakha forbids eulogizing during Hanukkah.
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said, "Every one of us, all of
us, should engage in soul-searching, to find out why G-d allowed this to
happen. (Of course he employs the standard gobbly-gook of a God who would allow this to happen to innocents... Shtik Ferd of a Chief Rabbi - PM)
The entire people of Israel should cry over this fire ( a
biblical quote)... We are all hurting and crying, but we do not know
G-d's plans. Those buried here are going to a world which has only good,
but they leave us [behind]. The well deserve our loving kindness
(burial is considered an act of true kindness in Judaism, as the dead
person cannot reward or thank those who bury him, ed.) ."
One family member said "We have no questions, only reflections. We
accept the Heavenly decree with love, and we wonder: The Holy Temple was
destroyed because of baseless hatred. Aliza, who was full of love for
each of G-d's creations, perhaps could not continue to live in this
world."
After Fatal Fire in Brooklyn, a Somber and Cautious End to Hanukkah
Mourners gathered in Brooklyn
Monday night as vehicles carried a mother and three children who died
when a menorah started a fire in their home.
Light
is typically interpreted as the emblem of everything good and positive
in Jewish tradition. That symbolism is all the more important this time
of year, as Hanukkah — known as the Festival of Lights — celebrates the
ancient miracle of an oil lamp that burned for eight straight days.
But on Monday morning, light took on a grislier significance among Orthodox Jewish neighbors in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Around
2 a.m., as the Azan family slept in their three-story home on East 14th
Street, flames leapt from their oil-burning menorah and started a fire
that killed a mother and three of her children, the Fire Department
said. The children’s father, Yosi Azan, and four other family members
managed to escape, officials said.
The
fatal fire rattled a deeply religious community that mourned the dead
on Monday night in a procession of vehicles carrying the victims. On
Tuesday, as neighbors grappled with the loss of life, they also focused
on the safest way to celebrate the seventh and penultimate night of
Hanukkah. Oil-burning menorahs, like the one officials said caused the
fire, tend to burn longer than candle menorahs, and if they are left
unattended can pose a risk.
“I
feel like the community is going to be more cautious now with lighting
the menorah,” Victor Levi, who described himself as a distant relative
of the Azan family, said at the scene of the fire. “My mom makes sure
she doesn’t go to sleep until it’s off.”
The Azan family
Mr.
Levi, 27, said he believes that Jewish families in the neighborhood are
attuned to the dangers posed by the lighting of the traditional Jewish
lamp for Hanukkah and that steps are usually taken to prevent fires,
like not letting menorahs burn for too long.
On
Tuesday morning, the streets surrounding the scorched home smelled of
ash. Dangling from the roof was a fire-licked drainage pipe bent against
the breeze.
Along
the street, front windows were decorated with Lego menorahs,
traditional candlestick menorahs, light bulb menorahs and oil menorahs.
On a nearby outdoor porch, an oil menorah was perched on a stool and
encased in a glass box with golden trim, set at a distance from the
house.
The
menorah that started the fire in a front room of the Azan family’s home
was about two feet wide and burned oil held in small glass cups. One of
the surviving Azan children and a teenage cousin told investigators
that the oil menorah had been left burning after they went to sleep and
that they saw the fire start nearby.
Although
candle menorahs are more common, oil-burning menorahs have long been
used by Orthodox Jews and are considered by many the most authentic way
to commemorate the original small flask of oil that burned inside the
Holy Temple.
Oil
menorahs, which are mostly manufactured and imported from Israel,
became increasingly popular in the United States about seven years ago,
said Sam Heilman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New
York.
A Fire Department official inside the home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where the fatal fire occurred
“It’s
now the thing,” said Mr. Heilman, an expert on Orthodox and Hasidic
communities. “If you go into any Judaica shop, they sell these sort of
pre-made ones that come with little oil capsules. You just pop off the
top and light them. They’re less messy.”
Oil-burning
menorahs can burn for up to an hour and a half, while the candle ones
tend to burn for about half an hour, Mr. Heilman said. Jewish law
dictates that the menorah be lit around nightfall, he said. The fire at
the Azan house began at 2 a.m. and fire marshals suspect that the glass
may have cracked under extended heat exposure, spilling oil and
spreading flames.
“Jewish
families are generally very cognizant of the danger of open flames, as
candles or oil lamps are used to usher in the Sabbath each week as well
as on holidays, particularly Hanukkah,” said Avi Shafran, the director
of public affairs at Agudath Israel of America. “But, like any open
flame, they should not be left unattended.”
Monday was not the first time that Jewish worship has led to deadly fires. Two years ago, seven children were killed not far
from the Azan home when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath
started a fire in a family home. That fire led to a surge in Orthodox
Jews in Brooklyn buying smoke detectors before the next Sabbath.
The
Azans are Syrian Jews who came to the United States from Israel about
15 years ago, relatives said. A stretch of Brooklyn that runs to Avenue V
from Avenue I and extends eastward to Nostrand Avenue from West 6th
Street is considered one of the largest Syrian Jewish communities in the
United States.
On Tuesday, the garden in front of the Azan home was laden with bouquets of pink and white flowers.
“It’s
like a house that was never there,” said Shlomo Sousson, 48, who stood
outside praying and holding a Bible. “A whole family perished in one
night.”
He added, through tears: “Everything that God does is for good. It’s above our understanding.”
Menorah Blamed for Brooklyn Fire That Killed Mother and 3 Children
Avner Siani, a friend of the
family, passing by the home in Brooklyn where a woman and three of her
children died in a fire early Monday.
It
was the sixth night of Hanukkah, and in a front room of the Azan
family’s three-story Brooklyn home was an oil-burning menorah. The
family placed it where the Talmud says to: in the window, so a passer-by
could see.
As
the family slept around 2 a.m. on Monday, flames leapt from near the
menorah, starting a fire that killed three Azan children and their
mother and badly injured their father and other children, the Fire
Department said.
The
menorah, about two feet wide, burned oil held in small glass cups. Fire
marshals suspect the glass may have cracked under extended heat
exposure, spilling oil and spreading flames, a Fire Department official
said.
From
the first floor, the fire proceeded to rip through the Sheepshead Bay
home, hurtling up two sets of staircases and trapping part of the family
inside as others fled through a side door or jumped down from a
second-floor landing.
After
firefighters extinguished the blaze, the mother, Aliza Azan, 39, was
found dead on the second floor. So too, the police said, were Moshe
Azan, 11; Yitzah Azan, 7; and Henrietta Azan, 3. They had all been
asleep there.
The
children’s father, Yosi Azan, ran through the second floor as flames
clawed at him, trying to save his family, officials said. He helped a
teenage son and teenage daughter out a window and onto the first-floor
roof. They hesitated to jump, and so Mr. Azan apparently helped nudge
them off the roof to safety, according to an account given to
investigators.
When
Mr. Azan reached the ground himself, he told a fire chief there were
four people left inside, but the fire and smoke were too thick for
firefighters to push through right away, the fire official said.
Both
teenagers broke bones, one of them a pelvis. Mr. Azan and the two
teenagers were taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where they
were in critical condition and “fighting for their lives,” Daniel A.
Nigro, the New York City fire commissioner, said. The father was
believed to have internal burns from inhaling smoke.
The Azan family.Credit
via Facebook
Mr.
Nigro said of the father, “I believe he acted very courageously and
tried desperately, and hopefully it didn’t cost his life, too.”
Neighbors
across the street called 911, and firefighters arrived two minutes and
40 seconds later. They confronted a home that was engulfed, Mr. Nigro
said.
Two
younger teenagers asleep in a back bedroom on the first floor, one of
them a cousin of the Azan children, escaped out a side door with less
serious injuries. They heard a smoke detector alarm and yelled to alert
other members of their family, Mr. Nigro said. They were taken to
Maimonides Medical Center.
The
teenagers helped lead fire marshals to the cause when they told them
that the menorah had been left burning after they went to sleep and that
they saw the fire start nearby. Investigators recovered remnants of the
broken menorah.
Investigators
had not found other smoke alarms beyond the one that activated on the
first floor. The Fire Department recommends that people install them on
every floor of a home.
Five or six firefighters were injured, though none seriously, officials said.
“Over
the last couple days, several other major fires have caused many
injuries — some very serious — and displaced others from their homes,”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “During the holiday season, we
all need to be cautious with decorations, electric lights, candles,
space heaters and other items.”
Two years ago, seven children were killed nearby when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath started a fire in a family home. Mr. Azan had posted about it on Facebook.
“I
know the family,” he wrote. “It’s something that is beyond
comprehension. Three of the children study with my children. 7
children.”
Mourners along a funeral procession in Brooklyn on Monday night for the victims of the fire.Credit
Johnny Milano for The New York Times
In all, nine people were in the home at 1946 East 14th Street: a mother and father, their six children and a cousin.
The
Azans are Syrian Jews who immigrated to the United States from Israel
about 15 years ago, said Abby, 50, a relative of Ms. Azan who declined
to give his last name.
Ms.
Azan cooked scrumptious Mediterranean meals for her six children,
laughed with her husband’s constant jokes and kept the home a welcoming
place for a stream of visitors, Abby said. Mr. Azan is a manager at a
nearby clothing store called Hat Box, which sells shirts and shoes, and
is known for his friendly service and for always giving his customers
deals, said Avi Navon, 59.
Ms.
Azan’s father, Avraham Hamra, is considered the chief rabbi of Syrian
Jewry and is said to have helped hundreds of Jews escape to Israel.
The
four bodies arrived in a procession of police-escorted vehicles shortly
after 7 p.m. Monday at Congregation Shevet Achim, a synagogue tucked
between homes on a residential block of Sheepshead Bay crowded with
mourners, police officers and members of the Flatbush Shomrim Safety
Patrol, a Jewish neighborhood watch group.
But
a planned service inside the synagogue did not happen, police officers
and Shomrim volunteers said, because of the size of the crowd, as well
as the timing: During Hanukkah, the types of mourning expressions
allowed in certain Jewish traditions are limited.
Instead,
the vehicles, including a hearse with its rear gate raised, paused for
several minutes on the street outside. Mourners, many chanting prayers,
surged around the vehicles and then fell in line behind the cortège as
it rolled slowly toward Coney Island Avenue, where the crowd dispersed,
en route to Kennedy Airport.
One
mourner who would only identify himself as Sonny, 23, said that as a
child in Brooklyn he had attended the same school as the victims. He now
lives in New Jersey, but felt it important to be present.
“Any
time there’s a tragedy in the community, every single person has to
feel and be part of what happened,” Sonny said. “We can’t change the
past, but the only thing we could do is try to fill a little of the pain
and the hole that the family has, and that’s by coming out and
escorting their precious ones.”
Official AZAN Family Fire Fund
Please note this is the Only Official Page Sanctioned by Community Rabbis including Rabbi David Ozeri.
All
funds collected from this campaign will be deposited directly to Yad
Yosef Fund and will be distributed accordingly by Rabbi David Ozeri
personally.
To verify the legitimacy of this campaign you can
call Yad Yosef at 718-677-3707 Ext 0. Please advise that you are calling
about the campaign name in the URL (web address) above.
On
December 18, 2017, the 6th Night of Chanukah at about 2:30 AM a fast
moving fire struck the Azan Family home. The Azan family lost their
Mother Aliza 39, and 3 beautiful children 11-year-old Moshe; 7-year-old
Yitzchak and 3-year-old Henriette. Their father, Yossi Azan, his
16-year-old Daughter Shilat and 15-year-old son Daniel remain in
critical condition on life support in Staten Island University Hospital
Burn Unit. One remaining son and his cousin escaped without injuries.
As
many fellow community members are asking how can we help... the family is
going to need assistance in obtaining a new home, medical care and many
other anticipated expenses. Without any source of income for the
foreseeable future, the goal of this campaign is to help ease their
burden as much as possible.
****Please note that when making a
donation you will see a “tip” drop down bar. This is OPTIONAL. The tip
goes to GoFundMe. If you wish NOT to leave a tip click “other” and type
“$0.00”.****
****All monies raised by the Jacob Massry GoFundMe campaign are in the process of being transfered to Yad Yosef. ****
In
the last two months, the avalanche of stories about sexual abuse and
harassment has touched virtually every sector of American society. The
revelations about deeply troubling behavior on the part of politicians,
journalists and figures in the entertainment world have transfixed the
country. As more victims come forward to tell their stories, the
consequences have gone beyond the disgrace of some prominent
individuals, the end of careers and, in Alabama, a surprising election
result. What began with a shocking story about movie mogul Harvey
Weinstein has led to what may well be a crucial turning point in the way
sexual misconduct is viewed.
We are no longer in an era in which
all forms of abuse—be it violent crime, abuse of minors as well as
unwanted physical touching, abusive verbal comments and forms of
pressure—that might have once been viewed as permissible if unpleasant
behavior can be ignored or dismissed.
Under these circumstances, it is only to be expected that some of these stories would involve the Jewish community. This week’s JNS feature by Elizabeth Kratz
concerning alleged abuse carried out by a since-retired United
Synagogue Youth (USY) director follows the same pattern of the rest of
the #metoo scandals. A powerful person used his position to carry out
sexual abuse, in this case, against minors. The victims felt unable to
step forward at the time, both because of the shame they were made to
feel by the predator and also because they felt nobody in a position to
do something about it would listen. Organizations that should have been
on guard against abuse were, like the rest of society, not listening or
indifferent about what was going on under their noses.
The
Conservative movement responsible for the USY program in question was
not alone in this respect as such scandals have, in one form or another,
touched other Jewish denominations. To its credit, the United Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism appears now to have taken appropriate action,
not only to sever any ties with alleged abusers, but also to ensure, as
much as it is possible, that similar misconduct doesn’t recur.
This
story is so similar to numerous other sex scandals that many readers
who have become so accustomed to such discussions may have lost their
ability to be shocked by the topic. But it is also true that there will
be some in the Jewish world who, while eagerly consuming accounts of the
various stories about celebrities who have been exposed as abusers,
don’t want accounts of misconduct within their own community to be
published.
The impulse to regard journalism about bad behavior by
Jews—especially those connected to vital Jewish organizations—that are
published in the Jewish press as an unnecessary airing of dirty laundry
is, in one sense, understandable. Such stories are seen as something
that ought to be kept in the family and away from the view of outsiders
who might use them to denigrate Jews or harm Jewish institutions. There
will always be a tendency to regard any accounts that portray Jewish
life in an unflattering context as betrayals of tribal loyalty if they
come from Jewish sources.
But as it should have already become
clear as society comes to grip with the pervasive nature of sexual
harassment, keeping quiet does nobody any good. The mindset that
regarded the reporting of such crimes and misbehavior as bad form or
disreputable scandal mongering, or what Jewish tradition regards as
“lashon hara,” is a big part of the problem that enabled the abusers to
get away with their crimes for so long. When The New York Jewish Week
reported on the abuse going on at the Orthodox movement’s NCSY in 2000,
it was subjected to a storm of criticism from those who thought this
wasn’t the sort of thing Jewish publications should publish. But it is
exactly that kind of reporting that is a necessary precondition for
action that will prevent future crimes of this nature.
While
there may still be some Jewish readers who prefer to avert their eyes
from coverage of these issues like this week’s JNS story or even to
criticize us for publishing it, responsible Jewish journalists cannot be
part of a conspiracy of silence about this or any other subject that
directly affects the welfare of the community. It is the duty of JNS and
every other reputable outlet of Jewish journalism to responsibly report
the facts about sexual misconduct. That obligation is even more
important when the safety of children is at stake.
The days when
the predators could count on the silence of the Jewish world to protect
them from the consequences of their crimes should be over. Let’s be sure
never again to let a desire to avoid negative coverage of our own
community lead us to keep quiet about criminal acts. Never again should
such sentiments serve as an excuse for the sort of coverups that are
part of the reason why it took so long for us to learn the awful truth
about this subject.
TOGETHER WE WILL - BREAK THE BACKS OF EVERY RABBI, YESHIVA AND ORGANIZATION THAT COVERED UP CHILD SEX ABUSE FOR A GENERATION!
Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds
SYDNEY,
Australia — A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of
children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an
epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children
sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other
institutions.
The
commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged the
government to consider and respond to its conclusions and 189
recommendations, among them the establishment of a new National Office
for Child Safety and the adoption of laws to address the failure to
protect children.
“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,” the commission’s report
said. “We will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a
national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most
trusted institutions.”
The
commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said that the panel
heard from more than 1,000 witnesses over nearly 15 months in
discovering the magnitude of the abuse.
“Across
many decades many institutions failed our children,” Justice McClellan
said at the commission’s final hearing, on Thursday. “Our child
protection, criminal and civil justice systems let them down.”
Australia
created the commission in 2012 to investigate decades of sexual abuse
in religious institutions, schools and other establishments — the only
country in the world so far to initiate such a sweeping government-led
inquiry. More than 4,000 institutions have been implicated in abuse
allegations, the commission found.
Australian government investigators found 4,444
victims of abuse and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to
2015, most of them Catholic priests and religious brothers.
Francis
Sullivan, the Roman Catholic Church’s point person in dealing with the
crisis, acknowledged that the revelations had “shocked the nation” and
“revealed a deep, deep, weeping wound.”
The
inquiry, costing 500 million Australian dollars, or $383 million, was
unmatched in its scope in examining a scandal that has shaken the Roman
Catholic hierarchy worldwide.
Advocates on Friday outside Government House in Canberra.Credit
Lukas Coch/European Pressphoto Agency
The
most damaging revelations centered on scandals in towns like Ballarat,
the hometown of Cardinal George Pell, who this year became the
highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with sexual offenses.
In
Ballarat, a police officer investigated a pedophile ring at local
Catholic schools and said up to 30 victims had since committed suicide.
The charges brought in June against Cardinal Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, followed years of criticism that he had at best overlooked, and at worst covered up, the widespread abuse of children by clergymen in Australia.
Former
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had called for the establishment of
the royal commission, said that previous efforts to conduct such an
inquiry were resisted, despite efforts by whistle-blowers to expose the
abuses.
“Increasingly
as more and more survivors came forward, the question became, how do we
respond to this?” she said. “There were a number of factors to consider
that troubled me quite deeply."
She
said that in formulating the inquiry, she found that previous such
efforts hadn’t given survivors the sense of healing or closure they
sought.
“I
knew that it would be difficult to get it right and I was very
concerned that if we created an inquiry that didn’t work well, it would
end up retraumatizing survivors,” Ms. Gillard said.
She
decided that even in the face of many of the risks, giving survivors
the respect and dignity that came with having a formal, wide-ranging
inquiry in which they could report what had happened to them was more
important.
Ultimately,
Australians have been shocked and appalled by the range of the abuse
that has been brought to light, and the systematic nature of the
cover-ups.
“It
has already changed the nation,” Ms. Gillard said. “Never again can we
be naïve about the depth and breadth of this problem.”
In August, the royal commission recommended a sweep of legislative and policy changes,
one of which would require priests who hear about sexual abuse in the
confessional to report it to the authorities, alarming church officials
since confidentiality is integral to the ritual.
This volume discusses what we learned during our five-year inquiry
about institutional responses to child sexual abuse in religious
institutions. It outlines the nature and extent of the abuse, its
impacts, and survivors’ experiences of disclosing it. It examines common
failures in institutional responses, and draws out factors that may
have contributed to the occurrence of abuse and to inadequate responses.
It makes recommendations to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring
in religious institutions and, where it does occur, to ensure that
responses are appropriate and effective.
Children and their wellbeing, safety and protection have been at the
centre of our inquiry. Our Terms of Reference recognise that all
children deserve a safe and happy childhood and that Australia has
international obligations to protect children from sexual and other
forms of abuse.
We have examined a broad range of institutions – from schools to
Scouts, from the YMCA to sporting and dance clubs, from Defence training
establishments to a range of out-of-home care services. We have
considered institutions managed by federal, state and territory
governments as well as non-government organisations. It is clear that
child sexual abuse has occurred in a broad range of institutional
contexts across Australia, and over many decades. However, we heard more
allegations of child sexual abuse in relation to institutions managed
by religious organisations than any other management type.
More than 4,000 survivors told us in private sessions that they were
sexually abused as children in religious institutions.
The abuse
occurred in religious schools, orphanages and missions, churches,
presbyteries and rectories, confessionals, and various other settings.
In private sessions we heard about child sexual abuse occurring in 1,691
different religious institutions. The sexual abuse took many forms,
including rape. It was often accompanied by physical or emotional abuse.
Most victims were aged between 10 and 14 years when the abuse first
started. We heard about perpetrators including priests, religious
brothers and sisters, ministers, church elders, teachers in religious
schools, workers in residential institutions, youth group leaders and
others.
We conducted 30 case studies on religious institutions. They revealed
that many religious leaders knew of allegations of child sexual abuse
yet failed to take effective action. Some ignored allegations and did
not respond at all. Some treated alleged perpetrators leniently and
failed to address the obvious risks they posed to children. Some
concealed abuse and shielded perpetrators from accountability.
Institutional reputations and individual perpetrators were prioritised
over the needs of victims and their families.
Religious leaders and institutions across Australia have acknowledged
that children suffered sexual abuse while in their care. Many have also
accepted that their responses to this abuse were inadequate. These
failures are not confined to religious institutions. However, the
failures of religious institutions are particularly troubling because
these institutions have played, and continue to play, an integral and
unique role in the lives of many children. They have also been key
providers of education, health and social welfare services to children
in Australia for many years. They have been among the most respected
institutions in our society. The perpetrators of child sexual abuse in
religious institutions were, in many cases, people that children and
parents trusted the most and suspected the least.
Many people who experience child sexual abuse have the course of
their lives altered forever. Many of the survivors we heard from
continue to experience the ongoing impacts. For some, these impacts have
been profound. They include a devastating loss of religious faith and
loss of trust in the religious organisation that was once a fundamental
part of their life. The impacts have rippled out to affect their
parents, siblings, partners, children and, in some cases, entire
communities. Some victims have not survived the abuse, having since
taken their own lives.
It would be a mistake to regard this child sexual abuse as
historical; as something we no longer need to be concerned about. While
much of the abuse we heard about in religious institutions occurred
before 1990, long delays in victims disclosing abuse mean that an
accurate contemporary understanding of the problem is not possible. Some
of the abuse we heard about was recent. More than 200 survivors told us
they had experienced child sexual abuse in a religious institution
since 1990. We have no way of knowing how many others may have had
similar experiences.
However, it would also be wrong to say that nothing has changed. In
some religious institutions there has been progress during the past two
decades. Some of the religious institutions examined in our case studies
told us about their child protection reforms. Others remained reluctant
to accept the need for significant internal changes.
We have developed a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at
making religious institutions safer for children. Many of the
recommendations apply to all religious institutions in Australia. Some
are specific to particular religious institutions. In some cases, the
recommendations are also relevant to the international leadership of
religious organisations.
The recommendations focus on factors that we identified as
contributing to the occurrence of child sexual abuse in religious
institutions and to inadequate institutional responses. Some relate to
governance, internal culture and underlying theological and scriptural
beliefs and practices. We have examined these matters to the extent that
they have affected – and may continue to affect – the vulnerability of
children to abuse, and the likelihood of religious institutions
responding poorly when abuse occurs. Religious leaders in Australia have
recognised the importance of our role in providing recommendations on
such matters.
While positive reforms are underway in some religious institutions,
there is still much progress to be made before the community can be
confident that all religious institutions in Australia are as safe as
possible for children.
