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Friday, July 14, 2017
Can You Hear Me Now? - Part 4 - Taking Judaism Back From The Con-Artists!
THE UOJ ARCHIVES - MARCH 2008
We all have been there; the defining moment. If we are honest with ourselves, which is difficult and painful, we feel intuitively, in our soul, when that moment arrives. Some act, most don't! It can be in our personal lives, in our community roles, in our business or profession; it's there for us to seize - if we are daring! It comes perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, in each area of our lives.
The moment should have come to you - in your lives as Jews - right after Yehuda Kolko got arrested - and right after the Agudath Israel Convention - where they boldly pounced on the opportunity - to declare - there is NO child-rape problem in the Orthodox Jewish Community! "One - perhaps slipped through our fingers - but we are dealing with the - NON-PROBLEM - according to the Torah!"
But --- you went back to work and about your lives - believing that if you wish it away - it will not be there in the morning! You missed the point - fellow Jewish travelers. The problem - besides the illness of child-rape that has permeated our ghettos - was at that moment - that very period in time - it should have been crystal clear that we are doomed as a viable community.
Mattisyahu Salomon is a liar - but more than that - he's a Fascist - part of the Fascist organization known as Agudath Israel. Besides the fact that Salomon lied to you - he went along with the scheme of the very dastardly evildoers - Perlow and Kaminetzky - that "we're going to continue covering it up at all costs - and ride out the storm!"
These are the same guys who spit fire about every thing secular - including a reasonable secular education - that would enable your children to have a shot at feeding their children --- without welfare programs. Since then - Eisemann, Leizerowitz- Colmer - and the big one (like the others are not) Avrohom Mondrowitz! Which should confirm to any sane human - that this has been going on for 40 plus years in all segments of the Orthodox Jewish community. But it meant nothing to you - WHY? Because you thought you would not be affected.
But you missed the other point! The big other point! YOUR LEADERS ARE GANGSTERS, LIARS, THIEVES AND ROTTEN SEWAGE! They will say ANYTHING and DO ANYTHING to keep you from realizing what low-lives they truly are!
So now you're out - $100 - $500 - on Lipa Shmeltzer tickets and you're outraged!--- BIG-TIME!--- We had it!!--- Right - sure you did! You idiots woke up because you lost a few dollars! Now - your Pesach entertainment may be affected - this is out of control! Now - this is crazy - we need to do something about this!
I laugh sadly! How crazy are you? Where was the outrage after Kolko got arrested? Why nothing other than --- well nothing! Where is the outrage today? Where is the rage at the shysters at the Agudah for lying to you for FOUR LONG DECADES!
What gedolim?
Implement these changes over the next two years and you may survive:
1-Stop supporting the Agudath Israel - call for a disbanding of that fraudulent - pitiful group of bozos! Put these idiots out of their misery!
2-Limit the Lakewood yeshiva to 1000 students including kollel - or stop their donations!
Install a lay board of heimeshe accountants to monitor every dollar in every yeshiva! You're more than entitled to know where the millions upon millions of dollars a year are going.--- Don't trust them - they're thieving.
3-Require yeshivas to give your children a first-rate secular education - or send your children to Rabbi Yitzchok Elchonon!
4- Keep your children - male and female at home - eliminate all Israeli seminaries! Not seeing what they're doing - is a cowardly act as parents. Most kids are not able to deal responsibly with their freedom. The rabbis and the morahs - do not consider your kids a priority - please believe me!
5-Limit wedding attendance to 200 people - PERIOD! In a year - it would be totally accepted.
6-Stop purchasing and eating all meat and poultry products - for one week - starting Sunday - the week of March 30 - until they drop their prices by 25% - and Yisroel Belsky is removed from the OU! You can survive on fish, dairy products, fruit and vegetables for a week! Pigs! That's just before Pesach when the Jewish Cow Mafia jack up their prices by 25%! Tell them you will now take control of the "kosher" meat industry, by regulating prices and hashgochos!
7-The only children that would be exempt from college/trade schools must past a rigorous examination (farher) by a board of honest and intelligent rabbis. The ones that would pass the the UOJ smell (literally and figuratively) test!
8-Do not build new schools and shuls - expand and renovate the existing ones. Building funds - is when millions of dollars are siphoned off in kickbacks to the builders and yeshiva owners!
9-(from Steve) Insist that all yeshivos adopt the RCA resolutions regarding child sexual abuse. DO NOT PAY ONE CENT OF TUITION UNTIL YOUR YESHIVA AGREES TO THIS! Also, continue to lobby the NY State Assembly to pass these laws that protect our children from molesters: mandatory background checks, fingerprinting, sex offender registry and mandatory reporting.
Only you can save yourselves - from yourselves - do it!
This is the "defining moment" for the Orthodox Jewish community. If you leave things in place - the ugliness will keep compounding and feeding on itself. More children hurt physically and emotionally. More welfare - basket cases -- in our communities. More singles crisis, and more kashruth scandals, more of all kinds of scandals. More money stolen from you - as the "rabbis" build financial kingdoms for themselves and their families....
And you will have nobody to blame but yourselves!
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 324 of 324http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/nyregion/12cnd-kristen.html?pagewanted=print
Spitzer's zoyne who used the handle "Kristen" was born Ashley Youmans but is now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre.
She's from my hometown of Belmar, NJ.
Fallout from Mr. Spitzer’s resignation also reached the presidential campaign. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will lose the governor’s support as a Democratic superdelegate, a post he must now relinquish.
You know Elliot I was thinking you could have avoided all of these Tzuris and still been THE GUV if instead of shpritzing the big bucks on the Mayflower Hotel and drawing the Feds attention to yourself, you would've kept it really simple, kept a low profile, flown under the radar, and used Stephon Marbury's MO:
"Are you getting in the truck?"
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0312083eliot1.html
Apparently concerned that he would be associated with a man facing prostitution charges, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer once returned a $50,000 campaign contribution from a political supporter who was charged in 2006 with paying women for sex. On July 27, 2006, Spitzer's election committee sent back the contribution to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted days earlier in Florida on a felony solicitation of prostitution rap. The return of Epstein's donation was reported by the "Spitzer Paterson 2006" committee in a filing with the New York State Board of Elections. An excerpt from that pre-primary filing can be found below. Epstein, who has reportedly been negotiating a plea deal and related prison term, has been accused of paying several underage girls to engage in sex acts with him at his Palm Beach mansion, according to explicit Palm Beach Police Department reports.
http://www.236.com/news/2008/03/11/thought_process_flowchart_elio_5065.php
The jokester who compiled this thinks Spitzer's wife is Jewish, but it's very unlikely.
R' Elya doesn't have to worry about little 'ole me. I've already received offers of up to 100 grand to tell my story to the press.
Sheriff: Woman sat on toilet for 2 years By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
WICHITA, Kan. - Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years — so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.
"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."
Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend.
"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."
He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
"And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."
The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.
Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.
"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.
She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.
Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.
Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.
The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.
"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.
Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.
He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.
"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."
Implement these changes over the next two years and you may survive:
#9) Insist that all yeshivos adopt the RCA resolutions regarding child sexual abuse. DO NOT PAY ONE CENT OF TUITION UNTIL YOUR YESHIVA AGREES TO THIS! Also, continue to lobby the NY State Assembly to pass these laws that protect our children from molesters: mandatory background checks, fingerprinting, sex offender registry and mandatory reporting.
Here's the forerunner to Shevach and Rubashkin. Just substitute the name Greenberg with Finkel or Rubashkin and Rabbi Rubin for Breslauer or Weissmandl:
http://www.jewishmag.com/113mag/meatmeat/meatmeat.htm
Meat Meat
By Keith Bloomfield
Though she could speak halting English, Mrs. Levy was always more comfortable conversing in Yiddish. What little Hebrew she knew was for shul and the Seder table. It was for the brachot over Shabbos candles on the dinner table. It was for the brachot over the Hanukiah that shone as a beacon through the living room window. From the street, it was another link in an unbroken chain of light that zigged and zagged through and around the neighborhood proclaiming that here lives a community of Jews. Today, she would probably be called “linguistically challenged,” but her situation was no different than immigrants who had come to America before her or since. With Mr. Eisenhower in the White House, Jews were comfortable in their newfound homes and especially in their adopted neighborhoods.
Growing up in a tiny Polish shetl, Mrs. Levy had found it much easier to be Jewish, because everyone around her was Jewish as well. When her mother began teaching her the basics of keeping a proper home, everything was couched in “Jewishness.” Any question of why something was done was met with a "Because that's the way it is" from her mother. As for kashrut, the explanation was crystal clear - "Because the toirah says you shouldn't boil a lamb in its mother's milk. That’s why." Even as a child, Mrs. Levy knew there had to be more to it.
Then her family immigrated to America and moved in with her uncle, Lev, who had started to call himself Lou since coming to the new world. Suddenly, being and remaining Jewish became more difficult. There was more competition for her time and attention. Remaining Jewish was now a conscious effort. The rituals of her childhood were challenged as she grew into adolescence and then into a young woman. The simple daily acts that were second nature to her, became special, because they kept her focused on who and what she was.
Saying the blessing HaMotzi before each meal and benching afterwards, pausing at the supermarket amidst a world of choice while she designed a menu that was either fleshik (meat) or milchik (dairy), but certainly not both and scheduling her week around Shabbat. Each simple act of choice made her realize how well her mother had taught her and raised even her most trivial actions to something almost kadosh – holy. How could she forget who she was when there was a constant reminder always around the next corner?
Her daughters were Americans, born and raised. The Yiddish they had learned was a matter of survival. Mr. and Mrs. Levy launched into the mamaloshen – the mother tongue, anytime the conversation was not meant for the children’s ears. So the girls learned Yiddish to understand what they were not meant to hear.
While she had little use for the language, Mrs. Levy insisted that her daughters’ children attend religious school so that they could learn Hebrew. Sometimes she asked her eldest grandson, Larry, to read to her something written in Hebrew. Not from a prayer book or the Torah, but something more commonplace.
On walks along Tremont Avenue, Mrs. Levy would see a sign in the window and stop abruptly. “Lesn!” she would command the youngster, who had quickly leaned the Yiddish word for “read” and he would begin translating the text of her desire into Hebrew. Then, she would take a deep breath, sigh and kvell that she did so well by her grandson.
One day, during a walk, Larry suddenly stopped and stood transfixed in front of the neighborhood butcher’s window. A big black bicycle with thick tires was parked in front of the shop window. Its kickstand was long gone and it leaned gingerly against the glass. A huge metal basket was clamped to the handlebars and further supported by long metal struts bolted to the front wheel. Greenberg’s delivery boy, Max, would fill the basket to overflowing with orders to be delivered and just as he was ready to leave, Greenberg would rush out of the shop with more deliveries that he would clutch in one arm while he steered with the other. “It’s a wonder that there was never an accident,” pondered the neighbors.
There were other neon signs along the street. The Chinese restaurant’s bold green “Chow Mein” assaulted passersby. “Delicatessen” flickered in blue neon in Mr. Goodman’s window. “Same Day Cleaning” announced the sign in Cooperman’s shop. It was the sign in the butcher’s that caught Larry’s eye this particular day.
“Nanna, the sign says bosser bosser, not kosher bosser.” She looked at the child quizzically. “It says ‘meat meat,’ not kosher meat. You see, both words start with bet, not a kaf and a bet.”
He pointed to the tiny ledge trailing behind the first letter of each word. The words, rendered in bright yellow neon tubing were exactly the same. The nuisance of written language was lost on her, but if the two words were supposed to be different, why were they spelled the same way?
When she married and started her own home, she quickly learned that her mother’s teaching on kashrut was not complete. The Torah had much more to say about what animals were fit to eat and which were traif. It would never have crossed her mind that Greenberg the Butcher had been selling traif for who knows how many years. A breach of faith like that had never occurred in the neighborhood.
When you went to the kosher butcher you trusted that anything you bought there came from a healthy animal that was ritually slaughtered by a shochet who had followed halakah and done the deed according to tradition. Then you could leave it up to the butcher to salt your purchases to draw out the lifeblood of the animal or you could do it yourself. You knew you could trust the butcher because of the neon sign in the window and the letter from a rabbi in the window testifying that the butcher met the highest standards of kashrut. The rabbi and the butcher were pillars of the community.
A breech of trust, “Not in my neighborhood,” thought Mrs. Levy. If Greenberg the butcher was selling traif, she had to be sure and if it were so: people would have to know, steps would have to be taken. She would enter the store and confront him.
“Oy, that would never work. I have to make him admit he’s selling traif. I have to trick him into it, somehow,” she reasoned. “Larry, we’re going to visit Mr. Greenberg, but don’t say a word about the sign. Understand?” she queried, wagging her index finger in his face. The boy nodded sheepishly. She took him by the hand and they entered the shop to the tinkling of the bells on the back of the door.
Mr. Greenberg and Max were the only people in the shop. The walls of the shop were gleaming white, except for a calendar over the cash register and orders to be filled jotted on slips of paper and taped to the wall in no obvious system. The tall glass fronted counter ran nearly the entire length of the shop. Various kinds of meats and poultry were displayed behind the glass, sitting on a carpet of brown paper. Jars of pickles and sauerkraut flanked chops and roasts. Long coiled chains of frankfurters and specials, knockwurst as Mrs. Klinger called them, ready to boil until they split down the center signaling that they were done, sat on large glass plates supported by jars of schmaltz (chicken fat).
Behind where Greenberg and Max labored sat a shiny chrome two door cooler. A big “DO NOT OPEN” sign was scrawled with a marking pen on brown paper and attached with butcher’s tape to one of the doors. The heavy metal door of the meat locker punctuated the back wall and everywhere else; the walls were covered in white enameled metal, crisscrossed with chrome; like the gas stove or the Frigidaire in someone’s kitchen. Mr. Greenberg carefully trimmed the fat from someone’s order of lamb chops as Max wrapped each one of them in brown paper and then sealed the packages with tape.
Greenberg glanced up from his work to greet his customers. “Mrs. Levy, you’re early this week. I haven’t even started on your order for Shabbat,” he cooed, tipping his hat slightly. Though Max wasn’t Jewish, both men always wore hats in the shop. Mr. Greenberg sported a battered gray fedora with a black hat stained from use and years on the job. Max’s baseball cap had a New York Yankees insignia embroidered on its crown. What more would you expect? It was the Bronx in the late 1950’s and the Bombers were royalty in almost any of the five boroughs – except perhaps in Brooklyn. The brim of Max’s cap was starting to fray, a consequence of constant tipping when his customers handed him a few coins for delivering their orders directly to their doors.
“No Mr. Greenberg, we didn’t come in to pick up the pot roast. My Larry and me were just taking a walk.” Greenberg wiped his hands on the long white coat he wore to protect his street clothes from the juices of his profession. He waved at the boy, who huddled close to his grandmother and shaded his eyes. “Larry, say good morning to Mr. Greenberg.”
“It’s alright Mrs. Levy. It’s the hand,” he said, waving the three remaining fingers on his left hand at the boy. “The children are always frightened. In this business, accidents happen. Now I have a friend in Brooklyn who. . . I don’t think you want to hear about that,” he began, suddenly catching himself before sharing a too grisly tale. “Is there anything I can do for you Mrs. Levy? We have orders to get out.”
Mrs. Levy glanced around the shop quickly. She had to get Greenberg to incriminate himself. “I was hoping that maybe you had something cold to drink – - for Larry.” The boy looked up at his grandmother, afraid to tell her that he wasn’t the slightest bit thirsty.
Greenberg hoisted his hat up on his head until it sat on his forehead. He leaned forward and rested on the wood block counter in front of him. “Mrs. Levy, you passed a deli and a Chinese restaurant before you came in here. Why didn’t you stop and get the kid something to drink?”
Mrs. Levy had to think quickly. “Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Goodman is never open this early and do you expect me to bring my grandson into the Chinese restaurant?
“This isn’t a soda fountain Mrs. Levy.”
“I never thought it was. It’s just that Larry is so thirsty. Aren’t you dear?” she stroked his cheek and the poor boy felt like sinking into a crack in the floor and as far away from his grandmother as he could.
“Max, you bring your lunch. Give the kid whatever you brought to drink with it. I’ll buy you another.”
“But Mr. Greenberg,” he sputtered.
“Max, I’ll buy you another one. Just give it to Mrs. Levy.”
“Are you sure?”
“Max!” bellowed Greenberg.
Max turned to the cooler behind him and opened the door where the “Do Not Open” sign was taped. Mrs. Levy’s jaw dropped as she peered inside. She had certainly seen pictures of them in magazines. She walked by them quickly when she visited the supermarket, but she had never seen one outside its plastic wrapper. Right there in front of a brown paper bag containing Max’s lunch was a Virginia ham; decorated with slices of pineapple and cherries. There it was sitting in the cooler next to a container of milk.
“It’s true, it’s true,” she screamed, dragging Larry along with her. She threw open the door and rushed out on to Tremont Avenue. The door slammed behind her and bells jingled madly.
Greenberg glared at his assistant. “You told me to,” whined Max.
“Why did you choose this moment to listen to me?” Greenberg bounded from behind the counter, tugged open the door and chased Mrs. Levy out on to the Avenue. “It’s for Max’s mother. You can have the pot roast for free!” he shouted after her. But he never caught up to her.
When the housework of the morning was done, Mrs. Levy, like all of her friends, paused to chat with her neighbors. She opened the bedroom window, put a pillow on the windowsill to cushion her elbows and stationed herself at the open portal ready to gossip with her friends in the building and on the opposite side of the narrow driveway between her walk-up and the one next door.
Once, during a heated exchange, the window came down on Mrs. Weissberg’s head and the fire department had to come to extricate and revive her. Then the landlords joined together and banned the practice. But it didn’t last long. The ladies realized that they could wedge a piece of broomstick under the window and never have to worry about a window coming down on anyone’s head.
“I was walking with my Larry yesterday,” announced Mrs. Levy, from out of nowhere.
“That’s Rachel’s boy?” asked Mrs. Stein from across the driveway.”
“No, Rachel’s boy is Steven. Larry is Miriam’s son. But it doesn’t matter.”
“I’m sure it matters to them,” joked Mrs. Stein and the women on both sides of the driveway giggled like schoolgirls.
“Larry and I were walking past Greenberg the butcher when he told me what his sign really says.”
“It says what it’s always said,” snapped Mrs. Schwartz.
“That’s right,” said Mrs. Levy. “And it’s never said what you thought it said. Greenberg doesn’t really sell kosher meat; he just sells meat. That’s what the sign reads. Meat, meat! My Larry read it to me. And when we went into the store you’ll never guess what he had in the meat cooler.”
“I’m sure we won’t,” said Mrs. Stein.
“He had a great big Virginia ham and a bottle of milk right next to where he keeps the briskets.”
There was silence on both sides of the driveway.
“Are you sure it was a ham?” asked Mrs. Schwartz.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure it was a bottle of milk?” asked Mrs. Stein.
“I know what a bottle of milk looks like!”
“Maybe it wasn’t his,” suggested Mrs. Schwartz.
“It was in his refrigerator,” said Mrs. Levy, carefully pronouncing each word and every syllable.
“If this is true,” pondered Mrs. Schwartz. “Then everyone has to know. We have to start with Rabbi Rubin. He’ll know exactly what to do. We should go right now!”
And that’s exactly what they did.
Rabbi Avram Rubin met the ladies in his study. Though each of them had attended High Holiday services at his shul for as long as any of them could remember, none of them had ever actually met him. Why: because they always sat upstairs with the other women. This was as close to the Rabbi as any of them had ever been. The Rabbi knew their husbands from daily minyan, shabbos, or High Holiday services, but not their spouses.
While the Rabbi sat behind his desk, Mrs. Levy repeated her story amid a host of quick comments from Mrs. Schwartz and Mrs. Stein. The Rabbi nodded attentively and without expression. As Mrs. Levy came to the part of her story about the ham and milk in the cooler, the color drained from Rabbi Rubin’s face and he hid his face in his hands.
“What’s the matter Rabbi?”
Rabbi Rubin peered out at the women from between his fingers. “And whom do you think gives Greenberg his hechser?” Mrs. Levy squinted at the Rabbi, unsure of what he meant. Rabbi Rubin repeated himself. “And whom do you think gives rabbinic approval that Greenberg’s shop follows all the standards of kashrut?” He paused for a very long time while the women exchanged glanced. “I do! And if you found traif in his shop, that I’d missed for so very many years, I will be the laughing stock of the Bronx!”
It was decided that Mrs. Levy and Rabbi Rubin would go to Greenberg’s butcher shop. As they walked silently along the Avenue, she could not help but study the Rabbi’s face. Mrs. Levy had never seen him look so intent. He stared at the sidewalk, but she knew that he was thinking about what to do and what to say to Greenberg when he reached the butcher shop. He was much taller and younger than he appeared to be when she watched him on the bimah during services, standing on the pulpit in his long white robe. Now in a dark suit and a kippah on his head he appeared less regal, but every bit the object of respect and admiration.
Though neighbors tried to stop them and greet the Rabbi, he quickly dispatched them with a wave of his hand. He was focused on discovering exactly what Greenberg was up to and he refused to stop until he knew. It was nearly closing time when they reached the shop.
Standing at the curb, the Rabbi studied the shop window. He could see his framed letter of rabbinical approval sitting on the sill inside the shop. He noticed that the glass in the frame was cracked. Was it an omen or a coincidence?
Then he glanced at the neon sign. There was no mistake. The Hebrew characters blared out for all to see – “Meat Meat,” not “Kosher Meat” as it should have read. He wondered if it always read that way? Did he simply see what it was that he wanted to see? Greenberg was not the only butcher he approved. He tried to picture their signs in his mind’s eye and remember what they said. He could not.
He pressed his face up close to the window and peered into the shop. There was one customer in the shop and Greenberg was escorting her to the door. “Mrs. Levy, please wait out here. I’m going in to speak to Mr. Greenberg alone.” Before she could protest, Rabbi Rubin pressed past the exiting customer and entered the shop. He closed the door behind him and finding the key in the dead bolt, he locked the door.
“Pinchas, what are you doing?” pleaded the Rabbi.
Mrs. Levy stared through the window at the strange scene that was about to unfold.
Greenberg spotted Mrs. Levy with her face pressed up against his store window. “Rabbi, have you been listening to her?” he said, shaking his finger in Mrs. Levy’s direction.
“She’s certainly correct about the sign. Has it always said meat meat?” asked Rabbi Rubin.
“What are you talking about?”
Backwards as they were, Rabbi Rubin pointed to the neon sign in the window. “What does that say?
“It’s supposed to say kosher meat. Doesn’t it Rabbi? I wouldn’t know. I don’t read Hebrew,” admitted Greenberg. “I’ve been a butcher my entire life, Rabbi. I apprenticed under my father and uncle. And I know what’s expected of me.” He voice rose in the empty shop as he shook his hand at the Rabbi.
Outside the shop, Mrs. Greenberg pressed her face up against the glass and shielded her eyes from the glare of the setting sun, trying to see what was happening inside.
A stranger stopped to ask what she was looking at. “Rabbi Rubin is inside talking to Mr. Greenberg about the traif he sells.
“Greenberg the Butcher sells traif!” responded the shocked passerby.
Rabbi Rubin paced across the tiled floor in disbelief. “How did you think you were going to get away with it? What possessed you to think you even could?”
“I didn’t think it would make a difference,” Greenberg said meekly.
“You and I and even Max have something very important in common.”
“We do?” asked Max.
Rabbi Rubin nodded slowly. “Oh yes, we have accepted the responsibility of maintaining a promise.” Max and Greenberg stared back at him blankly. “People throughout the world eat foods that we would never even consider putting in our mouths. Foods distasteful to Americans and even more repugnant to Jews hoping to maintain a link with the divine by following the laws of kashrut.”
“Rabbi, like you just said,” replied Max, “people around the world don’t worry if a hamburger is kosher, or if it’s really made of ham. Eating it ain’t gonna kill ‘em.”
“Civilizations have disappeared from the face of the earth because they didn’t have something to keep them together,” explained the Rabbi.
“Jews haven’t been around this long just because some of them keep kosher,” said Max.
“Not just because they kept kosher, but because keeping kosher, in part, helps us to remember who we are.”
“I don’t understand. Why can’t you just eat like the rest of us?”
“Because, then we wouldn’t be who we are. We’re not any better than anyone else, but we are different: by choice. That’s the key to our survival and the source of more pain and suffering than I could began to share with you, but we are still here,” said the Rabbi.
As the minutes ticked by the size of the crowd increased, all with faces pressed up against the window and trying to see inside. The crowd quickly exaggerated the reason for Rabbi Rubin’s visit: from simply selling traif, to selling horsemeat, to butchering wayward pets in the back of the shop. The crowd heard and saw exactly what they wanted.
Police Officer Sullivan had no idea why a crowd had formed in front of Greenberg’s butcher shop. “What’s going on,” he asked a woman he recognized from the neighborhood.
“Greenberg has been selling us traif,” she replied, shading her mouth with a hand.
Officer Sullivan had no idea what traif was, but he knew it could not be anything good. “I’ll just speak to Mr. Greenberg myself,” he muttered as he wadded through the throng. He tried the door, but it was locked. He tapped on the doorjamb, but he was ignored. He banged on the glass and still not response.
In the fleeting light of the day, Rabbi Rubin, Greenberg and Max saw their judges and jury silhouetted through the window.
“Those are your customers Pinchas. The good people whose trust you violated. Now show me the ham. Mrs. Levy said it was in the cooler behind the counter.”
Greenberg glanced at his assistant Max. “Open the door for the Rabbi, Max.
Max grabbed the left-hand door and yanked it open. The cooler was empty.
“No, I’m not going to fall for that. Mrs. Levy said it was behind the door with the Do Not Open sign.”
Max and Greenberg exchange worried looks. Max shut the left-hand door and in open quick motion he opened the right-hand door. That side of the cooler was empty as well.
Greenberg stared at the Rabbi. “I told you that you can’t believe what that woman says.”
Maybe Mrs. Levy was wrong. Maybe the whole event was imagined. The Rabbi’s eyes slowly glanced around the entire shop and finally came to rest on the metal door and heavy handle that led to the meat locker. “Now open that,” said the Rabbi, flicking his head in the direction of the door.
Greenberg wiped his hands on his long white coat. “Of course Rabbi, of course. Open it Max.” Max stood transfixed in front of his boss, while his head almost imperceptibly shook back and forth. “I told you to open the meat locker.”
In a singsong voice his fearful assistant called out, “Mr. Greenberg!” while he head more visibly moved left and right, then back again.
Greenberg did not understand. “We have nothing to hide. Now open the locker.”
Max slowly walked toward the heavy metal door. Before pulling open the door, he shielded his eyes with one arm. Greenberg suddenly understood Max’s reticence about opening the door. Before he could do anything the door swung open and revealed the plump Virginia ham sitting on a plate beside a bottle of milk, amidst a locker filled with hanging sides of beef and lamb.
Rabbi Rubin clamped his hands against his cheeks in shock. Suddenly vindicated, Mrs. Levy threw her hand towards heaven. Someone in the flabbergasted crowd of neighbors tripped over Max’s bicycle. The handlebars that brushed so gently against the shop window were thrown toward the crowd and then back against the glass shattering a large hole in the pane that rapidly spread until the entire sheet shattered on crowd and into the shop.
It was pandemonium on the sidewalk outside the shop as well as inside, with neighbors brushing shards of glass out of their hair and off their clothing and Rabbi Rubin chasing Greenberg and Max around the counter. Officer Sullivan stepped through the portal where the window was once and grabbed Greenberg’s phone to call for support. He snagged both Greenberg and Max by the collars of their long white coats and kept them separated from Rabbi Rubin until help arrived.
Word spread, about the riot that had broken out on Tremont Avenue and how the police were called to protect Mr. Greenberg and Max. That kind of thing never happened in the neighborhood. Greenberg closed the store and another butcher took over. He kashered the shop, with assistance from Rabbi Rubin and threw a big party for the neighborhood. People soon forgot all about Mr. Greenberg and how one woman had saved the neighborhood from a catastrophe that rocked their faith. But on both sides of that narrow driveway: Mrs. Levy would never let anyone forget.
http://blogs.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/philjacobs/
Yisroel Shapiro Isn’t Shackled, His Survivors Are
Last week in Judge Miller’s courtroom, suspects were herded in and out for various crimes, including attempted murder to drug possession with the intent to distribute.
The one constant sound in the room was the jingling of the chains connecting the leg irons while the accused made their way into the courtroom escorted by armed prison guards.
One of the only members of the fraternity of the accused not wearing handcuffs or shackles was Yisroel Shapiro.
Tall, bearded, wearing a yarmulke and a suit, he stood out. He could have been a court employee, an attorney or just another spectator.
Here was a man who was about to be given a guilty sentence for two counts of molestation. While the majority of the other suspects in the room left with their “jewelry” locked on their wrists and ankles, Mr. Shapiro, after hearing the sentence and hearing the emotional words of his accusers sauntered out into the courtroom hallway.
He was free to go.
He will not spend a second in jail.
He will not be listed on a sex offenders registry.
Shapiro got a good deal. Again, my oft-remembered words of Ephraim Shapiro survivor Murray Levin, “it’s all reward and no risk” came to mind.
Until we get the law to change. Until we can get our legislators and our Jewish organizations such as the Jewish Council to understand Monday’s true failure of justice, Yisroel Shapiro goes unshackled.
The survivors of sexual molestation in the state of Maryland, are very much handcuffed.
The template for justice must be changed to unlock those cuffs, so that survivors are free to live their lives. Until someone in the organized Jewish community or the political community gets “brave” I worry that I’ll never see it happen.
I “hear” the sounds of chains dragging across the floor. Only it’s the innocent who wear those chains, not guilty felons such as Yisroel Shapiro or his ilk.
There’s something very wrong about that.
Posted by Phil Jacobs on 03/12/08 at 09:30 AM
I just heard of some rabbi lebovitch of boro park, who is a brother of the nikelshburg rabbi in monsey was arrested today for touching boys at his yeshiva, my source also tells me that he was doing it for years till someone went to the authorities recently.
Please if somone can confirm this, please do.
RABOISY !! If someone is touching your kid go straight to the police, the rabbonim cannot and will not help you, they are scum.
Shpitzer, was there penetration? inquiring minds want to know.
Any connection to the Nikolsburger Rebbe in Boro Park? That would be R' Mordche Jungreis who is also ruv of the Maharam Banet beis medresh.
http://www.bethshalomnj.org/gpage5.html
This weirdo later became Conservative but still retained Tropper's shitos about interfaith marriages
http://www.bethshalomnj.org/gpage2.html
Rabbi David Ross Senter
My background is somewhat unusual. I am a fourth generation rabbi, who is proud of his lineage. After studying in Shor Yoshuv Rabbinical College, my studies continued on a seminary level at Kol Yaakov Torah Center, where I received ordination in 1985.
In 1996 I left the rabbinate and established the kosher concessions at Shea and Yankee stadiums. After 2 years in the business world I decided to return to my true passion - the rabbinate.
So what type of Rabbi am I? Orthodox? Conservative? Reform? Reconstructionist? I guess I am a “paradox”. One of my colleagues dubbed me a “Reconstructed. Neo-Chasidic, Orthoxotive, Yeshiva boy. I guess you can call me a constantly evolving Under-constructionist Jew.
As an Under-constructionist I understand that Religion is a very personal matter, and the individual must find the level of observance they are comfortable with. Judaism is like a buffet; I want to help you take as much or as little as you are ready for.
Where did the nickle's brother "buy" his pickles from?
Don't tell me he too had a yeshiva like Mondrowitz, Kolko, Leizerowitz, Shapiro and friends.
http://www.pesachincancun.com/
Just ask UOJ. The putzes down here come a dime a dozen.
Elliot;
Just a FYI that Silda was seen yesterday in deep animated conversation with Lorena Bobbitt.
As your trusted advisor I recommend that you gotta go to MO's ASAP and buy yourself a steel-plated jock.
"Get in the truck" or you're screwed.
Your friend,
Boog
March 13, 2008
Retail Sales Post Unexpected Drop
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:52 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers, battered by plunging home prices and a credit crunch, stayed away from the malls in February, pushing retail sales down by a larger-than-expected amount. It was another worrisome sign that the country could be falling into a recession.
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales fell by 0.6 percent last month, far worse than the small 0.2 percent increase that analysts had been expecting.
The weakness was widespread with sales of autos, furniture and appliances all down.
It marked the second time in the past three months that retail sales have taken a tumble. Sales had fallen by an even bigger 0.7 percent in December, the largest drop in six months, as the nation's retailers suffered through a dismal holiday shopping season.
Oil Prices Set New Highs Above $110
AP
Posted: 2008-03-13 08:55:02
Oil prices on Thursday hit a record high above $110 a barrel as investors fled the tumbling dollar that fell to new lows against the euro and a 12-year low versus the yen.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose 78 cents to reach $110.70 in early afternoon European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Is that Senter putz the son of the divorced Rabbi Senter who runs Chof-K?
US Foreclosure Activity Rose in February
By ALEX VEIGA,AP
Posted: 2008-03-13 07:42:40
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nearly 60 percent more U.S. homes faced foreclosure in February than in the same month last year, with Nevada, California and Florida showing the highest foreclosure rates, a research firm said.
A total of 223,651 homes across the nation received at least one notice from lenders last month related to overdue payments, up 59.8 percent from 139,922 a year earlier, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc.
Nearly half of the homes on the most recent list had slipped into default for the first time.
February marked the 26th consecutive month with a national year-over-year increase in foreclosure-related filings.
Meanwhile, the number of foreclosed properties that didn't sell at auction and ended up going back to lenders soared more than 110 percent last month versus February 2007, RealtyTrac said.
Last month, some 46,508 properties were repossessed by lenders, up from 22,114 a year earlier.
In some areas such as Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, the trend was stark.
The county has seen home values plummet since the end of the speculator-driven demand that triggered a boom in home construction, sales and prices.
In February 2007, it had only 65 homes go unsold at auction and returned to a lender. Last month, the total was 1,346.
"You look at that kind of growth and it's just mind-numbing," Sharga said.
Los Angeles County saw a similar rate of growth. Some 215 homes went back to the banks in February 2007, compared with 1,670 last month, RealtyTrac said.
The company follows default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Lenders typically consider borrowers delinquent after they fall three months behind on mortgage payments.
In the 12-month period ended in February, 45 states saw an increase in the number of homes that had received at least one filing.
The latest data suggest many homeowners across the nation continue to struggle with mortgage payments, despite highly publicized efforts by government, financial institutions and consumer advocacy groups to modify loan terms or work out long-term repayment plans for troubled borrowers.
The dollar dipped below 100 yen for the first time in 12 years Thursday and hit record lows against the euro amid a growing consensus that synchronized efforts by central banks will not stop a deterioration in the U.S. economy.
The euro exceeded $1.56 for the first time and the dollar fell as low as 99.75 yen before bouncing back to 100.16 yen. It was the first time the U.S. currency has traded below 100 yen since November 1995.
The dollar has been declining on growing speculation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further to shore up the sagging American economy and calm jittery financial markets.
Gold hits $1000 an ounce today for the first time in history.
Melbourne Australia - A senior staff member at an Elsternwick Jewish school's girl's campus has left amid allegations of "misbehaviour" involving students.
The head of campus for Jewish studies at Adass Israel Girls School, Malka L... was forced to resign last week and left for Israel shortly after, school committee member Issac Benedikt told The Age.
"It came both at the same time, she was told she can't be at the school, she said in that case I'm resigning," Mr Benedikt said.
"We are investigating it at the moment. At the moment we don't have any conclusive evidence," Mr Benedikt said.
"We can't really say what happened and what didn't happen."
He said professionals including psychologists had been hired to conduct the investigation, but would not say whether the matter had been reported to police.
According to AJN: On Shabbat morning last week, the spiritual leader of the Adass Israel community, Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck, addressed the small community and said they should not consider Malka guilty of any crimes because there has been no investigation. He also told congregants that they are forbidden to discuss the matter and if they do, it will be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip).
A number of parents from the school contacted The AJN this week. Their attitudes ranged from disgust to disappointment some parents want the principal’s behaviour to be investigated, others are more concerned that the school has not been forthcoming in providing counselling for those students who claim to have had inappropriate contact with Malka.
UOJ,
Loading up your website is becoming unbearably difficult. Can u find a way to streamline the site so the PCs don't choke? This difficulty may be driving away viewers. We need the criticle masses to educate themselves here.
Loading up your website is becoming unbearably difficult. Can u find a way to streamline the site so the PCs don't choke?
----------------------------
Advice from the geeks/techies would be helpful!
Any details on the rabbi in boro park arrested yesterday on child molestation charges? Can UOj confirm this? Did this shmuck sign the ban against Lipa's concert?
Moetzes Resign!
------------------
Lessons from Spitzer's fall Thu Mar 13, 4:00 AM ET - CSM
Political scandals may be titillating but in the lurid details and political meltdown of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, one thing must not be forgotten: He was collared by a law enforcement system that can catch even its own.
Mr. Spitzer knew the system well, first as an elected attorney general and then as governor, rising to fame as a reforming defender of law. That reputation adds to the heightened sense of hypocrisy and Shakespearean irony over official accusations of his regular use of a high-priced prostitution ring (across state lines) and his financial sleight-of-hand to pay for it.
His decision Wednesday to resign came as he faced an uncertain political and legal future. One poll showed that 70 percent of his constituents said he should step down. His ability to govern effectively seemed improbable, especially with criminal charges looming.
The governor's lapse of probity is not only hurtful to his family, but to the public trust he once held. Beyond being the bullying crusader who unearthed unlawful actions on Wall Street, he also worked to shut down the exploitative sex-trade industry. Now his private actions belie that public image, and hurt the causes he championed.
The public can be grateful that a system set up to catch financial misdoings of those entrusted with high offices apparently works. Perhaps this will serve as a cautionary tale for other officeholders.
According to press reports, the IRS and FBI only noticed Governor Spitzer's activities because of the suspicious movement of money as he carefully moved thousands of dollars between accounts to pay for his liaisons. But because he is a prominent government official, he is considered a Politically Exposed Person, or PEP. His accounts were subject to special government monitoring for financial misdoing.
His banks reported unusual activities involving thousands of dollars in his accounts, which led to the investigation. Because Spitzer allegedly sent money to a shell company, a front used to hide the workings of the prostitution ring, he came under suspicion that he might be trying to hid ill-gotten gains.
What this dismal mess shouldn't do is contribute in any way to a view of prostitution as something glamorous. The sex-for-hire industry is a sordid one that exploits and degrades all involved, women and men, and most contemptibly harms girls and boys as well. It's a crude and violent world that Spitzer himself once called "modern-day slavery," and hardly some fantasyland.
While this Theater of the Absurd plays out, the public should not let it dampen the renewed enthusiasm for politics as seen in the presidential campaign. Voters are turning out in record numbers in primaries and caucuses. With the White House incumbent leaving office, it is a rare opportunity for Americans to make important choices about the direction of their country. The enthusiasm displayed so far is invigorating to a democracy that relies on rule of law to sustain it.
Adherence to law and democracy go hand in hand. The low-level workers in law enforcement have once against reached into the political hierarchy to expose an individual's actions.
This is democracy's message: That those who serve the public must realize that they are not above the law themselves.
1. Archive some of the old posts.
2. Get rid of at least half of the cartoons on the left column. We see enough of these freaks in the Hamodia/Playboy centerfold. No need to portray them in charicature.
Do NOT get rid of the cartoons! They are hysterical. Maybe there is another format like Flash that allows them to load faster.
Unbearably funny is UOJ's sense of humor.
The latest comment on the sidebar:
"Free wire transfers - compliments of Olympia /Pinter & "Mae's Fannie!"
Create a seperate page for these assholes, for those who like a freak show. As sordid a bunch as Elliot Shpritzer & Kyke McSleazy.
Boogy, if u see da ladie mit de knife again, ask her if she does slice n' dice jobs in brooklyn for an im-modest fee. Some rabiners in de cum-munity need a shortenin' by a few inches to help keep da putz behind the confines of the zipper.
CHEERS!
"Can u find a way to streamline the site so the PCs don't choke?"
This is what Ronnie Schreiber used to complain about all the time because he wouldn't pay to upgrade from dial up internet.
The rest of you can take your PC to Best Buy or call down the "Geek Squad" to add memory. Almost every PC sold only contains half the memory capacity. If you add more memory, your internet browsing will start to fly at much faster speed.
Also defragment your hard drive once a month to improve speed.
Woman in Spitzer scandal remembered as hooker with 'a heart of gold'
USA Today - 2 hours ago
Someones got to have the low down on what happened that a rabbi in B.P. was arrested yesterday in shnorrer pak for man boy relations!
Woman in Spitzer scandal remembered as hooker with 'a heart of gold'
--------------------
Sure - at $83,000 an ounce!
http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/celebrities/hollywood/natalie-portman-loves-new-york-203861/
Scroll down for all the pictures.
Carlyle Capital Nears Collapse as Rescue Talks Fail (Update6)
By Joseph Galante and Edward Evans
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group said creditors plan to seize the assets of its mortgage-bond fund after it failed to meet more than $400 million of margin calls, heightening concern about a lending freeze that led to a plunge in the dollar and global stock markets.
Concern about the fate of Carlyle Capital Corp., which began to buckle a week ago from the strain of tumbling home-loan assets, helped push the dollar to a 12-year low against the yen today. The fund said in a statement that it defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt as of yesterday. Lenders will ``promptly'' take over all of its remaining assets after it failed to reach an agreement with lenders, Carlyle Capital said. Any remaining debt is expected to go into default ``soon,'' the fund added.
The fund plunged as much as 95 percent in Amsterdam trading. Carlyle Group, co-founded by David Rubenstein, tapped public markets for $300 million in July to fuel the fund just as rising foreclosures caused credit markets to seize up. In the past month, managers led by Peloton Partners LLP have closed at least a dozen funds, sold assets or sought fresh capital as banks tightened lending standards.
``If Carlyle's lenders want their money right away, they'll liquidate the fund,'' said Hank Calenti, a London-based analyst at RBC Capital Markets. ``That will put pressure on already stressed credit markets.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=auB36HQoB6Uw
Foreclosure filings are likely to be ``explosive'' in May and June as more payments jump, after remaining at current levels this month and next, Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, said in an interview. There may be between 750,000 and 1 million bank repossessions in 2008. Bank seizures rose 110 percent in February from a year ago, he said.
`Vicious Cycle'
``We're in a vicious cycle,'' Sharga said. ``We've got depreciating home values and loans resetting at an outstanding volume just as banks are retrenching. Even people who want to buy a home now are having trouble getting a mortgage.''
Jim Cramer is a loser who has always had the hots for Silda Wall Spitzer and furiously commented at public functions how "beautiful" she is. He's probably hoping she'll dump Eliot so he can make a move.
This is not a joke about his public comments. Ask anyone from the elite cocktail circuit.
Not only are we running the promo on complimentary wire transfers but we will help you "structure" them to evade bank reporting requirements to the Feds.
The Spitzers will be spending this summer at Regency in Woodridge, NY.
From Jewish state...
Amid Charges of Spitzer Tryst, Embattled Prostitute "Kristen" Expected to Resign
New York - At a hastily scheduled morning press conference at the headquarters of New York's exclusive Emperors Club prostitution ring, high priced call girl "Kristen" announced that she would temporarily step aside in the wake of charges that she had engaged in sex with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
"I made a serious mistake and betrayed the trust of my co-workers, my many clients, and my pimps," she said in a quiet voice cracking with emotion. "I will be taking a leave of absence to earn their forgiveness, and redeem myself in the eyes of the entire expensive whore community."
The embattled prostitute did not mention Spitzer by name, and stopped short of offering an official resignation. But longtime sex industry insiders say that it will be difficult for Kristen to return to her post in light of mounting federal wiretap evidence that she had sexually serviced the Governor on at least two occasions.
"It will be hard for her to spin her way out of this," said Destinee Rizzo, editor of the trade journal Executive Concubine."After taking on clients like that, her days as a five diamond, high-roller suite call girl are over. Frankly, with all the press coverage she'll be lucky to get a job as a $5 truck stop lot lizard in Kentucky."
"The big problem now is to keep this incident from threatening the whole expensive whore industry," added Rizzo.
The revelation brought an immediate and angry reaction from Greymont Preston IV, spokesman for the powerful consumer watchdog group Profligate Wastrels United. "For that kind of money, there's an expectation that these girls have been with Snoop Dogg or Charlie Sheen," said Preston. "But please -- Eliot Spitzer? When our members are spending five thousand dollars to snort cocaine off an ass, they want to know that ass has some standards."
Preston said his organization would push for new industry guidelines, including a "black box" john tracking system, but stopped short of calling for government regulation.
"Unfortunately, that would involve meeting with members of Congress, and many of our member don't want to risk having the photos become public," said Preston.
Lafester "Sly" Williams, president of the Big Dollar Pimp Association, said his group would comply with greater oversight and control systems.
"We want to assure the expensive whore buying public -- whether they are drug dealers, washed out big league ball players, or compulsive gamblers on a temporary hot streak -- that when they purchase one of our products, that fine bitch will now be DNA tested and certified 100% free of contaminants from politicians or journalists," said Williams.
Despite the new assurances, Rizzo says it may take years for the whore industry's luxury segment to recover from the incident.
"The saddest thing is what it done to the youngsters, those starry-eyed 17 and 18 year old boys out there who dream someday of blowing thirty or forty thousand dollars on a hotel room full of beautiful, high end hookers," said Rizzo. "Sure, only a few ever achieve it, but that boyhood dream has always been universal. After the Spitzer incident, thought, I'm just not sure whether that's true anymore."
As to underscore that concern, as Kristen walked toward the exit of the press conference to her waiting 1973 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, she was approached by a teenage boy, a forlorn questioning in his eyes.
"Say it ain't so, Kristen," he begged. "Say it ain't so!"
What Gov. Spitzer plans to do after this coming Monday is what's known as a consolidation. And Rabbi Weissmandel will be replacing KAJ for all functions at the State Capitol.
"Cramer" from Seinfeld has got a better chance to score with Silda then Jim Cramer.
Jimbo is a loser.
This is unofficial but Spitzer will be doing some remedial tutoring at YOB in Mesilas Yeshorim.
Rabbis ban any form of illicit relations with members of the opposite sex. Rabbi Putz Lebovits, a cosigner of the universal ban said in an interview, that in light of Governor Eli Shpitser Shlita's busting the market by overpaying for the services of a goyete on the eve of the pesach cleaning season (when he could've used his old in-house shiksa for similar yet less qualitative work) we should all adhere to our gedolim and resort to the use of young boys for a similar effect. The share genuis of the gedolim recommending the free use of our prepubescent boychicks follows the ruling of HaGaon Moron HaRav Pee Wee Scheinberg in alucidating a long secret halachic formulation used to date by only a select few elitist molesters in the know, that molestation sans penetration is permissible and even meritorious since it leaves the rabbinic rapist with all the gain and the victim with all the pain.
Rabbi Porny P. Shapiro of KHal Adas Bnei Bar Mitzva of Baltimore extrapulated a kal V'Chomer with the result that penetration would be a form of a "chumra" since it increases the all gain for the rabbi and proprtinately increses the all pain factor in the poor victims who are here on this world only to further the pleasures of the rebbes.
The assembly of signatures for this kol kora (aka as a kak!) is currently ongoing. Interested rabbis need call rabbi Avrum the Anus Schorr and interested Administrators kindly contact Lipa the lips Margolis aka Fat Lip Margo.
Teh Penislover Rebbe just signed the pan!
The Tenker rav's son will offer free workshops on the ban to all interested rabbis. Friedman suggests you bring your own student for demonstrations in grooming etcetra.
You Cheapskate:
I'm one floor up from our OC-12 pipe and have a brand new workstation and it still takes forever.
Ditch or VASTLY shorten the list of characters on the left side.
Did anyone see Ray Charles? Lipa was banned fron singing at my inaugaration. The moetzes said thay can't see a reason to lift the ban.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/principal-molested-schoolgirls/2008/03/13/1205126111228.html?s_cid=rss_national
Principal 'molested schoolgirls'
by Barney Zwartz and Bridie Smith
March 14, 2008
Adass Israel school, where principal Malka Leifer has been sacked amid claims she abused students.
THE principal of a private Jewish girls' school in Melbourne has fled Australia facing accusations that she sexually molested some of the students.
Outraged parents claim that the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick paid for Malka Leifer, a mother of eight, to return to Israel before reporting the complaints to the police.
She left Melbourne on Wednesday last week, 24 hours after being investigated and sacked by the school's board.
The Adass community is a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea. They have little contact with the wider Jewish community and non-Jewish society.
It is believed the complaints against Mrs Leifer involve girls aged 15 and 16.
The president of the Adass Israel synagogue, Benjamin Koppel, has confirmed that the school acted after receiving a call suggesting that inappropriate behaviour may have taken place with one or more of the school's present or former students.
Mr Koppel did not return calls from The Age, but in a statement to The Australian Jewish News, he said a "relevant authority" had been informed. He would not confirm whether that was police, a religious court or an independent schools board.
A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the force was aware of the claims but could not confirm whether there was an investigation because the victims might be under age.
Raphael Aron, a counsellor with Gateway Family Counselling Centre in Caulfield, said his agency had referred some families with children at the school to specialists. "This has hit the community like a ton of bricks, it's absolutely out of character with the nature of the school, staff and faculty," he said.
Mr Aron, who is also director of Cult Counselling Australia, which tries to get people out of cults, said he was concerned for the girls' welfare. "In a school where kids don't have much exposure to the outside world, there is a possibility of vulnerability … they may not have the street wisdom to recognise that something is wrong," he said.
Parents of present and past students said Mrs Leifer had molested students at school, at her home and probably at school camps. They said one victim had attempted suicide.
The parents, who would not be named, said that Mrs Leifer would share her bed with different students when her rabbi husband was away. She would tell the students she was scared, although she had five children, aged five to 12, in the house.
The parents said that Mrs Leifer always went on school camps — five or six a year —and would stay an extra night with two or three girls to "clean up".
One parent said problems emerged a year ago when a daughter, 16, stopped eating and became unsociable. Her parents took her to a psychologist, and it came out that she had been molested but was too embarrassed to tell her parents.
"It's very sensitive, because a girl who has been molested would find it hard to get married, so it's very secret, hush-hush — no one wants to admit their child is a victim," the parent said.
Girls and boys in the community are segregated from kindergarten, are not allowed television or to mix with the wider community and do not attend university until after they are married.
They leave the Adass schools at 16 and go to seminaries, usually overseas, until they marry, usually much younger than the Australian norm.
One parent told The Age that Mrs Leifer, who is believed to be in her late 40s, was hand-picked from Israel to teach at the girls' school eight years ago, not because of her teaching abilities but for her ultra-orthodox beliefs. The parent said she was widely regarded as the second holiest person in the community, behind spiritual leader Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck.
Some parents are livid with the way the school has handled the claims and frustrated by the "silence of the establishment".
At a meeting with parents yesterday, Mr Koppel avoided answering repeated questions from parents about the identity of the "relevant authorities".
Parents were also concerned that the psychological treatment of the girls had been compromised because the school had refused to release information to outside psychologists. Students and parents were instead referred to school-nominated psychologists.
There are also claims that Mrs Leifer left Australia with up to $100,000 borrowed from a family within the community, two days before she flew to Israel. She is also alleged to have taken about $20,000 from a pool of money earned from some students' part-time jobs.
The money, managed by Mrs Leifer, was pooled in a community fund and then lent to people in need.
The Age was told that Adass leaders at one stage sought the advice of Mark Leibler, a prominent leader of the wider Jewish community, but he declined to get involved.
Barrister Norman Rosenbaum confirmed that he had been retained by the community. "For reasons of privacy, and to protect those affected, we are not saying anything further, other than that all issues are being addressed by pre-eminent qualified professionals," he said.
The Australian Jewish News also reported that on Saturday last week, Rabbi Beck addressed the community and said they should not consider Mrs Leifer guilty of any crimes because there had been no investigation. He told the congregation that if they discussed the matter, it would be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip), the paper reported.
WHOREABLE BEHAVIOR
This is a disaster for Hillary Clinton.
According to the wiretaps, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was delighted to be getting the prostitute "Kristen" again. At least he knew her name. It took Monica Lewinsky's boyfriend six sexual encounters to remember her name (raising his lifetime average to 8.2).
You know that queasy feeling you get thinking about Bill Clinton back in the White House again? Now you remember why. Hillary Clinton couldn't feel worse about the Spitzer case if she were an actual New Yorker.
Proving that Karl Marx got everything wrong -- more bad news for Hillary -- history is indeed repeating itself, but, contra Marx, the first time as farce, the second time as tragedy. Clinton's scandal was hilarious; Spitzer's is just depressing.
Most people outside of New York can't grasp the enormity of Spitzer's political free fall.
Eliot Spitzer was the golden boy with an absolutely charmed life. His parents were the children of Jewish immigrants, who created a Ralph Lauren lifestyle for their children.
Spitzer's father made half a billion dollars in New York real estate and raised three high-achieving children -- two lawyers and a neurosurgeon. In a family like that, becoming governor of New York makes you the black sheep.
Spitzer went to the best schools -- Horace Mann, Princeton and Harvard Law School. He must have written some good papers.
He lives at the perfect address (Fifth Avenue and 79th St.) with his perfect Harvard Law School-educated Southern Baptist wife -- whose parents must be telling her they told her so right about now -- and their three perfect daughters. (Admittedly, the apartment is a gift from Dad: A mere top-flight education doesn't get you an apartment overlooking Central Park.)
And now Spitzer's entire anal-retentive, good paper-writing life has collapsed in the horrifying image of a frenzied masturbator. This is the most complete coup de grace imaginable, short of an assassin's bullet.
Spitzer's life is ruined. It doesn't matter if he has defenders who will wail, "It's his private life!" It doesn't matter if he fights the charges. It doesn't matter if this was a political prosecution. As Talleyrand said: "It's worse than a crime; it's a blunder."
Eliot Spitzer, Harvard Law graduate and Fifth Avenue denizen, is forevermore: "Client No. 9."
Forget about his career -- those around him better have him on suicide watch. Dudley Do-Right is on tape in a white-knuckle negotiation with pimps about payment for a prostitute. (Let's just be thankful that there's no anti-Semitic expression for Jews haggling about money.)
No one will ever be able to look him in the eye again. How can Spitzer hold a press conference when reporters won't stop giggling at him?
Spitzer can't go to the restaurants he used to frequent. He can't go to the Whitney Museum near his apartment. He can't go to track meets at his daughters' expensive private school. He can't show his face in public.
The golden boy's disgrace is deep and subliminal; it can't be expunged.
One shudders to imagine the sepulchral gloom pervading the Spitzer home this week. At least Hillary would liven the place up with some lamp-throwing.
Whatever Spitzer's flaws, he was a pristine product of wealth and attainment. And he threw away a star-studded life of accomplishment in a wanton, reckless pursuit of sex with prostitutes.
There's no prettifying what Spitzer has done. The Web site of the "Emperors Club VIP" whorehouse patronized by Spitzer heroically claims the prostitutes -- or "models" -- are chosen for their "level of education, family background, intelligence, personality."
One can almost hear the typical John, heavy-breathing into the phone: "And this one you call 'Busty Betty' -- does she come from a good family? Parents still together? What church do they attend?"
Surprising no one, police wiretaps indicate that the "models" were semi-literate, could not learn to swipe a credit card and seemed invariably to be on drugs. That's what you get for $2,000 an hour in this charming business.
After one prostitute missed an appointment and left a "crazy" text message for one of her pimps, the procurer remarks that the girl is on drugs. It seems, the procurer adds, "a lot of these girls deteriorate to this point."
Behold the "victimless" crime of prostitution. Hard to believe these girls would turn to drugs. Having sex with strangers for money, nothing to live for ... just thinking about it makes me want to take drugs.
It's absurd to talk about Spitzer's problem being "hypocrisy" -- as if everything would be fine if only he had previously advocated legalized prostitution.
It's absurd to talk about "alpha males" and political power -- an alpha male does not bring his family shame and disaster. Who was more alpha than Ronald Reagan? Think he ever had a "whore problem"? This is more like a dog who wee-wees on your leg.
It's absurd to talk about legal defenses. This guy has fallen from the pinnacle of New York society to being a disgrace to his class. He's the Ivy League version of Paris Hilton.
That was always the advantage Clinton had: We never expected any better. He went from Skunk Trot, Ark., to Skunk Trot, Ark. Spitzer fell from Fifth Avenue to Skunk Trot, Ark.
More sordid details have come to light about the lesbian abuse scandal at a haredi school in Melbourne, Australia.
Included in these sordid…
…details are the following:
Parents allege the school paid to send the abuser, its principal, to Israel and waited until she was safely out of the country before reporting the crimes to police.
The principal is alleged to have left with $20,000 AUD raised by students for a free loan fund.
She is also alleged to have borrowed $100,000 AUD from a community businessman two days before fleeing the country.
The community rabbis have hired Norman Rosenbaum, the brother of Yankel Rosenbaum, the yeshiva student slain in the Crown Heights riots, to represent them.
Norman Rosenbaum says everything is kosher.
The community at one point called Mark Liebler, the son of Isi Lieber, the man who many think created the World Jewish Congress scandal along with then-NY State Attorney General Elitot Spitzer (himself now snared in a white slavery scandal). Mr. Liebler refused to get involved.
One of the victims became suicidal.
The principal lured students to her bed, where she had sex with them.
Victims were as young as 15 and 16.
The school is refusing to release details to outside counselors and psychologists retained by parents.
All this comes from a comprehensive report in The Age, sent in by JWB:
Principal 'molested schoolgirls'
Barney Zwartz and Bridie Smith
March 14, 2008
THE principal of a private Jewish girls' school in Melbourne has fled Australia facing accusations that she sexually molested some of the students.
Outraged parents claim that the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick paid for Malka Leifer, a mother of eight, to return to Israel before reporting the complaints to the police.
She left Melbourne on Wednesday last week, 24 hours after being investigated and sacked by the school's board.
The Adass community is a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea. They have little contact with the wider Jewish community and non-Jewish society.
It is believed the complaints against Mrs Leifer involve girls aged 15 and 16.
The president of the Adass Israel synagogue, Benjamin Koppel, has confirmed that the school acted after receiving a call suggesting that inappropriate behaviour may have taken place with one or more of the school's present or former students.
Mr Koppel did not return calls from The Age, but in a statement to The Australian Jewish News, he said a "relevant authority" had been informed. He would not confirm whether that was police, a religious court or an independent schools board.
A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the force was aware of the claims but could not confirm whether there was an investigation because the victims might be under age.
Raphael Aron, a counsellor with Gateway Family Counselling Centre in Caulfield, said his agency had referred some families with children at the school to specialists. "This has hit the community like a ton of bricks, it's absolutely out of character with the nature of the school, staff and faculty," he said.
Mr Aron, who is also director of Cult Counselling Australia, which tries to get people out of cults, said he was concerned for the girls' welfare. "In a school where kids don't have much exposure to the outside world, there is a possibility of vulnerability … they may not have the street wisdom to recognise that something is wrong," he said.
Parents of present and past students said Mrs Leifer had molested students at school, at her home and probably at school camps. They said one victim had attempted suicide.
The parents, who would not be named, said that Mrs Leifer would share her bed with different students when her rabbi husband was away. She would tell the students she was scared, although she had five children, aged five to 12, in the house.
The parents said that Mrs Leifer always went on school camps — five or six a year — and would stay an extra night with two or three girls to "clean up".
One parent said problems emerged a year ago when a daughter, 16, stopped eating and became unsociable. Her parents took her to a psychologist, and it came out that she had been molested but was too embarrassed to tell her parents.
"It's very sensitive, because a girl who has been molested would find it hard to get married, so it's very secret, hush-hush — no one wants to admit their child is a victim," the parent said.
Girls and boys in the community are segregated from kindergarten, are not allowed television or to mix with the wider community and do not attend university until after they are married.
They leave the Adass schools at 16 and go to seminaries, usually overseas, until they marry, usually much younger than the Australian norm.
One parent told The Age that Mrs Leifer, who is believed to be in her late 40s, was hand-picked from Israel to teach at the girls' school eight years ago, not because of her teaching abilities but for her ultra-orthodox beliefs. The parent said she was widely regarded as the second holiest person in the community, behind spiritual leader Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck.
Some parents are livid with the way the school has handled the claims and frustrated by the "silence of the establishment".
At a meeting with parents yesterday, Mr Koppel avoided answering repeated questions from parents about the identity of the "relevant authorities".
Parents were also concerned that the psychological treatment of the girls had been compromised because the school had refused to release information to outside psychologists. Students and parents were instead referred to school-nominated psychologists.
There are also claims that Mrs Leifer left Australia with up to $100,000 borrowed from a family within the community, two days before she flew to Israel. She is also alleged to have taken about $20,000 from a pool of money earned from some students' part-time jobs.
The money, managed by Mrs Leifer, was pooled in a community fund and then lent to people in need.
The Age was told that Adass leaders at one stage sought the advice of Mark Leibler, a prominent leader of the wider Jewish community, but he declined to get involved.
Barrister Norman Rosenbaum confirmed that he had been retained by the community. "For reasons of privacy, and to protect those affected, we are not saying anything further, other than that all issues are being addressed by pre-eminent qualified professionals," he said.
The Australian Jewish News also reported that on Saturday last week, Rabbi Beck addressed the community and said they should not consider Mrs Leifer guilty of any crimes because there had been no investigation. He told the congregation that if they discussed the matter, it would be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip), the paper reported.
Most Economists Say Recession
Has Arrived as Outlook Darkens
By PHIL IZZO
March 13, 2008
The U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey, a view that was reinforced by new data showing a sharp drop in retail sales last month.
"The evidence is now beyond a reasonable doubt," said Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., who was among the 71% of 51 respondents to say that the economy is now in a recession.
CHARTS AND FULL RESULTS
See and download forecasts for growth, inflation, housing and more. Plus, views on the housing crisis, predictions for presidential candidates and more. Survey conducted March 7-11.
• Econ Blog: Housing Market Has Further to Fall
• Washington Wire: Rating Candidates on Nafta, BudgetThe Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales tumbled 0.6% in February; sales excluding volatile auto and parts decreased 0.2%. The decline reflected a sharp slowdown in consumer spending, the primary driver of U.S. economic growth, as Americans grapple with high gasoline prices and the credit crunch, as well as drops in home values and other asset prices.
The survey, conducted March 7 through March 11, marked a precipitous shift to the negative from the previous survey conducted five weeks earlier. For example, the economists now expect nonfarm payrolls to grow by an average of only 9,000 jobs a month for the next 12 months -- down from an expected 48,500 in the previous survey. Twenty economists now expect payrolls to shrink outright. And the average forecast for the unemployment rate was raised to 5.5% by December from 4.8% in the previous survey.
Much of the gloom stemmed from last Friday's employment report, which showed a loss of 63,000 jobs in February, the second consecutive monthly decline. "My recession call comes from the employment data," said Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital. "It struck me as a recessionary number."
Twenty-nine of 55 respondents said they expect the economy to contract in the current quarter and 25 expect it to do so in the second. The average of all the forecasts is for meager growth -- just 0.1% at an annual rate in the current quarter and 0.4% in the second.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
The Wall Street Journal surveys a group of 55 economists throughout the year. Broad surveys on more than 10 major economic indicators are conducted every month. Once a year, economists are ranked on how well their forecasts have fared. For prior installments of the surveys, see: WSJ.com/Economists.Although the classic definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of declines in the gross domestic product, Mr. Stanley pointed out that the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonpartisan organization that is the official arbiter of when recessions begin and end, doesn't necessarily follow that definition. "If you go back to the 2001 recession, there was only one negative GDP quarter, and there might not even be one negative quarter in this recession," he said.
A WSJ survey of economists reveals that 71% of those surveyed believe Americans are currently in a recession. WSJ's Phil Izzo discusses the findings with Kelsey Hubbard.
The economists also expressed growing concerns that a 2008 recession could be worse than both the 2001 and 1990-91 downturns. They put the odds of a deeper downturn at an average 48%, up from 39% in the previous survey. Mark Nielson of MacroEcon Global Advisors said that "we recognize the previous two recessions were mild and, if a recession does occur, it is likely to be slightly worse than the previous two."
Amid the concerns about the economy, respondents expect more action from the government and the Federal Reserve. Some 63% said the use of public money to deal with the housing crisis is now likely or certain, while on average they expect the Fed to lower its benchmark federal-funds rate to 2% by June from the current 3%.
Futures markets Thursday priced in certainty of at least a 0.5 percentage point cut in the Fed's rate target and up to 90% probability of a 0.75 point cut. Officials had, prior to this week, appeared unconvinced a 0.75 point cut was needed, given signs that inflation psychology is worsening. But those views may have been affected by continued upheaval in credit markets and the weak retail sales and employment data. Market participants say this would be a risky time to cut less than investors expect. The Fed will have to weigh the urgency of addressing the continued credit crunch against the risk of appearing unconcerned about inflation.
However, the Fed's job may be complicated by inflation concerns. The economists raised their average forecast for consumer-price increases to 3.5% by June, up from 2.7% in the prior survey. The change reflects persistently high oil prices and a 4.3% jump in prices last month from the year before. February's CPI data will be released Friday, and economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expect a 4.5% increase from a year ago.
Even as the Fed has made clear that it is most focused at the moment on threats to economic growth, some central bank policy makers have continued to voice concerns about the possibility of resurgent inflation. The central bank has used unconventional methods to boost liquidity in the market; its goal is to limit the use of its bluntest weapon, interest-rate reductions, which can fuel price pressures.
Meanwhile, most forecasters expect a recovery to begin in the second half of this year, as the government's stimulus package and the Fed's interest-rate cuts begin to spur the economy. By the end of the year, the economists expect inflation still to be hovering at an uncomfortably high 2.7%, raising the question of when the Fed will start raising rates.
Some 84% of economists in the survey said the Fed was too slow to raise interest rates in 2003, and policy makers don't want to repeat that mistake. But "it's going to take some time even under the best of circumstances before the Fed can be comfortable that the economic situation has stabilized," said Bruce Kasman of J.P. Morgan Chase.
One thing is clear: The darkening economic outlook has made Ben Bernanke's job less secure, especially with a new president about to enter the White House. The economists gave the Fed chairman just a 59% chance of being reappointed in 2010. "If a Democrat is elected he won't be reappointed, and [presumptive Republican presidential nominee John] McCain may opt for another, too," said David Resler of Nomura Securities. "The problems occurred on his watch," added Ram Bhagavatula of Combinatorics Capital.
Write to Phil Izzo at philip.izzo@wsj.com
Ann;
Great analysis.
CALL TO ACTION: Protecting Unsuspecting Women From Mordecai Tendler
It appears that Mordecai Tendler is still up and running. His shiur (class) is being promoted by luach.com.
Contact luach.com, let them know that Mordecai Tendler was kicked out of the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and that several rabbis in Monsey, NY declared him no longer a rabbi. Also let luach.com know that if anyone else is harmed after learning of his and let them know that if anyone is harmed after learning of his programs on Luach, that they could be held liable in a civil suit, especially after being warned.
http://www.luach.com/site_search?cat=shiurim_chavrusos
Lower East Side Shiurim & Chavrusos
Change in Shiur Time Rav Mordecai Tendler's Shiur over the phone on Inyanei Tefila has been moved to Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 8:00 PM. Even if you are not home at that time, you can still hear the shiur from wherever you are by calling [641]594-7566 and then pressing pin number 72114#. Press *6 to mute and *6 to ask Rav Tendler questions at end of Shiur. (posted 3/10) Send to a friend
Contact:
Shmuel Laskin
Luach.com
E-mail: http://www.luach.com/feedback.html
posted by Jewish Survivors at Wednesday, March 12, 2008
"Pinny, I just can't trust a governor who can't look me straight in the eye!"
UOJ- while you are at it, consider one more change to implement: Torah observant Jews must begin to take a hard look at their financial resources and their ability to support a family based on personal responsibility, and not resorting to, nor depending on government assistance, family support, or bilking honest tzedakah organizations. This means-among other things- they must STOP having more children that they cannot possibly support. Reasonable use of birth control combined with honest family planning must no longer be a taboo, and ignoramus rabbi's who either refuse to grant a heter for it, or who prescribe having MORE children at the same time a family is having problems-emotional, financial or whatever- as a "remedy" (!!) should be thrown into cherem or forced to pay for their criminal advice.
Update, PLEASE:
LKavod Harav Hagaon R'UOJ' Shlita,
Questions:
1) What's happening in YOB? Have they removed Nussbaum? Any kind of investigation of abuses? I know of a history of severe physical abuses in the yeshiva where boys actually got on the phone to call 911 but were warned that it was assur as messirah.
2) What's happening with the yeshivah in Monsey where there were allegations of sexual abuse by the Rosh? Is he still there hurting kids?
3) Any possibility of getting some victims of Mattis Weinberg to go to the D.A. in Maryland or in New York to try to get him extradited or prosecuted criminally in Israel? I believe there was a warrant for him a long time ago in California, which means no statute of limitations.
Please inform. "torah hee, vlilmod any tzarich"
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/foreunner-to-shevach-rubashkin.html#c3381621101389853370
Rubashkin Alert said...
Rubashkin sales reps, with support of the company, are acting desperate. They are approaching distributors that buy from Alle, etc. and completely dropping their drawers on prices.
According to what I heard, they recently offered Grill Point in Kew Gardens Hills that they would discount each type of meat by at least 20 cents a pound (in some cases much more) and save them 50k a year if they switch all their purchasing to Rubashkin. I know of another establishment they reached out to as well.
I dunno. This sounds an awful lot like Moish Finkel and when the prices dip too low there's no way it's kosher.
Rubashkin probably swung into action now to chapp aus customers because Alle is raising prices about 10% starting April 1st. Shlomo Pilo sent everyone a notification letter.
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - Angry protesters set shops on fire in the Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa on Friday, state media and witnesses said, part of ongoing demonstrations against China's 57-year rule by Buddhist monks ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
Protests against Chinese rule by monks and other Tibetans took a violent turn on Friday, with shops and police vehicles set on fire in the city's ancient center. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, meanwhile, issued an advisory to Americans, warning them to stay away from Lhasa, saying it had "received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence."
And no, Horowitz is not the poster boy for the Atkins Diet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/nyregion/12monsey.html
The news that the developer, and potentially Wal-Mart, had scrapped plans it had so diligently worked on gave observant Jews, who make up the bulk of the population here, reason to rejoice.
They had waged a modest yet unyielding campaign against the proposed store, which they feared would force too many outside influences into their insular world of Orthodox Judaism.
Residents joined union workers for a rally in December 2006, and circulated petitions and ran ads in Yiddish and English every week for 32 weeks in a local newsletter, Community Connections. The ads warned of the additional traffic the store would attract and how it would expose their children to such unwelcome sights as bikinis and lingerie.
“Very little money was collected or spent” in the effort, said Jacob Guttman, 33, who is Hasidic. “It was just a well-organized and carefully planned grass-roots campaign.”
The rabbis, for their part, encouraged the faithful to speak up. When Wal-Mart offered to repair Monsey’s heavily used sidewalks and build others, the rabbis asked residents to write to local officials, saying they did not need new sidewalks.
“We were determined to make Wal-Mart uncomfortable because by making them uncomfortable, we thought they would eventually leave,” said Rabbi Horowitz, who is also the executive director of a social services agency here, the Community Outreach Center.
“We’re very strong believers that everything comes from the Almighty,” he added. “I think the Almighty realized that for our children to grow up in a beautiful community, for our traditions to be preserved, we couldn’t have a Wal-Mart.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964339.html
A Shas member of Knesset who has proposed to restrict access to pornographic, violent, and gambling-related Web sites has spent handsome sums of public money for personal computer and internet usage, official Knesset figures show.
According to a Knesset report on MKs' expenses released earlier this month, MK Amnon Cohen spent NIS 78,690, including NIS 5,799 on Internet usage and another NIS 16,000 for two computers. Cohen's spree earned him fourth place on the list of the country's most spendthrift lawmakers.
Fifth on the list is Avraham Michaeli (Shas), who spent NIS 78,380, of which NIS 7,380 went on office renovations. He also installed a security system in his office for NIS 2,000 and bought a laptop and a palm-held computer for NIS 22,208.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964169.html
Jerusalem parents held in suspicion of torturing toddler sons
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Police are still not sure who is responsible for the abuse of two small children hospitalized with severe burns and bruises. The boys' mother admitted the abuse charges under interrogation Wednesday night, but later recanted.
The father has not visited his eight children since the Sukkot holiday. Several friends of the mother frequented the home and helped with the children. One of these friends called emergency services Wednesday night and performed CPR on the unconscious 3-year-old and was also detained
by police.
During a bail hearing Thursday for the parents and family friend, Judge Haim Liran ruled that none of the evidence so far fixes who assaulted the children. "Some of the evidence ties each of the suspects to the charges," Liran said and denied bail for five more days. The woman comes from a prominent family in the New York Jewish community. She immigrated from the U.S. more than a decade ago.
Jerusalem police yesterday called the abuse of the 3- and 4-year-old boys exceptional in its severity. Detective Aliza Aroch termed it "monstrous." Commander Bruno Stein, in describing the boys' injuries, said police could see the children had been tied up and suffered from skin lesions that resulted from criminal neglect. "We could see they had been beaten with objects, and had various kinds of burns resulting from heaters being placed against their legs and bodies."
In the family's apartment, police found torn nylon restraints with blood stains, allegedly used to tie the children.
Both children are still hospitalized at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Kerem. The 4-year-old was brought in three days ago with burns and is in good condition. However, the 3-year-old remains in critical condition and has not regained consciousness since being admitted to the intensive care unit.
Police arrested the parents and family friend after doctors suspected abuse. More extensive medical examination revealed that both children bore signs of prior abuse.
The mother confessed to the abuse but later recanted and claimed detectives threatened she would not be allowed to visit her hospitalized children until she admitted the assault.
The father, who also denies the charges, told detectives he wasn't at home at the time of the assault and had been out of town that day. However, detectives have evidence the father beat the children with a rod in the past.
The family's remaining children have been removed from the home, and police have prohibited family members from visiting the injured boys until they can be questioned.
The parents, who are both U.S. citizens, have not contacted the American consulate in Jerusalem for assistance, a consulate spokesperson said.
http://www.forward.com/articles/spitzer%E2%80%99s-office-we-found-%E2%80%98significant%E2%80%99-pro/
The office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was riven by an investigation of an Orthodox synagogue organization, but the one thing all members of the attorney general’s office agree on is that the office found “significant” problems at the synagogue organization that have not previously been disclosed publicly.
Spitzer’s office began looking at the organization, the National Council of Young Israel, in 1999, when the council made a routine application to the attorney general for a new mortgage. The mortgage was for a nursing home operated by the National Council in a suburb of New York City. The inquiry, routine in the case of a refinancing application by a non-profit, soon uncovered a $6.5 million liability that the nursing home had to the New York department of health.
The investigation was passed to the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which, prior to 2002, identified some $215,000 in illegal loans made to the organization’s former president, Chaim Kaminetsky, who was also the administrator of the nursing home. Those loans, which contravened state charity law according to the attorney general’s office, were paid back, some before the investigation and some afterward. In addition to the loans, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit identified close to $5,000 in payments on behalf of Kaminetsky’s relatives.
The attorney general’s office also identified $130,000 in payments that went to the National Council’s executive vice president, Pesach Lerner, and were not backed up with contemporaneous documentation. The National Council provided explanations to the attorney general’s office for many of these payments, including $50,000 that was described as a loan to Lerner, and $25,000 described as an adjustment for sick days, according to the attorney general’s office. In the end, $20,000 was not accounted for and the attorney general’s office decided to hand the case over to state and federal tax authorities.
Spitzer also said that the National Council had governance problems that his office worked to correct.
A lawyer for the National Council declined to respond to specific allegations. In declining to respond, the attorney cited an earlier article written by the Forward that contained a factual error, corrected a week later, about the sale of the National Council’s headquarters building in Manhattan.
“We are surprised by your new convoluted inquiries which appear to have been suggested by those with various axes to grind,” wrote Kenneth Fisher, a lawyer for the National Council.
“We are proud of the work done by our professional staff, rabbis, lay board and volunteers, including the planned sales of some of our real estate interests which were approved by Attorney General Spitzer’s office after extensive review of our operations and procedures, and which will enable us to continue our services to our more than 150 member congregations for many years to come.”
Multiple messages left at Chaim Kaminetsky’s home and office, seeking comment, were not returned. Kaminetsky left the National Council and works today as the president of the Highland Care Center, a nursing home in Jamaica, N.Y.
Only one element of the attorney general’s investigations of the National Council has previously been made public. In 2002, the National Council needed the attorney general’s approval when it decided to sell its Manhattan headquarters, which also housed a member synagogue, the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue. The synagogue sued to block the sale. Some members of the attorney general’s office were also opposed to allowing the sale.
The dispute was settled in August 2005, when a member of the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue agreed to buy the building and allow the synagogue to remain. As a condition for the attorney general’s approval of the sale, the National Council agreed in court documents to use $4 million from the proceeds to set up a trust that cannot be dissolved until the nursing home Medicaid liability is repaid to the state.
The liability had been accrued after the nursing home was granted not-for-profit tax status in the 1980s. Medicaid payments are calculated, in part, based on tax payments, and as a result the exemption should have lowered the nursing home’s reimbursement rate. According to a letter from the National Council’s lawyers, the organization was told in the 1980s that the department of health would lower its reimbursement rate, but the department never did so.
The attorney general’s office says that after the liability was uncovered, the state department of health began recouping the money by withholding a set amount from Medicaid payments to the National Council’s nursing home. To date, the attorney general’s office said that $1.5 million of the liability has been recovered.
Some members of the National Council’s governing bodies have said that even after the attorney general’s involvement with the National Council, governance problems have continued at the organization. A lawsuit regarding the governance of the National Council was filed earlier this year by a member of the National Council’s delegate’s assembly — the organization’s top governing board below the board of directors. The suit, filed by Ira Sturm, whose father is a former executive vice president of the National Council, said the National Council leadership had violated the organization’s constitution by not allowing for proper oversight.
The National Council’s constitution mandates that the delegates assembly meet at least three times a year, approve the budget once a year and elect a president every two years. According to Sturm’s lawsuit, none of these conditions have been fulfilled since the current president took over in 2000. Sturm, who belongs to a Young Israel synagogue in Woodmere, N.Y., withdrew the lawsuit earlier this year and declined to comment on it. But another member of the delegates assembly — from the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue — said that the points Sturm made about the delegates assembly were still true.
“They really should be held to a higher standard,” said Victor Bellino, who was president of the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue from 2000 until earlier this year, and a member of the delegates assembly during that time.
Bellino, whose synagogue will become independent of the National Council under the deal worked out in the sale of the Manhattan property, said, “I’m glad we’re getting away from them.”
The Moetzes told me to go after Young Israel because they are a bunch of moderna choleryos.
http://cipelgolan.com/
My name is Golan Cipel, and this website is dedicated to telling my story. The release of Jim McGreevey's book, The Confession , is the unfortunate reason why I feel I must speak, as nearly everything in that book that pertains to me and my relationship with him is a complete fabrication.
McGreevey has spun a tale about his struggle to come out of the closet as a gay man, and his realization that he could no longer run from himself. However, the reality is that this was never an issue of sexual orientation or a secret romance. The fact is that I was the victim of several sexual assaults and ongoing sexual harassment by Jim McGreevey. For now I will only describe the three main incidents of sexual assault, although in the near future I intend to post my entire story here – from the time we met, through all of the assaults, threats and lies, up to my ultimate decision to stand up and confront the Governor.
McGreevey's book is not a real confession at all, but rather a carefully planned pack of lies intended to rehabilitate his name and restore him to public life. I strongly hope that the American people and especially the gay community – which I respect – rejects this obvious, shameless ploy from a man who has engaged in acts of deception, sexual violence, and intimidation. McGreevey has a long history of lying in both his personal and political life, and I cannot imagine why, at this point, he is seen to have earned any credibility whatsoever.
I no longer fear McGreevey or his friends; I will use this post – and subsequent posts – to tell the world the real truth about what happened.
According to "Sarah" who hangs out on Shmarya's blog, there was a scandal at "Simchat Beth Torah" a "synagogue" in Greenwich Village for Jews that are "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. The lesbian assistant "rabbi" was seducing half the women in the shul and violating whatever kind of relationships lesbians value with their lovers. The senior "rabbi", lesbian Sharon Kleinbaum could no longer sweep things under the carpet when the woman made a move on the lover of a board member. I'm sure she followed Rabbi Salomon's m.o. of "human dignity" when she moved to terminate her assistant.
Sounds like another "consolidation". Just 2 days ago, Bear Stearns denied it was running out of cash.
Bear Stearns bailed out by Fed, JPMorgan
By STEPHEN BERNARD
AP BUSINESS WRITER
NEW YORK -- Bear Stearns Cos., one of Wall Street's venerable investment banks, received a bailout Friday by the federal government and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a surprise, last-ditch effort to save the 86-year old institution.
The Federal Reserve responded swiftly to pleas from Bear Stearns that its coffers had "significantly deteriorated" within a 24-hour period. Central bankers backed an arrangement to bolster the company, and stood ready to provide extra resources to combat a credit crisis that now threatens one of America's biggest financial institutions.
Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, made its fortune dealing in opaque mortgage-backed securities - a strategy that might be its undoing amid the worst housing slump in a quarter century. The bank has racked up $2.75 billion in write-downs since last year, and faced a possible collapse without some kind of lifeline.
Bear Stearns lost half of its value within 30 minutes of the market open, before clawing back a bit to be down 41 percent, or $23.51, at $33.49 by midday. The news rattled investors, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average down about 150 points.
JPMorgan Chase, the nation's third-largest bank, agreed to pump more money into Bear Stearns to keep it in business, but did not divulge how much it was spending.
MOETZES RESIGN !
---------------------------
By ROD MCGUIRK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CANBERRA, Australia -- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new campaign against teenage binge drinking in Australia revived questions Friday about his own drunken escapade in a New York strip club.
"It's a bit rich for a man who got famously stonkered at a lap-dancing club in New York five years ago to be lecturing the rest of us on binge drinking," columnist Miranda Devine wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Rudd admitted Friday he was no "paragon of moral virtue"
Rudd and a lawmaker colleague, Warren Snowdon, were taken to the strip club by New York Post editor Col Allan, a fellow Australian. Rudd was in New York to meet with U.N. officials.
Australians are relatively tolerant of excessive drinking. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke held a Guinness World Record for speed beer drinking
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A man caught in an online sex sting in which a former Miss America posed as a teenage girl has pleaded guilty two weeks into his trial.
Lawrence Carulli, 49, had argued that he was exploited for the sake of a true-crime television show. But he admitted Thursday to attempted dissemination of indecent material to a minor.
Carulli faces an expected five-year prison term. His sentencing was set for May 13.
"My best defense was going in front of a judge and hoping she would see my side," Carulli said outside the courtroom.
Carulli acknowledged he solicited sex online and drove from his home in Brown Mills, N.J., to Long Island for a liaison. He insisted he believed his correspondent was 24, but prosecutors maintained he knew she was 14.
Unbeknownst to Carulli, the electronic enticement was part of a police operation in which Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson pretended to be a lonely 14-year-old girl. She chatted with men online and on the phone, drawing them to a home where a camera crew from television's "America's Most Wanted" was waiting. An episode involving the sting aired in 2007.
Carulli sensed something was wrong when he got to the house and left. He was arrested at a highway exit three miles away. His defense lawyer, Robert Macedonio, had called the arrest a stunt for the media, suggesting his client was coerced into making an incriminating statement and paraded before the "America's Most Wanted" cameras.
Carulli's guilty plea came after parts of a graphic chat-room transcript was read in court, and several police officials testified that Carulli confessed that he thought he was arranging for sex with a minor.
Seven other men also have pleaded guilty in the sting.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NESS CITY, Kan. -- A man should be charged for allowing his girlfriend to sit on their toilet so long that her body became stuck to the seat, the sheriff said Thursday.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple was among authorities who discovered the woman last month living in the bathroom of a mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Kory McFarren.
"The smell was overpowering - a terrible smell about the house, obviously coming from where she was at."
McFarren, 36, told police his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, 35, had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and may not have left the bathroom in two years, although he's unsure how long she was in there.
He said during that time, he brought her food, water, and clean clothes.
"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The sheriff said that judging by the woman's condition - she had open sores on which the toilet seat would stick - it appeared she likely sat on the toilet continually for at least a month.
"She would have to be sleeping on the toilet," the sheriff said.
Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said.
Rabbi Avi L. Shafran of Agudath Israel did not return repeated phone calls for comment.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57959
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a coalition of major mainstream U.S. Jewish organizations, has for the first time given endorsement to a Palestinian state.
But the firestorm of nationalist Jewish outrage on the Internet has targeted the Orthodox Union, or O.U., one of the largest U.S. Orthodox Jewish organizations representing hundreds of Orthodox synagogues, which abstained and did not vote against a successful resolution calling for a "two state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Surveys have consistently demonstrated American Orthodox Jews oppose a Palestinian state.
"It is an outrage Jewish organizations would support a Palestinian state and it's a shock the O.U .would abstain," Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told WND.
"When the Palestinian Authority refuses to arrest terrorists, engages in and glorifies murder against Jews, and puts out maps showing all of Israel is Palestine surrounded by rifles, it becomes clear any Palestinian state will be a terrorist state which will greatly harm Israel," Klein said.
The Council is an umbrella of 14 major national Jewish groups and 125 local Jewish community relations councils. Among the groups represented by the council are such giants as the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League , National Council of Bnai Brith, Hadassah, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and Hillel, the largest Jewish university outreach group.
The O.U. was recipient of the most criticism for abstaining during the vote in which all other groups voted in favor. According to a source at the organization, e-mails have been pouring in from outraged Orthodox Jews.
In a widely circulated e-mail, Pessach Aceman, a Canadian immigrant to Israel and a diarist for the BBC website, lambasted the Orthodox group as a "terror supporting organization through your silence."
"What total hypocrisy this is," wrote Acement. "What this goes to show is that politics and funding rule the airwaves which makes your efforts totally hypocritical."
Ted Belman, who runs the Israpundit blog, posted, "To my mind this resolution is very detrimental as it makes it harder for alternates to be forwarded. By endorsing this resolution are the O.U. and the others saying they support a two state solution regardless if it necessitates the division of Jerusalem?"
In an official clarification, the O.U. released a statement that while it abstained from the final vote endorsing a Palestinian state, the group still managed to insert into the resolution's text a statement explaining Israel's repeated offers to establish a Palestinian state "have been met, time after time, by violence, incitement and terror.”
Nadia Matar, director of Woman in Green, a nationalist activist group in Israel, wrote in a widely circulated e-mail the O.U.'s clarifications are not enough.
"So now, after the O.U.'s clarification, we ask the one million dollar question: Why is the O.U. still part of the JCPA? Where is the O.U.'s outrage?" Matar wrote.
Asked by WND whether the O.U. supports a Palestinian state, the organization's executive vice president, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, answered simply "no."
Weinreb said his group abstained from the vote rather than vote against the resolution "for procedural reasons."
David Luchins, an O.U. officer who represented the organization during the vote, said abstaining "gives the O.U. more of a platform afterwards to explain to everyone why we abstained from the vote."
Rabbi Pessach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, another major Orthodox group representing hundreds of synagogues, said his organization, which is not part of the JCPA, opposes a Palestinian state, as do most Orthodox Jews.
"What two state solution? We just need just to look out the window and see the Qassams and Grad rockets and bullets flying. We need to read the papers and listen to the radio. There is a war going on. Now is the time to discuss defense, to guarantee security to the citizens of Israel," said Lerner.
"The only solution that we should be thinking of is security, quiet and the ability to live like normal human beings – without the concern of being shot at," Lerner said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/nyregion/06doctor.html
March 6, 2008
At Hearings Tied to Killing of Dentist, Angry Stares
By CARA BUCKLEY and DARYL KHAN
Stony glares and bitter words between two families again filled the halls of the Queens County Courthouse on Wednesday, as another member of a family was arraigned in a tangled murder case that has plunged an immigrant community in Rego Park into crisis.
On Monday, the police said, Natella Natanova threatened the life of Gavriel Malakov. Mr. Malakov, a physical therapist, is a brother of Dr. Daniel Malakov, who was shot to death in October at a Queens playground. Ms. Natanova’s sister, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova, who was Daniel Malakov’s estranged wife, has been charged with arranging the killing. Mikhail Mallayev, 50, a relative of Ms. Natanova’s and Dr. Borukhova’s, has been charged with pulling the trigger.
In a basement courtroom on Wednesday, Ms. Natanova was arraigned on charges of threatening a witness and intimidating a witness or victim. She is being held at Rikers Island in $75,000 bail. According to the police, Ms. Natanova approached Gavriel Malakov late Monday on 108th Street and said, “You should know if you talk, you will be the next to go.”
Later on Wednesday, Mr. Mallayev appeared for a hearing to obtain a court-appointed lawyer. Dr. Malakov’s family stared him down. “It’s very hard,” Gavriel Malakov said after Mr. Mallayev’s appearance. “When you look at him, you picture how the homicide actually took place.”
Khaiko Malakov, the father of Daniel and Gavriel, spent the hearing staring down Mr. Mallayev. “I feel bad, everyone is like a devil,” he said of the Borukhova family, moments before the proceeding began.
It was the latest showing of contempt between the man accused of the killing, his family, and the victim’s relatives, all members of the close-knit group of Bukharan Jews in Queens.
At the time of Dr. Malakov’s killing, he and Dr. Borukhova, 34, were embroiled in a custody dispute over their only child, Michelle, 4. Dr. Malakov, also 34, had just dropped off Michelle at the playground to meet her mother when the gunman approached him and fired.
Dr. Malakov’s killing and the subsequent arrests have sown shame and dismay among the city’s Bukharans, who arrived en masse from the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan after the Soviet Union’s collapse. In New York City, they settled by the thousands around a short corridor of 108th Street in Queens.
The community quickly threw its support behind the Malakov family, while maligning Dr. Borukhova and her relatives openly and in private.
Yet Dr. Borukhova’s family has stood firm in their criticism of the Malakovs. In a custody hearing before Dr. Malakov’s death, Dr. Borukhova accused her estranged husband of beating her and of sexually abusing Michelle. Even after Dr. Borukhova was arrested in February on charges of arranging her estranged husband’s murder, the Malakov family remained fearful and arranged to have a policeman on guard outside their home.
But the Borukhova camp is clearly arguing that the Malakovs are overstating any perceived threats.
Ms. Natanova’s lawyer, Michael Dowd, angrily decried the charges against his client on Wednesday, saying that Gavriel Malakov had overblown the matter and was “carrying out a vendetta” against Ms. Natanova.
“The notion that he is threatened is ludicrous,” Mr. Dowd said. “He was doing interviews last night for the media.”
But the prosecutor insisted that the episode had left Gavriel Malakov deeply shaken, and said that Mr. Malakov had immediately called 911.
These latest turns in the case have only hardened feelings of anger among the Queens Bukharans against the Borukhova family, though local leaders say they are trying to heal the rifts.
“Our community is in crisis,” said Rabbi Itzhak Yehoshua, who is the chief rabbi for Bukharan Jews in the United States and is based in Queens. “And both families are under big pressures.
“We can feel the pain, we feel the pressure. It’s like a volcano coming out, from time to time.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963590.html
Russia will extradite a former Israel Defense Forces officer to Colombia where he has been convicted of training paramilitaries, a Moscow city court spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Russian police detained Yair Gal Klein at a Moscow airport in August, following a tipoff from Interpol.
A Colombian court sentenced Klein in absentia in 2001 to 10 years in jail for training paramilitaries in "terrorist techniques".
He was also accused of working as a mercenary for the Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s
"Ms. Natanova was arraigned on charges of threatening a witness and intimidating a witness or victim."
Vhy is dat illegal?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546410477&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Here's a picture of Marvin Hier in his Purim costume.
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=9663.2&nav=messages&webtag=kr-ledgerenqtm
The SOB should be lynched.
And the publicity seeking Jewish Rabbi should keep his perverted moralizing to his self.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/story/267895.html
Rabbi urges Lauren Burk's mourners to let justice system prevail
By HARRY R. WEBER
MARIETTA, Ga.
A rabbi asked more than 500 people who gathered on Sunday for the funeral of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk to turn their anger at her senseless slaying into something positive and let the justice system handle her killer.
Rabbi Steven Lebow spoke at Temple Kol Emeth that Burk's mourners should all look to do something good for somebody else, like give blood or donate to charity in the victim's memory.
"It would be easy to give way to our emotions this afternoon because there is a spectrum of feelings roiling and unsettling our souls," Lebow said. He added, "The right thing isn't vengeance.
Burk, 18, a freshman at Auburn and graduate of Marietta's Walton High School, was found Tuesday night on the side of a road about five miles from campus, suffering from a gunshot wound. She died later at a hospital.
Her 2001 Honda Civic was found that night burning in a campus parking lot. On Friday, Phenix City, Ala., police arrested 23-year-old Courtney Lockhart, who has been charged with murder, along with kidnapping, robbery and attempted rape - although authorities said Burk was not sexually assaulted.
Burk's father, James Burk, is Jewish. Her mother, Viviane Guerchon, is Baptist. A memorial service for Burk was held Saturday at a Baptist church in Marietta.
Meanwhile, in Athens, Ga., friends and family mourned on Sunday the death of Eve Carson, another Georgia native who was slain the day after Burk.
In North Carolina, police have released two surveillance photos of the suspect in Eve Carson's killing, taken as the man used her ATM card in Chapel Hill. Another photo of the suspect's baseball cap was also released.
Carson, 22, of Athens, Ga., was found Wednesday morning lying on a street about a mile from the University of North Carolina, where she attended. She had been shot several times. She appears to have been the victim of a random crime, authorities said.
Is UOJ going to feature another hilarious email this year from some dumb putz YTT supporter?
R' Lipa,
Intimidating & threatening witnesses is illegal in Queens and most of the country.
Our boy Charlie Hynes doesn't have authority to let it go outside of Brooklyn.
Why do we have to pay to bail out these shmucks from Bear Stearns? They made a foolish and greedy decision to play around with sub-prime mortgage dreck. Let the bank close and take the excess losses from their billionaire executives.
UOJ, why are you letting them get away with this?
Anonymous with the file loading problem:
I have the same problem with my 6 year old laptop... The only real solution is to bypass the first page. As soon as the headline appears for the top story, click on it and go to the individual page. The individual pages load much more quickly. That or go make yourself a coffee while you're waiting.
Shalom.
Some other views on Spitzer's "situation:"
Eliot Spitzer had to be silenced so the $200 Billion bailout can go through...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8336
Spitzer's removal has the hallmarks of a political hit ordered from the top...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8335
Elliot Spitzer: Bush has been the predatory lenders partner in crime...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8330
Any relation to Belsky's friend Lipa Brenner?
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=20&art_id=63061&sid=18049173&con_type=3
If a customer had the money, Emperors Club VIP had the women. For the right price, the New York escort service flew prostitutes to Beverly Hills and London, Miami and Paris. A trip to Europe could cost more than US$25,000. An hour could run to US$5,500.
The agency generated at least US$1 million in the past four years by supplying call girls to an untold number of wealthy clients, prosecutors said.
Mark Brener, 62, and Cecil "Katie" Suwal, 23, are accused of running the agency. Brener, an Israeli native with expertise in financial consulting, is alleged to have recruited the prostitutes and marketed the club, while Suwal, who graduated from the prestigious Blair Academy in New Jersey, handled its day-to-day operations.
The business apparently did not need much to get started other than cell phones and a tempting website that offered call-girl profiles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/nyregion/14spitzer.html?bl=&ei=5087&en=941ef54c0cc557cd&ex=1205640000&pagewanted=print
March 14, 2008
U.S. Is Examining Spitzer’s Funds
By DANNY HAKIM and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
ALBANY — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Gov. Eliot Spitzer used campaign funds in connection with his meetings with prostitutes, including payments for hotels or ground transportation, three people with knowledge of the investigation said.
Prosecutors have asked the governor’s lawyers about the travel arrangements for three trips, including his Feb. 13 rendezvous with a prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has also asked about the governor’s use of car services during trips to Washington.
The governor’s lawyers have begun consulting with a campaign finance expert who has long worked for Mr. Spitzer’s political organization to see whether campaign money was spent on the trips, including some as recently as last month, a person briefed on the investigation said.
A person close to Mr. Spitzer said that prosecutors told Ms. Hirshman this week that they would be more inclined to pursue a criminal case against Mr. Spitzer if he remained governor because of the violation of public trust.
“The message was, ‘We’d be less inclined to press a case if he’s just a private citizen,’ ” a friend of Mr. Spitzer’s said in a telephone interview Wednesday night.
In the last few months of 2007, the last period for which records are publicly available, records for Spitzer 2010 showed payments of between $5,000 and $40,000 a month to American Express. It is unclear how many people working on the campaign had access to credit cards associated with the account.
Two people briefed on the investigation said that one of the money laundering laws that prosecutors are trying to determine whether Mr. Spitzer broke prohibits “the intent to promote the carrying on of the specified unlawful activity.”
Charles H. Grice, a banking expert, said that statute was hardly ever used. “This is extremely arcane stuff,” he said.
A friend of Mr. Spitzer’s, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reacted with fury at the news that prosecutors appeared to be widening their inquiry to include money spent on campaign trips that may have involved trysts with prostitutes.
“At some point, this becomes piling on,” the friend said. The friend said that he would be stunned if “a judge or jury would convict a man for something like this. It’s very low grade,” adding, “Why would prosecutors pursue this?”
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1419
Governor Eliot Spitzer may have been trapped in an Israeli government sex operation
“THE MOSSAD’S FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL OVER THIS ONE,” SAYS ANDY MARTIN
THE COMBINATION OF INTERNATIONAL SEX AND MONEY LAUNDERING ARE CLASSIC CLUES THAT ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE WAS TROLLING FOR BLACKMAIL TARGETS, OFFERING PROTECTION IN EXCHANGE FOR SEXUAL DOSSIERS
(CHICAGO)(March 14, 2008)
(Exclusive) New York Governor Eliot Spitzer may have stumbled into a prostitution ring run under the auspices of the Israeli government, namely the Mossad, says Andy Martin.
“The Emperors Club was exclusively targeting prominent individuals,”
ContrarianCommentary.com executive editor Andy Martin notes. “It is entirely possible that Spitzer was assured that his participation in the prostitution ring was protected precisely because it was run by an Israeli asset.
“Israel is the bane of U. S. federal authorities that combat money laundering. Tel Aviv is one of the money laundering capitals of the world. Mark Brener, who ran Emperors Club VIP, was an Israeli citizen; he was stockpiling two Israeli passports in his apartment. He also had $600,000 in cash on hand. Prosecutors appear to have moved in because the FBI was concerned Brener was about to make a drop in Israel. Published reports significantly understate the financial operations of this international prostitution operation.
“People don’t like to talk about it but sexual entrapment and fulfillment are some of the basic forms of espionage and blackmail. Straight and gay ‘partners,’ ‘rough stuff’ and more are all kept at the ready by the world’s major intelligence agencies. Mark Brener does not appear to have been a spy per se. He appears to have traded information for immunity and money laundering. But he could have been a low-level type of ‘sleeper cell,’ an asset that operated quietly and obviously without any official cover.
“The volume of electronic surveillance is a clear tip-off that the Department of Justice knew they were working with a ‘connected’ prostitution operation. Thousands of calls and e-mails were monitored in a brief period. No one monitoring that volume of traffic was focused only on Eliot Spitzer. The claim that the probe began with him is thus somewhat disingenuous; investigators were quickly casting a much wider net.
“Because the federal government did not want to be caught in an embarrassing Jonathan Pollard moment again, prosecutors asked that Brener be detained without bail. Although Israelis are barred from intelligence operations in the United States, they are addicted to surveillance and penetration inside our society and institutions. Illinoisans on the other hand are obsessed with the identity of ‘Client 10.’ Well. [See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0313edit1mar13,0,257499.story.]
“We don’t yet have the ‘smoking gun’ on this one but our sources within Israel confirm that we are on the right track. Sex for information for money for protection is a classic Mossad m.o. Brener was laundering the cash in Israel where large sums would not draw attention, particularly when deposited in government-influenced banks. This is a sensitive case.
“Significantly, the Spitzer sex sting has been handled very gingerly by Israeli media. The coverage is extremely subdued for news involving one of the highest elected Jewish officials in the United States, who was priming himself to be the first Jewish president,” says Martin. “It is almost as though they are aware of the submerged Israeli intelligence angle to the story, and are working to put some hard facts on the circumstantial evidence.
Chicago, IL - Court Rules Online Sites, Not Liable For Posts By Others.
Chicago, IL - Craigslist.org can't be held liable for discriminatory ads posted on its site, according to a court ruling made Friday.
A group of Chicago lawyers had sued the online classifieds site over real-estate ads that stated discriminatory preferences such as "no minorities" or "no children." The group, the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, argued that such ads are prohibited under the Fair Housing Act and that Craigslist should be held liable for allowing them to be posted on its Web site. Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, likening Craigslist to courier services such as FedEx or UPS, which do not read or screen the messages they deliver. Easterbrook said it would be expensive and problematic for Craigslist to filter messages before they were posted.
The ruling is good news for the many Web sites that host public forums, giving them further legal protections against liability claims based on content posted by their users, but is an obvious setback for proponents of fair housing online and off.
AP
COPAKE, N.Y. —
State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.
State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.
The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
An Ohio man is in jail after police arrested him on charges of urinating on a meat counter at a Wal-Mart store, Cleveland's Fox8.com reported.
Robert T. Jenkins, 21, of Canton, Ohio, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. local time on Friday morning, Lt. Linda Brown of the Canton Police Department told Fox8.com. Jenkins was charged with felony vandalism and disorderly conduct.
Jenkins was arrested after police responded to a call from an employee at the Wal-Mart store telling authorities that a man walked up to the meat counter and began urinating on the steaks, police told Fox8.com. The disorderly conduct destroyed more than $600 dollars in meat.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/25/cbsnews_investigates/main6140406.shtml
(CBS) Thanks to recently filed Congressional expense reports there's new light shed on the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark and how much it cost taxpayers.
CBS News Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports official filings and our own investigation show at least 106 people from the House and Senate attended - spouses, a doctor, a protocol expert and even a photographer.
Million Dollar Congressional Trip
Read the Congressional Expense Report
For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That's $2,200 a day - more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.
CBS News asked members of Congress and staff about whether they're mindful that it's public tax dollars they're spending. Many said they had never even seen the bills or the expense reports.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is a key climate change player. He went to Copenhagen last year. Last week, we asked him about the $2,200-a-day bill for room and food.
"I can't believe that," Rep. Waxman said. "I can't believe it, but I don't know."
But his name is in black and white in the expense reports. The group expense report was filed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She wouldn't talk about it when our producer tried to ask.
Pelosi's office did offer an explanation for the high room charges. Those who stayed just two nights were charged a six-night minimum at the five-star Marriott. One staffer said, they strongly objected to no avail. You may ask how they'll negotiate a climate treaty, if they can't get a better deal on hotel rooms.
Total hotel, meeting rooms and "a couple" of $1,000-a-night hospitality suites topped $400,000.
Flights weren't cheap, either. Fifty-nine House and Senate staff flew commercial during the Copenhagen rush. They paid government rates -- $5-10,000 each -- totaling $408,064. Add three military jets -- $168,351 just for flight time -- and the bill tops $1.1 million dollars -- not including all the Obama administration officials who attended: well over 60.
In fairness, many attendees told us they did a lot of hard work, and the laid groundwork for a future global treaty.
"It was cold… I was there because I thought it was important for me to be there," Rep. Waxman said. "I didn't look at it as a pleasure trip."
But considering the size of the deficit, and the fact that that no global deal would be reached -- critics question the super-sized U.S. delegation -- more than 165 -- leaving the impression there's dollars to burn. In this case, more than a million.
Chabad took loads of money and gave him plenty of kovod even though he is married to a shiksa
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/27/us/AP-US-Lawyer-Millions-Missing.html
Filed at 10:02 a.m. ET
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A disbarred attorney who courted politicians and star athletes and led a flamboyant lifestyle even by South Florida standards pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
Scott Rothstein, 47, pleaded guilty to all five counts against him, including wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and a racketeering charge commonly used to take down Mafia chieftains. The charges carry a maximum potential sentence of 100 years in federal prison. Sentencing is set for May 6.
The plea caps a downward spiral that began in late October, when court documents say Rothstein fled Florida on a chartered jet to Morocco carrying $500,000 in cash after wiring another $16 million to a Casablanca account he controlled. He returned to face charges and has been in federal custody since the FBI arrested him Dec. 1.
He gave generously to dozens of charities.
Prosecutors say it was all an elaborate facade, meant to lend an air of power and respectability to Rothstein's four-year scam. They say he used fake legal cases -- at least once forging the signature of a federal judge -- to lure people with promises of huge payouts over time in exchange for an up-front investment.
''He presented a dangerous mixture of public trust with the opportunity to make purported easy money,'' said Martin B. Goldberg, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice.
The ripple effects have been far-reaching.
Authorities have seized two dozen homes and other real estate once owned by Rothstein, along with 20 exotic cars -- Ferraris, a Bugatti Veyron, a Maserati among them -- as well as numerous bank accounts, an 87-foot yacht, expensive jewelry and other assets. All will eventually be used to repay dozens of jilted investors, many of whom have filed lawsuits seeking at least some of their money back.
The law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler is now defunct, with as many as 50 of its 70 former attorneys under investigation by the Florida Bar for possible irregularities involving client trust funds, according to Bar spokeswoman Francine Walker. Prosecutors have also said former Rothstein associates may face criminal charges, along with bankers and others who might have been involved in the scheme.
Also under investigation by Fort Lauderdale officials is the city's police chief, Frank Adderley, who once flew with Rothstein on a private jet to attend a Miami Dolphins football game at the New York Jets. City officials are rewriting rules that allowed off-duty officers to provide security for Rothstein's home and business ventures.
uoj you are so god damn right about change# 4 that if people would realize it or believe you they would call there kids home today.
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/01/tropper-scandal-is-this-what-lakewood.html
A demented moron in Lakewood writes a poison pen letter attacking UOJ and R' Doniel Eidensohn. He claims that people have been vandalizing Rav Eidensohn's seforim in Lakewood but if it's true, it's probably either him or some Tropper BTs from Monsey who came to Lakewood for shabbos.
Not only is UOJ right about #4, Rav Schach ztl said the same thing but the yeshivishe drey kep pick and choose when they listen to the gadol hador.
Rav Schach also said not to spend the whole zman in yeshiva stuck on Toyros and learning very few blatt but most yeshivos do not listen.
And do you know which yeshivos are the worst with this? Places like Long Beach only learn 3 or 4 blatt a zman. One thing that's behind it is mind control and control over every facet of the bochurim. They even tell the bochurim which meforshim to learn and which part of the meforash. This is the epitome of Agudah "Daas Torah". Not listening to the gedolei hador and no thinking for yourself.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/13178212221463356386
Rabbi Wexler of the Miami Beach Hebrew Academy told me at a kiddush he's in constant touch with R' Zwiebel and the Novominsker and that the reason nobody's said anything about Troppergate is that his "'yeshiva' is nothing, just a room, so there's nothing to say;" also, the gedolim want to legitimize EJF (I'm paraphrasing all this). I mentioned something about Rav Eidensohn's blog and he told me that he's "a nut" and cited the lashon hara disclaimer sidebar as evidence (not that I really understood that). FTR, Rabbi Wexler told me all this very loudly at a public kiddush in order to debate my claim that Tropper being a Rosh Yeshiva is the responsibility of the gedolim so the folks I was shmoozing with would view my opinion on this issue as stupid and his as enlightened -- I am thus doing Rabbi Wexler a public service by publicizing his opinion so that others may hear what he says the gedolim are saying (Rabbi Ribiat incidentally disagrees with Rabbi Wexler; his opinion is that if they "confirm the rumors" then they should "force him to resign."). 3 talmidim of Rabbi Zweig's yeshiva were listening closely to the conversation.
Baruch Pelta
florida hatzolo tro remove member before even opening
rabbis are discussing the removal of a member for eishes ish
this move comes before they even open
rabbis ( rosh kolel )who were aware of the situation for months decided to protect his donor and did not inform other rabbis of this situation
shame on him
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/26tarp.html?em=&pagewanted=print
Neil M. Barofsky is not a household name like some special investigators of the past — Kenneth Starr during the Clinton administration or Archibald Cox in the Watergate years.
But increasingly, Mr. Barofsky is setting off fireworks on Capitol Hill as he quietly and methodically pieces together the most complete historical record yet of the financial bailout. His reports are careful but not cautious, showing a willingness to stand up to some of the most powerful people and institutions in Washington or on Wall Street.
“Neil is not afraid to just follow things where they lead,” said Anthony S. Barkow, a friend and fellow former prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. “He is undeterred by having powerful people angry at him for doing what he does.”
So far, Mr. Barofsky has accused the former Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., of misleading the public about the health of the nation’s biggest banks during the crisis of 2008. He has been investigating the taxpayer-subsidized shotgun wedding of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. He has named a group of bonus recipients at the American International Group who promised to return $45 million to their government-owned employer last year, then coughed up less than half of it.
On Wednesday, Mr. Barofsky will be one of several top officials to answer questions before a Congressional panel on how the government handled the bailout of A.I.G. Mr. Barofsky will cite contradictions in the Treasury’s public statements about the bailout, according to an excerpt from his written testimony obtained by The New York Times.
The Treasury issued a statement this month that “taxpayers will be made whole” on certain investments in A.I.G., but its own analysis has estimated that the Treasury will lose $30 billion on the same investments, according to the prepared testimony.
Mr. Barofsky will also announce that he has opened an investigation into possible misconduct in the New York Fed’s efforts to limit A.I.G.’s disclosures about the bailout in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In this case the jury is the public, who suspect they have poured trillions of dollars down a black hole.
“Taxpayers really want to know,” Mr. Barofsky said. “I think too often in Washington, people underestimate how interested the public is.”
There are, in fact, several other panels charged with reviewing and monitoring the bailout. But Mr. Barofsky is the only one backed by federal agents who carry guns and badges and, if necessary, can break the locks off file cabinets.
The public seems pleased that someone is standing up to the banks and the officials who bailed them out. A Web site that Mr. Barofsky set up for tips has received about 30 million hits, he said.
When he arrived in Washington, he said he was shocked to find how much money was flying out the door, with so few controls.
Check out this post from a survivor who was molested by a Rosh Yeshiva:
tzedek-tzedek.blogspot.com
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/a-growing-cry-to-move-a-terror-trial/?hp
For the first time, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has spoken out against plans to stage the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, joining a growing chorus of people who believe the epic trial will be too disruptive and expensive for the city.
“It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,” he said. “Can we provide security? Yes. Could you provide security elsewhere? Yeah, and I mean — the suggestion of a military base is probably a reasonably good one. Relatively easy to supply — to provide security. They tend to be outside of cities so that they don’t disrupt other people.”
It was a marked change from Mr. Bloomberg’s initial reaction to the news, just two months ago, that the trial would be held in Manhattan. ”It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered,” he said at the time.
The mayor is not the only one pondering a military base as the place for a trial. Leaders of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan also want the government to study the feasibility of holding the trial elsewhere within the Southern District of New York.
On Tuesday evening, the group’s full board voted 42-to-0 to ask Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to consider a list of alternative sites. They include the Unites States Military Academy at West Point, the National Guard base at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh and a federal prison in Otisville.
Adding to the chorus of opposition, the city’s oldest real estate trade association said on Wednesday that the trial would “wreak havoc” on Lower Manhattan and the commercial and residential property owners there. After working behind the scenes for more than two months to urge state and federal officials to consider other locations for the trial, the group, the Real Estate Board of New York, has started a Web site, MoveTheTrial.com, to urge the public to become involved.
Last week, in a joint statement, a list of politicians, including Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel L. Squadron and Councilwoman Margaret Chin, urged an alternate site, one less harmful to “our already overburdened Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.”
http://pomegrafted.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/beware/
Warning to Pomegranate and Everfresh kosher supermarket shoppers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh2NtOasXlg
It doesn't look like YouTube has a function to download audio unless you do it from iTunes and iTunes is one of the most complicated systems for non-music file transfer.
If I can't figure it out it will be mailed to UOJ.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/12/2010-09-12_lemrick_nelson_stabbed_in_the_head_with_ice_pick_19_years_after_knifing_student_.html
Nineteen years after he knifed a Hasidic student to death in the notorious Crown Heights race riots, Lemrick Nelson was stabbed in the head with an ice pick in Manhattan on Sunday.
Nelson, 35, was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital.
The family of Yankel Rosenbaum, the Orthodox Jew he killed in the 1991 riots, called it an Old Testament kind of justice.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/09/13/2010-09-13_british_teen_luke_angel_banned_from_united_states_for_life_for_offensive_email_t.html
British teen banned from United States for life for offensive e-mail to President Obama
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/world/europe/15belgium.html?hp
BRUSSELS — The day after the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium responded to its crisis over sexual abuse, a senior bishop said the church had not made a clear apology because it feared opening the door to a flood of claims for financial compensation.
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/09/houston-rabbi-condemn-use-of-interent.html
Rabbi Wender in Houston who was involved with Tropper in the Shannon Orand beis din scandal has joined with a bunch of Lubav rabbis and even an Avi Weiss "orthoprax" radical to sign a letter condemning bloggers as baalei lashon harah.
Wishful thinking that no one can speak against any kind of corruption in the name of misplaced shmiras halashon.
We just had Tzom Gedalya after someone who was killed because he refused to listen to lashon harah when he was mechuyev to.
Poor Shmarya. One of his heroes of the "civil rights" movement turns out to have been stabbing his fellow Blacks in the back all the years for payoff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/us/14photographer.html?hp
Civil Rights Photographer Unmasked as Informer
UOJ:
Please post these devarim hayotzim min haleiv as a new thread until at least Yom Kippur. These words spoken a few years ago by Rabbi Finkel of Chicago should cause reflection in all of Klal Yisroel:
Because Yom Kippur falls out on Shabbos, we only say Avenu Malkeinu once. After fasting and doing our very best all day, we save the best for last, Neilah. Everyone is into it and really feels the last energy to beg hashem for a yeshua for the year.
We all cry out to Hashem, "Aseh leMaan Tinokos Shel Bais Rabbon, protect us for the sake of the young children of our generation".
STOP RIGHT THERE!!!
Who are Y-O-U to ask Hashem to PROTECT US for the sake of the young school children? What have YOU done to protect a child that YOU might know from being abused? What have YOU done to help rebuild a victim of abuse?
NEILAH!!
It's your last chance to plead your case. WHAT WILL YOU DO TO HELP THE TINOKOS SHEL BAIS RABBON?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/day_schools_focusing_combating_abuse
“There seems to be a great deal of attention to policies and procedures in the yeshivas,” one haredi educator said, “but less about who they report to.”
Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz, who heads Yeshiva Darchei Noam in Monsey and is an advocate of going to the police, said he has organized two workshops for parents of his students — boys from kindergarten through eighth grade — on how to talk to their children about abuse.
He recalled that after conducting a worldwide webinar on the subject, a woman in tears called to thank him for “saving her son.” She related how, after taking part in the webinar and then talking to her young son about responding to inappropriate advances from adults, the boy fended off a would-be abuser by screaming loudly.
But several advocates for abuse victims insist that many in the haredi and chasidic communities refuse to acknowledge or deal with the problem.
Ben Hirsch, a founder of Survivors for Justice, said his group is “fighting an uphill battle” to do research within haredi and chasidic schools in communities like Williamsburg and Lakewood, N.J. “The biggest hurdle is access,” he said. “They are so fearful of learning the extent of the problem.” And he questioned whether such schools would cooperate with a program sponsored by Yeshiva University, which is viewed as too liberal in those circles.
Hirsch pointed out that experts acknowledge that up to 80 percent of those in Orthodox programs for at-risk youngsters, or who fled their communities, were abused. But there is little attention to the abusers who remain within those communities, he said.
Asher Lipner, executive vice president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, said schools should not only terminate abusive teachers but publicize their actions so that the perpetrators would not be able to move to another community and resume teaching, as often occurs.
I have decided to take offline the website being mefarsem on Pomegranate & Everfresh supermarkets.
I received a phonecall today from Mr. Avrohom Banda who was rather upset. He apologized that I had caught him at a very bad time on erev Rosh Hashanah and that he should have given more thought to how I was dealt with. I also accept his explanation that he was not personally aware how I was mistreated inside the store after I returned from being out with food poisoning. He said I am no longer banned from his stores.
He asked me what I wanted but this was never about money. I even refrained from asking him to compensate me on my direct hefsid because I feel terrible that NY State wound up knassing him $10,000. It was never my intention to get him in trouble and did not even know at first that the fish was packaged in an illegal way. I only called 311 because the manager refused to talk to me when I had questions in what was a bezundera tzorech of pikuach nefesh. 311 were misgalgel all kinds of investigations at the City, State & Federal level which I had no idea would happen. I explained to him that many poskim allow to even report to the government where there is sakonna but that I did even less than that only asking the government to get important information for me that I couldn't get myself.
Some of the inyanim might have been begeder what R' Shneur Kotler said besheim the Rosh in Orchos Chaim but I am not difficult in being moychel and I believe he was being fed false or misleading information by some of his employees.
The nekudos on kashrus will be dealt with in a 2nd post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/europe/17pope.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
In a first visit to Britain by a pontiff since 1982, Pope Benedict XVI offered on Thursday his strongest criticism yet of the church’s handling of sex abuse.
The kashrus concerns at Pomegranate & Everfresh supermarkets.
I spoke to a kashrus monitoring organization that shed some light here. The fact that they are selling fish with anisakis is the policy of the main hashgocho Kehillah Kashrus. They assume that Rav Babad of Tartikov & the Vaad Harabbonim of Queens have the same policy. Queens had actually given a childish statement to a newspaper along the lines of don't confuse us with the facts because you are making life difficult for fish-eating vegetarians, implying that they oppose any new information that would pose a halacha problem. At a meeting of rabbonim, R' Yisroel Reisman of Torah Vodaas stated Kehillah's policy for the record, citing his fellow Torah Vodaas rosh yeshiva Rav Belsky as being mattir anisakis (despite that all the gedolei Eretz Yisroel are against it and are angry at Rav Belsky). The kashrus monitoring agency knows who at Pomegranate falsely told me they don't sell fish with anisakis but say he is an ehrenste guy who either made a taus or was given wrong information by someone else.
With the other issues a rov thinks he knows how to solve them without bringing them to the attention of the public which will be unnecessary once the problems are fixed. There will probably always be however items on the shelf with not-recommended hashgochos that are approved on the quiet by Queens. So you have to be familiar with which hashgocho symbols are reliable.
thank your for your post and the rest. you know..
Please for Christ sake help this poor boy from Haiti.
It's hard to believe the 5 Towns Jewish Times can get away with something like this. Pinny Lipschitz will jump all over Avi Weiss and other people distorting the Torah but 5 Towns Jewish Times publisher Larry Gordon is spared because he goes along with Pinny's propaganda campaign for Rubashkin.
5 Towns Jewish Times published an article in the last 2 weeks promoting the Ethiopian Falasha "Shulchan Aruch". The mechaber Sharon Shalom works closely with Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber who is the lowlife who wrote the "halacha teshuva" at the request of Avi Weiss to be matir women rabbis. Falashas do not follow the Talmud. Falashas require giyur. Even the lowlives with Sperber who are all at Bar Ilan University admit that if this "Shulchan Aruch" was written exactly according to how Falashas fir zich, there is no difference between them and the Prushim. So what Sperber's disciple did was to convince the Falashas to allow (in print only) a couple of pretend changes from how they actually perform their pseudo-Judaism.
The article actually says they are "following in the footsteps" of the Amoraim, the Ramoh and the Shulchan Aruch Harav.
http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4637&Itemid=53
This old age home in Winnepeg which is run by corrupt tyrants who cause the death of residents is under the supervision of Western Kosher which is a subsidiary of the OU.
The OU runs a tight ship in Winnepeg. First a mashgiach sleeping on the job at the world's largest producer of gefilte fish that also processes non-kosher species. Now senior citizens in their 90s going into septic shock because an OU supervised nursing home lets them wallow in severe bedsores. If the family members complain they are banned from the property in retaliation by the criminal management.
Member of Young Israel of Scarsdale
Harvey R. Glick, Scarsdale, NY
Profession: Certified Public Accountant; Lic. No. 034581; Cal. No. 25425
Regents Action Date: April 5, 2011
Action: Application for consent order granted; Penalty agreed upon: 1 year stayed suspension, 1 year probation, $1,000 fine.
Summary: Licensee did not contest the charge that he had been found guilty of improper professional practice or professional misconduct in Texas.
http://www.tsbpa.state.tx.us/pdffiles/br0905.pdf
I always hear accountants are cheap. Glick was caught forging a Texas accountant's permit to avoid paying the fee.
Aguda needs to go.
http://unorthodoxyidden.blogspot.com/2013/04/unorthdox-jew-calls-for-dismantle-of.html
UOJ, what happened to your comment section? We have been waiting for a chance to add comments for a few months!!! This is the first page that doesn't have the comment form removed (maybe because it dates back to 2008). Did rabbis threaten you again to close comments?
UOJ, YOU HAVE POSTED MY MESSAGE BUT WHERE IS YOUR REPLY?
I was a camper at Agudah in the summers of (best recollection) ’67, ’68 and ’69. I remember Rabbi Borchart bellowing on the dining room PA system unconvincingly, “There will be no Color War this year,” and I remember the teams from one summer as being Ahavah vs. Yirah, and another as Zekainim vs. Naarim. At the end of that Color War we learned a song composed specially for the occasion, “Zekainim Im Naarim Yihallilu Es Shem Hashem.”
During one of those summers my bunk was located in the multi-story building, and the picnic tables where our daily learning sessions took place were not far away. One morning I left my group to use the bathroom near my bunk, and an older guy (a camper, I think from another bunk) appeared out of nowhere and pulled me into his room. He pinned me down on a bottom-level bed and started forcibly kissing me. He touched me through my clothes, which was both painful and ticklish. I was obviously too young to understand the nature of what was happening. I remember feeling that the kissing was disgusting, having no idea as to why a man would kiss another man. I was physically incapable of freeing myself and was terrified. And then he just stopped and got up. He told me leave and not to tell anyone about this or he would kill me. I couldn’t believe what had happened, and just returned to my group, shell-shocked. I quickly put the matter out of my mind, somehow reassuring myself that it was a strange, inexplicable occurrence. A few days or weeks later it happened again, the exact same way, only this time rougher and more violent. And again, I was cautioned to talk to no one. After that second time I do recall telling someone, I don’t remember who. I think he was from that guy’s bunk. I remember him laughing knowingly and saying I was lucky he stopped. He told me the guy did this all the time. From that point forward I was mindful to never go back to my building when it was unoccupied. I told nobody else about any of this, certainly not my counselor. I don’t think I knew how or that I would be believed. And I was scared. And amid all the camp activities it was soon forgotten.
I am not from New York and am not hooked into local news. It was only about two years ago when I was reading for the first time about the charges against Yiddi Kolko, that I recognized his name from my summers at Agudah. I don’t remember his position, but I remember he was a “macher.” I remember a song about him and a guy named Zorch, the lyrics being “Zorch and Yiddi, what a pity...”
And then, like a bolt of lightning, all the memories described above came flooding back. Those events were completely out of my consciousness all these years as though they never happened. And now the recollections were crystal clear. I was stunned; this whole concept of suppressed memories was actually real – because it indeed happened to me. I was raped.
Is any of this responsible for F’ing up my life? I don’t really know, but I can tell you that I just turned 60, and my encounters that summer were the first and last time I was ever intimate with anyone.
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