Sunday, September 23, 2007

The Great UOJ and some thoughts to ponder on Rabbi Yehudah Kolko's 2nd arrest



KINGS Supreme Court
Docket: 00197-2007
Defendant: KOLKO, JOEL
Born 1946

Arrest/Incident Date/Time

Arrest Date: September 11, 2007
Arrest Time: 10:49
Incident Date: January 1, 2005
Incident Time:

Case Related Numbers

Criminal Justice Tracking Number: 59460080K
NYSID Number: 981298P
Arrest Number: K07681422
Summons/Ticket Number:

Arresting Officer Info

Agency:
Officer Command:

KINGS Supreme Court
Docket 00197-2007
Defendant KOLKO, JOEL

Appearance Information:
Appearance
Part & Date
Judge Calendar
Section
Court
Reporter
Release
Status
Arraignment
Type
Hearing
Type
Docket
Detail
30, October 2, 2007 MULLEN,C TRIALS AM No Type
30, September 12, 2007 MULLEN,C ARRAIGNMENTS NAPOLI,F Bond $50,000 Cash $25,000 (Cash) Regular PLED NOT GUILTY, RETURNED ON WARRANT
GRAND JURY, August 29, 2007 MISCELLANEOUS No Type TRUE BILL, WARRANT ORDERED

Docket Information:
Standards and Goals Age Defendant Status
20 days Violent Felony Offender

Docket Sentence Information:
Docket Sentence
No Data Available

Defense Attorney Information:
Name Type Court Date Court Part Firm Name Phone Number Address
No Data Available

Assistant District Attorney Information:
Name Assignment Date
NA, September 12, 2007

Motion Information:
Motion Date Court Part Motion Type Motion Disposition Motion Activity Motion Filing Date
No Data Available
KINGS Supreme Court
Docket 00197-2007
Defendant KOLKO, JOEL

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.65 03

Charge Detail

D Felony, 1 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<11
Indictment Count: 2

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 260.10 01

Charge Detail

A Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: ACT MANR INJUR CHILD < 17
Indictment Count: 3

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.65 03 *** TOP CHARGE ***

Charge Detail

D Felony, 1 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<11
Indictment Count: 1

Disposition/Sentence

KINGS Supreme Court
Docket: 09538-2006
Defendant: KOLKO, JOEL
Born 1946

Arrest/Incident Date/Time

Arrest Date: December 7, 2006
Arrest Time: 17:45
Incident Date: July 1, 2006
Incident Time:

Case Related Numbers

Criminal Justice Tracking Number: 58608619Y
NYSID Number: 981298P
Arrest Number: K06699923
Summons/Ticket Number:

Arresting Officer Info

Agency: NYPD
Officer Command: 84

KINGS Supreme Court
Docket 09538-2006
Defendant KOLKO, JOEL

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.65 01

Charge Detail

D Felony, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABS:CNTCT-FRCBL CMPLSN
Indictment Count: 4
Charge added to case on: January 4, 2007

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 240.26 01

Charge Detail

Violation, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: HARASSMENT 2ND- PHY CONTACT
Indictment Count: 3
Charge added to case on: January 4, 2007

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.60 02

Charge Detail

A Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 5

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.65 01 *** TOP CHARGE ***

Charge Detail

D Felony, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: SX ABS:CNTCT-FRCBL CMPLSN
Indictment Count: 1

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 260.10 01

Charge Detail

A Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: ACT MANR INJUR CHILD < 17
Indictment Count: 6

Disposition/Sentence

Law Code and Code Section/Subsection

PL 130.55 00

Charge Detail

B Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: SEXUAL ABUSE 3RD
Indictment Count: 2

Disposition/Sentence

KINGS Supreme Court
Docket 09538-2006
Defendant KOLKO, JOEL

Appearance Information:
Appearance
Part & Date
Judge Calendar
Section
Court
Reporter
Release
Status
Arraignment
Type
Hearing
Type
Docket
Detail
10, October 2, 2007 WALSH,JOHN P TRIALS AM No Type
30, September 12, 2007 MULLEN,C TRIALS AM NAPOLI,F Bail Continued No Type ADJOURNED - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
10, June 7, 2007 WALSH,JOHN P TRIALS AM BLANDING,N Bail Continued No Type ADJOURNED - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
10, May 7, 2007 LOTT,P TRIALS AM STERNLICHT,E Bail Continued No Type ADJOURNED - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
10, March 15, 2007 WALSH,JOHN P TRIALS AM CAPUANO,M Bail Continued No Type ADJOURNED - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
10, March 8, 2007 WALSH,JOHN P ARRAIGNMENTS BRANDON,G Cash $5,000 (Cash) Regular PLED NOT GUILTY - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
10, February 20, 2007 WALSH,JOHN P ARRAIGNMENTS MILO-SMITH,T Cash $5,000 (Cash) Not Arraigned ADJOURNED - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
GRAND JURY, January 4, 2007 MISCELLANEOUS Bail Continued No Type TRUE BILL - Temporary Order of Protection Issued
December 8, 2006 Cash $5,000 (Cash) No Type BAIL PAID

Docket Information:
Standards and Goals Age Defendant Status
271 days Violent Felony Offender

Docket Sentence Information:
Docket Sentence
No Data Available

Defense Attorney Information:
Name Type Court Date Court Part Firm Name Phone Number Address
TULMAN,S Private (Retained) February 20, 2007 10

Assistant District Attorney Information:
Name Assignment Date
FLIEDNER, February 20, 2007

Motion Information:
Motion Date Court Part Motion Type Motion Disposition Motion Activity Motion Filing Date
No Data Available












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W. Clement Stone quotes

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”


“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”


“Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying.”


“Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.”


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/09/13/2007-09-13_rabbi_yehuda_kolko_accused_of_molesting_-2.html

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko accused of molesting boy

BY SCOTT SHIFREL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, September 13th 2007, 4:00 AM

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko

A rabbi in a tallith, black hat and handcuffs was hauled before a Brooklyn judge hours before the Jewish New Year yesterday for allegedly molesting another boy at a Midwood yeshiva.

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko - already out on $10,000 bail on charges of sexually assaulting two other male students - rocked back and forth on his feet as his lawyer argued with the judge about bail on new charges that he molested a first-grader at the school in 2005.

"This is the holiest time of the year and to [increase] bail at this time is punitive," lawyer Jeffrey Schneider said, arguing that the charges stemmed from a malcontent who had it in for the 61-year-old Kolko. "[The higher bail is] just bizarre."

"Counselor, you chose this time to surrender him," Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Mullen shot back.

She raised the bail to $50,000 bond, $25,000 cash.

Kolko's wife, Edith, brought the cash within the hour and he was released in time to pray at evening Rosh Hashanah services.
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newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--rabbi-sexabuse0913sep13,0,5369511.story
Newsday.com
NYC rabbi facing new charges of sex abuse

4:53 PM EDT, September 13, 2007

NEW YORK

A rabbi of an all-boys Orthodox school who has been charged with sexually abusing two students is accused of fondling a third.

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko faced a Brooklyn judge Wednesday on new charges of sex abuse and child endangerment. He is accused of molesting a first-grader in 2005 at the Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah, where he worked for several years.

Kolko's attorney, calling the case against his client weak, said the charges stemmed from an angry student who had it in for the 61-year-old rabbi. The attorney also criticized the high bail set by the judge, $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash.

The rabbi's wife posted the cash bail and Kolko was released Wednesday.

Kolko had already been free on $5,000 bail, awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused two young students, one decades ago and one more recently.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York Post

RABBI HIT WITH NEW PERV RAP

By ALEX GINSBERG


September 13, 2007 -- A Brooklyn rabbi already facing trial for allegedly molesting two students was charged yesterday with fondling a third.

Rabbi Joel Kolko, an administrator and a teacher at a Midwood yeshiva, posted $25,000 additional bail a few hours before sundown signaled the start of Rosh Hashanah.

He had been free on $5,000 bail, awaiting trial on charges he touched a 6-year-old boy in one of his classes, as well as a now-31-year-old former student who confronted the rabbi about abuse he claimed occurred decades ago.

The new sex-abuse and child-endangerment charges focus on a 2005 incident in which Kolko alleged fondled the genitals of a first-grade boy.

Lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz scoffed at the new accusations, saying they were fabricated by a disgruntled former student now dragging the rabbi's name through the mud on an Internet blog, The Unorthodox Jew, and trying to recruit new victims to bring cases.

"In 21 years of trying criminal cases, both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, I have never seen a case so weak," Schwartz told the judge, adding that his client had taken and passed two polygraph tests and been cleared by a rabbinical court.

"It's an orchestrated hit."
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http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2007/06/rachem---hashem.html

"Rachem" - Hashem, please have pity

Rachem na literally means "please have pity." In the Birkat HaMazon - the grace after meals - we pray, "Please have pity, Hashem our G-d, on Your people Israel, on Your city Jerusalem, on Zion the dwelling of your exalted countenance, on the kingdom of David Your anointed, and on the great and holy house that is called by your name." This prayer is especially relevant in light of the repeated nationally-sanctioned attempts to defile our beloved holy city.

What I fail to express in words, 12 year-old Mordechai Shapiro of the Miami Boys choir and popular singing star Yaakov Shwekey do in song. Here they are singing Rachem. May Hashem have pity on all of us, and end this long and painful diaspora soon, amen.

Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the cowards that do people bad. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the Rabbits who have defaced and defiled our holy Torah by looking the other way. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the weasels who turn a blind eye to corruption. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the sinners who shrug their shoulders in the face of unspeakable horror. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the gutless punks who refuse to accept the true reality and severity of the situation. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the lowlifes disguised in the black hat and beard. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the two-faced thugs versed in halacha; who have butchered the lives of so many of our Jewish brethren. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the sissy and worthless ‘leaders’ who constantly mislead their flock. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the misfits and psychopaths who are in power. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from those who abrogate their duty by lying to the Tzibur. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the nitwits who redirect blame. Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the scum of the earth who refuse to shoulder any responsibility for their crimes.
Please Hashem our G-d, have pity on the Jewish nation and save us from the clergy members who accept bribes and desecrate your holy name.

P.S.

I recommend very highly that the olam listen to all of Yaakov Shwekey’s albums. His songs pertain very much to what we in Klal Yisroel pray for. And not only is Yaakov Shwekey a great singer, but he’s a terrific human being too!

EM

http://torahjudaismandisrael.blogspot.com/2007/02/rachem-mercy.html

Rachem - Compassion/Mercy

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnmbo_rahem-duo-live

Rah'em (duo live) - Miami Boys Choir - 12-year-old Mordechai Shapiro duets with an alumnus of the choir, Yaakov Shwekey

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RACHEM -- (Have Compassion)

...Most of the wordings can be found in the NCSY Bencher, Birkat HaMazon/Grace after Meals on page 66.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words and Translation:

...The wording in English is not the exact literal meaning. It is to make the words and the feel of what is being said come out. Literal meanings: Rachem - Be compassionate/Have Compassion.

Suggestion for those who do not know Hebrew: Follow the video with the words in Hebrew/Hebrew translitaration first and when you get a feel for how the song goes, follow it in English to better understand.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Rachem, -- Have compassion

Rachem Nah, Hashem Elokeinu, Rachem -- Have compassion please, Hashem our G-d, have compassion

Al Yisrael Amecha, Rachem -- On Israel; the People that is Yours, have compassion

Veh Al Yerushalayim Irecha; -- And on Jerusalem; the City that is Yours;

Rachem, Rachem, Rachem -- Have compassion, have compassion, have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Rachem... -- Have compassion...

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha -- And on the monarchy of the house of David, the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha.... -- And on the monarchy of the house of David, the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al HaBayit HaGadol Veh HaKadosh -- And on the house that is Great and Holy

oy, Rachem, Rachem, Rachem -- oy, Have compassion, have compassion, have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha -- And on the monarchy of the house of David, the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al HaBayit HaGadol Veh HaKadosh -- And on the house that is Great and Holy

Yirachem, Yirachem, Yirachem -- He will have compassion, He will have compassion, He will have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Rachem -- Have compassion / Rachem -- Have compasion

Rachem Nah, Hashem Elokeinu, Rachem -- Have compassion please, Hashem our G-d, have compassion

Al Yisrael Amecha, Rachem -- On Israel, the people that is Yours, have compassion

Veh Al Yerushalayim Irecha; -- And on Jerusalem; the City that is Yours;

Rachem, Rachem, Rachem -- Have compassion, have compassion, have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...Ribonoh Shel Olam! -- ...Master of the Universe!

Rachem, -- Be compassionate

Rachem Nah, Hashem Elokeinu Rachem! -- Be compassionate please, Hashem our G-d, be compassionate

Al Yisrael Amecha, Rachem -- On Israel;, the people that is Yours, be compassionate

Veh Al Yerushalayim Irecha; -- And on Jerusalem; the City that is Yours;

Rachem, Rachem, Yirachem... -- Be compassionate, be compassionate, He will be compassionate

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha -- And on the monarchy of the house of David; the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha -- And on the monarchy of the house of David, the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al HaBayit HaGadol Veh HaKadosh -- And on the house that is Great and Holy

o, Rachem, Rachem, Rachem -- o, Have compassion, have compassion, have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Veh Al Tziyon Mishkan Kevodecha -- And on Zion; the dwelling place of Honor that is Yours

Veh Al Malchut Beit Daveed Meshichecha -- And on the monarchy of the house of David, the Anointed that is Yours

Veh Al HaBayit HaGadol Veh HaKadosh -- And on the house that is Great and Holy

Veh Al HaBayit HaGadol Veh HaKadosh -- And on the house that is Great and Holy

** Yirachem, Yiracheim, Yirachem -- He will have compassion, He will have compassion, He will have compassion

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Tehilim / Psalms 130:1-4

From: yossi - Video in honour of the kidnapped/missing IDF Soldiers

http://www.dailymotion.com/yossi

Mima'amakim Kraticha Hashem - Song

Lyrics and Translation (Tehilim 130:1-4) It may be sang in English...

...The wording in English is not the exact literal meaning. It is to make the words and the feel of what is being said come out. Literal meanings: Tivareh: means feared with awe, Kol: voice, Tishmor: keep/guard/preserve. HaShem/TheName: It is forbidden to say the name of G-d. It is replaced with the word Hashem. The word Hashem is also replaced for the other allowable names of G-d that can be said when refering to G-d not in prayers.

Suggestion for those who do not know Hebrew: Follow the video with the words in Hebrew/Hebrew translitaration first and when you get a feel for how the song goes, follow it in English to better understand.


1. Mima'amakim Kraticha Hashem
Out of the depths I call out to You Hashem
מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ הי

2. Hashem, Shma Ve'Koli,
Tiheyena Ozneycha Kashuvot -- L'Kol Tachnunai
Master, listen to my voice;
Let Your ears tune in -- to the sound of my pleas
אֲדֹנָי, שִׁמְעָה בְקוֹלִי:תִּהְיֶינָה אָזְנֶיךָ, קַשֻּׁבוֹת-- לְקוֹל, תַּחֲנוּנָי

3. Im Avonot Tishmor, Kah, -- Hashem, Mi Ya'amod
If iniquities you record/keep, G-d, -- Master, who will stand
אִם-עֲו‍ֹנוֹת תִּשְׁמָר-קהּ-- אֲדֹנָי, מִי יַעֲמֹד

4. Ki Imchah HaSlichah -- Lema'an, Tivareh
For within You there is forgiveness -- so that, You may be revered
כִּי-עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה-- לְמַעַן, תִּוָּרֵא

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Exposemolesters chimes in with some observations:

  1. Lack of compassion and mercy - The bitter resentment and denial is clearly evident from some of the commentators on the UOJ blog. Their blatant disregard for abuse survivors is astonishing and mind boggling. Who would have ever dreamed that tolerating the pain and suffering of other human beings was the choice that many in am yisrael will make. Ribono shel olam, when will this nightmare ever end? Their lack of compassion is so atrocious and sickening. Where's their outcry for all the victims? There is zero empathy in the Rabbinical infested cesspool and beyond, when it comes to securing the safety of klal yisroel. Sex abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, Kashrut abuse (Rubashkins, Shevach/Finkel, "The Treifa spot" on ave J, now under new management, Le Marais, to name a few) - what more can go wrong with the Jewish orthodoxy movement? It's not just Rabbi's permitting and allowing known abuse to escalte, the stench emanates a lot further than that. Jews who excuse other Jews that are abusive, especially towards children, are very much culpable for this terrible plight and predicament that we in Klal Yisrael are enduring. For a person who has to live two lives everyday, one being the scarred for life victim, the other pretending it never happened, it's just so excruciating and painful. The wounds never heal. The terrible memories are permanently etched in the victims hearts. Rosh Hashonoh, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and all the other holidays come and go, but the survivors of abuse will have to live with their pain and flashbacks from the past for the rest of their lives. N'bach, these strong survivors will never fully heal. The scars remain. How many countless families were destroyed and ripped apart because the gedolim and rabonim refused to intervene? Can we place a number on it? How many neshamas became not frum, or committed suicide, all because of the ineptitude and malicious intent of our so called leadership? And yet, these same gedolim, these same rabonim, these same poskim - are given kovod and honor at every opportunity. They speak and advocate for saving little boys and girls who would otherwise have remained strangers to yideshkeit. They talk about helping the needy. They stress the need to keep the commandments of the Torah. This would all be great if only they didn't speak out of both sides of their mouths. It would all be good if spilling the blood of another jew was permissible. However, to lie about, manipulate, deceive, and overshadow, the same cause you are supposedly fighting for is ludicrous. The title of "rabbi" afforded to such individuals is absurd. And yet, it seems alright to ruin a child's life in one case but not in another. Raboisay, you are not normal and sane if you throw your support behind such scoundrels and hypocrites. You're just not. Not only that; but you are aiding in the destruction of human life; how's that going to reflect with Hashem? Yudi kolko is a monster who deserves the death penalty, never mind prison. Now I know that most of you just sat through yom kippur saying the vidui and asking Hakodosh baruch hu for life and prosperity; but you can throw that all down the toilet if it was just a formality. Do anyone of you still have the gall and chutzpah to feel bad and excuse Rabbi Yudi Kolko's 40 year history of sexual predatory allegations against boys? My goodness! As Albert Einstein stated : "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Potential Yudi Kolko play sites include - yeshivas, camps, bungalow colonies, swimming pools, automobiles, shuls, offices, classrooms, boiler rooms, roofs, hallways, bathrooms, and mikvas. (btw, the main gate keeper of YTT, the "big chazer"(Lipoid Marguelis) is al achas kama vekama so much more responsible than his employee, for his pitiful role and betrayal of all the hearts and souls he kicked to the curb.
  2. The blame Game. So whose to blame here for the children who have endured horrific life altering experiences at the hands of a sick and vicious pedophile, their Rabbi? Should we blame the messenger for exposing the abuse that the Rabbi's did not want the public to ever find out about it the very first place, never mind the abuse that's going on these days? Should we blame the Rabbi's who did everything in their power to try and derail the information from being publicized by resorting to criminal cover ups of said abuse? Should we blame the Belsky's of the world who ignored hazmana after hazmana after hazmana and let the abuse continue unbated and unchecked for over 40 decades? Should we blame all those people who KNEW of such abuse taking place, yet chose to remain QUIET while all those children were continually being subjected to sexual assault by their Rabbi? Should we blame Israel, heck; they get blamed for everything anyway? Why don't we blame the climate we live in or the pollutants in the air, perhaps they are the cause for the sexual abuse crisis taking place in our own neighborhoods? The "air" made me do it defense. Plausible explanation don't you gather? Next we'll be hearing, the "Rubashkins" treif meat made me do it defense. The bugs in the water had an effect in turning me into a murderer. The wigs from India made me a psychopath. The mixed seating by concerts made me delirious.
  3. The blamers - who come up with lame excuses for protecting the abuser time after time again, put up no such fight in protecting the rights, freedom, and dignity of the alleged victims. Rather, they resort to the "sweep it under the rug" syndrome. Not a bad tactic for the desperate and weak. They will manipulate, wreak havoc upon, change halacha, disgrace the torah, disguise the truth, intimidate, threaten, destroy, run over, maim, and wipe out anything and anybody that gets in their way of covering up these child abuse allegations. The Rabbinical and School authorities do not want to warn Klal Yisroel that a child molester may be teaching your son or daughter, because although many lives will be saved in doing so, the great chilul hashem caused by the publication of such horrid detail prohibits one from reporting such abuse to the police, and certainly not to fire the pedophile Rabbi, who afterall needs to make a parnassah. Signed; Vaad Haganavim committee of America.
  4. The excuses - keep piling up like a ton of bricks. how could you do this to Kolko? The man has done so much good. He's just guilty of being a little strict, so what, is that a crime? What about his wife and children? it's not fair to drag them through this muck and chaos that they had no part of creating. What about the aspect of mesira, loshan harha, rechilu, motze shem ra - isn't someone providing information about molesters in a public forum guilty of all those things? There's no concrete proof that kolko molested children; because after all, the only people that know the truth for certain are the ones involved - The victim and the victimizer - therefore we must assume in the innocence of yudi kolko. Why must you blog about such dark secrets and crimes that yeshiva institutions and rabbinical authorities are guilty of, it doesn't do anybody any good?
  5. What about solace for the victims? What about those who committed suicide because no one wanted to listen to them? What about those who were turned off the path because nobody cared about their 'problems'? What about those who were brutally violated and no Rabbi was willing to help them? What about all the survivors of abuse who suffer alone every minute of everyday because the powers turned their backs on them? What about all the families that were annihilated because of a lack of moral integrity by the Rabbinical establishments? What about all the generations that will perish as a result of incompetent 'leadership'? What about a shidduch for the victims? What about Justice for the abuse survivors, shouldn't they get their day in court? What about peace of mind for the victims and their families? What about the verse that says "al taamod al daam re'echa" (do not stand idly by while the blood of your neighbor is being spilled.) What about moral decency, does it still exist in the Rabbi's dictionary?
  6. The Great UOJ - One person can make the difference. How true it is. be strong my friend. Your place in Gan-Eden has already been reserved for you. What a breath of fresh air. Chazak Veematz!

I think we all can learn a lesson from this; especially the Jews who are big pussycats and are scared to speak up on behalf of sexual abuse survivors for lack of reprisal from the powers that be. These types of weasels are unfortunately all too common in the Jewish orthodoxy world.

http://www.campsci.com/hagadah/and_iyov_was_silent.htm

And Iyov Was Silent

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Director, Torah Communications Network

One of the greatest philanthropists that ever lived was someone name Iyov. He was a very wealthy, righteous and pious man who feared G-d and shunned evil.( Bava Basra 15 b) He was also one of Pharaoh’s three advisors. He helped support every good and worthy cause. He gave charity to all that needed his help. He was a wise and clever man who was always ready to help those in need. He was a man of great moral character who always distanced himself from anything that might lead to sin. (See Avos d’Rabbi Nosson 2:5) He was a multimillionaire who owned much real estate all over the world and was blessed with a large family and everything that one’s heart desired. He was what we’d call "healthy wealthy and wise." And then all of a sudden he was struck by a horrendous tragedy. He lost everything he had. His entire family was wiped out. All his great wealth was taken away and his body became inflicted with the dreadful disease of leprosy. He was a stricken and broken man left in sorrow and pain - destitute. From great glory and honor he was now left with only three friends who tried to console him. He went from riches to rags. From joy and happiness to suffering, misery, agony and pain. He became the historical icon of misfortune, tragedy, and sorrow.

Chazal (Sota 11) reveal the reason for this very severe punishment. "Iyov sh’shoshak, nidon b’yisurim"- Iyov who remained silent, was punished with suffering.

This particular incident took place at a special meeting called by Pharaoh to discuss the Jewish population explosion that Egypt was facing. The meeting was attended by Pharaoh’s three brilliant personal advisors; Iyov, Bilam and Yisro. Bilam, of course, advised that the Jews be killed. Yisro spoke up in defense of the Jews even though this put his life in jeopardy. He thereupon fled for his life and was greatly rewarded. Iyuv, who was afraid to speak up and defend the Jews, remained silent. One cannot remain silent when people’s lives are in danger. One must cry out even when he knows that he may be endangering his own life or that his words will fall on deaf ears.

Today we all know what the world did when they heard what the Nazis were doing to the Jews during the Holocaust. Even our best friends stood by in total silence and apathy. Even the "land of the free" closed its doors to those who tried to escape. One couldn’t even hear a whisper of protest. Those that knew, remained as silent as the dead, and even tried to hide the information so that others could not act on it. There was total silence!

Today, once again, as Arab murderers spill innocent Jewish blood, the world stands by in total silence. While many nations parrot Bilam’s call and will surely meet Bilam’s end, others shrug their shoulders in silent apathy. They fear the Arab wrath if they voice their true opinion. Oil speaks louder than blood. Even those we thought were our best of friends have sympathized with our enemy. "Kol o’haveha bogdu voh, hoyu loh l’ovim." One wonders if the reason for the recent world economic crises and the destruction of all their cattle is in any way a result of their thundering silence. There is no novi around to answer this question. Historical precedent says that there may be a correlation. Only G-d knows the truth!

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Confucius quotes

China's most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, 551-479 BC

“The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about”


“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”


“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”


“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”


“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yehuda Kolko was spotted at Essex on Coney not very long ago. I Guess when he finished fondling the boys he was in the mood of some hot dogs.

Anonymous said...

Breaking News / Nation
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=90246

675 child rights advocates to tackle abuse, neglect in forum

By Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer

Posted date: September 23, 2007

MANILA, Philippines--With widespread international support, Manila will host the largest regional child protection conference that will gather together close to 700 child advocates from around the world.

The two-day “7th Asian Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect,” of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), opens on Monday at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel in Pasay City.

Organizers said it would be the most diverse gathering of international child protection professionals and advocates.

The biennial meet, organized this year by the Philippines’ Child Protection Unit-Network (CPU-Net), will be attended by some 675 participants, including judges, lawyers, doctors, law enforcers and social workers, from 37 countries around Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.

Experts will hold working group and plenary sessions around the theme “Ako Para sa Bata (I am for the Child),” including the multilateral sharing of core issues such as child trafficking, children in armed conflict and natural disasters, child-friendly judicial reforms, and the involvement of media in promoting child protection.

“This is the first time for an Asian conference where so many foreigners will participate. Normally, conferences are attended mostly by local child protection professionals,” said lawyer Katrina Legarda, CPU-Net legal consultant and organizing committee chairperson.

More than a third of this year’s participants are foreign delegates, exceeding previous conferences where more than 75 percent of the registrants were locals, according to Legarda. Previous ISPCAN conferences were hosted by Singapore and Hong Kong, among other places.

The conference is supported by international pro-child organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, Plan International, Save the Children and the British Embassy in Manila.

Philippine non-government organization "linkart" href="http://www.consuelo.org/">Consuelo Foundation and the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) also signed up to help the organizers from CPU-Net, an organization of women lawyers, doctors and social workers involved in training policemen, prosecutors and judges in handling cases involving children.

“I think it’s indicative of the awareness of the needs of children. It’s no longer a localized matter. And from the international perspective, there’s a lot of interest in how to address the problem of child-trafficking, which is the world’s number-one industry now,” Legarda told the Inquirer newspaper.

“And I also attribute the attendance to the fact that we have a very scientific program in terms of content, and because we had worked with many different organizations before and they are all here to show us support,” she added.

During the conference, participants will brainstorm on common international goals such as establishing a regional child protection policy for Asia, “influencing public policy” for a child-friendly judicial system, and child abuse prevention, among other aims.

exposemolesters said...

District Attorney Charles Hynes - You're a disgrace to your position and to the citizens of New York. Why are you not processing the extradition papers for Avrohm Mondrowitz?
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Cop Convicted of Sexual Abuse
posted: 9:24 AM, September 18, 2007 by Michael Clancy

In a crime straight out of Bad Lieutenant, a Brooklyn cop was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree for sexually molesting a female motorist after a traffic stop in Bushwick.

Officer Fernando Clerge, 40, will face a maximum of seven years jail time when sentenced next month. The state Supreme Court jury in Brooklyn, however, acquitted Clerge of the most serious charge attempting to commit a criminal sexual act.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes provided the following account of the crime:

On November 20, 2005, Clerge and his partner, Charles McGeean, 39, were on duty when they pulled over a female motorist. McGeean sexually abused her in her car and then the officers followed her to her home in Bushwick. Once they arrived at the victim’s home, McGeean touched the victim’s buttocks and then left the apartment, leaving Clerge alone with the victim. Clerge then kissed the victim, groped her breasts attempted to force her to perform oral sex on him, and masturbated in front of her.

Clerge's DNA was found in the victim's apartment and on her clothing. McGeean pled guilty to misconduct and sexual abuse in the third degree in March and was sentenced to three years probation.
categories: Cops & Robbers
Comments

Three years probabtion? are you kidding me? This guy deserves to do jail time where he will find out what it is like to be touched against his will-- to be powerless and weak without a voice.

I hope in the very least he loses is pension.

Posted by: ginger at September 18, 2007 6:37 PM

...come and knock on my door, Lieutenant...

Posted by: Mrs. Roper at September 19, 2007 12:36 PM

What a charmer! These uniformed characters are supposed to ensure our safety not compromise it. 3 years probation is the law's way of saying that women are not worthy of police protection and respect.

Posted by: La Violent Femme at September 19, 2007 12:40 PM

exposemolesters said...

BEWARE OF THE MEAT YOU EAT. IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS ABOUT RUBASSHKINS MEAT BEING KOSHER OR NOT, WOULD YOU STILL BE WILLING TO TAKE THE RISK THAT THE JUICY STAKE YOUR ABOUT TO CONSUME MAY BE PURE TREIFA MEAT?
--------------------------------
Awesome Blog is:

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2004/12/rubashkins_hono.html

You should contact Rabbi Meir Fund of the Flatbush Minyan in Brooklyn, New York. This past Shabbos evening and morning he stood at his pulpit and proclaimed that his congregants should not eat Rubashkin's at this time. I know this because I was there for each service. He handed out hard copies of an email from a Rabbi in Lakewood (at this time I forget his name) that detailed how bad the Rubashkin's plant is. Rabbi Fund's point was that he felt these allegations by the Lakewood Rabbi have good credibility. Until the allegations are totally verified or negated he told people not to use or shop for Rubashkin's products.

Posted by: Jonathan Loring | December 20, 2004 at 08:16 AM

exposemolesters said...

http://www.jewishtimes.com/scripts/edition.pl?stay=1&SubSectionID=30&ID=6978

Shalom USA Honors Phil Jacobs

Neil Rubin Editor
SEPTEMBER 21, 2007

BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES Executive Editor Phil Jacobs received special tribute during this past week's Shalom USA dinner for his recent articles exposing sexual molestation in the Baltimore Jewish community.

His articles have focused on both bringing to light alleged perpetrators as well as the pain of their survivors, sometimes decades later. The articles, roughly one a month for the past seven months, have brought to light allegations against once revered rabbis, both living and dead, in the Baltimore community.

The response has been both laudatory and accusatory, resulting in letters and telephone calls from around the world.

Mr. Jacobs was given Shalom USA's Covenant Of Peace Award for "his courageous investigative journalism."

Rabbi Elan Adler of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation told the audience that Mr. Jacobs was "an unwitting hero of our community who took his professional life and his family life and put it on the line."

He added, "Phil Jacobs has stirred a hornet's next."

Shalom USA producer Larry Cohen noted that Mr. Jacobs had been the target of much animosity, including personal threats.

To Mr. Jacob's critics, he said, "We respond that for the defense of all of our families, Phil has committed an act that will save lives and the spirits of our children … With his articles, Phil has warned our leadership that if you will not lead, if you do not do the right thing, we will."

In response, Mr. Jacobs said he was representing survivors of molestation, and wanted those present to know how painful the investigation has been.

"I want you to know that all of this hurts. It hurts right here in my heart," he said. "It hurts in my mind and it hurts in my soul. My faith in the system has been shredded. This isn't ever why I want to be honored."

Noting the High Holiday season, he said, "I ask God every day to direct, to help me make decisions. I stand before God just like you do these Days of Awe … and I know that I don't walk alone."

In concluding, Mr. Jacobs added, "It goes on and on and on unless we stop it. I say to you without any apology, you don't have to be nice to stop this. You don't have to be politically-correct. Call the cops; do something."

exposemolesters said...

There are so many Jews who share the same viewpoints as Shmarya. Being very uninspired by the Jewish orthodoxy movements for many should mot be shocking. After all, if you spend your life and energy for a cause to save Jews, but that same cause violates their own agenda - how else would one react other than to have total hatred and disdain for that which has preached until the sky fell down, but that which has not practiced what it preached.

And certainly, as an outsider looking in, taking in all of the missed opportunities by the various haredi religious establishments, it all sums up to one disturbing conclusion - Why should Jews want to remain observant to the very same religion that failed them so? Why should they observe the 613 commandments of the Torah when they see their own leaders not do the same? All those missed opportunities to save Jewish lives have gone by the waste side and there are far too many of them. There's no excuse for such incidents to occur, especially since it could have been prevented in the first place.

The preachers who desert the very words they speak of, who tell you that saving Jews is the number one objective and than based on their actions or non-actions demonstrate that their words are as empty as their integrity - you then naturally begin to experience withdrawal symptoms. You see the source of your anguish for which you can't help and scorn upon for all that it took away from you.
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Definitely worth reading...

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2006/10/what_i_believe.html

Anonymous said...

As an ex-chosid, I can relate to many of the happenings that I have read on your posts. I also have read Hella Winston's book "Unchosen" which brought back many memories (mostly sad) of my strict religious upbringing. All I want to say is that I am very inspired and would like to wish you much success and happiness. I have much more to say but I'll leave it for another time. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-passings29sep29,1,2929974.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
From the Los Angeles Times
PASSINGS
Avraham Shapira, 94; spiritual leader, former chief rabbi of Israel

September 29, 2007

Rabbi Avraham Shapira, 94, an Israeli spiritual leader most famous for urging soldiers to disobey orders to evacuate the Gaza Strip, died Thursday in Jerusalem after a long illness.

A chief rabbi in Israel for 10 years beginning in 1983, Shapira spent much of his life fighting vigorously against territorial concessions to the Palestinians, making him one of the Jewish state's most divisive religious figures.

Shapira helped lead the religious movement that forms the backbone of Israel's settlement enterprise. In 2005, he called on observant soldiers to disobey orders to dismantle 21 Jewish settlements during Israel's withdrawal from Gaza that year.

Many Orthodox Jews oppose any withdrawal from the West Bank or Gaza, considering them sacred land promised to the Jewish people by God. Shapira's call helped foster fervent opposition to the pullout and fears of clashes between settlers and security forces.

The "disengagement" from Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank was completed with no great violence or casualties in September 2005.

Shapira opposed the first Israeli-Palestinian peace accords in 1993, saying Jewish law forbade the transfer of holy land to the Palestinians.

He was a top adjudicator on the Torah and a leader of his movement's Mercaz Harav religious seminary in Jerusalem.

x

Richard DuBois, 74; 1957's Mr. USA was part of Mae West's act Richard DuBois, 74, a former Mr. USA who was one of the musclemen in Mae West's stage act, died Wednesday at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said his wife, Marcy. The cause of death was being determined.

When DuBois was crowned Mr. USA in 1957 at the Shrine Auditorium, Muscle Power magazine praised his "good biceps," "well proportioned figure" and "greatly improved posing." Three years earlier, DuBois had won the Amateur Athletic Union Mr. America bodybuilding contest.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, DuBois was a sought-after physique model who frequently appeared in muscle magazines.

Using the stage name Richard Sabre, he appeared in the 1954 film "Athena," a musical comedy with Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell. He later toured the country as part of Mae West's stage act.

DuBois, who lived in Santa Monica, eventually became an evangelist. For the last 19 years, he was the pastor of Gospel Lighthouse in West Los Angeles.

x

Stacey Peck, 81; author of book about the lives of women in China Stacey Peck, 81, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who wrote a book about the views of women in 1980s China, died of heart failure Sept. 22 at Century City Hospital, said Lori LeBoy, one of her two daughters.

From 1979 to 1983, Peck interviewed celebrities about their homes for The Times' Sunday magazine. An interview with restaurateur Madame Wu led Peck to develop a fascination with China.

For her book "Halls of Jade, Walls of Stone," Peck traveled throughout China and met with a cross-section of 45 women. A 1985 review in The Times called the work "valuable" for recording oral histories of women who remained in China through "stormy decades."

Peck was born Esther Lillian Nathan on Oct. 12, 1925, to Polish immigrants in Chicago.

At 16, she entered the University of Illinois and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1946.

The politically active Peck directed public relations for organizations that included the American Civil Liberties Union and City of Hope Hospital and Research Center. She also oversaw public relations for the Broadway department stores.

She changed her first name to Stacey because she thought it "would help her be taken seriously as a working woman," her daughter said. Her last name was from second husband James Peck, whom she met while covering fashion for the Beverly Hills Times.

x

Notable: Barry Mirkin, 91, former big-band road manager and charity dinner organizer who staged many events at the Beverly Hills Friars Club and helped lead fundraisers for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, died Sept. 20 at his home in Century City, his son Blake said.

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

exposemolesters said...

Baruch Dayen Emes,

The world has lost a great man.

Rabbi Avraham Shapira z'l; lived life to its fullest. His brazen declaration that Israeli soldiers should refuse orders to evacuate Gaza was a sign of a great leader. Rabbi Avraham Shapira z'l; demonstrated that personal peace of mind does not come before the people of Israel. May his Neshama have an aliyah!
-----------------
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3454758,00.html

Rabbi's Death
Merav Boksheetsky

No successor

Religious Zionism much too divided to name successor to Avraham Shapira
Chanoch Daum

No one will be able to follow in the footsteps of Avraham Shapira, who died last Thursday. The former chief rabbi left behind a significant void in religious Zionism's leadership, as he was, more or else, accepted by the entire movement.


Religious Zionism is much too divided to name a successor, and perhaps this is a good thing; it is a sign of maturity and independent thinking, a process that began during the rabbi's days, when his call for insubordination was not heeded by the majority of the movement's members.


His son, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who will apparently be named head of the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem (I suppose he will not assume all of the responsibilities the job entails), does not have the mental capacity to influence anyone outside the yeshiva's walls. The late rabbi's place will be taken by a number of rabbis, not by a single successor.


Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba, is considered to be almost as knowledgeable as Shapira was, but his political extremism will prevent him from having any influence the movement's moderate branch. He will lead the nationalist faction.


Rabbi Zalman Melamed, who heads the yeshiva in Beit El, will continue to carry weight among religious Zionism's more traditional members with the use of the various media outlets he has established.


Rabbi Tzvi Tau, along with Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, will continue to influence the national-religious sector, which adheres to State law and opposes insubordination. Rabbi Tzefania Drori of Kiryat Shmona will continue to exert his influence in the North, while the Tzohar rabbis will continue to lead the modern revolution.


Some will consider this process an indication of the decline of the Da'at Torah (Knowledge of Torah) concept, but it is actually an important sign of openness, liberalization and faith in the individual's ability to choose his or her own way in the world without relying on one specific Torah luminary.

exposemolesters said...

Rabbi beaten in Ukraine

Published: 09/30/2007

The chief rabbi of Sevastopol was attacked on his way to synagogue.

Rabbi Benjamin Wolf, who was dressed in traditional Orthodox garb, said he was beaten Friday night by four middle-aged men who shouted anti-Semitic threats at him. The rabbi suffered a broken nose and concussion and was treated at a local hospital.

Law enforcement agencies are investigating the attack. The rabbi described his assailants to police; no arrests have been reported.

Wolf told JTA that this is not first anti-Semitic attack in the Crimean town. He said believes that law enforcement agencies are unwilling to detain the attackers on the eve of parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

"No doubt that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism," the rabbi said
-----------------------
Christians descend on Jerusalem

Published: 09/30/2007

Over 6,000 Christians from more than 90 nations are in Jerusalem for Sukkot.

The pilgrims are taking part this week in the 28th annual Christian celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

The Sukkot gathering is the largest annual tourism event in Israel this year and is expected to infuse some $15 million to $18 million into the local economy, accounting for more than 16,000 hotel room nights.

“Our feast pilgrims have a deep love and concern for Israel, bring much color and joy to the city of Jerusalem, and always receive a warm welcome from the Israeli people, particularly during the hugely popular Jerusalem March," said the Rev. Malcolm Hedding, the ICEJ executive director.

The Chief Rabbinate has ruled that Jews should not participate in the annual Jerusalem March or any feast events at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem out of concerns that some Christians involved may engage in proselytizing.
-------------------------
Ukraine officials, Jews mark Babi Yar

Published: 09/30/2007

Ukraine's president and government officials joined Jews in marking 66 years since the Babi Yar massacre.

President Viktor Yushchenko, Cabinet of Ministers representatives and other officials joined Holocaust survivors in a wreath-laying ceremony in Kiev Sept. 29, the date of the anniversary, and observed a moment of silence to honor the Babi Yar victims. Yushchenko also paid tribute to the members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists killed in Babi Yar.

More than 33,700 Ukranian Jews were killed at Babi Yar in 1941, when occupying Nazi troops forced local Jews to the edge of the ravine and shot them. The Nazis murdered an additional 10,000 Red Army prisoners of war, resistance fighters and gypsies there.

In another memorial ceremony, about 300 people, including the chief rabbis of Ukraine, leaders of Israeli and Jewish organizations and diplomats, gathered Sept. 23 at a 10-foot menorah that Jewish groups erected at Babi Yar in 1991.
-----------------------------
Syria sees warmongering in Israeli sortie

Published: 09/29/2007

Syria accused Israel of staging a strategic air raid to prepare international opinion for a future war between the countries.

Deputy Syrian President Farouk Shara said Saturday that an Israeli sortie over northern Syria on Sept. 6 was "psychological warfare" by the Jewish state. Jerusalem has not commented on the sortie, but it stirred foreign speculation that a secret North Korean-supplied nuclear facility had been bombed.

"They are making things up to justify an aggression in the future," Shara told reporters. "They are playing on public opinion to mislead it."

Damascus, which denies seeking atomic weapons, said the Israeli warplanes dropped munitions harmlessly in the desert and were chased off by Syrian ground defenses.

Shara suggested that Israel ordered the raid to boost military prestige hit hard by the setbacks of last year's war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

"They want to rehabilitate the Israeli army after the Lebanese resistance broke it. But what Israel needs is to rehabilitate the Israeli mind. Only then will a real opportunity for peace be created," he said.

Israel has called for renewed peace talks with Syria, but on condition Damascus first stop sponsoring Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups. Israel also rejects Syria's demand that it agree to return all of the Golan Heights before negotiations begin.
-------------------------------
Hillary Clinton is a swindler and a terrorist lover. She proves it again with her doublespeak about Israel. You vote for her; you vote for the terrorists (and don't think she is any good for health care either; the taxpayers will be left shouldering the burden for the rich and upper class if she had her way).......

Dems would exhaust Iran options

Published: 09/30/2007

Democratic presidential candidates said they would exhaust diplomatic options before sanctioning an attack on Iran.

An Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran in order to keep it from obtaining a nuclear weapon should be a last resort, the candidates said at a Sept. 26 debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

"I will do everything I can to prevent Iran from becoming an nuclear power, including the use of diplomacy, the use of economic sanctions, opening up direct talks," U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said.

Moderator Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" asked the candidates if they would back Israel if it attacked Iran to hinder the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Clinton said it was dangerous to address such "hypotheticals."

Russert challenged the candidates by quoting Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, who said he would set Iran back "eight to 10 years" if "they get to a point where they're going to become a nuclear power."

Clinton said such talk was premature. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) agreed.

"We are a stalwart ally of Israel, and I think it is important to understand that we will back them up in terms of their security," Obama said, but added, "Until we have gathered the international community to put the squeeze on Iran economically, then we shouldn't be having conversations about attacks on Iran."

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also said diplomacy should be the first course of action in dealing with Iran.
---------------------------------
Eilat beaches reopen after spill

Published: 09/29/2007

Eilat's beaches reopened Sunday, following a sewage spill that forced their closure.

Israel's Interior and Environment ministries ordered that the Red Sea waters off Eilat be off limits Saturday after the city reported a massive leak from a coastal sewage plant.

The spill caught Israel's southern resort at the height of the Sukkot holiday, with an estimated 60,000 tourists in its hotels or camping on the beaches.
-------------------------------
www.jta.org
Published: 09/30/2007

A rabbi blasted church groups for saying he was pressured into not joining a meeting with Iran's president.

"I did not decline out of lack of support from any Jewish organization or from unwillingness to dialogue," Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who heads the Shalom Center in Philadelphia, said in a message to his followers after the Sept. 26 meeting at a U.N. chapel between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and about 100 North American clerics.

A New York Times article quoted organizers as saying that Jews invited to the event "declined because they could not win support from Jewish organizations." The event was organized by an alliance of the "peace churches," the Mennonites and Quakers, although many denominations attended.

Waskow said he declined because he had a prior commitment at an anti-Iraq war event in Washington, but also "because the experience of the last year, after all the same concerns were raised by religious leaders to President Ahmedinejad on his last visit to the U.N., suggests to me that he is impervious to dialogue and merely wants to use these meetings to bolster his own weak political position in Iran."

Waskow noted that he had declined to attend a similar encounter in September 2006, when Ahmadinejad attended the General Assembly opening, because event organizers asked him at the last minute not to raise the Iranian president's Holocaust denial and his attacks on Israel's existence.
-------------------------------
Jewish leaders, Merkel to meet

Published: 09/30/2007

German officials and world Jewish leaders will discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and the threats to Israel.

Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, will meet Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. Also participating will be the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor; the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and WJC vice president, Charlotte Knobloch; and the new WJC secretary-general, Michael Schneider.

The talks will focus on Iran’s nuclear program and the threats to the security of the State of Israel. Other topics that may be discussed, according to the WJC, are Germany’s role in the Middle East, the rise in anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism in some European countries, and the protection of Jewish communities in Germany and central and eastern Europe.

On Oct. 8, Lauder will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome to discuss the strengthening of interfaith, international and intercultural dialogue.
-------------------------------
Ancient Jewish artifacts found in
Published: 09/30/2007

Ancient artifacts bearing Judaic symbols were found in a southern Russia city.

The five stone fragments unearthed in Volograd bear Stars of David as well as inscriptions in Hebrew.

Archaeologists passed the fragments on to a local synagogue. One inscription reads "Remember Torah" and another contains the commandments "Don't kill" and "Don't steal," according to Vologograd Chief Rabbi Zalman Joffe.

Local scientists date the findings to the early 1900s, when the town of Tsaritsyn existed on the lands occupied by contemporary Volgograd. Between 1924 and 1961 the town was renamed Stalingrad, and in 1961 was given its current name. It now has a population of 1 million.

Stalingrad was destroyed in a battle between Soviet and German armies in the fall of 1942. Only a handful of buildings remained intact, including the main city's synagogue erected in the beginning of the 20th century.

Valentina Serebryanaya, a professor at the Volgograd Architecture and Construction Institute, told JTA that architect Sergei Sena discovered the fragments during excavations where an old merchant's house razed during fighting in 1942 had stood. The destroyed building housed a Jewish school in Tsaritsyn at the turn of 20th century, according to Serebryanaya.
--------------------------------
Report: Cairo festival nixes Israeli film

Published: 09/30/2007

An Israeli film reportedly was dropped from an Egyptian film festival.

Organizers of the Cairo International Film Festival, which runs from late November to early December, decided to nix "The Band's Visit" because it features a sex scene between Israeli and Egyptian characters, Yediot Achronot reported Sunday.

According to the daily, the Egyptian Film Actors Guild also succeeded in pressuring next month's Abu Dhabi Film Festival to yank "The Band's Visit." Israeli media reported earlier this month that Abu Dhabi would be the first Arab venue to screen an Israeli film.

Organizers at both festivals did not immediately respond to queries on the report.

Egyptian professional and cultural guilds regularly call for boycotts against Israel.

"The Band's Visit," which swept Israel's version of the Academy Awards, is about an Egyptian military band that becomes lost during a visit to the Jewish state.
-----------------------------
Do not forget our missing soldiers.......

British petition calls for soldiers' release

Published: 09/30/2007

Two British groups have launched a petition to secure the release of three kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

The British Zionist Federation and the Jewish National Fund of the United Kingdom have initiated a petition campaign to urge the British government and the United Nations to obtain the release of the Israeli soldiers -- two kidnapped by Hezbollah and one by Hamas more than a year ago.

Each signatory will "humbly petition Her Majesty's Government" to make every effort to secure information about the whereabouts of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, all kidnapped from within the borders of Israel in June 2006 and July 2006, and to make every effort to secure their releas".e

The petition urges the British government to seek to enforce Resolution 1701, passed at the United Nations Security Council in August 2006, demanding the release of the kidnapped soldiers.

British nationals may sign the petition at www.freethethree.co.uk. Links for residents of other countries and information on other related campaigns, including the one sponsored by Amnesty International, are also available on the Web site.
--------------------------------
Pope responds to Jewish students on Darfur

Published: 09/30/2007

Pope Benedict XVI responded to Jewish students' concerns about the atrocities in Darfur.

In a Sept.13 letter to the European Union of Jewish Students, Papal Assessor Monsignor Gabriele Caccia wrote that the pope "appreciates the concerns which prompted you to write to him" and intended to "raise the matter directly in his meeting with [Sudanese] President al-Bashir." That meeting took place earlier in September.

The letter was released Sept. 21 by the students' union. It followed the pontiff's meeting with a delegation of Jewish students from 30 countries during the union's 24th annual Summer University in August, at which the students handed the pope a letter expressing their concerns about the situation in Darfur.

The union represents 200,000 Jewish students across Europe.
-------------------------------
Irving plans British speaking tour

Published: 09/30/2007

Convicted Holocaust denier and British author David Irving is attempting to revive his career as a historian.

Irving told the Guardian newspaper he would be launching a series of speaking tours in British cities and universities as well as offer new books to potential readers.

In 2005, Irving was sentenced to three years in an Austrian jail for his 1989 speeches in which he questioned the existence of Nazi death camps and called the Auschwitz gas chambers a “fairy tale.”

A judge granted Irving early release, partly because he claimed to renounce his Holocaust denial views.

But in the Sept. 29 Guardian interview, Irving said Jews were to blame for the Holocaust and that the "Jewish problem" was responsible for nearly all the wars of the past 100 years. In addition, he said of Auschwitz, “Much of what is shown the tourists there is faked postwar -- watchtowers, even the famous gas chamber."

Irving now reportedly rents a 10-bedroom house near Windsor.
------------------------------
Report: Israel unhappy with U.S. plan for Iran

Published: 09/30/2007

The United States reportedly has a plan for attacking Iran whose scope is deemed insufficient by Israel.

The Bush administration this summer revived a long-standing contingency plan for military strikes against Iran with a view to retaliating for Tehran's support for the Iraqi insurgency, the New Yorker magazine reported in its latest edition.

According to correspondent Seymour Hersh, the plan was shared with U.S. allies including Israel, which raised objections to the relative lack of Iranian nuclear facilities on a target roster that instead focused on military training camps.

But Hersh quoted a former U.S. official as saying that Israel was reassured "that the more limited target list would still serve the goal of counter-proliferation by decapitating the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards, who are believed to have direct control over the nuclear-research program."
--------------------------------
British union may be dropping boycott plan

Published: 09/29/2007

The proposal by Britain's largest academic union to boycott Israel appears to be dead.

The University and College Union announced Sept. 28 that union leaders, after consulting with lawyers, had determined a boycott probably would breach British anti-discrimination laws and the union's own guidelines.

As a result, the union canceled plans to hold debates around the country on the efficacy of the boycott, first proposed at its annual congress in May. The proposal had been roundly condemned by Jewish groups and a number of union leaders, including unions in the United States.

The legal opinion that dealt the boycott its crippling blow stated: "It would be beyond the union's powers and unlawful for the union, directly or indirectly, to call for or to implement a boycott by the union and its members of any kind of Israeli universities and other academic institutions: and that the use of union funds directly or indirectly to further such a boycott would also be unlawful."

The boycott had been proposed to protest what union members called the "denial of educational rights" to Palestinians. The UCU said it will now "explore the best ways to implement the non-boycott elements of the motion passed at Congress."
--------------------------------
Ha ha ha ha ha ha - Abbas will probably drop dead before real peace ever occurs!

Abbas sees peace by mid-2008

Published: 09/29/2007

Israel and the Palestinians could achieve peace by May, Mahmoud Abbas said.

The Palestinian Authority president predicted Friday that a conference he is expected to hold with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Arab leaders under U.S. auspices in November will provide a springboard for comprehensive peace talks.

"We have noted that the whole world is interested in this meeting and attaches great hopes to its success," Abbas told the French Press Agency, adding that after the conference "we will begin negotiations on the details under a time frame, which ought not to exceed six months, to reach a peace treaty."

Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment.

While speaking highly of Abbas as a negotiating partner, Olmert has been circumspect about the chances of securing a comprehensive peace deal given the schism in the Palestinian Authority caused by Hamas's June takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Olmert and Abbas, who have been meeting frequently ahead of the November conference, will likely hold another summit Tuesday, P.A. officials said. Jerusalem officials could not confirm new talks had been set.
--------------------------------
Hillary Clinton backs attack on Syria but not on Iran; the strong arm of Syria. The loony witch is at it again.......

Clinton backs Israel attack on Syria

Published: 09/30/2007

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) backed what she said was an Israeli attack on a Syrian nuclear target.

"What we think we know is that with North Korean help, financial and technical and material, the Syrians apparently were putting together, and perhaps over some period of years, a nuclear facility, and the Israelis took it out," the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination said in a debate Sept. 26. "I strongly support that."

The Bush administration, Israel and Syria have been reticent to discuss the Sept. 6 incident in detail, and Clinton was challenged during the debate over her certainty that Israel was targeting a nuclear program.

"There was evidence of a North Korea freighter coming in with supplies," she said. "There was intelligence and other kinds of verification. So I don't think it's a question of if they 'feel it.' That is a much higher standard of proof. Apparently it was met with respect to Syria."
-----------------------------
Jewish groups receive Homeland Security grants

Published: 09/30/2007

Jewish groups received much of $24 million in government grants awarded to upgrade security.

The non-profit organizations, many in the New York area, were the greatest beneficiaries of the 2007 Urban Areas Security Initiative Nonprofit Security Grant Program awards.

The awards, released last Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, support target-hardening and security-screening activities in non-profit organizations that are deemed at high risk of a potential terrorist attack.

Jewish groups received most of the 308 grants because they are deemed at higher risk of a potential terrorist attack based on threat and risk information, according to information from the Department of Homeland Security.

“Risk is not exclusive to political jurisdictions or critical infrastructure,” Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said in a statement. “These investments will strengthen security and contribute to local preparedness at hundreds of non-profit organizations nationwide.”
--------------------------------

exposemolesters said...

"As an ex-chosid, I can relate to many of the happenings that I have read on your posts"
----------------------------
Anon,

Thanks for writing. I hope that you are now doing well. You're always invited here. Best of luck!

EM

Anonymous said...

Orthodox Judaism: Living a 'nightmare,' woman fights for divorce
By Jessica Ravitz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:09/29/2007 04:06:45 PM MDT
Her crime, as she calls it, seemed insignificant. She got married and had faith in the man she chose. Susan Rosenfeld was in her early 30s, wanted to build a Jewish home and thought she'd found "the one." Soon, however, it became clear she'd made a mistake.
He hurt her with his hands and his words. He threw her against walls and punched her. He said no other man would want her.
All of this, at least initially, she kept to herself. As an Orthodox Jew living within a tight-knit Long Island, N.Y., community, she didn't think these issues were for others' ears. The modest clothing she wore hid the bruises and truth from their eyes.
"I had Battered Woman Syndrome," she explains today. "No one realized how much of a crazy person I was dealing with."
Before she left him, she says the couple tried everything. They met with rabbis, counselors and explored alternative therapies. But the relationship wasn't working, and she found the strength to walk away.
The life she left was awful, but what awaited her would be hellacious, too.
In Deuteronomy 24:1-2, it is written: "When a man marries a woman or possesses her, if she is displeasing to him. . ., he shall write her a bill of divorce and place it in her hand, thus releasing her from his household. When she thus leaves his household, she may go and marry another man."
This bill of divorce, called a get, is required in Rosenfeld's world, one that follows a literal interpretation of Jewish law. The document supercedes paperwork issued by civil courts. Without a get, which in Orthodox communities can only be issued by the husband, a woman is considered an agunah, a "chained" or "anchored" woman, bound to a marriage no matter how over it may be.
For more than two years, Rosenfeld, an ultrasound technologist, has been fighting to get a get. Until she does, she will remain in limbo - unable to date, marry or have children. The implications, if she were to move on without a get, are real. She'd be ostracized in her community, considered an adulteress, and her offspring would be deemed mamzerim, bastards only fit to marry other bastards. She says her husband has vowed to deny the get until he knows she's too old to bear children.
"He's more or less put me in prison.. . . All I want is my freedom, out of this marriage" she says by phone. "If I wasn't living this nightmare, I wouldn't believe it."
It's not that others haven't tried to help her. Hundreds of rabbis have voiced their support for Rosenfeld, but none have swayed her husband. He's refused to appear before an impartial beit din, a religious court of rabbis. Each week, his name appears on a list in The Jewish Press, an Orthodox paper, in an effort to shame him. He's barred from synagogue rites, often yelled at and chased out doors if he's recognized. A peaceful rally, calling for the get, took place outside his parents' home. He sent men to stage a counter-demonstration. They yelled into bullhorns and called Rosenfeld a whore.
Tormenting her has become "his raison d'etre," says Susan Aranoff, a founding board member of New York's Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and volunteer with Agunah International, both organizations to assist women such as Rosenfeld. "He's having a great time."
About a dozen calls to her husband, seeking his perspective, were never returned.
This issue isn't new; such husbands have been disdained and the matter debated for centuries. Moses Maimonides, a leading 12th century Jewish philosopher, advocated the whipping of these men until they acquiesced or died. When Jews lived in small villages with one rabbi, there was built-in pressure to act favorably.
Now, a man such as Rosenfeld's husband can duck into new communities, even find rabbis who work for him. Rosenfeld recalls one rabbi who phoned saying if she forked over her ring and dog, kept her non-working husband on her health insurance and shared her pension, he'd get her her get. She says she offered all of this, but then her husband wanted an additional $100,000.
Aranoff estimates thousands of women worldwide are living as agunot, the plural of agunah. In the U.S., where church and state separation rules, there's little recourse available through the justice system. In Israel, where Jewish and state laws blend, recalcitrant husbands can be thrown in prison.
Some American Orthodox rabbis have found ways, within Jewish law, to solve the problem, but Aranoff says their approaches haven't taken hold because the community isn't sufficiently outraged.
Rabbi Benny Zippel, an Orthodox rabbi with Chabad Lubavitch of Utah, recommends a "prenuptial agreement" before he performs marriages. The document states that whichever party refuses the get will be forced to pay $250 per day from when the civil divorce comes through to the time when the get is given. Though rare, he says there are cases where women will not accept a get.
Zippel's intention is good, but it's only "a Band-aid," says Aranoff. Enforcing such an agreement would cost thousands in legal fees, few offenders have the money to pay up and, most importantly, she says, "It lowers the conciousness in the community by making people think there's a solution."
Plus, it leaves women such as Rosenfeld, who has no such agreeement, behind.
Some ask why Rosenfeld doesn't turn her back on Orthodox Judaism. Other denominations don't have the agunah problem. Reform Judaism has nullified the need for a get, and Conservative Judaism has empowered its rabbis - in cases where gets are refused - to issue annulments to override the requirement.
Simply put, abandoning the only community she's known and one she still loves, in possibly every other respect, is not the answer. Her husband has punished her enough already, and she'll be damned if she'll let him rob her of her Judaism.
"I definitely have my angst, my gripes against God," she says. "But this is who I am."
jravitz@sltrib.com


Read about a Utah woman's more positive experience at www.sltrib.com/faith.

exposemolesters said...

Doesn't this almost sound like Postville Iowa, and the Rubashkins? (although to a much lesser extent). Sholom Rubashkin can definitely relate to the following:
-------------------------------
Rabbi bound by zoning law
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/29/07
Story Chat Post Comment

The letter writer who condemned Freehold Township for, in effect, persecuting a local rabbi for holding prayer services in his home misses the point. ("Why object to worship?" Sept. 12.)

The township is merely trying to enforce its own ordinance concerning where houses of worship are to be located. Local government has every right to establish such zoning laws for the greater good of the community. Everyone buying a home within a residential zone rightfully expects all dwellings in that zone to conform to the conditions of its use.

The ability to enjoy one's home and property in relative peace and serenity is a treasured value in American society. To ensure Americans are accorded this right, the manner in which residential dwellings are used must be monitored by government and action taken when misused. Certain uses, by definition, have been universally prohibited in residential zones because of their propensity to generate intense levels of activity. Among these are business operations, social clubs, community centers, fraternal and professional centers, dormitories and houses of worship.

This is not a poor, persecuted rabbi being prevented from praying in his home with a small group of friends. The dwelling, quite clearly, is being used as a community house of worship and center for organized religious activities.

Kudos to Freehold Township for its efforts to ensure equal enforcement of the law regardless of the unfair public relations campaign conducted against it.

Anyone should be allowed to pray in his house, either alone or with friends. That does not make it a house of worship. I fail to fathom how anyone cannot see the difference between that and the situation in Freehold Township.

Paul Sweda

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP
StoryChat Post a CommentPost a Comment View all CommentsView All Comments
Freedpm from religion has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand, it is a secular arguement.

A molester is a molester no matter what field they are in. like all defiet behaviour - it is the character and nature of an individual, not a vocation or job.

Posted by: GrownUp on Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:06 am
In 1776 this country declared it's Independence do that it could enjoy freedom of religion.............

.......Remember: Freedom of Religion also means Freedom from Religion

And what's that crap about the more Religious acitivity in the community, the less public safety threathening activity occurs....

Uh?

Just ask the thousands of young boys that wre molested by Catholic Priests how safe they were.

The amount of religion in a community has no relation to the area crime. Period.

Posted by: airpat on Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:34 am
In 1776 this country declared it's Independence so it could enjoy freedom of religion. The Uniformed Commercial Code, which created zoning laws and came about to protect the public from hazards and avoidable public safety risks. House does any form of religious activity create a hazard or danger the public safety.

On the contrary it is beneficially and inherently good for the public.

The more religious activity occurs in a community, the less illegal and public safety threatening activity occurs.

The Religious Land use & Institutionalised persons act of 2000, should have completely set this silly debate to rest.

Posted by: GrownUp on Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:29 am
It's unfortunate that the Orthodox community does not care about laws or rules made by man unless he is a rabbi. They will ignore rules and laws if they feel it does not meet their religious needs. They could care less about the impact on neighbors and residents. They are not good neighbors and bring very little in a positive way to a community. This is not my opinion. It is the opinions given in two PBS shows, "They stand alone" and "The Black Hats." They told the history and mind-set of the Orthodox. Most of it was not complimentary.

Posted by: IfIknewthen on Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:23 pm
Isn't this "house" only supposed to be his residence, not a place of worship? Does anyone know if he's actually paying property taxes? DataUniverse only indicates what taxes would be, not if he's claiming an exemption. The addition is gigantic, looks like it's doubling the size of the house.

Posted by: Jake54 on Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:55 pm

Anonymous said...

Last update - 17:07 26/09/2007
New Haven Rabbi laments American Jews' preoccupation with liberalism
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - "My tendency is to do what needs doing," says Rabbi Daniel Greer, who leads the Yeshiva of New Haven.

The rabbi, who thinks there is always something that needs to be done regardless of what people will say, is in a constant state of endeavor, which frequently stirs controversy.

Greer lives by the model that falls between withdrawal and involvement, between enlightenment and separatism, between assimilation and tribalism. It is a very American model - even if extreme - of Orthodoxy: assertive, assured, even arrogant.

"There is no other country in the world that makes Jewish life possible like the United States," he says.

He will fight against some of its institutions for the right to be different - occasionally angering the surrounding society - but his main strength lies in angering other Jews, whose community organizations and institutions he dismisses with a facial expression of revulsion.

"They kept silent when Jews were murdered in Germany ... the Jewish organizations are no longer Jewish. All the Jewish Federation people married non-Jews, and if they didn't, then their children did."

Clearly, Greer is not one to mince words for fear of offending anyone.

Neighborhood involvement

We need the guns "so they'll understand that we're serious," Eliezer Greer, one of Rabbi Greer's sons, says. He is dressed in a black T-shirt with a white square in the middle emblazoned with the slogan: Edgewood Park Defense Patrol. Twice a week he dons it over his ritual fringes and white dress shirt and takes to the streets of this New Haven neighborhood, for a three- to four-hour shift. Local police concede that crime is down in the neighborhood, but that's not enough for Eliezer. He wants the police chief, Francisco Ortiz, gone.

He's certain the mayor will get rid of him, because he simply won't have a choice. "I am part of the community, part of the neighborhood," the rabbi says. This neighborhood - a mixture of Jews and Christians, whites and blacks, educated and ignorant, workers and unemployed - is now his project. As harassment and crime increased - and after his son, Dov, returned home one day bruised from an encounter with street thugs - the rabbi acted at once: The civil defense guard he formed works to prevent crime and the campaign he launched is aimed at ousting the police chief, whom they term "lazy."

The brief public furor over the neighborhood patrol had two focal points: Black leaders were worried about harassment of blacks, and civil rights advocates objected to the patrol's bearing live weapons. Greer appeased the first group and persuaded them he had the neighborhood's interest at heart.

The others he ignored - what's he got to do with those liberals? He does not neglect to mention that many of them are Jews, like David Warren of the Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut, who took issue with the group "that is trying to enforce the law itself." Greer always spots the Jews among those standing in his way.

The rabbi's involvement in this neighborhood neither begins nor ends with the civil patrol. A non-profit organization he established buys run-down houses, renovates and rents them to suitable tenants - not necessarily Jews. The homes are painted a uniform color, trees are planted, new kitchens installed. In the yard of one such house an old well pump was restored to working order. There are already dozens of houses like this located within walking distance from the yeshiva. The neighborhood face-lift is changing things for the better.

It's hard not to appreciate this enterprise, even in view of the controversial personality behind it. But let no one dare call it "tikkun olam," Greer says, using the Talmudic term for repairing or perfecting the world, a phrase that has become the mantra of the more liberal Jewish movements in American. "It's an Orwellian term, 'New Speak,'" he seethes, offended, or pretending to be so. "Tikkun olam is the way of people who call themselves Jews to conceal the fact that they have no Jewish content left."

Greer has no affection for the institutions of the Jewish community - so pathetic, so groveling. In the U.S. of all places, he says, where a person can be a proud Jew, they opt for limp subservience, for being "not too Jewish."

In any event, Greer says, "the U.S. has two Jewish communities." One is "dwindling," until it disappears. "Liberals," he calls them, and coming from him it isn't praise. He says they "aren't serious" and are therefore "assimilated." Greer is acerbic, an extreme example of this mindset, but not the only one among the Orthodox to view with a degree of scorn and arrogance the direction in which the other streams of Judaism are headed.

In opposition to them he places the model of the Orthodox community, varied and splintered though it be, which shares a "common interest," he believes. Greer thinks this is all that will remain of the huge American-Jewish community.

"They're trembling," Greer says of the other streams, "frightened by the start-up gang that's grabbing a more central place." Besides, he adds, "their grandchildren won't care if they marry a Catholic or a Navajo," so there's no call to take their sensibilities or opinions into account.

Anonymous said...

Kolko was due in court today. Does anyone know how it went?

exposemolesters said...

This is a Chutzpah of the greatest magnitude. Releasing terrorists is becoming an all too common occurrence. Can Israel at lest secure the release of their own soldiers in any deal to release Palestinian prisoners? Is that too much to ask for? Appeasing terror will only bring more terror.

Abbas has no influence at all in deleting terror, even if he wanted to be a good Palestinian and make nice with the Jews.

The "moderate Abbas"? Pick your poisen is what the clueless Israeli government is shoving down peoples throats. When was the last time the Palestinian government did anything 'good' in reciprocating the 'goodwill gestures' by Israel?

My goodness gracious. The insanity continues....
------------------------------

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

Israel completes release of 86 prisoners

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press WriterTue Oct 2, 1:08 PM ET

Israel completed the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday, a gesture meant to improve prospects for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference later this fall.

The prisoner release came a day before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were to begin working out their joint vision of a peace deal at a meeting in Jerusalem. They hope to present a framework agreement to the international community at the November summit.

Israel sent 29 Palestinians back to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, following the release of 57 prisoners in the West Bank a day earlier.

Israel hopes the release will help the moderate Abbas in his fierce rivalry with the Hamas militant group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Most of the prisoners who were freed are members of Abbas' Fatah movement. None belonged to Hamas.

At the Erez border crossing between Israel and northern Gaza, dozens of ecstatic Palestinians awaited the arrival of their newly released relatives. Many waved yellow Fatah flags and sang Fatah songs.

Their occasion was briefly marred when dozens of people rushed toward the freed prisoners as they came through the crossing. Israeli soldiers opened fire, wounding two people, including a photographer for the Reuters news agency, Palestinian medical officials said.

Abdel Hadi Hassanain, who was serving time for membership in Fatah's armed wing, smiled widely as a crowd gathered around him, slapping him on the back and hugging him, as his father tried to push through the throng. Hassanain grabbed his father, kissing him on both cheeks and then twice on the forehead as the elder man broke down with emotion.

"We're very happy to meet our parents, but the happiness will not be complete until all others have been released," Hassanain said.

Israel holds about 11,000 Palestinian prisoners. Because so many families have relatives in Israeli jails, securing their release is a high priority in Palestinian society. Israel said none of the prisoners released this week were convicted in deadly attacks on Israelis.

Anonymous said...

BBC NEWS
Church abuse survivors speak out
Victims say the church ignored their warnings
The abused speak out
As the Archbishop of Canterbury launches a review of recent child sex abuse cases in the church, some survivors of abuse have been talking to BBC News about their anger at the way the church handled their cases.

Derrick Norris, a churchwarden at Emmanuel Church in Northampton was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison last month for raping and abusing a young girl and sexually abusing a teenage boy.

The offences date back to the 70s and 80s.

A woman who was abused by him as a girl told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Nobody came to me and asked exactly what happened. Nobody asked what was going on or for how long but I was told I had to forgive my abuser. I was told it was for my own well-being.

"They wanted it swept under the carpet. At that stage I felt I had to please people. I would do what people wanted me to do.

"I tried to pretend that nothing had happened. It was not until much later that just by saying 'I forgive you', which is what the church told me to do, it was still eating away at me.

"It had not been dealt with. It has had a major effect on the rest of my life."

My abuser used to say that I mustn't tell and things would happen if I did. The church just reinforced that
Female abuse survivor

After she told the church of the abuse, Norris was given more responsibility and became a church warden. His victim says he even helped out at children's and youth events. He only lost his roles in the church when his victim went to police almost 20 years later.

"I'm sure if I'd have had more self-worth this would all have been dealt with earlier but with the church confirming messages that I received it became impossible.

"My abuser used to say that I mustn't tell and things would happen if I did. The church just reinforced that."

Protocols in place

In other recent cases, abusers were jailed for offences stretching back decades.

For one case, the Diocese of Peterborough at first said it was unable to comment on a woman's allegations of abuse.

She said: "I was infuriated by it to be perfectly honest. It made me write to the Bishop of Peterborough. They were still sweeping it under the carpet even now. They just didn't want to know."

She has since received a private response from the Bishop of Peterborough but she is still worried there may be other historic cases elsewhere in the Church of England. That view is shared by others.

I really do feel that the church are holding me responsible, hiding behind what I did or did not do in 2001 to defend themselves from lack of action at the time
Male abuse survivor

The Reverend David Smith, 52, of St John's Road, Clevedon, Somerset, was jailed for sexually abusing six boys over a 30-year period.

It emerged that a victim had contacted the church in 2001. He went to see the then Bishop of Bath and Wells, Jim Thompson.

"At the time, I was told they had done something. They had put a protocol in place to ensure David Smith would not be in a position to be alone with children.

"I'm not confident now that anything was done in terms of monitoring his access to children because we now know that he was abusing then and has been abusing since."

Choirmaster

The church says could not act in 2001 because this man refused to make a formal complaint

"I'm a bit angry at the current Bishop of Bath and Wells for saying I didn't do enough in 2001. One of the press reports talks about me refusing to make a complaint, which is not true at all.

"I really do feel that the church are holding me responsible, hiding behind what I did or did not do in 2001 to defend themselves from the lack of action at the time. I'm pretty annoyed about that and pretty upset about it."

And men who were abused as boys by former choirmaster Peter Halliday, 61, from Farnborough, Hants, in the 1980s also accused the church of inaction.

"I was amazed that in 2003 the vicar was still writing to Peter Halliday seeking assurances, asking him if the role he had then meant he had any contact with children.

"That's like asking a bank robber, please give me assurances that you won't rob banks and this is 2003 when mechanisms to prevent abuse are in place."

Anonymous said...

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Female Victims of Clergy Abuse
Recent stories of interest

Women tell their own stories of abuse

By Meg Murphy - Lawrence, MA Eagle Tribune
Monday, November 18, 2002

NORTH ANDOVER -- There was more grief and betrayal expressed yesterday
byvictims of predatory clergy -- but this time the memories of abuse were
delivered primarily by women.

Over a half-dozen abuse survivors, mostly women, sat on the altar of North
Parish Church and told members of the Voice of the Faithful, a lay reformist group, about experiences that came close to ruining many of their lives.

One woman said she had not stepped into a church since her rape by a priest at age 11; another woman spoke of girlhood abuse by a priest who dined with the family; and another woman described how the Catholic Church paid $250,000 to keep her quiet.

"I didn't think that I was ready or brave enough to speak to a group like this but then we started hearing about people feeling this is a homosexual issue," said Christine Hickey, a Somerville resident. "I think we need women to speak out because the Vatican says it is a gay issue."

Drawing attention to female abuse stories was exactly what the St. Michael's affiliate of the Voice of the Faithful in North Andover hoped to accomplish when they organized an outdoor candlelight vigil at the Old Center Common last night. Rain and sleet forced the approximately 120 parishioners, who ranged in age from elderly people to children, to
perform the entire service at nearby North Parish, a Unitarian Universalist Church.

The Voice of the Faithful members filled the center of the church and quickly created a warm and vibrant atmosphere despite the cold night. They sat close together, sometimes holding hands. They prayed with eyes shut, sang with clear voices, and clapped in a catchy rhythm. They lit candles and held them high.

"Tonight I want to put to rest, hopefully forever, the belief that it was only young boys that some members of the clergy preyed on," said John Vellante, co-chair of the St. Michael's Voice of the Faithful and a clergy abuse survivor.

"That's simply not true. Not by a long shot. There were many young girls, too. And these young girls, women now, have suffered just as long, just as intensely, and just as quietly as we have. But no longer. Now they are standing up, telling their stories, and people are beginning to listen."

One-third to one-half of the victims of clergy abuse are female, according to Susan Gallagher, who recently went public about the abuse she says she suffered beginning in the late 1960s and stretching to about 1980. She drew the estimate from attendance at national support groups for victims of clergy abuse.

"All pedophiles care about is access, they don't care about gender," she said, adding that both she and her brother were abused by the same priest.

Growing up, people harassed Mary Ryan, a Rhode Island resident, calling her a liar and priest lover, when she told her story of abuse, she said.

Ryan said she did not take a recent settlement offer with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence because she believes in justice.

"When I filed this lawsuit, I believed in God, the God you all still believe in. I no longer do," Ryan said. "I believe in justice; it is the best form of therapy."

One woman, a Chelmsford resident who asked to remain anonymous, told her
story publicly for the first time, describing a priest who began to kiss, and eventually rape her when she was just 11.

"The love I feel at this gathering is just amazing," she said, explaining how the abuse led to self-hatred and a desire to hide.

"I wish I had been protected when I was young. It feels wonderful to be protected now."

Paula and Rodney Ford, the parents of a male abuse survivor, spoke about losing their son to 17 mental hospitals and debilitating depression because of a priest who violated him as a young boy. They described how their son even tried to step through a Victorian window at a hospital once, and how they held to their faith during the struggle. Paula Ford told the crowd that the couple continues to believe in the love and compassion around them.

"It is in your faces that we see God in our lives," she said.

Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

exposemolesters said...

http://www.menweb.org/sexabupg.htm

Welcome! You are not alone.

Survive child sexual abuse? Is that the best we can say, "I'm surviving?" That's Dr. Wayne Kritzberg's point in The Invisible Wound. Survivors will tell you that dealing with the aftermath of child sexual abuse is a matter of survival - life and death - for a lot of guys. But Dr. Kritzberg points out that the perpetrator has robbed the young boy of any of the joy and beauty in life, beyond mere "surviving."

Can a man lead a healthy, full and creative life after surviving child sexual abuse? Yes he can, but the road is rough. This section of MenWeb is devoted to helping male survivors to find such a life. We offer some articles and other information for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. We've heard a lot about survivors, but so much of it is geared to women. But some experts believe that male children are sexually abused as much as, or almost as much as, female children. And women, as well as men, are perpetrators. Here we present some male-focused and male-positive articles and information, specifically for male survivors. Their needs are often quite different from female survivors. For example, male survivors frequently get involved in anger. The information is from MenWeb, with additional information from other Web sites specifically geared to male survivors. In those cases, we've provided links to those sites, for more information.

The good news is that there's lots of help and support "out there" if you know where to look. We'll try to help you with that.

Doggie (Scott in background)

The Associate WebMaster here is Scott Abraham, a survivor who knows from personal experience the healing power of survivors telling their stories to each other. He has been courageous enough to author several "hot" stories that have appeared in MEN Magazine, in the hopes that "going public" with his story will help other men. His review of books for male survivors, including the book he says saved his life, first appeared on MenWeb, and has been picked up by a large number of other Web sites. Scott is finishing up work on his counseling degree.

To begin with, we present three stories by Scott, written at different points on his own journey, and Scott's now-famous book review. We will add more content as we get it.

Are you a survivor, or do you know one? Do you need help knowing where to turn? Do you have a story you'd like to tell, or a treatment approach you'd like to talk about? E-mail (scottabe@msn.com) Scott! Talk to us! He will respond privately and, as appropriate (with full regard for permission and anonymity, of course!) add selected questions and answers to a Web page we're designing, "Questions and Answers: Male Survivors of Child Sex Abuse."
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Hi. My name is Donald. Last February I turned 40.

Hey, I didn’t mind. Life has never been better. Personally, I live with a loving and caring partner and my life is rich with family and friends. Professionally, I am in my second season of my column, DISHing With Donald, which appears in an arts magazine and which is also filmed as a regular segment for a local television station here in London, Ontario, Canada. Even more important, when it came time to find a publisher for my memoir, a literary agent wanted to represent me but I found a publisher flying solo.

You get the picture: I’m a healthy, happy adult who’s not experiencing a midlife crisis.

But life hasn’t always been pretty. I survived something our society calls the last taboo, sexual abuse. That is the subject of my memoir.

So if I’m so happy, if I have such a great future to look forward to, and someone to share it with, why bother telling my story? Because too many victims remain silent, unable to find their way out of their darkness. Because our numbers are legion. Because education and awareness empowers victims and weakens predators. Because if just one reader, one victim sees himself in me, realizes he is not alone, not to blame, has nothing to be ashamed of, and can live a successful, productive and happy life, my disclosure will have been worthwhile.

Imagine that. A victim who thinks he’s normal. That is me.

I understand that each experience of abuse is as unique as the victim’s way of surviving. While individual history is important, pain is pain so detailing the specifics of my experience is not as important as what I did to survive it. Besides, I’ve told my story to a series of excellent therapists. Even their couch was not the last stop in my story, for surviving is a lifelong journey, not a destination.

Survival has been defined as a continuation of a life beyond that of another. In my case, I survived a horrific childhood and became a healthy adult.

That’s right. People who meet the adult Donald I am today do not see a victim – they meet a survivor. Yes, it takes a strong person to survive years of abuse. It takes even more fortitude to buck the system, to go against your culture, your societal dictates of right and wrong.

But forging your own way is something survivors discover is necessary, for no two victims experience abuse the same way. No two recoveries are identical.

Throughout my life, I have done what I had to do, even if that meant creating other selves in order to survive. I did not have Multiple Personality Disorder as is exemplified by the condition’s most famous example "Sybil". I was completely aware of the personalities I had created. I chose each ‘Donald’ to meet the needs of individual situations.

Call me, "Sybil by Choice".

My personae were in part orchestrated by a carefully constructed blueprint of my own design.

People have at times perceived me as extraverted, friendly, witty, entertaining, intelligent and talented. While others have witnessed the polar opposite: The Donald who is introverted, vulnerable, disconnected, shy, and cautious.

Although my escape from my past was in many ways absolute, the irony is that most of my choices were directly connected to, and as a result of that past. The turmoil I experienced existed within my own mind. The emotional Donald was trapped inside an adult body that the outside world defined me by. The outer and inner selves never met.

The fact that I did not abuse my body lead people to assume my recovery was complete, or even more pointedly, that I never had anything to recover from. Having chosen that route, I controlled how and what people perceived me to be. For example, ten years ago a man told me, "I don’t think you’ve ever went through anything!" It was not posed as a question or criticism; it was merely a statement of fact. That was his reality as far as I was concerned. His comment told me the Donald I had displayed to him had deceived him completely. So that characterization was a success.

It saddened be to know that people were buying my impersonations, stopping at superficial observations, but who doesn’t? Can’t fault people for believing what they "know" to be true. Especially since that is precisely what I was trying to accomplish at the time.

My acting provided a safe place from the real world, from my past, and from myself. After all, if no one else is there to save us, we must do whatever it takes so that we can survive.

Nevertheless, sometimes I felt trapped inside a body that the outside world defined me by. The outer and inner selves were rarely intertwined. When the aging process kicked in, everything was out of whack. Because my physical, mental, and emotional selves all progressed at different rates, in any single day, I felt at turns ancient, childlike, and adolescent.

But even those contradictions, I worked to my advantage. In fact, I sold my imperfections on the public stage. I believe that this pseudo-honesty made my public persona more attractive. I used to hide the good, the bad and the ugly. That was a less successful presentation.

I not only wanted to control my immediate situation, I strove for control of people's perceptions of me. Like a mini-series that never ends, I was attracted to the drama, tragedy, and comedy of situations which I sometimes created. The Donald Show was a roller coaster ride that never ended. The supporting players were uniquely tied together in some way by introductions arranged by the central character. The reason the series was renewed every year is that I constantly reinvented myself. The show was noted for turbulent brilliance. When I was on, I was ON. When I wasn’t, I disappeared into the surroundings.

Give me an audience and I could leave myself and grasp a fleeting moment of escape. I transplanted myself into a place that doesn't exist, because that is the only place that was home to me. I created a reality from that place that fooled the viewer into accepting the current characterization. The character and Donald became one. Did the real Donald ever show himself?

The truth is that that chosen path is the reason that I am alive today. I found my way of surviving. I want to continue my journey of self-discovery but there is no graduation class, no point where the past means nothing. My experiences and choices have molded and shaped a character that is truly unique. I believe that if every human were to experience the awakening I have, he would find the world is not such a bad place to inhabit. I have an awareness, a sixth sense that cannot be bought, taught, or taken away from me.

In 2001, my quest for inner-peace continues. Me, myself, and I have found relative success. I am more childlike than I ever was as a boy. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of the innocent sparkle I possessed as a toddler. Other times, I feel the innocence I never had during the rest of my childhood. If it is because of God and my parents that I came into existence, it is also due to a multitude of facades that I have survived and exist today.

The bad days are few, the good days are many.

For more information on Donald D'Haene's book, Father's Touch: A Memoir of Sexual Abuse and Faith, go to www.fatherstouch.com
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My name is Scott Barak Abraham, and I am an incest survivor.

Or am I?

Am I a survivor, the accepted term for a man who was molested as a child and has begun the path to healing, or am I, and will I forever remain a victim, bedeviled by the memories and the residual effects on my life?

I am unsure where the dividing line between victim and survivor lies, if it can truly exist at all, and I am not comfortable with the definitions of therapists and counselors, however well intentioned.

The dictionary defines a survivor as a person who continues to live after or in spite of a life threatening experience, and the abuse I suffered most certainly qualifies: that I did not die as a child, much less during my years as a practicing alcoholic, much less by my own hand in the insanity of early sobriety during the return of my memories, is a miracle to me.

I survived-but I did not thrive.

Authors of recovery books and experts in the field generally define an incest victim as a person who was violated sexually as a child by one of more relatives, with the proviso that each victim becomes a survivor at the magical moment that they begin to realize the magnitude of the abuse and make a conscious decision to find the "Courage to Heal": the decision itself, in current understanding, changes the status of victim to survivor.

I liked the connotation of honor and strength implicit in the term survivor, as I was true to my male conditioning and resisted labeling myself as a victim.

But victim I was, and victim I remain. I've recovered more of my memories than I ever desired, and re-lived the slimy touch of the vile hands of eight different perpetrators, male and female, relative and stranger. I survived living life with no eyelids, unable to stop the flood of images and feelings that rose like rotten corpses disinterred from the grave of remembrance. I've confronted the perpetrators that still live. I've made peace with my death wishes, and the wish I still have that I could choke the life from those baby-raping monsters who still breathe. I've divorced what little remains of my family of birth, and built a family of choice. I've spoken on radio and TV. I've written, I've talked myself hoarse, and I have lived openly as a survivor for several years. I mentor those who have not walked as far on the path.

I survived, and I help others survive. For the first time, I can honestly say that I have a good life.

I survive. At times, I thrive. Yet I am, and always will, remain a victim. I am, and will always be, warped and twisted, limited and constrained, by what was done to me. I know I shall never be able to totally transcend my wounding, that to some degree, my father and mother and grandmother and uncle, the coach and priest and neighbor lady, will once again reach out in violation, if only in memory.

I will act out of my wounding. I will be limited in my ability to give and accept love. I will see life through an increasing accurate filter of my experience, but no matter how much I work, no matter how deep my perception, the lenses through which I see will contain unavoidable distortions.

In that sense, I shall always be victimized.

The task before me is to wrestle with the ghosts, to fight to neutralize their power, to learn and grow; all with acceptance that the battle shall never be over though victory is mine.

If I have weakened the enemy within, and slain in mind if not in fact the most of the enemy outside the walls, yet know I shall never completely completely exorcise the ghosts, am I only a survivor? Still a victim? Or something else?

For me, I am a victim when I excuse my choices because I have been wounded. I am a victim when I blame others, or the abuse, for the harm I have done to others and myself.

I am a survivor when I hold myself to this simple law: No matter what was done to me, I am responsible for what I do to others, and to myself: under all circumstances, I responsible for my choices.

If I do not hold myself to that credo, I am a victim, and my perpetrators live on within me, gnawing at the core of my soul, vermin scurrying in the cracks and crevices of conscience.

If I strive to hold myself to my own ideal standards, if I willfully choose to speak and act by my own authority, I do not sing the perpetrator's song, the whine of victimizing blame.

As long as I refuse to accept responsibility for my actions, I remain a victim. Better than them, but still a victim.

That has been my personal definition of survivorship, and I feel that I do well, today, in consistently maintaining that honor. Yet calling myself a survivor, and living to the standard I have set, still has its own limitations, for I am continuing to define myself by my experiences when I wish to transcend those experiences. Labeling myself as a victim, then a survivor, were necessary steps in the healing process, yet those definitions contain the inherent limitations of names.

I know the power of naming. I rejected my patronimic name and proudly bear a name I chose, a name of meaning to me. I am an alcoholic, co-dependent, ACOA, over-eater, sexual and relationship anorexic and addict, yet I no longer participate in those soul-murdering activities; I had to name what I was before I could change what I was. I suspect that the necessity to name has passed, as what once defined my reality now seems to limit my potential.

The process of definition has promoted a fragmentation of psyche, so that each broken part could be identified, dismantled, and rebuilt: I think the time has come to bring the parts together as a greater whole, and I cannot do that as long as I am artificially fragmented into competing dysfunctions.

I no longer want to be known as a victim, and neither do I wish to know myself as a survivor.

I simply want to be a man who defines himself as a human being, free of the seductive tyranny of labels and names. I have a set of molding experiences, which included horrendous sexual abuse. But an abused child is only a part of what I am, and as I accept the eternal repercussions, I refuse to accept that I cannot transcend that experience.

I shall never succeed, but neither shall I quit the quest; I shall grow closer to my unreachable grail each day.

There is no name, no label, other than the simple mantle of my humanity, that I wish to don today. I shall call myself a survivor so that others may know my reality, but in my own heart, I search for something else to call myself, something that does not connote victimization or suggest that I have been deprived, by the abuse, of the potential to live a fully authentic life. I struggle to accept the dichotomy that though I shall fail in my goal, I still succeed.

I am not just a victim, and I am not just a survivor. I am, and shall remain, both that and more than that.

I am a man. As it happens, I am a man who was sexually abused as a child.

That does not make me less of a man, or more of a man, or inherently, irredeemably flawed as a man.

What happened to me is a part of what I am, but not all that I am, nor does it limit what I can be.

I'm Scott Barak Abraham, and I proudly chose that name.

I'm human, and I proudly claim that title.
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Elden's Story

A Male Survivor Finds His Voice

I am a thirty-five year old male whom you would think would have it all together. I don't. The reasons are as numerous as there are days that have passed since I was a kid. For me growing up was not to be an easy task. My start in life was shaky. I was born the third of five children. My parents were poor at best. They had their own problems. Now here was one more. At least this is what I was to come to think about myself. My earliest memory was at three, crawling to the foot of the bed where my father was waiting on me. Instead of being picked up by him, I was the one to be doing the picking up. I was not offered a baby bottle, but his genitalia instead. I do not know how early this started except to say I knew what I was doing. The sounds around me were not sounds of Love and Joy. Instead they were drunken words of hate, anger, rage, and bitterness, and as far as my young ears knew, they were all meant for me. I learned at a very early age what it felt to feel physical pain.

My father was the type of man who thought that to be a man one must express pain without crying. This was taught to me first hand. One of the many beatings that I can remember was when I asked to go the restroom in a public place. My father ripped off my shirt and shoved me across the store, causing me to urinate on myself. When we got home I had to take a bath. Before dressing he made me come out in front of company and ask for my punishment. I am not sure which hurt more, being hit on my bare skin or the humiliation that I felt standing there with no clothes on in front of people.

I had heard some kids at school laughing about calling their fathers old men. So in a child-like way and wanting so badly to hear my father laugh, I called him "Old Man". What I got instead was a fist in the face that put me over the porch railing. My father came after me, kicking and screaming names: "stupid, ugly, lazy, crazy," and yes, that one they liked the most "We brought you into this world; we can take you out". He almost did. While this was going on my mother was just standing in the door watching, not helping me in any way. I didn't understand. I felt so alone and unwanted. I thought that if I could just die everything would be OK. There where many nights I lay awake listening to my father call my mother "slut", "whore", and "bitch". He would accuse her of sleeping with this person or that. Then I would hear him hitting her. I wanted to come to her aid, only I didn't know how. I learned that no matter what I did it was not the right thing. I was soon to learn what being shamed meant in a way that was both physical and mental.

We traveled to many places to get booze for my parents. On one such trip we stopped so my mother could go to the bathroom. With curiosity I watched her as she went into the woods. When I turned around I was met with a fist in the face and was told I was a pervert. My father taught me never to look at women that way again. One morning I woke up with my father staring me in the face through the window. He was all bloody from God only knows what. I remember him telling me that when he got his hands on me he would kill me. To this day I do not know why he said this. What I do know is that for a very long time I was terrified to look out of windows. Though I have talked a great deal about my father, my mother was by no means innocent. She had me commit acts on her that, honestly, are too hard to talk about.

By around the age of six or seven I still had no concept of what normal, healthy friends or playmates were. I was still searching vigorously, even desperately for something I had no understanding of: healthy love and affection. There was a neighbor who took advantage of my great need. He showed me attention by offering to introduce me to a game. This game required me to lie face down on the bed and not look back. To my young mind and starving heart, this was no game, but an adult who cared. Again I was raped under what I understood as care and love.

By the time I had reached age nine a schoolteacher took notice of the battle scars on my back and reported them to the Department of Social Services. They did an investigation, and we were put into temporary foster care. We stayed in the foster home for about a year. During this year whenever I would find out we had a weekend visit with my biological parents, I would get physically sick. I had to be placed on nerve pills. This by no means stopped my other siblings from going. They would come back and tell the foster parents and me what a wonderfully time they had, along with how much things had changed. This led us to go back home. All of this was a result of my oldest sister saying everything was OK. Of course it wasn't, and we all found out the hard way … more beatings and being left alone for long periods of time.

We were taken for the final time, and our parent's rights to their five children were terminated. I was to carry the responsibility for the break-up of the family. My father said it was my fault and I still believed him. I then went back to the original foster home where I stayed for four years. No harm came to me from them; it was outside of the foster home that the abuse was to continue. I did not understand the care that was coming from my foster parents. The only kind of affection I'd had was perverted. I felt my foster parents did not love me because they were not using me as my parents and others had done. I was sure something was wrong with me.

Perhaps that is what attracted me to Jim. We meet him at a flea market were we would go on the weekends. After a time he was able to befriend both my foster parents and gain their trust. It was no surprise to us when he asked permission for me to stay overnight. He then offered me beer. I got drunk and passed out. The next morning when I woke I found my clothes where bloody. My first thought was that I had fallen during the night. My next thought was I am going to get in trouble with my parents not only for messing my clothes up but also for getting drunk. It did not occur to me that the blood was coming from my rectum. He kept this up every weekend thereafter. I was not able to tell the truth to my foster parents for fear I would be the one to get in trouble. It did not occur to me that he was doing something wrong.

After living with these foster parents for four and a half years, I was placed in another home. Here I was introduced to pot and sniffing glue, again by someone much older than I. He would tell me how much he loved me. I had to show him my love.

By then, my life was filled with confusion and total isolation. There is fear, shame, guilt, anger, rage and even blame directed at myself. Add to this that I was about to enter into the teen years. Somehow I thought I was perceived as a useless piece of a human. After all that I had been through, this is what I thought. Between the ages of twelve and nineteen I was to see more foster homes. At one there was an introduction to more humiliation. At some point I remember being tied to a tree and made to eat the grass around it. I can't remember what I had done to deserve this only what it made me feel like. I felt like an animal. I even thought that of myself, at least inside that somehow, everyone else saw it too.

It was during this time period that I tried to kill myself by hanging and then by suffocation. By this time in my life I was starving for attention and affection. I would do anything to get it. When I did not get what I had to come to understand as normal attention, I thought there must be something wrong with me. It did not matter what I did, for it was never good enough, at least in my own eyes and heart. I had friends, even though looking back now they where as quiet as me. I wonder now if they to were being abused at home. They knew very little about me and I knew very little about them. I was always terrified if they knew my past they would run away. This was to go on for some time. Try to imagine not letting people too close and yet at the same time needing and wanting to be liked and yes, even Loved. Still I did not know how to ask for what was needed to fill a continuing void.

Out of all the foster homes I stayed in only one foster parent molested me (one too many wouldn't you say?). He would come into my room to tuck me in at night and rub his arm over my genital area until I was aroused. Then he would tell me how bad I was for getting aroused. My punishment then, was that I had to do the same to him. Sometimes I would be left at home alone to think about why I got aroused and would have to tell him when he got home. It was at the age of seventeen that I introduced myself to Alcohol. I thought I had arrived. Now I could laugh sing dance and yes, even CRY. My first drunk was a blackout. I was to have many more. One thing you the reader need to know; I blame no one for my alcoholism. That was and still is my responsibility.

The last of my abuse (well somewhat the last) took place in a group home and school not very far from Columbia. The name of the home is unimportant. What happened there is very much the opposite. I was a senior. What to most is the happiest time of their lives was a living nightmare. A teacher took a liking to me. He would have me come over to his home after school with the pretence that I needed extra help with my schoolwork. What I found myself doing was giving him oral sex for cigarettes. The way it got found out was that someone else he was "helping" discovered what was going on and told the group home. I am not sure what he told them; what I am sure of is that I was taken out of the classroom with my peers for the last month and half. I studied and worked in a second grade room after everyone else had left. I was not allowed to eat or sleep with other people for fear I might "do something" to them. I lived in the infirmary. It was decided that I would not be going to graduation with the rest of my class. I was told this was so that I wouldn't be embarrassed about "my affair" with the teacher.

Looking back, it was their own embarrassment they where trying to avoid. I finally got my diploma when someone risked their job to take me to the school. When we arrived at the school, my diploma was thrown at me. I was told that I should be ashamed that I had ruined a teacher's career. When I got back on campus a few days later I packed my things and left. As I was leaving I was told, "It's about time you left". These words stuck with me for a very long time.

Perhaps in these writings that is just what I have done. I am no longer willing to live with the shame, guilt, anger and blame. After all I was a child with the needs and wants of a child. Only others chose to use and abuse me for there own selfish pleasure. Enough. I am a Male who once was a victim who is now becoming a survivor. I am alive and growing stronger every day.

For me life at nineteen was no easier than it had been in the past. I was soon to be out from under the title of Ward of the State. After all that, is about all it was. My last foster home was in Gilbert, South Carolina. There I got my first paying job. Also this is where I meet my first partner. Before I go any further there is one more thing I must say about myself. I am a Gay Male. That in itself has a story behind it. I will say for the record that being gay is nothing to be ashamed of. It took me many years living in fear of what others would think or say if I was to say a thing like that public. Say what you want to. In my heart of hearts I know I am a Child of God. Now that this is said, back to the story.

When I met that partner I had no clue what it was to be in a relationship other than that which I experienced through childhood. I was to have many years living with this person with that mind set. Now, looking back I was still searching for a father figure, someone to take care of my every need. I did not understand or think I could take care of myself. No one had told me I could. We stayed together for almost ten years. During this time I became an every day drunk. For a very short period of time it helped me to be social in settings I had not ever been in. Like bars.

I thought I had found where I belonged. Soon though, I was to learn that to keep friends from the bars, I had to be willing to do what I thought every one wanted me to. One day my partner and I decided that we were no longer in love. We went our separate ways; yet I was to keep coming back to him over and over. There were many other reasons why this relationship did not last. One of the most important was that I was very immature.

Well, I finally got my first place. Boy did I cry that night. I felt so alone. Of course my first response was to go out and get drunk. This again worked for a short period of time. I allowed others to use my body many more times than I care to remember when I did not have the money to buy that next drink. You see, Drinking became my most important friend. It helped to numb the pain of the past. Well one day it stopped working. The alcohol became my Master.

During this time I was to work many different jobs, not sure what I wanted to do, or for that matter could do. By this time myself esteem, self worth, and self-confidence were almost as low as one can get. The first ray of hope that came my way was through meeting a friend; his name is Jay. He was to become someone I could go to and talk about things I had not dared share with anyone; nor did I think anyone else would care. He did and still does.

Then the day came when I was offered a job out of the state of South Carolina. Through much encouragement from Jay and a few other friends I took the job. It took me to Chicago IL. There the biggest change was to occur. After staying in a motel for a month I was told either to find a place or move back to South Carolina. Well I found a place. Only I found much more than that. On February 18 I went to my first AA meeting.

There for the first time I admitted I was an alcoholic and that I need help. For the next 11 months I was to do a lot of crying and trying. Crying for things lost from childhood and trying to understand the effects that they had on me. I came back to Columbia just knowing for sure that I would be able to find a Male group of Survivors, only to be told I had to be on a list. If enough others came forward then there could be a group. Well I knew there had to be a group somewhere. So I went on a search. It led me to Orlando.

There I found what I had needed and had been wanting. I discovered there four of the most courageous men I had ever met. You see, they where Survivors just like me. We were to share parts of our life we had not spoken of until then. To tell you it was easy from that point on would be a lie, for it was something I would have to learn to live with for the rest of my life. Now, however I no longer have to be ashamed of who and what I am. After all I am a caring, loving, hoping, trying kind of guy.

My name by the way is Elden Phillip Owens. I no longer choose to stand on the sidelines of life and watch it go by. Instead it is time for me to come completely out. Though I never knew Matthew Shepard I knew what it was like to live in fear, shame, guilt and blame. No more. Matthew, you will be missed by a brother you never met. That is a Gay brother. It took me until I was thirty-one years old to begin realizing that I was and still am somebody. There have been many people who have helped me in my life for the last three and a half years. Thanks to each and every one of you for believing in me when at times I could not.

I hope this will help some others to realize just how twisted a person can get from what is seemly such a simple act. In writing these, there are still other things that are left out. Not because I wanted to, but only because the space was limited. Thanks again. I must say that at this very moment my emotions seem to be going all over the place. I am sure this will pass. Any one who is interested in responding I can be reached at namaste5@bellsouth.net

Very Sincerely Yours

Elden P. Owenss, Male Victim/Survivor
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My Story

A Male Survivor Tells His Story

My Story

In a few weeks time I will mark the 10th year since I remembered being abused as a boy. Back then the first memories were horrible, shocking, tormenting and full of feelings. Life seemed as if it had been overtaken by the events of my childhood. What seemed distant memories came to life in 3D memories of events I had forgotten and had wiped out from my conscious memory. I say 3D because they were so real it might has well been happening for me in real time. I felt the feelings all over again of being abused and remembered the assaults as if they were happening to me now.

I really had to gather up all of my strengths to cope with and survive the next three years of memories and then after that I went through a period of rebuilding my life directions as I discovered that the area of work I chose as a young person was not at all suited to who I was now as a young man. I needed to find work in a field that respected and reflected the learning I had done about myself, in the light of my childhood experiences. Looking back on that time I see that the changes I made to my life following the uncovering of the memories as being positive and self affirming changes that helped me get on with my life. I learnt a lot about myself, about how children feel and perceive their world, about the need to value things that I had previously not noticed.

I'm a new person for discovering the truth about my childhood and with great pain facing that truth brought with it the opportunity to grow, to learn how to give and receive love, to relearn to trust people (some select group!) and to engage in healthy honest relationships that restored my faith in other people. Getting to the truth of my childhood was a painful and healing time that also restored my faith in God.

My story could begin with being born into a Salvation Army family and growing up in a middle class suburb of Melbourne, Australia, it could begin with going to secondary school and the bullying that I endured, it could also begin with my first job as an electrician. However I will skip all of that and hit the fast forward button and go right to my first memories then slowly work back. After telling my story I'd like to add some of the learning that took place, some of the changes I had to face and some of the struggles I faced in the first five years after remembering. Hopefully this will encourage others to show respect to the precious child within them, to undertake a process of recovering from the awful effects of childhood abuse.

My story

Lets go to 1989 ten years ago. I had worked as an electrician from 1977 until 1989 and then moved on to do project management of large commercial building projects. I was part of an internationally based Real Estate company in Melbourne and being trained in this exciting and challenging field. Before I began to remember I felt that this new career brought with it lots of challenges that were part of me getting ready to uncover all of those buried feelings and memories. In order to forget and split off from my childhood memories like I did I had to shut down on my feelings, I did this by not noticing how I felt, by having a daily routine that avoided situations that were unpredictable that confronted my lack of feeling, that touched on my senses. I led a 'steady as she goes' life and this new job started to chip away at my well set up coping practices. For one thing I had to wear a collar and tie. Before then I'd only ever worn a tie at my wedding. What I began to notice was feeling extremely angry every time I had to put on that tie. I felt my neck get tight, I felt myself holding my breath and what changed was that I noticed my feelings and I hated that tie. Then a fellow worker began to play tricks on me. He would hide behind doorways and filing cabinets and when I would walk past him he would quietly come up from behind me and grab me in a rugby style tackle. At the point of getting caught I would freeze up inside and then this anger would rise up to the top of my throat. It got so bad for me that I confronted him one day and told him that I wanted him to stop this immediately. This was late 1989. I was 29 and this was the first time in my life that someone listened to me and stopped hurting me when I had told them to stop. My internal response to being grabbed on the scale of anger (1-10) was a red hot ten. I hated being caught.

A few weeks latter I went to the Christmas breakup party at the office. We went out o a nice Chinese Restaurant. We were seated at round tables and towards the end of the night when I was seated opposite the wife of a fellow worker, she turned to me in her drunken state and looking me directly in my eyes she said, 'doesn't your wife play with your balls when you make love'. This comment peeled me open emotionally. I felt my legs pull together under the table and then my genitals being touched. I felt sick inside and my mind was racing with feelings. I didn't know it at the time but I was beginning to remember being sexually abused as a childm, and I was having the first of many flashbacks.

Well that's not entirely true. About two years earlier I had a dream, which was horrible. I was actually thrown out of bed and I found myself curled up tight on the floor screaming in terror. All the dream was, was a mass of feelings of terror. No images just feelings, it was like taking a bath in terror. I was left shaking for about an hour afterwards. Now two years latter the door to my shut off memories was blasted through with this comment and the following memories of being touched. Then as time went on I began to uncover more. Much more.

Over the next two years I had a solid time of flashbacks and memories. What happened is less important to me now, than how I felt as a child and how I needed to recover who I was after the memories surfaced. What I learnt about that time was that as six-year-old neighbors sexually abused me. A mother and her 12-year-old son (who was shown what to do by his mother). I was also tortured with electric shocks and had drops put in my eyes so I couldn't see. At times I was given ether to knock me out. After remembering the sexual abuse I had a break of about 4 weeks in memories. I thought that this was it. Finally it's over. What I discovered was that I had run my marathon only to discover I had been treading water and needed to start all over again. The following memories of the torture made the sexual abuse seem like a trip to Disney Land. (not to down play the effects of the sexual abuse either when I say this.

In my recovery I was fortunate to find good help. I went to counseling for a year and during that time uncovered more memories and found new ways to handle my feelings. I ended up leaving work and being unemployed for three years (doing part time work and studying) I was in no fit state to cope with full-time work at this stage.

One of the important pieces of learning was that the things that bother me now are connected to past experiences. When I say bother I really mean hate! I kept a journal a notebook of all my flashbacks and dreams. My dreams were full on memories with feelings. Because I had been given drops I couldn't see, but I didn't know I was given drops at first so in keeping a diary I was able to see the progression of my memories.

Connections

Boy is this important. Lets look at some that I made. I hated anger, if anyone got angry I left. If I felt angry I would shut down, swallow my feelings and get on with life. I felt sick every day when I went to work as an electrician. I couldn't think straight; I was only able to function if people told me what to do (and their were plenty of them!) I hate wearing a collar and tie; I hated being touched on my neck. The only Hospital I ever went to was the eye and ear Hospital for a dozen injuries to my eyes and when it came to being given eye drops I would freeze and hold my breath, I hated needles, the smell of dentist rooms (ether), I hated being caught, being confined in small dark places, and most of all I hated getting electric shocks at work. I would feel sick inside and very angry with myself.

These are the situations that had connections. And another. I was at work installing security alarms. The client's home was a concrete yard with two large dogs. The yard was hardly cleaned and it smelled of dog droppings badly. I hated this smell. It made me feel sick, very sick inside. And I hated dogs. Then three weeks latter my journal records remembering having them set their dog on me licking my genitals, me feeling sick about this and them having the dog do his business on my face. It's no wonder I feel that connections are important. I believe the things we hate are strongly connected to those earlier traumatic experiences. It's as though our feelings are the roadmap to our earlier childhood experiences. It's no wonder the things I hate are so strongly connected to the terror I experienced as a child.

I'd like to leave behind what happened. This would take up many more pages as two years of memories contained many other forms of abuse that created a very hurt boy, who ended up hating himself, not trusting other people, holding onto many secrets, confused, wanting to die, (I remember wanting to die at a very young age) and whose very body was full of torment. Apart from the physical and emotional wounds I had to contend with the spiritual wounds within the boundaries of my faith and the learning about God as a child that took place side by side with the abuse. This created a real mess. Messages about myself, about other people, about God, about life itself all mixed up with the abuse and programmed into my being as a very young child. All of these carried forward into adult life, and all mixed up together. Unraveling this was a long journey and an important one.

During the time of remembering I wrote down my thoughts, memories, feelings and dreams. This helped and one day I decided to write my story. I didn't know where to start. I knew that writing helped me unload. It helped by saying to myself I don't need to remember to remember. The memories were so important as my truth began to surface but you know that to hold onto them particularly so many is to tempt emotional ruin. It's just too much to remember everything and have memory space left to live!

In telling my story I wanted to tell it from the child's viewpoint. It was my child that had been so hurt. He knew the secrets; He held onto them, He internalized messages that set the path for how I as an adult related to situations, feelings and people. So in a sense it was the child who needed to be re-parented, cared for, held, loved, have his faith in people, life and God rebuilt, restored and renewed.

I can't talk about my childhood experiences without mentioning its effect on my understanding or more significantly my experience of God. To me God had turned his back on me, I was a dirty rotten no good for nothing low life, who deserved to be hurt, who was headed for hell. My self-image and my view of my creator was badly twisted and engrained in my life. Undoing this and then rebuilding it was horribly painful and difficult.

In the Christian tradition, in the teachings of the bible the Apostle Paul introduces a very interesting thought. He says that our bodies are the Temple of God's Spirit. This statement sums up my experience of God and of my childhood hurt. In looking at the abuse I have to say without doubt there is a God and there is a devil an evil force. If this is true then putting this together in seeing that if God's temple is our body then the opposite evil force is out to destroy every reminder of God and a good starting point is a child's innocent body.

I found that God was able to restore his temple in time. You can see that our self-image takes a battering as a result of the abuse and it's this that needs restoring.

One thing I've noticed in talking to many survivors is that the wrong person gets blamed for the abuse. I get to hear the 'if only's'. 'If only' I had told someone, 'if only' I had listened to my child, 'if only' I hadn't gone out that night, 'if only' I didn't go to that school, 'if only' I had lived in a different street, I could go on! Then we hear the courts, why do you wear those clothes, why, why, why? All of the blame pushed onto the victim/survivor and none of the responsibility placed where it belongs with the perpetrator. Same goes for God. I've yet to speak to a survivor who doesn't have an opinion about God and it's usually not nice. He gets blamed for the lot. I was no different. I went through a stage of blaming him for the lot too.

What I finally saw was being on the blame train didn't help me move on.

Back to this innocent boy who grew up blaming himself for the mess he was in. As an adult I had a choice to deal with this hurt boy. To turn my energies towards helping him to see that the messages he got about himself, life and God were not based on a foundation of love, trust, respect, ect. I began to tell my story, to write it down, so that I didn't have to remember to remember it, so I could unload my emotional investment in it and turn to recovering. But it was an awful, horrible, terrorizing story and if people were to read it how could I present it. I then turned to the real need to let little John tell it. He had never been asked how he felt, he had been hurt, he learnt that it was better not too feel, at least then you didn't get hurt, he had messages about himself that big John wanted to eventually see being changed.

I started by seeing that curled up in the corner of my heart was a very hurt boy who had never been given the chance to have his say, never knew he could safely talk about it, felt rotten about himself, ect. I saw the need to ask him. 'I'm the big person, surely I need to take responsibility for caring for this hurt boy', I said to myself. So I did ask him. I wrote a letter to little John asking him to spill the beans on his secrets, to tell me what it was like. I mistakenly believed that given the chance he would open up, spill those beans and that would be it. Boy was I in for a shock. He replied by saying, 'who the hell are you! Go and talk to someone else! And what's all this stuff about hurt?, I'm all right, don't talk about hurt. All I want is to have fun'.

This rocked me back to ground zero. But I did have one thing going for me. Persistence. I didn't give up easily. I thought to myself fair enough, you don't trust anyone so I have to go slowly, let's have that fun, and then build a relationship, then we might return to feelings. I found that after the relationship was built up little John was able to unload his feelings, his secrets and then it was over to big John to educate little John, to care for him, to allow him to grow up in an home that valued him, that was safe, that loved him, that allowed him to talk without being shammed.

After this happened we re-parented this hurt boy and began to deal with the God questions. And we returned to more hurt, allowing healing to take place and constantly rebuilding his shattered sense of self-esteem.

As an adult when this had taken place I was ready to face the where to now questions. I can't return to being an electrician! Little John would not like that! Indeed he deserved better, much better. So I retrained and ended up as a Social Welfare Officer in a job that I love and which allows me to support others to handle their own need to deal with painful experiences.

What helped me in my recovery?

A family that didn't give up on me! A wife that was just as persistent as I was. Keeping a diary, telling my story to people who listened and cared, but who didn't tell me what to do! Being held when I felt the need, having a teddy to cuddle, cry with, and hang onto, Learning that I could say no, that my needs were important, making a 'nice things I can do for me list' and doing them! Deep breathing to release feelings, relaxation, counseling, massage, being able to sort out who was going to be supportive and who was going to use me, finding a way to work out whether something I was being asked to do by others was going to be helpful in terms of my recovery or whether it was going to be a hindrance, finding a Church that allowed me to be me in the middle of my mess and finding a faith that had room for this mess and gave God time and room to handle it. Writing my book and receiving letters from people who had found room to listen to their inner child and learn to allow him or her time to talk and time to be loved and respected for the precious child they are.

I have rattled on a bit. I may write more about some issues and ways I have been able to be me and deal with the pain of a hurt childhood. That's if people would like more!
--------------------------------
Climbing Out From Hell, by Jeffrey Miller. "The case against Father Kos isn’t new to Dallas. ... There have been insensitive remarks made by people against the men who brought these charges, but their bravery has made it possible for more than a dozen other boys to step forward with similar charges against Kos. ... What we need to create for our children is an environment that embraces a boy who has the courage to tell of his rape. We must believe him, and support him, and not make him responsible for holding the burden of the adult act. Being molested is not what a boy wants. Even though it is out of his control, he all too often is the only person who must pay.

Climbing Out From Hell

A Personal Story

Why are words told us at birth unintelligible, when someone should say truthfully, "At some point during this average life expectancy of 73 years, you will twice experience a crime"? Are we so optimistic that the bad stuff simply escapes our memory? Obviously we don’t keep watch at our front doors, guns ready to fire at an intruder, but that’s the sensational image the media associate with crime. The crimes we all share aren’t as glamorous. Crimes against boys bring emotional challenge from society. However, even the child must first prove that the crime occurred.

Two Dallas men have been brave enough to pursue Father Rudolph Kos for allegedly assaulting them sexually when they were altar boys some 12 years ago. Kos was recently indicted. The case was originally brought three years ago, and in public the plaintiffs remain anonymous.

On average, the FBI says one out of five boys will be molested before the age of 18. That’s a good-sized number, but the real figure is likely to be even higher, since the stigma attached to the crime discourages some victims from making official complaints. Because of this, much of the information we draw on in our research comes from criminals themselves, rather than from victims.

We know that pedophiles were molested as boys, or shown how to molest, and that on the average, serial pedophiles molest 120 boys each before being caught. Since 1990 in Texas, more than 11,000 child molesters have been either in prison or on parole at any given time. This calculates to more than one million boys molested per group of 11,000 molesters.

If the numbers aren’t of concern and they should be there are other factors to consider before deciding this problem isn’t a big deal. It is virtually impossible to be molested as a child and grow up to live a healthy, productive life without post-assault treatment. Children need to recover before they can accept the crime done to their body. Those who do not recover grow into adulthood severely marred by the body trauma. Males who have been assaulted as children go on to host behaviors ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to violent crime—including sexual assault.

Boys who have been molested will often act out sexually, or aggressively toward themselves or others after their assault. They keep the crime secret for fear of being judged gay or of being weak. My research has shown me that once a boy is assaulted, his chance of being victimized again quadruples. Three out of four inner-city gangs use sexual assault on new members as part of initiation. The leading cause of attempted suicide among males is rooted in prior sexual assault. More than 90 percent of teenage alcoholics and drug addicts in treatment have been victims of sexual assault.

The Adult Response

In a rational and kind community, what purpose would public places serve where men congregate for sexual stimulation? In every American city, certain clubs and parks are notorious as spots for men to seek anonymous sexual gratification with other men.

When these men return to their routines, they are across the conference table from us at work, possibly after having made excuses to their wives about where they were all night. The act of anonymous sex continues to be a humiliating secret and sadistically keeps the (inner) child’s molestation alive.

Not all men who frequent the places mentioned suffered childhood assault, but those men who exhibit the need for sexual gratification in this manner exhibit addictive behavior. There is a direct correlation between adult sexual addiction and childhood sexual assault.

Anything that keeps the man from admitting his failure to protect himself will seem to help him forget the pain, whether it is the high from seeking anonymous sex without being caught, or the high from drugs, or the similar high that some men experience from consuming themselves with work. These perfectionists build a neat stage around their lives, so as not to draw attention to their out of control sexual behavior and their secret life in hell.

As the survivor of a sexual assault that occurred when I was 15, I have always found it difficult to describe the fury of emotions and self-assessment that followed the crime. Even though I coped, my struggle is made insignificant with words. I felt worthless, helpless, and guilt blossomed inside and rooted into every nerve. By not having been able to fight him off my body, I told myself, I was therefore a wimp, and insignificant and horrid waste of a man, a fag. There was no one to tell. I didn’t cry, I didn’t laugh, and above all I didn’t feel, because feelings would build me into a raging maniac. I kept everyone away by hurting them, believing on some level that in this way I would ensure that no one would ever be close enough to hurt me again. No one had told me that an adult co! uld harm a child. I wondered what else they hadn’t told me about life, what other lies would haunt me as I grew into adulthood.

When I finally turned to my family, we visited our parish priest, who advised us to "forgive and forget"—two words the Catholic Church uses often—what the molester did to my sister and me. We didn’t know that the priest was in on it, too. That was almost 18 years ago.

There is no quick recovery. Healing the crime may be the greatest challenge during a lifetime. Healing can drain a survivor of everything he ever learned about life, people and religion, and there is a tendency to become physically exhausted for months or longer. Everyone the victim knows becomes a stranger, except for his therapist and other survivors. Maybe this is why so many men choose another way out.

What hurts today is the way in which society remains out of focus and seemingly uninterested in the sexual abuse of a boy. It’s much easier to believe a boy is reporting a false memory, because it makes the real world seem a bit safer if everything we say is a fantasy. It remains taboo for a boy to discuss what happened. Parents assume an apathetic role because they say, "It won’t happen to my son. It only happens to . . ." (fill in the blank—Black kids, gay people, etc.). The evidence of denial grows as the communities build guarded gates and private schools, all in hopes of protecting their children from someone who fits society’s stereotype of a child molester.

No matter what we do, pedophiles are the only people who have cracked the system. Their crimes generally go undetected by the parents of their victims until the damage is done, and if offenders are caught, their sentences generally last no more than two years. Only pedophiles who murder a child receive enough press coverage to rally local input—just two out of 11,000 last year in Texas.

The case against Kos isn’t new to Dallas. This has fumed and smoldered for three years. There have been insensitive remarks made by people against the men who brought these charges, but their bravery has made it possible for more than a dozen other boys to step forward with similar charges against Kos. Dallas residents who feel these men are in it for the money, or glamour, or a cheap thrill are the same people who believe that castration is going to stop a pedophile from molesting again.

What we need to create for our children is an environment that embraces a boy who has the courage to tell of his rape. We must believe him, and support him, and not make him responsible for holding the burden of the adult act. Being molested is not what a boy wants. Even though it is out of his control, he all too often is the only person who must pay.

Jeffrey Miller is a communications specialist in cross-cultural studies and male sexual abuse at Cal State Long Beach, and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas. He is on the board of directors of Hands Off Inc., and his e-mail address is bonziman@vnet.ibm.com.
--------------------------------

exposemolesters said...

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/ModestyPatrol.html

Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

By Daphna Berman

Haaretz - December 17, 2006

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=modesty+patrol&itemNo=801449

A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses.

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women's organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus driver, in response to a media inquiry, denied that violence was used against her, but Shear's account has been substantiated by an unrelated eyewitness on the bus who confirmed that she sustained an unprovoked "severe beating."

Shear, an American-Israeli woman who currently lives in Canada, says that on a recent five-week vacation to Israel, she rode the bus daily to the Old City to pray at sunrise. Though not defined by Egged as a sex-segregated "mehadrin" bus, women usually sit in the back, while men sit in the front, as a matter of custom.

"Every two or three days, someone would tell me to sit in the back, sometimes politely and sometimes not," she recalled this week in a telephone interview. "I was always polite and said 'No. This is not a synagogue. I am not going to sit in the back.'"

But Shear, a 50-year-old religious woman, says that on the morning of the 24th, a man got onto the bus and demanded her seat - even though there were a number of other seats available in the front of the bus.

"I said, I'm not moving and he said, 'I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.' Then he spat in my face and at that point, I was in high adrenaline mode and called him a son-of-a-bitch, which I am not proud of. Then I spat back. At that point, he pushed me down and people on the bus were screaming that I was crazy. Four men surrounded me and slapped my face, punched me in the chest, pulled at my clothes, beat me, kicked me. My snood [hair covering] came off. I was fighting back and kicked one of the men in his privates. I will never forget the look on his face."

Shear says that when she bent down in the aisle to retrieve her hair covering, "one of the men kicked me in the face. Thank God he missed my eye. I got up and punched him. I said, 'I want my hair covering back' but he wouldn't give it to me, so I took his black hat and threw it in the aisle."

'Stupid American'

Throughout the encounter, Shear says the bus driver "did nothing." The other passengers, she says, blamed her for not moving to the back of the bus and called her a "stupid American with no sechel [common sense.] People blamed me for not knowing my place and not going to the back of the bus where I belong."

According to Yehoshua Meyer, the eyewitness to the incident, Shear's account is entirely accurate. "I saw everything," he said. "Someone got on the bus and demanded that she go to the back, but she didn't agree. She was badly beaten and her whole body sustained hits and kicks. She tried to fight back and no one would help her. I tried to help, but someone was stopping me from getting up. My phone's battery was dead, so I couldn't call the police. I yelled for the bus driver to stop. He stopped once, but he didn't do anything. When we finally got to the Kotel [Western Wall], she was beaten badly and I helped her go to the police."

Shear says that when she first started riding the No. 2 line, she did not even know that it was sometimes sex-segregated. She also says that sitting in the front is simply more comfortable. "I'm a 50-year-old woman and I don't like to sit in the back. I'm dressed appropriately and I was on a public bus."

"It is very dangerous for a group of people to take control over a public entity and enforce their will without going through due process," she said. "Even if they [Haredim who want a segregated bus] are a majority - and I don't think they are - they have options available. They can petition Egged or hire their own private line. But as long as it's a public bus, I don't care if there are 500 people telling me where to sit. I can sit wherever I want and so can anyone else."

Meyer says that throughout the incident, the other passengers blamed Shear for not sitting in the back. "They'll probably claim that she attacked them first, but that's totally untrue. She was abused terribly, and I've never seen anything like it."

Word of Shear's story traveled quickly after she forwarded an e-mail detailing her experience. She has been contacted by a number of groups, including Shatil, the New Israel Fund's Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change; Kolech, a religious women's forum; the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the legal advocacy arm of the local Reform movement; and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA).

In the coming month, IRAC will be submitting a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Transportation Ministry over the issue of segregated Egged buses. IRAC attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski is in touch with Shear and is considering including her in the petition.

Although the No. 2 Jerusalem bus where the incident occurred is not actually defined as a mehadrin line, Erez-Likhovski says that Shear's story is further proof that the issue requires legal clarification. About 30 Egged buses are designated as mehadrin, mostly on inter-city lines, but they are not marked to indicate this. "There's no way to identify a mehadrin bus, which in itself is a problem," she said.

"Theoretically, a person can sit wherever they want, even on a mehadrin line, but we're seeing that people are enforcing [the gender segregation] even on non-mehadrin lines and that's the part of the danger," she said.

On a mehadrin bus, women enter and exit through the rear door, and the seats from the rear door back are generally considered the "women's section." A child is usually sent forward to pay the driver.

The official responses

In a response from Egged, the bus driver denied that Shear was physically attacked in any way.

"In a thorough inquiry that we conducted, we found that the bus driver does not confirm that any violence was used against the complainant," Egged spokesman Ron Ratner wrote.

"According to the driver, once he saw that there was a crowd gathering around her, he stopped the bus and went to check what was going on. He clarified to the passengers that the bus was not a mehadrin line and that all passengers on the line are permitted to sit wherever they want on the bus. After making sure that the passengers returned to their seats, he continued driving."

The Egged response also noted that their drivers "are not able and are not authorized to supervise the behavior of the passengers in all situations."

Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Avner Ovadia said in response that the mehadrin lines are "the result of agreements reached between Egged and Haredi bodies" and are therefore unconnected to the ministry.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem police said the case is still under investigation.

exposemolesters said...

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/LOCAL0104/709250440

Brave little girl!

September 25, 2007

8-year-old testifies against accused molester
By Katie Merlie
Katie.Merlie@indystar.com
September 25, 2007

NOBLESVILLE -- A jury in the trial of a Noblesville man accused of molesting a 5-year-old child heard a prosecutor say the incidents started with an open-mouthed kiss and escalated to sexual abuse.
Thegirl, who's now 8, testified this morning that Timothy Moore, 32, touched her privates "with his hand" and with "his private."
Moore, a friend of the child's mother, also kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth, the girl testified.
"All he ever said was don't tell nobody," the little girl told Deputy Prosecutor Stephanie Smith.
In opening statements Monday afternoon in Hamilton Circuit Court, Moore's defense lawyer said there is no physical evidence of abuse. Attorney Jim Crum told the 12 jurors who were selected Monday they would hear inconsistencies in testimony during the trial, which is expected to last through today.
Moore lived in Cicero when he was arrested. He is charged with three counts of child molesting, one Class A felony and two Class C felonies. If Moore is found guilty of all charges, he could face up to 66 years in prison.
Smith told the jury that in June 2005, the girl told her grandmother that Moore had given the child an open-mouthed kiss.
The girl also told the grandmother that Moore had touched her sexually, according to Smith.
"She is now 8," the prosecutor told the jury on Monday. "She's still haunted by what happened to her when she was 5 years old."
Today, the little girl, dressed in jeans and a blue and white striped shirt, often answered that she couldn't remember when asked whether she had told her father about the abuse or how old she was when it happened.
Her grandmother also testified in court today. She learned of the alleged abuse one day when the little girl was playing with dolls. "She said they were kissing 'but not like Tim. Tim kisses nasty.'"
Paula Reiss, a sexual assault nurse at Riley Hospital for Children, was the sole witness Monday.
She said the girl was brought to the hospital for an examination but she refused to be examined. Reiss said she had no physical evidence that there was any type of sexual abuse.

Anonymous said...

What's the deal with Ohel's family services, can they be trusted?

exposemolesters said...

http://www.chabad.org/news/article.htm/aid/575272/jewish/Key-Documents-on-Holocaust-Hero-Turned-Over-to-Russias-Chief-Rabbi.html

former soviet union
Key Documents on Holocaust Hero Turned Over to Russia's Chief Rabbi
Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, left, looks over once-secret documents with Nikolai Patrushev, director of the country's Federal Security Service. (Photo: Pravda)
Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, left, looks over once-secret documents with Nikolai Patrushev, director of the country's Federal Security Service. (Photo: Pravda)
Oct 2, 2007

The Russian government turned over to the country's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar crucial documents dealing with the case of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, the Associated Press reported last week.

Questions over Wallenberg's death have long gone unanswered and many speculate that after being arrested by Soviet forces in 1945, he was murdered under orders by secret police.

According to the AP report, Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the notorious KGB, handed to the rabbi photographs and copies of formerly classified materials about Wallenberg. The Federation of Jewish Communities of the Former Soviet Union, whose activities are overseen by Lazar, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, had requested the documents in connection with its new Museum of Tolerance, set to open in Moscow next year.

During World War II, Wallenberg distributed Swedish passports to Jews who were being deported and won diplomatic protection for sections of Budapest. The Russian government said that he died of a heart attack in 1947 while in prison, but his family and others maintain that he was executed.

exposemolesters said...

"What's the deal with Ohel's family services, can they be trusted?"
--------------------------------

Personally, I would not trust anything pertaining to Ohel's children and family services. They have too many corrupt officials and confidants who have proven themselves mentally deficient (C.E.O David Mandel, Professor Aaron Twerskey, YTT/Ohel parent event last year which was a defense of kolko & Margo, Rabbi Dovid Choen, the ticking time bomb who is affiliated with Ohel, and the constant hush-up of abuse by people connected with Ohel.)

I would tread water very carefully when it comes to Ohel. I also suggest you go to http://www.lukeford.net/blog/index.php/
and direct any concerns about Ohel there.

If you live in nyc you can call 311 to report illegal activity with Ohel or anybody else.

Phone Numbers for 311

* In any borough of New York City call 311
* Outside of New York City call (212) NEW-YORK (212-639-9675)
* The TTY Number is 212-504-4115
* As always, callers should call 911 for emergencies

Anonymous said...

Molester dies in cell

Press staff Wednesday, 03 October 2007
A child molester from Placer County was found dead in his cell at Deuel Vocational Institution last week.

A child molester from Placer County was found dead in his cell at Deuel Vocational Institution early last week.

Gary Wilde, 67, was convicted of molesting a girl under the age of 14 in 1994, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Guards and a doctor at DVI could not revive Wilde around 1 p.m. Sept. 24. He arrived at DVI August 16.

Samples of Wilde's blood were sent to a toxicology clinic to see if he overdosed on drugs.

"They're not saying it was a suicide," said Lt. Ray Munoz, spokesman for the prison. "There were no obvious signs of foul play."

The 4,000-inmate prison is mainly a reception center. It houses inmates while employees evaluate criminal records until the inmate is moved to one of the state's 33 prisons to finish the remaining of their sentence.

Guards at the 4,000-inmate prison in east Tracy make frequent rounds to watch for any odd behavior. They also undergo annual training to prevent inmate suicides.

"That's the best means to try to prevent a suicide attempt," Munoz said.

Anonymous said...

A Rabbi in Lakewood was viciously beaten with a baseball bat and was found unconscious. Do you have any details?

Anonymous said...

newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--rabbibeaten1011oct11,0,3386257.story
Newsday.com
Diverse town worries after rabbi beaten with baseball bat

By CHRIS NEWMARKER

Associated Press Writer

6:38 PM EDT, October 11, 2007

TRENTON, N.J.

The Orthodox Jewish rabbi and school teacher was walking to synagogue around 8 p.m. Tuesday when a man wielding an aluminum baseball bat attacked him, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries, witnesses told police.

The beating of 53-year-old Mordechai Moskowitz, who witnesses have said was attacked by a black man, has raised tensions in the diverse community of Lakewood that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population as well as black and Hispanic communities.

"There's a very, very strong feeling of revulsion and horror that this attack happened here," said Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, who belongs to the council of local Jewish leaders called the Vaad.

Witnesses who were in the area of the attack told police they saw a 6-foot-tall, clean-shaven black man walk by Moskowitz, and without saying a word, turn on the rabbi, beating him multiple times in the head and body with the baseball bat.

Police recovered the bloody baseball bat, but by Thursday evening had not arrested anyone and had no motive for the beating.

"Not at this point. We're just investigating," said Detective Lt. Joseph Isnardi.

Moskowitz remained in critical condition at a local hospital, his face disfigured.

The diverse town of about 70,000 near the Jersey Shore, has seen a large growth in the Orthodox Jewish and Hispanic communities while the black population has shrunk, officials said.

The police chief visited Moskowitz in the hospital and took part Wednesday in a monthly community meeting during which the beating was discussed.

Lakewood, according to Isnardi, has seen about 20 bias crimes so far this year, about the same level as last year.

"We have a very large population of Orthodox Jewish residents. And we get our share of spray painting, people riding down the road yelling epithets _ all kinds of different things like that," Isnardi said.

This summer an Orthodox Jewish middle school teacher was found not guilty of assaulting a black teenager, The New York Times reported for Thursday's editions. And a few weeks ago, a group of Orthodox Jews was pelted with eggs by teenagers from another town, the newspaper reported.

Some Jewish residents said Thursday they feared the latest attack would exacerbate long-standing tensions between ethnic groups in the town.

Abraham Sasson, 15, was with a friend who quickly pulled out a flier critical of the police department's handling of safety issues. Sasson recounted how a woman at an area store asked him the night before to walk her out to her car only a hundred or so feet from the store.

"She was very scared to walk out by herself. That's part of the reaction of the township against the horrifying attack that took place two days ago," Sasson said.

As he pushed a stroller with his son down the street, 25-year-old Alexander Spira said residents were horrified. But he also noted there were places in the world that are less safe.

"People are going to Israel, where people are blowing up buses," Spira said.

Anonymous said...

As the official Agudah spokesperson I condemn this form of brutality. Children getting molested is not so terrible, the child will live. But a Rabbi getting his head smashed by a baseball bat is totally uncalled for.
---------------------------------

Lakewood teacher beaten with bat

Attack unprovoked, witnesses say; suspect not caught
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/11/07

BY MARGARET F. BONAFIDE
STAFF WRITER
Story Chat Post Comment

LAKEWOOD — An Orthodox school teacher was in critical condition after he was brutally beaten with an aluminum baseball bat while on his way to pray at a synagogue near his home, authorities said.

Six people saw the attack on Mordechai Moskowitz, 53, of Lakewood, just before 8 p.m. Tuesday at Princeton Avenue and Carey Street, police said. Neighbors said he was heading to a synagogue on Squankum Road, said Detective Lt. Joseph Isnardi.

The attacker was described as black, 30 to 40 years old, clean-shaven and wearing a dark plaid shirt and dark baggy pants. He is heavyset and about 6 feet tall. He was last seen running south on Princeton Avenue.

Officer Summer Cunliffe responded first and found Moskowitz bleeding profusely from severe head and facial wounds, police said.

Witnesses told police they did not see or hear any apparent reason for the attack, Isnardi said. There was no evidence to classify the assault as a bias crime, police said Wednesday, and nothing was stolen from Moskowitz.

The victim's nephew, Moshe Rothberg, said he did not believe his uncle was targeted because of his religion. However, he said he was eager to see what police uncover.

"This was a vicious aggravated assault," said Detective Steve Wexler, who also responded to the attack along with Detective Greg Staffordsmith.

Isnardi said Moskowitz is conscious and able to speak.

Rothberg, of Lakewood, said his family was comforted by more than three dozen people who came to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where Moskowitz was taken Tuesday night.

Police Chief Robert C. Lawson was also at the hospital Tuesday with the family while investigators gathered information from witnesses.

Bat recovered

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, along with the county sheriff's Criminalistics Investigative and K-9 units, searched the area for clues and recovered the bat believed to have been used in the attack, Isnardi said.

Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a member of the Vaad — the council of Orthodox leaders in Lakewood — said Moskowitz is a well-respected teacher and "he was randomly picked out. . . . We were all glad to hear he was coherent and speaking."

Moskowitz is a revered third-grade teacher at the Lakewood Cheder School, his nephew said. "He is the most dedicated father, teacher and friend that anyone can have," Rothberg said.

One of Moskowitz's nephews is a member of Hatzolah First Aid Squad and responded to the attack, but failed to recognize his uncle because his face was disfigured in the assault, Rothberg said.

"He has a lot of facial fractures and there is some bleeding in the brain," Rothberg said.

The attack was discussed Wednesday at a regularly scheduled monthly meeting of community leaders, including 25 members of Lakewood's diverse ethnic groups.

"The attack is a crime against the entire community of Lakewood and not a crime against one ethnic group," Weisberg said.

"The reactions and feelings about this is widespread," Weisberg said. "The entire community is totally shocked by the outrageous, brutal and savage crime. Our prayers and sympathies go to the family."

"This was really a bias crime against Lakewood, whether, it is classified as such or not," Weisberg said. "Everyone feels it was the entire town that was violated, no matter what their ethnic group."

Alan Weisberger, 45, of Lakewood, the victim's brother-in-law, was outside Moskowitz's home Wednesday afternoon and said the support being offered to the Moskowitz family by the community was a great comfort.

The investigation is being conducted by Staffordsmith and Wexler along with Investigator Carlos Trujillo-Tovar from the Prosecutor's Office.

ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and click on this story for the latest developments or to join the online conversation about this topic in Story Chat.
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Events in Lakewood have shown Jewish driven disdain for the local law enforcement agencies.
None of the police ranks wanted their chief forced out. This was a State Police veteran with everything positive to offer. He would not bias enforcement of the laws for God’s chosen. So in 1991 this is what happened when the police were apathetic when catering to the needs of the minority Jewish population.
This just might be in the future for Lakewood.
New York city's Mayor, David Dinkins, was criticized for his poor handling of the riot. In a speech on the Thanksgiving holiday following the riot, he said, "Black anti-Semitism ... cannot be tolerated."[30]. Despite this rhetoric, however, in a report commissioned by Governor Mario Cuomo, attorney Righard Girgenti demonstrated that although Dinkins was well informed about the situation, he refused to take action. Eighty Jews and a hundred police were injured, while the mayor indeed had tolerated Black anti-Semitism, and had chosen to let the mob vent
You have time to change folks.

Posted by: xfactory-worker on Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:36 pm
Oh no I was aiming at Revolver. They erased a bunch of earlier posts. I dont agree with yours either, but I see your point. Plus, as stated earlier, love the name.

Posted by: What the? on Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:29 pm
Revolver, What the? was refering to the comment I had made. I often see people here jump to conclutions about what happened long before the facts are in. Maybe this man was beaten because he was a Jew or maybe he was beaten for his money and just happenes to be jewish. Noone will know till the investigation is complete.

Posted by: Kizzmefatazz on Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:41 pm
I am married to a women of color, who also happens to be a cheerleader, so no, the blond comment did nothing to me. I was referring to the idiots posting comments on here who are actually under the impression this is not a hate crime. There are the closet racists, such as the people posting those stupid things, and there are those who lynch and join the Klan. Not much difference in my eyes. As for the drama, I take nothing personal. I enjoyed the cute blond comment because it does tell me a little more about you. I imagine you are a middle aged white man who is in general, pretty angry. And come on, the kicking the dog comment, thats funny regardless.

Posted by: What the? on Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:18 pm
Ohhhh, looks like I hit a sensitive spot with the cute blonde haired girl comment.....Dog kicking. Wife beating. Guns. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't worry. You know there are cures for stuttering. Can you be anymore of a drama queen? And a Jew can be of any race. There are black Jews, you moron. You still haven't answered a simple question. Who were you refering to when you use the words "the south" "white trash" "kkk" "lynchings".

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It is unfortunate that it has come to this. It is a big darn shame it has come to this. It is very hurtful that it has come to this. But yet, IT HAS COME TO THIS. It has come at the price of a GREAT CHILUL HASHEM. It has come to Hashem having to allow his holy name to be DESECRATED so that his CHILDREN remain SAFE. Shame on all those responsible for enabling and permitting Hashem's name to be desecrated! When you save children you save the future. You save the future you save generations. You save generations you save lives. You save lives you have saved the world!!!!!!!