Statement on Sexual Abuse of Children By Rabbi Zev. M. Shandalov
May 22, 2006
Over the past few days, there have been a number of items that have been printed in the mainstream press and in the "Jewish" press regarding stories of sexual abuse of children and alleged cover-up of said abuse and the perpetrators. The purpose of this email is to address this situation.
Abuse: I am not going to discuss any of the allegations in the articles or those that are floating around on the Internet. I do wish though to comment in general terms.
ANY abuse perpetrated against a child no matter how "minor" or seemingly "insignificant" can be damaging for life for the child; is illegal; is assur (prohibited by Torah law) and can potentially be actionable in a court of law. In addition, anyone seeking to protect the abuser, including but not limited to rabbis, professionals, community leaders, institutions, etc. are themselves culpable in the crimes that the alleged perpetrator commits after discovering the crimes and seeking to cover them up. The covering up of such offenses not only is in itself a Chillul Hashem (a profanation of the name of Hashem) but also adds to the abuse of the victims after the fact. Delivering information to the police in order to remove the offender from the streets and to protect further abuse is a Mitzva incumbent upon all who have knowledge of abuse. Additionally, the Mitzvah of "Al ta'amod al dam re'acha" (One may not stand idly by while another is being injured) is found in the Torah to make it everyone's responsibility to help another in jeopardy.
I hope that this has helped to clarify a very disturbing issue. WE MAY NOT REMAIN SILENT WHEN ANYONE IS BEING ABUSED AND CERTAINLY NOT WHEN THE PERSON BEING ABUSED IS A CHILD!
Rabbi Zev M. Shandalov
Congregation Kehilath Jacob Beth Samuel (KJBS)
Chicago, IL-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.yutorah.org/bio.cfm/80023/Rabbi_Yosef_Blau
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| Biography: |
| Rabbi Blau earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959 from Yeshiva College, the men's undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences division of the University. He earned a Masters of Science degree at the University’s Belfer Graduate School of Science in 1960, and was ordained at Yeshiva University's affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in 1961. Rabbi Blau was appointed Mashgiach Ruchani (spiritual guidance counselor) at RIETS in 1977. Rabbi Blau is also the spiritual guidance counselor for students at the University's undergraduate schools and colleges for men. In communal life, Rabbi Blau served as national president of Yavneh, the National Religious Jewish Students Association, and as a member of that organization's National Advisory Board. He also served as vice president of the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals. |
Dr. David J. Schnall: A Devoted Advocate For The Jewish Education Professional
“Every shred of data that has been collected points to a simple fact: Intensive full-time Jewish education is the key to Jewish identity and continuity into the next generation.”As dean of Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Dr. David J. Schnall carries this message with him wherever he goes. And he is nothing if not passionate about the vital educational mission he and Yeshiva University have been charged with fulfilling.
Dr. Schnall is no stranger to Yeshiva University. A graduate of Yeshiva College, he received semichah (rabbinic ordination) at the YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and a master’s degree in Jewish studies from YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He also earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from Fordham University.
At the Azrieli Graduate School’s commencement ceremony this past May—its first one independent of Yeshiva University’s main ceremony since the school was founded in 1983—Dr. Schnall spoke to the 57 new Doctor of Education and Master of Science in Education degree holders about the moral commitment and dedication required to pursue a career in Jewish education. He also spoke about the pivotal role Jewish education plays in the intricate fabric of today’s Jewish community.
“The number of day-school students has risen sharply in the last two decades,” he said. “We now have over 200,000 day-school students versus half that number 20 years ago.” This number represents a threefold increase in the number of male students, and between four and five times the number of female students as there was just a generation ago. “But,” he continued, “about a third of young adults have had no exposure to any form of Jewish education. That’s also true of half of new American Jews, the children of recently arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe or the Middle East.”
These statistics, closely monitored by Azrieli, represent a paradigm shift, says Dr. Schnall. “Entry into the Jewish community is not, as was thought previously, through the synagogue. It’s through the day school. A key reason for this shift is that early childhood Jewish education becomes a portal to the Jewish community for the children as they grow and become adults.”
But while Dr. Schnall and the Azrieli staff are encouraged by the numbers and the trends they seem to indicate, at the same time they all recognize the challenges that beset Jewish educational and community institutions. “Every master’s student is required to take our Seminar in Contemporary Jewish Education, in which broad topics of policy, finance, demographic change, and social concerns and their impact on Jewish education and community development is the focus.” Azrieli has also created programs to address the lack of coordination between the various educational groups within modern Orthodoxy—day school, summer camp, synagogue, and after-school activities.
Azrieli currently enrolls approximately 200 master’s students and 50 active doctoral students, an overall increase of 20 percent in the past five years, and a nearly 50 percent increase within the doctoral program. Many students concurrently study for semichah or are teaching at least part time. To encourage entry into and advancement within Jewish education, all regular students receive at least 50 percent scholarship assistance.
Reflecting on other issues facing Jewish education, Dr. Schnall added that the subject of tuition assistance raises another critical issue—money. Elementary-school tuitions often exceed $10,000 per year, and high-school tuitions are generally even higher. Even with assistance, this creates a hardship for many, especially when taking into account the large families typical in the Orthodox community.
Ironically, despite ever-rising day-school tuitions, salaries for faculty, both in limudei kodesh (Jewish studies) and in general studies, remain low. In addition, it is the rare school that provides such basic benefits as health care and retirement plans, or other common benefits such as tuition remission, in-service training, and professional development. This alone makes it difficult to recruit well-qualified and upwardly mobile applicants.
Jewish education faces major challenges in the professional development of educational leaders, too. Far too many principals and school heads were advanced from the classroom with little or no training in management, communication, supervision, and curriculum. According to Dr. Schnall, it was assumed that effective teachers would automatically become effective supervisors of other teachers.
Dr. Schnall’s belief that academic quality and a Jewish education are not mutually exclusive informs his views, and he sees these issues as challenges for Jewish educators and educational administrators. “We must institute a nationwide program of in-service training and networking opportunities that includes professionals from all areas of Jewish education.”
To live up to that commitment, Azrieli has created programs throughout North America and Israel in all aspects of formal and informal Jewish education. In 2007, Azrieli summer seminars were held in New York, Jerusalem, Chicago, and Baltimore. In previous years, they were also held in Toronto and Los Angeles. A Canadian program brings teachers from Montreal and Toronto to Azrieli during the summers and pays their tuition plus a stipend if they commit themselves to at least three years of teaching in a Canadian Jewish school.
Dr. Schnall is emphatic about the Jewish community’s fundamental need to rise to the many challenges of Jewish education. “We need to stress that a full life involves more then just academic achievement. Jewish education goes a long way toward providing a means to a fuller life. And Jewish continuity demands Jewish education. We have no choice.”
By:_ 5TJT Staff - 30/08/2007
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A Cardinal Passing
While we are often intrigued by the daily news reports of the deaths of a celebrity or a world-famous person, we are generally not disturbed by it. When a high-ranking member of another religion—one that has spilled oceans of Jewish blood over 2,000 years of history all in the name of religion—passes away, we probably don’t even pay any notice to it. Yet several weeks ago, when a cardinal and former archbishop of Paris who was a close confidant of three popes, passed away, not only did I take notice of it, but I am greatly disturbed by it.
The person whose death so disturbs me is the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the retired Catholic bishop of Paris, whose real name was Ahron Lustiger, born to Jewish parents Charles and Gisele Lustiger, Polish Jews who immigrated to France at the onset of World War I. Ahron was born in 1926 and raised by his parents in a Jewish community and in a Jewish, though not observant, environment. At the outbreak of World War II, his devoted parents sent him to the town of Orleans (80 miles from Paris) to take refuge from the occupying Nazis. There, at the age of 14, Ahron Lustiger converted to Catholicism and took the name Jean-Marie. Around two years later, his mother was killed along with millions of her brothers and sisters by the Nazis.
What made Ahron different from countless others before him who had also converted to the church is that usually such people would become more anti-Semitic and more destructive to the Jews than those born as Christians. The debates that took place over the years between the Jewish community and the apostates are recorded in the bloody pages of our history books (the famous debate of the Ramban being just one of them). I remember reading once that the infamous Spanish Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, who together with his evil followers destroyed hundreds of Jewish cities and towns, had a Jewish grandmother.
Yet Ahron Lustiger (or Cardinal Jean-Marie) was definitely different. He never lost sight of his Jewish roots. At his request, a marble plaque inside the Cathedral will bear the inscription “I was born a Jew; I received the name of my paternal grandfather Ahron. Christian by faith and by Baptism, I remained a Jew, as did the Apostles.”
He never seemed to hide the fact that he was proud of his Jewish ancestry. He readily spoke Yiddish to Jews that he met. Sometimes on the yahrtzeit of his mother’s death he would enter a shul in Paris to say Kaddish for her. And at his request, his grand-nephew Jonas Moses Lustiger recited Kaddish at his funeral ceremony on August 10 in Paris in front of hundreds of church dignitaries as well as politicians, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
So what disturbs me is that I’m not sure how we should view this person—a Jew by birth and a Catholic by choice—as we contemplate his passing. Is he just another meshumad? Then he belongs to a group that will remain in infamy for eternity as those before him. This clearly is the opinion of former chief rabbi of Israel, Rav Yisroel Meir Lau, who accused him publicly upon his visit to Israel in 1995 as betraying “his people and his faith during the most difficult and darkest of periods.” This feeling of betrayal is clearly understood in light of the difficult history of the relationship between the Jews and the church especially during the days of World War II.
In his very revealing book “Min HaMeitzar–From the Abyss,” Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandel related how he approached the Catholic clergy in Slovakia under the regime of the Catholic priest, President Father Tisso in 1944; the archbishop Kmetka of Bratislava; and Father Hlinka, the Vatican nuntius in Slovakia, imploring them to stop the killing of the Jews. Their reply was, in essence, that Jews have no right to be saved from death; they have to bear the consequences of “killing Jesus.”
In his memoirs, former chief rabbi of Israel, Rav Yitzchak Herzog, z’l, writes that he first asked to meet with Pope Pius XII before the war in an effort to convince him to speak out against the persecution of the Jews. The pope refused.
Then in June 1946, after the liberation of Rome by the allies, Herzog again met with the pope and asked him to order the Catholic monasteries, families, and institutions holding Jewish children to return them to their families or communities so that they could be raised as Jews. The pope again said no. When Rav Herzog came out of the Vatican after that meeting, he turned to those who were with him and asked them where he could find a mikveh to remove the sense of impurity that he felt had enveloped him.
Yet I wonder if there another side as well. There is a halachic concept of “tinok shenishba,” a child that was captured and therefore not responsible for his actions. If the cardinal is indeed in the category of a tinok shenishba, then he is to be viewed as not responsible for his conversion and subsequent rise in the hierarchy of the church. He would be viewed not as a demon who abandoned his people in their worst time, but as a tragic statistic in a Jewish world torn apart by the Nazis that resulted in millions killed or being separated from their people by circumstances beyond their control.
The fact that he wasn’t a child, but a young man of 14, when he converted, would not necessarily mean that the halachic concept of tinok shenishba would not apply. This is held by the Chazon Ish, zt’l, in at least three places in his voluminous writings on Shas.
Unfortunately we have no Chazon Ish with us today to guide us as how to perceive the passing of Ahron/Jean-Marie Lustiger. How he was judged by the Dayan HaEmes is beyond our comprehension. Yet what is so disturbing is what we indeed did lose. Look what one individual, brilliant and charismatic, was able to accomplish in his long and illustrious career in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. One can only imagine what he could have accomplished for K’lal Yisrael with that very same ability, had his life taken a different turn.
I mourn not for him, but for the countless unknown numbers of Jewish boys and girls who were separated from their parents during those horrific years, either voluntarily or by force, and raised by the church and its adherents. These children, unlike Ahron Lustiger, may have never even known that they were Jewish. It is so hard to mourn for these children when we have no facts, statistics, or proof of their tragic circumstances (though Rav Herzog, zt’l, was known to have used the number of 50,000 Jewish children, Rachmanah litzlan!)
For me, the passing of Cardinal Lustiger brings us, in a sense, the long overdue time of mourning for the lost opportunities of so many thousands of acheinu B’nei Yisrael from those painful years. At the cardinal’s passing, one of those secular Jewish leaders that was close to him commented in an interview that in discussions with him over several decades, he found him at times conflicted regarding his choice in life at age 14. And due to that conflict, we in the Jewish community should forgive him.
Conflicted or not, it is not our place either forgive him or to judge him; that is the domain of the G-d of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. But one thing I believe we can say: for the church and its followers who hid so many of our children during the war years and then kept them from returning to the religion of their parents and grandparents—for that we will neither forgive nor forget.
The Brisker Rav, zt’l, who personally suffered so much during the war years, including the loss of his wife and four children as well as his entire kehillah of Brisk, rarely spoke of the war years due to the great pain that it would cause him. Yet on occasion he would talk about the tragedy of the loss of these precious children.
During one of his daily walks, the Brisker Rav commented about the situation, describing in vivid colors the depth of the tragedy of these poor children. “Let us imagine,” he said, “a family of pious Jews, raising their son to learn Torah and to have yiras Shamayim. The moment the youth learns to speak, the father begins teaching him, ‘Torah tziva lanu Moshe.’ When he reaches the age of three, he takes him to cheder, where he will begin absorbing Torah and faith at an early age. His parents’ only wish is for the child to become a gadol.
“Then, war breaks out, shattering all their hopes. And the parents, knowing the bitter fate that awaits them, try at least to save their little child in any way they can. With eyes streaming with tears and fluttering hearts, they take him to a Christian family or to a monastery, where they are willing to hide him. And all the way there, the parents repeat in his tender ears, over and over: ‘Remember, do not forget, you are a Jew; say Shema Yisrael every day. Even if you have to stay in this house for many years, stay faithful to Hashem and His Torah.’
“And then they part from him, forever.
“The years succeed in removing from the child’s memory any connection to Yiddishkeit. He has grown up a Christian in every way. He has no memories at all of his origins. That is the fate of this one child, and of another—thousands and thousands more—brought upon them by the circumstances. Many were handed over to Christians before they even learned to speak.
“What will be with them? What future do these lost children have? Has it been decreed on them to be lost forever, assimilated among the nations?
“But,” the rav continued confidently, “the navi Yeshayahu says: ‘And their seed will be known among the nations, in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them that they are a seed blessed by Hashem.’ The time will yet come, and they will return, every last one. All of them will be recognized; ‘their seed will be known among the nations’!”
May it happen speedily in our day.
By:_ Rav Aryeh Zev Ginzberg - 30/08/2007
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Rabbis who Publicly Support the Efforts of The Awareness Center
To End Sexual Violence in Jewish Communities Around The World
(Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Rabbinical Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment)
Below is a list of Rabbis who support the efforts of The Awareness Center. If you are a rabbi (of any recognized affiliation) and would like to be included, please send an email to: Vicki Polin or a "snail mail", with a note giving us permission to add your name. Please include your full name, synagogue, organization, city, state, and country.
If you are or are not a rabbi, please share this request for supporters with every rabbi you know.If you want to add a Rabbi to this list; you can also contact me at:
Matzil_Nefoshos@yahoo.com
and I'll make sure to rout it to the appropriate destination.
List of Rabbis
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Rabbi Jonathan F. Adland - Indianapolis, IN
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Rabbi Barbara Aiello - Milan, Italy
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Rabbi Morris Allen - Mendota Heights, M
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Rabbi Ruth Alpers - Cincinnati, OH
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Rabbi Camille Shira Angel - San Francisco, CA
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Rabbi Benjamin Arnold - Evergreen, CO
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Rabbi Stephen A. Arnold - South Easton, MA
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Rabbi Jeffrey Astrachan - Old Bethpage, NY
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Rabbi Craig Axler - Spring House, PA
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Rabbi Ian J. Azizollahoff - New York, NY
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Rabbi Stephen Baars - North Bethesda, MD
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Rabbi Jeremy Barras - Charlotte, NC
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Rabbi Lewis M. Barth - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Bernard Baskin - Temple Anshe Sholom, Hamilton, Ontario
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Rabbi Lia Bass - Arlington, VA
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Rabbi Marcelo Bater - Oranjestad, Aruba
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Rabbi Micah Becker-Klein - Keene, NH
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Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer - Savannah, GA
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Rabbi Jim Bennett - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Joshua L. Bennett - West Bloomfield, MI
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Rabbi Matthew Berger - Long Grove, IL
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Rabbi Leslie Bergson - Claremont, CA
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Rabbi Alexis Berk - Nashville, TN
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Rabbi Joel Berman - Boardman, OH
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Rabbi Shmuel Birnham - West Vancouver, BC, Canada
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Rabbi Joseph R. Black - Alburquerque, NM
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Rabbi Yosef Blau - New York, NY
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Rabbi Barry H. Block - San Antonio, TX
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Rabbi David Blumenthal - Atlanta, GA
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Rabbi Lewis E. "Buz" Bogage - Greencastle, IN
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Rabbi Reuven Bulka - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Rabbi Elina Bykova - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
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Rabbi Kenneth Carr - Lafayette Hill, PA
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Rabbi Donald P. Cashman - Albany, NY
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Rabbi Adam Chalom - Highland Park, IL
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Rabbi Joshua Chasan, Burlington Vermont
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Rabbi Michael Chernick - New York, NY
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Rabbi Paul Citrin - San Diego, CA
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Rabbi Avraham Citron - Belfast, Ireland
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Rabbi Howard A. Cohen - Bennington, VT
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Rabbi Phil Cohen - Wyncote, PA
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Rabbi Stephen Cohen - Santa Barbara, CA
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Rabbi Hillel Cohn - San Bernardino, CA and Las Vegas, NV
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Rabbi Sigma Faye Coran - Williamstown, MA
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Rabbi Meryl Crean - Media, PA
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Rabbi Eric Cytryn - Harrisburg, PA
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Rabbi Gail Diamond - Jerusalem, Israel
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Rabbi Stephanie Dickstein, CSW - New York, NY
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Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb - Washington DC
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Rabbi Malka Drucker - Sante Fe, NM
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Rabbi Yaakov Dvorin - Skokie, IL
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Rabbi Laurence Edwards - Chicago, IL
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Rabbi Amy Eilberg - Palo Alto, California
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Rabbi Serena Raziel Eisenberg - Berkeley, CA
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Rabbi David Ellenson - New York, NY
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Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Rabbi Helaine Ettinger - West Orange, NJ
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Rabbi Yeshaia Charles Familant - Menlo Park, CA
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Rabbi David Feder - Morgantown, WV
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Rabbi Stuart Federow - Houston, TX
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Rabbi Shaul R. Feinberg - Jerusalem, Israel
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Rabbi Marla J. Feldman - New York, NY
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Rabbi Natan Fenner - San Francisco, CA
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Rabbi Steven M. Fink, D.Min., D.D.- Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Reuven Firestone - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Irwin Fishbein - Westfield, NJ
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Rabbi Dov Ben Shlomo Forman, Phd - Weston, FL
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Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich - South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Rabbi Susan Friedman - Cary, North Carolina
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Rabbi Dov I. Frimer - Jerusalem, Israel
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Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer - Philadelphia, PA
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Rabbi Jeffrey Gale, Wantagh, NY
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Rabbi Hillel Gamoran - Seattle, WA
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Rabbi Lisa B. Gelber - New York, NY
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Rabbi Gary S. Gerson - Oak Park, IL
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Rabbi William Gershon - Dallas, TX
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Rabbi James A. Gibson - Pittsburgh, PA
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Rabbi Melvin J. Glazer - Miami, FL
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Rabbi Gary Glickstein - Miami Beach, FL
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Rabbi Robert J. Gluck - Albany, NY
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Rabbi Brian Glusman - Birmingham, AL
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Rabbi Connie Golden - Philadelphia, PA
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Rabbi Irwin N. Goldenberg - York, PA
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Rabbi Eva Goldfinger - Toronto, ON, Canada
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Rabbi Barbara Goldman-Wartell - Allentown, PA
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Rabbi Andrea Goldstein - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Maralee Gordon - Woodstock, IL
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Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum - Jerusalem, Israel
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Rabbi Fred Greene - Bridgeport, CT
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Rabbi Stanley Greenstein - New York, NY
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Rabbi Tina Grimberg - Toronto, ON, Canada
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Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Susan Grossman, Columbia, MD
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Rabbi Yehoshua C. Grunstein - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
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Rabbi Susan Gulack - Albany, NY
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Rabbi Larry J. Halpern - West Linn, OR
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Rabbi Ze'ev Harari - Lindenhurst, IL
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Rabbi Sidney M. Helbraun - Northbrook, IL
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Rabbi Rachel Hertzman,Baltimore,Md
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Rabbi Jay B Heyman - San Francisco, CA
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Rabbi Michael Hezbrun - Rochester, NY
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Rabbi Brad Hirschfield - New York, NY
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Rabbi Joshua Hoffman - New York, NY
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Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman - New York, NY
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Rabbi Daniel Isaak, Portland, OR
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Rabbi Mark Israel - Washington DC
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Rabbi Lisa Izes - New York, NY
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Rabbi Howard L. Jaffe - Lexington, MA
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Rabbi Beth Janus - Aptos, CA
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Rabbi Eitan Julius - San Jose, CA
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Bruce E. Kahn - Chevy Chase, MD
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Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Kahn - Jerusalem, Israel
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Rabbi David Kaiman - Gainesville, FL
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Rabbi Gerald M. Kane - Las Cruces, NM
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Rabbi Harley Kartz-Wagman - Wilmington, NC
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Rabbi Robert Kasman - Schenectady, NY
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Rabbi Stuart Kelman - Berkeley, CA
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Rabbi Paul David Kerbel - Marietta, GA
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Rabbi Aviva Kipen - Victoria Australia
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Rabbi Marc Aaron Kline - Lexington, KY
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Rabbi Peter S. Knobel - Evanston, IL
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Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold - Boulder CO
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Rabbi Allen Krause - Aliso Viejo, CA
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Rabbi Yaacov J. Kravitz, Ed.D. - Abington, PA
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Rabbi Barry Krieger - Orono, Maine
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Rabbi David J.B. Krishef - Grand Rapids, MI
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Rabbi Vernon Kurtz - Highland Park, IL
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Rabbi Shira L. Lander, Ph.D. - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Eric M. Lankin, D.Min. - New York, NY
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Rabbi Alan LaPayover - Penn Valley, PA
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Rabbi Anson Laytner - Seattle, WA
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Rabbi Robert Leib - Abington, PA
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Rabbi Maya Leibovich - Mevasseret Zion, Israel
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Rabbi David Leipziger - Middletown, CT
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Rabbi Michele Lenke, Wellesley, MA
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Rabbi Aaron Levy - Ithaca, NY
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Rabbi Shalom Lewis - Marietta GA
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Rabbi Yehoshua Lewis - New Brunswick, NJ
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Rabbi Dov Linzer - New York, NY
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Rabbi Ellen Lippmann - Brooklyn, NY
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Rabbi Daveen Litwin - Northampton, MA
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Rabbi Jessica E. Locketz - Alexandria, VA
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Rabbi Sarah E. Mack - Providence, RI
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Rabbi Jill L. Maderer - Philadelphia, PA
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Rabbi Mark Mahler - Pittsburgh, PA
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Rabbi Mark Mallach - Springfield, NJ
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Rabbi Richard J. Margolis - Melbourne, FL
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Rabbi Joseph M. Menashe - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler - Sharon, MA
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Rabbi Brian I. Michelson - Reading, PA
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Rabbi Tamara Miller - Washington, DC.
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Rabbi Mendel Mintz - Fort Collins, CO
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Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Lon Moskowitz, San Luis Obispo, California
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Rabbi Len Muroff - Lakewood, CA
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Rabbi Ron Muroff - Harrisburg, PA
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Rabbi Michael Namath - New York, NY
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Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins - Farmington Hills, MI
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Rabbi Aharon Newman - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky - New York, NY
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Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski - Chicago, IL
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Rabbi Sandy Roth Parian - New Hope, PA
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Rabbi Jordan Parr - Plano, TX
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Rabbi Jack P. Paskoff - Lancaster, PA
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Rabbi Stephen M. Passamaneck - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Pinchas N. Pearl - Brooklyn, NY
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Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Pearlman - Dublin, Ireland
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Rabbi Eli B. Perlman - East Brunswick, NJ
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Rabbi Eliot H. Pearlson - Miami Beach, Florida
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Rabbi Aaron L. Peller - Scranton, PA
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Rabbi Deborah Pipe-Mazo - Barnstable, MA
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Rabino Baruj Plavnick - Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Rabbi Shalom Podwol - Forest Park, IL
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Rabbi Philip Pohl - Olney, MD
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Rabbi Seymour Prystowsky - Lafayette Hill, PA
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Rabbi Robert J. Ratner, Ph. D. - Asheville, NC
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Rabbi Mark R. Raphael - Gaithersburg, MD
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Rabbi Michael Reches - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Michael M. Remson - Pittsburgh, PA
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Rabbi Laurie Rice - Woodinville, WA
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Rabbi Philip Rice - Seattle, WA
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Rabbi Louis A. Rieser - Derry, NH
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Rabbi Daniel A. Roberts - University Heights, OH
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Rabbi Rochelle Robins - Ardmore, PA
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Rabbi Yair Robinson - Newtown, PA
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Rabbi H. David Rose - Potomac, MD
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Rabbi Kenneth D. Roseman - Corpus Christi, TX
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Rabbi Jeremy Rosen - London, England
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Rabbi Joel Roth - New York, NY
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Rabbi Ronald S. Roth - Nashville, TN
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Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein - Saratoga Springs, NY
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Rabbi Elisheva Sachs - Cotati, CA
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Rabbi Douglas Sagal - Westfield, NJ
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Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin - Atlanta, GA
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Rabbi Scott Saulson - Atlanta, GA
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Rabbi Susan Shankman - Washington, D.C.
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Rabbi Zev Schechter - Silver Spring, MD
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Rabbi Binyamin Scheiman - Niles, IL
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Rabbi Judy Schindler - Charlotte, NC
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Rabbi Janine C. Schloss - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Michael Schudrich - Warsaw and Lodz, Poland
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Rabbi Burt Schuman - Altoona, PA
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Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz - Cherry Hill, NJ
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Rabbi Beth L. Schwartz - Knoxville, TN
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Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz - Chicago, IL
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Rabbi Amy Schwartzman - Falls Church, VA
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Rabbi Peter Schweitzer - New York, NY
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Rabbi Larry Sebert - New York, NY
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Rabbi Sam Seicol - Brookline, MA
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Rabbi Jerry H. Seidler - Amherst, NY
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Rabbi Drorah Setel - Buffalo, NY
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Rabbi Irit Shillor - Harlow, England and Vienna, Austria
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Rabbi Mark L. Shook - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Howard Siegel - Houston, TX
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Rabbi Yaakov (Jeffrey) Siegel - Island Park, NY
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Rabbi Jonathan Siger - Macon, Georgia
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Rabbi Murray Singerman - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Ze'ev Smason - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Myra Soifer - Reno, NV
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Rabbi Eric Solomon - Bronx, NY
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Rabbi Steve Solomon - Baltimore, MD
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Rabbi Ned. J. Soltz - Arlington, TX
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Rabbi Jack D. Spiro - Richmond, VA
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Rabbi Miriam Spitzer - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Rabbi Sonya Starr - Columbia, MD
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Rabbi Brian Strauss - Houston, TX
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Rabbi David Straus - Wynnewood, PA
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Rabbi Arthur Z. Steinberg - Portsmouth, VA
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Rabbi David Steinberg - Burlington VT
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Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman - St. Louis, MO
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Rabbi Shlomo Tenenbaum - Chicago, IL
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Rabbi Elliott Tepperman - Montclair, NJ
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Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen - New Haven, CT
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Rabbi Robert L. Tobin - Westport, CT
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Rabbi Daniel Treiser - Plantation, FL
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Rabbi Jason van Leeuwen - Los Angeles, CA
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Rabbi Nosson Vershubsky - Voronezh, Russia
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Rabbi Elyse Wechterman - Attleboro, MA
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Rabbi Neal Weinberg - Los Angles, CA
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Rabbi Daniel A. Weiner - Seattle, WA
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Rabbi Simkha Weintraub - New York, NY
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Rabbi David M. Weis - Northfield, NJ
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Rabbi Duvie Weiss - Newark, NJ
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Rabbi Moshe P. Weisblum - Annapolis, MD
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Rabbi Harvey Well - Skokie, IL
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Rabbi Ann White - Venice, FL
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Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener - New York, NY
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Rabbi Shohama Wiener - New Rochelle, NY
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Rabbi Jeffrey S. Wildstein - Minneapolis, MN
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Rabbi Aryeh Wineman - Troy, NY
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Rabbi Joel Wittstein - London, ON, Canada
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Rabbi Julie Wolkoff - Waltham, MA
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Rabbi Yosef Wolicki - Netanya, Israel
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Rabbi Doug Zelden - Chicago, IL
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Rabbi David J. Zucker - Aurora, CO
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Rabbi Julie Anne Zupan - Sharon, MA
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9 comments:
Source: 5 towns Jewish Times
July 20, 2007
Dear Editor,
I enjoy reading the Five Towns Jewish Times each week, especially the articles written by Rav Aryeh Zev Ginzberg. The rav's articles are filled with insight, wisdom, and wonderful stories about his personal meetings with the gedolim. I truly look forward to each and everyone. Last week's article, hoever, "The Last Mishnah," was far different. The article pained me greatly, as it showed the galut (exile) mentality of a great and wise rabbi.
The rav laments the heavy price we have paid for settling the Land of Israel: "I sometimes think about all the suffering, the loss of life, the broken families, the yesomim and yesomos who have been brought upon us by living side by side together with with more than a million b'nei Yishmael." The rav further writes about how, immediately following the great miracle Hashem made for us in the Six Day War, Rav Shach said, "with great tears and emotion, that as a consequence of this victory, Jews would be stabbed on the streets of Israel's cities."
Finally, Rav Ginzberg writes that unfortunately "Rav Shach's prophetic vision of stabbings in the streets of Eretz Yisroel" has come true. How timely that the rav wrote this article on the Shabbat before the Nine Days! Although this was not his goal, these words helped me prepare for this tragic time in our history, because I can now cry - not only over the loss of both Batei Mikdash of long ago, but also of the loss of today's great gift of liberating the Promised Land.
For 2,000 years our people prayed. For 2,000 years our people cried while seating on the floor in exile. For 2,000 years our people dreamed of coming home. Did Rav Ginzberg think that we would enter the land on "wings of an eagle"? Did he think that reclaiming the Holy Land would be easy and trouble-free? Rav Ginzberg is a tremendous talmid chacham who is surely familiar with the teaching of Chazal, who say that "Eretz Yisrael nikneit b'yesurin" - "the Land of Israel is acquired through suffering."
I too shudder at the massive loss of life that has taken place, especially in the last 15 years, in our homeland. I personally buried nine close friends, but what drives me mad, above everything else, is that these rivers of blood could have been avoided! This pain and suffering is NOT because of the b'nei Yishmael, as Rav Ginzberg incorrectly states, but because of weak and impotent leadership. This horrific leadership - supported most of the time by the gedolim - has brought us these atrocities! This is a fact that cannot be denied.
Rav Ovadiah Yosef, one of the greatest gedolim today, supported the Oslo Accords and allowed his Shas party to sit with Prime Minister Rabin. His support gave Rabin the power to bring the terrorist Arafat into the heartland of Israel. Rabbi Menachem Porush, head of the Agudah party and one who claims to take direction from the gedolim, supported, endorsed, and encouraged his party to vote last month for Shimon Peres as President of Israel! Shimon Peres? The man who gave 50,000 guns to Fatah? Agudat Yisrael, led by the gedolim, supports Shimon Peres, and then you cry over the loss of life?
In a few weeks, we will read Parshat Shoftim, which tells us the mitzvah of "eglah arufah." This mitzvah is about an unsolved murder a Jew was found murdered and nobody knows who killed him. The Torah states that the elders of the city closest to the corpse must bring a heifer, ax the back of its neck, wash their hands over it, and declare "Our hands have not spilled this blood." All of the commentaries are puzzled by this. Why must the elders, the great rabbis of the city, state that they have not spilled the blood of this Jew? Did anyone think for a minute that these great rabbis are murderers? Of course not! Rather, this act symbolizes the fact and stresses the point that these holy, wise, and righteous men must do more than just not spill blood; they are responsible to do everything in their power to save Jewish lives! These great rabbis must make certain that the Jews of their city are not in physical danger. It is not enough that they sit and learn Torah all day, confining themselves to the walls of the Yeshiva. They must take active steps to save Jewish lives.
Based on this, I ask Rav Ginzburg: Can the gedolim say, "Our hands have not spilled this blood"? Can the gedolim who were quiet during the Gaza Disengagement Plan say that - as rockets rain down on S'derot? I would really like to know the answer to that question.
I will be the first to admit to my limited Torah Knowledge, yet I know enough to agree that one must attach himself to a gadol. Baruch Hashem, I have done this. My rebbi was, and always will be, the great Rav Meir Kahane, zt'l, whom I had the privilege to know very well. This amazing Jew was a shining example to all who knew him, and he stood head and shoulders above everyone else becuase he combined Torah scholarship with Torah ACTION. He was a true scholar-warrior. He studies Torah by night and fought the physical battles of Am Yisrael by day. He fought to save Jews of all kinds, even those who never had intentions of coming to Eretz Yisrael.
I do the best I can to follow in his ways, even though in last week's paper Rav Ginzberg wrote that I reminded him of the early Zionist leaders "who held the murderous belief that the only Jew whose life is worth saving is a Jew who chooses to come to Eretz Yisrael." What total nonsense! Let it be known that I am willing to save any Jew, at any time, regardless of level of observance.
I was a proud member of the Jewish Defense League and fought goyim with my Jewish fist that was attached to my Jewish head. I was arrested four times in New York fighting for the release of Soviet Jews and never asked if these Jews would live in Israel. I am proud to call myself a Kahanist because, unlike most of the other gedolim, Rav Kahane was one who could truly say, "Our hands have not spilled this blood."
I love Eretz Yisrael and appreciate the gift that Hashem has bestowed upon us. I say Hallel on Yom HaAtzma'ut, event though I realize that the state we have today is a far cry from what we have been yearning for. Nevertheless, this state is a beginning...an infant. In order for that infant to grow, we need to nurture it. We need to work hard. We need to fight many battles-both spiritual and physical. How wonderful it would be if the Yeshiva world came out and realized this as well. How beautiful it would be if we worked together and realized how much power we could have in Israel's political system if we did not only concern ourselves with our little FRUM ghetto. The leftists understand this perfectly well, and that is why they win every election! They stand as one and defeat us each time, because we are divided while they are united.
Dear readers: Do not be depressed by the prophecy of Rav Shach. We are not condemned to be slaughtered! We are a proud and strong people who can liberate the Land from the enemy. In order to do this, we must cling to the Torah and find gedolim who will lead us in all aspects of battle. Do not listen to those who speak lashon ha'ra about the Land. This mistake was made thousands of years ago - the anniversary of which is this week on Tishah B'Av night - when the spies who were all TZADIKIM (see Midrash Tanchuma, Parshat Shelach 4) came back and said that Israel is "a land that devours its inhabitants" (Bamidbar 13:32).
Do not get depressed by the hard times our people have experienced in the Land. New leadership is on the way that will change this situation. We must show Hashem that we appreciate the gift that He has given us, and we must fight with mesirut nefesh to conquer the land and free it from the enemy.
Stay strong, my fellow Jews, and join us in the fight. Be like the tribes of Reuven and Gad who fought the physical battles even though they lived outside the Land. And most importantly of all, let's work for one thing only: the complete and total sanctification of Hashem's Name. Let the world see our unity, devotion, and selflessness, and through this dedication and commitment, let this be the last Tishah B'Av we sit on the floor and cry.
Next year in rebuilt city of Jerusalem!
With love of Israel,
Shmuel Sackett
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/
Anonymous said...
All this talk from this EXPOSE MOLESTER guy (whose blog is nearly impossible to follow) about YOB and Mandel for over a year and NOTHING has happenned. It is time to put up or shut up.
Will there be action taken or not?
8:18 PM, September 02, 2007
---------------------------------
Dear Readers,
The commenter above is critiquing me and seems quite upset about:
1) why no action has been taken thus far against YOB/Mandel?
2) stating that this blog is nearly impossible to follow.
I will address both concerns but not before I mention this.
There are two types of commenter's on these blogs that I have come across. First, there are the sincere ones who genuinely care for the survivors of abuse. They are adamant in their beliefs and truly want to see the abuser punished for their crimes. They also care very much about many other issues engulfing the Jewish population across a wide range of topics from - Kosher food, Jewish Fraudsters, Tzadikim, Reshoim, etc. These types of commenter's are real, genuine, and authentic human beings. They would rather not want to to exhort to ways of informing the public about unpleasant news in the first place, let alone on these blogs. Nevertheless, the powers that be, who turned a blind eye, and refuse to aid and assist survivors of sexual abuse - have created a situation and environment; where the only solution to safeguard it from happening again is to publicize these atrocities in the hopes that if it even saved "one life" it would be well worth it - al achas kama vkama if it were to save many lives.
The bloggers are hopefully fulfilling their job productively, and in return hope that the readers and commenter's conduct their actions with sincerity and integrity; with good willed intentions geared towards making this world a better place to live in, both spiritually and physically. This blog is devoted to being that spark, that little flame the victims need and deserve from Klal Yisroel. We as a Tzibbur owe it to them to be their voice. We are responsible to protect them from harm. We are held accountable if we were to let these victims suffer alone. That's the shita of this blog and my many assistants who have been a big part of vital and relevant information to help further this cause, OUR cause. and I would hope that everyones mindset is to have one goal, living a righteous, uplifting, and fulfilling life.
Having said all that, if you don't like what this blog is all about - then I suggest you run along and go elsewhere where you feel more comfortable and more at ease. This Blog is for informative and public awareness purposes. The information provided will hopefully enlighten and educate the public so they can be prepared and educated when confronted with corruption and deceit by their own leaders. You shall draw and make your own conclusions based on the data provided. If you feel you have something relevant to comment and add to the thread; by all means go ahead and do so. However, as I'v already stated, this blog exposemolestes, is meant to serve as a public awareness forum. It started out as a yob/mandel informational tool on the web, but has since grown to so much more than that. We deal with what it is. It is what it it is, but it it doesn't have to be like that.
We are faced with all aspects of Jewish corruption. We're being led by tainted leadership who have rivers of Jewish blood on their hands. Even if we finished with YOB today, this blog would still be here - because unfortunately; the travesties are not just limited to yob, they go well beyond that. Nebach, there are so many more things, some far worse than what Yehuda Nussbaum did to several boys. Far more disrurbing than what even Kolko did to boys in the boiler room at YTT. Believe it or not, shloime mandel and lipel margulis have lots of other company when it comes to attempting to cover-up crimes; and when it comes to hindering the prosecution so that the abuser can continue in his psychotic ways. They have all the company of the Jews who sold treif all those years to unsuspecting Jews. They have the company of the rabbi's who knew about the treif meat and chicken but kept their mouth shut. They have the company of many miserable lowlifes that's for sure. That's why this blog will still much to my displeasure, but much to what is needed, unfortunately, still be here until the day will come when clear and positive conditions will enable such blogs to turn their negative investigative reporting into a much happier zone in the future, One that will be able to report good news all the time. One that will be able to publish posts that reflect the the true Jewish leadership that Klal Yisroel wants and deserves.
For the time being, the comments are open for you to make a point, suggestion, criticism, or whatever floats your boat. I couldn't care less if there were zero comments, so long that the information provided in these pages prove to be useful, relevant, practicable, and beneficial to those who were/are victims of abuse; or any other wrong things - and to those who care about their plight and agony and want to end the cycle of corruption in the Jewish sect and beyond.
I answer to nobody, that is except to Hakodosh Baruch Hu, of course. I fear nobody except the Ribonoi shelolam. I go with what my gut and what my conscience tells me to do. If you disagree with me, so what. I don't care, so long as you are not foolish or stupid in your rationale. You want to hate me? Go ahead and hate me. Big deal. I'll send you a love letter if it were to cheer you up a little bit. I'm not here to be in a popularity contest. We're here to present you the facts as brutal and sick as they are. Some will be gory. Some will make you very angry and mad. Some will make you very sad. Some will even make you cry - if you have any conscience at all, that is. You don't want to read or be informed about it here, then don't come here. Don't go to similar sites either. Perhaps, don't even go on the web at all. Don't listen to the news or read the papers. Go learn some Torah. Go do a mitzvah. Just don't clog the blogs up with bitter talk about how you feel so bad for all the Jews while you do nothing to help out. Don't clutter up the blogs with your defense of sexual offenders and other abuse - at every opportunity that arises - because you're so-called scared how it would look and reflect upon the Jewish people.
Second kind of commenter is just the pure old gossip machine seeker. The commenter is not really interested with the issue at hand per say, rather he is purely focused on the "inside goods". "the latest scoop". The commenter doesn't give a rat's behind about the real time victims and how they're coping with their lives. The commenter gives not one hoot or iota about implementing methods and procedures that will prevent abuse from re-occurring in the future. No, the commenter is not at all concerned about that.
So what does this type of commenter want then? They merely want the Gossip. The bit. The bite. The goods. The morsel. The mouthful. The titbit. The treat.
Oh yeah! great that you feed off of other peoples sorrow. Fantastic, that you get a buzz from reading about a rabbi getting arrested for sexually abusing children. Kul Hakavod, that you have no conscience. Pat yourself on the back for always being in the in on the latest news developments; but doing nothing in return to contribute - by putting an end to whatever tidbit of information is blowing your mind away!
I hope that my attacker was the first kind of commenter, because I sure as heck do cry and do care about the tragedies, injustices, and immorality by many of our leaders. I sincerely care. Call me crazy, but for some reason my conscience has no room for tolerating the bogus, fake, counterfeit, and baloney Jews that are butchering up our religion. I will not permit our Torah that my neshama had the privlage of being there when it was given at har sinai, to be corrupted and disguised by many the way it is today. I will not sit idly by while the blood of my neighbor is being spilled. I refuse to blend in with a mentality that wants to hush things up instead of dealing with them.
I will not acquiesce to, or grant the cycle of abuse permission to bear its ugly head once again.
The people of trash, scum, and rubbish, that want to quiet these crimes, that want to silence the abused individuals - Will be condemned to gehonim. They will surely burn in hell after Hashem will ask the question: What did you do to make sure that other people won't have to go through the pain and agony that so and so is experiencing? What did you do to prevent further loss of life? What did you do to feel that Jews pain as if it were your own? You did nothing you scoundrel. You sat on your fat ass and fressed your way through an agudah event while kids and adults were being abused, that's what you did. You wrote comments and wasted your life away. You had the mind, the power, the knowledge, the scoop, but was too busy crying "Chilul Hashem" can't do that. Can't get a molester in trouble - chas vesholom, it's a Chilul Hashem! What about the fact that more boys and girls will get abused as a result? Nish geferlech! Hashem Yaazor. Wow! I'm really impressed by these Torah Scholars. Chilul Hashem is Doicheh (pushes away) sex abuse. Oh, but what about if I could convince you that it's not? Then you'll come up with a new pshat that a potential shidduch for the abusers children, overrides sex abuse as well. Wow again! I learn something new everyday. And so it is, whatever your excuse it is for not moving in a direction that ensures the safety of Klal Yisroel - You had no idea, you couldn't, you wished that you could, the excuses keep piling up like a ton of bricks - you better be prepared for one thing, and that's a reserved one way ticket to hell - hopefully sooner, rather than later!
I will now start with the more complicated one, that being the question of why there is no lawsuit or big drama yet in the yob/mandel/nussbaum fiasco.
The answer is not simple. There is a lot that has happened since over a year ago when this blog came about. YOB did finally attempt to reach out after much prodding from this and other blogs - but were insincere in their efforts or their assurances that Rabbi Yehudah Nussbaum would be fired as per agreed upon in the many discussions we had during the negotiation period (read the thread "Rabbi Menachem Manis Mandel atrocities", in which it goes into great detail about the meetings and negotiations that were held to no avail.)
Also the system in New York ranks as one of the poorest States when it comes to protecting the rights and freedom of victims who have been sexually violated. That being the case, it is a bigger uphill battle than most other States that have far more stricter guidelines that protect the abused.
This does not mean - that just because nothing such as a lawsuit or arrest has taken place yet, that it will not happen down the road. Just because that kind of gossipy information is not a reality yet, doesn't mean that it will not be a newsreel in the future. It's not fast enough for some commenter's reading these blogs, that's too bad. Find some other way to fill your time if the entertainment that you so desire is not up to your expectations. I promise you this though. This blog is well thought out and planned. There are many good folks contributing in many ways, and I am so grateful to them. There is a method to my madness. I assure you that. There are things brewing and cooking. In this line of business, not everything will the public be privy to know. There is the major aspect of respecting the privacy of some of the victims who request anonymity for now. There are many elements that come into play, that factor in, that the readers are not aware of because of the delicate nature of the situation.
There is always the element of surprise. You never know when something of substance that gossipers would have a field day with may occur. many of you are craving for that day either because you want justice served or you just want a nice juicy story to kick around. Whenever that day comes, if it's soon, if it's somewhat soon, if its far in the distance, whenever it may be - It's being worked on constantly. When it happens it will come with a big bang. Don't think for a second that a lawsuit has been ruled out. Have some savlanut, some patience will go a long way. I'm impatient trust me. I want justice done yesterday. I want results. Believe me I do. But this one has so far taken more time than I had anticipated. The other side declared war, and war it is. It's a war to conquer back the Torah as it was meant to be practiced. Time can bring results. Please have patience if you want the big story or else just turn off the dial. Meanwhile, if you feel like the content on this site is something you want to be a part of, and you want to help the cause of saving lives and preventing future tragedies from taking place then - welcome my dear friends, my dear brothers, my dear fellow Jews!
Now to the second point that this Blog was hard to follow. We have made some changes to make this Blog more user friendly and easier to navigate through. Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention and feel free to put in your input if you feel any other changes should be made.
EM
Just so you know, I enjoy reading your blog very much. You're sincere and accurate. Your in your face style is something we need. The anonymous commenter who criticized you sounds like a jerk that has nothing better what to do with his time.
Supporter,
Thank you my friend. Yasher Koach for the kind words. I rolled with the punches and I'm still here, B'H :)
I do thank anon for the makeover that we have given this blog. It's much easier to navigate through this site now.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070828&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=708280345&SectionCat=&Template=printart
JULY 24: Planners overturn decision to allow school
LAWSUIT: Alleges restrictions on religious freedom
Yeshiva claims harassment
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/28/07
BY BOB JORDAN
FREEHOLD BUREAU
Story Chat Post Comment
ROOSEVELT — Congregants and students affiliated with a yeshiva and synagogue have been subject to a relentless campaign of harassment by the borough, a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court says.
The suit alleging attempts to restrict religious freedom comes a month after the local Planning Board reversed a zoning officer's decision allowing the establishment of a yeshiva.
The yeshiva opened to controversy in September 2005 with a freshman class of 12, with yeshiva opponents saying the 2-square-mile municipality of about 1,000 residents lacked the resources to handle the impact of the extra activity.
Attorney Bruce D. Shoulson filed the lawsuit on behalf of Congregation Yeshivas Me'on Hatorah and Congregation Anshei Roosevelt. Numerous borough-appointed and elected officials are named as defendants, including Mayor Beth Battel, who could not be reached for comment.
Borough Administrator William Schmeling said he had not seen the filing.
"I'm not aware of it," Schmeling said.
Shoulson, a member of the Lowenstein Sandler law firm of Roseland, said the lawsuit seeks to overturn the Planning Board's July 24 decision that the operation of the yeshiva on the premises of the synagogue is not in compliance with zoning ordinances. The suit also seeks injunctions against "further interference with the activities of the yeshiva as well as damages," Shoulson said.
The yeshiva's executive vice president, Joshua Pruzansky, said organizers had considered Roosevelt a good location to open a yeshiva.
"We considered the town a perfect model of stability, tranquillity and tolerance," Pruzansky said. "We were, to say the least, shocked by the reception that we received."
Residents in 2006 ousted Mayor Neil Marko from office in a recall vote, which Shoulson said was a result of Marko's support for the yeshiva. Zoning changes were created, and other legal roadblocks were erected, Shoulson said.
The recall election took place in February 2006. Marko was halfway through his four-year term. Battel was elected as the new mayor to fill out the remainder of the term, which ends Dec. 31.
According to the lawsuit, Roosevelt is the only New Jersey municipality that has a synagogue as its lone house of worship. The property at 18 Homestead Lane is located in the borough's residential zone. In approximately 1955, the congregation constructed the synagogue and has since continuously held religious services and provided teaching to members of the Jewish faith at the site, the lawsuit states.
But over time, the congregation's membership declined to "where it was difficult to obtain a minyan — the quorum of 10 men necessary to conduct a prayer service or ceremony," the suit states.
A board of trustees agreed to enter into a lease agreement with the yeshiva to operate and conduct "religious and secular educational studies at the property," the suit states.
"From the outset, certain borough residents vehemently opposed the yeshiva operating from the synagogue premises," the suit continues. "The virulence expressed by those opposed to the yeshiva produced scorn and public indignation for anyone who supported, or at least did not oppose, the yeshiva."
The yeshiva, a high school for Orthodox Jewish boys, started its third year earlier this month, Pruzansky said. He said the yeshiva has 50 students in grades 9, 10 and 11.
Four houses associated with the yeshiva have been cited by the state Department of Community Affairs as being improper multiperson dwellings.
Two weeks ago, Construction Official Robert W. Ward, who works for Community Affairs, issued Me'on Hatorah yeshiva a "notice of imminent hazard" for its single-family house at 2 Homestead Lane. The house had more than five unrelated persons residing there, according to Jennifer Monaghan, a Community Affairs spokeswoman.
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They just don't get it! When you not welcome your not welcome. Does anyone really think that they care. Hell no. It sorta reminds one of Israel where they kept building and building on other peoples land even though they were not wanted....I live here in Lakewood. If anyone wants to see the results of over 57 supposed schools. Come on down. Want to see dirty stinkin slums
come on down. Don't let it happen in your town...
Posted by: shadoh12 on Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:58 pm
Religious Extremists, always wanting to do something improperly. Weather it's flying planes into buildings or running schools without proper safety standards, we just tolerate too much.
Posted by: bythepeople on Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:14 pm
They are just following in the Ocean Grove CAMP logic, if you are wrong, file a lawsuit and try and scare people away. Anytime someone doesn't like what a religious group is doing, they are labeled anti-religion.
Posted by: AsburyFuture on Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:35 am
It's GREAT that the planning board of Roosevelt, the Mayor and the citizens spoke up and decided not to allow these people to turn this nice, quite town into Lakewood West. (AKA The Sewer)
Hold your ground and I wish you all the best in your fight.
I guess me & the other poster will be accused of being an anti-semite. WHO gives a crap. Right is Right.
Posted by: maremo on Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:48 am
Here we go again. Orthodox jews comlaining about how the whole world is against them. Grow up already, you meatheads.
Regardless of the fact that their houses don't comform to code. And their school doesn't conform to code and no one wanted them their to begin with or the fact that they will just keep exanding and expanding like the ones in Lakewood and Ocean Twp.
But I guess since they are jews they expect everyone to just turn the other cheek as usual and let them get away with breaking the rules to suit their own needs. Bout time someone stood up to them. And you can't say its all about religious persecution since the other people in Roosevelt opposing them are jews, too.
They run these schools like businesses and they should be treated as businesses, not religious entities. Ever see how much money they have "donated" to them ever year? Didn't the one in West Long Branch have like $7 or $10 million donated last year? Just look at the salaries that schmuck Dwek and his wife were getting. Over $100,000 a year to be a secretary!?! And then they were renting their tax free houses out illegally.
Honestly, the problems with them are getting worse than with the illegal mexicans.
Posted by: kodi69 on Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:44 am
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Nikol said...
While I mostly agree with your post, this article by Obadiah Shoher presents the haredim in somewhat different light http://samsonblinded.org/blog/not-true-rabbis.htm Shoher argues against haredim isolating themselves from other Jews instead of bringing the religion to masses.
September 15, 2007
Nikol,
You bring a very valid point to light. Haredim isolating themselves from other Jews without making any attempt to unite and understand their perspective is downright wrong. True leadership qualities is the one whose mental capacity is not just limited to his/her religious upbringing.
This is a topic which merits its own thread in a future post.
-------------------------------
http://samsonblinded.org/blog/not-true-rabbis.htm
Not true rabbis
Religious professionals played a huge role in the unification and survival of the Jewish people. Yeshiva students do the immensely important work of preserving Judaism. The current situation is different.
Though almost all Jewish males historically studied Tanakh, few of them pursued the religion as a full-time occupation. Judaism, a religion of worldly deeds, emphasizes the need for productive work. Whatever Rabbi Karo surmised, Hillel worked arduously, and so did Maimonides. Their work did not prevent them from becoming among the most prominent Jewish scholars of all time. Rabbi Akiva joined Bar Kochba’s army. In more distant times, Joshua bin Nun – a prophet – led a Jewish army; obviously, Joshua devoted much time to military exercise. Even a hundred years ago, professional rabbis were few. Jewish communities gladly paid wages to several rabbinical leaders, and provided meager charity to some others, but overall the number of religious professionals was negligible. They constantly interacted with common Jews, and imparted religious knowledge and morality. The picture of closed communities of yeshiva students and rabbis, divorced from Jewish society and work, wearing 300-year-old garb – which was nice and modern at the time it was introduced – is appalling.
Then as now, yeshivas were privately funded. The State of Israel gives very little money to yeshivas. So what’s our problem with the professional Jews? It’s defamation. They misrepresent Judaism. Our religion is about productive life, not monastic isolation and a black market economy. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Zeira communicated with bandits, and they eventually reformed. Rabbis exist for the sake of the Jewish community. Whether the community is good or bad, religious or otherwise – the rabbis must live in it and actively communicate with common Jews – trying to change us for the better. Instead, today’s ultra-Orthodox rabbis imagine the common Jews as tax-paying, army-serving human cattle unworthy of Judaism.
The rabbis who isolate themselves from the Jewish world in a time of spiritual crisis are not worthy of their title.
The Fast of Gedalia (or Gedaliah) (IPA: [ˌgɛdlˈaɪə] or IPA: [gɪˈdɑlyə]) (Hebrew צום גדליה, Tzom Gedaliah) is a Jewish fast day from dawn till dusk to lament the assassination of the righteous governor of Judah of that name, which left Judah devoid of any Jews and Jewish rule, and made the destruction of the first Temple
* 1 Origins
* 2 In Hebrew Bible
* 3 Institution of fast
* 4 Dates
* 5 Observances
[edit] Origins
When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, he killed and exiled most of its inhabitants and appointed Gedaliah, son of Achikam as governor of the now-Babylonian province of Judah. Many Jews who had fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other neighboring lands returned to Judah, tended the vineyards again, and enjoyed a new respite after their earlier suffering.
Baalis king of Ammon, however, hostile and envious of the Judean remnant, sent and encouraged a Jew, Yishmael Ben Netaniah to assassinate Gedaliah. In the seventh month (Tishrei), Yishmael came to Gedaliah in the town of Mitzpa and was received cordially. Gedaliah had been warned of his guest's murderous intent, but refused to believe his informants, having the belief that their report was mere slander. Yishmael murdered Gedaliah, together with most of the Jews who had joined him and many Babylonians whom the Babylonian King had left with Gedaliah. The remaining Jews feared the vengeance of the Babylonian King (seeing as his chosen ruler, Gedaliah, had been killed by a Jew) and fled to Egypt.
[edit] In Hebrew Bible
The events are recounted in the Hebrew Bible in 2 Kings 25:25-26
But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mitzpah.
And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
[edit] Institution of fast
The surviving remnant of Jews was thus dispersed and the land remained desolate. In remembrance of these tribulations, the Jewish sages instituted the 'Fast of the Seventh' (see Zechariah 8:19) on the day of Gedaliah's assassination in the seventh month.
There is some suggestion that Gedaliah was slain on the first day of Tishri, but the fast was postponed till after Rosh Hashanah, since fasting is prohibited during a festival. Concerning this fast day, the Rabbis have said that its aim is to establish that the death of the righteous is likened to the burning of the house of God. Just as they ordained a fast upon the destruction of the Jewish Temple, likewise they ordained a fast upon the death of Gedaliah.
[edit] Dates
The fast is observed immediately after the second day of the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashana, the third of Tishrei in the Hebrew calendar. The Gregorian date for The Fast of Gedalia varies from year to year based on when it corresponds with the third of Tishrei.
When Rosh Hashanah falls on Thursday and Friday, the fast is postponed until Sunday (which would be the fourth of Tishrei), since no public fast may be observed on Shabbat (Saturday) with the exception of Yom Kippur.
In 2006, this fast day was observed on September 25.
In 2007, this fast day is observed on September 16 (fourth of Tishrei).
In 2008, this fast day is observed on October 2.
In 2009, this fast day is observed on September 21.
[edit] Observances
The fast is observed from daybreak until the stars appear at night. As a minor fast day, other laws of mourning are not required. The cantor includes the prayer Aneinu in the repetition of the Shachrit and in private recitation of the Mincha amidah. The Avinu Malkeinu prayer is recited. A Torah scroll is taken from the ark, the Thirteen Divine Attributes are said, and the Passages of Vayechal are read from the Torah (Exodus 32:11-14 and 34:1-10). The same Torah reading and also a Haftorah reading are added at Mincha.
Yishmael Ben Netania - a Jew, murders Gedaliah, son of Achikam - Another Jew. Thus, Jew murdered Jew(s).
"Gedaliah had been warned of his guest's murderous intent, but refused to believe his informants, having the belief that their report was mere slander."
How Ironic it is - that Jews are being maimed and murdered by other Jews today - and the masses refuse to acknowledge this significant fact. And what's one of the main reason Jews are being recklessly abandoned and spit at, and killed? Slander! Loshon Harah!
We mustn't believe that another Jew is capable of the sexual abuse of a child, that would be "slander". We may not accuse the holy Rabbi's of sitting on their royal behinds and trying every which way to cover up these abuses, because again that would be "slander".
We may not conclude that eating trief and non-kosher products is a direct result of corrupted Rabbi's and Jews being machshil the rabim, because again that falls under the "slander" clause.
Had Gedaliah believed the informants who warned him that he and the other Jews would be murdered - Instead of merely concluding that Yishmael was just a guest, and that the reports of him assassinating Gedaliah was nothing more than slander - Many Jews would have been saved from being killed, including Gedaliah.
Let us not be silent while our fellow Jews are being led like sheep to the slaughter. It is NOT slander when informing others of murderous intentions, even if the accused is a JEW! It is not Loshon Harah when you tell someone that a certain Rabbi molests children. It is not slander to embarrass a Rabbi who attempts to cover-up for a sex abuser. It is not Loshon Hara to report a Rabbi who knew treif meat was being sold to unsuspecting Jews, but for whatever reason didn't stop it from taking place. It is a mitzvah to embarrass the perpetrators and those who cover-up for them. We hope Klal Yisroel don't end up being murdered, hurt, maimed, and killed by making the same mistake that Gedaliah, son of Achikam made by refusing to heed the warnings of the informants.
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