Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Assemblywoman Markey Urges Support for “Child Victims Act of New York”


http://tampabay.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/ny-child-victim-act-amended-to-include-public-institutions.aspx?googleid=264200

NY Child Victim Act Amended to Include Public Institutions

Posted by Joe Saunders
Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:53 AM EST

In a surprising move, NY state Rep. Margaret Markey has announced that she'll offer an amendment to her Child Victim Act bill to include public institutions as well.

The Child Victim Act is designed to give a voice to those who've suffered childhood sexual abuse but had no legal recourse due to the statute of limitations. The amendment will remove the sole objection the Catholic Church and other private institutions have had regarding the bill.

Now that the amendment has been offered, there should be no excuse whatsoever to oppose the legislation. Even NY Catholic Church officials were taken off guard by the announcement. A spokesperson for the NY State Catholic Conference told the NY Times, "This is not what we expected; this is something new.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/nyregion/04abuse.html

June 4, 2009

Sex Abuse Bill to Include Public Institutions, Too

Addressing complaints from Roman Catholic officials and others, the state assemblywoman sponsoring a bill to temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children said on Wednesday that she would amend her proposal to apply to public as well as private entities.

The change would give people who say they were abused in public schools, for example, the same opportunities to sue as those claiming abuse in religious or private schools.

The assemblywoman, Margaret M. Markey, a Queens Democrat, said fellow lawmakers supporting the bill, known as the Child Victim Act, had told her that their constituents’ most persistent reservations about it were based “on the idea that this was somehow unfair.”

“I think the vigorous debate we’ve had this year has made this a better bill,” she said in a statement.

The move seemed to surprise both advocates and opponents of the legislation, which has been the focus of a lobbying battle for months pitting advocates for protection against sex abuse of children, and their lawyers, against a coalition of religious organizations facing huge potential civil liabilities and some civil rights lawyers chary of compromising statutes of limitations.

Spokesmen for the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, which have sent priests, youth groups and official delegates to Albany repeatedly in recent months to argue against Ms. Markey’s bill, said they had not seen the proposed amendment nor had an inkling it was coming.

Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm for the state’s Catholic prelates, echoed reaction from many on both sides, saying, “This is not what we expected; this is something new.”

Ms. Markey has championed the legislation for the past three sessions, but this is the first time it has stood a chance of passing.

While the bill itself did not create the inequity, it gave opponents a strong argument because it did not address a built-in protection that public agencies enjoy. The protection, which many states provide under the British common law tradition of “crown immunity,” limits the liability of public agencies by requiring anyone alleging harm to file notice of claim within 90 days.

Thus, a child abused by a teacher in a public school would have 90 days after turning 18 to file a claim. By contrast, under current law, a victim of abuse at a private or religious school can file a civil claim within five years after turning 18.

The Child Victim Act would extend that time limit to 10 years. More importantly, it would suspend the statute of limitations altogether for one year. A man of 50 who claimed he was sexually abused at age 10, for instance, would be able to file a civil suit during the one-year window.

But until Ms. Markey recast her bill on Wednesday, it did not apply to public institutions.

A competing bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez of Brooklyn and supported by Catholic officials, includes both the longer time limit for filing suit (to age 28) and a provision giving the same rights to victims in public settings, abolishing the 90-day rule where sex abuse is alleged. But it omits the one-year window for both classes of victims.

Advocates for sex abuse victims applauded the change in Ms. Markey’s bill. Although he had not seen the new language, Bob Kristan, spokesman for the New York Coalition to Protect Children, said the revision “sounds like it will help finding more predators, provide justice for more victims, and protect more children — and so we support it.”

Ron Davis, a spokesman for the United Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers in New York City schools, said the union “supports any reasonable measures that seek to protect children, so we are not opposed to this modification.”

Fresh opposition to the bill, however, may yet emerge. On Wednesday, few municipal officials had heard of the new version. But Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, which represents about 700 superintendents, said that his group would now oppose the bill. The superintendents had previously taken no position on it.

“Statutes of limitations exist for a reason,” Mr. Lowry said. “We would have a concern about litigation arising that would be hard to respond to because witnesses could have disappeared or even died in years past.”

Religious institutions opposing the Child Victim Act, which is sponsored in the Senate by Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, have argued that they would be bankrupted by a deluge of new lawsuits, and that the bill is inherently discriminatory.

When he introduced his competing measure, Assemblyman Lopez said he was motivated partly by a sense of its arbitrary unfairness — “where you can only get justice if you are abused in this building, but if you got hurt across the street, too bad.”

Mr. Lopez said on Wednesday that although he had not seen the revised version of the Markey bill, he was pleased it now included equity for sex abuse victims in public institutions.

But he will not drop his own bill, he said. “I’m still opposed to any legislation that lets you sue somebody for something that happened 40 years ago,” he said. “That’s crazy.”

David W. Chen and Javier C. Hernandez contributed reporting.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stabus0312834537jun02,0,1055524.story

Sex abuse victims lobby in Albany for limitations bill

ALBANY - Beth McCabe is a smiling 12-year-old with wavy dark hair in the photograph on display in the Legislative Office Building.

The former Lindenhurst resident is one of 18 adults who contributed childhood snaps to an exhibit aimed at winning support for temporarily lifting the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases. Eight of the photos are of people who grew up on Long Island.

McCabe, now 60, said a visiting Catholic priest abused her between 1960 and 1963. "I'm here as proof that these things happen," she said. "And I support this bill because it provides a window where victims can come forward to expose predators who continue to abuse."

She and other participants in the photo exhibit spent much of Tuesday lobbying on behalf of the bill from Assemb. Margaret M. Markey (D-Maspeth).

The measure seeks to give abuse victims a one-year window to file suit in civil court regardless of how long ago the assault occurred. It also adds several years onto the current statute of limitations, which is five years after an accuser turns 18.

The bill previously was passed by the Assembly, only to die in the then-Republican-controlled State Senate.

A rival bill from Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) also extends the statute of limitations but doesn't provide for the one-year window on old cases.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre and others oppose the Markey bill, saying it unfairly targets the Catholic Church by exempting public schools and other local governments. Church officials have raised the specter of bankruptcy if the bill becomes law. They back the Lopez measure.
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http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=030&sh=story&story=26400

News from
Assemblywoman
Margaret M. Markey
30th Assembly District Assemblywoman Markey Urges Support for “Child Victims Act of New York”
March 20, 2008

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey was featured speaker at the 2008 Legislative Breakfast of the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault in Albany on March 19, 2008.

Speaking on a program with the coalition’s executive director, Jane McEwen, and board member Varrone Munger, Assemblywoman Markey told the audience that research shows that one in five children in America are sexually abused.

She described how her Assembly bill (A.4560-B) will provide greater justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse and help identify and stop sexual predators from continuing their abuse. With passage of her Assembly bill assured in 2008, she told Coalition members that to ensure that this legislation becomes law they need to reach out to their State Senators to urge that they support the companion bill in the Senate (S.4614-A).

Following are remarks by Assemblywoman Markey at the event:

Thank you for this opportunity to speak about my legislation. As all of you here this morning know sex crimes are among the most heinous and deeply disturbing in our society. This is particularly true when they are committed against children. At present, New York State law enables sexual predators to avoid the consequences of their crimes by unreasonably shielding them from criminal prosecution and civil action.

Our present law also enables abusers to continue their predatory actions and assault new victims. We in the Legislature recognized how important it is for victims of sexual assault to get justice for the heinous crimes committed against them.

My bill – A.4560B, the Child Victims Act of New York – will provide the opportunity for victims who were shut off from justice to receive their day in court. And – equally important – it will help identify and expose predators who will otherwise roam freely to repeat their abuse again and again.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that about one in five American children are sexually abused before age 18. But only about 10 percent of these secretive crimes are ever reported. Because of the young age of those who are abused, and the position of authority most abusers have over their victims, the window of time to bring charges, under present law, is far too restrictive.

My bill extends the statute of limitations for bringing charges in child sex abuse cases – in cases where the victim does not report it to law enforcement – from age 18 to age 23. It also calls for a similar extension in the civil statute of limitations. These changes would give a child victim until at least the age of 28 to seek prosecution or civil redress.

One other important provision of my bill – just like the ones that became law in California and Delaware – is creation of a one-year “window” in the civil statute of limitations provisions. This provides one-year from the effective date of the law where victims of any age would be able to seek damages for past instances of child sexual abuse. This important provision will enable many victims who are now adults to get the justice they have previously been denied under the current restrictive law.

My legislation has been adopted by the Assembly three times and will be voted on again shortly.

Senator Stephen M. Saland is sponsor of the companion bill in the State Senate, 4614-A. Last year, his bill did not even come out of the Senate Codes Committee. To help ensure it is enacted in this session, we need the help of everybody in this room. We need you to reach out to your local Senator and urge him or her to support Senator Saland’s bill.

==================================================================

Assemblywoman
Margaret M. Markey
30th Assembly District

Contact Information

DISTRICT OFFICE

55-19 69th Street
Maspeth, NY 11378
718-651-3185

ALBANY OFFICE

LOB 654
Albany, NY 12248
518-455-4755

============================================================

http://www.forward.com/articles/107113/

Orthodox Video Silent on Reporting Sexual Abuse to Police

By Rebecca Dube

Published June 03, 2009, issue of June 12, 2009.

A government-funded video made by one of New York’s largest Orthodox social service agencies — touted as its guide for dealing with child sexual abuse — makes no mention of abuse as a crime to be reported to police.

Critics say the video raises questions about Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, which is heavily supported by taxpayers and deeply involved in the Brooklyn district attorney’s efforts surrounding child sexual abuse in ultra-traditional Orthodox Jewish communities. Some Orthodox leaders, those critics say, including those at Ohel, have tried wrongly to handle sexual abuse within the community, excluding secular law enforcement authorities — leading to abuse being covered up and cases of pedophiles remaining free to molest more children.

“The only way to begin dealing with this issue is to begin reporting any incidents of sexual abuse directly to the authorities,” said Lonnie Soury, spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group of Orthodox sexual abuse survivors. “Any organization that advocates anything but that is doing so at the expense of children’s health.”

The Ohel DVD calls the phenomenon of child sexual abuse in the Jewish community a shande, meaning a scandal or shame, and urges victims and their families to seek counseling. It warns schools that they are responsible “to do everything, by all means,” about the abuse. And it instructs parents to “do whatever you can to make sure that your child is never put into that position again.”

“What we want to do is evoke action,” declares Ohel CEO David Mandel at the video’s conclusion.

But the word “police” is not spoken once during the 10-minute video, titled “Ignorance Is Not Bliss.” Nor is sexual abuse ever described as a criminal act. None of the speakers suggests calling 911, city or state child welfare services, or any other secular authority. The DVD, produced in 2004 and updated in 2007, according to its copyright notice, is freely distributed as a resource for survivors, parents, educators and community leaders.

The Brooklyn-based Ohel, a leading social services agency serving the Jewish community, defends the video.

“This specific video, ‘Ignorance Is Not Bliss,’ which was produced some eight years ago, is not about the logistics of how to report, or who to report to,” said Ohel spokesman Derek Saker, who responded to questions from the Forward in an e-mail. “Rather it was developed as an educational and informational tool for the community, to raise awareness of such shocking abuse, communicate an understanding of what such abuse is, how it affects so many, and its consequences on victims and families.”

Mandel refers regularly to the DVD as a resource for people who want to know what to do about child sexual abuse; most recently, in a full-page advertisement published May 13 in The Jewish Week, the organization listed watching the video as a “practical suggestion” for community members who want to take action against abuse.

The video begins with testimony from survivors of child sexual abuse and the mothers of two victims, describing the devastating impact of the abuse. The presentation then segues into various community leaders explaining why it is important not to shame sexual abuse survivors but to bring their stories out into the light and stop sexual predators.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, a highly respected rosh yeshiva at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, says in the video, “For victims, I would say that it is their duty… and a mitzvah, to go and reveal their stories.”

But the video never specifies to whom the victims should reveal their stories, or what responsibility adults have to report suspected abuse to law enforcement authorities.

The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was molested, whose story is held up as an example, says that she told community members about the molestation because “I was not going to let this man get away with it.”

“I didn’t treat it like it’s a secret, because the molesters, this is what they thrive on,” she says. “They think everyone should just keep it a secret.”

The woman is not identified, and she’s filmed behind a screen to hide her face. She makes no mention of calling police, or sending the molester to prison — the only surefire way to stop a pedophile from victimizing more children.

Aaron Twerski, a professor at Brooklyn Law School and a national expert on tort law, says in the video, “Every case that exists is a tragedy, and the fact that one molester can affect so many people makes this a problem that we just can’t look away from.”

Twerski does not suggest any legal remedies to the problem.

Contacted by the Forward, Twerski said that reporting abuse to police is a complex issue that could not be fully raised in the 10-minute video.

“The focus of that video was to alert the community to the problem,” Twerski said. “It’s a complex question of who has to report, and who is a mandated reporter. I’m not sure we could do it in that video.”

While the legal intricacies around mandated reporting may indeed be complex, the moral obligation of ordinary citizens is clear, Soury said: Report suspected child sexual abuse to authorities.

“It’s like someone breaking into your house and hurting you — should that be handled in the community?” Soury said. “No, you call 911 when there’s a crime.”

Soury said that efforts to deal with pedophiles within the religious community have failed because rabbis, principals and other community leaders are not equipped to investigate, prosecute and punish serious crimes. “The community cannot handle it. The community is not law enforcement,” Soury said. “These are terrible crimes against children.”

This is not the first time a video has raised questions about Ohel’s commitment to reporting abuse. Mandel was videotaped speaking at a February 2008 workshop in Baltimore about sexual abuse, during which he seemed to suggest ways to avoid reporting incidents of sexual abuse.

In a response to a question about a father molesting his child, Mandel said, “One of the ways we advise the family to handle this is — for the protection of the family and so that the case does not have to become reportable to authorities, which is a whole separate conversation — we strongly advise and sometimes make a statement that the father needs to leave the house, period.”

A video of his remarks was posted on YouTube by The Awareness Center, a Baltimore-based Jewish group fighting against child sexual abuse. At the end of Mandel’s remarks, an unidentified person in the audience shouts out, “What about calling Child Protection [a state agency]?” Mandel ignores the question.

Ohel’s response to child sexual abuse is not just an issue for the Orthodox community; it’s also a matter of taxpayer concern. Ohel runs a large and successful foster care program (ranked No. 1 in New York in 2006), and subsists mainly on government funding. In 2006, the most recent year for which tax documents are publicly available, Ohel received $38 million in taxpayer money, 89% of its total revenue.

The “Ignorance Is Not Bliss” video was produced with a grant from the New York State Office of Mental Health. Spokeswoman Jill Daniels said the amount of monitoring by her agency varies when it funds projects such as Ohel’s, and that she didn’t know how involved the agency had been in the video’s production. Daniels did say her agency’s policy is that anyone who suspects child abuse of any kind should report it to authorities.

Earlier this year, Ohel was selected by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office as a partner in its Kol Tzedek hot line, which is aimed at encouraging Orthodox Jewish victims to report abuse to authorities. Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said he hadn’t seen the “Ignorance Is Not Bliss” video but said that District Attorney Charles Hynes has a good working relationship with Ohel.

“We encourage anyone with knowledge of a crime to call the police. That’s all I’ll say about that,” Schmetterer said.

One unusual aspect of Ohel’s video is that it features an interview with a confessed child molester who speaks behind a screen to shield his identity. The pedophile says that his tactic for molesting children was to ask them how much they weighed, then pick them up to “test” their weight as an excuse to fondle them.

“I’m only one person, but look at all the people I messed up,” the molester says.

The Forward asked Ohel’s Saker what happened to this pedophile and whether his abuse of numerous children in the Orthodox community was ever reported to police. Saker did not respond to the question.

Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com

44 comments:

Rabbi David Zwiebel said...

Sexual abuse of children is an unspeakably terrible thing. And, to our great pain and chagrin, we in the Orthodox Jewish community have discovered over recent years that it is also apparently a far more common thing than any of us had ever imagined. Whether, as some claim, the problem is even greater in Orthodox circles than in broader society, whether it is just as bad or whether it is less prevalent, the bottom line is by now clear and undeniable: significant numbers of children growing up in Orthodox homes and attending Orthodox institutions are victims of sexual abuse.

It is also by now clear and undeniable that the scars left by such abuse are often deep and permanent, affecting victims’ social and emotional development, undermining their religious identification and observance, even leading to acts of self-destruction.

Once we could say we didn’t know. Now we know. And part of the reason we know is that victims and their advocates — like those who picketed our dinner — have made their voices heard. As I told a Jewish Week reporter last week, these people have a special claim on our attention and conscience.

But their brash indictment of our organizations and rabbinic leaders is both misguided and offensive.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a15905/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html

Yaakov Perlow said...

Bloggers have made me fress asach. When they blame me for the chatoim of the past of our very own erlich and chushuve rabbonim - I reach for some cake to make me happy.

Ohel CEO David Mandel said...

Why should I tell people to call the police. I'm the one who holds that one must only go to a rabbi. Don't you remember the Baltimore tirade I went on blasting those who report molesters to law enforcement?
____________________________________

A government-funded video made by one of New York’s largest Orthodox social service agencies — touted as its guide for dealing with child sexual abuse — makes no mention of abuse as a crime to be reported to police.

Critics say the video raises questions about Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, which is heavily supported by taxpayers and deeply involved in the Brooklyn district attorney’s efforts surrounding child sexual abuse in ultra-traditional Orthodox Jewish communities. Some Orthodox leaders, those critics say, including those at Ohel, have tried wrongly to handle sexual abuse within the community, excluding secular law enforcement authorities — leading to abuse being covered up and cases of pedophiles remaining free to molest more children.

“The only way to begin dealing with this issue is to begin reporting any incidents of sexual abuse directly to the authorities,” said Lonnie Soury, spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group of Orthodox sexual abuse survivors. “Any organization that advocates anything but that is doing so at the expense of children’s health.”

The Ohel DVD calls the phenomenon of child sexual abuse in the Jewish community a shande, meaning a scandal or shame, and urges victims and their families to seek counseling. It warns schools that they are responsible “to do everything, by all means,” about the abuse. And it instructs parents to “do whatever you can to make sure that your child is never put into that position again.”

“What we want to do is evoke action,” declares Ohel CEO David Mandel at the video’s conclusion.

But the word “police” is not spoken once during the 10-minute video, titled “Ignorance Is Not Bliss.” Nor is sexual abuse ever described as a criminal act. None of the speakers suggests calling 911, city or state child welfare services, or any other secular authority. The DVD, produced in 2004 and updated in 2007, according to its copyright notice, is freely distributed as a resource for survivors, parents, educators and community leaders.

The Brooklyn-based Ohel, a leading social services agency serving the Jewish community, defends the video.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky said...

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, a highly respected rosh yeshiva at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, says in the video, “For victims, I would say that it is their duty… and a mitzvah, to go and reveal their stories.”

Aaron Twersk said...

Aaron Twerski, a professor at Brooklyn Law School and a national expert on tort law, says in the video, “Every case that exists is a tragedy, and the fact that one molester can affect so many people makes this a problem that we just can’t look away from.”

Twerski does not suggest any legal remedies to the problem.

Contacted by the Forward, Twerski said that reporting abuse to police is a complex issue that could not be fully raised in the 10-minute video.

“The focus of that video was to alert the community to the problem,” Twerski said. “It’s a complex question of who has to report, and who is a mandated reporter. I’m not sure we could do it in that video.”

Survivors for Justice said...

“The only way to begin dealing with this issue is to begin reporting any incidents of sexual abuse directly to the authorities,” said Lonnie Soury, spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group of Orthodox sexual abuse survivors. “Any organization that advocates anything but that is doing so at the expense of children’s health.”

While the legal intricacies around mandated reporting may indeed be complex, the moral obligation of ordinary citizens is clear, Soury said: Report suspected child sexual abuse to authorities.

“It’s like someone breaking into your house and hurting you — should that be handled in the community?” Soury said. “No, you call 911 when there’s a crime.”

Soury said that efforts to deal with pedophiles within the religious community have failed because rabbis, principals and other community leaders are not equipped to investigate, prosecute and punish serious crimes. “The community cannot handle it. The community is not law enforcement,” Soury said. “These are terrible crimes against children.”

rabbi avi 'no comment' shafran said...

Saker is my kind of guy--

The Forward asked Ohel’s Saker what happened to this pedophile and whether his abuse of numerous children in the Orthodox community was ever reported to police. Saker did not respond to the question.

Ohel is in cahoots with agudah and the catholics said...

This is not the first time a video has raised questions about Ohel’s commitment to reporting abuse. Mandel was videotaped speaking at a February 2008 workshop in Baltimore about sexual abuse, during which he seemed to suggest ways to avoid reporting incidents of sexual abuse.

In a response to a question about a father molesting his child, Mandel said, “One of the ways we advise the family to handle this is — for the protection of the family and so that the case does not have to become reportable to authorities, which is a whole separate conversation — we strongly advise and sometimes make a statement that the father needs to leave the house, period.”

A video of his remarks was posted on YouTube by The Awareness Center, a Baltimore-based Jewish group fighting against child sexual abuse. At the end of Mandel’s remarks, an unidentified person in the audience shouts out, “What about calling Child Protection [a state agency]?” Mandel ignores the question.

Ohel’s response to child sexual abuse is not just an issue for the Orthodox community; it’s also a matter of taxpayer concern. Ohel runs a large and successful foster care program (ranked No. 1 in New York in 2006), and subsists mainly on government funding. In 2006, the most recent year for which tax documents are publicly available, Ohel received $38 million in taxpayer money, 89% of its total revenue.

The “Ignorance Is Not Bliss” video was produced with a grant from the New York State Office of Mental Health. Spokeswoman Jill Daniels said the amount of monitoring by her agency varies when it funds projects such as Ohel’s, and that she didn’t know how involved the agency had been in the video’s production. Daniels did say her agency’s policy is that anyone who suspects child abuse of any kind should report it to authorities.

Anonymous said...

Pathetic pigs. Money is the name of the game. Jewish Orthodoxy is at the bottom of the barrel.

Welcome to the land of pedophilia, commit the crime and get away with it. Jews giving the world more opportunity to point their fingers at us. Ohel got it right. It is a SHANDA, but they are the cause of it, as is agudas israel etc.

The proof: Read and reread this piece by the Forward.

http://www.forward.com/articles/107113/

Investigate Ohel said...

Why is Ohel not under scrutiny for their botched handling of Mondrowitz and for their stance on maintaining secrecy at the expense of hurting children?

YouTube said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O78Gak5qZUQ

An Israeli minister close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not heed US President Barack Obama's call to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as a step toward renewed peace talks.

Zehava said...

For Zehava (not her real name), the decision to break with the stringent cultural norms of her tight-knit haredi community in Ramat Beit Shemesh and report the suspected sexual abuse of her three-year-old child to the secular authorities came quickly.

"I grew up in the community, but I have always been open and accepting of the world around me," begins the haredi-raised Zehava, as she shares the story of her battle against the town's religious leaders, who in her view turn a blind eye to the ongoing problem of sexual abuse in the semi-private haredi school system.

"We have an epidemic on our hands, and there is complete denial here that there is anything wrong," she continues. "I spoke to the rabbis and other community leaders here, but they all called me a liar and said that this kind of thing does not happen here... but it does."

Sadly, Zehava, a recent immigrant from the US, has proof of such abuse and is one of a growing number parents from Ramat Beit Shemesh becoming increasingly frustrated with their leaders' continual denial of the problem.

"Families of the victims are made to feel stupid," she says, adding that they are very often ostracized for speaking out about the problem on any level. "But I will not keep quiet; I want to do all I can to make sure that this does not happen to another child," she insists.

"I still feel guilty that I did not pay attention and continued to send my child to [kindergarten] every day," continues Zehava, describing how her child stopped talking, would not sleep at night and was often inconsolable after being continually abused by the teacher.

Only after two years of medical checks and, eventually, speech therapy did the whole story come out. Zehava took her child to the Jerusalem Center for Child Abuse, where her suspicions were confirmed.

"I know this has happened in other schools, too, because I have since met several parents who tell similar stories about their children," says Zehava, who met with other haredi parents earlier this week under the auspices of the Beit Shemesh-based community organization Lema'an Achai to brainstorm ways to tackle the issue.

"We are a lightning rod for all sorts of problems in the community here," says David Morris, founder and chairman of Lema'an Achai, which provides among its services support and guidance for haredi parents who believe their children might have been sexually abused.

full article can be read at:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243872320108&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Anonymous said...

If anybody voted for Obama then they must hate Israel.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3725904,00.html

Rabbi Aviner: Don't bow down to Obama

Prominent leader of Religious Zionism warns government against yielding to American pressure over outposts, says Israel must not accept 'handouts' from US

Margaret M. Markey said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/nyregion/04abuse.html

June 4, 2009
Sex Abuse Bill to Include Public Institutions, Too
By PAUL VITELLO

Addressing complaints from Roman Catholic officials and others, the state assemblywoman sponsoring a bill to temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children said on Wednesday that she would amend her proposal to apply to public as well as private entities.

The change would give people who say they were abused in public schools, for example, the same opportunities to sue as those claiming abuse in religious or private schools.

The assemblywoman, Margaret M. Markey, a Queens Democrat, said fellow lawmakers supporting the bill, known as the Child Victim Act, had told her that their constituents’ most persistent reservations about it were based “on the idea that this was somehow unfair.”

“I think the vigorous debate we’ve had this year has made this a better bill,” she said in a statement.

The move seemed to surprise both advocates and opponents of the legislation, which has been the focus of a lobbying battle for months pitting advocates for protection against sex abuse of children, and their lawyers, against a coalition of religious organizations facing huge potential civil liabilities and some civil rights lawyers chary of compromising statutes of limitations...

penetration scheinberg said...

Can a woman be charged with penetration? I think this is unfair.

Woman Arrested On Sexual Abuse Charges
Written by Gary Lacy
Thursday, 04 June 2009
A Richmond woman remains in jail, after police says she had sex with a 14 year-old.

Barbara Waters, 36, has pleaded not guilty to rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. The alleged acts happened over the Memorial Day weekend in Jessamine County.

Waters is being held in the Jessamine County Detention Center on a $25,000 full cash bond.

She is scheduled to be back in court on Monday, and if convicted faces up to 15 years in prison.

shmiel said...

Now that markey amended her bill to include public institutions as well, what does yanky horowitz have to say for himself?

Assemblywoman amends child sex abuse bill said...

Assemblywoman amends child sex abuse bill

BY BART JONES | bart.jones@newsday.com

A state assemblywoman has amended her child sex abuse victims bill to include public as well as private institutions, addressing one of the main arguments of the Catholic Church that the measure discriminated against it.

But the amendments did not quell the complaints of opponents, and brought on some new ones - the public schools.

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), who told Newsday as recently as Tuesday she was not amending the bill, said Thursday she would do so in response to concerns from colleagues.

She said the bill would now drop a 90-day "notice of claim" requirement for people suing public institutions. In effect, that could open the door for alleged child sex abuse victims to sue public schools.

shmuly boteach on tuition crisis said...

I recognize that many ideas are now being floated to solve the tuition crisis, with a communal fund being the idea of choice. But how absurd is it to go back to the very people who cannot afford tuition in the first place and press them to support a tuition fund? No. There is no long-term solution to the impossibly high cost of Jewish day schools other than our tax money’s being allowed to educate our children. We are not better than any other American citizens, but we are not lesser than them, either. And the fact that we accept this raving injustice speaks volumes about misplaced Jewish political priorities.

School rabbi arrested and released after traffic incident involving ‘mixed signals’ said...

Rabbi Maccabee Avishur, popular Director of Judaics at The Emery/Weiner School, was arrested on June 3, after attempting to intervene on behalf of a 10th-grade student who had received a traffic citation on her way to school.

The student had been pulled over, just inside the school entrance, allegedly for making an illegal left-hand turn from West Bellfort onto Stella Link Rd. According to school officials, Rabbi Avishur came over to aid the student, who was scheduled to take end-of-the-year finals that morning. The Houston Police officer arrested the rabbi, charging him with interfering with a police investigation. He was taken downtown, and was released late in the evening that same night. Details on the exchange that took place between Rabbi Avishur and the officer have not been released.

Agudath Israel of America said...

Agudath Israel’s Pleas To Preserve Marriage

New York. An Agudath Israel-sponsored delegation of a dozen community activists from Brooklyn, Monsey, and Queens traveled to Albany on Tuesday last week to register strong opposition to any redefinition of marriage in New York State. A bill aiming to do that passed the State Assembly in May and is currently before the State Senate. The gravity of the issue was made clear at Agudath Israel’s recent anniversary dinner, when the rosh Agudas Yisroel, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, addressed it prominently in his words to the gathering.

The delegation was led by Agudath Israel’s vice president of community affairs, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, and was joined as well by the organization’s associate general counsel, Rabbi Mordechai Biser.

The delegation included Chaskel Bennett, Rabbi Mechel Deutsch, Tzvi Gluck, Leon Goldenberg, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, Chaim Israel, Mendy Israel, Yoel Lefkowitz, Sender Rappoport, Avi Schron, Rabbi Moshe Schwab, and Yerucham Silver.

a yid who cares said...

Ah guten Erev Shabbos EM. Keep up the fantastic work. Beezras hashem we will obliterate the rishus in our society.

Agudas Israel has their heads buried in the sand and it's no coincidence that they oppose gay-marriage to the umpteenth degree, yet are unwilling to muster such a fight for the health of our dear kinderlach seeking redress for their suffering.

exposemolesters said...

A Yid,

Plenty of people have been screaming from their rooftops for the animals of Agudath Israel to do a 360.

Sadly, the weasel mentality is there to stay. The parrots will always be singing a different tune - and will put a spin on facts in order to protect themselves from the masses.

In accordance with what is good, proper, or just - in conformity with fact, reason, truth, or some standard or principle - Agudath Israel will never be mistaken for any of said adjectives.

The antonym for genuineness and authenticity befits any person who knowingly jeopardizes the delicate souls that were violated and betrayed. Agudas Israel is no exception to that!

Agudah loves Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio. He's one of them said...

Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn repeated a warning this week that he has leveled at lawmakers for months: If the statute of limitations on child sex-abuse lawsuits is temporarily lifted, as pending state legislation proposes, a cascade of very bad things will happen.

Agudath Israel Senior Citizens Division said...

Ms. Markey's revised bill still doesn't help. We checked with our daas toirah and they ruled that anybody in their 30's 40's or 50's is already considered a senior citizen.
----------------------------------

http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=78&articleid=107524

Revised Markey bill to be voted on by N.Y. Assembly within days

(Publication Date: 06-06-2009)

By Amy Kotlarz/Catholic Courier

The proposed Child Victims Act of New York, which would temporarily suspend the state's civil statute of limitations on the filing of child sex-abuse lawsuits, was revised June 4 to allow claims against both public and private entities. The bill is expected to come before the state Assembly for a vote within the next few days.

“After several years of denying the fact that her bill would exempt public institutions, Mrs. Markey (the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, D-Queens) has now acknowledged that her original bill did just that," said a June 5 statement from Richard E. Barnes, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference. “However, even this amended bill remains terrible public policy for the state.”

Markey's Child Victims Act of New York (A2596a) proposes to temporarily waive -- or create a "window" in -- the state's current civil statute of limitations on cases of child sexual abuse, giving alleged victims a period of one year in which to lodge previously time-barred claims, no matter how long ago the abuse is alleged to have occurred.

Cont...

posek belsky said...

For the right amount of money$$ any heter is available.



France: Is missing Jew's wife an aguna?

Paris rabbis threaten to boycott memorial ceremony for Shlomo Anidjar, who was abroad Air France plane which crashed into Atlantic Ocean, claiming that recognizing his death may allow his wife to remarry. Rabbinical court rules mourning customs can be undertaken in this case

Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 06.08.09, 12:48 / Israel Jewish Scene

As the bodies of several passengers who were aboard an Air France plane which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris last week were recovered over the weekend, the Jewish community in the French town of Boulogne-Billancourt began a halachic debate over the fate of one of its member, who is believed to have died in the crash.


The debate was sparked ahead of a memorial ceremony held by the family of Shlomo Anidjar, who was aboard the missing plane, and focused on determining his wife's personal status.


During the ceremony, held at Paris' Great Synagogue, Anidjar's children asked to cite the Kaddish Yatom prayer ("orphan's Kaddish") for their father, and undertook mourning customs – together with their mother.


France's rabbis objected to these signs of mourning expressed soon after the plane went missing, even before the plane's debris or passengers' bodies were recovered, and threatened to boycott the ceremony.


The rabbis expressed their fear that taking part in the memorial would be perceived as a rabbinical-halachic approval that the woman is a widow, while she is in fact considered an aguna (abandoned wife).

around the blogs said...

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/hearing-what-obama-said-in-cairo/


The Opinionator - Tobin Harshaw and Chris Suellentrop
June 4, 2009, 1:00 pm
Hearing What Obama Said in Cairo
By Eric Etheridge

In Cairo today President Obama delivered the longest speech of his young presidency, at 55 minutes three minutes longer than his Congressional address in February, per CBS’s Mark Knoller.

It was also the “an absolutely extraordinary moment,” “the most important foreign policy speech of the post Cold War era,” “an awful speech,” a “contrite kumbaya” speech, “blah blah blah” and “not bad.” Which is to say, reaction to the speech is deeply divided, not only along traditional lines but even within them.

Joseph Nye, who read the speech “on my Blackberry in Heathrow airport,” sent this observation to Politico: “I am reminded of JFK and Reagan’s capacity to project American ideals. This is a great investment in our soft power.”

“This may well be the most important foreign policy speech of the post Cold War era,” writes William Jelani Cobb, who also filed his take for Politico. “I would give it an A.”

We know the structural hallmarks of an Obama speech by this point — the balance of poetry and policy, making use of his unique biography as an advantage, offering the panoramic view of a complex problem, arguing that we have been mired in false dichotomies in approaching the problem and then offering common sense, pragmatic, non-ideological alternatives spiced with just enough idealism to spark the imagination of young people.

For all that, this may have been the most brilliant iteration of that approach. . . .

His oblique mention of the CIA’s role in the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in Iran was particularly important. Rarely do we engage other nations of the basis of their sometimes rightful contempt for our actions.

The President’s deployment of African American history and the lessons of non-violence as well as his cleverly turned phrases about suicide bombers surrendering moral authority were probably the most forthright statements we’ve seen on that subject.

That section was also Adam Serwer’s “favorite part of the speech”:

A white president could say this. But it really wouldn’t have as much meaning. The President is himself, a fruit of that very struggle, so what could come across as a rhetorical point is instead full of the promise embodied by the man giving the speech. He’s living proof of the success of nonviolent resistance. Those who were once slaves can now be presidents.

Andrew Sullivan says the speech seemed to spring from “a spiritual conviction that human differences, if openly acknowledged, need not remain crippling.”

It was a deeply Christian - and not Christianist - address; seeking to lead by example and patience rather than seeking to impose from certainty . . .

Malka Leifer said...

No bail for woman held on child sex abuse charges

June 5, 2009

A Harford County woman is being held without bail after a grand jury indicted her on numerous counts in connection with the sexual abuse of two girls. Valerie Lianne Carlton, 40, of Joppa will defend herself vigorously against the 28 charges, said her attorney, John Janowich. "All the facts will come out in the courtroom," he said. "She's anxious to have her day in court." He declined to comment on specifics of the case. The charges include sex abuse, assault and violation of protective orders, according to court records. Carlton is also facing one count of reckless endangerment of a baby. Breast milk she provided is being tested for possible contamination, according to the Harford state's attorney's office.

- Liz F. Kay

sam said...

Forgive me if I sound really bitter, but it's impossible for me to feel otherwise. My upbringing instilled respect for others and benefit of the doubt. As much as I try to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I see only darkness. People like Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz who made me believe he was for the victims - have now back stabbed me. Agudas Yisroel have opposed Markey's bill only because they want to save their behinds, not as they claim for any other reason. I still to this day see molesters working with kids when they should be behind bars. I'm bitter with good reason.

Mea Shearim said...

Haredim violently protest lot’s Shabbat opening

June 7, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Violent protests continued for a second day in a rigorously Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood over the opening of a public parking lot on Shabbat.

Dumpsters were set on fire in Mea Shearim for a second day as part of riots that began Saturday night.

Haredi men on Saturday threw rocks, bottles and dirty diapers as well as other projectiles at police and blocked roads to protest the opening of a parking lot in Safra Square. Six police officers were wounded during the protests.

The parking lot was open free and manned by Arab workers in an attempt to make it adhere to Jewish law on Shabbat. The municipality decided to open the lot to accommodate weekend visitors to the city.

A recent decision by the municipality bars all vehicles from entering the Old City on Shabbat, and most parking lots near the Old City have been closed in recent years due to haredi pressure, according to reports.

Flyers announcing the "Battle for Jerusalem" were posted in fervently Orthodox neighborhoods prior to Shabbat.

child molester Dr. William Ayres said...

With jury selection set to begin today in the long-awaited trial of accused child molester Dr. William Ayres, both the prosecution and defense are denying rumors that the prominent child psychiatrist could avoid a criminal trial with a plea bargain.

"We've never sought to plea bargain the case, we don't plan to plea bargain the case, and we're ready for trial," said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Doron Weinberg, Ayres' defense attorney, said Friday there have not been "serious discussions" of a plea deal for the former San Mateo doctor.

Ayres, 77, is accused of molesting dozens of preadolescent male patients from as far back as the 1970s, though just seven accusers fall under the state's statute of limitations, which requires such charges be brought by victims who are younger than 29 or born after 1998. He is facing 20 counts of felony molestation.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan, the case's lead prosecutor, said earlier this week that the defense had approached her with a plea deal a few months back. The prosecutor said that Weinberg was only interested in a pretrial settlement if Ayres remained free on an appeals process.

For most of his career, Ayres was one of San Mateo County's most respected child psychiatrists, receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2002 from the Board of Supervisors for his work with youth. He served for more than a decade as president of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Ayres admitted to performing physical examinations on juvenile psychiatric patients, sometimes of their genitals. His defense attorney has argued that these examinations were legitimate and routine practice that has been misunderstood by prosecutors and misinterpreted by the accusers.

"Dr. Ayres has had a distinguished career and he is not a child molester," Weinberg said. "He has declared his innocence of all these charges and we hope that he will be vindicated at trial."

yudi kolko said...

Remind me never to step foot in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523364,00.html?test=latestnewsRIYADH,

Saudi Arabia — Saudi authorities beheaded and crucified a man convicted of brutally slaying an 11-year-old boy and his father, the Interior Ministry announced.

According to the statement issued by the ministry Friday, shop owner Ahmed al-Anzi molested the boy and then strangled him with a length of rope. He then stabbed the boy's father to death when the man came looking for his son.

He hid both the bodies in his shop, the statement said, adding that al-Anzi threatened police with a knife when they came to arrest him.

Al-Anzi had previously been convicted of sodomy and owning pornographic films, a crime in conservative Saudi Arabia.

Crucifying the headless body in a public place is a way to set an example, according to the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam. Normally those convicted of rape, murder and drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia are just beheaded.

Saudis Behead, Crucify Convicted Child Molester, Murderer

Tablet magazine said...

Calling itself “a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture,” Tablet magazine began publishing today. The website is a project of the non-profit Nextbook Inc. and the sister organization of Nextbook Press, which publishes a line of Jewish-themed books. Tablet lists an impressive bunch of contributors and is edited by Alana Newhouse, the former culture editor of the Forward, along with Jesse Oxfeld, who has worked at New York Magazine and Gawker and serves as executive editor.

The site hosts a pretty broad range of news and commentary – Victor Navasky is the site’s political columnist – and what looks to be some ambitious cultural coverage. Among the current postings, “Gertrude Himmelfarb charts Victorian novelist George Eliot’s road to philo-Semitism.” Try saying that three times quickly.

Latifah said...

QUEEN LATIFAH has spoken for the first time about being a victim of sexual abuse as a child.

The rapper-turned-actress says a teenage babysitter preyed upon her, leaving her unable to form relationships as an adult.

Latifah, 39, told Essence magazine: "He violated me.

"I never told anybody. I just buried it as deeply as I could and kept people at an arms length. I never really let a person get too close to me.

"I could have been married years ago, but I had a commitment issue."

shlomo mandel of yob: resign now said...

"Judge Kent's own actions continue to prove that he is unworthy of public service. By choosing to resign effective a year from now, Judge Kent is attempting to secure a year's salary, paid for by the American taxpayers, while he sits in a prison cell as a convicted felon," Smith said. "This is an outrageous abuse of authority and defies the very principles of justice Judge Kent swore to uphold. Ensuring that a corrupt judge does not receive another penny of taxpayer dollars is one of the most important jobs for this Congress and a priority for the Judiciary Committee."

Richard Piccoli said...

Quantcast

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- The 82-year-old architect of a multimillion
dollar Ponzi scheme that targeted fellow Catholics has pleaded
guilty as about 100 of his victims looked on.

Richard Piccoli pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion in
U.S. District Court in Buffalo. He could be sentenced to 25 years
in federal prison and fined $50 million under the plea deal.

Piccoli admitted promising guaranteed returns on real estate
investments he knew didn't exist. Early investors were paid with
money collected from later victims.

He was released until sentencing Oct. 21 and didn't speak on his
way out of court Monday.

When Piccoli was arrested in January, authorities said he took
in $17 million or more. Federal regulators are still calculating
exactly how much Piccoli stole.

yob sux said...

For those who are not aware, be careful and DO NOT send your child to yeshiva of brooklyn. That is unless you do not care about having your son or daughter in a negative/abusive environment, sure to cause them much resentment.

Your child frame of mind is VERY IMPORTANT. Do not mess them up.

(rabbi) Shlomo Mandel is a putz and a monster. Just think about how he still allows a child molester by the name of (rabbi) yehuda nussbaum to teach and be around boys. No shame at all!

Mandel, who has turned many off yiddishkite over the years, has the audacity to preach his filthy words of "mussar" and "chizuk" as if he is some saint that actually abides by it, when in actuality he spits at the torah he claims he so cherishes. Fake, phony and a fraud - That's who Shlomo Mandel of yob is.

around the blogs said...

http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2009/06/guilty.html

Stefan Colmer GUILTY!

stefan colmer (AP) said...

Extradited man pleads guilty to NYC sodomy charges

Associated Press - June 9, 2009 8:55 PM ET

NEW YORK (AP) - Authorities say a New York City man extradited from Israel to the U.S. has pleaded guilty to charges he repeatedly sodomized two teenage boys.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said Tuesday that 32-year-old Stefan Colmer faces up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced on June 30.

The Brooklyn resident had fled to Israel in February, 2007. Colmer was indicted in May, 2007, on charges of sodomizing the teenagers in Brooklyn between January and May, 2006.

Hynes says Colmer is the first person to be extradited from Israel under a revised treaty that went into effect in January, 2007. He says the crimes Colmer committed were not subject to extradition before the treaty was changed.

New York Post said...

New York Post

MAN EXTRADICTED FROM ISRAEL PLEADS GUILTY TO SEX CRIME

By ADAM NICHOLS

June 9, 2009 --

An orthodox Jew who bolted Brooklyn for Israel after being accused of molesting teenage boys pleaded guilty today to performing a criminal sex act.

Stefan Colmer, 32, went on the lam in February 2007 after learning he was under investigation for molesting two 13-year-old boys he had invited to play board games at his Midwood home.

He became the first person extradited from Israel to the U.S. under a new treaty which defines sodomy as an extraditable offense.

He pleaded guilty to eight counts, including endangering the welfare of a child. He's due to be sentenced June 30 and faces up to seven years in jail.

exposemolesters said...

Stefan Colmer had it coming. Now there is one less predator walking the streets of Brooklyn and Passaic, targeting vulnerable young boys.

What does Lazer Ginsberg have to say for himself? I guess he has to expedite his pidyon shvuim appeal.

Avremele Mondrowitz - oh, where are you?
==================================

Psalms Chapter 13
א לַמְנַצֵּחַ, מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד. 1 For the Leader. A Psalm of David.
ב עַד-אָנָה יְהוָה, תִּשְׁכָּחֵנִי נֶצַח; עַד-אָנָה, תַּסְתִּיר אֶת-פָּנֶיךָ מִמֶּנִּי. 2 How long, O LORD, wilt Thou forget me for ever? How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?
ג עַד-אָנָה אָשִׁית עֵצוֹת, בְּנַפְשִׁי-- יָגוֹן בִּלְבָבִי יוֹמָם;
עַד-אָנָה, יָרוּם אֹיְבִי עָלָי. 3 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart by day? {N}
How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
ד הַבִּיטָה עֲנֵנִי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי; הָאִירָה עֵינַי, פֶּן-אִישַׁן הַמָּוֶת. 4 Behold Thou, and answer me, O LORD my God; lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
ה פֶּן-יֹאמַר אֹיְבִי יְכָלְתִּיו; צָרַי יָגִילוּ, כִּי אֶמּוֹט. 5 Lest mine enemy say: 'I have prevailed against him'; lest mine adversaries rejoice when I am moved.
ו וַאֲנִי, בְּחַסְדְּךָ בָטַחְתִּי-- יָגֵל לִבִּי, בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ:
אָשִׁירָה לַיהוָה, כִּי גָמַל עָלָי. 6 But as for me, in Thy mercy do I trust; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. {N}
I will sing unto the LORD, because He hath dealt bountifully with me. {P}

Jobs That Are Red Hot Right Now part 1 said...

Jobs That Are Red Hot Right Now
Larry Buhl, for Yahoo! HotJobs, Yahoo! HotJobs

Amid the worst recession in decades, there are a variety of hot prospects -- well paying, satisfying professional jobs -- going begging for qualified applicants.

For those with the aptitude and the skill set, these jobs offer good potential for advancement, and many don't require a four-year degree or years of training, according to Laurence Shatkin, career information expert and author of "150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs."

Health Care

Doctors and nurses get most of the attention, but health care is a huge and multifaceted field with a wide range of opportunities. If you want a good idea of how wide, consider the number of specialists who provide your doctor with all of the records, lab tests, and other information before and after your (often short) consultation.

Physician assistants are generally allowed to do everything an M.D. does, except for writing a prescription (in some cases) and opening their own practices. Although they don't have the earning potential or superstar status of most doctors, their average salary is well above the median. Nurse practitioners can earn even more money, and they can set up their own practice and specialize in certain areas.

Diagnostic cardiac sonographers are also in high demand. These professionals collect reflected echoes and Doppler signals from images and tracings of a person's heart, using ultrasound equipment to assess the cardiac chambers, valves, and major blood vessels.

According to the American Society for Clinical Pathology, half of all laboratories in the U.S. struggle to hire qualified laboratory technicians. Lack of awareness of the laboratory profession is a key factor in the shortage of applicants for these "under the radar" jobs. But salaries and prospects are expected to continue rising, Shatkin tells Yahoo! HotJobs. "The ever-expanding and changing technologies means there will be more and more for a lab worker to do, which should also boost employability."

* Physician assistant
Two-year training program, and at least two years of college; license exam
Salary: $62,000

* Nurse practitioner
Master's degree in nursing
Salary: $74,000

* Cardiac sonographer
Two-year associate's degree, or 1-year certificate in diagnostic sonography
Salary: $56,000

* Laboratory technician
Bachelor's degree with coursework in chemistry, biology, and statistics; state certification and license
Salary: $51,000

Jobs That Are Red Hot Right Now Part 2 said...

Manufacturing

The U.S. manufacturing industry is contracting, but amid the manufacturing bust are some booming job prospects for those with a specialized technical background.
"It's true that older and lower-skilled workers are losing their jobs in manufacturing," Shatkin says. "But there are newer, highly skilled jobs in manufacturing that are in great demand now, and require only vocational training and an apprenticeship."

Computer control operators use computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines to cut and shape precision products for cars, planes, and a variety of machinery. CNC programmers develop the programs that run the machine tools. They review three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) blueprints of the part and determine the sequence of events that will be needed to make the part.

Although the number of jobs in these fields is projected to decline slightly over the next seven years, skilled professionals will have excellent opportunities, according to the BLS. That's due to the limited number of people entering training programs and employers' difficulty in finding workers with the necessary skills and knowledge.

* Computer control programmer and CNC programmer
Two-year degree or vocational degree and apprenticeship
Salary: $33,000 (computer control operator) $44,000 (CNC programmer)


Financial Services

Although the financial services industry has taken big hits over the past year, one overlooked area of finance -- actuarial services -- is doing fine. Demand for actuaries, who develop, price, and evaluate financial insurance products such as life, auto, health or homeowners insurance, is expected to grow moderately through 2016 according to the BLS.

Even amid the industry shakeout, financial analysts and financial planners still have plenty of opportunities. Financial analysts evaluate the economic outlook of different sectors and industries for organizations that wish to invest. Personal financial planners and advisors help individuals with their personal investment needs. Financial analysts are employed by a variety of industries, from non-profits to school districts to hospitals. However, analysts might consider going the self-employment route, as they can earn far more than salaried employees ($63,000 versus $48,000 for those with at least five years' experience).

* Actuary
Bachelor's degree in mathematics, statistics, or finance; professional certification
Salary: $86,000

* Financial analyst 1
Bachelor's degree in finance preferred
Salary: $48,000

* Financial planner
Bachelor's degree in finance preferred; examination for Certified Financial Planners
Salary: $61,000

Note: Salaries are medians for each profession and are taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and PayScale.com for professionals with five years or more experience.

Anonymous said...

It is a shame the gentiles of the world have more of a reason to point fingers at yidden when they read the New York Post and see a Stefan Colmer in there.

Thank You Agudah, Torah U'Mesora, Satmar - for approving this epidemic by shielding the perpetrates and providing them with refuge.

The shame should be on those so-called leaders who tarnished the name of G-D.

Is this the best of what the torah minds and daas torah can come up with?

The Shanda is on the yeshiva's and the communities who help keep these child molesters in business.

The NY Post is the messenger. The news being delivered is a disgrace and embarrassment.

Place the blame squarely on the people who are responsible for allowing this sickness to proceed uninterrupted for as long as it has.

Yehuda Kolko said...

Good thing I'm not listed on the National Sex Offender Registry.


Charles Hynes was really kind to me, because he knew he had to give something back to the powerful Jews who he depends on for support by voting for him when his current term ends.

http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1604257

Police and victims' rights officials in Sarnia say there is widespread support for a federal plan to get more names on the National Sex Offender Registry.

The Conservative government announced legislative amendments this week that will automatically include all sex offenders in the registry and make it mandatory for some to provide DNA samples.

Currently, about 42 per cent of sexual predators aren't included in the registry.

"Anything where police can track predators and protect the public better is welcome," said Sarnia Police Chief Phil Nelson.

He was somewhat surprised that so many convicted sexual predators are avoiding the registry.

Existing legislation allows judges to decide at the time of sentencing if a name will be added to the list.

"People's rights to privacy have to be weighed against public safety," Nelson said. "And public safety has to come first.

"Discretion is a great thing to have -- police use it every day -- but if going on the registry becomes mandatory, it removes the question of who gets on and who doesn't." A registry with every convicted sexual predator would help the police do their job, Nelson added.

In announcing the amendment, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan noted that almost half of sex offenders escape the registry. "That is not acceptable," he said.

Van Loan said the amendments would ensure that perpetrators of sex offences abroad will be included in the registry upon return to Canada and must report their conviction to police within seven days. At the Sexual Assault Survivor's Centre Sarnia-Lambton, executive director Michele Batty said she's pleased with the proposed changes.

"It's going to make it easier for the police to track sex offenders and it's going to help combat human trafficking and the child sex trade," Batty said. "I think it's absolutely fantastic that convicts coming from other countries will be registered."

Too many judges decide not to add names to the registry, Batty said. "It just shows that still, in our community, sexual assault is not seen as a serious crime."

The president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association in Ontario, Frank Addario, spoke out in defence of the judges this week.

"I hope the opposition parties will stand up and defend Canadian judges and say, 'We think this business of taking discretion away from judges is wrong.' Parliament should express its confidence in the independence of our judiciary and give them discretion to provide relief against laws that can work oppressively if they're applied across the board to everyone."

About Me

My photo
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!!!!!!!