New harassment claims against Rabbi Elon
Since original case exposed, other young people turn to Takana forum, saying they were also victims of sexual harassment. Forum to hold emergency meeting. Deputy attorney general threatens to launch investigation into complaints
Kobi Nahshoni
Since the case of Rabbi Mordechai (Motty) Elon was published, Ynet has learned that other young people and parents have turned to the Takana forum claiming that they too were victims of Elon's sexual harassment.
Sources connected with the case confirmed that there had been further claims, though they have not yet been submitted formally to the Takana forum, the Religious Zionist organization charged with handling cases of sexual harassment among the movement's leaders.
However, forum staff is already beginning to investigate, and members are due to hold an emergency meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening to discuss developments.
Attorney Ran Nizri, the attorney general's senior assistant, sent a letter to the Takana forum saying complaints filed against Rabbi Mordechai Elon for sexual harassment must be turned over to the police. He added that the police may launch an investigation into the complaints.
On Tuesday morning in the northern town of Migdal, Rabbi Elon had spoken to supporters, focusing on disproving and rejecting the allegations.
Rabbi Elon with supporters. (Photo: Gili Eliyahu)
Following the rabbi's sweeping denial and his claim that they were blood libels, forum members will also discuss whether to make details of the case public along with various documents.
In the light of the relatively moderate nature of the rabbi's speech, no dramatic decision is likely to be taken during Tuesday's meeting.
"We always knew that the real enemy who may cause Haman to win is jealousy and hate," Rabbi Elon had said. "We won't get swept up in this. I won't attack – we'll build. I refuse to take part in the mudslinging. And I ask everyone to refrain from this."
The rabbi had also spoken about the "exile" that had been imposed on him in Migdal and that for years he had tried to avoid blasphemy, which led him to do illogical things – against the advice of others.
Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
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Rabbi suspected of 'conning' NY Jews
Brooklyn DA investigating whether Elazar Abuchatzeira of Beersheba offered divine promises for thousands of dollars in cash
Ynet
The Brooklyn DA is looking into suspicions that Rabbi Elazar Abuchatzeira defrauded Jews from New York City and its surroundings out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
According to the report, the rabbi offered divine promises for cash.
A stream of alleged victims from Borough Park, Brooklyn, to Englewood, NJ, said the rabbi, of Beersheba, demanded money from them during annual visits to Orthodox Jewish communities in the tri-state area.
He ruined my life. He ruined my finances by making these promises," the man said.
Brooklyn Assistant DA Eileen Ayvazian said the authorities were aware of the complaints. "It's an active investigation," she added.
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43 comments:
Same denials we have heard so many times before where who do they blame but the victim.
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Rabbi Mordechai Elon had sexual relations with male students in the past, a rabbinical forum that works to prevent sexual abuse in the national-religious sector said in a statement on Wednesday
The Takana forum held an emergency meeting Tuesday night to discuss the allegations facing Elon, following an announcement they posted Monday demanding Elon step down from all rabbinical, teaching and community responsibilities, warning he is a threat to the public.
Elon admitted to the acts during the emergency meeting, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a member of Takana told Army Radio Wednesday, adding that the rabbi's confession is documented in the forum's protocol.
The statement released by Takana on Wednesday addresses their decision to post the announcement, and says the incidents in question “can only be described as acts of the most severe kind“.
The statement says that after it was founded by a group of leading national religious rabbis and community leaders in 2003, one of the first complaints Takana received was against Rabbi Elon, dealing with allegations of “sexual exploitation by a religious authority.”
After the first complaints were received, Elon was called in for a meeting with Takana and “swore that he had overcome his problems and that the allegations were in the past and there were no additional incidents,” the statement reads.
After a year passed Takana received another complaint, this one reportedly of a more severe nature than the first one, according to the statement.
Takana said that when they looked into the new complaint, it dealt with incidents “of a deliberate sexual nature carried out over an extended period of time” that allegedly took place while the group was holding discussions on the original allegations. The group said that because they then “lost all belief in the words of the rabbi – who concealed these actions while the committee was discussing the original complaint” they came to the conclusion that it was no longer fitting for him to work as a religious teacher or counselor.
According to the statement, the rabbi was then asked to leave his post as head of the Kotel Yeshiva and cancel a number of public appearances and community roles.
The statement says that Elon “has not fulfilled his obligations he agreed to” – in particular the requirement that he stay away from intimate, personal and private meetings with people seeking his advice or religious counsel. The statement says Takana made the decision to go public with the allegations “because they saw no other way to protect the public from possible harm in the future.”
Elon has publicly denied all of the allegations against him and said they derived from one “seriously disturbed” student, adding that the charges constituted “a blood libel, but I am happy that the truth is beginning to emerge."
Takana Chairman Yehudit Shilat told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that claims made that the allegations against Elon were solely the result of a single disgruntled student or someone with a personal vendetta against the rabbi were “absolutely false.”
Maybe in Israel but here survivors are still shunned and ridiculed by many.
Thus my heartbreak on hearing such allegations is mitigated. From now on, Orthodox victims of sexual abuse will be able to complain openly in the knowledge that they will not face the consequences alone.
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Rabbi sex scandal is breaking my heart
By Naomi Ragen, February 18, 2010
http://www.thejc.com/node/28344
Boy killed in bus horror
By REUVEN FENTON
Last Updated: 10:19 AM, February 18, 2010
Posted: 3:32 AM, February 18, 2010
A 4-year-old Brooklyn boy running to catch a school bus was killed yesterday morning when he slipped on ice and fell under the rear wheels of the bus in front of his home, police said.
Amron Altman was declared dead just after 8 a.m. after being struck on 13th Avenue and 49th Street in Borough Park.
"It's a tragedy for all of us," said Rabbi Bernard Freilich, a community activist in the largely Jewish neighborhood. "It's every mother's worst nightmare."
The bus driver, Chaim Zenwirth, circled the block once after he didn't see the boy or his 13-year-old brother waiting at the curb and the boy was struck after Zenwirth had pulled up in front of the boy's home a second time, cops said. Zenwirth, 32, was not charged.
Altman was the second youngest of eight children. His father, a member of the Hasidic Satmar sect, said he "trusts in God's will."
"I donate a part of my family, a part of my blood, to God," he said at the boy's funeral yesterday afternoon.
The boy was then taken to Floral Park Cemetery in Deans, NJ, for burial.
Rabbi Motti has an open invitation to work for us at Yeshiva of Brooklyn.
It would give me nachas to have the combo of Nussbaum and Elon work their magic tricks with our talmidim.
Touching inappropriately or having sexual relations with boys is appropriate chinuch.
Some of these boys are big chutzpanyaks and need a wake up call in discipline.
Elon can work al tenai he stays away from going on that box (I think they call it television).
There are many choice quotes contained in the new federal complaint filed yesterday against Milton Balkany, the politically connected Borough Park rabbi whose Rolodex includes well-thumbed cards for influential figures ranging from Bob Dole to Rudy Giuliani.
Here's Balkany, 63, telling representatives of a Connecticut hedge fund why they should pay him $4 million in exchange for using his influence to keep a federal inmate from spilling the beans in an insider trading probe:
"I think it's a very minor price for the package over here. I think if this ever got into what [the government] wants to bring, it would cost [the Hedge Fund Manager] ten million [dollars] in lawyers...It's a very inexpensive way out. You know what I mean? ...I'm not holding up anybody here."
He also offered his own experiential notion of what happens when the feds launch one of their probes:
"The government is like this. They throw a bucket of mud, that even if the guy gets out, when he gets done going through the whole publicity and the whole everything else, the guy's destroyed."
And: "If the FBI should be running after the [Hedge Fund Manager], they could destroy the man. You know what I mean? I don't care how many billions he has, these guys come and they - they're merciless."
His own motives, however, were pure: "I'm not a hold-up man. I'm not here to threaten some - God forbid, I, I'm on the other side of the fence."
He also sounded like a man badly in need of a glass of water as he told the hedge fund reps how badly the feds wanted to get the inmate to talk: The government was "very thirsty," he said on December 24. "They're very thirsty to get his cooperation," he said on January 4. "I'm gonna tell you some information about how thirsty they are to get this man," he added.
Allegedly, there was no such insider trading probe, and allegedly, Rabbi Balkany made the whole thing up on one of his many visits to Otisville federal prison, a place where white collar criminals are often sent.
The criminal complaint filed by federal investigator Robert Manchak seems to present a pretty good case for the fraud, extortion, and blackmail charges filed yesterday against Balkany. But he's been here before, and don't count him out.
A few years ago, Balkany walked away from another federal arrest for stealing $700,000 in federal grants intended to help disabled students at his Brooklyn girls school. The feds cut a rare deal, allowing Balkany to pay back $400,000 and pledge not to seek any more federal grants. They also demanded, somewhat mysteriously, that the rabbi never lobby federal prison officials again, something that has never been officially explained, despite efforts by the Voice and others to figure out.
But Balkany has long worked successfully behind the scenes, such as the Great Day Care Voucher Deal he cut with his old pal Rudy Giuliani back in the day,
Mandel is playing with fire.
He keeps Nussbaum around kids.
This man deserves no kovod.
That students were willing to come forward in the first place may encourage other possible victims of prominent teachers and community leaders to do the same. The action being taken in the face of these allegations demonstrates that the State of Israel and its laws take precedence over the image of any one man, and that the religious Zionist community isn’t one in which victims of wrongdoing are silenced or intimidated to protect the reputations of its icons.
When I am not busy fending off allegations of abuse or acting out with my anger issues - I try to make time to go to Bar Mitzvas and dance with the boys. I know it sounds stupid. I won't protect them from pedophiles, but I'll gladly attend their simchas.
http://www.whiotv.com/health/22610147/detail.html
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Veterinarians from the University of Florida say that dolphins may be an ideal model to study human cervical cancer.
"We discovered that dolphins get multiple infections of papillomaviruses, which are known to be linked with cervical cancer in women," said marine biologist Hendrik Nollens in a news release. "Dolphins are the only species besides humans that we know of that can harbor coinfections, or infections of multiple papillomavirus types, in the genital mucosa."
There are approximately 100 types of human papillomaviruses.
Nollens also said that there is evidence that some infections can go from the sea to the land, which could even mean that a high-risk infection such as SARS or the West Nile virus could come from marine animals.
However, Nollens said that there is no evidence that dolphins get cervical cancer from papillomaviruses.
"Why do people develop the disease, but dolphins don't? If we can figure out why, the human medical community might be very interested in how that information might be applied to human strategies for preventing the disease," he said.
Child sexual abuse
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This article is semi-protected indefinitely in response to an ongoing high risk of vandalism.
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation.[1][2] Forms of CSA include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact against a child, physical contact with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact, or using a child to produce child pornography.[1][3][4]
The effects of child sexual abuse include depression,[5] post-traumatic stress disorder,[6] anxiety,[7] propensity to further victimization in adulthood,[8] and physical injury to the child, among other problems.[9] Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest, and can result in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest.[10]
Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children.[11][12][13][14][15] Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases.[11] Most child sexual abuse is committed by men; studies show that women commit 14% to 40% of offenses reported against boys and 6% of offenses reported against girls.[11][12][16] Most offenders who sexually abuse prepubescent children are pedophiles;[17][18] however, some offenders do not meet the clinical diagnosis standards for pedophilia.[19]
Under the law, "child sexual abuse" is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification.[4][20] The American Psychiatric Association states that "children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults", and condemns any such action by an adult: "An adult who engages in sexual activity with a child is performing a criminal and immoral act which never can be considered normal or socially acceptable behavior."[21]
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JERUSALEM -- Menachem Porush, a well-known Israeli rabbi and longtime leader of one of the most influential ultra-Orthodox parties in parliament, has died. He was 93.
Porush served for more than 30 years in Israel's parliament, acting twice as deputy labor minister. He was known for leading the minority ultra-Orthodox Jewish community's efforts to slow secularization in Israel, leading epic battles for legislation to enforce strict Jewish laws that sparked charges from critics of "religious coercion."
The Jerusalem-born Porush also founded several religious education centers for ultra-Orthodox children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogized Porush, who died Sunday, as "a dear, wise, and warm man" and one of Israel's "most dedicated public servants."
Thousands attended a funeral Monday for Porush, who retired from politics in 1994.
During his three decades in public life, Porush led many high-profile campaigns, including a drive to close a main road passing through Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities on the Jewish Sabbath and a mass demonstration against the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999 - after that body issued rulings allowing some shops to stay open on Saturdays and for non-Orthodox rabbis to preside over conversions to Judaism.
During his political career, Porush was affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party - in which his son, Meir Porush, is now a central figure.
Porush, a widower, is survived two sons, two daughters and more than 100 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – Orthodox Rabbi Milton Balkany has been charged with trying to blackmail a hedge fund, threatening to tell authorities about alleged insider trading at the fund, it was reported by Reuters this morning.
Athough the prosecutors didn’t name the hedge fund, Reuters said a source familiar with the matter confirmed that the hedge fund being blackmailed is SAC Capital Advisors, worth around $12 billion.
Balkany told the hedge fund that he would contact a person in prison who allegedly knew about the insider trading if the hedge fund wouldn’t pay him $4 million. His calls were recorded by the hedge fund’s lawyers. Balkany was charged with extortion, blackmail and wire fraud, Reuters said.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
eiv ben treyin to loose veigh fer avhile. Ven i slep boys acrus de punim my angar mekes me eet asach nosh vich is nisht agote zach.
We have taavas and act on it. We did tshuveh. Now it's time to stop cying overthe past.
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http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=82997
A 29-year-old man called ‘D’ has filed a complaint of sexual abuse against leading Rabbi Mordechai Elon. D had informed a newspaper that he had turned to Rabbi Elon in the 1990s for guidance, and was abused by him on numerous occasions.
An Internet site called Takana, a sexual abuse forum to prevent corruption within the religious-Zionist movement, said in an announcement that Elon was suspended in 2006 for suspicion of sexual harassment.
Since Tuesday´s report in the Yedioth Ahronoth, further claims of alleged abuse has been brought against Elon with more complaints from youths and parents. On Wednesday, Ynetnews said all files will be handed to the police.
He spounds like what the palestinians accuse us Jews of-- just see--
During a gathering Tuesday with his supporters in his home town of Migdal, Rabbi Elon denied the allegations against him and referred to them as blood libels. Ynetnews quoted Elon as saying: "We always knew that the real enemy who may cause Haman to win is jealousy and hate. We won´t get swept up in this. I won´t attack – we´ll build. I refuse to take part in the mudslinging. And I ask everyone to refrain from this."
I call this foreplay. The type Nussbaum engages in before his hands end up down in the private areas.
The discovery shocked the young man, who adored the rabbi, and prompted great confusion. He also recalled that in certain periods the rabbi kissed him on the face in a borderline manner that could have been perceived as erotic.
This is an honorable film to watch - - - -
I would say just as honorable as Reb Lipa Margulies and The YTT parent meeting gisheft with defending kolko.
On the Butcher Block: Haim Tabakman’s “Eyes Wide Open”
go here to read.
A Threat To Society
by The Editors
It is difficult for American Jews to appreciate the shock, disappointment and disillusionment that religious Zionists in Israel are undergoing now in response to reports that one of their most respected leaders, Rabbi Mordechai “Motti” Elon, has been accused of “sexual exploitation” in relations with male students and lying about it to his rabbinic colleagues.
Scion of a prominent family — his father, Menachem, served on the Israeli Supreme Court, and his brother, Benny, is a prominent politician and former cabinet minister — Rabbi Elon was rosh yeshiva of a leading Jerusalem yeshiva and had a national following beyond the Orthodox community through a weekly television program and popular lectures on Jewish history, law and philosophy.
As the story has unfolded in recent days, it
JW Wine Event
seems that when Rabbi Elon disappeared from public life and moved to the north five years ago, it was not for health reasons, as had been indicated. Rather, he had, in effect, quietly been banished by a group called Takana, formed after the Baruch Lanner scandal by religious Zionist rabbinic leaders in Israel to deal with cases of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community.
The rabbis of Takana, including Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, the highly respected rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Gush Etzion, had heard allegations from yeshiva students of abuse on the part of Rabbi Elon, and determined that he give up his positions of leadership and teaching, which he did.
But the group decided to go public last week after learning of new allegations and concluding reluctantly, according to their statement, that they had “lost all belief in the words of the rabbi.” They now refer to him as a threat to society.
It is a sad tale, in every respect, but not a new one, unfortunately. And one lesson here is that all of us are human and fallible, even our religious leaders. Their teachings may be brilliant, but not necessarily their behavior; one can never assume that a rabbinic title provides protection from deviant actions.
Perhaps most important, while the rabbis of Takana are to be commended for their initial attempt to take effective action, they should have gone to the authorities from the outset and spared subsequent victims from suffering. Colleagues policing colleagues doesn’t work — neither does protecting abusers, no matter how well intentioned the effort.
Reports continue to surface that the target of Orthodox Rabbi Milton Balkany, who allegedly tried to blackmail a hedge fund, was none other than Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital.
Last week it emerged that Balkany, the director of a Jewish day school in Brooklyn, tried to extort a “Connecticut hedge fund” for $4 million, promising the money would keep a jailbird friend of his quiet about insider-trading tips he had on the hedge fund. No sooner had prosecutors announced their charges than rumors began that it was SAC, which has been no stranger to scandal or accusations of illegal trading
On Friday, Reuters reported [LINK:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61J0NJ20100220 ] the hedge fund target was indeed Cohen's firm, which has been named before as a target of the fed’s widespread insider-trading investigation.
Just a few months ago, Cohen’s ex-wife sued him for cheating her of money she gave him when they were married, claiming that he admitted to trading on confidential information back in the 1980s.
It might be a good idea for Shafran to begin cleaning up his own trail of shame and denials which are tearing up the image of orthodox jews.
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When asked if he thought the level of illegal behavior among Orthodox Jews was of a proportion similar to other groups. Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, said it was hard to say without sociological data.
“What I do know is that meticulous honesty is a fundamental ideal of Judaism,” he said. “Any falling short of that ideal in the Jewish community, statistically significant or not, is lamentable. And it’s particularly lamentable when it occurs in the part of the community that strives to meticulously observe Jewish law.”
As to the potential fallout on political influence — politicians being reluctant, for instance, to court the Orthodox vote — Rabbi Shafran said “any corruption, and even the appearance of corruption, has the potential of having negative impact on the community’s public image. I can only hope that the community’s many shining examples of honesty, integrity and charity, although they don’t generally make the front pages, will be recognized by others.”
Rabbi Shafran conceded that financial stress could be a corrupting influence.
“As to factors contributing to whatever criminal activity there may be in the community,” he said, “one can certainly point to things like the economy, the societal emphasis on material goods and the great financial pressures, in even the best of times, of living an observant Jewish life. But challenges, in the end, are meant to be overcome, and so factors are not excuses.”
When a new regime takes over the currently useless senile small men leading it - we shall be in better standing.
This Purim drink and toast to the reshoim in our midst who are hijacking the values we cherish; slughtering our children and generations - that they drop dead on the curbs and sidewalks.-.-.
A Delaware doctor is indicted after complaints of molestation by parents of his patients, reports Jan Crawford.
NY governor suspends aide, seeks investigation
ALBANY, N.Y. – Gov. David Paterson has suspended a close aide and is asking for an investigation by the attorney general after a published report linked the aide to a claim of domestic violence involving a former girlfriend.
Paterson on Wednesday said he was suspending David Johnson, who rose from volunteer to driver to confidant in more than a decade of working for the Democrat. Paterson also asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate a New York Times article's claims that state police may have pressured the woman to drop a criminal case against Johnson.
The Times cites court records and the woman's lawyer in describing a case of domestic violence and a possible effort by state officials to avoid a potential political embarrassment for the governor's office.
Paterson said the report raises serious questions that must be thoroughly investigated by Cuomo, who is widely believed to be considering a bid for the governor's office in November.
"Serious questions have been raised about contact the state police may have had with a private citizen who filed a complaint against a member of my staff," Paterson said in a statement released to The Associated Press on Wednesday night. "Any allegation of improper influence must be investigated thoroughly and completely."
Although the woman had pressed the case, it was dismissed after she missed a court date.
Paterson said he directed state police Superintendent Harry Corbitt, his appointee, to conduct a thorough internal investigation.
"Because of the seriousness of these allegations and the sensitive role of this staff member in my administration, I am asking the attorney general to investigate the matter to ensure in the public's mind that a comprehensive and independent inquiry has been conducted," Paterson stated. "Pending the outcome of the investigation, I am suspending David Johnson without pay."
The governor's office would not make Johnson, 37, available for comment Wednesday.
The Times reported that the woman had been contacted by a member of the governor's state police security detail even though she claimed the Halloween incident happened in the Bronx and state police had no jurisdiction there. But the newspaper stated details of the governor's involvement are unclear.
"We never pressured her, at least what I was advised; we never pressured her not to press charges," Corbitt was quoted by the newspaper. "We just gave her options."
Corbitt was asked by the Times if there were other visits by state police. He said, "I can't address any unofficial conversations because I have no way to."
The woman's lawyer, Lawrence B. Saftler, said Paterson called the woman in February and asked if he could help her, but the lawyer wouldn't say if the call prompted her to drop the case. The governor's office said the woman, not the governor, made the call.
Paterson became governor after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer quit amid a sex scandal. He formally announced his campaign for a full term on Saturday.
MAURICE RIVER — Officials have denied parole for the accomplice, Len Jenoff, who said Cherry Hill Rabbi Fred Neulanderhired him to kill his wife.
Jenoff will continue serving a 23-year sentence for his part in the 1994 murder-for-hire death of Carol Neulander, the rabbi’s wife, who was found beaten to death outside their home.
Meeting at Jersey’s downstate prison here, parole board members considered the nature of the crime and the 64-year-old inmate’s record behind bars.
Jenoff twice testified that Neulander hired him to kill his wife so he could carry on an affair with a divorcee in the congregation of his Voorhees synagogue.
Convicted in 2002, Neulander is serving a life sentence for murder at the state prison in Trenton. His court-appointed lawyer claims Jenoff has recanted his testimony.
Neulander maintains his innocence and has a few friends on the outside trying to help him win a new trial. Neulander also has complained about conditions in prison in letters to The Trentonian.
Feb 25 2010 | 12:57pm ET
The inmate at the center of a rabbi’s alleged attempted shakedown of SAC Capital Advisors has been identified.
Last week, the rabbi, Milton Balkany, was accused of trying to blackmail an unidentified hedge fund—since identified as SAC—for $4 million. According to prosecutors, Balkany told the hedge fund that he was counseling an unidentified inmate who would keep quiet about alleged insider-trading at the firm if the donations to two schools, including one headed by Balkany, were made.
That inmate is Hayim Regensberg. The 44-year-old was convicted last year of running a three-year-long Ponzi scheme and is now serving an eight-year sentence at New York’s Otisville Correctional Facility.
Balkany allegedly told SAC that Regensberg was under pressure to cooperate with the government on an insider-trading investigation of SAC. Prosecutors say that there was no such probe, and it is also unclear whether Balkany and Regensberg ever actually met.
Regensberg has not been accused of any insider-trading or wrongdoing involving this case.
Source URL:
http://www.finalternatives.com/node/11556
WHERE ARE THE STATEMENTS AGAINST TROPPER, PEDOPHILES IN OUR COMMUNITIES, AND THE NEVER ENDING SCANDALS?
MOST OF THESE MOETZES GEDOLEI HATORAH OF AMERICA MENTIONED INDEED ARE GUILTY OF AIDING IN POSITIONS THAT CANNOT BE CONSIDERED ORTHODOX, AND PERHAPS NOT HUMANE.
*
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http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/49596/Moetzes+Gedolei+Hatorah+Condemn+Rabbi+Avi+Weiss+&+His+%27Rabbah%27.html
STATEMENT OF THE MOETZES GEDOLEI HATORAH OF AMERICA
(10 Adar 5770)
Rabbi Avi Weiss has conferred “semikha” upon a woman, has made her an Assistant Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale where she carries out certain traditional rabbinical functions, and has now given her the title of “Rabbah” (formerly “Maharat”). He has stated that the change in title is designed to “make it clear that Sara Hurwitz is a full member of our rabbinic staff, a rabbi with the additional quality of a distinct woman’s voice.”
These developments represent a radical and dangerous departure from Jewish tradition and the mesoras haTorah, and must be condemned in the strongest terms. Any congregation with a woman in a rabbinical position of any sort cannot be considered Orthodox.
MOETZES GEDOLEI HATORAH OF AMERICA
Rabbi Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld
Rabbi Yitzchok Feigelstock
Rabbi Dovid Feinstein
Rabbi Aharon Feldman
Rabbi Yosef Harari-Raful
Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky
Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler
Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Levin
Rabbi Yaakov Perlow
Rabbi Aaron Schechter
READ MORE ABOUT RABBI AVI WEISS & RUMORS THAT THE RCA WILL SOON EXPELL HIM: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=49447
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
This generation of modern-Orthodox religious-Zionists behave more like a Charedi group in terms of the trust they put in their rabbinical leaders.
That is why the leaders of their political parties no longer have real impact on the behaviour of young settlers. That is why some of them have difficulty understanding that going into military service means that the orders of officers should now be more meaningful than the sermons of rabbis.
But rabbis are essentially no different to most other human beings. Some are smart and some stupid, some are knowledgeable and some ignorant, some are mature, some are childish.
If you understand this, you will be able to recognise that the Elon story is no different to any other story involving sexual harassment. It can be a teacher, or a bus driver, or the boss - and it can be the rabbi.
But if you put your rabbi on a pedestal, the fall becomes a crash.
So this unimportant story can, after all, be very important to the young generation of religious-Zionist Israelis. It can be important if they use it wisely, if they draw the right conclusion and make this devastating crash of one rabbi into a new beginning.
Maybe the Elon affair will guide them back to the world of reason, and away from the world of the short-sighted devotee of spiritual leaders. Maybe it will give them a reason to re-declare their independence from rabbis, to regain their autonomy.
If this happens, the Elon affair can be remembered as a sad story from which some good emerged. If this happens, the next Elon-like affair will be almost negligible in its public impact. Like it should have been.
Full story: http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/28783/sex-scandal-shows-risk-rabbi-worship
A senior member of London's strictly Orthodox rabbinate says he was unaware that an American rabbi he publicly praised was a convicted child abuser.
Rabbi Ze'ev Feldman, of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, wrote a letter endorsing a fundraising event in Stamford Hill this week to help pay for the weddings of four children of Rabbi Yisroel Moshe Weingarten.
Rabbi Weingarten, a member of the Satmar sect, was last year jailed for 30 years by a New York court for abusing one of his daughters.
In his letter, Rabbi Feldman referred to Rabbi Weingarten as "harav hagaon", an honorific meaning "most eminent rabbi" which was once reserved only for the most illustrious sages, although is now more commonly used.
He also described Rabbi Weingarten as a "dear and exalted disseminator of Torah".
But a spokesman for Rabbi Feldman said the rabbi had been "unaware" of Rabbi Weingarten's case and was "horrified" to learn of it.
He explained that Rabbi Feldman had described Rabbi Weingarten in terms passed on by an American colleague who had requested support for the family. The letter had referred only to the father being in a difficult situation and unable to financially help his children...
Bill goes after sexual harassment by spiritual leaders
MK Orlev, who initiated bill, says: From now on, rabbis will not be able to shirk their responsibility and maintain limitations on preventing sexual harassment. Orlev careful to deny any connection between timing of bill and Rabbi Mordechai Elon harassment affair
Some people don't just wear orange prison jumpsuits on purim, they wear them all the time.
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/2250330/1002/news01/Monster-convicted-of-sex-abuse
N.Y. Jews claim Be'er Sheva kabbalist bilked them out of thousands of dollars
If there is one message that Jewish Women International of Canada (JWIC) Executive Director Penny Krowitz wants to convey to the Jewish community, it is that violence against women takes many forms, not just physical violence – and the Jewish community is not immune.
“One of the big misconceptions about abuse is that most people understand the term abuse or violence against women as meaning only being physically attacked in some way because it’s very visible if someone has been punched or kicked or has a broken leg,” said Krowitz. “One of the big things we do in our work is we help people understand that violence against women has many broad applications and is perpetrated in many different ways that are very insidious and very difficult to understand and Identify.”
Other than physical abuse, there is also emotional, psychological, verbal, sexual, financial and spiritual abuse,” she said.
JWIC began in Canada in 1923. A large part of their mandate is educating the public to understand all the different facets and forms of abuse, and to be able to detect the warning signs. They also co-sponsor, with Jewish Family & Child of Toronto, ASTEH (Alternative Short Term Emergency Housing for Abused Jewish Women and their Children), a community-based shelter for abused women and their children. While abuse also happens to men, Krowitz said that the majority of victims are women, and many, sadly, do not come forward.
“Our work is all about educating the public about abuse, what it looks like, who it can happen to, what the resources are if it does happen to you,” said Krowitz.
She explained that one of the hardest issues to deal with is that verbal or psychological abuse generally starts of innocently, becoming vicious later. At first glance, there does not always seem to be any abuse going on – comments or put downs are sometimes excused as the result of workplace stress. Krowitz said that an early warning sign in this type of relationship – the first sign of abuse – is an obsession with control.
She describes abuse as “A pattern of behaviours in which one person excerpts control over the other person’s actions and behaviour,” noting that it can happen at any age, even with teenagers in a relationship.
Great ban. I have personally interrogated many parents and their children.
Those kids who tried to lie were undone by Rabbi Yudel Nussbaum.
Yudel has his own special techniques of making them tell the emes.
Thank you EM for continuing our fight of our lives of saving generations.
We should all be zocheh to see miracles in the coming days.
Those responsible for decaying the Torah values, enabling abuse, perpetrating cover ups will be hanged like Haman, exposed to the world and scorned.
Their din vecheshbon is close.
A freilichen Purim!
Ah freilichin Purim!
Rabbi Yosef: Drunkenness is abominable
In his weekly sermon, Shas' spiritual leader retells Book of Esther, warns against intoxication during Purim. 'During holiday one must drink very little, only as symbolic act to remember Ahasuerus' feast – without getting intoxicated,' he says
Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 02.28.10, 08:51 / Israel Jewish Scene
Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia, Yosef saaid Saturday evening that "drunkenness is an abominable and nefarious act" and that in Purim one must drink very little wine, only as a symbolic act to remember Ahasuerus' feast – without getting intoxicated.
In his weekly sermon Saturday eve, Yosef said, "Haman was intoxicated, but we must act with good manners." The rabbi recommended drinking until one falls asleep – a situation in which one does not distinguish between 'Haman the agitate' and 'Mordechai the blessed'."
"A man that is drunk – what good is he?" wondered Rabbi Yosef, and stated that instead a man must "take a rest, rise up and practice religion throughout the day. Some people are up to no good. They get drunk and then take the bus and act in a rowdy manner – that is defamation of God," he said.
A yid,
You've been in our corner a long time. It has been an unpleasantly demonstrative animal we're dealing with, the kind that breeds declination of our values and faith.
Let's face it. Our "leaders," for the most part, pick and choose when to conduct themselves in a nobly manner.
Their standard is - do not what is best for the crying yiddishe neshama, but what MAKES US LOOK GOOD.
STINGY ARROGANT BASTARDS!!!
Soon the men in black will be dead; wiretaps will be inserted inside their caskets, and loudspeakers will boom their shrilling screams of unimaginable agony from hell.
In the end we will prevail.
ain somchin al anais, aval yomim tovim yavoh bekarov....
Happy Purim everybody!
EM
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/27/world/la-fg-israel-rabbi28-2010feb28
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But the case is rattling the foundations of Israel's Orthodox community by casting a public focus on topics that some would prefer to avoid: sexual harassment by religious leaders and homosexuality among rabbis.
Rabbi Zweibel supposodly cares so much about Jews that he lobbied against the recent execution of a Jewish inmate.
Very nice gesture on his part, but very hypocritical as well.
Considering Zweibel's status as a representative of Agudath Israel Of America, the man makes no such effort to save victims of child molestation in the jewish communities he represents.
Furthermore, Zweibel spins facts and defends molesters and their enablers when pinned to the wall.
He is also against ratifying the SOL to include a one year window, very telling for somebody scared of the consequence of truth.
Orthodox Scandals Could Harm Power Base, Experts Warn
Many snicker at its name or widen their eyes in shock after hearing it. But participants of the Vagina Monologues perform to prove the word vagina is not forbidden but instead embraced.
“It represents a stigma around the world and being a woman who is expressive about herself,” said Louisville freshman Tracy Ingram who is performing a monologue of an old Jewish woman and her sexual liberties.
The show will be in the Garrett Ballroom at 7:30 p.m. tonight. A silent auction will begin at 6 p.m.
The Vagina Monologues were started by Eve Ensler on Valentine’s Day 1998, according to the organization’s Web site, www.vday.org.
All of the proceeds from the event go to Hope Harbor Inc., a sanctuary for victims of sexual abuse. In other states and countries, the money also benefits local trauma recovery centers.
Elizabeth Mohon, a member of the Hope Harbor board of directors, said she wants people to come to her and feel comfortable enough to talk about sexual assault and rape.
“I do what I do because I believe that we can end sexual violence, and it’s important to give a voice to those who feel they don’t have a voice themselves,” Mohon said.
Mohon is also the sexual assault service coordinator and staff counselor with Western’s Counseling and Testing Center. She said she highly encourages the Vagina Monologues.
In addition to the monologues, there are Vagina Facts.
“There are questions like, ‘What would your vagina wear?’ and ‘What would your vagina say?’” Ingram said.
These facts and questions make people understand that women should feel comfortable about their bodies, Ingram said.
“A theme of this is that the vagina is a tool in female empowerment,” Mohon said.
Ingram said the Vagina Monologues usually attract large audiences. All the stories told are true and acquired by Ensler herself.
Bowling Green senior Melinda Bleuel, director of the Vagina Monologues, said this year’s event will be different than past years.
“There are a few new people, different lighting, blocking and interaction of the cast,” she said. “Last year it was aggressive; this year it is more seductive.”
Gov. David Paterson is entitled to cover up abuse. I do it with Nussbaum, he does it with some shiktza -- so what?
Agudah’s Rabbi Avi Shafran believes Rabbi Avi Weissis misguided on women’s roles in Orthodoxy. But Shafran is the man who had no comment when asked to speak his opinion on Yudi Kolko molesting boys. Where was Shafran then?
Where is he now commenting on the ghastly violations of a childs' body by his Rabbi, isn't that kind of being misguided or worse?
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