tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post3783164907544117414..comments2023-08-17T06:45:58.317-07:00Comments on "Yeshiva" of Brooklyn also Guilty of Child Abuse: The Jewish Week Reports: Sex-Abuse Statute Of Limitations May Be Extendedexposemolestershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02097300261898413798noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-60249616104365722002009-03-25T15:57:00.000-07:002009-03-25T15:57:00.000-07:00Donate to Misaskim, a wonderful organization. http...Donate to Misaskim, a wonderful organization. <BR/><BR/>http://misaskim.org/<BR/><BR/>Misaskim.<BR/>Understanding tragedy with compassion.<BR/>Coordinating crisis with expertise.<BR/><BR/>No one is ever prepared to cope with a tragedy. When people are thrown into that dark abyss of crisis or loss, the pain and the grief is accompanied by a crushing feeling of isolation and bewilderment by the many unknowns of this new uncharted territory. And so, they call out to Misaskim.<BR/><BR/>Misaskim’s mission is to provide support and assistance to individuals experiencing crisis or tragedy by providing vital community services, which include safeguarding the dignity of the deceased, assisting the bereaved and supporting individuals during these times. Misaskim’s wide array of services include moral support and assistance with the many challenges during crisis or loss. Throughout life’s darkest moments, Misaskim is a source of light and warmth, encouragement and direction.<BR/><BR/>Misaskim<BR/>5805 16th Avenue<BR/>Brooklyn, NY 11204<BR/><BR/>Phone: 718.854.4548<BR/>Fax: 718.943.1580exposemolestershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02097300261898413798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-41856553182323028132009-03-25T15:45:00.000-07:002009-03-25T15:45:00.000-07:00I totally agree. In my experiences of being the ty...I totally agree. In my experiences of being the tyrant of YOB, I've come across many children that are animals. The only way to correct their behavior is with physical and/or sexual force.<BR/><BR/>http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1071072.html <BR/><BR/>'Those children were animals'<BR/>By Tamar Rotem<BR/><BR/>About a month ago, M. came to the Sarah Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem to visit her young son (the court has prohibited the publication of their names). For a year now the boy has been lying there unconscious and on a respirator. His mother has been under arrest ever since her son was hospitalized and the revelation of the child abuse - among the most shocking this country has known - by members of Elior Chen's cult, on his instructions if not with his participation.<BR/><BR/>Chen's wife, Ruth, recently broke her silence, just before she traveled to Sao Paolo in Brazil, to where her husband fled and was arrested. Now he is awaiting the decision on Israel's request to extradite him. In a telephone conversation from Brazil, where she was staying until not long ago with Satmar Hasids, she denied the accusations against her husband. "We're being persecuted," she said. "The press likes to lynch ultra-Orthodox people especially if someone is called a rabbi."<BR/><BR/>Of the abuses - "corrections" in the cult's terminology - she says they were educational methods. "Those children were animals. They behaved like wild beasts. They were uncivilized and rude. We made human beings out of them. They had had a faulty upbringing. Children who after they ate would get up to play, without saying a blessing. They were expelled from school. Except for one boy, they didn't want to learn. We tried to rehabilitate them. My husband is a gentle soul who wouldn't hurt a fly. We're not people who hit."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-54505418342088921932009-03-25T09:51:00.000-07:002009-03-25T09:51:00.000-07:00send me all the teenage girls and i will teach the...send me all the teenage girls and i will teach them all about nidda. <BR/>----------------------------------------<BR/><BR/> <BR/><BR/>Revolutionary hotline provides halachic counsel for women<BR/><BR/>Special program trains women to become halachic consultants, help other women cope with intimate concerns such as niddah. Women find it easier to talk to women than to their rabbi about those issues, one consultant explains <BR/><BR/>http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3691759,00.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-82335255593400179112009-03-25T09:44:00.000-07:002009-03-25T09:44:00.000-07:00Brooklyn woman dies in fatal blast-sparked blaze a...Brooklyn woman dies in fatal blast-sparked blaze at Flatlands home<BR/><BR/>BY Kerry Burke and Jonathan Lemire<BR/>DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS<BR/><BR/>Wednesday, March 25th 2009<BR/><BR/>An explosion blew apart the second floor of a Brooklyn home Tuesday and sparked a fire that killed the 26-year-old woman inside, officials said.<BR/><BR/>The mysterious blast tore through the walls of the two-story Flatlands home and ignited a blaze that quickly engulfed the entire structure and trapped Tamara Rawner inside, witnesses said.<BR/><BR/>"The explosion blew the window out," said neighbor Larry Feingenbaum, 59, who tried to save the frantic woman. "I heard her scream. That scream ... if you heard her scream, you had to do something."<BR/><BR/>Feingenbaum broke through the front door of the E. 55th St. home, but could not get past the heavy fire to reach Rawner.<BR/><BR/>"I couldn't do anything," said a weeping Feingenbaum, a former Army officer. "I had to stand there and watch this girl die."<BR/><BR/>Firefighters arrived at the scene minutes later, but initially had to battle the blaze from the street because the flames were too intense to penetrate, FDNY officials said.<BR/><BR/>Though the cause of the explosion remains under investigation, an FDNY source said it may have been caused by a gas leak.<BR/><BR/>Rawner, one of the family's 14 children, had recently moved back in with her parents after living on the West Coast, the family rabbi said. Her parents had left the home to walk to the grocery store only moments before the 2:45 p.m. blast.<BR/><BR/>"They were gone for only a few minutes and the whole thing erupted," said Rabbi David Helpern. "They are in shock."<BR/><BR/>jlemire@nydailynews.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-17720194643627817612009-03-24T23:05:00.000-07:002009-03-24T23:05:00.000-07:00http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/womenshistory2009/n...http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/womenshistory2009/news/story?id=4008742<BR/><BR/>==========================<BR/><BR/>By Wayne Drehs<BR/>ESPN.com<BR/><BR/>SEATTLE -- The wallpaper border was meant to be peaceful, serene. A soft shade of blue covered with images of rose-colored flowers and white lattice. It was supposed to ease the nerves and bring a sense of calm to the bedroom. But with each piece that Margaret Hoelzer and her mother stuck to the wall that afternoon, the more secrets that came spilling out. The more the meaning of that border changed.<BR/><BR/>"I was paralyzed. It was like I was in a tunnel," said Margaret's mother, Elizabeth Livingston. "And I just kept praying to God to give me the strength to get through this and give my daughter the strength to keep talking."<BR/><BR/>It was any parent's worst nightmare. Ten-year-old Margaret began telling her mom how, between the ages of 5 and 7, she thought she might have been sexually abused by the father of one of Margaret's friends. For three hours Margaret kept talking, telling of how the man touched her here, lured her there. He had shown her adult magazines and exposed himself to her. She spoke with a level of detail and knew things about the male anatomy that a 10-year-old girl simply shouldn't know. Her mother was horrified.<BR/><BR/>Beginning that March afternoon in 1994, life would never be the same. Margaret would hide in the closet every time her mom left home. She lost any sense of self-esteem. She lost her trust in people -- to the point that she wouldn't kiss a boy until 10 years later and even now, at the age of 25, has still never had a serious boyfriend.<BR/><BR/>"Sexual abuse is like a disease," Margaret said. "It just attacked my self-esteem. My first lesson that not all people are good, that adults aren't perfect and don't always have your best interests at heart? Yeah, I learned that at 5 years old. And that just kills any trust you have in the world."<BR/><BR/>Fifteen years after that afternoon in her mom's bedroom, Margaret Hoelzer is at the Water Cube in Beijing, a third Olympic medal draped around her neck. The world doesn't know what she's been through, doesn't know the demons she's fought to get here. Margaret believes the time has come for it to find out. After all, this has been the plan since she was 11, since the day a grand jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to pursue a case. The jurors told her it didn't mean they didn't believe her, it didn't mean that nothing had happened. It just meant they couldn't prove it. But try telling that to a fifth grader who lives in a world where you do something wrong and you're punished.<BR/><BR/>"I was devastated," Margaret said. "The pain was immense. And I remember thinking that I don't ever want anyone else to have to go through that feeling of helplessness. That was when I began to realize, if the timing was ever right, if I could ever help someone else, I was going to tell my story."<BR/><BR/>The nightmare<BR/><BR/>Margaret Hoelzer is comfortable. She's wearing her favorite jeans, sitting in one of her favorite Seattle restaurants and eating one of her favorite dishes -- a crepe stuffed with egg, tomato and spinach. She smiles, she laughs. And with every move, her curly blonde hair bounces up and down and her baby blue eyes jump in and out of the restaurant light.<BR/><BR/>But with one question, everything changes. Her voice turns robotic. Her eyes go hollow. Her hair stops bouncing. Her words sound as if they're coming out of a machine, absent any feeling. It's a defense mechanism, she says, the only way she can talk about what happened without emotionally collapsing. She takes a deep breath and begins.<BR/><BR/>"It was a friend's father," she says. "There were several incidents."<BR/><BR/>The U.S. record holder in the 200-meter backstroke starts with the night she slept at her friend's house and heard the door creep open in the middle of the night.<BR/><BR/>"I knew who it was," she says. "I knew exactly who it was right away."<BR/><BR/>The man was naked, she says, and crawled into bed and began touching her. He insisted that this would be their secret. That Hoelzer could never tell anyone. At such a young age, Hoelzer said she didn't consciously understand what was happening. But instinctively, something told her this wasn't right. She wasn't comfortable. So she jumped out of the bed and went to the bathroom.<BR/><BR/>"I sat there for a half hour," she said. "I had no idea what to do. And then when I came out he was still there. He had been waiting that entire time. Thank God he left shortly after I get back. I don't know if he was worried that I was figuring it out or what. But he left."<BR/><BR/>On another occasion, Hoelzer, a group of friends and the same man were on a bike ride in the woods, she said, when the man told Margaret he wanted to show her something. She followed him deep into the woods and into an abandoned trailer. There, she says, the man propositioned her.<BR/><BR/>"He basically goes, 'You show me yours and I'll show you mine,'" Hoelzer said.<BR/><BR/>"Literally. My instincts told me this wasn't right, I knew I didn't feel comfortable and my excuse was basically, 'Well, I've already seen you naked. What am I getting out of this?' That's what I said to him. And thank God I happened to be by the door. I just ran out."<BR/><BR/>There were other incidents. Like the time, Hoelzer said, when she, the man and her friends were playing hide-and-seek when the man lured her into a crawl space with the promise that they would find a frog he said he had put there earlier. Or the multiple times he pulled out adult magazines, Hoelzer said, and asked if the little girl was "going to look like this someday."<BR/><BR/>"I had no idea what to say. I had no idea how to handle any of this," she said. "My brain wasn't telling me, 'Hey, this is your friend's dad, he shouldn't be doing this.' At 5 or 6 years old, kids are pretty easy to trick. I mean, frogs were friggin' awesome. I wanted to find the frog. But my gut got me the hell out of those situations every single time."<BR/><BR/>She says the abuse eventually stopped when the alleged attacker and his family moved to another town. Hoelzer has not seen or heard from the man or his family since. She denied repeated requests to name her alleged attacker. A spokesperson from the Madison County (Ala.) District Attorney's Office confirmed that there was a case involving Hoelzer in 1994, but could not provide additional details, citing child abuse privacy laws.<BR/><BR/>"It's never been about him," Hoelzer said. "It's never been about seeing him or screaming at him or getting some sort of revenge. I've tried to focus my energy on myself."<BR/><BR/>Hoelzer said she didn't begin to grasp the severity of what happened until she confided in a friend just before her 11th birthday. The friend insisted she tell her mom, then Hoelzer met with the Huntsville Police Department and the National Child Advocacy Center, which is in Huntsville. A psychologist told Hoelzer she was likely being groomed for rape and that her outgoing, chatty personality probably saved her. Suddenly, the what-ifs terrified the girl.<BR/><BR/>"Sure, I was being told this as a 'thank God, you're so lucky, you're one of the lucky ones,'" she said, "but at the same time, once I realized the seriousness of what could have happened, the fact that I might not have been able to have kids and all that, it was like … oh … my … God. I was absolutely terrified."<BR/><BR/>A lack of trust<BR/><BR/>At 5 years old, life lessons are simple. Be polite, mind your manners, don't talk with your mouth full, respect your elders. Adults are always right. Do what they say. Don't talk back. Trust.<BR/><BR/>For 11 years, Margaret Hoelzer lived in the trusting world, trusting adults. After she told her mother she had been molested, and she grasped how close she was to being raped -- as a first grader -- that sense of security was ripped from her. She lost her self-esteem. She lost her sense of control. She lost her trust in the world.<BR/><BR/>"I had to teach her at an early age that not all adults are right, that trust is something that is earned," said Margaret's mother, Elizabeth. "And that just ripped away her innocence. And you can't put a Band-Aid on that and fix it."<BR/><BR/>Everywhere her mother went, Margaret had to be by her side. If her mom was upstairs putting away laundry, Margaret was there. If Elizabeth was downstairs cooking dinner, Margaret was there. A psychologist suggested that Elizabeth walk the family dog for 10 minutes a day, hopefully teaching her daughter it was safe for an 11-year-old girl to be home alone for a few minutes. But the moment her mother left, Margaret panicked, hiding in her bedroom closet.<BR/><BR/>"Those were some of the worst 10 minutes of my life," Margaret said. "This is at like 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it's a sunny, beautiful day, my mom walks the dog for 10 minutes and I am absolutely horrified."<BR/><BR/>Margaret eventually grew comfortable with being left home alone. But it took time. She wasn't able to live alone until last year. And even then, upon purchasing her first home, the deciding factors weren't a spacious bathroom or an open floor plan, but rather a home that had no porch, no patio and only one door. She's still "anal retentive" about locking doors, even locking her house every time she goes to get the mail.<BR/><BR/>But there is perhaps no part of her life that has caused Hoelzer more anxiety than relationships. The outgoing, engaging woman will turn 26 later this month and has never had a serious boyfriend. She didn't even kiss someone until she was 20. In high school it wasn't a big deal, she said. But once she got to Auburn, she realized she was different. Her friends started dating; Hoelzer was nervous even talking to a guy.<BR/><BR/>"We would all be sitting around talking about the things girls talk about and I was so uncomfortable, so self-conscious," she said. "Half of my friends weren't even virgins. And not only had I never done that, but geez, a kiss? What is that? Like the 'pre-base'? If first base is being felt up, then kissing is before you even get up to bat. I mean, how am I supposed to hit a home run if I hadn't even gotten out of the dugout?"<BR/><BR/>Hoelzer's relationship issues were one of the reasons she returned to counseling two years ago. She's liked boys, had huge crushes, but has never been able to overcome her emotional issues to pursue a relationship. In counseling, she learned that part of her problem is a lack of trust in men, part of it is a fear of vulnerability and part of it is trying to overcompensate for a feeling that her alleged attacker didn't care about her.<BR/><BR/>She's realized that one of her defense mechanisms is pursuing men who are unavailable. She's also learned about her tendency to ignore a man the instant she thinks he might have an interest in her. It's all her wall of defense.<BR/><BR/>"Basically, when you've been abused, you usually go either the promiscuous route or the nun route," she said. "I went the nun route. I was scared of anything that had to do with any of that. For me, sex was so special and so sacred that I wouldn't go anywhere near that until I was completely in love with someone. And I wouldn't let that happen. So I avoided anything and everything that came with it."<BR/><BR/>Hoelzer now believes she is as open to a relationship as she has ever been, despite her trust issues. Her deepest fear, she says, is the potential failure of her sixth sense, that intuition that subconsciously saved her when she was a little girl. What if she senses that a man is safe to open up to but she later finds out otherwise?<BR/><BR/>"That's been the defense mechanism that I've used my entire life," she said. "It saved me as a little girl and it's saved me as an adult. So my fears are much greater than being rejected. It's the fear of what will happen if the only defense I have against the world no longer works."<BR/><BR/>Going public<BR/><BR/>Two days after her second-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke final in Beijing, Hoelzer and her two closest friends stand at a crossroads. While visiting the Great Wall of China, they can't decide which path to follow. To the left: the more challenging, more strenuous but more rewarding trail. To the right: the smoother, flatter, easier route that most everyone seems to follow.<BR/><BR/>The Olympian and her friends veer to the left. Along the way, Hoelzer tells them she's ready to share her story. All her life, this has been the plan. Achieve Olympic glory, give herself a platform, then tell what happened in the hope of raising awareness about child sexual abuse.<BR/><BR/>The pool has always provided escape. There, she has had control. She has had success. She's never had to rely on anyone else, be it a teammate or a judge. It's always been her, the water and the clock. It's fitting that she would use her salvation -- swimming -- to try to help others.<BR/><BR/>"Swimming helped give me self-esteem," she said. "A lot of athletes compete because they want to prove they are better than the average person. I always felt I had to prove I was as good as everybody else. My accomplishments brought me back up to normal."<BR/><BR/>Said Elizabeth: "Swimming has been a godsend. I truly believe that she was given this gift for a purpose. She always said, 'If I ever make the Olympics, if I'm ever in that position, I want to help others.' This was always her motivation. This was always what she worked so hard for."<BR/><BR/>Hoelzer knows the statistics are staggering. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. One in 20 children will be sexually abused each year. And an estimated 40 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse live in America today. Yet it's a taboo topic. An estimated 30 percent of all incidents never go reported.<BR/><BR/>"It happens. It happens so much more than people realize," Hoelzer said. "It happens 40 to 50 times the rate of childhood cancer. And with all due respect to childhood cancer, that's easier to talk about than someone being molested. People can't even say the word, 'molested.' I want to change that."<BR/><BR/>As much as she didn't want to tell what that man allegedly did to her, as much as she didn't want anyone to know she didn't kiss a boy until she was 20, Hoelzer wanted to help. She believed that if her story could inspire one child or even one adult, it would be worth her anxiety.<BR/><BR/>So last September, a few weeks after returning from Beijing, Hoelzer sat down with a reporter from The Associated Press and told her story. It wasn't easy. She broke down in tears several times. And deep inside, she wondered: What if nobody cares? What if nobody listens? And on a smaller scale, how in the world would she get a date now?<BR/><BR/>"I honestly worried about that," Hoelzer said. "I mean, it's hard enough for relationships to work for 'normal people.' What guy would even want to date some nutcase who has all these trust issues?"<BR/><BR/>Setting herself free<BR/><BR/>In the months since she told her story, life has gotten easier. The woman who pushed herself in the water, setting the goal of winning a gold medal in world-record time so that she could have the platform to tell her story, no longer feels the burden of swimming under such pressure. She no longer melts down when she fails to meet her lofty expectations. She's learned that a gold medal isn't everything. A world record isn't everything. The hundreds of letters, e-mails and phone calls from friends and strangers all across the world have proved to her that two silver medals and one bronze provide a pretty nice platform, as well.<BR/><BR/>"As much as this is helping other people, it's helped Margaret as well," her mom said. "It's set her free. It's made her more open and less guarded. And she's more ready now to meet someone than she has ever been. It's helping. And that makes me so happy."<BR/><BR/>David Marsh, Hoelzer's college coach at Auburn, believes the results of that happiness can be seen in the water.<BR/><BR/>"She has overcome more than just about any other swimmer on the Olympic team to get where she has," Marsh said. "These demons have absolutely held her back. How could they not? But now, feeling like she can be open and vulnerable as a human being? How could that not help her? How could that not set her free to reach her fullest potential?"<BR/><BR/>Going public is only the beginning of Hoelzer's plan. She majored in criminology and sociology at Auburn and wrote college papers on child abuse. She plans to someday work in the field and also would like to start a foundation that would financially support the National Children's Advocacy Center. One of her goals is to increase awareness of the signs parents should look for if they think their child has been abused.<BR/><BR/>"She's incredible, just an absolute inspiration," says Catherine Hereford, the development director for the NCAC. "She sees that she has a platform and is using that for absolute selfless good. Personally, I can't imagine telling the world something so personal and private."<BR/><BR/>A week after Hoelzer's story appeared on The Associated Press wire, she stood before some 500 people and spoke at the principal fundraising banquet for the NCAC in Huntsville. The woman who doesn't get nervous before races, who's never had a problem with public speaking, talked about the team that helped her reach their shared goals in Beijing. She talked about family, friends, coaches and nutritionists. And she talked about the Advocacy Center, the people who helped her find her way through the darkest part of her life.<BR/><BR/>That's when it hit. That's when even the greatest defense mechanisms in the world couldn't hold back the tears, couldn't keep Hoelzer from stepping back from the microphone.<BR/><BR/>As she gathered herself, the audience came to its feet and applauded.<BR/><BR/>"I couldn't help but stand there and think, 'That's my little girl up there,'" Elizabeth said. "That's my little girl telling the whole world about her nightmare, just so she can help other people. This is greater than anything she could ever accomplish at any Olympics. She is showing the world that no matter what obstacles you have to overcome, you can still chase that dream. You can still have hope. She's truly an inspiration."<BR/><BR/>Wayne Drehs is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.exposemolestershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02097300261898413798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-57906461815113761732009-03-24T22:59:00.000-07:002009-03-24T22:59:00.000-07:00http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-koshe...http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-koshermanager-jew,0,3275875.story<BR/>---------------------------------<BR/> By AMY LORENTZEN | Associated Press Writer<BR/> <BR/>March 25, 2009 <BR/>DES MOINES, Iowa - The former manager of an embattled kosher slaughterhouse in northeast Iowa who faces nearly 100 federal charges has filed a notice asking the court to accommodate Jewish holidays and observances in scheduling future proceedings.<BR/><BR/>Sholom Rubashkin's attorney filed the notice Monday in response to a calendar request initiated by the court.<BR/><BR/>Rubashkin, the former manager of Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, faces 97 charges including accusations of Immigration violations, bank fraud and money laundering.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-19602025966618712992009-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:002009-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:00NEW YORK -- One of the world's top matzo manufactu...NEW YORK -- One of the world's top matzo manufacturers got started with a simple premise: "I'm going to bake matzos this year. ... We'll see how it goes."<BR/><BR/>That's what 19th century Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz is said to have told his wife after they arrived in America, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania struggling to survive -- and to create something new.<BR/><BR/>In 1888, he founded the company that revolutionized production of the unleavened bread at the core of Jewish ritual meals, turning it into a mass-marketed, packaged product.<BR/><BR/>The week-long Passover feast, starting at sundown on April 8 this year, marks the ancient Hebrews' hurried escape from Egypt, before their bread had time to rise. Hence, the flat, unleavened matzo.<BR/><BR/>Manischewitz now is America's largest producer of processed kosher food, making not only their staple matzo but everything from salad dressing and low-calorie borscht to matzo ball mix and wasabi horseradish. The company was run by the family until 1990, when it was sold for $42.5 million...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-42521554789624334222009-03-24T21:49:00.000-07:002009-03-24T21:49:00.000-07:00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M402YJFf78A group ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M402YJFf78<BR/><BR/>A group of former Israeli soldiers say they have new evidence of potential war crimes committed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza. These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelle...<BR/>A group of former Israeli soldiers say they have new evidence of potential war crimes committed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza. These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelled at the Israeli military and the claims have sparked a bitter debate within Israel's defence forces and wider society over the "morality" of the IDF and its behaviour in Gaza.<BR/>Category: News & Politics<BR/>Tags: <BR/>Al Jazeera English Inside Story Gaza Israel war crimes Palestine IDFAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-60379667549531803412009-03-24T09:10:00.000-07:002009-03-24T09:10:00.000-07:00Masbia fulfills a tremendous need in the community...Masbia fulfills a tremendous need in the community. Their acts of charity does not go unnoticed. <BR/>=======================================<BR/><BR/>Hungry for soup kitchens: 3 new Masbias set for Jewish nabes in Brooklyn and Queens<BR/><BR/>BY Joyce Shelby<BR/>DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER<BR/><BR/>Tuesday, March 24th 2009, 4:00 AM<BR/><BR/>When the kosher soup kitchen Masbia opened in Borough Park nearly four years ago, it served a total of eight patrons.<BR/><BR/>"Now, we have nights when we go over 200," said Alexander Rapaport, Masbia's executive director. And the need is growing.<BR/><BR/>With hunger and poverty growing in the Jewish community, Masbia is now planning to open three more kosher soup kitchens - two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The first on Lee St. in Williamsburg is expected to open in June.<BR/><BR/>Among Jewish communities in Brooklyn, Williamsburg has the highest level of poverty, with 64% of households earning less than $35,000, according to a UJA-Federation study.<BR/><BR/>The council is looking for a second site somewhere in southern Brooklyn to serve needy residents in Midwood, Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Coney Island.<BR/><BR/>The third kitchen will be in central Queens to serve Jackson Heights, Rego Park, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.<BR/><BR/>"We're focusing on the areas with the highest concentrations of poor, working poor and middle-class people who have lost jobs and can't make ends meet," said William Rapfogel, director of Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which is partnering with Masbia in operating the soup kitchens.<BR/><BR/>The new facilities will be patterned after Masbia, which is set up like a restaurant, with artificial plants surrounding tables to offer diners a sense of privacy.<BR/><BR/>"This is about making sure people have a dignified way to have a meal in a clean, safe environment," Rapfogel said.<BR/><BR/>Social workers will regularly visit to make sure diners take advantage of other services they might be eligible for, such as children's insurance or Medicaid.<BR/><BR/>Rapaport said he was concerned particularly about the increasing numbers of children being brought to Masbia for meals. On a recent night, he counted 61 youngsters.<BR/><BR/>"We used to average around 20 a day," Rapaport said.<BR/><BR/>The downturn in the economy has led to a rise in middle-class diners at Masbia, Rapaport said. "Their shame is so much bigger. They don't know where to call for food stamps. They don't know where food pantries are. People have just fallen into this situation."<BR/><BR/>Brooklyn Daily News reporter Joyce Shelby died last week at the age of 62. This was the last story she wrote. To see the News' tribute to our own Joyce Shelby, visit: NYDailyNews.com/ny_local/Brooklyn.exposemolestershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02097300261898413798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-29022790111965327222009-03-24T08:47:00.000-07:002009-03-24T08:47:00.000-07:00President Obama was only joking last week when he ...President Obama was only joking last week when he quipped on Jay Leno's show that his bowling is "like the Special Olympics or something." To his credit, the President quickly realized that his joke was insensitive and not funny and so he called Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics, to apologize.<BR/><BR/>Did he really need to do that? Is there something wrong with us that we can no longer take a joke?<BR/><BR/>That's what Jackie Mason seems to think. After he used the Yiddish slur for a black person -- schvartze -- in reference to President Obama during a performance in New York On March 12, he refused to apologize for his choice of words. According to the Web site TMZ, Mason said: "I'm an old Jew. I was raised in a Jewish family where 'schvartze' was used. It's not a demeaning word and I'm not going to defend myself."<BR/>-------------------------------------<BR/><BR/>http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/03/obamas_shameful_joke.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-20844381426156761662009-03-23T19:43:00.000-07:002009-03-23T19:43:00.000-07:00So Dovid Paterson is opposed to this bill. I knew ...So Dovid Paterson is opposed to this bill. I knew this guy was a flake. Agudah must be bouncing up and down like happy kids after hearing the Governor. I wonder if Paterson would feel the same had his child been abused. Shouldn't a murderer be exempt from going to jail if he got away with it for 50 years, yet we all know there is no limitations on homicides, so why is sex abuse any different?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-57890308524366855552009-03-23T15:57:00.000-07:002009-03-23T15:57:00.000-07:00Does this mean there was penetration that took pla...Does this mean there was penetration that took place?<BR/>-<BR/>NEW CITY - A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced today to five years in state prison for repeatedly sodomizing an underage orphaned boy.<BR/><BR/>Katz had pleaded guilty last month to sodomizing the boy, then 12 years old, whom he had befriended.<BR/>Advertisement<BR/><BR/>The victim, now 18, was in court today but was too distraught to read his statement. His brother read the statement.<BR/><BR/>The statement described years of sexual abuse at the hands of Jaime Katz of Nanuet.<BR/><BR/>The teen's statement described how Katz used his position as a police officer and a person of authority to make advances to the him when he was a child.<BR/><BR/>"You are a crooked cop and a crooked person," victim's brother said to Katz.<BR/><BR/>The victim's brother also told Katz that he doubted that he regretted his actions.<BR/><BR/>"I don't believe you are truly sorry," he said. "You are only sorry you got caught. You are pathetic."<BR/><BR/>Rockland County Court Judge Judge Victor Alfieri told Katz that he had preyed on a vulnerable young person and his family.<BR/><BR/>"You knew how vulnerable they were," Alfieri said.<BR/><BR/>The judge imposed the five-year sentence with 10 years post-release supervision, but expressed reservations.<BR/><BR/>"For what you did, this agreement is light," Alfieri said. "I have my doubts about going along with this."<BR/><BR/>Read more about this tomorrow in The Journal News.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-8517139592578479372009-03-23T15:53:00.000-07:002009-03-23T15:53:00.000-07:00Former QC bus driver gets 30 years for sex with gi...Former QC bus driver gets 30 years for sex with girl, 15<BR/><BR/>by Jim Walsh - Mar. 23, 2009 <BR/>The Arizona Republic<BR/><BR/>A former Queen Creek bus driver was sentenced to 30 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor and sex abuse.<BR/><BR/>The charges against John Joseph Byrne, 64, stemmed from August 2007, when he was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl on a Queen Creek Unified School District bus.<BR/><BR/>Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Helene Abrams sentenced Byrne on Friday to 17 years for child molestation, plus 13 additional years for sexual conduct of a minor.<BR/><BR/>Abrams also sentenced Byrne to a five-year sentence for sexual abuse that will run concurrently with the child molestation sentence, and one year concurrent sentences on three other sex charges.<BR/><BR/>Jurors found Byrne guilty of six counts and not guilty of five other sex charges on Jan. 29 after an 11-day trial, according to court records.<BR/><BR/>Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested Bryne on Aug. 25, 2007, after the victim told investigators that she had sex with the man, according to a probable-cause statement.<BR/><BR/>The girl said she met Bryne when she was in seventh grade and that he would arrange to pick the girl up early.<BR/><BR/>The pair would touch each other and had sex a couple of times, according to the statement.<BR/><BR/>Bryne later admitted to the sexual contact with the victim, the statement said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-26478282486185234652009-03-23T09:21:00.000-07:002009-03-23T09:21:00.000-07:00Why does the world media love to hate Israel?By Br...Why does the world media love to hate Israel?<BR/>By Bradley Burston<BR/><BR/>I was just in the States, speaking to members of Ameinu, an organization which, the times notwithstanding, remains outspoken both in its support for peace and its support for Israel.<BR/><BR/>Among the topics I was asked to address was the portrayal of the Jewish state in the news media. Phrased a little less delicately, the issue amounts to: "Why does the press love to hate Israel?"<BR/><BR/>The question has taken on an unusual urgency of late, its pivot points Israel's war in Gaza, the debate over engaging a proto-nuclear Iran, the UN's upcoming Durban II World Conference against Racism, Avigdor Lieberman's Arab-baiting campaign for Knesset, and, not least, disclosures in Haaretz, Ma'ariv, and Israeli broadcast media quoting IDF troops describing moral failings during the Gaza offensive.<BR/><BR/>Allow me to begin with the underlying first question.<BR/><BR/>Are there journalists who truly dislike Jews, and allow their Jew-hate to color their coverage?<BR/><BR/>Yes. I've met and, in fact, worked with, a number of them. Some of them, it will come as no surprise to report, are themselves Jewish. But does this explain or account for a significant portion of negative coverage of Israel in the media? It does not. Not at all.<BR/><BR/>What does?<BR/><BR/>1. What Israel says, and what Israel does.<BR/><BR/>A. In all the world, there is no bait more tempting for a reporter than Israel's assertion that its military is the "most moral in the world." This is the socially clueless Goliath wearing a sign reading "Kick Me." It is the one irresistible soft target of sound bites.<BR/><BR/>B. Anyone who has been in a war, as a participant, reporter, or civilian bystander, knows that any war, every war, spawns war crimes. The question, when examining the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, was whether there was something different, something exceptional and intentional and, especially, a matter of policy and command direction, that either trapped or targeted large numbers of civilians, resulting in a human tragedy far beyond the horrible reality of the very fact of warfare.<BR/><BR/>Was, in other words, this war different from all other wars? Or was this war the trigger for an outpouring of anti-Israel animus that was, for lack of a better term, disproportionate?<BR/><BR/>Although the jury is still out pending further independent inquiry, the likely answer to both is: Yes.<BR/><BR/>C. There is reason to believe that, at least in certain units, massive and, in retrospect, excessive firepower was employed, the apparent result of a miscalculation about how, and where, Hamas fighters were likely to engage in combat. In the main, Hamas, whose men had fought to the death in previous encounters, refrained from engaging the IDF at all.<BR/><BR/>There remains a need for intensive and impartial investigation to determine the extent and the cause of actions which led directly to the deaths of innocents.<BR/><BR/>D. The fact that may be most difficult to digest - either for haters of Israel or its most ardently positive supporters - is that Israel's armed forces have always been marked by an extraordinary degree of autonomy, down to the level of the individual grunt.<BR/><BR/>As a direct result, there were instances of Israeli soldiers who risked their own lives to save those of innocents, and there were Israeli soldiers who were predisposed to take the lives of innocents without just cause.<BR/><BR/>2. What Palestinians say that Israel does.<BR/><BR/>There are journalists who accept without reservation or corroboration the accounts of Palestinians regarding the actions of Israeli soldiers. There are television networks, some of them financed by Qatar, whose coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even during studio interviews, is accompanied by unending, obscenely graphic footage of infants and children wounded and killed in the war.<BR/><BR/>The first rule of covering the Holy Land is also in some ways the only rule:<BR/><BR/>3. Everyone lies to the press here. Everyone. All the time.<BR/><BR/>This is similar to, but not the same as:<BR/><BR/>4. Middle East news, like news in general, is marketing.<BR/><BR/>We are, all of us, in marketing. We are, all of us, in the business of selling a story. This includes the eyewitness, the victim, the military commander, the Hamas official, the Israeli spokesman, the betrayed, the bereaved, the film crew, the pundit.<BR/><BR/>Every news outlet has a lens through which it believes the story will best sell to an increasingly news-inured public. Every individual, Israeli or Palestinian, has an axe to grind, and a world full of good reasons to grind it.<BR/><BR/>5. Sometimes Israel looks bad because it is made to look bad. At other times, however, Israeli actions appear brutal because they, in fact, are.<BR/><BR/>Much has been made of what may be the least translatable word in the Hebrew language, Hasbara, literally, the act of explaining:<BR/><BR/>"It is true that the world media, generally speaking, doesn't like Israel very much, and stacks the deck against it, but good hasbara starts with not allowing soldiers to vandalize Palestinian homes and shoot Palestinian women," writes Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, a veteran of the IDF, of the disclosures over the past week in Haaretz.<BR/><BR/>"Public relations isn't a morally relevant category, in any case: The crucial question is, how should a civilized country behave when confronting barbarism? With barbarism? Or with respect for innocent life? Pardon me for saying so, but the Jewish people didn't struggle for national equality, justice and freedom so that some of its sons could behave like Cossacks.<BR/><BR/>"Please don't get me wrong: I'm not equating the morality of the IDF to that of Hamas. The goal of Hamas is to murder innocent people; the goal of the IDF is to avoid murdering innocent people. But when the IDF fails to achieve its goal, and ends up inflicting needless destruction and suffering, it sullies not only its own name, but the name of the Jewish state. It risks making a just cause - Jewish nationhood - seem unjust, and it ultimately endangers what it is supposed to protect."<BR/><BR/>6. Israelis, as a people and individually, are execrable at public relations because they abhor and distrust the very concept.<BR/><BR/>There is a reason why Israelis are so breathtakingly inept at furthering their own cause.<BR/><BR/>It is not only becuse this war was a frank and literally misguided attempt to redress years of misguidance. Or because the war between the Jews and the Arabs, this war which has raged for more than a hundred years, has robbed both sides of its ability to see the humanity of the other.<BR/><BR/>It is also because Israelis hate the very idea of public relations. They live in a country which has been under effective world quarantine for nearly all if its history.They live in a society whose trait of unbridled openness has become something of a learning disability. They speak a language which is light years and thousands of literal years away from television English. They are bathed in a culture which insulates itself and armors itself and has had little reason to believe the world will give it a fair shake.They have a shared, largely unspoken truth which is based, in part, on the world's inability to fathom their behavior. And they believe that no matter what they do, much of the world is likely to condemn them. And in this,at least, they have seldom been proven wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-9596258334021169832009-03-23T09:12:00.000-07:002009-03-23T09:12:00.000-07:00March 23, 2009EditorialA Window for JusticeFor dec...March 23, 2009<BR/>Editorial<BR/>A Window for Justice<BR/><BR/>For decades, priests who preyed sexually on children did so with shocking ease and impunity. Their superiors acted as functional accomplices, shuttling abusive priests among parishes and buying or bullying victims into silence. Shame and guilt did the rest, burying abuses under a shroud of secrecy that often far outlasted the statute of limitations for prosecutions or lawsuits.<BR/><BR/>Those victims deserve a day in court. The New York Legislature should grant it to them, by passing a bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of children.<BR/><BR/>The bill would open a one-year window during which accusers would be allowed to sue in civil court, no matter how old the case. After a year, the statute of limitations would be restored, but an accuser would have up to 10 years after turning 18 to make a claim, instead of five. The statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions would not be changed.<BR/><BR/>Like similar measures in Delaware and California, the Child Victims Act seeks to balance the need for reasonable time limits for lawsuits against the unusual challenges in uncovering sexual crimes against children.<BR/><BR/>It can take decades before victims are ready to make the wrenching decision to tell their stories.<BR/><BR/>Add to that problem the particulars of the priest abuse scandal. It had its roots in the 1960s and 70s, but did not engulf the Catholic Church — which systematically covered up for the criminals in its clergy — until 2002, when its many victims were in their 30s or older.<BR/><BR/>The bill does not explicitly target any institution. Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials are lobbying against it, arguing that it is unfair to allow decades-old accusations against old men who are ill equipped to defend themselves when evidence is lost or forgotten and witnesses are dead. They also, naturally, fear a wave of expensive settlements and damage awards like the one that struck the Los Angeles Archdiocese when the statute of limitations was lifted under a 2003 law.<BR/><BR/>Those fairness concerns are vastly outweighed by the need to dispense fairness to those who were powerless to seek it. Exposing abuse is also a matter of public safety. It is wrong to allow the institutional shame of the Catholic Church to remain hidden in church files and in the anguished hearts of victims. Their continued suffering and the prevention of future abuses are the strongest arguments for passage of the Child Victims Act.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-23953453939555360782009-03-23T09:03:00.000-07:002009-03-23T09:03:00.000-07:00They shouldn't be sending a goy out to buy hot dog...They shouldn't be sending a goy out to buy hot dogs. A mistake it is, but it should not have happened in the first place. Where was the mashgiach? <BR/><BR/>http://wcbstv.com/topstories/non.kosher.frankfurter.2.965310.html<BR/><BR/>Non-Kosher Hot Dog Incites Rage At Jewish Eatery<BR/>Restaurant Owner Brandished Electric Knife To Fend Off Enraged CustomersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-5458439293243067302009-03-22T21:08:00.000-07:002009-03-22T21:08:00.000-07:00http://www.survivorshealingcenter.org/http://www.survivorshealingcenter.org/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-29423846193300039662009-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:002009-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00This is what we call tough love. A little bit of c...This is what we call tough love. A little bit of chinuch never hurts a child. <BR/>-----------------------<BR/><BR/>It is an emotional account of child abuse and neglect so despicable it will make any parent cringe.<BR/><BR/>Earlier this week, Metro arrested Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie after their five-month-old daughter was discovered to have bruises, fractured ribs, burns, and was severely malnourished. News 3's Dan Ball spoke with a woman who lived with the Frisbies for a short time. She explains why she finally came forward about the abuse she witnessed.<BR/><BR/>Danielle Gill, her husband, and her small son lived with Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie and their five-month-old daughter Alexius in a small apartment at the Suites on Boulder Highway for about two weeks. In that short amount of time, Danielle says she witnessed things that will haunt her forever.<BR/><BR/>"They rarely tended to the baby. They let the baby cry a lot, the baby didn't get fed that much. Kyle was very rough with the baby. If the baby was choking, he would put her up on his knee on her stomach and then smack her really hard on the back. It wasn't just a normal tap, it was to the point that he was hitting her so hard that her limbs were flailing and she had to gasp for air a few times."<BR/><BR/>Danielle says that most days, Kyle and Jennifer completely ignored little Alexius and would only feed her once or twice per day.<BR/><BR/>"Every morning they argued (about) who had to feed the baby. And if no one wanted to feed the baby, the baby had to go starving. They just didn't like taking care of the kids. They always said the baby got on their nerves."<BR/><BR/>Dan Ball: You're a mother. This is obliviously very upsetting?<BR/><BR/>Danielle: Yes it is. It was really hard to see. We let the cops know this happened on a daily basis.<BR/><BR/>A medical report given to Metro states that the infant's skin was folded over and sagging, and her limbs were elongated with little or no muscle mass. Also, she had multiple rib fractures.<BR/><BR/>"Kyle was the one that was real rough - picking her up by her throat, snapping her head around, thrashing her around, throwing her on the bed real hard, shaking her, slapping her stomach and ribs," explains Danielle. "If the baby had formula on her mouth, then he would like wipe it until there was blood in her mouth."<BR/><BR/>Alexius was also found with burns on her nose and ear. Danielle says Jennifer Frisbie told her that Kyle purposely held the infant close to a vaporizer, burning her.<BR/><BR/>"They need to get what they deserve and they need to be put in jail. And they need to be treated they way they treated that baby so they know what that baby went through."<BR/><BR/>Danielle says she would have come forward sooner, but she received some bad advice from a friend.<BR/><BR/>"When I had called to get some help from somebody, I was told that if I were to call the cops, I would be blamed for most of it because I was the one watching her."<BR/><BR/>On Wednesday, March 18, the Frisbies left Alexius with Danielle while they went to give plasma, their main source of income. It was then that Danielle says she realized she had to get help.<BR/><BR/>"(Kyle) went to grab her skull and whip it around, but the body couldn't go with the head, so basically, the head got tucked underneath the back. And when they left Alexius in my care for the day, the right side of her temple started swelling real bad. She was vomiting blood."<BR/><BR/>Little Alexius is still being cared for at Sunrise Hospital while her parents are being held on $20,000 bail.<BR/><BR/>Danielle Gill says that Jennifer Frisbie also had another baby several years ago that was taken away from her because she was found to be an unfit mother. Both Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie are due to appear in court Monday at 8 am.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-46110717535668050462009-03-22T10:15:00.000-07:002009-03-22T10:15:00.000-07:00ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson has cast doubt on ...ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson has cast doubt on the future of a bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children.<BR/><BR/>The legislation, now headed to the Assembly floor for a vote, gives abuse victims a special one-year window to file suit in civil court regardless of how long ago the assault occurred. The one-year period would start when the bill, from Assemb. Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), is signed into law by the governor.<BR/><BR/>Paterson expressed reservations Friday. "These types of cases could go back, 20, 30, 40 years, and since the evidence probably doesn't exist in any way to convict the perpetrator ... the accusation would hinder the career of any person who was accused," he told Newsday.<BR/><BR/>Paterson said he favors legislation that doesn't include the one-year window and adds two years to the statute of limitations. "There are a couple of competing bills. ... The one I think that I probably like the best at this point was introduced by Assemblyman Vito Lopez ."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-62581828119364647302009-03-22T09:33:00.000-07:002009-03-22T09:33:00.000-07:00New York PostHASIDIC TEEN-RAPE PERV GUILTYBy LAURA...New York Post<BR/><BR/>HASIDIC TEEN-RAPE PERV GUILTY<BR/><BR/>By LAURA ITALIANO <BR/><BR/> March 20, 2009 --<BR/><BR/>A 23-year-old Hasidic Jew who'd insisted he was too devout to deal with rape and child-porn charges against him pleaded guilty yesterday to seducing three Westchester girls ages 14 and 15.<BR/><BR/>David Silverman, of Rockland County, will be sentenced next month to one to four years for rape, sodomy and child endangerment.<BR/><BR/>The victims had met him online via MySpace in 2007.<BR/><BR/>Raised in an ultra-Orthodox community, Silverman had by then moved away, tattooed his body, shaved his head and pierced both ears.<BR/><BR/>He and two of his buddies now believed to be in Israel got the girls drunk in an illegal club near the Javits Center and photographed the resulting orgy.<BR/><BR/>By the time he was indicted a half-year later, Silverman had returned to Hasidism, and insisted he'd never had sex with the girls.<BR/><BR/>But prosecutors later recovered from Silverman's laptop computer a series of photographs recording the orgy in X-rated detail.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-6801047436027451772009-03-21T23:10:00.000-07:002009-03-21T23:10:00.000-07:00http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3689878,...http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3689878,00.html<BR/>------------------------------<BR/><BR/>"According to the Shin Bet, 60% of those released attempt to murder again," Eliyahu writes. "If just a small number of these succeed in carrying out their evil schemes, as occurred this week in the Jordan Valley, we will have lost more than we gained."<BR/><BR/>The rabbi adds, "Every time I see someone supporting the campaign to 'release Gilad Shalit at any price' I want to get out of the car and tell him, 'You know, the responsibility rests with you too'.<BR/><BR/> <BR/>"I wonder if those same people would come to the funerals of those killed following this dangerous deal. It will end in murder. In the end, every citizens' opinion accumulates to public opinion that causes ministers to make decisions that are sometimes wrong and may cause a lot of bloodshed."<BR/><BR/> <BR/>Rabbi Eliyahu also criticizes the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah. "The ministers that voted in favor of releasing terrorists in a deal with Hizbullah in exchange for body parts raised the price for Gilad's release," he writes. <BR/> <BR/>"I don't envy the afterlives of the ministers who voted in favor of the release because of media pressure. This is not politics, it's life."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-41490076071833835472009-03-21T22:13:00.000-07:002009-03-21T22:13:00.000-07:00This is why the Palestinians are so good at what t...This is why the Palestinians are so good at what they do, they know how how to propagandize. Lies and deceit of the worst kind. If we were going to compare the differences on the humanatarian issue- Israel has far superior credentials. For one, they don't carry out suicide missions that murder in cold blood innocent civilians.<BR/><BR/><BR/>"Suffering Palestinians," who find themselves in a situation in which they have none to blame but themselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-13028304496128722052009-03-20T14:07:00.000-07:002009-03-20T14:07:00.000-07:00"The whole issue is that yeshivas were covering th..."The whole issue is that yeshivas were covering these up," said Orthodox Jewish community child abuse advocate Mark Appel of Am Echad. "Because of the publicity, schools are getting frightened. They don't want to get sued."<BR/><BR/>Since October, at least five men living in Brooklyn's Hasidic enclaves have been charged with sexually abusing children ranging in age from 7 to 15.<BR/><BR/>"It is remarkable progress," Appel said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-30829354194064441632009-03-20T11:43:00.000-07:002009-03-20T11:43:00.000-07:00Borough Park man Moshe Spitzer charged with years ...Borough Park man Moshe Spitzer charged with years of sexual abuse of teen neighbor<BR/><BR/>BY Simone Weichselbaum<BR/>DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU<BR/><BR/>Friday, March 20th 2009, 1:47 AM<BR/><BR/>A Borough Park man was slapped with a 135-count indictment Thursday after a teen neighbor charged he had endured years of sexual abuse.<BR/><BR/>Moshe Spitzer, 24, was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court for sex acts and sex abuse, and similar charges, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.<BR/><BR/>The victim, now 18, confided to a neighborhood Yeshiva principal about the abuse, said law enforcement sources.<BR/><BR/>The principal encouraged the victim to speak to his parents about the illegal meetings inside various motel rooms and apartments. Spitzer was 20 when he started taking his younger neighbor out.<BR/><BR/>"Open lines of communication between communities and law enforcement are essential to fighting crime, and we are pleased that this victim came forward," said Hynes spokesman Jerry Schmetterer.<BR/><BR/>Authorities are hoping the case will prompt more help from the usually tight-lipped leaders of Brooklyn's Hasidic sects about sexual abuse in their communities.<BR/><BR/>"The principal did the right thing and didn't try to cover anything up," said one law enforcement source.<BR/><BR/>In one notorious case, Borough Park rabbi Yehuda Kolko was accused of molesting his students at Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Some victims said the school purposely kept the abuse quiet and hit the yeshiva with multimillion-dollar lawsuits.<BR/><BR/>"The whole issue is that yeshivas were covering these up," said Orthodox Jewish community child abuse advocate Mark Appel of Am Echad. "Because of the publicity, schools are getting frightened. They don't want to get sued."<BR/><BR/>Since October, at least five men living in Brooklyn's Hasidic enclaves have been charged with sexually abusing children ranging in age from 7 to 15.<BR/><BR/>"It is remarkable progress," Appel said.<BR/><BR/>Investigators said they are seeing more families willing to cooperate and think more abusers will end up behind bars.<BR/><BR/>"People are starting to realize, teachers and the rabbis, that the only way to stop this is to go to the authorities," said another police source.<BR/><BR/>"It takes a lot for a teenage boy to stand before a grand jury," the source said. "The system is accommodating to the victim. The district attorney's office and the police department are trying to make it as comfortable as possible."<BR/><BR/>simonew@nydailynews.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28305689.post-35516193805644179422009-03-19T23:10:00.000-07:002009-03-19T23:10:00.000-07:00Panel advances bill on lapsed sex casesReligious g...Panel advances bill on lapsed sex cases<BR/>Religious groups fear effects of longer statute of limitations in measure<BR/> <BR/>By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau<BR/>Click byline for more stories by writer.<BR/>First published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009<BR/><BR/>ALBANY — A bill that would allow for the reopening of lapsed cases of sexual abuse of children is moving to both legislative chambers despite strong opposition from religious organizations fearing bankruptcy if alleged victims get an extension on the statute of limitations to sue.<BR/><BR/>The Codes Committee of the Assembly passed the measure Tuesday, meaning it will be sent to the general body soon, and the Democrat-controlled Senate companion piece gained more sponsors, including the head of that chamber's Codes Committee, Sen. Eric Schneiderman.<BR/><BR/>The bill creates a one-year window of opportunity to revive a "dead" case if the claim comes with a certificate from a professional, such as a psychologist, who opines that the alleged victim probably was subjected to one or more acts of child sexual abuse.<BR/><BR/>The legislation, which was put forward by Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey, D-Queens, and Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, also calls for extending the civil statute of limitations for an injury or condition as a result of the felony of incest or use of a child in a sex act. Such suits would be permissible under the new law if filed five years after a person turns 23, instead of five years after turning 18, as is the case now.<BR/><BR/>The measure passed 11-8 in the Codes Committee, much closer than in the past, with mostly GOP opposition but also some no votes from the Democratic majority.<BR/><BR/>However, although Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, voted against the measure, Assemblyman Thomas Alfano, R-North Valley Stream, supported it.<BR/><BR/>"People should have their day in court," said Alfano. "They still have to prove it to a jury."<BR/><BR/>Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore, voted no on moving the measure, saying it is unprecedented to reopen cases other than those for exposure to suspected carcinogens where facts can be clearly ascertained.<BR/><BR/>The measure cleared the Assembly three years running, but this year the obstacle of a Republican-led Senate has been removed, said Mark Furnish, Duane's counsel.<BR/><BR/>He said victims have appealed for the chance to sue and need greater time because many cannot cope with going public until well beyond their teenage years. He said several Hasidic Jewish victims recently appealed to have the age limit extended more than a dozen years past age 18. Similar measures are the law in California and Delaware and have led to hundreds of settlements, typically paid by insurance companies.<BR/><BR/>Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the Catholic Conference, said the measure must be defeated to protect dioceses from financial ruin. The conference instead backs an alternate bill that would specifically impact private and public institutions without the one-year window opened on cases that are decades old.<BR/><BR/>The Markey/Duane bill is supported by the Public Employees Federation and the New York State Trial Lawyers. The Rev. Jason McGuire, legislative director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, said the proposal is a way for trial attorneys to get rich.<BR/><BR/>Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or jodato@timesunion.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com