Tzoakti Ailecha Hashem!
We spend a lot of time mocking "Rabbis" that deserve to be mocked. We devote much of our fight to ridiculing the "Gedolim" who deserve to be ridiculed. We put many hours into exposing the bad, stupid, evil, immoral, nasty, criminal, and ugly in our midst. We do this because we wish to fix the broken. We want to mend what is ripped and repair what is shattered. Thus, our goal of cleaning the dirty and paving the way for a fresh new start free of corruption and dishonesty - has not yet been achieved. We see little tiny flashes of readiness to attack the sensitive issues that many have been shying away from. The hard work WILL pay off, it's just a matter of time. Mostly though, the abuse and pedophiles still lurking in Yeshivas is a testament to the ineptitude of our 'leaders.' The "Rabbonim" have ignored the cries of sexual abuse survivors for an eternity. Only when forced to deal with it, do they make a shallow and feeble attempt to rectify the situation.
In the coming months we will see the trials of Kolko, Colmer, and Mondrowitz. That should spice things up a bit. It will be very interesting to see who will perjure themselves and who will be subpoenaed.
How is all this connected to the calamity that occurred at a Jerusalem Yeshiva last week? Because in both instances there is a great loss of life. Terrorists kill the physical being. Rabbinical fanaticism kills the physical and spiritual being. There are many parallels that can be brought out between the two. Not nearly enough is being done to neutralize the enemy of Israel, and that surely applies too by child molestation and many other forms of abuse that is ever rampant. Israel is being led by a government that can't get out of its own way. In trying to appease the terrorists they create more terrorism. Same by abused children and adults. By excusing the inexcusable the Rabbonim are creating more chaos and more casualties. The comparisons are undeniable! At the eulogies it was said that these 8 korbonos were the roses picked for our sins. They were sitting by their Talmuds - kids - 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 26, and the next second they're gunned down by a vicious barbaric act. The crude, hooligan, asinine Arab terrorists must be put down! I daven to the ribono shel olam - that in the merit of the eight beautiful roses (and all those injured) so viciously taken away from us -that it should atone and help in the Refuah of all that is bad, wrong, and evil in our midst. My heart goes out to the parents, relatives, friends, and classmates of these beautiful and holy neshemos that went straight to Gand Eden with this kiddush hashem! They were the pearls and roses who G-D chose!
Most importantly, The whole Am Yisrael has lost one of their precious own with this great massacre. We should all be grieving right now. Jewish blood is valuable - although these murders suggest that it's cheap with their vicious tyranny and brutality! Why is Olmert continuing with "peace talks" as if these rampage murders by a Palestinian gunman don't mean anything? Olmert is a dimwitted numskull who compared the shooting of rockets at Israeli cities to the mass murder which took place at Mercz Harav. He said that either way Israelis are dying so therefore he sees no reason to discontinue "peace talks" with the Palestinians. Olmert's government should be overthrown! And why is the Shas Party still there? Blunders, atrocities, massacres, slaughters, butchery, carnage, pogroms, and slayings that Olmert and his puppet government should be held accountable for. Why? Because they failed to take necessary preventative measures to make the Israeli people feel secure and safe from terrorist attacks. Because, while rockets are being fired every single day from Gaza (the place the Jews were expelled from by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert) at Jewish cities, the Israeli government decides now is the time to hold "peace talks" with the Palestinians. Who exactly are the ones who Israel is talking peace with? Who is this "other side" that wants peace? Palestinain authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas ? That would be the day! This holocaust denier is a pitiful joke. He doesn't even have control over his own Fatah terrorist organization, and he routinely criticizes Israel for its own self defense.
The Ribono Sehl Olam should give each and every one of those in mourning the strength to carry on. Those very sad images of boys, girls, men, and women crying is an image that will forever be etched in my memory. I feel much sorrow and sadness. May Hashem bless those families who lost a loved One and be there to comfort them through their hard times.
May the Jewish nation be blessed,
AMEN!
May Hashem Avenge their blood!
The victims of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. Top row: Avraham David Moses (16), Ro'i Roth (18), Neria Cohen (15), Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar (16); Bottom row: Yochai Lifshitz (18), Segev Peniel Avihail (15), Yehonadav Haim Hirschfeld (19), Doron Meherete (26).
Exclusive: Another Jerusalem yeshiva was saved from Palestinian attack four days before Mercaz Harav murders
March 8, 2008
Second Jewish religious institution targeted
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal that just four days before a single Palestinian killer murdered 8 Mercaz Harav students in Jerusalem on March 6, two Palestinians were frightened away from another Jerusalem yeshiva, Porath Yosef, on March 2. The pair were challenged March 2 by armed security guards on the door and they are still at large.
The Jerusalem police failed to sound the alarm after the guards reported the incident. The guards described two Palestinians who appeared at Porath Yosef demanding entry with a large carton like the one in which Ala Abu Dhaim carried his assault rifle, guns and ammo four days later. They claimed they had been commissioned to do some work in the institution and quoted the names of people associated with the yeshiva. But when asked by the guards to open the box, the two Palestinians backed off saying they were going to pick up tools from their vehicle. They were not seen again.
Responding to the guards’ call, the police dismissed the incident as a misunderstanding. No alerts were circulated and Mercaz Harav did not post security guards. It was only after the massacre Thursday that the police recalled the Porath Yosef incident and realized they had missed a danger signal.
They were also forced to conclude that one or more Palestinian terror cells are on the loose in Jerusalem and could be targeting any of the hundreds of Jewish religious institutions in the city.
The security services declared an immediate general alert across the country, focusing on Jerusalem, which remains in force. The West Bank was sealed.
The investigation has so far not pinned down the organization or organizations behind the yeshiva murders. The police commissioner Dudi Cohen’s insistence that it was a one-off operation and not the opening shot of a third Palestinian uprising (intifada), as some security circles are suggesting, is not taken seriously, given the spate of violence which has erupted across the country, Jerusalem and the West Bank in the last ten days.
The Shin Bet is awaiting the results of an inquiry into Jerusalem police procedures and their failure to sound the alarm after the Porath Yosef incident.
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Expel Palestinian terrorists from Jerusalem, says security minister Dichter
March 8, 2008
Avi Dichter
Israel’s internal security minister Avi Dichter commented after a resident of Jerusalem’s Jebal Makaber shot dead eight yeshiva students Thursday that Palestinian terrorists ought to be expelled to Palestinian territory. He intends seeking to amend the law to make this possible because, said the minister, jail is no deterrent to these terrorists.
Jerusalem’s 240,000 Arabs have permanent Israeli residency status and enjoy state social security benefits and medical care as well as freedom of movement in the country.
Dichter also called for the nation to honor the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in its hour of grief and praised the religious Zionist community’s exemplary contribution to national security and advancement.
In an interview Saturday night, the internal security minister declared a third Palestinian “intifada” would not be permitted to erupt. He spoke after a day in which traffic on Israel’s main highways from Tel Aviv to Haifa and Galilee was stoned repeatedly stoned. Last week, an Israeli Arab protest rally took place at Umm Al Fahm under the slogan: “Kill the Jews.” Two municipal workers were rescued from a lynch bomb in Jerusalem last week.
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Abbas demands peace after surge of Mideast killing
By Ali Sawafta
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Saturday for talks with Israel despite a surge of violence and said that a just peace was his people's goal.
"We condemn all the attacks, we demand peace and we are determined to make peace, and there is no other path but the path of peace based on international justice," Abbas told a rally at his headquarters.
A Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish seminary students on Thursday, the bloodiest attack in Israel in two years. Hamas, which had vowed to avenge the more than 125 Palestinians killed in a recent Gaza offensive by Israel, claimed responsibility.
Israeli investigators were questioning eight people in connection with the attack, seeking to establish whether the gunman, who was killed, had acted alone or was connected to any militant group, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The shootings in Jerusalem triggered calls by Israeli right-wingers to scrap U.S.-sponsored talks with Abbas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a women's conference near Tel Aviv on Saturday night that there was no difference between the shooting attack and Gaza militant rocket fire at southern Israel, and said Israel would curb the rocket strikes.
"There is a direct connection between the rockets which disrupt the lives of the residents of the south and the attack in Jerusalem, both were intended by their perpetrators to make our lives here intolerable. It will not happen," Olmert said.
He added that Israel was preparing to implement government decisions taken last week to "achieve the deterrent" to stop the rocket fire, but he did not elaborate.
Despite the attacks, the Israeli government has vowed to hold course in talks.
The Jewish state, with Western backing, shuns Hamas, making Abbas the focus of any hope for progress toward a permanent coexistence accord. But Abbas's mandate has been limited to the occupied West Bank since his Islamist Hamas rivals took over Gaza last year.
Talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been held up due to Israel's settlement construction on West Bank land where, along with Gaza, Palestinians want to establish a state.
Many Israelis are reluctant to give up the West Bank after a 2005 withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza was followed by the rise of Hamas and frequent cross-border rocket fire.
Abbas, who briefly suspended peace talks in protest at Israel's attacks in Gaza, reiterated a demand that the rocket salvoes stop and endorsed Egypt's efforts -- so far inconclusive -- to broker a truce by Hamas and other Palestinian militants.
DEMANDS
But the Palestinian president made clear his view that real calm could only be secured by sweeping and sincere peace talks.
He listed core demands for agreement on future borders, the status of Jerusalem, and the fate of millions of Palestinian war refugees and thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
"If we were to get these, then we would be ready for a just, fair and comprehensive peace agreement," Abbas said.
Olmert has pledged to work toward securing an accord with Abbas before January, when U.S. President George W. Bush steps down. But, like Abbas, he is weak domestically. He also depends on rightist factions to keep his coalition government going.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Saturday that a special U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian committee, led by U.S. Gen. William Fraser, would meet probably on Thursday to examine to what extent the sides were meeting their commitments under a long-stalled peace "road map."
Israel has vowed to keep major West Bank settlement blocs as well as the ancient Old City in the heart of East Jerusalem, among Arab territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital -- a status not recognized internationally -- while Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as capital of their future state.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Go here to view images of the massacre:
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113 comments:
Agudas Israel Of America will denounce an atrocity such as Merkaz Harav, but by children who are molested and abused their mouths over sudden remains shut. They are hypocrites and I hope they disappear off the face of this earth!
This is so sad. I look at the pictures and can't help but cry.
Any news on Mondrowitz?
You are a killer in your own right, PUTZ!
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The attack struck a special chord with Orthodox Jews in the way that an earlier attack on a Tel Aviv disco resonated with more secular or youthful observers. "Just as there is a special place in hell for perpetrators of attacks on men women and children doing nothing but going about their daily lives, there is a special section there reserved for attackers of young men who were sitting and studying Torah," said the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran. "Those who were killed, not the murderers for whom Palestinians use the word, are true martyrs, holy innocent souls killed only because they are Jews."
Intelligence paints grim picture for Israel
9 hours ago
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli intelligence agencies painted a bleak picture of threats facing the Jewish state in an annual assessment on Sunday that came on the heels of the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in four years.
Arch-foe Iran and its controversial nuclear programme remain the main threat seen by the Jewish state, while rocket fire from Hamas-run Gaza is the most active front it is facing, a senior official quoted intelligence chiefs as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.
"The main strategic threats are from Iran through its nuclear programme and the pivotal role it is playing as a leader of the radical axis in the Arab and Muslim world," the official quoted the annual report as saying.
The Islamic republic, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map, is also increasing its cooperation with other foes Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups, he said.
While rocket fire from Hamas-run Gaza is the most "active front Israel is facing today," a widescale offensive by Israel in the coastal strip would likely lead to a flare-up of violence with Hezbollah, as was the case in 2006.
"If Israel launches a broad operation in Gaza, that could lead to violence on other fronts, most notably from Hezbollah," the official said.
In late June 2006, Israel launched a major operation in Gaza after militants tunnelled out of the coastal strip and seized a soldier in a deadly raid.
Two weeks later, Hezbollah seized two soldiers in a separate deadly cross-border raid in Israel's north, leading the Jewish state to launch a massive 34-day offensive inside Lebanon.
Its stated aims were to recover the soldiers and halt rocket attacks into northern Israel. Neither was achieved.
Sunday's assessment comes just days after a Palestinian gunman shot dead eight students, mostly teenagers, at a Jewish theological school. The attack on Thursday was the deadliest in the Holy City since February 2004.
Israeli police on Sunday remained on a state of alert, while the army maintained a closure of the West Bank that it imposed after the shooting.
In the wake of the attack, a hardline minister called for the revocation of the residency permits of the family of the man who carried out the attack, a Palestinian from east Jerusalem with the blue Israeli identity card that allowed him free movement across the country.
"We should pass a resolution or change the law if necessary so that the family of anyone who carries out an attack... should have their residency permit immediately revoked and their homes destroyed," Eli Yishai, trade and industry minister from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said in a statement.
During the annual intelligence assesment, the head of the Shin Beth internal security services said that 25 Arab Israeli had been arrested in 2007 over suspected links to militant groups in the West Bank.
Thursday's attack threatened to derail international efforts to negotiate a truce between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants and to advance faltering peace talks.
But both Israeli and Palestinian officials told AFP on Saturday that the peace negotiations -- relaunched to much fanfare in November but stagnant ever since -- will resume next week despite the violence.
The talks received a new blow on Sunday, however, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert giving his approval to the expansion of the Givat Zeev settlement in the occupied West Bank to the fury of the Palestinians.
"With this decision, Israel wants to demolish the peace process and demolish the international efforts to advance the peace process," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
There has been a sharp upsurge in violence around the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip since February 27 when an Israeli raid killed five Hamas militants, prompting a barrage of retaliatory rocket fire against southern Israel.
Since then, at least 132 Palestinians have died in Israeli attacks, including several dozen children. Four Israeli soldiers and one civilian have died over the same period.
In the past week, efforts have been underway in Egypt to work out a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.
Senior Israeli defence ministry official Amos Gilad was in Cairo on Sunday for talks on the situation in Gaza, Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said.
Last week delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad were in Egypt for similar talks and senior US State Department official David Welch also held talks on the issue in Cairo.
Israel Approves Building of 200 New Apartments in Settlement
By Jonathan Ferziger
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Israeli government approved construction of 200 new housing units in a West Bank Jewish settlement, drawing criticism from Palestinian negotiators who said it would hurt efforts to renew peace talks.
The decision, which was made by the Housing Ministry with the agreement of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, enables builders in the Givat Ze'ev settlement north of Jerusalem to move ahead with a project that was frozen after getting initial approval in 2000.
Palestinians want all settlement construction frozen, saying it prejudices negotiations on creating an independent state out of the territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. While Olmert has pledged not to build new settlements, he has asserted Israel's right to build new homes for the burgeoning population in existing settlements.
``The project was given authorization, but this doesn't represent any change in policy,'' Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said by phone from Jerusalem. ``We've always said that the freeze does not apply to building inside existing settlements.''
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were already stretched from fighting in the Gaza Strip and rocket attacks on neighboring Israeli towns when a Palestinian gunman killed eight students at a rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem March 6. The dispute over settlement construction poses a new challenge to efforts at reviving Middle East peace negotiations after Palestinians walked out of the talks two weeks ago.
Peace Talks
Saeb Erakat, a member of the Palestinian Authority's negotiating team with Israel, condemned the decision and called on the U.S. to push Israel to stop the construction project. The U.S. has invited Israel and the Palestinians to a March 13 meeting aimed at reviving the peace talks.
``It's like jamming a stick into a wheel just as it's starting to turn again,'' Erakat said by telephone from his office in the West Bank town of Jericho.
The Givat Ze'ev project involves construction of 750 housing units in the settlement, which has about 11,000 residents. The Haaretz newspaper first reported renewal of the project on its Web site today and Olmert's recent approval of a first phase to build 200 apartments.
Israeli approval of new construction in existing settlements is part of a deal the government has been trying to conclude in which Jewish settlers would voluntarily evacuate at least 18 wildcat outposts in the West Bank, the Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on its Web site.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
'John McCain to visit Israel next week'
JPost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 9, 2008
US presidential candidate John McCain is expected to visit Israel next week, Ma'ariv reported Sunday.
According the paper, the Republican candidate is set to meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on his trip.
The goal of his visit is reportedly to try and gain popularity among the Jewish community in the US.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barack Obama captured the Wyoming Democratic caucuses on Saturday, seizing a bit of momentum in the close, hard-fought race with rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party's presidential nomination.
Obama generally has outperformed Clinton in caucuses, which reward organization and voter passion more than do primaries. The Illinois senator has now won 13 caucuses to Clinton's three.
Obama has also shown strength in the Mountain West, winning Idaho, Utah, Colorado and now Wyoming. The two split Nevada, with Clinton winning the popular vote and Obama more delegates.
Republican nominee John McCain is the best equipped to become the next President of the Unites States of America.
Hillary and Obama will both fail in their bids for the Presidency!
More photos.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125504
Detached? Who said so. Orthodox Jews like myself are always talking about Tel Aviv discos being open late at night. I have no comment on Yudi Kolko getting arrested, but why should I when he lives in America.
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/962021.html
WASHINGTON - A study published last week in the United States challenges the prevailing assumption that American Jews have become alienated from Israel in recent years, and particularly the assumption that the younger generation is less attached to Israel than their parents' generation was at their age.
The study released last Wednesday by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University maintains that there has been no decline, nor will there be one. "Jewish attachment to Israel has largely held steady for the period 1994-2007," the study says, adding that there are "strong reasons for rejecting the prevailing pessimism regarding the future relationship of American Jews to Israel."
Mercaz Harav rabbi: Torah is our roadmap
Head of yeshiva that lost eight students in Thursday's deadly terror attack says government should be replaced with one that 'expresses the true will of the people'
Neta Sela
The head of the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem, the site of Thursday's terror attack that left eight Israelis dead, told a press conference Sunday that the government should be replaced with one that "expresses the true will of the people."
Terrorist's Burial
Olmert: Don't grant terrorist's family burial fees / Roni Sofer
Prime minister asks police to prevent hanging of Hamas flags near mourning tent set up for east Jerusalem man who killed eight yeshiva students. Police detain for questioning six right-wing activists on their way to shooter's house
Full Story
"During times like these we should glorify the Torah and put the nation's concealed powers into practice," Rabbi Yaakov Shapira said.
"If there is no Torah, there is no spiritual fortitude, and physical endurance lacks as well. We are constantly defending ourselves in the face of our enemies. The people expect a change in the way of thinking, and this is the time for it. The Torah is our roadmap."
Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, another one of the yeshiva's leaders, told his students "the loss of life is a terrible thing, and now we must make up for it in the Beit Midrash (religious study hall).
"The issue of life and death is beyond our comprehension; it is God's decree – and we cannot challenge it," he said. "This (terror attack) puts our lives in a different perspective; from now on we will be more sensitive and more understanding of other people's pain."
Earlier Sunday Education Minister Yuli Tamir was forced to leave the yeshiva after being verbally attacked by dozens of youths who were waiting for her outside the seminary.
Rabbi David Simchon, the yeshiva's director, told Ynet that Tamir was greeted "with respect" at the seminary and that the discussion with her was conducted in a positive atmosphere.
Rabbi Shapira: Strong Government to Replace the Hollow One
3 Adar Bet 5768, 10 March 08
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of a hollow government, a strong one shall grow," said Rabbi Yakov Shapira Sunday, in a paraphrase on a verse from Isaiah 55. Shapira, the head of Mercaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, spoke to journalists following the Thursday-night massacre at the yeshiva.
"At this time we need to realize the potential power that is hidden in this entire nation, enlarge the Torah and make it great, [and] maintain proper and true educational systems for the general public, until the ministry which is in charge of education touches the deep roots of these powers," the rabbi said.
No Torah - no moral fiber
The rabbi went on to quote from Judges 21: "And in those days there was no king in Israel, and each person did what he thought right." He explained that the meaning of the word "king" is Torah.
"If there is no Torah, there is no moral fiber and the physical strength is also lacking," the yeshiva head added. "All day long we are on the defensive vis-à-vis our neighbors. The nation expects and yearns for a systemic change in thinking and this is the time."
Rabbi Shapira called for a continuation of the struggle for the Land of Israel. "The voice of the blood of our brothers is calling out to us from this earth," he said. "Here, in this sacred spot, the students' blood – may the Lord avenge their blood – was spilled, on the soil of the Land of Israel."
Where is our Hevron?
He also related to the journalists the story of the Independence Day celebration in the yeshiva in 1967, during which Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook cried out, prophetically: "Where is our Hevron? Where is our Shechem? Where is every single clod of earth from the sacred Land of Israel?" Three weeks later, the IDF would conquer Shechem and Hevron.
Rabbi's Tzvi Yehuda's cry, he said, "strengthens, to this day, the faith and dedication to the indivisibility of the Land of Israel and the prohibition on giving up any part of its territory."
Not ashamed to cry
Earlier Sunday, Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, who heads the Youth Yeshiva in Mercaz HaRav Kook, spoke to his students. "Matters of life and death are beyond our comprehension, and we all need help: you, I, the teachers and the educators," he said. "Do not be too shy to ask for help and to cry. I am also not ashamed to cry," said the rabbi, who wept Friday during eulogies for the Youth Yeshiva's fallen students.
Before the conversation with the rabbi, the students made arrangements to study Gemara portions, for the raising of the souls of their slain friends. Rabbi Weiss updated them on the condition of their wounded classmates and asked them to organize the visits to the hospital in an orderly fashion. He also stressed the importance of continuing to study Torah.
"Loss of life is a terrible thing, and now we have to complete what we are missing in the study house," he told his students, his voice occasionally breaking. "We cannot make up for missing people, and if we are not organized we will all fall apart. It is important that within all this chaos, we are able to move forward."
Rabbi Zev Segal, who as president of one of the most influential Orthodox Jewish organizations in the country in the 1960s clashed with leaders of what he called “more liberal Jewish alternatives,” but who also worked with Conservative and Reform Jews on social issues, died Wednesday in Jersey City, N.J. He was 91 and lived in Manhattan.
Intermarriage is a sin!
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Intermarried couples married by a rabbi or cantor have higher levels of Jewish involvement, a new study found.
The National Center for Jewish Policy Studies, an affiliate of Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Mass., is about to release its study of 149 intermarried couples in Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco.
The study found that 87 percent of those intermarried couples who were married by Jewish clergy later raised their children as “Jewish only,” compared to 63 percent of the couples married by co-officiants, non-Jewish clergy or in secular ceremonies. Also, 50 percent of those married by Jewish clergy said it was very important that their grandchildren be Jewish, compared to 18 percent married by other officials.
Even more striking is the correlation between rabbinic officiation and later avoidance of Christian behaviors. Just 2 percent of those married only by a rabbi now belong to a church.
Arnold Dashefsky, the University of Connecticut sociology professor who headed the research team, says the findings do not prove causality. There is no evidence, he stresses, that if an intermarried couple is married by a rabbi, the family will become “more Jewish.”
Choosing such rabbinic officiation, however, is clearly “a marker along the couple’s Jewish journey,” Dashefsky said.
The study did not use a random sample. Many respondents were affiliated with Jewish or interfaith organizations, and the Jewish partners in the study have more Jewish background than samples used in most other studies.
Still, researchers say the findings are useful to Jewish institutions and communal leaders seeking ways to engage the most Jewishly interested intermarried families in their midst.
The researchers plan to follow these families for several years to see how their Jewish behaviors evolve.
Relatives mourn studious, kindhearted teenagers
tovah lazaroff and shelly paz , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 9, 2008
Leah Moses did not immediately assume the worst when she heard of Thursday night's attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem where her stepson, Avraham David, 16, studied.
"I thought, 'Oh, he is going to call to say he is fine," Leah told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night. "I couldn't take it in."
Avraham David Moses had spent the previous Shabbat with them in Efrat, and on Sunday he did his laundry and left for school, as he had done many times before.
Her concern grew, Leah Moses said, as the minutes went by without word from Avraham David.
Her husband, Naftali, manned the phone and another stepson, Elisha Dan, 11, stayed glued to the news. He kept giving her updates.
Naftali tried Avraham David's cellphone, his friends and the yeshiva, but either he couldn't get through, or he didn't learn anything.
The only response they received was, "We do not know where he is," Leah said. With each fruitless call their hopes diminished, she said.
Eventually, Naftali traveled to a hospital in Jerusalem and then to the yeshiva, where he learned that his son was one of eight students killed by a terrorist in the school library, according to a neighbor, Natan Siegel.
Many of the victims were friends, said Siegel. In Avraham David's bar mitzva album there is a photograph of him with another victim, Segev Peniel Avihail, 15.
Both Siegel and Leah said Avraham David had been a special child.
"He was a really terrific kid. He was very pious. He was very good with his younger brothers and sisters. He was very involved in learning," Leah said.
Although he was only in high school, he already was skilled at reading the weekly Torah portion in synagogue.
Avraham David was the oldest of two boys from Naftali's first marriage, with Rivkah, and had two half-sisters from his father's second marriage.
From his mother, Rivkah, who is married to David Moriah, he has two half-brothers and six stepbrothers.
His mother, Rivkah, made aliya from New Hampshire and his father came from Long Island, New York, but Avraham David was born in Israel and his identity as an Israeli was very important to him, said Leah.
"He took very seriously the development of good behavior. He would study about being kind and he would walk into the house and help with the dishes," she said. "If we would gossip at the table, he would politely tell us to stop."
She spoke of an incident a few years ago when Avraham David gave his little sister his ice cream because she was crying for it.
"He said, 'I can't eat it if she is crying,'" Leah recalled. "I never forgot that."
In the Kochav Hashahar settlement, neighbor Haya Meir spoke with the Post on Saturday night in glowing terms about Yehonadav Haim Hirschfeld, 19, who had been her neighbor. He was the kind of student who always asked the thoughtful question and had a good answer in class, she said.
Hirschfeld was the fifth oldest in a family of 13 children. He himself was involved with children in the community and had worked as a counselor in the Ariel youth movement. Even after he left the movement he kept up his relationships with the kids, Meir said.
She was with the Hirschfeld family when they heard of the attack on Thursday night. They also tried to call and couldn't get through, not to him and not to his friends, she said.
At first they chalked it up to the lack of reception that often occurs after an attack. Their hopes rose when someone said that they had seen their son alive.
But it wavered as time passed and there was still no word. They sent their son-in-law to the yeshiva but then they did not hear from him. In the middle of the night, a rabbi from the area came to their home to tell them the bad news, Meir said.
Yehonadav was buried the next day in Kochav Hashahar.
In Jerusalem's Givat Shaul cemetery, friends, teachers and relatives walked behind the hearse carrying the body of Yochai Lifshitz, 18.
They crowded around the grave, as his father, Tuvia, said a few parting words to his son.
"Yochai, we want to tell you one thing, thank you. Thank you for everything you gave us during your time with us," he said.
On the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City, friends and family said good-bye to Avihail, 15, from Neveh Daniel.
They were joined by people who did not know Avihail but who also wanted to pay their last respects.
Segev Peniel Avihail was the first-born of Rabbi Elyashiv Avihail, the rabbi of Telem and Ad-Olam. His grandfather, Rabbi Eliahu Avihail, is well-known due to his work locating and bringing to Israel "lost Jewish tribes" such as the Bnei Menashe from India.
The young Avihail survived a shooting attack several years ago.
"Segev was a gift that was given to me and to the entire family for 15 years. He had a pure heart, was a good son and exceptionally diligent in his studies. He loved his brothers and was close to his father," Avihail's uncle Yair Tzukerman said.
"Segev was a person who helped everybody constantly. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved to study Gemara and was very good at it. When he was informed that he had gotten into the yeshiva he was the happiest person, he proudly ran and told everyone he was accepted," said Ya'akov Tzukerman (no relation), Segev's friend.
Neria Cohen, 15, from Jerusalem, was also buried on the Olives Mount, in the priests' section.
"He is God's light, a perfect soul who connects to God all the time. He was a true son of the Torah and spent every moment with his study companion. When he understood the essence of the Torah, he was filled with happiness and joy," Rabbi Ze'ev Schor, one of Neria's teachers, said over his grave.
Police said later that there are no plans to bolster security for ministers visiting the Mercaz Harav yeshiva. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had asked to visit the yeshiva later this week, but its management sent a message to his bureau saying that he would not be welcome.
While stressing that this was not a final answer, yeshiva sources said: "The inclination is to spare Olmert, and ourselves, the embarrassment."
During the meeting between around 30 yeshiva students and Tamir, the pupils complained about the insecurity they felt as a result of the attack, the government's conduct in peace talks, and the cuts in the budget for public religious education.
Jewish teenagers murdered in a hail of bullets. What does the world do? Do they scream bloody murder at this Arab genocide? Do they denounce Arab terrorism? Do they voice their anger and disgust when Israeli Civilians everyday have to fear for their lives when those rockets rain down on them?
----------------------------
Israel expands settlements in blow to peace process
Guardian, UK - 2 hours ago
The decision to build in Givat Ze'ev, a Jewish settlement near the Palestinian administrative centre of Ramallah, has dealt another blow to the faltering ...
Israel defies freeze on illegal settlements Independent
Jewish West Bank Settlements a bad but reversible mistake Eureka Street
Olmert approves homes for West Bank settlement Reuters UK
About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents are Jews, and the rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967. Jerusalem's Arabs are not Israeli citizens but hold Israeli ID cards that allow them freedom of movement in the city and throughout Israel.
One of them was Alaa Abu Dheim, 25, the gunman who crossed into Jewish Jerusalem with an assault rifle Thursday and killed seven teenagers and a 26-year-old in a library at the Mercaz Harav seminary. Abu Dheim was shot and killed on the scene.
On Sunday, three days after the first major Palestinian attack in the city since 2004, the division between Jerusalem's Arabs and Jews could not have seemed more stark.
At Abu Dheim's home in the neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber, his family received visitors and served food in a traditional mourning tent. Children proudly displayed posters with the attacker's photograph superimposed over the golden dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City.
Not far away, where Abu Dheim's neighbourhood borders a Jewish one called East Talpiot, a small group of hardline Jewish protesters tried to march on the home to tear the tent down, calling for the expulsion of Arabs from Jerusalem and from Israel. Some Israeli legislators were demanding physical separation between the city's Arabs and Jews and for restrictions on the movement of Arab residents.
More..
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gR05SnUNy43Ik8d7oPKwWD_15A1Q
Eight arrested in probe of Jewish seminary attack
* Story Highlights
* Police aren't saying how the eight may be connected to the gunman or the shooting
* The shooter killed eight students Thursday before he was shot to death
* Hundreds of Israelis gathered at the school to mourn the victims
* Authorities are calling the incident an act of terrorism
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli police have arrested eight people during an investigation into Thursday's deadly attack at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Saturday.
Rosenfeld would not elaborate on the nature of the investigation or how the eight might be connected to the gunman or the shooting.
Eight students, including an American, died Thursday evening after a man armed with an automatic weapon and a handgun slipped into the Merkaz Harav yeshiva.
At least nine others were wounded before an off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer shot and killed the gunman, Jerusalem District Police Cmdr. Aharon Franko said.
A Jerusalem police spokesman identified the shooter Friday as Ala Abu Dehein from East Jerusalem's Jabel Mukaber neighborhood.
He worked as a driver and held an identity card that Israel issues to Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem.
The attack was planned and conceived by the Free Men of Galilee, an operation with purported ties to Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group in Lebanon, sources in Gaza said.
The information was provided to CNN amid news reports that Hamas, the Palestinian movement that runs Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack.
But the sources said that Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza are not claiming responsibility for the attack and that the Hamas military wing says it had nothing to do with it. VideoWatch a report about the conflicting claims »
The sources said the shooter was a member of Hamas but received his marching orders for the action from outside Gaza and the West Bank. Hezbollah is based in Lebanon, and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is exiled in Syria.
A general closure of the West Bank and Gaza went into effect early Friday morning and "will be lifted according to security assessments," a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said.
Negotiations to go on
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said that Israel will continue peace talks with the Palestinians regardless of the attack in Jerusalem.
A day earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with both Israelis and Palestinians, announced that peace talks would resume between the two both sides.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had suspended peace negotiations last week after fierce fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. But he agreed to resume negotiations after meeting with Rice.
On Saturday, an Israeli official said that continuing peace talks did not signal a change in policy, because Israel had not stopped them.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered at the yeshiva Friday to mourn the victims of Thursday's attack. The grief-stricken crowd spilled outside the school and onto the surrounding streets.
The students' bodies were wrapped in white-and-blue cloth and laid on benches in the school's courtyard before being taken for burial.
Police are trying to figure out how the gunman managed to enter the large three-story school -- situated in a bustling residential neighborhood -- with little notice. The gunman carried an AK-47 and a pistol, and he had time to swap weapons during the attack.
Authorities are calling the incident an act of terrorism.
The school is one of the largest seminaries in Israel, with about 500 students in the yeshiva and 200 in an advanced graduate program.
The attack was the worst inside Israel since April 17, 2006, when a suicide bombing outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv killed nine people.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the blast.
Eight people were wounded August 10 in Jerusalem's Old City when a Palestinian resident grabbed a security guard's gun and fired.
Four Israeli security guards were wounded May 26 when two Palestinian gunmen began firing in east Jerusalem. All three of the assailants were killed.
CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.
All AboutMiddle East Conflict • Israel • Hamas • Hezbollah
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/08/israel.school.massacre
Watch CNN reort.
Heart wrenching!
Protests at Jewish charity event
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators beat drums and sounded horns outside a Jewish fund-raising event in Glasgow attended by Hollywood star Goldie Hawn.
The actress addressed about 500 guests at the KKL Scotland dinner, held at the Hilton Hotel in William Street, as about 150 people protested outside.
The 61-year-old star was drafted in to speak at the £125-per-head event after actor Michael Douglas pulled out.
There was a heavy police presence at the venue but no arrests.
The demonstrators were believed to be from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
A spokesperson for Strathclyde Police said: "There were about 150 demonstrators involved in a protest.
"The event is being policed appropriately and there are no ongoing problems."
Actor Michael Douglas cited the Hollywood writers' strike as the reason for cancelling his appearance.
His father, Kirk Douglas, has previously spoken at a KKL Scotland event, as has former US President Bill Clinton.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7286813.stm
09/03/2008
Jewish Agency to start anti-terror drive after J'lem attack
By Anshel Pfeffer and Haaretz Service
The Jewish Agency will start a drive this week to raise support for Israel and its fight against terror among Jewish communities around the world, following the attack on Mercaz Harav yeshiva last Thursday.
Hundreds of JA and World Zionist Organization envoys will receive kits with photographs of the attack and information material to hold memorial events and rallies.
The campaign is also aimed to counter pro-Palestinian campaigns following the IDF's operation in the Gaza Strip, which killed 120 Palestinians.
The Anti-Defamation League on Friday denounced as "shocking" the United Nations Security Council's abstention from condemning Thursday's terror attack at a Jerusalem yeshiva.
"It is shocking that the Security Council could not bring itself to condemn this heinous terrorist attack on Israeli teenagers at a Jerusalem yeshiva," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a statement the American Jewish organization released Friday.
The U.S. has said that Libya - currently chairing the Security Council - blocked the United Nations from condemning the killing as a "terrorist attack", calling instead for "balanced action."
Foxman stressed that, "While it is heartening that many nations expressed support and sympathy with Israel in the aftermath of this horrific attack, formal action by the Security Council would send a powerful message that the Palestinian cause is not served by wanton acts of violence and terrorism, and that such attacks against civilians run counter to the interests of peace."
The American-Jewish leader added: "Where are all the calls for UN resolutions condemning the murderous acts of terrorism against civilians? Why should those who seek to thwart the cause of peace not be condemned?"
Related articles:
# Palestinian sources say Hamas, Hezbollah helped in J'lem terror attack
# ANALYSIS / J'lem attack doesn't signal start of third intifada
# ANALYSIS: Gazans see attack on yeshiva as unusual achievement
# Eight killed when terrorist opens fire in library at Jerusalem yeshiva
Article can be read at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/962053.html
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=5092769
Press Releases
AJC: Swiss Support of UN Resolution on Israel Appalling
March 9, 2008 – New York – The American Jewish Committee, in a letter to Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, expressed its deep disappointment in Switzerland’s support of the UN Human Rights Council’s March 6 resolution condemning Israel for the situation in Gaza.
“The Council has been derailed by countries that have little regard for human rights, and whose only agenda, it seems, is to single out and censure Israel,” wrote AJC President Richard J. Sideman and AJC Executive Director David A. Harris. “We deeply regret that your Government saw fit to join forces with such countries, to the detriment of efforts to rectify the situation in the Human Rights Council, and even more importantly, to promote peace in the Middle East.”
The letter details the failure of the resolution to mention Hamas’s onslaught against innocent civilians in southern Israel since taking power in Gaza as well as other Palestinian-backed terrorism. Additionally, the resolution made no mention of the horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem last week when a Palestinian gunman killed eight students in a Jewish religious seminary.
“By some accounts, the Swiss delegation actively lobbied the EU and other countries to support the Arab-sponsored draft, in exchange for minor amendments,” said the AJC letter.
The full text of the letter follows:
Dear Madame Minister:
We write to express the American Jewish Committee’s profound disappointment over the position taken by Switzerland in the Human Rights Council in Geneva last week.
On Thursday, March 6, the Human Rights Council adopted an extreme and one-sided resolution, sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the League of Arab States, condemning Israel’s military operations in the Palestinian areas, especially the Gaza Strip. The resolution also accuses Israel of “collective punishment” and of undermining international efforts aimed at invigorating the peace process. It calls for the cessation of the firing of “crude rockets" at Israel, but does not mention the firing of Katyusha missiles, recently imported to Gaza from outside the Palestinian areas, which have a longer range and greater potential to cause death and injury. Nor does the resolution mention the name of the terror organization responsible for such firing, i.e., Hamas. Indeed, the word “terrorism’’ is missing from the resolution.
Furthermore, the resolution ignores the context in which the recent escalation occurred. While Israel has demonstrated, time and again, its commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations continue to smuggle weapons, build bomb-making factories, and use Palestinian areas, especially Gaza, to launch attacks against Israel and its citizens across the border. The repeated firing of rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, and other towns adjacent to the Gaza Strip, has caused death and injury, and made daily life intolerable. As any sovereign state, Israel is obligated to protect its citizens. In carrying out military operations against Palestinian terrorists, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense, enshrined in the UN Charter. We deeply regret that the Human Rights Council ignored this universally accepted principle.
Most appallingly, the resolution fails to even mention the terror attack perpetrated last week by a Palestinian gunman against a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, in which eight students were murdered, although this heinous crime was committed on the same day that the Human Rights Council adopted its resolution.
Last week’s resolution was adopted by a vote of 33 in favor, 1 against (Canada) and 16 abstentions. While the EU and other Western members abstained, Switzerland was the only European country to vote in favor. By some accounts, the Swiss delegation actively lobbied the EU and other countries to support the Arab-sponsored draft, in exchange for minor amendments.
In our various meetings with you over the past two years, we have shared with you our concerns regarding the situation in the Human Rights Council, which has totally betrayed the mandate given to it by the UN General Assembly in 2006. The Council, we have told you, has been derailed by countries that have little regard for human rights, and whose only agenda, it seems, is to single out and censure Israel. We deeply regret that last Thursday your Government saw fit to join forces with such countries, to the detriment of efforts to rectify the situation in the Human Rights Council, and even more importantly, to promote peace in the Middle East.
Respectfully,
Richard J. Sideman
David A. Harris
THE PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS MUST BE EXECUTED!
Victims create more victims. It leaves a scar that goes deep and never heals. Child abuse affects the child and extends to the family of that child as well. Everyone suffers!
It's like a contagious disease and it's caused by the Rabbis who are too wimpy and afraid to do the right thing. It's also caused by many in Klal Yisrael who just don't give a darn about human life and worry more about booking Pesach hotel reservations - than of a child getting raped.
The victims of the latest massacre in Israel leave a trail of other victims. Family, Friends, Neighbors, Rabbis, Teachers.. The pain will never go away. Those poor kids seen crying in the photographs is heartbreaking.
Hashem Yisbarach please have mercy on your children!
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU3IVnyNBpy8ooTN4OutE2rKG1pgD8VAA9G80
Carson was found Wednesday morning lying on a street about a mile from campus. She had been shot several times, including once in the right temple. Police are searching for a man photographed using her ATM card.
In Marietta, Ga., the hometown of slain Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk, a rabbi asked hundreds of people gathered at her funeral to turn their anger into something positive and let the justice system handle her killer.
Rabbi Steven Lebow said Sunday at Temple Kol Emeth that mourners should give blood or donate to charity in her memory.
"It would be easy to give way to our emotions this afternoon because there is a spectrum of feelings roiling and unsettling our souls," Lebow said. He added, "The right thing isn't vengeance. The right thing is justice.
Burk, 18, was found shot on the side of an off-campus road Tuesday night and her car was found burning in a campus parking lot. Her car was found that night burning in a campus parking lot. A man has been charged in her death.
10/03/2008
In show of modesty, Haredi women make up in private
By Tamar Rotem, Haaretz Correspondent
In Bnei Brak there is a woman who wears too much makeup. Bright red lipstick that can be seen from a distance, eyes emphasized with dark eye shadow. For years they've been gossiping about her as she walks down the street.
Her husband, on the other hand, is a disheveled type who boasts of the stringent prohibitions he takes upon himself in terms of sexual modesty. How does that work? The husband usually takes off his eyeglasses when he leaves the house, so that he won't slip up and, God forbid, look at women. So his wife paints herself without interference, and he doesn't notice.
This story is an extreme example of the paradox involved in the desire of ultra-Orthodox women to meet the norms of beauty in secular society, in spite of the instructions to practice tzniut (modesty) that are practiced in their society.
"It's true that 'Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain' takes precedence in this society. But in reality, there is no limit to the investment of ultra-Orthodox women in their appearance," says Yaffa Larrie, the owner of a Jerusalem beauty salon. "You have to remember that they are 'ordinary' women, with needs. But they have restrictions, and therefore everything with them is hinted, not emphasized."
Alongside home beauty salons, whose existence is passed along by word of mouth, in recent years many beauty salons have opened in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, where they specialize in improving the "natural look." They offer all of the treatments available on the market - anti-wrinkle treatments, permanent makeup, injections that fill out one's face - "everything goes," says Larrie.
Secret exits to maintain privacy
The Ye'elat Chen beauty salon, managed by Larrie, has been operating for 24 years in Jerusalem, not far from Mea Shearim and Kikar Shabbat. The side entrance on the main street is suited to women who want to steal in without being seen. Behind the simple door a surprise awaits. A pleasant and aesthetic space divided into cubicles. Several rooms have a secret exit to the salon's backyard. They are meant for the wives of leading Hasidic rabbis, women from extremist Hasidic sects, along with several female MKs who have heard about Larrie. In other words, all those who have to maintain their privacy.
There is nobody more expert than Larrie when it comes to social sensitivities. "Sometimes a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law come to us, or a sister and her sister-in-law," says Larrie. "Neither of them knows that the other is being treated at the same time. It's not legitimate to talk about it. We understand that the name of the game is discretion."
Larrie is the "Ronit Raphael" (owner of a chain of medical-cosmetic clinics) of the ultra-Orthodox public. She is a religious woman who wears a wig, who brings the latest innovations in the field to ultra-Orthodox women. When she finished a cosmetics course she consulted with a Jerusalem kabbalist, and he advised her to offer her services to the ultra-Orthodox public.
"I was shocked," she says. "I knew that this was a public without much money, that it's not acceptable. At the time even the word 'cosmetics' could not be published in the newspaper. I didn't know what was permitted and what was forbidden." But she did as the kabbalist said. And slowly but surely women began to come. Over time she learned to distinguish among the various streams and Hasidic sects, knowing who were more open and those who were less so. She knows the limitations of each woman. This one will absolutely refuse to remove her head covering, others are not permitted to open a single button in their blouse.
Annual treat
In a random visit to the salon, the wife of an ultra-Orthodox former minister was spotted. But aside from the ultra-Orthodox elite, poorer women come as well. "I have women with 17 children. Someone came with a wrinkled bill in her hand and told me, 'this is what I've saved. Give me a treatment.' Some collect the change in a small envelope in the kitchen, for a treatment. I give them materials and teach them how to be their own cosmeticians. For them the annual beauty treatment is a refuge from the routine.
"Sometimes they tell me that they didn't sleep the night before because they were so excited. I'm their television, I'm a glimpse at magazines from abroad," says Larrie.
Sima Salzburg, who researched the attitude toward beauty in the extremist Toldot Aharon Hasidic community in Jerusalem, as part of her doctoral thesis at the Hebrew University, discovered that one's external appearance is of great significance even among the most extreme.
She says that cosmetic treatments are common mainly for young women. "An 18-year-old girl who is about to about to be introduced to a potential match doesn't have the time to impress her partner or his mother with her qualities, and therefore her external appearance is more important than anything else," she says. "The meeting with the designated partner is very short: from one meeting in the Hasidic sects to several meetings in more open communities."
Salzburg found that young married women in Toldot Aharon use makeup under the noses of the "supervisors," older women who are in charge of the behavior of the younger women. "They use neutral colors," she says.
Similarly, women use the wonders of cosmetics in order to bypass halakhic (religious law) prohibitions. For example, permanent makeup avoids the inner struggle of women who cannot apply makeup on Shabbat. Until now, many applied makeup in spite of the specific prohibition.
In this area there are halakhic problems, says Salzburg, because some consider searing the skin as a type of tattoo (which is strictly forbidden by halakha). "But for now it's an unsupervised arena. The rabbis are apparently avoiding a confrontation with women in an area that is so close to their hearts," she explains.
I'm happy the Ukrainian authorities are seeking justice for my friends over there.
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Rabbi's attackers identified
Published: 03/10/2008
Ukrainian authorities reportedly identified the four attackers of a Dnepropetrovsk rabbi.
A special unit of the Secret Service and Ministry of Interior Affairs named the assailants who severely beat Rabbi Dov-Ber Baitman, a teacher at the Jewish educational center Shiurey Torah and the anchor of the local Jewish television show “Video-HiTaS,” on Jan. 24.
The break in the case was reported on the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community's Web site, www.djc.com.ua
During the attack after evening classes at the educational center, the suspects also shouted anti-Semitic slurs at Baitman, a Lubavitch-Chabad emissary.
Is Rabbi Druckman calling me stupid?
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Druckman is sticking to his support for the state even now, as the minister of education is being ejected from the grieving Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. He repeats a story from the Jerusalem Talmud that he also used after the uprooting of Gush Katif, about a man "who was cutting meat and, while using his right hand, cut his left hand by mistake. Are you going to cut the right hand to avenge the left hand? What kind of stupid person is going to cut his own hand again?
For the right price I can rule in your favor. Don't forget to bring the cash!
Now lets get down to business:
Intermarrying is a problem. The The shulachun aruch states the laws clearly. Now are these chukim applicable in our tekufah? It depends. Do you seek to marry off your daughter to an an Ethiopian man? Ethiopians have a chashash that they are gentile and not even Jewish. However..
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Study: Intermarrieds' officiating clergy matters
Published: 03/09/2008
Intermarried couples married by a rabbi or cantor have higher levels of Jewish involvement, a new study found.
The National Center for Jewish Policy Studies, an affiliate of Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Mass., is about to release its study of 149 intermarried couples in Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco.
The study found that 87 percent of those intermarried couples who were married by Jewish clergy later raised their children as “Jewish only,” compared to 63 percent of the couples married by co-officiants, non-Jewish clergy or in secular ceremonies. Also, 50 percent of those married by Jewish clergy said it was very important that their grandchildren be Jewish, compared to 18 percent married by other officials.
Even more striking is the correlation between rabbinic officiation and later avoidance of Christian behaviors. Just 2 percent of those married only by a rabbi now belong to a church.
Arnold Dashefsky, the University of Connecticut sociology professor who headed the research team, says the findings do not prove causality. There is no evidence, he stresses, that if an intermarried couple is married by a rabbi, the family will become “more Jewish.”
Choosing such rabbinic officiation, however, is clearly “a marker along the couple’s Jewish journey,” Dashefsky said.
The study did not use a random sample. Many respondents were affiliated with Jewish or interfaith organizations, and the Jewish partners in the study have more Jewish background than samples used in most other studies.
Still, researchers say the findings are useful to Jewish institutions and communal leaders seeking ways to engage the most Jewishly interested intermarried families in their midst.
The researchers plan to follow these families for several years to see how their Jewish behaviors evolve
Why was I not chosen for this committee?
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A group of 22 new rabbinic conversion judges were chosen Monday by a special committee, nearly doubling the number of judges at a time when there are not enough prospective converts to go around.
I thought all the mikveh chevreh should read this. Especially before attending our YOB 100th year of 'special chinuch' dinner, which will take place later this month at Ateres Chayeh Hall.
Before I go. Altz I think you should all know. I will not answer any questions about abuse in my yeshiveh without my lawyer being present.
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You can't take a dip in a dry mikveh
By Eli Ashkenazi
"It's very sad when there's no water, but there's nothing else to do but wait for Lake Kinneret to rise again," said Avraham Uzan, looking at the 200-year-old Tiberias mikveh (ritual bath) he recently helped to renovate, which is now nearly empty. "It's very painful."
The mikveh has been virtually cut off from nearby Lake Kinneret, its only water supply. The lake's shores once lapped against its walls, but low rainfall in recent years has caused the lake to recede, and some 30 meters now separate the mikveh from the lake.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/962853.html
Click to watch video.
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3517507,00.html
tzik: Destroy mourning' tent, home of Jerusalem terrorist
Knesset speaker visits Mercaz Harav yeshiva, meets with seminary staff. Yeshiva head: Not normal that terrorist's mourning tent has not been taken down
Neta Sela
"If the mourning tent and the terrorist's home are not destroyed, students from all over Israel will destroy them," Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, site of last week's deadly terror attack, told visiting Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik on Monday.
The speaker was accompanied by yeshiva personnel who conveyed the details of the visit.
Offensive Flags
Hamas flags hanged outside terrorist's home / Hanan Greenberg
(Video) Residents of Jabel Mukaber neighborhood say shooter who killed eight students at Jerusalem seminary Thursday was arrested by Israel four months ago, released two months later; neighbors claim he worked as driver at seminary
Full Story
Later, Itzik met with yeshiva heads for a conversation in which Rabbi Shapira told her: "It's not normal that the mourners' tent is still up. In every other place in the world they would have destroyed it in such circumstances."
Speaker Itzik replied that "this isn't an ethical question at all. The tent should be destroyed; the house should be destroyed."
Itzik visits yeshiva (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
She explained that she had turned to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to verify the legal aspect of such an action.
Contrary to Education Minister Yuli Tamir's visit to the seminary, Itzik's visit took place without a hitch.
Upon leaving the yeshiva, Tamir was verbally attacked by dozens of youths who called out "murderer," "get out of here" and "the Left is to blame for everything." She was also kicked in the back twice.
"I came to console the students and see the scene of the attack for myself. In a matter of seconds we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of rioters who kicked me and spat at me," Tamir recounted.
Hamas flags hanged outside terrorist's home
(Video) Residents of Jabel Mukaber neighborhood say shooter who killed eight students at Jerusalem seminary Thursday was arrested by Israel four months ago, released two months later; neighbors claim he worked as driver at seminary
Hanan Greenberg
Published: 03.07.08, 12:21 / Israel News
VIDEO - East Jerusalem residents said Friday that the terrorist who killed eight students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem on Thursday had worked as a driver at the seminary.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the gunman was from Jabel Mukaber, a neighborhood in east Jerusalem, where Palestinian residents hold Israeli ID cards that give them freedom of movement in Israel. The man worked as a driver, Rosenfeld said, but would not provide further details.
The rest here;
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3516199,00.html
Can you believe what an asaz punim this bakery owner is. If he didn't vant his wife to have a yingleh why didn't he just wear a condom?
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Kosher bakery owner jailed after feeding wife pills to kill unborn child
06 March 2008
By By Dana Gloger
The owner of two London kosher bakeries and a kosher restaurant has been jailed for putting abortion pills into his wife’s breakfast.
Gil Magira, 36, from Hendon, North-West London, pleaded guilty to using an instrument to procure a miscarriage and was sentenced to three years and nine months at London’s Old Bailey last Friday. He has already served nine months, which will be discounted from his sentence.
It is thought to be the first offence of this type to be prosecuted since the Abortion Act came into force almost 40 years ago.
Magira, the Israeli owner of the Bonjour bakeries in Hendon and Stanmore and the Lemonade restaurant in Hendon, had a phobia of becoming a father.
On finding out that his wife Anat Abraham, 39, was pregnant in 2006, he begged her to have an abortion. When she refused, he bought abortion-inducing drugs over the internet.
In February last year, he crushed the pills into a sandwich that he made Ms Abraham for her breakfast.
Shortly afterwards, she began to experience stomach pains and asked Magira to take her to hospital.
A doctor confirmed that she was not miscarrying, but the next morning Magira put the remains of the drugs into her breakfast cereal. He said that he feared that if he did not follow the instructions and use all of the pills, then the foetus might become deformed.
Three days later, Magira confessed his actions to psychologist Limor Abramov, who encouraged him to tell his wife what he had done.
Simon Mayo, prosecuting, said when Ms Abraham found out about the drugs, she finished the relationship and “was concerned for her own safety and that of her unborn child”.
Magira attempted suicide in May last year by taking an overdose of tranquillisers.
Despite her husband’s attempts, Ms Abraham gave birth prematurely to their son Matan on May 20 last year.
In a victim-impact statement, she said: “When I found out Gil had poisoned me I was in deep shock. I realised I had lived with a person for 10 years that I didn’t really know. The way it was done was inhuman.”
Defence counsel Jonathan Goldberg QC spent over two hours unsuccessfully trying to persuade the judge to pass either a community penalty or a suspended prison sentence.
He told the court that the relationship between Magira and his wife was “plainly truly destructive” and that he was frightened of her.
“She was more of a mother to him than a wife. She was the dominant personality. Certain Israeli women can be a tough breed,” he said. He explained that when the couple married in 1999, they agreed not to have children. Ms Abraham already had a 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
But prosecutor Mr Mayo said that Magira had in fact agreed to have a child with his wife.
The defence argued that, since the birth of his son, Magira had accepted it and was “deeply ashamed of what he did.
“He now says he wants to play a part in his son’s life. He is ashamed of the scandal it has brought his religious family in Israel. He knows what he has done was wrong and that he has sinned against his own religious law and the criminal law,” Mr Goldberg said.
Sentencing, Judge Oliver Sells said that the maximum sentence for the offence was life. “This case merits a sentence of immediate imprisonment,” he said.
The three shops owned by Magira are now being run by Ms Abraham.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/20/AR2008022002874.html?hpid=topnews
Pinto grabbed the greens and hurried to a tub filled with water, salt and vinegar. Because the Torah forbids observant Jews to consume insects, even accidentally, fresh produce in a kosher kitchen isn't so much washed as prepped for surgery. Pinto vigorously sluiced the herbs, rinsed them and dunked them in the tub.
"The salt and vinegar makes the bugs come free," Pinto murmured as he scrutinized each stem under bright fluorescent lights. "Ah, ha," he cried, pointing to a nearly microscopic mite swimming for its life.
The terrorist from Merkaz Harav is an honorable Palestinian!
There is a 10% chance that Elliot shpritzer is innocent of these charges. He's a Jew and deserves a cheskas kashrus. How do we know he was really client 9, did you see it beenayim?
-----------------------------------
newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-stspit0312,0,2996405.story
Sources: Eliot Spitzer nears resignation
BY JAMES T. MADORE, RICK BRAND AND ERIK GERMAN
rick.brand@newsday.com and erik.german@newsday.com
March 11, 2008
ALBANY
Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco said he and other legislative leaders had received telephone calls from Lt. Gov. David Paterson that Tedisco took as indicating a resignation from Gov. Eliot Spitzer was in the offing.
Speaking on Talk 1300 in Albany, Tedisco said Paterson's call "indicates there is something that's going to take place."
Tedisco (R-Schenectady) was one of the first leaders Monday to call for Spitzer to step down after being ensnared in a prostitution scandal. The second-year governor was allegedly caught in a federal wiretap making arrangements for a prostitute from the Emperors Club VIP to meet him in a Washington hotel room on Feb. 13.
Tedisco said Tuesday morning that he was exploring the possibility of impeaching Spitzer, though he conceded an indictment or arrest of the governor would need to come first. "We're preparing a resolution as we evaluate impeachment. We will request a resolution of impeachment by Speaker [ Sheldon] Silver to begin the process," Tedisco said.
Asked if Spitzer should resign, Silver refused to use that word, saying the governor should do "what's best for his family." Silver added, "I think what's best for the state is we have a constitution, we have continuity in government - it is now up to the governor to make a determination that's best for his family. I pray for his children and the impact it has had. Right now, my heart goes out to him."
On Long Island, the county Democratic leaders were divided on what Spitzer's next move should be.
Suffolk Democratic Party chairman Richard Schaffer called for Spitzer's resignation. "I think it's best that he step down," Schaffer said. "We're all hoping he figures that out over the next couple of days. But for everyone, including his family, I think it's best that he step aside."
But Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs said, "I'm not going to say whether I would suggest that the governor step down -- or not step down. But if he and his advisers have come up with a strategy to continue in office they are a heck of a lot smarter than me, because I can't figure it out."
In Albany, television trucks surrounded the Capitol and distracted lawmakers trying to focus on other issues. Lobbyists continued to stream through the marble hallways as they do every Tuesday during the regular legislative session.
The Senate's Republican majority announced plans for a constitutional spending cap as part of its budget proposal for 2008-09.
Spitzer appeared not to have arrived at his Manhattan office as of 11:15 a.m.
Raping little yeshiveh boys is okay, but for the Governer of New York to pay for a zoyna, more than once, is totally an avalah vecherpah!
Thomas Jefferson, speaking on the inactivity of Washington, D.C., once said, “Congress has scarcely any thing to employ them, and complain that the place is remarkably dull.” Perhaps the doldrums of the capital city, along with those of a hearing on the state of the bond insurance industry, forced the governor of the Empire State to allegedly import his own entertainment.
His critics say it was arrogance and hypocrisy that brought Gov. Spitzer down from the apex of his political career. Though an examination of the finer details of the governor’s trip to Washington reveals it was the credit crisis and a 98-year-old federal law.
Congress passed the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 as a federal tool to address prostitution and immorality. The Mann Act, as most define the law, banned the interstate transportation of individuals for the purposes of prostitution.
Arguably its most famous casualty is the former heavyweight champion of the world. In 1913, Jack Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act. Johnson was a black boxer whose dominance in boxing brought him notoriety that inspired hatred among many of his countrymen. A number of his contemporaries, and even more today, consider his conviction to be a racially motivated sham.
If statements in federal documents hold true, the evidence against Spitzer is far less questionable. The documents accuse the governor of ordering a prostitute who traveled from New York to Washington, across five state lines. It would be easier to beat a Mann Act wrap had he never left Manhattan.
Yet he was asked (some report he insisted) to spend a good portion of his Valentine’s Day away from New York to testify on the health of the bond insurance industry in front of the House Financial Services Committee. His statements included a threat to split up the struggling bond insurance companies into “good bank, bad bank.” The first would back safer municipal bonds. Those companies would conceivably maintain their coveted AAA bond ratings, avoiding an increase in the price cities and towns would pay for that money.
The “bad bank” would back the collateralized debt obligations and bad mortgages that bond insurance companies had been taking on. Had these insurers just done what their business brand suggests and only insured bonds, they would have avoided participation in the mortgage mess. No sick bond insurance companies, no need for Congress to review their health, and Spitzer could have stayed in Manhattan. The subprime mess claims two here: bond insurers and their governor.
The consequences of Spitzer’s trip are still developing. Perhaps he will one day look back, wishing he could have taken another warning from President Jefferson. In a letter home to his daughter the president wrote, “As the term of my relief from this place approaches, its drudgery becomes more nauseating and intolerable, and my impatience to be with you at Monticello increases daily.”
In other words: Ditch the D.C. trip and stay at home with your family.
Rich Edson is a Washington-based correspondent for the Fox Business Network.
Israel Hasbara Committee
Olmert: Massacre Was Tragic But Israel Will Make Concessions
Yeshiva Rabbi: Israel Must Incorporate Spiritual Tools to Make Peace
By Amihai Zippor
(IHC News Analysis, 11 March 2008) Speaking before an international conference of mayors, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said despite the massacre of students at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva last week Israel will continue planning for far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians.
“Despite terrorism and despite the pain we are not relinquishing the monumental task of making another dramatic step that can bring us closer to building the foundations for true peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Olmert said on Sunday, 09 March 2008.
However, the staff at Merkaz HaRav believes a greater change is necessary to guide Israel on a more secure path in order to achieve “true” peace.
According to Ynetnews.com, the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira called for the government to be replaced with one that “expresses the true will of the people.”
“During times like these we should glorify the Torah and put the nation's concealed powers into practice,” Rabbi Shapira said.
He added: “If there is no Torah, there is no spiritual fortitude, and physical endurance lacks as well. We are constantly defending ourselves in the face of our enemies. The people expect a change in the way of thinking, and this is the time for it. The Torah is our Roadmap.”
Most Israelis have no confidence in their leadership, as is evidenced by Olmert’s approval rating which still hovers around the single digit.
Remembering the 8 Students in Jerusalem
5 Adar Bet 5768, 12 March 08
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The terrorist slaughter in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, in which eight budding Torah scholars were gunned down by an Arab terrorist, is constantly in the air. A bus driver stopping his city bus to talk to his passengers about his murdered nephew, a letter to the families from a visitor from England, and calls for a "traditional Jewish Zionist response" are just a sampling.
Heard from a Nefesh B'Nefesh staffer in Jerusalem:
"Every morning I take the 35 bus line to work. It's a quick ride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The third stop after I get on by the shuk [Machaneh Yehuda outdoor market] is directly in front of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. This morning I found myself a bit anxious, unsure of what I was going to see as we passed by. As I looked around, I saw death notices pasted all over the street, and flowers that had been brought lined the entrance to the Yeshiva. When the bus pulled up to the stop, the driver shut off the engine and stood. With tears in his eyes, he told everyone on the bus that one of the boys killed on Thursday night was his nephew. He asked if we would mind if he spoke for a few minutes in memory of his nephew and the other boys who were killed. After seeing head nods all over the bus he began to speak.
"With a clear and proud voice, he spoke beautifully about his nephew and said that he was a person who was constantly on the lookout for how to help out anyone in need. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved learning, and had a passion for working out the intricacies of the Gemara. He was excited to join the army in a few years, and wanted to eventually work in informal education.
"As he continued to speak, I noticed that the elderly woman sitting next to me was crying. I looked into my bag, reached for a tissue and passed it to her. She looked at me and told me that she too had lost someone she knew in the attack. Her neighbors' child was another one of the boys killed. As she held my hand tightly, she stood up and asked if she too could say a few words in memory of her neighbor. She spoke of a young man filled with a zest for life. Every Friday he would visit her with a few flowers for Shabbat and a short dvar torah [Torah thought] that he had learned that week in Yeshiva. This past Shabbat, she had no flowers...
"...The eight boys who were killed will continue to impact us all individually and as a nation. Each one of us has the ability to make a profound impact on our world. This coming Wednesday morning, I will be at Ben Gurion Airport at 7 AM with Nefesh B'Nefesh welcoming 40 new olim [immigrants] to Israel . We will not be deterred. We cannot give up. We will continue to live our lives and hope and work for change, understanding and peace."
A Letter From a "Greenhorn" from England
A young hareidi-religious man wrote to each of the bereaved families. Each of the eight letters were hand-delivered by a neighbor to the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Weiss, who said he would make sure each family received its copy:
Dear Lifshitz Family,
The truth is that I do not feel worthy at all of writing to you. How can it be possible for a someone from the outside, who doesn't know how strong is your pain, to write words of consolation, when only you know the true extent of the terrible pain you are suffering... But still, I can't just stand by without writing what I feel in my heart, so please allow me the opportunity to do so.
The truth is that I am from abroad, from England. I am here learning in Kollel in Har Nof [a Jerusalem neighborhood]. I did not know your son, and I don't even know anything about Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, but I am writing to tell you that even though I don't know you at all, your sorrow is my sorrow, your pain is my pain, and your loss is my loss. It's not just your personal tragedy, but rather the tragedy of all of us; we have all lost a brother, we have all lost a son. And I am crying together with you.
How can I even imagine what it's like for parents to receive a call late at night with such terrible news, saying just that your beloved and delightful son who went to yeshiva to learn was killed in the way in which he was killed. How can it even be imagined what a father and mother feel like when hearing such a thing? And how can I even picture the feeling of lacking, the anguish and the tears of a father and mother on the next day, this morning, when they have to bury their son who just a few hours before was their hope for the future?
I have nothing to say, no one has anything to say. All I can tell you is that now as I write, the tears are again streaming from my eyes, just as they streamed this morning when I stood on the street at the funeral of your dear son Yochai, may G-d avenge his blood.
...What is clear, though, is that these boys who were killed for the sanctification of G-d's Name went straight up to Gan Eden [Paradise], to the special place for those who died this way. They died in their place of Torah, in the place in which they went to perfect themselves in their worship and fear of G-d, and in their study of Torah. And there in Gan Eden, they are beseeching G-d to give you the strength to weather these terrible difficulties.
...What I thought was that the Torah tells us that G-d said He would be "sanctified with [the death of] My holy ones" - and that [the fact that Aharon's sons Nadav and Avihu were killed] shows that they were the great ones... This Sabbath eve, when these boys were taken, it is also an aspect of G-d being sanctified with His holy ones... That they are the sacrifices shows that they, these pure and clean ones, can be seen to be the greatest of us...
It remains for me to say only that when one loses a child, it is like losing one of his limbs, a genuine part of himself, and just like a limb cannot be replaced, so too with a child - but just like one who loses a limb learns how to continue his life without that limb, I bless you that even though you lost something of a value that no one can even evaluate - do not forget him, his absence will be felt forever, but I just pray that you will have the strength and the consolation and the ability to continue despite the absence, to continue to live without pain, but simply with his great memory.
I just wanted to add that I give you my word, with no intention to vow, that just as his memory will never be forgotten by you, it won't be forgotten by me, and the memory of your son Yochai will always be before me. I pray that we know no more sorrow.
May Hashem comfort you amidst the mourners for Zion and Jerusalem.
Recognizing G-d's Hand
At a gathering of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva movement in Ramot Shapira, in the Jerusalem Corridor, the revered Rabbi Chaim Druckman - long-time head of Yeshivat Or Etzion and teacher-rabbi in Merkaz HaRav - said, "We would have expected to hear the heads of our state declaring: For every yeshiva student who was murdered, we will start a new yeshiva; for every boy killed, we will start another Jewish community or neighborhood in the Negev, the Galilee, the Shomron and Hevron, and that for every person who dies for the sanctification of G-d's Name we will bring another 1,000 new olim [immigrants]. These are the proper Jewish Zionist responses to these terrible murders, at the same time as dealing militarily with the terrorists. Our youth can carry out these missions and is waiting for them."
"In our time," Rabbi Druckman said, "we experienced hester panim [the hiding of G-d's face] within hester panim - double, triple, and quadruple. Afterwards, we merited to receive a form of redemption, and that too came about with hester panim. Making light of what has happened in our times is heresy to the same extent as making light of the Purim story and the events of Mordechai, Esther and Ahashverosh."
Eight New Towns
Women in Green, too, called for the immediate establishment of eight new Jewish towns throughout Judea and Samaria as "true Jewish Zionist revenge." The organization says that this is especially fitting "in light of the fact that Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav symbolizes Jewish settlement in Yesha. At this time, when the Olmert government continues to cave in to the Arab enemy by continuing to negotiate the matter of a new Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, eight new Jewish towns will send a clear message to the entire world: The sons of Haman and their henchmen will not deter us and will not stop our settlement enterprise; we will rather strengthen and enhance our loyalty and attachment to the entire Land of Israel."
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
I'm such an asshole! I can't accept everyone into my orthodox rulebook.
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And some of them have definitely done so. Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America, for example, wrote that this synagogue is "pointedly - and significantly - unaffiliated." Najman can walk around with a self-made Orthodox label - and certainly her self-image, education and observance of tradition are all Orthodox. But the label will remain controversial.
FREDERICK - A 72-year-old Odenton man who threatened to post pornographic pictures of a 15-year-old Mount Airy girl on the Internet if she did not continue to have sex with him was sentenced today to 15 years in prison, Frederick County prosecutors said.
Manuel Forastieri pleaded guilty today to second-degree sex offense and manufacturing child pornography. Forastieri faced 62 charges for having sexual relations with a teenage girl from Mount Airy, and taking inappropriate pictures of her. Prosecutors said he threatened to post the photos on the Internet if she didn't continue to have sex with him.
Forastieri was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was ordered to serve at least 15 years. State's Attorney Charlie Smith said the sentence proves that such behavior will be not tolerated in Frederick County.
When he is released, Forastieri must register as a sex offender.
Any parent that doesn't go to the police is guilty of enabling and should be charged with aiding and abetting. Enough with the parent excuses of not reporting abuse. Frankly, I'm flabbergasted on how you could remain quiet when your own flesh and blood is violated in the worst way. How could you? You're no better then an animal!
=================================
newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-lisile095608279mar10,0,7065346.story
Experts: Parents often reluctant to report sex abuse
BY ANDREW STRICKLER
andrew.strickler@newsday.com
March 10, 2008
The investigation into James Bonfiglio, the Suffolk karate instructor known as "Sensei Jimmy" to his young students, revealed troubling clues that opportunities to stop the sexual abuse of children were missed, police and parents said.
The families of two of Bonfiglio's students said they learned of the abuse more than a decade ago, while one of Bonfiglio's former colleagues told Newsday at least two other adults had secondhand knowledge of accusations more than a decade ago. Nearly all the crimes in the 43-count indictment filed last month against Bonfiglio, 37, of Ronkonkoma, occurred in the past three years.
Until a 13-year-old boy came forward in October, no one filed a police report about Bonfiglio in the county, according to Det. Lt. Stan Grodski of the Special Victims Section.
While young victims often grapple with feelings of isolation and shame, experts say their parents may also struggle with a complex stew of emotions: self-recrimination, guilt, betrayal and denial. Within that mix - accented with a desire to shield their children from the possible pain of recounting the experience for investigators - some choose to remain mute, even if they know that other children could be at risk.
"Culturally, we have a strong resistance to acknowledging sexual abuse, especially same-sex child abuse," says Pat Patrick, director of the nonprofit Darkness to Light in Charleston, S.C., which teaches sex abuse prevention.
A perceived stigma attached to victims persists, experts say, despite a growing awareness of such crimes. Six of every 1,000 children report being sexually abused in the previous year by an adult known to them, according to a 2002 survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.
Reports of child sex abuse have dropped sharply in recent years, according to director David Finkelhor, although most experts believe such incidents remain underreported.
While many fear strangers, the majority of sex crimes against children are committed by a family member, a friend or someone else the child knows, a fact that experts say also contributes to unreported abuses.
In some instances, the families of boys abused by men may be more resistant to go public with accusations. The root is fear of how the abuse might label their children at a time when their sexuality is still emerging.
"If a girl has been victimized, it fits the norm," said Maxine Stein, president of Stop It Now! in Massachusetts. "But it's like, with boys, they're supposed to defend themselves and be stronger. It's all those myths that boys have to shoulder."
12/03/2008
A 'moderna' yeshiva, but still a yeshiva
By Yair Ettinger
"Jerusalem is weeping over the fact that Jewish boys were unfortunately murdered in such a terrible way. When the head weeps, the entire body weeps, and when Jerusalem weeps all of Israel weeps about such a bitter tragedy."
Ultra-Orthodox readers who saw these words this week rubbed their eyes. Not because of the emotional content, but because of the identity of the speaker - Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the head of the Satmar Hasidim; the chasm that separates Satmar and Mercaz Harav circles is deeper than that between the yeshiva and the circles in which Education Minister Yuli Tamir, for example, grew up.
"The death of young men is as hard for the Holy One, blessed be He as the destruction of the Temple," the admor (leader of a Hasidic sect) told his disciples on Shabbat, in Yiddish, "but when, God forbid, such a tragedy occurs, that murderers enter the yeshiva, a yeshiva where young men are studying, even though it's a 'moderna yeshiva,' it's still a yeshiva where young men study Torah, Gemara - and shoot, God help us, and kill a number of boys in a most cruel manner, Jewish boys, certainly it is as hard for the Holy One, blessed be He as the burning of our House of God. All of Israel is broken by such a bitter tragedy."
Satmar Hasidism split about two years ago, and now two brothers are heading its two wings: Rabbi Aaron and Rabbi Zalman-Leib. Both see themselves as the successors of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum (their father's uncle) who was the architect of the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox approach.
Anti-Zionism is the cornerstone of Satmar, not simply a political stance. There is no way of knowing what Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum would have said about a massacre in a Zionist yeshiva, but as a rule he believed that the establishment of the State of Israel and the resulting incitement of the nations of the world are the explanation for the bloodshed in the Middle East; in the words of the Gemara (Talmud): "I will abandon your flesh like the gazelle and deer of the field."
You don't have to go as far as Satmar to notice the changes in the official internal discourse - as opposed to the ultra-Orthodox public, which reacted with profound shock - to the attack in Jerusalem and the identity of its victims.
The official ultra-Orthodox hashkafa (religious perspective) has been conducting a longstanding debate with what the "Mercaz" represents, and always considered it a "half-baked yeshiva." In light of this, the wording of Friday's main headline in the ultra-Orthodox daily Yated Neeman: "8 yeshiva boys were murdered in a shooting attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem" was significant. The word "yeshiva" appeared. Twice.
This is the same Yated Neeman that did not hesitate to mock the settlers during the week when Gush Katif was evacuated, and last September covered the death of the head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, with the respect reserved for traffic reports; of the 57 words (in Hebrew) in the announcement, 10 were: "Because of the funeral cortege, central arteries were closed all over the city and at the entrance to Jerusalem."
This week, the attack was described in the lead editorial as "a barbaric massacre of Jewish boys who engage in study," and another article, published yesterday, said that "although we are not identified with them [with Mercaz circles, Y.E.] in any way," the ultra-Orthodox public has an obligation to rise up against "their persecutors from the unrestrained Israeli left," for "the wicked interpretation of this attack as a sectoral one."
One of Friday's funerals was attended by Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeach, the admor of Belz, a Hasidic group that for years has not been identified with anti-Zionist circles, and is now seen as close to the government, in ultra-Orthodox terms. The rebbe rarely leaves his house, but last Monday he went out a second time and visited the wounded at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center.
"You are fortunate that you were caught when studying Torah," the rebbe was quoted as having told Eliyahu Klarfeld, one of the wounded.
"It's not that he goes out after attacks to visit the wounded, like a president, but the intensity of the trauma caused him to act and to demonstrate leadership," said one Belz Hasid.
Rabbi Yehoshua Magnes, from Mercaz Harav, says that the ultra-Orthodox reaction, which also included visits and phone calls from admors and other rabbis, is "a natural thing. Had it not happened we would have been surprised. Is it possible for the ultra-Orthodox not to understand the significance of holy ones who are murdered while studying?"
But Dr. Benjamin Brown, who studies the ultra-Orthodox hashkafa and lectures in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, identifies another layer here. "On the one hand, you don't hear leading rabbis such as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, but on the other hand there are statements like that of the Satmar Rebbe, which is almost an own-goal against the anti-Zionist hashkafa."
Brown explains it as "directed mainly inward," in the wake of the Satmar split: "Rabbi Aaron is saying that his Hasidism is still extreme but civilized, not wild."
However, the ultra-Orthodox reactions should also be understood in light of what is happening in the street: the "Israelization" of the ultra-Orthodox community, and the tendency among the religious public to become more ultra-Orthodox.
There is nothing like a visit to Mercaz Harav's study hall to illustrate the blurring of the boundaries. Not only are many of the yeshiva students in quasi-Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) tracks, including a relatively new generation of yeshiva students whose "Torah study is their vocation" (some of them did not serve in the army or served for only a few months in a framework called "hesder Mercaz"), but there are also several ultra-Orthodox boys in the study hall who are rank-and-file students. They consider this an institution that is modern compared to the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva world from which they came, but on the other hand it is no longer a "half-baked yeshiva."
Official Zionism here is also not it used to be.
DEBKAfile - We start where the media stop
Exclusive: Israel places Lebanese, Syrian, Gaza borders, its cities and highways on high terror alert
March 10, 2008
The annual intelligence report submitted to the Israeli government Sunday, March 9, predicted grave dangers to Israeli security in the coming year. However, even in the short term, DEBKAfile’s military and Middle East sources report the Israeli army, police and security forces are on guard for stormy events in the second half of March.
1. To bring reluctant Arab rulers to the Damascus Arab League summit on the 29th, Syria has quietly slipped the word that the contentious Lebanese issue will be left off the agenda. Deliberations would be confined to the Gaza crisis. The Saudis were therefore persuaded to accept the Syrian invitation on March 9 after several refusals.
Israeli intelligence has warned that in the interim Hamas and Jihad Islami would make every effort to ignite the Gaza front in order to unite the Arab rulers behind a dramatic Arab resolution in support of the Palestinian Islamists. This tactic would transfer the Gaza issue’s center of gravity from Cairo, which is brokering a Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal, to radical Damascus.
Egged on by Syria and Iran, Hamas keeps on stalling this track and raising its demands. Amos Gilead, security adviser in Israel’s defense ministry, who traveled to Cairo Sunday to try and break the deadlock, came back empty-handed. He said the coming summit was the key to progress and warned that the current slowdown in Palestinian rocket and missile attacks from Gaza in the last two days was extremely fragile. Hamas was poised to generate a flare-up at any time that it suited the book of Syria and Iran. Nevertheless, Israel has scaled down its anti-rocket operations in the Gaza Strip.
2. Most of all, the coming Arab League summit will for the first time host an Iranian head of state. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be seated beside Syrian president Bashar Assad as guest of honor to parade the Tehran-Damascus axis’ pre-eminent role in Arab Middle East affairs, with Iran setting the pace.
This prospect has raised the military barometer across the region and injected a radical note in “moderate” Arab utterances.
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak suddenly declared Monday, March 10, that Israel continues to be responsible for the Gaza Strip after its pull-out and its status in both Gaza and the West Bank is that of an occupation force. In an interview, he endorsed the Hamas line which called on Israel to halt military operations not only in Gaza but also on the West Bank.
The Lebanese impasse may have been left off the formal agenda, but it looms large over the Arab world as the key divisive element. Over the weekend, the US navy built up its deployment opposite the Lebanese coast with the USS Ross guided missile destroyer and the USS Philippine Sea cruiser.
Syria responded by placing its air and naval bases, where too Russian warships are docked, on a state of preparedness.
Israel’s new national intelligence report affirms that the United States’ declining role in the region has left a vacuum for radical elements to fill. Its authors, the chiefs of military intelligence, the Mossad, Shin Bet and the foreign ministry’s intelligence unit, warned of the heightened threat from missiles in the arsenals of a future nuclear-armed Iran (within two years) and Syrian. A Hizballah attack and a stronger Hamas were also in prospect.
In the coming two weeks, Syria, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas will be further tightening the military and terrorist loop around Israel – to the north, the south, and among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, at the expense of Israel’s deterrent strength.
According to our military sources, Hizballah is completing its preparations for revenge on Israel, whom it accuses of killing its military commander Imad Mughniyeh last month. The latest estimate is that the Shiite terrorists will strike on the border and/or inside Israel, rather than hit overseas targets.
Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert steadily refuses to look these facts in the face and insists that Israel’s security situation has never been better.
Both he and foreign minister Tzipi Livni are still carefully treading the line drawn by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, whose main preoccupation these days is to keep foreign crises at bay for the rest of the Bush presidency.
In Jerusalem last week, Rice confided that to achieve a lull in the cross-border violence in Gaza, even concessions to Hamas were acceptable. This stance, which Israel accepted, substantially enhanced the Islamists’ bargaining position.
Read at:
http://www.debka.com/
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963474.html
According to the sources, Israel and Hamas have agreed to the Egyptian proposal to deploy Palestinian Authority Presidential Guard members along the Karni, Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings, where cargo is transferred between Israel and Gaza, as well as at the Erez crossing, a passageway for people and goods.
You should vote for me and not Hillary because I'm pro-Israel.
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Obama calls Livni, back's Israel's right for self-defense
Foreign minister gets unexpected phone call from presidential hopeful; Obama expresses his condolences to families of Jerusalem attack victims, says Iran should be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON – Obama expresses support for Israel: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is currently visiting the United States, received an unexpected phone call from Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama Tuesday.
During the conversation, Obama expressed his condolences to the Israeli people and to the bereaved families in the wake of the terror attack in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem last week that left eight people dead.
Livni Speaks
Livni: Our goal is not to hurt civilians / Hagai Einav
Foreign minister meets with Turkish reporters, says peace negotiations with moderates will continue. Defense Minister Barak tours north, conveys message to Gaza's residents: 'When the rocket fire and the terror activities inside Israel stop, the road will be paved for a different reality of peace and good neighborly relations'
Full Story
The Illinois senator also stressed Israel's right to defend itself and made it clear that both the US and Israel were interested in ensuring that Iran will not be acquiring nuclear weapons.
The foreign minister reportedly told Obama that there was a direct link between terrorism and Iran in the Middle East, and stressed the need for a firm international stance vis-à-vis Teheran.
'Israel adopts dual strategy'
According to a Livni associate, Obama also expressed his appreciation over Israel's insistence to continue its negotiations with the Palestinians. The foreign minister reportedly stressed that Hamas was deliberately attempting to hurt Israeli civilians while taking cover behind Palestinian civilians. For that reason, Livni said Israeli civilian casualties should not be compared to Palestinian casualties.
The foreign minister also told Obama that the situation in Gaza was worsening as a result of arms smuggling into the Strip. She noted that many Israelis were currently under Hamas' rocket threat.
Livni reportedly said that Israel was adopting a dual strategy by attempting to reach understandings with moderate Palestinians while acting firmly against terrorism.
Roni Sofer contributed to the report
Gee whiz; Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, you are one brilliant Idiot!
------------------------
The foreign minister also told Obama that the situation in Gaza was worsening as a result of arms smuggling into the Strip. She noted that many Israelis were currently under Hamas' rocket threat.
http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL11641483
Israel should hold on to the body and send a message that a murderer of children doesn't get the privilege of being buried like any other human being. However, they won't because Olmert's government is so inept.
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Israel prevents burial of school gunman
Tue Mar 11, 2008
JERUSALEM, March 11 (Reuters) - Israeli police said on Tuesday they would not hand over the body of a Palestinian gunman who killed eight Israelis in a Jewish seminary last week until his family ensured the funeral would be private.
Police officials said they feared a public funeral could lead to protests and violence.
Ali Abu Dhaim shot dead eight students in a prominent Jewish seminary in Jerusalem on Thursday before being killed by an off-duty soldier. It was the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis in two years and the first major attack in Jerusalem in four years.
Police said they had planned to hand over Abu Dhaim's body to the family on Sunday but did not do so after learning that dozens of people and several television crews were in attendance.
"When the body was about to be handed over, we found out that the family had not kept the conditions that were agreed upon and it was not given to them," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said.
Abu Dhaim's family lives in Arab East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally.
Public displays of Palestinian nationalism in that area are often discouraged by Israeli authorities.
Ben-Ruby said the police will release the body to the family as soon as its conditions are met. (Reporting by Avida Landau; Editing by Catherine Evans)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3518000,00.html
Jewish revenge in the works? A group of Jewish men have apparently been granted religious approval to carry out an act of retribution in retaliation for the attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem last week, Channel 1 reported Tuesday.
According to the report, several 25-35-year old men met with two prominent rabbinical figures – the first a rabbi at Mercaz Harav yeshiva and the second a rabbi known in far Right circles – two days after the attack, to discus possible retribution.
Besides being viciously abused as a student in the 90's at Yeshiva Of Brooklyn, I was also emotionally humiliated and made to feel like garbage. I am totally not religious today due to Mandel and his rabbeim.
I came across this blog about a year ago and have been following it ever since. I get even more turned off Judaism by seeing all the vicious rabbis being honored when they should be spit on. For example, why is there shlomo mandel's signature on the Agudah "don't shikur yourself on purim" campaign? Why is lipa maugulis's signature there? Is it normal that they allowed kids under their care to be abused and now they are getting honored?
100 years of brutality is more like it for the upcoming yob dinner. 50 years of crap for TT.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s son: We must repay our enemies in kind
Less than a day after publication of reports that rabbis are granting halachic sanction to harm Arabs, various right-wing rabbis publish circular urging followers to ‘fight the enemy tit for tat’
On Wednesday, several right-wing rabbis, including the son of Shas party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, published circulars appearing in Jerusalem and West Bank settlements calling on followers to “fight the enemy tit for tat and blow for blow. They have no compassion for us, so we must feel none for them”.
I am against any woman being ordained as a Rabbi, it's a mans job.
----------------
Marshfield spiritual leader reaches out
As a late February snow covers the ground, a young rabbi makes her way to the Suffolk County Jail on Nashua Street to offer a Bible study and meditation to inmates. After going through several searches and security checkpoints, she is ushered into a room where eight men between the ages of 18 and 56 gather ready to discuss the Book of Exodus.
more:
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=4603
2008-03-11
Jerusalem killing hits home for local yeshiva students
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Education Editor
Aaron Begin, 17, stands in front of a bulletin board in the corridor of Yeshiva of Los Angeles (YULA) boys high school. He stares at pictures of boys his own age grieving over friends gunned down at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva while they studied in the library. He studies the photos of blood in the corridor, of boys struggling to help the wounded, of a row of smiling snapshots of the students who were killed. Begin points to a photo of an open book covered in blood.
"Rabbi, I have a question," he says to his principal, Rabbi Heshy Glass, who is standing with him. "Doesn't it say you can't die while you're learning Torah?"
Glass tells him the story of the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Akiva, who was taken by the Romans while he studied. Like these boys, he tells Begin, he was a Jewish hero, remembered for the ages.
Glass doesn't try to make sense of the tragedy, just to continue the conversation about what is so troubling to Begin and other boys at YULA, many of whom plan to study in Israeli yeshivas when they graduate.
"You hear about tragedies in Israel, but it hits so close to home because this is us next year. Next year we're going to yeshiva," said Chaim Gamzo, a 17-year-old senior. "These guys had their whole lives ahead of them -- like me. I hope to go to yeshiva, to go to college, to have a normal successful life, but they didn't have the opportunity to do that."
At YULA and at Jewish schools around the city, students gathered in special assemblies and prayer services last week.
At Milken Community High School, a special pre-Shabbat healing service on Friday was dedicated to the boys, and students recited Kaddish for them.
"Our students felt deeply connected to these students halfway across the world who were studying Torah and living Torah the same way they are," said Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer, rabbi-in-residence at Milken, who led the service.
At Orthodox day schools, students as young as first grade recited psalms and discussed the events, and most middle school classes attended special prayer services. High school students led many of the prayers at a citywide gathering at Young Israel of Century City on Sunday.
At YULA high school, most of the boys wear the same knitted yarmulkes, symbolizing religious Zionism, as the boys who were killed. Most of them spend part of their day studying in a beit midrash but will go on to secular professions. The YULA boys, and other Modern Orthodox high school students, are the American parallels of the boys who were killed.
"I see those pictures of those boys crying, and I know it could be my friends crying," said Begin, who also plans to study in a religious Zionist yeshiva next year.
The bulletin board went up Thursday night in YULA, and by Friday, hundreds of signatures, both in Hebrew and English, adorned a poster of solidarity. That day, the boys held a special assembly where they prayed for the students and their families. Rabbi Marvin Heir, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, parent organization of YULA, talked to them both about the emotional and political ramifications of terrorism.
In a confluence of events, YULA and many other schools had been scheduled for months to hold assemblies hosting the parents of Roi Klein and Noam Apter, two young Israelis who died defending the country. The families were here to be honored at "An Evening of Jewish Heroism" at the Writers Guild theater in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night. The event was sponsored by Bnei Akiva, the religious Zionist youth movement whose ideological founder is the same Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook who founded Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.
Klein, a major during the Lebanon War in 2006, died reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer as he lept onto a grenade to save fellow soldiers in the battle of Beit Jbeil. Apter, who at 22 had completed his army service, was in his Yeshiva's kitchen in Otniel when heavily armed terrorists infiltrated. Apter quickly locked the door between the kitchen and the dining room, giving other students a chance to flee but sealing his own fate.
The Apter family lives near one of the boys killed in Mercaz Harav last Thursday.
Students were emotional during the assemblies, and lingered to talk to the parents afterward, according to Shalom Ashkenazi, Bnei Akiva's Los Angeles emissary from Israel.
"We must learn from these two boys what is the meaning of life, what it means to be Jewish and to be thinking about Am Yisrael," said Shalom Ashkenazi. "The terrorist chose this yeshiva because it is a symbol of Judaism and a symbol of religious Zionism. When Noam and Roi died, they said to the people of Israel, 'We don't live for ourselves. We live and die for our friends, for the land of Israel, for the people of Israel, and for the Torah of Israel.'"
Swanson Health Products Introduces a Vegetarian/Kosher line of Supplements
You asked, Swanson Health Products answered! Because of the high demand from their customers for vegetarian and kosher products, Swanson Health Products announces 6 new additions to their family of supplements.
Fargo, ND (PRWEB) March 11, 2008 -- You asked, Swanson Health Products answered! Because of the high demand from their customers for vegetarian and kosher products, Swanson Health Products announces 6 new additions to their family of supplements.
News Image
According to PETA, there are more than 12 million vegetarians in the U.S alone and 19,000 make the switch every week. The biggest reason given is because of health concerns, weight management and good feelings from eating vegetarian foods. Similarly, the kosher market has a steady 15 percent growth every year and different varieties of consumers are purchasing kosher products. It only makes sense for Swanson Health Products to offer a line specifically for their vegetarian and kosher customers.
So why did Swanson Health Products decide to combine vegetarian and kosher together? They thought the combination made perfect sense because of the many overlaps between modern vegetarian practices and the laws of Kashrut. For example, gelatin is prohibited by Kashrut laws so using a plant-sourced capsule is a must.
Check out the different products they are offering at swansonvitamins.com where standard shipping is always only $4.95! From a vegetarian/kosher multi-vitamin to a probiotic complex, Swanson Health Products believes that everyone can benefit from dietary supplements.
Swanson Health Products is an industry leader in bringing vitamins direct to consumers at the lowest price possible. Swanson Health Products goes a step beyond its competitors by offering powerful guarantees. All products are backed by a 100% Satisfaction, Money-Back Guarantee and Double the Difference Lowest Price Guarantee.
Lawyer guilty of distributing child porn
By RHONDA SPIVAK, Special to The CJN
Thursday, 06 March 2008
WINNIPEG — Lawyer Gary Dolovich has pleaded guilty in provincial court here to possessing and distributing child pornography.
When arrested in July 2006, Dolovich was charged with 17 counts of distributing child pornography over the Internet. The charges related to the distribution of hundreds of images.
He pleaded guilty to one count encompassing offences that occurred between February and October of 2005. He will be sentenced this spring and could face a jail term.
Dolovich’s lawyer, Josh Weinstein, said that in the upcoming sentencing hearing, he will be “asking the court that [Dolovich] not go to jail.”
Weinstein is awaiting a report from a forensic psychologist that he said will consider whether his client is a risk to the community and detail steps that Dolovich, who did not profit monetarily from distributing the child porn images, has taken toward rehabilitation.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Dolovich, an Orthodox Jew, was called to the Manitoba bar in 1991 and immigrated to Israel in 1998. In Israel, he worked as a lawyer and lived in the small settlement of Talmon in the West Bank, about 18 kilometres east of Modiin.
In 2001 Dolovich left Israel and returned to live in Winnipeg, where he worked as the executive director of a local kashrut organization.
When he was arrested, Dolovich was working as a legal researcher for the Manitoba Court of Appeal, where he had also worked prior to making aliyah.
Winnipeg Police began to investigate him after receiving a tip from a national police body that deals with child exploitation.
The extensive police investigation led to the search and seizure of several computers and hardware, including ones used by the province’s highest court.
Dolovich was arrested at Pearson International Airport in Toronto after police had issued a Canada-wide warrant for him.
He is divorced from his second wife and is the father of two children, who at the time of his arrest were aged seven and one. His second ex-wife and two children returned to live in Israel in 2007.
Det.-Sgt. Richard Lemire of the Manitoba Integrated Child Exploitation Unit said that his unit “will often be asked [by the Crown] to do a presentation to the judge at the sentencing hearing and will show the judge a representative sampling of the child pornography images found. This [part of the hearing ] will be closed to the public.”
He added: “These types of charges using the Internet have become very pervasive. It is a worldwide problem. It knows no demographics.”
Violations alleged at Gordon meat plant
02.29.08, 5:48 PM ET
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A food workers union is alleging that federal investigators have found dozens of food safety violations at the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Gordon, Neb.
The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union said Friday that U.S. Department of Agriculture documents show the plant has failed to implement safeguards against 'mad cow' disease or E. coli contamination.
The documents said the Local Pride plant operated by Agriprocessors had more than 115 citations from July 2005 to March 2007.
There were more than 30 sanitation violations alleged, including instances of sewage on the kill floor, insect infestations and pieces of fat littering the employee locker room.
Agriprocessors vice president Sholom Rubashkin said the union's allegations are an attempt to hurt his business because his workers have voted against unionizing for the past three years.
'The union is not the authority for wholesomeness,' he said. 'All they are tying to do is make these allegations to dirty someone's name and hurt commerce.'
But he stopped short of denying the violations: 'I don't have to deny it. Every pound of meat that goes out of the facility is USDA certified.'
A spokeswoman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said she could not immediately comment.
A union spokesman, Scott Frotman, said the union has no evidence that anyone became ill from eating any of the products produced at the plant and so was not making such an allegation.
Among the findings in the union report:
-- The plant didn't test any of its beef for E. coli on June 23, 2006, and failed to 'retain records of test results for 12 months' thereafter.
-- On January, 17, 2006, the report stated, an inspector noticed a food-safety issue and told the plant manager not ship the beef and lamb slaughtered that day. But, part of the beef and all of the lamb had already been shipped.
Agriprocessors' Local Pride is a kosher-certified plant that produces Aaron's Best and David's products and hot dogs for Nathan's Famous Kosher Hot Dogs.
Local Pride opened in June 2006 under an agreement between the Rubashkin family of New York and the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The plant employs 60 to 80 workers, according to Rubashkin.
The USDA and the Orthodox Union, the nation's leading kosher certifier, increased their monitoring of the plant in July, after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint alleging animal mistreatment.
A special prosecutor was named to investigation the claims, but as of Friday, no charges had been filed in Sheridan County District Court.
The Rubashkins also own the world's largest kosher plant, Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.
In August of last year, the union issued a report raising concerns about sanitation conditions at the Postville plant, also citing USDA violations.
Rubashkin responded to the allegations at the Postville plant in a Nov. 14 letter to customers. In it, he said, 'The food we produce at Agriprocessors is safe and wholesome. You have my word on it.'
He also blamed that attack on failed efforts to unionize his workers.
Gordon is in northwest Nebraska, roughly 15 miles from the South Dakota border.
Associated Press Writer Nelson Lampe contributed to this report.
Kosher firm fails on food safety
By staff reporter
03/03/2008- A new report accuses Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meat firm in the US, of violating food safety laws and failing to protect consumers from the risk of E.coli and mad cow disease.
The claims could put further pressure on the country's meat processors to step up to the food safety mark, as US lawmakers are now cracking down on food safety plants across the country.
The latest report was compiled by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) from Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documents, and details a number of food safety incidences that allegedly took place at Agriprocessors' Nebraska plant between 2005 and 2007.
According to the union, the company failed separate specified risk material (SRM) such as the spinal cord from meat products, "including one occasion in which products containing SRM was labelled, weighed and taped shut."
SRM material must by law be removed from the food chain due to the risk of mad cow disease, an acute infectious disease which causes fever and blisters, especially in the mouth and on the feet of animals such as cows, sheep and pigs.
The plant was also accused of transmitting the E. coli bacteria, a pathogen that can cause severe human food poisoning, through its meat. The report claims that the firm improperly tested for the bacteria on a number of occasions, leading to a non-compliance (NR) record being issued in March 2007.
The report claims in addition that the firm failed to comply with over 20 hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) controls - rules that are a systematic preventative approach to food safety aiming to spot hazards during the manufacturing process - and operated its plant in an unsanitary manner.
For example, FSIS found "overwhelming fly populations" in the plant, and stated that the plumbing system was inadequate to convey sewage and waste.
The company was issued with more than 115 non-compliance records in total, the report states.
However, Agriprocessors vice president Sholom Rubashkin told Forbes news agency that the union's allegations were an attempt to hurt the business as the workers have voted against unionizing for the past three years.
"The union is not the authority for wholesomeness," he said. "All they are tying to do is make these allegations to dirty someone's name and hurt commerce."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.ci.abuse12mar12,0,260147.story
baltimoresun.com
Probation given in abuse case
March 12, 2008
A former teacher of bar mitzvah lessons who was active in Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community has been sentenced to a suspended five-year prison term and five years of probation after having been accused of abusing two boys more than a decade ago, according to city prosecutors.
Israel Shapiro agreed to an Alford plea, and the judge entered a finding of guilt to child sexual abuse and a third-degree sex offense. Under an Alford plea, a defendant denies guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence against him for a conviction.
Baltimore Circuit Judge John P. Miller ordered Shapiro to stay away from the victims, to have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18, to pay $10,800 in restitution to one of the boys and to perform 300 hours of community service.
At a hearing Monday, Miller also ordered Shapiro to undergo sex offender screening and treatment, but he will not have to register as a sex offender because the registry did not exist when the incidents occurred.
Police have said in charging documents that the abuse occurred on separate occasions in September 1988 and June 1994, when the boys were 12 and 13 years old. Police said the boys were learning to chant passages from the Torah at Shapiro's home on Olympia Avenue.
Accusations against Shapiro were known throughout Baltimore's Orthodox community for years when the victims circulated fliers with his name and picture. One of the posters was put on the Web site of the Awareness Center Inc., an advocacy group on behalf of Jewish victims of sexual abuse in Baltimore.
Disgrace! he should have gotten jail time.
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Local
Advocates upset over rabbi’s plea deal
Luke Broadwater, The Examiner
2008-03-12 08:00:00.0
Current rank: # 150 of 10,735
BALTIMORE -
A group of Jewish advocates against sexual assault is angry over a plea deal for a Baltimore City rabbi who pleaded guilty to abusing young boys but avoided jail time.
“I’m very upset about it,” said Vicki Polin of the Awareness Center in the city.
“He should go to jail. I’m also very upset that he won’t be on the sex offender registry.”
Israel Shapiro, 57, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of sexual abuse of a child and one count of third-degree sex offense before Baltimore City Circuit Judge John Miller and was sentenced to five years of probation.
He must stay away from his victims and have no unsupervised contact with children, under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Shapiro also was ordered to pay $10,800 in restitution to one of the victims, undergo sex offender screening and treatment.
He is also prohibited from using a computer to contact children.
Shapiro was not required to register as a sex offender because the incidents occurred before the sex offender registry was created.
Lawmakers in Annapolis are working on a bill that would make the registry retroactive.
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said in an interview Monday she was hoping to get the law changed to make Maryland residents aware of the those living in their neighborhoods who committed sexual offenses prior to the creation of the registry.
A statement of probable cause is not in Shapiro’s court file because Shapiro was charged by a grand jury indictment.
But Polin said the abuse dates back to 1988 and involves 12- and 13-year-old boys whom Shapiro taught.
The Awareness Center posted a photo of Shapiro on its Web site to make the Jewish community in the Baltimore region aware of the allegations against Shapiro, she said.
But Polin said she worries that without Shapiro registering as a sex offender, there won’t be enough scrutiny on him.
“This guy goes into a synagogue where there’s tons of little kids, and no one is monitoring him,” Polin said.
lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com
Examiner
I'm surprised they weren't coming to arrest me. I dread the day it will happen.
amny.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--churchabuse0312mar12,0,7126349.story
amNY.com
Long Island priest is arrested on sex abuse charges
By FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press Writer
March 12, 2008
GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish who was placed on administrative leave last year was arrested Wednesday on misdemeanor sex abuse and forcible-touching charges, prosecutors said.
The Rev. Gerald S. Twomey, of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Manorhaven, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip and was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court May 1.
Twomey is accused of accosting a man in a private home in Islip in March 2006, said Robert Clifford, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.
Twomey, 53, was suspended as pastor of the Manorhaven parish last June amid allegations he had abused a 10-year-old boy more than a decade earlier. Since being placed on administrative leave, Twomey "has not presented himself as a priest in public" and his been in a "supervised setting," Diocese of Rockville Centre spokesman Sean Dolan said.
"We're saddened by the news any time a priest is arrested," said Dolan, who added the diocese is cooperating with law enforcement.
Twomey's defense attorney did not return a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday.
In a May 31, 2007, letter to prosecutors, the diocese's Office for the Protection of Children and Young People said the allegations against Twomey regarding the boy stemmed from an incident "in the period of 1994-95" while he served as co-pastor of St. Anne Church in Brentwood.
Clifford said he had no information on the results of that investigation, other than to note the statute of limitations for sex abuse was five years at the time, so prosecutors were not likely to file criminal charges.
A Suffolk County grand jury report in early 2003 cited abuse cases involving 23 priests in the Rockville Centre diocese over several decades. The allegations included altar boys being groped and sodomized during church trips and overnight stays at priests' homes and many other instances when children were left alone with their abusers. None of those cases was prosecuted _ also because statutes of limitations had expired.
A Wicomico County Sheriff's Deputy is going to jail for 13 years. Charles McMichael pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually abusing two 10-year-old girls.
The victim's trials were supposed to be held separately, but McMichael said he didn't want the girls to have to go to trial. McMichael was sentenced to eight years for a charge involving one of the victims and five years for a charge involving the other. The remaining charges were dropped.
McMichael will serve five years of probation when he's released and he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Sheriff's officials say he will be fired from the force.
It seems every molester is there.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-md.ha.teacher11.mar11,0,759017.story
baltimoresun.com
Teacher charged in sex case
March 11, 2008
A science teacher at a Bel Air high school has been charged with having sexual contact with two female students, according to court documents.
David "Dewey" Louis Vasses of Abingdon was arrested Saturday on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, a fourth-degree sexual offense and perverted practice, the Harford County state's attorney's office said yesterday. He was released on $50,000 bond Saturday and told not to have unsupervised contact with female minors, according to court documents.
Vasses, 29, taught science and was an assistant wrestling coach at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air. He was placed on administrative leave with pay Feb. 28, said Don Morrison, a Harford County schools spokesman.
In February, a student told school officials about a relationship between Vasses and a 17-year-old female student, according to court documents. The 17-year-old told a detective from the Harford County Child Advocacy Center that she had a sexual relationship with Vasses and received suggestive photographs of him on her cell phone, according to a statement of charges.
The computer and the cell phone of the 17-year-old were taken as evidence, according to court documents.
Vasses has been employed by Harford County schools for six years, Morrison said. Before coming to C. Milton Wright, Vasses taught science at Aberdeen Middle School.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Harford County Child Advocacy Center at 410-638-3294.
That's a lot of gelt. I have assets such as the buildings of the boys and girls division, but that would leave me bankrupt. Oy Vey!
No questions about abuse at the 100th year anniversary dinner, I beg of you. I canceled a chance to speak in Florida when I got wind that you were going to ask some tough questions about abuse at my yeshiveh. If I have to, I'll cancel the dinner too.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/12/spitzer.investigation/
Sources: Spitzer used call-girl service at least 8 times
* Story Highlights
* NEW: "Kristen" identified as aspiring singer Ashley Youmans, 22
* Spitzer resigns Wednesday, two days after he is linked to call-girl ring
* Bank notified Treasury Department about suspicious transfers of money
* Spitzer could face charges of money laundering, legal experts say
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal agents have determined New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer used a high-priced call-girl ring at least eight times in recent months, and agents had him under surveillance twice this year, sources familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.
Spitzer announced his resignation Wednesday, two days after reports of his connection to the Emperors Club VIP became public.
He has not been charged with a crime.
He told reporters Wednesday, "I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work."
The resignation will take effect Monday. VideoWatch Spitzer resign »
The sources said the investigation began when New York's North Fork Bank notified the Treasury Department about suspicious transfers of money from Spitzer's bank accounts. That investigation led agents to the alleged organizers of the prostitution ring, four of whom were charged in a criminal complaint last week, the sources said.
A grand jury in New York is likely to hear evidence in the case soon, said Kathleen Mullin, an attorney who said she represents one of the ring's employees. Mullin would not identify her client, but said she was not the woman identified only as "Kristen" linked to Spitzer in court papers.
She said her client and other women who worked for the Emperors Club have been asked to testify before the grand jury.
Asked if her client had any encounters with Spitzer, Mullin said, "We have no information regarding the governor."
Wiretaps on suspected members of the ring, authorized in January, yielded more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages and another 6,000-plus e-mails, according to court papers. In those intercepts, the organizers told clients how to arrange and pay for their trysts, a federal agent's affidavit states.
The affidavit identified clients by number, with Spitzer designated "Client 9," a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN this week. Sources familiar with the investigation said federal authorities Wednesday were trying to clamp down on leaks of the investigation's details. VideoSee a timeline of the investigation »
The affidavit states "Client 9" paid $4,300 for 2½ hours with a call girl he arranged to meet at Washington's Mayflower Hotel, with some of that a deposit on a future session. Court papers state he also paid for train tickets, cab fare, mini-bar and room service charges for Kristen -- a 5-foot-5, 105-pound brunette he arranged to meet the night of February 13.
Kristen is a 22-year-old would-be singer from New Jersey, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The newspaper said Ashley Youmans -- now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre -- was identified in court documents as Kristen.
Dupre has not been charged with a crime. She made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. Magistrate Court as a witness against four people charged with operating the Emperor's Club, the Times said.
In an entry on her MySpace page, Dupre says she left "a broken family" and "abuse" in 2004, eventually settling in Manhattan "to pursue my music career."
"I am all about my music, and my music is all about me," she writes on her MySpace page. "It flows from what I've been through, what I've seen and how I feel."
Dupre's mother, Carolyn Capalbo, told the Times she and her daughter were close, adding that "she obviously got involved in something much larger than her."
Spitzer, whose squeaky-clean image as a corporate corruption-buster made him a rising Democratic star, testified to the House Financial Services Committee the next day about the affect of the mortgage meltdown. He took a state plane from Buffalo, New York, to Washington and back to New York, his office confirmed Tuesday.
Sources told CNN that FBI agents had Spitzer under surveillance at the Mayflower that night -- and on an earlier occasion, on January 26, when no prostitute showed up.
His resignation is unlikely to affect decisions about whether he will face prosecution, the sources said. His attorneys were negotiating Wednesday with the U.S. attorney's office in New York in an effort to avoid criminal charges, a source told CNN.
But in a statement issued after the governor's resignation, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said no agreement had been reached between his office and the governor "relating to his resignation or any other matter."
According to two sources who spoke Tuesday with CNN, Spitzer hit the federal radar when a bank reported to the Internal Revenue Service that a significant amount of money had been suspiciously transferred from one account to another.
Late last year, upon investigating the movement of money that the bank initially reported, the IRS found that the accounts were connected to Spitzer, the sources said.
The IRS contacted the FBI, which joined the case to investigate the possibility of government corruption.
Federal law requires a banking institution to file a suspicious activity report when the institution suspects a transaction is linked to a federal crime. More specifically, banks are required to report to the IRS any transactions totaling $5,000 or more if the transactions "involve potential money laundering or a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act."
The act requires businesses to keep documents that are useful for identifying and investigating money laundering.
After receiving the IRS report last year, the FBI Corruption Squad linked the account transfers to a prostitution ring, according to sources. The FBI criminal division joined the probe to look into the prostitution ring, while the federal corruption team continued its investigation into Spitzer.
Legal experts not involved in the case have said Spitzer could face some type of money-laundering charge, such as structuring a financial transaction to evade federal bank reporting requirements by breaking up a large transaction into smaller ones.
Sources tell CNN that prosecutors have considered pursuing a structuring charge, but have run into some difficulty. And Richard Smith, a former Justice Department official, said structuring charges are "fairly difficult to prove."
"You are going to have to prove that he withdrew sums of money with the intent to evade the reporting requirements, to conceal the fact that he is withdrawing the money," said Smith, the former deputy chief of the Justice Department's fraud section.
"Because if the money was withdrawn, it appears if his lawyers are correct, in a manner that he didn't conceal anything, it begs the question whether or not they can prove the reckless intent that he withdrew this money in small sums to avoid the reporting requirement."
Spitzer also could face charges related to the Mann Act, which makes it a federal offense to transport someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. But sources tell CNN that the government is less interested in pursuing charges for prostitution than on following the money.
CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
Hamas Offering Israel Truce, Not Peace
By STEVEN GUTKIN – 4 hours ago
JERUSALEM (AP) — When is a truce not quite a truce?
Hamas is once again offering Israel a cease-fire, but the language that the Islamic movement has chosen reveals a deep reluctance to talk about any real peace with the Jewish state.
Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, on Wednesday proposed a "tahdia" — which in Arabic means a loosely defined period of calm that falls short of a formal cease-fire.
Still, this semantic nuance could well determine the success of Mideast peacemaking. As long as Israelis and the Islamic militants are killing each other in Gaza and southern Israel, a U.S.-sponsored drive to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year's end stands little chance.
Israel is formally rejecting the truce talk, and on Wednesday its army killed four militants in the West Bank town of Bethlehem after opening fire on their car. Israel sees a broad Iranian-driven effort to besiege it from the north through Hezbollah in Lebanon and from the south through Hamas, and fears a truce will simply give Hamas time to regroup and strengthen its fighting forces.
But other signs on the ground indicate that Israel and Hamas are moving closer toward an Egyptian-brokered deal to end weeks of cross-border fighting that has killed more than 120 Palestinians and five Israelis.
In a speech Wednesday at Gaza City's Islamic University, Haniyeh demanded an end to Israeli military activity in Hamas-ruled Gaza, a lifting of Israeli economic sanctions, and the opening of Gaza's borders, which have been sealed since Hamas violently seized control of the area in June 2007.
"We are talking about a mutual comprehensive tahdia, which means that the enemy must fulfill its obligations," Haniyeh said. "The Israelis must stop the aggression ... including assassinations and invasions, end the sanctions and open the borders."
Palestinian militants have adopted the term tahdia (pronounced TAH-dee-ah) as an alternative to "hudna" — a legal concept dating to the birth of Islam. It refers to a truce of a fixed duration, usually between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Prophet Muhammad first negotiated a hudna (pronounced HOOD-nah) with rivals in Mecca in 628.
The concept of hudna could allow Islamic fundamentalists to negotiate without losing face. Some Hamas officials proposed a hudna with Israel after their group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. But Israel, as it did with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat some 15 years earlier, demanded full recognition as a condition for doing business.
In Hamas' eyes, hudna does imply recognition of the enemy to some degree — which helps explain why the militants have backed away from the term. A tahdia is more open to interpretation, and presumably can be broken off at any time — as happened when Hamas unilaterally declared two of them in 2003 and 2005.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that the militants would use any lull to rearm. A formal truce with Hamas is not needed, the officials say, as long as the militants refrain from launching rockets and other violence.
"If Hamas ceases its war against Israel, then there will be quiet," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister.
It wouldn't be the first time the subtleties of language have complicated the region's politics.
Israel has said it would honor its obligations under various international peace plans not to expand West Bank settlements but, unlike most of the international community, doesn't view Jewish neighborhoods in disputed east Jerusalem as settlements.
Palestinians and Israelis have differed over the meaning of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, calling for evacuation of lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The French version of the resolution referred to "the territories" while the English version cited mere "territories" — leading to an impassioned dispute lasting decades over whether Israel is obligated to cede everything.
Arafat famously sent Western diplomats racing to their dictionaries when in a 1989 interview with a French TV station he described the PLO charter, which called for the destruction of Israel, as "caduque" (pronounced kah-DUKE) — a 17th century French legal term meaning "null and void." Still another translation can be "has lapsed." While the French welcomed his characterization as a positive gesture, Israel said it fell far short of a formal revocation of the charter, with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin describing Arafat's statement as "pathetic acrobatics."
Only in 1998, in the presence of then-President Bill Clinton, did the PLO's ruling body formally revoke the relevant clauses of the charter.
Despite Israel's insistence on real peace rather than vague truces, there is a growing realization that the current policy of blockade and military action has failed to weaken Hamas, which has proven its ability to disrupt fledgling peace talks between Israel and the moderate West Bank-based government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The U.S., too, now appears to have thrown its support behind a broad deal that would include an end to the fighting and an easing of the international blockade of Gaza. At the center of the arrangement would be the deployment of officers loyal to Abbas at Gaza's crossings.
Hamas officials said Wednesday they accept such a deployment in principle, even though it means giving up some control, and that they have given Egypt names of pro-Abbas officers who would be acceptable to Hamas.
"There are efforts by the Egyptian brothers who are working on this issue. We as Palestinians are waiting for the Israeli answers," Haniyeh said. "The ball is in Israel's court."
Haniyeh also said "all of the factions are involved," signaling that Hamas has the support of smaller militant groups that have often scuttled cease-fire attempts in the past.
While Haniyeh's demands were not new, the timing and location of the speech were significant. Haniyeh had been in hiding for several weeks during heavy fighting with Israel, and only has felt safe enough to appear in public in recent days.
Israeli officials have said privately that they're open to the idea of letting Abbas' men oversee Gaza's borders, despite the likelihood that it would imply international acceptance of Islamic militant rule in Gaza, possibly solidifying Hamas' hold.
Israeli political analyst Efraim Inbar said the benefit of a tahdia is that "they're no longer firing on us." In the long run, however, he said "it is very problematic to leave a terror group like that in place without taking care of it militarily."
Associated Press correspondents Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Mark Lavie in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1205261314276&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition
Rabbis demand 'measure for measure'
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 12, 2008
A group of right-wing rabbis issued a statement Wednesday calling on Jews to take revenge on their enemies "measure for measure."
Kiryat Motzkin Chief Rabbi David Druckman, one of the rabbis who signed the statement, said the notice was not intended as a call to take revenge by attacking Arabs. Rather, it was a call to cut all ties with Arabs.
"We have to stop acting like suckers," said Druckman, who is connected with Chabad. "Why should be employ them, buy from them, or solicit their business when they want to destroy us? If Ishmael treats Israel as subhuman, we have to cut off all contact with them."
Druckman said that while not all Arabs were Israel's enemies, he was under the impression that many Arabs supported the terror attack at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva last Thursday. Therefore, it was necessary to boycott Arabs, he said.
The rabbis' announcement was printed on large notices and posted near the yeshiva where eight students were murdered by Ala Abu Dhaim, a Hamas terrorist from east Jerusalem's Jebl Mukaber neighborhood.
The notices call on Jews "to work to create a proper Jewish leadership" that is informed by the Torah and to launch a "merciless war" in the future under the auspices of an authentic Jewish leadership.
The long list of rabbis who signed the notice includes Daniel Stavski, head of the Shorashim Institute; Yitzhak Shapira, a resident of Yitzhar, near Nablus, who is connected to maverick Chabad rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg; Ya'acov Yosef, estranged son of Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef; and Uzi Sharbaf, son-in-law of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, who was convicted in 1985 together with two others for killing four Arab college students in Hebron and who was later pardoned from serving a life sentence.
Also on Wednesday, Mercaz Harav denied a Channel 1 report that students at the yeshiva were planning to murder an Arab official connected with the Temple Mount in retaliation for Thursday's attack.
Mercaz Harav's management demanded that Channel 1 issue an apology and suspend Ayala Hasson, the reporter of the story about the alleged murder plot.
Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, the yeshiva's spokesman, also said the institution was preparing to file a libel suit against the channel.
According to the report, three alumni met at the yeshiva with two rabbis to discuss whether Jewish law would permit such an attack. The television channel reported that one of the rabbis gave his blessing for such an attack, as did an additional rabbi from Bnei Brak.
"Torah law is that you should respond," Channel 1 quoted one of the rabbis as saying.
The plan was reportedly to harm a senior Arab official affiliated with a mosque at on the Temple Mount, Channel 1 said.
Eilon Moreh Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, who has strong ties with radical settler youth, said the message that he and other spiritual leaders were sending out was that revenge was the sole responsibility of the state.
"Individuals have no right to take the law into their hands," said Levanon. "We hope that the present government will be replaced with a leadership that will know how to react to seven years of Kassam rockets and Palestinian terrorism. But until that happens no individual has the right to take revenge."
National Religious Party chairman Zevulun Orlev called upon Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter to take steps to ensure that whoever was involved in the reports on
Channel 1 would be arrested. But he said he doubted that the stories were true and he warned of an attempt to "stain the entire religious Zionist camp."
MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) called on law enforcement authorities to take steps to prevent right-wing extremist groups and individuals from taking revenge against Israeli Arabs.
"There are dangerous signs of things going haywire," Tibi said. "Extremists groups and individuals are looking for excuses to take revenge against Arabs, not only as a reaction to the attack, but also because of their hatred for Arabs that they had before the shooting."
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
Was Druckman making a reference to us?
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The notices call on Jews "to work to create a proper Jewish leadership" that is informed by the Torah and to launch a "merciless war" in the future under the auspices of an authentic Jewish leadership.
"We have to stop acting like suckers," said Druckman, who is connected with Chabad. "Why should be employ them, buy from them, or solicit their business when they want to destroy us? If Ishmael treats Israel as subhuman, we have to cut off all contact with them."
Stop taking swipes at me. I'm above the law and don't need to answer for any Jewish blood that was shed under my watch.
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"We hope that the present government will be replaced with a leadership that will know how to react to seven years of Kassam rockets and Palestinian terrorism. But until that happens no individual has the right to take revenge."
Hey Ehud, don't be so arrogant. Look what it did to me!
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By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2008; Page A06
Replacing Eliot L. Spitzer, who rose to the governorship of New York after browbeating Wall Street titans, is David A. Paterson, a man so affable that the colleague he supplanted in an Albany coup now speaks of him in glowing terms...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/12/spitzer.kristen/#cnnSTCVideo
See, you're accusing us of illegal activity and violations. We're not the only ones, What about this?
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http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4441247&page=1
Sick Cow Video Shocks Slaughterhouse Prez
After Seeing Video, Slaughterhouse Boss Admits Sick Cows Used for Beef
By VIJA UDENANS
WASHINGTON, March 12, 2008—
The president of the slaughterhouse that caused the nation's largest meat recall went before Congress today with a prepared statement, but a video of the horrific treatment of cattle at the plant took his words away.
Before Westland Hallmark Meat Company president Steve Mendell could begin his testimony to the Energy and Commerce congressional oversight sub-committee, a U.S. Humane Society video of downer dairy cattle being abused at the slaughterhouse was played.
After seeing the video, Mendell was forced to back off some of his prepared testimony and he admitted that cows that were too sick to stand or walk were forced into our nation's food supply from his plant in Southern California. Two shocking videos shot by an undercover operative showed cows being pushed, prodded, chained, pulled by a leg and run over by the forklift. The cattle were shocked, had water shot up their noses and were pushed into the box where they would be killed.
When the Humane Society released the videos earlier this year, it sparked a Department of Agriculture investigation of the slaughterhouse, and the government eventually ordered the recall of 143 million tons of beef.
The playing of the video at the subcommittee hearing raised the stakes for Mendell. It was no longer just a case of inhumane treatment, which he had admitted. The issue was now food safety, because two of the downer cows on the video had entered the food system.
"Has your company ever slaughtered or killed a downer cow?" sub-committee chairman Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., asked.
"I never thought we did," Mendell replied quietly.
He maintained that he had seen one of the Humane Society videos, but not a second one, which was shown today at the hearing. He said the USDA had never shown it to him. "Would the USDA have discovered this without the Humane Society?" Stupak asked USDA representative Dr. Richard Raymond.
"I'd like to say yes, but no," Raymond said.
The Humane Society video gave the department the irrefutable evidence needed to proceed with the investigation and to recommend that Westland recall the beef. Downer cows, non-ambulatory cattle, are not allowed into the U.S. food supply, according to USDA rules, because it is uncertain whether their illness is internal or external and because of concerns about mad cow disease.
Raymond testified that the incubation period for mad cow disease is about 13 years, but the likelihood of risk is "vanishing small." When asked what he meant by that, he replied, "It implies somewhere one in 10 million." The Westland Hallmark meat plant, whose 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled, is now closed and unlikely to open.
"Our company is ruined," Mendell said. "We cannot continue. Approximately 220 company employees have lost their jobs."
His prepared testimony stated that he and his family have been receiving threats wishing him a death similar to the fate suffered by the cows at the company's slaughterhouse.
I don't have any problems that this meat is going for school lunch programs, aren't we taught in the toireh that bal tashchis is a big avairuh?
Why do you think my tatte always saved up all the old milk containers from previous days and weeks even though the yeshiveh was entitled and required to order more to stay on the program? Because it's better to drink spoiled milk than to be oyver bal tashchis.
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A hidden camera investigation by the Humane Society of the United States found a California slaughterhouse used banned animals for meat destined for school lunch programs.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963899.html
Last update - 02:46 13/03/2008
IDF strike kills 5 militants; South on alert for Qassams
By Avi Issacharoff, Yuval Azoulay and Jonathan Lis
The defense establishment expects that the indirect understanding with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza is likely to collapse today, as Islamic Jihad is preparing to fire Qassam rockets at the Negev in response to the killings of four of its members on the West Bank yesterday.
Five armed and wanted Palestinians were killed in total by Israeli Police anti-terrorist forces in two separate incidents.
Jihad Islami fires 26 Qassam missiles from Gaza after losing two West Bank chiefs
March 13, 2008,
Several missiles landed in Sderot causing damage. No immediate reports of casualties.
The salvoes from Wednesday night, March 12 to Thursday midday, came after five senior Palestinian terror commanders were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
The long-wanted Bethlehem chief Mohammed Shehadeh was killed, along with Imad Kemal, Issa Marzoura and Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades operative Ahmed Balful, by an undercover Israeli force in Bethlehem Wednesday. They were sought for years for orchestrating major mass-murder attacks in Israel between 2001and 2004.
In an earlier encounter, in another part of the West Bank, an Israeli force killed the Jihad Islami’s Tulkarm commander.
DEBKAfile adds: Israel security forces expected Jihad Islami to retaliate with missile fire from Gaza – not just in revenge, but to underline the Hamas-Jihad demand in ongoing ceasefire negotiations for any truce agreed for Gaza to apply to the West Bank as well. Israel refuses to let its hands be tied in its long and effective counter-terror campaign on the West Bank.
Israel’s national high terror alert remains in place. It was imposed seven days ago after 8 students were murdered by a Palestinian gunman at the Jerusalem Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem. Jewish congregations mark the seventh day of their deaths, March 13, with memorial services in Israel and overseas.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125560
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Segev Avichayil and Avraham David Moses were studying Torah together in their high school library when the Israeli-Arab terrorist gunned them down, drenching their books in their blood.
“Segev had never even seen violence,” his father, a rabbi, told those who came to pay their respects at his home in Neve Daniel, in Gush Etzion. “We had no TV or VCR.”
Segev, 15, was already a poet, writing complex composition contemplating the soul. His father found a poem of Segev's on his desk the night of the murders. The esoteric composition speaks of a row of souls, evincing imagery of the rows of bodybags that lay outside the yeshiva’s library following the massacre. The souls in the poem cry out “There is justice and there is a judge!”
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/03/13/spitzer_aamp_america_s_perverse_ethics
[Robert Parry:] The U.S. news media can’t devote enough time to the prostitution scandal that just forced New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation and gave the ethics enforcer of Wall Street a bitter taste of his own medicine. But the unspoken counterpoint to Spitzer’s dramatic fall from grace is how the same U.S. news media views public calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush or Dick Cheney -- over war crimes and violations of the U.S. Constitution -- as nutty and unworthy of serious debate. In this guest essay (which was written before Spitzer announced his resignation), Rabbi Michael Lerner looks at the perverse state of America’s ethics.
The cross-the-political-spectrum attacks on Elliot Spitzer and the intensity of the demands that he resign his office show just how far the right-wing sexual moralizing has been able to trump any other kind of ethical reasoning in American society.
Going to a prostitute is legal in some states and some countries around the world, and is often the very arrangement that saves families from splitting up whose sexual energies have diminished but whose love is intact.
It's not uncommon for men (and now increasingly women as well) who have achieved great power in our society by adopting an outer show of ruthless pursuit of power and influence (even, as in Spitzer's case, if the power is aimed at pursuing laudable ends) to feel a deep emptiness and loneliness that is not addressed by friends or spouse, and hence to seek some kind of outside connection, no matter how superficial, that is not bound by previous rules and roles.
Nevertheless, I and many others in the religious and spiritual world oppose that practice when it involves adultery or prostitution, because it depends on the objectification of another human being, so that sex is disconnected in ways that it should not be from a significant encounter with the spirit of God in the other or a deep recognition that is the only real way to overcome existential or situational alienation.
Moreover, the trade in women for sexual purposes has frequently led to rape and abuse and the kidnapping of young women who are sold into sexual slavery. All of these outrageous practices are abhorrent and should be challenged.
The flaunting of sexuality in the media, and the implicit message that the only real satisfaction comes from having the most physically attractive people as sexual partners, not only generates huge dissatisfaction, even as it allows corporate advertisers to become predators manipulating our personal sense of inadequacy to sell their products, but also generates desires that feed the sexual trade in women.
Given this larger social context, until sexual satisfaction is so broadly available in our society that no one has to pay for it and so deeply tied to love that no one is objectified in the process, this kind of exploitation of women and degradation of sex is likely to continue.
All of these practices foster the sexual predators of the contemporary world.
So Elliot Spitzer deserves to be critiqued and ought to be doing deep atonement for what he did. His previous moral arrogance and willingness when he had power to do so to prosecute others for their participation in creating prostitution rings makes him an easy target.
We, in turn, might practice the forgiveness that our religious and spiritual traditions preach, particularly those of us who have been willing to honesty face how flawed we ourselves are, and how at times we ourselves fail to embody in our actual practice with others the values that we publicly espouse.
Humility and compassion are also part of the path of a spiritual progressive.
Ethical Perversity
But the intensity of the critique of the New York governor, tied with the demand that he resign, shows more about American society's ethical perversity than about Spitzer.
The President of the United States and the Vice President, working in concert with several other high-ranking officers of our government, lied and distorted to get us involved in a war that has led to the death of over a million Iraqis, the displacement of three million more, the death of 4,000 Americans and the wounding of tens of thousands more.
After token opposition in Congress, our elected representatives have overwhelmingly passed budgets funding this war, rather than refuse to fund any military projects until the President stopped the war and withdrew the troops.
Meanwhile, our government has overtly engaged in torture, wiretapping of our phones, and violation of our human rights and the rights of people around the world. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Charles Schumer voted to confirm as Attorney General a right-wing judge who refused to repudiate these crimes.
The U.S. government has rejected every attempt to implement the Kyoto environmental agreements or to work out new agreements sufficiently strong to reverse environmental destruction that is certain to lead to new levels of flooding particularly in several poor countries around the world. The consequence: tens of millions of deaths.
The Clinton Administration pushed, along with corporate support, a set of trade agreements that have devastated the farmers of many developing countries, forcing many off their farms and into city slums where their daughters and sons are often sold into sexual slavery.
The global economic system we have fostered has led to increasing gaps between the rich and the poor, so that over one out of every three people on the planet lives on less than $2 a day, 1.5 billion live on less than one dollar a day, and over 15,000 children die every day from malnutrition-related diseases and inadequate availability of medicine that is hoarded by the rich countries who can afford the prices made to ensure huge profits to the pharmaceutical industry.
Health insurance companies and private medical profiteers are doing all they can to ensure that there will be no health care for tens of millions of Americans, unless that is provided in ways that guarantee corporate super-profits and thereby guarantee that the cost of health care paid through taxes will be huge and create anger at all government social welfare and well-being programs, leading to their likely de-funding.
People in the U.S. have faced severe economic crises on a regional and soon on a national level because corporations move their centers of production to countries in Asia where they can exploit workers with less government or union interference and where they can destroy the environment with fewer societal restraints.
Wild to achieve greater profits, corporations and the rich have managed to support politicians who lower the taxes on the rich, in the process bankrupting the public sector or severely reducing its ability to provide enough funds for quality education, health care, libraries, public transportation, and social welfare.
That there is no outcry for these government officials and corporate leaders to resign immediately or be impeached, that there is no moral outrage at the entire system that produces this impact, is America's ethical perversity.
Instead, the only crime against humanity that the media takes seriously and the politicians fear is being exposed for personal sexual immorality.
While everyone basks in their own self-righteous demands on Spitzer, we all allow media and elected officials to fundamentally distort our ethical vision and play out our morality on the smallest of possible stages while ignoring the global and personal consequences of our larger ethical failures.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine www.tikkun.org. Chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue-without-walls in San Francisco and Berkeley, and author of The Left Hand of God. He welcomes comments at RabbiLerner@tiikkun.org .
I am against Reform Rabbis of any kind.
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http://www.forward.com/articles/12929/
In 1916, at the age of 15 and just a decade after landing at Ellis Island, my father enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served with distinction for 35 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
After graduating college, I, too, joined the service, taking a commission in the infantry. I served for 28 years, including two combat tours in Vietnam, and retired as a colonel.
My oldest son, Dave, a 1982 graduate of the Air Force Academy and an Army aviator, is now a colonel serving in Iraq. My two other sons served as commissioned officers in the Army Reserve and National Guard, and my grandson Jacob is a third-year cadet at West Point.
For three generations my family has served this country, and throughout it all we have had help from rabbis in keeping Jewish tradition a part of our lives, even when we were stationed away from an organized Jewish community. Rabbis were always available to meet our needs, including providing a Jewish education for our sons. Indeed, it was at a Seder conducted by Rabbi Judah Miller in a church basement outside of Fort Riley, Kan., that I met my future wife...
We all are vehemently against rule #4
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How to keep lawyers out of your life
By: Carl Gold
Posted: 3/13/08
A lawyer, a rabbi, and a Hindu holy man were at a retreat together. They enjoyed each other's company and after dinner they went out for a walk. Before they knew it, they had lost their way. Off in the distance they noticed a farmhouse and they headed across a field to the house. They asked the farmer if he could take them back to the retreat center.
The farmer told them that his truck was broken down and he would be unable to take them back, however, they could gladly spend the night. He explained, however, that he only had room in the house for two of them and one of them would have to spend the night in the barn. The rabbi said, "I am a simple man with modest needs. I would be glad to spend the night in the barn." A little while later there was a knock at the farmhouse door. It was the rabbi. He said, "Unfortunately there are pigs in the barn and it would be against my religion to spend the night with them. I am very sorry." The Hindu holy man then said, "I too am a simple man. I will have no problem spending the night in the barn." A little while later there was another knock at the farmhouse door. This time it was the Hindu holy man. He explained, "Unfortunately there were cows in the barn and they are sacred to my religion and it would not be proper to sleep in the same room as them."
The lawyer begrudgingly agreed to go to the barn and spend the night. A little while later there was yet another knock at the door. This time it was the pigs and the cows.
If you too want to keep lawyers out of your life follow these simple rules during Spring Break and you are unlikely to have to spend your hard earned money on, or your valuable time with, members of my profession:
1) Do not drink and drive.
2) Do not drink if you are underage.
3) Do not use illegal drugs.
4) Do not have sex with anyone unless they are capable of consenting.
5) Do not consume any drink that you yourself did not pour or see poured from a previously closed container.
Remember lawyers are parasites. We make our living by feeding off of human misery. Have fun on Spring Break but do not make yourself lawyer food. More to come in future columns about the other unpleasant consequences of breaking the law and some tips to avoid trouble.
Carl Gold is a part time faculty member, a full time attorney, and father of two college age students.
Sexual abuse of girls and women
published: Wednesday | March 12, 2008
Monique Rainford
A few weeks ago, I was exposed to the email mentioned in a Gleaner article with attached material showing intercourse between students at a high school. I was shocked and sickened by the parts of the email that I saw.
As a physician and, in particular a gynaecologist, a few issues came to mind. One such was the psychological make up of the young lady who would agree to have sex in such a public place whether or not she knew that the event was filmed, and the young boy, was he also a victim himself or a sexual offender. Could they both be victims of sexual abuse or some other form of childhood abuse?
I recall during my first year in private practice in Jamaica, a young lady came into my office; she was under 18 years and she reported that she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse from her stepfather. She had no confidence in the group homes for such victims because she believed that it was worse than her present situation. She wanted me to help. I made inquires and suggested an alternative facility. I must admit I felt powerless to help her. However, it is clear that we all need to continue to try our best to decrease these offences and improve the long-term prognosis of these children.
Childhood sexual abuse affects about one per cent of children in the United States every year and it is a very prevalent condition in Jamaica. Unfortunately, at this time, our prevalence data is not available but with mandatory reporting this is likely to change in the near future. Available data suggest that men are the abusers most of the times. Up to half of the abusers of girls are family members and adolescents are the offenders in more than 20 per cent of cases.
Obscene telephone calls
Some teenage sex offenders use the telephone to make obscene calls. - File
Adolescent sexual offenders are teenagers between the ages of 13-17 who perform illegal sexual behaviour, including intercourse or acts such as even obscene telephone calls. They are more likely to be male than female and the victims are more likely to be females. The cause of this behaviour is unknown but children who are physically abused are more likely to exhibit this behaviour. Other associated factors include alcohol or other drug abuse, family difficulties, a history of sexual abuse and exposure to pornographic material.
Victims of sexual abuse are more likely to become promiscuous and have thoughtless sexual acts. The younger that a girl starts having consensual sex, the more likely it is that she had been forced to have sex in the first instance. Some health conditions in adult women can be linked to a history of childhood sexual abuse. These include chronic pelvic (belly bottom) pain, certain eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, depression and anxiety. It can also have a very negative effect on a woman's self esteem. It addition, it may affect her ability to form normal, healthy adult relationships.
Seek counselling
If a parent is concerned that their daughter is being sexually abused or is sexually active they should consider taking her to the doctor for evaluation. Unfortunately, a physical exam does not always confirm sexual abuse even in young girls. However, the visit may facilitate counselling and testing for sexual transmitted infections. If she is an older girl, the consultation may help to clarify whether she considered the act consensual or rape. In Jamaica, it is illegal for anyone to have sex with a girl who is under the age of 16.
If a woman is suffering because she had been abused in the past she should consult her doctor or church to assist in getting the appropriate counselling.
Dr Monique Rainford is a consulting obstetrician and gynaecologist; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
Windsor meetings for male sex abuse victims
Windsor Star
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A free 12-week support group for men who suffered sexual abuse as children will begin March 26 in Windsor.
The Men Moving Toward Healing Group is a partnership between the London Diocese and the Silence to Hope project, which was developed to help sexual abuse survivors.
The group will offer a safe environment to men explore the impacts that sexual abuse had on them, then help them heal.
According to the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 37 per cent of all sexual abuse victims under age 21 are male.
Tom Wilken from Hope and Healing Associates, which is responsible for Silence to Hope, said that keeping silent about the pain suffered from abuse can result in depression, anxiety, shame, self-blame, inability to trust, sexual identity confusion and several other problems.
The group will be held every Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in Windsor. To get more information or register, call Wilken at 1-877-767-7613 or e-mail silencetohope@hotmail.com.
Court allows sex abuse lawsuit to proceed despite the statute of limitations
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK
News-Democrat
BELLEVILLE --
An appellate court has ruled that a 2003 lawsuit brought by a now 36-year-old St. Louis area firefighter, who alleges he was sexually abused in Belleville as a youth, can go forward despite the statute of limitations.
The firefighter, who lives in Illinois, was previously known in court papers as John Doe. However, at a news conference in Belleville today, Christopher D. Amenn of O'Fallon appeared publicly and gave his name.
"I'm glad there is finally going to be some accountability," he said.
In a 2-1 decision written by Justice Melissa Chapman of the Fifth Appellate District in Mount Vernon, the court ruled that Amenn's lawsuit against "Playboy Priest" Kenneth Roberts can proceed in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Roberts, known for his book "From Playboy to Priest," spoke in Belleville in 1984 and molested Amenn when the then 14-year-old youth asked Roberts about becoming a priest, according to the appellate decision. The dissenter was Justice James Donovan, a former judge in St. Clair County.
The ruling states that Amenn was not aware that what Roberts allegedly did was wrong until 14 years later in 1998 when he was 28 and went to a hospital emergency room. The lawsuit, which names the Diocese of Belleville, the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Diocese of Dallas, was filed in 2003.
According to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the ruling, "Will allow more child sex abuse victims to expose their predators in court."
The ruling, which does not become final until March 28, stated that Amenn alleged that the church covered up previous sexual abuse by Roberts in Missouri.
Contact reporter George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczyk@bnd.com and 239-2625.
Preventing child abuse begins with all of us
March 13, 2008
Girl's death, suspect's arrest bring issue to public light
Little Natalia Lee was "an angel" to one family friend. But the Salem 2-year-old's final hours on Earth were hellish.
She had been kicked from behind, landing hard enough to damage her liver and fracture several ribs. Her body bore signs of violent sexual assault. She died Saturday night at Salem Hospital, where the man who was supposed to be caring for her took her to be revived.
Her 18-year-old mother wasn't there. But her 3-year-old brother, who had suffered bruises and three broken bones during the past month, had to watch his sister's fatal beating.
Those images will be seared in readers' minds for some time. They should be. One young life has been ended; one has been changed forever by child abuse. And this happened on an ordinary Saturday night in Salem.
Too often, child abuse and neglect get discussed in four- and five-figure numbers that barely sink in. We hear that 12,043 children in Oregon were abused or neglected in 2006, and that Marion County, with 1,662 victims, has an abuse rate far higher than that of the state as a whole. In Polk County, 241 children were victims of child abuse and neglect.
Natalia's death hits home. If only someone, somewhere had been able to help this family, could this story have turned out differently?
The suspect in her death — Russell Ros, 22, of Salem — is being held without bail on charges of murder, sexual abuse and criminal mistreatment.
Although he is father to neither child, he told police that he had taken care of the boy and girl several times while his girlfriend, their mother, was out of town.
Natalia and her brother didn't live in a vacuum. Nor do hundreds of other local children who are at risk of being abused or neglected by family members, family friends or other caretakers.
They have teachers who may notice if students aren't getting enough to eat or if they wear the same clothes day after day.
They have neighbors who may hear the sounds of violence through thin apartment walls, who may notice signs of drug dealing or gang activity.
They go to playgrounds and malls, where even strangers could witness violent outbursts and call for help.
These children may have gotten shortchanged when it comes to caretakers. They need everyone in their community to be watching on their behalf.
If you see one of them and worry for his or her safety, don't shrug off the feeling. Tell someone in authority. Let an expert decide.
Even one abused children is one too many.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/OPINION/803130318/1048
THE former principal of an exclusive Melbourne private Jewish girls' school was sacked this week and has left Australia amid accusations she molested students.
Fairfax media reported today that mother-of-eight Malka Leifer was dismissed as principal of the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick last Tuesday week, and returned to her native Israel a day later.
The Adass community is described as a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea who have little contact with the wider Jewish community.
The complaints are believed to involve girls aged 15 and 16, the report said.
The president of the Adass Israel synagogue, Benjamin Koppel, said in a statement to the Australian Jewish News newspaper that the school acted after receiving a call suggesting inappropriate behaviour may have have occurred with one or more present or former students.
The statement said a "relevant authority'' had been informed of the allegations, but did not confirm if the authority was police, a religious court or an independent schools board.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force was aware of the claims but could not confirm there was an investigation because any alleged victims may be underage.
A counsellor with Gateway Family Counselling Centre in Caulfield, Raphael Aron, said his agency had referred some families with students at Adass to specialists.
"This has hit the community like a ton of bricks, it's absolutely out of character with the nature of the school, staff and faculty,'' he said.
Parents of present and past students told Fairfax Mrs Leifer had molested students at school, at her home and possibly at school camps. One girl had attempted suicide.
There are claims that Mrs Leifer left Australia with up to $100,000 borrowed from a family in the community two days before she flew to Israel.
She was also alleged to have taken about $20,000 from a pool she managed of money earned by students in part-time jobs to loan to people in need.
Rabbi Beck has informed us that it is loshon hara to talk about this. We gave a phone call to lipa margulies and shlomo mandel and they both agreed we should handle this through daas torah.
--------------------------------
Principal 'molested schoolgirls'
Barney Zwartz and Bridie Smith
March 14, 2008
Advertisement
THE principal of a private Jewish girls' school in Melbourne has fled Australia facing accusations that she sexually molested some of the students.
Outraged parents claim that the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick paid for Malka Leifer, a mother of eight, to return to Israel before reporting the complaints to the police.
She left Melbourne on Wednesday last week, 24 hours after being investigated and sacked by the school's board.
The Adass community is a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea. They have little contact with the wider Jewish community and non-Jewish society.
Do you know more? MMS 0406 THE AGE (0406 843 643) or email scoop@theage.com.au
It is believed the complaints against Mrs Leifer involve girls aged 15 and 16.
The president of the Adass Israel synagogue, Benjamin Koppel, has confirmed that the school acted after receiving a call suggesting that inappropriate behaviour may have taken place with one or more of the school's present or former students.
Mr Koppel did not return calls from The Age, but in a statement to The Australian Jewish News, he said a "relevant authority" had been informed. He would not confirm whether that was police, a religious court or an independent schools board.
A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the force was aware of the claims but could not confirm whether there was an investigation because the victims might be under age.
Raphael Aron, a counsellor with Gateway Family Counselling Centre in Caulfield, said his agency had referred some families with children at the school to specialists. "This has hit the community like a ton of bricks, it's absolutely out of character with the nature of the school, staff and faculty," he said.
Mr Aron, who is also director of Cult Counselling Australia, which tries to get people out of cults, said he was concerned for the girls' welfare. "In a school where kids don't have much exposure to the outside world, there is a possibility of vulnerability … they may not have the street wisdom to recognise that something is wrong," he said.
Parents of present and past students said Mrs Leifer had molested students at school, at her home and probably at school camps. They said one victim had attempted suicide.
The parents, who would not be named, said that Mrs Leifer would share her bed with different students when her rabbi husband was away. She would tell the students she was scared, although she had five children, aged five to 12, in the house.
The parents said that Mrs Leifer always went on school camps — five or six a year — and would stay an extra night with two or three girls to "clean up".
One parent said problems emerged a year ago when a daughter, 16, stopped eating and became unsociable. Her parents took her to a psychologist, and it came out that she had been molested but was too embarrassed to tell her parents.
"It's very sensitive, because a girl who has been molested would find it hard to get married, so it's very secret, hush-hush — no one wants to admit their child is a victim," the parent said.
Girls and boys in the community are segregated from kindergarten, are not allowed television or to mix with the wider community and do not attend university until after they are married.
They leave the Adass schools at 16 and go to seminaries, usually overseas, until they marry, usually much younger than the Australian norm.
One parent told The Age that Mrs Leifer, who is believed to be in her late 40s, was hand-picked from Israel to teach at the girls' school eight years ago, not because of her teaching abilities but for her ultra-orthodox beliefs. The parent said she was widely regarded as the second holiest person in the community, behind spiritual leader Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck.
Some parents are livid with the way the school has handled the claims and frustrated by the "silence of the establishment".
At a meeting with parents yesterday, Mr Koppel avoided answering repeated questions from parents about the identity of the "relevant authorities".
Parents were also concerned that the psychological treatment of the girls had been compromised because the school had refused to release information to outside psychologists. Students and parents were instead referred to school-nominated psychologists.
There are also claims that Mrs Leifer left Australia with up to $100,000 borrowed from a family within the community, two days before she flew to Israel. She is also alleged to have taken about $20,000 from a pool of money earned from some students' part-time jobs.
The money, managed by Mrs Leifer, was pooled in a community fund and then lent to people in need.
The Age was told that Adass leaders at one stage sought the advice of Mark Leibler, a prominent leader of the wider Jewish community, but he declined to get involved.
Barrister Norman Rosenbaum confirmed that he had been retained by the community. "For reasons of privacy, and to protect those affected, we are not saying anything further, other than that all issues are being addressed by pre-eminent qualified professionals," he said.
The Australian Jewish News also reported that on Saturday last week, Rabbi Beck addressed the community and said they should not consider Mrs Leifer guilty of any crimes because there had been no investigation. He told the congregation that if they discussed the matter, it would be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip), the paper reported.
Allegations of inappropriate behavior have forced the principal of an Australian girls' school to leave her post.
Malka Leifer, the head of the fervently Orthodox Adass Israel Girls School in Melbourne for five years, returned to her native Israel last week following an internal investigation.
According to the Australian Jewish News, the allegations concern inappropriate behavior between Leifer, a mother of eight, and several students. Some parents are believed to have notified police, although it is unclear if an official investigation is under way.
Two counselors, including one from Israel, have been called into the school due to the sensitive nature of the allegations, the newspaper reported. Adass Israel has about 250 students.
“The school is deeply saddened by these events,” Adass Israel president Benjamin Koppel said in a statement. “It is taking every step possible to ensure the welfare of the students is protected and that everything is done to minimize the prospect of such behavior occurring in the future.”
In a Shabbat address to the community, Adass Israel spiritual leader Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck said Leifer should not be considered guilty because no charges have been pressed, the Australian Jewish News reported.
Isolated from the rest of the world, and proud to be so
March 14, 2008
Melbourne's Adass community is secretive and reclusive. That's how its members like it, writes Barney Zwartz.
THEY could be called the Amish of the Jewish community: ultra-orthodox, ultra-reclusive and ultra-strict. On the Jewish Sabbath and holy days, the men of Melbourne's Adass community stand out with their tall fur hats and long, black silk coats, while the women usually cover their heads with a scarf or hat.
There's no TV or iPods, no skimpy clothing, no children's stories in which boys and girls are friends, no sex education before marriage — and almost no drop-outs from the community. The strict seclusion works.
People come to Elsternwick and Ripponlea like tourists to stare at this apparently medieval cultural relic from eastern Europe.
But during the rest of the week, Adass members look much like anyone else, if more modestly dressed, and fit comfortably into modern life.
They have as little to do with outsiders — and that includes other Jews, even Orthodox ones — as possible.
"The reason we are so reclusive is that if we want our children to uphold our religion the way we believe it, to the dot of the law, dress code etc, the only way is to isolate children from all outside influences," one member of the community said yesterday.
The community of about 150 families is almost entirely self-sufficient, with its own kindergartens, schools, doctors, butcher, baker, circumciser and cemetery. Most are not rich, and families tend to be large. Most have six children and some have 13 or 14.
They are remarkably stringent about separating the sexes.
"Some will not use their wife's name in public or before anyone except their children. Neighbours are always Mrs. Once you call a woman by her first name, that's the beginning of a possible illicit relationship," the Adass member said.
Boys and girls, other than siblings or cousins, do not talk to each other after they are about eight. There are separate kindergartens for boys and girls, and separate schools that are kept so distinct that boys and girls cannot be dropped off in the same street in case they talk to each other, The Age was told.
Children go to school until they are 16, then to full-time religious school — usually seminaries in Israel, the US or Britain — until they are married, at which point they can go to university or to work.
Another Adass member, who also spoke to The Age anonymously, said the community had got much stricter in the past 10 years under spiritual leader Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck, and the younger members were more fanatical in their religious observance than their parents.
"Walking, we are supposed to gaze at the ground, looking up only enough for safety, because we might look at a woman."
Adass women wear stockings, long skirts — never trousers or jeans — and cover their arms to the wrist. Clothes must not be tight or see-through or red — because red attracts the eye, and women are supposed to blend in to the landscape, according to the community member. "All women in Adass have to cover their hair. Fanatics shave after their weddings and wear wigs, and ultra-fanatics wear a scarf over the wig."
Adass members marry within the community, often finding partners in Israel, the US or Britain. Marriages are not arranged, precisely, but the parents play an active role. They find prospective partners, then let the children meet — but not alone. If they don't suit there is no pressure. "No one wants their children to have a bad marriage or have problems later," the member said.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/13/1205126111234.html
http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=5104
I thought we had heard and seen it all. I'm stunned!
Rabbi Beck is a typical jerk twisting the Torah like so many.
===================
News (march 13, 2008)
Adass principal flees Australia in disgrace
NAOMI LEVIN and ASHLEY BROWNE
THE principal of the Adass Israel Girls School in Elsternwick has returned to Israel amid allegations of improper behaviour towards students.
Malka Leifer, who joined the school as a teacher eight years ago and has been principal for five years, had her employment terminated and left Melbourne within 24 hours of being investigated by the school board.
President of the Adass Israel congregation, Benjamin Koppel, told The AJN that the school first acted on Tuesday last week after receiving a call suggesting that inappropriate behaviour may have taken place with one or more of the school’s current or former students.
In a statement to The AJN, Koppel said that the “relevant authority” had been notified of the allegations, but would not confirm whether the authority in question was a rabbinical court, an independent schools board or the Victoria Police.
A police spokesperson was unable to confirm whether or not an investigation is underway into Leifer’s behaviour because of the sensitive nature of the allegations. However, The AJN understands that the principal’s conduct was reported to the police by concerned parents.
Adass has engaged two psychologists – one from Melbourne and another brought especially from Israel – who they claim will counsel the students at the school, which has about 250 students.
“The school is deeply saddened by these events, and is taking every step possible to ensure the welfare of the students is protected and that everything is done to minimise the prospect of any such behaviour occurring in the future,” Koppel said.
“The school’s policy is to always place the welfare of its students as its highest priority, and constantly reviews and revises its endeavours to protect the students entrusted to its care.”
The tight-knit Adass community has been in turmoil since a notice was placed on a school noticeboard last Thursday, indicating that Leifer had suddenly left the school.
On Shabbat morning last week, the spiritual leader of the Adass Israel community, Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck, addressed the small community and said they should not consider Leifer guilty of any crimes because there has been no investigation. He also told congregants that they are forbidden to discuss the matter and if they do, it will be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip).
A number of parents from the school contacted The AJN this week. Their attitudes ranged from disgust to disappointment some parents want the principal’s behaviour to be investigated, others are more concerned that the school has not been forthcoming in providing counselling for those students who claim to have had inappropriate contact with Leifer.
Rabbi Ovadia: Avenge yeshiva attack through love of God
'Biggest revenge on the goyim is for them to see how much God loves the people of Israel,' Shas spiritual leader says during memorial service for slain yeshiva students in Jerusalem
Neta Sela
"The biggest revenge on the goyim is for them to see how much God loves the people of Israel," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said Thursday at a mass memorial service held for the eight victims of last week's terror attack at the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem.
"The (victims') souls will (go to heaven) and send the messiah to the nation of Israel," the Shas spiritual leader said.
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said during the ceremony that "we hear calls that are not in line with the way we were brought up. Underground organizations of any kind are unwarranted, according neither to the Halacha nor to any other worldview. The call should be aimed at the government and the prime minister, to do everything so that the killers and their friends are brought to justice, literally."
The head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, said "the people demand more faith and Torah…We must all strive to establish more and more places of Torah to lift the souls of the saints.
"The blood of our brothers is crying out at us from the earth," he said in a trembling voice. "The yeshiva, with God's help, will recuperate and become stronger."
Speaking to the victim's relatives, Rabbi Shapira said "only you, the students and the families, can bestow upon us the power of faith and the acceptance of one's punishment."
Another leading rabbi at the Mercaz Harav seminary, Yerachmiel Weiss, said that "our hearts refuse to come to terms (with the loss), the pain only deepens. All we can do is manage the pain."
In the comments section.
Tendler Alert said...
CALL TO ACTION: Protecting Unsuspecting Women From Mordecai Tendler
It appears that Mordecai Tendler is still up and running. His shiur (class) is being promoted by luach.com.
Contact luach.com, let them know that Mordecai Tendler was kicked out of the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and that several rabbis in Monsey, NY declared him no longer a rabbi. Also let luach.com know that if anyone else is harmed after learning of his and let them know that if anyone is harmed after learning of his programs on Luach, that they could be held liable in a civil suit, especially after being warned.
http://www.luach.com/site_search?cat=shiurim_chavrusos
Lower East Side Shiurim & Chavrusos
Change in Shiur Time Rav Mordecai Tendler's Shiur over the phone on Inyanei Tefila has been moved to Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 8:00 PM. Even if you are not home at that time, you can still hear the shiur from wherever you are by calling [641]594-7566 and then pressing pin number 72114#. Press *6 to mute and *6 to ask Rav Tendler questions at end of Shiur. (posted 3/10) Send to a friend
Contact:
Shmuel Laskin
Luach.com
E-mail: http://www.luach.com/feedback.html
posted by Jewish Survivors at Wednesday, March 12, 2008
6:32 PM, March 13, 2008
Here I go again doing something stupid and controversial. I'm a frigging birdbrain. I out of all people should know better than not to play the race card. I'm such a dope!
Obama called it "absurd"
Here are some other responses he was considering.
* I'm female
* I'm a snake
* I'm here because of Bill
* Without Bill I'm a nobody
* I'm a player
* I play dirty
* I'm untrustworthy
* I Say ANYTHING to get my way
* I kissed the terrorists wife
* My views change with the wind
* Bill pardoned New Square in a deal to elect me to the senate.
Obama: Racial Issues Will Not Decide US Election
By Cindy Saine
Washington
13 March 2008
Senator Barack Obama has expressed frustration that racial issues keep rising to the surface in his battle with Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. In the latest skirmish, a prominent Clinton fundraiser gave up her post in the campaign following backlash over remarks she made about Senator Obama's race. VOA Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
Look at my white wrinkled face. You think at my age, if I were black, I would get more respect?
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1381
In the Wake of the Yeshiva Massacre
Filed under Judaism, Opinion Editorials, Terror attacks on Israel, Yeshiva massacre March 08 on 3/12/2008 By:Rabbi Lazer Gurkow
They lived by the highest ideals known to mankind.
Last Thursday, men and women from all walks of life were shaken to the core by the heinous murder of eight innocent boys and men as they poured over sacred tomes in a Jerusalem seminary. Their tragic death was eulogized by communities the world over, who were horrified by the sheer cruelty of the attack. These innocent souls were cut down in their prime, before they had opportunity to embrace life. These precious souls were devoted to the highest cause when their souls were viciously snatched and returned to the lap of G-d.
The sheer horror of this murder overwhelms us as we wrestle with the question of why. We cannot imagine what impels a human being to perpetrate such horrible acts of wanton terrorism.
Rather than focus on the tragedy of their death, I choose to focus on the beauty of their lives, for they lived by the highest ideals known to humankind. That their lives came to a sudden end as their minds were engaged in the sacred pursuit of G-d’s Torah is an incredible merit from which we take solace. Their souls returned on High while their minds were attached on High. How often do people realize their most important goals on their dying day?
Jewish tradition encourages us to view death through the prism of life. "And the living shall take heart," wrote King Solomon.(1) We must find ways to inspire our lives through the lessons we take from those who have passed on.
Our days are consumed by trivial tasks and miniature goals; deadlines to meet, projects to complete and goals to reach. The standard by which we measure our success is the efficiency by which we manage the tasks of our day, but how often do we pause to contemplate the overarching goals into which our daily goals are supposed to fit? It occurs to me that if we ask ourselves how we want to be eulogized in death, we will quickly discover the overarching goals of life. If we ask ourselves how we want to be remembered in death, we will quickly discover what is truly meaningful in life.
In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey comments that therein lies the difference between managing and leading. Managers ensure that we "do things right"; whereas, leaders ensure that we "do the right things." Imagine a group of laborers hacking through a field. The leader climbs a tree and discovers they are in the wrong field. He shouts down from his perch, “Hey, we are in the wrong field!” The manager replies, “Don't interrupt, we are making progress.”(2)
This is a regular occurrence in life. We are so often caught up in the minutia of daily progress that we neglect the overall picture. Our days are productive, but are they producing the desired results? It is important to pause from time to time and consider whether we are satisfied with the direction of our lives. Otherwise, we risk leading a perfect journey, but to the wrong destination.
The story is told of a young lad who left the path of Jewish observance. The lad visited Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Baal HaTanya and founder of Chabad Chasisdism. The Rebbe, knowing that the lad was fond of horses, asked him to explain his penchant for horses. The lad replied that horses enable their riders to reach their destinations quickly.
The Rebbe countered with a question, "What happens if you make a wrong turn, won't you make rapid progress in the wrong direction?"
After a pause, the lad replied, "When I realize that I have erred, I can make up for my lost time very quickly."
The lad understood the implication of the Rebbe's words and returned to the path of observance.
Every so often, it behooves us to consider whether the direction on which we have embarked is correct for us. We must ensure that our chosen path is shaped by eternal values rather than passing societal mores. Once our paths are chosen, its overarching goals should become the standard by which we measure the tasks and goals of our daily lives. Every goal that does not fit into the overall scheme is a distraction. Distractions are often necessary, but their benefits must be carefully weighed.
I would hate to leave the fulfillment of my most meaningful goals to the proverbial tomorrow, only to run out of tomorrows. I don't want my grave marker to read, "Here lies a man who died one moment too soon and never realized his most important goals."
I want to return my soul to G-d in the knowledge that I have made every effort to fulfill the mission He has allocated to me. I want to be able to declare upon my demise, “I have lived my life thinking of You." I would love to live for the study of Torah and die with a book in my hands.
I don't know when my time will come, but now is as good a time as any to focus on these questions. As the great sage Hillel said, "If not now, then when?“(3) We never know when we will die; it might be tomorrow and it might (G-d willing) be many decades from now. Our sages cautioned us to live every day as if it is our last.(4) If this was indeed my last day, I would consider my overarching goals with more urgency. Every day is as crucial as our last;
if we want to influence the text of our eulogy, then we must begin to live as if our eulogy is being written today.
The eight victims of cold terror reached the pinnacle of spiritual achievement. They died with the words of G-d upon their lips; they ascended with thoughts of G-d in their minds and the music of Torah in their hearts. This sublime achievement transcends the tragedy and inspires us to do the same. In our resolve, may our people find comfort. In our commitment, may the families find consolation. In our merit, may our nation be redeemed, and may we live in peace and security on our holy land.
Footnotes
Ecclesiastes 7:2
Page 101, Stephen R. Covey, Simon & Schuster New York, 1989
Ethics of Our Fathers 1:14
Ethics of Our Fathers 2:10
4 Adar Bet 5768 / 11 March 08
=============================
Rabbi Lazer Gurkow started his rabbinic career at fifteen years of age when he was invited to congregations the world over to deliver guest sermons and to lead services. Rabbi Lazer received his rabbinic education through the Chabad Yeshiva system and was ordained in 1995 at the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York.
A prolific write, he is the author of more than one hundred and fifty articles that appear regularly in both print and online publications. He is the author of a weekly Torah essay that is distributed via email and is published on numerous web sites.
Rabbi Lazer serves as rabbi to Congregation Beth Tefilah and resides in London Ontario with his wife and four children.
The Boston Globe
JEFF JACOBY
Slaughter, jubilation, and the "peace process"
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | March 12, 2008
THE SLAUGHTER of eight young yeshiva students and the wounding of nine others by an Arab terrorist in Jerusalem last week was a cold-blooded act of evil. It is difficult to make sense of the depraved fanaticism of someone like Ala Abu Dhaim, who calmly entered the school's busy library, took three guns from a box, and sprayed the room with hundreds of bullets before finally being shot dead by an off-duty military officer and a student who heard the gunfire and came running.
Even more perverse than Abu Dhaim's massacre, however, was the behavior that followed it.
In Gaza, the news that unarmed Jewish kids had been gunned down while at study set off paroxysms of joy. Thousands of jubilant Palestinians whooped it up in Gaza's streets, firing guns in the air to celebrate and distributing candy to passersby. Television cameras recorded the revelry; you can see it for yourself on YouTube.
Hamas, the terror organization that controls Gaza, issued a statement applauding the bloodshed. "We bless the [Jerusalem] operation," it said. "It will not be the last."
Give Hamas this much: It makes no secret of its bloodlust. The same cannot be said of Fatah, the other main faction in the Palestinian Authority. Fatah is headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, whose polished spokesman, Saeb Erekat, was quick to assure journalists - in English, for Western consumption - that Abbas "reiterated his condemnation of all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis."
Yet just a few days before the yeshiva massacre, Abbas had told the Jordanian daily Al-Dustur - in Arabic, for Arab consumption - that he frowns on terrorist attacks only for tactical reasons "at this time" and that "in the future things may change." He boasted of his long involvement with PLO violence - "I had the honor of firing the first shot in 1965" - and claimed with pride that Fatah "taught resistance to everyone, including Hezbollah, who trained in our military camps."
Abbas's supposed condemnation notwithstanding, the Palestinian Authority's official daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, hailed the killer of the eight students on its front page, prominently displaying his picture and identifying him as a "shahid" - a term of approval and reverence. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent Fatah subsidiary, praised the slaughter as a "heroic operation."
Meanwhile, the family of Abu Dhaim erected a mourning tent near their East Jerusalem home, where, amid Hamas and Hezbollah banners, visitors came to honor the dead terrorist. Incredibly, the Israeli government made no effort to prevent this open display of respect for a mass-murderer; it insisted only that the Hamas and Hezbollah flags be taken down.
By contrast, when Abu Dhaim's relatives in Jordan put up a similar tent to receive well-wishers, Jordanian officials made them dismantle it immediately. The terrorist's uncle was indignant.
"We were hoping that people would come to congratulate us on the martyrdom of my nephew," he said. "This is a heroic operation that must be celebrated by everyone."
It is a mark of how feckless the Israeli leadership has become that the Arab government of Jordan shows more common sense than the Jewish state in reacting to those who would lionize the killer of Jewish kids.
And that is indicative of the most perverse behavior of all: the refusal of Israel to face the fact that it is in a war for survival - a war that it will win only by fighting and defeating its enemy, not by clinging blindly to a phony "peace process" that has brought it nothing but terror, tears, and a mounting toll of death.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's reaction to last week's massacre of the innocents was to announce that he would "not give up on making a tremendous effort to take another significant, important, and dramatic step that might bring us to an opportunity for real reconciliation."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry spouted the same drivel: "These terrorists are trying to destroy the chances of peace," its spokesman said, "but we certainly will continue the peace talks." The White House chimed in too: "The most important thing is that the peace process continue and that the parties are committed to it."
Wrong. The most important thing is to recognize that there is a war against Israel by enemies profoundly committed to its elimination - enemies who regard negotiations, concessions, and all the trappings of the "peace process" as evidence that the Jews are in retreat, and that hitting them even harder will bring victory even closer. That is why there was jubilation in Gaza. And why last week's atrocity in Jerusalem was only the latest such horror - not the last.
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/12/opinion/main3930010.shtml
Immediately after the massacre of eight students in a yeshiva library in Jerusalem last week, speculation began within the Israeli security establishment and the media about who had dispatched the lone murderer. Was it Hamas? Hezbollah? Perhaps a new, unknown organization claiming to act on behalf of the "liberation" of the Galilee? In fact, the speculation was pointless. Regardless of the affiliation of the actual perpetrator, the ultimate responsibility for this attack, as for almost all the terror attacks on Israel in recent years, lies with Iran.
The Palestinian struggle is no longer about creating an independent state. It is about being a front-line participant in the Iranian-led jihad to destroy Israel, evolving from a nationalist to a religious war. The thousands of celebrants in Gaza who, following the yeshiva massacre, offered prayers of thanksgiving in the mosques and distributed candies to passersby weren't only indulging in feelings of revenge for Israel's recent military incursion but heralding the coming jihadist victory over the enemies of God. A real solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can only be reached by dealing with its primary instigator: Iran...
I bet Asher Friedman and Avremel Schorr had something to do with this.
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Haredim launch boycott of supermarket chain
Businessman Dudi Weissman's refusal to close AM-PM chain on Saturday prompts ultra-Orthodox Committee for Sanctity of Shabbat to call for overall ban of group's business
Neta Sela
In recent years the ultra-Orthodox community has been intensifying its use of financial pressure in order to lead to the closing of businesses on Saturday. A particularly harsh step was taken Wednesday.
The Committee for the Sanctity of Shabbat has released an announcement in the ultra-Orthodox press stating that from now and until further notice, companies owned by businessman Dudi Weissman should not be traded with or shopped at, following his refusal to close the AM-PM chain on Saturdays.
The scope of the consumer ban is of an extremely large scale, which could harm the commercial activity of 35 AM-PM stores, 45 branches of the Shefa Shuk supermarket (some of which specifically target the haredi audience) and dozens more businesses under the brands of Blue Square, Mega, Mega Ba'ir and the petrol company Dor Alon.
The announcement emphasizes that the Shabbat keeping community must avoid all contact with companies belonging to the group owned by Weissman, including shopping vouchers and contribution for the poor for Passover.
"Anyone who doesn't act according to the above, until these issues are settled, will be regarded as risking their money," the announcement said.
'Don't turn Shabbat into a regular weekday'
Throughout the previous months, representatives of the rabbinical committee have been negotiating with Weissman's representatives, requesting that he stop the activity of the shops on Saturdays.
The committee's chairman, Yitzhak Goldknopf, told Ynet that "the rabbis cannot live with the fact that people will actually desecrate Shabbat, directly or indirectly". According to him, the main problem is that other shops, located near AM-PM stores end up opening their shops in order to keep up with the competition.
"It is unthinkable that in Israel people will turn the Shabbat into a regular weekday," stated Goldknopf, saying that the committee seeks to place its representatives at the large supermarkets of Shefa Shuk, which has six branches serving the ultra-Orthodox community. The representatives will explain to the audience that any purchase made at these shops allows the desecrating of Shabbat.
"The struggle will be difficult but we will fight those who stab us in the back. They want to ruin what is most sacred to us," said Goldknopf.
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Rabbi Lau joins battle
The main reason for the haredim's anger focuses around the opening of one of AM-PM's branches on Saturday, which is located near several Tel Aviv seminaries.
A month ago, following complaints made by the ultra-Orthodox community living in the area, Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Meir Lau, invited Weissman to discuss the issue. Rabbi Lau asked to close the chain stores on Saturday, focusing on that particular shop.
"One open store can lead to an overflow of open shops on Saturdays in the entire area and the character of the Shabbat in Tel Aviv is becoming unclear," Rabbi Lau said following the conversation.
Weissman on his part told the rabbi that that particular shop was purchased from the McDonald's chain, which was also open on Saturdays and even sold non-kosher food.
He noted that one of his first steps as the owner of the company was to stop the sale of non-kosher meat and to stop all business with the Maadaney Mizra supplier, of which AM-PM was a large client.
Rabbi Lau explained to Weissman that there was a different law for restaurants and trade houses and that opening businesses on Saturday "may completely collapse the Shabbat stake in Tel Aviv".
Weissman said that he grew up in a non-religious home, but that his grandparents were religious people who lived in Tel Aviv at that very same location. Following the conversation, he told the rabbi that he will take steps to close the branch on Saturday.
"I regard this as a closure", he noted. Rabbi Lau thanked him for the gesture and added, "I hope this is the beginning of a new era".
However, all this did not help Weissman who was faced with The Committee for the Sanctity of Shabbat, which announced a comprehensive ban on all of Weissman's businesses.
The Blue Square and Shefa Shuk supermarket chains and Weissman's head office refused to respond to this article.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20080314_Lesson_in_faith_from_boy_with_Down_syndrome.html
By Carrie Rickey
Inquirer Film Critic
Rating:
Philadelphia's most radiant movie star is Lior Liebling, subject of the poignant and profound documentary Praying With Lior.
On its surface, Ilana Trachtman's film is a deceptively simple portrait of how a young man's faith illuminates his family and community. On reflection, it is also a complex account of difference and acceptance, of the emotionally fraught journey from grief into joy.
To hear Lior tell it, he has "Up Syndrome."
"April Fool's!" laughs the 13-year-old Mount Airy boy on the brink of becoming bar mitzvah, beaming the 500-watt smile that warms everyone in his orbit. In Hebrew, his name means "My light."
Lior has Down syndrome, a difference that has not deterred this son of two rabbis - Mordechai Liebling and the late Devorah Bartnoff - from his studies, religious or secular.
Lior's joie de vivre is contagious. Ask his father and stepmother. Ask his brother, Yoni, or sisters Reena and Anna. Ask anyone in his congregation, Mishkan Shalom. For many, this enthusiastic, if off-key, singer is the lens who magnifies their spiritual life.
Praying was the means Lior communicated with his mother; praying is the means he keeps her alive. Does Lior pray in the mature sense, or parrot the words as a child might?
In home movies taken before she succumbed to breast cancer, Rabbi Bartnoff talks about the joy she got from praying with Lior, also the title of an essay she wrote for the Jewish Exponent.
For Bartnoff, Lior was a spiritual teacher whose lack of self-consciousness meant there were fewer veils between him and God. "If there is a God," says Lior's brother, Yoni, "Lior is definitely closer to God than anyone else I know."
Gently, Trachtman explores this premise, sometimes seeming to penetrate the mystery of belief, sometimes conceding that Lior is a Rorschach on whom people project their spiritual and social needs.
Apart from its intriguing religious implications, the film is also a compelling look at the family, community and congregational pillars that support Lior, now 16. From Lynn Iser, his stepmother who regards him as the glue that binds the family, to the brother Little Leaguers who field and bat with him, to the synagogue that embraces him as a "little rebbe," or rabbi, Lior is valued both for who he is and how he teaches others to learn from those who are different.
The film's climactic sequences are of Lior's bar mitzvah. There's not a person in the congregation or in the movie audience who will deny the presence of Lior's late mother in that place of worship. Nor is there any who would deny that Lior is an agent both of social and spiritual change.
Bring tissues.
Praying With Lior ***1/2
Produced and directed by Ilana Trachtman, music by Andy Statman. With Lior Liebling, Mordechai Liebling, Devora Bartnoff, Reena Liebling, Yoni Liebling and Anna Liebling.
Running time: 1 hour, 27 mins..
Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (nothing inappropriate for children)
Showing at: Clearview's Bala Theatre
Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.
Kosher demand from the west fuels Israel exports
14-Mar-2008 - Israel export values are growing in line with an increasing global demand for kosher food, fuelled by consumer preference for its clear labelling and rigorous requirements.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=83979-bmi-gold-frost-kosher-exports-israel
Kashrut Seals Food Deals in China
March 13, 2008
Alison Klayman
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BEIJING
As the sun rises on a crisp morning in March, a van from the Hebei Dongfang Green Tree Food Company arrives at Rabbi Nosson Rodin's home in this Chinese capital city.
During the four-hour journey to the company's factory in Shenzhou, Rodin calls for a break to recite his morning prayers. He wraps his tefillin at a rest stop as curious truck drivers look on, then gets back into the vehicle.
For the Amidah prayer, the van pulls off the dusty road, and Rodin consults the small green compass on his watchband.
He needs to pray facing west, toward Jerusalem.
Any New York Attorneys wish to address the legal implications this may have for those blocked from pursuing their case due to the SOL? This should open up the floodgates, in my opinion.
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Posted on Fri, Mar. 14, 2008
Court rules sex abuse lawsuit against priest can go forward
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK
News-Democrat
An appellate court has ruled that a 2003 lawsuit brought by a now 36-year-old St. Louis area firefihter, who alleges he was sexually abused in Belleville as a youth, can go forward despite the statute of limitations.
The firefighter, who lives in Illinois, was previously known in court papers as John Doe. However, at a news conference in St. Louis on Thursday, Christopher D. Amenn, of O'Fallon, appeared publicly with his wife.
"I'm glad there is finally going to be some accountability," Amenn said. "My reason on following up on this for so long is to protect kids like those who couldn't protect themselves back then."
In a 2-1 decision written by Justice Melissa Chapman of the 5th Appellate District in Mount Vernon, the court ruled that Amenn's lawsuit against "Playboy Priest" Kenneth Roberts can proceed in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Roberts, known for his book "From Playboy to Priest," spoke in Belleville in 1984 and molested Amenn when the then 14-year-old youth asked Roberts about becoming a priest, according to the appellate decision. The dissenter was Justice James Donovan, a former judge in St. Clair County.
Roberts could not be reached.
The ruling states that Amenn was not aware that what Roberts allegedly did was wrong until 14 years later in 1998 when he was 28 and went to a hospital emergency room. The lawsuit, which names the Diocese of Belleville, the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Diocese of Dallas, was filed in 2003.
The decision involves applying a 2003 amendment to state law extending the statute of limitations in certain civil cases retroactively.
Chapman wrote that the amendment "evinces a clear legislative intent that the (2003 law) apply to all cases filed on or after its effective date, including those in which the allegations of abuse relate to events that preceded the amendment."
During a press conference outside the Chancery in Belleville, Dave Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the ruling "will allow more child sex abuse victims to expose their predators in court."
"This ruling is evidence of a growing national trend in which judges realize kids can't come forward as kids," he said, "that it takes time for victims to understand they they've been hurt, that the hurt is severe, the pain is oftentimes ongoing. Judges are gradually understanding this reality. And this is only happening because of the courage of people like Chris and others."
The ruling, which does not become final until March 28, also stated that Amenn alleged that the church covered up previous sexual abuse by Roberts in Missouri.
Contact reporter George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczyk@bnd.com and 239-2625.
Women's sexual abuse stance weak'
...chances of HIV infection greatly increased
Camille Bethel cbethel@trinidadexpress.com
Thursday, March 13th 2008
Women are now more susceptible to being infected with HIV due to their weak stance against sexual abuse, chairman of the National Aids Coordinating Committee (NACC), Angela Lee-Loy, has said.
She made the comment during a Ministry of Social Development symposium, titled "An Agenda for Action on Women and HIV", at City Hall, Port of Spain, yesterday.
"A fear of violence or abandonment often prevents women from discussing fidelity or negotiating condemn use with their partner," Lee-Loy said.
The constant threat of violence, she added, makes women feel vulnerable and allows men to maintain control of both decisions of when and how they have sex.
"Many women in Trinidad and Tobago have very little say over when they have sex and with whom. Violence against women and girls is relatively wide spread in Trinidad and Tobago."
She explained that this was often the case because men are usually the ones with financial power, physical strength and the ability to demand sexual relations with women.
"Children and adolescents, particularly girls, are frequently abused by their step-fathers, mothers...and grown men in their environment.
She said a 2006-2007 survey conducted by the UWI Faculty of Medical Science, on the attitudes, practices and behaviour among 16-49 year old females in Trinidad and Tobago, showed that 11 per cent of those surveyed reported having their first sexual encounter even though they did not want to.
Another 87 per cent of women meanwhile said their first sexual encounter was with a partner older than themselves.
In T&T in 2006, 60 per cent of the new HIV reported cases in the 15-34 age group occurred in women, she added.
"Research has found that violence contributes both directly and indirectly to the vulnerability of women to HIV, because violent sexual acts can cause vaginal lacerations, increasing the risk of transmission of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) including HIV."
Lee-Loy said there was also sexual double standard that prevails in Trinbagonian society, where men are expected to have multiple sexual partners while women are expected to be faithful to their partners and family.
"Marriage does not guarantee women protection against exposure to HIV, their risk of infection is determined by the sexual behaviour of their partner..."
HIV positive women are often subjected to discrimination, she added, as Aids is often viewed as a punishment for immorality.
She said these women also suffer violations of their human rights through loss of employment.
More rural Aboriginal abuse claims Friday, 14 March , 2008
Reporter: Brigid Glanville
LISA MILLAR: There are fresh allegations today of more child abuse in north-west New South Wales. Aboriginal elders claim itinerant workers also come into the town of Boggabilla to solicit sex from Aboriginal girls.
Several girls from the communities of Boggabilla and Moree told ABC TV's Lateline program about child prostitution with truck drivers.
But today there are claims that casual farm workers are deliberately targeting children.
The Opposition is now calling for the Northern Territory intervention to be extended to New South Wales.
Brigid Glanville reports.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The town of Boggabilla is on the border of New South Wales and Queensland. It's 10 kilometres from Goondiwindi in Queensland and one hour's drive from Moree in New South Wales.
The allegations of truck drivers soliciting sex from Aboriginal girls revealed on ABC's Lateline program have caused shock. But the problems appear to go further.
The region is home to large cotton farms. During the year farms employ seasonal workers who work on the farm chipping weeds away from cotton plants. Boggabilla resident Judy Knox says it's not just truck drivers preying on young Aboriginal girls.
JUDY KNOX: You get a whole array of people that will turn up during the cotton chipping season, yeah. And it's been found that people actually target the communities around here where there's cotton chipping set up and they make friends with a local mother and father and go to their parties, whatever, until they gain a bit of trust. And then they will say to the parents, oh you know, we'll take your kids for a drive or take them swimming or whatever and that's where the sexual abuse happens.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: Madeline McGrady is an Aboriginal elder from Boggabilla. Last year she says she had to chase a white man out of town because she found out he had been buying food for Aboriginal mothers and abusing their children.
Madeline McGrady says white paedophiles have been targeting her community for years because they can easily access the children.
MADELINE MCGRADY: It was here quite some time, you know, before I came. And it was quite well known in the community that, you know, some people say, "These white fellas, they're good old white fellas if they clean your house and buy the kids some food and that." They think they're good old white fellas, you know?
But since that mother is really drunk or they walk out of the house and go for a walk, he's straight, you know, I'd say he's straight into the kids.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The Federal Opposition is calling for urgent Government intervention in New South Wales Indigenous communities.
The Opposition leader Brendan Nelson says the Northern Territory intervention of Aboriginal communities needs to be extended.
BRENDAN NELSON: The first thing of course is policing, security, to make sure that the laws of this country are upheld in relation to Aboriginal Australia and Aboriginal children in particular.
I think that Mr Iemma needs to send whatever police force is required to western New South Wales and other parts of this state to make sure that the issue is addressed.
We need to take it very seriously. Imagine if this kind of activity was going on in any part of suburban Sydney. I think Mr Iemma and I think his government would be a little bit more focused on it than they are.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The police in charge of north-west New South Wales say they have been aware of child sexual assault claims in the area for the past two years. The western region police commander, assistant commissioner Stephen Bradshaw, says they are trying to address the problem but victims are very reluctant to speak out.
Assistant commissioner Stephen Bradshaw has urged members of the Aboriginal community to come forward with any information about child abuse.
STEPHEN BRADSHAW: There has been, for probably the last two years, an inter-agency group or a whole-of-government approach to this issue because it's not just a policing issue, it's a community issue.
And a whole-of-government approach, a team of inter-agency people working in the Toomula-Boggabilla area addressing this very problem and trying to not only obtain disclosures and information that will assist, but also address the issue so far as protective behaviours are concerned with young people so that they know that this type of behaviour is wrong and not acceptable.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The New South Wales Department of Community Services wasn't available to talk to PM but did say in a statement it has investigated the original claims of child prostitution a number of times. DOCS says it has been difficult to find local people willing to provide evidence.
The cotton industry has declined to comment on allegations of seasonal workers also abusing young Aboriginal children.
LISA MILLAR: Brigid Glanville with that report and you can see more on those fresh claims of child abuse on ABC TV's Lateline program tonight.
By Chris Wattie, National Post
The director of a private Jewish school has resigned over a controversy about explicit poetry he posted on his personal Web site.
Brian Simon, the president of the Leo Baeck Jewish Day School, told parents and staff of the school in a letter today that David Prashker had quit as director of the school, which teaches 800 students from kindergarten to Grade 8. Mr. Prashker submitted his resignation amid what the president called “the recent unfortunate circumstances involving our School,” which erupted this week after an anonymous e-mail to parents this week called attention to his poems.The anonymous e-mail called the poetry “disturbing” and asked if parents felt comfortable entrusting their children to Mr. Prashker. One poem explored a young man's heady sexual encounter and used the word "f---" several times, another included the verse "the first act of killing is the hardest" and "the second time is remarkably straightforward."
More:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/03/14/jewish-school-director-resigns-over-controversial-poetry.aspx
I will issue a hazmana for anyone who talks loshon harah about this female molester principal.
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Jewish school 'devastated'
Beck Eleven
March 14, 2008 - 1:04PM
Advertisement
A spokesman for the Jewish school at the centre of an alleged student molestation case said the community was "devastated".
The scandal erupted after the principal of the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick fled Australia facing accusations that she sexually molested some of the students.
Outraged parents claim that the private Jewish girls' school paid for Malka Leifer, a mother of eight, to return to Israel before reporting the complaints to the police.
She left Melbourne on Wednesday last week, 24 hours after being investigated and sacked by the school's board.
The Adass community is a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea.
Barrister Norman Rosenbaum spoke on behalf of the school outside its grounds today.
He would not discuss the allegations, citing legal bounds and respect for the confidentiality of those affected.
"People are devastated because even the mere allegation is something which goes to the very core of the principles and the morals and ethics which this school intends to inculcate in its students," he said.
"Certainly we have the best interests of those affected at the forefront and we are fully cognisant of the other issues, legal and otherwise, which go with that.
He said he would not comment further. other than to provide assurance that issues were being addressed by qualified professionals.
He would not comment on the number of victims and said he was not aware of the school demanding parents not discuss the allegations to media.
However, a security guard was employed by the school today and one parent who stopped to say she was shaken by the story, was quickly ushered away by another staff member.
Mr Rosenbaum said neither he nor the school, to the best of his knowledge, had spoken to the former principal since she left.
"I don't know first hand but there is popular rumour around that she went back to her home of origin."
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/14/1205126174610.html
I'm glad the school is saying the right stuff. As far as I know they don't plan on reporting me to the police which makes me breath a long sigh of relief. Any normal school would have went to the police immediately. I'm glad the orthodox Jews cover up the crimes of their own. For the school to pay for me to return to Israel is fantastic!
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School acting on claims, says lawyer
Beck Eleven
March 15, 2008
THE lawyer for an ultra-orthodox Jewish school said yesterday that no representative had yet spoken to the former principal accused of molesting students.
Parents say the Adass Israel Girls' School in Elsternwick paid for its principal, Malka Leifer, to return to Israel after sexual molestation allegations emerged against her last week. She left Melbourne 24 hours after being investigated and sacked by the school's board.
The Adass community is a small, ultra-orthodox and reclusive group of about 150 families based in Elsternwick and Ripponlea. The school monitors its own curriculum, down to morals and dress code.
All comment yesterday was referred to Mr Rosenbaum.
He said outside the school's grounds that he would not discuss the allegations, citing legal bounds and respect for the confidentiality of those affected.
But Mr Rosenbaum gave assurances that issues were being dealt with by professionals.
A police spokeswoman said yesterday that Victoria Police had not received a complaint.
Mr Rosenbaum said: "People are devastated because even the mere allegation is something which goes to the very core of the principles and the morals and ethics which this school intends to inculcate in its students.
"Certainly we have the best interests of those affected at the forefront and we are fully cognisant of the other issues, legal and otherwise, which go with that," he said.
"It is small community, a close-knit community. Not only are the children with one another at school but their parents are invariably close friends."
Mr Rosenbaum said neither he nor the school, to the best of his knowledge, had spoken to the former principal since she left.
"I don't know first hand but there is popular rumour around that she went back to her home of origin," he said.
A security guard stood watch and staff guarded the private school's gates yesterday after the allegations against Mrs Leifer, a mother of eight, appeared in The Age and The Australian Jewish News.
Parents approached by media representatives were unwilling to talk, and one woman who wanted to speak was whisked inside school grounds by a staff member.
Australia has an extradition treaty with Israel, but Israel does not extradite its citizens.
Report: Anti-Semitism on the rise globally
* Story Highlights
* Anti-Semitism not just history, it's "a current event," State Department report says
* Report cites attacks, Holocaust denial, property desecration, hate-mongering
* Some governments promote anti-Semitism, report says, citing Iran, Syria
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A report from the U.S. State Department details "an upsurge" across the world of anti-Semitism -- hostility and discrimination toward Jewish people.
"Today, more than 60 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is not just a fact of history, it is a current event," the report says.
The report -- called Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism and given to Congress on Thursday -- is dedicated to the memory of the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, a survivor of the Holocaust, the extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II.
The report details physical acts of anti-Semitism, such as attacks, property damage, and cemetery desecration. It also lists manifestations such as conspiracy theories concerning Jews, Holocaust denial, anti-Zionism and the demonization of Israel.
"Over much of the past decade, U.S. embassies worldwide have noted an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, such as attacks on Jewish people, property, community institutions, and religious facilities," the report says.
The report also deals with efforts to combat the bigotry, described by Gregg J. Rickman, the department's special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, as "one of the oldest forms of malicious intolerance."
The report says violent acts and desecration of Jewish property happen whether there are a lot of Jews or only a few living in the region. Bigoted rhetoric, conspiracy theories regarding Jews, and anti-Semitic propaganda are transmitted over the airwaves and on the Internet.
It says that although Nazism and fascism are rejected by the West "and beyond," blatant forms of anti-Semitism are "embraced and employed by the extreme fringe."
"Traditional forms of anti-Semitism persist and can be found across the globe. Classic anti-Semitic screeds, such as 'The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion' and 'Mein Kampf' remain commonplace.
"Jews continue to be accused of blood libel, dual loyalty, and undue influence on government policy and the media, and the symbols and images associated with age-old forms of anti-Semitism endure."
New forms of anti-Semitism are reflected in rhetoric that compares Israel to the Nazis and attributes "Israel's perceived faults to its Jewish character."
This kind of anti-Semitism, the report says, "is common throughout the Middle East and in Muslim communities in Europe, but it is not confined to these populations."
The report says various U.N. bodies are regularly asked to launch "investigations of what often are sensationalized reports of alleged atrocities and other violations of human rights by Israel."
"The collective effect of unremitting criticism of Israel, coupled with a failure to pay attention to regimes that are demonstrably guilty of grave violations, has the effect of reinforcing the notion that the Jewish state is one of the sources, if not the greatest source, of abuse of the rights of others, and thus intentionally or not encourages anti-Semitism."
The report gives examples of leaders and governments that "fan the flames of anti-Semitic hatred within their own societies and even beyond their borders." It cites Syria, Belarus, Venezuela, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
"Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has actively promoted Holocaust denial, Iran's Jewish population faces official discrimination, and the official media outlets regularly produce anti-Semitic propaganda," the report adds.
It notes "societal anti-Semitism" in places where there have been efforts to fight the problem. Among the countries are Poland, Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
"Recent increases in anti-Semitic incidents have been documented in Argentina, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and beyond," the report said.
The report is a follow-up to the State Department's January 2005 "Report on Global anti-Semitism."
But Mr Rosenbaum gave assurances that issues were being dealt with by professionals.
A police spokeswoman said yesterday that Victoria Police had not received a complaint.
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Mr. Rosenabum stop lying to us. The police have not received any complaints, and that is damning evidence against you and the school. Don't turn this into another YTT fiasco or you will be held liable in criminal and civil lawsuits.
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