http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15146/News/New_York.html
Sex-Abuse Statute Of Limitations May Be Extended
“Numerous studies have shown that victims of childhood sexual abuse typically cannot come forward for decades after the abuse occurred,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo Law School and the author of “Justice Denied.” She supports legislation to extend the statute of limitations.
by Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week
Legislation is currently pending in both the State Assembly and Senate to extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations on these claims, and to open a one-year “window” in which previously time-barred victims can file civil suits.
“We believe this legislation is crucial,” said Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for the group. “[Many] of the cases that SJF has been involved in are perfect examples of the need for this legislation.”
One such case is that of David Framowitz, a founding member of Survivors for Justice, who alleges he was abused by a yeshiva teacher when he was 12 but found himself unable to come forward until his 40s. This is not uncommon, according to Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo Law School and the author of “Justice Denied.”
“Numerous studies have shown that victims of childhood sexual abuse typically cannot come forward for decades after the abuse occurred,” Hamilton said. “They are literally disabled from getting to court. It is simply a scientific fact that it is difficult for them to understand the magnitude of the harm, that they lost their childhood and that their current problems were caused by the abuse until much later in life,” Hamilton said.
In addition to the psychological issues that can prevent many victims from coming forward within the current time limit, intimidation by abusers and their protectors is also a significant factor in the delay.
“Usually these institutions that allow these predators to remain, and have historically allowed them to remain, work very hard to keep the victims quiet,” said Michael Dowd, an attorney who has successfully represented victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. “That, in addition to the shame and embarrassment, is a very powerful and compelling force.”
According to Dowd, the current statute of limitations has served not only to protect predators but allowed them to continue molesting unhindered, thereby victimizing what often amounts to “hundreds” of children over the course of a lifetime.
Currently in New York State, there is a five-year statute of limitations past the age of majority (18) for people to bring civil suits based on sexual abuse claims. The proposed legislation would extend that maximum age another five years, to the age of 28. More significantly, the bill would allow for a one-year “window” in which people who allege they were sexually abused can file civil actions, regardless of when the abuse took place.
The new bill is sponsored in the Assembly by Margaret Markey and in the Senate by Tom Duane.
An alternative bill was filed in the Assembly on Feb. 19 by Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez (D-Brooklyn). This measure would add only two years to the statute-of-limitations period and contains no window for filing retroactive suits for past abuse. Lopez’s bill does not contain provisions for raising the criminal statute of limitations from age 23 to 28 and does not currently have a Senate sponsor, a significant obstacle to its passage.
The Assembly Codes Committee is expected to consider Markey’s bill early next week, according to a spokesman for her office.
Some of the main opposition to the Markey-Duane bill is coming from the New York State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in New York State. The group’s bishops met with Gov. David Paterson on Monday and legislators, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, on Tuesday as part of their annual lobbying day in Albany. A spokesman for the Conference, Dennis Poust, told The Jewish Week, that the Conference does not support the Markey bill because of the one-year window.
“We can’t support a bill that has a look-back because frankly the ramifications that we saw in California were disastrous. It cost the church a billion dollars in settlements. People [came forward] from 50-60 years ago,” Poust said. While he also argued that the bill “is designed to devastate the Church, but leave public institutions unscathed,” he did concede, however, that even if it were amended to include provisions for suing public institutions, the Conference would not support it.
Poust also said that his organization has “been working with Jewish organizations, though not terribly closely. I think we’ve had conversations with different representatives of the major Orthodox organizations, the [Orthodox Union] and the Agudath Israel. I’m not sure that any of them have taken positions yet,” he added.
David Zwiebel, executive vice president for government and public affairs at Agudath Israel told The Jewish Week that the group is “studying” both the Markey and Lopez bills, but does not “have anything definitive to report [on the statute-of-limitations issue]. He also added that he “imagine[s] we will have a formal position within the next two weeks or so, unless we hear that the legislation is on a fast track and requires a more immediate statement.”
Survivors for Justice is hoping that Agudath Israel will come out in favor of Markey’s bill.
“SFJ does not accept the possibility that an organization as influential as the Agudath Israel would work with the element of the Catholic Church that seeks to continue to deny justice to past victims and protection to our children. The Agudath and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) stands for a much higher ideal and we have every hope and belief that they will abide by established halacha, which does not recognize the existence of any statue of limitations but rather relies upon the validity of the evidence presented in each case and be vocal supporters of the Markey bill,” said spokesman Soury.
For Joel Engelman, another founding member of the organization who told his story first to The Jewish Week last summer, opening a window in the statute of limitations is his “last hope.” Engelman, who filed a $5 million lawsuit against the yeshiva that employs a teacher he alleges molested him when he was 8 years old, believed he had reached an agreement with the school not to go public with the allegations if they agreed to remove the teacher from the classroom. While the teacher, Avrohom Reichman, was let go for a time, he was reinstated several weeks after Engelman’s 23rd birthday. Because Engelman’s age puts the alleged acts beyond the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution or civil suit, Engelman’s lawyer is seeking entrée to the court with a novel legal theory involving a claim of fraudulent inducement, the success of which is uncertain. While Engleman has become aware of other allegations against the teacher, Reichman remains employed by the school to this day, something that infuriates Engelman particularly because he believes other children remain in harm’s way.
“If the school won’t do anything and the community won’t do anything, and the criminal statute doesn’t apply, this is my last hope [to make sure no other children are hurt].”
==================================================================
http://forward.com/articles/103834/
Protect the Children
Editorial
New York State Assemblywoman Marge Markey’s introduction to what has become a cause in her legislative life occurred a few years ago, when someone arrived at her home to ask for assistance from her and her husband, a judge. The person said he was sexually abused as a child, and Markey discovered that the more she tried to help him seek some justice, the more she was stymied by the state’s statutes of limitations. Then, she said, she realized “that’s my job” to change the law. And for four years, she has tried.
For three of those years, the Child Victims’ Act has handily passed the State Assembly, only to be held up in the Republican-controlled Senate. Now that the Senate Democrats are in power, its chances have improved, and Markey is “cautiously optimistic” about the chances for her legislation extending the statute of limitations by five years and creating a one-year “open window” for sexual abuse claims.
The political shifts in Albany are not the only reason for this optimism. A small but increasingly vocal group of Jewish survivors of sexual abuse are lobbying for passage of this worthy bill, and their bravery is welcome. For years, Catholic Church leaders have argued that this reform is targeted against only them. When the former yeshiva bochers roamed the halls of Albany recently to talk to lawmakers, that argument was put to rest.
No religious group ought to feel stigmatized by this legislation, for sadly enough the vast majority of cases of child sexual abuse occur within the family. Wherever it happens, predators nefariously take warped advantage of a child’s need for safety and security. The victim may suffer few, if any, physical injuries, but the emotional and psychological scars are painful and deep and often don’t surface for years.
That is why extending the statute of limitations is necessary. Who among us, as a child, is willing and able to accuse a parent, coach, priest or rabbi of unspeakable acts? It can take decades for a victim to have the fortitude to come forward and face the authority figure he or she once trusted. And, as evidenced by the massive cover-up in the Catholic Church, institutions and tight-knit communities are adept at stalling, silencing and protecting their own instead of the public good.
The most controversial clause in the legislation would create a one-year window allowing victims of any age to seek civil damages for past instances of child sexual abuse. Understandably, there’s concern this will lead to false claims and slanderous accusations that can ruin a person’s reputation and bankrupt a defense. But the evidence says otherwise. One veteran prosecutor said that she’s seen only a “handful” of false claims over more than two decades. Instead, what states such as California and Delaware have learned as they’ve opened such windows is that hundreds of victims emerge after years of crouching in darkness.
With the proper safeguards, allowing abuse victims to face their tormentors will not only confront personal demons. It removes predators from their prey and puts those who enable them on notice that a compassionate society won’t tolerate abuse, especially of its young.
===================================================================
http://www.survivorsforjustice.org/Gui/Content.aspx?Page=Home
Survivors for Justice
We are survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community and their advocates who are committed to offering guidance and support to victims seeking justice through the criminal and civil legal system.
We also advocate for legislation to extend the statute of limitations and open a one year window to offer all abuse victims the ability to file civil lawsuits against their abusers and their protectors.
You can reach us at info@SurvivorsForJustice.org
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78 comments:
Bad news if SOL extension becomes reality. That means our days of abusing kids could come to an end. Maybe Shlomo Mandel can say some kaptlach tehilim and cry his crocodile tears and this will all be a bad dream.
News from
Assemblywoman
Margaret M. Markey
30th Assembly District
Assembly Passes Internet Safety Bill Backed by Markey
Queens Assemblywoman, whose bill to fight child sex abuse crimes is awaiting action by the Senate, praises new e-STOP legislation to regulate use of Internet by sex offenders
April 15, 2008
Maspeth, Queens – Assemblymember Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth) announced today that the Assembly has adopted legislation she co-sponsored to help prevent sex crimes by regulating the use of the Internet by sex offenders. The bill is the result of a landmark agreement with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to prevent sex offenders from victimizing children on Internet social networking sites.
The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act – called “e-STOP” – mandates that sex offenders register Internet accounts and screen names used for social networking purposes with law enforcement; allows social networking Web sites to access sex offender Internet information in order to prevent offenders from preying on children and report violations of law to investigators; and regulates use of the Internet by certain sex offenders on probation and parole.
Assemblywoman Markey’s own legislation, the Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of New York, which will extend the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes and provide a one-year window to bring civil actions in New York State, was adopted by the Assembly last year and is awaiting action in the Senate during this session.
“New York is the first state in the country to craft legislation with such strong online prohibitions and mandates requiring registered sex offenders to keep law enforcement informed of their online activity,” Assemblymember Markey said.
Under the bill:
* all sex offenders who are required to register under Megan’s Law must register with the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) all Internet accounts and provide all electronic mail addresses and designations used for the purposes of chatting, instant messaging, social networking or other similar Internet communications;
* registered sex offenders must notify DCJS within 10 days if that data changes, or face the current penalties under Megan’s Law for failing to register – a class E felony for a first offense and a class D felony for subsequent offenses; and
* sex offenders’ Internet information will be made available to social networking Web sites who are authorized to prescreen or remove offenders’ and advise law enforcement if there is a potential violation of law or a threat to public safety.
“The Internet can be a wonderful tool for learning and communication, but the appropriate safeguards must be in place to keep it safe for children and others. This legislation takes an important step in shielding them from dangerous predators.”
“Many of these ubiquitous online hangouts have become dangerous places for New Yorkers – especially underage teens – mainly because these Web sites provide sex offenders intent on harming children an opportunity to expose minors to obscene material and unwanted sexual advances,” Assemblywoman Markey said. “e-STOP will assuredly help prevent an untold number of sexual offenses over the Internet.”
Although many privacy safeguards will still exist under federal and state law, Assemblywoman Markey said that the information collected by DCJS will be made available to any business or organization that provides social networking services over the Internet to minors. “These providers will now be able to effectively prescreen – and remove, if necessary – the offenders’ addresses from the site,” she said. “They’ll also be authorized to contact law enforcement and government officials who investigate potential online sex offenses.”
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http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=030&sh=story&story=28032
2009 Bills Prime Sponsored by Senator Thomas K. Duane (list in formation)
Bill No.
S2568 DUANE -- Extends the statute of limitations in criminal and civil actions for certain sex offenses committed against a child less than eighteen years of age
NY Coalition to Protect Children
Stop Shielding Sexual Predators, Provide Justice for Victims.
Thursday Mar 12, 2009
The Child Victims Act and why we need it.
The Child Victims Act attacks childhood sexual abuse on several fronts. It will expose predators, protect vulnerable children, and help victims. It will make two significant changes to the statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse in New York:
An Extension: The Act extends to age 28 the limitation for a victim to bring a claim. Currently a victim must bring a claim by the age of 23, and rarely are victims strong enough to come forth so soon into adulthood.
A Window: The Act creates a one-year, one time suspension of the current statute of limitations. During this period, adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse may sue the abuser as well as anyone who protected or covered up for the predator—even if the statute of limitations has already expired.
The threat is greater than we think.
Predators do not commit a single crime against a single child. They move on to additional generations. Sometimes they infiltrate a family. On average a sexual predator commits over 300 acts on over 100 children in a lifetime. In New York State, there are over 26,000 known convicted predators on a state registry. Given the low rate of reports on abuse to law enforcement, we can only imagine the number of predators still free and the children currently in danger.
How justice has been denied.
Childhood sexual abuse is by its nature secret. The abuse is often the end result of a grooming process through which the predators pressures the victim to keep the abuse secret or carefully select victims whom the predator believes will not tell others about the abuse. The predator is usually in a position of power—parent, priest, teacher, etc.--and has power to enforce silence. It's not until the child has gone well into adulthood is he or she able to recover strength and move out from under the sway of the predator. By then the statute of limitations most likely has expired. This leaves the victim frustrated, weakened, and without hope.
What is wrong with the current law?
The time period currently allowed by New York law is so short that it ensures that most predators are
not caught, and are not held accountable for their crimes. Predators have an opportunity to “run out the clock” while the victim and family may suffer for a lifetime.
The law also does not reflect current knowledge in the mental health profession, where it is widely understood that victims, with all their trauma, do not have the strength to come forth publicly with their claims until they are well into adulthood. By then, the current limitation has often expired. When predators are not held accountable, they are more likely to continue to sexually abuse other children.
The window offers an opportunity for justice to those who were denied their day in court because of the current short statute of limitations. Equally important, it offers justice to those who were denied in previous years when little was known about the scope of child sexual abuse, and when predators and insensitive institutions could more readily intimidate and silence victims.
What about criminal prosecution?
Most child molesters are not prosecuted in criminal court because their victims are too young and confused to realize they are being harmed by an abuser, and most predators can successfully silence victims through intimidation. By the time the victims are old enough and strong enough to testify in court, the criminal statute of limitations has expired, and a civil suit is the only option.
The Child Victims Act, however, can be helpful in putting predators behind bars. First, it can help simply by exposing a predator who is still abusing within the statute of limitations. Second, once a predator is exposed, other victims often come forward. Third, as civil cases proceed in the discovery process, new information that comes to light may be sufficient for prosecutors to bring indictments.
http://www.protectchildrenny.org/index.htm
NY Coalition to Protect Children
Stop Shielding Sexual Predators, Provide Justice for Victims.
Support the Child Victims Act
NYS Assembly Bill A2596. Senate Bill S2568
1 of 5 children are sexually abused as the law shields their predators.
The FBI estimates that 1 in 5 American children are sexually abused by age 18. But only about 10 percent of these horrific crimes are ever reported to law enforcement! This allows predators to roam freely to abuse again and again. Some may have more than 100 victims in their life time. This abuse is found throughout society - in schools, religious groups, youth services, health care, and families - wherever adults can abuse their power over children. Child sexual abuse is a major public health and safety issue.
This tragic problem is compounded by state laws, including those in New York, that limit the period for prosecution or bringing suit for damages. These arbitrary and archaic Statutes of Limitation are denying victims their day in court while they shield predators and their enablers. As victims suffer for a lifetime, predators are able to run out the clock. These statutes must be reformed. It is only when predators are identified and exposed in court will we be able to keep our children safe.
For three years, Margaret Markey has had overwhelmingly bi-partisan support for her reform bill in the Assembly. Stephen Saland has joined her with a companion bill in the Senate. The joint legislation is called the Child Victims Act. The goal is to help make New York one of the safest states in the nation for children.
The goal of the NY Coalition to Protect Children is to (1) create awareness of the danger the current law presents for our children, and (2) encourage New York citizens and institutions to urge their State Senators to pass this critical reform.
Some of the main opposition to the Markey-Duane bill is coming from the New York State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in New York State.
*
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*
Funny how the Archdiocese and The Agudath and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah have at least one very honorable thing in common. And that is sweeping under the rug.
http://www.wpix.com/video/?clipId=3491592&topVideoCatNo=undefined&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv
Must watch..
BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, March 11th 2009, 9:21 PM
Rabbi Israel Weingarten Ward for News
A Hasidic rabbi who defended himself against charges of molesting his daughter over a seven-year period was convicted on all counts Wednesday by a jury in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The victim, now 27, was escorted into the courtroom by U.S. marshals for the verdict, and sat in the front row opposite six siblings, ages 13 to 23, who support their father Israel Wein.garten.
Showing no emotion after he was found guilty of transporting the victim to Belgium, Israel and New York to commit sex crimes against her, Weingarten complained to the judge that he did not have time to prepare for the trial.
Weingarten faces up to 50 years in prison when he's sentenced by Judge John Gleeson on April 3.
The victim dresses in modern clothes, wears makeup and has left the Satmar sect. She agreed to speak to reporters and was asked how she felt being cross-examined on the witness stand by her father.
"Like being molested again," she said. "He thought he still had power over me. I think it was cruel to do that to me."
"I wish he wasn't my father."
The victim was adamant about being in the courtroom for the verdict. "I've been waiting my whole life for this," she said. "I didn't think the day would come when there would be justice, and I had to see it with my own eyes."
The mother and a brother of the victim testified on her behalf, with the mother saying she caught the pair in bed once and the brother saying their father had brainwashed them. They were not in court Wednesday, but the other six of Weingarten's children lashed out at the victim, their mother and the government.
"My sister? I didn't look at her. She's not even human," said Yakev Weingarten, 18.
Another sibling, Chayeh, who testified that her mother molested the victim, said they will hire a lawyer to appeal the conviction.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell called the verdict "an important vindication for victims who have the courage not only to survive the ordeal of sexual abuse, but to come forward despite outside pressure."
jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
After the verdict, the daughter said being questioned by her father was "like being molested again." She added: "I wish he wasn't my father." The woman has changed her name, but came forward and identified herself in open court as the daughter of the rabbi. She appeared at the trial wearing a pants suit and with her hair down -- a mainstream look she said her father had scorned.
She told jurors that once she grew up she left the faith and hoped "to forget everything that happened to me," mindful that her father had warned her she "would never be able to prove it." But she went public with her charges at the urging of her mother, who was embroiled in a custody dispute with her father.
She told the FBI in 2003 that she was victimized since age 9.
Prosecutors alleged Weingarten sexually abused her, sometimes on a daily basis, and moved the family around to help conceal his crimes.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 3.
The victim, now 27, was in the courtroom when the jury presented its verdict, convicting her father of all five counts of transporting her in foreign commerce with intent and for the purpose of sexually abusing her during the spring and summer of 1997.
The petite woman, wearing a gray pantsuit, later expressed relief and said she hoped other victims of sex abuse would come forward.
"I do want to say to every victim out there that is quiet, that carried the burden like I did my whole life, that there is a justice system and they can get heard," she said.
His other daughters and supporters broke into tears at the verdict.
"They didn't even listen to my father," his daughter Chayeh Weingarten, 23, said afterward. "No one listened to us."
She and other siblings said they were planning to hire a new lawyer to file an appeal.
Chayeh Weingarten and her sister Chaneh, 20, testified during the trial that their mother was the one who had molested their older sister.
The focus of the trial was whether Weingarten had traveled with his daughter, then a teenager, between Belgium, Israel and the United States to sexually abuse her.
The jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon. Deliberations continued yesterday and about 11 a.m., the jurors came back before Judge John Gleeson, saying they had reached verdicts on two counts but were deadlocked on three others.
Gleeson told the jurors that it would be too soon for them to declare that they were deadlocked and that they should continue their discussions.
While waiting for the jury's verdict, about a dozen of Weingarten's supporters from the ultra Orthodox community, including six of his eight children, sat in the courtroom praying for him. His children range in age from 13 to 27.
"I'm hoping for the truth to come out," said Hinda Landau, 26, of Monroe, N.Y., a family friend of the Weingartens. "This innocent person is suffering because of a few bad people."
The jurors once again came back to the courtroom to ask the judge to read part of the transcript, including cross-examination of the accuser by Weingarten.
"It's an important vindication for victims who have the courage not only to survive the ordeal of sexual abuse, but to come forward despite outside pressure."
Courthouse News & Cases
Bizarre Rabbi’s Incest Trial Tests Right to Self-Representation
by Samuel Newhouse (sam@brooklyneagle.net), published online 03-10-2009
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=26886
Most of Weingarten’s questions were buried in lengthy monologues of his Yiddish-inflected, heavily-accented English. For instance, last week, he cross-examined his son Yoineson about their family history.
“Isn’t that true that the last time when you had a Passover in Belgium was when my mother died and my father didn’t want the Seder in his house. It’s a holy day. A two-day celebration. … Do you remember I put my head down on the dining room table and I was crying, that, ‘What happen here?’ You hit your sister in the face.”
“No, I don’t remember,” his son said.
“You don’t recall that I put my head down, your own father crying like a baby, at, ‘How this happen?’”
“I don’t recall it,” his son said, growing visibly exasperated.
After jurors exited for a break last week, Judge John Gleeson, who dons a suit in court instead of traditional judicial robes, stood up and lectured Weingarten.
“You have these long narrative questions that aren’t really questions,” Judge Gleeson said last week. “They’re you saying what happened. I’m not going to let you keep doing it. ... You can take the stand as a witness yourself to put forward your version of events.”
“I’m trying to give you a fair trial,” the exasperated judge concluded.
His questions have implied that his daughter was sexually promiscuous and slept with an adult neighbor, and that his son and daughter were sexually involved with each other.
Weingarten asked his son last week repeatedly about numbingly small details about a deposition he gave to Rockland County authorities.
“I’m not going to let you quiz him – don’t interrupt -- about what he said on a prior occasion,” Judge Gleeson interrupted Weingarten at that point.
Some questions seem completely irrelevant, such as: “How late were you coming home from the yeshiva during the summertime?”
Several jurors fidgeted in their seats, while some wore clear expressions of anger and contempt as they stared at Weingarten. At one point, a young woman at the prosecution table burst out laughing inexplicably.
The Weingarten family drama has burst into the federal court in full force, with some family members supporting Weingarten’s alleged victim’s story – her brother and mother for example – while some younger family members, and other acquaintances, are willing to testify that he is innocent.
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/pdf/32_10bp.pdf
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Rabbi in costume helps bust shul house rocker
By Evan Gardner
for The Brooklyn Paper
Cops nabbed a man for repeatedly breaking into a Brooklyn Heights synagogue, finally delivering the congregation from torment by the burglar — and it couldn’t have happened on a more auspicious day.
Rabbi Aaron Raskin, who heads congregation B’nai Avraham, was preparing for Purim, a holiday that celebrates another long-ago deliverance, on March 10, when police told him that they had cornered the suspect on Henry Street, near Pierrepont Street.
Already in costume for his shul’s annual holiday festivities, Raskin hopped into the squad car and positively ID’d the suspect.
“I was the ‘Man in the Yellow Hat’ from the Curious George books,” said Raskin, who had met the suspect years ago when he came to the synagogue for charity.
Since then, the man has been breaking into the synagogue every few weeks and stealing charity donation boxes. The most-recent crime was on March 4, cops said.
Not long after the arrest, Raskin received another call from the cops. “They said that [the suspect] wanted to talk to me, and that he was telling them he was my friend,” said Raskin. “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined members of the House of Commons in saluting the Canadian Federation of Chabad-Lubavitch as 100 emissaries gathered for a national conference on Parliament Hill.
March 12, 2009
Religious Leaders Battle Abuse Bill in New York
By PAUL VITELLO
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials in New York are mounting an intense lobbying effort to block a bill before the State Legislature that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children.
A perennial proposal that has been quashed in past years by Republicans who controlled the State Senate, the bill is now widely supported by the new Democratic majority in that chamber, and for the first time is given a good chance of passing.
If signed by Gov. David A. Paterson, a longtime supporter, the bill would at minimum revive hundreds of claims filed in recent years against Catholic priests and dioceses in New York, but dismissed because they were made after the current time limit, which is five years after the accuser turns 18. Similar legislation has passed in Delaware and in California, where a 2003 law led to claims that have cost the church an estimated $800 million to $1 billion in damages and settlements.
CONTINUE READING HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/nyregion/12abuse.html?hp
I really hope this passes.
http://www.forward.com/articles/103850/
Sexual Abuse Survivors Join Debate Over Extending Claims
Will Legislation Help Victims, or Bankrupt Churches and Schools?
By Rebecca Dube
Published March 11, 2009, issue of March 20, 2009.
Jews who say they were sexually abused as children by their rabbis are seeking to tip the balance in favor of a long-stalled bill that would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in New York State — legislation that could have far-reaching impact on some Orthodox communities as they struggle with emerging allegations of child abuse.
What is so difficult about coming to a decision Mr. Shafran? You either support the bill because you care about kids getting raped or you don't, which I suspect is the real problem with you and the others.
"So far, no Jewish organizations have formally opposed the bill. Advocates have heard rumors of Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group for many Orthodox institutions, quietly lobbying against it; but its spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran said the organization is formulating a position on the issue and hasn’t yet come to a conclusion."
I fooled so many into voting for me, and now whoever thinks they made a mistake in doing so, it is too late to fix. You will suffer the consequences.
It will not be good for the Jews and Israel under my command. Now you should just suck it up and accept it. Stop whining about your misfortunes.
See you in 2012.
Below is an article in which supports my views.
Another Voice / Middle East
Terence S. Underwood: U. S. must be firmer with Israel to achieve peace
By Terence S. Underwood
03/14/09
The 60-year “special relationship” between America and Israel is one-sided. Our presidents bow obsequiously to Israel.
Disturbingly, The Buffalo News carried a report that five retired Israeli military or security officials including a head of Mossad, the dreaded Israeli foreign intelligence agency, either supported Sen. Obama — now President Obama— in the presidential election or saw no problem with his stance on Iran, which opposed Israel.
In a recent Newsweek article, Aaron David Miller, adviser to several Democratic and Republican administrations, says that “the new administration will have to be tough, much tougher than either Clinton or Bush were, if it’s serious about Arab-Israeli peacemaking.”
And, speaking of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, he adds that “in 25 years of working on this issue, I can’t recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity — including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolition — does to the peacemaking process. There is need to impose some accountability.”
How Israel treats people it controls is frightening. In World War II, Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army rescued countless Jews from Nazi death camps, but later withdrew from Germany as required by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel did not obey U. N. Resolution 242 to withdraw from occupied Palestinian land after the 1967 war.
Palestinian families, a recent CBS “60 Minutes” broadcast reported, are forced to live like prisoners in Gaza and the West Bank. Our lawmakers condemned the Palestinians for reacting violently. The rest of the world condemned America and Israel for wholesale slaughter of the Palestinians. Does Israel control our country? It sure looks like it.
March 15 marks six years since four Israeli chiefs of domestic intelligence — and some who came later — spoke against their government’s treatment of the Palestinians, calling it “disgraceful.” That’s not changed. Tens of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians signed peace petitions. The intelligence chiefs declared, “Israel must withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank.”
We must work with these brave Israelis and Palestinians. The longer problems remain, the danger of war increases.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the highest- ranking U. S. officer in uniform, told the Senate that “our army is stretched too thin,” and, “repeated deployments are hurting their families,” as our once-invincible army is forced to fight in the Middle East. Our overburdened troops must be brought home.
A rabbi and his friend approached me at lunch in a restaurant. The rabbi’s friend said, “Christians and Jews must destroy Islam!” I disagreed, and the rabbi later apologized. That kind of thinking may save us from Armageddon.
Terence S. Underwood, a former Britishmajor who served in the Mideast in WorldWar II, lives in Tonawanda.
Find this article at:
http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/607313.html
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rosenberg140309.html
Ban El Al. They show dirty movies.
'Those children were animals'
http://tampabay.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/ny-legislature-considering-sex-abuse-bill-to-help-victims.aspx?googleid=259060
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It's not the first time the New York State Legislature has considered measures that would open up the statute of limitations for sexual abuse victims. However, this year, the Child Victims Act, has a very good chance of becoming law. The proposal, if it makes it to the Governor's desk, would provide sexual abuse victims a one year window during which they could seek civil justice against the perpetrators as well as the institutions that covered up for them.
The bill does face stiff opposition from the NY Catholic Conference whose lobbying efforts will be aggressive and prodigious. As usual the NY Catholic dioceses argue that the bill unfairly targets institutions like the Catholic Church. In their argument, they neglect the fact that hundreds if not thousands of New York sexual abuse victims have suffered at the hands of priests in the Dioceses of Albany, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Rockville Centre, Brooklyn, Syracuse, and the Archdiocese of New York.
The newly appointed Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan has yet to weigh in on the legislation. However, it's widely believed he will go along with his brother bishops in the State by vigorously opposing the Child Victims Act.
Let's hope the NY State legislators have the courage to do the right thing for victims.
"We believe this bill is designed to bankrupt the Catholic Church," said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, a group representing the bishops of the state's eight dioceses. He said Egan and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn visited Albany this week to voice their opposition, and that a statewide network of Catholic parishioners has bombarded lawmakers with e-mails.
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/mar/14/orthodox-jews-urged-to-report-abuse-cases/
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Orthodox Jews urged to report abuse cases
By Nicole Neroulias
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
In the wake of the sex-abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church, members of other faiths began reconsidering how they handle allegations against clergy, teachers and youth leaders. For Orthodox Jews, whose communal life is shaped by religious courts and a desire to avoid bad publicity, abuse often went unreported -- a situation that has slowly started to change -- much to Rabbi Yosef Blau's relief.
Blau, 70, Yeshiva University's spiritual adviser, has worked with The Awareness Center, a Jewish coalition against sexual abuse. He spoke about recent allegations against several Brooklyn rabbis, and the community's struggles to understand that such matters require outside investigators.
Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q. How did you become an advocate for Jewish sex-abuse victims?
A. About 20 years ago, Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a very successful head of an Orthodox youth movement, was accused of misconduct. The community set up a rabbinical court, and I was one of the people chosen to be on it. It was a disaster.
Q. How would you have handled the situation now?
A. I would go to the appropriate state authorities and the police and give support to the victims. But this is still not a community that thinks of going to the police. There's a history around the world of anti-Semitism, so Jews learned not to trust the secular authorities. It became taboo to report on problems to the outside world.
Q: What more needs to be done?
A. Our obligation is to protect children. The leadership must acknowledge the seriousness of the problem, and the community must encourage victims to go to the secular authorities and stop stigmatizing them. We have to find a way of breaking the taboo, and that is the process that's going on.
Too much gelt for somvan who vus abused end probebly deserved it.
Sex abuse victim awarded $19 million
John Bachman
March 11, 2009 - 10:21PM
The victim was sexually assaulted from the age of three until she was nine years old. She's now in her mid 20's but still today she's suffering the severe effects of years of sexual abuse at the hands of a family member. Tim Crowe he was convicted multiple counts of attempted sexual battery on a minor under the age of 12. And one count of lewd and lascivious act on a minor and one count of lewd assault plus another chargre Crowe served 7 years of 17 year sentence and is now living in this high rise condo building in Miami beach. Meanwhile the victim's lawyer tells us she's been dealing with victim's guilt. But this verdict is the answer that they've been waiting for. Her lawyer says they don't expect to collect all of the 19 million dollars, but he hopes this sends a message to other victims of sexual assault, that justice is worth fighting for.
"She really hopes this inspires other survivors to come forward and regain their voices to confront the perpetrators, expose them for what they are and hold them accountable," said attorney Michael Dolce.
He says Part of the verdict includes at $700 thousand dollars set aside for medical treatment. And her attorney says she will need psychological help for the rest of her life.
How long until a decision from Albany happens on opening the window? From my perspective if it passes it will bring music and joy to me. Many years have passed and my frustration has mounted to the degree of suicidal thoughts. I tried every Rabbi and they didn't want to get involved. Some promised but did nothing. The only way to overcome these burdens is by never giving up hope and by having people that care like yourself. Dave Paterson please protect our children.
http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/50044/
Q. Some of the supermarket superchains on the East Coast were founded by Jews during the last few decades of the twentieth century. Is it true that in the past few years, many of these chains have been sold to non-Jewish investors?
A. Yes, it is true. In fact, when this happened, many rabbis gave a sigh of relief, as we thought that matters had been simplified—and one could buy chametz after Pesach in all those supermarkets. But not so! Shortly thereafter we learned that the largest distributor of food items on the East Coast, which distributes products to a number of major supermarket chains, is the Jewish-owned C&S (Cohen & Siegel). If the distributor owns chametz during Pesach, the very same problems of chametz sheavar alav haPesach apply equally to all non-Jewish-owned stores supplied by that company. Rabbi Elazar Mayer Teitz of Elizabeth, New Jersey, sells the chametz of C&S, but the concern discussed above with respect to supermarkets (the inability of the rabbi to sell chametz that is acquired on Pesach) has now shifted to the distributor, and the problems remain the same.
Some rabbis are of the opinion that one can purchase chametz after Pesach in non-Jewish supermarkets that are supplied by C&S. The logic goes as follows: Whatever chametz was in the possession of C&S before Pesach is not problematic, since it is sold to a non-Jew before Pesach begins. Chametz purchased by C&S after Pesach is obviously acceptable for use. Only chametz acquired during Pesach is therefore a matter of concern. No one is certain how long it takes for products to move from the C&S warehouse to the supermarket shelf. Let’s say you visit your local supermarket (which uses C&S as a supplier) the week after Pesach and you see a box of Cheerios on the shelf. There is no way to determine if that box is chametz sheavar alav haPesach. The same uncertainty prevails if you shop two or three weeks later. Since we are dealing with chametz sheavar alav haPesach, which is a rabbinic injunction, the rule of “safek derabbanan lekula” applies and one can be lenient and purchase the Cheerios.
Other rabbanim are not comfortable with this approach. We know with certainty that at some point in time, most of the chametz in the store will be chametz sheavar alav haPesach. Because of our lack of information, we can’t establish precisely when that is. It is unreasonable to allow the purchase of chametz at all times when we know that, at some instance, the chametz is prohibited. I have discussed this topic with Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, halachic consultant to the OU, on many occasions, and he firmly subscribes to the latter view.
Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought
(Volume One: 1932-1975)
By Libby Kahane
The Institute for the Publication
of the Writings of Meir Kahane
Jerusalem, 2008
746 pages
I remember the first time he came to us twelve years ago. He was slim even in those days and handsome. But it was not just the physical beauty of his face that caught your eye and held it! There was a certain brooding quality about his eyes as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. If ever a human being felt the pain and anguish of his brothers, it was Meir Kahane. This feeling, which one Jew is supposed to have for another, was to lead him into avenues even he could not have foreseen (p. 399).
http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/50163/
Orthodox Union
www.ou.org imageOften, when serious illness occurs, it is all too easy for the patient and his family to feel alone and at a loss about what to do. The various issues that arise—financial, medical and halachic—can seem daunting. Factor in the emotional stress that accompanies any major illness, and the experience can be downright terrifying for all involved.
Attempting to assist patients and their families, the Orthodox Union’s (OU) Department of Community Services is offering communal symposiums designed to provide the greater Jewish community with information, tools and resources to help navigate the maze of halachic, ethical and medical complexities that accompany critical illness. The symposiums, attended by hundreds and run by the OU in conjunction with the Metropolitan Jewish Health System (MJHS) in New York, bring together experts on different aspects of end-of-life care: a rabbi, a palliative care physician, an elder-care attorney (to discuss financial planning and the costs incurred when treating a terminally ill patient) and a chaplain (to discuss common emotional reactions experienced by patients and their families when approaching the end of life). Entitled “When Serious Illness Strikes…,” the symposiums, launched in 2005 and held throughout the New York area, have included prominent speakers in the rabbinic, medical and legal fields. Speakers have included Rabbi Tzvi Flaum, former rabbi of Congregation Kneseth Israel in Far Rockaway and mashgiach ruchani of Lander College for Women; Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshivah of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and halachic consultant for the OU; Rabbi Mordechai Willig, rosh yeshivah and rosh kollel of RIETS; Eytan Kobre, an elder-care attorney in Manhattan and Dr. Beth Popp, oncologist, associate director of the Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology and director of the Palliative Care Program at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.
“When serious illness strikes, the question is, Who makes the decision about treatment and end-of-life care—the patient, the physician or the rabbi?” asks Frank Buchweitz, director of the OU’s Department of Community Services and Special Projects. “Unfortunately, illness can strike at any age, and information and education can help overcome the anxiety and stress that families facing illness experience.”
The “When Illness Strikes…” symposiums have covered a variety of issues including halachic living wills, halachically permissible autopsies (according to many rabbis, an autopsy is permissible if the results could have an immediate benefit to living patients) and halachic hospice care (in which nutrition and hydration are not withheld, as is usually the case).
“When, God forbid, illness strikes, it changes all the dimensions of family life,” says OU President Stephen J. Savitsky, who has worked in the healthcare field for more than thirty years.
Who makes the decision about treatment and end-of-life care—the patient, the physician or the rabbi?”
“The more knowledge one has on this important topic, the easier it will be to handle the adversity.”
Toby Weiss, project manager of the Department of Hospice and Palliative Care of MJHS, hopes that “people who come to these discussions will walk away with a greater understanding and deeper appreciation of what services are available to improve the quality of life for both a seriously ill patient and his family.”
Weiss adds: “It’s extremely important to know how to access resources that can provide comfort and address quality of life issues in a halachically compatible way.”
The OU’s Department of Community Services is expanding its “When Illness Strikes…” program to meet the needs of communities around the country. Communities interested in hosting a symposium should contact Frank Buchweitz at 212.613.8188 or frank@ou.org.
Tova Ross is a public relations assistant at the Orthodox Union and a freelance journalist. She lives in Westchester, New York, with her husband, David.
ABCs of Religion: K is for kosher
By Susan Orr
Saturday, March 14, 2009
According to Leviticus 11, God decreed that certain types of animals were acceptable as food for the Israelites, while others were not.
Animals with cloven hooves that chew cud were acceptable, but other animals were not. Fish could be eaten only if they had both fins and scales. Certain birds, mostly birds of prey, were also off-limits.
Rabbis later built upon these guidelines to develop the Jewish dietary laws known as kashrut. These laws specify what foods are acceptable for Jews to eat and how the foods should be prepared and eaten. Foods that meet these standards are known as kosher.
There are three types of kosher foods: meat (kosher animals slaughtered according to kosher standards); dairy; and neutral, or pareve, a category that includes eggs, fish, nuts, fruits, vegetables, seeds and tofu.
Kashrut also specifies that milk and meat products must be kept separate, a law that grew out of the biblical prohibition against cooking a baby goat in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21).
Those who keep kosher typically keep two sets of cookware, plates and silverware — one for meat and one for dairy. Keeping kosher also requires that if a person eats meat, he must wait for a time before eating dairy.
Among respondents in the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey, 21 percent said they keep kosher at home.
By Susan Orr / Courier & Press staff writer / 461-0783 or orrs@courierpress.com
Sources: 2000/2001 National Jewish Population Survey (www.ujc.org/njps); Judaism 101 (www.jewfaq.org); www.myjewishlearning.com; "The Joy of Sects: A Spirited Guide to the World's Religious Traditions," by Peter Occhiogrosso
Visit courierpress.com to read previous ABCs of Religion
Dov Hikind is a fraud because he lies. He didn't help the Niedermans like he had promised. He didn't hand over the names of child predators to police. Do not trust this man.
The only reason why Margaret M. Markey wants to extend the statute of limitations is to target my yeshiva.
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newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-liprie6071337mar16,0,7567750.story
Newsday.com
Catholics have mixed reactions on sex abuse bill
BY LAURA RIVERA
Staff writers Jennifer Barrios and Christina Hernandez contributed to this story.
March 16, 2009
In three prominent parishes of the Diocese of Rockville Centre yesterday, a child sex-abuse victims bill pending in Albany drew mixed reactions from Catholics attending Sunday Mass.
At St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre, the seat of the diocese, Sal Abiuso of Rosedale said he welcomes the passage of the bill because he believes it would help those who were victimized as children.
"It's going to stay in their mind as long as they live," said Abiuso, who served as an usher at a morning Mass. "They should be allowed to go to court."
The bill, sponsored by Assemb. Margaret M. Markey (D-Maspeth), would extend the statute of limitations on future cases from five years to 10 years after the accuser turns 18.
It would also suspend the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases for one year, allowing past victims to file civil lawsuits against alleged attackers and institutions where they worked.
Markey has sponsored the bill in three prior legislative sessions, where it has passed in the Democratic-led Assembly and stalled in the then-Republican-controlled Senate. Some supporters say it now has a good chance of passing because Democrats have gained a majority in the Senate.
Diocese of Rockville Centre spokesman Sean Dolan said the suspension of the statute of limitations was "fundamentally unfair" because "it's impossible to defend against claims that took place 50, 60, 70 years ago."
The bill may be voted out of committee in the Assembly as early as Tuesday.
"I just want the bill to come out so that people have an opportunity ... to present their case in a court of law," said Tim Echausse, Long Island director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "The secrets have to come out."
He was among more than a dozen SNAP and Voice of the Faithful members distributing fliers to parishioners outside St. Kilian parish in Farmingdale yesterday. The fliers called on the diocese to disclose the names of all clergy who have been transferred or retired due to "credible allegations" of abuse.
"I'd like to see it put to bed, in a sense," said Angel Curcio of Farmingdale, a parishioner at St. Kilian. "But I don't want to see any suits. This can be done in another manner."
Curcio said the Vatican should adjudicate child sex abuse claims where the statute of limitations have expired, instead of making these clergy subject to lawsuits.
Richard Graziano of Brightwaters, who attended parochial school, voiced ambivalence about the need to confront wrongdoing and the possible effects of costly litigation on church-funded charities.
"We can't hide from it," he said. "People have been badly hurt, but the consequences are severe. Charities are already short [on funding]."
Staff writers Jennifer Barrios and Christina Hernandez contributed to this story.
http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/menu-id-52/?gclid=CMeZwqrsp5kCFQrFGgodN1NIpg
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In the U.S., over 1 million people a year are abused in some way. We're including sexual abuse, physical abuse, and psychological or emotional abuse.
"I was abused as a child by a member of my family. I never spoke out, living in shame even to this day." - Nicole, 34 years old
Researchers who study abuse victims agree the impact of abuse can last a lifetime. Many live with the shame of what happened to them and may suffer with a myriad of mental health problems like depression, addictions, and dissociative disorders. They have trouble with relationships, some self-injure. Others may become abusers themselves.
"As a teenager, my father would get drunk and beat the crap out of me. I swore I would never do that to my son, but I did and paid a huge price for it." - Doug, 42 years old
Unfortunately, most people who have been, or are being abused, don't seek help. The HealthyPlace Abuse Community features information on all types of abuse, the signs and symptoms of abuse, how to report abuse, where to get help and the types of treatments available. We also have extensive information on Dissociative Disorders and self-injury, usually the by-products of abuse. And there's a special section on bullies and bullying.
If you are looking for abuse support, come join the HealthyPlace Support Network. Sometimes, communicating with others who have similar experiences can bring comfort and be a great help.
Orthodox Union
www.ou.org imageRuminating about the economic turndown, I came across a fascinating article in the June 1, 2008 issue of the New York Times, “It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich.” It describes the financial travails of Manhattan’s super-rich. Although their investments once engendered huge annual incomes, these incomes have now shrunk to as low as $2 million a year. They do not face foreclosure of their chateau-like Park Avenue apartments, nor are they reduced to frequenting discount stores, but the financial turmoil has seriously lowered their luxurious standard of living. They are no longer able, for example, to hire private jets at $10,000 an hour. Some even worry about their marriages, fearful that their trophy wives, accustomed to extravagant spending, might leave them entirely.
While pondering this, I heard a strange crackling on my telephone. I picked it up and overheard a voice saying: “Pass this message on to the rich Manhattanites: My name is Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and I’m talking to you from the eighteenth century. Among the books I have written is Mesillat Yesharim, Path of the Righteous, published in 1740—but before you dismiss it as out of date, listen to chapter 13: ‘When one accustoms himself to luxuries, to enjoying the excesses of the so-called good life, danger lurks around the corner.’ Even though I wrote that 250 years ago, you will admit that it is very current.”
The connection sputtered out. A call that spans a few hundred years, after all, is a very long distance call.
I went back to the Times article. The personal trainer to many executives was saying that because of stress, many super-rich are suffering sleepless nights, overdrinking and overworking, thus hurting their physical well being.
Rabbi Luzzatto came back on the line: “I am happy that the Times corroborates my teaching, but all this is very obvious. That same chapter 13 says:
Should the person who is used to luxury even momentarily lack what he is accustomed to, he becomes greatly depressed, and throws himself even more vigorously into the toils of commerce and acquisitions in order to recoup his losses—and thus embarks once again onto the cycle that led to his depression in the first place.
“You have my sympathies,” he said. “God be with you.”
I resumed reading the Times. The personal trainer was saying: “They come in with these storm-clouds over their heads. They look like hell.”
Luxuries are not forbidden—as long as we run them, and they don’t run us. Luxury-envy can easily turn into luxury-lust.”
The line crackled again. “Shalom! I am Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam, son and disciple of the famous Maimonides. I could not help overhearing. In my book, The Guide to Serving God, I discuss the quality of ‘histapkut,’ which means ‘contentment with little.’ This is not easy to achieve, but once it is, it is a guarantee for happiness in life, a real antidote to the misery you are now experiencing. See my chapter 9:
He who has learned to be content with what he has, and not to look at what others have, will fully enjoy life. Greed and hunger for more and more only makes us less and less healthy. The simple life leads to good health. To dress flashily, or eat greedily, or to amass extravagant possessions only leads to misery in the long run.
Although I wrote this in 1230, now you surely understand that this is not just medieval pie-in-the-sky moralizing, but very practical advice. Your personal trainer takes several hundred dollars an hour. But what I tell you is better for your health—and it’s free.”
The rich Manhattanites were silent. How were they supposed to know the teachings of ancient Jewish moralists?
However, one would have expected a person like Ehud Olmert, raised in a Jewish land, to have been exposed to some of these ideas. Olmert’s ethical problems all stem from his apparent desire to emulate his wealthy acquaintances. (By the way, who was the last Israeli prime minister who lived rather simply? One has to go back decades. Was it Menachem Begin? Golda Meir? David Ben-Gurion?) As I considered this, Rabbi Luzzatto began talking: “Ehud, you have been leading a Jewish country. How can it be that you evidently never saw my books, which are considered Jewish classics? You might have spared yourself much tzaros. Listen to my chapter 15:
When one sees the splendor and riches of men of great wealth, it is impossible for lust not to rise up—and danger lies ahead—because the lust for luxuries soon gives way to envy and fraud, all generated by the things he is convinced he must have.…
“Ehud, I don’t want to kick you while you are down, but surely my words make sense to you.”
Olmert responded: “With all due respect, my dear rabbi, what you said might have been fitting for the eighteenth century, but this is the twenty-first century. Surely there is nothing wrong with an occasional little luxury.”
Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam came on the line, in what had become a century-spanning conference call: “Ehud, you are right. We are not to become monks or nuns. God wants us to enjoy the pleasures of the world—but all within the confines of His guidelines. Luxuries are not forbidden—as long as we run them, and they don’t run us. Luxury-envy can easily turn into luxury-lust.”
Chimed in Rabbi Luzzatto: “In other words, when “I-would-like-that” becomes “I-must-have-that-come-what-may,” that is the red alert. The next stop is what we in the thirteenth century call vexation of spirit, and what you moderns call depression. Ehud? Ehud, are you still on the line?”
I awoke from my reverie wondering why such books are not required reading in all Jewish schools. Not only could they help create a happier citizenry, but they could also create a healthier community.
It was then that I discovered the perfect gift for the person who has everything. Give a starter kit to good health and contentment: a deluxe package of these two newly translated classics, Rabbi Luzzatto’s Path of the Righteous and Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam’s Guide to Serving God. And lest the recipient consider them quaint and outdated, wrap them in a copy of the June 1, 2008 issue of the New York Times.
Rabbi Feldman was rabbi in Atlanta, Georgia, for forty years. He is the former editor of Tradition magazine, and the author of nine books.
DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile - We start where the media stop
Al Qaeda: We shot the Israeli policemen near Masuah
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
March 16, 2009, 11:21 PM (GMT+02:00)
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the murder of two Israeli policemen Sunday night outside Masuah in the Jordan Valley Sunday night, March 15, DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources reveal.
The claim appeared Monday in a leaflet circulated in Jordan and the West Bank announcing that the shooting of the two Israeli policemen was al Qaeda's first operation "on the West Bank" and there were more to come.
(DEBKAfile publishes the leaflet here for the first time.)
The victims were David Rabinovich, 50 from Rosh Ha'ayin and Yehezkiel Ramzarkar, 42, from Maale Ephraim.
The pamphlet details the mechanics and timing of the lethal ambush: "Our team waylaid the Israeli security vehicle on Highway 90 and killed its passengers." It also revealed that the killers set out on their mission immediately after Osama bin Laden's last tape was aired by Al Jazeera Saturday "to carry out his orders."
It does not specify whether they came from Jordan or the West Bank. Bin Laden stated that, as the Americans start pulling out of Iraq jihad must be relocated to "the Palestinian territories."
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources point to his key phrase as being: "Jordan… is the best and widest front, and from Jordan the second launching will be toward the West Bank."
Hamas hardens stance in soldier release talks-Israel
Mon Mar 16, 2009
JERUSALEM, March 16 (Reuters) - Israel accused Hamas on Monday of hardening its stance in Egyptian-brokered talks between the two sides over swapping hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a captured Israeli soldier.
The Israeli cabinet is set to convene in special session on Tuesday to hear a report from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's special envoys to the talks who were making a last-ditch effort to secure a deal before Olmert leaves office shortly.
A statement issued by the Israeli Prime Minister's office said the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas had "hardened its stance, had gone back on understandings formulated during the past year and had raised its demands despite generous offers" made by Israel.
newsday.com/iphone/ny-liabuse0318,0,6536032.story
newsday.com
State Assembly panel advances sex abuse bill
BY JAMES T. MADORE
james.madore@newsday.com
3:47 PM EDT, March 17, 2009
ALBANY
A controversial bill -- allowing victims of sex abuse to file suit years after the abuse -- was approved Tuesday by an Assembly committee.
The Assembly Codes Committee, in an 11-8 vote, approved sending the measure from Assemb. Margaret Markey (D- Maspeth) to the Assembly floor for a vote.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D- Manhattan) told Newsday the bill would be considered, though he didn't know if it would pass. The measure has been adopted in the past by the Assembly only to die in the then-Republican-controlled State Senate.
The Catholic Church and others oppose the bill because it temporarily lifts for one year the statute of limitations on abuse cases, many of which took place years ago.
A rival bill from Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) failed to pass the committee. Its primary focus is to ease the ability of victims of future abuse to file lawsuits against their abusers but not third parties such as employers.
The Lopez bill has the support of the Catholic Church.
In the Senate, the Markey bill is sponsored by Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan). It will be considered by the Senate Codes Committee, though no time frame has yet been set.
marc leonard
March 17, 2009 4:57 PM
What a bizarre essay, and bizarre comment.
There is no equation or ratio here, and it's disgusting to insinuate that rocket launchers are worth more than lives to anyone (especially since Hamas is not the only group launching rockets). Israel clearly has no regard for Palestinian lives. I pose the question: exactly how are the Palestinians supposed to end the occupation of their lands, achieve equal rights in Jerusalem, get their property back, end the checkpoints, take down the walls - what would it take to make Israel stop? What does Israel want that is NOT at the expense of the human rights and dignity of others? What do they want?
Why do the Palestinians not rise up against Hamas? Why do the Americans not rise up against the Republicans, or the Israelis against Likud? The same reasons.
Apartheid will fail, in the end. It is taboo to note this, but clearly the Israelis employ totalitarian tactics best modeled by the Nazis. This is not to say that Israel is as bad as the Nazi's, but their justifiable claim to a certain moral status of victim has unfortunately been lost in the haze of checkpoints, ghettos, harassment, assassinations, property theft and destruction, and plain old murder, policies which naturally result in the rise of insipid thuggery demonstrated by Hamas, who happily strapped bombs onto retarded kids and put them on buses to murder civilians. There's no excuse for that sort of abomination, but that doesn't mean one should ignore the source of it.
---------------------------------
They want peace, Mark. Don't you get it?
The instigators are the Palestinians and Hamas. They always have been. Israel reached out with olive branches so many times, and all they got in return is more violence and Jihad. So stop blaming Israel for everything. You come acoss sounding like another Anti-Semitic lowlife.
Welcome! You are not alone.
Survive child sexual abuse? Is that the best we can say, "I'm surviving?" That's Dr. Wayne Kritzberg's point in The Invisible Wound. Survivors will tell you that dealing with the aftermath of child sexual abuse is a matter of survival - life and death - for a lot of guys. But Dr. Kritzberg points out that the perpetrator has robbed the young boy of any of the joy and beauty in life, beyond mere "surviving."
Can a man lead a healthy, full and creative life after surviving child sexual abuse? Yes he can, but the road is rough. This section of MenWeb is devoted to helping male survivors to find such a life. We offer some articles and other information for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. We've heard a lot about survivors, but so much of it is geared to women. But some experts believe that male children are sexually abused as much as, or almost as much as, female children. And women, as well as men, are perpetrators. Here we present some male-focused and male-positive articles and information, specifically for male survivors. Their needs are often quite different from female survivors. For example, male survivors frequently get involved in anger. The information is from MenWeb, with additional information from other Web sites specifically geared to male survivors. In those cases, we've provided links to those sites, for more information.
The good news is that there's lots of help and support "out there" if you know where to look. We'll try to help you with that.
Doggie (Scott in background)
The Associate WebMaster here is Scott Abraham, a survivor who knows from personal experience the healing power of survivors telling their stories to each other. He has been courageous enough to author several "hot" stories that have appeared in MEN Magazine, in the hopes that "going public" with his story will help other men. His review of books for male survivors, including the book he says saved his life, first appeared on MenWeb, and has been picked up by a large number of other Web sites. Scott is finishing up work on his counseling degree.
To begin with, we present three stories by Scott, written at different points on his own journey, and Scott's now-famous book review. We will add more content as we get it.
Are you a survivor, or do you know one? Do you need help knowing where to turn? Do you have a story you'd like to tell, or a treatment approach you'd like to talk about? E-mail Scott! Talk to us! He will respond privately and, as appropriate (with full regard for permission and anonymity, of course!) add selected questions and answers to a Web page we're designing, "Questions and Answers: Male Survivors of Child Sex Abuse."
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6715131
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Cardinal Roger Mahony Takes Stand in Clergy Abuse Trial
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
By Amanda Perez
Fresno, CA, USA (KFSN) -- The head of the nation's largest Catholic diocese took the stand Tuesday in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit in Fresno. Cardinal Roger Mahony once served in the Diocese of Fresno. Two men are suing, claiming they were abused over a 14 year period decades ago and that the diocese did nothing to stop it.
Tuesday's testimony marked only second time Mahony has testified in a civil case involving clergy abuse. Plaintiffs George and Howard Santillan claim they were abused by a Wasco priest between 1959 and 1973, while Mahony was an administrator in the Diocese of Fresno. Mahoney served in the diocese from 1962 to 1980, beginning as a priest at St. John's Cathedral. He was eventually appointed to bishop. That's around the same time two boys claim to have been abused by their priest, Anthony Herdegen, hundreds of times at a Wasco church.
On the witness stand, Cardinal Mahony said such allegations would have been investigated and noted in confidential priest files, but said quote, "I don't recall any case or allegations of sexual abuse while I was here."
But attorneys for the Santillans and David Clohessy, an advocate for those abused by clergy, say the Diocese of Fresno should have known. "It's just hard to believe that anyone will believe that not a single employee knew or should have known," said Clohessy.
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The Santillans are now middle aged men. Though jurors haven't heard from them directly yet, they did hear an audio recording presented by a Kern County detective. In a phone conversation lasting longer than 40 minutes and taped in 2003, George Santillan confronts his alleged abuser, Hardegen. Hardegen repeatedly apologizes, saying, "Whatever I did to you, George, I apologize."
He also acknowledged taking and burning a nude photo of Santillan but only specifically addresses the abuse when prompted. Herdegen is heard repeating Santillan's words saying, "I'm sorry I performed [this sexual act on you] and ask for your forgiveness."
The Santillans didn't tell anyone about the abuse until 1980's and court documents say at that point their mother confronted the priest's housekeeper, who the boys said let them in and out of the rectory. The Santillans' mother says the woman broke down in tears. Today, Cardinal Mahony said if a housekeeper did know of any inappropriate behavior, she should have said something, but maintained he was never told about any accusations.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. Winston Churchill
newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stabus186073352mar18,0,7241215.story
Newsday.com
Controversial sex abuse bill passes State Assembly committee
BY JAMES T. MADORE
james.madore@newsday.com
March 18, 2009
ALBANY
A controversial bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children was adopted Tuesday by an Assembly committee.
In an 11-8 vote, the Codes Committee sent the legislation from Assemb. Margaret M. Markey (D- Maspeth) to the Assembly floor for a vote, which could occur in a few weeks. The measure passed the legislature's lower chamber three times previously only to die in the then-Republican-controlled State Senate.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D- Manhattan) told Newsday the bill would be brought to a vote. "There is no short circuit - it comes to the floor, that's our process."
Still, powerful interests such as the Catholic Church oppose the legislation because it gives people alleging sexual abuse as children a special one-year window to file suit in civil court, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. The one-year period would start when the bill is signed into law.
Many abuse claims against priests were dismissed because they were made after the current time limit, which is five years after the accuser turns 18.
Asked for Markey's response to the committee vote, aide Michael Armstrong said she "continues to be cautiously optimistic that this is the year for this legislation."
He also said Markey would not accept amendments to the bill. "This bill does not single out anybody," Armstrong added.
Sean Dolan, of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, disagreed, saying the bill "unfairly focuses on the church and private institutions ... it will wreak havoc on the church in New York and more specifically on Long Island."
In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by state Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan), but there isn't yet a timetable for consideration.
At yesterday's Assembly committee meeting, political party affiliation and geography didn't influence the outcome. The three members from Long Island were split, for example.
Assemb. Robin Schimminger (D-Kenmore), who opposed the bill, said lifting the statute of limitations temporarily would produce innumerable claims. "There is no ceiling, no final number that we know of ... it's kind of open-ended," he said.
Schimminger, joined by seven other committee members, pushed unsuccessfully for a rival bill, which doesn't include the one-year window and adds two years to the statute of limitations. The measure, from Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) and state Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), is backed by the Catholic bishops, in part because it eliminates the liability of employers and other third parties.
Assemb. Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), codes committee chairman, predicted the bill will be considered eventually.
Separately, state Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) has introduced a measure eliminating the statute of limitations for sex abuse against children. It doesn't yet have a sponsor in the Assembly.
How they voted
The 19-member Assembly Codes Committee yesterday approved a bill providing a one-year window for victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits even if their cases are decades old. The bill now goes before the full Assembly for a vote.
TO APPROVE
Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), committee chairman
Thomas Alfano (R-North Valley Stream)
James Brennan (D-Brooklyn)
Vivian Cook (D- South Ozone Park)
Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn)
Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove)
Daniel O'Donnell (D-Manhattan)
J. Gary Pretlow (D- Mount Vernon)
Michele Titus (D-South Ozone Park)
Helene Weinstein (D-Brooklyn)
Keith Wright (D-Manhattan)
TO DEFEAT
George Amedore (R-Rotterdam)
Philip Boyle (R- West Islip)
Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn)
Robin Schimminger (D-Kenmore)
Dede Scozzafava (R-Gouverneur)
David Townsend Jr. (R-Rome)
Mark Weprin (D- Queens Village)
Kenneth Zebrowski (D-New City)
Compiled by Albany bureau chief James T. Madore
Apparently he thought the seal was a boy.
Halifax bus driver suspended after beating toy seal with stick
Anti-seal hunt protest being held at time of incident
Last Updated: Monday, March 16, 2009 | 8:45 AM NT Comments397Recommend141
CBC News
A Halifax bus driver will be suspended with pay while Metro Transit investigates why he jumped out of his bus and used a stick to beat a toy seal being used as a prop by anti-seal hunt protesters.
"This behaviour is unacceptable. We have met with the operator and appropriate action will be forthcoming," said a news release from Metro Transit general manager Pat Soanes on Monday afternoon.
Police have already said the driver will not face criminal charges.
The incident happened on Saturday as anti-seal hunt protesters set up on Spring Garden Road, the busy downtown Halifax shopping district, as part of an international day of action against seal hunting.
The protesters were using a toy seal covered in fake blood as a prop, to help make their point that sealing is inhumane.
Driver charged us, allege demonstrators
The driver was behind the wheel of his bus when he spotted the protest.
"He exited the bus and went over to the area where the protesters were, and began beating on the stuffed animal seal that was on the ground there," said Staff Sgt. Don Fox of the Halifax Regional Police.
The driver used a stick to beat the stuffed toy.
Fox said police officers removed the driver from the protest area and contacted his supervisors. The driver then got back on his bus and continued with his workday, according to police.
Bridget Curran, who was speaking at the anti-sealing protest when the bus driver approached, says her group felt intimidated and threatened.
"He did actually charge at a group of peaceful demonstrators holding a weapon in his hand," said Curran, who wants the police to lay charges against the driver.
By not pressing charges, Curran said people could perceive that it's permissible to charge at demonstrators if they don't like their message.
Refresher course in development: transit officials
This comes several days after another embarrassing incident involving a Metro Transit bus driver. On Tuesday, a driver initially refused to let a Muslim woman wearing a veil over her face get on his bus.
An eyewitness to that incident told CBC News that the driver was upset that the woman was wearing a headdress that allowed only her eyes to show.
The woman was eventually allowed on the vehicle.
Soanes said the incidents have been tough on the organization.
"It's been a difficult time in the organization for the past number of weeks. And I think I speak on behalf of all the employees when I say that's the case," she said.
"Whether recent events indicate to the contrary, I believe that our employees do an outstanding job day in and day out."
Metro Transit says its will develop a training program for its operators, including refresher courses in customer relations, diversity training and conflict management.
Warsaw - Thousands of Hasidic Jews will on Tuesday pray at the grave in Poland of one of the faith's most influential rabbis, marking the 223 anniversary of his death.
Rabbi Elimelech Weisblum's grave in southeastern Poland will see Jews from across the world come to pray, dance and sing at one of the most significant places in the Hasidic faith.
The anniversary is 'classically Jewish - chaotic,' Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'It's very intense and it's also very individual,' Schudrich said. 'Rabbi Elimelech was one of the great Hasidic masters and it's considered a great merit to visit the grave of someone that's on such a high spiritual level at the anniversary of his death.'
Elimelech lived from 1717 to 1787, and became one of the most important figures in the Orthodox Jewish faith after dedicating his life to studying the Torah.
He came to Lezajsk in 1772 and turned it into a center for Hasidism.
The town had a big Jewish population before World War II and became again a destination for pilgrims in the 1970s.
'Generally there are two kinds of rabbis - those who inspire people, and those who wrote a great legal tracts,' Schudrich said. 'He was more on the spiritual side.'
"'Generally there are two kinds of rabbis - those who inspire people, and those who wrote a great legal tracts,' Schudrich said. 'He was more on the spiritual side.'"
Do we fall into any of the two categories mentioned? Perhaps they should put us in a third category called "Drek Rabbis."
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15197/News/New_York.html
In Abuse Case, Press Charges Or Help The Victim?
by Temima Shulman
Special to The Jewish Week
A rabbinic expert on abuse in the Jewish community told a conference in Teaneck, N.J., dealing with child sexual abuse last week that “working outside of law enforcement is irresponsible,” and was highly critical of the efforts of Borough Park Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
Rabbi Mark Dratch, who heads JSafe, a not-for-profit organization that addresses issues of abuse in the Jewish community, depicted Hikind, who has been outspoken in recent months in calling attention to the problem of abuse in the Orthodox community, as trying to be an advocate for the abused while refusing to give over the names of alleged perpetrators he says he has amassed to the police.
Speaking to about 35 people at a daylong conference sponsored by UTJ, the Union for
Traditional Judaism, the rabbi said that Jewish law calls for reporting alleged perpetrators to the authorities.
“Our community has neither the expertise or authority to enforce the law,” he later told The Jewish Week, “and that leads to perpetrators being unsupervised.”
But while Rabbi Dratch asserted at the conference that the first action should be to report abuse to local authorities, Rachel Yehuda, a professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical School, said that “reporting is not the very first thing that needs to happen.
“When a child discloses,” she said, “the No. 1, most important thing that needs to happen is to help the child.”
Rabbi Dratch acknowledged the tension between the two approaches, maintaining that it is important to help the victim, but not, he believes, at the expense of endangering untold future victims.
Attendees at the conference included men of all ages, with and without kippot, and women with and without head coverings, rabbis, psychologists, a mother who suspects her children are being abused, a teenage boy who was there in support of his friend, a victim, other former victims and even a man who confided to organizers that he is a former predator.
“Among us are people who have suffered unspeakable pain at the hands of others,” said Rabbi Ronald Price, executive director of UTJ, at the outset of the program. “By us coming face to face they will know that we care that no one suffers their pain again,” he said.
Both Rabbi Dratch and Dr. Michael Kaplowitz, director of behavioral health at the Kahn Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, cited the Torah prohibition of not standing by idly as another person suffers. This law, they said, is the basis for the obligation of Jews to protect victims of sexual abuse.
Rabbi Dratch said he became involved years ago when he saw the lack of response of his colleagues to congregants’ stories of sexual abuse. He charged that some rabbis “abused Jewish laws for the sake of other agendas.” He explained that the community’s fear of sexual abuse being revealed — the “shanda” (or shame) of it — is actually what the community will be judged by.
“Cover-up is the larger scandal, that’s the desecration of God’s name,” he said, referring to the fear in the Orthodox community of desecrating God’s name by revealing that the Jewish community has this problem.
A panel, which in addition to Rabbi Dratch and Yehuda included attorney Michael Lesher and Rabbi Fred Hyman, covered such questions as, Should the Jewish community have a list of suspected predators? What does Jewish law require of a predator in order to repent? Can a predator ever repent, and change his behavior? Is there a place, and a structure, for a repentant predator in the Jewish community? And does a victim have to forgive?
The conversation became heated at times when former victims in the audience disagreed with Rabbi Dratch’s criticism of Hikind for insisting that he will not disclose the names of any predators or victims to authorities.
But rather than silence the audience members, moderator Mitch Morrison, a writer from Passaic, N.J., who organized the program, said, “This dialectic is healthy and necessary. We’re seeing the tensions here.”
At one point a woman in the audience asked what to do with a court system that doesn’t seem to be protecting her children, whom she fears are being sexually abused by her former husband.
Lesher, who co-authored a book entitled “From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running From the Family Courts,” said “there needs to be a system that is governed by an explicit standard,” adding that “we’re in the infancy in developing this process.”
Several attendees praised the conference for its openness and depth.
“I found this meeting different than all the others,” said a 45-year-old man who says he was victimized as a sixth grader by a rabbi at a Boston area Jewish school.
“It was a validation,” the man said.
Ellen Labinsky, a New York City psychologist in private practice, said “this kind of dialogue is essential,” and hoped it would help lead to systems within the Jewish community to better deal with the many resulting problems.
Reports Of Non-Kosher Meat At Borough Park Kosher Restaurant
The still-roiling controversy over an apparently accidental breach in kashrus protocol at Borough Park’s Shawarma King restaurant has the Brooklyn frum community all abuzz.
It was initially reported that treif hot dogs were being served at the restaurant. Later it was learned that the contraband had resulted from a series of errors on the part of management. Rabbi Moshe Babad shed much light on the confusion and furiously flying e-mail rumors and photos.
Firstly, there are two kashrus organizations bearing the name Babad: The Tartikover Rov, Rabbi Yechiel Babad, who maintains an independent kashrus certifying agency; and The Tartikover Beis Din, under the leadership of Rabbi Naftali Meir Babad. Both organizations get along with each other without rivalry or conflict.
Shawarma King’s certification is issued by the Tartikover Beis Din under Rabbi Naftali Meir Babad—not the Tartikover Rov, Rabbi Yechiel Babad.
“What happened last night was a terrible mistake,” Rabbi Moshe Babad said. Rabbi Babad explained that the storeowner’s brother-in-law from Israel came in to the restaurant recently. The brother-in-law had only been in America for two weeks.
At some point, someone—who critically has yet to be identified—instructed a recently-hired non-Jewish employee to go to the KRM Kollel store around the corner to purchase Meal Mart franks. “Who told the goy to go is under question,” said Rabbi Babad, pointing out that “the goy is not allowed to go—they can only buy [meat] from the supplier.” According to Rabbi Babad, the worker went to the non-Jewish grocery across the street, where he purchased four packs of non-kosher hot dogs. Rabbi Babad insisted that “No one was trying to fool anybody.”
According to Rabbi Babad the following events happened next:
1. One customer ordered franks, collected his order, and sat down to eat. 2. A second customer ordered franks. 3. In the second customer’s presence, the non-Jewish worker opened one pack of non-kosher franks and placed four franks on the grill. 4. The brother-in-law of the owner, overseeing the restaurant at the time, noticed that the franks appeared unusual. 5. The franks were then discovered to be non-kosher.
“Besides last night, there has been no problem whatsoever” at Shawarma King with regards to kashrus, said Rabbi Babad. “There was definitely a breach. The only question is how many people ate” the non-kosher franks. “The second person not, the first, maybe. There might have been one person in the middle, we’re looking into it,” said Rabbi Babad. In other words, the only question is whether any non-kosher franks are unaccounted for.
Rabbi Babad added that the restaurant is under 24-hour video surveillance and that the beis din is waiting for the technician’s arrival so that footage can be examined to determine the precise sequence of events and the parties involved.
“The etzem fact that the goy opened it in front of a customer is proof” that nothing furtive was being done, Rabbi Babad said.
As of Tuesday morning, the restaurant’s mashgiach was in a meeting regarding the situation. The restaurant is currently closed. (Vos Iz Neias)
Published on 19/03/2009
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5153
New York Child Victims Act Moves Forward
Date Published: Thursday, March 19th, 2009
he New York Child Victims Act is now closer to becoming law. The act, which would extend the statute of limitations for filing child sex abuse lawsuits, was approved by the New York Assembly Codes Committee on Tuesday. The New York Child Victims Act now moves on to the full Assembly, although a vote is not expected for several weeks.
The impetus for the Child Victims Act was the Roman Catholic Church child sexual abuse scandal that has rocked New York, as well as much of the country, over the past decade. Because of the current statute of limitations, hundreds of claims filed in recent years against Catholic priests and dioceses in New York have been dismissed.
Currently, the deadline for bringing such a lawsuit in New York is 5 years after a victim turns 18. As we reported earlier this month, the Child Victims Act would give victims a one-year exemption from the statute of limitations. Regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred, they could file suit in civil court. At the year’s end, time limits on such claims would be restored, but with a wider window: Instead of a five-year period after turning 18, victims would have 10 years to file claims.
The Child Victims Act has been proposed before, but never passed. According to a report in The New York Times, Republicans in the state Senate had always been able to block the bill. But, the Democrats now control the legislature. What’s more, the Times said Gov. David Paterson is a proponent of the act, and would likely sign it if it is passed.
According to a report on The National Law Journal website, the Codes Committee passed the Child Victims Act by a margin of 11-8. An alternate measure, which was supported by religious institutions, including the Catholic Church, was defeated by the same margin. The alternate would have extended to 25 the age until which childhood sex abuse victims can file civil suits, the Law Journal said. However, it did not provide any relief to victims whose claims now exceed the statute of limitations.
Both the Catholic Church and some Orthodox Jewish groups oppose the Child Victims Act. According to the Law Journal, the Church argues that it would allow lawsuits for decades-old claims that would be impossible to defend.
Supporters of the alternative also claim it closes a loophole in the Child Victims Act by allowing suits based on the sexual abuse of children in schools, housing complexes and other public accommodations, the Law Journal said. They claim legal protections granted under existing state law to all public workers and agencies would bar such lawsuits. But advocates of the Child Victims Act say the legislation does allow those types of claims.
Some other states have already adopted laws similar to the New York Child Victims Act. In California alone, such a measure has allowed the adult victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy to win between $800 million to $1 billion in damages and settlements.
I she talking about me and my victims?
" What you have in this case, is you have a man, who was very good at what he did. He was good at gaining access to children and then exploiting access that he had," said Sean McCormack, Chief Deputy District Attorney, Dauphin County.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15223/News/New_York.html
by Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week
A bill in the New York State legislature to extend the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse, and to open a one-year window for victims to file civil suits regardless of when the alleged abuse took place, appears to be splitting the Orthodox community. And it is revealing what may be a growing gap between some of the established communal organizations and the people they claim to represent.
The bill, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens), cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday when it was approved 11-8 by the Assembly Codes Committee. It will now be scheduled for a vote on the Assembly floor.
A rival bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), was defeated by the committee...
Yeshiva of Brooklyn lets me still work with children thanks to my buddy shlomo mandel. So when I read this I wasn't at all surprised.
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A little over two years ago, a Fresno jury found Father Eric Swearingen guilty (9-3) of molesting a former altar boy, however, Bishop John J. Steinbock has continued to allow this man to work with children at the Holy Spirit Parish in Fresno, California.
What is Bishop Steinbock thinking? Would a school district allow a teacher faced with the same situation as Swearingen (I find it inappropriate to refer to him as "Father," as it shows deference to a man who, frankly, doesn't deserve it) to continue working with children? As a parent, would you want your children around a man like that?
Bishop Steinbock, based on his actions, could care less about the future safety of children within any of his parishes and this was especially punctuated yesterday, as he waltzed into a Fresno courtroom, for another clergy sexual abuse case involving one of his former priests, and casually winked at the jury. His attitude, though, changed almost immediately after being questioned by the plaintiff's attorney, Jeff Anderson.
Jeff Anderson: Bishop, when did you first realize or learn that when an adult lays his hands on the genitals of a child and manipulates the genitals of a child and places them on the body of a child for sexual purposes, it was a crime? When did you first realize that?
Bishop: You know, it's really hard for me to say. I think society --
Anderson: No, you.
Bishop: Me?
Anderson: You.
Bishop: I think I thought along with society for so many years it was --
Anderson: Bishop, I'm going to ask you to focus on the question. When did you first learn that it was a crime for an adult, a person over the age of 18, to engage in sex with a kid?
Bishop: Well, I think we would all think that was always a criminal case.
Anderson: If you knew that, then why didn't you turn it over to the law enforcement for them to determine whether or not a crime had been committed and the statute of limitations had passed or not?
Bishop: Because I do not have an allegation of that against him. This is way back in 1995. As I said, I had no cause to take his faculties or away. There was no allegation.
Anderson: You were concerned about a civil suit because you go on to say [in the Bishop's own notes from 1995], "There can always be a civil suit," right?
Bishop: Well, there can always be a civil suit. But I'm also thinking of his, you know, that might be a civil suit against him. I mean, I wasn't aware that they'd probably just come at the Diocese alone. I figured they would also go after the priest.
Wow! Steinbock's responses at one point show that back in 1995, when the current allegation was brought to his attention, he was more concerned with a civil suit than turning over any evidence of wrongdoing by his clergymen to the authorities.
Again, what is Steinbock thinking and who above him (i.e. the Pope, Cardinal Mahony) would allow for this type of behavior to continue in ANY Catholic diocese throughout the world?
Find this article at:
http://losangeles.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/fresno-diocese-continues-to-let-accused-child-molester-work-with-children.aspx?googleid=259428
Does anyone know when the civil trial against TT and
Kolko is supposed to happen?
The plaintiffs’ lawyers subpoenaed the cardinal, believing his deposition offers evidence that the diocese may have been informed of the alleged molestation by a housekeeper. According to court documents, the housekeeper let the boys into the accused priest’s rectory bedroom and knew they were alone with him.
"I don't recall any case while I was here of allegations of sexual abuse of a child," Cardinal Mahony testified. "I don't know how it would be handled, because I don't recall it."
He said there were no “procedures” or “handbooks” to describe church employees’ duties to report abuse. According to the Los Angeles Times, the cardinal said he would have expected the housekeeper to come forward.
Panel advances bill on lapsed sex cases
Religious groups fear effects of longer statute of limitations in measure
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009
ALBANY — A bill that would allow for the reopening of lapsed cases of sexual abuse of children is moving to both legislative chambers despite strong opposition from religious organizations fearing bankruptcy if alleged victims get an extension on the statute of limitations to sue.
The Codes Committee of the Assembly passed the measure Tuesday, meaning it will be sent to the general body soon, and the Democrat-controlled Senate companion piece gained more sponsors, including the head of that chamber's Codes Committee, Sen. Eric Schneiderman.
The bill creates a one-year window of opportunity to revive a "dead" case if the claim comes with a certificate from a professional, such as a psychologist, who opines that the alleged victim probably was subjected to one or more acts of child sexual abuse.
The legislation, which was put forward by Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey, D-Queens, and Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, also calls for extending the civil statute of limitations for an injury or condition as a result of the felony of incest or use of a child in a sex act. Such suits would be permissible under the new law if filed five years after a person turns 23, instead of five years after turning 18, as is the case now.
The measure passed 11-8 in the Codes Committee, much closer than in the past, with mostly GOP opposition but also some no votes from the Democratic majority.
However, although Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, voted against the measure, Assemblyman Thomas Alfano, R-North Valley Stream, supported it.
"People should have their day in court," said Alfano. "They still have to prove it to a jury."
Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore, voted no on moving the measure, saying it is unprecedented to reopen cases other than those for exposure to suspected carcinogens where facts can be clearly ascertained.
The measure cleared the Assembly three years running, but this year the obstacle of a Republican-led Senate has been removed, said Mark Furnish, Duane's counsel.
He said victims have appealed for the chance to sue and need greater time because many cannot cope with going public until well beyond their teenage years. He said several Hasidic Jewish victims recently appealed to have the age limit extended more than a dozen years past age 18. Similar measures are the law in California and Delaware and have led to hundreds of settlements, typically paid by insurance companies.
Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the Catholic Conference, said the measure must be defeated to protect dioceses from financial ruin. The conference instead backs an alternate bill that would specifically impact private and public institutions without the one-year window opened on cases that are decades old.
The Markey/Duane bill is supported by the Public Employees Federation and the New York State Trial Lawyers. The Rev. Jason McGuire, legislative director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, said the proposal is a way for trial attorneys to get rich.
Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or jodato@timesunion.com
Borough Park man Moshe Spitzer charged with years of sexual abuse of teen neighbor
BY Simone Weichselbaum
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Friday, March 20th 2009, 1:47 AM
A Borough Park man was slapped with a 135-count indictment Thursday after a teen neighbor charged he had endured years of sexual abuse.
Moshe Spitzer, 24, was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court for sex acts and sex abuse, and similar charges, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.
The victim, now 18, confided to a neighborhood Yeshiva principal about the abuse, said law enforcement sources.
The principal encouraged the victim to speak to his parents about the illegal meetings inside various motel rooms and apartments. Spitzer was 20 when he started taking his younger neighbor out.
"Open lines of communication between communities and law enforcement are essential to fighting crime, and we are pleased that this victim came forward," said Hynes spokesman Jerry Schmetterer.
Authorities are hoping the case will prompt more help from the usually tight-lipped leaders of Brooklyn's Hasidic sects about sexual abuse in their communities.
"The principal did the right thing and didn't try to cover anything up," said one law enforcement source.
In one notorious case, Borough Park rabbi Yehuda Kolko was accused of molesting his students at Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Some victims said the school purposely kept the abuse quiet and hit the yeshiva with multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
"The whole issue is that yeshivas were covering these up," said Orthodox Jewish community child abuse advocate Mark Appel of Am Echad. "Because of the publicity, schools are getting frightened. They don't want to get sued."
Since October, at least five men living in Brooklyn's Hasidic enclaves have been charged with sexually abusing children ranging in age from 7 to 15.
"It is remarkable progress," Appel said.
Investigators said they are seeing more families willing to cooperate and think more abusers will end up behind bars.
"People are starting to realize, teachers and the rabbis, that the only way to stop this is to go to the authorities," said another police source.
"It takes a lot for a teenage boy to stand before a grand jury," the source said. "The system is accommodating to the victim. The district attorney's office and the police department are trying to make it as comfortable as possible."
simonew@nydailynews.com
"The whole issue is that yeshivas were covering these up," said Orthodox Jewish community child abuse advocate Mark Appel of Am Echad. "Because of the publicity, schools are getting frightened. They don't want to get sued."
Since October, at least five men living in Brooklyn's Hasidic enclaves have been charged with sexually abusing children ranging in age from 7 to 15.
"It is remarkable progress," Appel said.
This is why the Palestinians are so good at what they do, they know how how to propagandize. Lies and deceit of the worst kind. If we were going to compare the differences on the humanatarian issue- Israel has far superior credentials. For one, they don't carry out suicide missions that murder in cold blood innocent civilians.
"Suffering Palestinians," who find themselves in a situation in which they have none to blame but themselves.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3689878,00.html
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"According to the Shin Bet, 60% of those released attempt to murder again," Eliyahu writes. "If just a small number of these succeed in carrying out their evil schemes, as occurred this week in the Jordan Valley, we will have lost more than we gained."
The rabbi adds, "Every time I see someone supporting the campaign to 'release Gilad Shalit at any price' I want to get out of the car and tell him, 'You know, the responsibility rests with you too'.
"I wonder if those same people would come to the funerals of those killed following this dangerous deal. It will end in murder. In the end, every citizens' opinion accumulates to public opinion that causes ministers to make decisions that are sometimes wrong and may cause a lot of bloodshed."
Rabbi Eliyahu also criticizes the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah. "The ministers that voted in favor of releasing terrorists in a deal with Hizbullah in exchange for body parts raised the price for Gilad's release," he writes.
"I don't envy the afterlives of the ministers who voted in favor of the release because of media pressure. This is not politics, it's life."
New York Post
HASIDIC TEEN-RAPE PERV GUILTY
By LAURA ITALIANO
March 20, 2009 --
A 23-year-old Hasidic Jew who'd insisted he was too devout to deal with rape and child-porn charges against him pleaded guilty yesterday to seducing three Westchester girls ages 14 and 15.
David Silverman, of Rockland County, will be sentenced next month to one to four years for rape, sodomy and child endangerment.
The victims had met him online via MySpace in 2007.
Raised in an ultra-Orthodox community, Silverman had by then moved away, tattooed his body, shaved his head and pierced both ears.
He and two of his buddies now believed to be in Israel got the girls drunk in an illegal club near the Javits Center and photographed the resulting orgy.
By the time he was indicted a half-year later, Silverman had returned to Hasidism, and insisted he'd never had sex with the girls.
But prosecutors later recovered from Silverman's laptop computer a series of photographs recording the orgy in X-rated detail.
ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson has cast doubt on the future of a bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children.
The legislation, now headed to the Assembly floor for a vote, gives abuse victims a special one-year window to file suit in civil court regardless of how long ago the assault occurred. The one-year period would start when the bill, from Assemb. Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), is signed into law by the governor.
Paterson expressed reservations Friday. "These types of cases could go back, 20, 30, 40 years, and since the evidence probably doesn't exist in any way to convict the perpetrator ... the accusation would hinder the career of any person who was accused," he told Newsday.
Paterson said he favors legislation that doesn't include the one-year window and adds two years to the statute of limitations. "There are a couple of competing bills. ... The one I think that I probably like the best at this point was introduced by Assemblyman Vito Lopez ."
This is what we call tough love. A little bit of chinuch never hurts a child.
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It is an emotional account of child abuse and neglect so despicable it will make any parent cringe.
Earlier this week, Metro arrested Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie after their five-month-old daughter was discovered to have bruises, fractured ribs, burns, and was severely malnourished. News 3's Dan Ball spoke with a woman who lived with the Frisbies for a short time. She explains why she finally came forward about the abuse she witnessed.
Danielle Gill, her husband, and her small son lived with Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie and their five-month-old daughter Alexius in a small apartment at the Suites on Boulder Highway for about two weeks. In that short amount of time, Danielle says she witnessed things that will haunt her forever.
"They rarely tended to the baby. They let the baby cry a lot, the baby didn't get fed that much. Kyle was very rough with the baby. If the baby was choking, he would put her up on his knee on her stomach and then smack her really hard on the back. It wasn't just a normal tap, it was to the point that he was hitting her so hard that her limbs were flailing and she had to gasp for air a few times."
Danielle says that most days, Kyle and Jennifer completely ignored little Alexius and would only feed her once or twice per day.
"Every morning they argued (about) who had to feed the baby. And if no one wanted to feed the baby, the baby had to go starving. They just didn't like taking care of the kids. They always said the baby got on their nerves."
Dan Ball: You're a mother. This is obliviously very upsetting?
Danielle: Yes it is. It was really hard to see. We let the cops know this happened on a daily basis.
A medical report given to Metro states that the infant's skin was folded over and sagging, and her limbs were elongated with little or no muscle mass. Also, she had multiple rib fractures.
"Kyle was the one that was real rough - picking her up by her throat, snapping her head around, thrashing her around, throwing her on the bed real hard, shaking her, slapping her stomach and ribs," explains Danielle. "If the baby had formula on her mouth, then he would like wipe it until there was blood in her mouth."
Alexius was also found with burns on her nose and ear. Danielle says Jennifer Frisbie told her that Kyle purposely held the infant close to a vaporizer, burning her.
"They need to get what they deserve and they need to be put in jail. And they need to be treated they way they treated that baby so they know what that baby went through."
Danielle says she would have come forward sooner, but she received some bad advice from a friend.
"When I had called to get some help from somebody, I was told that if I were to call the cops, I would be blamed for most of it because I was the one watching her."
On Wednesday, March 18, the Frisbies left Alexius with Danielle while they went to give plasma, their main source of income. It was then that Danielle says she realized she had to get help.
"(Kyle) went to grab her skull and whip it around, but the body couldn't go with the head, so basically, the head got tucked underneath the back. And when they left Alexius in my care for the day, the right side of her temple started swelling real bad. She was vomiting blood."
Little Alexius is still being cared for at Sunrise Hospital while her parents are being held on $20,000 bail.
Danielle Gill says that Jennifer Frisbie also had another baby several years ago that was taken away from her because she was found to be an unfit mother. Both Kyle and Jennifer Frisbie are due to appear in court Monday at 8 am.
http://www.survivorshealingcenter.org/
They shouldn't be sending a goy out to buy hot dogs. A mistake it is, but it should not have happened in the first place. Where was the mashgiach?
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/non.kosher.frankfurter.2.965310.html
Non-Kosher Hot Dog Incites Rage At Jewish Eatery
Restaurant Owner Brandished Electric Knife To Fend Off Enraged Customers
March 23, 2009
Editorial
A Window for Justice
For decades, priests who preyed sexually on children did so with shocking ease and impunity. Their superiors acted as functional accomplices, shuttling abusive priests among parishes and buying or bullying victims into silence. Shame and guilt did the rest, burying abuses under a shroud of secrecy that often far outlasted the statute of limitations for prosecutions or lawsuits.
Those victims deserve a day in court. The New York Legislature should grant it to them, by passing a bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of children.
The bill would open a one-year window during which accusers would be allowed to sue in civil court, no matter how old the case. After a year, the statute of limitations would be restored, but an accuser would have up to 10 years after turning 18 to make a claim, instead of five. The statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions would not be changed.
Like similar measures in Delaware and California, the Child Victims Act seeks to balance the need for reasonable time limits for lawsuits against the unusual challenges in uncovering sexual crimes against children.
It can take decades before victims are ready to make the wrenching decision to tell their stories.
Add to that problem the particulars of the priest abuse scandal. It had its roots in the 1960s and 70s, but did not engulf the Catholic Church — which systematically covered up for the criminals in its clergy — until 2002, when its many victims were in their 30s or older.
The bill does not explicitly target any institution. Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials are lobbying against it, arguing that it is unfair to allow decades-old accusations against old men who are ill equipped to defend themselves when evidence is lost or forgotten and witnesses are dead. They also, naturally, fear a wave of expensive settlements and damage awards like the one that struck the Los Angeles Archdiocese when the statute of limitations was lifted under a 2003 law.
Those fairness concerns are vastly outweighed by the need to dispense fairness to those who were powerless to seek it. Exposing abuse is also a matter of public safety. It is wrong to allow the institutional shame of the Catholic Church to remain hidden in church files and in the anguished hearts of victims. Their continued suffering and the prevention of future abuses are the strongest arguments for passage of the Child Victims Act.
Why does the world media love to hate Israel?
By Bradley Burston
I was just in the States, speaking to members of Ameinu, an organization which, the times notwithstanding, remains outspoken both in its support for peace and its support for Israel.
Among the topics I was asked to address was the portrayal of the Jewish state in the news media. Phrased a little less delicately, the issue amounts to: "Why does the press love to hate Israel?"
The question has taken on an unusual urgency of late, its pivot points Israel's war in Gaza, the debate over engaging a proto-nuclear Iran, the UN's upcoming Durban II World Conference against Racism, Avigdor Lieberman's Arab-baiting campaign for Knesset, and, not least, disclosures in Haaretz, Ma'ariv, and Israeli broadcast media quoting IDF troops describing moral failings during the Gaza offensive.
Allow me to begin with the underlying first question.
Are there journalists who truly dislike Jews, and allow their Jew-hate to color their coverage?
Yes. I've met and, in fact, worked with, a number of them. Some of them, it will come as no surprise to report, are themselves Jewish. But does this explain or account for a significant portion of negative coverage of Israel in the media? It does not. Not at all.
What does?
1. What Israel says, and what Israel does.
A. In all the world, there is no bait more tempting for a reporter than Israel's assertion that its military is the "most moral in the world." This is the socially clueless Goliath wearing a sign reading "Kick Me." It is the one irresistible soft target of sound bites.
B. Anyone who has been in a war, as a participant, reporter, or civilian bystander, knows that any war, every war, spawns war crimes. The question, when examining the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, was whether there was something different, something exceptional and intentional and, especially, a matter of policy and command direction, that either trapped or targeted large numbers of civilians, resulting in a human tragedy far beyond the horrible reality of the very fact of warfare.
Was, in other words, this war different from all other wars? Or was this war the trigger for an outpouring of anti-Israel animus that was, for lack of a better term, disproportionate?
Although the jury is still out pending further independent inquiry, the likely answer to both is: Yes.
C. There is reason to believe that, at least in certain units, massive and, in retrospect, excessive firepower was employed, the apparent result of a miscalculation about how, and where, Hamas fighters were likely to engage in combat. In the main, Hamas, whose men had fought to the death in previous encounters, refrained from engaging the IDF at all.
There remains a need for intensive and impartial investigation to determine the extent and the cause of actions which led directly to the deaths of innocents.
D. The fact that may be most difficult to digest - either for haters of Israel or its most ardently positive supporters - is that Israel's armed forces have always been marked by an extraordinary degree of autonomy, down to the level of the individual grunt.
As a direct result, there were instances of Israeli soldiers who risked their own lives to save those of innocents, and there were Israeli soldiers who were predisposed to take the lives of innocents without just cause.
2. What Palestinians say that Israel does.
There are journalists who accept without reservation or corroboration the accounts of Palestinians regarding the actions of Israeli soldiers. There are television networks, some of them financed by Qatar, whose coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even during studio interviews, is accompanied by unending, obscenely graphic footage of infants and children wounded and killed in the war.
The first rule of covering the Holy Land is also in some ways the only rule:
3. Everyone lies to the press here. Everyone. All the time.
This is similar to, but not the same as:
4. Middle East news, like news in general, is marketing.
We are, all of us, in marketing. We are, all of us, in the business of selling a story. This includes the eyewitness, the victim, the military commander, the Hamas official, the Israeli spokesman, the betrayed, the bereaved, the film crew, the pundit.
Every news outlet has a lens through which it believes the story will best sell to an increasingly news-inured public. Every individual, Israeli or Palestinian, has an axe to grind, and a world full of good reasons to grind it.
5. Sometimes Israel looks bad because it is made to look bad. At other times, however, Israeli actions appear brutal because they, in fact, are.
Much has been made of what may be the least translatable word in the Hebrew language, Hasbara, literally, the act of explaining:
"It is true that the world media, generally speaking, doesn't like Israel very much, and stacks the deck against it, but good hasbara starts with not allowing soldiers to vandalize Palestinian homes and shoot Palestinian women," writes Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, a veteran of the IDF, of the disclosures over the past week in Haaretz.
"Public relations isn't a morally relevant category, in any case: The crucial question is, how should a civilized country behave when confronting barbarism? With barbarism? Or with respect for innocent life? Pardon me for saying so, but the Jewish people didn't struggle for national equality, justice and freedom so that some of its sons could behave like Cossacks.
"Please don't get me wrong: I'm not equating the morality of the IDF to that of Hamas. The goal of Hamas is to murder innocent people; the goal of the IDF is to avoid murdering innocent people. But when the IDF fails to achieve its goal, and ends up inflicting needless destruction and suffering, it sullies not only its own name, but the name of the Jewish state. It risks making a just cause - Jewish nationhood - seem unjust, and it ultimately endangers what it is supposed to protect."
6. Israelis, as a people and individually, are execrable at public relations because they abhor and distrust the very concept.
There is a reason why Israelis are so breathtakingly inept at furthering their own cause.
It is not only becuse this war was a frank and literally misguided attempt to redress years of misguidance. Or because the war between the Jews and the Arabs, this war which has raged for more than a hundred years, has robbed both sides of its ability to see the humanity of the other.
It is also because Israelis hate the very idea of public relations. They live in a country which has been under effective world quarantine for nearly all if its history.They live in a society whose trait of unbridled openness has become something of a learning disability. They speak a language which is light years and thousands of literal years away from television English. They are bathed in a culture which insulates itself and armors itself and has had little reason to believe the world will give it a fair shake.They have a shared, largely unspoken truth which is based, in part, on the world's inability to fathom their behavior. And they believe that no matter what they do, much of the world is likely to condemn them. And in this,at least, they have seldom been proven wrong.
Former QC bus driver gets 30 years for sex with girl, 15
by Jim Walsh - Mar. 23, 2009
The Arizona Republic
A former Queen Creek bus driver was sentenced to 30 years in prison after jurors found him guilty of child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor and sex abuse.
The charges against John Joseph Byrne, 64, stemmed from August 2007, when he was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl on a Queen Creek Unified School District bus.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Helene Abrams sentenced Byrne on Friday to 17 years for child molestation, plus 13 additional years for sexual conduct of a minor.
Abrams also sentenced Byrne to a five-year sentence for sexual abuse that will run concurrently with the child molestation sentence, and one year concurrent sentences on three other sex charges.
Jurors found Byrne guilty of six counts and not guilty of five other sex charges on Jan. 29 after an 11-day trial, according to court records.
Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested Bryne on Aug. 25, 2007, after the victim told investigators that she had sex with the man, according to a probable-cause statement.
The girl said she met Bryne when she was in seventh grade and that he would arrange to pick the girl up early.
The pair would touch each other and had sex a couple of times, according to the statement.
Bryne later admitted to the sexual contact with the victim, the statement said.
Does this mean there was penetration that took place?
-
NEW CITY - A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced today to five years in state prison for repeatedly sodomizing an underage orphaned boy.
Katz had pleaded guilty last month to sodomizing the boy, then 12 years old, whom he had befriended.
Advertisement
The victim, now 18, was in court today but was too distraught to read his statement. His brother read the statement.
The statement described years of sexual abuse at the hands of Jaime Katz of Nanuet.
The teen's statement described how Katz used his position as a police officer and a person of authority to make advances to the him when he was a child.
"You are a crooked cop and a crooked person," victim's brother said to Katz.
The victim's brother also told Katz that he doubted that he regretted his actions.
"I don't believe you are truly sorry," he said. "You are only sorry you got caught. You are pathetic."
Rockland County Court Judge Judge Victor Alfieri told Katz that he had preyed on a vulnerable young person and his family.
"You knew how vulnerable they were," Alfieri said.
The judge imposed the five-year sentence with 10 years post-release supervision, but expressed reservations.
"For what you did, this agreement is light," Alfieri said. "I have my doubts about going along with this."
Read more about this tomorrow in The Journal News.
So Dovid Paterson is opposed to this bill. I knew this guy was a flake. Agudah must be bouncing up and down like happy kids after hearing the Governor. I wonder if Paterson would feel the same had his child been abused. Shouldn't a murderer be exempt from going to jail if he got away with it for 50 years, yet we all know there is no limitations on homicides, so why is sex abuse any different?
President Obama was only joking last week when he quipped on Jay Leno's show that his bowling is "like the Special Olympics or something." To his credit, the President quickly realized that his joke was insensitive and not funny and so he called Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics, to apologize.
Did he really need to do that? Is there something wrong with us that we can no longer take a joke?
That's what Jackie Mason seems to think. After he used the Yiddish slur for a black person -- schvartze -- in reference to President Obama during a performance in New York On March 12, he refused to apologize for his choice of words. According to the Web site TMZ, Mason said: "I'm an old Jew. I was raised in a Jewish family where 'schvartze' was used. It's not a demeaning word and I'm not going to defend myself."
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http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/03/obamas_shameful_joke.html
Masbia fulfills a tremendous need in the community. Their acts of charity does not go unnoticed.
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Hungry for soup kitchens: 3 new Masbias set for Jewish nabes in Brooklyn and Queens
BY Joyce Shelby
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, March 24th 2009, 4:00 AM
When the kosher soup kitchen Masbia opened in Borough Park nearly four years ago, it served a total of eight patrons.
"Now, we have nights when we go over 200," said Alexander Rapaport, Masbia's executive director. And the need is growing.
With hunger and poverty growing in the Jewish community, Masbia is now planning to open three more kosher soup kitchens - two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The first on Lee St. in Williamsburg is expected to open in June.
Among Jewish communities in Brooklyn, Williamsburg has the highest level of poverty, with 64% of households earning less than $35,000, according to a UJA-Federation study.
The council is looking for a second site somewhere in southern Brooklyn to serve needy residents in Midwood, Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Coney Island.
The third kitchen will be in central Queens to serve Jackson Heights, Rego Park, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.
"We're focusing on the areas with the highest concentrations of poor, working poor and middle-class people who have lost jobs and can't make ends meet," said William Rapfogel, director of Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which is partnering with Masbia in operating the soup kitchens.
The new facilities will be patterned after Masbia, which is set up like a restaurant, with artificial plants surrounding tables to offer diners a sense of privacy.
"This is about making sure people have a dignified way to have a meal in a clean, safe environment," Rapfogel said.
Social workers will regularly visit to make sure diners take advantage of other services they might be eligible for, such as children's insurance or Medicaid.
Rapaport said he was concerned particularly about the increasing numbers of children being brought to Masbia for meals. On a recent night, he counted 61 youngsters.
"We used to average around 20 a day," Rapaport said.
The downturn in the economy has led to a rise in middle-class diners at Masbia, Rapaport said. "Their shame is so much bigger. They don't know where to call for food stamps. They don't know where food pantries are. People have just fallen into this situation."
Brooklyn Daily News reporter Joyce Shelby died last week at the age of 62. This was the last story she wrote. To see the News' tribute to our own Joyce Shelby, visit: NYDailyNews.com/ny_local/Brooklyn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M402YJFf78
A group of former Israeli soldiers say they have new evidence of potential war crimes committed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza. These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelle...
A group of former Israeli soldiers say they have new evidence of potential war crimes committed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza. These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelled at the Israeli military and the claims have sparked a bitter debate within Israel's defence forces and wider society over the "morality" of the IDF and its behaviour in Gaza.
Category: News & Politics
Tags:
Al Jazeera English Inside Story Gaza Israel war crimes Palestine IDF
NEW YORK -- One of the world's top matzo manufacturers got started with a simple premise: "I'm going to bake matzos this year. ... We'll see how it goes."
That's what 19th century Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz is said to have told his wife after they arrived in America, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania struggling to survive -- and to create something new.
In 1888, he founded the company that revolutionized production of the unleavened bread at the core of Jewish ritual meals, turning it into a mass-marketed, packaged product.
The week-long Passover feast, starting at sundown on April 8 this year, marks the ancient Hebrews' hurried escape from Egypt, before their bread had time to rise. Hence, the flat, unleavened matzo.
Manischewitz now is America's largest producer of processed kosher food, making not only their staple matzo but everything from salad dressing and low-calorie borscht to matzo ball mix and wasabi horseradish. The company was run by the family until 1990, when it was sold for $42.5 million...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-koshermanager-jew,0,3275875.story
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By AMY LORENTZEN | Associated Press Writer
March 25, 2009
DES MOINES, Iowa - The former manager of an embattled kosher slaughterhouse in northeast Iowa who faces nearly 100 federal charges has filed a notice asking the court to accommodate Jewish holidays and observances in scheduling future proceedings.
Sholom Rubashkin's attorney filed the notice Monday in response to a calendar request initiated by the court.
Rubashkin, the former manager of Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, faces 97 charges including accusations of Immigration violations, bank fraud and money laundering.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/womenshistory2009/news/story?id=4008742
==========================
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
SEATTLE -- The wallpaper border was meant to be peaceful, serene. A soft shade of blue covered with images of rose-colored flowers and white lattice. It was supposed to ease the nerves and bring a sense of calm to the bedroom. But with each piece that Margaret Hoelzer and her mother stuck to the wall that afternoon, the more secrets that came spilling out. The more the meaning of that border changed.
"I was paralyzed. It was like I was in a tunnel," said Margaret's mother, Elizabeth Livingston. "And I just kept praying to God to give me the strength to get through this and give my daughter the strength to keep talking."
It was any parent's worst nightmare. Ten-year-old Margaret began telling her mom how, between the ages of 5 and 7, she thought she might have been sexually abused by the father of one of Margaret's friends. For three hours Margaret kept talking, telling of how the man touched her here, lured her there. He had shown her adult magazines and exposed himself to her. She spoke with a level of detail and knew things about the male anatomy that a 10-year-old girl simply shouldn't know. Her mother was horrified.
Beginning that March afternoon in 1994, life would never be the same. Margaret would hide in the closet every time her mom left home. She lost any sense of self-esteem. She lost her trust in people -- to the point that she wouldn't kiss a boy until 10 years later and even now, at the age of 25, has still never had a serious boyfriend.
"Sexual abuse is like a disease," Margaret said. "It just attacked my self-esteem. My first lesson that not all people are good, that adults aren't perfect and don't always have your best interests at heart? Yeah, I learned that at 5 years old. And that just kills any trust you have in the world."
Fifteen years after that afternoon in her mom's bedroom, Margaret Hoelzer is at the Water Cube in Beijing, a third Olympic medal draped around her neck. The world doesn't know what she's been through, doesn't know the demons she's fought to get here. Margaret believes the time has come for it to find out. After all, this has been the plan since she was 11, since the day a grand jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to pursue a case. The jurors told her it didn't mean they didn't believe her, it didn't mean that nothing had happened. It just meant they couldn't prove it. But try telling that to a fifth grader who lives in a world where you do something wrong and you're punished.
"I was devastated," Margaret said. "The pain was immense. And I remember thinking that I don't ever want anyone else to have to go through that feeling of helplessness. That was when I began to realize, if the timing was ever right, if I could ever help someone else, I was going to tell my story."
The nightmare
Margaret Hoelzer is comfortable. She's wearing her favorite jeans, sitting in one of her favorite Seattle restaurants and eating one of her favorite dishes -- a crepe stuffed with egg, tomato and spinach. She smiles, she laughs. And with every move, her curly blonde hair bounces up and down and her baby blue eyes jump in and out of the restaurant light.
But with one question, everything changes. Her voice turns robotic. Her eyes go hollow. Her hair stops bouncing. Her words sound as if they're coming out of a machine, absent any feeling. It's a defense mechanism, she says, the only way she can talk about what happened without emotionally collapsing. She takes a deep breath and begins.
"It was a friend's father," she says. "There were several incidents."
The U.S. record holder in the 200-meter backstroke starts with the night she slept at her friend's house and heard the door creep open in the middle of the night.
"I knew who it was," she says. "I knew exactly who it was right away."
The man was naked, she says, and crawled into bed and began touching her. He insisted that this would be their secret. That Hoelzer could never tell anyone. At such a young age, Hoelzer said she didn't consciously understand what was happening. But instinctively, something told her this wasn't right. She wasn't comfortable. So she jumped out of the bed and went to the bathroom.
"I sat there for a half hour," she said. "I had no idea what to do. And then when I came out he was still there. He had been waiting that entire time. Thank God he left shortly after I get back. I don't know if he was worried that I was figuring it out or what. But he left."
On another occasion, Hoelzer, a group of friends and the same man were on a bike ride in the woods, she said, when the man told Margaret he wanted to show her something. She followed him deep into the woods and into an abandoned trailer. There, she says, the man propositioned her.
"He basically goes, 'You show me yours and I'll show you mine,'" Hoelzer said.
"Literally. My instincts told me this wasn't right, I knew I didn't feel comfortable and my excuse was basically, 'Well, I've already seen you naked. What am I getting out of this?' That's what I said to him. And thank God I happened to be by the door. I just ran out."
There were other incidents. Like the time, Hoelzer said, when she, the man and her friends were playing hide-and-seek when the man lured her into a crawl space with the promise that they would find a frog he said he had put there earlier. Or the multiple times he pulled out adult magazines, Hoelzer said, and asked if the little girl was "going to look like this someday."
"I had no idea what to say. I had no idea how to handle any of this," she said. "My brain wasn't telling me, 'Hey, this is your friend's dad, he shouldn't be doing this.' At 5 or 6 years old, kids are pretty easy to trick. I mean, frogs were friggin' awesome. I wanted to find the frog. But my gut got me the hell out of those situations every single time."
She says the abuse eventually stopped when the alleged attacker and his family moved to another town. Hoelzer has not seen or heard from the man or his family since. She denied repeated requests to name her alleged attacker. A spokesperson from the Madison County (Ala.) District Attorney's Office confirmed that there was a case involving Hoelzer in 1994, but could not provide additional details, citing child abuse privacy laws.
"It's never been about him," Hoelzer said. "It's never been about seeing him or screaming at him or getting some sort of revenge. I've tried to focus my energy on myself."
Hoelzer said she didn't begin to grasp the severity of what happened until she confided in a friend just before her 11th birthday. The friend insisted she tell her mom, then Hoelzer met with the Huntsville Police Department and the National Child Advocacy Center, which is in Huntsville. A psychologist told Hoelzer she was likely being groomed for rape and that her outgoing, chatty personality probably saved her. Suddenly, the what-ifs terrified the girl.
"Sure, I was being told this as a 'thank God, you're so lucky, you're one of the lucky ones,'" she said, "but at the same time, once I realized the seriousness of what could have happened, the fact that I might not have been able to have kids and all that, it was like … oh … my … God. I was absolutely terrified."
A lack of trust
At 5 years old, life lessons are simple. Be polite, mind your manners, don't talk with your mouth full, respect your elders. Adults are always right. Do what they say. Don't talk back. Trust.
For 11 years, Margaret Hoelzer lived in the trusting world, trusting adults. After she told her mother she had been molested, and she grasped how close she was to being raped -- as a first grader -- that sense of security was ripped from her. She lost her self-esteem. She lost her sense of control. She lost her trust in the world.
"I had to teach her at an early age that not all adults are right, that trust is something that is earned," said Margaret's mother, Elizabeth. "And that just ripped away her innocence. And you can't put a Band-Aid on that and fix it."
Everywhere her mother went, Margaret had to be by her side. If her mom was upstairs putting away laundry, Margaret was there. If Elizabeth was downstairs cooking dinner, Margaret was there. A psychologist suggested that Elizabeth walk the family dog for 10 minutes a day, hopefully teaching her daughter it was safe for an 11-year-old girl to be home alone for a few minutes. But the moment her mother left, Margaret panicked, hiding in her bedroom closet.
"Those were some of the worst 10 minutes of my life," Margaret said. "This is at like 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it's a sunny, beautiful day, my mom walks the dog for 10 minutes and I am absolutely horrified."
Margaret eventually grew comfortable with being left home alone. But it took time. She wasn't able to live alone until last year. And even then, upon purchasing her first home, the deciding factors weren't a spacious bathroom or an open floor plan, but rather a home that had no porch, no patio and only one door. She's still "anal retentive" about locking doors, even locking her house every time she goes to get the mail.
But there is perhaps no part of her life that has caused Hoelzer more anxiety than relationships. The outgoing, engaging woman will turn 26 later this month and has never had a serious boyfriend. She didn't even kiss someone until she was 20. In high school it wasn't a big deal, she said. But once she got to Auburn, she realized she was different. Her friends started dating; Hoelzer was nervous even talking to a guy.
"We would all be sitting around talking about the things girls talk about and I was so uncomfortable, so self-conscious," she said. "Half of my friends weren't even virgins. And not only had I never done that, but geez, a kiss? What is that? Like the 'pre-base'? If first base is being felt up, then kissing is before you even get up to bat. I mean, how am I supposed to hit a home run if I hadn't even gotten out of the dugout?"
Hoelzer's relationship issues were one of the reasons she returned to counseling two years ago. She's liked boys, had huge crushes, but has never been able to overcome her emotional issues to pursue a relationship. In counseling, she learned that part of her problem is a lack of trust in men, part of it is a fear of vulnerability and part of it is trying to overcompensate for a feeling that her alleged attacker didn't care about her.
She's realized that one of her defense mechanisms is pursuing men who are unavailable. She's also learned about her tendency to ignore a man the instant she thinks he might have an interest in her. It's all her wall of defense.
"Basically, when you've been abused, you usually go either the promiscuous route or the nun route," she said. "I went the nun route. I was scared of anything that had to do with any of that. For me, sex was so special and so sacred that I wouldn't go anywhere near that until I was completely in love with someone. And I wouldn't let that happen. So I avoided anything and everything that came with it."
Hoelzer now believes she is as open to a relationship as she has ever been, despite her trust issues. Her deepest fear, she says, is the potential failure of her sixth sense, that intuition that subconsciously saved her when she was a little girl. What if she senses that a man is safe to open up to but she later finds out otherwise?
"That's been the defense mechanism that I've used my entire life," she said. "It saved me as a little girl and it's saved me as an adult. So my fears are much greater than being rejected. It's the fear of what will happen if the only defense I have against the world no longer works."
Going public
Two days after her second-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke final in Beijing, Hoelzer and her two closest friends stand at a crossroads. While visiting the Great Wall of China, they can't decide which path to follow. To the left: the more challenging, more strenuous but more rewarding trail. To the right: the smoother, flatter, easier route that most everyone seems to follow.
The Olympian and her friends veer to the left. Along the way, Hoelzer tells them she's ready to share her story. All her life, this has been the plan. Achieve Olympic glory, give herself a platform, then tell what happened in the hope of raising awareness about child sexual abuse.
The pool has always provided escape. There, she has had control. She has had success. She's never had to rely on anyone else, be it a teammate or a judge. It's always been her, the water and the clock. It's fitting that she would use her salvation -- swimming -- to try to help others.
"Swimming helped give me self-esteem," she said. "A lot of athletes compete because they want to prove they are better than the average person. I always felt I had to prove I was as good as everybody else. My accomplishments brought me back up to normal."
Said Elizabeth: "Swimming has been a godsend. I truly believe that she was given this gift for a purpose. She always said, 'If I ever make the Olympics, if I'm ever in that position, I want to help others.' This was always her motivation. This was always what she worked so hard for."
Hoelzer knows the statistics are staggering. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. One in 20 children will be sexually abused each year. And an estimated 40 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse live in America today. Yet it's a taboo topic. An estimated 30 percent of all incidents never go reported.
"It happens. It happens so much more than people realize," Hoelzer said. "It happens 40 to 50 times the rate of childhood cancer. And with all due respect to childhood cancer, that's easier to talk about than someone being molested. People can't even say the word, 'molested.' I want to change that."
As much as she didn't want to tell what that man allegedly did to her, as much as she didn't want anyone to know she didn't kiss a boy until she was 20, Hoelzer wanted to help. She believed that if her story could inspire one child or even one adult, it would be worth her anxiety.
So last September, a few weeks after returning from Beijing, Hoelzer sat down with a reporter from The Associated Press and told her story. It wasn't easy. She broke down in tears several times. And deep inside, she wondered: What if nobody cares? What if nobody listens? And on a smaller scale, how in the world would she get a date now?
"I honestly worried about that," Hoelzer said. "I mean, it's hard enough for relationships to work for 'normal people.' What guy would even want to date some nutcase who has all these trust issues?"
Setting herself free
In the months since she told her story, life has gotten easier. The woman who pushed herself in the water, setting the goal of winning a gold medal in world-record time so that she could have the platform to tell her story, no longer feels the burden of swimming under such pressure. She no longer melts down when she fails to meet her lofty expectations. She's learned that a gold medal isn't everything. A world record isn't everything. The hundreds of letters, e-mails and phone calls from friends and strangers all across the world have proved to her that two silver medals and one bronze provide a pretty nice platform, as well.
"As much as this is helping other people, it's helped Margaret as well," her mom said. "It's set her free. It's made her more open and less guarded. And she's more ready now to meet someone than she has ever been. It's helping. And that makes me so happy."
David Marsh, Hoelzer's college coach at Auburn, believes the results of that happiness can be seen in the water.
"She has overcome more than just about any other swimmer on the Olympic team to get where she has," Marsh said. "These demons have absolutely held her back. How could they not? But now, feeling like she can be open and vulnerable as a human being? How could that not help her? How could that not set her free to reach her fullest potential?"
Going public is only the beginning of Hoelzer's plan. She majored in criminology and sociology at Auburn and wrote college papers on child abuse. She plans to someday work in the field and also would like to start a foundation that would financially support the National Children's Advocacy Center. One of her goals is to increase awareness of the signs parents should look for if they think their child has been abused.
"She's incredible, just an absolute inspiration," says Catherine Hereford, the development director for the NCAC. "She sees that she has a platform and is using that for absolute selfless good. Personally, I can't imagine telling the world something so personal and private."
A week after Hoelzer's story appeared on The Associated Press wire, she stood before some 500 people and spoke at the principal fundraising banquet for the NCAC in Huntsville. The woman who doesn't get nervous before races, who's never had a problem with public speaking, talked about the team that helped her reach their shared goals in Beijing. She talked about family, friends, coaches and nutritionists. And she talked about the Advocacy Center, the people who helped her find her way through the darkest part of her life.
That's when it hit. That's when even the greatest defense mechanisms in the world couldn't hold back the tears, couldn't keep Hoelzer from stepping back from the microphone.
As she gathered herself, the audience came to its feet and applauded.
"I couldn't help but stand there and think, 'That's my little girl up there,'" Elizabeth said. "That's my little girl telling the whole world about her nightmare, just so she can help other people. This is greater than anything she could ever accomplish at any Olympics. She is showing the world that no matter what obstacles you have to overcome, you can still chase that dream. You can still have hope. She's truly an inspiration."
Wayne Drehs is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.
Brooklyn woman dies in fatal blast-sparked blaze at Flatlands home
BY Kerry Burke and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Wednesday, March 25th 2009
An explosion blew apart the second floor of a Brooklyn home Tuesday and sparked a fire that killed the 26-year-old woman inside, officials said.
The mysterious blast tore through the walls of the two-story Flatlands home and ignited a blaze that quickly engulfed the entire structure and trapped Tamara Rawner inside, witnesses said.
"The explosion blew the window out," said neighbor Larry Feingenbaum, 59, who tried to save the frantic woman. "I heard her scream. That scream ... if you heard her scream, you had to do something."
Feingenbaum broke through the front door of the E. 55th St. home, but could not get past the heavy fire to reach Rawner.
"I couldn't do anything," said a weeping Feingenbaum, a former Army officer. "I had to stand there and watch this girl die."
Firefighters arrived at the scene minutes later, but initially had to battle the blaze from the street because the flames were too intense to penetrate, FDNY officials said.
Though the cause of the explosion remains under investigation, an FDNY source said it may have been caused by a gas leak.
Rawner, one of the family's 14 children, had recently moved back in with her parents after living on the West Coast, the family rabbi said. Her parents had left the home to walk to the grocery store only moments before the 2:45 p.m. blast.
"They were gone for only a few minutes and the whole thing erupted," said Rabbi David Helpern. "They are in shock."
jlemire@nydailynews.com
send me all the teenage girls and i will teach them all about nidda.
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Revolutionary hotline provides halachic counsel for women
Special program trains women to become halachic consultants, help other women cope with intimate concerns such as niddah. Women find it easier to talk to women than to their rabbi about those issues, one consultant explains
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3691759,00.html
I totally agree. In my experiences of being the tyrant of YOB, I've come across many children that are animals. The only way to correct their behavior is with physical and/or sexual force.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1071072.html
'Those children were animals'
By Tamar Rotem
About a month ago, M. came to the Sarah Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem to visit her young son (the court has prohibited the publication of their names). For a year now the boy has been lying there unconscious and on a respirator. His mother has been under arrest ever since her son was hospitalized and the revelation of the child abuse - among the most shocking this country has known - by members of Elior Chen's cult, on his instructions if not with his participation.
Chen's wife, Ruth, recently broke her silence, just before she traveled to Sao Paolo in Brazil, to where her husband fled and was arrested. Now he is awaiting the decision on Israel's request to extradite him. In a telephone conversation from Brazil, where she was staying until not long ago with Satmar Hasids, she denied the accusations against her husband. "We're being persecuted," she said. "The press likes to lynch ultra-Orthodox people especially if someone is called a rabbi."
Of the abuses - "corrections" in the cult's terminology - she says they were educational methods. "Those children were animals. They behaved like wild beasts. They were uncivilized and rude. We made human beings out of them. They had had a faulty upbringing. Children who after they ate would get up to play, without saying a blessing. They were expelled from school. Except for one boy, they didn't want to learn. We tried to rehabilitate them. My husband is a gentle soul who wouldn't hurt a fly. We're not people who hit."
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