Friday, March 12, 2010

Million dollar fund for abuse program in Brooklyn


NYDaily News

The state has earmarked $950,000 since April 2009 to fund Assemblyman Dov Hikind's plans to teach H asidic Jews to speak up against child molestation.

But the money sits untouched as Hikind figures out the details of Shomrei Yeldainu - Hebrew for "Guardians of our Children" - the Daily News has learned.

"You have to develop something that is done correctly working with the rabbis and leaders," said Hikind (D-Brooklyn). [...]

7 comments :

  1. Silly Rabbi (sarcasm)!

    Don't you know the money will be spend just prior to elections? What's the point of Hikind spending money on others when no one will be there to applaud and reward him for it?

    It isn't as if abuse isn't a crisis in the community, right?

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  2. the money will eventually be used to bribe the parents and the victim not to press charges, i hate to say it, but we are a real sick society
    chaim

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  3. What a chilul Hashem.

    A woman named Ginger leaves this comment on the Daily News article about the child abuse grant:

    ...I do not understand why people need to be taught how to protect their children, should that not come naturally. Has that automatic response not been embedded in the genetic blueprint ...

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  4. Ginger said-

    The issue isn't about the reflexive genetic response. The issue is about the culture that discourages and even (at times) forbids appropriately responding to abuse. This is not unique to the frum Jewish community as we know. This kind of behavior crosses all religious lines.

    Leaders (religious and otherwise) who control appropriate behavior and responses place power above leadership and therein lies the problem.

    The frum kehilla needs a mechanisms that will protect the victims of abuse rather than a deliberate mechanism that marginalizes them. Daas Torah cannot on principle, protect the person with power over the powerless. A person who comes forward with allegations of abuse must be taken seriously and the charges must be investigated by others who are not nogaiah. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Kolko case was the fact that within the mosad there were those covered and lied so as to protect their power base. There is great irony here- had the powers that be responded appropriately in the beginning, they would be well regarded heroes today. Instead, they have lost their credibility, whether that is said or unsaid.

    Any iggud of rabbonim and manhigim who actually do something about this crisis rather than just talk about it will be most highly regarded. They will be more influential than those who do nothing or those who choose to sit on the sidelines will leave no legacy. The olam is finely tuned- we'll know the difference between what is real and what is cosmetic.

    The Tropper case has been most instructive. The rabbonim who said and did nothing have seen their credibility halved, whether anyone says so or not. Their sphere of real influence has been greatly diminish. We may pay lip service but in the end, we're all a little more sanguine.

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  5. How did Chabad put Rothstein's name on the building when he is married to a shiksa?

    http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2010/03/rothsteins_chabad_invokes_clergy_privilege.html

    Ponzi schemer Scott W. Rothstein’s former chabad, the Chabad of Downtown Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, is invoking “clergy privilege” in bankruptcy investigations.
    Chabad is a term for a Jewish center run by a strictly orthodox Jewish organization.

    This particular chabad, run by Rabbi Schneur Kaplan, was once so connected to Rothstein that its new building on Broward Boulevard carried Rothstein’s name on the outside.

    Attorneys for Rothstein’s former law firm, led by trustee Herbert Stettin, are trying to determine where the proceeds of Rothstein’s $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme went. One of the groups they want to investigate is the Chabad of Downtown.

    Stettin’s investigators have asked the chabad and dozens of other groups and people to sit for depositions or exams in the bankruptcy. In their notices to the bankruptcy court, they include broadly worded requests for records of “any and all communications” between the target and Rothstein.
    Stettin’s investigators even asked the chabad to produce a list of everyone who donated to it since 2007.

    That was overly broad, the chabad’s attorney, Reggie David Sanger, wrote in a motion for a protective order against the probe.

    “Certain communications requested … may also fall within the clergyman penitent privilege applicable under federal law,” Sanger wrote.

    Here, I am left wondering: Did Rothstein confess to the rabbi that he was running a Ponzi scheme, or other incriminating evidence? And, why would that matter, because Rothstein has already pleaded guilty.

    Regardless, Sanger seems to have a point that the trustee’s request is broad.

    U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Raymond Ray has set a hearing on Sanger’s motion for April 7 at 1:30 p.m.

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  6. Two more points here

    The center hosting this toyeva has multiple kitchens, one of which is under the Hartford Vaad Hakashrus. The Vaad knows that they there are always gay events there. And how do they control that there is no contamination from the other kitchens under Conservative or self certification?

    Nehirim is affiliated with Drisha Institute that Jewish Week publisher Gary Rosenblatt tried to bring as "proof" last week that "orthodox" rabbis support women in the rabbonus.

    http://nyblueprint.com/events/eventdetail.aspx?id=43963

    The Second Annual Nehirim Women’s Retreat is a weekend of community and spirituality for self-identified lesbian, bisexual and trangendered Jewish women and their families. http://www.nehirim.org/women

    Presenters include ... Professor Joy Ladin, Professor of English at Stern College for Women – and Yeshiva University’s first openly transgendered employee

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  7. Florida-

    Do you really believe that what a building is named is the biggest problem that Chabad or the frum community faces? Id this what you get worked up over? Do you know how many intermarried businesspeople give money to Mosdos?

    Maybe the time has come to name buildings after prosecutors put away abusers in the community. Unless of course you believe those prosecutors are the bad guys.

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