Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Mindfulness Training for Teens Fails Important Test

scientific amrican




Mindfulness involves a conscious focus on and awareness of your present state of mind and surroundings, without judgment or reaction. Mindfulness is rooted in Buddhism and was developed in the 1970’s as a therapeutic intervention for stress in adults by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Over the past several decades, the practice of mindfulness has evolved into a booming billion dollar industry, with growing claims that mindfulness is a panacea for host of maladies including stress, depression, failures of attention, eating disorders, substance abuse, weight gain, and pain.
Not all of these claims, however, are likely to be true. A recent critical evaluation of the adult literature on mindfulness identifies a number of weaknesses in the extant research, including a lack of randomized control groups, small sample sizes, large attrition rates, and inconsistent definitions of mindfulness. Moreover, a systematic review of intervention studies found insufficient evidence for a benefit of mindfulness on attention, mood, sleep, weight control, or substance abuse.
That said, there is empirical evidence that mindfulness offers a moderate benefit for anxiety, depression, and pain, at least in adults. Can mindfulness also be used as an effective tool for mitigating depression and anxiety in teens? Some research suggests it can, but the research is plagued by the same shortcomings identified in the adult literature (e.g., lack of a randomized control group, small sample sizes). In an effort to address these limitations, Catherine Johnson, Christine Burke, Sally Brickman, and Tracey Wade conducted a large-scale study including a randomized control group to assess the benefits of mindfulness training in teens.
They evaluated the efficacy of mindfulness training in 308 middle and high school students (average age 13.6 yrs) from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The students were enrolled in 17 different classes across 5 different schools. Students opted in to the study, and were randomly assigned to the control group or the mindfulness training group. Students in the control group received no mindfulness training but instead participated in community projects or received lessons in pastoral care. Students in the mindfulness group completed 8 weeks of training in the .b (“Dot be”) Mindfulness in Schools curriculum, which is based on the “gold standard” Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention for adults. The training sessions varied in length from 35 to 60 min and were administered once a week. All mindfulness training was conducted by the same certified instructor. Beyond the weekly training sessions, teens in the mindfulness group were encouraged to practice mindfulness techniques at home and were given manuals to assist in this practice.


x




Martin Luther: Definitely Not a Jew

In Wittenberg, Germany, right now, walking around without a city map in one hand and camera in the other makes you stand out. The Protestant Reformation began, one could argue, 500 years ago this month, and tourists have been coming in droves to its birthplace. Martin Luther did not begin the Reformation but gave it a major kick in the pants here, and just about everything here is named after him, including the city’s official name, which in 1938 became Lutherstadt Wittenberg.
Outside the central train station, a billboard advertises the Luther-Hotel’s “Luther Burger and Käthe Nuggets”—Käthe for Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife. Shops lining old town Wittenberg’s cobblestone streets sell cookie cutters shaped like Luther’s head and Playmobil’s special-edition Luther figurine. The city’s free public Wi-Fi network pays tribute, too: +LutherWLAN.

Monday, October 30, 2017

He was a rising Nazi leader — until a shocking secret did him in

http://nypost.com/2017/10/28/he-was-a-rising-nazi-leader-until-a-shocking-secret-did-him-in/

By Jerry Oppenheimer October 28, 2017 | 6:09pm | Updated


Fifty-two years ago this Halloween, a 28-year-old Queens native by the name of Danny Burros killed himself, firing .32-caliber bullets into his chest and head.

But this wasn’t just another tragic suicide. To those who knew of Burros’ hate-filled life — and the shocking secret that haunted him — his suicide was viewed as justice served.

In the 1960s, New York City had far more dangerous white-nationalist fanatics than those who marched in the deadly Charlottesville, Va., protests in August. These were extremists who had sworn to exterminate Jews, blacks and Puerto Ricans.

Danny Burros was one of them.

At one point, the printer by trade was one of the leaders of a band of American-born and -bred Hitlerites who were members of the racist and anti-Semitic National Renaissance Party. It was headquartered in a four-story apartment building at 10 W. 90th St.

To prove his anti-Semitic bona fides, Burros proudly carried a small bar of soap wrapped in paper printed with the German words, “Made from the finest Jewish fat,” and he had a portrait painted of himself in full Nazi regalia, with the smokestacks of Auschwitz in the background.

He often bragged about a torture machine he had concocted in his twisted mind: a piano with electrified wires that would deliver shocks to Jewish prisoners, causing them to jump and twitch as the instrument was played.

In Nazi get-up, he and his self-styled storm troopers picketed New York-area movie theaters where the film “Exodus” was showing. They marched in front of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on West 47th Street to protest a play about the Holocaust.

Burros and his fellow extremists were watched closely by the NYPD’s antisubversive squad, which was on alert for terrorism and hate crimes in that 1960s era of the civil-rights movement.

“We have to watch they don’t go out and kill people,” a squad member said at the time.

Before he joined the NRP, Burros was a leader of his mentor George Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi Party, headquartered in Arlington, Va.

Burros proudly held the title “extermination planner.”

He often picketed outside John F. Kennedy’s White House in full Nazi regalia, carrying signs demanding “Free Speech for Nazis,” denouncing “Jews and N- - - -rs,” and distributing pamphlets that declared, “Gas Communist Traitors.”

Obsessed with Nazi spectacle, he proposed to Rockwell parachuting over New Jersey with his fellow storm troopers, waving Nazi flags. Even Rockwell thought the idea was too off the wall.

Still, for years, Burros had one dream and one dream only for his future: He wanted to be America’s fuhrer.

But Burros also had a frightening secret, one he found so humiliating he would eventually kill himself over its disclosure.

The fanatical extremist who idolized Adolf Hitler and wanted to see all Jews exterminated was, in fact, Jewish himself.

Burros was the only child of lower middle-class religious Jews with Russian roots. His father, George, was a factory worker, his mother, Esther, a department-store clerk.

About a year after his parents married, Dan was born on March 5, 1937, the same day headlines blared that the Nazis in Berlin had called New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia a “lout and scoundrel” after he proposed building a “Hall of Horrors” at the city’s planned 1939 World’s Fair featuring der Fuhrer as a “brown-shirted fanatic.”

After Danny’s birth, the Burros family moved from a simple apartment in The Bronx to one in Richmond Hill, Queens, and were living what they considered the American dream near the end of the Great Depression — just as Hitler was beginning “The Final Solution,” the eradication of Jews.

Years later, when asked why he was so determined to see all the Jews murdered, Burros curiously replied, “We must make the world safe for blond-haired, blue-eyed children [from] the taint of nonwhite blood.”

A chubby, blond-haired, blue-eyed, bespectacled boy, Danny was extraordinarily bright with an IQ of over 150, remembered for earning A’s for his good conduct at PS 12 in Richmond Hill.

Dan avidly attended Hebrew school, was considered a star pupil, and at age 13, at the Orthodox Congregation Talmud Torah of Richmond Hill, had his bar mitzvah. The rabbis believed he would be a rabbi one day.

Under Jewish law, his bar mitzvah meant he had become a man accountable for his actions.

But Dan Burros’ actions would be motivated by pure hate. As he reached his later teens, Burros’ bedroom in his family’s small apartment was covered with pictures of German generals. By then, he was a student at John Adams HS in Ozone Park, Queens, home to such alumni as journalist Jimmy Breslin, and actors Jackie Gleason and Jack Lord.

Burros would later say that as a boy he was “disgusted” by his liberal New York Jewish classmates. A conservative high-school history teacher, he would claim, “crystalized” his extreme beliefs.

Today, hate groups recruit on the Internet. In the 1950s, there was the postal system, and the teen Burros began corresponding with German right-wingers and studying the extremist material sent to him by “unreconstructed Nazis.”

At John Adams, Burros studied German, winning a proficiency pin. He was at the top of his class but was kicked out of an honor society because he attacked a student he felt was “inferior.”

He noted in his school yearbook, the Clipper, that he hoped to go to the US Military Academy. He was obsessed with military uniforms and insignia, which he often sketched, along with drawings of Nazi soldiers.

But instead of applying to West Point, he enlisted in the Army and became a gung-ho paratrooper in the crack 82nd Airborne, where he would claim he was radicalized.

Deployed to Little Rock, Ark., during the school-integration crises, he saw troopers with bayonets pointed at whites, and was sickened, believing America was “becoming a left-wing police state.”

Fellow soldiers dubbed him “Der Fuhrer.”

He was eventually discharged for his extremist pronouncements, his “instability,” and faking suicide by taking aspirins.

In the early 1960s, after working as an office-machine operator in the Queens Public Library, Burros moved to Arlington and joined Rockwell’s Nazis. He even lived with Rockwell in party headquarters, a storefront on a main street. Bizarrely, he would bring a Jewish treat — knishes — to party meetings. Despite this, no one ever suspected he was anything but a true Aryan.

Rockwell, who founded the American Nazi Party in the late 1950s, was born near the end of World War I, the son of vaudeville comics whose circle included such radio and TV icons as Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, Benny Goodman and the New York gossip columnist Walter Winchell — all prominent Jews.

To support himself when he wasn’t goose-stepping and denouncing Jews and blacks, Burros worked a menial job at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. He was fired for “disciplinary infractions.” Furious, he picketed the government building with fellow Nazi party members.

He was often arrested and fined, and even jailed for a time. But his secret remained well hidden.

More extreme activity came when he pasted swastikas on the DC headquarters of B’nai B’rith, an Israel and human-rights advocacy group.

By then, Burros had risen to national secretary of the American Nazi Party, second in command to Rockwell. But he and the commander feuded. Burros grew “tired of being little more than assistant fuhrer,” said an official of the Anti-Nazi League.

Back in New York, he joined the National Renaissance Party.

In July 1964, he was sentenced to two years in prison for violence during an NRP protest against members of the Congress of Racial Equality who were demonstrating outside a Bronx White Castle restaurant. After his release — he was only in for a few days — he published a hate sheet, “The Battle Organ of Racial Fascism.”

But Burros was about to be toppled from his fascist pedestal.

On Oct. 20, 1965, the House Committee on Un-American Activities named him as a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan who recently had been appointed chief organizer for the hate group’s New York branch.

A government agent aware of his Jewish birth leaked the explosive intelligence to The New York Times, and on Halloween 1965, the paper published a front-page exposé: “State Klan Leader Hides Secret of Jewish Origin.”

The day the story hit newsstands, Burros was staying in the Reading, Pa., apartment of Roy E. Frankhouser Jr., the 25-year-old grand dragon of the Pennsylvania Klan. Also there were Frankhouser’s girlfriend and another Klansman, Frank W. Rotella, Jr., the king kleagle of the New Jersey KKK, police said.

Rotella told police that Burros went out to get the paper and returned to the apartment agitated. “This will destroy me!” Burros yelled, then ran upstairs and shot himself.

Frankhouser said, “If Burros was really Jewish, it was the best-kept secret since the atom bomb.”

Burros’ elderly Jewish parents identified his body and had it cremated.

His saddened mother, Esther, who knew little about his extremist life, told a reporter, “He was such a good boy.”

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

A Long-Delayed Reckoning of the Cost of Silence on Abuse

NY TIMES



Bill O’Reilly and Harvey Weinstein may have come from different ends of the political spectrum, but it turns out they have a lot in common.

They rose to positions of power around the same time and used their big, bullying voices to secure for themselves leading roles in American culture. Both men worked in industries that put up with gross behavior from male executives for decades, and both now stand accused of lording their status over women who have stepped forward to say that the men sexually harassed or otherwise abused them.
Mr. O’Reilly, late of Fox News, and Mr. Weinstein, late of the Weinstein Company, share something else. They kept their alleged misconduct under wraps with the help of the nondisclosure agreements included as part of the numerous out-of-court settlements that allowed them to admit to no wrongdoing.

The sums they paid their accusers bought them silence. A full, public airing did not come to be until those meddling reporters came along.

The report in The New York Times this weekend that Mr. O’Reilly paid $32 million in a single settlement with the former Fox News analyst Lis Wiehl in

Far Rockaway, NY – NYC Rabbi Gets Prison For Misappropriating Funds

Far Rockaway, NY - A New York City rabbi has been sentenced to prison for misappropriating funds that were marked for disabled preschoolers. Hiller was assistant director of the now-defunct Island Child Development Center located in Far Rockaway on Cornaga Avenue. It provided services to Jewish communities in Far Rockaway, Queens, and Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Borough [...]


VOS IZ NEIAS

Police: Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach behind anti-draft demonstrations

ARUTZ7

Police say leader of extreme Jerusalem Faction will be treated like any other citizen in response to illegal roadblocks in several cities.

The Doctrine of Trumpal InfallibilityGEDOLIM

NY TIMES

last week John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, tried to defend President Trump against charges that he was grossly insensitive to the widow of a U.S. soldier killed in action. In the process, Kelly accused Frederica Wilson, the member of Congress and friend of the soldier’s family who reported what Trump had said, of having behaved badly previously during the dedication of an F.B.I. building.

Video of the dedication shows, however, that Kelly’s claim was false, and that Representative Wilson’s remarks at the ceremony were entirely appropriate. So Kelly, a former general and a man of honor, admitted his error and apologized profusely.

See? I made a joke!

In reality, of course, Kelly has neither admitted error nor apologized. Instead, the White House declared that it’s unpatriotic to criticize generals — which, aside from being a deeply un-American position, is ludicrous given the many times Donald Trump has done just that.

But we are living in the age of Trumpal infallibility: We are ruled by men who never admit error, never apologize and, crucially, never learn from their mistakes. Needless to say, men who think admitting error makes you look weak just keep making bigger mistakes; delusions of infallibility eventually lead to disaster, and one can only hope that the disasters ahead don’t bring catastrophe for all of us.

Which brings me to the subject of the Federal Reserve. What?

T

Monday, October 23, 2017

'Anti-draft protesters are reckless fools'

arutz7


Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky blasts Yerushalmi Faction over wave of anti-draft protests: 'They're empty, foolish people who insult great rabbis.'
One of the leading rabbinic authorities in the haredi community lambasted anti-draft demonstrators affiliated with the Yerushalmi Faction (Jerusalem Faction) movement, calling them “empty, foolish and reckless people” after a series of protests across the country following the arrest of two haredi draft dodgers.
After a series of smaller protests last week, the Yerushalmi Faction declared a “Day of Rage” last Thursday, leading hundreds of supporters to protest around the country.
Some 120 demonstrators were arrested for blocking roads and clashing with police officers.
Led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, the Yerushalmi Faction has rejected the mainstream haredi approach of relying upon deferments provided by the army for full-time yeshiva students to avoid be drafted.
Rabbi Auerbach has called upon supporters not to cooperate with the IDF in any capacity, even to secure a draft deferment, instead encouraging young haredi men to ignore the draft board and if necessary be arrested.

vilna gaon




https://muse.jhu.edu/article/541664/summary

Cops draw flack for marking ultra-Orthodox protesters arms with numbers

timesofisrael.com
Critics say police acted like Nazis branding concentration camp inmates; cops say detainees refused to identify themselves

VIOLATION OF SYRIAN CUSTOM AND TRADITION"

"C/O AHAVAT SHALOM 

"
Dear: RABBI YAAKOV HILLEL 

Rabbi I am respectfully writing to you out of a deep concern of you "violating & interfering" in our sacred Syrian customs that are held up for hundreds of years. It is well established in the Syrian community that if a son has a first born son he by "tradition and by Jewish law" names him after his biological living father.  

I have made way over a dozen calls to you from Brooklyn to Israel so to speak "running after you" concerning this very delicate issue in order for you to "rescind and retract" this so called erroneous "Heter" that you issued without any "religious basis or any halachic grounds" to a son who was manipulated by Rabbi Murray Maslaton A"H to rebel & grossly disrespect his own father due to family issues. Rabbi you stated to me you "never met, knew, or heard" of my son David prior to him approaching you. You stated clearly that you didn't know the other side of the story & now that you were told the facts you agreed to have my son change the name to "Joseph" the correct and proper name for the sake of making peace between father & son. You clearly agreed to change the name back to its original state for the sake of peace after hearing the other side & getting up to speed on the truth of the matter. As of yet you have not followed through, executed or implemented what you said you would. You did not keep your word neither have you done what you said you would. 

We both know you come to Brooklyn and Deal frequently to "collect & solicit" monies from this very illustrious & affluent Syrian community. If you believe & rely on the super large sums of monies you collect here in Brooklyn New York and in Deal, so too as well, you are required to "respect & honor" our "heritage & sacred traditions"

"MINHAG ABOTENU IS DIN" 

Over 600 year tradition! 

This is clearly our "Halabi Syrian Custom" There are no exceptions attached to this law!

Since you are not of Syrian Halabi descent you have no Rabbinical authority or right to override our Syrian Halabi customs and traditions!

You stated that you "reside" in Israel if that's the case why are you involving yourself & making a ruling that clearly contradicts our Syrian tradition & is out of your jurisdiction?   

You state you cannot force my son to change his son's name back to its original state. Then what business did you have in permitting him to do so in the first place without any fact finding, documentation "due diligence" or any deliberate thought whatsoever? 

For the record "Joseph Mochon" has never violated or transgressed Jewish Marital law. In fact, followed everything according to Jewish Orthodox law and a decision has been rendered in favor of the father and husband through a competent Bet Din Process signed by and accepted by both parties with a binding decision. case is closed, game is over and a verdict has been rendered! 

My son David told you he was "traumatized" by the name Joseph & subsequently you decided based on that "word" to give him a ruling that overrides what our Syrian community custom which is considered "Din." others have spoken with my son, & the son deceptively changed his tune by stating that "if his father would give a Get to his mother" then he would "consider" the changing of the name of Mordechai (which was name of Rabbi Murray Maslaton who brainwashed the young man and turned him against his own father and who was the original cause of this) Back to "Joseph" the proper name of his own father. based on this alone my son lied to you, as a Rabbi you never even tried to verify whether his statement was true or false & based on this alone you allowed him to dishonor, disgrace & disrespect his own father. You have created a major distraction & disruption to my whole family. All you accomplished was to provoke & promote additional familial conflict. 

At the Brit my wife David's mother was surprised & disturbed, as well as my son's In-laws. Everyone within immediate family is extremely upset about this surprise name announcement. 

You cannot see it in yourself to acknowledge & to admit that this was an oversight & miscalculation and an error on your behalf. Instead you insist & hide that you did nothing wrong. It's an unacceptable behavior & it cannot be tolerated. It won't be swept under the rug as you would like it to be.

Rabbi Murray Maslaton father's name was Joseph 

Rabbi David Ozeiry Father's name was Joseph 

David Mochon Father's name is Joseph 

Why is the law and tradition any different by this case sounds like a rabbinical double standard!  

These 2 Rabbis followed tradition and named their first born sons Joseph why are they hypocritically allowing another man's son to violate his own father and Syrian tradition especially when the father is adamantly protesting against this violation and disgraceful act! 

Yet Rabbi David Ozeiry encouraged and influenced my son David to do differently thinking let's use this as a BLACKMAIL tool against the father and let's send him to Rabbi Hillel in Israel to push it through in order for Rabbi David Ozeiry to get something wrongly accomplished without attaching his name to it. Rabbi David Ozeiry is a pro when it comes to Rabbinical manipulation and deception!
He knows very well how to deflect his name from the equation but to accomplish his hidden agenda and put someone else in the front line. When Rabbi David Ozeiry gives his own wife a GET then and only then can he instruct or manipulate anyone else in the Syrian community to do the same!  

As the famous Rabbinical saying goes: 

"Do as I say not as I do"

"practice for yourself what you preach to others" 

Rabbi Yaakov Hillel if you only "respect & cherish" the large quantity of monies & funds you collect in this Syrian community but do not respect & honor our sacred Halabi long established customs, then it should be vastly publicized to the community at large through a mass email mailing to inform all Syrian community members of your actions and true intentions. Violating our established Minhag & disrespecting our Syrian community tradition! 

Bottom line is Rabbi Hillel all you do or care about is to come here multiple times a year to fool people with your talk and collect monies and leave. You couldn't care less about this Syrian community. Your main goal and selfish agenda is to get money from community period! 

Rabbi Hillel you are "Iraqi" you own this act that was done against our heritage and tradition & personally towards myself, to my children & to my family. You are the only cure, you are responsible for this. Rabbi David Ozeiry used you using his famous playbook, which In essence what he got you to do was cunningly and deceptively to issue a phony Heter without his name being attached to it so the Aviera will be on your head not his and the responsibility will be on your head not his. Nothing like a "slick Yemenite" to do something underhanded behind the scenes like Rabbi Ozeiry can.   

If subsequently my son chooses to disobey this DIN it will be on his conscience. You are thus required, obligated and responsible according to our "treasured Mesora" to at least draw up a letter to "rescind and retract" this incorrect verbal Heter that you issued very carelessly that is a very serious violation of our Syrian Orthodox Halabi long established tradition and release yourself from this rabbinical abuse of authority that you implemented! 


Respectfully yours

Joseph Mochon

Friday, October 20, 2017

When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City

atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/542499/marshall-curry-nazi-rally-madison-square-garden-1939/






In 1939, the German American Bund organized a rally of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York City. When Academy Award-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry stumbled upon footage of the event in historical archives, he was flabbergasted. Together with Field of Vision, he decided to present the footage as a cautionary tale to Americans. The short film, A Night at the Garden, premieres on The Atlantic today.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

LIBERAL ORTHODOX ARE FAKE JEWS, A THREAT TO ALL OF ISRAEL'


BY YAIR ETTINGER

 OCTOBER 17, 2017 00:38

Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, a leading ultra-Orthodox donor, lashed at out the Liberal Orthodox movement, claiming that the group is a "new religion" jeopardizing Judaism.

3 minute read.



Monday, October 16, 2017

Choosing to be Jewish—and How

TABLET


This is the second installment in a series chronicling the author’s fiancé’s conversion to Judaism. You can find the first installment here.
Just like that, another round of High Holidays has come and gone. This year was a bit different, though. My sister Gabbie, who goes to Colorado College, surprised me with a New Year’s visit. Since she was only in town for a few days and not feeling the idea of spending them in temple, we decided to skip services. This was the first time in my adult life that I haven’t gone to High Holidays services and let me tell you: It was exhilarating. We had a festive meal with some friends at Jack’s Wife Freda, which has always been my favorite part of the holiday anyway.

ISRAEL

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/d3bk5lptgat4/?view=att&th=14b74d2329f95484&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=f_i5zm9ul60&safe=1&zw



I really think it is time for your readership to understand what is happening in Israel now!
It must be stopped!
Please print the attached article.

Thank you!

Sunday, October 15, 2017

religion of gedolim

Where are Reb Shmuels defenders who will state that a gadol is more important
than Chazal or truth or even g-d


that is the clear basis of his defense!


Stupid Trump Tricks

nytimes


This week Donald Trump failed to stand at attention during a military ceremony. He just sat around talking and telling jokes. My question for today is: Do we need to dwell on this?

Stop jumping up and down and cheering.

Policy-wise, this has been a particularly dreadful week in Washington. The president trashed the health care act and washed his hands of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Attention must be paid. But there has also been a bumper crop of Ridiculous Events. And it seems only fair to mention a few of them, given that the president himself doesn’t have enough stable thoughts for a serious policy debate. He never did understand the Affordable Care Act. During one top-level discussion with his foreign affairs advisers, he reportedly compared the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan to the remodeling of the 21 Club in Manhattan.

Good story, huh? I’m afraid I’m sinking to his level.

Let’s get back to the flag. Trump was doing an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, sitting in a hangar used by the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. A bugle began playing “Retreat,” music marking the end of the day and, often, the lowering of the flag. The military tradition is that when you hear it, you rise and put your hand on your heart. Or salute. Trump kept sitting and talking. He joked to the crowd that the bugle was in honor of Hannity’s ratings.

Well, maybe he had no idea what “Retreat” was. And to be fair, only people outdoors are really obliged to stand for the ceremony. But if you’re a president who went to a military high school, sitting in a military facility, near people who suddenly get to their feet, there ought to be an inkling that some attention should be paid.

Continue reading the main story

Gail Collins
American politics and culture.
The Trumps, the Poodle, the Sex Scandal
OCT 12
Dogs, Saints and Columbus Day
OCT 6
Out of Control on Contraception
OCT 6
Sex, Sanctimony and Congress
OCT 5
A Very Taxing President
SEP 29
See More »

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SEE ALL COMMENTS
Trump was in Pennsylvania, by the way, to promote his tax plan. In recent days he was also in North Carolina for a dinner with the Republican National Committee. He played golf with Lindsey Graham and met with the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Do we have any right to ask why he hasn’t dropped into California to check up on the wildfire disaster? He couldn’t do anything to help, and most Californians wouldn’t vote for him if he showed up wielding a hose and rescuing trapped bunnies. But it would still be a nice, leaderlike gesture.

Have you noticed how much of our discussion about the president is just a list of symbolic failures and punch lines? Are we just aping his fecklessness? Nah.

Has the Israeli taboo on criticizing Trump finally been lifted?

jpost



Israel's Likud government showed a tactful fondness for the US president so far, but it seems that the floodgates have been opened and Israel's patience with Trump is running out.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

DEFENSE BY KILLING MESSENGER


Ad hominum arguments – that is how rav Shmuel is being defended. INSTEAD OF DEFENDING HIS POSITION SUPORTING ADULTERY. EFFORT IS WASTED CLAIMING I AM IMMORAL


SAM WHAM WROTE:

I'M JUST WONDERING WHY YOU LIKE TALKING ABOUT RAPE ALL. DAY.




IT IS STRANGE YOU CANT NOTICE THE OTHER THINGS I WRITE ABOUT LIKE R KAMINETSKY

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

‘Bad Rabbi’ exposes seamy underbelly of early 20th century Jewish life

'Bad Rabbi' by Eddy Portnoy (Courtesy Stanford University Press)
Thugs. Thieves. Blackmailers. Deadbeats. Murderers. These are the kinds of Jews who populate “Bad Rabbi and Other Strange But True Stories from the Yiddish Press,” a new book published this month by Stanford University Press.
Contrary to what Hollywood, popular culture, and family lore would have us believe, not all Jews who lived in the first part of the 20th century — in the old country and new — were pious, honorable and upwardly mobile. One need only peruse the back pages of the many Yiddish dailies published in New York, Warsaw and other heavily populated Jewish cities in the decades leading up World War II to see that life was a series of daily disasters for many average members of the tribe.

For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended

ny times

WASHINGTON — Over the weekend, President Trump was accused by a Republican senator of running the White House like a “reality show.” In the 48 hours that followed, this is how the president rebutted the characterization.
He called out the offending senator for being short and sounding like “a fool.” He challenged his secretary of state to an I.Q. contest and insisted he would win. He celebrated the downfall of a critic who was suspended from her job. And his first wife and third wife waged a public war of words over who was really his first lady.
Mr. Trump’s West Wing has always seemed to be the crossroads between cutthroat politics and television drama, presided over by a seasoned showman who has made a career of keeping the audience engaged and coming back for more. Obsessed by ratings and always on the hunt for new story lines, Mr. Trump leaves the characters on edge, none of them ever really certain whether they might soon be voted off the island.
“Absolutely, I see those techniques playing out,” said Laurie Ouellette, a communications professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied reality television extensively. “Reality TV is known for its humiliation tactics and its aggressive showmanship and also the idea that either you’re in or you’re out, with momentum building to the final decision on who stays and who goes.”
Among those on the in-or-out bubble in this week’s episode was Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the frustrated Republican who described — and derided — the conversion of the White House into a virtual set for “The Apprentice” and, for good measure, expressed concern in a weekend interview with The New York Times that the president could stumble the country into a nuclear war.

Several armed teens arrested as Israel’s clown menace continues

arutz7

As the 'scary clown' fad hits Israel, a year after it ended in the US, kids in one Israeli seaside town don’t suffer the fools gladly

Dads aren't invited to discussion on children's welfare

arutz7


Knesset Committee for Children's Rights holds meeting on alienation of children - and invites only women's organizations.

Dads aren't invited to discussion on children's welfare

Knesset Committee for Children's Rights holds meeting on alienation of children - and invites only women's organizations.
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I really think it is time for your readership to understand what is happening in Israel now!
It must be stopped!
Please print the attached article.

Thank you!
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/d3bk5lptgat4/?view=att&th=14b74d2329f95484&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=f_i5zm9ul60&safe=1&zw
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JWC ANNOUNCEMENT CONVICTED CHILD ABUSER RELEASED FROM JAILTO LIVE IN MIDWOOD

Convicted child rapist who completed a jail sentence in Australia in 2014, currently lists a Midwood/Sheepshead Bay address in Brooklyn as his residence.
In July 2013, Kramer was sentenced by an Australian court to three years and four months in jail for sexually assaulting four students. The abuse happened against four boys aged between 10 and 11 at the Yeshivah College where Kramer served as a teacher from 1989 to 1992.

Kramer continued teaching at the school even after they received complains of abuse and the school  paid for Kramer to return to Israel, shortly afterwards.

Kramer later moved to the United States where in 2007 he was jailed for sodomizing a 12-year-old boy at a synagogue in St. Louis. After completing that sentence, Kramer was deported to Australia to stand trial for the earlier abuse.

There are also allegations that Kramer abused children in Israel.

If you, or someone you know, has been abused by this individual, please contact your local police department and JCW. If any of the information on this page has changed or you have additional information to add, please contact us.
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Consent - by minor considered rape?HALACHIC SOURCES


Yes

Aruch HaShuchan[1](E.H. 178:27): The Beis Yosef writes in 178:3 “a child who has been married by her father and she commits adultery willingly – there are those who say that she is prohibited to her husband…. Others say that she is not prohibited to her husband unless he is a cohen.” That is because the seduction of a child is considered rape. The first opinion that she is prohibited to her husband is that of the Rambam (Hilchos Sotah 2)  and Rambam(Hilchos Issurei Biah 3) who doesn’t agree that sedution of a child is considered rape. However all the poskim reject his words….
Beis Shmuel[2](E.H. 178:3):  The view of most poskim as well as Tosfos is that  seduction of a child is rape and therefore a wife who is a minor is permitted to her husband when she is seduced if she is not married to a Cohen….
Ravad[3](Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 3:2):  I don’t know why the Rambam says that a seduced child-wife is prohibited to her husband since our Sages say that seduction of a child is considered rape.
Shulchan Aruch[4](E.H. 178:3): A child who was married to another by her father and she committed adultery willingly – there are those who say that she is prohibited to her husband… However there are others who say she is not prohibited to her husband except if she is a cohen. Rema If an adult committed adultery by mistake because she thought he was her husband, she is permitted to her husband (Rambam Hilchos Ishus 24). However if she committed adultery because she thought that adultery was permitted – this is considered a deliberate act and she is prohibited to her husband. If a woman is in seclusion with men on the road and then she says that she was secluded and was raped – some say that she is believed with a migo because if she was lying she could have denied have intercourse. However others say that she lost her migo since she was secluded against the halacha.
Yerushalmi(Sotah 1:2):[[child has no free will
Yevamos[5](33b):The seduction of a minor is  in fact rape

No

Aruch HaShuchan[6](E.H. 178:27): The Beis Yosef writes in 178:3 “a child who has been married by her father and she commits adultery willingly – there are those who say that she is prohibited to her husband…. Others say that she is not prohibited to her husband unless he is a cohen.” That is because the seduction of a child is considered rape. The first opinion that she is prohibited to her husband is that of the Rambam (Hilchos Sotah 2)  and Rambam (Hilchos Issurei Biah 3:2) who doesn’t agree that sedution of a child is considered rape. However all the poskim reject his words….
Aruch HaShulchan[7](E.H. 177:23):[[
Aruch HaShulchan[8](E.H. 177:5):[[
Meshech Chochma[9](Vayikra 20:15-16):[[male child considered ratzon
Rambam[10](Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 3:2):[[No
Rambam[11](Hilchos Sotah 2:2):[[
Rambam[12](Hilchos Sotah 2:4):[[
Shulchan Aruch[13](E.H. 178:3): A child who was married to another by her father and she committed adultery willingly – there are those who say that she is prohibited to her husband… However there are others who say she is not prohibited to her husband except if she is a cohen. Rema If an adult committed adultery by mistake because she thought he was her husband, she is permitted to her husband (Rambam Hilchos Ishus 24). However if she committed adultery because she thought that adultery was permitted – this is considered a deliberate act and she is prohibited to her husband. If a woman is in seclusion with men on the road and then she says that she was secluded and was raped – some say that she is believed with a migo because if she was lying she could have denied have intercourse. However others say that she lost her migo since she was secluded against the halacha.

Sources

Ravad (Hilchos Sotah 2:4):[[
Tosfos(Kesubos 9a):[[
Tosfos(Kesubos 40b):[[
Mishne LeMelech(Hilchos Ishus 11:8):[[
Radvaz (1:63):[[seduced child payment as onas – even Rambam agrees
HaFla’ah (Kesubos 40b):[[
R’ Akiva Eiger (Kesubos 42a):[[



[1]  ערוך השולחן (אבן העזר קעח:כז): כתב רבינו הב"י בסעיף ג' קטנה שהשיאה אביה וזינתה לרצונה יש מי שאומר שאסורה לבעלה לפיכך מקנין לה כדי להפסידה כתובתה ויש מי שאומר שאינה נאסרת על בעלה אא"כ הוא כהן עכ"ל דפיתוי קטנה אונס הוא ודיעה ראשונה היא דעת הרמב"ם בפ"ב דסוטה ובפ"ג מאיסורי ביאה דלית ליה האי סברא וכל הפוסקים דחו דבריו ואנחנו בררנו כוונתו בס"ד בסי' ס"ח סעיף ח' ובסי' ו' סעיף ל' ע"ש:
[2] בית שמואל (קעח:ג): יש מי שאומר שאסורה לבעלה. היינו דעת הרמב"ם וס"ל כשהשיאה אמה ואחיה אז לא הוי קידושין מדאורייתא וכאלו זנתה כשהיא פנויה ומותרת אפילו לכהן משא"כ כשאביה השיאה אז הוי נשואי' דאורייתא ואסורה לבעלה ישראל, ויש מי שאומר השני כן ס"ל לרוב הפוסקים וכן הוא דעת תוס' וס"ל פיתוי דקטנה הוי כאונס ומותרת לבעלה ישראל ואסורה לבעלה כהן ואם בא עליה באונס והבועל הוא ישראל ובעלה כהן עיין בסי' י"א מ"ש ועיין סימן קצ"ט:
[3] רמב"ם (הלכות איסורי ביאה ג:ב): הבא על הקטנה אשת הגדול אם קידשה אביה הרי זה בחנק והיא פטורה מכלום ונאסרה על בעלה כמו שביארנו בהלכות סוטה, ואם היא בת מיאון מכין אותו מכת מרדות והיא מותרת לבעלה, ואפילו היה כהן. +/השגת הראב"ד/ ונאסרה על בעלה. כתב הראב"ד ז"ל /א"א/ לא ידעתי למה נאסרת על בעלה ישראל שהרי אמרו פיתוי קטנה אונס הוא עכ"ל.+
[4]  שולחן ערוך (אבן העזר קעח:ג): קטנה שהשיאה אביה וזינתה לרצונה, יש מי שאומר שאסורה לבעלה. לפיכך מקנאין לה, כדי להפסידה כתובתה. ויש מי שאומר שאינו נאסרת על בעלה, אלא אם כן הוא כהן. הגה: גדולה שזנתה בשוגג, שסברה שבעלה הוא, והוא אחר, מותרת לבעלה ישראל (הרמב"ם פכ"ד דאישות). אבל זנתה שסברה שמותר לזנות, הוי כמזידה ואסורה לבעלה ישראל (מהרי"ק שורש קסז). אשה שנתייחדה עם אנשים בדרך, ובאה ואמרה: נתייחדתי ונאנסתי, י"א דנאמנת, במגו דאמרה: לא נבעלתי,  וי"א דאבדה מגו שלה, הואיל ונתייחדה שלא כדין (שני הדעות במרדכי פרק שני דכתובות):
[5]  יבמות (לג:): פיתוי קטנה אונס נינהו
[6]  ערוך השולחן (אבן העזר קעח:כז): כתב רבינו הב"י בסעיף ג' קטנה שהשיאה אביה וזינתה לרצונה יש מי שאומר שאסורה לבעלה לפיכך מקנין לה כדי להפסידה כתובתה ויש מי שאומר שאינה נאסרת על בעלה אא"כ הוא כהן עכ"ל דפיתוי קטנה אונס הוא ודיעה ראשונה היא דעת הרמב"ם בפ"ב דסוטה ובפ"ג מאיסורי ביאה דלית ליה האי סברא וכל הפוסקים דחו דבריו ואנחנו בררנו כוונתו בס"ד בסי' ס"ח סעיף ח' ובסי' ו' סעיף ל' ע"ש:
[7]  ערוך השולחן (אבן העזר קעז:כג): ג' דברים של מפתה וארבעה של אונס הכל לאב שכל שבח נעורים לאביה ועוד שהרי בידו למוסרה לקדושין למנוול ומוכה שחין ויהיה לה בשת ופגם וצער ולכן אע"פ שבתורה אינו מבואר רק שהקנס הוא של האב מ"מ גם שארי הדברים שייכים להאב ואם לה אין אב שייך לעצמה ובכל מקום ששייך לעצמה אינו שייך במפותה שהרי מחלה אך כשהיא קטנה י"ל דמחילת קטנה אינו כלום והתוס' כתבו כן (מ"ב.) ומהרמב"ם לא משמע כן כמבואר ממ"ש בפ"א דין ט' במגורשת מאירוסין שהקנס לעצמה דמפותה אין לה קנס ולא חילק בין קטנה לנערה ע"ש וצ"ע (עי' מל"מ פ"ב הי"ג) ועוד דבקטנה לא שייך פיתוי דפיתוי קטנה אונס הוא אך הרמב"ם ז"ל הולך לשיטתו דלא ס"ל כן כמ"ש בסעיף ה':
[8]  ערוך השולחן (אבן העזר קעז:ה): והנה לפי דעת הרמב"ם והטור נראה דבקטנה לא משכחת לה כלל ברצון דפיתוי קטנה אונס הוא אך הרמב"ם לית ליה האי סברא כמבואר דבריו בפ"ב מסוטה ובפ"ג מאיסורי ביאה וכבר בארנו טעמו בסי' ס"ח ולכן לא הזכיר זה אבל על הטור קשה למה לא הזכיר זה:
[9]  משך חכמה (ויקרא כ:טו - טז): ואיש אשר יתן שכבתו בבהמה מות יומת ואת הבהמה תהרוגו. ואשה אשר תקרב (אל כל בהמה לרבעה אותה) והרגת את האשה ואת הבהמה. לפי מה שחידש רבינו הגר"א באליהו רבא למסכת נדה, באשה קטנה הנרבעת, אין הבהמה נסקלת על ידה, דפיתוי קטנה אונס וליכא תקלה על ידה. אבל בקטן הבא על הבהמה נסקלת הבהמה על ידו, דאין קישוי אלא לדעת, ורצון גמור הוא ובר קטלא, רק רחמנא חס עליה, והוי תקלה גמורה ונסקלת הבהמה. לפי זה אתי שפיר הא דבאשה כתיב "והרגת את האשה ואת הבהמה" - היינו היכא דהיא בת עונשים נסקלת בהמה על ידה. אבל באיש כתוב באנפי נפשיה "מות יומת האיש, ואת הבהמה תהרוגו" - היינו אף אם השוכב אינו איש, שהוא קטן, גם כן "הבהמה תהרוגו". ואתי שפיר מה שתניא בפרק ארבע מיתות (סנהדרין נד, סוף עמוד ב) (תניא כוותיה דרב): זכר בן תשע שנים ויום אחד (הבא על הבהמה בין כדרכה בין שלא כדרכה) והאשה המביאה את הבהמה (עליה בין כדרכה בין שלא כדרכה, חייב). ולא תני שלוש שנים באשה, דבקטנה אין הבהמה נסקלת על ידה. אבל מהא דמייתי סייעתא לרב משמע דדייק דבנשכב זכר מיירי, מדלא תני באשה בת שלוש, מוכח דבאשה לכל עריות כן לא תני, ורק בזכר בנשכב בן תשע הוי רבותא, יעויין ברש"י. סוף דבר, הדבר נכון בלשון הכתוב ובברייתא בסייעתא דשמיא. ועיין שם בדברי הגר"א.
או יש לומר, דמשום שהעושה אותן עושה בצנעה שלא תשורנו עין, ולכן כתוב באיש מיתתו בפני עצמו, לרמז למה שאמרו (סנהדרין ט, ב) "רבעתי שורו של פלוני" דנהרג על פיו, משום דאין אדם משים עצמו רשע, והוי כמו שאמר פלוני רבע שורו של פלוני, והוא עם אחר מצטרפים להרגו. לכן הוא אינו במיתה והבהמה נהרגת. אבל באשה, דלאו בת עדות היא, אם כן אם יש עדים, מצוי שהתרו גם בה, ונהרגים שניהם.
ויתכן עוד לשיטת רמב"ם, דאונסים אותו לבוא על הערוה חייב מיתה, דאין קישוי אלא לדעת, מיירי הכא אף באונסין אותו. ולכן אינו דומה לבהמה, ופרטו בפני עצמו "מות יומת". אבל באשה הנרבעת, אם באונס - לא עבדא כלום, ופטורה אף במביאתו עליה, כמו מי שעבד עבודה זרה באונס. ורק ברצון מיירי קרא, אם כן נכללת עם הבהמה, דדומה לה בכל דבר.
[10]  רמב"ם (הלכות איסורי ביאה ג:ב): הבא על הקטנה אשת הגדול אם קידשה אביה הרי זה בחנק והיא פטורה מכלום ונאסרה על בעלה כמו שביארנו בהלכות סוטה, ואם היא בת מיאון מכין אותו מכת מרדות והיא מותרת לבעלה, ואפילו היה כהן. +/השגת הראב"ד/ ונאסרה על בעלה. כתב הראב"ד ז"ל /א"א/ לא ידעתי למה נאסרת על בעלה ישראל שהרי אמרו פיתוי קטנה אונס הוא עכ"ל.+
[11]  רמב"ם (הלכות סוטה ב:ב): ואלו הן הנשים שאינן ראויות לשתות אע"פ שהיא רוצה לשתות ובעלה רוצה להשקותה אלא יוצאות בלא כתובה משיבואו עידי סתירה אחר עידי קינוי ויאסרו על בעליהן לעולם, וחמש עשרה נשים הן, ואלו הן: ארוסה, ושומרת יבם, וקטנה אשת הגדול, וגדולה אשת הקטן, ואשת אנדרוגינוס, ואשת הסומא, או החגר, או האלם, או מי שאינו שומע, או שהוא כרות יד, וכן החגרת, והאלמת, והסומה, וכרותת כף, ושאינה שומעת, כל אחת מאלו אינה ראויה לשתות.
[12]  רמב"ם (הלכות סוטה ב:ד): קטנה שהשיאה אביה אם זינת ברצונה נאסרה על בעלה לפיכך מקנין לה, לא להשקותה אלא לפוסלה מכתובתה כמו שאמרנו, אבל קטנה בת מיאון אין מקנין לה שאין לה רצון להאסר על בעלה ואפילו היה כהן לא נאסרה עליו. +/השגת הראב"ד/ קטנה שהשיאה אביה אם זינתה ברצונה אסורה על בעלה. א"א והלא אמרו (יבמות לג) פיתוי קטנה אונס הוא ועוד התראה לקטנה אינה התראה שאין לה דעת אלא אם זינתה ודאי אסורה לבעלה כהן ולא מצאתי הפרש בין קטנה לקטנה לענין פיתוי לומר קטנה בת מיאון אין לה רצון ויתן את הצער כמו אנוסה אלא כולן שוות להתפתות בקלות הדעת.+
[13]  שולחן ערוך (אבן העזר קעח:ג): קטנה שהשיאה אביה וזינתה לרצונה, יש מי שאומר שאסורה לבעלה. לפיכך מקנאין לה, כדי להפסידה כתובתה. ויש מי שאומר שאינו נאסרת על בעלה, אלא אם כן הוא כהן. הגה: גדולה שזנתה בשוגג, שסברה שבעלה הוא, והוא אחר, מותרת לבעלה ישראל (הרמב"ם פכ"ד דאישות). אבל זנתה שסברה שמותר לזנות, הוי כמזידה ואסורה לבעלה ישראל (מהרי"ק שורש קסז). אשה שנתייחדה עם אנשים בדרך, ובאה ואמרה: נתייחדתי ונאנסתי, י"א דנאמנת, במגו דאמרה: לא נבעלתי,  וי"א דאבדה מגו שלה, הואיל ונתייחדה שלא כדין (שני הדעות במרדכי פרק שני דכתובות):