Jewish Star In the first step of a long process to recruit potential parents
through OHEL for foster children, OHEL presented the fourth recruitment
meeting in two years, noted Derek Saker, Director of Communications for
OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services. “We are always looking to
increase the pool of foster parents,” he said. “There is a shrinking
pool of parents available to take foster children.” Currently, OHEL has
70 foster parents in their jurisdiction but they are having recruitment
meetings “because there is a greater need for more foster parents.” He
said the need is “especially acute” for adolescents and children with
special needs.
“There isn’t a number of how many foster parents are needed,” said
Saker. “We can’t predict how many foster children will come into foster
care at a given time. We need many foster parents from diverse
backgrounds and with various family compositions to find the best match
to meet the individual needs of the children.”
Some of the speakers at the meeting discussed their personal
experiences as foster parents. Sara and Azriel Ganz have been foster
parenting for 14 years. They ultimately adopted a foster child in their
care four years ago. “She’s my daughter, just like the others,” said
Azriel. Parents and OHEL staff noted that a foster parent has to care
for the child’s physical and emotional well being and education, and
work toward the goal of returning the child to the biological parents. A
foster parent has to be certified, they and the home environment are
assessed and they have to go through training. Each placement has to be
approved by OHEL and the foster parents and family.
ynet Vladimir Spoznikov, a 23-year-old resident of Kiryat Malachi,
was charged Friday on three counts of raping minors at the Dizengoff Center mall's underground parking lot in Tel Aviv.
Spoznikov is alleged to have furnished and used drugs
with teenage girls at the mall, later accusing them of selling him out to the police.
He would then take the
victims to the underground parking lot, undress them under the pretense
of looking for a wire and rape and perform other indecent acts on them.
Tablet Magazine Brenda Clubine suffered repeated beatings
from her husband until one day, threatened in a locked hotel room, she
smashed him over the head with a wine bottle and killed him. She served
26 years in prison for second-degree murder. Annette Imboden started
drinking bourbon daily at age 12, adding heroin and cocaine to a
lifelong addiction, eventually stealing credit cards and forging checks
to fund her habit. She served 18 years before being paroled last year.
Clubine met Imboden while they were doing time at the California Institution of Women
in Corona, 50 miles east of Los Angeles. There, the two women, both
Jews, met another woman who would change their lives: Shayna Lester, a
volunteer Jewish prison chaplain, who began visiting, influencing them
in ways they never could have imagined.
Lester offered classes on Torah, explored the Ten Commandments from a
psycho-spiritual perspective, and counseled them. But the most
unorthodox tool she brought to the prison was Mussar,
a spiritual practice that focuses on character traits like
truthfulness, generosity, patience, and humility in an effort to help
people overcome inner obstacles. Based on Jewish practices dating back
more than a thousand years, it grew in popularity in 19th-century
Lithuania under the leadership of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter’s Mussar
movement. Today, though, despite a nascent revival among Jews of all stripes, Mussar is barely known outside the Orthodox yeshiva world.
Yet Mussar has proven to be a powerful tool
for a group of female prisoners, allowing them to see where, when, or
how they stumble in everyday life, even in prison. That awareness can
alter their behavior, helping to bring them peace, or at least greater
vigilance about the choices they make. [...]
Most of what Lester had learned about Mussar came from books and talks by Morinis,
who has spawned a small, though growing, 21st-century movement with
programs and classes and other resources through the nonprofit Mussar Institute,
which reaches Jews of all denominations across North America. Mussar
tools include introspection, text study (modern and ancient), and
journaling on character traits, all devoted not so much to work on
yourself for the sake of your self, but for a higher purpose, for the
sake of holiness or wholeness, Morinis explained. That’s what
distinguishes it from psychology or self-help, since Mussar, sometimes
translated from Hebrew as “discipline,” posits that because we are made
in the image of God, we are all holy souls.
ABC News Sexual encounters between 4- and 5-year-old students were allegedly an "everyday thing" at a private California preschool that is closing its doors after coming under attack for a lack of supervision, the mother of a 5-year-old former student said.
I received the following letter today from the Board of Directors of Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue of Oporto Portugal. It strongly protests the false impression that they are connected with Michael Freund and Shavei Israel.[See update Feb 10, below - which clarifies the original message]
It is the opinion of Religious Committee of the Jewish Community of Oporto, as well as reputable scholars, that there are no longer any Bnei Anousim in Portugal (just as there are no longer any Samurai Warriors in Japan) and it is misleading to imply that there are. The matter is now one for the history books, local culture and tourism. On the first floor of the Synagogue there is a museum where documents on Bnei Anousim are exhibited.
Please see the letter that two days ago our Community sent to Rabbis Schlomo Amar (Sefardic Chief) and Yona Metzguer (Ashkenazim Chief) in Israel.
Please contact our Rabbi Daniel Litvak. He will can explain everything to you.
On Monday, February 4, 2013, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) published the following article:
Portuguese synagogue celebrates 75th anniversary
(JTA) -- Nearly 300 guests attended the 75th anniversary celebration of a Portuguese synagogue.
Last week's event for the Kadoorie-Mekor Haim synagogue in Porto brought Jewish leaders from the U.S., Israel, the United Kingdom and Argentina to the northern Portuguese city. The synagogue services a community of 39 members, according to the Porto-based daily Jornal de Noticias.
Many members of the Porto’s Jewish community have converted to Judaism after having traced their lineages to Anousim, or conversos -- Jews forced to convert or practice Judaism secretly during the Portuguese Inquisition of the 15th century.
The synagogue was built by Artur Barros Basto, an army captain who started an outreach program for the descendants of conversos. Basto paid for his actions with his career and his reputation.
“The fact that the synagogue still stands and serves the local Jewish community is a testament to his vision,” said Michael Freund of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit that provides outreach programs to former Jews. Shavei Israel has a permanent emissary in Porto named Daniel Litvak, the community’s rabbi.
According to Freund, Portugal has thousands of descendants of conversos who should be encouraged by Israel and the Jewish world to return to the fold.
“I hope that one day we can fulfill Capt. Barros Bastos' vision and fill the pews of the Porto synagogue with Bnei Anousim," he said. "That, after all, is the legacy and the challenge that he bequeathed to us."
2 -
JTA's article was republished by other media, for example:
In relation to the article "Portuguese Synagogue celebrates 75th anniversary” which appeared in your February 4, 2013 online issue, out of respect for your publication and in the interests of veracity, the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community of Oporto and the Synagogue Mekor Haim asks you to publish the following disclaimer, as the article gives the false impression that the Synagogue and the Community are connected to Shavei Israel and Michael Freund, which is untrue:
“It is completely false that Shavei Israel has "a permanent emissary in Porto named Daniel Litvak, the community’s rabbi". Daniel Litvak is indeed the Rabbi of the community but he is not connected with Shavei Israel and much less is he its emissary! Shavei Israel has no part in the activities of the Jewish Community of Oporto and the Community strongly repudiates any such suggestion.
It is also not the case that many members of the Community were converted by Shavei Israel. The few members that were some years ago, did not meet the criteria of "Bnei Anousim". They simply wanted to convert to Judaism.
It is the opinion of Rabbi Litvak, of our religious committee, as well as other scholars, that there are no longer any Bnei Anousim in Portugal and it is misleading to imply that there are. The matter is now one for the history books, local culture and tourism.”
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, at 15:07 PM, Uriel Heilman <uheilman@jta.org> (Managing Editor, JTA) wrote to Jewish Community of Oporto:
This item was changed to reflect your letter.
5 -
The new version of the article is as follows:
Portuguese synagogue celebrates 75th anniversary
(JTA) -- Nearly 300 guests attended the 75th anniversary celebration of a Portuguese synagogue.
Last week's event for the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue in Porto brought Jewish leaders from the U.S., Israel, the United Kingdom and Argentina to the northern Portuguese city. The synagogue services a community of 39 members, according to the Porto-based daily Jornal de Noticias.
Many members of the Porto’s Jewish community have converted to Judaism after having traced their lineages to Anousim, or conversos -- Jews forced to convert or practice Judaism secretly during the Portuguese Inquisition of the 15th century.
The synagogue was built by Artur Barros Basto, an army captain who started an outreach program for the descendants of conversos. Basto paid for his actions with his career and his reputation.
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, at 16:26 PM, the Jewish Community of Oporto (Info CIP <info@comunidade-israelita-porto.org>) wrote to the JTA:
Dear Uriel,
Thank you for your quick response to our request. However, there continues to be mention of many conversions of those who traced their origins back to conversos. This is false. There were a few conversions several years ago indeed but they did not meet any geneological criteria or even attempt to demonstrate it and such conversions had nothing to do with this.
It is important that you advise the other news links and blogs to which you disseminated this article of the change as the false information is still all over the web and this is damaging to the good standing of the Syngaogue and its credibility which we strive to protect.
Please fee free to contact us directly as needed, as we would be pleased to provide you with any information regarding the Synagogue, its history and community whenever you should wish, Furthermore, you and the members of your publication are more than welcome to visit at your convenience.
Sincerely
Board of Directors
Comunidade Israelita do Porto (Jewish Community of Oporto)
Accordingly,
We ask you, great Rabbis to check the role of Shavei Israel in the Jewish world. Our rabbi (Daniel Litvak) can give you more details, as for as currently our Religious Commite thinks that there are no Bnei Anousim in Portugal, just as there are no Samurai Warriors in Japan!
Shalom and Kol Tuv!
Board of Directors
Jewish Community of Oporto
Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue
update February 10, 2013
Dear Rabbi,
Shavua Tov!
In the sequence of our
previous e-mail and to a better enlightening of our readers, we would
like you to post the following additament:
1. The name "Anoussim"
(Heb. אנוסים,
sing "forced" Anouss.) was given to the 15th century Jews,
forced to convert to Christianity.
2. With the expression
“Bnei Anoussim”, we intend to refer to the “Marranos”, that
is to say, to those descending from the “Anoussim” and that kept
the practice, in secret, of certain precepts of the Jewish religion.
There are two requisites: (I) descendants of the Jews forced to
convert in the 15th century, (II) who kept practice, in secret, of
certain precepts of the Jewish religion.
3. The statement that
there are no longer “Bnei Anoussim” in Portugal corresponds to
the statement that there are no longer descendants from the Jews
forced to convert in the 15th century and that kept the
practice, in secret, of certain precepts of the Jewish religion. This
is the opinion of our Religious Committee and of our scholars! They
would like to see “evidence” that there are “Marranos” in
Portugal!
4. The Jewish Community
of Porto, at the time of Captain Barros Basto, had, among its
members, dozens of “Marranos” (or better said, ex-Marranos,
because, when entering the Synagogue, they ceased to practice Judaism
in “secret”). These "Marranos" left descendants. We
have friendship ties with many of these descendants (all of them
children of non-Jewish mothers). But nothing connects them to
religion! Nothing connects them to the practice of the precepts of
the Jewish religion, let alone to its practice in “secret”!
Therefore, the second requisite dies. We cannot consider them as
"Marranos". No one can.
5. According to our
experience, the other people who appeared in the Synagogue, saying
they were "Marranos" or "descendants of Marranos"
have no proof of that claim and their "stories" are
absolutely inconsistent. They do not present evidence of being
descendants of Jews forced to convert in the 15th century (by the
way, they do not even present evidence of being descendants of
"Jews"), neither do they present evidence that kept the
practice, in "secret", of certain precepts of the Jewish
religion, nor do they reveal who their relatives are and how such
families can be contacted. It is at least strange that no evidence
whatsoever is presented!
6. The Jewish Community
of Oporto cannot assume that each Portuguese, Spaniard or Brazilian
is a “Marrano”. The door of our Synagogue is not open to hundreds
of millions of people. It would be damaging to the good standing of
the Synagogue and its credibility which we strive to protect.
P.S. Conversions are a
completely different issue! In the news placed in the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by the Shavei Israel, one can read: “Many
members of the Porto’s Jewish community have converted to Judaism
after having traced their lineages to Anousim, or conversos – Jews
forced to convert or practice Judaism secretly during the Portuguese
Inquisition of the 15th century.”. This news is absolutely
false, as we have already stated and we see no inconvenient in
repeating it. In fact, there were a few conversions by Shavei Israel
several years ago (10% of the members of the current Community), but
they did not meet the criteria of "Bnei Anousim" or any
genealogical criteria or even an attempt to demonstrate it.
Board of Directors
Jewish Community of
Oporto
Kadoorie Mekor Haim
Synagogue
times of Israel A suspected sex offender who has admitted to
assaulting at least 11 minors was jailed in the US for similar offences
against two girls aged 8 and 10, Channel 10 revealed Thursday.
Police arrested Simon Benisty, a 48-year-old
resident of Jerusalem, on Wednesday, after the mother of an 11-year-old
girl filed a complaint against him over an alleged sexual assault
against her daughter. In the course of the investigation, Benisti
confessed to sexual misconduct against 10 other minors. He was remanded
for six days on Thursday.
The New York sex offenders registry designates Benisty as a “sexually violent offender.” According to his page in the registry, he was sentenced to 11 months in prison and was subsequently deported to Israel in 2010. Benisty’s photo was published on a New York ultra-Orthodox community blog devoted to warning against sexual predators.
dnainfo The 33-year-old principal of a Jewish religious school in Brooklyn was sentenced to 55 years in prison for sexually abusing three boys over the course of a decade, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced Thursday.
Emanuel Yegutkin, 33, was convicted in December of sexually abusing three boys between the ages of seven and 15-years-old while a principal at Elite High School, a private school catering to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Bath Beach.
NY Times Over the past decade, about half a million veterans have received diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Thousands have received both. Yet underlying the growing numbers lies a disconcerting question: How many of those diagnoses are definitive? And how many more have been missed?
No one can say. Though PTSD is hardly new, diagnoses still largely rely on self-reported symptoms. And while severe brain injuries are often clearly diagnosable, finding evidence of mild T.B.I.’s, particularly older ones, can be all but impossible. [...]
Dr. Marmar faces deep skepticism that biological signals can be found for psychiatric disorders like PTSD or depression, which his group is also studying, or even a less severe brain injury.
But while previous quests have failed to produce results that could be replicated, private foundations and the government still seem willing to finance new efforts, amid the growing tally of disabled veterans.
YNET Several days after the police opened an investigation into an alleged rape of a five-year-old girl in Modiin Illit, the woman who filed the complaint has withdrawn it.
Nevertheless, the police have not suspended the investigation despite admitting that there are doubts as to whether a rape had indeed taken place.
Interview on Channel 2 - Made up story to draw attention to the actual cases
BHOL The Rebbei of Vishnitz announced a number of new decrees in a closed meeting with avreichim. They include: 1) It is prohibited to walk with his wife in public 2) It is recommended that women wear a scarf over their sheitels 3) Only Yiddish should be spoken in the house.
האדמו"ר מויז'ניץ הכריז על תקנות מחמירות במיוחד שיונהגו מעתה בחסידות. ביניהן: איסור לטייל עם האשה ברחוב ואיסור על חינמונים.
מאז שיא ימיו של האדמו"ר ה'ישועות משה' מויז'ניץ, שבחודש הקרוב ימלאו י"ב חודש להסתלקותו, לא זכור מעמד כה דרמטי, כפי שהתרחש הערב (ג), בהיכל בית המדרש הגדול בקרית ויז'ניץ בבני ברק.
התקנה הדרמטית ביותר, היא שאסור לאברך לטייל או להסתובב עם רעייתו ברחוב. איסור זה, מוכר בעיקר בחסידות גור. האדמו"ר הוסיף וציין, כי בין איש לאשתו וגם בין אדם לחברו יש להקפיד על נושאי שיחה ראויים. "לא כל נושא ראוי להעלות על השולחן ויש דברים רבים שהשתיקה יפה להן ואין לדוש בהן כלל ועיקר", הטעים.
Guest Post by Rabbi Raffi Bilek There is an interesting comment from the Meshech Chochmah in this week’s parsha:-- Shmos (21:14) וְכִי-יָזִד אִישׁ עַל-רֵעֵהוּ לְהָרְגוֹ בְעָרְמָה מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי תִּקָּחֶנּוּ לָמוּת
And if a man will come purposefully upon his fellow to kill him deviously, you shall take him from My altar to die.
========
It is not strange to say that the intent of the verse is regarding that which is practiced among the nations and recorded in the Torah, “lest the people of the place will kill me” by Pharaoh (Genesis 12) and Avimelech (ibid. 26). And the term “עָרְמָה” we find by the snake (ibid. 3:1), and he set his eyes on Eve, as the gemara says in the first chapter of Tractate Sotah (Tosefta chap. 4): he said “I shall kill Adam and marry Eve.”
And that is what is meant by “וְכִי-יָזִד אִישׁ עַל-רֵעֵהוּ[בְעָרְמָה]” – that he shall covet his fellow’s wife and kill him in order to marry her [just as did the snake, who is hinted to by the word עָרְמָה].Therefore the verse says “מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי תִּקָּחֶנּוּ לָמוּת” – because this situation is most likely to happen among the kohanim, since they are forbidden to marry a divorcee, and therefore at times they have no alternative but to kill the husband [in order to be able to have his wife – as opposed to finding some way of causing them to divorce].Furthermore, married women [are frequently in contact with the kohanim because they] need them for matters of sacrifices of zavah and yoledes, and thus the verse says “מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי” [to hint to this] . . .
This is a fascinating Meshech Chochmah on several counts.The real eye-popper is when he states that a kohen “has no alternative” (אין להם עצה) but to kill a husband whose wife he is after. Naturally he means that this is the kohen’s perspective, but it’s a pretty extraordinary comment nonetheless.
I think the take-away though is the attitude towards “holy men” taken by the Meshech Chochmah.The kohanim, after all, are supposed to be the role models for the Jewish people, showing them how a Torah personality acts, inspiring them to greater kedushah, etc. Yet the Meshech Chochmah hardly blinks an eye in saying that they are prone to killing men in order to marry their wives; in fact, he states that it is likely more common among kohanim than among the general population, because of their particular halachic situation!
This brings out another interesting observation, which is that the Meshech Chochmah is very cognizant of the phenomenon of apparently frum people who are meticulous in observing some aspect of halachah or other but who don’t hesitate to blow other rules out of the water (such as, say, the man who beats his daughters to ensure compliance with the laws of tznius).So kohanim are apparently in fact more likely than the general population to be lechers, murderers, and hypocrites.(Perhaps this is in line with Chazal’s statement that the greater a person, the greater his yetzer hara?)
There is a lot of debate today between various camps on how we view our leaders.It seems that our forebears had no problem suggesting that our clergymen could very well be among the worst sinners as well.
Attributes of Spirituality Described by Survivors of Sexual Violence
Gregory P. Knapik, Donna S. Martsolf, Claire B. Draucker, and Karen D. Strickland
Abstract
This study focuses on what aspects of attributes of spirituality as defined by Martsolf and Mickley (1998)
are most salient for female and male survivors of sexual violence.
Content analysis of secondary narrative data, provided by 50
participants in a study of women’s and men’s responses to sexual
violence, was coded to the five attributes of spirituality as defined by
Martsolf and Mickley. The attribute aspects of connecting with others
in spiritual ways and with God/higher power were particularly
significant. The attribute of transcendence was found less important,
and the attributes of value, becoming, and meaning were not found
important. The Martsolf and Mickley framework helped organize narrative
data for a content analysis of spirituality in survivors of sexual
violence.
Introduction
This study’s purpose was to determine what attributes of spirituality, as defined by Martsolf and Mickley (1998), are most commonly described and what aspects of these attributes are considered salient by survivors of sexual violence. [...]
The use of spirituality may be one way survivors cope with the experience of sexual violence. Studies in the United States reveal that religious support (Glaister & Abel, 2001; Oaksford & Frude, 2003, Valentine & Feinhauer, 1993), belief in and connection with divine beings (Draucker & Petrovic, 1996; Smith & Kelly, 2001), and finding spiritual meaning in adversity (Smith & Kelly) can aide in recovery from sexual trauma. Researchers have also found, however, that survivors’ religious faith can fuel shame and guilt, and church communities can minimize, deny, or enable violence and abuse (Giesbrecht & Sevcik, 2000). A systematic review of empirical studies examining associations between religion, spirituality, and personal growth following trauma revealed three major findings:
First,….religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Second, that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with posttraumatic growth. (Shaw, Joseph, & Linley, 2005, p. 1)
While spirituality appears to be an important aspect of recovery for some survivors, little is known about what attributes of spirituality are most frequently described in narratives of survivors of sexual violence and what aspects of those attributes are most salient for survivors. [...]