Monday, April 22, 2013
Boston Marathon Bombers: Is Terrorism a distortion of Islam?
Haifa's Chief Rabbi: Police say to indict him for fraud & bribery
YNET The National Fraud Unit recommended that Haifa's
Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Shlush
be prosecuted for offences related to bribery, fraud, breach of trust,
misuse of a public position and transgression of the Law Forbidding
Kosher Fraud.[...]
The rabbi insists that he was the one who was subjected to extortion.[...]
In 2010, the attorney general ordered the government to investigate
the rabbi, prompting numerous investigations of both Shlush himself and
his aides. Though investigators found that the rabbi was receiving
bribes and threatening businesses with loss of their Kosher certificate
for reasons unrelated to religious law, no indictments were filed.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The Limits of Empathy: Critique of Stephen Pinker - It doesn't make you a better person
NY Times By David Brooks. We are surrounded by people trying to make the world a better place. Peace activists bring enemies together so they can get to know one another and feel each other’s pain. School leaders try to attract a diverse set of students so each can understand what it’s like to walk in the others’ shoes. Religious and community groups try to cultivate empathy.
As Steven Pinker writes in his mind-altering new book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” we are living in the middle of an “empathy craze.” There are shelfloads of books about it: “The Age of Empathy,” “The Empathy Gap,” “The Empathic Civilization,” “Teaching Empathy.” There’s even a brain theory that we have mirror neurons in our heads that enable us to feel what’s in other people’s heads and that these neurons lead to sympathetic care and moral action.
There’s a lot of truth to all this. We do have mirror neurons in our heads. People who are empathetic are more sensitive to the perspectives and sufferings of others. They are more likely to make compassionate moral judgments.
The problem comes when we try to turn feeling into action. Empathy makes you more aware of other people’s suffering, but it’s not clear it actually motivates you to take moral action or prevents you from taking immoral action.
In the early days of the Holocaust, Nazi prison guards sometimes wept as they mowed down Jewish women and children, but they still did it. Subjects in the famous Milgram experiments felt anguish as they appeared to administer electric shocks to other research subjects, but they pressed on because some guy in a lab coat told them to.
Empathy orients you toward moral action, but it doesn’t seem to help much when that action comes at a personal cost. You may feel a pang for the homeless guy on the other side of the street, but the odds are that you are not going to cross the street to give him a dollar.[...]
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Women of the Wall: Irrelevant for Israelis - Heroes in America
Times of Israel Every second Jewish American who talks to me
about Israel talks about Women of the Wall,” says Chen Bram, an
anthropologist and organizational psychologist who is currently a
Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor at the University of Florida.
“They all know this story.”
For many American Jews, Women of the Wall,
the tallitot- and tefillin-wearing women who read the Torah at the
Kotel, have long been heroes of Jewish religious
pluralism. Most Israelis, however, are only recently aware of the group —
though they may be more knowledgeable about other religious pluralism
issues in Israel.
Bram is surprised by how much Americans know about Women of the Wall. He
says chairwoman Anat Hoffman is accorded rock star status by liberal
American Jews. Conversely, Rabbi David Golinkin, President of the
Conservative Movement’s Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in
Jerusalem, says Hoffman and her colleagues are considered irrelevant by
most Israelis. [...]
It is not merely a matter of media coverage,
but a reflection of a major disconnect between the two largest Jewish
communities in the world. This divide is slowly being bridged, however,
as the notion of a “global Jewish Peoplehood” is entering the public
discourse, and religious pluralism and civil rights are rising higher on
the Israeli political agenda.
“The whole battle for the Western Wall is an
Americanized and American-imported battle for religious moderation and
tolerance,” explains Shmuel Rosner, senior fellow at the Jewish People
Policy Institute and L.A. Jewish Journal columnist. “Women wearing a
tallit is not something Israelis are used to. They don’t necessarily
have negative feelings about it, but it’s just strange and feels like it
doesn’t belong here.”[...]
Friday, April 19, 2013
Meir Dascalowitz pleads guilty to sexual abuse in mikve
NY Daily News
A Brooklyn father who's been ostracized from his Hasidic community
because he reported his son's sexual abuse claimed victory Thursday
after the man who violated the teenage boy pleaded guilty.
"Justice was done," said the father, Mordechai Jungreis. "I'm happy to
show the community that the game is over — if you do the crime, you need
to do the time."
Meir Dascalowitz, 29, will get five years in prison after pleading
guilty to having sex with the boy, who is now 17. He'll also have to
register as a sex offender upon his release.
The
admitted perv was arrested in May 2010 for the abuse, which took place
in a ritual bath, and his case slogged slowly through psych exams and
other delays. [...]
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Circumcision may bolster immune system against harmful bacteria
LA Times Circumcision is known to reduce a man's risk of HIV
infection by at least half, but scientists don't know why. A new study
offers support for the theory that removing the foreskin deprives
troublesome bacteria of a place to live, leaving the immune system in
much better shape to keep the human immunodeficiency virus at bay.
Anyone who has ever lifted a rock and watched as the earth
beneath it was quickly vacated by legions of bugs and tiny worms would
be familiar with the principle, said study leader Dr. Cindy Liu: After
the foreskin is cut away, the masses of genital bacteria that once
existed beneath it end up disappearing.
"It's the same as if you clear-cut a forest," said Liu, a pathologist
at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Flagstaff, Ariz.
"The community of animals that once lived in that forest is going to
change."
Of particular note is that
circumcision undercuts anaerobic bacteria, the microbes that thrive in
oxygen-deprived environments, she said. By reducing the number of
anaerobic bacteria, the body's immune cells may be better able to
destroy the virus — and less likely to fall prey to its Trojan horse-style of attack, the authors suggest.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
U of Penn sent me the Metzitza Report in response to a simple request!
Just received the report. I had only sent request this morning. The report simply indicates that while it is possible that a mohel can transmit herpes - however because of the limited number of cases in the studies available - more work needs to establish anything more definitive. This really doesn't support the Aguda's view that metzitza is not a problem. It is consistent with what the U of Penn had said the report is about in their comments to the Forward. The report also came with a pamphlet from the NYC Heath department warning of metzitza. I don't see any chidush in the report. It clearly is not part of some secret conspiracy to support the Aguda's agenda. Does anyone doubt that it is theoretically possible to transmit herpes through metzitza? In sum I am simply affirming what the U of Penn has stated about this report.
======================================
Good afternoon Dr. Eidensohn,
Good afternoon Dr. Eidensohn,
Please find the attached report that you requested.
Thanks !!
S.C. Dunbar
Administrative Assistant
Center for Evidence-based Practice (CEP) and
Clinical Effectiveness and Quality Improvement (CEQI)
University of Pennsylvania Health System
3535 Market Street, Mezzanine Level, Suite 50
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Telephone: (215) 662-2463
Fax: (215)349-5829
=======================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Eidensohn [mailto:yadmoshe@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:36 AM
To: Dunbar, Stephanie
Subject: report request
could you please send me a copy of the following report listed on yourweb site?
2013 01 21 | Risk of neonatal herpes simplex virus type 1 infection
associated with jewish ritual circumcision
Daniel Eidensohn Ph.D.
The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message.
Direct Metzitza: Official Israeli Rabbinut guidelines permit it
Contrary to assertions that some have made - the Israeli Rabbinate
says it is not necessary to stop the practise of direct mouth metzitza. These guidelines are currently posted on the web site of the Rabbinate. Israeli newspapers and BHOL on April 8, 2013 reported that the Chief Rabbinate had just issued a clarification of these guidelines. The Rabbinate said that use of the glass tube is permitted l'chatchila and it is preferrable medically. "That the tube reduces significantly reduces the likelihood of infection." If the parents request that the tube not be used then the mohel should explain the dangers associated with that. The parents have the right to insist on the use of a glass tube. Basically - as the year old guidelines currently posted on the Rabbinate website state - the parents have the right to choose whether they want a glass tube utilized.
See previous comments about metzitza
says it is not necessary to stop the practise of direct mouth metzitza. These guidelines are currently posted on the web site of the Rabbinate. Israeli newspapers and BHOL on April 8, 2013 reported that the Chief Rabbinate had just issued a clarification of these guidelines. The Rabbinate said that use of the glass tube is permitted l'chatchila and it is preferrable medically. "That the tube reduces significantly reduces the likelihood of infection." If the parents request that the tube not be used then the mohel should explain the dangers associated with that. The parents have the right to insist on the use of a glass tube. Basically - as the year old guidelines currently posted on the Rabbinate website state - the parents have the right to choose whether they want a glass tube utilized.
See previous comments about metzitza
U of Penn study of Metzitza:The story gets weirder and weirder!
The issue of whether metzitza is an inherent risk factor for herpes and therefore should be banned - has been debated for a while now. See previous post and its comments. The Aguda in its defense of metzitza against the NYC Department of Health cited a metastudy from the U of Penn which analyzed previously done studies and which the Aguda claimed said that no causal relationship was found between metzitza and herpes in infants. Now the U of Penn has issued a statement - bizarrely through the Forward and not directly - criticizing the use of the study which they said in fact concluded the opposite of what the Aguda said it did. They also added the study was not only not published it was not even peer reviewed and was meant purely for internal use at the U of Penn. The study was not released and not even doctors can get copies without some sort of protexia. At this point it is very unclear why the U of Penn did the study in the first place. It is highly unlikely that U of Penn was interested in knowing whether they should allow metziza in their medical facilities - so what purpose did it serve. They are not making the study available - so how did the Aguda get a copy? How could the Aguda conclude the opposite of what the U of Penn claims the study says? At this point all one can conclude from the information funneled through the Forward - is that the U of Penn is claiming that it is possible to get herpes through metzitza - a point that no one contests anyway! The only relevant question is whether metzitza done by a mohel following proper procedures causes herpes. In short the whole incident is weird, makes no sense and even smells funny. It does absolutely nothing to resolve the issue.
Update 4/16/13 Here is an Israeli study of complications in mila IMA 7:368 Ben Chaim et al 2005
Update 4/16/13 New study indicates mohel is significant source of infection
Update 4/16/13 Israeli Rabbinate's directives for metzitza
Update 4/16/13 U of Penn just sent me a copy of the report in response to a simple request for one
Update 4/16/13 Here is an Israeli study of complications in mila IMA 7:368 Ben Chaim et al 2005
Update 4/16/13 New study indicates mohel is significant source of infection
Update 4/16/13 Israeli Rabbinate's directives for metzitza
Update 4/16/13 U of Penn just sent me a copy of the report in response to a simple request for one
=============================
Forward The authors of a research report on metzitzah b’peh say their study
is being distorted by defenders of the controversial ritual circumcision
practice who claim that the procedure poses no risk of neonatal herpes
to infants.
In an April 9 press release headlined “Ivy League Study
Casts Doubt on Claims that Jewish Tradition Leads to Herpes in
Infants,” a public relations agency representing Agudath Israel of
America and several other ultra-Orthodox groups sought to debunk the
public health consensus on metzitzah b’peh, or MBP. The press
announcement claimed that a study conducted at the University of
Pennsylvania “found little evidence to support the claim that
circumcision ritual is infecting infants” with herpes simplex virus.
The announcement noted that the UPenn study was
submitted as evidence in an appeal filed by the ultra-Orthodox groups,
who are plaintiffs in a suit opposing regulation of the practice by New
York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“We have been saying for years that the evidence attacking this
religious practice is highly dubious, and now we have world class
doctors agreeing with us.” Rabbi Gedaliah Weinberger, chairman emeritus
of the board of trustees of the Aguda, said in the press release.
But in a statement released Monday, the University of
Pennsylvania’s Center for Evidence-based Practice termed it “regrettable
that our evidence review was manipulated for purposes other than
advising physicians of important clinical risk factors for newborns.”
“The unpublished report was used without our knowledge
or consent and importantly, without proper context,” the center’s
statement said. “Further, a subsequent press release mischaracterized
our review by implying that there is no causal relationship between
circumcision performed with oral suction and the transmission of
neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) when the full report on the existing
evidence concluded this link does exist.” [...]
Monday, April 15, 2013
European Rabbis issue call to stop covering up abuse
Kikar Shabbat
רבני אירופה עושים סוף לטייוח מקרי אלימות: אמש
(ראשון) התכנסה מועצת רבני אירופה לישיבתה השנתית הנערכת בפריז. במהלך
הישיבה הסוערת שנמשכה מספר שעות, דנו חברי המועצת, במספר פרשיות של
התעללויות בילדים על ידי מחנכים בבתי ספר יהודיים ברחבי אירופה.
מועצת
רבני אירופה החליטה לצאת בקול קורא מיוחד לכל מוסדות החינוך, בו היא קוראת
להפסיק לחפות ולטייח פרשיות מן הסוג הזה ולטפל בכל פרשייה בליווי מקצועי
צמוד.
בנוסף, החליטו הרבנים להקים וועדה מיוחדת, בראשות הגאון רבי בנימין יעקבס, רב ראשי בהולנד. והגאון רבי יצחק רובין, מחשובי הרבנים במנצ'סטר ויו"ר ועד רבני מחוזות אנגליה. הוועדה תעמוד בקשר עם מוסדות החינוך ותסייע להם בייעוץ וליווי בנושאים אלה.
Rabbi Michael Broyde takes "an indefinite leave of absence" from BD of America
Tablet [See previous post ] The Rabbinical Council of America,
the chief professional organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis, has
granted Rabbi Dr. Michael Broyde, one of its most prominent scholars and
a professor of law at Emory University, “an indefinite leave of
absence” from its top rabbinical court, the Beth Din of America. Sources
within the RCA confirmed the move, and Broyde’s biography has been
deleted from the court’s web site, where he was previously listed as a member and judge.
“Rabbi Broyde has admitted to behavior that the Rabbinical Council
finds extremely disturbing,” Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA,
told Tablet. “We have determined and announced by the Beth Din of
America, our affiliated rabbinical court, that he has ceased to serve as
a dayan immediately and indefinitely.”[...]
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Why this ultra-Orthodox Democrat will observe Yom Hazikaron
For me there was always a difference. Come April 15 I will escort my visiting American students to Mount Herzl where we will hear eulogies for those fallen. We will recite Psalms and grieve for dead Jews – husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who died or were murdered as noncombatants on sovereign Israeli soil – a modern variation on an ancient theme. We may not care for “Hatikva” or “Jerusalem of Gold,” but we can care enough for tears.
I am, in my synagogue in Jerusalem, a pariah. A self-identified ultra-Orthodox Jew – complete with beard and sidelocks – I twice supported Barack Obama, the candidate my fellow worshipers would hardly mention by name. Back home, in New York, I am a registered Democrat, a political affiliation increasingly unfashionable among my coreligionists. This past November I saw the political conservatism in my congregation mirroring its traditionalist theology. Recognizing a consistent reactionary agenda I shrank from both its expressions, and began assessing my allegiances. [...]
Throughout my
childhood Zionism was mostly ignored, making it natural to pass over
while engaging the spiritual elements of my Jewishness. Barring Rabbi
Abraham Kook (1865-1935), who was viewed as an anomaly, the rabbis I
grew up respecting attached little priority to the State of Israel and I
became ambivalent regarding its being. Israel was at best a side-dish
to the main course of my religion – the study of Torah and eminence of
its laws.
That was then. Now, as I discover my liberal political views at odds with the elitist views of my congregation, I question too their other standoffish platforms – those that relegate Israel to the edge of the plate. Historically opposed to the State of Israel, my rabbi’s rabbi’s rabbis may have argued coherently against its establishment but today, such arguments seem beside the point. A dissent that began in earnest has evolved into a cultural diffidence, empty of clear reason. I cannot argue confidently against the existing Israeli state and more importantly, why would I want to? [...]
That was then. Now, as I discover my liberal political views at odds with the elitist views of my congregation, I question too their other standoffish platforms – those that relegate Israel to the edge of the plate. Historically opposed to the State of Israel, my rabbi’s rabbi’s rabbis may have argued coherently against its establishment but today, such arguments seem beside the point. A dissent that began in earnest has evolved into a cultural diffidence, empty of clear reason. I cannot argue confidently against the existing Israeli state and more importantly, why would I want to? [...]
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