Thursday, June 13, 2013
The Waks Case in Australia : Abuse isn't reported to avoid abuse by the community
The Australian The fears that choke child-abuse victims in every community cast an
even darker shadow in orthodox circles, where dirty laundry is typically
dealt with in-house. The archaic concept of Mesirah - the prohibition
on reporting another Jew’s wrongdoing to non-Jewish authorities - still
exerts a powerful hold. Zephaniah began to feel a bristling towards him
from the first Sabbath after his son’s disclosures. That Saturday in the
synagogue the most senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Zvi Telsner,
delivered a stern sermon from the pulpit. “Who gave you permission to
talk to anyone? Which rabbi gave you permission?” he thundered, without
mentioning any names. Zephaniah and his wife Chaya walked out in a
spontaneous protest with six others. Rabbi Telsner insists his remarks
were not directed at any individual. “It’s like calling someone fat,” he
tells me. “If you think you’re fat that’s up to you.” He had dismissed
as “absolute rubbish” any suggestion he sought to discourage witnesses
from stepping forward.
Slowly and surely, during the weeks and
months that followed, the Waks began to detect slights and snubs in
personal and religious forums, making life increasingly fraught.
Zephaniah has been denied religious blessings routinely dispensed to
others. Men who have accompanied him to religious studies for years now
cut him dead. Intimate friends no longer share their table or invite him
to family celebrations. Whispering campaigns besmirch him as a “dobber”
or “moser” and anonymous bloggers have defamed him. [...]
Appearing with his son Manny in December, he gave his account of the
dynamics at work. "Why people do not talk? What sort of pressure is put
on people? If you come forward and it becomes known it is a closed
community; everybody knows everything - you are going to have trouble
getting marriages for your children. This is a very, very strong thing
and people are very fearful... It's a terrible dilemma for a parent:
family name, stigma - all that sort of stuff." [...]
Rabbi Telsner denies there has been a vendetta against Zephaniah: "It
is absolutely false from beginning to end." He says the decision to
withhold blessings from him was made by a synagogue committee. "We give
it to the people who deserve it," he says.
Kolko case Correction: The Family requested the Psak from Rav Sternbuch - not Beis Din
I want to make a correction regarding the reason for Rav Moshe Sternbuch's involvement in the Kolko case. Contrary to what I reported in some of my posts - the beis din did not request the psak. The family of the victim requested the psak and received one in writing - that they were obligated to report the abuse. The actual psak - Hebrew and English - is found here.
This doesn't change the essential point - since the father received a psak to go to the police he can not be a moser. Even if he hadn't received a psak he was obligated to go because of the din of rodef.
I have correct my posts to reflect this information. Please let me know of instances that I have missed.
===========================
This is the translation of the psak.
Concerning your question regarding someone who is suspected of the disgusting and serious crime [of pedophilia], And there are those who claim he confessed and a high level rav verified that there seems to be a solid basis to the suspicions and it is also well known that this disease [pedophilia] is difficult [for the pedophile to stop abusing children]. Therefore we are obligated to report him because he is a danger to the community. In addition someone who interferes with reporting him can possibly be causing additional harm to the community. In particular in our days where pedophilia has become widespread - we are obligated to report him. See the Taz Yoreh Deah, #154.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Historically Jews gave up religious practice when it became a burden - not because of loss of faith
Researching the impact of modernization in the 18th and 19th century, I am struck by how modern are the issues. The following is an excerpt from one of Prof Feiner's works. He believes that secularization preceded ideology. Jews gave up religion when the price they needed to pay to keep it outweighed what they saw as its value. The cost-benefits issue is much more important than issues of theology.
The Origin of Jewish Secularization by Shmuel Feiner 2010 -Pages 105-108) In his study of secularization in England, Roy Porter points to a series of measures that could be used to evaluate the growing erosion of the Christian religion: in the big cities, churches were no longer major places of assembly, and the clergy no longer served as the main sources of authority. The pace of life in England quickened, and business, which dictated the pulse of urban life, increased the influence of practical, rational, and earthly considerations in life. In addition, physicians demonstrated that human intervention could help people with their problems no less than the clergy, and they opposed folk medicine and superstition, albeit not always with success. Despite the competition between the concept of Christian providence as a worldview and the scientific view, faith did not disappear, as a statement from that period revealed:"Superstition is said to be driven out of the world; no such thing, it is only driven out of books and talk.?" At the same time, the rise in the consumption of pleasures and the leisure culture contributed to secularization in England and elsewhere in Western and Central Europe. Jeremy Bentham asserted that if man were to choose the ascetic way of life proposed by religion, the world would turn into hell because man is a creature who is meant to enjoy life. As a result of the expansion of literacy in Europe and the publication of numerous periodicals, information about the earthly world and critical ideas became avail able to more people. But secularization did not depend on the adoption of a secular world view. As John McManners argues, this trend was also a protest against the constant demands of the Christian religion and an expression of people's desire to cast off the burden of religion: "Secularization was the inevitable counterpart, the opposite side of the coin, the reaction of human nature to a demand almost too intense to bear.”
To Remove the Shackles of the Commandments: Indifference and Laxity
Beginning in the 1760s, religious laxity among the Jewish minority in Europe gained momentum. In this decade, secularization expanded and deepened relative to the past; this process would grow in intensity in the coming decades and reach its peak toward the end of the century in several communities in Central and Western Europe. It was not the result of an earthquake that raised questions about divine providence, nor was it the Haskalah's criticism of religion. But McManners's remark about secularization as the individual's reaction to the increasingly unbearable burden of religion can provide an insight into Jewish secularization. At a time when halakhic literature and moral sermons were posing severe demands, individuals were attempting to throw off religious prohibitions. To understand the traditional position that preceded secularization, the point of departure need not be the normative system for which the rabbinical elite was responsible, but rather the more widespread popular understanding of religion in terms of obligations and discipline. What is the meaning of loyalty to religion? When, for example, a London Jew was asked to testify in court as to the character of Michael Levy, a young man accused of a terrible act of sodomy, and to depict him as honest and moral, he said the following: "[Levy] always resorted to the hours of prayer, minded his religion, and was timorous of God. My servant was acquainted with him, and told me he was one that observed the Sabbath."
As we have seen, to understand the historical process that took place in the first half of the century and distanced European Jews from religion as a worldview and a way of life, we need to listen to the relatively obscure voices that tell us that dissatisfaction with religious tradition, faith, and obligations increased particularly among the younger generation, those born at the end of the forties, fifties, or the early sixties. Some of them, spurred by their desire to embark on an independent path and to cast off the burden of religion, also took more radical steps of rebellion against the religion.[...]
For those men and women who grew up in a world dominated by economic considerations and interests, aspirations to climb the social ladder, modern acculturation, and the fostering of strong links to European culture, languages, and values, the demands of the halakhah were intolerably harsh, and the religious world picture was foreign and meaningless. The sharp contradiction between traditional religion and life ill the European city was for them unbearable, even humiliating: "The religion that was taught to us, then, was full of mystical principles. The story of the primeval world was full of secrets, dark, incoherent; the events were foreign and, down to the last shades of meaning, so dissimilar to the occurrences of the world in which we lived that they seemed almost unbelievable. Characters, states of mind, and feelings of people who emerge in sacred scriptures not only were puzzling for us in matters of expression but also, for the most part, stood in contrast to our feelings, expressions, and ways of acting."
The prayers were incomprehensible and meaningless, and the religion in its traditional form was at odds with their aesthetic sensibility; to them, the commandments were embarrassing customs devoid of content, which "do injury to sense and spirit." Traditional education may have kept young men from falling into moral degeneration and atheism, but in Friedlander's view, it led to a counterreaction-to hostility toward religious practice, alienation, skepticism, and a desire for release: "Who can describe the passage from the slavery of the spirit into freedom! Who can calculate the delight, and thus the strengthened energy of the soul, of a man who rises from the feeling that he has shackles to the decision to throw them off!”
For those men and women who grew up in a world dominated by economic considerations and interests, aspirations to climb the social ladder, modern acculturation, and the fostering of strong links to European culture, languages, and values, the demands of the halakhah were intolerably harsh, and the religious world picture was foreign and meaningless. The sharp contradiction between traditional religion and life ill the European city was for them unbearable, even humiliating: "The religion that was taught to us, then, was full of mystical principles. The story of the primeval world was full of secrets, dark, incoherent; the events were foreign and, down to the last shades of meaning, so dissimilar to the occurrences of the world in which we lived that they seemed almost unbelievable. Characters, states of mind, and feelings of people who emerge in sacred scriptures not only were puzzling for us in matters of expression but also, for the most part, stood in contrast to our feelings, expressions, and ways of acting."
The prayers were incomprehensible and meaningless, and the religion in its traditional form was at odds with their aesthetic sensibility; to them, the commandments were embarrassing customs devoid of content, which "do injury to sense and spirit." Traditional education may have kept young men from falling into moral degeneration and atheism, but in Friedlander's view, it led to a counterreaction-to hostility toward religious practice, alienation, skepticism, and a desire for release: "Who can describe the passage from the slavery of the spirit into freedom! Who can calculate the delight, and thus the strengthened energy of the soul, of a man who rises from the feeling that he has shackles to the decision to throw them off!”
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Yair Lapid: Video of what a poor boxer he was 20 years ago
Tablet Magazine discovers an old video clip of Yair Lapid outclassed in the boxing ring Tablet - vacuous celebrity candidates are bad news "But slogans and gimmicks—Lapid playing Beatles songs on his guitar in
front of adoring audiences, ... —are one thing. Deficits are another.
Israel’s currently stands
at nearly $10 billion, equivalent to 4.2 percent of the country’s gross
domestic product, double the number originally allotted for by the
state’s budget. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz have sworn up and down that taxes would not be
raised nor deep spending cuts enacted. It’s hard to imagine how either
measure is avoidable en route to recovery."
Education Ministry threatens chareidi schools over core curriculum - 4 months to comply!
YNET On the path to another
confrontation with the haredim: Ynet has learned that the Education
Ministry will inform the High Court of Justice Wednesday that if within
four months, the haredi educational system does not reach an agreement
with the State regarding the issue of core studies, the government will
propose a law obligating them to introduce core subjects to all state
schools, including Meitzav
standardized testing (tests examining schools’ efficiency and growth measures).
The response of the
Education Ministry will be given to the High Court following an appeal
that was filed in 2010 by the Israel Religious Action Center – of the
Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. In the coming days, talks will
begin between the Education Ministry and representatives of the haredi community,
in an attempt to summarize understandings over the next few months, and avoid conflict with the haredi sector.
Education Minister Shai
Piron announced during budget discussions that he would work to
establish haredi public schools while cutting budgets to haredi tracks.
The scheduled negotiations are part of this move. In the coming days,
Director General of the Education Ministry Dalit Stauber is expected to
meet with representatives of the schools
to promote the plan. [...]
The "hate crime against gays" blamed on Chareidim turns out to be personal revenge
YNet see background by Avi Shafran Eli Yishai demands an apology
They were four partners in crime who swore to never mention it. It was the terrible secret of the 2009 shooting at the Barnoar youth center in Tel Aviv that bound them together – an incident that sent shockwaves through the entire nation. Thousands were investigated in connection with the shootings, millions of shekels were spent to no avail, until one of the four felt betrayed and spoke to police.
They were four partners in crime who swore to never mention it. It was the terrible secret of the 2009 shooting at the Barnoar youth center in Tel Aviv that bound them together – an incident that sent shockwaves through the entire nation. Thousands were investigated in connection with the shootings, millions of shekels were spent to no avail, until one of the four felt betrayed and spoke to police.
On Tuesday, one day after the farce surrounding the lifting and restoring the gag order on the details of the case, the gag order on the
publication of the name of the main suspect in the 2009 youth center
shooting was lifted. Police said 23-year-old Pardes Katz resident Hagai
Felician is suspected of shooting two people dead [...]
It has been also cleared for publication that Felician carried out the deadly attack to avenge the sexual abuse of his 15-year-old relative by a grown man he expected to be at the center.
Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16 were killed on the August 1, 2009 when a veiled man entered the Barnoar
LGBT youth center in Tel Aviv and began shooting at the teens gathered there. Eleven others were injured.
How do we know Weberman is guilty of abuse? - posts discussing the evidence
Satmar still has not given up in trying to free Weberman and is conducting a compaign against his conviction, jailing and his victim. The following are some of the important posts regarding the guilt of Weberman which you can show to his defenders.
There seems to be an inherent belief in these people that any male who is convicted of sexual abuse of a woman or child must be innocent. Furthermore anyone who has been convicted by the secular goverment must be innocent. Finally anyone who is a talmid chachom, a nice guy and has ever done anything for the community is incapable of committing a crime.
These are the posts dealing with the validity of the guilty verdict
in the Weberman trial
http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-y-horowitz-update-re-weberma-trial.html
http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-ronnie-greenwalds-view-of.html
http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/pearl-engelman-who-is-nechemia-weberman.html
http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/how-do-we-know-weberman-is-guilty-as.html
Haaretz sympathizes with Satmar rally's call for religious freedom
Haaretz Until now, the primary storyline of the religious-secular battles in Israel has been driven by Women of the Wall, the activist group that, with their monthly prayer meetings at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, have brought more attention to the quest for religious equality in Israel than has been seen in years.
But
with the massive Haredi protest at the Wall last month, and Sunday’s
large showing in Lower Manhattan, the Haredim have begun to mobilize.
The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square on Sunday is the attempt to conscript Haredi
Israelis into the army. A parliamentary committee advanced a bill last
month that would do just that. But the banner under which the protestors
gathered on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been
largely the domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.
As one sign carrier told me, his religion requires him to sit and
study Torah. Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would
be a violation of his religious rights.
It has generally been the liberals who have taken this line (in several
cases, to the Israeli Supreme Court), arguing that religious law should
not be the law of the land, and that Reform and Conservative Jews also
have rights, in particular at the Western Wall. The effort has borne
fruit, leading to a court ruling in favor of women’s prayer at the Kotel
and an announcement by the Religious Services Ministry that it would
institute changes to allow for the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis.
The support that such efforts have drawn from the ranks of American
Jews shows that the quest for religious equality is a resonant one.[...]
Wife of Lev Tahor cult leader leaves him saying she was seriously beaten
BHOL see Pure as the driven snow in Haaretz
אי שם במחוז קוויבק שבערבות קנדה, מנהל שלמה הלברנץ כת דתית קיצונית והזויה
בשם 'לב טהור'. קשה אפילו להתחיל להבין את אורחות החיים הסגפניים שהכתיב
הלברנץ לעשרות מאמיניו, ויותר קשה לאמוד את מקור הכוח באמצעותו הוא שולט
בחייהם מדי יום, ללא הפרעה.
מתחת לפני השטח, מתנהלת דרמה ענקית, המטלטלת את הכת ומאיימת עליה לראשונה איום קיומי של ממש. זה החל לפני מספר שבועות, כאשר תחת מעטה של חשאיות נמלטה מהכת לישראל מלכה הלברנץ, שהיא לא פחות מאשר רעייתו של מנהיג הכת.
בהקלטה בלעדית ומצמררת, הנחשפת לראשונה ב'בחדרי חרדים', מגלה מלכה כי הסיבה העיקרית לבריחה הגדולה היא אלימות שחוותה.
מתחת לפני השטח, מתנהלת דרמה ענקית, המטלטלת את הכת ומאיימת עליה לראשונה איום קיומי של ממש. זה החל לפני מספר שבועות, כאשר תחת מעטה של חשאיות נמלטה מהכת לישראל מלכה הלברנץ, שהיא לא פחות מאשר רעייתו של מנהיג הכת.
בהקלטה בלעדית ומצמררת, הנחשפת לראשונה ב'בחדרי חרדים', מגלה מלכה כי הסיבה העיקרית לבריחה הגדולה היא אלימות שחוותה.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Lakewood Wakeup! Your rabbis need to publicly apologize for their public abuse of Rabbi "S"
After Yosef Kolko publicly confessed to raping a child, there has been studied silence from his supporters. We are not talking about some psychopaths who enjoyed destroying a distinguished talmid chachom and his family and driving them out of Lakewood for trying to defend his son according to the halacha. We are talking about the rabbinical leadership of Lakewood who lynched one of its own. We are talking about rabbis who get up before their congregations and tell them that they should be good and not speak lashon harah. Rabbis who are makpid that everyone should observe the most exacting chumros of kashrus and Shabbos. Rabbis who have devoted their lives and considerable talents to building one of the most important Torah communities in the world. We are talking about the failure of the spiritual leaders of the community!
It is astounding to me - as a fellow Torah Jew and human being - that these rabbis who led the lynch mobs against Rabbi "S" are now silent when it has been revealed to all intelligent rational beings that they were wrong about Yosef Kolko. I am ashamed that these rabbis who have set themselves as paragons of Torah knowledge and conduct - have failed in the most elementary task - to repent and to publicly apologize to the man that they recently terrorized in the name of halacha.
It is clear - as the letters I received from Rabbi Goldin (president of the RCA) and others show - that there are many who are very uncomfortable with the lack of menschlikeit and failure to follow the halacha of publicly apologizing for their egregious error. While there are in fact some of those who terrorized Rabbi "S" - who have apologized to him in private. and even publicly- these are the very rare exception.
As a consequence of the moral and halachic cowardice of these rabbis, Lakewood is splitting into two camps. There are many avreichim who are ashamed of their rabbis. Who have lost respect for them as moral leaders. Who now have no one to turn to for "daas Torah". These are hurt and bitter individuals who will pass on this poison of cynicism and distrust for rabbinical authority to their children. They are afraid to speak up themselves because they are totally dependent on the "system" for their existence - but they no longer are believers in the "system". They have effectively dropped out - yet remain as a fifth column in our community. The other camp is no less dangerous. These are people who refuse to believe the overwhelming evidence of Yosef Kolko's guilt - and are convinced more than ever that the world is only interested in destroying frum yidden. These are fanatics who are not capable of dealing with reality themselves - but only accept that which there rabbis tell them. Just as emunas chachomim was destroyed by the public fight between Rav Yaakov Emden and Rav Yonason Eybschuetz in the 18th century and which prepared the ground for the destructive forces of Reform and the Haskala - so too is the clash between those who want to accept reality and those who deny it.
It is therefore important that people convey to the rabbis of Lakewood their pained feelings and damaged emunas chachomim. It is critical for these rabbis to be aware of the horrible price the Jewish people will pay for their failure to provide moral leadership. It is imperative that the Lakewood rabbis publicly apologize to Rabbi "S" and clear the poisonous atmosphere that has developed because of the Kolko case. From what I understand he would welcome the opportunity to forgive those who have hurt him and to get on with life. It is time to stop obsessing over minor factors for kids going off the derech as well as other suffering in our community and to stand up and confront the real problems.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Weberman case: 3 who confessed to intimidating witnesses get no jail time
NY Daily News Three Brooklyn brothers admitted they tried to bully the boyfriend of a Hasidic sex abuse victim before an explosive trial but received no jail time from the judge Thursday.
Three Brooklyn brothers admitted they tried to bully the boyfriend of a
Hasidic sex abuse victim before an explosive trial but received no jail
time from the judge Thursday.
Although prosecutors insisted they should get at least 30 days in jail
for misdemeanor coercion, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun
allowed the trio to plead guilty and get conditional discharge.
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