'There aren't more sex abuse cases now, just more reports'

Arutz 7

In an interview with Kobi Sela, Attorney Rebecca Schwartz, a haredi woman who represents victims of sexual abuse, noted how attitudes about reporting sex abuse have changed in recent years for the haredi public.

"In the past it was generally just older people, talking about what happened in the past, now there's talk in every place. And younger people are talking, too.

"Haredi society is more open now, with the access to social media. In addition, parents are more a aware now than in the past concerning what's going on with their children.

"Haredi society is more open now, with the access to social media. In addition, parents are more a aware now than in the past concerning what's going on with their children.

In addition to her work as a prosecutor in sex abuse cases in the haredi public, Schwartz works to further give haredi women a voice through an online forum that she runs.[...]

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Video of Har Nof talk about Child Safety August 2 2016

Child molester sues Rockland Rabbi Yakov Horowitz over tweets

lohud    A child molester who moved from New York to Israel as he was being sought on a new misdemeanor assault charge has turned to the Israeli court system to quiet a Rockland County rabbi intent on spreading the word about his crimes on the internet and in Jerusalem.[...]

Horowitz was visiting Jerusalem to teach a child-safety class in Weinberg's neighborhood, Har Nof. The order would have prevented the rabbi from lecturing there because the community center where he was teaching is within a third of a mile of Weinberg's home.

The bid for the protection order followed Weinberg's filing a defamation lawsuit against the rabbi, who put out tweets warning Weinberg's neighbors in Israel of his presence. The lawsuit remains pending.

Horowitz told The Journal News/lohud that he won't be intimidated by Weinberg, who used his position as a bar mitzvah tutor to gain access to his victims, who were 12 and 13. He also sees the fight as part of a larger effort designed to thwart others from exposing sex offenders and warning potential victims of the danger. The Israeli legal maneuverings are key to this tactic, he said.[...]

Just hours after having to appear in court Tuesday to fight the petition for the restraining order, Horowitz taught his child-safety class to 200 people, as planned. Weinberg had unsuccessfully argued that Horowitz would incite community violence against him and his family, the rabbi said.

The Journal News/lohud is highlighting the case as it conducts a broader investigation into incidents of child sexual abuse in the Lower Hudson Valley.

For Weinberg to imply Horowitz would incite violence, "is outrageous," Horowitz said, speaking to a reporter Monday from Israel, dismissing the latest court filing as "just another way of him trying to intimidate me."

Samuel Karliner, a lawyer for Weinberg in Brooklyn who helped him comply with sex-offender registry requirements while he was in the United States, said Weinberg was fed up with Horowitz, who has been disrupting his life.

"He didn't bring this suit as an aggressor," Karliner said. "He brought this suit to stop things from happening." [....]

"How can you slander a sex offender?" asked Horowitz, founder and director of the Center for Jewish Family Life/Project Y.E.S. (Youth Enrichment Services), a mentorship program for at-risk teens. "If somebody is out there (molesting) children, how do you ruin his reputation?"

A $55,000 default judgment was issued against Horowitz in June 2015 after he didn't show up in court, unaware he was being sued, he said. The judgment was removed, he said, but the case is pending, set to go to trial in November.

In Israel, a plaintiff can win a defamation suit by showing that negative things have been said or written about him but, unlike in the United States, he does not have to prove his reputation, livelihood or social standing have been harmed, according to legal experts.[...]

"In the event he returns to New York, he will be charged," Brooklyn District Attorney's Office spokesman Oren Yaniv told The Journal News/lohud.

Since Horowitz has been writing about Weinberg, two men have come forward with complaints, alleging Weinberg acted inappropriately around them when they were children. [...]

Karliner said Weinberg wasn't fleeing from law enforcement.

"My client left the United States with consent and knowledge of the New York City Police Department, with the Israeli government knowing that he was coming, with the Israeli government knowing his background," he said.

Horowitz, who faces thousands of dollars in legal fees, in addition to the threat of a judgement against him, pledged to continue his defense in order to protect families who have a right to know a predator is in their midst.

"I will fight to the end," he said.

Masei -76 Hypocrisy , Flattery and Authenticity in Education by Allan Katz

Guest Post by Allan Katz

In our parasha God warns the children of Israel about the sanctity of life. Like Noah, who was about to leave the ark, the children of Israel are about to enter the Land of Israel. Both are warned to safeguard the sanctity of life – Noah Ber.9:6 שופך דם האדם באדם דמו ישפך - Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed – and in our parasha Numbers 36:33  ולארץ לא יכופר לדם אשר שפך בה כי בדם שופכו and the land will not have atonement for the blood that was spilled in it , except through the blood of the one who spilled it.

A convicted murderer forfeits the right of existence, the right to dwell on the land. If the act of murder was unintentional but there was carelessness, the perpetrator is exiled to a city of refuge and remains there until the death of the High Priest. His rights on the land are now limited because of his failure to exercise care concerning the life of someone else. The most serious of situations is – when a person is convicted for murder buys his freedom .According to the Torah , it is difficult to get a murder conviction because there is no such thing as circumstantial evidence. The murder has to be witnessed by 2 witnesses who warned the murderer before committing the act of murder that it is forbidden by the Torah and the consequence is that he will be killed by a court if found guilty. In such a case where the guilty person pretends to be innocent and the court is guilty of institutionalized hypocrisy and does not execute the man, the land is made into a ' hypocrite' and 'defiled'. ולא תחניפו ...ולא תטמא את הארץ

The Torah uses an unusual expression –' don't turn the land into a hypocrite.' A hypocrite is someone whose actions, external behavior or words don't match his inner thoughts, core or essence. R' SR Hirsch explains that in the Hebrew, the root of the verb that the verse uses is חנף = cha'naf . This is related to the word ענף = a'naf , a branch of a tree that supports the fruit that springs from it. The substitution of the letters 'chet' for' ayin' is an expression of negation. What appears to be a branch does not fulfill its design, promise and mission. It does not bear the fruit expected of it. It looks like a proper branch, but at its core it is not – like a hypocrite. The design and mission of the land of Israel is to express its inner core and essence and produce the blessings of the land, but when it does not express its potential and is barren because of the acts of man, man has made the land into a hypocrite. The land is no longer authentic and true to its mission. ( Ramban, R' SRH)

The problem with this translation –' do not make the land into a hypocrite' is that in a sense the land is being authentic to its source and inner core, when due to man's sins it no longer produces and lies barren. It is the nature of the land of Israel to respond to man's action - with blessings and plenty of produce in response to his positive actions and with curses and barren fields when man sins. The Kli Yakar translates the לא תחניפו , as do not cause the land to flatter you, from the word – cha'nu'pah – flattery. When a person expresses insincere praise in order to get something from another person, he is flattering him and is therefore acting like a hypocrite. The Persian King A'hasvei'rosh flattered the Jews by inviting them to his royal party and they in turn flattered him, by showing their appreciation and enjoying the hospitality. When the land continues to respond in a normal way to man's sin and unauthentic behavior and bears the produce of the land, it is also being unauthentic and hypocritical. When the land in response does not produce its yield, it is being authentic and faithful to its mission.

We can answer - that according to the Ramban and R' SRH the land is made into a hypocrite when it objectively does not fulfill its ultimate mission to produce crops and harvest. The Kli Yakar speaks in relative terms – the mission of the land is to respond to people's actions so when the land still produces despite man's sin, it is responding to man with flattery.

The antithesis of hypocrisy and flattery is the High Priest. He shows a continuous interest and concern for his people in his prayers that people should not be found guilty in court and that people do not sin, be careless and negligent so people's lives are put at risk and die. He does not flatter or praise people in order to ' get' but is genuine and authentic.

When it comes to educating and raising children and students, the focus is on the ' Lo lishma ', not doing things or learning because they in their essence are valuable to kids. This is much worse than ' making the land ' into a hypocrite ' or flattering the land. Here, we build kids to be hypocrites and non- authentic people. We are building relationships that are conditional and kids and people are only accepted if they perform or behave as demanded. Parents and teachers are more often than not, not authentic and use flattery to get kids to jump through their hoops. Parents are told to ' catch them when they are good ' and then praise them. The praise is used is to flatter kids so they will be more easy to handle and control. It is not authentic or sincere, but used in order to get. The problem with praise that even if it sincere it is experienced as controlling and as judgment by kids. Instead care givers can help kids reflect on how their behavior has consequences for others, rather than consequences for themselves and how they can impact on others and their classroom. Consequences don't help kids to ask – what type of person do I want to be or does my behavior reflect my inner core values. They are never brought into a process, where they can participate on what values should guide their classroom and how problems should be solved. Instead of addressing underlying problems and concerns of both care givers and children , adults unilaterally focus only on their concerns and when expectations are not met , use either positive or negative reinforcements . Rewards, punishments, consequences and praise don't solve problems; just make sure that the locus of control with the adults instead of putting the locus of control with kids and helping them take true responsibility for their education. We want kids to be self-motivated and inspired by their essence and core values, see value in what they do and not become dependent on extrinsic motivators and the approval of others.

The educational system is driven by extrinsic motivators like rewards, grades, honor rolls and praise. The focus is on superficial and extrinsic performance goals such as test scores rather than focusing on the whole child , his thinking, intrinsic competence goals ,helping him develop a love for learning and learning to form his own judgments , getting pleasure in his own achievements and feeling a sense of competence and self-pride. In schools, material that is not on the test or won't be graded has no value. Learning has no value in itself - the focus is to get the highest score, the easiest way possible. So in order to motivate kids to learn the focus is on ' how kids learn ' , so there is plenty of praise for high test scores instead of helping kids focus on what they are learning. Kids are never asked if they find their learning relevant and meaningful and given a chance to participate in deciding on a curriculum that focuses on their questions, interests and curiosity. The alternative to praise or grades is encouragement and informational feedback - a conversation between the adult and child where the adult uses responses that describe rather than judge and asks questions about the process – why the child decided to act or write in a certain way. The renowned teacher – Joe Bower said that assessment is not a rubric but a conversation. Praise and flattery is not a conversation , but doing to kids instead of working with them.

Mekach Ta'us? Discovered after marriage that his wife was Chinese but had operation to remove slanted eyes

Kikar HaShabbat

Life In Israel - English Translation

אברך חרדי ביקש לגרש את אשתו בגלל שלא ידע שהיא סינית במקור. הנזק, לטענתו, הן העיניים המלוכסנות שקיבלו ילדיהם. הרב פסק: זה לא פגם. ומה אם היו נולדים להם ילדים שחורים? (חדשות)

לא ידע שהתחתן עם סינית - מקח טעות? יהודי שפנה לרבה של רמת אלחנן וחבר מועצת גדולי התורה הגאון רבי יצחק זילברשטיין, העלה שאלה מוזרה לגבי נישואיו עם אשתו, וביקש לברר אם מדובר במקח טעות - כיוון שגילה למפרע שמדובר בסינית.

"התחתנתי לפני כמה שנים עם אשה פלונית", הוא מספר, "ולאחר שנה נולד לנו בס"ד ילד. לצד השמחה הגדולה שהיתה בעת הלידה, נדהמתי להיווכח שלילד יש עיניים מלוכסנות, כמו של הסינים..."

"כששאלתי את אשתי בעניין, היא השיבה לי שאכן היא נולדה בסין, אבל במהלך שנות בחרותה עברה ניתוח ל'יישור' העיניים, ולאחר הניתוח סר ממנה 'המראה הסיני', והיא נראית כאשה 'מערבית'".

"הבעל התרגז מאוד על אשתו שלא סיפרה לו את הדבר, אבל אי אפשר להתעלם מהטענה שיש גם עליו, שכן הוא התחתן איתה בהיותה מתגוררת בארה"ב, וגם הוא לא ערך אודותיה את הבירור המספק" נאמר בעלון שסיקר את הפרשה. [...]

הבעל טען שמדובר במקח טעות, ועם אשה כזו הוא לא הסכים כלל להתחתן, לכן הוא רוצה להגיש נגדה תביעה לגירושין. כשנשאל היכן מוזכר הפגם הזה של 'עיניים סיניות' ברשימת המומים במסכת בכורות, השיב הבעל, שפגם כזה לא צריך להיות כתוב באף מקום... "כיון שבני-אדם כמונו, שאינם מתגוררים בסין, מתביישים בכך, ובוודאי שעל-דעת זה לא נישאתי לאשה זו". [...]

"בכל זאת", קבע הרב, "אין המקרים דומים, כי בענין הריסים אכן מדובר בפגם שאינו נמצא אצל שאר בני האדם, אבל באשר לעיניים המלוכסנות - הרי שליש מכלל האנשים בעולם הם סינים, ויש להם עיניים כאלה... ולכן אי אפשר לומר שזה הוא פגם..."

"אולי העיניים שלנו, הישרות, הן הלא-רגילות, ועיניה של האשה הן הרגילות בעולם" נאמר.

אחד המשתתפים בשיעור שאל מה היה הדין אם היה נולד לבני הזוג ילד כהה עור ("כושי" כלשונו), והרב השיב שכאן יהיה הדין שונה, "כיוון שכושי הוא קללה שקילל השי"ת את חם בן-נוח, אבל עיניים מלוכסנות של סינים? אינן קללה, כי לשליש מבני העולם יש עיניים כאלה".

Expert: Abolish mixed-gender combat units in the IDF - IDF values gender equality over combat effectiveness

Arutz 7   This week new soldiers were drafted into the mixed-gender (henceforth "mixed") combat units in the IDF, chief among them the longest operating mixed unit, the Caracal battalion.

However, despite the high numbers shown in IDF stats of the drafts into these units, indicating success, experts on the matter warn that the real picture is far less rosy.

Reserve General Raz Sagi, head of the Forum for a Strong IDF (FSIDF), who has devoted several years of his life to researching the effects of integrating women into combat roles, claims in an interview with Arutz Sheva that the rise in the number of draftees into mixed units should "make us lose sleep."

"When Caracal was formed in 2001 it was a small battalion of 300 combat soldiers, most of whom were women, and the chance that someone would get hurt was small. Today, however, when the army is taking entire already established infantry units and turning them into mixed ones it's disturbing. The Combat Readiness Department claims that they've now lowered the physical strength and fitness requirements four times in order to enable women to be accepted, and this disturbs me. Because, obviously, if the standards are lowered so that someone will be accepted, this means that the actual operational fitness and capability of the unit goes down," Sagi explained.

According to General Sagi, the great like of equality in the IDF is exposed by this lowering of standards. "What equality is there in the IDF if the female combat soldiers in the mixed units run less, carry less weight, and participate less in long marches. The female soldiers become second class. This isn't equality. Justice Strasbourg-Cohen already ruled in the Supreme Court Alice Miller case that the value of operational capability is higher than the value of equality. When the male soldiers in Caracal run, the female ones walk, when the males stand, the females sit. This is equality?"[...]

A more intangible but more less serious problem, according to Sagi, is the effect serving in a mixed unit has on the soldiers' morale. "When you look into the morale in these units, you find a serious problem. The men who are assigned to these units lose their morale. They take off the tags identifying their unit when they come home because they're embarrassed to serve there. Soldiers who don't have pride in their unit won't charge into battle."

Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter: Update - The deliberate silence of our gedolim means they are liable for the sin of adultery

Guest post by Joe Orlow

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein had a private Bais Din that gave a ruling to Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky. The Bais Din ruled that Tamar Epstein is married to Aharon Friedman.

Despite this ruling, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky had not publicly stated that Tamar should separate from the man that she married in a ceremony performed by Rabbi Nota Greenblatt.

I learned that a prominent Rav had asked Rabbi Dovid Feinstein to issue a letter stating Tamar should separate from her second husband. Rabbi Feinstein agreed to write the letter.

I called a Rav who is close to Rabbi Feinstein to find out the status of the letter from Rabbi Feinstein. In the course of the conversation, this Rav told me that Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky had told Tamar to separate from her second husband.

I called Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky and asked him to confirm that he had told Tamar to separate from her second husband. He told me, "I never told anyone to separate." That is an exact quote.

I called up a Rav who had sat on the Bais Din with Rabbi Feinstein that issued the ruling to Rabbi Kamenetsky. I told him that Rabbi Kamenetsky told me that he did not tell anyone to separate. The Rav indicated to me that he felt that if Rabbi Kamenetsky did tell Tamar to separate, that she would listen to Rabbi Kamenetsky. I furthermore told the Rav that Rabbi Feinstein had been asked to write a letter telling Tamar to separate.

I asked that the Bais Din should tell Rabbi Kamenetsky to tell Tamar to separate. I went on. I asked that the Bais Din make a direct statement telling Tamar to separate from her second husband.

This Rav, who sat on this Bais Din, in the nicest way made it clear that none of this would be happening.

I said that that I had been told that the great scholars of the generation are responsible for the generation. Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn had taught me that just hours before I had this discussion with the Rav.

I spelled it out, leaving nothing to the imagination. I said that every time the couple has relations that the Aveira is on the great scholars of the generation (who fail to act and tell the couple to separate on the outside possibility that the couple will listen and separate.)

There seemed to be nothing more to add. The Rav thanked me. I returned the thanks. And hung up.

Addendum

The Gemora in Shabbos 54b says that one who has the influence to prevent somebody from sinning and does not stop the sinning is punished as if he had committed those sins. That is, there are people who can prevent their families from sinning but not the general public. There are people who have some influence in the general public. There are those who can influence the entire world. A person who can stop the sin of a few people but no more and does not do that is punished as a sinner with the sins of a few people. But one who can influence many people to stop sinning and does not, is punished with the sins of many people.

Why ‘Useless’ Surgery Is Still Popular

NY Times

Before a drug can be marketed, it has to go through rigorous testing to show it is safe and effective. Surgery, though, is different. The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate surgical procedures. So what happens when an operation is subjected to and fails the ultimate test — a clinical trial in which patients are randomly assigned to have it or not?

The expectation is that medical practice will change if an operation turns out not to help.

If only.

It looks as if the onus is on patients to ask what evidence, if any, shows that surgery is better than other options.

Take what happened with spinal fusion, an operation that welds together adjacent vertebrae to relieve back pain from worn-out discs. Unlike most operations, it actually was tested in four clinical trials. The conclusion: Surgery was no better than alternative nonsurgical treatments, like supervised exercise and therapy to help patients deal with their fear of back pain. In both groups, the pain usually diminished or went away.

The studies were completed by the early 2000s and should have been enough to greatly limit or stop the surgery, says Dr. Richard Deyo, professor of evidence-based medicine at the Oregon Health and Sciences University. But that did not happen, according to a recent report. Instead, spinal fusion rates increased — the clinical trials had little effect.

Spinal fusion rates continued to soar in the United States until 2012, shortly after Blue Cross of North Carolina said it would no longer pay, and some insurers followed suit.

“It may be that financial disincentives accomplished something that scientific evidence alone didn’t,” Dr. Deyo said.[...]

In 2009, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published results of separate clinical trials on a popular back operation, vertebroplasty, comparing it to a sham procedure. They found that there was no benefit — pain relief was the same in both groups. Yet it and a similar operation, Kyphoplasty, in which doctors inject a sort of cement into the spine to shore it up, continue to be performed. [...]

The latest controversy — and the operation that arguably has been studied the most in randomized clinical trials — is surgery for a torn meniscus, a sliver of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber in the knee. It’s a condition that often afflicts middle-aged and older people, simply as a consequence of degeneration that can occur with age and often accompanying osteoarthritis. The result can be a painful, swollen knee. Sometimes the knee can feel as if it catches or locks. So why not do an operation to trim or repair the torn tissue?

About 400,000 middle-aged and older Americans a year have meniscus surgery. And here is where it gets interesting. Orthopedists wondered if the operation made sense because they realized there was not even a clear relationship between knee pain and meniscus tears. When they did M.R.I. scans on knees of middle-aged people, they often saw meniscus tears in people who had no pain. And those who said their knee hurt tended to have osteoarthritis, which could be the real reason for their pain.

Added to that complication, said Dr. Jeffrey N. Katz, a professor of medicine and orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, is the fact that not everyone improves after the surgery. “It is not regarded as a slam-dunk,” he said. As a result, he said, many doctors have been genuinely uncertain about which is better — exercise and physical therapy or surgery. That, in fact, was what led Dr. Katz and his colleagues to conduct a clinical trial comparing surgery with physical therapy in middle-aged people with a torn meniscus and knee pain.

The result: The surgery offered little to most who had it. Other studies came to the same conclusion, and so did a meta-analysis published last year of nine clinical trials testing the surgery. Patients tended to report less pain — but patients reported less pain no matter what the treatment, even fake surgery.[...]

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: How he convinced the judge not to issue an injunction against speaking in Haf Nof

I attended Rabbi Yakov Horowitz' presentation in Har Nof tonight. He spoke to a very interested and concerned audience for two hours. He speaks very well and has a lot of solid practical information to present. After the presentation I spoke to him briefly about what happened in court today. He noted that there were reporters present who would report the story. (Below are links to two of the reports.)

It is clear that the judge did not buy the claims that Rabbi Horowitz was a danger to the level 3 pedophile and his family by coming to his neighborhood of Har Nof to incite his neighbors against him. It is also clear that whatever negative attention this convicted pedophile is getting is coming primarily from his legal actions against Rabbi Horowitz.  Given the dismissal of the request for an injunction today - the pedophile seems to have little chance of winning the civil judgment in November and clearly stands to destroy whatever normal existence is left to them. Does it really make any sense to arouse the interest of the media when commonsense would tell you to make yourself as inconspicuous as possible? Ironically this convicted pedophile in his attempt to silence Rabbi Horowitz is actually building his stature and convincing people of the need for more publicity!

YNET

Kikar haShabbat

And in English

                      Arutz 7

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz speaking Thursday in Beit Shemesh about Technology and Child Safety

Please come hear Renowned ​Mechanech and Parenting Mentor, Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz, address these two vital topics.  

Free of charge, this Thursday night, 7 pm at

​Ulam Shabsai

.  See flyer below for details.  Really recommended for anyone who has children 4th grade and up!

6 teachers indicted for child abuse at haredi school

Arutz 7

An indictment was filed this morning (Tuesday) against 6 teachers at a Tel Aviv haredi boys school associated with the Belz hassidic sect, on charges of child abuse against 22 of their students.

According to the indictment, the six were educators at the institution, and taught minors aged 3 to 10.

From 2000 to 2011, beginning when the students were 3-4 years old, until they were 10, the 6 men took advantage of their positions of power to enact daily systematic physical and mental abuse against the boys.

In addition, one of the educators was charged with sodomy and indecent acts against the boys during the period that the boys were aged 7 until age 10.

The same man was charged with blackmail, realized threats, and abuse of minors in his custody, in light of the fact that he physically abused his own son for years until his son left the house, and instilled an atmosphere of deep fear among members of his household.

RABBI YAKOV HOROWITZ will SPEAK TONIGHT AT 8 P.M as SCHEDULED. Judge rejected the convicted pedophile legal arguments

The judge today heard the convicted pedophile's legal arguments for an injunction against Rabbi Horowitz speaking about child abuse - and she rejected them. 

She refused to issue an injunction against Rabbi Horowitz' presentation. It take place as scheduled - TONIGHT 8 PM in Har Nof

Trump's foot in mouth problem - Donald Trump Criticizes Muslim Family of Slain U.S. Soldier, Drawing Ire

update NY Times  John McCain Denounces Donald Trump’s Comments on Family of Muslim Soldier

In a remarkable and lengthy rebuke of his party’s nominee, Senator John McCain sharply criticized Donald J. Trump’s comments about the family of the fallen Muslim Army captain, saying, “While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.”

Mr. McCain, a war hero whose service and capture in Vietnam Mr. Trump also once derided, had stayed largely silent over the weekend as Mr. Trump’s feud with the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan brewed, waiting until Monday morning to release a prepared statement.

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents,” he wrote. “He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States — to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.” [...]
=====================================
NY Times   Donald J. Trump belittled the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who had strongly denounced Mr. Trump during the Democratic National Convention, saying that the soldier’s father had delivered the entire speech because his mother was not “allowed” to speak.

Mr. Trump’s comments, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that will air on Sunday, drew quick and widespread condemnation and amplified calls for Republican leaders to distance themselves from their presidential nominee. With his implication that the soldier’s mother had not spoken because of female subservience expected in some traditional strains of Islam, his comments also inflamed his hostilities with American Muslims.

Khizr Khan, the soldier’s father, lashed out at Mr. Trump in an interview on Saturday, saying his wife had not spoken at the convention because it was too painful for her to talk about her son’s death.

Mr. Trump, he said, “is devoid of feeling the pain of a mother who has sacrificed her son.”

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a rival of Mr. Trump’s in the Republican primaries who has refused to endorse him, castigated him on Twitter. “There’s only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect,” he wrote, using the term for surviving family members of those who died in war.[...]

Mr. Khan’s speech at the convention in Philadelphia was one of the most powerful given there. It was effectively the Democratic response to comments Mr. Trump has made implying many American Muslims have terrorist sympathies or stay silent when they know ones who do. Mr. Trump has called to ban Muslim immigration as a way to combat terrorism.

At the convention, Mr. Khan spoke about how his 27-year-old son, Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died in a car bombing in 2004 in Iraq as he tried to save other troops.

He criticized Mr. Trump, saying he “consistently smears the character of Muslims,” and pointedly challenged what sacrifices Mr. Trump had made. Holding a pocket-size copy of the Constitution, he asked if Mr. Trump had read it. Mr. Khan’s wife stood silently by his side.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Stephanopoulos that Mr. Khan seemed like a “nice guy” and that he wished him “the best of luck.” But, he added, “If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably — maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me.”

Mr. Trump also told Maureen Dowd of The New York Times on Friday night, “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

In a statement late Saturday, Mr. Trump called Captain Khan a “hero,” and reiterated his belief that the United States should bar Muslims from entering the country.

“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son,” he added, “Mr. Khan, who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things.”

Even given Mr. Trump’s reputation for retaliating when attacked, his remarks about the Khans were startling. They called to mind one of his earliest counterpunches of the campaign, when he responded to criticism from Senator John McCain of Arizona, once a prisoner of war in Vietnam, by saying at a forum in Iowa, “I like people that weren’t captured.”

But Mr. McCain has a long history in the public eye. The Khans, before their convention appearance, had none.

“Trump is totally void of any decency because he is unaware of how to talk to a Gold Star family and how to speak to a Gold Star mother,” Mr. Khan said on Saturday.

Ms. Khan did speak on Friday to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, saying she “cannot even come in the room where his pictures are.”

When she saw her son’s photograph on the screen behind her on the stage in Philadelphia, she said, “I couldn’t take it.”

“I controlled myself at that time,” she said, while choking back tears. “It is very hard.”[...]

Rav Yakov Horowitz just had a restraining order filed against him to stop Tuesday's presentation

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Can't make this up.

Convicted sex offender YW went to Israeli court and filed a restraining order against me. I need to (take a lawyer) and appear before a judge at 12 noon tomorrow.

I was told that Weinberg told a staff member in the Har Nof Community Center where the speech will held that he filed for restraining order to stop me from giving the child safety class Tuesday evening.

I'm here in Israel working on the launch of the da'ati Le'umi version of our safety book.

I can't comment on this because of the hearing, but I strongly feel that this entire matter desperately needs the disinfectant of sunlight. Please like and share this......

I can't comment on this because of the hearing, but I strongly feel that this entire matter desperately needs the disinfectant of sunlight. Please like and share this......

**** some random thoughts as I'm walking the streets of beautiful Jerusalem on way to my lawyer:

1) I really, really appreciate the well over 100 emails, calls and all the other tech-apps. I read all; sorry can't respond. 

2) answer to, "How are you doin' Yankie?" Is great bh. Really great. And very, very determined. 

3) most important note; (I'm being circumspect due to legal proceedings) you are all witnessing a very unusual event -- you are watching how a sex offender's mind really works. This never happens because their crimes are done in darkness and they all clam up after they are charged. (Think; did you ever hear a word from Weberman or observe anything he did??)

Now you are watching weinberg's "new math," how he calculates risk and reward, on and on (I can't write more). 

Remember this for the rest of your life; and think of it when a community leader or friend tells you that a sex offender isn't a danger any more.