Abuse : Rabbis must decide whether to go to police

Asbury Park Press

One man's criminal accusation that a teacher molested his young son has widened the rift in the Orthodox Jewish community over where religious rights stop and the justice system begins.

Some inside the tight-knit enclave praised the child's father for bypassing religious protocols last year and reporting the alleged attack first to Ocean County prosecutors. Others believe he committed a sin because he failed to get permission from a rabbinic court before pressing charges against a fellow Jew.

"The first step is to go to rabbis,'' said Rabbi Shmuel Meir Katz, a senior Dayan, or decider of Jewish law. He teaches at Beth Medrash Govoha, a yeshiva in Lakewood that is one of the foremost Jewish universities in the world. "We have our own system. We have our own laws, and as long as the Bais Din (rabbinical tribunal) feels competent on taking care of something themselves, that's our surest recourse in our circles.''

At the center of the controversy are the criminal charges against Yosef Kolko, 36, a former camp counselor and local yeshiva teacher. At his arraignment Tuesday, Kolko pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment. The child was between 11 and 12 years old when the more than yearlong alleged abuse began in Lakewood, according to the indictment. The Asbury Park Press is withholding the father's name to protect the child's identity.[...]

Changing sexual attitudes - normalizing the profoundly perverse

Guardian

It was a Friday night a few months ago. Rob was standing on my doorstep, ashen and trembling. He still couldn't speak even as he sipped at a mug of tea after my flatmate and I had ushered him into our front room. We could not guess what had happened, but a feeling of dread was fast forming in our minds; we could only assume that something terrible must have happened to Rob's fiancee, Karen. Gradually, his powers of speech returned and the story emerged. Something had happened, but that something was terrible to Rob himself, not Karen.

Now, you have to understand that Rob and Karen were the most balanced, wholesome couple I knew. They had recently moved out of their flat while it was being redecorated, each returning to their respective family homes for a couple of weeks. That Friday, she had left her keys at his place by accident. He was passing by her parents' place later that night, so he stopped off and rang the doorbell.[...]

Cover revised with room

New sex laws will help abuse prevention

Delmarva

Uncle John has been taking his nephew Steve on camping trips every weekend. The family knows John has a history of being a sexual predator, and they suspect he may be grooming the child for abuse.

In the recent past, Social Services could only help that child once it suspected he had been mistreated.

Not anymore. New laws passed this year in the wake of the horrific abuse and murder of a Salisbury girl address loopholes in the system that deals with sexual predators.

A panel of state employees who work with the sex offender registry, Child Protective Services and corrections spoke about some of those changes during a panel at Thursday's annual Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City. The new laws will take effect Oct. 1. [...]

Abuse book - Dedication & synopsis

There are those of you who are still skeptical and cautious about
approving or supporting a book that you haven't read. Despite the many
posts about abuse that I have posted - you still are not sure what I am
doing and what my message is - or that I have the competence to produce
an appropriate book on the topic. That is entirely understandable
considering the horror and fear this topic elicits. To try to help you
understand the basic theme of the book - I am presenting the dedication
of the book. This summarizes the basic elements and message of the book.

Nefesh B'Nefesh & Aliyah

Five Towns Jewish Times

I personally witnessed them.  They were two men sitting in the first class section of an El Al flight headed toward Israel.  Between the two of them they were holding on to some very small items with an illegal street value of well over one million American dollars.

They were both busy.  And working through the night.  Everyone else on the flight seemed to be sleeping. 

Not them.

 They were using computers – each of them with a powerful late model notebook.  It seems that they were cataloguing.  The items were not theirs and I had never seen so many of these items in one spot.

They were doing something unique.  Something that no one else had ever done before, it seems.  This required another, more careful, look. [...]

Shavei Israel - outreach to Poles who cliaim Jewish roots

YNET

A group of 22 young Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots arrived in Israel on Sunday for a special three-week educational seminar organized by the Shavei Israel non-profit organization.
 
The participants, most of whom were raised Catholic and are now in their 20s, came from an array of cities throughout Poland, primarily Krakow, Katowice, Warsaw, Tychy, Gdansk and Cieszyn. For some of the participants, this marks their first time visiting Israel. [...]

Europe and illegal immigrants

NYTimes

About 100 French riot police officers swooped down on an encampment of Roma here at 7 a.m. Thursday, taking names and filling out expulsion orders. Fully padded, but without helmets, the officers were aggressive but polite, accompanied by a Romanian policeman and three interpreters.

Mihai Lingurar, 37, and his wife, Rada-Soma Rostach, were ordered to leave France within a month for overstaying their three-month allowance as Romanian citizens and being unable to prove that they had full-time work. Their fourth child, however, Marc, 5 months old, is in intensive care at a hospital here, on the northeastern edge of Paris. Marc weighs about eight pounds and has been in and out of a coma.[...]

Rav Sternbuch:Preparing for Rosh Hashanah

Abuse Book: Last Appeal for Support

As you know the book is almost finished - I am still waiting for three
essays and I have about another week of editing left. I am going to ask
one more time for financial assistance (previous requests were largely
ignored). Anyone who wants to contribute can simply use the button on
the blog which is linked to my PayPal account. Despite all my efforts it
is possible that the book might simply be ignored. More likely it will
stimulate a healthy debate about the subject . It is also possible
that it trigger heated condemnations. Hopefully it will make a
significant improvement in how our families are protected from abuse.

If you think this book is worthwhile - perhaps even a major contribution
to needed change - then this is your last chance to get some of the
merit for producing it.

Saudi judge seeks to paralyze assailant as punishment

Associated Press

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told The Associated Press by telephone from there.[...]

Cigarette Smoking & Orthodox World

Yehuda Mond Foundation

Who Wants Life? from Yehuda Mond Foundation on Vimeo.

Alcoholism & the Orthodox world

Yehuda Mond Foundation

The dangers and pitfalls of alcohol from Yehuda Mond Foundation on Vimeo.

Attitude towards gay rights shifting worldwide

CNN

In signing Argentina's same-sex marriage law, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said debate over the issue would be "absolutely anachronistic" -- archaic, out of date -- within a few years.

Striking down California's Proposition 8 two weeks later, Judge Vaughn Walker was more specific, saying there was no evidence for old-fashioned stereotypes that painted gays "as disease vectors or as child molesters who recruit young children into homosexuality."

Banning people from marrying based on sexual orientation, the President Reagan appointee explained, is "irrational."[...]