Tom Kaplan - Billionaire backer of Eternal Jewish Family

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Wall Street Journal

Gold is setting records again, boosting the holdings of central banks, Armageddon worrywarts, and ordinary people who own gold bars, coins and jewelry.

But few individuals stand to benefit as much as low-profile billionaire Thomas Kaplan. A New York-born commodities magnate who earned a doctorate in British colonial history at Oxford, Mr. Kaplan oversees an empire devoted largely to gold.[...] Mr. Kaplan is also president of the board of directors at New York's 92nd Street Y, a prominent cultural organization that is a magnet for New York's elite. And he is a benefactor of Eternal Jewish Family, a group dedicated to uniform rules governing conversions to Judaism whose leader resigned last year amid an alleged sex scandal. [...]

Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews

Washington Post

The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.

But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.[...]

Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World

hat tip to RaP. Warning there are a few moments of kol isha so just be prepared. All the words are given as subtitles so you can just turn off the sound

Lithuania 'rewriting Holocaust history'

CNN

Abuse - Fingerprint option unused by yeshivot

Jewish Star

Of nearly 400 Jewish schools in New York State, only one, North Shore Hebrew Academy High School, uses a state law that allows private schools to check fingerprints to weed out potentially abusive faculty and staff. Elliot Pasik, an attorney and president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, who championed the law through Albany, filed a freedom of information request and is very upset about what he discovered. [...]

Ambassador to US: An Assault on Israel Cloaked in Peace

NYTimes

PEACE activists are people who demonstrate nonviolently for peaceful co-existence and human rights. The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace. On the contrary, the religious extremists embedded among those on board were paid and equipped to attack Israelis - both by their own hands as well as by aiding Hamas - and to destroy any hope of peace.

Millions have already seen the Al Jazeera broadcast showing these "activists" chanting "Khaibar! Khaibar!"- a reference to a Muslim massacre of Jews in the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century. YouTube viewers saw Israeli troops, armed with crowd-dispersing paintball guns and side arms for emergency protection, being beaten and hurled over the railings of the ship by attackers wielding iron bars.

What the videos don't show, however, are several curious aspects Israeli authorities are now investigating. First, about 100 of those detained from the boats were carrying immense sums in their pockets - nearly a million euros in total. Second, Israel discovered spent bullet cartridges on the Mavi Marmara that are of a caliber not used by the Israeli commandos, some of whom suffered gunshot wounds. Also found on the boat were propaganda clips showing passengers "injured" by Israeli forces; these videos, however, were filmed during daylight, hours before the nighttime operation occurred.[...]

Rav Sternbuch Change No You Can't

Rav Sternbuch's view on the fish worm issue

I received the following unofficial letter purporting to represent the view of Rav Sternbuch to the current fish worm question

First grade teacher suspected of abusing students

Mako

הותר לפרסום: גבר בן 33 מאלעד, מורה בבית ספר פרטי בעיר, נעצר בחשד לביצוע מעשים מגונים בקטינים, תלמידי כיתה א' אותם לימד. החשוד נעצר בשבוע שעבר והבוקר הוא יובא להארכת מעצרו בבית משפט השלום בפתח תקווה.

מעצרו של החשוד התאפשר בעקבות מספר תלונות של שישה הורים לתלמידים שהוגשו במשטרה. על פי החשד, נהג החשוד לגעת בתלמידיו באופן שיעורר בו גירוי מיני ולאחר מכן היה הולך למקום אחר כדי להגיע לסיפוקו, ושלא בנוכחות הקטינים.

במהלך השבוע האחרון תושאלו הקטינים על ידי חוקרים של משרד הרווחה והתבקשו למסור פרטים על המעשים. החשוד עצמו, ללא עבר פלילי קודם, הודה בחקירתו במיוחס לו ושיתף פעולה באופן מלא במהלך החקירה.

Police not trained to handle abuse cases

NYTimes

Responding to concerns that sexual assault complaints have been mishandled by the police in New York, a task force appointed by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has recommended new training protocols for officers dealing with sex crime victims.

The task force has called for a video to be shown to officers that emphasizes the Police Department’s policies mandating that crime reports be taken, and the procedures and sensitivity required in dealing with victims of sex crimes, said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman.

The task force, which began its review in April, is also looking at specific cases to check if complaints were handled appropriately by the police. The task force is expected to meet with Mr. Kelly on Thursday to present its initial list of recommendations.[...]

Daniel in the lions' den draws fangs; Muslims deny flotilla lynch-mob- t...