Plea averts trial in NY Hasidic firebombing case

Wall Street Journal 

[BHOL]

A Hasidic teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to assault, averting a trial in an attempted murder case that brought unusual attention to a religious dispute in a Jewish enclave.

Shaul Spitzer, 18, accepted a plea bargain as jury selection was about to begin at the Rockland County Courthouse in New City, said defense attorney Deborah Lowenberg.

Spitzer had been accused of severely burning neighbor Aron Rottenberg with a firebomb outside Rottenberg's home in New Square, an insular Hasidic village of 7,000.[...]

Eda Haredit raises money to sue police

YNet

Eda Haredit members are fighting back against a recent wave of police arrests. The extreme ultra-Orthodox faction decided in recent days to step up its battle, and has begun filing personal lawsuits against police officers.

As a start, the faction allotted a budget of $20,000 for the legal struggle, which is aimed at deterring the police from "harassing" its members.


According to an Eda Haredit source, in recent months the police have decided to "hit everyone affiliated with the faction with all their might".[...]

School Linked to Abuse Claims Will Replace Entire Faculty

 NYTimes

The entire faculty at Miramonte Elementary School, where two teachers were arrested last week on accusations of child sexual abuse, will be replaced by new teachers this week, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent announced Monday night. 

Speaking to hundreds of parents at a meeting called to address the crisis at Miramonte, Superintendent John Deasy announced the school would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and when students returned on Thursday, an entirely new corps of teachers and staff members would have been hired to greet them. All current teachers, administrators and staff members will be moved to a school still under construction for the rest of the school year, where they will be interviewed by school officials and, if necessary, the police.  [...]

Mr. Deasy said he felt a personal responsibility to do two things: help children who were victims, and restore parents’ trust in the school district.

Identity vs Integration: Radical Islamists 'freak out' Belgian community

Life sentence for man who refuses to give a get - upheld by rabbinic court

JPost

The supreme rabbinical court of appeals upheld a life sentence handed down to a man who has refused for ten years to give his wife a bill of divorce.

Meir Gorodetzki was imprisoned by the Jerusalem rabbinical court in 2001 for refusing to allow his wife to divorce him and has spent the last ten years in jail for his ongoing refusal to give his wife a bill of divorce, or get.[...]

A case of Rabbinic sexual abuse by Neustein & Lesher

Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

Escape from Williamsburg: A Memoir of a young woman going off the derech

 Forward review by Eishes Chayil author of Hush

“Unorthodox” is a memoir about a young woman who has a lot of opinions. But in the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic world of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, opinions in general, and certainly those of young women, are not appreciated.

I grew up in a similar world nearby, the Hasidic world of Boro Park. Reading “Unorthodox” was like seeing a variation on my own life mapped out meticulously, down to the last traditional detail. I found it oddly compelling, visiting scenes and dialogues that so perfectly encompass a world so familiar. When Deborah and her older cousin, Mimi, go to an ice skating rink, a young girl offers Deborah a Hershey chocolate kiss and tells her that it’s kosher:[...]

Rabbi Immanuel Schochet criticizes Rabbi Shmuly Boteach's book "Kosher J"

Forward 

Rabbi Boteach's response to the letter

Israeli bill aims to grant financial aid to Haredi youths leaving religious world

Haaretz

A new bill advanced by Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On aims to provide financial aid to youths leaving the religious world, similar to that given to new immigrants upon their arrival in Israel.

Three years ago, Tel Aviv resident Eli Bitaan, 21, abandoned the prestigious Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and left the religious world. These days, he’s trying to fulfill his dream and get into Tel Aviv University’s Law School. Without a high-school matriculation certificate, and devoid of any financial backing from his family, Bitaan is, for the third time, trying to pass required predatory classes while working toward his high-school diploma.  [...]

- Gur Hasidim & Sexual separation - הסודות של חסידות גור נחשפים

 Understanding the extreme views some chassidim have about women

 Haaretz - English version

In a recent study, scholar Nava Wasserman offers a window into the philosophy behind the strict sexual separation practiced by Gur Hasidim. For them, sexuality is the antithesis of sanctity, and must be resisted at all costs. 

Haaretz - Hebrew version

תקנות מחמירות האוסרות על גברים לדבר עם כל אשה - כולל זו שנישאו לה; חתנים שמגלים רק לפני חופתם את סוד הכלולות; והשיטות להסחת הדעת מכל מראה שעלול ליצור גירוי. כתבה ראשונה מתוך שתיים

Problem of readers making comments unrelated to the post

The issue of people making comments on new issues unrelated to the post has been brought up recently. It is generally perceived as an irritant and distraction.

I will try to keep the thread to topic from now on. For those who feel that there is an important issue that you want to bring up - please send it to me for evaluation [yadmoseh@gmail.com] as a guest post or something that I should make a post about.

In addition I just want to repeat that I don't allow anonymous comments. Sometimes I will add a name but usually I just erase them