guest post DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY What is 'Mishpacha' is Doing to Yours?

THIS IS A GUEST POST I THINK THERE IS MORE DANGER FROM THE IMPLICATIONS OF THEIR ADS THAN FROM THEIR MANY INTERESTING WELL WRITTEN ARTICLES 

THIS IS THEIR RESPONCE

Mishpacha Magazine revealed the depth of its soul this week.

No, not by printing an envelope pushing article which legitimized attitudes that until yesterday were intuitively understood by every cheder yingel to have no place in our framework and hashkafa. That's the run of the mill mezzanine level of its soul; par for the course. Just Mishpacha being Mishpacha, you might say. After all, for what does the publication exist if not to help "Chareidi society come into its own" {their words) by broadening our scope culturally?

And so we've long since come to recognize {and, sadly, accept) the standard procedure: Push just a weensy bit past the normative limits of hashkafic acceptability. Wait for feedback. Print letter from Bora Park housewife decrying your indiscretion in exposing us to this horrible idea, alongside one from a Tzfas "mashpia" applauding your courage for finally airing this very important issue {or vice versa), so that all possible viewpoints can be properly validated. Now you see sheifeleh, did that really hurt as much as you thought it would? Ok, next level. Repeat steps one through four.

In this way we've been trained to think it somehow a good idea to raise our children to view the frum community through the prism of substance abuse, marital strife, emotional instability, and the myriad other issues-that-for-far-too-long-have-been-swept-under-the-carpet. {Remember when the first work of this genre was being serialized - I think it was called Hearts of Gold or something like that - and we all wondered what on earth was going on? My, weren't we quaint back then). And we've dutifully learned to make room in our weltanschauung for some old style feminism, new style Zionism, and a general enlightened atmosphere of openness and acceptance of all. The most freakish of "entertainers" are no longer fringe oddballs, but rather mainstream representatives of our culture. Successful entrepreneurs are no longer just Yidden looking to earn an honest living, but rather icons to be featured, so our chidren can read wistfully about their accomplishments in the same way that we used to read about Tzaddikim and anshei maiseh. Broaden their horizons, my boy. Through careful priming, enthusiastic articles on such things as the "Chareidi modern arts festival" {no kidding) were able to go down without so much as a burp.

So why was this time in particular so revealing? Well, it began with a slight miscalculation. It's almost sad to watch an old master get a little rusty- in this business hairsbreadth precision is everything. The editors apparently assessed that we were ready for vegan ism, and they missed it by that much. Should've started us off slow - maybe along the lines of an interview with some Rebbitzin who wrote a book about how now, b'yimos hamashiach, love and harmony between all the different levels of creatures is paramount. Probably could've worked us up to vegan tolerance in two or three small steps, but instead they pushed the whole thing out at once and there was communal indigestion.

That in itself is nothing terrible - heaven knows they've gotten through far worse. The scandal, goes the adage, is not in the crime but in the cover up. And it was in responding to the barrage of criticism that the publication inadvertently gave us a glimpse into the deepest depths of how they view the world of ideas.

In light of the backlash, the editors took on themselves to explain to us what it is that's really got our goat. Let not yourself be fooled into thinking that your discomfort comes from any sort of objective Yiddisheh worldview. It's not the age old Torah hashkafa of a natural world created with a function and purpose - i.e. as a necessary accessory for Man in his existential quest for elevation -that's got you ticking. It's not the rejection of three thousand years of mesorah and values in favor of the latest uppity fad. Rather, they tell us, it's merely American cultural associations of veganism with far left PETA loonies that caused the kickback.

You see, in the Mishpacha universe there is no such thing as an intrinsically acceptable or unacceptable Jewish ideal. All that we've been raised to view positively or negatively, to aspire to or to be repulsed by, to accept or to reject, are simply the result of subjective societal conditioning. As the gatekeepers of public discourse the editors see it as their role - nay, their duty - to open us up to an as broad and inclusive range of options as possible. And if something rubs you funny about these sophisticated new ideas, fret not. That's not your Bubbeh's Yiddisheh sensitivities nagging at you; it's probably your American political affiliation. Just lie down for a few moments and it'll pass.

אחי וריעי when are we going to wake up and say that this is not ok? When are we going to understand that it's not enough to just roll our eyes and say, "Wow this paper is really a piece of work"; that if I realize it's off and you realize it's off, then this is not what we should be allowing to direct the conversation for our community? Oh yes, we are strong and firm and won't fall for their most extreme ideas. But don't we realize that every time they move the goal posts, the fifty yard line shifts right along with it? Can't we recognize that while we had our backs turned, feeling all noble in our 'moderation' for not tossing the thing in the incinerator ten years ago, our attitudes and ideals, our instincts and perceptions, have been subtly changing? And can't we open our eyes to the fact that it's not stopping? Today we cheerfully imbibe things that a decade ago would have caused convulsions. Is our current value system so immune from undergoing similar transformation? Won't we continue to devolve, as the community activists in search of a cause's desperate need for continued relevance (and basic need for filler material) leads them ever further afield in pursuit of fresh perspectives?

Are we still so shallow as to snort, "C'mon, you think my kid's gonna go off the derech just from reading a story about how regular looking kollel guy was really behind closed doors a gambling addicted abusive husband and father?" No, nobody ever went off the derech from reading one story. But when someone spends his or her adolescence ingesting a weekly diet of how fake, dark, and ugly things are in our community, then the idealism and excitement for Yiddishkeit that we so fervently wish to impart inevitably lose their luster. (That this observation should be anything less than blindingly obvious to anybody is a testament to the awesome power of a generation's worth of social engineering.)

We devote fortunes of money, endless hours of time, and rivers of emotion toward our children growing up to act, think, and feel like Yidden. Are we to gamble it all in exchange for some graphic arts, play on words headlines, and pseudoprofound 'forums' ("Where the conversation happens", they so humbly label it)?

It's Elul. It's a new school year. It's a short phone call. 718-686-9339. "Hello, I'd like to cancel my subscription, effective immediately. Thank you and have a wonderful day." Let's recall control of our hashkafa and standards from the caretakers who have long since proven themselves unworthy of our trust. Not only for ourselves individually, but also for our community as a whole, let's rebuild the breached walls. We've given up far more than this for our ideals; we can kick our intellectual junk food dependency. השם   למעןlet's call it quits.

Please read and share.

To provide feedback, or to receive an electronic copy, email:

MLDavidowitz@gmail.com

POLICE DETAIN PEDOPHILE ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING OVER 140 MINORS

jpost

In the largest pedophile case in Israel's history, Beno Reinhorn was arrested last week under suspicion of committing a series of sexual offenses against more than 140 minors.

Reinhorn is accused of offenses that include rape, sexual assault, sodomy, indecent exposure, online assault and more.

Reinhorn allegedly lured his victims through various social media platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp using a number of disguises including an agent at a modeling agency, a TV and movie producer and bathing suit designer.

Reinhorn would exploit young girls’ innocence and convinced them to send him revealing, and at times, nude photographs of themselves.

Reinhorn had systematically used this technique on his victims for years, while ensuring that his victims would keep their correspondence on social media a secret from their parents and friends.

When parents, other family members or friends of the victims would confront Reinhorn, he would immediately end the correspondence and block that person and the victim involved from contacting him again.

Reinhorn, 35, lives in Herzliya with his wife and two children. He is a handball coach and is employed by the Herzliya Municipality.

His wife, Moran Menda Reinhorn, maintains he is innocent.

The Israel Police have been investigating the case for several months using a variety of surveillance techniques that connected the 140-plus victims to the suspect.

Pennsylvania priests 'abused thousands of children'

.


bbc.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has released a grand jury report detailing sex abuse in the Catholic Church, naming over 300 accused clergymen.

The landmark grand jury investigation found more than 1,000 children had been abused by members of six dioceses in the state for the last 70 years.

Officials say the probe found systematic cover-ups by the church.

The report is the latest inquiry into allegations of sex abuse by Catholic clergy worldwide.

After an 18-month investigation, "over one thousand child victims were identifiable, from the church's own records," the grand jury states in the report released on Tuesday.

Omarosa is case of false friend dilemma with few legal options

/the hill.

The disclosure that former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newmansecretly taped President Trump and others has produced legitimate outrage. These tapes include at least one conversation with chief of staff John Kelly in the Situation Room, the White House inner sanctum where the most classified matters are discussed. Various people have called for criminal prosecution or other measures against Manigault Newman. The dilemma of the “false friends” is not new, however, and the legal options for the White House are more limited than one might think.

The problem of false friends and secret recordings have been a longstanding element of our criminal jurisprudence. The idea that nothing protects us from false friends goes back to early English law and “eavesdropping” cases. In 1952, in a case called On Lee v. United States, the Supreme Court noted that the use of “false friends, or any of the other betrayals, which are ‘dirty business’ may raise serious questions of credibility” but do not raise serious problems under the Constitution.

Thus, a secret taping of a conversation is not itself illegal, absent other elements. One element would be if any of the conversations are deemed classified. Much of what a president discusses, particularly in places like the Situation Room, are considered classified. The secret recording or removal of classified information can be a crime.

The legal exposure of Manigault Newman follows the old real estate rule of location, location, location. It depends greatly on where she made her secret tapings. The District of Columbia is a “one party” consent jurisdiction, so it is not illegal as long as one party, in this case Manigault Newman, was a party to the conversation. It is the same law protecting former Trump counsel, Michael Cohen, who taped his own client secretly in New York, another “one party” state, and released one of those tapes in an apparent bid to attract Robert Mueller with a possible plea bargain.

Ironically, it also is the law that protected Trump after he reportedly told people he may have taped their conversations in New York. The situation becomes more dicey for Manigault Newman if she taped conversations at Mar-a-Lago, since Florida is a “two party” consent state. Absent the crossing of state lines into a two party consent jurisdiction, her actions were certainly reckless and reprehensible but probably legal.

Madeleine Albright: ‘The things that are happening are genuinely, seriously bad’

the guardian

Madeleine Albright has both made and lived a lot of history. When she talks about a resurgence of fascism, she says it as someone who was born into the age of dictators. She was a small girl when her family fled Czechoslovakia after the Nazis consumed the country in 1939. After 10 days in hiding, her parents escaped Prague for Britain and found refuge in Notting Hill Gate, “before it was fancy”, in an apartment which backed on to Portobello Road. Her first memories of life in London are of disorientation. “I didn’t have a clue. My parents were very continental European and I didn’t have siblings early on. I felt isolated.” As Hitler unleashed the blitz, “every night we went down to the cellar where everybody was sleeping.”

really smart – evil smart, is what I think

She agrees that we ought to be careful not to casually throw around the F-word lest we drain the potency from what should be a powerful term. “I’m not calling Trump a fascist,” she says. Yet she seems to be doing all but that when she puts him in the same company as historical fascists in a book that seeks to sound “an alarm bell” about a fascist revival.

She frequently nudges the reader to make connections between the president of the United States and past dictatorships. She reminds us who first coined the Trumpian phrase “drain the swamp”. It was drenare la paludein the original, Mussolini Italian. She quotes Hitler talking about the secret of his success: “I will tell you what has carried me to the position I have reached. Our political problems appeared complicated. The German people could make nothing of them… I…reduced them to the simplest terms. The masses realised this and followed me.” Sound familiar?

More Than 300 'Predator Priests' Molested at Least 1,000 Children, Pennsylvania Grand Jury Finds

time

The jury’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse also identified more than 1,000 child victims. The grand jury says it believes the “real number” of abused children might be “in the thousands” since some records were lost and victims were afraid to come forward.

Omarosa: I never signed that 'draconian' White House nondisclosure agreement

Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. - Becoming a Blessing | Bioneers

trump is a liar - a defense from Plao - Noble lie

wikipedia.

In politics, a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly propagated by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda. The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in the Republic.

Religious website triggers complaint against Air Force general

valdosta daily times

A group of U.S. Air Force officers, enlisted personnel and civilian employees are calling for an investigation into the installation commander of Edwards Air Force Base in California, accusing him of violating Defense Department policies on religious proselytizing.

On Sunday, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation demanded that Defense Secretary James N. Mattis “immediately and comprehensively” investigate Air Force Brig. Gen. E. John Teichert.

The foundation, which seeks to maintain the separation of church and state in the military, provided reporters with a copy of the demand Monday.

At issue is Teichert’s website, called Prayer at Lunchtime for the United States, in which the commander says he encourages “Bible-believing Americans to take time to specifically pray for our nation at lunchtime every day.”

The foundation has asked the Defense Department to determine whether Teichert’s conduct “interferes with or violates the civil liberties of service members and civilians under his command” or “the diversity or equal opportunities of service members and civilians under his command.”

Michael Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said his organization represents 41 “client complainants,” most of whom are practicing Christians. The group also includes Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists, he said.

In the group’s demand letter, foundation attorney Donald Rehkopf accused Teichert of “using both his military rank as well as his position and status as an Air Force officer to aggressively promote his brand of religion — clearly giving the appearance if not outright impression that he, in his official status, is endorsing if not outright proselytizing” his religion.

The website also links to a 2014 interview that uses Teichert’s full name and discusses his military career. In it, he says, “We have allowed our country to slip away from its founding Christian principles while it has become increasingly intolerant of Christianity.”

Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.

politicEmail
Let me tell you a story about Stephen Miller and chain migration.

It begins at the turn of the 20th century, in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl of subsistence farmers in what is now Belarus. Beset by violent anti-Jewish pogroms and forced childhood conscription in the Czar’s army, the patriarch of the shack, Wolf-Leib Glosser, fled a village where his forebears had lived for centuries and took his chances in America.

He set foot on Ellis Island on January 7, 1903, with $8 to his name. Though fluent in Polish, Russian and Yiddish, he understood no English. An elder son, Nathan, soon followed. By street corner peddling and sweatshop toil, Wolf-Leib and Nathan sent enough money home to pay off debts and buy the immediate family’s passage to America in 1906. That group included young Sam Glosser, who with his family settled in the western Pennsylvania city of Johnstown, a booming coal and steel town that was a magnet for other hardworking immigrants. The Glosser family quickly progressed from selling goods from a horse and wagon to owning a haberdashery in Johnstown run by Nathan and Wolf-Leib to a chain of supermarkets and discount department stores run by my grandfather, Sam, and the next generation of Glossers, including my dad, Izzy. It was big enough to be listed on the AMEX stock exchange and employed thousands of people over time. In the span of some 80 years and five decades, this family emerged from poverty in a hostile country to become a prosperous, educated clan of merchants, scholars, professionals, and, most important, American citizens.

What does this classically American tale have to do with Stephen Miller? Well, Izzy Glosser is his maternal grandfather, and Stephen’s mother, Miriam, is my sister.

I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, an educated man who is well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.

I shudder at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses— the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants — been in effect when Wolf-Leib made his desperate bid for freedom. The Glossers came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the “America first” nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family likely would have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.

Like other immigrants, our family’s welcome to the USA was not always a warm one, but we largely had the protection of the law, there was no state-sponsored violence against us, no kidnapping of our male children, and we enjoyed good relations with our neighbors. True, Jews were excluded from many occupations, couldn’t buy homes in some towns, couldn’t join certain organizations or attend certain schools or universities, but life was good. As in past generations, there were hate mongers who regarded the most recent groups of poor immigrants as scum, rapists, gangsters, drunks and terrorists, but largely the Glosser family was left alone to live our lives and build the American dream. Children were born, synagogues founded, and we thrived. This was the miracle of America.

Acting for so long in the theater of right-wing politics, Stephen and Trump may have become numb to the resultant human tragedy and blind to the hypocrisy of their policy decisions. After all, Stephen’s is not the only family with a chain immigration story in the Trump administration. Trump's grandfather is reported to have been a German migrant on the run from military conscription to a new life in the United States, and his mother fled the poverty of rural Scotland for the economic possibilities of New York City. (Trump’s in-laws just became citizens on the strength of his wife’s own citizenship.)

These facts are important not only for their grim historical irony but because vulnerable people are being hurt. They are real people, not the ghoulish caricatures portrayed by Trump. When confronted by the deaths and suffering of thousands, our senses are overwhelmed, and the victims become statistics rather than people. I meet these statistics one at a time through my volunteer service as a neuropsychologist for the Philadelphia affiliate of HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the global nonprofit that protects refugees and helped my family more than 100 years ago. I will share the story of one such man I have met in the hopes that my nephew might recognize elements of our shared heritage.

In the early 2000s, Joseph (not his real name) was conscripted at the age of 14 to be a soldier in Eritrea and sent to a remote desert military camp. Officers there discovered a Bible under his pillow which aroused their suspicion that he might belong to a foreign evangelical sect that would claim his loyalty and sap his will to fight. Joseph was actually a member of the state-approved Coptic church but was nonetheless immediately subjected to torture. “They smashed my face into the ground, tied my hands and feet together behind my back, stomped on me, and hung me from a tree by my bonds while they beat me with batons for the others to see.”

Joseph was tortured for 20 consecutive days before being taken to a military prison and crammed into a dark unventilated cell with 36 other men, little food and no proper hygiene. Some died, and in time Joseph was stricken with dysentery. When he was too weak to stand, he was taken to a civilian clinic where he was fed by the medical staff. Upon regaining his strength, he escaped to a nearby road where a sympathetic driver took him north through the night to a camp in Sudan where he joined other refugees. Joseph was on the first leg of a journey that would cover thousands of miles and almost 10 years.

Before Donald Trump had started his political ascent promulgating the false story that Barack Obama was a foreign-born Muslim, while my nephew, Stephen, was famously recovering from the hardships of his high school cafeteria in Santa Monica, Joseph was a child on his own in Sudan in fear of being deported back to Eritrea to face execution for desertion. He worked any job he could get, saved his money and made his way through Sudan. He endured arrest and extortion in Libya. He returned to Sudan, then kept moving to Dubai, Brazil and eventually to a southern border crossing into Texas, where he sought asylum. In all of the countries he traveled through during his ordeal, he was vulnerable, exploited and his status was “illegal.” But in the United States, he had a chance to acquire the protection of a documented immigrant.

Today, at 30, Joseph lives in Pennsylvania and has a wife and child. He is a smart, warm, humble man of great character who is grateful for every day of his freedom and safety. He bears emotional scars from not seeing his parents or siblings since he was 14. He still trembles, cries and struggles for breath when describing his torture, and he bears physical scars as well. He hopes to become a citizen, return to work and make his contribution to America. His story, though unique in its particulars, is by no means unusual. I have met Central Americans fleeing corrupt governments, violence and criminal extortion; a Yemeni woman unable to return to her war-ravaged home country and fearing sexual mutilation if she goes back to her Saudi husband; and an escaped kidnap-bride from central Asia.