Chief Rabbi Amar validates cancelled conversion

JPost

In an encouraging sign for converts whose Jewishness has been questioned by the haredi-controlled rabbinic establishment, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar ruled this week that a conversion annulled by a Haifa Rabbinic Court was perfectly kosher.

Amar's ruling was handed down on Tuesday, just in time to allow the convert to wed the woman of his choice in a Jewish ceremony that was slated to take place Wednesday evening in Haifa.

More than 15 years ago, S.V., the groom, was converted as a child along with his mother by a Haifa Rabbinic Court, headed by former chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.

However, several months ago, when S.V. attempted to register for marriage at the Haifa Religious Council, he was rejected. The local registrar referred him to the local rabbinical court to verify his conversion.

The Haifa Rabbinic Court ruled that S.V.'s conversion was invalid since he had abandoned an Orthodox lifestyle when he reached bar mitzva age.

S.V. appealed to the Supreme Court against the rabbinical court decision. However, this past Monday the Supreme Court ruled that S.V. had to first exhaust his option of appealing to the Supreme Rabbinic Court before the Supreme Court could get involved.

The next day, S.V. appeared before Amar and two other judges: Rabbi Ezra Bar-Shalom, the son-in-law of Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and Rabbi Zion Buaron.

The panel ruled that S.V. was a full-fledged Jew. [...]

Child abuse case leads to Chareidi protests

The accusations against the mother of child abuse been fully represented in the secular press along with a conjectured psychiatric diagnosis. In short she has been put on trial convicted and executed. However there is a second side of the story which alledges that the doctors have misdiagnosed and mistreated the child and that the insensitive manner of arresting her in public was disgusting.

Whichever version of events is true - there is no question that this is a public relations disaster for the Chareidi community. However the release of private and confidential information as well as rumors to the secular press - by the police, social workers and hospital - are not acceptable in a modern society even if the facts are in agreement with the hospital. This is not the first time that the secular forces have felt a need to violate confidentiality to have the chareidim vilified in the press and public opinion.

The obvious solution should be a joint committee - of Chareidi representatives and hospital official - to investigate the facts - not only of whether there was abuse - but how and why confidential information was given to the press. Even if the facts of abuse are correct - and they haven't been proven - this public campaign by the secular forces is not appropriate but neither are the disgusting riots which only serve to validate the campaign of villification against the chareidi population

JPost

[...] The woman's family claims the child has cancer and that his skeletal appearance is due to chemotherapy treatments, a claim vehemently denied by doctors, who have said that since the mother's arrest, the child's condition has improved and that he has begun to put on weight.

Dudu Zilbershlag, the family's media adviser, told Army Radio on Thursday morning that they had medical documents proving their claim and would reveal them in a matter of hours.

Dr. Yair Birnbaum, deputy director-general of the Hadassah Medical Organization, said that the boy had gained 20 percent of his weight since nearly two weeks ago, when the mother was arrested. [...]

JPost

"Jerusalem's 'Eda Haredit' will boycott Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, since its medical team fabricates libels against our community members and abuses them," declared Yoel 'Yoelish' Kraus, the 'operations officer' of the staunchly anti-Zionist haredi communal organization.

Speaking on Army Radio Wednesday morning, Kraus's statement came after a night of haredi riots in the capital, protesting the arrest of a Jerusalem woman apparently suffering from a psychiatric disorder, whose arrest for allegedly near-starving her three-year-old son to death was made public by police on Tuesday.

The mother of four, a member of the extreme Natorei Karta hassidic sect in Jerusalem who is five months pregnant, is suspected of severely abusing her child for two years, until he weighed a mere 7 kilograms, according to police investigators.

She was arrested last week during a meeting with a social worker.

In response, scores of haredi protesters took to the streets Tuesday night, setting garbage bins on fire on Rehov Bar-Ilan and in the Mea She'arim neighborhood, snarling traffic in the area, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. [...]

Neturei Karta & Iran!

And Hamas

Assisted suicide debate in England

NYTimes

LONDON — The controversy over the ethical and legal issues surrounding assisted suicide for the terminally ill was thrown into stark relief on Tuesday with the announcement that one of Britain's most distinguished orchestra conductors, Sir Edward Downes, had flown to Switzerland last week with his wife and joined her in drinking a lethal cocktail of barbiturates provided by an assisted-suicide clinic.

Although friends who spoke to the British news media said Sir Edward was not known to have been terminally ill, they said he wanted to die with his ailing wife, who had been his partner for more than half a century.

The couple's children said in an interview with The London Evening Standard that on Tuesday of last week they accompanied their father, 85, and their mother, Joan, 74, on the flight from London to Zurich, where the Swiss group Dignitas helped arrange the suicides. On Friday, the children said, they watched, weeping, as their parents drank "a small quantity of clear liquid" before lying down on adjacent beds, holding hands.

"Within a couple of minutes they were asleep, and died within 10 minutes," Caractacus Downes, the couple's 41-year-old son, said in the interview after his return to Britain. "They wanted to be next to each other when they died." He added, "It is a very civilized way to end your life, and I don't understand why the legal position in this country doesn't allow it." [...]

Living together first - can ruin marriage

Fox News

Couples who shack up before tying the knot are more likely to get divorced than their counterparts who don't move in together until marriage, a new study suggests.

Upwards of 70 percent of U.S. couples are cohabiting these days before marrying, the researchers estimate.

The study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, indicates that such move-ins might not be wise.

And it's not because you start to get on one another's nerves. Rather, the researchers figure the shared abode could lead to marriage for all the wrong reasons.

"We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting," said lead researcher Galena Rhoades of the University of Denver.

Couples might also be nudged into nuptials because of a joint lease or shared ownership of Fido — along with other practicalities.[...]

Shoteh - How defined /psychology or behavior?

Shalom Reb Daniel Eidensohn,

I was directed to you by a Rav who said you are a psychologist and a talmid chochom who has thought a great deal about the topic matter I would like to bring to your attention and get your opinions on.

Basically, my question is would you consider a person who thinks perfectly rationally, but who is prevented from acting accordingly because of severe OCD (on the level of Howard Hughes) and psychotic paranoia, to be a shoteh according to halachah?

This is a real-life scenario as the person in question absolutely exists and they have been diagnosed by a board certified psychiatrist with those mental illnesses.

Thank you for your time and I very much look forward to your feedback.

RS

Obama's Stimulus Plan - failing

Time Magazine

The $787 billion stimulus plan is turning out to be far less stimulating than its architects expected.

Back in early January, when Obama was still President-elect, two of his chief economic advisers, and leading proponents of a stimulus bill, predicted that the passage of a large economic-aid package would boost the economy and keep the unemployment rate below 8%. It hasn't quite worked out that way. Last month, the jobless rate in America hit 9.5%, the highest level it has reached since 1983. (See 10 ways your job will change.)

The two advisers who wrote the paper, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, went on to land key jobs in Obama's Administration. Romer is the head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Bernstein is the chief economist and economic-policy adviser to Vice President Biden. And the stimulus bill that both economists championed became law in mid-February. What has not come to pass, however, is the boom in job creation that Romer and Bernstein predicted. A little over a month ago, the Administration said the stimulus bill had created or saved 150,000 jobs. That's a far cry from the 3 million to 4 million jobs that Romer and Bernstein foresaw back in January.[...]

EJF's hilchos geirus program - what is it's purpose?

It has been claimed by Kanoimpogimbo that his community is being destroyed by rabbis as the result of EJF's welcoming attitude toward interfaith couples. The question is whether EJF in fact encourages the proselytizing of non-Jews who are dating Jews and encourages non-Jews to attend Torah lectures or that these rabbis who are participating in EJF hilchos geirus program have serious misunderstood EJF. Perhaps Roni could explain the purpose of the hilchos geirus program and what it teaches. If in fact these rabbis have misunderstood it, it is obviously necessary to inform R' Tropper that the goals of EJF - in least in this instance - are seriously misunderstood and that he needs to make sure the participants properly understand it. Below is the contract that participants sign. Perhaps R' Tropper should write a public letter condeming their attitude and I would be glad to pass it on and/or publicize it.

Agunos - Fairness and halacha

JPost

Susan Weiss, founding director of the nonprofit Center for Women's Justice, will never forget the day in 2000 when a 36-year-old mother of five walked into her office and pleaded with the New York-born lawyer to help her fight for a divorce.

"She'd been trying to obtain one for more than 10 years," recalls Weiss, a Jerusalem-based mother of five, who in June received an award from the Israel Bar Association for her work in helping agunot or chained women, whose husbands refuse them a get (divorce).

"The rabbinic court had ordered the husband to give a get and to pay child support, but he was still refusing," she continues, adding that the husband had invoked an ancient Jewish law where he claimed to be willing to divorce but only based on certain conditions.

"He said he would divorce her but that she had to waive all her rights to child support," remembers Weiss. "[The rabbinic judges] said that if she did not agree to his demands, then the fact she did not yet have a divorce was her own fault. When she asked the judge how she would be able to support herself and her children if the husband did not pay some form of child support, the rabbis said, 'Go to the haredi community, they will support you there.'"[...]

Supreme court slams acquital of forgiven yeshiva student

Jpost JPost2

The Supreme Court on Monday harshly criticized Jerusalem District Court judge Moshe Drori for his decision not to convict a yeshiva student who ran over Ethiopian-Israeli parking lot cashier Noga Zoarish. The decision was apparently made in order not to harm the man's chances of being appointed as a judge in the rabbinic courts.

"This is a very severe incident. I read the district court decision and did not understand how the yeshiva student was not convicted, it is inconceivable," Justice Edmund Levy said.

Levy also questioned the sincerity of the perpetrator's remorse and public apology to Zoarish, which was one of the grounds for Drori's acquittal, pondering why he expressed no such sentiments while being interrogated by police.

"He was involved in such a severe incident and expressed no remorse. That should also be taken into account when one decides to pave the way for him becoming a rabbinic judge," Levy said.

Levy backed the prosecution's request to remove the gag order on publishing the man's name. "It's unacceptable that he be treated favorably just because he could potentially be appointed as a rabbinic judge. Why does he need to remain anonymous?" he said.

The State Prosecution launched an appeal against the acquittal Monday, and during the court session, Zoarish burst into tears.

"He asked me for forgiveness in court, and I forgave him," she said, referring to the Jerusalem District Court hearing during which the student was acquitted. "But his apology wasn't genuine."[...]

Allow victim to suffer to prevent collateral damage to community?

Under what circumstances should I avoid saving a person from harm because of the collateral damage? Does it make a difference what type of colleteral damage would occur or how many people would suffer?

Is there a difference if the collateral damage is to a single individual, family, school or community. Sources?

If the rabbonim say that the saving the victim of abuse would mean that community's main yeshiva would be destroyed by lawsuits and as a result 90% of the kids would go off the derech. Does the victim have the right to insist on taking measures to protect himself from harm - even if collateral damage results?

Or what about the future. The molesting has stopped but the victim wants to punish perpetrator to deter other perpetrators in the future. Community says that they are not willing lose yeshiva for the sake of protecting against future acts. Does the victim have to go along with their decision. Sources?

Does the non compliance with the community wishes constitute a transgression of any specific mitzva? Or is it simply that the community has the right apply all types sanctions to achieves but there is no actual sin.

Another way of looking at it is that the community should have taken proactive measures to make sure this dilemna never arises - but since it didn't can they avoid the consequences?

Responsibility - absolved if case is reported to rabbi/police?

I need some sources regarding the question of whether a person is absolved of responsibility by going to a rabbi or police. For example we know that a person is obligated to try and save another from harm. If he sees another drowning or hears a plot against him he needs to either save him or have others save the person.

When I discover a case of abuse and report this information to a rabbi or the police - am I free from future obligation? Or should I view that I have merely delegated the task to another but that the primarily responsibility remains with me. This seems to be the issue of a shomer who hands his job over to another shomer. If there is any damage the first shomer is responsible.

שולחן ערוך (חושן משפט רצא:כו): שומר שמסר לשומר, חייב, אפילו אם הוא שומר חנם ומסר לשומר שכר, דאמר ליה: את מהימן לי בשבועה היאך לא מהימן לי בשבועה. אפילו אם ידוע לכל שהשני טוב וכשר יותר מראשון. הגה: מיהו שומר שמסר לשומר לפני המפקיד, ולא מיחה, פטור (מרדכי פרק המפקיד). לפיכך אם דרך הבעלים להפקיד תמיד דבר זה אצל השומר השני, הרי השומר הראשון פטור מלשלם, והוא שלא ימעט שמירתו; אבל אם מיעט שמירתו, כגון שהראשון היה שומר שכר והשני ש"ח, או שהראשון שואל והשני ש"ש, פושע הוא הראשון ומשלם, אע"פ ששאל או שכר בבעלים. ואם יש עדים ששמר השני כראוי, נפטר שומר ראשון. ואפילו לא היו שם עדים, אם השומר הראשון ראה ויכול הוא לישבע, הרי זה נשבע ונפטר (ועיין סימן ע"ב סעיף ל').

Is that true in the case of an obligation to protect another person from harm? In other words if I report a case of abuse do I need to do a follow up that the case is in fact being properly dealt with? Additional if I try once to help and fail - do I need to keep trying?