Tefillin stopped a flight:

NYTIMES

he plane, a 50-seat regional aircraft that was less than a third full when it took off from La Guardia Airport, had been climbing through the early-morning sky for about 25 minutes. A 17-year-old passenger in a whitish sweater took out something he had carried onboard, and strapped it onto his wrist and his head.

To some people in New York, that is a relatively common sight: an observant Jew beginning the ritual of morning prayer. But to at least one person on US Airways Express Flight 3079 on Thursday — the flight attendant — it looked ominous, as if the young man were wrapping himself in cables or wires. [...]

World of Geirim - IV Seeing both sides

Growing up's Guest Post

Rav Sternbuch: Behind the Miracles

Is there still a need for EJF? - An insider's perspective (Revised)

The following is the first of a series of posts that asks why hasn't the second shoe fallen? Why hasn't EJF been closed down?

Now that Tropper has left the organization - even without the foul odor associated with the organization - it still has not produced the "universally accepted geirim" and its geirim are not uniformly high quality.  The following contends that it is a chaotic mess which sows discord and confusion and in reality has fallen significantly short of what they claim they are doing.  It is a poorly organized group that doesn't even have a manual which describes the halachic principles it follows , a program sylllabus for educating candidates or even the standards for accepting candidates or mentors.

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Mondrowitz - Israeli interview of Mark Weiss

This is a link to the Israeli Reshet Bet news discussion regarding the Israeli Supreme Court's decision not to extradite Avrohom Mondrowitz. 

The program (Hebrew) is approx. 20 minutes long and is about 1 hour and 4 minutes into the broadcast. 

 

  http://www.iba.org.il/media/?recorded=14&starting=diburim-wed

Haiti - Appeal by Aid Organizations

Zaka 


Orthodox Union's fund

International Medical Corps


There are still thousands of patients seeking treatment of which approximately 80% are in need of surgery and are running out of time - especially with the tremendous aftershocks still devastating this country. The team is treating crush injuries, trauma, substantial wound care, shock and other critical cases with the few available supplies - And they're in it for the long haul.

Haitians & Chasidim and Kiddush HaShem

NYTimes

Spring Valley Village Hall sits in a drab strip mall along with Angel Nails, the Family Dollar discount store, the Caribbean Village restaurant and other modest businesses in this Rockland County village, which has a mix of Hasidic and other Orthodox Jews, Latinos and blacks. Haitians make up roughly half the population of more than 25,000.

So in terms of demographics, there was nothing out of the ordinary in the scene at Village Hall on Tuesday, with bearded Hasidic men in their long black coats and a largely black crowd of workers and volunteers scurrying around the lobby, which was filled with boxes of medicine, cotton balls and crutches, big black suitcases and an air of incessant activity.[...]

Israel has only field hospital in Haiti

CNN
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen visits a Haiti hospital where patients are desperate for better medical care.

Evidence Mondrowitz may have counseled teen in 2006

Jewish Week

Posted Monday, Jan. 18, 9:15 PM) With alleged Brooklyn child molester Avrohom Mondrowitz under house arrest  until Jan. 24 following last week's decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to deny his extradition, new evidence has emerged that appears to indicate that Mondrowitz was treating adolescent boys in Israel as recently as 2006.

According to a document provided to The Jewish Week by New Jersey attorney Michael Lesher, and apparently obtained from Mondrowitz's computer, Mondrowitz appears to have conducted an interview with and "assessment" of a 15-year-old  boy who had been engaging in "improper behaviours [sic] with his peers."

EJF - How tropper spent his way into rabbinic elite

Tablet

n May 2007, Leib Tropper arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, to preside over a grand conclave of prospective converts to Judaism sponsored by his Eternal Jewish Family organization, which offered "Cadillac conversions" to non-Jews as part of an effort to seize control of the conversion process outside of Israel. Buoyed by a $4.8 million infusion of cash from the billionaire Thomas Kaplan, an oil and mining mogul who is currently president of the board at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the fast-talking rabbi with global ambitions and a smooth line of patter had offered would-be Jews a special treat: an all-expenses paid weekend of discussions on topics like "Becoming Part of the Jewish Family" at the Arizona Biltmore, a spa resort on 39 acres at the foot of Phoenix Mountain that is part of the Waldorf-Astoria chain.

While offers of Ayurvedic massages and luxury accommodation may seem at odds with the somber, discouraging face that ultra-Orthodoxy has traditionally turned to prospective converts, Tropper, by most accounts, did not seem particularly interested in relaxing halachic codes to accommodate the modern world. A biblical literalist, he played an active role in an effort by a group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis to ban the books of another rabbi, Nosson Slifkin, who believed that the world is older than the Jewish calendar—that is, 5,770 years. In 2006, among his other duties, he took it upon himself to retroactively invalidate the conversion of a woman who subsequently dared to violate ultra-Orthodox codes of modesty by wearing pants. [...]

EJF:To prevent Chillul HaShem - transgressing Torah & even idolatry are permitted

Concerning the chillul hashem resulting from the Tropper scandal - it is important to note how seriously Chazal view chillul hashem. In Yevamos (79a) it is noted that Dovid executed Shaul's sons and left the corpses hanging for a long time to avoid the chillul hashem caused by Shaul's indirectly causing gerim diffulty. In Sanhedrin (107a) it describes that Dovid was apparently willing to become an idolater to avoid the chillul hashem that would result if his son killed him.

While both gemoras clearly require much more study, the message of our Sages is clear. Chillul hashem is worse than violating the Torah and it is worse than idolatry. The fact that there are those  whose "solution" to this international chillul hashem is "don't talk about it and it will go away" is simply incredible.

Yevamos(79a):And Ritzpah took sackcloth and spread it on a rock for herself - from the beginning of the harvest until the rainy season began and she did not allow the birds to rest on the corpses by day or the wild animals at night (Shmuel 2’ 21:10). But how could it be that the corpses of Shaul’s sons remained hanging on the gallows day after day? This is specifically prohibited by the Torah (Devarim 21:23). R’ Yochanon said in the name of R’ Shimon ben Yehotzadak, “It is better that one letter of the Torah be uprooted in order that the name of heaven be publicly sanctified. Those passers-by who saw the corpses hanging would ask what type of people were they? They would be told that they were princes. They then asked what did they do that they were executed? They would then be told that their punishment was related to harm done to gerim. When they heard that they said, “There is no other nation that is more worthwhile to join than the Jewish one because if they punish princes for the mistreatment of gerim then surely they will punish commoners and if they do justice for gerim then surely they will do it for Jews from birth.


Sanhedrin(107a): Dovid wanted to worship idols [so that people would think he was wicked]… However Chushi the Archite came to meet him with his coat ripped and dirt on his head. He said to Dovid, “Shall people say that a king like you has worshipped idols?” Dovid answered, “But should a king like myself by killed by his own son [causing people to question G‑d’s justice]? It is better that I worship idols [and I alone sin and lose my reputation] than the name of Heaven be profaned [because many will become idolators if I don’t].” Chushi asked, “So why did you marry a marry a yofas to’ar [non-Jewish woman captured in battle]? Dovid replied that the Torah permits it. Chushi said, “Don’t you make Torah interpretations based on the proximity of verses? The permission to marry a Yosef’s to’ar is in proximity with the discussion of a rebellious son and we learn from this that the offspring of a yofas to’ar will be a rebellious son.”

Vayikra Rabbah(22:6): ...We find that G-d showed indulgence towards idolatry but that He never condoned chillul Hashem...

Zionist youth more interested in fun than ideology

Haaretz

The World Zionist youth movements came out this week claiming that a cut in the money they receive from the Jewish Agency is threatening their very existence, and that as a result "hundreds of thousands of Jewish youth will lose their only significant link to the State of Israel and to their Jewish identity."

The recession has hit hard in the movement world, and it has been suggested that this will directly lead to a fall in numbers making aliyah. However, a closer look seems to show that the problem lies deeper.[...]

Chabad's preschool outreach

Tablet

The reception area in downtown Manhattan's Preschool of the Arts is a cheerful, modern space: dozens of self-portraits and paintings by children named Jem and Oliver and Esme crowd the walls. A small sign invites visitors to stop by the art gallery to see "action paintings created in the style of Jackson Pollock" and hangs next to an iconic photograph of the mid-century artist, cigarette dangling from mouth, and a shot of a toddler dripping paint on her own canvas.

A tall narrow bookshelf to the left of the reception desk doesn't garner much attention. Its shelves are divided into sections like child-rearing (two copies of the No Cry Sleep Solution as well as several baby sign-language books) and art (Crafts and La Vie En Rose). It's only the titles in the adult literature section that seem incongruous: Bringing Heaven to Earth, Opening the Tanya, and My Spiritual Journey.[...]

R' Riskin threatens excommunication for going to secular court

Haaretz

What happens to a person who does not want to obey din Torah - that is, judgment according to Jewish law? A resident of Efrat, Alon Levy, who refused to accept such a judgment, was told by the rabbi of that West bank town, Shlomo Riskin, that he would be ostracized and would no longer be allowed to work there.

The affair began during the November 2008 elections for the Efrat local council, when an ugly war of words broke out between two activists representing opposing lists: Levy and Dan Lubitz. The latter sent a number of letters to local residents, defaming Levy. In response, Levy sued Lubitz for libel in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. Lubitz did not submit a defense brief and in December 2008, the court ruled that he must pay Levy compensation amounting to NIS 300,000. [...]