Dr. Shapiro's theory for abuse coverups

<sup>Dr. Marc Shapiro wrote: in the last footnote


8</sup> There is another theory as to why the sectarian hasidic world in particular has had so many cases of covering up and defending child sex abusers. It is that they simply do not regard these people as so terrible. The evidence for this appears obvious, in that in case of after case we see that they continue to allow sex abusers to teach and refuse to turn them over to the authorities and warn the parent body. Had they caught the rebbe eating at McDonald’s, you can be sure he would have been fired, but not so when it comes to fooling around with kids. The question is why do they have this outlook, and how come they don’t regard child sex abusers as so terrible? Here is a possible answer (which a wise person suggested). Look at where these societies get their information about human nature, the information that they regard as authentic and true. It does not come from modern psychology, but from Torah sources and folk beliefs. If you look only at traditional rabbinic literature, you won’t conclude that child sex abuse is as terrible as modern society views it. Yes, it is a sin and the person who commits it must repent as he must do with all sins, but there is nothing in the traditional literature that speaks to the great trauma suffered by the victim. How do we know about this trauma? Only from modern psychology and the testimony of the victims. Yet this type of evidence does not have much significance in the insular hasidic world (unless it is your own child who has been abused). Certainly modern psychology, which is often attacked by figures in that community, is not given much credence, especially not when they are confronted with an issur of mesirah. This theory makes a lot of sense to me and I am curious to hear what others have to say.

Bribing kids for academic success?

Time

In junior high school, one of my classmates had a TV addiction — back before it was normal. This boy — we'll call him Ethan — was an encyclopedia of vacuous content, from The A-Team to Who's the Boss?

Then one day Ethan's mother made him a bold offer. If he could go a full month without watching any TV, she would give him $200. None of us thought he could do it. But Ethan quit TV, just like that. His friends offered to let him cheat at their houses on Friday nights (Miami Vice nights!). Ethan said no.

One month later, Ethan's mom paid him $200. He went out and bought a TV, the biggest one he could find.

Empathy - how to not raise a Bully

Time

Since the Jan. 14 death of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old in South Hadley, Mass., who committed suicide after being bullied by fellow students, many onlookers have meditated on whether the circumstances that led to her after-school hanging might have been avoided.

Could teachers have stepped in and stopped the bullying? Could parents have done more to curtail bad behavior? Or could preventive measures have been started years ago, in early childhood, long before bullies emerged and started heaping abuse on their peers? (Read what can be done about bullying in school.)

Increasingly, neuroscientists, psychologists and educators believe that bullying and other kinds of violence can indeed be reduced by encouraging empathy at an early age. Over the past decade, research in empathy — the ability to put ourselves in another person's shoes — has suggested that it is key, if not the key, to all human social interaction and morality.[...]

Rav Sternbuch: How Gedolim deal with tragedies

Obama - paradigm shift on Israel

NYTIMES

It was just a phrase at the end of President Obama’s news conference on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder of a far-reaching shift in how the United States views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how aggressively it might push for a peace agreement.

When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.

This shift, described by administration officials who did not want to be quoted by name when discussing internal discussions, is driving the White House’s urgency to help broker a Middle East peace deal. It increases the likelihood that Mr. Obama, frustrated by the inability of the Israelis and the Palestinians to come to terms, will offer his own proposed parameters for an eventual Palestinian state.[...]

Tropper - update

Troppenstein's monster cites Failed Messiah

The following charlatans sent a "discharge" letter to Yeshiva Kol Yaakov over a month ago proclaiming themselves as the "roshei yeshiva & mashgichim" and dismissing the current administration:

Leib Tropper
Chaim Weiss
Mendel Ashkanazy
Nachman Kramer (Bais Yaakov Monsey)
Eliyahu Berney (son of Nosson Berney)

Then 2 weeks ago, Tropper submitted a notarized affirmation to the the court that while he was oyver on some little "indiscretion", he remains the "rosh yeshiva" and the people running the yeshiva, specifically Moishe Raice, are "immoral".

Tropper claims to the court that R' Moishe Green, R' Aron Schechter & R' Elya Ber Wachtfogel agree with him on this.

Kol Yaakov's lawyer filed a counter-affirmation as follows:

Tropper had once invested $1 million of the yeshiva's money with Nosson Berney's investment firm. They are now trying to bankrupt the yeshiva by giving much of the money away to Tropper's friends in the Rabbonus with the remainder being pocketed by Tropper. Nachman Kramer padlocked the yeshiva office so that no one can get all the documents that prove this.

R' Reuvein Feinstein issued a written psak to the Monsey beis din that Tropper cannot take back his resignation and that there is no issur arkaos to stop him in court. (Does this mean there is no more money being doled out by Tom Kaplan?)

Meanwhile, Berney sent the following checks out to the rabbonim, as submitted as evidence to the court:
Rabbi Zaks, Chofetz Chaim Monsey $75k R' Shmuel Gorelick, Kollel Beer Mordechai Monsey $50k
Rabbi Malick, Ohr Moshe Monsey $40k
Keren Ezra, 11 Gwen Lane Monsey $25kRabbi Holzcer, Ohel Avrohom Monsey $25k
R' Amram Rosenberg, Chasidim Tovim Monsey $25k
Chasdei Avos, 8 Elyon Rd Monsey $25k
Mesila Baarav, Yerucham Israel $15k
R' Moshe Mosebacher, 5 Carlton Lane Monsey $15k
R' Michel Yuda Lefkowitz, Ponvizh $5k
R' Doniel Alter, Gur $5k
R' Shaul Kanievsky $3.5k
R' Eliyahu Levin $2.5k
R' Chaim Kanievsky, Bnei Brak $2k
R' Moshe Solomon $2k
R' Zalman Dovid Zuckerman $2k
R' Dovid Rotenberg, Yershalayim $2k
R' Yaakov Kupshitz, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Yosef Kupshitz, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Efraim Kupshitz, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Tzvi Kupshitz, Yerushalayim $2k
R' Nechemia Waldenberger, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Efraim Frank, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Pesachya Sternberg, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Yoel Turczin, Beit Shemesh $2k
Rav Sokolover, Beit Shemesh $2k
R' Nosson Kupshitz $1.8k
R' Moishe Mordche Schlesinger $1.8k
R' Yitzchok Scheiner, Kaminetz $1.8k
R' Shmuel Deutsch, Kol Torah $1.8k
R' Y. Levy $1.8k
R' Nechemia Zuckerman $1.5k
R' Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz $1.5k
R' Moshe Carlebach $1.5k
R' Yomtov Stern $1.5k
R' Nochum Schiller $1.2k
R' Moshe Sumter $1.2k
R' Yitzchok Kalmanowitz $1k
R' Osher Kalmanowitz, Mir $1k
R' Yehuda Kravetz $1k
R' Chaim Zeibald $1k
R' Eliyahu Rimmer $1k
R' Sar Shalom Marzel $1k
Rav Schmeltzer (Telz / Monsey / Miami?) $1k
R' Yitzchok Kossovsky $1k
Rav Eltovitzky $1k
R' Netz Elzas $1k
R' Aryeh Kanievsky $1k
R' Mordechai Carlebach $1k
R' Refoel Shapiro, Beit Shemesh $1k
R' Avrohom Rivlin, Beit Shemesh $1k
R' Chaim Jacobowitz, Beit Shemesh $1k
R' Eliyahu Mittelman, Beit Shemesh $1k
R' Chaim Solomon $800
R' Refoel Solomon $800
R' Moshe Battelman $800
Rav Klein $600
R' Avrohom Bernstein $600

Barzilai emergency room to be built on graveyard

YNET

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that Barzilai Medical Center's fortified emergency room will be built according to plan, despite the discovery of ancient burial ground in its intended location.

 
Netanyahu made the decision in his capacity as acting health minister, ordering the graves be relocated.[...]

Baruch Lebovitz given 10-32 years for sexual abuse

NYPost

A New York rabbi was sentenced today to a maximum of 32 years in jail for the repeated sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy, prosecutors said.

Baruch Lebovits, 59, was convicted last month on eight charges of abuse of the teenager between 2004 and 2005, and was given the maximum sentence on each count -- meaning he would serve between 10 years and eight months and 32 years behind bars.

The rabbi is also a prominent businessman in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the teenager also lived, said Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes.

Two separate cases of Lebovits's alleged sexual assaults on minors are still pending.[...]

Gay & Ger - Hiding at the Seminary

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

There have been times in my life when I have felt like the prophet Jonah, pushed by life, or by God, to embrace the destiny from which I had run away.

In 1996, after three years working as student-rabbi for the Orthodox Jewish community of Naples, Italy, I quit my position. I had loved every moment of those years. The interactions with the various members of the community, the closeness that the position allowed me to have with them, the intellectual challenges, the spiritual high, had given new meaning to my life.

But I did feel a subtle, increasing pressure from the rabbinical establishment that I should get both an Orthodox smichah – ordination – and a wife. While I would have agreed to the smichah in a heartbeat (after all, it was my dream) I could not deal with the idea of a wife. I was a closeted gay man.[...]

Reconsidering anonymous online comments

NYTimes

From the start, Internet users have taken for granted that the territory was both a free-for-all and a digital disguise, allowing them to revel in their power to address the world while keeping their identities concealed.

A New Yorker cartoon from 1993, during the Web’s infancy, with one mutt saying to another, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” became an emblem of that freedom. For years, it was the magazine’s most reproduced cartoon.

When news sites, after years of hanging back, embraced the idea of allowing readers to post comments, the near-universal assumption was that anyone could weigh in and remain anonymous. But now, that idea is under attack from several directions, and journalists, more than ever, are questioning whether anonymity should be a given on news sites.[...]

Teaching kids about the Internet

NYTimes

When Kevin Jenkins wanted to teach his fourth-grade students at Spangler Elementary here how to use the Internet, he created a site where they could post photographs, drawings and surveys.

And they did. But to his dismay, some of his students posted surveys like “Who’s the most popular classmate?” and “Who’s the best-liked?”

Mr. Jenkins’s students “liked being able to express themselves in a place where they’re basically by themselves at a computer,” he said. “They’re not thinking that everyone’s going to see it.”[...]

Journalist turns in pedophile sources

Time

To say that pedophilia is a hot-button issue is an understatement. But in France, a new dose of controversy was added this week when a television exposé on cyber-predators ignited a debate over journalists' ethics in the era of hidden-camera reportage. While conducting research for a program called Pedophiles: The Predators, the most recent installment of the France 2 network's hidden-camera investigative series, Les Infiltrés, reporter Laurent Richard communicated with multiple alleged pedophiles online and in person — and then turned them in to the police. But in betraying his sources — repugnant as they were — did Richard and his producers betray their profession?  [...]

Palestinians try less violent path

NYTimes

Senior Palestinian leaders — men who once commanded militias — are joining unarmed protest marches against Israeli policies and are being arrested. Goods produced in Israeli settlements have been burned in public demonstrations. The Palestinian prime minister has entered West Bank areas officially off limits to his authority, to plant trees and declare the land part of a future state.

Something is stirring in the West Bank. With both diplomacy and armed struggle out of favor for having failed to end the Israeli occupation, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, joined by the business community, is trying to forge a third way: to rouse popular passions while avoiding violence. The idea, as Fatah struggles to revitalize its leadership, is to build a virtual state and body politic through acts of popular resistance.[...]

The Catholic Church's Catastrophe

Wall Street Journal

There is an interesting and very modern thing that often happens when individuals join and rise within mighty and venerable institutions. They come to think of the institution as invulnerable—to think that there is nothing they can do to really damage it, that the big, strong, proud establishment they’re part of can take any amount of abuse, that it doesn’t require from its members an attitude of protectiveness because it’s so strong, and has lasted so long.

And so people become blithely damaging. It happened the past decade on Wall Street, where those who said they loved what the street stood for, what it symbolized in American life, took actions that in the end tore it down, tore it to pieces. They loved Wall Street and killed it. It happens with legislators in Washington who’ve grown to old and middle age in the most powerful country in the world, and who can’t get it through their heads that the actions they’ve taken, most obviously in the area of spending, not only might deeply damage America but actually do it in.[...]