Police renew Elon sexual abuse probe

Jerusalem Post

Police recently reopened criminal investigations based on sexual abuse allegations made against Rabbi Mordechai “Motti” Elon, it was reported Wednesday.

A former student of the charismatic rabbi accused him of sexual abuse, which sparked the new scrutiny. Police expect to present their findings to the state attorney within a few weeks.[...]

Prophetic Malbim Describes August 2010 Discovery

Five Towns Jewish Times

There is a remarkable Malbim on the book of Jonah 2:4.  The Malbim discusses how Jonah was caught in a river under the sea – where the waters of the river were separate from the ocean waters.  Until this month – this was generally thought to be a physical impossibility.

Below, however, we find an article written by Richard Gray – the science editor of the British newspaper the telegraph.  The results are striking.  The reader is urged to see the Malbim with his or her own eyes.  The term utilized by the Malbim - “Levav Yamim” clearly means sea bed.

 “Researchers working in the Black Sea have found currents of water 350 times greater than the River Thames flowing along the sea bed, carving out channels much like a river on the land. [...]

Hezbollah and the Lebanon Dilemma

Wall Street Journal

On Tuesday afternoon, several hours before a highly anticipated televised speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese army snipers fired at an Israeli military detail that was trimming trees on the Israeli side of the border. The premeditated attack, which killed a colonel and left another officer severely wounded, came exactly four years since the end of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The question now is whether this incident could spark a chain reaction that results in another war.

Despite its overwhelming military might, Israel emerged badly bruised from its confrontation with the Shiite militia in 2006. Since then, the Jewish state has repeatedly threatened that any act of aggression on the Israel-Lebanon border would be met with a punishing response. It claimed it would hold the Lebanese government—in which Hezbollah is a key player—responsible, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators.. [...]

U.N. supports Israeli version of border clash

NYTimes

JERUSALEM — The United Nations peacekeeping force in South Lebanon, Unifil, said on Wednesday it had concluded that Israeli forces were cutting trees that lay within their own territory before a lethal exchange of fire with Lebanese Army troops on Tuesday, largely vindicating Israel’s account of how the fighting started. [...]

Working mothers are penalized

NYTimes

The last three men nominated to the Supreme Court have all been married and, among them, have seven children. The last three women — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Harriet Miers (who withdrew) — have all been single and without children.

This little pattern makes the court a good symbol of the American job market. Women and men with similar qualifications — age, education, experience — are much more likely to be treated similarly today than in the past. The pay gap between them, while still not zero, has shrunk to just a few percentage points.

Yet once you look beyond the tidy comparisons of supposedly identical men and women, the picture is much less sunny. There are still only 15 Fortune 500 companies with a female chief executive. Men dominate the next rungs of management in most fields, too. Over all, full-time female workers make a whopping 23 percent less on average than full-time male workers.

Sex abuse - growing problem in religious sector

YNET

Far from newspaper headlines, several sexual abuse cases involving children and teens exposed in national-religious sector. Rabbis blame porn websites, while new program attempts to tackle phenomenon for first time, without using word 'sex'

When the nightmare began, Shlomo (not his real name) was sure he could still put an end to it: One slap or a serious talk and the child would surely understand there's something utterly wrong with his behavior.[...]

Israel:When a rocket hits a child therapy center

Jerusalem Post

On any other day, the facility on the Sapir campus would have been packed with kids, and the losses would have been devastating.
 
The child hydrotherapy rehabilitation center adjoining Sderot’s Sapir Academic College provides therapy and workshops for specialneeds children who live in the western Negev and is used by children from the entire country.

On Saturday night, an upgraded Kassam rocket scored a direct hit on the ceiling of the center.[...]

Child custody determined by anti-Israel anit-Chabad bias

YNET

A five-year custody battle ended recently when a 17-judge panel at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasberg determined that Noam Shuruk, whose mother kidnapped him to Switzerland after his father joined the Chabad community, is to remain in her care.

The decision gave rise to claims of anti-Semitism and miscarriage of justice by both the State Prosecutor's Office and the father, who say the judges ruled in favor of the mother because the father is Israeli and ultra-Orthodox.

The mother, Isabelle Neulinger, recounted the kidnapping in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. She said she had hired a smuggler for the sum of $30,000 to take her and Noam to Sharm El-Sheikh after they had crossed the border from Israel into the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. [...]

Pedophiles in the Jewish Community Are Going Unpunished

In a recent article published in the Yiddish Forward, journalist Rukhl Schaechter reports on the problem of unreported abuse and cover-ups within the Charedi community.

Below are links to the original article in Yiddish and an English translation commissioned by SFJ (Survivors for Justice) and approved by Ms. Schaechter.

=================== Forward 

Listening to the popular New York Jewish radio program, "The Zev Brenner Show," one suddenly heard the following commercial narrated by a woman speaking in authentic Hasidic Yiddish:"I am the mother of Yoeli Engelman. Yoeli is a survivor of sexual molestation. 15 years ago, when he was a child in cheder (elementary school), he was molested by his principal. This very principal today teaches in the same cheder, and the administration unashamedly defends him. This terrible crime and severe chilul Hashem (desecration of God's name) can only be dealt with by the Child Victims Act, which will force the administration to protect the innocent children instead of the guilty teacher. Fathers and mothers, Remember! Our children need us! Thank you." This commercial, aired by the SFJ (Survivors for Justice) -- an organization that combats sexual abuse in the orthodox world, mentions only one example of a serious problem in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world: Countless numbers of children, specifically boys, are sexually molested by their teachers, rabbis and other authority figures in the community, but little is being done to punish the perpetrators..

Vacation halachic guidance

YNET

Senior haredi rabbis advise on Halacha matters pertaining to yeshiva students' holiday period between Tisha B'Av and Rosh Chodesh Elul

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Steinman, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community ruled recently that during flights one is best advised to pray the Amidah prayer (The Standing Prayer) sitting down, restfully, rather than standing up.

This was his answer to haredi yeshiva students currently in the midst of the "Bein Hazmanim" holiday period - a break between Tisha B'Av and the beginning of Elul. Busy planning overseas vacations, the students were concerned about difficulties in saying all the customary prayers on board planes.[...]

Some Orthodox rabbis call for acceptance of homosexuals

YNET

Dozens of Orthodox rabbis have signed a statement of principles saying that religious communities must accept those of its members who are "active homosexuals" and their biological or adopted children, and that they must not be encouraged to undergo "change therapies" or marry someone of the opposite sex.

The statement was formulated following a panel held by the "rashei yeshiva ramim" six months ago in New York. The panel included three homosexual graduates of the Yeshiva University, and was hosted by its spiritual supervisor, Rabbi Yosef Blau. [...]

Grad rocket hit Ashkelon today

YNET

Military officials hope Friday morning's Grad rocket in Ashkelon was lone incident which will not be followed by escalation in south, although two mortar shells land in Eshkol Regional Council several hours later. 'They have longer range missiles,' head of Home Front Command's southern district tells Ynet [...]

Incest: Yichud of brothers & sisters

Igros Moshe1(E.H. 4:65.11): Concerning the permissibility of a brother and sister being secluded together alone occasionally - whether this also applies in a situation where they are living in their parents home which therefore means it a fixed arrangement. When they are alone together in the house is this considered on occasion and therefore permitted or since he is in fact living with her in a fixed manner it is not permitted for them to be alone - even though the seclusion is only occasional. It seems that the practice of the world is to permit this. Even when the parents have only one son and one daughter who are old enough to be obligated in mitzvos, they leave them alone in the house for hours even at night. No one is concerned about the issue of yichud in these circumstances for brother and sister - even religious people. It would seem that this leniency is implied by Rashi who writes (Kiddushin 81b) that "brother and sister can be secluded together occasionally but he does not dwell with her constantly in the house".... this implies that the permissibility of seclusion with a sister is even when they dwell together for an extended time. However the prohibition of seclusion with his sister is only if they are alone constantly together but if it is only occasionally that they are alone then it is permitted even when they are living together for an extended time. That is the reason for the widespread leniency in this matter. However there is no question that they are not to be left alone in the house for an extended time at nights on frequent occasions until this is viewed as the normal situation - and not just an occasional occurrence. In this matter it is not possible to specify the exact number of hours or times that it is prohibited. Rather each one needs to recognize in his sons and daughters what is appropriate.

What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D

New York Times

Vitamin D promises to be the most talked-about and written-about supplement of the decade. While studies continue to refine optimal blood levels and recommended dietary amounts, the fact remains that a huge part of the population — from robust newborns to the frail elderly, and many others in between — are deficient in this essential nutrient.

If the findings of existing clinical trials hold up in future research, the potential consequences of this deficiency are likely to go far beyond inadequate bone development and excessive bone loss that can result in falls and fractures. Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well.[...]