Inside the private world of London's ultra-Orthodox Jews

Telegraph

On my way to meet Isaac Kornbluh, who runs the Schomrim neighbourhood patrol (the word means 'guardians’) in the Haredi Jewish enclave in Stamford Hill, I managed to misplace his address and found myself lost.

The Haredi – strictly-Orthodox Jews who trace their ancestry to 18th-century Eastern Euope – are one of the most close-knit, insular and private communities in Britain. More than 20,000 live in Stamford Hill, in north-east London. But it is a community, it seems, in which everybody knows everybody, and where a stranger is noticed.

As I fumbled through my notebook, a woman stopped. 'You look lost,’ she said helpfully. Ah, I wanted Isaac? First left, then right, number 16. [...]

Religious gays offered subsidized therapy to change sexual tendencies

YNET

Association of religious homosexuals sets up fund subsidizing treatments aimed at changing sexual tendencies. 'There is no clear ruling in the world of research that one can or cannot change,' explains organization's director [...]

Rav Sternbuch: Worthy Investments

Fish & Milk: Scribal Error determines halacha?

From Daas Torah - translation copyrighted

Aruch HaShulchan (Y.D. 87:15): ... Both fish and grasshoppers are not prohibited to be eaten together with milk – even rabbinically. It is clear that it is permitted to cook fish together with milk and eat the combination. In fact is the established practice in all Jewish communities to do. However you should be aware that there is a textual error that occured in the great halachic work, the Beis Yosef, which mistakenly states that one should not eat fish and milk together because it is dangerous (Orech Chaim 173:2). There the Beis Yosef had in fact intended to mention that meat and milk is dangerous together (not fish and milk). This textual error has already been pointed out by the Rema in Darchei Moshe. However some authorities wish to rule according to this error because they say that in fact in medical books it states that fish and milk are an unhealthy combination. But in fact that is not so, because Rabbeinu Bachye writes in his commentary to Mishpatim that the danger is eating fish together with cheese because it causes leprosy – and not fish and milk. Furthermore if fish and milk were dangerous than why wasn’t this mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch? Furthermore the whole world eats fish and milk and it is considered a quality meal. There is fact is no one who is concerned for this and it is possible to eat them together without any concern. [See Tosfos at the end of the first chapter of Mo’ed Koton]

Police captain reassigned for refusing to attend Islamic event

Fox News

The Tulsa Police Department is investigating a captain who refused an order to assign officers to attend an upcoming Islamic event because he said it would violate his religious beliefs.

Capt. Paul Fields was reassigned after he refused to order officers under his command to attend the Islamic Center of Tulsa’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, a spokesman for the department said.

“It is my opinion and that of my legal counsel that forcing me to enter a Mosque when it is not directly related to a police call for service is a violation of my Civil Rights,” Fields wrote in an internal police department memo obtained by Fox News. [...]

Abuse Case Tests Ohel’s Adherence To Reporting Laws

Jewish Week

As the story of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community has unfolded over the last several years, the issue of when, and even whether, to report such allegations to law enforcement has emerged as perhaps the most important and the most complicated.

One of the focal points of this debate — report to secular authorities or deal with the problem from inside the community — has become Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, a social service agency based in Brooklyn. Ohel has earned high praise in the community for the services it provides for foster children. Its work dealing with sexual abusers, however, is much more controversial, with many advocates and observers accusing the agency of functioning in a way that does more to protect the reputation of the community than the safety of its children. [...]

Many Locked-In Syndrome Patients Happy

NYTimes

You are awake, aware and probably unable to move or talk — but you are not necessarily unhappy, says the largest study of locked-in syndrome ever conducted.

A surprising number of patients with the condition, known as locked-in syndrome, say they are happy, despite being paralyzed and having to communicate mainly by moving their eyes. Most cases are caused by major brain damage, often sustained in traumatic accidents.[...]

Sexual abuse: New Treatment program at Abarbanel Hospital

YNET

   

לפני שיהיה מאוחר מדי: מטפלים במכורים למין

התחככות בנשים באוטובוס, צריכה של חומרים פדופיליים ואוננות יתרה - כל אלו הן התנהגויות מיניות המצביעות על כך שאדם עלול להפוך לעבריין מין. מרכז חדש שנפתח בביה"ח "אברבנאל" שם לו למטרה לטפל באותם אנשים, רגע לפני שההפרעה תהפוך לעבירה
ליאת רותם מלמד

עבריינות מין נחשבת בחברה המערבית לאחת העברות הקשות שיש. פדופילים, אנסים ואפילו מציצנים - כולם מוקעים מהחברה במקרה והם נתפסים. אך אדם צריך לעבור דרך ארוכה מהיותו בעל סטייה מינית עד להפיכתו לעבריין מין. וכך, למרות שמדינת ישראל משקיעה כספים רבים בטיפול ובענישה של עברייני המין, היא לא מתייחסת כלל לניסיון למנוע את המעשה באמצעות טיפול באותם אנשים.

Prof Marc Shapiro: Rav Meir Triebitz & Chareidi thought

Seforim Blog by Dr. Marc Shapiro

[...] Returning to Maimonides and creation, I want to call attention to a very interesting article by R Meir Triebitz. It appears in Reshimu, vol. 1 no. 2 (2008), the journal of the so-called Hashkafa Circle. See here.

As explained in the preface to the first volume, this “Circle” aims to fill a gap in haredi yeshiva education by focusing on the classics of medieval Jewish philosophy which are pretty much ignored in contemporary haredi society. We thus have a situation where great talmudists and halakhists ignore major themes of Jewish philosophy, which were dealt with at length by the medieval sages. When there are theological discussions in haredi literature, they invariably reflect a very conservative position, often at variance with the major rishonim. I already touched on this issue in my conclusion to The Limits of Orthodox Theology, and if Triebitz and his group are successful this situation could be reversed.

However, they won’t be successful for the simple reason that the outlook of the medieval Jewish philosophers is opposed in so many ways to haredi ideology that it will never become part of the haredi curriculum. In fact, I don’t think it is possible to be a serious student of medieval Jewish philosophy and at the same time identify with any of the regnant haredi worldviews. (You might dress the part and send your children to haredi schools, but that is not the same thing as identifying with a worldview.) This is so for many reasons, primary of which is that medieval Jewish philosophy is about the search for truth. The papal model of haredi society, where the quest for truth is subordinated to the dictates of the religious authority figure, is diametrically opposed to what our great medieval philosophers taught.

Furthermore, the haredi notion that contemporary gedolim can sit in judgment of the views of the Rambam and other greats, and determine that their views are no longer “acceptable”, will be rejected out of hand by all followers of the philosophic tradition. It is therefore not surprising that when Artscroll was presented with a plan to publish Maimonides’ Guide in English, the response was a resounding no, with the explanation given that the Guide should not be found in a haredi home.[17]

US rabbis demand recognition of their conversions

YNET

Dozens of Orthodox rabbis send letter to Interior Minister Yishai, demanding that converts be allowed to make aliyah under Law of Return. ITIM institute: Current reality a slap in Orthodox communities' face. [...]

Dr. Nathanson, 84, Dies; Changed Sides on Abortion

NYTimes

Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, a campaigner for abortion rights who, after experiencing a change of heart in the 1970s became a prominent opponent of abortion and the on-screen narrator of the anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream,” died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. ...

In a widely reported 1974 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, “Deeper into Abortion,” Dr. Nathanson described his growing moral and medical qualms about abortion. “I am deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.”

His unease was intensified by the images made available by the new technologies of fetoscopy and ultrasound. [...]

Ecuadorean Villagers May Hold Secret to Longevity

NYTimes hat tip to Joseph

People living in remote villages in Ecuador have a mutation that some biologists say may throw light on human longevity and ways to increase it.

The villagers are very small, generally less than three and a half feet tall, and have a rare condition known as Laron syndrome or Laron-type dwarfism. They are probably the descendants of conversos, Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity in the 1490s but were nonetheless persecuted in the Inquisition. They are also almost completely free of two age-related diseases, cancer and diabetes. [...]

Rav Ovadia Yosef backs down on Army conversions

YNET

In order to prevent haredi protests, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says convert who did not intend on observing mitzvot while undergoing conversion process will not be recognized as a Jew

Shas spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, authorized a number of senior rabbis on Sunday to add clarifications on his behalf to his controversial ruling which legitimized conversions performed in the Israel Defense Forces.

 The addition is said to be accepted by leaders of the Eda Haredit movement, including head of the Lithuanian Orthodox faction Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who are expected to call off the mass protest against Rabbi Yosef planned for Wednesday.

According to the compromise – brokered by former Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri – Rabbi Yosef added a restriction to his ruling, stating that a convert who did not really intend on adopting a religious lifestyle while undergoing the conversion process would not be recognized as a Jew. [...]

Rabbi in SAC Extortion Plot Sentenced to 4 Years

Bloomberg

Milton Balkany, a Brooklyn, New York, rabbi, was ordered to serve four years in prison for trying to extort $4 million from Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote sentenced Balkany today in Manhattan. Balkany, 64, was convicted by a federal jury in November of extortion and blackmail charges after he threatened to disclose insider trading by SAC. There was no evidence at the trial that he had any such evidence.

“Just because you lead a charitable institution doesn’t give you a pass to commit extortion and fraud,” Cote told Balkany in court. “You tried to extort $4 million from a hedge fund.” [...]