Toronto imam reported alleged terror plot to police

LA Times   An imam in the Toronto area came forward more than a year ago with concerns about one of the two suspects now charged with an alleged terrorism plot, an attorney who handled the tip said Tuesday. Toronto attorney Naseer Syed said the imam, who wants to remain anonymous, first came to him with his concerns about Raed Jaser, 35, who was arrested Monday by Canadian police.  

“The community has always struggled with, at what point does some behavior or activity or words cross a certain threshold?” Syed said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times. “He noticed some of the activities and became concerned enough that he consulted with me and felt it should be reported to authorities. … He asked me to make the first call,” the attorney said.

Syed said he immediately contacted Canadian authorities with the tip. It is unclear what part the information played in the lengthy investigation that led up to the arrests of Jaser and Montreal-area resident Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, who were charged with conspiring to commit murder in connection with a terrorist group. Canadian police told reporters their investigation began last August.

Israeli Rabbinate: Supports Direct Metzitza

 As we reported last week - Daas Torah - Direct Metzitza - official rabbinate position   the official position of the Israel Rabbinate is that metzitza is a valid procedure. As they clearly state the parents have the option of either direct oral contact or using a tube. This was clearly described on the Rabbinate Web site in great detail. The fact that the guidelines are dated from a year ago clearly indicates that despite - some mistaken assertions to the contrary - the Rabbinate has not changed its position. All they have done is offered clarifications which some  have misunderstood to indicate that they changed their guidelines.

Arutz 7   In an official letter published by the Director of the Britot (Circumcisions) Department of the Chief Rabbinate, Rabbi Moshe Morciano clarified that the position of the Rabbinate supports traditional circumcision procedure which includes "metzitza bepeh" (oral suction). This is done to ensure the health of the baby.  The procedure is conditional upon the good health of the mohel himself, and the agreement of the family should be obtained by the Mohel (Circumciser).

Science: Wringing water out of cloth on Space Station

Boston Marathon Bombers: Is Terrorism a distortion of Islam?

The following video was brought to my attention by a reader. It charges that the Western World is collectively avoiding facing the true nature of Islam because of the desire to be tolerant and non-judgmental regarding religion and life style issues i.e., politically correct. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of terrorist acts in the modern world are carried about by Muslims - we are told that we should view this as a perversion of Islam which is claimed to be inherently a peaceful religion and tolerant of other religions and lifestyles. There is no question that the overwhelming number of Muslims and their leaders are peaceful people and do not support terrorism. Therefore I welcome reasoned debate and refutation of the thesis presented in this and similar videos that are on the Internet. I am well aware that some of my readers are Muslims - and I am not presenting this to be offensive. The arguments and backlash against Islam already exist - at least from the time of the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. I would like to hear the other side. This is obviously not just a theoretical issue or an exercise in compartive religions. It strongly impacts Jews and in particluar Israel

Haifa's Chief Rabbi: Police say to indict him for fraud & bribery

YNET   The National Fraud Unit recommended that Haifa's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Shlush be prosecuted for offences related to bribery, fraud, breach of trust, misuse of a public position and transgression of the Law Forbidding Kosher Fraud.[...]

The rabbi insists that he was the one who was subjected to extortion.[...]

In 2010, the attorney general ordered the government to investigate the rabbi, prompting numerous investigations of both Shlush himself and his aides. Though investigators found that the rabbi was receiving bribes and threatening businesses with loss of their Kosher certificate for reasons unrelated to religious law, no indictments were filed.

The Limits of Empathy: Critique of Stephen Pinker - It doesn't make you a better person

NY Times   By David Brooks. We are surrounded by people trying to make the world a better place. Peace activists bring enemies together so they can get to know one another and feel each other’s pain. School leaders try to attract a diverse set of students so each can understand what it’s like to walk in the others’ shoes. Religious and community groups try to cultivate empathy. 

As Steven Pinker writes in his mind-altering new book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” we are living in the middle of an “empathy craze.” There are shelfloads of books about it: “The Age of Empathy,” “The Empathy Gap,” “The Empathic Civilization,” “Teaching Empathy.” There’s even a brain theory that we have mirror neurons in our heads that enable us to feel what’s in other people’s heads and that these neurons lead to sympathetic care and moral action. 

There’s a lot of truth to all this. We do have mirror neurons in our heads. People who are empathetic are more sensitive to the perspectives and sufferings of others. They are more likely to make compassionate moral judgments. 

The problem comes when we try to turn feeling into action. Empathy makes you more aware of other people’s suffering, but it’s not clear it actually motivates you to take moral action or prevents you from taking immoral action. 

In the early days of the Holocaust, Nazi prison guards sometimes wept as they mowed down Jewish women and children, but they still did it. Subjects in the famous Milgram experiments felt anguish as they appeared to administer electric shocks to other research subjects, but they pressed on because some guy in a lab coat told them to. 

Empathy orients you toward moral action, but it doesn’t seem to help much when that action comes at a personal cost. You may feel a pang for the homeless guy on the other side of the street, but the odds are that you are not going to cross the street to give him a dollar.[...]

Women of the Wall: Irrelevant for Israelis - Heroes in America

Times of Israel   Every second Jewish American who talks to me about Israel talks about Women of the Wall,” says Chen Bram, an anthropologist and organizational psychologist who is currently a Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor at the University of Florida. “They all know this story.” For many American Jews, Women of the Wall, the tallitot- and tefillin-wearing women who read the Torah at the Kotel, have long been heroes of Jewish religious pluralism. Most Israelis, however, are only recently aware of the group — though they may be more knowledgeable about other religious pluralism issues in Israel.

Bram is surprised by how much Americans know about Women of the Wall. He says chairwoman Anat Hoffman is accorded rock star status by liberal American Jews. Conversely, Rabbi David Golinkin, President of the Conservative Movement’s Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, says Hoffman and her colleagues are considered irrelevant by most Israelis. [...]

It is not merely a matter of media coverage, but a reflection of a major disconnect between the two largest Jewish communities in the world. This divide is slowly being bridged, however, as the notion of a “global Jewish Peoplehood” is entering the public discourse, and religious pluralism and civil rights are rising higher on the Israeli political agenda.

“The whole battle for the Western Wall is an Americanized and American-imported battle for religious moderation and tolerance,” explains Shmuel Rosner, senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and L.A. Jewish Journal columnist. “Women wearing a tallit is not something Israelis are used to. They don’t necessarily have negative feelings about it, but it’s just strange and feels like it doesn’t belong here.”[...]

Meir Dascalowitz pleads guilty to sexual abuse in mikve

NY Daily News   A Brooklyn father who's been ostracized from his Hasidic community because he reported his son's sexual abuse claimed victory Thursday after the man who violated the teenage boy pleaded guilty.

"Justice was done," said the father, Mordechai Jungreis. "I'm happy to show the community that the game is over — if you do the crime, you need to do the time."

Meir Dascalowitz, 29, will get five years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with the boy, who is now 17. He'll also have to register as a sex offender upon his release.

The admitted perv was arrested in May 2010 for the abuse, which took place in a ritual bath, and his case slogged slowly through psych exams and other delays. [...]

Circumcision may bolster immune system against harmful bacteria

LA Times   Circumcision is known to reduce a man's risk of HIV infection by at least half, but scientists don't know why. A new study offers support for the theory that removing the foreskin deprives troublesome bacteria of a place to live, leaving the immune system in much better shape to keep the human immunodeficiency virus at bay.

Anyone who has ever lifted a rock and watched as the earth beneath it was quickly vacated by legions of bugs and tiny worms would be familiar with the principle, said study leader Dr. Cindy Liu: After the foreskin is cut away, the masses of genital bacteria that once existed beneath it end up disappearing.

"It's the same as if you clear-cut a forest," said Liu, a pathologist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Flagstaff, Ariz. "The community of animals that once lived in that forest is going to change."

Of particular note is that circumcision undercuts anaerobic bacteria, the microbes that thrive in oxygen-deprived environments, she said. By reducing the number of anaerobic bacteria, the body's immune cells may be better able to destroy the virus — and less likely to fall prey to its Trojan horse-style of attack, the authors suggest.

U of Penn sent me the Metzitza Report in response to a simple request!

Just received the report. I had only sent request this morning. The report simply indicates that while it is possible that a mohel can transmit herpes - however because of the limited number of cases in the studies available - more work needs to establish anything more definitive. This really doesn't support the Aguda's view that metzitza is not a problem. It is consistent with what the U of Penn had said the report is about in their comments to the Forward. The report also came with a pamphlet from the NYC Heath department warning of metzitza. I don't see any chidush in the report. It clearly is not part of some secret conspiracy to support the Aguda's agenda.  Does anyone doubt that it is theoretically possible to transmit herpes through metzitza? In sum I am simply affirming what the U of Penn has stated about this report.

 ======================================
 Good afternoon Dr. Eidensohn,

Please find the attached report that you requested.

Thanks !!

S.C. Dunbar

Administrative Assistant

Center for Evidence-based Practice (CEP) and

Clinical Effectiveness and Quality Improvement (CEQI)

University of Pennsylvania Health System

3535 Market Street, Mezzanine Level, Suite 50

Philadelphia, PA 19104

Telephone: (215) 662-2463

Fax: (215)349-5829

stephanie.dunbar@uphs.upenn.edu

=======================================================

-----Original Message-----

From: Daniel Eidensohn [mailto:yadmoshe@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:36 AM

To: Dunbar, Stephanie

Subject: report request

could you please send me a copy of the following report listed on your

web site?

2013 01 21 | Risk of neonatal herpes simplex virus type 1 infection

associated with jewish ritual circumcision

Daniel Eidensohn Ph.D.

The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message.

Direct Metzitza: Official Israeli Rabbinut guidelines permit it

Contrary to assertions that some have made  - the Israeli Rabbinate
says it is not necessary to stop the practise of direct mouth metzitza. These guidelines are currently posted on the web site of the Rabbinate. Israeli newspapers and BHOL on April 8, 2013 reported that the Chief Rabbinate had just issued a clarification of these guidelines. The  Rabbinate said that use of the glass tube is permitted l'chatchila and it is preferrable medically. "That the tube reduces significantly reduces the likelihood of infection." If the parents request that the tube not be used then the mohel should explain the dangers associated with that. The parents have the right to insist on the use of a glass tube. Basically - as the year old guidelines currently posted on the Rabbinate website state - the parents have the right to choose whether they want a glass tube utilized.



  See previous comments about metzitza

מציצה ישירה בפה במילה – עמדה רפואית-הלכתית

Metzitzah Be’Peh in traditional Jewish ritual circumcision

U of Penn study of Metzitza:The story gets weirder and weirder!

The issue of whether metzitza is an inherent risk factor for herpes and therefore should be banned - has been debated for a while now. See previous post and its comments. The Aguda in its defense of metzitza against the NYC Department of Health cited a metastudy from the U of Penn which analyzed previously done studies and which the Aguda  claimed said that no causal relationship was found between metzitza and herpes in infants. Now the U of Penn has issued a statement - bizarrely through the Forward and not directly - criticizing the use of the study which they said in fact concluded the opposite of what the Aguda said it did. They also added the study was not only not published  it was not even peer reviewed and was meant purely for internal use at the U of Penn. The study was not released and not even doctors can get copies without some sort of protexia. At this point it is very unclear why the U of Penn did the study in the first place. It is highly unlikely that U of Penn was interested in knowing whether they should allow metziza in their medical facilities - so what purpose did it serve. They are not making the study available - so how did the Aguda get a copy? How could the Aguda conclude the opposite of what the U of Penn claims the study says? At this point all one can conclude from the information funneled through the Forward - is that the U of Penn is claiming that it is possible to get herpes through metzitza - a point that no one contests anyway! The only relevant question is whether metzitza done by a mohel following proper procedures causes herpes. In short the whole incident is weird, makes no sense and  even smells funny. It does absolutely nothing to resolve the issue.   

Update 4/16/13 Here is an Israeli study of complications in mila  IMA 7:368 Ben Chaim et al 2005

Update 4/16/13  New study indicates mohel is significant source of infection

Update 4/16/13 Israeli Rabbinate's directives for metzitza

Update 4/16/13 U of Penn just sent me a copy of the report in response to a simple request for one

=============================

Forward   The authors of a research report on metzitzah b’peh say their study is being distorted by defenders of the controversial ritual circumcision practice who claim that the procedure poses no risk of neonatal herpes to infants.

In an April 9 press release headlined “Ivy League Study Casts Doubt on Claims that Jewish Tradition Leads to Herpes in Infants,” a public relations agency representing Agudath Israel of America and several other ultra-Orthodox groups sought to debunk the public health consensus on metzitzah b’peh, or MBP. The press announcement claimed that a study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania “found little evidence to support the claim that circumcision ritual is infecting infants” with herpes simplex virus.

The announcement noted that the UPenn study was submitted as evidence in an appeal filed by the ultra-Orthodox groups, who are plaintiffs in a suit opposing regulation of the practice by New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“We have been saying for years that the evidence attacking this religious practice is highly dubious, and now we have world class doctors agreeing with us.” Rabbi Gedaliah Weinberger, chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Aguda, said in the press release.

But in a statement released Monday, the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Evidence-based Practice termed it “regrettable that our evidence review was manipulated for purposes other than advising physicians of important clinical risk factors for newborns.”

“The unpublished report was used without our knowledge or consent and importantly, without proper context,” the center’s statement said. “Further, a subsequent press release mischaracterized our review by implying that there is no causal relationship between circumcision performed with oral suction and the transmission of neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) when the full report on the existing evidence concluded this link does exist.” [...]

European Rabbis issue call to stop covering up abuse

Kikar Shabbat
 

רבני אירופה עושים סוף לטייוח מקרי אלימות:  אמש (ראשון) התכנסה מועצת רבני אירופה לישיבתה השנתית הנערכת בפריז. במהלך הישיבה הסוערת שנמשכה מספר שעות, דנו חברי המועצת, במספר פרשיות של התעללויות בילדים על ידי מחנכים בבתי ספר יהודיים ברחבי אירופה.

מועצת רבני אירופה החליטה לצאת בקול קורא מיוחד לכל מוסדות החינוך, בו היא קוראת להפסיק לחפות ולטייח פרשיות מן הסוג הזה ולטפל בכל פרשייה בליווי מקצועי צמוד.

בנוסף, החליטו הרבנים להקים וועדה מיוחדת, בראשות הגאון רבי בנימין יעקבס, רב ראשי בהולנד. והגאון רבי יצחק רובין, מחשובי הרבנים במנצ'סטר ויו"ר ועד רבני מחוזות אנגליה. הוועדה תעמוד בקשר עם מוסדות החינוך ותסייע להם בייעוץ וליווי בנושאים אלה.

Rabbi Michael Broyde takes "an indefinite leave of absence" from BD of America

Tablet [See previous post ]  The Rabbinical Council of America, the chief professional organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis, has granted Rabbi Dr. Michael Broyde, one of its most prominent scholars and a professor of law at Emory University, “an indefinite leave of absence” from its top rabbinical court, the Beth Din of America. Sources within the RCA confirmed the move, and Broyde’s biography has been deleted from the court’s web site, where he was previously listed as a member and judge.

“Rabbi Broyde has admitted to behavior that the Rabbinical Council finds extremely disturbing,” Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA, told Tablet. “We have determined and announced by the Beth Din of America, our affiliated rabbinical court, that he has ceased to serve as a dayan immediately and indefinitely.”[...]