Rav Sternbuch's speech at a protest demonstration held on Isru Chag Shavuos

  Atzeret Neged Giyus 

Jordan Murray pleads not guilty to molesting two of his students

KIRO TV  [includes video]  A former private school teacher has pleaded not guilty to charges of molesting two of his students.

Police said the victims were first- and second-graders at a private Jewish school in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood.

The teacher, Jordan Murray, who was addressed as "rabbi," pleaded not guilty to four counts of child molestation. 

Murray, 32, has been a first- and second-grade teacher at Torah Day School the past two school years. 

Does early psychological intervention prevent or cause trauma?

Scientific American     Devastating tornadoes have a lot in common with other major traumas, like life-threatening accidents, the Boston bombing and the Newtown shooting – especially the emotional distress they leave in their aftermath. As predictable and common as that distress is, though, early psychological response after trauma is still surprisingly controversial. It’s the center of a heated scientific debate that stewed and bubbled and then boiled over.

It began when a technique from the battlefield crossed over to civilian life. Soldiers traditionally debrief to share information and learn from missions and incidents. Psychological debriefing evolved along with military psychiatry instead of only discussing what happened, groups discussed feelings and coping too.

Psychological debriefing then spread to civilian first responders. Like soldiers, trauma was in the line of normal duty for them. They needed to be prepared and to cope with the stress, and debriefing was part of normality

Then psychological debriefing spread out to victims of trauma, too. And on to experiences like childbirth.

Some people expected that professional care could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological harm. But in the search for an affordable and efficient intervention that could be offered to everyone, it was often a single session. [...]

Just as we worry about saying the wrong thing and further distressing someone in crisis, professionals can make things worse for people too. And maybe everyone doesn’t benefit from dwelling on the trauma in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

A few trials of single session debriefing were done in the ‘90s. The people weren’t traumatized in the line of duty. They had suffered traumas like burns, road accidents or crimes. Or they had been debriefed around childbirth. And when discouraging results came in, controversy erupted. [...]

Problem of Convicted Sex Offenders: Where are they allowed to live?

Female LGBT Reform rabbi married to a non-Jewish woman protests the Reform movement's prohibition against intermarried rabbinical students

Forward   I am writing to urge you to reconsider the HUC-JIR requirement that all prospective rabbinical students sign an agreement that “any student engaged, married, or partnered/committed to a person who is not Jewish by birth or conversion will not be admitted or ordained.”

It matters to me: I am a HUC-JIR rabbi, ordained in 1991 and partnered with a non-Jew since 1984. In 1993 I founded a now thriving congregation that has engaged hundreds of people in Jewish life. I have worked toward conversion with dozens of candidates. The HUC-JIR requirement might have prevented me from becoming a rabbi, as it will future rabbis whose efforts would be as significant as mine.

My partner is a woman. I was an LGBT student at a time when this status was not recognized at the college and there was no such required agreement to sign. We were married under a chuppah on our 20th anniversary, in 2004, and were legally married when we could do so in New York State, in 2011. We have a grown daughter who celebrates the Sabbath and holidays. In 1988, my partner began welcoming the Sabbath in our home even when my student pulpit took me away. She attends services in my congregation, reads Jewish texts with interest and annually counts the Omer with me.

Match made in hell: Ami Popper weds mother of abused kids

YNET   In a ceremony held Sunday in Jerusalem, Ami Popper, who is serving multiple life sentences for the murder of seven Palestinians, married the woman who allowed self-proclaimed rabbi Elior Chen to viciously abuse her children. One of M.'s sons is still comatose in a vegetative state. 

New Psak: cigarette smokers can't be witnesses

NRG פסק הלכה של אב בין הדין בירושלים, הרב אליהו אברג'יל, קובע כי מעשנים פסולים לעדות, כך נקבע בפסק הלכה שפרסם בשנתון 'תחומין ל"ג'. בנימוק לקביעה החריפה, הסביר הרב אברג'יל כי "אדם שמודע לחומרת הנזק שגורמות הסיגריות, וממשיך בזה, עובר על 'השמר לך' ועל הציווי 'ונשמרתם מאוד לנפשותיכם' ".

הרב אברג'יל מבהיר כי לפי הפוסקים, כשאדם מזיק לעצמו הוא עובר על איסור מהתורה ולכן אסור מלכתחילה לקחת אותו לעדות קידושים וכדומה. בנוגע לאדם המעשן סמים קובע הרב אברג'יל כי "בוודאי פסול עדות כאשר הוא מכלה גופו ונפשו".

בנוסף, קובע הרב אברג'יל, כי היות ונזקי העישון מפורסמים וידועים לכל, שכן על קופסאות העישון מופיעה הודעה שהעישון מסוכן, לא ניתן להחשיב את המעשן כשוגג, שאינו מתכוון לעבור עבירה. 

Mussar Movement was haskala - a man-based vision to revive religion

In my investigation into the Seridei Aish's description of the Mussar Movement as "frum haskala", I have come back to my original understanding. At this point I disagree with Prof. Shapiro that "frum haskala" simply meant concern with spiritual development and fear of G-d. 

The Haskala was a man based vision - not a religious one.  I just posted the Seridei Ish's vision of the Jew in the ghetto - not only was it repressive economically and psychologically but most found   religion also to be repressive. http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/seridei-aish-haskala-why-did-religious.html

Mussar was clearly a man based program to revive  religion as was Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz. It also involved participation in the world, tikun olam and an awareness of human knowledge and a focus on the individual human being. This is clearly the opposite of Chassidus which is a movement based on ruach hakodesh, revelation and Daas Torah and subjugation to authority. The Mussar Movement was also  opposed to the ghetto - either of the body or mind and deprivation of wordly pleasures and experience.

Al Dura is a Palestinian Hoax: Israeli government concludes al Dura was alive after gun battle

YNET   The committee, formed in 2012, was first headed by now Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and concluded its inquiry recently under the chairmanship of Yuval Steinitz. The report itself focuses on the controversial September 2000 France 2 broadcast – in which the boy is seen hiding behind his father while the two were under IDF gunfire – and conclude that al-Dura was still alive at the end of the video.[...]

According to the Steinitz-Ya'alon committee findings, in contrary to what had been published before, there was no evidence that the boy or his father were even injured at the time the video was shot.

In addition, the committee noted there was reasonable doubt whether the IDF was responsible for the bullet holes seen in the wall behind the two.

Furthermore, the Israeli report points a blaming finger at the France 2 news report. [...]

NY Times    The new findings published on Sunday were the work of an Israeli government review committee, which said its task was to re-examine the event “in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel.” They come after years of debate over the veracity of the France 2 report, which was filmed by a Gaza correspondent, Talal Abu Rahma, and narrated by the station’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Charles Enderlin, who was not at the present at the scene. 

The Israeli government review suggested, as other critics have, that the France 2 footage might have been staged. It noted anomalies like the apparent lack of blood in appropriate places at the scene, and said that raw footage from the seconds after the boy’s apparent death seem to show him raising his arm. 

“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” the review said. “Based on the available evidence, it appears significantly more likely that Palestinian gunmen were the source of the shots which appear to have impacted in the vicinity” of the boy and his father.

Israeli economy doomed without Chareidim & Arab workforce participation

Haaretz    The Israeli economy cannot thrive without ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israel's Arabs being more fully integrated into the workforce, the National Economic Council warned the cabinet at a meeting last week.[...]

The most serious problem here, however, is related to working-age populations that are not employed - meaning, the low workforce-participation rate of the country's Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox population. The problem is the product of a lack of desire to be employed, when it comes to the Haredim, as well as low skill levels. (A large proportion of Haredi men choose to engage in Torah study full-time rather than work. )

The council presented the cabinet with a slide, showing that between 1997 and 2012, the poverty rate of the non-Haredi, non-Arab population remained unchanged at 12%, while the rate among Arabs and Haredim skyrocketed from 38% to 58%. As a result, Israel's population consists of three separate countries: Arab Israelis, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and everyone else. And that last segment is actually contracting while the two weaker segments are growing.

In 2009, 71% of those aged 25 to 29 entering the labor force belonged to the third, more highly skilled, group (i.e., the non-Haredi and non-Arab sector ). The council said, though, that this group will decline to just 59% of the newly employed by 2019, and 53% by 2029. Israel is, therefore, moving in the direction whereby if things are not changed, the non-Arab, non-Haredi working population with relatively high productivity will become just over half of the new members of the workforce - a situation that is not sustainable. [...]

The council says that as a result of the situation, as early as next year the country will have a 3% structural deficit - an excess of government expenditures, including items such as social welfare payments to the poor - over government income from taxes and economic growth.

The structural deficit is a reference to a situation in which the government spends more than it is taking in, not as a result of transient factors but rather the entrenched structural characteristics of the economy. Even more alarming, the council says, is the fact that the structural deficit will be 10.5% by 2050, if the current situation is not addressed.

Israel needs to decide, the council says: It can continue down its current path of greater government outlays for the poor at the expense of increased taxes, and reduced government spending in other areas. This will perpetuate poverty among Haredim and Arabs and impose an impossible burden on the remaining working population.

Alternatively, Israel can better integrate the Arabs and ultra-Orthodox into the general workforce, increasing their participation and substantially enhancing their skill levels through education.

The council's assessment is that if the three population groups are indeed integrated into one productive workforce, by 2030 Israel will once more be competitive in the world economy.

Interview with the Brisker Rav: Rav Yisroel Salanter tried being a chassid

This was published by Rabbi Leo Jung in Men of the Spirit page 210-211

*This interview, [by Pinehas Biberfeld] published first in Ha-Neeman, the organ of Israeli Ye­shivah circles, is based on the present writer's recording, from memory, his conversations with Reb Velvele. The answers, deeply engraved upon his heart, are offered here.

[only the last questions are published here]

QUESTION: I know that the Master considers it more important to conduct a Talmud Torah for boys than to issue the "Hanee­man."

The rabbi, as was his wont, ran to the book-case, fetched a copy of the Rambam, where at the end of the Laws about Leprosy the following passage occurs: "But the conversation of the proper Israelite deals only with wisdom and Torah, therefore the Lord helps them and grants them both, as it is said:  "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another and the Lord hearkened."

QUESTION: But the Rambam mentions Torah and wisdom, thus obviously there is room for both?

ANSWER: He remained silent.

QUESTION: R. Israel Salanter, too, issued a monthly called Tevunah (Comprehension)?

ANSWER: This is an argument against your point. He stopped the publication very soon. His stopping it indicates that this was not, eventually, his way. He tried many things, among them also the way of Hassidism.

update: There is a much more detailed discussion of Rav Yisroel Salanter's relationship to Chassidus in Rav Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan's sefer בעקבות היראה

Rate of global warming slows significantly

Scientific American  Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday.

Warming is still on track, however, to breach a goal set by governments around the world of limiting the increase in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, unless tough action is taken to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions.

"The most extreme rates of warming simulated by the current generation of climate models over 50- to 100-year timescales are looking less likely," the University of Oxford wrote about the findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The rate of global warming has slowed after strong rises in the 1980s and 1990s, even though all the 10 warmest years since reliable records began in the 1850s have been since 1998. [...[]

Kolko case: Learning to believe the unbelievable

When we read about a horrible crime, we look for a rational explanation by seeking out the words regarding the accused, "he was a loner", "he was strange". We typically do find this to be true for those who fire automatic weapons in school massacres or cases such as the kidnapping, abuse and murder of women and children. However in the case of sexual abuse by pedophiles - we are stuck with the fact that often the perpetrator is amongst the most beloved of the community. Typically the pedophile picks a lonely child and grooms him for abuse by being his "special friend".  Consequently many can't believe that this distinguished family man, this charismatic teacher, this deeply spiritual clergyman would do such a thing. Many can't accept that the pervasive belief  that a man who abuses and rapes children is  mentally ill, a loner, a stranger - is typically wrong.

Because of the deeply seated belief as to the inherent evilness of pedophiles, we have a hard time accepting that the beloved uncle or neighbor is a child rapist. Consequently even when a pedophile confesses - it is often not accepted as being true. And surely when the accused is convicted despite his protests of innocence. The belief that nice people don't do horrible things conflicts with the fact that this person was convicted or confessed. 

This is the problem of cognitive dissonance - resolving strongly conflicting facts. However this dissonance is difficult to live with and thus we have a need to resolve it. One resolution is that we decide he wasn't so nice after all. That his good deeds were fake and that we really didn't know him. While in fact his accomplishments are often genuine - but viewing him as a phony allows us to accept his guilt.  

The other way of resolving the dissonance is to say that the conviction or even confession is not true. How does one ignore the fact of confession by the accused. One rationalization is that he was being railroaded by lying, vindictive kids who were trying to cover up their own misdeeds. Furthermore the accused could not handle the expenses of years of legal help. Therefore when faced with the likelihood of a life sentence or a plea bargain of 5 to 10 years - the plea bargain is the rational option. Because this does happen - it is possible for a rational human being to discount clear evidence of guilt. However the fact that it is unlikely - should cause the true and faithful believers in innocence to at least have doubts.

The Seridei  Aish notes that for a person to be a believer, the fact must move from being an outside assertion - to being accepted internally. This is true of all beliefs. Therefore there are those who keep externally the facts of confession or conviction. They acknowledge that a conviction or confession has occurred - but it is not internalized. The question then becomes, "What helps us internalize these unpleasant facts?"

The most helpful aid to accepting unpleasant facts is education. As we become more educated about the niceness of pedophiles, the dissonance becomes reduced.  As we learn that genuinely loving and spiritual people can do these horrible crimes - the more readily we will deal realistically with these crimes - both in terms of prevention and conviction. As the dissonance is reduced, the easier is it to accept reality.  It is time to accept reality.

Eli Weinstein charged again - for $6 million scam

Asbury Park Press   A Lakewood man will spend at least the next few days in jail on charges that he and two others swindled a New Zealander out of more than $6 million in a stock scam.

Eliyahu Weinstein, 37, was awaiting sentencing on wire fraud and money-laundering charges when he was arrested at his home Tuesday morning.

Also arrested Tuesday were Alex Schleider, 47, also of Lakewood and Aaron Muschel, 63, of Brooklyn. The trio are charged with swindling the unnamed victim by misrepresenting that the man’s investment would be used to buy shares in last year’s Facebook IPO and real estate.[...]

Weinstein in January plead guilty to a count of wire fraud and a count of money laundering in connection with a real estate ponzi scheme that cost investors about $200 million. He was released on bail with a number of stipulations, including not engaging in any financial transaction worth more than $1,000 without the permission of a court-appointed special counsel.But in a “blatant violation” of that stipulation, according to FBI Special Agent Karl Ubellacker, who signed the complaint, Weinstein and his two co-conspirators convinced the victim to send them nearly $7.2 million in wire transfers in February and March 2012 for a purported investment in upcoming Facebook stock.[...]