Lynch Mob - The self-righteous pleasure of killing an innocent person

Washington Post    Afghan woman, killed by a mob for a crime she didn’t commit, becomes a rallying point for activists

Four days ago, an Afghan woman named Farkhunda lay on the ground beneath the flailing, kicking feet of dozens of men. Her face swollen and bright with blood, she attempted to stand and plead for mercy. But her attackers, who accused her of burning a Koran, kicked her back and exchanged their feet for stones and wooden planks. Before it was over, Farkhunda’s body would be thrown from a rooftop, run over by a car and then set ablaze on a bank of the muddy Kabul River.

On Sunday, Farkhunda’s body lay in a coffin carried on the shoulders of several black-clad Afghan women. Bucking tradition, these pallbearers took on a role usually designated to men, conveying Farkhunda’s coffin to an open-air prayer ground and then to her grave.[...]

But General Mohammad Zahir, the head of the interior ministry’s criminal investigation directorate, said at the funeral Sunday he had reviewed the evidence and concluded Farkhunda was “totally innocent.”

“Last night I went through all documents and evidence once again, but I couldn’t find any evidence to say Farkhunda burnt the Holy Koran,” he told reporters. [...]

Muslim Scholar, Looking to ‘Speak the Truth,’ Teaches the Holocaust and Islam

NY Times    Early in the summer of 2007, a doctoral student named Mehnaz M. Afridi traveled from her California home to a conference in southern Germany. Her official role was to deliver a paper on anti-Semitism in Egyptian literature, a rather loaded subject for a Muslim scholar. Seventy miles away, she had another appointment, and an even riskier agenda.

After the conference concluded, Ms. Afridi drove to the former concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. As she stood before the dun bricks of a crematorium, she prayed. “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un,” she said in Arabic, meaning, “Surely we belong to God and to him shall we return.”

“I didn’t know that moment would be defining my role,” Dr. Afridi, 44, said a few weeks ago. “I didn’t even realize then that I was at a crossroads. People see the Holocaust and Islam as two separate things, but these stories of faith and catastrophe are not opposites. They are companions.”

Dr. Afridi has made these seeming irreconcilables into companions in her life’s work. An assistant professor of religion at Manhattan College, she teaches courses about both Islam and the Holocaust, and she is director of the college’s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center. Her book “Shoah Through Muslim Eyes,” referring to an alternative term for the Holocaust, will be published in July, and she is a member of the ethics and religion committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Such roles have made Dr. Afridi both a valued intermediary and a visible target in the troubled relations between Muslims and Jews. As her research unflinchingly shows, a strain of Holocaust denial runs deep in the Arab-Muslim world. Holocaust recognition among Arabs and Muslims, less noticed but equally divisive, has also served as a means of delegitimizing Israel and Zionism. By this line of reasoning, which ignores the historical ties of Jews to Israel, the Holocaust was a crime inflicted by Europeans for which Palestinians paid the price.[...]

"Unchained at Last": Organization helps women escape forced marriages

NY Times    Unchained at Last operates in the contested crossroad between the modern secular concept of marriage for love between consenting adults and longstanding ethnic or communal customs of arranged marriage. Religion does not require such marriage, but is very often invoked to provide moral justification for it. And the laws of certain faiths, Orthodox Judaism in particular, give a husband the sole right to grant a divorce.

A reliable estimate of arranged marriages is difficult because the definition is inexact. But the Tahirih Justice Center, an advocacy group for immigrant women, reported that about 3,000 cases of “forced marriage” took place in the United States from 2009 through 2011.

Almost all of the 90 women whom Unchained at Last has helped had been pressured into marriage by their religious community: Orthodox Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Mormon, Unification Church. Most lived in the New York area, though one was in Arizona. The women’s nations of origin stretch through Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

On a basic level, Unchained at Last provides legal services because most of the women’s cases involve divorce and child custody litigation, and some extend into immigration status and restraining orders against a violent spouse. Because the clients’ situations can be so catastrophic — forced at gunpoint to accept a marriage, raped by a husband, essentially imprisoned within the home as a domestic servant — Unchained at Last also provides mentoring, access to therapy and cash stipends for everything from basic clothing to English as a second language class. [...]

Epstein Torture for Get trial:Judge Wolfson rejects defense of violence for religious purpose

Some excerpts: ... On the face of the Indictment, it is unclear whether all non-violent methods were exhausted before the alleged kidnappings took place here. That fact, however, does not change this Court’s analysis. Indeed, if Defendants had acceptable religious alternatives -- instead of resorting to violating the criminal laws -- I find that the Government’s application of the kidnapping laws to Defendants here does not substantially Defendants’ religious exercise. Nevertheless, even if Defendants had exhausted all other available non-violent means of coercing a husband to give his wife a get, and the only remaining method of coercion, as argued by Defendants, is through violence or force, i.e., kidnapping, I remain convinced that would not amount to a substantial burden. This Court has not found any authority condoning the use of violence under the guise of religion, and more importantly, no case has found the Government’s application of violent crime laws to certain religious practices is a substantial burden. 

 Even assuming Defendants could prove a substantial burden on their religion as a result of their prosecution, the RFRA challenge fails under the remaining two prongs of the test. As to the first of the two elements, the Government has the burden of demonstrating that the law which constitutes a substantial burden on an individual’s religion furthers a compelling governmental interest. Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418, 429 (2006). On this issue, Stimler posits that “deterrence of possible future efforts to use violent means to coerce recalcitrant husbands to authorize the writing of a ‘get’” is not a compelling interest. Stimler Br. at 11. To contrary, the Government maintains that prosecuting crimes of violence is compelling. Gov’t Br. at 16. 

When determining whether a government action serves a compelling interest, it is not sufficient to use broad terms; RFRA “contemplates a more focused inquiry.” Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751, 2779 (2014). Thus, even if the government can show that the law is in furtherance of a generalized compelling interest, the government must prove that “the compelling interest is satisfied through application of the law ‘to the Person’ — the particular claimant whose sincere exercise of religion is being substantially burdened.” Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita, 546 U.S. 418, 430–31 (2006). 

 ... Defendants’ purported use of force to effectuate a mitzvah involves kidnapping and even physical violence to others. Even more compelling, the Supreme Court in O Centro found that there was little evidence to demonstrate the type of harm to the religious personal drug users that the government there proffered. Thus, the Court found that the government’s stated interest to protect the health of those religious users was not a compelling one. To the contrary, the Government’s interest, here, is to protect the health and safety of those individuals who were victims of Defendants’ alleged violence and kidnapping. Accordingly, I find O Centro distinguishable. 

... The least-restrictive-means standard requires a showing that the government “lacks other means of achieving its desired goal without imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion by the objecting parties.” Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. 134 S. Ct. 2751, 2780 (2014). As stated above, the Government has a compelling interest in the uniform prevention of violence. Stimler has argued, as discussed supra, that the law burdens the “mitzvah” of using force, if necessary, to obtain a get; thus, there is no method by which the Government could enforce its interest in preventing violence without burdening Defendants’ religious exercise. In that regard, in this case, any effective means to prevent violence would necessarily prevent Defendants from using the force, which, according to Defendants, is permitted by Orthodox Judaism. ...

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   Courts opinion on Jewish Law motion 

Top violator of women's rights around the world? It's Israel says UN

Fox News

Guess who is the number one violator of women’s rights in the world today?  Israel.  Violating the rights of Palestinian women.

At least that is the view of the UN’s top women’s rights body, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  CSW ends its annual meeting on Friday, March 20 by condemning only one of the 193 UN member states for violating women’s rights – Israel.

Not Syria. Where government forces routinely employ rape and other sexual violence and torture against women as a tactic of war. Where in 2014 the Assad regime starved, tortured and killed at least 24,000 civilians, and three million people – mostly women and children – are refugees. 

Not Saudi Arabia. Where women are physically punished if not wearing compulsory clothing, are almost entirely excluded from political life, cannot drive, cannot travel without a male relative, receive half the inheritance of their brothers, and where their testimony counts for half that of a man’s.

Not Sudan.  Where domestic violence is not prohibited.  There is no minimum age for “consensual” sex.  The legal age of marriage for girls is ten. 88% of women under 50 have undergone female genital mutilation. And women are denied equal rights in marriage, inheritance and divorce.

Not Iran. Where every woman who registered as a presidential candidate in the last election was disqualified.  “Adultery” is punishable by death by stoning.  Women who fight back against rapists and kill their attackers are executed. The constitution bars female judges. And women must obtain the consent of their husbands to work outside the home.

In fact, not only is there no possibility that the UN Commission on the Status of Women will criticize Iran, Iran is an elected member of CSW.  Sudan – whose president has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity – is currently a CSW Vice-Chair.

Downs Syndrome: "I didn't know I would be able to love her the way I do"

CBS News  I got the call two years ago that no expecting parent wants.

The genetic counselor told me the baby girl I was carrying would have Down syndrome. I felt like I had been sucker-punched. I sobbed, mourning the loss of the child I thought I was supposed to have.[...]

I recognized from the moment I began considering ending my pregnancy that the decision was based more on sparing myself and my husband the pain of raising a child with Down syndrome rather than sparing our child.

I knew I could quietly end the pregnancy, tell friends and family I had miscarried and start again. We could put the whole thing behind us and pretend it never happened. I could get a do-over.

Fortunately for my daughter, my husband wasn't on board with that plan. When I whined it wasn't fair we had been dealt a crappy hand, he said, "Fair? What's fair? What does that even mean?" Still, he was scared about our future, too. [...]

Still, I needed more information. One of the best pieces of advice I found online was from a parent blog encouraging me to seek out a local Down syndrome support group where I could connect with actual families. A quick Google search led me to Gigi's Playhouse in New York City.[...]

My thinking changed after that one visit. To say Gigi's Playhouse helped save my daughter's life may sound dramatic, but it's true. We were welcomed into the community. And I could see first hand that many of my fears were unfounded. These kids played and acted just like other children. They laughed, danced, wrestled with each other, whined and cried just like kids I knew who had the standard 46 chromosomes.[...]

One thing I want to make clear. There's nothing particularly special about my husband or me. We wanted a baby and that's exactly what we got. She may not be the baby we expected, but then again that's what being a parent is all about. As much as we like to believe we can control who our children will become or that we can protect them from disease or a cruel world unwilling to accept them, the basic truth is, we can't. For some parents it takes years or decades to accept this. My husband and I just had to come to terms with it before our daughter was even born.

Still, I understand this is scary stuff, facing the unknown of a life with a child who has an intellectual impairment and could possibly have a host of physical ailments. But 18 months into this mom gig, I can tell you it's not nearly as daunting as I imagined.

I'm exhausted and stressed out a lot. But it's not because my daughter has Down syndrome. In fact, my husband and I enjoy our baby girl so much, we decided to have another baby when she was only four months old. So if you bump into me on the street and I look over-tired and disheveled, it's because I have a very active 18-month-old daughter, a five-month-old son who still doesn't sleep through the night, and I work full time.

It's true my daughter has some developmental delays. And she receives a bevy of therapies through Early Intervention to help keep her on track. But she's also wonderful. She has a twinkle in her eye and an infectious grin that makes even the most miserable looking people on the subway smile when she stares them down. When she puts her head on my shoulder as I rock her to sleep each night, my heart melts no matter what kind of day I've had. I do think she is more special than other children, but it's not because she has Down syndrome. It's because I'm a completely biased and doting mother who thinks no one could possibly be as adorable, bright or funny as my own child.

And her name is Margot.

Mother Brainwashed Children into Lying About Satanic Sex Cult at School

Breitbart   A mother and her partner forced her children to lie about a satanic sex cult at their school in the midst of a bitter custody row. Ella Draper and Abraham Christie “tortured” the children into alleging their father was leader of a rape cult that killed children, drank their blood and danced with their skulls.

The Daily Mail reports that the two children, aged eight and nine, appeared in a series of Youtube videos alleging various demonic practices by a cult. High Court judge Mrs Justice Pauffley ruled, however, that the children had been forced to “provide concocted accounts of horrific events” by their mother and her partner.

The videos, which received more than 4 million views, alleged “significant paedophile activity” at the school by teachers, social workers, a priest and police. While the “main action” occurred at the children’s school, seven other schools were also named, along with a swimming pool.

The children also claimed “rituals” were performed at a McDonald’s restaurant where “the boss” let child sacrifice happen. They said that babies were beheaded or cooked in ovens before being eaten by cult members.

In one video, the children said they were made to dance with dead babies’ skulls and that over 100 people performed sex acts on them.

However, Mrs Justice Pauffley ruled: “I am able to state with complete conviction that none of the allegations are true. The claims are baseless.” She also said that people spreading the rumours and videos on the internet were “evil and/or foolish”. [...]

The hearing lasted nearly two weeks, during which Mrs Justice Pauffley heard evidence from 16 witnesses.

“The forensic inquiry has been full and thorough. There was no satanic or other cult at which babies were murdered and children were sexually abused,” she said.

Schlesinger Twins: Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence's letter of support for Beth

Here is another major contribution to the growing flood of support letters for Beth and her children. These letters clearly reflect the pain of community leaders and rabbis to the obvious injustice being done to Beth and her children. The only real question is when the Jews of Austria will act to end this cruel injustice. 

You should note that there are no letters supporting Dr. Michael Schlesinger - for the obvious reason that his actions are not defensible.

Knesset Intifada: Shrinking Israel's Jews and How Yachad Died by RaP

Guest post by RaP

A funny thing happened on the way to the recent Israeli elections: A lot of Israeli Jews got lost along the way! How so you may rightly ask?

For most people the Israeli method of elections is puzzling. Basically it is based on the "proportional representation" model. Votes are cast for parties and the votes are then added up and divided "proportionally" so that if party X receives 10% of the vote it will get about 10% of the members in the 120 member Knesset. There is also a requirement to meet a minimum threshold percentage to "qualify" for the final dividing-up of the percentages. This was done to eliminate gadfly small parties and keep them from splintering the Knesset that would hinder forming governing coalitions and setting up governments. For the last election the minimum threshold required was raised to above 3% of the required total in order to be in the running for the final division of votes for numbers of seats. Thus many smaller or smallish parties decided to "unite" in order to surpass the minimum threshold requirements as well as to strengthen their chances against larger parties.

The one group that figured out all the angles and put into motion a "solution" was Israeli Arabs and a small group of Israeli Jewish Communists who work within those parties. The Israeli Communist party under various names has long merged into and morphed into an Arab Israeli party. In the recent elections four diverse and conflicting Israeli Arab parties united know as the generic "United Arab List" and as a result they did exceedingly well becoming the third largest single block in the incoming Knesset almost doubling their representation to 14 Knesset members! That means that this group has basically succeeded in crowding out most of the small Israeli Jews' parties some to near or virtual extinction and others to bare bones numbers that has sent them reeling.

It was probably the main reason that the new Israeli Yachad party headed by Israeli Sefardi ex-SHAS veteran political leader Eli Yishai just missed making it into the Knesset where the smallest parties under the current allocations are not less than four members. Thus four popular well-known Israeli Charedi and Orthodox Jews, consisting of Sefardim and Ashkenazim, under the guidance of Rav Meir Mazuz, representing a huge group of Charedi and Orthodox Jews, as well as serious Religious Zionist voters disgusted with Bennett's "Bayit Yehudi" party's flippant attitude to serious Torah Judaism were shut out of the new Knesset because the Israeli Arabs united and organized in such a way to pump up their own numbers that ensured that parties like Yachad and Eli Yishai and his ally Zev Marzel were "defeated"!

They know this quite well and some of the new Israeli Arab future Knesset members have openly bragged to the press that they are proud of the fact that managed to keep Eli Yishai and Zev Marzel and all of Yachad out of the next Knesset. And who do the Arab Israeli new Knesset members represent? Communists on one side and real dyed in the wool Arab Islamic fundamentalists with full regalia and all as the new anarchists to sit in the Israeli Knesset historically mainly meant to be a place for all Jews to have a political voice. This is a cruel twist of political irony. True, that this is the way a democracy like this works and the Arab Israelis deserve their well thought out and well funded and executed Pyrrhic victory, thinking they have now "stormed the Bastille" but they are living in a fool's paradise because only in Israel would Jews allow something like this to get off the ground. In Arab lands they long ago kicked out all the Jews, confiscated their property, and now that they don't have Jews to persecute, they have taken to killing Arab Christians and burning down their churches, as they all fight and kill each other with Sunni versus Shia, Arabs versus Iranians, and secular versus Islamic radicals. While in Israel they adopt the language of moderation and talk like lawyers and hot TV celebrities as they smile for the cameras, win debating points and make sure to provoke fellow Israeli Knesset members into furious rages with open support for Hamas and all sorts of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist invective.

This affected not just Eli Yishai and his Yachad party forcing them to shrink into political oblivion, but even a hardened political operative like Avigdor Liberman the leader of Russian Israelis in the Knesset rightly called it a "political assassination"! Just what does that mean?

All the Israeli political parties received outside financial and political help and boosts. Likud has its super-capitalist backers overseas while Labor has its ultra-liberal backers who pumped money and advisers in. Charedim got plenty of backing from rich American backers and advisors. Seems Liberman and his part did not get such backing from Russian Jews abroad, maybe because they are not as open-handed as other groups, but one thing is for sure, the new "Arab List" party received lots of good help and advice for itself that worked.

There was a group that came in to Israel from the USA according to multiple news sources headed by people who had helped to get Obama elected that allied with Israeli leftists and radicals. This new group dubbed itself "V15" and it was assumed they were working mostly to hand the Labor block a victory in the "2015" elections -- but this is just one dimension of what they were up it now transpires.

It is very possible and even probable and totally conceivable that "V15" actually means the goal to elect into the Knesset of the Jewish state, 15 Israeli Arabs that in turn would squeeze out problematic smaller parties like Eli Yishai's Yachad party that voiced strong views about Arabs by its member Zev Marzel, as well as shrink down and neuter as much as possible any and all other Israeli Jewish parties by cutting down on the number of Knesset seats they could hope to have and hence voices in the Knesset for Israeli Jews would be shut down and put out of action, and it worked. Not quite 15 maybe, but 14 is excellent for them and those 14 now take over slots and crowd out Israeli Jewish voices in the Knesset that should rightfully and historically belong to Jewish Israelis who founded the Jewish state of Israel not as a venue for Arab nationalism and anti-Israel and anti-Jewish diatribes but as a voice for all Jews first and foremost something virtually all Charedi and Orthodox Jews understand all too well.

Maybe it is a measure for measure from Heaven above, that once upon a time Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D stood as a new voice in the Knesset but he was ostracized and at one point when there were going to be new elections in his time it was predicted he would gain huge increased support and votes from Israeli Jews to the tune of also perhaps from 10 to 15 potential new Knesset members. But PM Shamir and his cohorts panicked and they banned Kahane and his party from the Knesset for being "racist" and soon thereafter Kahane was assassinated becoming the first victim of Arab terrorism aka Jihad in America that came into full view on 9/11 when over 3,000 Americans lost their lives to the same Islamic radicals out to destroy not just Kahane, Israel and the Jews but to crush America and bring the entire Western World to its knees and bow down to Islam by the force of their swords!

So now instead Israel has allowed some proven Arab racist Knesset members who have even faced serious sanctions for their anti-Israel bashing and ranting and actions visiting terrorist groups abroad. While the Israeli Supreme Court supported them, now with the help of "V15" who mobilized the Arab Israeli vote like never before there are now at least 14 of these people. So that when in the past Israeli Jews blocked the potential growth of other Israeli Jews they did not like Kahane's party's growth, now they have to live with the Arab nationalist's growth which is far worse and more dangerous for the Jews and the Jewish state.

So watch out what you wish for, it may come true, and the "V15" group have made the Israeli ultra-leftists' and Arab Israeli wishes come true allowing the Israeli Jews to roll out the red carpet for a true Trojan Horse and Fifth Columnists in their own Israeli Knesset, folks that wish to see the demolition, shrinkage and disappearance of the small Jewish state from the Middle East once and for all.

May HKB"H have mercy on the Jewish People everywhere and save them from the whiles of its enemies both near and far as he did on Purim and Pesach, Amen!

Frum Follies: Why is Lopin obsessed with publishing slander about the seminaries?

Yerachmiel Lopin's latest posting (on his blog Frum Follies) regarding the seminaries contains his normal twisting of the truth. He presents no evidence except for "creative" deductions and his amazing ability to see things between the lines - that simply aren't there. It seems he is obsessed with slandering the seminaries and especially Mrs. Ullman. Along the way he attempts to sling a bit of mud at me - for daring to report the facts and contradict his slander. I hope to publish clear unequivocal evidence in the near future - though I am sure Lopin will refuse to accept it. After all he claims that we still have to be afraid  of the second coming of Meisels who will eventually run the seminaries again unless he keeps guard at the gates of the seminaries.

He seems to feel that he and his peanut gallery that comments on his blog are the last  "guardians of the truth" - now that he claims his former comrades in arms - the Chicago Beis Din have sold out.

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I just received this letter from a parent of a current student - that illustrates how Lopin's obsession works.

Rabbi Eidensohn,

Don't know if you recall, but I e-mailed you several months ago and mentioned that my daughter attends Binas. The purpose of this e-mail, and I am asking you to please not mention my name if you do choose to use the information, is to tell you unequivocally that Mrs. Ullman has been the principal this entire year with no noticeable reduction in duties.  This obviously contradicts what "others" are saying out there.  If you ask the girls who are there, they know nothing of any problems.  Clearly they were aware of the situation when they went as they are 18 and 19 year old girls who are able to understand some of the issues (more than I wish they had to at this point in their lives, but that is another matter).  I periodically ask my daughter if anything has come up this year and she says no.  I ask if Mrs. Ullman is in charge and she says yes.  What that tells me is that if there was a "punishment" it is sure not one that anyone sees and thus would not be effective as such.  And with that being the case, I can take it one step farther to mean that it was not felt that one was needed.

The recent psak you posted did not mention a need for a punishment.  It is only those who want to see the schools destroyed that are insisting that there is one.  Clearly they are wrong.  So much for their inside information.

As an aside, I emailed this information to Lopin without telling him my relationship to the situation.  I simply told him that I was 100% sure of my facts and that I was not faculty nor related to faculty.   He asked to speak with me to discuss and I refused.  I told him that he posts all kinds of information from "sources" and asks his readers to believe it without any sort of proof just based upon who he is.  If he can ask that, then I feel no different giving him information that I am sure is accurate and he can choose to trust me or not.  Not surprisingly, I did not receive a response.

You may do what you want with my information as long as my name is not used with it, but what I am saying is obviously easy to verify by asking any one of 50 girls who are there right now!  I can also tell you that they have been told that 40 girls are signed up for next year already and there is also the possibility of a second year program if there is enough interest.

Helping Kids develop Da'at - intuitive thinking by Allan Katz

guest post AllanKatz Parenting by the Book

The Medrash says that any Torah sage that does not have דעת Da'at = intuitive and discerning intelligence, an animal carcass = neveilah is better than him. The Medrash bases this on the fact that Moses waited to be called and summoned by God before he entered the tent of meeting-Ohel Moed and thus displayed manners and courtesy = derech eretz. Rav Wolbe in his book Alei Shur 1:192 says that Da'at can be from something simple as what the Vilna Ga'on calls ' Muscalot Ha'rishonim – basic intuitive perception. Da'at includes basic common sense, common courtesy - derech eretz ,a sense of right, a natural feel for what is moral and straight, understanding of the heart, a sensitivity that allows people to act and speak in an appropriate way depending on the situation, to what Rashi describes Da'at in Ki Tissah, as Ruach Hakodesh - prophecy or the divine spirit. Rav Wolbe says that what is common to all these definitions is Rabbeinu Yona's definition of Da'at. דעת- משהוא משיג מדעתו - perceptions that a person acquires by himself by using his thinking and connecting to his inner being. A person's frame of reference is within himself. And by connecting to his inner intelligence he can acquire prophecy and learn by himself the whole Torah like Abraham. Accessing one's natural intelligence and understanding through his own perception – מבין מדעתו is the criterion for a person to be taught about the Merkavah. He needs this ability as he is only taught a broad outline and he has to comprehend and figure out the rest on his own.

This reminds me about a Rov who shared a chidush – a novel thought with a colleague who said it was not true to Torah. The Colleague then came back and after scanning with his photographic memory all Talmudic and Torah sources with about 5 proofs supporting the Rov's chidush. The colleague was amazed that the Rov came up with that novel thought. Apparently his photographic memory and having so many Torah sources at his finger- tips got in the way of his appreciation of the power of Da'at.

The first thing we request from God in our prayers is to be given Da'at, a discerning intelligence that will help us to differentiate – lehavdil, and act appropriately. The questions are - why aren't educators concerned with children developing Da'at , and how can we as parents and educators promote the acquisition of Da'at.

In a nutshell parents and teachers can help kids develop Da'at using Rabeinu Yona's principle - that Da'at is something that one acquires from his own personal intellect - דעת- משהוא משיג מדעתו . It means when we are learning together with kids , whether it is academic learning or socio-moral learning we need to first challenge their thinking and let them share their own personal perceptions and perspectives . We have to imbue in them that their voice , opinions, ideas , perceptions, explanations etc are very important and the path for each of them to acquire their share in God's Torah.

Educators see their role as molding kids into Torah people and scholars, rather than developing the whole child and his Da'at and building on this Torah thinking and knowledge. The result is that kid's emotional, moral and intuitive thinking – da'at gets stunted as shown with Hamish kids. In an experiment they were asked why don't you steal or why should Sunday be a day of rest. They answered because God said so. Then they were asked if God did not say so, what do you think?. The kids had difficulty in presenting a moral argument and lacked Da'at.

The problem is that educators see children as basically passive receptacles into which knowledge is poured. When it comes to socio- moral learning, children need to learn what to do, follow instructions and be obedient. Emotions and feelings are ignored. At most emotions and feelings only follow the intellectual understanding and acceptance of what has been taught. And the way these goals are attained is to use extrinsic motivation in the form of grades, prizes, honor rolls etc so the kids focus on how well they are doing and not on what they are doing. Discipline using rewards, punishments and consequences are used to deal with behavior and get compliance. These approaches just get kids to ask what's in it for me, rather than focusing on the process of learning and how their behavior impacts on others and these stunt the development of Da'at.

To help kids develop Da'at , we have to deal with the whole child, including his feeling and understand the motives and values underlying his behavior. If we want to help them be ethical people as opposed to people who do what they are told, we have to support their autonomy and also help them construct moral meaning and figure out for themselves and with each other –how to act. Kids are active meaning making, testing theories and trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them. Problems are solved in a collaborative way taking into account the child's perspective and concerns as well and giving him the opportunity to come up with a better plan and engage in an autonomous way in the moral act of restitution. Most schools talk about middos and character but it is top-down and kids don't participate in constructing a pro-social agenda or building a caring community so kids have an opportunity of doing things together. Instead of top-down rules, we should bring children in on the process of devising and justifying ethical principles. Only when kids have the opportunity to voice their opinions, share their perspectives, feelings, thinking , construct and make real choices in the context of community, will kids develop Da'at.

The same goes for academics - cooperative learning and kids making sense of what they are learning.We need a learning environment where kids are challenged to do the learning and thinking and not just repeat what others have said. How times are kids asked to share their own thinking and explanations? Deborah Meier says – that teaching is essentially listening and learning is essentially about speaking.

While God's commandments add an element of Divine intelligence we need to help kids engage their own da'at, intellects, moral reasoning and connect to their inner souls.

Alleged Child molester in Modi'in Illit will go free on Sunday- because Charedi families won't testify against him

kikar haShabbat

למרות שעל פי החשד ביצע מעשים חמורים בילדותיהן, משפחותיהן המתגוררות בעיר החרדית מודיעין עילית מסרבות לשתף פעולה עם המשטרה ובשל כך המשטרה מתקשה באיסוף הראיות נגדו וישנו חשש כי התוקף לא יואשם.

מדובר בתושב העיר החרדית בני ברק בן 30 בשם א"ב, שעל פי החשד נהג לתקוף ילדות במשך שש שנים, ורק בשבוע שעבר נעצר על ידי המשטרה לאחר שתקף ילדה כבת 5 בחדר המדרגות.

המשטרה התחייבה בדיון בהארכת מעצרו להגיש בקרוב כתב אישום נגדו אולם על פי הדיווח באתר וואלה, משפחות הילדות מסרבות לשתף פעולה לאחר שרבנים חתמו על הסכם עם החשוד, לפיו הוא יעבור טיפול פסיכולוגי ורפואי.

במשטרה טוענים כי החשוד הפסיק את הטיפול על דעת עצמו ובכך הפר את ההסכם שנחתם באופן לא חוקי לכאורה. עם הפסקת הטיפול הוא תקף כאמור את הילדה כאשר ניסתה לעלות לביתה.

Dorothy Rabinowitz :Why your friends,psychologists and rabbis want to believe clearly impossible false accusations of child abuse - and why so few see that the Emperor has no clothes

Commentary Magazine   review of  No Crueler Tyrannies by Dorothy Rabinowitz Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner

[O]ne might have thought that the country’s most prominent progressives would have leaped to the bars, benches, and barricades to defend the falsely accused when allegations of mass sexual abuse against children erupted in the 1980’s and 1990’s. These were cases, after all, in which outlandish, ever-escalating charges were leveled at totally innocent people, in which gross violations of due process and constitutional rights were committed, and in which terribly wrongful convictions were obtained.

But one would have been wrong. Instead, it was left to a single reporter, the heroic Dorothy Rabinowitz, to undertake in-depth investigations of the worst of these cases and to bring their horrifying transgressions of justice to the attention of a wider public. Eventually, her work helped to secure the legal and financial assistance necessary to free most of the victims—but not before lives were shattered, livelihoods lost, savings exhausted, families destroyed, and miserable years passed in prison.

Even now, while some unfortunates still languish in jail, and contrived sexual-abuse charges remain toxically potent weapons, no new Arthur Miller has emerged to write a play or produce so much as a movie of the week. But we do have Rabinowitz’s riveting new book, No Crueler Tyrannies, based on the brilliant investigative articles, mostly for the Wall Street Journal, that helped earn her a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. And that is quite enough for the present.

[...] The ordeal of sixty-year-old Violet Amirault and her adult children, Gerald and Cheryl, began in 1984. Worried about the behavior of her young son, a mother at the Fells Acres Day School, which the Amiraults had successfully operated together for many years, prodded the boy to tell of anything strange that might have been done to him. The child dimly recalled an instance in which Gerald had changed his underwear (as it would later emerge, the child had wet himself). Then, after months of questioning, the boy began to talk about sexual acts.

The mother called the child-abuse hotline. In short order, the police arrested Gerald, closed down the school, and began coaching parents on how to elicit charges of molestation from their children, instructing them not to accept denials and to see such ordinary problems as bed-wetting and loss of appetite as signs of abuse. Charges began pouring forth, and Violet and Cheryl were also arrested.

The district attorney and prosecutors enlisted the help of therapists, social workers, and abuse experts, who spent months interviewing the three-, four-, and five-year-old children and preparing them to testify. Tapes and transcripts of the sessions reveal that the tykes did their best to hold on to the truth, but that their implacable inquisitors eventually managed to break them down. A pediatric nurse, Susan Kelley, was especially gifted in these techniques, promising rewards and telling children that they were “helping” the adults by making charges. Armed with anatomically correct dolls and puppets, Kelley refused to rest until weary tots finally pointed to a penis, vagina, or rectum.

The Amiraults were accused of preposterous violations of the children in their care—shoving pencils, sticks, and knives into their orifices (while leaving no signs of injury), tying them naked to trees in broad daylight in front of the other teachers, forcing them to watch the killing and dismemberment of animals, and making them drink urine. They were accused of taking the children to a “magic room” in which clowns wielding wands undressed and assaulted them and took their pictures. At trial, the children (now between the ages of six and eight) were permitted to testify while looking away from the defendants, in violation of both the Massachusetts and U.S. constitutions. In the proceedings against Violet and Cheryl, the judge permitted the prosecution to intimate, without any evidence whatsoever, that they were somehow involved in child pornography.[...]

It is not that the cases lack heroes [...]But the hall of shame is much larger. In the Amirault case alone, the villains include the obsessed, unappeasable district attorneys and prosecutors of Middlesex County; the disgraceful dolts of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, who frustrated at least a half-dozen attempts to exonerate or free the Amiraults; and Jane Swift, who as acting governor of Massachusetts yielded to obscure political pressure and turned down the recommendation of the notoriously tough Massachusetts parole board to release Gerald Amirault and put an end to this dreadful case.

One hungers to know more about the larger forces that permitted these outrages to occur. Rabinowitz lays some of the blame, in passing, on “advanced political opinion,” which has created an aura of piety around claims of violation made by women and children. On this view, as Rabinowitz writes, to side with the falsely accused would have been “to undermine the battle against child abuse; it was to betray children and all other victims of sexual predators.” Even to raise questions about these cases would have been tantamount, in the opinion of one of the Amiraults’ tormentors, to victimizing the children all over again.

One might also point an accusing finger at our schools of law and social work, where whole cadres of professionals have been trained to survey every social setting for evidence of “oppression” and victimization. As if to prove the point, the experts involved in winning the original conviction against the Amiraults met afterward to congratulate themselves in a seminar titled “The Fells Acres Day School Case: A Model Multidisciplinary Response.”

Nachlaot: Panic in Jerusalem: Parents in a tight-knit neighborhood believe a pedophile ring is terrorizing children. What if it doesn’t exist?

Please reread the transcript of Rabbi Berkovitz talk about satanic abuse in Sanhedria Murchevet - then read this article regarding the allegations of satanic abuse in Nachlaot. Sounds familiar doesn't it. It is also interesting that Rav Berkowitz thought the allegations in Nachlaot were too unbelievable to be true - until he started hearing the same unbelievable allegations in his neighborhood.

 BTW does anyone know who is Rav Berkovitz's relying on for his views and understanding? Any relationship to those who were involved in Nachlaot?  Please note that of all the hundreds of charges of satantic child abuse and all the trials and even convinctions - all have been thrown after being reconsidered

Of interest I received a call today from someone who politely asked me to take down the recording of Rav Berkovitz as well as the transcript. I told him if he can convince Rav Sternbuch that they need to be taken down - I would be willing to comply - otherwise they stay.

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Tablet Magazine

The neighborhood of Nahlaot in Jerusalem is less a single neighborhood than a cluster of smaller semi-distinct neighborhoods that, beginning in the 1870s, grew incrementally as the city’s population expanded beyond the Old City. Batei Rand and Batei Broydes are two of these clusters, each with a few hundred residents. Both are overwhelmingly Haredi and built around semi-enclosed courtyards. The apartments are continuous and are stacked on two levels, the upper one accessible via a shared, wrap-around balcony. Most of the apartments are single-entrance and open into the courtyard, so there is little privacy, and the residents are, for the most part, very poor. Most families don’t own their home, but instead lease it on extremely favorable terms from a charitable organization. Many of the families have been in the neighborhood for generations, and the area, marked by labyrinthine cobblestone alleyways, Jerusalem stone, and gardens, has long been beloved by those that live there.

“It was the most quaint, amazing, incredible, peaceful, loving community,” a former resident recently told me. “A place where religious and secular got along with each other. It was like an example of what Israel could be.”

All of this changed in October 2010, when a 44-year-old man named Binyamin Satz was arrested. Satz is mentally handicapped, and court documents note that he is on state disability, has schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, and “a non-specific eating disorder.” According to his lawyer, Roy Politi, he eats “only bread and cheese, but not when they are touching.” Politi told me that Satz weighs less than 90 lbs. A neighbor described Satz as “very strange, very slight,” with an “extremely pronounced twitch from his shoulder to head.” Politi described Satz as “functioning like a 12-year-old kid.” [...]

To date, more than 70 children, nearly all from Haredi families in the tight-knit community of Nahlaot, have been interviewed by Social Services and have claimed to suffer severe sexual, psychological, physical, and ritual abuse at the hands of nearly 60 individuals. At least another 50 children have claimed abuse, though they were not interviewed by Social Services. The children have identified the perpetrators either by name or by telling characteristics: the one with the ponytail, the one who exercises, the filmer, the one with a walker, the one who wears a knitted kippah, and so on. Those accused include American immigrants, middle-aged men, elderly women (nearly half of those accused are female), geriatric couples, teenagers, mother-son teams, mentally handicapped individuals, at least one Arab, suspected Christian missionaries, and, more recently, a few prominent members of the community, including a rabbi. Some of those who have been identified by one or more children are unaware, or appear to be unaware, that they have been accused.

There was no hint of pedophilia in the community before October 2010. But the Haredi community in Nahlaot now believes that the highly organized ring has been operating secretly for years—possibly generations—and is governed by an elaborate hierarchy. According to community members with whom I’ve spoken over the past year, they believe that a small number of masterminds, including the 70-year-old Vorst, a convert to Judaism who directs Ohel Sarah Imenu, an organization that facilitates Haredi conversions, used formerly abused teenagers and mentally handicapped locals as scouts for the victims. Community members believe that these scouts watched the children and parents from outdoor locations that offered prime vantage points—under the guise of tending gardens, doing calisthenics, or panhandling—and memorized their schedules, recording when the children would be unsupervised. The pedophiles noted the schedules of various homeowners, residents of Nahlaot claim, and they allegedly snuck into dozens of apartments and sheds in the neighborhood in order to abuse the children, who have pointed out these locations to their parents. Many are convinced that there are Christian missionary motivations at play here and that false converts have infiltrated their community. A number of locals told me they believe that the videos and media produced by the pedophile ring are being sold for tens of thousands of dollars or more.

The Nahlaot situation is already widely referred to as the worst pedophile case in Israel’s history. This is a phenomenal understatement. If true, this would be, in terms of the number of perpetrators and the scope of conspiracy, unprecedented in known criminal history. Indeed, not only that: It would be the first proven instance of an association generally acknowledged to be the great white whale of sex crimes. “To be perfectly blunt,” said Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board who won a Pulitzer Prize for her extensive coverage of such cases, “there is no such thing as a pedophile ring.” [....]

By late 2010, dozens of children had told their parents they were abused, and the circle of accused kept growing. The acts reported by the children, nearly all between the ages of 3 and 9, are incredibly horrific and often very bizarre. Virtually none of the allegations involve only one molester and one victim; the children have consistently claimed multiple offenders and multiple victims. There are reports of orgies involving as many as 20 adults and more than a dozen children. There were, allegedly, frequent raping and forced sodomy of children as young as 2 years old. The children claim that various objects—including large branches, semi-automatic rifles, screwdrivers, and other carpenter’s tools—were forcibly stuck up their anuses and other orifices; that knives were held to their throats; that they were told that if they didn’t voluntarily return to be raped, they would be “chopped up into little pieces,” or that their entire families would be murdered. They claim that they were shown, by way of threat, the guns that would be used for this purpose and told that cameras had been installed in their homes to ascertain their silence. The children claim that they were, on various occasions, bound up and beaten, held on top of open flames, lashed with sticks, burned with chemicals, given soft drinks spiked with hallucinogens, and injected with drugs.

The majority of the allegations include reports of video-recording and photography, and the children say they were forced to watch pornographic movies and violent sexual encounters between their abusers. Some children say they were abducted at night from their homes, viciously abused, and returned to their beds. Others say they were abducted from school and then returned. Babysitters were said to be threatened with severe physical punishment or death unless they brought the children in their care to the pedophiles. There are reports of witches, magic doors, secret basements, and large dogs used to intimidate the children. Many allegations include elements of ritual and Christian abuse, including forced prostration and benedictions, sexual acts involving massive iron crosses, and various other forms of foreign worship. Some children say they were taken to a nearby church, where they were abused by priests, as well as other undercover Christians.

But after a few confused and shell-shocked months, the community began to organize itself in late 2011. Parents began raising awareness via personal blogs and websites, spearheading fundraising campaigns for therapy and legal fees, and organizing various sympathetic newspaper and radio reports. Most significantly, the community found a central organizing force in Altea Steinherz, an American therapist who lives in Rechavia, a neighborhood adjacent to Nahlaot. Steinherz, who specializes in addictions and eating disorders, began devoting herself on a volunteer basis to the alleged victims and their cause. “This [case] is not going to go away by itself,” Steinherz told me.

Steinherz arranged interviews with police and lawyers for most of the families, many of whom, according to Steinherz, “simply have no idea what to do in a situation like this.” Steinherz does not have a degree in psychology or abuse counseling; she has a certificate called a CASAC, which certifies her to do alcohol- and substance-abuse counseling. Nevertheless, in late 2011 she emerged as the strategist and spokesman for the cause: directing the collection and dissemination of information, raising awareness and support, and coordinating the collection of testimonies and any available evidence. She’s also organized PR and media campaigns—critical work, since many of the Haredi residents of Nahlaot don’t have the Internet.[...]

Cases similar to Nahlaot’s, many whose particulars are even more extreme, have occurred frequently in the past, particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s, with as many as 500 or more children reporting horrific and fantastic abuse at the hands of dozens, or even hundreds, of adults. In order to classify and recognize these cases, the FBI’s Kenneth Lanning, who worked in the Behavioral Science Unit from 1981 until 2000, developed a model that describes what he termed “multi-dimensional sex rings.” (This term, Lanning admits, never really caught on; more frequently used is “ritual abuse,” “organized abuse,” or “satanic/sadistic ritual abuse.”) The model delineates four criteria: multiple offenders and multiple victims who are considerably younger than “standard” pedophile victims; the victims are controlled and coerced primarily through fear; the abuse occurs in communities that are insular and ultra-conservative; and at least some of the abuse in question is extreme, grotesque, or incorporates ritualistic aspects.

A study of past cases reveals startling similarities: The accusation always begins with a single complaint and is always parent-driven. The children’s accounts contain fabulous or impossible elements—magic tunnels, bullets that find their target, walls and people that disappear, and so on. The conspiracies being alleged are far-reaching and highly improbable. There are untrained professionals involved driving the investigations. There are nearly always claims of video recording and of being forced to watch porn and adults having sex.

This history is relevant because, to borrow Lanning’s term, a multi-dimensional sex ring has never once been substantiated. Never, despite the enormity of the crimes in question, and despite the numbers of times they’ve been alleged, has any independently corroborated evidence been found. Many of the children who testified in these cases have, as adults, recanted their testimonies, and courts have, over the years, turned over convictions that were based purely on children’s testimonies. In the most famous of these cases—the McMartin preschool trial in California, which ran from 1984 through 1990 and in which more than 350 children claimed they had been abused at their daycare center—every single allegation was thrown out. [...]