Powerful leftist group sues to close Jewish counseling service (Jonah) for dealing with unwanted same-sex attraction

[A cogent discussion of the quality of therapy can be found here  The Atlantic]

 A major issue is separating the desirability of the goal and the nature of the therapy used to achieve that goal.

Breitbart

Jury selection begins today in a trial that pits a $340 million left-wing group against a small Jewish non-profit. The result could be the closing of all counseling services in New Jersey that aim to help those with unwanted same-sex desires.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is using New Jersey’s strong Consumer Protection Act to sue a group called Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) that refers men and women to psychological counselors working in the field known as “sexual orientation change efforts.”

SPLC claims JONAH defrauded four men by telling them their same-sex desires could be treated and they could become purely or largely heterosexual. The case is a blueprint for how SPLC intends to go after similar counseling services around the country. Indeed, SPLC and a group called Truth Wins Out, run by gay activist Wayne Besson, have spearheaded a legislative effort to outlaw counseling services to minors with unwanted same-sex attraction. They have been successful in California and New Jersey, which now outlaw the practice.

The case that will be heard over the next month in Superior Court for Hudson County, New Jersey, focuses on the claims of four men who voluntarily approached JONAH to help them with unwanted same-sex attraction. None of them self-identified as gay at the time and each wanted the attractions to end. JONAH, which works from what it calls “Torah values” referred the men to counselors who treated them.

SPLC is now claiming that JONAH made promises that do not comport with scientific findings about the permanence and changeability of homosexuality and that the treatment they underwent was odd. SPLC also claims that homosexual desires do not need to be “cured” and that it’s impossible anyway. All this adds up to consumer fraud, according to the suit that has been going on since 2012.

JONAH founder Arthur Goldberg and his colleagues, along with many noted psychiatrists, hold that same-sex desire is a result of stunted emotional growth and that this can be treated and overcome. They also see it as counter to the will of God and therefore something incumbent on religious believers to overcome. [...]

California Boot Camp for at-Risk Kids apparently abused some kids

ABC News

A weeklong boot camp run by Los Angeles-area police departments that was meant to turn around misbehaving youth left seven of the kids with injuries consistent with abuse, investigators said.

Those seven were among 39 children who attended the boot camp from May 17 to 24, and all were being interviewed along with the drill instructors, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday

Sheriff's spokesman Tony Cipolla declined to describe the injuries and said no charges have been filed.

The agency has never gotten a complaint about the 17-year-old camp before, Cipolla said.

Greg Owen, an attorney representing the parents of the children who had injuries, said most of them had cuts and bruises after being beaten bloody at times, and that one boy had a fractured hand. He said the lasting injuries will be emotional.[...]

"Talking to the parents today, their kids can't sleep through the night, they don't want to go out of the house," he said. "That will never go away." [...]

The LEAD program began in 1998 as an intervention for troubled youths from Southern California. Participants can range from kids who've joined gangs or use drugs to children with bad grades or attitude problems.

Veronica Bernal said her 16-year-old son came back from the boot camp in tears with an untreated fractured hand.

"They put him in a dark room, and they would beat him," she said.

Aracely Pulido said her 14-year-old daughter came back with bruises covering her arms, and said that drill instructors had slapped and kicked her, and stomped on her back. "She's traumatized," Pulido said.

Rav Dovid Eidensohn: Telephone Conference Shiur #10 – The Chazon Ish and the Laws of Coercion of a GET

Dial 605-562-3130 enter code 411161#

1. There are times when a husband can be forced to give a GET, even with a beating, such as one who marries his close relative. And there are time when the husband cannot be forced with a beating to divorce his wife, but people can tell the husband he is wicked for not giving a GET. See EH 154:21. And then there are times when the husband cannot be pressured at all to give a GET. Even Hoezer 77 paragraphs 2 and 3 and commentators.

2. The Chazon Ish Even Hoezer Chapter 99:1 says that when Beth Din errs and rules that the husband can be forced with a beating and he agrees to give a GET only because of the beating, the GET he gives is negated by the Torah not just by the rabbis.

3. If Beth Din had a case where the only coercion allowed was words but not a beating, and the Beth Din gave a beating, the GET from that beating is negated by the Torah and not just the rabbis. EH 99:1

4. Rambam maintains differently, that if Beth Din made an error and coerced a GET with a beating when it was not called for, the GET is kosher by the Torah standard, but invalid by rabbinic standard. The Chazon Ish says that this is true only if Beth Din made an honest error, because they thought the halacha permitted a beating. But if a Beth Din deliberately beat a husband they knew should not be beaten, the GET is invalid by Torah standard not just rabbinic standard even according to the Rambam. EH 99:1

5. The gemora in Shabbos 88b asks how today when there is no longer semicha from Moshe Rabbeinu to be a Dayan, how can rabbis coerce a GET? The gemora answers that today we do the coercion because it was so established by the earlier Semuchim.

6. The Chazon Ish writes there EH 99:1 that when the earlier Musmochim gave permission to coerce Gittin they meant to include a Beth Din that knew the halochose of judging, that knew the logic involved to be a Beth Din, and that mastered the laws of paskening. It would seem from this that any Beth Din that is not a master of the laws of paskening and knowledgeable about judging its laws and practice is not authorized by early generations to coerce Gittin. To coerce a GET without the permission of the earlier Musmochim is unacceptable (Gittin 88b).

7. The Chazon Ish says there that a Beth Din that deliberately twists things to coerce a GET when it is not deserved has a status of no Beth Din. If so, all of those who deliberately give coerced Gittin the opposite of the Shulchan Aruch lose the title of Beth Din and their Gittin are not recognized. I heard a similar thing from Posek HaDor Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l, that a Beth Din that does things against the Shulchan Aruch loses its status of a Beth Din. A similar statement is in a letter from Gedolim in Israel such as Reb Chaim Kanievsky and others. (Brought in the beginning of the Sefer Mishpitei Yisroel.)

8. The Chazon Ish writes EH 99:2 “If the husband being beaten [by mistake] to divorce his wife suddenly feels like giving the GET, not because of the beating but a genuine personal decision, the GET is kosher. But this applies only if he decides that he really wants the GET before the GET is made. But if he says this after the GET is made the GET is invalid.

9. The Chazon Ish says that a husband beaten to divorce when he should not be coerced, the GET is invalid, even if the husband was silent after the beating and he said “I want the GET” without complaining how the GET was obtained. Chazon Ish EH 99:2:2.

10. If the husband is beaten to give the GET and he agrees because of the beating, but in his heart he declares that the GET is negated and invalid, if the beating was proper that he deserved the beating and deserved coercion, the GET is kosher. Ch. Ish EH 99:2:3

11. The Chazon Ish writes that if Beth Din did not force with a beating or any kind of coercion, but they made a mistake and ruled that the husband is obligated by the Torah to give a GET, the GET is invalid by Torah ruling and not just by rabbinical ruling. Ch. Ish EH 99:2: par. 2.

12. There are two reasons for this: One, when the Beth Din told him [falsely because they erred] that the Torah requires a GET, it created a pressure on him to obey the Torah, and this pressure negates the GET.

13. Also, the GET is invalid by the Torah because if the husband had known that the Beth Din was wrong he never would have given the GET. EH 99:2.

14. Thus whenever a Beth Din rules that a husband must give his wife a GET, if the husband is not a candidate for coercion, something very rare, the GET given is invalid by the Torah not just rabbinical ruling. [...]

Op Ed: When a School Board Victimizes Kids - East Ramapo School Board

Wikipedia. East Ramapo Central School District History

This American Life broadcast

Cross-Currents - Jonathan Rosenblum responds

NY Times   NEW YORK STATE has a proud tradition of local decision making in public education. However, students in the public schools in East Ramapo, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, in Rockland County, are being denied their state constitutional right to a sound basic education by a board that has grossly mismanaged the district’s finances and educational programs.

When there is overwhelming evidence that a local school board has persistently failed to act in the best interests of its public school students, the state must act. The Legislature will adjourn on June 17, so time is running out.

East Ramapo is a divided community. Of the roughly 32,000 school-age children enrolled in schools in the district, about 24,000 attend private schools, nearly all of them Orthodox Jewish yeshivas. Of the more than 8,000 children in the public schools, 43 percent are African-American and 46 percent are Latino; 83 percent are poor and 27 percent are English-language learners.

The East Ramapo school board, dominated by private-school parents since 2005, has utterly failed them. Faced with a fiscal and educational crisis, the State Education Department last June appointed a former federal prosecutor, Henry M. Greenberg, to investigate the district’s finances.

Mr. Greenberg’s report, released in November, documented the impact of the board’s gross mismanagement and neglect. Since 2009, the board has eliminated hundreds of staff members, including over 100 teachers, dozens of teaching assistants, guidance counselors and social workers, and many key administrators. Full-day kindergarten, and high-school electives have been eliminated or scaled back. Music, athletics, professional development and extracurricular activities were cut.[...]

Rabbi Riskin discusses Rabbi Jesus and messianism

srugim

Rabbi Riskin offers clarification of his remarks

update
Rabbi Sholom Gold's negative reaction

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/r-riskin-versus-the-chief-rabbinate-a-dose-of-reality/

R. Riskin versus the Chief Rabbinate – a dose of reality

by Rabbi A. Gordimer

He was an amazingly energetic worker, who loved to deal with people and who brilliantly launched countless new projects and developed ingenious initiatives. But he was not a team player. In fact, many of his actions starkly violated our company’s policies, and his maverick approaches to important issues undermined our core values.

It is eminently understandable why the employer felt unable to extend the worker’s employment. Few if any would disagree.

When the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, the Rabbanut, released word that it may not extend the tenure of R. Shlomo Riskin as Chief Rabbi of the city of Efrat, supporters of R. Riskin were up in arms:

Rabbi Riskin is one of the great Modern Orthodox rabbis of our generation. He has inspired hundreds of rabbis in America and around the world to follow in his footsteps, to bring a vibrant Orthodoxy to the masses. He is a mentor, a role model who is beloved. Few rabbis in recent history come close to accomplishing what he has achieved. He deserves our deepest respect and veneration.

We call upon the Chief Rabbinate to withdraw its highly offensive demands.R. Riskin’s inspiring, vibrant and loving leadership are brought to the fore in the above letter, penned by the leadership of the Open Orthodox movement in America, as the Rabbanut is vilified and smeared as hateful and irrational for its consideration to not extend the tenure of such a sterling and devoted rabbi.

Yet the elephant in the room — the very real controversies surrounding R. Riskin — controversies in which R. Riskin materially violated the policies of the Chief Rabbinate, his employer – is intentionally omitted and concealed.For despite R. Riskin’s rabbinic dynamism and love for Torah and the Jewish People, he has been at the forefront of the ordination of women, he has publicly displayed an uncomfortable enthusiasm for Christian religious values, and he has in various additional ways materially undermined the policies and halachic positions of the Rabbanut, including promoting the chanting of Megillath Ruth by a female at the main minyan of a synagogue under his jurisdiction. These are but a few of the many deviations from normative Orthodoxy and from fundamental Rabbanut standards on the part of R. Riskin. (Please also see this very important article about R. Riskin’s trajectory in the rabbinate.) http://www.torahmusings.com/2015/05/rabbi-riskins-modern-orthodoxy/

Yes, R. Riskin’s devotion and passion to spread Judaism are hard to beat, but when he violates the trust of his employer, and he contravenes the rulings of the most preeminent halachic authorities of this and previous generations, let us realize that it is not the Chief Rabbinate who is the offender, and that it just may be that the employer had more than ample reason to maintain that its employee was not being faithful to the policies and values that he was hired to uphold.

There are indeed two sides to every story, and when the pertinent facts of the narrative are glaringly omitted by one side, the omission is quite telling.

Rav Avraham Schorr: "Everyone Can Improve Thru the Honey Sweet Torah"

Rabbi Riskin - Advocate of interfaith dialogue

Originally posted on January 19, 2010

The following is clearly at variance with not only the views of Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igors Moshe Y.D. III 43) but also R' Riskin's rebbe - Rav Yosef Ber Solveitchik

JPOST

It's no secret that during the past two years I have become seriously involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue. In fact, here at Ohr Torah Stone in Efrat we've established the Susan and Roger Hertog Center for Jewish Christian Understanding and Cooperation, and many hundreds of Christians regularly attend classes and seminars to gain a better understanding of the Jewish roots from which Christianity sprouted.[....]

Columbia Spectator 1964
Proposed Ecumenical Schema Rejected by Orthodox Rabbi

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, a leading Orthodox Jewish theologian, told a meeting of the Barnard and Columbia Yavneh Society Monday night that the Jews should emphatically reject the proposed Schema of the Ecumnical Council dealing with the Jewish people. Dr. Soloveitchik analyzed the Schema, attempting to demonstrate that its intent was to define the Jewish faith as but a historical stage in the eventual triumph of Christianity all over the world. He implied that its aim was to facilitate Catholic proselytization among Jews. Claiming that the attitude of the Catholic Church's relationship to the Jews is that of a stance "over and against" rather than "alongside," Dr. Soloveitchik argued that each religion is and should be immutably unique and that the Jews, "doubly confronted" by human and uniquely Jewish problems, must preserve their individuality. The Schema, he said, denies the existence of Jewry as a legitimate body and treats them as a "theological interim." Rabbi Soloveitchik emphasized that while there could be no theological discussion between the faiths because each faith employs its own "mysterious language," Jews should work closely with Catholics "as two subjects working together on an object, the challenge of secularism." Lauding the efforts of the Church in the field of education, the orthodox rabbi said that many of the gains made by American Orthodox Jewry in recent years were made possible by the "trailblazing" of the Catholic Church.

Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Homosexuality and Orthodoxy Rabbi Riskin

YNet reported   Originally published in Jan 2, 2009
   

I don't object to gay-lesbian parents or single mothers bringing a child into the world, as long as they do so responsibly," said Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the rabbi of the Efrat settlement, during a discussion on the subject of Orthodox Judaism and homosexuality Tuesday.

The meeting took place as part of the Limmud annual conference on Jewish learning, which is being held in Warwick, Britain this week. Some 2,500 people from the UK and the world participated in this year's conference.
The session was attended by many gays and lesbians who spoke of the difficulties they had to endure once their sexual orientation became known in their religious communities.

Gregg Drinkwater, the executive director of Jewish Mosaic, The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity who chaired the session, said that "young people are scared to approach the rabbi and share their distress… the Orthodox rabbinical establishment in the US and Britain refuses to address this phenomenon."

Rabbi Riskin presented to the audience his approach to the subject: Accepting the other despite the ideological differences, so as not to push them out of the congregation.

"The synagogue is meant to accept any Jew. I must love the foreigner, as well as those who are different. Our role as parents is to love our children, and the rabbis' role is to love the members of their congregation," he stated.[...]

Sexual offenses allegedly committed on Hebrew University campus by lecturers

JPost    A letter presented to Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Sunday, outlined the testimony of dozens of Hebrew University students with allegations of sexual offenses committed by faculty members.

The letter was sent by the organization One of One, an Israeli based virtual platform for victims of sexual offenses to speak out about their personal stories. The letter, released to channel 10 news, stated "we know of five lecturers that sexually assaulted students, including cases of rape."

The letter went on to allege that six lecturers are known to One of One as serial sexual harassers and some of the assaults took place on campus. The organization demanded that the university call an immediate meeting with the Board of Governors to change the way sexual offenses are dealt with by the university.

These allegations come only a month after political science Prof. Mario Schneider was dismissed from the university following sexual harassment charges.

The Office of the Spokesperson at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem responded to the letter. "The complaints referred to in the letter were not brought to the attention of the university; nor did the university receive any inquiries or complaints on the matter.

The university contacted the organization “One of One” with a request to provide the information in its possession, in order to be able to investigate the issue. Thus far there has been no reply.

At the same time the university has filed a complaint to the Israel Police requesting that they investigate the matter." [...]

Court bars Rabbi Aaron Ramati - accused of running cult out of Jerusalem seminary - from teaching women

JPost

After being arrested on a litany of charges related to running a cult out of a women’s seminary in the capital, the Jerusalem District Magistrate’s Court barred Aaron Ramati from teaching women for 70 days or until an indictment is filed.

Ramati, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who heads the Be’er Miriam seminary with his wife, was arrested earlier this month for multiple alleged crimes after parents filed complaints to police over their concern that their daughters were lured into a cult run out of the seminary.

A subsequent investigation determined that Ramati committed financial fraud, gas theft, and numerous social welfare and health violations. His wife and six students have since been detained for questioning, although none were arrested, police said.

According to the judge’s ruling this week, Ramati is prohibited from “managing, directly or indirectly, Be’er Miriam seminary, or any other educational institution, including as a teacher, acting as a supervisory rabbi or spiritual counselor, for 70 days, or until an indictment is filed.”

Ramati’s attorney, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who contended that his client is innocent and did not derive any profits from the seminary, demanded that he be allowed to continue running the seminary as the investigation continues. [...]

Beau Biden prosecuted one of the worst pedophiles in American history - pediatrician Earl Bradley

Washington Post   In 2010, just five years before his death this weekend, the time was never better for Beau Biden to make a run for the U.S. Senate. He was performing well as Delaware’s attorney general; his father, Joe Biden, had left Capitol Hill in 2008 to join President Obama in the White House; a family friend had been keeping the seat warm for the young man.

But Biden declined.

“I have a duty to fulfill as attorney general, and the immediate need to focus on a case of great consequence,” Biden, then 40, said in a statement at the time. “And that is what I must do … Therefore I cannot and will not run for the United States Senate.” [...]

But “the case of great consequence” Biden stuck around to prosecute involved Earl Bradley — a pediatrician who perpetrated what some called “one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse” by sexually assaulting dozens, if not hundreds, of his young patients.

The numbers were staggering. More than 1,400 patients filed claims against Bradley, who was convicted in 2011 of raping or abusing 86 patients over 11 years. The average age of the victims was just three years old, and one alleged victim was just three months old.[...]

Rav Dovid Eidensohn - Telephone Conference :Failing children and failing marriages May 31 Sunday 9:30 PM

Dial the Dial-in-Number then the access code to enter the telephone conference. You may comment or question. The conference is usually recorded. To listen to the recording dial the Play-back number listed below. We hope to place the recording also on our blog and website bli neder. The goal of the telephone conference is to teach about how to deal with problems with children in school and family problems, as well as marriages, and the halacha and chazal of these.

Dial-in Number:	(641) 715-3580
Access Code:	198771# to enter

Cop at center of racial row: I'd like to tell Netanyahu what really happened

ynet It's been a month since the online video clip of an Israeli policeman seen beating an Israel Defense Forces soldier of Ethiopian descent shocked the entire country and aroused the anger of Israel's Ethiopian community, which took to the streets en masse to demonstrate against police brutality and discrimination. [ see original article]

While the soldier involved in the incident, Damas Pakada, became the hero of the Ethiopian community, was warmly embraced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and shared his side of the story with the public at length, Sergeant Major Y., the policeman, took the criticism and his dismissal from the police and chose to keep quiet – until now. The civil suit filed this past week by Pakada against the Israel Police, Y. and a third individual who was present when the incident occurred has broken the sergeant major's silence.

"He's of no interest to me, and I don't think he's acting according to his own free will," Y. says of Pakada. "In my opinion, he's been used and they're still using him. When I saw him with Bibi, I felt a sharp pang in my heart – because that's a guy who threw a punch at a policeman, who picked up a rock to throw at him. And how does it end? He gets his picture taken with the prime minister, at the prime minister's request, like he's getting a prize. I'd also like to meet with the prime minister and tell him what really happened there."[...]

On arriving at the scene, Y. says, he immediately blocked the road, ordered pedestrians to back away and called in reinforcements. "I remember getting a call from the report center to tell me the sappers were on the way." he recounts. "Meanwhile, civilians were coming out their homes and moving into the danger zone. I instructed my partner to use the loudspeaker to tell everyone to remain in their homes. Fortunately, everyone listened to me." [...]

"We positioned a patrol car about 150 meters from the bench, and it clearly formed a barrier that shouldn't be crossed. I saw him while I was walking down the street and, gesturing with my hands for him to back away, I shouted: There's a suspicious object here. But he continued to approach."

"Yes. 'Who the hell do you think you are? I'm walking through here because I need to get home. What do you want from me anyway?' He spoke to me in fluent Hebrew and in a very unpleasant tone. He clearly understood me. Nevertheless, I explained things to him repeatedly, but he continued to approach."[...]

"I said to him: Just listen to me – and I grab hold of his bicycle to move him along. I don't think another policeman would have behaved like me, so politely. You can see in the video that I move the bike back a little, so that he would move too. And he resisted and tried to move forward and release my grip on the bike. I grabbed the bike, which stood as a buffer between us, and then he hit me on the neck. [....]

"Canary Mission" website about campus BDS leaders unnerves anti-Israel advocates

Forward  A new website is publicizing the identities of pro-Palestinian student activists to prevent them from getting jobs after they graduate from college. But the website is keeping its own backers’ identity a secret.

“It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees,” a female narrator intones in a slick video posted to the website’s YouTube account.

Called Canary Mission, the site has posted profiles of dozens of students and recent graduates, alongside those of well-known activists like Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Some of the students are active in Students for Justice in Palestine; others were involved in recent pro-BDS resolutions at campuses in California. Many of them have relatively thin activist résumés.

“The focus on young people and students is an effort to try to tell people that there will be a price for you taking a political position,” said Ali Abunimah, founder of the pro-Palestinian website The Electronic Intifada. “It’s an effort to punish and deter people from standing up for what they believe.”

Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, defended the tactic as a way of forcing people to understand the seriousness of their political stands.

“Factually documenting who one’s adversaries are and making this information available is a perfectly legitimate undertaking,” Pipes wrote in an email. “Collecting information on students has particular value because it signals them that attacking Israel is serious business, not some inconsequential game, and that their actions can damage both Israel and their future careers.”[...]