Police kill a white teen, and the silence raises questions

Washington Post     Many of us are just hearing about the police shooting that claimed the life of 19-year-old Zachary Hammond on July 26.

The news lands with that familiar, convulsive ache that the death of young people brings. That a year of police-involved killings has given us.

The teenager, on a first date, was stopped in the parking lot of a Seneca, S.C., Hardee’s during a drug bust, and the officer contends he fired in self-defense as Hammond tried to run him over. His 23-year-old date was charged with possession of 10 grams (.35 ounces) of marijuana. And it feels like a life gone over so much nothing.

Yet Hammond’s killing, under cloudy circumstances — a police report never mentions the fatal gunshots — has not sparked national protests. It has not pricked us the way Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Brandon Jones, Eric Harris and Freddie Gray did. The way the killing of Samuel DuBose most recently and under the most similar circumstances did. (DuBose was also behind the wheel; the Cincinnati officer who shot him alleged that DuBose was dragging him as he was taking off.)

Hammond’s family contends that the unequal outrage is because Hammond is white. [...]

Soul-Searching in Israel After Bias Attacks on Gays and Arabs

NY Times   On one edge of the Zion Square gathering, an Orthodox yeshiva student was in heated debate with a secular couple over the hierarchy of sin. On the other, young men wearing skullcaps rocked back and forth, reciting the evening prayer. In between, people sat cross-legged on the cobblestones amid an array of memorial candles and banners decrying violence, promoting love, demanding change.

The focal point was a black cloth with simple white chalk Hebrew letters spelling out “Ali Saad Dawabsheh” and “Shira Banki,” the Palestinian toddler burned to death in his West Bank home and the 16-year-old Jewish girl fatally stabbed at a gay pride march in Jerusalem. The back-to-back attacks a week ago, attributed to religious fanatics, set off a national outcry and reflection, with hundreds flocking here each night for a mixture of mourning and protest. [...]

This is a time of deep questioning across Israel, after two deaths that underscored both the endless conflict with the Palestinians and its own internal struggle to balance a rising religiosity with civil rights. Have government policies and rabbinical authorities inspired or at least allowed a radical fringe to reach new depths of depravity? Who interprets Jewish law and Jewish values for the Jewish state? How did it come to this? [...]

For days now, there has been an outpouring of outrage: Israel’s chief rabbis published a newspaper ad declaring, “Violence is not the way of our holy Torah.” Sheikhs and rabbis, as well as politicians from opposing camps, made joint pilgrimages to visit Ali’s badly burned mother and 4-year-old brother in the hospital. Security forces have also reinvigorated their pursuit of right-wing radicals.

There has also been a backlash. The leader of a group that harasses gays and Jewish-Arab couples was recorded declaring that “churches must be burned.” Posters honoring the man arrested after stabbing six people at the pride march — “We pray that all of God’s nation were as filled with awe as you” — appeared in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, where many consider homosexuality an affront to God. Death threats against the right-wing leaders who vowed vengeance against the arsonists have been posted on social media sites.

And there has been blame. Palestinians and leftist Israelis argue that Israel’s nearly half-century occupation of the West Bank and impunity for settler vandals inevitably led to Friday’s firebombing of the Dawabsheh home. Gay rights advocates cannot understand how the police failed to stop the man accused in the knife attacks, Yishai Schissel, who had recently been released from prison for a similar attack at the 2005 pride march and had declared his intention to repeat it. [...]

The Lost Key Documentary Film - The Universal Secret of Jewish Sexuality Revealed

The Daily Beast   A new documentary, featuring sex advice gleaned from the Torah and Kabbalah, turns out to be anti-gay, anti-women, and bizarrely contradictory.

Audiences watching The Lost Key will not likely be surprised to see a bearded, traditional Orthodox rabbi telling them that missionary-style with a man on top, a woman on the bottom, in near total darkness within the confines of marriage, is the “right” way to have sex.

But they may be surprised when the rabbi claims that this position will lead to a heightened, perhaps even holy, intimacy and that this and other lessons from the Torah can “usher in a new era of sexual relations,” as the press release (PDF) for The Lost Key boasts.

The documentary, which hits U.S. theaters on August 12, promises to reveal to audiences “how a sexual relationship can go beyond mere physical pleasure and become a spiritual experience where two become One.”

Drawing from the Torah and Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, The Lost Key sets out to prove that the lessons of traditional, Orthodox Judaism can lead to better sex by showing couples how to create a heightened sense of intimacy.

Oneness is the “highest form of physical intimacy,” director Ricardo Adler writes in his director’s statement.

Rabbi Manis Friedman, the author of Doesn’t Anyone Blush Anymore? Reclaiming Modesty, Intimacy, and Sexuality, serves as the leader on this journey to intimacy. [...]

The Lost Key bills itself as offering a “revolutionary way” for couples to improve their sense of connection. It is cocksure in its instructions, and it leaves little room for deviation. [...]

Why does Friedman think this style of relationship works above all others? “We’re talking about 5,000 years of history,” he says.

He and The Lost Key never acknowledge that those 5,000 years (longer, really) are filled with not only unhappy marriages, but physical and sexually abused women, a subjugated LGBT population, and a sexual culture of restriction and shame.

There is zero mention of same-sex relations at all in the entirety of The Lost Key, which is nothing short of shameful and absurd in 2015.

Not only is it factually lacking, it implies homosexual couples cannot achieve this highest intimacy. [...]

Whether it’s the existence of homosexuality or the value of sexual pleasure, the failure to acknowledge certain aspects of human sexuality detracts from The Lost Key and Rabbi Friedman’s messages.

That’s a shame because there are certainly some valuable insights contained in The Lost Key.

Perhaps the most compelling is the argument that our notion of romantic love is too flimsy to sustain a long-term relationship.[...]

I never thought I’d connect the words of Rabbi Freidman to Amy Schumer, but it just shows that The Lost Key does offer lessons that can be attractive and useful for those of us navigating the modern dating world.

They are also lessons that can apply to many types of relationships: gay, straight, open, ring or no ring. It’s a shame that so many of these people are effectively turned away before they can glean this insight.[...]

Gay Pride Stabber was known to be a paranoid schizophrenic - police did nothing to protect public

Arutz 7   Two-time gay pride parade stabber Yishai Shlissel suffered "a psychotic incident," Israeli news revealed Wednesday - and police still did not take this into account when he was released last month.

In 2005, Shlissel stabbed a number of marchers at the Jerusalem gay pride parade, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released in early July - just weeks before he did it again.

Shlissel may not be fit to stand trial, a Jerusalem Magistrates Court judge ruled earlier Wednesday, after he repeatedly refused to participate in legal proceedings despite being approached by the public defender's office. 

He has had a past history of psychotic episodes, as well, Channel 10 revealed Wednesday night. In March 2009, Shlissel was transferred to psychiatric care from prison, where he was then treated for a month and a half after being diagnosed as a paranoid psychotic.[...]

Even before the parade, Shlissel was labelled by intelligence as a "danger to the event," the investigation also revealed. However, he was never summoned to report to police before or during the march and was never questioned before the fact regarding his intentions. [...]

Last week's stabbing spree injured five people and fatally wounded 16 year-old Shira Banki. Banki was laid to rest Monday in an emotional ceremony with thousands of people in attendance. 

Haredi men order woman to move to back of one bus - but she sits next to haredi men on second bus

YNET   A Foreign Ministry worker in her 50s was forced to get off a bus in Jerusalem on Sunday after ultra-Orthodox men demanded that she move to the back side of the vehicle.  

Anna Schulkin, a resident of the Gilo neighborhood, got on Egged bus No. 36 in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. As there were no other vacant seats, she sat in the front part of the bus opposite a teenage haredi boy.

"To my surprise, the boy got up, turned his back on me, tapped his fingers as if he were addressing a dog and said to me: 'Go backwards, that's where you belong,'" she later told Ynet. [...]

As the atmosphere heated up, Schulkin decided to get off the bus and share her experience in an angry Facebook post. "I got off fast, not before I took as many pictures as possible," she wrote. "Our home is on fire. We are burning each other."[...]

The driver's passivity and the passengers' fiery behavior, she says, made her realize that there was no one there to defend her rights. "I decided that I didn’t want to flex the muscles I don’t have, and got off the bus."  [...]

Schulkin says she got on another bus in which she sat next to three haredi men, and none of them said anything or insulted her. "I told them what had happened to me and said, 'I can't believe you're letting me sit here. God bless you.' It's important to know that not all people are the same."  

Schlesinger Twins: Where is the response from Austria?

Guest Post

There are probably not many people in the online Jewish world who have not yet heard about the tragic custody case of the Schlesinger twins in Vienna. Anyone still unfamiliar with the details of this case who is interested in finding out more, should watch this frank discussion in British parliament http://helpbeth.blogspot.co.il/p/british-parliament-14th-january-2014.html

In the last few weeks an extraordinary letter  has been published, signed by an increasing number of senior and well-respected Rabbis, in protest at the treatment of the twins and their mother in Vienna (full letter is included at the end of this post). The letter openly criticizes the courts as much as the Austrian Jewish community and their leaders. It is very rare for a community to be called out so publicly by the rest of the Jewish world in this way, and has no doubt only happened following the exhaustion of all diplomatic efforts to engage the local Rabbinate in any constructive dialogue.

Furthermore, this letter follows many other independent letters including from a Beth Din, The office of the Chief Rabbi in the UK, and the British Board of Deputies, and the CEO of Chabad in the UK. (Full list here http://helpbeth.blogspot.co.il/p/endorsements.html )

So far, there has been no (public) response from anyone in Austria despite every opportunity afforded to them. Anyone who tries to contact a friend or family member in Vienna is told they have no knowledge of the case or the people involved. (Try it yourself Austria - Vienna Synagogues )

Jewish leadership in Vienna rests firmly on the shoulders of these men. They may think ignoring this international scandal absolves them of any wrong-doing, but clearly public opinion thinks otherwise. The longer this goes unresolved, the more distance will be created between the Jews of Austria and the rest of the globe. Rabbinic reputations built up over entire careers are being frittered away because they are choosing to ignore what has now become an International scandal within the Jewish world and beyond.

Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg

Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg is the current Chief Rabbi of the body that represents Vienna’s Orthodox Jewish community, known as the IKG. He succeeded his father, Rabbi Akiba Eisenberg, in 1983.

Rabbi Avrohom Yona Schwartz

Rabbi Avrohom Yona Schwartz is the Rabbi of the Khal Chassidim on 

Grosse Schiffgasse, and carries a recognized Kashrut authority in Vienna. He was one of the closest students of the late Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa (Stamford Hill, London) and wrote the book Halichos Chanoch which entails a collection of his halachic rulings, lessons and anecdotes.

He is regarded by many as the leading figurehead for the Chareidi community in Vienna.

Rabbi Josef Pardes

Rabbi Josef Pardes is the Rabbi of the Misrachi Synagogue on Rabensteig in Vienna and is the son of the disgraced late Dayan Chaim Pardes, former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court (Israel).

Many people in Vienna view him as a close mentor of Mr Schlesinger. Rabbi Pardes has to date ignored many invitations to comment on the subject.

Chabad Rabbi Jacob Biderman

Chabad Rabbi Jacob Biderman is the head Chabad emissary to Austria and is the principal of the Chabad kindergarten attended by the Schlesinger Twins. He also serves as the Rabbi of the Chabad Synagogue "Heichal Menachem" on Rabbiner Schneerson Platz.

Biderman holds a position on the Executive Board of the RCE and is vice president of the "Lauder Foundation" for educational affairs.

Former IKG Present Ariel Muzicant

Ariel Muzicant was president of the IKG until February 2012. Although Dr Muzicant is no longer the IKG president, many still regard him as one of the most influential men in the Austrian Jewish community today. He is a Vice President of World Jewish Congress (headed by Ronald Lauder) and also a Vice President of European Jewish Congress in charge of security and crisis management.

Current IKG President Oskar Deutsch

Oskar Deutsch has been the president of the IKG since 2012 and has used his position to speak out against anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn Tel Conf EH #14 – What Beth Din is Kosher?

Wed night 9:30 Aug 5, ’15 – call 605-562-3130  code 411161#

 The Rov replied, “A Beth Din that does things in defiance of the Shulchan Aruch loses the status of Beth Din.” His exact words, as I remember them, were that he removed from the Beth Din “the Chezkas Beth Din.”

What is a "halachic prenup" as opposed to a non-halachic prenup?

Guest Post by יְדֵיכֶם דָּמִים מָלֵאוּ

The organization that boasts as being the primary educators encouraging Torah-observant Jews to sign a prenuptial agreement, has named it the “‘halachic' prenup.”

What is the word “halachic” meant to suggest and insinuate? Are there any recognized halachic authorities who have ruled that there is a requirement for a marrying couple to sign this prenuptial agreement. If so, who? The only explanation is that since there were and are certain prenuptial agreements that run contrary to halacha and produce an invalid get, ORA is attempting to say that this particular prenuptial is different, as it does not run contrary to halacha according to some poskim.

However, this label is disingenuous and misleading. Does ORA promote calling our jackets "halachic jackets"? Since certain jackets contain wool and linen (shatnez) and are halachicly prohibited to be worn, shouldn't we call those jackets that we may wear "halachic jackets"? The most that anyone would call it would be a “kosher” jacket. No one would call it a “halachic” jacket. As such, the most ORA should call this prenuptial should be a “prenup that is kosher according to some rabbis.”

It appears obvious that the term “halachic” is being used to entice the unknowing and the unquestioning into signing this agreement. ORA understands that asking people to sign a prenuptial that is only potentially kosher would cause the bride and groom to carefully review and deliberate whether or not they would like to sign this prenuptial agreement. The result would be that even fewer people would agree to sign it.

Is there any other explanation?

Additionally, at the Mendel Epstein torture trial, other questionable practice standards of ORA and the BDA have come into light. ORA went out on a limb to help a woman without ever having made contact with her purported estranged husband. Nathan Lewin, a defense attorney in the torture trial case, explained how easily the BDA was duped into writing a “siruv” or excommunication against a nonexistent man. The purported brother and sister showed the BDA an email that they claimed the nonexistent Alex Marconi wrote. Of course, they simply opened up an email account themselves, wrote the email, and claimed that it came from "Alex Marconi." They also provided the address of a Florida post office as Mr. Marconi’s address.

It becomes quite obvious that ORA and the BDA did not do any due diligence before waging war with "Mr. Marconi." A simple internet search would have verified that the address provided was that of a post office. A few phone calls to local community members of “Mr. Marconi” would have revealed that he is not existent, and would have blown the FBI’s cover. Yet, ORA and the BDA did not bother investigating. Interestingly, it seems that the FBI was completely confident that their cover will not be blown by some basic, basic research by either ORA or the BDA. Why?

Are these the organizations that we would like to entrust with our marriages? Are these the organizations we would like to rely upon to validate highly questionable gitten, when major halachic authorities have ruled that children resultant of a subsequent marriage after a first marriage was terminated by a get procured through their prenuptial are mamzeirim?

Retired nurse had doctor kill her at euthanasia clinic to avoid growing old

CBS News

Gill Pharaoh, a 75-year-old woman from Britain with no serious health issues, decided to end her life at a Swiss euthanasia clinic on July 21 with her partner of 25 years by her side, sparking renewed debate over the right to die.

According to the Daily Mail, her partner John Southall said Pharaoh had been talking with family and friends about someday ending her life for more than 20 years. Her decision to die was based on a desire not to grow old and become a burden to her family.

Pharaoh, who worked as a nurse and had written two books on caring for elderly patients, wrote about her decision in a blog post entitled "My Last Word" on her website: [...]

Pharaoh said that she remained fit and active until she was 70, but a severe case of shingles changed that. She said she could no longer do the things she used to love such as gardening and cooking, and that her tinnitus was a "big distraction." She admitted that her irritations were "comparatively trivial" and insisted that she was not depressed. [...]

The public response to Pharaoh's decision to end her life has been emotional and decidedly mixed. Supporters say that the ability to decide when you want to die is the ultimate freedom, while critics worry that people might make such a decision for the wrong reasons and want there to be more safeguards.[..]

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, although the Swiss government has sought to cut down on "suicide tourism," which draws hundreds of foreigners to Switzerland each year to end their lives.

Dad Raises Kids But Has to Pay Mom Anyway - Victory for Feminism

Arutz 7   A divorced father recently got a taste of the unique justice meted out by Israel's secular family courts when he was ordered to pay child support to his ex-wife despite the fact that the former couple's children reside almost exclusively with the father.

According to Attorney Inbar Lev, who represents the father, the couple divorced at the request of the wife, who moved in with her mother. Lev claims that the wife severed her contact with the children almost completely, and that the children chose to live with their father.

Despite this, the wife sued for joint physical custody over the children and for child support – a demand that Lev called “unreasonable,” because “it enables the mother to continue to live at the father's expense without justification.”

Judge Yehezkel Eliyahu explained in his decision that he was granting the mother's request for joint custody and specifying a parenting schedule “in order to strengthen the bond between the children and their mother,” and that as a result of this, the father must pay the mother child support.

Lev claimed that the father cannot force his children to be with their mother and that they are the ones who decided to see very little of her. Therefore, she said, the court-ordered parenting schedule “is no more than a desire of the heart and certainly is implemented in reality.”

She added that in the absurd situation that has resulted, the father is paying the mother child support, supposedly for the children, while at the same time paying in full for their livelihood. She demanded that the child support payments cease and that the father be reimbursed for funds already paid. In addition, she demanded that the state child allowance, which is currently paid completely to the mother, be transferred to the father.[...]

Britain to Investigate Police Handling of Abuse Claim Against Ex-Premier Edward Heath

NY Times

Britain’s independent police watchdog agency said on Monday that it would investigate an allegation that the police in Wiltshire had dropped a criminal investigation in the 1990s when the subject threatened to go public with accusations that the former Conservative prime minister Edward Heath had sexually abused children.

Mr. Heath was prime minister between 1970 and 1974. He remained a member of Parliament until 2001, living out the rest of his life in Salisbury, in Wiltshire. He died in 2005 at 89, ...

Rabbeinu Bachye:Holiness is restricting unnecessary pleasures - to serve G-d properly

Rabbeinu Bachye (Kad haKemach Kedusha): A G-d dreaded in the council of the holy ones and feared by all of them that are around him. (Tehilim 89:8). The attribute of holiness (kedusha) is a powerful and amazing attribute. A person acquires it through the attribute of purity (tahara) because that is the necessary sequence of the development of attributes as is stated by our Sages (Avoda Zara 20b), “Purity leads to holiness”. The Yerushalmi )Sotah 14b) brings support for this from Vayikra (16:19), And he shall purify it and sanctify it. I have already mentioned in the section of Purity (taharah) that we are commanded by the Torah (Vayikra 11:44), And you shall sanctify yourself and you shall be holy. The Torah (Vayikra 19:2) also says, You shall be holy because I your G d am holy.

The nature of this holiness (kedusha) that we have been commanded is avoidance (prishus). In other words a person needs to protect himself from sin and lusts by avoiding even that which the Torah permits – as our Sages said, “Sanctify yourself even with that which is permitted to you.” Thus concerning eating and drinking – he should eat and drink less then what he wants – just enough to sustain his body. He should engage in sexual intercourse only for the purpose of procreation, or for his wife’s conjugal rights (onah) or to prevent sinful thoughts. All other motivations are prohibited by the Torah. Similarly in regard to speech he should restrict himself to speak only after careful deliberation and less then is necessary. Except for that which is necessary for his spiritual well-being such as talking matters of Torah or those required for his physical needs such as his livelihood and sustenance. One should also restrain himself concerning touching any part of his body with his bare hands – especially below his belt. It was because of exercising restraint in not touching his lower body that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was called the Holy Rabbi as is stated in Shabbos (58b). All these restraints are part of being holy and self-restrained (prishus).

And thus our Sages explained in Toras Cohanim, “And you shall sanctify yourselves become holy (Vayikra 11:44). This verse teaches that just as G-d is holy so should you be holy. Just as G-d shows self-restraint you should also show self-restraint." Thus holiness is defined as one who is separated and restrained from lust and he is fully focused on serving G-d. Thus there is a great benefit and need for the Torah to write “And you shall sanctify yourselves and become holy.” Because if it hadn’t been written, a person would simply gorge himself on food and drink – because they would have been unconditionally permitted. He would have eaten and enjoyed all things which taste good – simply because they are pleasurable. Similarly with speech - he would have uttered all the thoughts that came to mind. The lack of restriction would result in his becoming disgusting with all types of bad habits such as being a unrestrained glutton, or alcoholic – all because there would have been no restriction in the Torah concerning pleasure. Consequently this mitzva of being holy is stated after the listing of prohibited foods in the Torah. This teaches us that being holy means that a person not only must avoid prohibited food but even eating permitted food is only according to what he genuine needs - not solely because they give him pleasure. Therefore this mitzva of being holy comes in the section of prohibited foods to tell you a person needs to restrain himself in eating – and surely if the food itself is prohibited - because restraint in avoiding permitted food is also necessary. So if a person who avoids consuming prohibited foods is called holy, then surely one who restrains himself in eating that which is permitted is called holy. Because a person needs to subjugate and break his lusts and destroys his desires in the mortar of his intellect for the honor of G-d his Creator.[…]

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong - the danger of always being right

Rav Moshe Sternbuch strongly condemns prenuptial agreements

  Rav Moshe Sternbuch condemns prenuptial agreements