price of trumps friendship - Report: US asked Israel to free terror suspect in deal for pastor held in Turkey

cnn


times of israel

US President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release Ebru Ozkan as part of a deal he had agreed with Turkey to gain the release of Andrew Brunson, reported the Washington Post.

Hebrew-language media reported on Friday that Israel officials confirmed Trump called Netanyahu asking him to release Ozkan.

In a break with tradition, Orthodox Jewish women are leading synagogues

washington post

Taking on positions as clergy in a tradition where women have never been clergy before, they have adopted a variety of titles. Some call themselves rosh kehilah, meaning “head of the community.” Some go by maharat. Rabbanit. Rabba. And even rabbi.

Giuliani once praised Michael Cohen as 'honest,' but now says Cohen has 'lied all his life'

cnn

Washington (CNN)After a week of revelations that suggest Michael Cohen may have turned on Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, the President's current lawyer, argued that Trump's former attorney wasn't credible and has "lied all his life."

George Will On Donald Trump-Michael Cohen Tape: "Mr. Trump Is A Seedy Man" | The Last Word | MSNBC

Why Israel nabbed a rabbi for performing a wedding, and why people are incensed

Times of israel.

As he waited to be interrogated by the Israel Police for conducting a non-Orthodox wedding, Rabbi Dov Haiyun began a Facebook post with three words: “Iran is here.”

Haiyun awoke at 5:30 a.m. Thursday at his home in Haifa to a knock on the door from two police officers who detained him, put him in the back of a van and sought to question him. His crime? Conducting a Jewish wedding outside the auspices of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.

The rabbi was released, sans questions, after a couple hours — he had to head to the Israeli president’s residence for an event celebrating Jewish pluralism.

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront tChildhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.he prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

Report: Mother who injected insulin also beat her children

arutz 7

The Jerusalem mother who injected at least five of her children with insulin in order to receive disability benefits may have also beaten her children, Kan reported.

According to the Kan report, the mother, who lives in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, is suspected of beating her children with a thick rod. In several cases, the children required medical treatment after the beatings.

"The police investigation over the past few days found basis for a suspicion that the children were brought to health clinics with injuries requiring medical care."

"[These injuries] were caused by severe beatings received from their mother, administered among other things via thick rods found in the family's home. All of the children were interrogated by children's interrogators, and some of them spoke about the beatings they suffered."

On Marrying a Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse

atlantic


Dealing with misinformation, feeling powerless, and slowly getting better together

I thought the article would validate my husband’s experience. That’s why I emailed him the link to the decade-old New Yorkmagazine article about his alma mater, the American Boychoir School for vocal prodigies, where alumni from as late as the 1990s estimate that one in five boys were molested. Boys like Travis.

“It used to feel like an isolated incident that affected just me," Trav said.

It was the end of my workday on an October afternoon; I had just set my keys on the kitchen table. My coat was still buttoned.

“Now I know I spent nearly three years of my childhood at a boarding school not just with random pedophiles, but in a culture that allowed it.”

As his wife, how do I respond? That he survived? That he’s brave? That he’s a hero for letting me talk about it? That I will stand beside him with a personal mission and public vow that nobody will ever hurt him, physically or emotionally, again, the way they did during his 30 months as a choirboy from 1988 to 1990?.

Trav deflects these statements. He understands my protective instincts, but it makes him feel weak and uncomfortable when I say the words with such elevated drama. He is not brave, he says. Not a survivor, and certainly no hero. It doesn’t matter anymore, he says, so I suck in my breath and nod.

election rockland County

Review: ‘Bad Faith,’ a Dr. Paul A. Offit Book on Religion and Modern Medicine

currently reading - an excellent explanation of religious resistance to medicine


ny times

An important and fascinating book. For more than a decade, Paul Offit has been relentless in his exposure of forces that can undermine the life-saving advances of modern medicine. His latest effort, Bad Faith, combines gripping storytelling with an insider's knowledge. Offit offers a compassionate and clear-headed take on religion that puts children's well-being where it should be: at the center of the discussion. A must-read for anyone interested in the challenges of public health in the twenty-first century.”

—Seth Mnookin, Associate Director of The Graduate Program in Science Writing, MIT, and author of The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy

Paul A. Offit, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The author of several books, he lives in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Forty percent of people have a fictional first memory

science daily

Researchers have conducted one of the largest surveys of people's first memories, finding that nearly 40 per cent of people had a first memory which is fictional.

Current research indicates that people's earliest memories date from around three to three-and-a-half years of age. However, the study from researchers at City, University of London, the University of Bradford and Nottingham Trent University found that 38.6 per cent of a survey of 6,641 people claimed to have memories from two or younger, with 893 people claiming memories from one or younger. This was particularly prevalent among middle-aged and older adults

letter containin rav Herschel Schechter AND RAV NOTA GREENBLATTS opposition to annulments provided by the fake International bais din

from TORAHWEB.ORG

Rav Sternbuch rumors of child abuse and lashon harah vol 5 #398

the following is taken fom page 263 of vol 2 of my Child and Domestic Abuse

I am putting this up specifically for the fast of Tisha B av

because Rav Freifeld told me it is permissible to learn about those things which caused the destruction of the Beis HaMIKDASH I.E. lashon harah

it is also for the yahrzeit of the tzadekess Mrs Gingold

Note in articular the response of Rav Chaim Ozer to the Chofetz Chaim

תשובות והנהגות כרך ה סימן שצח
שמיעת רינונים וחשדות
קבלתי מכתבו, ורעדה אחזתני על פשע המנהל שסירב לשמוע טענות נגד ר"מ על מעשים מגונים, בטענה שזהו לשון הרע, ועכשיו מתגלה והולך קלונו של אותו ר"מ, והמנהל עודו מתעקש שאין הוכחות מספיקות וראוי לחשוש לאיסור לשון הרע.
ודבריו של המנהל הם הבל הבלים, ופותח פתח לשחיתות ר"ל, וחובת ראש ישיבה ומנהל לשמוע כל רינון וחשד על המתרחש בתחומו, שכן עיקר חובתו לשמור על נפשותיהם של התלמידים, ולכן צריך לחשוש לכל דבר אפילו אינו מצוי כלל, ואף שמוקמינן אדם על חזקת כשרותו, מכל מקום מה שנוגע לשמירת התלמידים, אם נראה אפילו נדנוד ספק שהוזקו ילדים או בחורים, חייבין לסלק את החשוד בינתיים או להעמיד שמירה מיוחדת ותמידית עליו, ועיקר איסור סיפור וקבלת לשון הרע, הוא אם נובע מכך ששונאו או מקנא בו ואין כוונתו לש"ש, אבל כשכוונתו טהורה חייב לחשוש לכל טענה או רינון על מנת למנוע נזקים, והחשש המופרך מאיסור לשון הרע עלול לגרום לקלקול רבים.
ופעם אחת כשהייתי אצל כ"ק האדמו"ר רבי ישראל אלתר (האדמו"ר מגור) שאל אותי אודות בחור אחד, וכיון שחשש שאני מפקפק אם להגיד מפני לשון הרע, אמר "דע לך בבית הזה אין איסור לשון הרע שהכל לתועלת, וכל מה שאני שומע אני פועל ועושה ובע"ה יהא תמיד בזה תועלת".
והנה שמעתי על אסיפת רבנים בה עמד הקדוש ה"חפץ חיים" זצ"ל ודרש על ענין לשון הרע, ובקש מהרבנים הנוכחים שיחתמו על התחייבות להזהר מלשון הרע, והגאון רבי חיים עוזר זצ"ל היסס לחתום, ויש בזה סיפורים שונים, וכפי ששמעתי השיב שרב בעירו צריך לידע ולשמוע הכל אפילו בחשש רחוק מאד ולעשות בירור יסודי אם יש בדברים ממש, ובמידה שיחתום עלול להחמיר מדאי וזה יגרום קלקול לרבים ולכן טוב יותר לתקן ללמוד הלכות לשון הרע.
סוף דבר, מצוה גדולה לספר כל חשש וחשש, והמנהל צריך לשמוע ולחשוש ולשמור על התלמידים שמירה מעולה, ואם מתרשל הרי הוא בכלל ארור עושה מלאכת ה' רמייה, והיום יש הרבה כלי משחית לקלקל הנוער, וחובה לשמור שמירה מעולה על קודש הקדשים, התלמידים העוסקים בתורת ה', (כמבואר בלשון הרמב"ם סוף הלכות שמיטה ויובל ע"ש).
ואני באתי לעודדו שלא ינוח ולא ישקוט, ושכרו רב מאד, ויסכר פי דובר שקר הסותם פיות ומזלזל בדברים הנוגעים לדיני נפשות. 

Dr. Strange Heter Or How I Learned to Love the Gadolim

Rabbi Nota Greenblatt married Tamar Epstein to Adam Fleischer. Upon learning about the marriage, I called Rabbi Nota Greenblatt.

I wanted to know if Aharon Friedman, Tamar's husband, still had to give Tamar a Get.

Rabbi Greenblatt told me that Aharon still had to give Tamar a Get. I wanted to explore that logic with Rabbi Greenblatt. I didn't get too far.

"Listen to the Gadolim!" he forcefully exhorted me.

End of conversation.

So, I called up Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky. The man considered by many to be the greatest Gadol in America.

He told me that I could rely on Rabbi Greenblatt as far as the legitimacy of the marriage of Tamar Epstein to Adam Fleischer. Rabbi Kamenetsky also told me that I can rely on Rabbi Dovid Feinstein as far as the illegitimacy of the marriage of Tamar Epstein to Adam Fleischer. (The recording of that conversation can be found elsewhere on this blog.)

So, let's listen to the Gadolim.

Rabbi Greenblatt identified for me the doctor whose testimony, Rabbi Greenblatt said, laid the foundation for the granting of the Heter to Tamar to remarry.

And we are told we may rely on Rabbi Greenblatt.

Yet, according to Rabbi Feinstein, Tamar and Adam are cohabiting in a way contradictory to Halacha.

So, we are going to leverage the identity of the doctor to nullify the Heter and/or Tamar and Adam's association. (Based on the advice of one of my lawyer's, I am using the term "association", a euphemism, so as not to expose myself to a lawsuit.)

No one can accuse me now of not listening to the Gadolim