)rthodox supporter of Roe

letter from Lubavitcher Rebbe about Rav Solovetchik

Judge Rules that Hospital Must Rescind Death Certificate for Orthodox Patient

hamodia

A judge has ruled that Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital must rescind a death certificate that it issued for an Orthodox Jewish patient some three weeks before his death. The decision could have far-reaching effects for religious groups and the obligation of hospitals and medical professionals to accommodate their beliefs, especially regarding “end of life” policies.

The patient, Yechezkel Nakar, z”l, was niftar in the spring of 2017 and the legal fight over what his family perceived as an illegitimately issued death certificate began soon after. The suit gained wide media attention, but a ruling was only issued this past Friday for what Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Devin Cohen only identified as “technical reasons,” according to the Nakar family’s attorney Morton Avigdor.

The delay aside, Mr. Avigdor said the ruling was “terrific.”

“This is a clear and very strongly worded legal recognition of the responsibility of hospitals to accommodate religious beliefs,” he told Hamodia. “This is not just about one hospital, it will affect all of the city and likely beyond, who will have to rethink the way they treat religious rights.”

Against the objections of the patient’s family, the hospital had conducted tests to show if Mr. Nakar, who was unconscious after suffering a stroke, was wh

ant-abortion

Minnesota Rabbi Busted In Underage Sex Sting Sentenced To Probation

forward

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.

Ramsey County Sheriff’s O...

The police photo of Cohen.

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.

Read more: https://forward.com/fast-forward/417771/minnesota-rabbi-busted-in-underage-sex-sting-sentenced-to-probation/

Ramsey County Sheriff’s O...

The police photo of Cohen.

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.

Read more: https://forward.com/fast-forward/417771/minnesota-rabbi-busted-in-underage-sex-sting-sentenced-to-probation/

Who Wrote the Late Volumes of Igrot Moshe?

seforimblog

Though this article deals with a factual question, it often seems to devolve into an ideological one. I therefore wish to state: I have no horse in this fight. I have not taken halakhic positions from Igrot Moshe volumes 7-9. I went into this with a genuinely open mind, and in the course of researching this question, I have taken the affirmative and negative sides of this question at different points.

Ever since Igrot Moshe volume 8 was published, and to a lesser degree volume 7, people have cast aspersions or directly accused it of being a forgery. The claim, generally, has been some variation of direct accusation or insinuation that somebody, usually either one of the Tendlers or R. Shabtai Rappaport, inserted his own teshuvot into the volume. Volume 9 is, as they say, ‘right out’. Some even call these volumes ‘Igrot Moshe David’.

As an example, Hirhurim several years ago published this quote from R. J.D. Bleich, though the comment thread is likely a better example.

Given

the preponderance of evidence that the later Igrot

Moshe volumes

are real (and spectacular), I think we can put the various theories

of alternative authorship to rest. The claims of the editors — that

the latest teshuvot were

dictated[6] — explains the ‘steroid spike’, and all available

evidence supports their central contention, that they didn’t change

the actual content. In short: it’s legit.

Timesunion

In the quest to "liberate" women, pro-choice feminists in New York have rallied around the Reproductive Health Act. Many buzz phrases have circulated to describe the RHA's meaning, such as "Abortion is not a crime" and "Abortion is health care," but beyond these buzz words lie the RHA's real implications: It dehumanizes the disabled; healthy, viable humans in utero; children who are aborted but born alive; and pregnant victims of domestic violence.

By completely gutting abortion from New York's criminal law, the RHA removes the state's only prosecutorial tool for holding violent abusers accountable for the death of wanted unborn children. Studies show that domestic violence escalates during pregnancy. New York's version of a fetal homicide law lies within the abortion provisions of its penal law, which the RHA repeals.

If reproductive freedom and equality lie at the heart of the RHA, as pro-choice feminists claim, how could the bill's drafters have overlooked this injustice? How could any feminist strip away the right of a woman to prosecute a violent partner for killing her wanted fetus? Depriving women of the opportunity to punish violent partners for killing their wanted unborn children is anti-woman.

The RHA dehumanizes viable, healthy humans in utero — who could survive outside the womb — by enacting a broad rather than a narrow health exception to New York's current ban on third-trimester abortions.

The RHA dehumanizes the disabled by explicitly permitting the unimpeded destruction of unborn children incapable of surviving outside the womb during the third trimester of pregnancy.

The RHA dehumanizes yet another class of humans, namely infants born alive during abortions — which does occur, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The RHA fully repeals state Public Health Law 4164, which requires that after the 20th week of pregnancy, a separate doctor be present to provide life-saving treatment to children who survive abortions. The current law also affords them civil rights. Without PHL 4164, it is unclear what protections children who survive abortion would have.

From a pro-life feminist perspective, the RHA warps women's rights to bodily integrity and individual autonomy and undermines basic human rights. For a group of people such as women, who have long endured historic dehumanization, the RHA should be embarrassing.

Stop the Back Alley Abortion Act

https://citizengo.org/en/node/168065?tc=ty&tcid=53311689

Governor Cuomo and Hillary Clinton want to make New York the most pro-abortion state in the country. The Reproductive Health Act, also known as the Back Alley Abortion Act, would guarantee abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, prohibit born-alive protections for babies who survive botched abortions, and eliminate any and all health and safety regulations relating to abortion from the New York criminal code. If this Act passes into law, New York would become a magnet for abortionists like Kermit Gosnell.

Please sign and share the petition to stop this radical abortion bill from becoming law.

At a rally just a few days ago, Hillary Clinton and Governor Cuomo (the man who said pro-lifers are not welcome in his state) told a cheering crowd of radical leftists that the new law was necesary to protect New York from President Trump's new Supreme Court appointments.  However, the law would actually go even further than Roe v. Wade, declaring abortion to be a fundamental human right. This would jeopardize the freedom of conscience of medical professionals from collaborating and participating in abortions.

The state of New York already has twice the abortion rate than the national average, and New York alone has over 200 abortuaries.  Also, keeping in line with the racist and eugenic roots of abortion, a majority of the roughly 120,000 children killed by abortion in New York every year are children of color from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

For many years, the Republican New York Senate held back the legislation. But a new wave of radical progressive Senators have taken over the state senate, and they have vowed to fast-track the legislation in order to pass it on January 22, in honor of Roe v. Wade.

To summarize, the legislation it would:

1. Eliminate any and all penalties related to abortion from the New York criminal code. This includes the repeal of a section of New York law that requires medical assistance to be provided to babies who survive an abortion.  What this means is New York will allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and even after birth.
2. It will declare abortion a fundamental right. This means that pro-life doctors and nurses, or even "pro-choice" doctors who, for whatever reason, do not wish to commit an abortion, could be forced to carry them out.
3. It will eliminate the current requirement that a doctor supervise a late-term abortion.  Under the new law, practically anyone will be able to commit dangerous late-term abortions.

The Back Alley Abortion Act is the most radical abortion law in the history of the United States. Its aim is to completely dehumanize the child in the womb and deregulate the business of killing them.  

 

Please sign and share this petition to stop this radical abortion bill from becoming law.

This petition has been created by a citizen or association not affiliated with CitizenGO. CitizenGO is not responsible for its contents.

Petition to: New York Legislators

Stop the Back Alley Abortion Act

The so called "Reproductive Health Act" will make back alley abortions the accepted norm in the state of New York. Abortion always intends to kill one patient (the unborn child), but if this bill becomes law, it will make abortion increasingly dangerous for the mother, eliminating any and all restrictions, even on late-term abortions. If this bill passes, New York will become the Wild West of abortion, where absolutely anything goes.

The MAGA Teenager Who Harassed a Native American Veteran Is Still Unnamed, but We’ve Seen His Face Before

slate

A video clip of a white teenager harassing a Native American elder instantly became one of the most viscerally enraging images of an era that has offered no shortage of them.

In the clip, captured during the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday, an elderly Native American man beats a drum and quietly sings, and a small group of activists and allies can be seen in the crowd behind him. Perhaps 18 inches in front of him, a white teenager in a “Make America Great Again” hat makes eye contact and smirks. A much larger crowd of teenagers—mostly male, mostly white, many wearing MAGA hats—hoots with delight at the wordless confrontation. The encounter was captured from multiple angles and circulated widely on YouTube and social media, generating widespread disgust.

Indian Country Today reported Saturday that the elder is Nathan Phillips, a Vietnam War veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. The boy has yet to be identified, but he was visiting Washington with a group from Covington Catholic High School, an all-boys college preparatory school in northern Kentucky. The group was in Washington to attend the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally that attracts tens of thousands of demonstrators, including many groups of young people from churches and private schools. The event’s stated ideal is “a world where the beauty and dignity of every human life are valued and protected.” (The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School issued a statement on Saturday apologizing to Phillips and Native Americans in general, and said it is investigating punishments that may include expulsion.)

The encounter between the teenager and the older man didn’t end in violence. They apparently didn’t even exchange words. Why, then, did this unexploded grenade of a moment read as so fundamentally disturbing—and spread so quickly? There’s the ahistorical idiocy of 

trump stops congressional flights because of shutdown

foxnews.

President Trump on Thursday abruptly denied military aircraft to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a foreign trip just minutes before the congressional delegation was set to depart, in a stunning decision that followed her call to delay the State of the Union address amid the government shutdown.

In a curt letter, Trump said her trip has been “postponed.”

“Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote.

but his wife still permitted

dailymail

Shutdown? What shutdown? Melania flies to Mar-a-Lago in Air Force jet despite her husband grounding Nancy Pelosi AND canceling top officials' trip to Davos

• Melania Trump was in route to Mar-a-Lago on an Air Force jet as President Donald Trump grounded Speaker Pelosi's government plane to Afghanistan
• An Air Force plane with the first lady's call sign was spotted in route to Florida 
• Additionally, President Trump canceled his administration's trip to Davos
• The cancelation came after Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff slammed the administration for canceling Pelosi's trip when they had foreign travel scheduled
• The White House move came after Pelosi sent Trump a letter saying he should not give the State of the Union address on Jan. 29 if there is still a shutdown
• Trump sent her a letter in reply saying he was canceling her travel so negotiations on reopening the government could continue 

Chofets Chaim Biur Halacha 427:1 calendar accuracy

Report: Trump peace plan will divide Jerusalem

.israelnationalnews

Will the “Deal of the Century” peace plan of the Trump administration demand far-reaching concessions from Israel?

Hadashot 13 reported that the peace plan formulated by the White House and which President Trump is interested in presenting in the coming months includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in about 90 percent of Judea and Samaria, with at least part of eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

The report, which was quoted from an American source, said that the Americans would demand that isolated settlements outside the blocs not be expanded and outposts considered illegal by Israeli law be evacuated.

The source claimed that the Palestinian state would be built on more than twice the total area of Areas ​​A and B under the control of the Palestinian Authority today.

He added that Trump would seek to divide Jerusalem from a sovereign perspective into two capitals - Israel's in the west of the city and parts of eastern Jerusalem, and the Palestinian one in the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.

Trump gave Putin the 'gift of the century' in plain sight while the FBI probed him as a Russian agent

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gives-putin-gift-of-the-century-fbi-prob
es-him-as-a-russian-spy-2019-1

• President Donald Trump spent the first two years of his presidency doing something Russian leaders have attempted since 1949: pushing NATO to the brink of irrelevance.
• Now it's come out that the FBI reportedly investigated Trump as a possible Russian asset as he publicly and privately talked about withdrawing from the alliance.
• Trump has succeeded where decades of Russian nuclear saber rattling, spying, assassinations, and information warfare have failed to fray the alliance.
• According to experts, Russian President Vladimir Putin is loving Trump's attacks on NATO, and a former NATO supreme commander called Trump's talk the "gift of the century" for the Russian leader.

President Donald Trump spent the first two years of his presidency doing something Russian leaders have attempted since 1949: pushing NATO to the brink of irrelevance.

And Trump reportedly did so while under investigation by the FBI as a possible Russian agent all along.

A trio of bombshell reports gave depth to years of reporting and public spectacles that indicate Trump has an openly antagonistic, skeptical view of the military alliance that's expanded American power and deterred a great war in Europe for 70 years.

In Grief, Try Personal Rituals

.theatlantic

Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it,”
 writes Joan Didion in The Year of Magical Thinking.
 “We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock.
We do not expect the shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both
body and mind.”

We cannot know, she says, when we lose the person we love—
as she lost her husband John Gregory Dunne 11 years ago—
“the unending absence that follows, the void, the very opposite of
meaning, the relentless succession of moments during
which we will confront the experience of meaninglessness itself
.”The tragedy of such grief is that the loss of a loved one is irreversible.
It is total and final.

Even so, while some of the grief-stricken remain depressed for long
periods of time—developing what’s called “complicated grief”
—most people move on. They eventually settle into their old routines
 or develop new ones. Their lives recover a semblance of order.
Sad though they may continue to be, they are no longer held
hostage by the chaos of their emotions. They are resilient.

George Bonanno, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University and
 author of The Other Side of Sadness, has studied grief for over 20
 years. Among his most provocative findings is that 50 to
60 percent of mourners show no symptoms of grief one month
 following the loss. Some even overcome the grief within days.

•