Child advocates blast systemic failures in Israel’s handling of sex abuse cases

 https://www.jta.org/2019/07/01/israel/child-advocates-blast-systemic-failures-in-israels-handling-of-sex-abuse-cases

In May, the state comptroller’s annual report revealed that 60 percent of Israelis jailed for sexual crimes ended up being released without undergoing any sort of therapeutic treatment to prevent recidivism.

While he felt that he could not comment on specific allegations against Litzman, American activist Rabbi Yakov Horowitz said there was definitely a pattern in how such cases are handled in Israel, especially when it comes to extraditing accused abusers such as Leifer and Avrohom Mondrowitz, who has been living openly in Israel for years. Mondrowitz is a Gur Hasid and accused serial molester who fled Brooklyn for Israel in the 1980s. Tablet reported that some believe that local authorities in New York declined to have him extradited because of haredi political pressure.

 

Sexual Assault Allegations Rock an Israeli Hasidic Community

 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-sexual-assault-allegations-rock-an-israeli-hasidic-community-1.8293926

 The son of Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, leader of Ger Hasidic community, has been accused of abusing male yeshiva students over years ■ Sect, which denies allegations, did not notify authorities and paid a large sum to prevent publication

Israeli police recommend Yaakov Litzman indictment over Malka Leifer case

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/07/israeli-police-recommend-yaakov-litzman-indictment-over-malka-leifer-case

The Israeli police say they have enough evidence for an indictment of Litzman for tampering with witnesses.

“With the end of this investigation the Israeli police’s position is that there is enough alleged evidence against deputy minister of health Yaakov Litzman of offences of fraud, breach of trust, and impeachment in testimony in the [Leifer] extradition case,” the statement said.

The investigation allegedly found that psychiatrists feared they would be fired if they did not follow the orders of Litzman, who is also chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party.

Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adass_Israel_School_sex_abuse_scandal

In February 2019, it was revealed that Israel's deputy health minister, Yaakov Litzman, was questioned by police on the suspicion that he had been using his position to prevent the extradition.^[13] It was alleged that Litzman pressured doctors to falsify psychiatric evaluations that deem Leifer unfit to stand trial, therefore preventing her extradition.^[56][57] Litzman claimed that everything he did was legal, and that he was acting "for the good of the public". Like Leifer, Litzman is a Gur Hassid;^[58] it was revealed that Leifer had previously held a position at a school run by the ultra-Orthodox group.^[59]

Violence In America

 https://www.americanheritage.com/violence-america

 Men, especially young men, are at the heart of American violence. Their behavior is most dangerous in their teens and twenties, the years when they are likeliest to kill, riot, vandalize, steal, and abuse alcohol or other drugs. The surest way to reduce crime, the psychologist David T. Lykken of the University of Minnesota has remarked, would be to put all able-bodied males between the ages of twelve and twenty-eight into cryogenic sleep.

 

Arab communities shattered, as organized crime fuels a skyrocketing murder rate

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-communities-shattered-as-organized-crime-fuels-record-levels-of-bloodshed/

Many Arab Israelis blame the violence on organized crime, and accuse police of devoting too few resources to root it out in Arab cities, towns and neighborhoods. Experts, policymakers and activists argue that even as Israeli police have cracked down on crime among Israeli Jews, not enough has been done to combat endemic violence in the Arab community, which has long suffered from official neglect.

 

Litzman to be indicted for interfering in case of alleged child abuser

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ByprFIyvd

 Former health minister set to be hit with charges of bearing false witness, fraud and breach of trust in Malka Leifer affair for allegedly trying to influence psychiatrists tasked with assessing her mental fitness

Anulling marriage when husband is impotent

Igros Moshe (E.H. 1:79) Impotent husband. Concerning a woman who married a man and immediately after the wedding it was clear that he was totally impotent and incapable of having sexual relations at all. It was also clear that  his problem existed prior to getting married since he was not able to have intercourse the night of the wedding. Furthermore there is the testimony of expert doctors who treated him with various medicine that were ineffectual that his condition is incurable and the wife is young and needs to remarry but her husband refused to divorce her and he ran away and it is impossible to obtain a get.  The question is whether the marriage can be annulled because if she had known that he was impotent she would never have married him?. This issue has been thoroughly discussed in contemporary and ancient  tshuvos. Some conclude that it is prohibited and some permit it theoretically but not in actuality. Others claim that it is permitted by the Torah but prohibited by the rabbis. However since this is an issue of helping an aguna the matter needs to be investigated despite the fact that I am not worthy in particular to decide between the words of our teachers. G-d should help us to not err in the halacha and we should teach the true actual halacha. It would seem clear and obvious  that if the husband is incapable of intercourse -which is the basis of sexuality and it is the reason why a woman marries and that the Torah describes the absence of intercourse as affliction (Yoma 77).  Tosfos (Kesubos 48) indicates that a woman marries in order to have sexual intercourse. Consequently it is clear and obvious that if the man is incapable of sexual intercourse that it is a very great defect in terms of the reason she got married and there is no need to bring proofs to this. But there is also a great proof as we see in the Ein Yitzchok (E.H. 24.6) in citing Tosfos (Yevamos 65) that if the husband is impotent he is required to divorce his wife.  This is also the view of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch (154) and also the Beis Yosef cites it in the name of Rashba that we force the impotent husband to divorce her since she got married to have sex. .  Thus we see it is a major deficit. So even if you have a doubt that perhaps there are some women who don’t care if their husband is impotent and therefore we can not force a divorce. But perhaps this last proof shows that we can force a divorce even though we are concerned that even though most women do care about this even though there is a minority that doesn’t care.  However it is more likely that the reason we can force a divorce is because all woman only marry for intercourse. And thus this is a case of mekach ta’us (mistaken transaction)to annul the marriage  The reason that they say to force the divorce and don’t say the marriage is annulled is because their case was of a man who became impotent after they got married. This distinction is important regarding all serious deficits, since there are some woman who prefer marriage under almost any circumstances.  Impotence is not only a major deficit but it is worse than a case such as mucha shechin (skin disease) because sex can not exist at all with it. All the Achronim agree that is a major defect and therefore it can be the basis to annul the marriage if she wasn’t aware of it before she got married and only learned of it after the marriage.  Consequently after much analysis in this case of an impotent husband and it has been determined that he was this way even prior to marriage and it is impossible to obtain a get from him – she should not be an aguna and she should be permitted to remarry because of annulling the marriage (kiddushei ta’os).

Republicans Are One Bill Away From Making It Legal to Shoot a Protestor Whose Sign They Don’t Like

 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/gop-anti-protest-bills

 Following the signing of a Florida “anti-riot” law that, among things, grants civil immunity to people who decide to drive their cars into protesters who are blocking a road and makes it a second-degree felony to destroy a plaque, memorial, painting, flag, or other structure commemorating historical people or events, the New York Times reports that GOP lawmakers in dozens of states have introduce anti-protest bills meant to silence people speaking out for justice. Oklahoma and Iowa, for instance, were apparently inspired by what Florida did re: basically encouraging drivers to strike protestors with their cars, and passed similar bills granting legal protections in certain situation for drivers who hit protestors supposedly blocking the street. In Indiana, a Republican proposal would ban anyone convicted of unlawful assembly from holding state employment. A Minnesota bill would bar people convicted of unlawful protesting from receiving unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and even student loans. In Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed by the police inside her apartment last year, the State Senate passed a bill that would make it a crime to insult a police officer with “offensive or derisive” words or gestures that could “provoke a violent response.” (In other words, one could be charged for using words that caused a police officer to violently respond to them.) That measure would have required those arrested to be held in jail for a minimum of 48 hours, a rule that does not automatically apply to people arrested in Kentucky on charges of arson, rape, or murder. While the bill died in the statehouse, its lead sponsor, Republican State Senator Danny Carroll, said he would refile it next session.

As the Times notes, these bills are completely unnecessary given the fact that (1) last summer’s protests were overwhelmingly peaceful—96% involved no police damage or police injuries, while a report found that it was police officers or counterprotesters who often instigated violence and (2) laws already exist to punish rioting. Instead, the measures are clearly aimed at scaring people into staying silent.

What is a serious defect to annul marriage without a get?

 There are ignorant people who claim they are relying on Rav Moshe Feinstein to annul a marriage because the husband has an incurable psychological issue. It is clear that not every personality order justifies such an approach. This can be seen clearly in one of the classic tshuvos where he annuls a marriage when it was discovered that the husband was a homosexual and he states that this applies only if the husband were exclusively homosexual. 

 

Igros Moshe (E.H. 04:113): Concerning the present matter where the wife has discovered that her husband has had homosexual relations since we find that this is considered a major defect the marriage is a mistake also for the wife as I have explained in Igros Moshe (E.H. 1:79 and 1:180).. It is also reasonable that the fact that the husband is involved in homosexual relations - which are the worst possible abomination and most disgusting thing - it is a disgrace to the whole family. And surely it is extremely degrading to his wife that her husband prefers this disgusting intercourse rather than intercourse with his wife. Thus it is definitely a mistaken marriage. It is clear to us that no woman would be willing to marry such a disgusting, repulsive and debased man as this. Consequently if immediately after she was informed about this she left him - that if it is impossible for her to receive a divorce from him - that she should be permitted to remarry because of having a mistaken marriage. However if it is possible to obtain a divorce, it is necessary to try with all that is possible in order to obtain a kosher get. On the other hand, if he is not fully immersed in homosexuality - but only occasionally because of the influence of his lust - perhaps this should not be considered to be a mistaken marriage. So even though he is a complete rasha (wicked) - even for the sake of a single incident – there are those who mistakenly imagine that this is called a mistaken marriage. However if he is fully immersed in homosexuality - in that he gets more pleasure from homosexual intercourse than from relations with women – it is definitely a mistaken marriage. All of this is if she left him immediately when she found out. But if she remains with him even after being notified, then it is difficult to nullify the marriage. If his behavior is the result of foolishness, since this is something which is unnatural it is definitely a defect. Since it is from foolishness it is likely that there are other manifestations of foolishness. However in essence it is from wickedness and is repulsive - which also makes it a mistaken marriage.

 

 

Students beat rabbi in Ponevezh Yeshiva

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304703

 The riots inside the Ponevezh Yeshiva Hall in Bnei Brak have resumed, with students from the 'Jerusalem Faction' beat one of the teachers today. One of the students also spat on him.

Rabbi Aryeh Kahaneman, the son of Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, was the victim of the attack. He was taken to Tel Hashomer hospital.

The quarrel was part of a longstanding dispute between the two factions over control of the yeshiva and the division of its territory. The supporters of Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz on the one hand, nicknamed the "haters," and Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman's rival camp, called the "terrorists" have long been at loggerheads and tensions frequently lead to violence.

גרסת פלג 'המחבלים' בפוניבז': "מדובר באלימות מתוכננת"

 https://www.kikar.co.il/390096.html

האלימות בישיבת פוניבז' - גרסת 'המחבלים': לאחר יומיים רצופים של אירועים בגבעת הישיבה, הפלג של 'המחבלים' מציג את גרסתו: "הכל מתוזמן מראש, 

האלימות מכוונת" - וחושף תיעוד חדש

 

Police called as Bnei Brak yeshiva brawl turns violent

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rJ7izd2I00#autoplay

 Long-standing battle for control of Ponevezh seminary erupts into violence when mainstream faction returns after pandemic regulations lifted; two people hospitalized, including son of yeshiva dean

Ultra-Orthodox mob locks cops in building; then suspect flees dressed as woman

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-mob-locks-cops-in-building-as-arrest-raid-turns-violent/

 Police ran into violent clashes Monday night in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood, with three officers suffering mild injuries.

During an initial arrest raid, a group of officers was trapped in a building after local residents barricaded them inside with chains. A suspect wanted by police tried to evade arrest the next day by dressing as a woman.