Saturday, May 29, 2021

Friday, May 28, 2021

Elliot Resnick, Jewish Press editor who entered Capitol on Jan 6, to be replaced

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/elliot-resnick-jewish-press-editor-who-entered-capitol-on-jan-6-to-be-replaced/

Resnick assumed the position of editor at The Jewish Press in 2018. He has a long history of using incendiary language and has called the gay rights movement “evil.”

Under Resnick’s editorship, The Jewish Press was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019 after publishing an op-ed titled “The Pride Parade: What Are They Proud Of” comparing gay marchers in the New York event to animals, adulterers and thieves.

“If blacks resent America’s [sic] so much, let them discard Christianity (which the ‘white man’ gave them) and re-embrace the primitive religions they practiced in Africa,” Resnick wrote in a tweet in 2019.

Da'as Torah and the Legacy of Rabbi Joshua H. Shmidman

 Da'as Torah and the Legacy of Rabbi Joshua H. Shmidman

Shalom C. Spira

"And so, [please] place Your fear, Ha-Shem our G-d, upon all Your works, and Your awe upon all that You created" 
(High Holiday amidah)

It is with a sense of appreciation that I hereby accept Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn's invitation to join him as an associate writer at <http://daattorah.blogspot.com/> . During our global pandemic, when humanity has indeed been transformed by such fear and awe described by the above-cited prayer, and when it is difficult/impossible (depending on the local health directives of the government) to safely congregate in person, the internet has become a helpful medium for Jews to engage in the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. To that effect, there are numerous websites today blessed with Torah content, as surveyed by posek ha-dor Rabbi J. David Bleich at https://traditiononline.org/survey-of-recent-halakhic-literature-coronavirus-queries-part-1-communal-prayer-porch-minyan-a-missed-bar-mitzva/ . Nevertheless, I find R. Daniel Eidensohn's website to be particularly deserving of applause, for it is he [together with his brother Rabbi David Eidensohn] who has correctly educated the public that Ms. Tamar Epstein is still the wife of Mr. Aharon Friedman according to the Jewish faith. The evidence for this conclusion is documented in my article already disseminated on this website at http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/08/response-to-r-shmuel-kamenetzky-tanar.html?m=1. Ergo, it is an honour and a pleasure for this unworthy student to join the distinguished Rabbinic Eidensohn brothers in their mitzvah efforts, thereby making me a nitpal li-osei mitzvah, as per the Mishnah, Makkot 5b.
In the present essay, I will introduce my credentials as a disciple of the late Rabbi Joshua H. Shmidman of Montreal, Canada (see attached scan), and explain how it is precisely the legacy of Rabbi Shmidman which requires that Ms. Epstein separate from her second husband. Interestingly, Rabbi Shmidman granted his semikhah in concert with the Beth Din of Memphis, Tennessee, which at the time was headed by Rabbi Efraim Greenblatt (author of Teshuvot Rivevot Efrayim), nephew of Rabbi Nota Zvi Greenblatt. Subsequent to the Rivevot Efrayim's ascent to the Heavenly Academy, R. Nota Zvi Greenblatt became Av Beit Din and ultimately served as the [mistaken] mesader kiddushin for Ms. Epstein to her putative second husband [-the latter who is in fact not her husband according to Torah law; see http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/05/protest-against-greenblatt-kaminetsky.html .]
Rabbi Shmidman had a memorable sermon for Parashat Va-Yera. He pointed to Abimelech's poignant question in Genesis 20:9-10, viz. how could Abraham suspect a culturally advanced civilization like the Philistines of intending to murder him for the sake of stealing his wife. Abraham's illuminating answer (Genesis 20:11) is that without Yir'at Shamayim, even the most sophisticated community can behave like wild animals. Rabbi Shmidman explained how this is what occurred in Third Reich Germany. [And see Malbim, Rabbi Samson Rephael Hirsch and Rabbi Yehudah Nachshoni, who all preceded Rabbi Shmidman on this message.]
The take-home lesson of Rabbi Shmidman for Epstein vs. Friedman is clear. A Jew who possesses Yir'at Shamayim will - of necessity - recoil from pressuring an innocent husband [such as Aharon Friedman] from delivering a get to his estranged wife, for to place such pressure on the innocent husband would be to potentially violate Exodus 20:14, as explained in footnote 91 of my aforementioned article. Now is the time for Ms. Epstein to heroically demonstrate her own Yir'at Shamayim by immediately separating from her second husband, as the Jewish faith requires.


Rabbi Shalom C. Spira earns a living as Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute of Medical Research [a Pavillion of the Jewish General Hospital] in Montreal, Canada.


 

International Beis Din

 


AG to indict Litzman for obstruction of justice, breach of trust in Leifer case

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/ag-says-plans-to-indict-litzman-for-obstruction-of-justice-breach-of-trust/

 Pending charges against Haredi minister tied to allegations he sought to block extradition of accused pedophile Malka Leifer, prevent closure of a deli cited for health violations

Thursday, May 27, 2021

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Sleeper cell’ of Christian missionaries who infiltrated Orthodox communities in Jerusalem unmasked

 https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/sleeper-cell-of-fake-jews-unmasked-1.517143

 Four members of a “sleeper cell” of alleged undercover Christian missionaries who infiltrated Orthodox communities in Jerusalem have been unmasked in dossiers passed to the Israeli government, the JC can reveal.

They are from a group of 10 fake Jews who followed evangelical ringleader Michael Elk — calling himself Rabbi Michael Elkohen — whose Christian upbringing was exposed earlier this month in a special report by the JC.

Elk had set up a seminary in Jerusalem called Yeshivat Yarim Ha’am, teaching a belief in Jesus. He gave students a ‘Messianic’ smicha, making them rabbis.

A rabbi’s accuser wanted me to tell her story. Here’s why it took 20 years.

 https://www.jta.org/2021/05/26/ny/a-rabbis-accuser-wanted-me-to-tell-her-story-heres-why-it-took-20-years

 In March 2005, I was on the verge of publishing an article that I knew would have a major impact. As the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, I would be describing — for the first time — the true nature of the sexual misconduct that led one of the most prominent Reform rabbis in America to resign from his role as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the movement’s seminary.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman had resigned from HUC in 2000 and been suspended for two years from the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the movement’s rabbinic organization. The group had said only that Zimmerman had engaged in unspecified  ”personal relationships” that violated its ethical code, and many believed that he had a long-ago consensual affair with an adult woman in his congregation.

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

How Anti-Semitism Rises on the Left and Right

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-anti-semitism-rises-on-the-left-and-right 

 I think I see anti-Judaism anywhere that I see people explaining their circumstances by thinking about the Jews in a way that seems driven by prejudgment rather than reality. In that sense, I wouldn’t draw a distinction between a Muslim in Paris who suffers all kinds of discrimination at the hands of the French state, but who enacts his rage first and foremost against a Jewish target, and a white nationalist or a black nationalist or a left-Labour politician in England. I think all of them—to the degree that they are explaining what needs to be overcome in their world in terms of overcoming the Jews—are participating in a similar kind of thought.

Black conservatism

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

Some elected black conservatives include Florida representative Allen West, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Oklahoma representative J.C. Watts, and former Connecticut representative Gary Franks. Other notable black conservatives include economist Thomas Sowell, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, perennial political candidate Alan Keyes, and Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In 2009, Michael Steele became the first black man to chair the Republican National Committee. In 2011, Herman Cain was considered the leading Republican presidential nominee for a period of time. In addition there are a number of up and coming voices in the arena of political talks shows, and guest analysts such as Dr. Carol Swain, professor of political science from Vanderbilt University with multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, PBS, C-SPAN, and ABC Headline News.

What is fueling Antisemitism?

Far-right extremists who have taken over the GOP rely on fear and division to maintain power. They use antisemitism to fuel that fear and division, putting Jews and our neighbors in danger. The danger is real: Donald Trump’s presidency coincided with an uptick in hate crimes and violence, including the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

It isn’t just Trump. As 61% of American Jews know, antisemitism is a problem in the Republican Party. To fight it, we have to understand how antisemitism — along with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia — is part of the machinery of division and fear, and learn to recognize when right-wing extremists use that machine for political and material gain.

How the GOP brought antisemitism from the margins to the White House

 https://www.972mag.com/gop-antisemitism-white-nationalism/

The timeline, which stretches from May 2016 to the present, reveals what Sophie Ellman-Golan, an independent strategist who created the website with Bend the Arc, calls a “staggering” track record of antisemitism directly or indirectly linked to the Republican Party.

With more than 150 entries on the timeline, the list of incidents is too widespread and diverse to summarize. But picking months at random is instructive. A look at August 2019, for example, shows that Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer claimed Jewish billionaires have “bought Congress.” Trump called American Jews disloyal if they voted for Democrats.

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s space laser and the age-old problem of blaming the Jews

 https://www.vox.com/22256258/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theories

You can see Byford’s analysis at work in the most popular right-wing conspiracy theory in America today: QAnon.

The closest thing Qanon has to a central thesis — that Democrats are part of a secret global cabal of pedophile Satanists that Donald Trump will soon expose and destroy — is not on its face anti-Semitic. “The vast majority of QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories have nothing to do with anti-Semitism,” the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a 2018 report. And yet, the ADL also found that anti-Semitic content had permeated QAnon-friendly spaces on the internet.

 

Jerusalem Christian missionary training center poses as yeshiva

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306910

A wide-ranging probe by Yad L'Achim revealed that Tzemach David is the tip of the iceberg in the missionaries' efforts to earn the trust of the Israeli public through deceit and manipulations.

Tzemach David is housed in a building called the Bram Center, after Abram (Bram) Poljak, a pioneering missionary in Israel.

 

3 people confess tampering brakes to keep cable car open – Italian media

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/three-arrested-for-italian-cable-car-disaster-that-killed-14-report-669197 

The owner of the company operating the cable car, director of the service and an engineer purposefully deactivated the emergency breaks to hide malfunctions.