Impact of access to seforim on computer/Internet and nature of halacha

Halacha and the Internet by Rabbi Ari Kahn 

Born in Brooklyn NY, moved to Israel in 1984. I teach and write about Torah topics. Author of "Explorations" on the weekly Parsha and "Emanations" on holidays - both published by Targum/Feldheim http://rabbiarikahn.com

While Jews, especially traditional ones, seem to have an aversion to the concept of evolution, halacha itself, the stuff of which Jewish observance is made, may be seen as evolving. We who accept that Torah is the Word of God, and that the Written and Oral Torah were given to us, through Moshe, are aware that, as new situations arise, halacha adapts – has always adapted -  in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary fashion. 

At times, though, catalysts of more dramatic change present themselves: Cataclysms, especially those that cause massive population shifts, tend to impact halachic thinking and action in more discernable increments. Nonetheless, we may say that halacha is impacted and affected, rather than pointing to blatant, obvious "changes." Part of the impact is due to what and how people learn.[1]

Throughout Jewish history, catastrophe has often given rise to the perceived need to collect data, to preserve what runs the risk of being lost. Thus, after the destruction of the First Beit Hamikdash we find the canonization of Tanach. After the destruction of the Second Beit Hamikdash, the Bar Kochva rebellion and Hadrionic persecution, the Mishna emerged in an edited form. After a major earthquake destroyed the north of Israel, the Talmud Yerushalmi was edited. In the wake of the Spanish Inquisition, the Shulchan Oruch emerged. This reaction, which we may call "preservation as a means of self-preservation," is not always immediate, but the pattern of reactive codification and archiving is unmistakable.. [...]

Orthodoxy & homosexuality: Helping gay men marry lesbian women

Time Magazine

Rav Kook:Superior morality of masses, reporting sexual abuse & Aguda

 Seforim Blog New Writings from Rav Kook part 5. by Dr. Marc Shapiro 

[I wish to thank Dr. Shapiro for drawing my attention to the following]

Let me also return to the issue of the Jewish masses’ natural morality vs. the rabbinically tuned morality of the scholars, and how according to R. Kook the former is superior to that of the latter. I was asked if I can provide some examples of this. I think the most obvious such example is the response to sexual abuse that we have witnessed in the Orthodox world. While the natural impulse of the masses was that abusers must be immediately removed from any contact with children, many of the learned rabbis were able to come up with all sorts of reasons why this was not necessary, and why the police should not be called. Over time the view of the rabbinic class has evolved and many of them now advocate a strong response to sexual abuse. However, what took them a long time to get to was immediately understood by the Jewish masses, and they understood it intuitively. Years from now people will wonder how it was that rabbis refused to protect children. It will be incomprehensible to them how this could have happened. We who lived through this experience know that it was precisely the pressure on the ground, from the Jewish laypeople (and the bloggers and newspapers), that forced changes in this matter.[3] Here I think is a good example where talmudic learning led scholars לטהר את השרץ בק"ן טעמים, while the Jewish masses, with their intuitive natural morality, saw that evil must be exposed and they emerged victorious.[4]

 ---------------------

Footnote 3

A friend insists that there is no difference between Klein's position and that of Agudat Israel. This is not true at all. Whereas Klein states that someone can never be turned in to the police, the Agudah position is that a molester can be turned in, but only after a rabbi gives approval. The Agudah position continues to develop, and I have no doubt that in the end the Agudah will end up holding a position identical to that of the RCA. I also think that it is public pressure that will move Agudah in this direction, as public pressure has been responsible for all the adjustments in the Agudah's position that we have seen until now.

Yet even without public pressure, the current Agudah position is so untenable, that is will have to be updated. For one, it asks people to violate the law. The law is clear that some people are obligated to contact the police when they suspect child abuse. By insisting that a rabbi be consulted before doing so, mandated reporters are being put in the position of being told by a rabbi to refrain from doing something that the law requires. Do the Agudah constituents realize that listening to the rabbi in these circumstances can open them up to both criminal and civil penalties? [...]

Finally, unlike so many of the cynics in our community, I don't think the Agudah position is all about protecting rabbis, guilty or not. I really do believe that the Agudah recognizes that there is a problem. It is convinced that the rabbis it will charge with examining abuse cases will indeed make sure that molesters are turned in. The problem, however, is that we have seen all this before. We have seen over and over again that it is precisely the rabbis who have failed in this matter, often because they are not willing to turn on their own. It was precisely because of this that the community of laypeople rose up and said "No more." One doesn't need to be a prophet to see that by relying on individual rabbis to determine if an accusation of sexual abuse is credible, there will continue to be cover-ups. (Am I wrong in assuming that these cover-ups never would have happened if women were in charge? Would mothers ever have permitted child molesters to continue to prey on the young?)

The Agudah position is thus both a public relations and legal disaster in the making. The Church tried such an approach already and it doesn't work. I don't understand why such smart people in the Agudah don't see how their new position is doomed to failure.

Whose side is R Shafran taking? R J Rosenblum vs R A Shafran

Cross Currents

Do We Really Need Another Round of Shafran v. Rosenblum?

By Jonathan Rosenblum, on January 13th, 2011

One of my wittier friends commented that my recent exchange with Avi Shafran on President Obama’s Israel policy struck him as a mental health issue. “I mean its not like you and Avi are major players in the American foreign policy establishment, whose views are likely to have any impact of the Obama adminstration’s Israel policy,” he remarked.

I will confess I did not find any of the points made by defenders of the president’s foreign policy to be compelling or even very interesting — the defenders seemed far more eager to attribute low motivations to the president’s critics than to offer their own substantive defense. And I’m genuinely surprised that there were those who learned something new from Avi that they did not already know about Obama’s stance towards Israel. But I’m nevertheless delighted to find that the president has his defenders and that Orthodox Jews are not the victims of thought control or quite the automatons that we are caricacturized as being. Hopefully some of that independence of thought and multiplicity of viewpoints will reflect itself in communal debates, and not just in areas where our voices are not likely to have a major impact. In the meantime, it is always good to be reminded that no political party or politician embodies the Torah viewpoint or its opposite.

I do take to heart Avi’s admonitions about the difficulty of shaking oneself from settled views or even exposing oneself to counter viewpoints. All of us have a problem changing our minds once we have formed an opinion. That’s why we so badly need a chavrusah who is ever ready to contest our words and understandings with whom to learn Gemara. Similarly, any issue worth debating inevitably encompasses a number of perspectives. I’m therefore grateful that Avi has allowed himself to be pressed into service as my chavrusah on the Obama administration’s Mideast policy.

Avi now claims to have had a very modest goal in mind in his first piece on the subject: to provide readers with a few facts they may not have known about the actions of the Obama administration towards Israel. Had he done nothing other than point out some good things President Obama has done for Israel no one would have or could have disagreed, certainly not I. But his goal was larger than that. In his first piece, he only conceded that opprobrium towards the administration might be justified on fiscal issues, about which he professes to understand little. He did not concede any basis of criticism with respect to Middle East policy, about which, by contrast, he apparently considers himself to be sufficiently knowledgeable. I would respectfully submit it is Avi who has now gone far beyond his original “did you know these six things about President Obama and Israel” who is digging in his heals and putting forward a series of weak “terutzim” in response to my treatment of the major issues of the administration’s foreign policy, which found no place in his original piece.a

What Happened to Obama? Absolutely Nothing. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president.

Wall Street Journal by Norman Podhoretz

It's open season on President Obama. Which is to say that the usual suspects on the right (among whom I include myself) are increasingly being joined in attacking him by erstwhile worshipers on the left. Even before the S&P downgrade, there were reports of Democrats lamenting that Hillary Clinton had lost to him in 2008. Some were comparing him not, as most of them originally had, to Lincoln and Roosevelt but to the hapless Jimmy Carter. There was even talk of finding a candidate to stage a primary run against him. But since the downgrade, more and more liberal pundits have been deserting what they clearly fear is a sinking ship.

Here, for example, from the Washington Post, is Richard Cohen: "He is the very personification of cognitive dissonance—the gap between what we (especially liberals) expected of the first serious African American presidential candidate and the man he in fact is." More amazingly yet Mr. Cohen goes on to say of Mr. Obama, who not long ago was almost universally hailed as the greatest orator since Pericles, that he lacks even "the rhetorical qualities of the old-time black politicians." And to compound the amazement, Mr. Cohen tells us that he cannot even "recall a soaring passage from a speech." [...]

Who is Rabbi Avi Shafran? : An interview with Baruch Pelta

 On the Mainline

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

An interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran about Moses Mendelssohn, Torah im Derech Eretz, Da'as Torah, Science and Torah and the Slifkin affair.

Here's a guest post consisting of a very interesting interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran conducted by Baruch Pelta. Below is the interview transcript. I will post another post shortly which will give some of the background info regarding the Mendelssohn article published in the Jewish Observer nearly 25 years ago, which may or may not be known to readers (update: see this post for some of that background, as well as links to the relevant articles).

This interview was conducted in Rabbi Shafran’s office at Agudath Israel of America’s Rabbi Moshe Sherer Headquarters on August 28, 2009. Rabbi Avi Shafran is the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America. At the time of this interview, Baruch Pelta was an undergraduate student in Judaic Studies at Touro College. He is currently a graduate student in the same subject at Brandeis University. He blogs at Baruch's Thoughts.

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'NY Times' slammed for refusal to acknowledge Black anti-Semitic attacks in Crown Heights 20 years ago

JPost reporting on Jewish Week Article

A former New York Times religion reporter has written a blistering attack on the newspaper’s failure to attribute a riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 20 years ago to anti-Semitism. The violence resulted in the murder of Australian Yankel Rosenbaum, a Lubavitch hassid, on August 19, 1991.

Ari L. Goldman, who covered the story for the Times in 1991, wrote in the current issue of New York Jewish Week: “Over those three days I also saw journalism go terribly wrong. The city’s newspapers, so dedicated to telling both sides of the story in the name of objectivity and balance, often missed what was really going on. Journalists initially framed the story as a ‘racial’ conflict and failed to see the anti-Semitism inherent in the riots.”

Philadelphia Mayor strongly criticizes black teenage violence

Flash mobs in American cities - organized by internet

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

R' S. Z. Auerbach:Embarrassing others viewed as rodef/murder in halacha

UK violence raises questions about American unrest

AP

A black man killed by police. Mobs of looters. Cities charred and shaken. The riots in London mirror some of the worst uprisings in modern U.S. history.

And there are more parallels: Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet. And finally, there are a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.

As Americans look across the Atlantic, a natural question arises: Could the flames and violence that erupted in Britain scar this country, too?

Police, elected officials, activists and regular citizens offer varied answers, reflecting the unsettled mix of race, class, lawlessness, and the chasm between haves and have-nots that may lie behind the unrest. [...]

Autistic spectrum kids & their love of trains

NYTimes

Like many children with autism spectrum disorders, Ravi is fascinated by trains and buses, entranced by their motion and predictability. And for years, these children crowded the exhibitions of the modest New York Transit Museum, chattering about schedules and engine components and old subway maps.

“This is really their element,” said Ravi’s mother, Juliana Boehm, who brings Ravi and Oliver, his 8-year-old brother, who is also on the autism spectrum, to the museum almost weekly. “If I suggested another activity,” she added, “it may have provoked anxiety.”

Now, the museum, and others like it, are moving beyond accommodating the enthusiasm for trains and buses among children with autism and trying to use it to teach them how to connect with other people — and the world. [...]

Rabbinic leadership lives in constant fear of being labeled too lenient

The Sifi (Devarim 17) says on Devarim (1:16) Don't be afraid of any man. Perhaps a judge will say I am afraid that the defendant will kill my son or burn down my barn...Therefore the Torah says not to be afraid of any man because judgment is for G-d.

This is cited by Chinuch #415, Rambam(Sanhedrin 22:1). Aruch HaShulchan (C.M 12) cites the Rema that today the practice is that if a ruling might cause danger to a judge he can withraw from the case even if has already poskened. But if there is no danger just verbal abuse he can not withdraw.

=================================

I recently had a conversation with a rabbi who is a major talmid chachom and involved in the community i.e he fully knows  reality. He also has strong connection to many of the gedolim. He is widely respected and is viewed as an establishment figure. He never rocks the boat in public but follows the standard chareidi viewpoint.

Someone had just given him a copy of my book on child abuse.He had called me to express gratitude for my book to let me know  that he felt it was necessary and that it was well done.

We talked a while  about the issue of child abuse. I mentioned to him the Aguda position and the nasty editorial in Ami magazine. I said that I felt that their requirement that rabbis had to moderate going to police - even at the expense of the welfare of the children - has no justification in halacha. He agreed without any hesitation. He added that he did not think abuse was being handled properly by the rabbis.

I was surprised at his candor on the issue, so I asked the obvious question - so why aren't the rabbinic leaders following halacha. Why are they taking positions which are against the halacha? 

His answer was simply and blunt- they were afraid.  they were worried about being labeled a shaygetz - a liberal who is lenient regarding mesira - by other rabbis

Then he added - it is necessary for the rabbinic leadership to be pressured by the masses to do the right thing. They are not going to do it on their own and but they would welcome being pressured to do the right thing.

 ---------------------

Thus despite the denunciation of bloggers, advocates and the press - it seems there is some recognition not only of the good that they do but also the indispensable role they play in necessary change.

Prayer, & Bug Juice, at a Summer Camp for Jews of Color

  Be’chol Lashon's Goals

Vision: A Global Jewish People

Imagine a new global Judaism that transcends differences in geography, ethnicity, class, race, ritual practice, and beliefs. Discussions about “who-is-a-real-Jew” will be replaced with celebration of the rich, multi-dimensional character of the Jewish people.

Jews around the world face serious demographic challenges. Worldwide, the number of Jews is stagnant. Decimated by the Holocaust, Jews now comprise only 0.2% of the world's people. We believe the Jewish population, through pro-active efforts, could grow to 20 million by 2020, and 40 million by 2060.

We seek to overcome the significant organizational, cultural and ideological barriers to growth in the Jewish community. A more expansive Judaism is particularly engaging for younger and unaffiliated Jews who want Judaism to reflect the global community in which they live.

Mission
Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) grows and strengthens the Jewish people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. We advocate for the diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption. We foster an expanding Jewish community that embraces its differences.

NYTimes

 Such is the mission of Camp Be’chol Lashon (“In Every Tongue”) here in the hills of Marin County about 35 miles north of San Francisco. For the past two years, it has provided the commonplaces of Jewish summer camp, right down to poison oak and bug juice, to an emerging population of Jews of color.

“If there’s Christians of all colors and all kinds, and Muslims of all colors and all kinds,” Amalia, 11, said over Shabbat lunch, “then why would Jewishness be any different?”

One of her fellow campers, Josh Rowen-Keran, 14, who was born to black and Korean parents and then adopted by an interracial couple in the Bay Area, sounded similarly nonchalant. “Being Jewish isn’t looking a certain way,” he said. “I could look at anyone and not know if they are or aren’t Jewish. You can’t know till you know the person.”

Yet what strikes these children as the same old same old, an American-Jewish community of multiple hues and heritages, has arrived as a seismic change. Religiously and historically, Judaism has generally placed little emphasis on evangelism and conversion.[...]        

How did child abuser Avraham Mondrowitz escape justice?

Tablet Magazine

Most people have never heard the story of Avrohom Mondrowitz, which has received only a smattering ^[1] of headlines ^[2] in the Jewish media. A charismatic and eloquent member of the Ger Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, the 63-year-old claimed to be both a rabbi and a Columbia-trained psychologist. Though he was neither, for years he ran a psychology practice out of his basement, as well as a school for troubled youth. He is also alleged to be one of the worst sexual predators in Brooklyn history.

In 1984, Mondrowitz was accused of sexually abusing four Italian boys. Since then, the number of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims has been estimated at close to a hundred—making him, shockingly, an average pedophile. But given the shame and secrecy surrounding sexual abuse, and his broad network of contacts, the number of alleged victims could actually be much higher. Moshe Rosenbaum, one of the activists who first aired concerns about Mondrowitz in the late 1980s, estimates the number to be 300. If Mondrowitz were to be convicted of so many crimes, he would be the worst sexual predator in the Orthodox community on record.

But that would require a case to be brought against him—which, for a variety of troubling reasons, has never happened.

This fall, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, will hear ^[3] oral arguments pertaining to the release of documents about Mondrowitz. Michael Lesher, an attorney representing several of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims, asked the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for the documents under New York’s Freedom of Information Law in 2007. A trial court initially ruled in favor of Lesher’s clients, but that verdict was overturned unanimously last year on appeal.[...]

Judge sentenced to 28 years for jailing youths for kickbacks

Forbes

Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Judge Mark Ciavarella has been spending his time doing odd jobs for a car towing service while he awaited sentencing since being found guilty on felony corruption charges.  Well his painting days are over and 61 year old judge is heading to federal prison for 28 years…a life sentence.

His sentencing brings to closure a dark time in the history of the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA, which is in Luzerne County.  He was found guilty back in February of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for juveniles.  Ciavarella who left the bench over two years ago after he and another judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of sentencing youngsters to prisons they had a hand in building.  Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing, and Ciavarella received kick-backs from the private company that built and maintained the new youth detention facility that replaced the older county-run center.[...]

Police arrest 4 orthodox men on suspicion of paedophilia

JPost

Four ultra-Orthodox men were arrested by Jerusalem police in the past week on suspicion of sexually abusing children in their neighborhood between the ages of three and 13 over the past two to three years. According to the police, the men would lure the children into their apartments using promises of candy, money, or movies, and then would abuse the children.

Ami Magazine trashes critics of having submission to rabbinic control as the paramount value - in reporting abuse - rather than the safety of our children

Editorial by the publisher of Ami Magazine - R' Yitzchok Frankfurter July 27, 2011 page 6

 [Bold text was added for emphasis]

The unspeakable tragedy of Leiby Kletzkys murder united humankind as few things recently have. People of every race and creed expressed their heartfelt pain over what happened to that innocent, angelic child. However, as Rabbi Avi Shafran rightly points out in his columns this week, while it may have united people far and wide, an all-too-public exception found its way into the Jewish world. 

The New York Jewish Week, a publication that has long been viewed by many as anti-Orthodox, saw in the tragedy an opportunity for slander. In its editorial entitled "Lessons from Leiby," dated July 19, 2011, it seems to fault Leiby's parents for reaching out immediately to Shomrim, and goes on to state: 

"While many rabbinic authorities encourage their constituents to contact police immediately in cases of suspected abuse ... or other crises, there is still a stigma in some Orthodox communities to seek help from the authorities.

"Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union, has often noted that when your house is on fire, you call the fire department, not your rabbi. Similarly, he maintains, when there is a suspected crime, the first call should be to the police. 

"But that logic has been slow to take hold in some neighborhoods, sometimes with unfortunate results.

"In the meantime, attention should be focused on strengthening legislation for mandated reporting in New York to emulate states like New Jersey, where any person having reasonable cause to suspect abuse is required to report. Such legal action would prevent neighborhood watchdog groups from withholding from the police potentially vital information about suspects. This is particularly timely in light of reports that several neighbors of the accused killer say he had tried to abduct other boys in the neighborhood. Such incidents need to be reported." 

No one else, from governmental authorities to major media, found any connection between the horrific crime perpetrated by a fiend named Levi Aron and this prejudiced publication's pet issue: the alleged failure by the Orthodox community to report abusers to the police. In addition to the weekly's gross insensitivity in raising such accusations during a period of mourning, the charge is false. Just this very week, Agudath Israel of America publicized once again the ruling of gedolei Yisrael "that when certain standards have been met it is not only permitted but in fact obligatory to report suspicions of abuse .... Where there is 'raglayim la'davar' (roughly, reason to believe) that a child has been abused ... the matter should be reported to the authorities.... " 

The only caveat: "Because the question of reporting has serious implications for all parties, and raises sensitive halachic issues, the individual should not rely exclusively on his own judgment to determine the presence or absence of raglayim la’davar. Rather, he should present the facts of the case to a rabbi who is an expert in halacha and who also has experience in the area of abuse - someone who is fully sensitive both to the gravity of the halachic considerations and the urgent need to protect children." 

Some were upset by the directive to consult with a rabbi. What is wrong, though with seeking rabbinical guidance before going to the police? This is but the Orthodox way of life. Yet this halachic ruling of leading decisors has been distorted not only by The Jewish Week, but by a gaggle of "activist” groups, falsely contending that the Orthodox people are obligated to go to a rabbi instead of the police, when that is not what the rabbinic ruling said at all. 

While The Jewish Week claims that it seeking to help our community, when was the last time it reached out to assist challenged Orthodox children who are not victims of a crime? There is virtually no reportage about our children who may be learning disabled or suffering from serious disease. These poor souls, too, need our compassion and help. But, to The Jewish Week, crimeless victims seem of limited interest. Apparently, when an issue that affects the Orthodox community does not provide an opportunity to criticize or misrepresent, is ignored. 

It is true that there are Jewish people, even within our own community, who have come to distrust rabbonim on the issue of abuse. Perhaps that is why some have joined the chorus of condemnation of the ruling that a rabbi should be consulted prior to reporting to governmental authorities. But instead of denouncing the rabbonim, it would be more constructive to assist rabbis in becoming more aware of the dangers and signs of abuse. Seminars for rabbis on this issue, perhaps sponsored by the Agudah, would certainly be a step in the right direction. 

Despite the detractors, at the same time that we seek to protect our children, respect for our rabbinic leadership is paramount. Protecting our children and respecting our leaders are our solemn duties that will also lead to a more promising future.

Reporting Child Abuse:Care Enough to Call

What is a Mandated Reporter?

Why do non-Jews bashing Israel claim to be Jewish?

JPost

Defending his participation in the latest flotilla operation in an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, Gabriel Matthew Schivone, an American university student, stressed in a late June Ha’aretz opinion piece that he is one of a growing number of young American Jews seeking to disassociate himself from Israel.

There is, however, a rather large factual wrinkle with Schivone’s account – he appears to have falsified his Jewish identity.[...]

Kletsky Killing Renews Calls For Oversight of Yeshivas

Forward

A number of child-safety proposals have been floated in the wake of the murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn’s Boro Park neighborhood.

One proposal might stand out to New York State residents as a commonsense initiative: mandatory background checks and fingerprinting for private school employees.

The checks would not have prevented the murder of Kletzky. Accused killer Levi Aron, also a Jew from Boro Park, abducted the boy off the street in July as the child walked home from a neighborhood summer camp. But advocates contend that such regulation would codify one lesson of the murder: that Orthodox communities can no longer place blind trust in their own.

“The point that we bring to the table is that we Jews can’t do it ourselves,” said Elliot Pasik, president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children. “We can’t self-govern. We can’t police ourselves. We need laws for child safety.”[....]

Young woman recounts her escape from Breslaver cult

Haaretz

In mid-May, a young woman called the Israel Center for Cult Victims, asking that her identity be kept secret. "I live in a Jerusalem collective," she told center director Rachel Lichtenstein. "I'm not certain, but I think it's a cult."

That call led to the exposure of the Jerusalem cult whose ringleader, D., was indicted yesterday along with two other members. 

In several meetings with center staffers, the caller, in her early twenties, revealed the story of her life in D.'s house. She later agreed to complain to the police. Her detailed testimony about the physical, sexual and emotional abuse inflicted on the household's women and children led to an investigation that ended with the police and welfare authorities raiding the house. The women and children were sent to shelters; D. and two others were arrested. 

Now, according to her lawyer, Ami Savir, the complainant will be the key prosecution witness in the trial.

Bnei Brak teacher arrested on charges of sexual abuse

JPOST

An indictment was filed on Thursday in the Tel Aviv District Court against Rabbi Yaakov Vimer, a Bnei Brak teacher suspected of carrying out serious sexual offenses against one of his students.

According to the charge sheet, filed by Attorney Claudia Bilenka of the Tel Aviv District Attorney's office, 52-year-old Vimer committed sodomy and sexual assault on the young boy over a period of two years, from 2002 - 2003. The victim was 12 years old when the alleged abuse started. [...]

Abusive Breslover cult [Video]

International child porn ring encouraged abuse

The keys of Baba Elazar - a false embellishment

BCHOL

שעה קלה לאחר הרצח המזעזע של המקובל רבי אלעזר אבוחצירא זצ"ל, נלקח הרב לבית החולים 'סורוקה', שם ביצעו הרופאים בדיקת סי טי בגופו הטהור.

הבדיקה השגרתית שנערכת לאחר כל רצח, השאירה - לדברי משפחת אבוחצירא - את הרופאים בהלם מוחלט.

מקורבו של ה'באבא אלעזר', יוסי רפאלי, מספר ל'בחדרי חרדים' את הסיפור המופתי שסיפרו, לדבריו, רופאי בית החולים לבני המשפחה.

"בליל הרצח תיאמתי את מסע הלוויה והקבורה בירושלים והייתי בקשר רציף עם בנו של הרב - רבי פנחס.

"במהלך אחת השיחות אמר לי הרב פנחס שהוא חייב לכבות את מכשיר הטלפון בשל בדיקת סי.טי. שנערכת לגופת אביו. לאחר חצי שעה שוחחנו שוב, והבן אומר לי שהוא עדיין בבדיקה ויצור איתי קשר מיד לאחריה.

"לא הבנתי. מניסיוני בדיקת הסי.טי. אורכת דקות בודדות. לא הבנתי למה הבדיקה מתארכת.

Palestinian who lead double life as a Jewish baal teshuva

BCHOL

מחזיר בתשובה חי חיים כפולים: חרדי ופלסטיני מחזיר בתשובה התגלה כפלסטיני בעל חיים כפולים • בימים בילה בכפר 

הולדתו הפלסטיני, בלילות נאם בכנסים • זהותו נחשפה לאחר שאשתו החרדית ניסתה להתאב                                                            

א' בן 45 נולד כמוסלמי בכפר עבדאללה, סמוך לירושלים. לפני 15 שנה החליט לברוח מכפרו, הגיע לירושלים, והחליט להתגייר. לאחר שבע שנות לימודי יהדות באחת הישיבות הידועות בירושלים, הוא השלים את הליך הגיור.

לאט לאט צבר לעצמו קהל מעריצים והתפרסם כמחזיר בתשובה שמילא בתי כנסת ואולמות.

הוא נישא בשידוך לצעירה חרדית, ויחד גידלו בת בעיר מגוריהם ירושלים. היום מתברר כי א' ניהל חיים כפולים ובימים התגורר בכפר פלסטיני.

"כולם העריצו אותו", סיפרה האשה ההמומה לעיתון 'מעריב' שמפרסם את הסיפור. "הוא היה מודל לחיקוי עבור החוזרים בתשובה. הם האמינו לכל דבר שיצא מפיו". גם האשה לא העלתה על דעתה שבעלה אינו מרבה לבקר בבית, משום שהוא נוסע לכפר הולדתו.

את ההעדרויות הרבות שלו הסביר בכך שבימים הוא לומד מאוד קשה.  

In summer, Jewish studies flowers in Eastern Europe

JPost

Programs reflect remarkable resurgence of Jewish informal learning, academic studies that has occurred in Europe since fall of communism.

Breslover cult abuse case

YNet

הנשים עברו התעללות מצד אנשי הכת שעינו גם ילדים, והאם מספרת כי ניסתה להרחיק את בתה מהם - אך לשווא. גם באיגוד לנפגעי תקיפה מינית לא מבינים: "איך שירותי הרווחה לא שמו לב". משרד הרווחה: "כל פנייה שהגיעה נבדקה וטופלה"

החשש שהילד יאבד שליטה הוא פחד שמלווה כל הורה. עבור הוריהן של הנשים שנפגעו מהכת הסדיסטית שנחשפה אתמול (יום ג') בירושלים ובאזור טבריה, הפחד הזה התממש. אמה של אחת הנשים שהיו חברות בכת סיפרה אמש ל-ynet כי ניסתה לשכנע את בתה להתנתק מהחבורה: "קראתי עליהם בתקשורת, וניסיתי למנוע ממנה להתמסר להם, אבל היא הייתה מסונוורת", העידה.

האם סיפרה כי חברי הכת לא הצטיירו לה עצמה בתחילה כאנשים רעים שאחראים לפשעים מזעזעים, כפי שהתברר בדיעבד. אלא שכעת, היא אומרת, היא איבדה את האמון בבני אדם: "הלב שלי סתום ואטום אחרי מה ששמעתי שאומרים במשטרה. אני שמחה שהבת שלי פתחה סוף-סוף את העיניים, ומקווה שמנהיג הכת ייענש". 

 

Police arrest Breslover group suspected of abusing women and children

Haaretz     YNET

updated

Israel Police, in cooperation with Jerusalem district officers and social services, arrested nine members of a cult living in Jerusalem and in theTiberias area over the past few weeks, on suspicion of carrying out emotional and physical abuse of women and children over a two year period,

An undercover investigation into the cult was initiated following a complaint submitted by a young women to Jerusalem Police two and half months ago. The details of the arrests were revealed on Tuesday. [...]

Is It ‘Anti-Orthodox’ To Seek A Safer Community?

Jewish Week By Gary Rosenblatt editor & publisher

It is sad, if not maddening, when this newspaper is labeled “anti-Orthodox” for its reporting on scandals and other disturbing incidents in a segment of the community whose culture places a high value on policing itself.

Such accusations are not new, but they have ratcheted up significantly in recent days following the tragic death of young Leiby Kletzky of Borough Park, and The Jewish Week’s report and Editorial (July 22 issue) calling into question the role of the much-respected community watchdog group, Shomrim, in terms of its procedures and relations with law enforcement authorities.

The headline last week of an Orthodox magazine, Ami, used the word “slander” in referring to our reporting on Shomrim. Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, wrote in Ami, where he is editor at large, that The Jewish Week “seems bent on viewing and portraying the charedi community with” a “jaundiced eye.”

Marvin Schick, an expert in the field of Jewish education who writes a paid-for column in The Jewish Week, goes further in his criticism, proclaiming in a blog that “Orthodoxy-bashing is alive and well” at The Jewish Week, which he said has reached a new low in offering up “a vile exercise in group libel.”

Eishes Chayil Author, 'Hush': Shattering a Traumatic Silence

 Huffington Post

When I was a little girl, I never spoke with strangers. Strangers would hurt us. Strangers were capable of great evil.

In the ultra-Orthodox world of Borough Park, friend and stranger were simple words to define. A friend was anyone who looked like us, religious Jews who wore traditional Orthodox garb, had beards and covered their heads with large black kippas. A stranger was anyone who did not. You could never confuse the two. Most importantly, strangers did not fear God.

The garb made the world a clear and safe place and taught us everything we needed to know about right and wrong. If you wore the garb you were right, if you did not you were wrong. As children, we always knew how lucky we were to be living in the insular world of Borough Park. In Borough Park, we could trust everyone. In Borough Park children could not be hurt.

Orthodox Jews were good; they were trustworthy and moral above all. If such a man offered you a ride home, you could always hop in and go. If such a man gave you a drink, you knew it was safe.

It was a good world, if only an illusion. It was a warm and secure place for a child to grow, except when it wasn't. Because in a world where trust was so total, so blind, it was that much easier to get hurt.

Three weeks ago, in Borough Park, 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky walked home from day camp. He got lost. He asked a man for directions. The man seemed safe. He wore a kippa. He did not wear jeans. One day later, the police found Leiby's feet in the man's freezer; his body was somewhere else.[,,,]

Feedback, causality & G-d

I am working on the issue of feedback. I can not find any Jewish sources regarding feedback - to pick a reference and modify behavior or processes or efforts to maximize the referent. This is a fundamental Western idea - but not Jewish. It seems that the official Jewish view is that human effort does not cause success but only provides merit which justifies G-d making you successful. This issue  cuts across a wide range of issues from child abuse, education, parnossa etc etc.

I also can't find where and when this idea developed in the Western World.

Any and all help in this area would be appreciated. I also don't see that there is any difference between chareidi, Modern Orthodox and Hirschian theology regarding this issue.

Chovas HaLevavos (4:4) Even when you are fully aware that effort is worthless without G‑d’s decree, nevertheless you must act like the farmer who plows, removes the thorns, seeds and waters his field if there is no rain. At the same time he trusts that G‑d will make it fertile, guard it from calamity, make a bountiful crop and bless it. In other words he knows that it is wrong to leave the field unworked and unsown even though he has full faith that G‑d could decree that the land produce a crop even without planting beforehand. Similarly workers, merchants and laborers are commanded to earn a living in their occupation even though they have full trust in G‑d to provide them with sustenance. They make this effort despite the fact they accept that everything is totally in His hands and according to His wishes and that in fact He has promised them a livelihood. They understand that He will provide this sustenance anyway He wants. Since everything is in G‑d’s hands you shouldn’t think that one profession is more likely to provide a livelihood than another. Similarly you shouldn’t take pride in what seems to be professional success or even to make special efforts to achieve success. Total involvement in a job serves merely to weaken trust in G‑d because the effort is in fact not the cause of success. Instead of depending totally on your efforts you should be grateful to G‑d for providing sustenance for you after your efforts and that your efforts were not in vain

Among Conservative Rabbis, a Wide Disagreement Over Same-Sex Marriage

NY Times

But at another Conservative congregation, Temple Israel Center in White Plains, Rabbi Gordon Tucker, 60, the synagogue’s leader, performed a Jewish ceremony a year ago for two young gay men who had been civilly married in Connecticut. On Saturday, the first anniversary of the wedding, the men were called up for an aliyah, a blessing they said over the Torah, and their parents sponsored the celebratory kiddush, the postworship meal for congregants. 

“It’s not controversial in the congregation,” said Rabbi Tucker, a former dean of the rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement’s fountainhead. “Over a period of years we have reached a consensus and people supported my position.” 

The two rabbis’ contrasting viewpoints are reflective of the wide disagreement within Conservative Judaism on an issue that continues to roil many of its synagogues even after passage of laws in New York and five other states that legalize same-sex marriage.

Monsey man charged with sexually abusing child

3 retarded Jerusalem men accused of seducing children after school

Walla

המשטרה עצרה שלושה חרדים על סף הפיגור השכלי, בחשד שביצעו מעשי סדום בכ-30 ילדים בגילאי 5-10 בירושלים. על פי החשד, את חלק מהמעשים הם ביצעו יחדיו. מעצרם הוארך בשלושה ימים

Maariv

תגיות: חרדים, מעשי סדום

פרסום ראשון: משטרת מחוז ירושלים עצרה אתמול שלושה אנשים בני 44, 67, ו-46 מהעדה החרדית, בחשד לביצוע מעשי סדום ומעשי התעללות בעשרות ילדים בגילאי 5-10 בשכונה חרדית בעיר

לפי חשד המשטרה, השלושה נהגו לפתות את הילדים בסוכריות ובחלק מהמקרים אף נהגו לבצע אורגיות עם הילדים. במשטרה חושדים כי בחלק מהמקרים נהג אחד החשודים לתפוס את איברי מינם של הילדים באמצעות צבת ופטיש.

השלושה נהגו לפתותם לאחר שאלו חזרו מתלמוד תורה. כאשר אספו שלושה או ארבעה ילדים יחד, הם נהגו להכניסם לביתם ולבצע את זממם. החשודים הובאו לחקירה בתחנת המשטרה במגרש הרוסים, אך בחקירתם הכחישו את המיוחס להם.

Pix11 Child Abuse in Orthodox Community

Downs Syndrome: Treat with drugs or abortion or accept them as is?

NYTimes

[....]“This was a disorder for which it was believed there was no hope, no treatment, and people thought, Why waste your time?” says Craig C. Garner, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-director of the Center for Research and Treatment of Down Syndrome at Stanford University. “The last 10 years have seen a revolution in neuroscience, so that we now realize that the brain is amazingly plastic, very flexible, and systems can be repaired.” 

But the effects of that revolution on Down research may yet be cut short. A competing set of scientists are on the cusp of achieving an entirely different kind of medical response to Down syndrome: rather than treat it, they promise to prevent it. They have developed noninvasive, prenatal blood tests which would allow for routine testing for Down syndrome in the first trimester of a pregnancy, raising the specter that many more parents would terminate an affected pregnancy. Some predict that one of the new tests could be available to the public within the year.[...]

Not all parents of children with Down syndrome embrace Costa’s vision of a medical treatment targeting intelligence. In a recent survey conducted in Canada, parents were asked what they would do if there was a “cure” for their child’s Down syndrome. A surprising 27 percent said they would definitely not use it, and another 32 percent said they were unsure.  [...]

A follower of Baba Elazar zt"l, “Nobody had so much in body & spirit & such discipline in serving God"

JPost

The sudden and traumatic demise of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, who was stabbed to death overnight Thursday in his Beersheba yeshiva, has left thousands of his followers mourning and perplexed.

What made Abuhatzeira, known as the Baba Elazar, so special to the scores of people from all walks of life who sought his blessing and advice?

“He had intuition, or the holy spirit; he had something going on. I attributed it to his family lineage, and his holy lifestyle,” said Chaim Cohen, an educator from Jerusalem.

Abuhatzeira was a scion to a famous Moroccan rabbinic dynasty. His grandfather was Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali, believed by his followers to work miracles.

As for the lifestyle, Cohen said that Abuhatzeira trained himself to suffice with only two hours of sleep a night, with short naps during the day. That way, he could spend the whole day studying Torah and helping people. He also covered himself, and never looked at women. He would fast the entire month of Elul, and was a great Torah scholar.

“Nobody who had so much in body and spirit had such discipline in serving God, that’s why he had the gifts he had,” said Cohen, “which he used to help people.” [...]

The chareidi man behind the Anti-Shariah Movement

NYTimes

Tennessee’s latest woes include high unemployment, continuing foreclosures and a battle over collective-bargaining rights for teachers. But when a Republican representative took the Statehouse floor during a recent hearing, he warned of a new threat to his constituents’ way of life: Islamic law.

The representative, a former fighter pilot named Rick Womick, said he had been studying the Koran. He declared that Shariah, the Islamic code that guides Muslim beliefs and actions, is not just an expression of faith but a political and legal system that seeks world domination. “Folks,” Mr. Womick, 53, said with a sudden pause, “this is not what I call ‘Do unto others what you’d have them do unto you.’ ”

Similar warnings are being issued across the country as Republican presidential candidates, elected officials and activists mobilize against what they describe as the menace of Islamic law in the United States.

Since last year, more than two dozen states have considered measures to restrict judges from consulting Shariah, or foreign and religious laws more generally. The statutes have been enacted in three states so far. [...]

Chareidi Internet cafe opens in Israel

YNet

The ultra-Orthodox city of Modiin Illit has got its own Internet café for the very first time. The café, an initiative of haredi businessman Yehuda Weisfish, was opened after he received rabbinical approval.
 
The new experimental store is called "Gilad Net" and is strictly kosher. For the haredi public this is a real revolution, as the Internet has been considered abominable by rabbis for years.

Every passing day, Weisfish says, proves that progress cannot be made without the worldwide computer network. "We are becoming a small global village, and one can no longer do with just faxes and telephones."

Every passing day, Weisfish says, proves that progress cannot be made without the worldwide computer network. "We are becoming a small global village, and one can no longer do with just faxes and telephones." [...]

Crisis in medical care: Hundreds of doctors rally at Knesset

YNet

Hundreds of doctors, medical residents and interns from hospitals around the country marched Sunday from Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center to the Whol Rose Park near the Knesset, where they held a mass rally demanding "to save the collapsing health system."

During the rally, Israeli Medical Association Chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who also serves as the health minister – to intervene.

Finance Minister: Growing calls for reform could lead to 'anarchy' in Israel

          Haaretz

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz hit back on Sunday at the growing national protests over the rising cost of living, saying some reforms being demanded might lead to economic crises like those besetting parts of Europe and the United States.

The warnings followed marches by some 150,000 demonstrators, the resignation of a top treasury official and questions from leading commentators over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ability to ride out a revolt by the middle class.

"We see the talk about the debt crisis in Europe. We are even hearing talk of a possible default in the United States,"Steinitz said. "My supreme duty is to ensure we do not reach this situation in the State of Israel."

He rejected calls for the authorities to curb industry leaders who are often accused of artificially inflating the price of consumer goods through cartels tolerated by Netanyahu and his predecessors.

Shocking discovery! Psychology doesn't always help & sometimes makes it worse

 NYTimes

Some given treatment undoubtedly benefited, researchers say, but others became annoyed or more upset. At least one commentator referred to therapists’ response as “trauma tourism.”

“We did a case study in New York and couldn’t really tell if people had been helped by the providers — but the providers felt great about it,” said Patricia Watson, a co-author of one of the articles and associate director of the terrorism and disaster programs at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. “It makes sense; we know that altruism makes people feel better.”

But researchers later discovered that the standard approach at the time, in which the therapist urges a distressed person to talk through the experience and emotions, backfires for many people. They plunge even deeper into anxiety and depression when forced to relive the mayhem.

Crisis response teams now take a much less intense approach called psychological first aid, teaching basic coping skills and having victims recount experiences only if it seems helpful. [...]

The hidden beauty of pollination

Sydney's top rabbi urged to resign over views of reporting abuse to police

Australian Jewish News

 

SYDNEY’S top rabbi has been urged to resign after he said it should be up to rabbis to decide whether allegations of child abuse should be reported to police.

In a series of emails that contradicted the recommendations from other rabbinical authorities around Australia in the wake of claims of abuse at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College, Rabbinical Council of NSW (RCNSW) president Rabbi Yosef Feldman outlined his views to fellow members of the rabbinate.

Among his assertions were that anyone who reported a paedophile would be responsible if the paedophile was raped in prison.

He also said abuse should be dealt with, when legally possible, outside the Australian legal system.

“I really don’t understand why as soon as something of serious loshon horo (evil talk) is heard about someone of even child molestation should we immediately go to the secular authorities (sic),” Rabbi Feldman wrote.

The truth about the West Bank: Israel PR video irks Arabs

ynet

Technology transforms Jewish education

Jewish Week

As rapidly advancing technology transforms virtually every sector of society, a diverse group of Jewish educational institutions — not generally thought of as early adapters — are increasingly turning their attention to digital tools and resources.

Whether distance learning or online gaming, Skype or Twitter, Google Earth (and a plethora of other free educational apps available at the click of a mouse) or iPads, SMART boards or Smartphones, QR codes or robotics, Jewish day schools and supplementary schools — and their funders — are struggling to sort the useful, cost-effective and engaging from the gimmicky, expensive and simply overwhelming.

Technology has headlined almost every major Jewish education gathering this year, from the North American Jewish Day School Conference (“The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the Very Near Future”) to the Conservative movement’s Jewish Educators Assembly (“From Sinai to Cyberspace”) and Reform movement’s North American Association of Temple Educators (“Imagineering Jewish Education for the 21st Century”).

In June, both the Avi Chai Foundation, a major supporter of day schools, and PELIE, a group seeking to improve “complementary” Jewish education (better known as Hebrew school), for the first time sent delegations of teachers to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. Avi Chai also sent 10 educators to Games For Change, a conference promoting the use of computer games in education.