Rav Sternbuch - Final battles before Moshiach

Abuse - Press charges or help victim?

In Abuse Case, Press Charges Or Help The Victim?

Temima Shulman Special to The Jewish Week | Mar 18, 2009

---

A rabbinic expert on abuse in the Jewish community told a conference in Teaneck, N.J., dealing with child sexual abuse last week that “working outside of law enforcement is irresponsible,” and was highly critical of the efforts of Borough Park Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Rabbi Mark Dratch, who heads JSafe, a not-for-profit organization that addresses issues of abuse in the Jewish community, depicted Hikind, who has been outspoken in recent months in calling attention to the problem of abuse in the Orthodox community, as trying to be an advocate for the abused while refusing to give over the names of alleged perpetrators he says he has amassed to the police. - Read More -

Conservative Judaisim - 3 generation movement

Jpost - Sherwin Pomerantz The writer is president of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based economic development consulting firm,

Rabbi Jerome Epstein's op-ed regarding bringing back the Conservative Movement's most committed young people to Conservative synagogues (March 17) reminds me of the farmer who closed the barn door after the horses left.

His statement that "many of the more committed people who were inspired by our movement have chosen to identify with Orthodox congregations, not because of the ideology but because they seek others who share their commitment to the very ideals that we say we hold dear. They bought into what we said we stand for - but they do not find it in our synagogues. So they seek elsewhere" describes exactly my situation as well as that of so many of my friends and associates who grew up in the Conservative Movement in the US and who now live traditional life styles within the framework of Orthodox synagogues, albeit for the most part in what is know as "modern" Orthodox.

I am a product of the movement. I was president of one of its Chicago area synagogues, Midwest regional president, chairman of the United Synagogue's Council of Regional Presidents, national vice president and, upon making aliya in 1984, founder and officer of Kehilat Ya'ar Ramot, the Conservative congregation in that Jerusalem neighborhood. Yet today, I am the head of the board of the Ohel Nehama synagogue in Katamon and very much involved in the life of that community. What happened?

Rabbi Epstein, whom I have known for the more than 35 years that he has been a professional with the United Synagogue, hits the nail on the head when he says: "They perceive that there is no place for them and their Judaism in the Conservative synagogue." It was not as if those of us who were in the ranks of the traditionalists of the movement left the movement, rather the movement left us by failing to support, in practice, what the movement purported to support in theory.[...]

Rebbtzn Sternbuch A"H - Brother's Hesped

Yated Ne'eman

RaP's criticism of proselytizing in Poland

Recipients and Publicity comment {rest of post is in comments to "Subbotnik Jews of Ilyinka are Jews": ]

Mishpacha magazine for hire continues to promote agenda of Michael Freund and Shavei Israel proselytizing organization.

Mishpacha magazine for hire poses danger to Torah true hashkofas by not teaching about Kiddush Hashem when Jews are obligated to sacrifice their lives for Yiddishkeit and not become Christians, Catholics or Communists.

Shavei Israel digs for converts in Poland and elsewhere in the guise of "hidden Jews" who will in any case require GIUR KEHALACHA LECHUMRA.

As in the case of the Russian Subbotniks, the status of gentiles seeking to become Jews in Poland, as many as 150,000+, poses a threat to Israel as long as the Israeli Chief rabbinate does not affirm its position and leaves it up to Michael Freund to set the agenda.

Read the latest article first, with later comments and analysis starting with "RaP": [...]

Yemenites - Satmar vs. Jewish Agency

JPost

Fearing a possible spate of killings following threats to the Yemenite Jewish community, the umbrella body of American Jewish federations will be evacuating almost half of the remaining Jewish community in Yemen to the United States over the next two weeks, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The UJC is working with the US State Department, local federations and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to implement the evacuation and help finance the $800,000 expense of absorbing 110 Yemenite Jews in the United States, over one-third of the roughly 280-strong community.

"The funding would go toward such resettlement costs as housing, food and social-service programs," said a statement by the UJC on Tuesday.

Jewish Agency officials blasted the move. A senior agency official told the Post that Jews "should not immigrate to the United States. The place of Jews is in their homeland, the land of Israel, and like all the Jews of the world, the Jews of Yemen have to make aliya to Israel. That is their destiny."

The agency is particularly upset because the extraction of the Yemenite Jews comes at the behest of the New York Satmar community, a hassidic Jewish sect that is opposed to modern political Zionism and funds Jewish education institutions in Yemen.[...]

First all-encompassing Israeli center for child abuse

Jerusalem Post:

Israel's first all-encompassing center for child and teen victims of sexual and physical abuse will open Tuesday as a separate department at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

Based on the successful US model, where currently 600 such centers are in operation, Beit Lynn will provide abuse victims between the ages of three and 18 with a wide range of services and therapy, including social welfare and legal services.

Its creation is based on a law passed last year, which calls for six more such centers to be set up.

"This is the first center of its kind to be established in Israel, and bringing together medical staff with other responders will provide the capacity to give treatment quickly and effectively in the most traumatic of cases," said Prof. Ze'ev Rotstein, Sheba Medical Center's director-general.

Funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, together with the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, Sheba Medical Center, NGO Ashalim, the Israel Police Force and contributions from the ministries of health, justice and education, the new center aims to streamline the initial process rape victims must undergo, whether their attacker is a family member or a stranger.

In the past, victims were forced to visit each office independently, usually being carted around by their parents from the hospital to the police station and on to social workers and lawyers.

The new center will bring all these elements together under one roof, with all first responders sharing information and easing the trauma for the victim.[...]