Surrogate mother declared legal mother

NYTimes

A New Jersey judge has ruled that a gestational surrogate who gave birth to twin girls is their legal mother, even though she is not genetically related to them.

The ruling gives the woman, who carried the babies in an arrangement with her brother and his male spouse, the right to seek primary custody of the children at a trial in the spring.

The case illustrates the legal complexities of gestational surrogacy, in which a woman carries unrelated embryos created in a petri dish. A gestational surrogate in Michigan recently obtained custody of twins she carried, but courts in several other states have upheld the rights of people who contracted with gestational surrogates. [...]

Tragic deaths in our communities

YNET   BCHOL    


Eight-month-old pays ultimate price for parents' marital troubles; wife leaves house after heated argument, husband believed to strangle their daughter
Jerusalem

The suspects in two child murder cases were brought for remand extension hearings early Friday afternoon. Jerusalem resident Nahman Anshin, 23, was remanded for a week in custody at the capital's magistrate's court on suspicion of beating his eight-month-old baby girl, Fruma, to death.

The alleged incident occurred around 11 p.m. on Thursday night, when neighbors in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood heard screams coming from the apartment and called the police.

Before officers arrived, one of the neighbors and a police volunteer broke into the apartment from a balcony and claim that they saw the suspect banging his baby's head against the floor while holding her feet.

Rav Sternbuch: Torah & Matters of State

Letter of Chizuk for the "Eternal Jewish Family"

To Mr. Menachem Yitzchack Kaplan,

We have heard of your good works that you do, which we hope that you continue in the future.

May you merit that only good should come from your deeds, like every baal chesed strives to do.

28 of Kislev 5769

Yosef Shalom Elyashiv   Aharon Leib Shtainman   
Michl Yehuda Lefkovitz
Chayim Kanievsky   Yitzchok Shainer

==========================
Mekubal wrote:
Photoshop is so grand.

What you have is a handwritten original note which says just this

בס"ד
לכ' מר מנחם יצחק קפלן נ"י


שמענו על הפעולות הטובות שנעשו על ידך, יישר כחך על כל הנ"ל, ונקוה שכן תמשיך להוסיף כהנה.
ויהי רצון שתזכה שאך טות וחסד יצא על ידך כחפץ לב דורשי חסד.

כ"ח כסלו תש''ע לפ''ק

Then under that orginial note you have photoshopped in the block text Hebrew, which claims it was to the EJF, but in reality it was only to Tom Kaplan, who wrote many a check from his Foundation to various Yeshivot and such.

This is a pure deception. A note to Tom Kaplan encouraging him to continue giving to worthy Jewish causes is not a letter of Chizuk to EJF.

EJF press release: " THE TRUTH ABOUT EJF"

EJF Updates    [Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]
Press Releases
12/24/2009

Recent press coverage of an unfortunate development within the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) has included inaccurate information about the organization. The following is a review of some of the falsehoods that have appeared in news reports and blogs about EJF:

False Statement: EJF has been paralyzed by the current situation.

Truth: EJF continues its full slate of programs throughout the world, under its rabbinic leadership. Its offices in the USA, Europe, and Israel are fully functioning.

False Statement: There has been no change in EJF.

Truth: EJF is in the process of restructuring its rabbinic leadership, including its rabbinic board. Rabbi Chaim Blum, rabbinic liason and Interim Director, is spearheading the effort to reach out to the many gedolei yisroel who support its mission.

False Statement: EJF conversions are now very much in question

Truth: There is no such concept as an "EJF conversion." It simply does not exist. EJF is not a bais din and has never and will never perform conversions. Conversion applicants who seek EJF support and guidance, and whose sincerity is verified by a reliable sponsoring rabbi, are always referred to separate, independent batei din.

False Statement: EJF is one-dimensional organization focused solely on conversion.

Truth: EJF is involved in a broad kiruv program to head off intermarriage before it happens. It has partnered with such well-known kiruv organizations as Gateways, Ohr Somayach, Arachim, Nefesh Yehudi and Hidabroot, preventing hundreds of young Jews from intermarrying.


False Statement: EJF encourages conversion, which is contrary to halacha.

Truth: EJF's mission of support to batei din and candidates for conversion is only in the narrow case of an intermarried couple where the Jewish spouse is a fully observant baal teshuva and the non-Jewish spouse is committed to a universally acceptable halachic conversion. All the leading poskim, led by the late venerable posek Harav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, have ruled that, in such a case, the conversion is mandated by halacha.


False Statement: EJF has diluted the standards for conversions.

Truth: On the contrary, EJF's rabbinic and dayanim conferences, which are detailed on its website, address the havoc wrought by assimilation and intermarriage, including the devastating effects of improper conversions. In response to this issue, EJF has helped establish a network of continually growing batei din that operate under the guidance of gedolei yisroel, according to the highest halachic standards. Sincere conversion candidates are guaranteed universal acceptance by any Jewish community throughout the world.

Yes, EJF was victimized by an unfortunate event related to one individual! But this is no time for falsehoods, mistruths, and simply vicious accusations. The mission and support for EJF is sound. The organization prepares to emerge stronger than ever before. EJF is answering the siren call of Klal Yisroel and Kedushas Yisroel, and remains committed to continue under the strong leadership of Moronon Verabonom, Gedolei Yisroel from around the world.

EJF scandal and the British conversion process

Jewish Chronicle

Three children rejected from JFS, their parents' conversions in doubt and their own Jewish identities in tatters. A legal ruling by a British court establishing "Who is a Jew" in a way at odds with the traditional Jewish definition. A community at risk of schism.

How did we get into this mess?

A scandal currently unfolding in New York, at first glance completely unrelated, may shed some light on the current farce. [...]

When Scholars Fall

5 Towns Jewish Times Rabbi Yair Hoffman

There is a well-known Mitzvah to honor Torah scholars (Sefer HaMitzvos 209). Although the Rishonim cite different verses as to the source for the Mitzvah, it is almost universal that the Mitzvah is a Biblical one. Indeed, it is such an important Mitzvah that the Meiri (Yuma 71a) writes that it is a greater Mitzvah to honor a Torah scholar than to honor a Kohen Gadol – the High Priest in the Bais HaMikdash. The Talmud in Menachos (99b) discusses a case of a Torah scholar who has fallen morally. Raish Lakish tells us that we do not shame him in public. To back up this position he cites a verse in Hoshea (4:5), "You will stumble by day and the 'prophet' who is with you shall stumble at night, and I shall silence your mother." The Maharsha cites Rashi who explains the verse to be understood as "cover it up like the night." This seems to be the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch as well (Yore Deah 334:42).[...]