Fish Worms:Conflicting Kashrus Rulings Translated

5tjt by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

So what do you do when you open up the newspaper and find two diametrically opposed Kashrus rulings and letters from leading Poskim?  The newspaper was Wednesday’s issue of the HaModiah and the two ads appear on pages D5 and D14 respectively.

We will start with D5.  D5 is a full page ad dated in the month of Iyar 5771.  It is signed by Rav Elyashiv, Rav Feivel Cohen, Rav Dovid Feinstein, and Rav Aharon Schechter.  Rav Shmuel Vosner’s name also appears on the letter, but with the remarks that he has already made his opinion known in Shaivet HaLevi 4:83.

What does the letter say?  In Hebrew and English it states (this is actually the 5TJT translation of the Hebrew section): [....]

Turning to page D14, we have a ruling issued in the name of the Orthodox Union by Rav Yisroel Belsky.  This ad is a half page long and also has the “Gilui Daas” heading.  This ad only appears in Hebrew, but is translated by the 5TJT below:

In France, a Muslim Offensive Against Evolution

Time

On a recent Friday evening, Maroua Gousa was standing behind the latticed wooden partition in the Évry mosque's section reserved for women, watching a presentation projected onto a screen below in the large prayer hall for men. Fond of exploring religious ideas and practices, the 19-year-old student is taking part in a debate with 200 other participants in this city just south of Paris.

The gathering is actually the most recent instalment of a new attack aimed at the science of evolution by Haroun Yahya, an outspoken Turkish-born Muslim advocate of creationism, who is considered widely controversial within the Islamic world.

Haroun Yahya, the pseudonym of Adnan Oktar, never presents himself in person, speaking either by video or through zealous representatives armed with grandiloquent tracts distributed for free. In France, he had already made himself known in 2007 when he attempted to introduce thousands of copies of his Atlas de la Création into French schools. His work purports to scientifically demonstrate "the frauds and dictatorship" of the evolution of the species theory. [...]

Mosques asked to stop noise nuisance from excessively amplified prayer calls

JPost

The Ma'aleh Adumim local council is demanding that the loudspeakers announcing the Muslim call to prayer from some mosques in the adjacent Palestinian village of al-Eizariya be turned down because the volume is disturbing residents of the settlement, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

Ma'aleh Adumim's complaint was raised last Tuesday at a meeting of the joint civilian coordinating committee that brings together Israeli and Palestinian authorities. The Israel Defense Force's Civil Administration in the West Bank would not provide a detailed response to Haaretz on the issue, saying only that in discussions with the Palestinian Authority, the Civil Administration is advancing matters involving cross-border environmental issues, "including noise nuisances." [...]

Syrian rabbi nabbed in N.J. corruption sweep receives two years' probation

NJ.Com

Rabbi Saul Kassin, the spiritual leader of the nation’s largest Syrian Sephardic community, was sentenced this morning to two years’ probation and fined more than $36,000 for his role in a scheme to launder millions of dollars through charitable organizations.

 

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano also ordered Kassin, the retired rabbi of Congregation Sharee Zion in Brooklyn, N.Y, to forfeit $367,500 representing the fees he accumulated in 18 months.

Originally charged with money laundering, Kassin, 89, pleaded guilty March 28 to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He said he transmitted between $200,000 and $400,000 through his charity Magen Israel Society between June 2007 and December 2008.

New Square arson attack: Grand Rabbi speaks

New Square arson victim speaks

Recordings of White Conference on Sexual Abuse in Orthodox World

   

[Click here for streaming audio at SFJ site  ]


I also have an icon at the top of the right side of the blog that gives access to the recordings

Hello,

This is the audio from the conference on sexual abuse in the Jewish orthodox community, held May 22 2011 at the the prestigious White Institute in New York.

Be well,

Mark (Mutty) Weiss

Child Abuse and Safety in Orthodox Jewish Communities 9:00-11:00 Presentations: Julie Jarett Marcuse, Ph.D. - Welcome and Overview
Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn, Ph.D.- "The Halachic Imperative to Protect Children From Abuse"
Mark Weiss "A Survivor's Perspective On A Community Coming To Terms"
Richard Gartner, Ph.D. - "The Trauma of Betrayal"
Esther Malka Reich - "Secrecy, Shame, Truth & Hope"
Joel Engelman - "Abused…So What?"
Alison Feit, Ph.D. - "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation: The Orthodox Jewish Community Confronts Sexual Abuse"
Morning Panel Discussion
Rabbi Yosef Blau, M.S - "The Silence of the Rabbis: The Religious Responsibility to Respond to the Suffering of Victims."
Abby Stein, Ph.D. - "Because They Can"-
Julie Marcuse, Ph.D. - "After Abuse…Then What?"
Ernesto Mujica, Ph.D. - "Healing from Childhood Sexual Trauma: An Interpersonal & Integrative Approach"
Closing Remarks: Alan Slomowitz , Ph.D.