Hareidi radio fires talk show host who called Religious Zionism - "cancer"

YNet  Haredi radio station Kol Barama has decided to fire a radio talk show host after he offended leaders of the religious Zionist movement.

In his radio show, focusing on Jewish faith and national issues," anchor Avraham Tamir said that religious Zionism is "'a cancer at the body of the Jewish faith," and that "its rabbis are criminals, trying to bring down Jewish faith."

Tamir's radio program was part of a series of conversations about the "national rift" and the issue of the universal draft. Referring to Rabbi David Stav, who called upon haredim to enlist in the IDF, Tamir said he was "either a heretic or a fool, and most likely both." And to Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, who also encouraged haredim to join the army, Tamir referred as a "brat" and a "fool."

Chasidic hats - made in Spain

NYTimes  But despite the Spanish economic crisis, the hat company is thriving, thanks to an unlikely revenue base: the sales of thousands of black hats each year to Satmar Hasidic Jews in Jerusalem and Brooklyn.

“They are saving us in the crisis,” said Miguel García Gutiérrez, 35, the managing director of the Roche factory, officially known as Industrias Sombrereras Españolas, which operates in an industrial park in Salteras, about nine miles outside Seville. “We have an important market in Spain for traditional hats, but with the crisis those sales have fallen for the last three years, between 20 and 30 percent. But our exports are rising for hats for Orthodox Jews.”

Child prostitution ring & Islamophobia

BBC with background by  Skylar Curtis

The men, from Rochdale and Oldham, "groomed" girls, one as young as 13. 

Liverpool Crown Court heard the men plied their victims with drink and drugs so they could "pass them around" and use them for sex.

The case, involving Asian defendants and white victims, sparked protests by far-right groups but police insist the grooming was not "racially motivated".

The offences which centred on Heywood included rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

A failed police investigation in 2008 allowed the abuse to go undetected for another two years. 

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of of the Ramadhan Foundation, accused Pakistani community elders of "burying their heads in the sand" on the issue of on-street grooming.

"There is a significant problem for the British Pakistani community," he said.

"There should be no silence in addressing the issue of race as this is central to the actions of these criminals.

"They think that white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused without a second thought; it is this sort of behaviour that is bringing shame on our community."

Jerusalem Police commander & sexual harassment

YNet  Jerusalem District Police Commander Niso Shaham, who is suspected of sexual offences against seven female subordinates, was interrogated for hours by the Police Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the decision not to press criminal charges against Jerusalem Periphery Police Commander Nissim Edri, who failed to report the alleged sexual misconduct of Shaham, stirred controversy among top police officials.

"It's very difficult to understand this decision, especially since this is an officer who is supposed to be the leading authority of everything that has to do with ethics," a senior police officer told Ynet.

Stanley Levitt sentenced to 10 years probabtion

Boston Globe   One-time religious instructor for a prominent Brookline school today was sentenced to 10 years probation for sexually abusing three of his students in Boston during the 1975-1976 school year.

The probation sentence was imposed on Rabbi Stanley V. Levitt by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Geraldine Hines one day after Levitt pleaded guilty in the Boston courthouse to four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. 

He faced up to 40 years imprisonment if given the maximum, and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office today asked Hines to imprison Levitt for 2½ years. But Hines refused the request from prosecutors, saying from the bench that she was going to adhere to a plea agreement that was reached last fall between prosecutors and Levitt’s defense attorney, Scott Curtis.

Gay rage against free-speech of Chic-Fil-A

Forbes   In case you missed it, about a week ago the CEO of the very popular fast food chain said “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit”. That comment started a firestorm for the chain.

The LBGT community began in full force to try to convince people to boycott the chain regardless of the fact that the popular chain doesn’t discriminate against gays as employees or patrons. That doesn’t seem to matter in this case. It appears as though they just want to punish someone for his protected free speech point of view. They apparently convinced some in Government to support the boycott. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said “Chic-Fil-A does not represent Chicago values”. I guess Chick-Fil-A needs to have a few murders per day in their stores to meet his standard? Not sure what “Chicago values” are but, right now isn’t the time to make Chicago the standard for values.

For the first time in my life, today I visited a Chick-Fil-A to show my support for the CEO’s right to free speech. Today was billed as “support Chick-Fil-A Day”. I live in LA so, I was not expecting much in way of support but, I was not just surprised, I was blown away. The Chic-Fil-A in Northridge, California had a line that twisted throughout the parking lot. It was almost 100 degrees but, that didn’t seem to deter anyone. They were peaceful and the demographic was wide ranged. Blacks, whites, teenagers, kids, Latino’s and all other categories you could imagine. At this location their there were no anti-Chick-Fil-A protesters.

When I returned home I turned on the news to see how this would be reported. NBC in Los Angeles chose to focus on the protesters. Not the ones supporting Chick-Fil-A but, the ones protesting the supporters. The protesters are a tiny fraction to the supporters yet the media focused 90% of their attention on those few. This does not represent the truth of the actual event.

Rav Shmuel Eliyahu: Police system & sexual harrassment

YNET Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu encourages women not to perform national service with police forces due to system that promotes sexual harassers such as former police commander Shaham 

Female police cadets tend to have a strong character. They know what they want and they know how to stand their ground. However, in the recent case involving Jerusalem District Police Commander Nisso Shaham's alleged sexual harassment of female subordinates, the situation was different. Even when one of the victims turned for help, it didn’t really do her much good and that might be the reason why the other cadets didn't dare complain, or why their close female friends, who knew of the continuous sexual harassment didn’t say anything.

I emphasize this point to all women who want to contribute to the State by serving in the police forces and I say to them: Don't do it. If the strong female police cadets felt weak when dealing with a higher authority and further felt that they would not receive the necessary backup from the police system – what will women serving in national service do?

One does not need to be too familiar with the police system to know that this incident was not uncommon. Over the past two years, two police commanders found themselves involved in cases linked to indecent sexual behavior towards women. These commanders were supposed to uphold the law and their virtue. Furthermore, they were required to protect these women from such harassment.