Recording of Agudah's conference on the child abuse

Just received this letter from Dr. Asher LIpner with permission to post it
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Recording of the Aguda Conference May 16, 2011

Please be advised that I am still preparing my detailed response to the lecture.  It has raised many, many questions for me from a halachic perspective as well as a practical one.  Let me just ask the following for now, in the name of Rabbi Blau:

The lecture makes clear that according to Rabbi Gottesman's interpretation of halacha, abuse should never be reported without first consulting with a rabbi who is an expert on abuse for a halachic determination of the evidence.  However, in Lakewood the rabbis who were appointed to deal with this issue in an informal beis din have all resigned, and appear not to want that particular responsibility.  

(I believe there were two reasons for their resignation and disbanding the beis din.  The rabbi apparently realized that in a case of a false allegation they could be held liable, and since they are not trained forensically, or psychologically or legally in the area of sexual abuse, their expertise in halacha does not qualify them as experts and they would have no leg to stand on should they be sued, which actually did happen once. 

Furthermore, an Asbury Park Press article quoted the Ocean County Prosecutor Collen Lynch as saying that it is illegal for rabbis to hear allegations of abuse and not report it to child protective services.  The reason she said this because in New Jersey they are mandated reporters, and failure to report is a crime punishable with a fine and possible jail time.)

So, the question is, if you can't go to the rabbis as this tape advises, and you can't go to the police without talking to the rabbis as this tape advises, Rabbi Blau and I and many, many people in Lakewood would like to know, is there anything at all that people are allowed to do to stop abusers in Lakewood, New Jersey according to halacha? 

Growth Chemical Leads to Exploding Watermelons in China

Time

Safety goggles may become required for eating watermelons. It seems the wrong chemicals in the hands of the wrong farmers can lead to some pretty fascinating results, such as exploding watermelons. Yup, exploding watermelons. And this isn't some science experiment gone wrong—or right, depending on how fun your science teacher was—this is farming in China.

According to The Guardian, farmers tending fields throughout eastern China injected forcholorfenuron, a growth accelerator, into their crops of watermelons. The result had these ultra-plump melons literally bursting at the seams, unable to contain their own chemically laden power.[...]

Vatican Gets Tough on Child Abuse, but Not Tough Enough

Time

When the Vatican issued a letter on Monday ordering bishops across the world to draw up tough guidelines for dealing with priests who rape or molest children, it addressed only half the scandal that has been rocking the Catholic Church.

To be sure, when it comes to the abusive clerics, the Vatican's new edict takes a firm stand, obliging local bishops to cooperate with local law enforcement in reporting sex crimes and recommending that policies be put in place to exclude accused priests from public ministry if they pose a continued danger to minors or could be a "cause of scandal for the community."

But what Monday's letter fails to do is put in place any sanctions on the bishops who oversee those clerics, should they fail to follow through with the recommendations. Child abuse is by no means unique to the Catholic Church. What sets the scandal apart is the sustained and widespread effort by church authorities to cover up for and protect the accused. And, in this regard, the new guidelines change little. "No threat of penalty will deter a child molester from committing a child sex crime," says David Clohessy, national director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which criticized the proposal as too lax. "But penalties can deter bishops from ignoring or concealing those crimes."

'Defiant' Wendi Runge receives 10 years for fraud

Press-Citizen

Wendy Weiner Runge tried to appear contrite Tuesday as she faced sentencing for fraud, telling a judge she was truly sorry for deceiving the state while trying to make movies in Iowa.

But outside the Polk County courtroom, the Minnesota filmmaker has been defiant about her culpability in Iowa's long-running film tax-incentive debacle - a move that got the 46-year-old mother of four a 10-year sentence in the Mitchellville women's prison.

Judge Douglas Staskal criticized Runge, the head of Polynation Pictures, for attacking prosecutors and judges in public statements she has made and blaming her plight on anti-Semitism and "some sort of political conspiracy."

Staskal said sentencing Runge to 10 years was a difficult decision because she had no prior criminal history, but he could not ignore the "complete arrogant and defiant" way in which she had denied responsibility for her crime. [...]

Another Ponzi scheme - "smart" investors lose $30 million

Hartford Courant

The architect of one of the state's biggest financial frauds — an investment scheme that could result in $30 million in losses and already has cost victims their homes, retirements and college education funds — was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.

Michael Goldberg, 40, of Wethersfield, was accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that began by attracting small sums from friends and neighbors and ultimately collapsed under the weight of as much as $25 million put up by so-called sophisticated Florida investors.

Law enforcement experts say they believe that more than $100 million changed hands over the life of the scheme, which began in 1987 and ended in October 2009, when Goldberg turned himself in — first to his lawyer, Richard Brown of Hartford, and days later to the FBI.

Brown said Monday at U.S. District Court that Goldberg confessed because he is a "moral person" who had become consumed by the guilt associated with "living a lie for so long a period of time." But Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novick argued that Goldberg confessed because he could not keep up with the so-called interest payments he was obligated to make to the Florida investors who had begun to sue. [,,,,]

Behind the Israel Protest Turmoil: A Middle East Without a Peace Process

Time

Welcome to the post-peace process: The drama that unfolded on Israel's boundaries on Sunday as 12 Palestinians were killed in a wave of unarmed civil disobedience was but a taste of things to come. That was the warning from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Sunday night, and he's certainly got reason to worry: Rather than pin their hopes on a moribund peace process, Palestinians have begun instead to align themselves with the Arab Spring  by pressing for their own rights through acts of people power. Even if there's no immediate followup to Sunday's protests, they represent a political crisis of epic proportions, not only for Israel and the United States, but also potentially even for the Palestinian leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas (and even, possibly, for his new Hamas partners in government).

An Eye for an Eye: Iran's Blinding Justice System

Time

Iran's judiciary has postponed the blinding of a man as punishment for throwing acid in the face of a young woman in 2004, after she rejected his offer of marriage. The delay came in the face of mounting outcry both inside Iran and in the West over the sentencing, which is permissible under qesas, a principle of Islamic law allowing victims analogous retribution for violent crimes.

The case has stirred passionate interest in Iran since 2004, when Majid Movahedi, a university student, accosted Ameneh Bahrami on a Tehran street and tossed a red bucket of sulfuric acid in her face. Bahrami, an attractive young engineer, had repeatedly spurned Movahedi's proposals and reported his harassment to the police. She was blinded and severely disfigured in the attack, and has spent the intervening years between Iran and Spain undergoing numerous unsuccessful operations to reconstruct her face and repair her sight. [...]

It is hate speech in Denmark to comment on child abuse and violence against women in Muslim culture

Spectator

Another bad blow against freedom in the west. Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society and The International Free Press Society, was yesterday found guilty of hate speech under the Danish penal code. His crime – as I wrote previously here,  here and here – was to draw attention to child abuse  and violence against women in Muslim culture. The day after the interview, he stressed that his opinions were about Islam and not intended to refer to all Muslims. [....]

Fairfax teacher still suffering from false molestation allegations

Washington Post

Sean Lanigan’s nightmare began in January 2010, when the principal at Centre Ridge Elementary School pulled him out of the physical education class he was teaching and quietly walked him into an interrogation with two Fairfax County police detectives.

He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.

The girl, angry at Lanigan about something else entirely, had made the whole thing up. But her accusations launched a soul-sapping rollercoaster ride that still hasn’t ended.

“Emotionally, a part of me has died inside,” Lanigan said in a recent interview. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted all the time, how the whole process has been dragged out to this date. It certainly has affected the quality of life for me and my family at home.”

Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jury’s acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job. [...]

Reb Amos Bunim Zatzal - A Tribute

5tjt by Rabbi Yair Hoffmann

Unfortunately, this past Shabbos, Reb Amos Bunim a”h passed away in Mount Sinai hospital.

There is a TaZ in Hilchos Aveilus that states that one can lie a little bit when one is eulogizing a deceased individual.  The TaZ explains that it is permitted to do so, because it could be true.  There is no need to do so here.  If anything, we are dealing with a man – who not enough could be said about.

To say that Rabbi Amos Bunim zt”l was an Askan for Klal Yisroel would be an understatement.  He lived and breathed doing for Klal Yisroel.  His exuberance and energy infused and enlivened each and every project that he touched. The world would have been a different place without him.  And the world will now be a vastly different place without him.

Reb Amos had a remarkable sense of right and wrong, combined with a Temimus – a gentleness combined with compassion and concern.  He possessed a moral clarity - rare among people. Yidden loved him.  Goyim loved him.  Politicians and businessmen knew that here was a man who was sincere and passionate in his beliefs.  A man whose unimpeachable honesty was genuine and indisputably authentic.  Reb Amos’ moral convictions and determination to face and confront evil and apathy was legendary.

It was also inspiring.

Which is probably how he got others to do things with him.  Somehow, one never felt alone when Reb Amos was standing with you on a project.  He also made everyone else feel good about what they did. [...]

Mystics & psychics are good at taking your money

NYTimes

"The scam is tremendous," said Lt. Manny Hernandez, of the detective
squad at the Sixth Precinct, in Manhattan. Adam Brown, a lawyer suing
Ms. Mitchell, called the business "organized psychic crime."

Grand larceny is historically a clear-cut crime, like stealing a purse
in a bar. Some psychic cases would seem harder to prosecute: The squad
is also looking for a psychic named Angela from a West 18th Street
parlor who they say persuaded a client to give her $9,000 for some magic
coins that the two, in a cleansing ritual, later threw into an upstate
lake.

A rabbi who claims his understanding supercedes the texts