Sunday, May 5, 2013

Abuse case that rocked Lakewood goes to trial after 6 years

Asbury Park Press    In a tight-knit community of people accustomed to handling problems among themselves, one young boy bucked the trend.

He accused a Yeshiva teacher and camp counselor of molesting him, and when a religious council of Orthodox Jews failed to take action against the man, the boy and his family went to athe Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for help.

Because they skirted religious protocols, the boy and his family were ostracized by their community. Some in the community even embarked on a campaign to get the boy and his father to drop the criminal charges.

And, a flier was circulated in Lakewood saying the boy’s father made a “mockery” of the Torah and committed a “terrible deed” by going to the secular authorities.

But the family stood its ground. Now, six years after the alleged abuse occurred, the man accused of molesting the boy is set to go on trial in a case that likely is to be closely watched by Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community.

Jury selection began Wednesday for the trial of Yosef Kolko, who was working as a camp counselor at Yachad, a summer camp at the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood when he met the victim. Kolko also was a teacher at Yeshiva Orchos Chaim in Lakewood.

Kolko, 39, of Geffen Drive in Lakewood is accused of sexually abusing the boy between September 2007 and February 2009, when the victim was 11 and 12 years old. Kolko is charged with aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment.[...]

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Israeli doctors reverse stroke damage - after 20 years - with oxygen


The video described treatment done at at Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center located near Tel Aviv.

The following pages from their website should provide basic information. They say though that treatment requires referral by your doctor but they are involved in "medical tourism"


http://www.assafh.org/sites/en/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.hyperbaric-oxygen-info.com/hyperbaric-oxygen-info.html

http://www.hyperbaric-oxygen-info.com/assaf-harofeh.html

Friday, May 3, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Twerski: My Own Struggle with Low Self-Esteem

 This a related to the previous post Pandemic of low self-esteem in yeshivos
READ TRANSCRIPT

Why most sexual abuse is not reported - in all communities

YNet   "I understand why women are afraid of complaining and want to carry on with their lives peacefully. The journey I underwent after filing a sexual harassment complaint was torture by all means" says Sigal, 48, who was sexually harassed for months by one of her managers at work.  

The Emanuel Rosen case revealed many alleged sexual harassment testimonies, but no official complaints have been filed as of yet.

According to The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, since the case's breakout, there has been a sharp increase in complaints at the centers. Experts in the field agree that the law against sexual harassment in Israel is one of the most progressive in the world, but even the liberal legislation has not changed the reality in which only a minority of those harassed have the courage to complain. How could the situation be changed and victims aided and protected? [...]

Teens today are more materialistic but less interested in work - than teens of 30 years ago

Scientific American   [...] today’s adolescents seem to want more in the way of worldly goods than did teens 30 years ago, and they don’t really want to work for it.

That’s according to a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. [Jean M. Twenge and Tim Kasser, Generational Changes in Materialism and Work Centrality, 1976-2007: Associations With Temporal Changes in Societal Insecurity and Materialistic Role Modeling]

Lapid vs Gafni: Issur of Maaseh Shabbos by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Five Towns Jewish Times   It was a bizarre exchange last Monday between Israel’s new finance minister, Yair Lapid, and Moshe Gafni, Member of Knesset for the Degel HaTorah party, who is now in the opposition. Gafni attacked Lapid for posting on Facebook on Shabbos. Lapid responded, “I’m entitled to send messages on Shabbat. I do not keep Shabbat. I don’t tell you what to do on Shabbat, you don’t tell me what to do on Shabbat. I don’t ask you, what does this say? I am entitled to post on Facebook whenever I want.” (The exchange can be found 17 minutes at youtube).

Seemingly, Moshe Gafni wished to score some political points with his constituency by pointing out that Lapid had posted on Facebook on Shabbos. In a sense, Gafni may be benefiting from Lapid’s Facebook post on Shabbos. The question is whether what MK Gafni did is halachically permitted. He must have seen the Lapid post in order to use it against him. Does this constitute benefiting from the by-product of a Shabbos violation—something called “maaseh Shabbos”?

To answer this question, we will begin with a general overview of maaseh Shabbos and then apply it specifically to the case of Gafni and Lapid.

The term “maaseh Shabbos” is, unfortunately, not one that is well known in Torah-observant circles, but it is a concept with enormous halachic ramifications. Literally, it means the by-products of Shabbos violation. If someone had, chas v’shalom, violated Shabbos by cooking, sewing, carrying, or planting, what is the halachic status of the product of his Shabbos violation? May it be used by him? What about by others? Does it make a difference if he actually did it for the others as well? If so, is it forever forbidden to them? [...]

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Meir Dascalowitz gets 5 years for assault in mikve

NY Daily News      A man who sexually assaulted a Brooklyn boy in a Jewish bath house was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday after hearing his unforgiving victim blame him for ruining his life.

 Meir Dascalowitz, 29, had pleaded guilty to abusing the boy beginning when he was 12 and continuing for about a year. But before his sentencing, he got a chance to hear the impact of his repulsive acts.

"I will never forgive to you for the things you did to me," the now 17-year-old boy wrote in a letter read in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "You ruined my life."

"I have been hurt and this hurt will continue throughout my life," the victim continued, revealing that he had been kicked out of school and lost friends after reporting the abuse to authorities. [...]

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Free-Rider Problem - Collateral damage of receiving free services

Guest Post by David Held (Learned at Ner Israel and Yeshivas Beis Yisroel when it was in Bayit Vegan and is an alumnus of Georgetown University Law Center.  He lives in a suburb of New York City with his family.  His parents have been members of Beth Jacob in Atlanta for over 40 years and he considers himself most influenced by R’ Emanuel Feldman of Beth Jacob, R’ Ezra Neuberger of Ner Israel and several talmidim of Rav Wolbe with whom he came into contact when learning in Israel. ]  
This is an important article, addressing an issue which is largely ignored within the Orthodox community. Despite the multiple justifications for the free services that the government or our community provides for those who can't afford it or don't have income from choice - there is a decided price that comes with the free services. This is a discussion of the price - spiritually, psychological and community unity.

Proposal to condition funding of public schools according to amount of violence

Maariv
התגובה החרדית לדרישה החילונית לתקצוב מוסדות החינוך החרדי בהתאם לשעות לימודי הליבה בבתי הספר: הצעת חוק חדשה של ח״כ מאיר פרוש תתנה את תקציב בתי הספר החילונים בהתאם לרמת האלימות בבתי הספר. 
כוונת התוכנית שהגיש פרוש, לדבריו, היא להביא למיגור האלימות של תלמידי בתי הספר.

בהצעת החוק נכתב כי התקציב המועבר לבתי הספר על ידי משרדי הממשלה והרשויות ייקבע על פי מדרג האלימות הקיימת על ידי תלמידי בית הספר. כך, ככל שתהיה יותר אלימות כך ייפחת התקציב העומד לרשות בית הספר, עד כדי ביטול מוחלט של תקציב בית הספר.  

לדברי ח"כ פרוש, האלימות ההולכת וגוברת בקרב תלמידי בתי הספר הפכה זה מכבר לבעיה חברתית. "אצל כל המומחים העוסקים בחקר האלימות בקרב תלמידים שוררת תמימות דעים שתמונת המצב המצטיירת מהממצאים היא קשה ומדאיגה", אמר.
עוד הוסיף כי העובדה שמערכת החינוך מתקשה לטפל בבעיות האלימות בצורה אפקטיבית, הביאה אותו להגיש הצעת חוק, לפיה בתי הספר יתוקצבו על פי המדרג האלימות של תלמידי בית הספר. ״המטרה היא  לעודד ולתמרץ את המנהלים והמורים להילחם בתופעה ולהביא בהכרח לצמצום האלימות בבתי הספר ומחוצה לו".

Abused Children May Get Unique Form of PTSD


Child abuse scars not just the brain and body, but, according to the latest research, but may leave its mark on genes as well.

The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that abused children who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may experience a biologically distinct form of the disorder from PTSD caused by other types of trauma later in life. [...]

“In PTSD with a history of child abuse, we found a 12-fold higher [level] of epigenetic changes,” says Mehta.  In contrast, people who experienced trauma later in life showed genetic effects that tended to be short-lived, and did not permanently alter the function of the genes. [...]

Monday, April 29, 2013

Stealing in order to help others - is it permitted?

In a previous Post  I mentioned the view of Rav Elchonon Wasserman that the prohibitions regarding bein adam l'chavero only apply where the act is destructive and meant to harm. He learns this from the Rambam (Hilchos Chovel 5:1) which states that hitting another is only prohibited if done derech nitzoiyon (strife or vanquishing). He says this rule applies not only to hitting but lashon harah and hatred.

A significant problem with making this sweeping generalization comes in the area of theft. Can a person steal something for a joke or with intent to pay - without any desire to harm the victim? More relevant to the issue of education - can a teacher or parent take away a student or child's possession - for the sake of chinuch or to prevent sin? Can you take away a neighbor's computer to prevent him/her from using the internet? Can you take away someone smartphone solely because you think it is for the person's benefit not to have it - even if you don't pay for it?

Rabbi Yehuda Hertzl Henkin (Techumin Volume 8) has a long article on this and concludes that despite being a common practice - there is no justification for taking things from another person against their will. 
Bava Metzia (61b):Why did the Torah (Vayikra 19:11) need to explicitly prohibit stealing [since  we learn the prohibition of causing financial loss from ribis and fraud while the prohibition of stealing in the Ten Commandments refers to kidnapping a person – Rashi]? The answer is as it was taught: One cannot steal just to aggravate [Rashi] another nor can one steal even if he intended to repay double for it [because he wants to give the victim something but he knows he won’t accept and therefore he uses stealing as a pretext to give him money – Rashi].
Rabbeinu Yonah (Shaarei Teshuva 3:85):  Do not steal or suppress or lie (Vayikra 19:11). Our Sages (Bava Metzia 61b) state that “not stealing” means if it it is only to upset the person. In other words a person should not say I will steal his possession in order to upset him and I will take while he is watchin and I will warn him that he needs to be more careful in watching his possession and then I will return it to him. Similarly it is prohibited to steal possessions from another’s house and use them and then return them. Nor should you secretly take your own possessions from a thief after they were stolen so that you don’t look like a thief. 
An apparently refutation of this is in the following gemora - but the Meiri says it is not a problem
Bava Basra(16a): Rava asked the meaning of “The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me...(Job 29:13)....This verse alludes to the fact that Job used to steal the fields of orphans [and the orphans were convinced that they had lost the land – Rashi] and he would improve the fields and then give them back.
Meiri (Bava Basra 16a):  There are sins which are done with good intentions and nevertheless they are not permitted. But this seems to be contradicted by this gemora where Job is praised because he would steal land from the poor and orphans and improve it and then return it. That is because Job was well known as such a tzadik – that even though he didn’t explain this reason – every knew that was his intent in taking the land. The gemora describes this as theft only as a general term of taking property of others – but according to my understanding it did not mean to say it was a sinful taking of the land. ... We can see from these cases that even when a person intends to do good and that should permit the act – nevertheless we are told that good intent is not enough to permit stealing in any form even if it is public knowledge what you are doing. That is because this gemora explicitly said not to steal even if you intend to pay back double. This requires further clarification. Nevertheless even the great Rabbis indicated that it is prohibited. Nevertheless the major difficulty has been removed regarding Job.
[I will be adding sources to this post regarding this serious exception to Rav Wasserman's assertion and possibly other exceptions.]

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Lag B’Omer: An Overview by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

5Towns Jewish Times     The Rema, Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 493:2) writes that on Lag B’Omer we engage slightly in simcha. Observing Lag B’Omer is a serious matter. The Magen Avraham cites the Kavanos HaArizal that discusses a certain individual who had the habit of reciting “Nachem” every day. He continued to do so on Lag B’Omer as well. For doing so he was punished. We see, therefore, that one should take the words of the Rema quite seriously.

A number of reasons are cited by Torah authorities for commemorating Lag B’Omer:

• It commemorates that the students of Rabbi Akiva ceased dying during this day, although the deaths persisted between Pesach and Shavuos. (Shela, Pesachim 525)

• This day is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who revealed the inner secrets of the Torah. (Chayei Adam, Moadim 131:11)

• This is the day that Rabbi Akiva granted ordination to his five students, among them Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. They did not die in the plague that struck Rabbi Akiva’s other students. (Pri Chadash, O.C. 493)

• It also commemorates the manna, which began to fall on this day after the Bnei Yisrael left Egypt. (Responsa Chasam Sofer, Y.D. #233, “Omnam yadati”) [...]