Israel's Fateful Elections: Charedim Rising by RaP

Guest post by RaP

This Tuesday, March 17th, Israel's citizen's go to the polls to vote for the parties that will then form the new government. For the Charedi Jews of Israel nothing could be worse politically and economically than the fate that befell them after the last Israeli elections two years ago. They lost all access to political power and influence. Two years spent in the political wilderness as Lapid and Bennett and Netanyahu united to undercut the growing political and economic power of religious Jew. Yes, Bennett and his "Jewish Home" party were the continuation of the old Religious Zionist Mizrachi party, but really were washouts and regarded as sell-outs by the rest of religious Jewry not just in Israel but all over the world.

Fast forward two years and Netanyahu fires Yair Lapid ending a facade of "unity" that was really a front to oppose the growing power of religious Jewry in Israel. It is no secret that with the phenomenal birth rate of the Jewish religious population, from all spectrums, in Israel they are destined to become the dominant political power in the land as well as its electoral majority sooner rather than later. Everyone knows this. The leftist secular powers-that-be are in a panic, they know their days are numbered. They are basically on life-support with no new original ideas since they have dumped classical Zionism as outmoded and now receive huge funding and politically savvy advisors from all sorts of outside supporters to stay relevant. This too is no secret. The old-time Israeli right is in disarray and is struggling to find its voice as it does not want to be appear to be "religious" (that is why they got rid of Moshe Feiglin) while it cannot act as the leftists "right-wing" double either, so they are adrift and counting on old-time loyalty from supporters who just cannot bare the thought of voting for the Socialist-Bolshevik block that now calls itself "United Zionists" while it fools no one in particular.

The really fascinating developments are among the religious and Charedi Jews of Israel who having been forced out of government the last two years have had to reach deep within themselves to do house-cleaning and to come up with winning strategies to regain political influence and power in the next government coalition.

Among the Sefardim the most glaring change has come in the open split within the old-time SHAS party following so closely upon the passing of its mentor Rav Ovadia Yosef ZT"L. SHAS has split in two with Eli Yishai running under his own steam as the "Yachad Ha'am Itanu" party that is predicted to gain more than just the minimal four seats required for Knesset entry perhaps even outshining its old political home of SHAS. A new rabbinical name has suddenly appeared on the horizon as Eli Yishai party's mentor, Rav Meir Mazuz a very interesting Rov and Rosh Yeshiva from Bnai Brak of Djerba, North African, origins with more open-minded views coming to the fore and creating a broader coalition that SHAS was able to do in the past but is now not capable of doing. In SHAS the veteran politician Aryeh Deri has returned to take the reins with the support of the SHAS Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah. There was bad blood that spilled into the open as not-so-old videos of Rav Yosef discussing Aryeh Deri negatively were released, while Eli Yishai was publicly attacked by SHAS followers, with all parties claiming they are speaking for the true voice of MARAN Ovadia Yosef. Expect to see surprises from both these parties on Tuesday and they will probably bury the hatchet and cooperate closely to get into the next coalition. One thing is for sure, the face of Sefardic political unity is now gone forever.

Among Ashkenazi Charedim United Torah Judaism is the united parties of the Israeli Agudas Yisroel and the Degel HaTorah that are working solidly together with everyone giving great attention to the guidance they are getting from their united spiritual mentor Rav Shteinman in Bnai Brak.

One of the most fascinating and encouraging developments of the UTJ lists is that they have for the first time nominated a professional seasoned full time Israeli KIRUV leader, the head of the Lev LeAchim organization, Rav Eliezer Sorotzkin, as the potential "eighth man" representing UTJ in the next Knesset. This will be a most welcome change because until now none of the Charedi politicians elected to the Knesset were adept at the art of winning over the hearts and minds of fellow-secular Israelis. The picture one saw was often bifurcated and surreal that while in the Knesset religious MKs join in the melees of hurling insults at fellow Jews in the Knesset, at the same time on the outside the same Charedi PR organs that support UTJ wax lyrical about the need to MEKAREV the "Nefashos" of secular Israeli Jews.

So someone needed to make up their mind if they were going to use attack tactics or Kiruv tactics to get their way, and now, finally and long overdue, evidently Rav Shteinman has strongly supported the selection of Rav Eliezer Sorotzkin to lead the way. This is also a move to reach into secular circles for Charedi votes and altogether radical break with past tactics. If this move is successful as it will probably be, count on having more "user friendly" Charedi MKs join him in the not too distant future. As the old saying goes, you can "catch the bees" with "honey" a lot easier than with "vinegar"!

Rav Shteinman, as the RASHKEBEHAG, has been very clear and it has been reliably reported that he holds that Israeli Charedim have ONLY two choices, either to vote which he says is a Kiddush HaShem, or not to vote which he bluntly has stated is a Chillul HaShem! A very clear and stark choice that reflects the sense of urgency and the critical nature of the upcoming election.

It would seem that Yair Lapid has lost steam and popularity so that a big chunk of his past vote has now swung behind the Herzog-Livni block who are gloating and seem to be counting their chickens before they have hatched. Some Charedi politicians have said they will go with Herzog but it is VERY hard to see how Charedim will be welcomed by the same folks in the Herzog-Livni camp who have all the same issues with Charedim as Lapid and Yesh Atid people.

The Israeli left of today is not like the old-time Israeli Socialists of yester-decade. Those old timers were Bolsheviks but they spoke Yiddish and had a certain connection with Eastern Europe from where they came. Their parents and grandparents were usually frum. But today's Israeli left has LOST that connection entirely. They are more in tune with trends in Sweden, Germany and the USA with all the trimmings and bells and whistles of Modernity, such as gay rights, civil marriages, acceptance of Reform Judaism and all the sacred cows of ultra-liberals and ultra-leftists and left-wing agitators. So it is basically impossible to see how any Charedi politicians or rabbis will find a home with such types.

The natural allies of the Charedi and religious parties have always been the right-wing parties. This started in a big way when Rav Shach allowed the Charedi factions to bring Menachem Begin into power and continued with the Lubavitch and Chasidic support that helped Netanyahu come to power. A strong possible scenario is if as it seems the Charedi parties will win an increased number of seats in the next Knesset, then they will put Netanyahu back into power and demand that he adhere to their religious and social agendas. If for some reason the leftists win, CH"V, then expect the Charedi parties to spend even more time in the Israeli political wilderness. That in turn has resulted in a huge strengthening of bonds between Israeli and American Charedim who have marshaled their own limited financial forces to support Israeli Kollelim, Yeshivos and Kiruv schools and programs, not to mention directly supporting their sons and daughters who come to learn and live in Israel and the many family members who continue to move to and settle in Eretz Yisroel.

So in some ways, the frum world will have a "win-win" result: If the right wins, then the Charedi parties will presumably return to positions of influence, and if the Charedim are yet again locked out of the next government, they will not stop and they will continue to strengthen ALL the Torah bastions and Kehillos in Israel with increased FINANCIAL support from American Charedi sources more determined than ever to build for that inevitable time in the not so distant future when BY SHEER DINT OF NUMBERS Charedim and all types of Religious Jews will come to dominate Israel without any hindrance from secular harassment.

May HKB"H protect and bless the Jewish people everywhere! Amen!

Jury considering verdict in Grynhaus sex abuse case

JC.Com    The jury in the trial of a Jewish teacher accused of sexual assaults on two schoolgirls have retired to consider their verdict.

Father-of-10 Todros Grynhaus, 50, is alleged to have molested the girls when they were between the ages of 13 and 15 then relied on the Orthodox Jewish community’s "resentment" of reporting matters to the police to keep the allegations secret.

The son of a rabbi, Mr Grynhaus breached his bail conditions and flew to Israel when the allegations first surfaced – only returning when he was re-arrested and deported after almost two years, Manchester Crown Court has heard. [...]

The judge told the jury that Mr Grynhaus had said the allegations were made against him out of "revenge" and to obtain money from him.

Mr Grynhaus had tried to explain to the jury why he fled to Israel. Summing up his evidence, Mr Justice Turner added: “He wanted to avoid shame and disgrace being brought on his family.

Satanic child abuse is believed by anti-Semites to be a world wide Jewish plot

One of the disturbing issues - in the wild conjecture over Satanic abuse rings which requires believing incredible claims and the  paranoia required to digest all of this - is the fact that two can play the same game. If you take Rabbi Berkowitz words about the widespread Satanic (or Christian missionary plot) in Jerusalem - and do some brief searching with Google or Youtube for similar reports - you find a very disturbing thing. It is not hard to find such reports - but there is a twist.

The exact same "facts" and "logic" are used to prove that there is a Jewish pedophile plot involving horrible abuse of children,  mind control, government figures blocking investigation, destroying the present world order and wanting to take over the world. If that sounds ridiculous - then why not when Rav Berkowitz says it is a Satanic plot or a Christian plot - with possible police involvement to coverup the facts? And if you acknowledge that it is in truth just as reasonable that it is a Jewish or Satanic plot as a Christian plot or even a Muslem plot or Russian plot or  [fill in the blank] - then you need to ask - on what basis do you decide? If standing at the edge of an incredible deep chasm - makes you dizzy when you realize that you are falling into a world of paranoid psychosis  - you need to consider the obvious alternative.

The alternative is to climb down from the tree - and to step back from the precipice - before it is too late .

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Let me give a few examples of allegations that Jews are involved in major Satanic abuse rings. (The term "illumanti" found in many of these sites is referring to Jews or  people who pretend to be Jews Smololko - who are concerned with dominating the world This is Zionism)

Vicki Pollin- founder of the Awareness Center that focuses on Jewish sexual abuse

Proof that Jews are involved in rituatistic torture of babies comes from Vicki Polins confession on the Oprah show.. See Henry Makow Blog discussing what this says about Jews .  

Nachlaot

The Realistic Report uses Tablet Magazine's   debunking of the allegations of Satanic child abuse ring at Nachlaot to prove that Jew are in fact involved in Satanic abuse and the Jewish publications help cover it up.

Former FBI agent Gunderson reveals Illuminati (Jews), Satanism, pedophile rings. 

If you want to become paranoid - please listen to this recording by the former head of the L.A. FBI office describing a conspiracy of coverup of widespread child abuse, satanism, corruption of the government including the FBI in dealing with these cases - and he includes the White House. For good measure he was allegedly killed by arsenic poisoning because he exposed the "truth".

Jews killed investigators who expose their crimes

The Blog the Common Sense Show   says that it is a Zionist plot to killing pedophile investigators

Jews are prominent pedophiles

The blog Jewish Paedophili   argues that Jimmy Savile was a Jew and Jews are prominent pedophiles

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PLEASE MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!

Epstein Torture Trial: Testimony of David Wax (Another perspective by an Epstein sympathizer)

 Guest Post by Epstein sympathizer  - who is attending the trial - and has agreed to make comments for this blog. It cogently presents information not contained in the newspaper account.

Newspaper report about testimony of David Wax

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Dear Rabbi Eidensohn,

How fortuitous, as my second day in court was that same Wednesday of which you write!

Let me preface what I will say here with this:

You know that I hope, and now believe, that R. Epstein is found innocent of the charges that were brought. I hope that we can agree to disagree that in some RARE and non-typical cases the use of force could be expected... but here, below, my comments are strictly about the case that is in court.

And we both know that the smart people involved 'know' that he will end up doing time. So if you can read what I write with that in mind, I hope that you will understand my take.

Here is the quote from your article that I would like to comment on:

Wax, the founder of a charitable organization that funneled millions of dollars to Israel, directly linked Epstein and two of the three other men on trial with him to the 2010 attack on Yisrael Bryskman, an Israeli national who was living in Brooklyn to avoid giving his wife a divorce according to Orthodox Jewish custom.

What actually happened Wednesday was the prosecutor's attempt at doing such, but he did no such thing.

And let me again segue, and I will agree that Wax was probably using Epstein as a guide as to how to DO this thing... (grabbing the guy, doing a 'get'),

And even he testified that R. Epstein refused to get personally involved once he understood that Wax was planning on doing this whole thing in his own bedroom.

(another important point is that at some point last week the FBI admitted to the knowledge of many different Batei Dinim who would resort to violence in cases of intractable husbands...) Like R. Epstein, at worst, was one of many.

But, back to the facts that were brought out on Wednesday:

First, records of phone calls. Wax testified that he called Ari close to Shabbos in order to have him come over to collect $15,000. (of the $50K that he claims that R. Epstein wanted for his guidance...) But the phone records that were put up showed that Ari never answered those calls. There was no communication between the two on that afternoon! (when that became clear, the prosecution took the phone records down very quickly, and then the judge called for a break, it was loony!)
 

And again, last week sometime, during the testimony of Bryskman he already testified that the only person who he remembers kicking and punching him was Wax, because Wax kept taking off the blindfold to tease and taunt him. (Wax agrees that he did this, after claiming in his plea agreement that he did not do this....because Bryskman testified to these facts!)

And Rabbi Eidensohn, there are so many examples that even the PROSECUTION highlighted of clear lies that Wax told in his plea agreement, and then again, in his agreement to 'substantially aid' the prosecution of other individuals (the crux of the Epstein sting...), and even in his testimony on DIRECT EXAMINATION! There was a point where I had to ask Epstein family members what was going on, because Wax was clearly contradicting the line of questioning of the PROSECUTOR, and I couldn't figure out what was going on.... like who is on what side, lol?

And the other really shocking piece of evidence that the FBI brought were the bank records of Wax during the time of his negotiation with the Agunah's family (as I remember 'Schachter', could be wrong.) And R. Eidensohn, these were the bank records that the FBI admitted as evidence. There were donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the 'Taryag Foundation' (which seems to have been R. Wax's family's personal piggy bank.... even the prosecution admitted as such when the jury was not present,) that were then taken out at the bank teller, deposited into the Wax family account, and then sent as a wire transfer to a money changer in B'nei Brak.

ON THE STAND Wax claimed that he had no idea of the provenance of $325,000.00, who took it out, that it was transferred to Israel, that his WIFE TRAVELED with him. It was like pulling teeth:

'No, he traveled alone.'

Oh, here are your flight records for you and your wife.

'Oh perhaps she was with me.'

On and on and on. He was so evasive, unbelievable evasive, there was no way to understand whose side he was on!

OK, bottom line, it seems clear to me (not a professional in these matters), that the jury and the judge are becoming aware of the fact that this Wax guy is not only a sadistic pervert (how he tortured Bryskman, and then, taking him in a taxi, tried to have him take out cash to pay for the bloodied carpet that HE had done by kicking him while sadistically torturing him with words, while wearing a white cowboy hat....and then threatening to bury him alive if HIS father didn't pay ransom... all admitted to on Wednesday...), but besides that, is constantly contradicting himself.... and just if all this insanity is not already making your head spin.... to make things really clear:

The FBI was sold a 'bill of goods' by this Wax fellow, thought that they were onto some insider secret info, and launched this million dollar 'sting' all orchestrated by a man who can NOT keep his story straight, can't follow a line of logic, and was laundering millions of dollars through his institute, and that the FBI, even with the bank records as THEIR evidence, seem to never have really examined.

Insane.

Epstein Torture Trial: David Wax(2nd day) admits threatening to kill to Bryskman for $100k

Asbury Park Press     Wax testified for a second day in the trial of Rabbi Mendel Epstein, his son and two other rabbis, who are accused of kidnapping men so they would grant their wives “gets” — divorces that would be recognized by Orthodox courts.

Wax – who is serving as the government’s primary witness – gave a gory detailing of what he said he and Epstein conspired to do in order to convince the husbands to comply, all while charging the wives tens of thousands of dollars for the service.

As Bryskman lay on the carpet, Wax said he dropped a large bag next to him and threatened to stuff him inside and bury him alive in the Poconos, unless he gave up his bank account information. [...]

“You decided to put on this hat,” Mazrek said to Wax, waving in his hand a white cowboy hat with a dark lace. Wax told investigators that he donned the hat as he beat Bryskman. [...]

When the taxi driver questioned what had happened to the bruised and bloody Bryskman, Wax made a drinking motion with his hand and said that Bryskman had tried to hit on his wife, so he’d had to “knock him the ---- out,” according to previous testimony that Mazrek read in court.

As they rode through the streets of Lakewood, Bryskman had already agreed to grant the get, Wax said. But rather than let him go, Wax tried to get $100,000 out of him, he testified.

Before dropping off Bryskman at a home in Brooklyn, the two men stopped at a bagel shop, Wax said.

“We wanted to buy him breakfast,” Wax said. “We offered him a muffin.”

When will the Rabbis learn that exiling a pedophile to another neighborhood doesn't help?

Kikar HaShabbat

פרשיה איומה חדשה שהולכת ומתפרשת לעינינו לאחרונה מעידה שוב, בפעם המי יודע כמה, את תוצאותיה האיומות של ההשתקה וההסתרה. בקריית ספר התרבו תלונות על אדם מסויים, תושב העיר, אשר תקף ילדות קטנות, שוב ושוב. במקום לערב את המשטרה, החליטו הרבנים "להגלות" את אותו אדם לבני ברק. הוא הוחתם על חוזה שבו התחייב לקחת כדורים שימנעו ממנו לתקוף ילדים, ולא לחזור לקריית ספר

אף אחד לא הודיע לתושבי השכונה בבני ברק על הסכנה האיומה שעומדת לפתחם. וכמובן, כמו בכרוניקה ידועה מראש, אותו תוקף ידוע המשיך בתקיפות גם בעיר בני ברק, עד שלאחרונה, אחרי מקרים רבים של תקיפות, סוף סוף התלונן אחד מהאבות של הילדות המותקפות למשטרה, והתוקף נעצר

.

כל הורה שקורא את הדברים הללו מתחלחל ומזדעזע. זהו אחד הפחדים האיומים ביותר. הילדים הקטנים והטהורים שלנו. איך נוכל לשמור עליהם שלא יפגעו בהם?

ובכל זאת, למרות הזעזוע, ולמרות התיעוב והפחד, אנחנו עדיין לא מסגירים את התוקפים הללו למשטרה. שוב ושוב אנחנו כקהילה נופלים בפח הזה של - "הוא ישתנה" ו"מה יהיה עם המשפחה שלו?", "איך אפשר לשתף פעולה עם המשטרה" ו"זה מוסר".

 [...]

אל תגידו "הוא ישתנה", אל תאמינו להבטחות, אל תאמינו לסיפורי "נפלתי, וזה לא יקרה שוב". מדובר באנשים בעלי הפרעה נפשית ובעיות קשות מאד של שליטה עצמית בנושא. האם הייתם מאמינים לאלכוהוליסט שמבטיח וחותם לכם שהוא "לא ישתה אלכוהול יותר"?

לכו למשטרה. לכו להתלונן. כל תוקף שנעצר הוא פחות ילדים שנתקפים. זוהי משוואה פשוטה.

הפיצו את הדברים הללו לכל מכריכם. שידע כל אדם שמכיר תוקף כזה ומתלבט אם ללכת למשטרה, התקיפה הבאה תהיה על המצפון שלך. אל תגיד "ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה".

Epstein Torture Trial - David Wax links Epstein to the torture of Bryskman to give a Get

NJ.Com    In the ongoing federal conspiracy trial of Rabbi Mendel Epstein, David Wax detailed the roles of three of the four men accused of resorting to violence in exchange for large sums of cash to extract divorces from unwilling husbands.

Wax, the founder of a charitable organization that funneled millions of dollars to Israel, directly linked Epstein and two of the three other men on trial with him to the 2010 attack on Yisrael Bryskman, an Israeli national who was living in Brooklyn to avoid giving his wife a divorce according to Orthodox Jewish custom.

On the witness stand for the entire day on Wednesday, Wax said he and Epstein had phone discussions about forcing Bryskman to agree to the divorce -known as a get - at Wax's Lakewood home.

He said Epstein wanted $50,000 from the family of Bryskman's wife "to pay the people who were going to come." [...]

Bryskman testified on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton that his attackers blindfolded him, cuffed his hands behind his back and bound his legs before repeatedly beating and kicking him. The attack occurred late Oct. 16, 2010, and continued into the early morning hours of the following day.

Bryskman couldn't identify anyone other than Wax as his attackers, but Wax on Wednesday said Ari Epstein and his unknown friend threw the first punches before he joined in.

At one point, Wax donned a white cowboy hat and pulled Bryskman's head up by his hair to ask him how he liked the hat, Wax admitted.

He said Goldstein was present to write the official get document before everyone left.

Wax also testified that after the attack was over, he got into a cab with Bryskman and took him to an automated teller machine to withdraw the money. The cash - which Bryskman eventually did not retrieve - was to pay for the rug in Wax's bedroom that Bryskman had bloodied during the attack, Wax said.

Wax said he attempted to have Bryskman's father pay $100,000 in ransom but insisted the money was intended as child support for Bryskman's wife.

In the four weeks that federal prosecutors have been calling witnesses, Wax, who has admitted to the kidnaping and brutal beating of one of those husbands, has provided the most potentially damaging testimony so far. [...]

The Bedatz strongly protest against the insults made against Rav Sternbuch and others

רבותינו הבד"צ בראשות מרן הגאב"ד שליט"א יוצאים במחאה נמרצת על כבוד התורה, כאשר בזמן האחרון התרבו המקרים בהם נערים ידועים מאתרא קדישא שמו להם למטרה לבזות את רבינו מרן שר התורה הגר"מ שטרנבוך שליט"א ראב"ד ירושלים וגדולי התורה מנהיגי העדה, ובעזות פנים וחוצפה נוראה העיזו לבזות בחוצפה נוראה את רבינו מרן שר התורה הגר"מ שטרנבוך שליט"א, וכמו כן ההינו אותם נערים מאתרא קדישא לשלוח יד ולפגוע בגדולי התורה ומאורי החסידות, ופגיעתם רעה לתקוף את הגאון הגדול רבי נתן הכהן קופשיץ שליט"א גאב"ד בית שמש וחבר הבד"ץ, ואת מנהיגי קהילות הקודש כ"ק מרן אדמו"ר מתולדות אהרן שליט"א כ"ק מרן אדמו"ר מדושינסקיא שליט"א וכ"ק מרן אדמו"ר מרחמסטריווקא שליט"א.

כעת יוצאים רבותינו הבד"ץ בראשות כ"ק מרן הגאב"ד שליט"א במחאה גדולה על כבוד התורה, וכה הם כותבים בדברים חוצבים: "כאשר בזמן האחרון מתרבים המקרים שיחידים ידועים מבזים את כבוד התורה, וביותר את כבסוד הגאון האדיר שר התורה רבי משה שטרנבוך שליט"א הראב"ד דפעה"ק, וכן מבזים שאר ת"ח שליט"א, אנו מוחים על כך בכל חומר".

בכך מקוים כולם שתוסר החרפה הנוראה ממחנינו והשלום יחזור לשכון בקרבינו, אמן.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way: It is now the female accuser who is automatically believed.

Slate  The Hunting Ground opens like a horror movie: We meet a suite of innocents who have no idea they’re heading off to hell. This documentary about sexual assault on college campuses begins with YouTube videos of high school girls reacting with tearful joy to their acceptance letters. Lambs to the slaughter, we’re supposed to think. The film that follows portrays college as so dangerous for young women that the viewer is left with the sense that these students would have been better off posting college rejection videos and staying home.

The Hunting Ground arrives at an interesting moment in the national conversation on campus sexual assault. Press coverage and statements from government and university officials portray a problem of vast scope. The Obama administration has taken action: Schools are now under pressure from the federal government to show they take sexual assault charges seriously and mete out appropriate punishment. At the same time, a number of critics (and I’m one of them) suggest that a moral panic is clouding our ability to rationally assess the problem. A range of voices—among them journalists and law professors—has raised concerns that the systems being put in place at schools to adjudicate these cases are grossly unfair to the accused. What a perfect time for a film that addresses all this, and illuminates a way forward.

Unfortunately, The Hunting Ground is not that movie. It is a polemic that—as its title suggests—portrays young women as prey, frequently assaulted and frequently ignored by their universities and law enforcement when they try to bring charges. The movie, from director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, features numerous interviews with women who describe horrific experiences, and their testimony has raw, emotional power. But good policy about the lives of young people—female and male—needs to be based on prudent assessment. The film traffics in alarmist statistics and terrifying assertions, but fails to acknowledge both the recent changes in the way the government and universities approach sexual assault charges and the critiques that those changes go too far. By refusing to engage the current conversation about this issue, the film does its subjects—and us all—a disservice.

The Hunting Ground relentlessly makes the point, for example, that about 20 percent of female college students will be sexually assaulted by classmates. Diane Rosenfeld of Harvard Law School analogizes that if the parents of male students were told their sons had a “1 in 4 or 5 chance” of being a victim of a drive-by shooting at college, Mom and Dad would think twice about sending them. In a Slate piece in December on campus sexual assault, I examined some of the studies underlying this claim, which has long been cited by advocates on this issue. It turns out many of the studies rest on narrow samples or wildly extrapolated numbers. (Even New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a co-sponsor of proposed legislation on campus sexual assault who appears briefly in the film, quietly took the “1 in 5” statistic off her website in December.) Callie Marie Rennison, co-director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Research Initiative at the University of Colorado Denver, writing in the New York Times, deplored the idea that students and parents are being bombarded with assertions of “an epidemic where one does not exist.”

Not only is sexual assault an expected part of the college experience, the filmmakers assert, once it happens victims generally discover that no officials at their schools will take action or even care. These callous, indifferent administrators coddle perpetrators and systematically cover up heinous crimes in an effort to maintain their school’s good—if false—reputation. Occidental College assistant professor of sociology and activist Danielle Dirks says, “Schools are actively and aggressively not wanting to tell the truth about what is going on on their campuses. Because the first campuses to do so will be known as the rape campuses.” (In my article I mention Dirks’ involvement in getting a male freshman expelled from Occidental after he hooked up with a female freshman while both were drunk.)

The Hunting Ground asserts that even when a victim pushes past the roadblocks and makes a formal report to administrators, it will do no good. Lawyer and activist Colby Bruno says, “The message is clear: It’s don’t proceed through these disciplinary hearings. No matter what you do, you’re not going to win.” The film follows this quote with a graphic showing a paltry number of expulsions of male students at six top schools. But let’s examine this assertion that colleges would rather leave perpetrators unpunished than acknowledge there are any. The higher education insurance group, United Educators, just released a study of 305 sexual assault claims they received from 104 member schools for the three years ending in 2013. I spoke to the organization’s director of risk research, Alyssa Keehan, who said, “The most common narrative you hear is that institutions don’t care about sexual assault. Our data suggests otherwise.” UE’s findings show that when a formal complaint is brought against a student, in 45 percent of the cases he is found responsible. When that happens, more than 80 percent of the time he is given the most severe penalty available—either expulsion or suspension. The study found in 25 percent of the cases the accused is found not responsible. In 23 percent of the cases the school did not adjudicate, not because of a cover-up, but because in the majority of these instances the accuser either asked the school not to investigate, became uncooperative, or could not identify the accused. In the remainder of cases, the accused withdrew from school. [...]

The Real Victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse Hysteria: Why rational people believe ridiculous claims

Slate   Among the atrocities that Frances and Dan Keller were supposed to have committed while running a day care center out of their Texas home: drowning and dismembering babies in front of the children; killing dogs and cats in front of the children; transporting the children to Mexico to be sexually abused by soldiers in the Mexican army; dressing as pumpkins and shooting children in the arms and legs; putting the children into a pool with sharks that ate babies; putting blood in the children’s Kool-Aid; cutting the arm or a finger off a gorilla at a local park; and exhuming bodies at a cemetery, forcing children to carry the bones.

It was frankly unbelievable—except that people, most importantly, a Texas jury, did believe the Kellers had committed at least some of these acts. In 1992, the Kellers were convicted of aggravated sexual assault on a child and each sentenced to 48 years in prison. The investigation into their supposed crimes took slightly more than a year, the trial only six days.

And now, even the Travis County district attorney agrees that the trial was unfair.

After multiple appeal efforts and 21 years in prison, the Kellers are finally free. Fran Keller, 63, was released from prison on Nov. 26 on a personal bond, just in time for Thanksgiving. Her daughter was waiting for her with a bag full of the first clothes that weren’t prison-issued that Keller had seen in years. Dan, who turned 72 in prison and now walks with a cane, was released on Dec. 5; this time, Fran was there to greet him. (The Kellers divorced while in prison yet remain close, as close as two people locked up in separate prisons for crimes they say they didn’t commit can be.) [...]

Their release may also finally mark the end to one of the strangest, widest-reaching, and most damaging moral panics in America’s history: the satanic ritual abuse panic of the 1980s and 1990s.

“That was literally a witch hunt,” said Keith Hampton, pro-bono lawyer for the Kellers. “We say ‘witch hunt’ in this figurative way, but that was a modern-day literal witch hunt. They really were after people who they thought were worshipping at the feet of the Dark Lord.”

So what the hell happened?

The Keller case is typical of the satanic ritual abuse panic and the dozens of cases that popped up in breathless media reports. The trouble started when Christy Chaviers, a 3-year-old girl who was an infrequent visitor to the day care during the summer of 1991, told her mother that Dan had spanked her. With coaxing from her mother and her therapist, Donna David-Campbell, whom Christy had been seeing to deal with acting-out issues, an incident of spanking turned into something much worse—Dan Keller, the little girl said, had defecated on her head and raped her with a pen. From there, the stories Christy told David-Campbell became wilder: The Kellers “had everyone take off their clothes and had a parrot that pecked them in the pee-pee,” they made her smoke a cigarette, they “came to her house with a chainsaw and cut her dog Buffy in the vagina until it bled.” David-Campbell concluded not that Christy was an imaginative child having trouble with her parents’ divorce, but that she was the victim of ritual abuse.

The case was turned over to the police. Parents of children who’d attended the preschool, however, continued to talk to one another and their children. In October, another child, also a therapy client of David-Campbell, told his parents that he’d been abused; a third child, whose mother was in contact with the parents of the other two, came forward in February 1992. By the time of the trial in November 1992, the stories included the killing of a baby tiger in a graveyard, a person being shot by people in sheriff’s uniforms and then dismembered with a chainsaw, videotaped sex with adults and other children, and the Kellers wearing white robes and lighting candles to assault them. No other children, including those children who were supposedly the targets of abuse, or their parents confirmed the accounts. When put on the witness stand, Christy, by then 5, was at first unwilling to say anything had happened at all, then did, then recanted. Friends and acquaintances of the Kellers, including their landlord, who frequently dropped by unannounced, testified that they’d never seen anything out of the ordinary at the Kellers’ day care.

Why did psychotherapists and investigators conclude that these fantastic allegations were true? Because at the time, pretty much everyone else in America did.

The panic began in earnest with the McMartin Preschool trial, an investigation that began 30 years ago. The owners of a California preschool and several teachers were accused of molesting a 2½-year-old boy; before it was over, hundreds of children, usually after lengthy sessions with coercive therapists, came forward to say that they, too, had been taken to a church to watch the beheading of a baby, then forced to drink its blood or flown by plane to random cities for sexual abuse, or countless other bizarre stories.

While that investigation and trial unfolded, other cases surfaced. Media poured attention on the claims, which made great fodder for a newly created 24-hour news cycle (CNN Headline News launched in 1982). As televangelists prayed for deliverance from Satan’s scourge, talk show “experts” claimed that every imaginable form of abuse was happening on a massive scale in America and that networks of Satanists had infiltrated schools, the police, and local government. Geraldo Rivera claimed in a televised 1987 special report that more than a million Satanists were plying their evil trade in America right at the very moment. (He has since apologized.) In 1989, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Michelle Smith and another woman who claimed to have recovered memories of being abused by a satanic cult; Sally Jesse Raphael, not to be outdone, ran two shows on the subject. In 1990, Don’t Make Me Go Back, Mommy: A Child’s Book About Satanic Ritual Abuse, a children’s picture book featuring colored-pencil drawings of children being abused in satanic rituals, appeared in libraries and therapists’ offices. In 1992, folk singer Joan Baez released “Play Me Backwards,” a song in the voice of a victim of satanic ritual abuse who was forced to witness the sacrifice of a baby and is now recollecting her repressed memories.

“It sounds laughable,” says Debbie Nathan, an investigative reporter who co-wrote Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt about the panic and is now a director for the National Center for Reason and Justice, which took up the Kellers’ cause. But there is certainly historical precedent, going back even further than the Salem witch trials: Ancient Romans, for example, claimed that Christians ate babies; Christians later claimed that Jews used Christian babies’ blood in religious rituals.

“Children symbolize the good things about culture, the innocence and purity, the future of the culture,” says Nathan. When a culture feels under threat in some way, fear and anxiety focus on the safety of children. America was experiencing upheavals in gender roles, child-rearing practices, and social expectations, and more and more people were embracing fundamentalist religion and belief in the devil. The fear of satanic ritual abuse was perpetuated by both ends of the political spectrum. “In the right wing, you had that kind of preoccupation with Satan, and on the left, you had a lot of concern with the well-being of children, and women going back to work, and I think it was a perfect storm of fear and anxiety,” says Nathan. Most if not all of those involved believed they were acting in the best interests of the children—which meant that any healthy skepticism was interpreted as anti-child.

But extensive investigations revealed little to no truth to the satanic ritual abuse panic. The McMartin Preschool trial ended in 1990 with no convictions, even after the government threw more than $15 million at prosecuting it. In 1992, FBI agent Kenneth Lanning, in his report on satanic ritual abuse, declared that satanic ritual abuse wasn’t credible: “Hundreds of communities all over America are run by mayors, police departments, and community leaders who are practicing Satanists and who regularly murder and eat people? Not likely.” Two years later, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, under the federal Department of Health and Human Services, released a report claiming that there was no evidence of truth in satanic ritual abuse claims. Even so, people still believed: A Redbook magazine survey conducted in 1994 found that fully 70 percent of Americans believed that satanic ritual abuse was real.

As with previous panics, the dangers may have been imaginary, but the consequences were not. The real toll of the satanic ritual abuse panic was on the children dragged into it and accused people like the Kellers, who numbered in the hundreds by the end of the decade. (In 1993, a survey by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law found that 26 percent of prosecutors reported handling at least one case with elements of alleged ritual abuse.) [...]

Shul President Livshin and Rabbis Simmonds and Cohen write letter of support for Beth and her children

Epstein Torture Trial Does this court document mean that the U.S. Attorney is offering Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag immunity for testimony?

According to this document filed by the US Attorney, it appears that the US Attorney is going to give Rabbi Ralbag immunity in order to testify.  Otherwise, Rabbi Ralbag would, according to the document, invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

   Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag and Epstein Torture Trial