Thursday, January 24, 2019

Why Do Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews Defy Their Rebbes And Refuse To Vaccinate?


forward

About 9% of Americans oppose vaccination, but Minke is unusual even among that vocal minority. She is an ultra-Orthodox Jew, part of a community known for adherence to the rulings of their rebbes — rabbinic leaders. And many of those rebbes have insisted that Jewish law requires vaccination. But a stubborn, if small, segment of the ultra-Orthodox community is saying that, when it comes to vaccines, their rebbes’ decrees do not apply.

“I believe that there is no Torah source to tell me exactly how to take care of my children,” Minke, 31, said in an interview. Minke requested a pseudonym because she did not feel comfortable having her views publicly known.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The real politics behind the Covington Catholic controversy, explained

vox

The Covington Catholic fight is American politics in microcosm.

Why is the Covington Catholic controversy still the nation’s biggest story?
It started simply enough. A short viral video shot on Friday shows a group of white teens in “Make America Great Again” hats surrounding a small group of Native American demonstrators, including an elder from the Omaha tribe named Nathan Phillips. One of the kids, identified as Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, gets up in Phillips’s face and smirks, unaffected by Phillips’s drumming. It looks like a straightforward story of privileged racist white kids harassing a peaceful Native protester.
But shortly after the clip went viral, to universal and at times vitriolic condemnation, a pushback began in right-of-center media. They argued that mainstream media and left-wing activists alike were being unfair to the kids, who were actually defending themselves from insults and harassment from a separate group of protesters, members of the fringe Black Israelite movement. Even President Trump weighed in:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/23/18192831/covington-catholic-maga-hat-native-american-nathan-phillips



The Covington Catholic fight is American politics in microcosm.

Steny Hoyer Is Furious At Republicans For Bowing To Trump On Shutdown

Steny Hamilton Hoyer is an American politician serving as U.S. Representative for Maryland's 5th congressional district since 1981, and has served as House Majority Leader since 2019. A Democrat, he was first elected in a special election on May 19, 1981 and is currently serving in his 20th term. Wikipedia

DRUCKMAN ATTEMPTS APOLOGY, SAYS RABBIS NEED TO OPPOSE SEX OFFENDERS


jpost.



Druckman has been strongly criticized for his failure to publicly condemn Rabbi Moti Elon and to apologize for having publicly supported him after he was convicted of sex offenses against a minor in 2013.
Two donors to institutions connected with the rabbi have cut off their funding due to his failure to publicly distance himself from Elon.
Druckman made his comments in a letter to the heads of hesder yeshivas on Tuesday. They are due to meet in coming weeks on the subject of sexual abuse in educational frameworks and the national-religious community more broadly.

“This is an opportunity for me to express my position regarding our full obligation to deal with sexual abuse and to stand on the side of those who are harmed, and to stand against those who do such harm, without a hint of hushing or covering it up,” Druckman wrote.
“Unfortunately, I acknowledge that part of my activities in this realm gave a different and wrong impression because the steps I took were not properly understood.”

“I am very saddened by this and especially if there are people who were offended by this,” he continued. He finished by saying that he very much appreciates those who work in the field of combating sexual abuse and helping those affected by it, saying that he felt a responsibility to give back to those working against abuse.

Elon was convicted in 2013 of two counts of sexual assault against a minor. Druckman, however, publicly criticized the conviction, and invited Elon to lecture at his yeshiva in Merkaz Shapira.



)rthodox supporter of Roe


letter from Lubavitcher Rebbe about Rav Solovetchik


Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Judge Rules that Hospital Must Rescind Death Certificate for Orthodox Patient


A judge has ruled that Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital must rescind a death certificate that it issued for an Orthodox Jewish patient some three weeks before his death. The decision could have far-reaching effects for religious groups and the obligation of hospitals and medical professionals to accommodate their beliefs, especially regarding “end of life” policies.
The patient, Yechezkel Nakar, z”l, was niftar in the spring of 2017 and the legal fight over what his family perceived as an illegitimately issued death certificate began soon after. The suit gained wide media attention, but a ruling was only issued this past Friday for what Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Devin Cohen only identified as “technical reasons,” according to the Nakar family’s attorney Morton Avigdor.
The delay aside, Mr. Avigdor said the ruling was “terrific.”
“This is a clear and very strongly worded legal recognition of the responsibility of hospitals to accommodate religious beliefs,” he told Hamodia. “This is not just about one hospital, it will affect all of the city and likely beyond, who will have to rethink the way they treat religious rights.”
Against the objections of the patient’s family, the hospital had conducted tests to show if Mr. Nakar, who was unconscious after suffering a stroke, was wh

ant-abortion



Displaying No Choice flyer 1 תמונה לא צנוע.png


Displaying Abortion Bill-2.jpg




Minnesota Rabbi Busted In Underage Sex Sting Sentenced To Probation

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.


Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a popular Minneapolis rabbi, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday after being caught by police in a child sex sting last year, TC Jewfolk reported.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Who Wrote the Late Volumes of Igrot Moshe?

seforimblog

Though this article deals with a factual question, it often seems to devolve into an ideological one. I therefore wish to state: I have no horse in this fight. I have not taken halakhic positions from Igrot Moshe volumes 7-9. I went into this with a genuinely open mind, and in the course of researching this question, I have taken the affirmative and negative sides of this question at different points.
Ever since Igrot Moshe volume 8 was published, and to a lesser degree volume 7, people have cast aspersions or directly accused it of being a forgery. The claim, generally, has been some variation of direct accusation or insinuation that somebody, usually either one of the Tendlers or R. Shabtai Rappaport, inserted his own teshuvot into the volume. Volume 9 is, as they say, ‘right out’. Some even call these volumes ‘Igrot Moshe David’.
As an example, Hirhurim several years ago published this quote from R. J.D. Bleich, though the comment thread is likely a better example.


Given
the preponderance of evidence that the later Igrot
Moshe volumes
are real (and spectacular), I think we can put the various theories
of alternative authorship to rest. The claims of the editors — that
the latest teshuvot were
dictated[6] — explains the ‘steroid spike’, and all available
evidence supports their central contention, that they didn’t change
the actual content. In short: it’s legit.
Timesunion


In the quest to "liberate" women, pro-choice feminists in New York have rallied around the Reproductive Health Act. Many buzz phrases have circulated to describe the RHA's meaning, such as "Abortion is not a crime" and "Abortion is health care," but beyond these buzz words lie the RHA's real implications: It dehumanizes the disabled; healthy, viable humans in utero; children who are aborted but born alive; and pregnant victims of domestic violence.
By completely gutting abortion from New York's criminal law, the RHA removes the state's only prosecutorial tool for holding violent abusers accountable for the death of wanted unborn children. Studies show that domestic violence escalates during pregnancy. New York's version of a fetal homicide law lies within the abortion provisions of its penal law, which the RHA repeals.
If reproductive freedom and equality lie at the heart of the RHA, as pro-choice feminists claim, how could the bill's drafters have overlooked this injustice? How could any feminist strip away the right of a woman to prosecute a violent partner for killing her wanted fetus? Depriving women of the opportunity to punish violent partners for killing their wanted unborn children is anti-woman.
The RHA dehumanizes viable, healthy humans in utero — who could survive outside the womb — by enacting a broad rather than a narrow health exception to New York's current ban on third-trimester abortions.
The RHA dehumanizes the disabled by explicitly permitting the unimpeded destruction of unborn children incapable of surviving outside the womb during the third trimester of pregnancy.
The RHA dehumanizes yet another class of humans, namely infants born alive during abortions — which does occur, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The RHA fully repeals state Public Health Law 4164, which requires that after the 20th week of pregnancy, a separate doctor be present to provide life-saving treatment to children who survive abortions. The current law also affords them civil rights. Without PHL 4164, it is unclear what protections children who survive abortion would have.
From a pro-life feminist perspective, the RHA warps women's rights to bodily integrity and individual autonomy and undermines basic human rights. For a group of people such as women, who have long endured historic dehumanization, the RHA should be embarrassing.

Stop the Back Alley Abortion Act

https://citizengo.org/en/node/168065?tc=ty&tcid=53311689

Governor Cuomo and Hillary Clinton want to make New York the most pro-abortion state in the country. The Reproductive Health Act, also known as the Back Alley Abortion Act, would guarantee abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, prohibit born-alive protections for babies who survive botched abortions, and eliminate any and all health and safety regulations relating to abortion from the New York criminal code. If this Act passes into law, New York would become a magnet for abortionists like Kermit Gosnell.
Please sign and share the petition to stop this radical abortion bill from becoming law.
At a rally just a few days ago, Hillary Clinton and Governor Cuomo (the man who said pro-lifers are not welcome in his state) told a cheering crowd of radical leftists that the new law was necesary to protect New York from President Trump's new Supreme Court appointments.  However, the law would actually go even further than Roe v. Wade, declaring abortion to be a fundamental human right. This would jeopardize the freedom of conscience of medical professionals from collaborating and participating in abortions.
The state of New York already has twice the abortion rate than the national average, and New York alone has over 200 abortuaries.  Also, keeping in line with the racist and eugenic roots of abortion, a majority of the roughly 120,000 children killed by abortion in New York every year are children of color from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
For many years, the Republican New York Senate held back the legislation. But a new wave of radical progressive Senators have taken over the state senate, and they have vowed to fast-track the legislation in order to pass it on January 22, in honor of Roe v. Wade.
To summarize, the legislation it would:
  1. Eliminate any and all penalties related to abortion from the New York criminal code. This includes the repeal of a section of New York law that requires medical assistance to be provided to babies who survive an abortion.  What this means is New York will allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and even after birth.
  2. It will declare abortion a fundamental right. This means that pro-life doctors and nurses, or even "pro-choice" doctors who, for whatever reason, do not wish to commit an abortion, could be forced to carry them out.
  3. It will eliminate the current requirement that a doctor supervise a late-term abortion.  Under the new law, practically anyone will be able to commit dangerous late-term abortions.
The Back Alley Abortion Act is the most radical abortion law in the history of the United States. Its aim is to completely dehumanize the child in the womb and deregulate the business of killing them.  
 
Please sign and share this petition to stop this radical abortion bill from becoming law.
This petition has been created by a citizen or association not affiliated with CitizenGO. CitizenGO is not responsible for its contents.

Petition to: New York Legislators
Stop the Back Alley Abortion Act
The so called "Reproductive Health Act" will make back alley abortions the accepted norm in the state of New York. Abortion always intends to kill one patient (the unborn child), but if this bill becomes law, it will make abortion increasingly dangerous for the mother, eliminating any and all restrictions, even on late-term abortions. If this bill passes, New York will become the Wild West of abortion, where absolutely anything goes.





The MAGA Teenager Who Harassed a Native American Veteran Is Still Unnamed, but We’ve Seen His Face Before

slate




A video clip of a white teenager harassing a Native American elder instantly became one of the most viscerally enraging images of an era that has offered no shortage of them.

In the clip, captured during the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday, an elderly Native American man beats a drum and quietly sings, and a small group of activists and allies can be seen in the crowd behind him. Perhaps 18 inches in front of him, a white teenager in a “Make America Great Again” hat makes eye contact and smirks. A much larger crowd of teenagers—mostly male, mostly white, many wearing MAGA hats—hoots with delight at the wordless confrontation. The encounter was captured from multiple angles and circulated widely on YouTube and social media, generating widespread disgust.
Indian Country Today reported Saturday that the elder is Nathan Phillips, a Vietnam War veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. The boy has yet to be identified, but he was visiting Washington with a group from Covington Catholic High School, an all-boys college preparatory school in northern Kentucky. The group was in Washington to attend the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally that attracts tens of thousands of demonstrators, including many groups of young people from churches and private schools. The event’s stated ideal is “a world where the beauty and dignity of every human life are valued and protected.” (The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School issued a statement on Saturday apologizing to Phillips and Native Americans in general, and said it is investigating punishments that may include expulsion.)
The encounter between the teenager and the older man didn’t end in violence. They apparently didn’t even exchange words. Why, then, did this unexploded grenade of a moment read as so fundamentally disturbing—and spread so quickly? There’s the ahistorical idiocy of