Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Undercover in the Orthodox Underworld-Mendel Epstein FBI Case


https://gen.medium.com/undercover-in-the-orthodox-underworld-83c61ba3aa83

But aside from the occasional angry husband outside of Mendel’s home in Flatbush, where he lived with his wife and their nine children, and aside from the occasional slashed tire or dead fish on the porch, Mendel was considered a necessary if unpleasant feature of Orthodox life. “For Jewish fundamentalists, he was a hero because he made the system work,” said Susan Aranoff, a longtime get activist. “And the system has to work, remember, because if the Torah is right and just, then its law can’t be wrong.”





Monday, November 11, 2019

Trump’s bluster crashes into a barrage of impeachment facts


https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/11/trump-instincts-unimpeachable-presidency-ukraine-069015


But Trump’s tactics of speaking directly to supporters, branding catchphrases and casting critical information as fake may not work as well on impeachment as Democrats gather testimony and evidence from top officials not beholden to the Trump orbit. Even Trump himself is not sure he can beat impeachment, said a person close to the White House.



Trump Jr. heckled off stage — by Trump’s own supporters




Donald Trump Jr. was heckled — by his father’s own supporters — during a book-tour stop over the weekend, a report said Monday.

President Trump’s eldest son was on stage in a lecture hall at the University of California on Sunday to promote his new tome, “Triggered: How The Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,’’ when the 450 people in the audience were told there would be no Q&A session with him “due to time constraints,’’ the Guardian said.

The White House’s most conservative supporters, who had chanted “USA! USA!” when Trump Jr. walked on stage, soon started yelling, “Q&A! Q&A!”

They refused to stop, even as Trump Jr. tried to argue that if he did a question-and-answer session, the Republican administration’s liberal enemies would twist his answers to suit their own agendas.

Trump Leaves Israel in the Lurch


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/israelis-arent-happy-trumps-syria-withdrawal/579103/

The problem for Israel today, though, goes beyond the surprise. If Obama was too cautious for many Israelis, Trump has now shown them how his approach to foreign policy—impulsive, isolationist, transactional, turning on a dime with no alternative in place—can work against their interests. And Netanyahu—who praised Trump in almost messianic terms and who knows how poorly he responds to criticism—now has few tools at his disposal to object to this policy. Israelis can only shake their heads at the absence of any strategy as they survey the regional fallout.



Main Judaism The New Nishma Surveys – Wow and Whoa! and Israeli Modern Orthodoxy


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/24680

Although the Orthodox community is the quickest growing and most Jewishly engaged segment of our people, the volume of data on Orthodox communal norms is probably the sparsest. Thanks to Nishma Research, this is becoming far less the case.


Saturday, November 9, 2019

Impeach the President // Exclusive interview with Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona

WITH DEFENDERS LIKE THIS!



https://www.amimagazine.org/2019/11/06/impeach-the-president/


Like all four of Arizona’s Republican members of the House, Gosar is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and has been an outspoken supporter of the president. Considered a hawk on border security and illegal immigration and described as “one of the staunchest opponents in Congress to legalizing undocumented dreamers” (immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children), he and Mr. Trump share many of the same world views, as well as a penchant for in-your-face, provocative statements.

AVOS ACTED ACCORDING TO SEICHEL NOT TORAH RAV KAMINETSKY

>

אמת ליעקב פרשת לך לך
(יד) וישמע אברם כי נשבה אחיו וירק את חניכיו19.
הנה אילו היה אברהם שואל שאלה אי חייב לילך להציל את לוט בודאי היה נענה שהוא פטור, דהא אין אדם מחויב להכניס את עצמו בספק סכנה בכדי להציל את חבירו [עמש"כ בענין זה להלן סוף פרשת מסעי], אלא מה שעשה כן אברהם הוא משום שהאבות נקראו "ישרים" [עבודה זרה דף כ"ה ע"א], והיינו שכל הנהגתם היתה לא על פי דיני התורה אלא על פי השכל הישר, כי האלקים עשה את האדם ישר, ועל פי היושר היה מוטל על אברהם להשתדל להציל את לוט וכדביארתי לעיל [י"ג פ"ט] כי אברהם הרגיש את עצמו כאחראי לשלומו של לוט מכיון שהרן אביו מת בכבשן אביו משום שאמר שהוא מאמין באלקי אברהם, ולכן ע"פ היושר, "מענטשליך קייט", הוכרח אברהם להריק את חניכיו ולרדוף אחר המלכים. ובאמת כל חיי האבות, שחיו קודם זמן תורה, היו מונהגים על פי היושר, וזהו ביאור מאמר חז"ל [ויק"ר פ"ט א"ג]: דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה, והיינו שהאבות התנהגו על פי דרך ארץ והיושר עוד קודם שניתנה תורה.
ונראה שזהו פשוטו של מקרא להלן סוף פרשת משפטים [כ"ד פי"ב]: ואתנה לך את לוחות האבן התורה והמצוה, דבשלמא מצוה היינו מצוות שנצטוו בהן, אבל מה זה "התורה"20. ונראה שהכוונה היא לסיפורי התורה של האבות שנכתבו בתורה קודם המצוות, והיינו שהרי לשון תורה הוא מלשון "הוראה", כלומר מורה דרך, כי סיפורים אלו מורים לאדם איך לחיות אפילו בלי ציווי השי"ת, וכמו שאמר דוד בקינתו על שאול: הלא היא כתובה על ספר הישר, והיינו ספר בראשית וכדאיתא בגמרא [ע"ז שם].
והנה רש"י ריש בראשית הקשה מדוע התחילה התורה מבראשית ברא אלקים היה לו להתחיל מהחדש הזה לכם, ותירץ משום כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים כו' הוא בראה ונתנה לאשר ישר בעיניו וכו'. ולכאורה זה רק מיישב מדוע הביאה התורה את סיפורי מעשי בראשית וכו', אבל כל הפרשיות מלך לך עד פרשת בא, עדיין אינו מובן מדוע הוצרכה התורה להאריך בכל זה, ועל זה לכאורה לא תירץ רש"י כלום. אבל לפמש"כ נראה שבאמת על פרשיות אלו לא קשה כלל, דמהסיפורים האלו אנו למדים מה צריכה להיות הנהגת האדם על פי היושר והדרך ארץ, ודבר זה אפשר לתבוע אפילו מהגויים, כי אף על פי שמצוות לא ניתנו להם, אבל אעפ"כ לחיות על פי יושר זה יכול כל אחד אם הוא רק רוצה בזה, ודו"ק21..

We read all 2,677 pages of impeachment inquiry testimony released to date. Here's what's clear.


https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/09/politics/impeachment-transcript-takeaways/index.html
To President Donald Trump, the whole flap with Ukraine is over a "perfect" phone call.

"It's based on a single phone call of congratulations to the President of Ukraine, which they fraudulently mischaracterized to sound absolutely horrible," Trump said a few weeks ago of his July 25 call with the Ukrainian President cited by a whistleblower complaint.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Did Trump Offer Russia Help With Wildfires, But Not California?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-russia-wildfires-california/


U.S. President Donald Trump offered Vladimir Putin U.S. help with Siberian wildfires and also threatened to withdraw federal emergency funding to California.

Rating

True

BREAKING & HEARTBREAKING NEWS: Army Targeting FORTY PERCENT of National Religious Girls




Nov. 7, 19.

Parshas Lech Lecha, 5780


By Binyomin Feinberg, Contributor to The Jewish Press*

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com

* The perspectives and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press.

~~~~~~~~~~~

To check for updates throughout the week please visit ("Updates for Cheshvan" at: )

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11EUa2a_8OwXs7T1vMfek3MehHfC2Rd9mWt6NetNxLm0/edit?usp=sharing

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The IDF is targetting 40% of the graduates of National Religious girls' High Schools for the military draft, within just three years. However, they can easily be stopped with proper exposure.


The military reporter for Maariv (Nov.5) reveals that the military seeks to recruit 40% of religious girls in Mam'lachti Dati schools by the end of 2022 CE. According to the IDF, the number of religious girls now being drafted is 2,500 per year.This includes about 27 percent of girls from National Religious schools, of the relevant age.

The IDF modus operandi for recruiting girls is akin to the that of enlisting boys - employing slick marketing techniques and appealing enticements, incrementally increasing enlistment. They start with the weakest girls, and step up gradually, with each group being targeted by the appropriate approach. And, as with recruitment of boys, the military initially argued that recruiting is intended for dropouts and the like.


Even in regard to girls, the army openly reveals their intent to enlist religious girls, with the implication that, contrary to the (somewhat distant) past, the army has set itself a goal to recruit Torah-observant girls who are legally exempt. While the military focuses on entrapment of the weaker girls, concurrently it selectively targets individual stronger girls, gradually, to foment a "new normal," in preparation for the next stage.

Rabbinical court removes children from mother after she 'signs them up for mixed-gender swimming classes'


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/rabbinical-jewish-court-mother-children-removed-observant-swimming-lessons-israel-a9174901.html

A rabbinical court in Israel has taken two children from the care of their mother after claims she was not properly complying with observant Jewish practices.

The court in the city of Haifa has granted the father custody despite the fact he has formerly been convicted of violent crimes.

The mother has been barred from seeing her children and is now only allowed to see them in a specific facility.

She told Israeli newspaper Haaretz getting her divorce was dependant on signing a contract which linked child custody to following an observant way of life.

Republicans again shift their defense of Trump over impeachment inquiry barrage


https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/06/politics/gop-strategy-on-impeachment/index.html
Republicans are struggling to find a unified defense as they shift their ever-changing arguments about why President Donald Trump's actions are not impeachable, amid damaging testimony from senior diplomats that Trump sought to condition US military aid to Ukraine on opening investigations into his political rivals.

What once was a frequently repeated mantra -- there was no quid pro quo -- has now morphed into a multi-pronged and sometimes disjointed defense, with Republicans each taking the job into their own hands, hoping to fight back against the allegations raised daily with the release of new transcripts.


Breaking the Very Laws They Make



Nov. 6, '19


By Binyomin Feinberg, Contributor to The Jewish Press*

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com


* The perspectives and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Please check for updates - today and throughout the week - by visiting:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11EUa2a_8OwXs7T1vMfek3MehHfC2Rd9mWt6NetNxLm0/edit?usp=sharing

~~~~~~~~~~


The Government Circumventing Their Own Laws:


In Jewish Law it's prohibited for a girl or woman to serve in the military, particularly given its rampant immorality, and due to the exploitive nature of the military environment. Due to pressure from Orthodox Jewish leaders across the spectrum in the early days of the State of Israel, the government had compromised by allowing girls exemptions if they would send in certification of their religiosity. In recent years, the government has gotten far stricter in providing religious exemptions. One systemic problem is that,
against their own legal requirements, the Army often refuses to send girls confirmation of their religious exemptions. According to Israeli regulations, once a girl sends in her religious certification - "Tatzhir Dat" ("TD" herein), she must be sent her exemption certification within a short time. However, many girls don't see any such exemption documentation. One way the government has of getting around that legal requirement is to simply "not receive" the TD. This is reportedly a common phenomenon for religious girls seeking exemptions. (One eyewitness even saw an Israeli Postal worker dispose of an entire bag of Religious Certification documents, mailed in by an untold number of girls seeking to secure their religious exemptions.) This type of kleptocratic activity rivals what you'd expect to find in corrupt countries that operate without the luxury of the rule of law. But, for many religious girls, it's a reality. Even the postal receipt doesn't guarantee that the government approved and processed her religious exemption. Not receiving the TD is one of the pretexts the government has been using to pressure girls into enlisting, or showing up at the Draft Offices, to be subjected to all sorts of pressure to enlist. Public pressure does work. It's important to publicize these types of phenomenon to combat them. To be continued, BE"H.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Government Agency Says All States Should Require Bicyclists to Wear Helmets


https://time.com/5719424/cycling-helmets/


The recommendation was among several issued by the National Transportation Safety Board after a hearing Tuesday on bicycle safety. The agency says 857 bicyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles in the U.S. last year, a 6.3% increase over 2017. Bicycle deaths rose even though total road deaths fell 2.4%.