Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Catholic bishop who violated mandated reporting - gets a deal
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Crown Heights Beis Din: Must report abuse claims to secular authorities.
Other rabbinical authorities have also encouraged their members to go the police, but what was unique here is the fact that the Crown Heights Beit Din made the matter public and not only allowed its members to report directly to the police, but required it.[...]
Penn State scandal: Learning Torah from the Goyim:
When Paterno realized that the Penn State administration was not dealing with the situation (or perhaps covering it up), what should he have done? Was he under any further obligation? Even if he was under no legal obligation, is there a difference between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law”?
The Torah states: “Do not stand idly on your brother’s blood” (Leviticus 19:16). This is an imperative to get involved when a situation goes awry. The Almighty created the world as a workshop for self-perfection. No matter what our station in life, no matter what our innate abilities, the Almighty puts us in a particular situation in order that we make the right choice – no matter how uncomfortable or how politically inexpedient.[...]
The Torah says that if you have a chance to fix something in the world – whether stopping your colleague from an illegal act, or helping to feed starving children – and you do not act, then you ultimately bear responsibility. Perhaps, for that reason alone, the firing of Joe Paterno was justified.
New York mandated reporting laws - limitations for yeshiva teachers
Monday, November 14, 2011
Reinstating a physically abusive teacher
Pedophiles infiltrate respected institutions to find victims
Bedatz denounces Jewish Taliban ladies
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Early sexual abuse increases heart risks
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Study Finds Signs of Awareness in 3 ‘Vegetative’ Patients
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life
Monday, November 7, 2011
Widespread Sexual Harassment of Students in Grades 7 to 12
“It’s pervasive, and almost a normal part of the school day,” said Catherine Hill, the director of research at the association and one of the authors of the report.
Over all, 48 percent of students surveyed said they were harassed during the 2010-11 school year. Forty-four percent of students said they were harassed “in person” — being subjected to unwelcome comments or jokes, inappropriate touching or sexual intimidation — and 30 percent reported online harassment, like receiving unwelcome comments, jokes or pictures through texts, e-mail, Facebook and other tools, or having sexual rumors, information or pictures spread about them.
Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate
Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Former Penn State coach accused of abuse/Others with coverup
Friday, November 4, 2011
Ultra-Orthodox spitting attacks on Old City clergymen becoming daily
Johannes Martarsian was walking in the Old City in May 2008 when an young ultra-Orthodox Jew spat at him. Maratersian punched the spitter in the face, making him bleed, and was charged for assault. But Judge Dov Pollock, who unexpectedly annulled the indictment, wrote in his verdict that "putting the defendant on trial for a single blow at a man who spat at his face, after suffering the degradation of being spat on for years while walking around in his church robes is a fundamental contravention of the principles of justice and decency." [...]
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Well known psychologist found to have falsified research - major concern for field of psychology
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Dismal Tale of Arrest for Tiniest of Crimes
She was handcuffed. For the next 36 hours, she was moved from a cell in the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street to central booking in Lower Manhattan and then — because one of the officers was ending his shift before Ms. Zucker could be photographed for her court appearance, and you didn’t think he was going to take the subway uptown while his partner stayed with her at booking, did you? — she was brought back to Harlem. [...]
Rabbi Moti Elon indicted for indecent assault
According to the indictment, which was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Elon is alleged to have carried out the offenses by exploiting two minors. [...]
‘Bank-fraud’ case jolts Satmar schools
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Up to 50 free copies of Child & Domestic Abuse vol I - available to rabbis & organization heads
Hatzola & protecting women from embarrassment - guest post by Ruchi Freier esq.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Case against convicted molester Leibovits crumbles
One of the most high-profile convictions of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi for sexual abuse in recent times may be in danger of reversal, according to new disclosures in court records obtained by the Forward.
When Baruch Lebovits was sentenced last year to up to 32 years in jail, victims’ rights advocates hailed it as a turning point in the battle against sexual abuse in the insular Orthodox community. [...]
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Was Steve Jobs Smart? Nature of genius
So was Mr. Jobs smart? Not conventionally. Instead, he was a genius. That may seem like a silly word game, but in fact his success dramatizes an interesting distinction between intelligence and genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. They were sparked by intuition, not analytic rigor. Trained in Zen Buddhism, Mr. Jobs came to value experiential wisdom over empirical analysis. He didn’t study data or crunch numbers but like a pathfinder, he could sniff the winds and sense what lay ahead.
He told me he began to appreciate the power of intuition, in contrast to what he called “Western rational thought,” when he wandered around India after dropping out of college. “The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do,” he said. “They use their intuition instead ... Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.”
Mr. Jobs’s intuition was based not on conventional learning but on experiential wisdom. He also had a lot of imagination and knew how to apply it. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Abuse: Incredible institutional coverup by the Boy Scouts of America
Rick Turley was 18 when he learned that Scouting offered a unique opportunity to meet boys.
He would show up in a uniform with a sash full of merit badges, charm parents with claims of being a "top" leader and offer to take their preteen boys out for a swim or drive. Then, often after plying them with alcohol, he would fondle or rape them — once going so far as to kidnap a boy in a stolen plane.
Over nearly two decades, Turley molested at least 15 children in Southern California and British Columbia, most of whom he met through American and Canadian Scouting, a Los Angeles Times and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. investigation has found.
Scouting officials on both sides of the border not only failed to stop him, but sometimes helped cover his tracks, according to confidential Scouting records, court files and interviews with victims, families and Scout leaders.
At one point in 1979, Boy Scouts of America officials decided not to call police after Turley admitted molesting three Orange County boys, the organization's records show.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Violence between ultra-Orthodox sects rocks Jerusalem neighborhood
The Batei Warsaw quarter in Mea She'arim was built in the Ottoman period as a hostel for yeshiva students from Poland. Their families receive tiny apartments for key money or low rent. The Polish Gerrer dynasty, which always had people in the neighborhood committee, has gained almost complete control of it in recent years and is now planning to expand the quarter.
Although they do not recognize the state or its institutions, the Batei Warsaw tenants, most of whom belong to other ultra-Orthodox factions, have filed a court suit to stop the Gerrer Hasids' expansion. This move is believed to have sparked the recent hostilities.
Nobody was surprised by the attack this week. A week and a half ago vandals spread glue on Gerrer Rabbi David Alter's door, preventing him from going out to Hoshana Rabbah prayers. Everyone knew the Gerrer Hasids were out for revenge.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Hamodia: Erasing computers from pictures?
http://www.ladaat.net/forum/index.php?topic=60555
In Hamodia Sukkos edition. both pictures appear.
They just forgot to erase computer from second pic :)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Scandal of Kabbala Center - Philip Berg & I.R.S.
‘Dangerous Instincts’: Ex-FBI profiler explains dangers of that ‘nice’ neighbor
His name was Gary Ridgway. His other name was the Green River Killer. His work was killing at least 49 women in Washington state throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He did it all while maintaining marriages, parenting and church-going, and he seemed very much the word neighbors often use to describe men who turn out to have headless torsos in their freezers. Which is to say, he seemed very, very nice
The niceness paradox. O’Toole worked as a profiler for the FBI for 30 years, headquartered in Quantico. She interviewed the Unabomber. She worked on the Polly Klaas abduction, the Red Lake school shooting and the investigation of David Parker Ray — the Toy-Box Killer who tortured women in a high-tech homemade dungeon. What she found was that the most dangerous criminals were often the ones who came across as the most harmless. That’s how they were able to continue harming people..
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monsey man charged with sexually abusing a boy, 14
Shalit Exchange:Halachic Analysis
Many of the Rabbis who have discussed the issue thus far have come out that the exchange is a violation of halacha. Among them were Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the son of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l the former Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel (see http://yourjewishnews.com/12143.aspx). It seems that at least initially, Rabbi Amar the current Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, was also in agreement with them. Respectfully, however, this may not necessarily be the last word on the subject.
Let us not forget that often, halacha is not so clear cut. Every case in halacha must be examined upon its own merits and the specifics of each case. We must do the same here.
Real 'Sybil' Admits Multiple Personalities Were Fake
Sunday, October 23, 2011
A High-Profile Executive Job as Defense Against Mental Ills
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Lesbian parents give gender blocking treatment to son
Bishop charged with violating mandatory reporting laws
Monday, October 17, 2011
Dragon Mother: Living with a Tay-Sachs baby
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Character assassination: Professor Defends Treatment of Stutterer
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sefer HaIkkarim: Prophet can misunderstand his prophetic vision
What is learned from all this is that a prophet can never disagree with a prophet who is on a higher level. Instead he must interpret his own words in such a way that there is no conflict between them. Since the Torah has stated that the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu was on the highest level of all the prophets, it is impossible for any prophet to disagree with him or nullify his words. However if it is possible to reconcile the apparent disagreement by saying that there were additional factors not mentioned explicitly that is also acceptable.
Large new study: Mutivitamins & supplements don't help & may be harmful
Monday, October 10, 2011
Healing a broken brain
Fifty-nine months ago, I was wearing my seat belt and my car was stopped when another vehicle hit me, causing my head to fracture the windshield. That damaged my right temporal lobe, one of my neurologists explained when he told me I had a traumatic brain injury. I lost my long-term memory, and have been a brain injury patient within Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals ever since.
At 45, I was jolted into an entirely new existence. Memories that connected different parts of my life fragmented and vanished. It took 26 months before I was able to thread my way back unattended to the house I had lived in for 17 years.
I am often amazed to find that people recognize me when I have no recollection of them. People who love me grieve what they claim to experience as the loss of elements of my personality that I cannot recall having been part of me. Others tell me that I seem to have become an altogether different person. I am told that I used to be a real “people person.” Today, however, I can barely stand being around people. And I can get irritable in a nanosecond. I am told that my work before the accident pertained to the AIDS pandemic; I was a treatment activist, founder of several early AIDS organizations and a photojournalist, as well as an artist. But I have no more memory of a photo on the cover of The New York Times of an exhibition I curated 10 years ago than I do of a watercolor I painted when I was 3 years old. When I see my pre-accident work, I am introduced to it as if for the first time. As if it was created by anonymous. Did I make that? So I’m told. [...]
Friday, October 7, 2011
What to pray for: "FINANCIAL CRISIS 'WORST WORLD HAS EVER FACED'"
Annonymous wrote:
Dear Rabbi Eidensohn,I just wrote this up, if you want, feel free to post it as you wish. No accreditation please.Wishing you and yours a Shana Tova and a Gemar Chasima Tova!
Battered-wife who executed husband acquitted of murder charge
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Steve Jobs's message for Yom Kippur
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
3rd indictment filed in Jerusalem pedophile case
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office announced on Sunday that an indictment has been filed charging a Jerusalem man with sexually abusing minors in the capital.
Zalman Cohen was one of five men arrested in September for allegedly sexually abusing dozens of minors in Jerusalem.
The indictment, filed by attorney Shulamit Ben-Yitzhak last Wednesday, describes how Cohen and another man allegedly abused several minors in a house in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2009 and 2010.