Friday, September 28, 2018

American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh until FBI investigates assault allegations

cnn


The American Bar Association is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt the consideration of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until an FBI investigation is completed into the sexual assault allegations that have roiled his nomination.
In a strongly worded letter obtained by CNN Thursday, the organization said it is making the extraordinary request "because of the ABA's respect for the rule of law and due process under law," siding with concerns voiced by Senate Democrats since Christine Blasey Ford's decades-old allegations became public.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

A Michigan professor supported a student’s study-abroad application — until he realized Israel was her destination



He sees his struggle in the tradition of the grass-roots fight for divestment from apartheid South Africa, as well as the American civil rights movement. Some critics see him as anti-Semitic, or else as allowing his political bias to undermine the education of his students.

Monday, September 17, 2018

The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women

.vpnmentor.

Have you ever been harassed in the street? Received a crass message on a dating app? Had a coworker make a comment about your appearance that just didn’t sit right?
You’re not alone.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Blessing Before Yom Kippur

Rav Soloveitchik on the Avoda of Yom Kippur

The Two Voices: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Teshuvah

Israeli official colluded with Manafort in anti-Semitism scandal


Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday that he has asked Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to ask US officials for clarification on the identity of the Israeli official who assisted President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort to slander the opposition candidate in Ukraine during the Obama administration.

An indictment submitted against Manafort said that he acted, together with a senior Israeli official in order to discredit the leader of the opposition in the eastern European country, Yulia Tymoshenko, and to label her as an anti-Semite.

According to the indictment, Manafort and the Israeli official colluded to ensure that Israel would publish a statement against an anti-Semitic comment made by one of Tymoshenko’s supporters.

Two Prominent Jewish Republican Donors Cut GOP Ties Over Trump




 Two prominent Jewish donors to the Republican Party announced over the past days that they are cutting their ties to the GOP because of U.S. President Donald Trump. The two donors, Seth Klarman and Leslie Wexnner, have both contributed millions of dollars to Republican groups and candidates in recent years. They are both also known as major Jewish philanthropists and supporters of Israel.

Wexner anounced his decision last week following a visit by former U.S. President Barack Obama to Ohio. Wexnner, who in 2012 gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups supporting Obama’s Republican election rival that year, Mitt Romney, said he now misses Obama’s humility and candor. He then stated, speaking at a philanthropic event: “I’m no longer a Republican.”

Newspapers in Ohio made headlines from the statement, describing Wexnner as the largest Republican donor in the state prior to last week’s announcement. In the current election cycle, Wexnner and his wife have donated $2.8 million to “With Honor,” a political action group that supports both Republican and Democratic candidates who have served in the military and who promise to 
engage in bi-partisan legislation if elected to Congress.

The Columbus Dispatch quoted Wexnner as saying: “I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party. I’ve been a Republican since college, joined the Young Republican Club at Ohio State. I’m an independent now.”

Sharia court in Israel places Jewish girl in Arab custody

RUTZ 7

An anti-assimilation group in Israel says it has challenged a decision issued by a state Islamic court in Israel which awarded full custody of a Jewish girl to her Arab grandmother, despite the objections of the girl’s mother.
According to the Yad L'Achim organization – which works to counter efforts to missionize Jews in Israel and to combat assimilation – a state Sharia court which serves Israel’s Muslim minority population awarded custody of a two-year-old Israeli girl, named Yasmin, to her Arab grandmother.
Eight years ago, Yad L’Achim officials say, the girl’s grandmother moved to Israel, along with her three children, after the head of the household had passed away.
The family moved to a mixed city with a significant Arab population. The family had a difficult time adjusting, and found itself in dire financial straits. One of the three children soon dropped out of school, and eventually married a local Arab man.
Two years ago, the young woman, gave birth to a daughter, Yasmin, who was raised at first by her Jewish grandmother.
After her Jewish grandmother died, however, the young woman’s Arab husband urged her to let his mother care for Yasmin. The young woman agreed, and her mother-in-law cared for Yasmin while she could recover from the loss of her mother.

ISRAEL MOURNS ARI FULD


Thousands gathered to mourn Ari Fuld from late Sunday night into early Monday morning in Kfar Etzion, a religious kibbutz in the West Bank.  

Fuld, 45, left his home for a routine shopping trip and became a national legend for the way he shot a terrorist after he himself was mortally wounded by the Rami Levy supermarket in the Gush Etzion junction.

The father of four, was the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and had miraculously dodged a bullet while serving as an IDF soldier in Lebanon.


“If there is one word to describe my brother, it was a hero,” his brother Moshe told the mourners who surrounded the small chapel on the edge of the Kfar Etzion cemetery just after midnight on Monday.

“Who else could manage upon sustaining a fatal [stabbing] injury, to draw his pistol, jump a fence and shoot his attacker to make sure that his attacker would not hurt anyone else; only my brother, only my brother,” Moshe said

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Trump officials reportedly angry at US Jews for not cheering embassy move

timesofisrael.


The Trump administration is reportedly frustrated with the American Jewish community for not embracing the US president more warmly after he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.
new report released Sunday by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a branch of the Jewish Agency, quoted a White House official who alleged the president’s predecessor, Barack Obama, would be beloved for doing the things Trump has done.

Friday, September 14, 2018

Elizabeth Smart pleads with officials to reconsider release of kidnapper


SAN FRANCISCO — Elizabeth Smart pleaded Thursday with authorities in Utah to reconsider releasing one of her kidnappers. Smart was held captive for nine months in 2002 when she was just 14.
Smart says the release of 64-year-old Wanda Barzee, years earlier than expected, was a shock.
In 2002, Smart was 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City bedroom. Nine months later she was discovered.
She had been held captive by a onetime street preacher, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife Wanda. Smart says Mitchell raped her almost daily with Barzee's help.
"She is a woman who had six children, but encouraged her husband to continue to rape me," Smart said Thursday.
In 2011, Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison. In June, the Utah parole board set Barzee's release date in 2024, but last week announced it had miscalculated credit for time served in federal prison. She will now be set free Sept. 19.

In Unprecedented Move, Israel Indicts Husband for Refusing to Grant Wife Jewish Divorce

haretz.

Jerusalem police charged a man Wednesday with violating a legal order after he has refused to grant his wife a Jewish bill of divorce, known as a "get," for almost 20 years.
The man has been in prison since 2000 for his refusal, but with criminal charges filed, his case is the first in Israel in which a husband has been indicted for refusing to grant his wife a get.
According to the indictment, the 61-year-old defendant, who can only be identified publicly as M., and his wife, S., were married 26 years ago. In 1998, the two began divorce proceedings in the course of which M. refused to grant his wife a get.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Bob Woodward's Fear sells more than 750,000 in first day

theguardian

Donald Trump may have dismissed Bob Woodward’s Fear as “a joke”, but readers are showing themselves to be keen to share in the comedy, with more than 750,000 copies of the White House exposé sold in American in just one day, according to its publisher.
Fear, which “depicts a White House awash in dysfunction, where the Lord of the Flies is the closest thing to an owner’s manual”, according to a review in the Guardian, was published on 11 September. Simon & Schuster said yesterday that it sold a combined total of more than 750,000 copies of the book on its first day on sale in the US. The publisher has now ordered a ninth printing, bringing the total number of hardbacks in print in America to more than 1.15m.
“Bob Woodward’s Fear is selling with the force of a cultural phenomenon, in extraordinary numbers across the board, in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions,” said S&S president Jonathan Karp. “Based on immense pre-publication and ongoing interest, the reading public clearly has an enormous appetite for what we believe, as Woodward says, is ‘a pivot point in history’.”

Confusion over pro-Corbyn letter ‘from strictly-Orthodox rabbis’

timesofisrael.


A row has broken out in Stamford Hill over the authenticity of a letter posted in synagogues before Rosh Hashanah, purporting to have been signed by leading rabbis in the area.
The letter, translated by the blogger If You Tickle Us, who lives in the neighbourhood, says it is “an open letter from leading Orthodox Jewish community leaders in the UK”, and publicly dissociates the strictly Orthodox community from recent attacks on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The Odd Chabad Connection Between Putin and Trump

washingtonmonthly


Three days before the presidential election, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump visited the Queens gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and, according to The Times of Israel, they prayed for Donald Trump’s victory.
Schneerson, who died in 1994, is an interesting character. Although he never claimed it himself, some of his followers consider him the Messiah, and others believe he is still alive.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to many as the Rebbe, was a Russian Empire-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in world Jewry, with an international network of over 3,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.
The Kushner family is Modern Orthodox, and of course Ivanka converted to Judaism prior to her marriage to Jared. Still, according to Ben Schreckinger of Politico Magazine, Kushner was affiliated with the Chabad house at Harvard when he was a student there. Since settling in DC, the couple has reportedly been attending services at a Chabad synagogue.
What Jared and Ivanka want to do in their spiritual lives is their business, and I have no intention of casting any aspersions on the Chabad-Lubavitch movement or Rabbi Schneerson. I do however want to explore some things that may circle back to this pre-election pilgrimage to Schneerson’s grave.

Let’s begin here:
Starting in 1999, [Vladimir] Putin enlisted two of his closest confidants, the oligarchs Lev Leviev and Roman Abramovich, who would go on to become Chabad’s biggest patrons worldwide, to create the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia under the leadership of Chabad rabbi Berel Lazar, who would come to be known as “Putin’s rabbi.”
There’s a good chance that if you know of Roman Abramovich, you know him as the owner of the Chelsea Football Club of the English Premier League. You may not know that he was a victor (along with Paul Manafort’s patron Oleg Deripaska) in the bloody aluminum wars of the 1990s, or that he was reportedly the person who convinced Boris Yeltsin that Putin would be a proper successor. You probably are not aware that Ivanka Trump is very close friends with Abramovich’s wife, Dasha Zhukova, with whom she recently attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens. Zhukova reportedly attended the inauguration as Ivanka’s personal guest.
It takes a little more doing to understand the Trump family’s connections to Lev Leviev. To begin with, we need to go back to Bayrock, the company that Donald Trump teamed up with to build his Trump Soho project. There were three main actors in that enterprise. One was convicted mob associate and murky FBI informant Felix Sater. Another was Tevfik Arif, a shady man with likely Russian intelligence connections who was once was arrested by the Turks on Mustafa Kamal Ataturk’s yacht and “charged with running an international underage prostitution ring.” The third was the late Tamir Sapir, another man with ties to Russian intelligence. If you’re interested in this aspect of the story, I refer you to my Trump’s Soho Project, the Mob, and Russian Intelligence article and also Mike Lofgren’s piece: Mobbed Up, both written in late February.
Interestingly, all these men have connections to the Chabad movement. Felix Sater was honored as Man of the Year in 2014 by the Port Washington Chabad house. The same Chabad house’s website lists Tevfik Arif, who is not Jewish, “among its top 13 benefactors.”
But it’s Tamir Sapir who links Trump back directly to Lev Leviev.

COURT ORDERS INTERIOR MINISTRY TO REGISTER PRIVATE ORTHODOX CONVERT AS JEW


The Interior Ministry has defied the spirit of a High Court of Justice ruling for 18 months by refusing to register as Jewish a woman who convertter defying the spirit of a High Court ruling for 18 months, the Interior Ministry has been ordered to register a woman who converted in a non-state, Orthodox rabbinical court as Jewish in the population registry. 

After defying the spirit of a High Court ruling for 18 months, the Interior Ministry has been ordered to register a woman who converted in a non-state, Orthodox rabbinical court as Jewish in the population registry. 

The ruling represents a significant victory for the ITIM religious services organization which brought the legal suit and the Giyur K’Halacha independent, Orthodox rabbinical court which is seeking greater legitimacy for its growing number of converts, mostly from the former Soviet Union

The ruling will not however influence the Chief Rabbinate’s stance which does not recognize the court’s conversions, meaning such coverts will still not be eligible for marriage in Israel since Jews can only marry through the Chief Rabbinate. 

Interior Minister and Shas leader Aryeh Deri said in response that the ruling in no way constitutes recognition of Giyur K’Halacha’s conversions. 

The Jerusalem District Court ruled last month in a decision published today (Thursday) in favour of the IITM religious services organization’s demand that she be registered as Jewish, after the State Attorney’s Office said it no longer objects to a ruling because proposed legislation by the government appears dead in the water.

Psak Halacha Regarding attempts to pass “Death with Dignity” legislation:


The chiyuv (Torah injunction) of “Lo sa'amod al dam re’echa”, obligates everyone to do what he or she can, to help prevent assisted suicide and/or euthanasia.
Allowing the legalization of “assisted suicide”, even if this particular law in practice would only result in assisting a suicide and not euthanasia, is to allow shefichas-domim (bloodshed). Furthermore even rendering such actions not being subject to prosecution, is allowing shefichas-domim (bloodshed), al achas kama vekama (how much more so), in cases of assisted suicide leading to euthanasia.
Voting on the basis of this issue. This obligation would include:
1) Thus, when voting for any public official, this issue must be considered as top priority, certainly overriding financial considerations, government programs, etc. By voting for people who support these laws, we become accountable for their actions. This ruling would still apply even if these laws were to be passed, we would still be forbidden to vote for legislators who voted for these laws. This is the most important way to fulfill our obligation.
2) Urging one’s legislators to vote against these bills, if and when they arise[1] and to urge the governor to veto such bill, were it to pass the legislature.
3) Helping in efforts to repeal such laws, in areas[2] where such legislation was already passed.
Even a few votes can make a major difference, both by legislators and the public—sometimes the vote of a single legislator can decide the fate of these laws—as is evidenced by the recent vote in the New Jersey State Assembly (in November 2014), where an assisted suicide bill was passed by just one vote. We have seen in several recent races in Jewish neighborhoods, that even a handful of votes can make the difference in the outcome of the election[3]. Furthermore, some legislators keep track of the calls that are made to their offices on particular controversial issues, and vote according to their results.
May the Creator of all life grace us with the merit to save innocent lives, fulfilling our role as an or legoyim (light unto the nations). In that merit, may we help usher in the Final Redemption by Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
Rabbonim are listed alphabetically.
Mordechai Chaim Auerbach
Zalman Leib Hollander
Dovid Ribiat
Monsey
Khal Nachlas Moshe, Spring Valley, NY
mechaber "The 39 Melochos"
<
Eliyahu Ben-Haim
Shmuel Kamenetsky
Yosef Yitzchok Rosenfeld
RIETS/Kehillah Yotzei Mashad
Talmudical Academy of Philadelphia
Monsey Dometz
<
Haim Benoliel
Yosef Meir Kantor
Chaim Schabes
Bnai Yosef/Mikdash Melech
Cong. Agudath Israel of Monsey
Knesses Yisroel
Gad Bouskila
Elya Nota Katz
Dovid Schustal
Netivot Israel
Stamford Yeshiva
Bais Medrash Govoha, Lakewood
Yitzchok M. Braun
Eliezer Langer
Yaakov Shulman
Shaaray Zion
Cong. Israel, Poughkeepsie, NY
Talmud Torah of Flatbush
Shlomo Breslauer
Yeshaye Gedalye Kaufman
Moshe Silberberg
Bais Tefiloh
Hisachdus Moetz, Kruleh Dometz
Shuvu/mechaber “Zichron Tzvi Meir”
Eliyahu Brog
Amram Klein
Moshe Soloveitchik
Bais Yisroel
Ungvar
Chicago
Simcha Bunim Cohen
Shloime Ben Zion Kokis
Yitzchok Sorotzkin
Khal Ateres Yeshaya
Zichron Mordechai
Mesivta of Lakewood
Yitzchok Cohen
Grainom Lazewnik
Tzvi Steinberg
Yeshiva University RIETS
Khal Adar Gbir
Kahal Zera Avraham, Denver
Moshe Donnebaum
Philip Lefkowitz
Shlomo Stern
Hechel Hatorah/Adas Yisroel/Melbourne
Jackson, NJ; mult. congregations in US, UK & Canada
Debreciner Rov
Menachem Fisher
Moshe Tuvia Lieff
Elazar Mayer Teitz
Vien Monsey
Agudath Israel Bais Binyomin
Chief Rabbi of Elizabeth, NJ
Noson Yermia Goldstein
Shmuel Miller
Elya Ber Wachtfogel
mechaber of “Migdalos Noson”
Yeshiva Bais Yisroel
Yeshiva of South Fallsburg
Avrohom Gordimer
Avrohom Yaakov Nelkenbaum
Boruch Hersh Waldman
Coalition for Jewish Values
Mirrer Yeshiva
Siach Yitzchok, Suffern
Shmuel Gorelick
Yechiel Perr
Moshe Weissman
Mesivta Ohel Torah
Yeshiva of Far Rockaway
Ohel Moshe
Moshe Green
Steven Pruzansky
Benjamin Yudin
Yeshivah D'Monsey
Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck
Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, NJ
Yisroel Dovid Harfenes
Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff
Yeruchum Zeilberger
Yisroel Vehazmanim
YU Gruss Kollel
Stamford Yeshiva
Boruch Hirschfeld
Avrohom Reich
Gavriel Zinner
Ahavas Yisroel, Cleveland
Hatzolas Yisroel
Nitei Gavriel
Institutions are listed for identification purposes only.
[1] as is currently in New Jersey [2] such as Washington state and Oregon
[3] most noticeably (demonstrated) in the Senate election between David Storobin and Lew Fidler, where Storobin won by less than 20 votes.
Sponsored by Jews for Torah Values jewsfortorahvalues@gmail.com

The Imperative to Vote for Morality


Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the author, who writes a regular column for the Jewish Press, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Jewish Press Ownership or Management.

__________________________________

The Imperative to Vote for Morality

By Binyomin Feinberg

The importance of voting in accordance with Torah values  can barely be overstated. Torah sages have emphasized this point since at least 1982 when several of them called on Jews to actively oppose the gay "rights" agenda, in particular.
Since then, dozens of strong rabbinic statements on this topic have been issued, many in just the past decade. A very recent one, for example – signed by 50 rabbanim from a wide array of Orthodox communities – declared that voting for someone supporting Assisted Suicide is prohibited.
Specifically, a number of co/-sponsors of Assisted Suicide are running for re-election in this Primary, e.g.:


Senator Diane Savino (Bensonhurst, Sea Gate, Brighton Beach);

Sen. Marisol Alcantara (Washington Heights);

Sen. Martin Malave Dilan (Williamsburg);

and Sen. Jesse Hamilton (Crown Heights).

************

Sometimes no moral choice exists in a particular race. But showing up to vote (and writing in a candidate or skipping certain sections of the ballot entirely) is still important since a symbolic protest vote conveying one’s revulsion with the candidates can set the stage for future candidates catering to our moral concerns. Staying home would just be interpreted by the politicians as apathy rather than disgust.
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION:
THE FOLLOWING ARE A JUST A SAMPLING OF SOME NYS RACES OF CONCERN IN THIS UPCOMING PRIMARY. ABSENCE FROM THIS LIST SAYS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, EITHER WAY, ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ANY GIVEN RACE, OR OUR POSITIONS ON IT.

EVERY VOTER IS ENCOURAGED TO DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH.  CHECKING COSPONSORS OF -AND VOTERS FOR - BAD BILLS, LIKE ASSISTED SUICIDE, IS A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO UNDERSTAND CANDIDATES' POSITIONS.
The NY State Assembly website allows the user to search for a bill on any topic. Just type in "sexual orientation," "transgender," abortion, etc., and check for co-sponsors, even if the given bill has not yet been voted on.
°°°°°
Governor: We already said two weeks ago that New Yorkers  face a choice between arguably the most flagrantly pro-LGBT governor in the history of the United States and an activist who celebrates at least one of the abominations of the LGBT agenda.  WE URGE WRITING IN "RABBI AVIGDOR MILLER" IN PROTEST.
Democrat Lt. Governor: Kathy Hochul pulled off all sorts of shenanigans this past June to pass an abortion bill that would have eliminated the law requiring saving babies that survived a botched abortion. Her opponent, City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, has previously expressed opposition in principle to abortion and same-gender "marriage." Yet, we are unaware an instance where he's passed up an opportunity to vote for these items.  
 HOWEVER, SINCE WILLIAMS IS *BY FAR* THE LESSER EVIL,   AND BECAUSE VOTING FOR HIM  MAY POTENTIALLY BLOCK CUOMO FROM RE-ELECTION, UNDER THE RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES, VOTING FOR HIM MAY BE APPROPRIATE IN THIS SPECIFIC SCENARIO.
 (1) IF ENOUGH Democratic primary voters get Williams on the Democratic Party ballot FOR NOVEMBER -- AND 

(2)  IF THE INDEPENDENCE AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES FAIL TO AGREE ON A SHARED LT. GOV. (the Independence Party is already decided on running Lt. Gov. Hochul) ----

THEN the Democratic and Independence Parties would be considered as two separate parties. Thus the GOP would only need defeat each one; they would NOT need enough votes to top the COMBINED number of votes of both the Democratic and Independence tickets.

This would POTENTIALLY facilitate a major upset: A GOP VICTORY IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. 

GIVEN THE STAKES, EVEN MANY PURISTS, WHO SHUN VOTING FOR THE LESSER EVIL, MAY CONSIDER VOTING FOR THE LESSER EVIL MAY JUSTIFIED, OR EVEN NECESSARY.  
HERE, IT'S NOT A MATTER OF SETTLING ON THE LESSER EVIL. It's a matter of employment of the correct election technique to enable the Republican to win by trying to split the Cuomo ticket into two.
**********************

Democratic Attorney General candidates:

The position of Attorney General is extremely sensitive (in addition to being a gateway position to run for Governor). A good AG would properly enforce the Law. A poor AG would fail to do so. An evil AG would brutally enforce their own "Law" at whim, persecuting the righteous -- and enabling the wicked.

This is NOT hypothetical. Before he was compelled to resign in disgrace, AG Eric Schneiderman hatefully persecuted peaceful prolife sidewalk counselors, while enabling abortionists to make money.*  (He also ignored the frequent coverups of child- molestation crimes, for which the Abortion Industry is infamous). 

*(See "Liberty Counsel" information on this case, which they won, defending religious sidewalk counselors - saving preborn babies from certain death - against the bigoted AG (and the millionaire abortionist Merle Hoffman, on behalf of whom AG Schneiderman persecuted the prolifers).)


It's an alarming reality that every AG candidate today would have been labeled a radical a decade ago. All four seem to aim to out-progressivize the other.  Those who listen to them debate would probably be surprised by any evidence suggesting that any one of these candidates does NOT oppose Orthodox Jewish rights. 

Given their celebration of the movement which prides itself on inciting antipathy to those faithful to Torah morality (i.e., the LGBT Axis), we can expect every single candidate to side with all manner of physical and spiritual enemies, against us. (What's so difficult here is identifying the least of the evils.)

°  Sean Patrick Maloney is, by far, the worst candidate running. The first flagrantly homosexual congressman in NY history, he tried to hold up the defense budget to add a amendment to the bill forbidding government contracts to business that don't allow men to wear skirts to work.  In 2014, he co-sponsored a bill that would likely have been interpreted to ban any foreigner who protested a Gay Pride parade.  Properly detailing his nefarious policies would require an it's own website.

°  Letitia James, now 
NYC Public Advocate, as a city councilwoman, sponsored at least three LGBT bills/resolutions, and cosponsored multiple others.  Endorsed by Gov. Cuomo and multiple LGBT organizations, she has sponsored a bill that labels homosexuality a protected class; cosponsored a resolution calling for the passage of the Dignity For All Students Act (mandating LGBT propaganda in all schools), and a resolution calling on the American Psychological and American Psychiatric Associations to brand therapy to overcome homosexual inclinations as "unethical." Even before NY passed Marriage DeQuality, she facilitated it, by pushing for City Clerks to post locations where such "marriages"  could be perpetrated.

°  Zephyr Teachout ran for Governor last election, seeking to "out-pink" Cuomo.  Allied with the flagrant LGBT Nixon, she also was one of the few endorsers of the recently elected Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Her endorsement by the lesbian lawyer Roberta A. Kaplan (who led to the 2013 "marriage" Dequality decision that purportedly struck down the federal Defense Of Marriage Act) speaks loudly.

°  Leecia Eve debates like any other fully unhinged 
pro-LGBT, abortionist progressive. Shockingly, it's a former Hillary Clinton aid that - superficially - appears to be the lesser evil of the candidates; she's the only one without a LGBT endorsement (as of this writing).

We urge joining other New Yorkers who will be writing in "Ed Mechmann" (a well-known profamily attorney). 

--------------------------------------------



Selected Documentation:

Abortion positions of Primary Candidates:


==========================
45th Assembly district (Flatbush)Democratic Female district leader race: Margarita Kagan is the incumbent and one of the better district leaders in Brooklyn. Her opponent, Esther Adina Miles, meanwhile seems to want to legalize marijuana, and has said on her Instagram page that she has "socially progressive views." Most alarmingly, she has posted pictures on Instagram of a transgender with a heart. For an Orthodox woman to promote causes that are antithetical to the Torah is a grave chillul Hashem
20th Democratic Assembly race (Five Towns): We have no information on where John Vobis Jr. stands on any crucial issue. His opponent, Juan Vides, has posted a picture of himself on Facebook at the Long Beach Pride Parade.
46th Democratic assembly race (Sea Gate/Brighton Beach): Ethan Lustig-Elgrably supports the bill that would get rid of the law that forces doctors to save babies of botched abortions.
Mathylde Frontus is a LGBT activist who, according to radiofreebayridge, established an LGBT support group for teens. From a Democrat questionnaire she filled out, it's clear that LGBT values always come before religious rights in her mind. She is by far the biggest leftist activist to run for this office. 
69th Democratic assembly race (Upper West Side): No assembly race demands a write-in as much as this one. Daniel O'Donnell is the Democrat who sponsored the same sex "marriage" bill as well as another one that may eventually force yeshivas to teach a LGBT curriculum.
Ruben D. Vargas meanwhile has made statements like "It’s time for society to redefine the boundaries of marriage, making it a renewable institution similar to holding a driver’s license."
71st Democratic Assembly race  (part of Washington Heights): Al Taylor is the incumbent. He voted for practically all the LGBT bills that came up for a vote this year, but he did vote (in what seems to have been his only good vote) against the abortion bill that allows killing babies of botched abortions. A questionnaire he filled out makes it clear that he will vote for every LGBT bill this coming session as well.
We have no information on where opponents Guillermo Perez and Luis Tejada stand on any crucial issue.
 72nd Democratic Assembly race (part of Washington Heights): We can't find a single immoral bill that the incumbent, Carmen N. De La Rosa, didn’t support. We have no information on where opponents Guillermo Perez and Luis Tejada stand on any crucial issue.
23rd Democratic Senate Race (Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Sea Gate): Diane Savino was the main sponsor of the assisted suicide bill. Jasmine Robinson is a major abortion-with-no-limits supporter. We have no information at this time on where Brandon Stradford  stands on any important issue, but he may possibly be appropriate alternative in this situation.
In the zechus of fully prioritizing Kovod Shomayim, may we merit a Gmar Chasima Tovah in the fullest sense.
*******
Addendum to NYS Primary Election Primer:


Democrat Assembly 42 (Midwood) :

Rodneyse Bichotte: has voted for every single Toaiva [i.e., LGBT/abortion etc.] bill that passed.

Victor Jordan: makes it clear on his Stonewall questionnaire that he'd vote like Bichotte.

Neither deserve our support.  In this district, if we unequivocally push for moral advocacy, then even candidates apathetic on morality would likely promote moral values to get our support if required by political expediency.

http://sdnyc.org/blog/2018/7/25/state-primary-endorsement-questionnaire-responses-assembly-candidates


Democratic primary for NY State Senate District 11:

Tony Avella, the current Senator, has co-/sponsored numerous pro LGBT bills.

John Liu: Both his previous career starting as a City Councilman, and his run for mayor confirm that he, like Avella, is a committed progressive, though he appears to be more open to religious freedom. There is not enough of a difference between these two for us to get in to the mud and decide who is worse.  Even those who generally do hold of voting for the lesser of evils would be urged to write-in a protest vote here.

Republican primary for NYS State Senate District 11:

Simon Minching: His facebook (FB) page implies that he will be one of the more left-leaning Republicans.

Vickie Paladino:  From her FB page she appears  to be a committed conservative. While we haven't seen enough to endorse her, it appears that she would be the distinctly preferable option.

Rockland:

In Rockland County, incumbent Democratic State Senator David Carlucci (formerly IDC) has a condemnable record on morality. In case any mosdos Chas VeSholom support him, voters need only remember his sponsorship of a bill that would mandate Yeshivos conform with Public Schools in the teaching of non-Torah subjects, with regard to rigor, time allotted, and subject matter. This may sound innocuous to some, but in fact it's extremely dangerous, particularly when seen in context of other anti-moral educational legislation, e.g. the Dignity For All Students Act (DASA). DASA, in essence, designates Public Schools as Government Sponsored LGBT Propaganda Centers, of sorts - indoctrinating kids to see practice of flagrant abominations as something demanding respect.

Soon, we could see Yeshivos and Girls Schools being pressed to either close down, or, R"L far worse, conform to the Public School standards of teaching respect for *flagrant* LGBT persons, or a variety of other anti -Torah (and antiscientific) nonsense.

Goldberg, his opponent, is openly more extreme than Carlucci. She, however, is less seasoned than Carlucci. Thus Carlucci is more dangerous to the cause of Decency. The only choice here is a protest vote.

###

http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=S01733&term=2017&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Committee%26nbspVotes=Y&Floor%26nbspVotes=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y


    24    §  3204-a. Instruction required in non-public schools. 1. All students
    25  attending a  non-public  school  shall  be  given  instruction  that  is
     1  substantially equivalent to the instruction that is given to students of
     2  similar  age  and  attainment  in  the  district  in which the school is
     3  located. A non-public school is not required to use  the  curriculum  of
     4  the  school district in which they are located but must provide students
     5  with instruction that is similar in rigor, allotted time, and subject."

### END OF ADDENDUM ###
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Friday, September 7, 2018

ערוץ 2 "גירושין - סיפור מלחמה: "הילדים נופלים בין הכיסאות", פעם ראשונה שערוץ 2 נייטרלי מגדרית



Trump: I have a personal connection to Judaism

arutz 7


President Donald Trump spoke with Jewish leaders in a conference call Thursday, ahead of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays.
During the call, the president highlighted his accomplishments over the past year, including upholding his promise to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the deportation of Nazi war criminal Jakiw Palij, withdrawing the US from the United Nations Human Rights Council – citing its anti-Israel bias – and pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Trump also noted his administration’s decision to withhold funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority until PA chief Mahmoud Abbas agrees to renew negotiations with Israel.
"I said to some of the past negotiators," Trump said. "'Did you ever do that before? Did you ever use the money angle?' They said, 'No, sir. We thought it would be disrespectful.' I said, 'I don't think it's disrespectful at all. I think it's disrespectful when people don't come to the table.'"
"Each and every one of these is something that his predecessors could have done, but did not. And so we owe him our repeated thanks. We were privileged to receive the President's wishes for a blessed New Year,” said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Managing Director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, one of the organizations invited to participate in the conference call.
Known as the “High Holy Day Conference Call”, the tradition started in the Obama administration, and continued on with his successor.
Last year, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist leaders refused to help organize the conference call, protesting the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville.
Despite the boycott, President Trump held the conference call, including Orthodox leaders.
A spokesperson from the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center told the Religion News Service this week that it would boycott this year’s conference call as well.

UK chief rabbi guides Orthodox schools on supporting LGBT students



Britain’s chief rabbi has published a guidebook for Orthodox Jewish schools to help them provide support for LGBT students in the Jewish community.
The guide by Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis calls for a zero-tolerance approach to homophobic or transphobic bullying, despite a biblical prohibition against homosexual acts.

Chief Rabbi publishes first LGBT guide for orthodox schools




The UK's Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has published the first ever guide for orthodox Jewish schools to improve the wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pupils.
A spokesman for the Chief Rabbi told the BBC that the guide is viewed as a "game-changer".
Jewish LGBT campaign group, KeshetUK, which helped produce the guide, said it was deeply grateful for the support.
The guide aims to reduce potential harm to LGBT pupils across the community.
Rabbi Mirvis says the document is "an extremely significant milestone" which would have a real and lasting impact.
"Our children need to know that at school, at home and in the community, they will be loved and protected regardless of their sexuality or gender identity," he said in his introduction.
He said orthodox schools had found it difficult to engage with LGBT issues: "So there is an urgent need for authoritative guidance which recognises the reality that there are young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in our schools to whom we have a duty of care.
"While many such students are thriving in Jewish schools, there are many others who endure deep unhappiness and distress due to the mistreatment and hurt they experience."