In France, a Muslim Offensive Against Evolution

Time

On a recent Friday evening, Maroua Gousa was standing behind the latticed wooden partition in the Évry mosque's section reserved for women, watching a presentation projected onto a screen below in the large prayer hall for men. Fond of exploring religious ideas and practices, the 19-year-old student is taking part in a debate with 200 other participants in this city just south of Paris.

The gathering is actually the most recent instalment of a new attack aimed at the science of evolution by Haroun Yahya, an outspoken Turkish-born Muslim advocate of creationism, who is considered widely controversial within the Islamic world.

Haroun Yahya, the pseudonym of Adnan Oktar, never presents himself in person, speaking either by video or through zealous representatives armed with grandiloquent tracts distributed for free. In France, he had already made himself known in 2007 when he attempted to introduce thousands of copies of his Atlas de la Création into French schools. His work purports to scientifically demonstrate "the frauds and dictatorship" of the evolution of the species theory. [...]

Mosques asked to stop noise nuisance from excessively amplified prayer calls

JPost

The Ma'aleh Adumim local council is demanding that the loudspeakers announcing the Muslim call to prayer from some mosques in the adjacent Palestinian village of al-Eizariya be turned down because the volume is disturbing residents of the settlement, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

Ma'aleh Adumim's complaint was raised last Tuesday at a meeting of the joint civilian coordinating committee that brings together Israeli and Palestinian authorities. The Israel Defense Force's Civil Administration in the West Bank would not provide a detailed response to Haaretz on the issue, saying only that in discussions with the Palestinian Authority, the Civil Administration is advancing matters involving cross-border environmental issues, "including noise nuisances." [...]

Syrian rabbi nabbed in N.J. corruption sweep receives two years' probation

NJ.Com

Rabbi Saul Kassin, the spiritual leader of the nation’s largest Syrian Sephardic community, was sentenced this morning to two years’ probation and fined more than $36,000 for his role in a scheme to launder millions of dollars through charitable organizations.

 

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano also ordered Kassin, the retired rabbi of Congregation Sharee Zion in Brooklyn, N.Y, to forfeit $367,500 representing the fees he accumulated in 18 months.

Originally charged with money laundering, Kassin, 89, pleaded guilty March 28 to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He said he transmitted between $200,000 and $400,000 through his charity Magen Israel Society between June 2007 and December 2008.

New Square arson attack: Grand Rabbi speaks

New Square arson victim speaks

Recordings of White Conference on Sexual Abuse in Orthodox World

   

[Click here for streaming audio at SFJ site  ]


I also have an icon at the top of the right side of the blog that gives access to the recordings

Hello,

This is the audio from the conference on sexual abuse in the Jewish orthodox community, held May 22 2011 at the the prestigious White Institute in New York.

Be well,

Mark (Mutty) Weiss

Child Abuse and Safety in Orthodox Jewish Communities 9:00-11:00 Presentations: Julie Jarett Marcuse, Ph.D. - Welcome and Overview
Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn, Ph.D.- "The Halachic Imperative to Protect Children From Abuse"
Mark Weiss "A Survivor's Perspective On A Community Coming To Terms"
Richard Gartner, Ph.D. - "The Trauma of Betrayal"
Esther Malka Reich - "Secrecy, Shame, Truth & Hope"
Joel Engelman - "Abused…So What?"
Alison Feit, Ph.D. - "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation: The Orthodox Jewish Community Confronts Sexual Abuse"
Morning Panel Discussion
Rabbi Yosef Blau, M.S - "The Silence of the Rabbis: The Religious Responsibility to Respond to the Suffering of Victims."
Abby Stein, Ph.D. - "Because They Can"-
Julie Marcuse, Ph.D. - "After Abuse…Then What?"
Ernesto Mujica, Ph.D. - "Healing from Childhood Sexual Trauma: An Interpersonal & Integrative Approach"
Closing Remarks: Alan Slomowitz , Ph.D.

New Square Arson Victim Seeks Fed Hate Probe

Jewish Week

The chasidic man who was burned over half his body in an attack he believes is linked to politics in the Skverer enclave of New Square is seeking a federal investigation of the crime.

Attorney Michael Sussman said his client, Aron Rottenberg, 43 was targeted in the May 22 arson attack after months of harassment because he left the town’s main synagogue and incurred the wrath of the Grand Rabbi, David Twersky. The Associated Press said Sussman has written to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and his New York counterpart, Eric Schneiderman, calling for the investigation of possible hate crimes. [...]

White Institute Conference on abuse: "Thank you to Survivors For Justice"

Dr. Asher Lipner wrote:

Dear Friends and Fellow Advocates,

Last week I sent out thank you's to several people who participated and contributed to making the conference on sexual abuse in the Orthodox community at the William Alanson White Institute a historic success.

It seems I have saved the best for last.  "Acharon Acharon Chaviv". Often times the people who are behind the scenes and who initiate and catalyze change in the community are overlooked for the efforts they have made.  Aside from the importance of "hakaras hatov" gratitude, it is also very important for us to acknowledge how change comes about so that we can learn from it, emulate it and carry on its message.

Survivors for Justice is an organization that has helped publicize the stories of many survivors who are now leading advocates, by cultivating an excellent relationship with the media.  SFJ has been front and center in speaking out each and every time that there is a story in the press about another abuse case.  (This is something the RCA and the OU have promised to do, and is clearly their job, but as the saying goes "B'makom She'ayn Ish..."  When you want something done you got to do it yourself).  They ran an amazing and powerful radio advertisement campaign to encourage Jewish parents to report their children's abuse directly to the police.  (You can still hear the ads on their website).

One of the survivors who was involved at the time with SFJ, Joel Engleman, who had connections to the William Alanson White Institute, reached out to them for help in educating the community and in providing clinical services.  The Institute was very interested in learning more about our community and in offering us their expertise. They asked SFJ to introduce them to a psychotherapist who worked in the Orthodox community, and I had the great honor and privilege of being invited to meet with the Sex Abuse Services team of therapists in the very same building that housed the conference to present a case.  This was in February of 2010.   Since my first presentation focused so much on explaining the cultural environment in which I work, I was invited back a second time to present the case I had prepared, in more depth, and to receive free supervision.  I obviously learned more than I taught, but the collegial dialogue was refreshingly welcoming and respectful.  There I met Dr. Julie  Marcuse, the director of the program, and Dr. Richard Gartner, who literally "wrote the book" on treating survivors,  and many other expert clinicians who expressed great interest in our community and the efforts to solve the sex abuse problem.

Shortly afterwards, SFJ hired Dr. Alison Feit from WAW, Sex Abuse Services, to give a "Master's Class" to clinicians and others working with. It was an eight week course with intense discussion, readings, and excellent lectures. SFJ paid for the entire thing including dinner each week, and worked with me to reach out by invitation only (no advertising) to key people who were felt to be "players" in the community.  I am proud of the fact that I "made the shidduch between" (introduced) Rabbi Eidensohn and Dr. Feit, and the Rabbi later invited Ali to participate with a chapter in his book. Other members of the class were Robin "Raizy" Sadowsky, LCSW, Rabbi Blau, Chaikie Travis, LCSW, Bassie Rosenblatt, LCSW, Shloimie Ehrlich who works with teens at risk in Monsey, Yitzchak Schonefeld from "Cholent", Michael Jenkins, LCSW from Footsteps, Sondra Kotzen, LCSW, from Sephardic Bikur Cholim, and others not from our community. It was a wonderful mix of backgrounds and experiences, and everyone benefited greatly.

Because SFJ is unique, among other ways, in its lack of self-promotion, all of us need to be aware of the pivotal role it has played in standing up for the rights of survivors, and in educating the community.  So thank you Survivors for Justice, for all you have done, for all you continue to do.   I look forward to working with you on many more projects.

To find out more, please visit them at WWW.SFJNY.ORG and show them support.

Asher

Rav Moshe Feinstein at Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv

This was my sole personal encounter with Rav Moshe Feinstein. I took
this picture at Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv when he came for a bris

National-religious rabbi slams blind obedience to rabbis

YNET

Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau has called on the national-religious public to reduce its dependence on rabbis and become "free". According to Lau, the blind obedience which has infiltrated the Zionist-religious society in recent years is an inappropriate phenomenon stemming from a "paralysis of fear".

Threat of violence keeps police out of Jerusalem Haredi neighborhood

Haaretz

Police are reluctant to enter the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She'arim because of residents' violence, a police spokesman said during a recent court hearing over the remand of a neighborhood resident.

A police official said in court Thursday that the reason the police had not arrested a wanted man for more than a month, despite knowing where in Mea She'arim he was, was that every time they go into the neighborhood police property is damaged and they do not want unnecessary confrontations. [....]

Kupat HaIr wants tzedaka store near Rav Chaim Kanievsky

bhol
מלחמת הנדל(נ)יסטים: חנות צדקה בבית הגר"ח?
דירת הגר"ג נדל זצ"ל - שכנו של הגר"ח קנייבסקי - עמדה שוממה • אחד מבניו השכיר חדר ל'קופת העיר' • למרות התנגדות המשפחה - העבודות נמשכות • ומה אומר הגר"ח?

Italian seismologists face manslaughter for not predicting earthquake

CBS

No one can predict earthquakes. But six seismologists and a government official are being tried for manslaughter in the deaths of more than 300 people in the 2009 tremblor in L'Aquila, Italy. The city's public prosecutor says the scientists downplayed the possibility of a quake to an extent that townsfolk did not take precautions that could have saved their lives. A judge has just set the trial to begin on September 20.

The case, which was brought in 2010, hinges on the statements of Bernardo De Bernardinis of Italy's Civil Protection Agency at a press conference a week before the quake. His agency had asked the scientists to convene and discuss whether the increasing seismic activity in the area might indicate a risk of a major quake.

At the subsequent press conference, De Bernardinis, who is being tried along with the scientists, told the crowd, “The scientific community tells me there is no danger, because there is an ongoing discharge of energy. The situation looks favorable.” (via Nature News) People say that as a result of this reassurance, they didn't leave their homes or take other precautions against the quake struck. [....]

Krauthammer: What Obama did to Israel

Washington Post

Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel’s security and diplomatic needs.

It’s on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel.

For 2 1 / 2 years, the Obama administration has refused to recognize and reaffirm these assurances. Then last week in his State Department speech, President Obama definitively trashed them. He declared that the Arab-Israeli conflict should indeed be resolved along “the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” [...]