Hasidic Sleuth’s Beat: Mean Streets of Brooklyn

NYTimes

JOE LEVIN, a private investigator in Brooklyn, was waiting to meet a new client in the parking lot of a kosher supermarket in Borough Park one recent morning. Glancing in the side-view mirror of his chauffeured sport utility vehicle, Mr. Levin said he liked this particular spot because he knew the manager, the delivery man and the security guard, who lets him borrow footage from the lot's surveillance equipment.

Most of the time, though, Mr. Levin does his own snooping. On his iPad, he scrolled through photographs of people he was being paid about $100 an hour to follow, including a rebellious Hasidic girl in a white miniskirt and a long-bearded rabbi lighting a cigarette on the sidewalk.

"He's a bad guy," Mr. Levin said, enlarging the rabbi's image. "A very bad guy." [...]

Court orders mother to have child's hand amputated to save her life

YNet

A court ruled that a 13-year-old girl suffering from cancer must have her hand amputated – otherwise she will die. The ruling came after the girl's mother refused to authorize the operation, claiming the only treatment her daughter requires is fasting and prayer.

Three months ago, the Ministry of Social Affairs' legal adviser filed an urgent request with the Family Court, requesting permission to perform the urgent surgery.

Majorcan Descendants of Spanish Jews Who Converted Are Recognized as Jews

NYTimes

Centuries after the Spanish Inquisition led to the forced conversion of Jews to Catholicism, an ultra-orthodox rabbinical court in Israel has issued a religious ruling that recognizes descendants from the insular island of Majorca as Jews.

The opinion focused narrowly on the Majorcan community of about 20,000 people known as chuetas and did not apply to descendants of Sephardic Jewish converts in mainland Spain or the broader diaspora of thousands of others who scattered to the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish colonies in South and North America. [...]

Camp Agudah & Ohel: Advice to campers' parents regarding abuse

Jewish community leader tells of sex abuse

Australia The Age

MANNY Waks's behaviour started to change part-way through his schooling at Yeshivah College.

''I wasn't listening to the teachers and was getting into trouble,'' Mr Waks says.

Now, more than 20 years later, he believes his disruptive behaviour, his rebellion against his strict Hasidic upbringing, even the fact he is no longer an observant Jew, can potentially be linked to sexual abuse he says he was subjected to at the Orthodox Jewish school in St Kilda East.

Mr Waks claims he was repeatedly molested by a trusted figure of authority at the school who had unfettered access to the young boys.

"This was a man who was in a position of power and authority, who was trusted by the school and who repeatedly took advantage of his position in preying on young boys who looked up to him." The 35-year-old Canberra public servant says he was also abused by another member of the Chabad community. One of the alleged incidents is said to have occurred inside a synagogue.

''No wonder I feel so uncomfortable being in a synagogue, because it evokes in my subconscious some of these memories,'' Mr Waks says.[...]

Kiruv: Collecting neshamos on Facebook

bchol

"אהיה באינטרנט עד שאחרון הנשמות יעזוב" • 'הרב'ה של הפייסבוק' מדבר

יש לו אלפי 'חברים' בפייסבוק, המוני תלמידים במציאות - ולהט גדול: למגר את הנשירה • הכירו את הרב מוטה פראנק, ממשפיעי ברסלב, המלקט נשמות נושרות בפייסבוק • רגע לפני המראתו השנתית לאומן עם ליפא שמעלצר, מגיש 'בחדרי חרדים' ראיון מרתק עם הדמות שמושכת אלפים • לייק!

Rockland lawmakers debate calling FBI in New Square arson case

cgpage

Arson attack and burn victim Aron Rottenberg stood before the Rockland County Legislature on Tuesday to publicly speak in support of an individual’s right to pray where he or she chooses.

“I’m greatly honored to be here tonight and to bring you a message of peace and good will,” Rottenberg said. “I believe a person should be able to engage in prayer in the privacy of his or her home or in a synagogue, church or mosque of his or her choice.”

Rottenberg was severely burned May 22, when an incendiary device exploded as he wrestled with 18-year-old Shaul Spitzer outside Rottenberg’s New Square home. Bandages were still visible on his arms as he spoke Tuesday.

The 43-year-old plumber and father of four offered the invocation at the start of the Legislature’s meeting after being invited by Legislator Joseph Meyers, D-Airmont. [...]

The Latest in the Anisakis Infested Fish Controversy

5tjt

There has been a new development in the controversy surrounding the consumption of kosher fish this week.  A new letter has been issued by Rav Elyashiv concerning his opinion about the consumption of fish with anisakis worm in the flesh.   The letter states Rav Elyashiv’s  unequivocal position that consuming the fish is a violation of a biblical prohibition.

There is something else in the letter, however, which is completely new.  The letter states that there is an obligation upon each Rabbiand Roshei Yeshiva  to promulgate and disseminate this information to their respective congregants.  The letter also contains a post-script penned by Rav Feivel Cohen that he was present and verifies the accuracy and veracity of the letter.

The letter was obtained by Rav Feivel Cohen Shlita last week when he visited Rav Elyashiv after his operation.  Rav Feivel suggested to Rav Elyashiv of the necessity of including the paragraph concerning the obligation to disseminate the information contained in the letter in order to counter the fact that numerous individuals were discounting the seriousness of the situation.

The letter is sharply worded against those authorities that permit the consumption of Anisakis infested fish. [...]

Audio- visual educational approach has Divine approval

This is an introductory essay written by Rav Shmuel Vosner's son that was added to a sefer using the latest modern educational techniques including pictures and exercises to make the gemora easier to learn. The sefer has the haskoma of Rav Shmuel Vosner.

There were three matters that were difficult for Moshe to understand until G-d showed him with His finger (Menachos 29 and Shemos Rabbah). G-d illuminated for us that the good way to bring about the understanding of difficult matters is using pictures and images. Even though the words of Chazal contain deep esoteric secrets, nevertheless the gemora is also to be understood literally as is obvious from the words of Tosfos on this gemora as well as in Chullin 42.  Therefore since Chazal as well as Rishonim and Achronim have utilized images and diagrams to explain difficult halachos as can readily be seen in mishnayos as well as the poskim one should not reject the use of images and diagrams to explain mishna and gemora with the claim that these are new progressive approaches based on modern attitudes and techniques. It is a major error to dismiss this approach as being an innovation which the truly religious reject and distance themselves from. In fact  these techniques  are consistent with the words of Chazal and the commentaries of the great Rishonim and Achronim that the technique of using images in fact was used by G-d to teach Torah to His people Israel.

הקדמת רב חיים מאיר הלוי וואזנער [בן של רב שמואל הלוי ואזנר] לספר אלו מציאות המפורש של בנו רב שלום שיש הסכמה מהסבה

שלשה דברים היו קשין לו למשה עד שהראה לו הקב"ה באצבעו (מנחות כ"ט ובש"מ) הקב"ה האיר לנו בזה שהדרך הנאה להביא לידי הבנת הדבר הקשה הוא ע"י הוראת ההלכה בתמונתו וצורתו ואף שבדברי חז"ל צפונים בהם צפונות ונבסתרות מ"מ אין מאמר זה יוצא מפשטותו כמו שנראה לכל מעיין בתוס' (שם ד"ה שלשה וחולין מ"ב ד"ה זאת) ואף חז"ל ורבותינו הראשוינים והאחרונים ליוו הרבה הלכות קשיי הבנה עם ציורין כמו שבאו בהרבה מקומות במשניות ש"ס ופוסקים ראשונים ואחרונים ועל כן אין להזניח את מציירי הציורין המלוין דברי המשניות והגמ', בטענה וקיטרוג של שיטות חדשות ומתקדמות לפי רוח הזמן. כי שגגה להכתים שיטה זה בכתם של התחדשות שהחרדים לדבר ה' סולידם ומתרחקים ממנה. כל זמן שהם תואמים עם דברי חז"ל ועם פירושי גדולי הראשונים והאחרונים כי המקור לשיטת הציורין מפי הגבורה יתברך ויתעלה המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל.

Malka Leifer - formerly principal in Australia - investigated as alleged abuser

Australian Age

A FORMER principal of a Jewish girls' school in Elsternwick is being investigated over claims she molested students, as the Victoria Police probe into alleged sexual abuse widens to take in a second school.

Malka Leifer, a former principal of the Adass Israel Girls' School, fled to Israel in 2008 after the school board sacked her following complaints of inappropriate conduct with students. At the time, parents told The Age that Ms Leifer, a mother of eight, had molested students at school, at her home and probably at school camps. They said one victim had attempted suicide.

Parents were critical of the Adass Israel School, claiming it allowed Ms Leifer to flee before notifying police. The school has denied this.
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Ms Leifer, who is still living in Israel, is now being investigated by police after people came forward with information when police began investigating a separate sex scandal at Yeshivah College in St Kilda East.

In Orthodox word the fact that news is reported is important news

Forbes

In the insular world of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, the fact that the news is being reported is itself important news.

A decade ago, brawling between two ultra-Orthodox factions over real estate in Jerusalem would almost certainly not have been reported in the community's media. Neither would a bitter debate over ethnic segregation in a girls' school, or an incident in which a member of a Hasidic sect in New York attacked and badly burned a community dissident.

All of these stories have appeared in the past year, part of a flowering of journalism that is both driving and being driven by a gradual opening in this stringently conservative world.

The ultra-Orthodox are experiencing an unprecedented proliferation of Internet sites, radio stations, call-in news lines and newspapers increasingly independent of rabbinic control and willing to touch topics that might seem entirely mundane to an outsider but which, in the confines of this religious community, have long been taboo.

"It used to be that people were happy to live in their little caves, but now we all need to know what's going on everywhere. It's like air," said Nachman Tubul, a lanky, bearded 27-year-old who runs a wire service called News 24 out of a tiny storefront in Jerusalem. [...]

Advice from Misaskim regarding your children: Is a Stranger a Danger?

Woodmere Shul's Treasurer Charged With $600G Theft

Jewish Week

When officers of Congregation Aish Kodesh, a popular Modern Orthodox shul in Woodmere, noticed that the the shul’s checks were bouncing, an investigation led to startling news.

After a brief meeting, the board members discovered that more than $500,00 had been wired from the shul’s bank account to the account belonging to the law firm of the shul’s treasurer, Isaac Zucker, a securities lawyer with a nearby practice.

“He was an upstanding member of the community,” said Azriel Ganz, the chairman of the shul’s board. “There wasn’t a scintilla of doubt on his trustworthiness.” [....]

Can a girl wound her legs to be able to dress modestly?

YNet

What should a girl do if she wishes to dress modestly but her parents won't let her? According to Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein she can injure herself in order to use it as an excuse for dressing modestly.
 
Last week Rabbi Zilberstein, the the son-in-law of prominent Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv, received an inquiry from a women's college coordinator about a student who is growing increasingly religious. The student said she wanted to dress modestly but her parents were preventing her from doing so, because they were not religious. [...]