Baruch Lanner is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant, dynamic and charismatic educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old rabbi has been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three decades. He has also been a principal and teacher in yeshiva high schools in New Jersey, and for many years has led a highly successful six-week NCSY summer kollel program in Israel offering Torah study to up to 300 American boys. But even while he is credited with bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of youngsters closer to Judaism, reports have continued to circulate that he has harassed, if not abused, many scores of teens sexually, physically and/or emotionally, from the early 1970s to the present. Though Rabbi Lanner's erratic behavior has long been an open secret in some Orthodox circles, for the first time more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward publicly over a three month period, telling their stories to The Jewish Week. They described in detail firsthand experiences, including Rabbi Lanner's alleged kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years.
Friday, July 22, 2022
Seven stunning moments from the Jan. 6 hearing
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3570046-seven-stunning-moments-from-the-jan-6-hearing/
In an audio clip, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) described McCarthy talking about calling the White House and getting through to Trump.
“He said, ‘You have got to get on TV. You’ve got to get on Twitter. You’ve got to call these people off,’” Herrera Beutler said. “You know what the president said to him? This is as it’s happening. He said, ‘Well, Kevin, these aren’t my people. These are, these are antifa.’”
Video of Josh Hawley Running Away From Capitol Mob Sparks Mockery and Memes
https://www.newsweek.com/video-josh-hawley-running-capitol-mob-memes-1726994
A video of Donald Trump admitting he did not "want to say the election was over" was the real bombshell footage shown at the latest January 6 committee hearing, but another clip captured the public's attention on Thursday: one showing Sen. Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol only hours after he cheered on the pro-Trump mob.
On January 6, 2021, Hawley was pictured backing the crowd preparing to storm the Capitol, raising his fist at them in solidarity and support.
The image, which went viral, became a form of political currency for the Republican senator among Trump supporters and an awkward testimony of his role in the riots, which he repeatedly denied inciting.
The video caused many of those in the committee room —reporters, congressional aides, security staff, and visitors— to burst into laughter.
January 6 suspects' D.C. jail complaints are hypocritical, but they're not wrong
Some defendants who have been held in the District of Columbia jail after being suspected of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol have complained that the conditions they’re being subjected to are inhumane. But in their case, they have conservative public officials who are echoing their complaints. In December, 14 Republican members of the U.S. House sent a letter to Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, complaining that the Jan. 6 defendants are being “treated as subhuman.”
The Crisis at the D.C. Jail Began Decades Before Jan. 6 Defendants Started Raising Concerns
https://time.com/6137882/dc-jail-conditions-january-6/
For years, advocates have raised concerns to the District of Columbia government over what they say are inhumane conditions inside the CDF, a nearly 50-year-old jail just two miles from the U.S. Capitol. Yet it was only when detainees accused of storming the Capitol building last Jan. 6 began raising complaints about the conditions of a neighboring jail facility that reform efforts gained momentum. After Jan. 6 defendants’ lawyers raised allegations of poor conditions at the Department of Corrections (DOC) facility, including a lack of access to medical care, an unannounced review of the jail by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) concluded there was “evidence of systemic failure.” USMS announced Nov. 2 that it would move 400 federal detainees out of the CDF to a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
Trump watched Fox News for hours, ‘chose’ not to act, panel hears
"President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president," said Representative Elaine Luria, a Democratic committee member.
The panel played videotaped testimony from White House aides and security staff discussing the events of the day. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was asked question after question in the recorded testimony about whether Trump took this action or that action - did he call the secretary of defense? Did he call the U.S. attorney general? Did he call the head of Homeland Security? Cipollone answered "no" to each query.
Panel members said Trump's daughter Ivanka and son Don Jr. were among those who pleaded with him to act. The hearing, expected to be the last until September, detailed both the violence that played out as Trump supporters fought their way into the Capitol and Trump's actions in the hours after his speech in which he urged the crowd to "fight like hell" and the release of the video telling the rioters to go home.
First US case of polio in nearly a decade is an Orthodox Jewish man
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-712800
The first case of polio in the United States in a decade has been diagnosed in an Orthodox Jewish man in Rockland County, just north of New York City.
Local health officials announced the case Thursday and said they would begin a drive to increase vaccination against the potentially deadly virus. They said the victim was experiencing paralysis, a hallmark of the disease, and that he had not been vaccinated against it.
“He was released from the hospital,” one source told the Jewish Week on condition of anonymity. “He’s a young adult, in a wheelchair. He got married recently.”
Takeaways from the January 6 hearings day 8
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/21/politics/january-6-hearing-day-8-takeaways/index.html
The committee used Thursday's hearing to show how Trump not only failed to act, but chose not to as he watched the violent assault on the US Capitol unfold.
Several witnesses with first-hand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on January 6 told the committee that Trump did not place a single call to any of his law enforcement or national security officials as the Capitol attack was unfolding, according to previously unseen video testimony played during Thursday's hearing.
The panel said it "confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, Vice President Mike Pence's staff, and DC government officials: None of them -- not one -- heard from President Trump that day," Luria said.
The committee used that testimony to make the case that Trump's refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty.
In a D.C. jail, Jan. 6 defendants awaiting trial are forming bitter factions
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092580753/capitol-riot-january-6-insurrection-defendants
Inside the Washington, D.C., jail, where a group of defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have been held for as long as a year or more, a bitter divide is growing, current and former inmates say.
A combination of that intense proximity, the stress of criminal cases and a fight over more than a million dollars donated to support the defendants has contributed to the rift.
One inmate described the situation to NPR as "too many rats together in a small cage for too long."
Capitol rioters’ tears, remorse don’t spare them from jail
https://thehill.com/homenews/wire/587893-capitol-rioters-tears-remorse-dont-spare-them-from-jail/
Fifty-six of the 71 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Most of them were sentenced to home confinement or jail terms measured in weeks or months, according to an Associated Press tally of every sentencing. But rioters who assaulted police officers have gotten years behind bars.
Eighteen judges, including four nominated by Trump, have sentenced the 71 rioters. Thirty-one defendants have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment or to jail time already served, including 22 who received sentences of three months or less, according to the AP tally. An additional 18 defendants have been sentenced to home confinement. The remaining 22 have gotten probation without house arrest.
James Murray's Trump Ties Face Scrutiny Over Deleted Secret Service Texts
https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-james-murray-trump-ties-texts-1726581
O'Donnell said that the agency has lost "the most important text messages in their history because no one there knew that those text messages were important" and accused Murray of being a "Trump guy."
רוצה טלפון? תן גט: הסנקציה שהבהילה את הסרבן
https://www.kan.org.il/item/?itemId=131330
סרבן גט הסכים להתגרש מאשתו אחרי שבית הדין דרש ממנו למסור את מכשיר הטלפון הנייד שלו לשבוע. הסנקציה הוטלה עליו כי המשיך הקליט את הדיונים למרות שהובהר לו שחל על כך איסור
Beis Din Confiscated Cell Phone Of Get Refuser – And He Immediately Agreed To Give A Get
Thursday, July 21, 2022
The Double Standard for Policing Capitol Rioters and BLM Protesters
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/trump-rioters-weren-t-policed-like-blm-protesters
Horrified onlookers including President-elect Joe Biden could not help but notice the striking contrast between the police response to Trump’s insurrection and the hard fist that met Black Lives Matter protests in June. During largely peaceful protests on June 1, D.C. police officers arrested 289 people, with federal officers tear-gassing demonstrators in Lafayette Square to clear the way for Trump’s infamous Bible photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church. By comparison, local police in Washington, D.C., who secured the Capitol grounds on Wednesday and enforced the 6 p.m. citywide curfew have made only 68 arrests as of Thursday morning.
Donald Trump's 187 Minutes of Inaction To Be Key Focus of Jan. 6 Hearing
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-187-minutes-jan-6-hearing-thursday-1726602
The panel are hoping to suggest that Trump's inaction for more than three hours while the attack was taking place amounted to a dereliction of duty and a violation of his oath of office.
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