Sunday, January 3, 2010

Rav Silman: Reporting molesters to the police

Obama also fails at Middle East peacemaking


Time

It has taken President Obama just 10 months to achieve something each of his immediate predecessors delivered in their final year in office: failure in the Middle East peace process. Riding a wave of optimism in January, the President on his second day in office named retired Senator George Mitchell as his Middle East special envoy, tasked with kick-starting the dormant negotiations over a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite his best intentions, Mitchell's — and Obama's — efforts have managed only to undermine peace advocates on all sides and have pushed hopes for a final agreement into the distant future. The President now faces tough choices over how to proceed.(See pictures of Israeli soldiers sweeping into Gaza.)[...]

London Beis Din & CER vs. EJF

In response to my request for people to send me any and all condemnation of EJF especially in connection with the Tropper scandal I just received this strong statement that was issued by the London Beis Din and the Conference of European Rabbis (CER).

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Saturday, January 2, 2010

An open letter to Dr. Tom Kaplan


Dear Dr. Kaplan,

       I am aware of the tremendous time and energy - as well as money- that you have invested in a sincere attempt to be a major constructive force in Judaism. I hear  that you have a meeting on Monday as to whether to continue funding of this program. Please  let me have 5 minutes of your time before then to explain why continued funding will be  disaster for the Jewish people.

   While we have not met before we share something in common - Leib Tropper. You might be familiar with the fact that for the last several years I have been involved in an unsuccessful attempt to get the EJF to become more transparent in their operation. Now there is a bigger problem - Tropper's human weaknesses which has been been captured onvideo and audio recordings.

   I would like to communicate something of the incredible pain which is being experienced in the Jewish world because of this scandal. In particular, I would like to persuade you to stop funding this operation which is bringing shame and  embarrassment to all.


            Sincerely yours,


            Daniel Eidensohn, Ph.D.


Friday, January 1, 2010

Tropper is returning


Tropper is coming back. This is not a threat nor is the result of paranoid psychosis from obsessing over the topic. It is simply a fact.

I have gotten a lot of flak for "beating a dead horse". "You are speaking loshon harah because" 1) Tropper has been defeated so why mention him. You just get pleasure at relishing his down fall  and there is no to'eles because the deed is done or 2) Nothing you say has an impact on human events so it is not to'eles to talk about it. But Baruch Hashem the majority of communication is favorable - especially from Rav Sternbuch.

Tropper has said nothing except to apologize for appearing to violate the rules of modesty. Is it because 1)  he was shocked into silence by the sudden fall from the focus of adulation and power to the garbage heap? 2) He has a smart lawyer who advised him he is liable to lawsuits for admitting any guilt? 3) Is it because he is too embarrassed to show his face? 4) He has been waiting to see the reaction like any cool calculated [expletive deleted]. If there was an outcry from the people and denunciation of the rabbis and/or if Tom Kaplan dumped him in the garbage can for embarrassing him so severely- he would go off somewhere and lick his wounds. But if the clamor of the people i.e. bloggers died out and they found something else to get excited about AND the rabbis were silent because they weren't sure what to do or felt he was really innocent - then he would plot his return to power as a martyr to the blogs and jealous rivals i.e., Guma.

Well folks - it looks like #4 is the correct answer. I just received word from informed sources in America that he has rabbinical allies who are bringing him back. The melave malke in South Fallsburg was not an aberration but served as a chance to test the water. He got away with it. Actually he tried testing the waters earlier with his Maimonides program (December 23) but was stopped by the staff. There has been no outcry from the Aguda i.e. The Novaminsker. Rav Reuven Feinstein has had only praise to say about him. Rav Wachtogel - his designated successor has not commented. The Bedatz hasn't said anyting. Where are the rosh yeshivos form Chaim Berlin or the Mir? There has been no one in chareidi circles except for Rav Sternbuch - and he has been criticised for being out of step or mixing in with something that is none of his business or simply that he is wrong. There was a protest by the RCA - but since he holds them in utter contempt - it doesn't count.

Tropper has been given the clear cut message that there is no signficant objection to his return to power and he and his rabbinical allies are now taking the necessary steps.

If you feel that Tropper should be stopped - please contact your rabbi and anyone else who might help- and make a public protest. I would be glad to publish protests from any rabbi, rosh yeshiva or organization or simply collective petitions from the masses.

 Silence means acquiescence to this victory of evil.

The Jewish calculus of suffering

Surrogate mother declared legal mother


NYTimes

A New Jersey judge has ruled that a gestational surrogate who gave birth to twin girls is their legal mother, even though she is not genetically related to them.

The ruling gives the woman, who carried the babies in an arrangement with her brother and his male spouse, the right to seek primary custody of the children at a trial in the spring.

The case illustrates the legal complexities of gestational surrogacy, in which a woman carries unrelated embryos created in a petri dish. A gestational surrogate in Michigan recently obtained custody of twins she carried, but courts in several other states have upheld the rights of people who contracted with gestational surrogates. [...]

Tragic deaths in our communities


YNET   BCHOL    


Eight-month-old pays ultimate price for parents' marital troubles; wife leaves house after heated argument, husband believed to strangle their daughter
Jerusalem

The suspects in two child murder cases were brought for remand extension hearings early Friday afternoon. Jerusalem resident Nahman Anshin, 23, was remanded for a week in custody at the capital's magistrate's court on suspicion of beating his eight-month-old baby girl, Fruma, to death.

The alleged incident occurred around 11 p.m. on Thursday night, when neighbors in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood heard screams coming from the apartment and called the police.

Before officers arrived, one of the neighbors and a police volunteer broke into the apartment from a balcony and claim that they saw the suspect banging his baby's head against the floor while holding her feet.

Rav Sternbuch: Torah & Matters of State

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Letter of Chizuk for the "Eternal Jewish Family"


To Mr. Menachem Yitzchack Kaplan,

We have heard of your good works that you do, which we hope that you continue in the future.

May you merit that only good should come from your deeds, like every baal chesed strives to do.

28 of Kislev 5769

Yosef Shalom Elyashiv   Aharon Leib Shtainman   
Michl Yehuda Lefkovitz
Chayim Kanievsky   Yitzchok Shainer
==========================
Mekubal wrote:
Photoshop is so grand.

What you have is a handwritten original note which says just this
בס"ד
לכ' מר מנחם יצחק קפלן נ"י


שמענו על הפעולות הטובות שנעשו על ידך, יישר כחך על כל הנ"ל, ונקוה שכן תמשיך להוסיף כהנה.
ויהי רצון שתזכה שאך טות וחסד יצא על ידך כחפץ לב דורשי חסד.

כ"ח כסלו תש''ע לפ''ק

Then under that orginial note you have photoshopped in the block text Hebrew, which claims it was to the EJF, but in reality it was only to Tom Kaplan, who wrote many a check from his Foundation to various Yeshivot and such.

This is a pure deception. A note to Tom Kaplan encouraging him to continue giving to worthy Jewish causes is not a letter of Chizuk to EJF.