Orthodox Judaism Caused the Holocaust

Sounds pretty stupid when you turn it around, doesn't it?

Our friend David Ellenson opined in 2007 in the Forward about the Orthodox rabbis in Israel who were saying that Reform Judaism is the cause of the Holocaust and who refuse to give legitimacy to the Reform rabbinate.

This pains Ellenson as it should since he is the head of the Reform seminary, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

But this Orthodox rhetoric no longer bothers us. Our rebbe, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, would say about pronouncements like those of Mordecai Eliyahu, the former Israeli chief Sephardic rabbi, that they are essentially sorcery - neither theology nor history - but rather the equivalent of witchcraft, magic or the occult.

And we say that pushing a Reform rabbi out of a memorial ceremony is nothing more than sheer bullying.

So, if these Orthodox "rabbis" want to be known as sorcerers and bullies, they have our blessing. But in our eyes they are no longer "rabbis."

Here is start of Rabbi Ellenson's article.

Obscene Orthodox Hatred Demands a Clear Denunciation
David Ellenson | Fri. May 04, 2007

Several weeks ago, the former Israeli chief Sephardic rabbi, Mordecai Eliyahu, charged that the Holocaust was divine punishment meted out against our people on account of the sin of Reform Judaism. Such an accusation is infuriating, and unleashes unnecessary hatred and incitement among Jews.

But there is unfortunately nothing particularly novel about this obscenity. I heard this charge made from the pulpit of my Orthodox synagogue by a rabbi when I was a teenager, and all students of modern Jewish intellectual history and thought are aware that the Satmar rebbe issued this charge against Reform and secular Zionism in the years immediately after World War II.

Indeed, it is commonplace enough that I might not have been moved to speak out were it not for a second incident that occurred at a memorial ceremony in Israel, in the coastal city of Hod Hasharon... more

//repost from 5/3/07//

TMZ Video: Rabbi Jackie Mason Calls President Obama a Schvartza

Let's all give Rabbi Jackie a big hand (or at least one finger) for his latest escapade.

Feds Arrest Manager of Kosher Slaughterhouse Sholom Rubashkin

This news is humiliating for all of us who honor and observe the laws of kosher foods.

Today's Worst Jew in the World: Sholom Rubashkin

StarTribune.com: Iowa slaughterhouse manager arrested on immigration charge (Associated Press)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A former manager of a kosher slaughterhouse raided by federal immigration agents in May has been arrested.

Immigration agents arrested Sholom Rubashkin, son of company owner Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, in Postville on Thursday.

The 49-year-old will face charges of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain, aiding and abetting document fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

Agents raided the Agriprocessors plant on May 12, arresting 389 people in what officials said was one of the largest single-site immigration busts in U.S. history.

Urban Legend: Tattoos Not Kosher

We need the Times... to debunk Jewish the urban legend of no burial in a Jewish cemetery if you have a tattoo.

And if it is prohibited to get a tattoo but there is no such punishment...then what is the impact on non-observant Jews?

Skin Deep

For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo’

Justin Dawson

A WAY TO CONNECT Ari Bacharach uses a tattoo as an ironic statement about his Jewish identity.

By KATE TORGOVNICK

ROBERTA KAPLAN, 71, has never been a fan of tattoos. “I’m a very Jewish person,” she said. “I was told from way, way back that you’re not supposed to desecrate your body.” more...

Stupid Jew - strategic affairs minister Avigdor Lieberman - thinks Israel is a Concentration Camp

Stupid Israeli strategic affairs minister Avigdor Lieberman thinks Israel is a Concentration Camp. That's the only conclusion I can draw to make any sense out of one of the stupidest most vulgar remarks ever made by a politician anywhere.

Kapos were Jews who worked for the Nazis in the death camps. Lieberman says that leftists in the Yesh Gvul movement who call for an inquiry into the Israeli attack in Gaza that killed civilians -- these activists are kapos.

So apparently they are working in a death camp to help Nazis kill Jews. Lieberman engages here in such bizarre rhetoric, such vulgar political talk, it takes my breath away. And it scares me that his meshuggenah party has eleven seats in the Kenesset.

Here is the story:

Israeli MP urges sacking of minister after 'kapo' remarks
JERUSALEM (AFP) — An Israeli lawmaker called on Saturday for extreme right-wing minister Avigdor Lieberman to be sacked after he likened members of a pacifist group to the "kapos" of Nazi concentration camps.

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should fire Lieberman, because his presence in government is a threat to Israeli democracy," Zehava Galon of the left-wing secular party Meretz told Israeli radio.

"His incitements of hatred recall those which led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin," he said, referring to the Labour prime minister gunned down in 1995 by a Jewish extremist opposed to peace with the Palestinians.

Galon's comments followed remarks by Lieberman on Israeli public television in which he compared members of the pacifist group Yesh Gvul to "kapos," prisoners who worked for the Nazis in their death camps.

Lieberman, strategic affairs minister in Olmert's coalition government, had lashed out at Yesh Gvul over accusations that Israeli general Doron Almog committed war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The war crimes allegation arises from a 2002 Israeli air strike on Gaza which killed 14 civilians, including eight children, as well as its intended target, a Hamas leader.

Almog, the now retired commander of Israeli forces in Gaza, subsequently evaded arrest in Britain when he remained on an El Al plane during a stopover at Heathrow airport following a tip-off from an Israeli diplomat.

Lieberman is the leader of the ultranationalist Russian immigrant party Yisrael Beitenu, which has 11 MPs in the 120-member Knesset.

Yesh Gvul (There is a Limit) describes itself as a peace group "campaigning against the occupation by backing soldiers who refuse duties of a repressive or aggressive nature."

"We have been calling for an independent inquiry in Israel about the bombing for the last four years," said Yesh Gvul spokesman Yoav Hess, who described Lieberman's attack as "revolting" and said the association was contemplating filing a defamation suit against the minister.

Israel's state prosecutor's office told the Supreme Court last month it would agree to setting up a commission of inquiry into the air strike, following pressure from Yesh Gvul.

Sex, Cantor, Toronto Synagogue, $1.3 million Lawsuit

A lurid set of accusations has emerged in Toronto following the filing of a law suit.

Rabbi, synagogue sued over seduction scandal

Rabbi Tobias Gabriel says the allegations that he pressured Richmond Hill resident Yona Nadler, 52, into a sexual relationship are “groundless.”

Woman who claims cleric pressured her into a sexual relationship wants $1.3M in compensation
Sandro Contenta
Staff reporter

A woman claiming she was coerced into a sexual relationship by a rabbi is suing the rabbi and a prominent Toronto synagogue for $1.3 million.

Richmond Hill resident Yona Nadler, 52, is suing Rabbi Tobias Gabriel and the Beth Tzedec Synagogue for breach of fiduciary duty and the pain and suffering she claims the relationship caused her and her marriage. MORE...

The $27 Million Mortgage Fraud and the Kiddush Club

I'm told by anonymous that Mr. Hershkowitz contributes to the Kiddush Club of the Atlantic Beach Jewish Center. The FBI came and took him away. One less shnapps to pour this week.

Two arrested in New York real estate investment scheme allegations
Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 at 11:40AM by The Editor - Ian Shuter in Flipping, Investment Schemes, New York, Arrests

In the following press release MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and MARK J. MERSHON, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the arrests of Michael Hershkowitz and Ivy Woolf-Turk in connection with an elaborate scheme to defraud approximately 70 individuals of over $27 million. As alleged in the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

HERSHKOWITZ and WOOLF-TURK, working through a Manhattan real estate development company, The Kingsland Group, Inc., and related entities (collectively, “The Kingsland Group”), fraudulently induced approximately 70 individuals (the “Investor Victims”) to loan them, in the aggregate, over $27 million, purportedly to fund the renovation of approximately sixteen multi-family apartment buildings located in upper Manhattan.

As part of the fraud, HERSHKOWITZ and WOOLF-TURK falsely represented that the Investor Victims would hold, as collateral for the loans, interests in bona fide first mortgages in the various properties in which they thought they were investing. In fact, the Investor Victims did not hold recorded, first mortgages in the properties. The defendants have defaulted on a number of the loans by failing to make scheduled payments of both interest and principal. To date, the Investor Victims’ losses exceed $27 million. more details...

How to avoid a speeding ticket

On Rosh Hashanah the junior rabbi at our synagogue gave a sermon that included a detailed story about a speeding ticket. So that is the connection here from this blog's main focus to the article below.

Paris can learn a lot from N.J.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
By JOHN CICHOWSKI
ROAD WARRIOR

Maybe I've covered too many drunken-driving sentencings, but somehow I managed to withhold my outrage over the cruelty inflicted on teary, distraught Paris Hilton when a California judge, Michael Sauer, insisted that she serve all her 45 days in jail -- not in her Hollywood Hills mansion.
Sauer is the same jurist who didn't accept the heiress' defense for driving in violation of probation tied to an alcohol-related conviction. In case you missed her excuse, here it is: She misunderstood what her agents told her about her sentence.
Her reasoning ranks at the bottom of the excuse barrel with these Golden State contrivances uncovered on "Speeders," a Court TV reality show that tapes motorists at traffic stops:
"I washed my hair and didn't have time to hand-dry it."
"I'm trying to get home in time to take my fertility pills."
Surely, Californians can do better than this.
Like film acting, which began in Fort Lee, avoiding traffic tickets is an art form pioneered in New Jersey, where road warriors have embraced it as part of the culture. After all, ours is the state where the governor doesn't buckle up, where the attorney general comes to her boyfriend's rescue at a traffic stop, and where cops' friends routinely get off with warnings simply by showing a Policemen's Benevolent Association shield.
Attend municipal courts in the Garden State and you'll see lawyers and clients plying a dubious craft that gained momentum in 2000 when the unsafe driving statute was adopted. Pleading guilty to this violation, 39:4-97.2, allows motorists accused of such offenses as speeding and careless driving to avoid points by paying fines of $50 to $500 plus a $250 surcharge.
Lawyers and defendants who can afford $750 (plus legal fees and court costs) like this system because it spares them the bother and confusion of trials, during which each side offers conflicting testimony and celebrity heiresses run a risk of crying for their mommies when they lose.
So, take note, Californians, here are some of the sophisticated ways that New Jersey road warriors have been perfecting their craft, ideas that actually work on occasion:
Bergenfield police couldn't give a ticket to the person they found in the driver's seat in March when they stopped a car for allegedly running a stoplight. The reason: He was 11. But an adult in the car, Jose Morisete, was charged with allowing a minor to operate a vehicle and endangering the welfare of a child. Police said Morisete was under the influence of alcohol.
Passaic's Richard Doren avoided several tickets last year even though he parked illegally on Howe Avenue. The reason: He displayed a card that read "PBA Local 14." "I made it myself," Doren said, adding that he also got nailed for several tickets despite the bogus card.
(But consider this caveat: One former traffic cop remembered refusing courtesy to a speeder who handed him a business card bearing the name of "my friend," Patrolman Ronald Beattie. The reason: "Look at my name tag," said the cop. "I'm Ron Beattie.")
Another ex-policeman said he refused to give a female driver a speeding ticket even though she was going way over the limit. The reason: She was stark naked. "I had one year to go to get my pension," he said, "and I sure wasn't getting involved in that."
Jo-Anne Glock beat a Paramus parking ticket simply by showing up three times to municipal court. The reason: Court ended before her case was called the first time, and the judge couldn't hear her case on the second two court dates because of a conflict -- he once represented the policeman who ticketed her. "He begrudgingly dismissed my case," said Jo-Anne.
Inez Bisconti offered the strategy I liked best. The Harrington Park woman avoided a ticket with this simple, honest reply after rolling through a stop sign in Washington Township: "Yes, I know, and boy was I stupid," she told the cop.
So, guile, smart lawyering and persistence can sometimes beat tickets, but make room for honesty, too. It's far better than telling the cop: "I pay your salary!" Experts advise staying in the car and being contrite.
"Show the cop who's boss," said Glen Belofsky, whose parkingticket.com Web site is devoted to fighting parking tickets, "and the boss certainly isn't you."
If stopped, Belofsky recommends saying: "If you say I broke the law, I'm sure you're right, but if you look at my record, you'll see I'm a clean driver, so I'd appreciate any break."
Of course, this approach has its limits, like the time Patrolman William Barbieri pulled over a former high school classmate in Closter. The driver was too drunk to recognize him.
"Gimme a break," he pleaded. "I know Billy Barbieri."
"I'm Bill," said the cop as he placed him under arrest. After the driver was convicted of drunken driving, Barbieri figured he had sacrificed an ex-classmate's goodwill in a good cause, but he never calculated exactly how good a cause it was.
"I ran into him a year later and he thanked me," the cop recalled. "He said he was an alcoholic and the arrest changed his life. He hadn't taken another drink since then."
We can only guess what Paris Hilton might tell Judge Sauer in another year or two.

It's the real hametz stupid!

We need to be reminded and to remind ourselves what the taboos of Pesach are.

The Torah forbids Leaven - Hametz - not grains!

How corn and peanuts got on the list of forbidden foods is a long story. It is certainly a late rabbinic invention. Someone who eats corn on Pesach would never ever be violating any Scriptural prohibition.

We were surprised and pleased to read this year of an Ashkenazi rabbi in Israel who believes and proclaims that the prohibition against eating legumes on Pesach is misguided.

A few years back, I recall coming home from the supermarket on Palmach Street in Jerusalem on Pesach eve with a whole bunch of yummy candies that were certified kosher for Pesach. My wife immediately examined them and declared that I was remiss. Yes they were KP but only for Sephardim who eat legumes on Pesach. I was crushed.

There are debates and discussions. But let's try to make life this Pesach more pleasant, okay?