FailedMessiah.com

Gedolim Color War

NY State Kosher Food Database Is Up And Running – With A Pregnant Double Standard From Agudath Israel Of America And Nathan Lewin

Did Rubashkin Really Pass An FMI/NCCR Humane Slaughter Audit? Maybe not …

Another J-Blog Down – Bnei Levi, In Forefront Defending R. Slifkin – Disappears Without A Trace

Bnei Levi, a J-blog that was in the forefront of defending Rabbi Nosson Slifkin, has disappeared without a trace. Was Bnei Levi hacked? Was he threatened? Did he simply give up?

So far, we don't know for sure – although it appears that Godol Hador, another J-blog in the forefront of the R. Slifkin scandal, has been heavily pressured to get out of the blog business.

The thugs are winning.

Slifkin Censors Website – Controversy No More

Huge Chabad Anti-Disengagement Demo: Disengagement = Holocaust, Sharon = Haman & Milosevic, Civil War Hinted – "Who Is On The Lord's Side? Let Him Come Unto Me"

Just what Israel needs – thousands of apocolyptic messianists preparing for civil war:

PETA Ad Campaign Targets Rubashkin

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach – PETA Distorts Shechita

Yated Ne'eman: Throat-Ripping At Rubashkin, Oral-Genital Contact During Circumcision Both Religious Freedom Issues – Government Has No Right To Tell Us What To Do – Links US Government Action To 'Czarist Russia' , Cooperation With Govt Sin

Slifkin Book On e-Bay – Starting Bid $100

Rabbi Nosson Slifkin's banned book, The Science of Torah is being offered on e-Bay with a starting bid of $100.

Bid away here.

(Hat tip: Felicity Lerner.)

BREAKING! Rubashkin Passes FMI Audit – Actual Slaughter Not Part Of Audit – Removed To Accommodate Rubashkin

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein Retracts His 'Retraction' – The R. Slifkin Ban Still Stands

Godol Hador and others in the know are reporting that Rabbi Dovid Feinstein's 'retraction' of the Rabbi Slifkin Ban is not true. The ban stands.

As FailedMessiah.com reported yesterday, this is hardly a surprise.

Free Mojtaba And Arash!

Today is worldwide Free Mojtaba and Arash Day, held to publicize the imprisonment of two Iranian bloggers by Iran's mullahs.

New Letter From Rabbi Elyashiv Translated

Rav Elyashiv Strikes Back – Ban Still Stands No Room For Questioning

Rabbi Dovid Feinsten "Rescinds" His Ban On Rabbi Slifkin – Has Not Apologized – Will He?

New J-Blog!

A new Jewish blog, Thoughts on Judaism (a.k.a., RebelJew) is up. It looks like it will be a very interesting read.

It's Here! Y-net News In English Is Up And Running!

Y-net, Israel's #1 news site, has its new English-language beta version up and running.

Read it here.

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch Speaks – You Are Almost Absolutely Without Question A Heretic, A Kofer And A Min – Slifkin Ban Expands To Include Almost All Of Orthodoxy, Including You

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, a 'gadol' of note, has declared almost every Torah-observant Jew who believes the world is older than 6000 years to be a heretic: [Hat tip: Bnei Levi.]

A Chabad Junior Welterweight Champion?

How I missed this before I don't know, but Chabad has a professional boxer of note as a relatively new follower.

He's Shomer Shabbos, eats only kosher food, is unbeaten at 20-0, and is ranked 13th in the world by the WBA.

Read it all here. It's a great story.

BREAKING! Rabbi Elyashiv Makes Entire Kosher Wing Of Judaism Treife By Fiat – No Basis In Jewish Law For His Action – Welcome To The Dark Ages

I received the following from JJ, a reader, who claims this is an e-mail from R. Ahron Feldman explaining his visit last week to Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv on behalf of Rabbi Nosson Slifkin. Read correctly, it means that the 'gedolim' will not be standing up to Rabbi Elyashiv anytime soon:

PETA Demands Pols Return Rubashkin $$$ – Sees Clear Conflict Of Interest

PETA  (based on two reports that appeared on FailedMessiah.com) is calling on US Senators Charles Grassley (R, IA), Arlen Specter (R, PA) and US Representatives Tom Lathum (R, IA) and Katherine Harris (R, FL) to return thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the extended Rubashkin family, apparently orchestrated by Sholom M. Rubashkin's brother-in-law, Rabbi Milton Balkany.

Rabbi Balkany, dubbed the "Brooklyn Bundler" and "Robbi" by New York tabloids, has a long history of financial irregularities and apparent influence peddling.

According to PETA's Bruce Friedrich,

“A federal legislator should not be taking money from a company that is being sued by one federal agency and that is under investigation by another—that just screams conflict of interest.”

AgriProcessors is currently being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency and is under investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture for what many have called the worst violations of the Humane Slaughter Act in recent memory.

Chabad And The Tsunami

The Jerusalem Post has an article on Chabad's relief work in Thailand. Unfortunately, all the information comes directly from Chabad – there is no actual reporting done by the Post, and certainly no fact-checking was done, either.

That being said, if the article is accurate, it is very good news, indeed.

Money Wipes Out Sin – If You Donate To Chabad

Charles Kushner, the now-disgraced millionaire real estate mogul who has pleaded guilty to hiring a prostitute to entice his brother-in-law to have sex while being secretly video taped and then blackmailing him with that tape, has released almost 200 letters from community members pleading for leniency from  the sentencing judge.

Notable among the letters are two – the first from Rabbi Yitz Greenman of Aish HaTorah, the second from Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum of Chabad-Lubavitch.

While Aish Rabbi Greenman's letter makes a reference to Mr. Kushner's moral failure, Chabad Rabbi Grossbaum does not.

Money, it seems, can wipe out sin – if you deposit it in Chabad's pocket, that is.

• Download RabbiYitzGreenman.pdf
• Download RabbiZalmanGrossbaum.pdf

Stop Blaming The 'Goyyim' – Chabad, Are You Listening?

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn & Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

The daughter of a man responsible for saving more Jews during the Holocaust than anyone else writes about leaders of the Jews:

The big question that is never asked is this: If the American Jewish leadership did not raise an outcry in favor of rescue operations, why should non-Jews have raised an outcry and taken action?…

It is uncomfortable for us to tell the stories of [the rescuers], because that would require us to come to grips with those people and organizations that did not act, or that did too little. But sooner or later, such a stock-taking will bring about a serious discussion of the crisis that afflicted the Zionist and Jewish leadership of the free world during the Jewish people's darkest hour.

Again, for the record, Chabad-Lubavitch opposed the efforts of Hillel Kook. The then-rebbe of Lubavitch Y.Y. Schneersohn felt that a messiah campaign was more important than rescue, a truly sick theology.

3 Chabad Hasidim Arrested For Anti-Palestinian Vandalism

The Bnei Brak Flat Earth Society Wants You!

But be warned – don't fall off the edge!

[Click on the graphic for an enlargement.]

Jerusalem Post: Netanyahu Attack Highlights "Split" In Chabad – Netanyahu Attacker Known Chabad Activist

JWB Reports: Slikin Ban Still On, Widening

Picture Of The Decade

ArtScroll's Rabbi Nosson Scherman with the 73rd and final volume of ArtScroll's English-language Talmud. A volume of Rabbi Adin (Even-Yisrael) Steinsaltz's English-language Talmud can be seen at the top of the picture.  Please click on the picture for an enlargement. (Source: NY Times)

Read the NY Times article here.

Netanyahu Assailant A Chabadnik

Netanyahu Kfar Chabad Attack Update – Assailant Has Unusual Alibi

BREAKING! Israel Shot Down 2 Syrian MIG's in 2004 Dogfight – Putin's Response? Sell Missles To Syria – Chabad Medal Part Of Missle Sale Cover?

Netanyahu Attacked In Kfar Chabad – Chabad Spokesman: Outsiders Responsible

Chabad Mohel: "God Gave Us Saliva To Clean Things"

According to the NY Jewish Week, Crown Heights-based mohel Rabbi Israel Heller has an interesting understanding of human disease transmission:

“Our teachers taught us to use our mouths,” said Crown Heights-based mohel Rabbi Israel Heller, who is the official mohel of Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

“The saliva cleans wounds. God gave us saliva in our mouth to clean things.”

The rabbi is referring to a procedure known as metzitza b'peh, sucking with the mouth, done immediately after the foreskin and membrane are removed during a circimcision. The mohel literally sucks the blood out of the fresh wound, using his mouth.

But the Jewish Week article – poorly, as almost always, crafted by Debra Nussbaum Cohen – is most interesting for what it leaves out. There are no quotes from any rabbis opposed to metzitza b'peh, even though many rabbis including Moshe Dovid Tendler of Yeshiva University oppose the practice. (Rabbi Tendler has been quoted elsewhere as deeming the practice "medieval medicine.") And, although anti-circumcision forces are mentioned by pro-metzitza b'peh rabbis in the article, there are no quotes from anti-circumcision activists to be found.

Should the government mandate regular blood tests for mohels?

A spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, which represents the interests of the fervently Orthodox, doesn’t think that any new form of oversight is necessary.

“There is a point when the government has a right to step in, when there’s a clear and present threat to the public. Then public policy can override religious rights, but I don’t think that’s what’s before us at this point,” said Rabbi Avi Shafran.

“Word of mouth is the best regulatory system, and the system has worked very well,” he said. “There should be no ban on metzizah b’peh, and no required testing of mohelim.”

The OU's Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb concurs:

"…I am not sure that one isolated case, however tragic, warrants a major change in the system.”

After all, what's a dead kid here or there?

You can read the Jewish Week article here.

A recent study on this issue follows:

Pediatrics. 2004 Aug;114(2):e259-63.
Neonatal genital herpes simplex virus type 1 infection after Jewish ritual circumcision: modern medicine and religious tradition.

Gesundheit B, Grisaru-Soen G, Greenberg D, Levtzion-Korach O, Malkin D, Petric M, Koren G, Tendler MD, Ben-Zeev B, Vardi A, Dagan R, Engelhard D.

Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit, Soroka University Medical Center and the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel.

OBJECTIVE: Genital neonatal herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection was observed in a series of neonates after traditional Jewish ritual circumcision. The objective of this study was to describe neonate genital HSV-1 infection after ritual circumcision and investigate the association between genital HSV-1 after circumcision and the practice of the traditional circumcision. METHODS: Eight neonates with genital HSV-1 infection after ritual circumcision were identified.

RESULTS: The average Gravatar interval from circumcision to clinical manifestations was 7.25 +/- 2.5 days. In all cases, the traditional circumciser (the mohel) had performed the ancient custom of orally suctioning the blood after cutting the foreskin (oral metzitzah), which is currently practiced by only a minority of mohels. Six infants received intravenous acyclovir therapy. Four infants had recurrent episodes of genital HSV infection, and 1 developed HSV encephalitis with neurologic sequelae. All four mohels tested for HSV antibodies were seropositive.

CONCLUSION: Ritual Jewish circumcision that includes metzitzah with direct oral-genital contact carries a serious risk for transmission of HSV from mohels to neonates, which can be complicated by protracted or severe infection. Oral metzitzah after ritual circumcision may be hazardous to the neonate.

Lazar Has "No Second Thoughts" – Putin Auschwitz Medal Kosher

Rabbi Lazar, who was appointed chief rabbi in 2000 by Putin’s office and is known to be personally close to the president, said he had “no second thoughts” about having presented Putin a medal at last month’s ceremony at Auschwitz. The award was in gratitude for the Soviet Army’s liberation of Poland, despite recent steps by Putin seen as anti-democratic, such as curbing the independent media and ending direct elections of governors.

If Raul Wallenberg Had Been A Book And Not A Man Would He Be Alive Today In Crown Heights?

While reading this story about Giovanni Palatucci, an Italian Righteous Gentile who with the help of the Catholic Church saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis and who himself was murdered in Dachau, my thoughts turned to the sad case of Raul Wallenberg, the courageous Swedish Righteous Gentile who saved thousands of Jews from Hitler, y"s, only to be taken prisoner by the Russians, never to be heard from again.

MoshiachTalk Is Back Up

Rabbi Gil Student's Chabad website, MoshiachTalk, is back up. Access it here:

http://moshiachtalk.tripod.com/

BREAKING! Gil Student's Chabad Website Hacked!

Rabbi Gil Student's website on the Rebbe and Chabad, http://www.moshiachtalk.com/ has been hacked!

Put the url in your browser window and you will be routed to http://www.yahoo.co.ja/ the Yahoo Japan homepage. (Many thanks to the [hostile] reader who alerted me to this.)

Although Gil's website was a series of proofs on why the Rebbe could no longer be the messiah, the site was very respectful of both Chabad and the Rebbe. The e-mail address attached to that site was hacked at the same time FailedMessiah.com was hacked. Gil did not want to go to the FBI then. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. I suspect that this time he will not be so naive.

You can buy Rabbi Student's book on which the website was based here.

Chabad Embroiled In Prague Power Struggle – Take Over MAHARAL's Shul

What Really Happened With The Chabad-Putin Medal

The Forward has a revealing article on the Chabad medal given to Putin at Auschwitz:

Rubashkin Boycott?

A Conservative rabbi of some note has called for a boycott of Rubashkin and Alle processing meat:

BREAKING! Bnei Levi Is Exclusively Reporting That The Slifkin Ban Is Off – Rabbi Ahron Feldman Representing The Leadership Of American Haredi Judaism Has Flown To Jerusalem And Confronted Rabbi Elyashiv

Ride 'Em Jewboy! Kinky Friedman Campaigns To Save An *Innocent* Jew From Death Row – Machers Characteristically Silent

Kinky Friedman sets out to free a Jew from Death Row in Texas:

"The Jewish community doesn't give a damn about him, unfortunately," Rabbi Ted Sanders, the lead Jewish chaplain in Texas, told newspapers. Soffar says that his letters to B'nai Brith and other Jewish groups have gone unanswered.

It's not too surprising the Jewish community doesn't care about Max Soffar – he's not rich, he's not well-connected and, unlike certain felons we know about, he's acutally innocent.

Let's hope the Kinkster, Ramban & Co. can pull off this real life caper and save an innocent man from death.

Empire Recalls Two Products Due To Lysteria Contamination – Products Actually Made By Alle Processing

Empire has recalled two products due to possible Lysteria contamination.

BREAKING! PETA Joins Forces With Sharpton – KFC Targeted

The New York Times has just reported that PETA has joined forces with former Democratic presidential candidate and (former?) antisemitic rabble-rouser Rev. Al Sharpton.

The cause in this case is not AgriProcessors/Rubashkin.

The Rev. Sharpton was recruited to bring pressure on Yum! Brands, owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken to force the clean up poor growing and handling of chickens by Purdue and other suppliers.

Rev. Sharpton has a long history of antisemitism, including a role as provocateur of the Crown Heights Riots, the first – and, thank God, so far the only – pogrom on American soil.

The Times reports that PETA chose Rev. Sharpton because of the predominance of KFC restaurants in black neighborhoods.

Due to the late hour, PETA could not be reached for comment.

Also joining the new PETA campaign is rap mogul and possible new NAACP head Russel Simmons, who – unlike Rev. Sharpton – has a positive relationship with the Jewish community.

Coming less than a week after the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and in light of PETA's ill-fated (although, well intentioned) Holocaust On Your Plate campaign, PETA's alliance with Rev. Sharpton will most likely further worsen the animal right's group's already shaky relationship with the Jewish community.

Kosher Cough Syrup – Necessity Or Simply Business?

According to the New York Times, the OU is now supervising cough syrup.

Aside from the very questionable reasons for needing supervision proffered by the OU, we find this telling excerpt: