FailedMessiah.com

Child Abuse In Haredi Brooklyn: Chipping Away At A Wall Of Silence

In Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, the rabbinical leadership’s muted response to a wave of sexual abuse allegations has come under increasing scrutiny.

Jimmy Carter Asks Jewish Community For Forgiveness

"I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine" that may have stigmatized Israel.

Too Cold For Nude Protest, Anti-Satmar Williamsburg Bikers Switch Gears

Bicyclists who planned to go topless to protest the removal of a Brooklyn bike lane switched gears Saturday, pinning plastic breasts to their jackets as they rolled into a snowstorm.

Letter from Jerusalem: A Response To The Call For Halakha To Be The Law Of The State

Even religious people who pray for judges of old were horrified when Justice Minister Ne'eman suggested that we apply Din Torah to Israeli law.

Tropper Sex And Abuse Of Power Scandal Makes The NY Post

Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County is heard encouraging pretty, blond woman to participate in phone sex and actual sex with men the rabbi knows, including one he calls "the Satmar guy."

Conversion Controversy Pits Jew Against Jew

In the midst of a nasty global battle over who is a "true" Jew, Ottawa's Rabbi Reuven Bulka has stopped converting people to Orthodox Judaism.

Letter from Jerusalem: Violence In The Rabbinical Courts

A slap is physical violence; an insult is verbal violence; sexual touching without consent is sexual violence. What should we call it when haredi rabbis force a woman to accept a divorce given to her only if she agrees to the waiver of money civil courts ordered her husband to pay her? Rabbinic violence?

Haredi Ban Forces Two Major Haredi News Websites To Close

The Haredim news website shuts down on Erev Shabbat following the earlier closure of Etrog.

Chabadnik-Founded Group Paying IDF Soldiers To Disobey Orders May Be In Violation Of US Tax Law

Crown Heights-based arm of SOS Israel nothing more than a mail drop, founder says.

Haredim Stone Police In Jerusalem

Violent haredi Shabbat demonstrations resume.

Mumps Reaching Epidemic Level In Haredi Communities

[UPDATED] Hasidic fear of vaccinations causes spread of disease.

Neo-Nazis Steal Auschwitz Sign

The Polish police said Friday that the iron sign over the gate to the Auschwitz memorial with the infamous phrase “arbeit macht frei” — “work sets you free” — has been stolen.

Whistleblower OU Mashgiach Fired

Speaking the truth about unkosher food at Montefiore Medical Center gets Robert Frank fired.

Tropper Scandal Takes New Turns

New rabbinic leader announced by EJF Monday now says he never agreed to head EJF, while woman in scandal claims reprisals and Tropper threatens to sue blogger.

Satmar Home Health Agency Caught In Multi Million Dollar Medicaid Fraud

Forced to pay back state and federal governments for employing untrained home health aides. 

Rubashkin Material Witnesses Won't Be Released

20 undocumented former Agriprocessors workers designated as material witnesses for criminal cases will not be released as the government thought last month.

Chappy Chanukkah From Chabad

Crown Heights Hanukkah festivities do not disappoint.

New York Conversion Rabbi Resigns Amid Scandal

The founder of a powerful American group that seeks to enforce a tough stance on conversions has abruptly resigned.

Guest Post: Modern Orthodox Writer at LA Jewish Journal Covers for NCSY Deception

One of the problems afflicting secular and Liberal Jewry is that those in a position of watchdog are increasingly overly sympathetic to Orthodoxy.

Accused Haredi Child Rapist Goes To Shul

Baruch Lebovitz davens Ma'ariv.

Haredi Websites React To Ban

Haredi rabbinic leaders banned haredi news websites and haredi blogs. Now the bloggers react.

Exclusive: The Story Behind The Tropper Scandal

A woman in the process of converting to Judaism told FailedMessiah.com a well known and powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions worldwide asked her for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion.

British Jewish School Loses Supreme Court Appeal

Britain's top court was accused of interfering in religious matters after it ruled on Wednesday that a Jewish school was guilty of discrimination by refusing entry to a boy whose mother was a Jew by conversion, not birth.

Convicted Agriprocessors Supervisor Wants Sentence Reduced

A former Agriprocessors supervisor who was the first to be sentenced after the 2008 immigration raid filed a motion Monday in U.S. District Court to correct his sentence.

Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World

Members of the earth's earliest known civilization looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God created Heaven and Earth.

TROPPER: Outreach Rabbi Resigns Amid Cloud Of Scandal

An influential ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions has stepped down abruptly from the organization he founded.

Moshe Rubashkin Gets Out Of Prison Early

Convicted felon gets to celebrate his son's near-coming of age in Lubavitch world headquarters.

Rightists Threaten To Start Mass Movement To Delay IDF Enlistment

"It needs to be understood that the military has much more to lose than the hesder yeshivas. There is a huge lack of manpower and motivated fighters are an obvious need of the IDF."

Chief Rabbi Bars Conservative Convert From Burial

13 year old died from a brain tumor. Rabbi Amar bans burial in Jewish cemetery.

Comparing The Maccabees To Today's Hardcore Settlers Sets Off Firestorm

"What an inappropriate article. [It] quotes history while fully distorting the facts - and attempts to take the joy out of a beautiful holiday with a tradition of hope and renewal." 

Far Right Yeshiva Head: My Duty Is To Tell Soldiers To Disobey Orders

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed says he has obligation to "speak his inner truth." 

Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva Compares Modern Orthodox To Esav

Duty of haredim to fight MO.

Israel Removes Defiant Hesder Yeshiva From IDF Program

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has decided to remove the Har Bracha yeshiva from an arrangement with the Israel Defense Forces over its support for insubordination among soldiers.

Massive Money Laundering Ponzi Scheme Ensnares Oorah, Kars4Kids, Other Haredi Charities

Money went in and money came out – laundered.

Gay Orthodox Rabbi Comes Out Of The Closet

And he still serves as the rabbi of his synagogue.

The Unholy Battle For Ethiopia's Remaining Jews

Falash Mura fight among themselves as American and Evangelical aid groups and the Israeli government fight over aliya.

The Law of the Land is the Law – Yes? Maybe? No?

If it is, what does that mean for kashrut, Jewish ethics and the current crop of haredi crime?

The Orthodox Rabbi's Sex Ed Class

“This is one of the most favorite things I do in the world. I love the interaction with students — and being able to open their eyes to the way in which Judaism approaches the basic facts of life.”

NEW HAREDI BAN: Sweeping Child Sex Abuse And Crime Under The Rug, Senior Haredi Rabbis Ban Haredi News Websites And Blogs

The rabbis further stated that it is the ultra-Orthodox websites "which impeach a public tempted to (surf) the vilest of places, which have already caused so many in Israel to breach Torah laws about things best kept private."

Settlers Torch Mosque – "We Will Burn All Of You"

According to reports, settlers allegedly set fire to a carpet and to a library in the mosque's second floor, destroying holy books. They also sprayed abusive statements on the walls including "We will burn all of you."

Letter from Ra'anana: The Justice Minister's Sickly Olive Branch To Haredim

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman's comments this week in which he suggested that he would like to see a "return" to the Torah litigation system are understandable. But they are also indefensible. 

As Whistle-Blowing Mashgiach Applies for Food Stamps & Welfare, OU Fat Cats Breathe Sighs of Relief

"The OU is letting me hang out there to dry. They’re willing to lie, to say that everything is okay, just to cover their asses."

Rubashkin Hires Nathan Lewin For Appeal

The family is also working in close cooperation with a legal committee of attorneys including Professor Aaron Twerski, Irving Seidman, Robert Simins and Jeff Schwartz.

Do Non-Normative Jewish Religious Beliefs Make Food Unkosher?

Should the religious beliefs of a food producer impact the kosher status of the food produced? 

Bike Lane Removal Battle To Follow Mayor To Copenhagen

"One woman asked me if she should go topless [during an upcoming protest] and I told her no, because we're not trying to create more confrontation with the Hasids, who actually hate the rabbis much, much, much more than I do."

Chabad Rabbi Accused Of Hit And Run

Rabbi's story contradicts witness, police.

Haredi Health Minister Wants To Gender Separate Psych Hospitals

Israel’s medical establishment is reacting angrily to revelations that the country’s Health Ministry is working on a plan to make Jerusalem’s two largest psychiatric institutions single-gender.

Letter from Tel Aviv: Israel Is A "Semi-Theocracy"

The Israelis who were frightened by the minister's remarks and who love viewing their country as liberal, Western and secular are forgetting that our life here is more religious, traditional and halakhic than we are prepared to admit. 

One Minor Conviction In Crown Heights Shomrim Trial

5 of 6 acquitted, all major charges dropped.

Did The Brooklyn DA Really Try To Extradite Avrohom Mondrowitz?

Mondrowitz currently sits in an Israeli jail; his extradition is being decided by Israel's High Court.