FailedMessiah.com

Man Busted In Synagogue Theft

Police arrested a man Tuesday in the theft of more than a dozen religious artifacts from a Queens synagogue after he took them to a pawn shop, police said. Efram Sanders, 28, lives just three blocks from the Congregation Ohel Rachel Degel Israel Synagogue on 68th Drive in Kew Gardens Hills, which was hit by a burglary last week, according to cops.

Congressman Won't Respond To Questions About Staffer's Get Refusal

Rep. Dave Camp's office has not responded to a request for comment from FoxNews.com. His office previously has downplayed the issue as an internal matter, and "gossip." But Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, at Ohev Sholom -- The National Synagogue in Washington -- said Camp is "almost condoning this behavior" by not speaking up. "People don't only see this as a religious issue. People view this as domestic abuse," he said.Herzfeld said he is trying to engage the U.S. legal system on the overall issue, to see if it could view these kinds of situations as a "civil rights" matter.

Yeshiva Student Pleads Guilty To Molestation

A Yeshiva student who was trusted by parents to tutor their children pleaded guilty today for sexually molesting two fourth grade students.

Haredi Modesty Patrol Beats Elderly Haredi Woman

A 70-year-old ultra-Orthodox woman found herself the target of a brutal religious hate crime on Monday night, when four thugs broke into her home and beat her up before leaving her handcuffed and bleeding. The thugs hit her repeatedly with a metal rod, breaking her right hand, crushing her left leg and injuring her face. They used their cell phones to document the attack, evidently to report back to those who sent them.

Pupa Rabbi Busted In Cigarette Tax Fraud

Meshulam Rothschild, a gabbai, assistant, to the Pupa Rebbe, was selling illegal cigarettes bearing no tax stamps out of his warehouse on Spencer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn when he was busted in a raid earlier this month by the Brooklyn DA’s office and feds from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Rothschild also was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument for allegedly possessing more than 11,000 phony tax stamps from the Old Dominion state. That top rap could land him 15 years behind bars.

Loophole In Statute Of Limitations Allows Alleged Chabad Pedophile To Escape Punishment

The difference between misdemeanor and felony child sex abuse means that a rabbi who allegedly fondled a boy's genitals will not be prosecuted.

Shame: 9-11 Remains Were Sent To Landfill

A new Pentagon report reveals that partial remains of some 9-11 victims were sent to a landfill after they could not be identified.

Chairman Of The House Ways And Means Committee Staffer Still Refuses To Give Wife A Get

A social-media campaign is being waged to pressure Rep. Dave Camp to encourage a top staffer to grant his wife a Jewish divorce, and the lawmaker restricted public posts on his Facebook page after a flood of comments about the issue.

Modern Orthodox Rabbis And Women Scholars Join To Decide Halakha For Women

Beit Hillel was formed to counter the increasingly hard line that rabbis in the religious Zionist community are taking against women in official religious roles. The group’s formation paves the way for Jewish legal positions formulated by women to be issued under the names of leading Modern Orthodox rabbis.

Hasidic Women Start Their Own EMT And Ambulance Service

A group of Hasidic women who were denied membership in an all-male Orthodox ambulance corps has decided to branch out and start a women’s-only EMT group.

Don't Blame The Army For Orthodox Soldiers' Problems – Blame The Orthodox Community And Its Rabbis

The IDF's chief rabbi says the fighting over keeping Jewish law in the army is caused by and is the fault of Orthodox rabbis' agitation  – not by anything the IDF allegedly did wrong.

Special Yeshiva Helps Rehab Mentally Ill

What seems like a regular yeshiva is actually a special care program that uses Torah learning to rehabilitate the mentally ill and help them rejoin normative society. It is named for a synagogue in ancient Babylonia, made of stones from the Jerusalem Temple.

Why Bother Fighting? We'll Just Surrender

"The court's contribution to changing the social conduct of an entire segment of Israeli society is extremely limited," the High Court's incoming president Asher Dan Grunis wrote in his dissent, the petition against the Tal Law "does not justify the court's intervention on the issue." To put it more clearly: The court's inability to change the unjust reality is prompting Grunis to refrain from attempting to improve it, and even from condemning it (for the purpose of future improvement ). Such an attitude is disastrous in a democratic society, certainly in a young democracy such as Israel's, in which nothing is self-evident.

Don't Draft Haredim – Reduce Their Birthrate

Israeli society is sick. The illness is Jewish fundamentalism. National service to haredim who refuse to join the army is the medicine offered by the witch doctor. Yet there will be no wide-scale national service, and should it be established after all because of weak politicians, it would be corrupt and terribly expensive. Moreover, such national service would not accelerate the entry of bums into the workforce. It would not produce reconciliation between seculars and haredim. Rather, the dispute between them would grow.

Naked Archeologist Finds Jesus Disciples' Burial Cave

Under an ordinary residential building in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, a robotic arm with a camera inserted into a Second Temple-era burial cave has revealed mysterious inscriptions and drawings on ossuaries.

Weaving Together Traditions In Jerusalem's Old City

In Jerusalem’s Old City, Syrian silks continue to bring together leaders from three religions.

Some Religious Zealots Seek To Rebuild Jerusalem Temple While Other Wait For God

Walking around the plaza, Fried explains where key elements of the Temple once stood, the small group closely guarded by two armed Israeli policemen -- and a Waqf "minder." He watches them carefully to see there are no violations of the ban on prayer -- an Israeli court-sanctioned prohibition aimed at maintaining the fragile status quo. "Why don't you show us what the priestly blessing would have sounded like?" prompts one of the group in a carefully staged suggestion. Fried discreetly murmurs the prayer quickly, watched warily by the Waqf official who chooses to ignore this routine violation of the rules.

Feldheim Israel Declares Bankruptcy

The Israeli branch of Feldheim Publishing – a long-time powerhouse in the world of Orthodox literature – is attempting to suspend legal proceedings against the company, despite the publisher’s financial difficulties and declaration of bankruptcy.

Haredim: We Will Give Our Lives To Avoid The Draft

The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties issued a joint statement on Sunday, saying they would not discuss any change to the status of the tens of thousands of Haredi yeshiva students who do not serve in the army or perform national service.

The Art Of Draft Evasion

"Some people say the Haredim will not enlist in any case. Maybe that's true. But today they receive the legitimacy to avoid serving in the army, and that legitimacy is a mark of Cain on Israeli society. Tomorrow, when they are obligated by law to serve - even without sending the police to fetch them - anyone who does not serve will bear the mark of Cain on his forehead. And the state will treat him accordingly, with all that implies."

Did Deborah Feldman Misrepresent Her Academic Background?

The author of "Unorthodox" claims to have received a scholarship to study at Sarah Lawrence, and she's said she was admitted without having a high school diploma or a transcript. How much, if anything, of this is true?

Deborah Feldman Lies Again?

Feldman claims her mother left home when she was a small child. But is it true? She also claims her mother "abandoned" her family without ever saying that Feldman's mother left with Feldman's younger sister – a sibling Feldman pretends does not exist.

Another Feldman Lie?!?

According to Feldman's uncle, she wasn't forced to marry her husband Joel – she was in love with him and insisted on the marriage.

Video: Boteach V. Coren

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach dukes it out with TV host Micael Coren. Botech misquotes Coren repeatedly, ignores Jewish anti-Christian polemic that was common in the first century CE onward, and proves again that he knows next to nothing about the subjects he writes on.

Haredim Allegedly Torch Boy Scouts Den

In the middle of the night between February 13 and 14, firefighters were dispatched to extinguish a blaze at an Israeli Scouts den in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood. Although five fire companies responded, the fire had already consumed the building's contents and the wooden support columns holding up the roof, which collapsed. The police and firefighters judged the cause to be arson, not the first time that unknown perpetrators had acted against the den.

IDF Facing New Crisis – A Shortage Of Soldiers

Beginning this year, and for the next three years, the number of inductees to the Israel Defense Forces is expected to drop substantially. During a period of highly complex security-related developments (even if they will not necessarily lead to a war), and amid a sharp dispute over the size of the defense budget, the IDF will have to cope with a new type of problem: of fewer young Israelis for the conscript army.

Livni Slams Haredim And Pols Who Are Corrupted By Them

"I believe Yeshivas have place in the state, but they have turned into a haven for people who don't serve and don't work, even though they can."

The New York Mets Kosher Hot Dog Controversy

An interview with Rabbi Shmuel Heinemenn explains the basis for the fight between the Mets and its kosher hot dog vendor.

Haredi Model In Bitter Divorce Battle

An ugly divorce battle that has shocked New Jersey's haredi community is making headlines in the US and Britain.

Hundreds Protest Against Haredi Draft Dodgers

The demonstrators called on the government to promote legislation that would obligate yeshiva students to enlist and waved signs reading "Service for everyone," "Stop draft-dodging" and "Haredim to the IDF."

Video: Fistfight In 770

Students from Chabad's yeshiva in Tzefat, Israel – known for believing Chabad's later rebbe, dead since 1994, is actually alive, well and living in 770 Eastern Parkway – spark more fighting in Chabad's main synagogue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Haredi Bigwig Tries To Seize Number One Spot As Top Gadol Lies In Hospital Bed

In Hebrew these terms are clear, no law, not imprisonment or even death, can be allowed to interfere with the students' Torah study. Auerbach has long been a hardliner. He was against the Tal Law ten years ago, insisting that the ultra-Orthodox community must not allow the secular government to have any influence over the lives of yeshiva students. Now he is enraged that the law, which the ultra-Orthodox politicians easily emasculated, has been struck down.

Ohel Head To Discuss Unwanted Touch

David Mandel, CEO of OHEL, and Dr. David Pelcovitz will discuss unwanted touch on the radio tonight

Another Nail In Deborah Feldman's Book's Coffin?

Last week The Jewish Week reported that Deborah Feldman's story about a murder of a son by his father because his father caught him masturbating appeared to false. Now it has more information to support that claim.

As Evidence Against Him Mounts, Haredi Principle Accused Of Sex Crimes Professes Innocence

The suspect, 47, is a prominent figure in Netanya. He was arrested earlier this week after two former students at the establishment filed complaints against him saying he sexually assaulted them. Police suspect him of indecent acts, sodomy, sexual misconduct, nonconsensual sex and rape. The acts involved both minor and adult victims. Police also believe many people who knew about the crimes broke the law and failed to report them.

Haredim Confident They Won't Be Drafted

Despite the High Court ruling their exemptions are illegal, haredi yeshiva students are sure they won't be drafted.

Haredi Pol Says Illegal Law Exempting Yeshiva Students From Draft Will Continue

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said today that despite the High Court's ruling that the Tal Law is illegal, the government will have to extend it until alternative legislation regulating yeshiva students' military service is written, and that could take a year or more. Yishai's comment was reportedly made following a "lengthy conversation" with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chabad Pedophile Case Moves Forward

The suppression order has been lifted and the case against David Cyprys, who allegedly molested at least a dozen boys at Chabad's Melbourne yeshiva and who was allegedly protected by the late head of Chabad in Australia Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner can now move forward.

Haredi Pols Vow Shabbat Buses Won't Happen

Haredi politicians say they will prevent Tel Aviv from starting public bus service on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

Reality Show Appearance May Be Kosher After All

Despite a ruling by a leading Zionist Orthodox rabbi saying an Israeli Zionist Orthodox couple's appearance on a reality show is not kosher, another leading Zionist Orthodox rabbi says don't worry, the appearance is kosher – and could sanctify God's name.

3 Day Push To Pass Child Victims Act

“Childhood sexual abuse is society’s dirty little secret. We know that 20 percent of our youngsters grow up as victims of these crimes. Through this series of events, I want to shed light on the different areas of life and society where this abuse occurs and make my colleagues in Albany aware of how important it is that we adopt this bill in 2012.”

Video: Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia Schneerson's Court Deposition

Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia Schneerson's videotaped deposition in the federal district court case over ownership of her father's, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneerson's, extensive book collection.

Police Investigate Chabad Rabbi

Chabad Rabbi Shalom DovBer Wolpe, perhaps the most popular rabbi among Chabad hasidim in Israel even though he holds no official position in the movement, is suspected of offering financial incentives to soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate West Bank outposts, as is right wing activist / Kahanist Baruch Marzel.

High Court Rules Yeshiva Draft Exemptions Illegal

The High Court of Justice on Tuesday accepted petitions against the Tal Law which exempts yeshiva students of military service, and will not be extended in August as a result.

Cops Launch Investigation Into Haredi Principal After Former Student Says She was Sexually Assaulted

Israeli police have launched an investigation after a former student of a haredi girls school filed a complaint alleging that the school’s principal sexually assaulted her and other students. Haredi leaders allegedly tried to cover up the crimes.

Case Dismissed Against Accused Haredi Pedophile

The case against David Y. Greenfeld has been dismissed. Why?

Participation In Reality Show Violates Jewish Law, Rabbi Says

"Not only is it not a mitzvah, but it's a violation…The exposure in itself isn't modest. A man must be modest and humble; he shouldn't have a video camera follow him and see what he does."

Looking For Miracles At The Tombs Of Dead Rabbis And Saints

The believers are part of a growing phenomenon in Israel, where hundreds of thousands of people from starkly different backgrounds flock to the tombs of ancient Biblical figures or modern-day rabbis, seeking blessings and claiming they've witnessed miracles. At many of these sites there is scant proof that any sage is actually buried there. Some are even believed to be co-opted Ottoman or Muslim burial places. But to the faithful, the lack of hard evidence is irrelevant. It's the deep spiritual experience or, for some, the desperate desire to be blessed, that matters.

New Chabad Mitzvah Tank Look Portrays Dead Rebbe As "King Messiah"

A Chabad "mitzvah tank," a mobile home outfitted as a mini Chabad House, portrays Chabad's dead rebbe as the "King Messiah." The photograph was recently taken in Manhattan.

Photo Of Naked Ethiopian Woman Taken At Suggestion Of NACOEJ Aid Worker, Photographer Says

Ziv Koren published a picture of a Falash Mura woman immersing in a mikva. A firestorm of criticism erupted. But Koren now says the picture was taken at the suggestion of a staff member of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry.