FailedMessiah.com

Monsey Haredi Man Arrested On 40 Counts Of Child Sex Abuse

Dovid Kohn, who also uses the name Avraham Perl, faces 40 counts of criminal sexual acts. The victim told police that Kohn abused her for three years with repeated sexual contact beginning when she was 12-years-old.

Rabbi Busted For Child Porn

Sheriff’s detectives arrested a rabbi at a kosher food distribution company for possession of more 1000 child porn images.

Injuries Common In Unlicensed Haredi Matzo Bakeries

The Magen David Adom emergency service dispatched personnel and, in addition to seeing that the bakery had been completely destroyed in the explosion, they found five people who had been lightly injured, and treated them at the scene. The Jerusalem fire department was not surprised. “It’s a pirate bakery that only operates for Passover,” said Lahav Assaf Avres of the city fire department, who said it was operating without observing safety standards and without a license, and that those involved did not want it known that they were operating an illegal establishment.”It's nothing new to us."

Audio: Tamar Epstein Speaks

The world's most famous agunah explains how she ended up chained to a man like Aharon Friedman.

Ohel's Alleged Coverups Of Child Sexual Abuse

The first documented book chapter on Ohel's deplorable behavior is posted below for your reading 'pleasure.'

Why Metzitzah B'Peh Must Be Banned, Part 2

Metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the direct oral to genital sucking of the bleeding circumcision wound done by many haredi mohels has sickened, maimed and even killed babies, and it must be banned immediately. But hasidim claim that MBP is a part of the mitzvah of circumcision itself and not an antiquated health measure based on ancient Greek medicine, and they refuse to stop doing it. Here's why they are wrong.

Brooklyn DA Condemned For Failing To Prosecute Haredi Pedophiles

Finding sexual abusers of children and prosecuting their cases is one of law enforcement’s top priorities. But in Brooklyn, District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office has come under fire for not vigorously pursuing cases in the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities, a charge Hynes vehemently denies.

Report: The Ongoing Haredi Coverup Of Child Sex Abuse In Brooklyn Appears Aided By D.A.

Agudath Israel of America's Rabbi Zwiebel is explicit about his expectations of Hynes. "If the DA doesn't understand [that there is a Jewish law] there will be far less cooperation with the criminal justice system – because of the culture and the general sense in the community, that has prevailed for thousands of years, that typically there are things which, if at all possible, should be handled internally within the community.… I think [Hynes] is working within a reality. And he's wise to work within that reality." In Brooklyn, there appears to be a pattern of weak prosecutions, out of step with national trends. The national average sentence for child molesters is seven years with three of those served and probationary sentences are unusual. All sex crimes against children – both penetration and fondling – are treated with great seriousness, and there is little difference in sentencing between them – unless you are haredi and live in Charles Hynes' Brooklyn.

Live Streaming Now: Fighting The Agunah Crisis Conference At YU

A Yeshiva University panel tonight on fighting the agunah crisis features Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Tamar Epstein.

Haredim Gloat Over Tzipi Livni's Downfall

Livni was a driving force in protesting haredi attempts to forcibly gender segregate public buses and sidewalks. She lost her position as head of the Kadima political party when former defense minister and army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, who favors making deals with haredim, won the party’s leadership primary earlier this week. But it wasn’t her work on behalf of women’s rights that cost her the election – Livni wasn’t thought to be hawkish enough to deal with the nuclear threat from Iran and the destabilization of Egypt and other Arab states caused by the Arab Spring.

Conflict Of Interest Haredi Style

Bnei Brak, a haredi city located near Tel Aviv, has a senior staffer with two enormous conflicts of interest.

Birth Haredi Style

We had a patient the other day, very very Orthodox — he wouldn’t even make eye contact with his own wife. He would come in with his head down, staring at the floor — he probably couldn’t even describe me, always staring at the floor. I never once saw him look at her. They can’t expose their arms to their husbands so obviously the vagina is like a whole new level.

The Price Of Violating Haredi Omerta

Mordechai Jungreis said he was victimized twice — once when his son was sexually abused by a member of the community and again when he was shunned trying to get him help. “I told my wife right away this child is getting molested,” Jungreis told CBS 2′s Chris Wragge. “The perpetrator always  got support from the community.…You get revenge, hell, torture, ostracized — you name it. What a family and victim is going through if you are reporting a Jew,” Jungreis said.

Congressman Refuses To Meet With Rabbis Over Staffer's Get Refusal

Tamar Epstein has the backing of dozens of Orthodox rabbis. For at least two years, Aharon Friedman has refused to give Epstein are religious divorce (called get in Hebrew). A bet din has ruled against Friedman, but he continues to extort his wife to try to override a civil court's custody arrangements and for other 'considerations'. Without a get, Tamar Epstein cannot marry or cohabit, and any children she might birth would be mamzerim banned from marrying full Jews for generations. Friedman is a thug. And Rep. Dave Camp (R- MI) is protecting him. Tamar Epstein has the backing of dozens of Orthodox rabbis.

Rabbis Gather To Honor Rabbi Who Called For Rabin Murder

A group of haredi rabbis including Israel's Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, gathered in Brooklyn to honor Chabad Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht for his 90th birthday. Hecht infamously labelled Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin a rodef, noting that rodefs should be killed. Rabin was assassinated not long afterward, and Hecht – who later apologized – was banned from entering Israel.

The End Of Israel As We Know It

A Central Bureau of Statistics forecast predicts that haredim and Arabs will outnumber the secular population in Israel in 47 years. Israel's population is slated to grow to 15.6 million.

Painting Of Old Rabbi Identified As Lost Work Of Rembrandt

It is now believed the two paintings are a pair, linked by details of costume, pose and jewellery – particularly the rings on their beautifully contrasted hands. The young woman's smooth flesh is markedly different from the tissue-paper-like crinkles of the old man's skin. The paintings are thought represent the biblical story of the exiled Ruth who married the kindly but much older Boaz.

Film Producer Threatens Jewish Film Festival Over Sex Abuse Documentary Ban

The producer of “Home Alone” and ”Mystic Pizza” is threatening the Los Angeles Jewish film festival after the festival’s director, Hilary Helstein, complained that Rosenfelt's documentary about child sex abuse in the haredi community, "Standing Silent,” amounts to a “witch hunt.”

Haredi Rabbis Duke It Out Over Circumcision Sucking Ritual

The Satmar leader’s comments stand in stark contrast to statements made by Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, the founder and dean of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia and a senior member of Agudath Israel’s Council of Torah Sages, the prestigious haredi rabbinical policy-making body. When asked about rabbis who believe that using a tube is not valid under Jewish law, Rabbi Kamenetsky replied, “Nobody holds like that.” Told of those who make this claim, the apparently incredulous rabbi said only, “I don’t think there’s a response to them. Chas v’shalom [God forbid], if [children are] getting sick [from oral suction], [under halakha, Jewish law, you] wouldn’t do it.”

New Square: A Crass Prayer Taken To A New Level

Monday was the yartzeit of the Skvere Rebbe's father, and hundreds of Skvere hasidim flocked to the gravesite to pray. This large sign greeted them:

Goldman Sachs Whistleblower Jewish

Greg Smith, the mid-level Goldman Sachs executive who wrote a scathing resignation essay for the New York Times that decried Goldman Sachs' culture as "toxic and destructive," is a Jew with a (left wing in terms of religion) Modern Orthodox day school education.

Why Metzitzah B’Peh Must Be Banned Immediately

The direct oral to genetal suction done by the mohel to the baby's open circumcision wound is dangerous and must be banned immediately.

Haredi Posters Reported To Police

Posters promoting the 7 Laws of the Children of Noah post in Stamford Hill, London – presumably by Chabad followers – were reported to police as "homophobic."

What Should Be Done About Aharon Friedman's Refusal To Give His Wife a Religious Divorce?

If the First Amendment means anything, it means that one may not coerce religious practice. The state may not compel someone to pray, or to fast during Ramadan, or to get married in a church. “My sense is that giving a get is a religious practice. Since marriage has religious significance in Judaism, terminating the religious marriage does too.” But is this the final word?

Yeshiva Chaim Berlin Tossed Out Three Black Students

The Black families' observance was not Orthodox enough for Chaim Berlin, which claimed it wasn't being racist because it kept four "brown" Yemenite students.

Millions Missing From ZAKA Accounts As Haredi Founder Stands Accused Of Fraud

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav and his brothers are alleged to have misled and deceived donors, and may have pocked millions of dollars in donations.

New Revelations On The Exploitation And Abuse Of African Refugees Fleeing To Israel

A Bedouin resident of southern Israel was arrested by Israeli police and charged last week with serving as an accomplice to a criminal organization that kidnapped Eritrean and Sudanese nationals in the Sinai Peninsula and extorted their families for ransom.

High Rabbinical Court Gets First Zionist Orthodox Judge In 10 Years

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, in consultation with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), appointed two haredi judges, Rabbi Nachum Prover and Rabbi Yitzhak El-Maliach, along with Rabbi Eliezer Igra, a national-religious judge. The selection of Igra represents the first time in over a decade that a rabbinic judge from the national-religious community has sat on the court.

A Violation Of Haredi Civil Rights

A grievous violation of haredi civil rights should not be ignored by the US Department of Justice. The time is long overdue for to Washington to act.

Video: Passover In Kaifeng, China

A New York Jew spends Passover in the former Chinese Jewish 'homeland,' Kaifeng.

2nd Annual Model Passover Freedom Seder For Victims Of Domestic And Child Sex Abuse

The Voice of Justice will be hosting its second annual model pre-Passover Freedom Seder to in support of and in solidarity with survivors and advocates of domestic and sex abuse.

Government Fails To Follow High Court Order On Haredi Education

The High Court responds by ordering the government to explain why haredi schools are not giving their students the standardized country wide tests that measure knowledge in Israel’s core curriculum – a curriculum haredi schools illegally refuse to teach.

Man Sentenced To 9 1/2 Years For Raping Boy

In the arguments for sentencing, the prosecution said Nohi had committed serious crimes that took advantage of the complainant's innocence as well as his background as a child of a large haredi (ultra-Orthodox) family of limited means.

Rabbi Almost Loses Arm In Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse

Alle Processing Corp hired Rabbi Shapiro to serve as a mashgiach, but provided no formal training or safety instructions related to the plant's heavy equipment. The rabbi's arm was crushed after he was directed to stand dangerously close to a piece of heavy equipment on the slaughterhouse's kill floor.

Close Your Facebook Accounts Or Be Expelled, Chabad Girls School Says

Every girl in the 11th grade who possessed a Facebook account – about half the girls in each class – was individually removed from class and given a slip of paper with an ultimatum: delete the account entirely and pay a $100 fine, or face expulsion from the school. A number of students and parents are especially upset about the move, claiming that the students had been encouraged by the school administration to create Facebook accounts the previous year, in order to vote for Beis Rivka in the Kohl’s charity giveaway.

Set Your TiVos or DVRs

National Geographic's documentary on the hasidic world and those who leave it premieres tonight at 10 pm Eastern. Here's a brief video preview…

Rabbi Ordination Fraud Uncovered

Five men are suspected for fraud and impersonation after attempting to take a rabbinic qualification exam in the name yeshiva students. The five men admitted they were paid thousands of shekels by yeshiva students to take the exam in their place, because the yeshiva students were not properly prepared to pass it themselves. Police suspect a larger network of fraudulent semicha test takers has been operating and that many more rabbis fraudulently obtained ordination this way.

Crooks And Schnooks

The new crime and misbehavior column from Heeb Magazine.

Haredi Fraudster's Attorney Resigns

Benjamin Hager's name is now stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York because he cannot defend himself against charges he helped Weinstein steal millions of dollars.

More Haredim Demand Gender Segregation On El Al Flights

Last month, a Hebrew Facebook page titled "Herem [excommunication against] El Al" featured an in-flight photograph taken during an El Al flight from Brazil to Israel that showed makeshift mechitzahs [partitions] taped to the backs of four passengers' seats.

Haredi Teen Drunkenness Finally Draws Community Attention – Sort Of

Young haredi teens in Brooklyn go shul hopping to get access to free booze. But a series of emergency hospitalizations for alcohol poisoning has finally caused the haredi community to – slowly and very weakly – begin to deal with the problem.

Rabbi Pleads Guilty In Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy

Rabbi David Avigdor finally copped a plea Tuesday in federal court. He was part of a 14-member mortgage fraud ring that bilked government and private lenders out of $4.75 million. The members of the ring did it by falsely inflating the price of homes, paying “straw buyers” to take out mortgages using trumped-up income and employment records, using the mortgage money to buy the homes for their actual prices, then pocketing the difference and walking away. The scheme left a trail of blighted properties.

Goyim Are Jealous Of Us, Rabbi Says

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu claimed that the brutal shooting of a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday was a clear indication that the world hates Jews because God chose them for his patronage. "This attack, and others like it around the world, prove that this is not a battle against the people of Israel within their country. All Jews are proof that God Almighty exists in the world… They hate us because we are 'called by the name of the Lord.' That's the only reason and there is no other. Anti-Semitism does not exist "because we bombed children in Gaza, or because we abuse the Palestinians."

Rabbi Slams Orthodox "Takeover" Of IDF

"In the Israeli discourse, extremist statements have a central position because the media has an interest in intensifying them and moreover because a portion of the religious media emphasizes extremist and marginal views within religious society."

France Terrorist Dies In Shootout With Police

French commandos entered the apartment around 9:30 a.m. local time coming in through the door and windows, according to Gueant. He said the suspect came out from the bathroom shooting "very violently" and police, trying to protect themselves, fired back. Mohammed Merah jumped out of the window with a gun in his hand, continuing to fire, said the minister, and was found dead on the ground.

New York Republicans Propose Pork For Yeshivas

Taxpayers would be forced to pay millions of dollars each year for busing kids from yeshivas that have after-hours academic programs under a plan quietly floated by Senate Republicans.

Journalist Arrested For Child Porn, Seducing Minors Online

An Israeli journalist was arrested on suspicion of posing as a woman online, and tricking underage children to strip in front of their webcams. He is suspected of possession of child pornography as well as lewd acts, as well.

Exclusive: Letter From Haredi 'Gadol' Rabbi Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg Says Notorious Pedophile Innocent

For the first time, here is the 2006 letter written by haredi ‘gadol’ Rabbi Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg affirming that he ruled in 1985 that Rabbi Yehudah Kolko was innocent of all allegations of pedophilia and should not be fired from his teaching job.

Don't Stop Praying When Missile Alert Siren Sounds, Haredi Rabbi Says

"The halacha rules that if a snake is wrapped around a man's heels while he is reciting the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, he mustn't move. Yet if a scorpion is wrapped around his heels – he must run, for a scorpion bites whereas a snake doesn't bite unless harmed. It is my opinion that the Iron Dome transforms the danger from scorpion to snake which is why today, if a person is reciting the Shemoneh Esrei prayer and the alarm is sounded – he must continue praying.…a man who doesn't stand during the Shemoneh Esrei prayer [due to weakness or illness] must certainly run to a fortified space due to 'and you shall diligently protect your souls.'"

France Attack Victims Buried In Jerusalem As French Police Exchange Gunfire With Terror Suspect

While crowds of weeping mourners gathered at a Jerusalem cemetery as the funerals for three French-Israeli children and a teacher who were gunned down at a Jewish school in France got under way, French police in Toulouse surrounded the alleged terrorist.