FailedMessiah.com

Chabad's Non-Apology 'Apology' For Sexual Abuse

Chabad in Melbourne, Australia has issued a letter about child sexual abuse and child safety in its Yeshiva Centre. It doesn't actually apologize for the sexual abuse and coverups that have plagued it for decades. It doesn't even admit that its handling of allegations was incorrect. Instead, it tells its members that it can't legally comment on the current cases in criminal court, and then goes on to assure members that whatever took place in the past, children are safe now. But is this true?

Were There More Agudah Child Sex Abuse Victims?

Philip Fishman wrote a memoir about growing up in Williamsburg before the hasidic takeover of the Brooklyn neighborhood. In it Fishman talks about being sexually abused by a very well known "middle aged" "charismatic" leader of Agudath Israel of America he calls "Glatt." I've now been told that "Glatt" – whose real identity is very easy to determine – has many more victims.

Haredi Mayor To Block Non-Haredi Visits To Archaeological Site In Bid To Prevent Haredim From Hearing “False Opinions”

Modi'in Ilit's Mayor Yaakov Gutterman told the haredi newspaper Yated Ne’eman last week that the site, which is believed to be an agricultural village from the Second Temple period, "will operate according to the doctrines of our forefathers, according to the Jewish historical sources presented by the Bible, the Gemara and ancient Jewish sages only. The site will be open only to haredim, which will keep it a proper place for them to visit and connect to their Jewish roots, without the distortions and disruptions of other places, where there is fear of hearing false opinions."

Zionist Orthodox Rabbis Launch Their Own Version Of A “Kosher” Smart Phone

Rabbi Avinoam Horowitz, principal of the Kiryat Arba Zionist Orthodox public high school, said that the objective of Telephonetto is to create unanimous opposition by Zionist Orthodox teachers to unfiltered smart phones, which cause the "mutilating the students' souls,” referring to the impact uncensored science, history and news he believes can have on teens.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Attacks Teachers In Israel’s Non-Orthodox Schools, Calls Them Heretics

"Anyone who sends his sons [to non-Orthodox schools] should know that he is corrupting them, burying them, and he is unfit to serve as a shaliach tzibbur,” Yose ruled. The 91-year-old founder and spiritual leader of the Sefardic Shas political party made his remarks during his weekly Saturday night lecture in the synagogue adjacent to his home in Jerusalem.

Video: Kids Told Not To Talk About Camp Abuse

"'The kids were warned that morning that they should not be talking to each other about the incident,' the father, who wants to remain anonymous, told PIX.  The man said he feared reprisals from the Bobover sect in Borough Park, Brooklyn, which runs the upstate camp."

Exclusive: Hasidic Newspaper Uses The "N" Word

In a rant about secular Jews who waste their time watching "lame" sports events like the Olympics, the Satmar hasid-owned Yiddish newspaper Der Yid can't resist using the "N" word – and shvartze – twice.

Haredi Boy Assaulted In Bnei Brak Mikva

A haredi boy was sexually assaulted in a Bnei Brak mikva Sunday, and even though the alleged 20-year-old assailant is under arrest, local politicians and police are warning parents to watch over their children – even in places that seem safe.

Haredi Rabbis Ban Tight Pants – For Men

“There is a strict Biblical prohibition against wearing tight clothing like the gentiles, as stated: ‘You shall not follow in their ways.’ Wearing tight pants is forbidden because of that reason.…And those who wear (such garments) are sinful and cause corruption and it is obligatory to protest their behavior.”

Should The New Shlomo Carlebach Musical Be Banned?

Shlomo Carlebach was perhaps the greatest religious Jewish composer since King David. His compositions are sung in synagogues across the world – and across all denominations. He inspired tens of thousands of Jews to explore Judaism, often for the first time. Many became observant Jews as a result. He founded a Moshav in Israel and led an Orthodox synagogue in New York City. He was a friend of rock star musicians and the city's homeless, and was a man who saw the uniqueness and value in every person he met. But Shlomo Carlebach had a dark side, as well. Should it cause us to boycott the musical about his life and remove his music from synagogues?

Israeli City Refuses To Enroll African Refugee Children In Its Public Schools

Despite a court order, the Eilat is refusing to enroll African refugee children in the city’s public schools.

Zionist Orthodox Public Schools Adopt “Modesty Rules” For Little Girls That Echo Haredim

Israeli parents trying to enroll their first- and second-grade girls in many Zionist Orthodox public schools across the country have reportedly been given questionnaires about their personal level of religious observance and told they must complete them before their children can be enrolled.

Was She Murdered? Jewish Woman In Custody Battle With Saudi Prince Falls From 4th Floor, Dies

Police are still investigating what caused the death of Candice Cohen-Ahnine, 35, who fell from her Paris apartment window on Thursday night. Investigators reportedly had been leaning towards an accident as cause of death, but by Sunday reports in the French media suggested Ms Cohen-Ahnine had slipped and fallen to her death "as if she was escaping something dangerous."

Just Like Birthright, Only For Congress: Drunken, Nude Swim In Israel By Republican Lawmakers Draws FBI Investigation

A group of mostly freshmen Republican members of the US House of Representatives, their wives, families and staffs went on an American Israel Educational Foundation-sponsored "fact-finding" trip to Israel last summer. (The AIEF is related to AIPAC.) While there, many of the lawmakers, staffers and family members – including women – got drunk and decided to take an impromptu swim in the Sea of Galilee. Some jumped in fully clothed. Others stripped down to their underwear. But one, Kevin Yoder from Kansas, stripped naked and jumped in. Some lawmakers said they jumped in because of the religious significance of the Sea of Galilee. Others said they did it because it was hot. Most clearly did it because they were drunk.

Bride Arrested In Williamsburg

I don't know the details of this story or the name of the bride. I don't even know at this point whether this is a real arrest or if it is staged. However, allegedly, it is real.

Town Rabbis Rule Electric Razors Are Treife, Move To Offer Kosher Certification For Barber Shops

A senior rabbi also sent out a list of forbidden haircut styles to barbershops in the city and signaled the beginning of kosher supervision for barber shops.

Rabbi Faking Mental Illness To Avoid Trial, Psychiatrist Says

A forensic psychiatrist says a Rabbi Victor Koltun is faking symptoms of mental illness to avoid his murder-for-hire trial. Alan Tuckman reportedly testified at a hearing Friday that Koltun was "malingering."

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Rules That Judges Of Israel's Secular Courts Are "Evil" And Have Status Equivalent To Non-Jews

“Whoever presides over a court of gentiles, and judges using the laws of gentiles, gives up the Torah of Moses, and is called wicked,” said Rabbi Yosef on Saturday night. “They judge according to the laws of the nations, not the Torah. They accept testimony from women. This is against the Torah.”

A Picture Imperfect

Howard Frank, a beggar with a million dollar photo collection, was found dead in the Gowanus Canal in June. An autopsy was blocked, allegedly by Misaskim, without family being contacted. Police and the medical examiner rushed to try to rule the death a suicide. But Frank's death was highly suspicious, as I was the first to report, and the cops and the medical examiner were mishandling the case. And now a senior police official agrees.

Palestinian Firebomb Victim Blames Israel For Not Protecting Him From Haredim

"We blame the State of Israel for this situation because they allow the haredim to attack us. We demand that the perpetrators responsible for this incident be prosecuted.…We also want to be protected from the settlers who want to harm us.”

Former Aide To Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto Charged With Immigration Fraud

The involvement of the US Attorney’s Public Corruption unit in the arrest of Ofer Biton portends more arrests and much broader charges to come.

Video: The Woman Who Saved Syrian Jews

Judy Feld-Car is a Canadian-Jewish grandmother who rescued thousands of Syrian Jews. Here's how she did it…

Is Female Genital Mutilation A Valid Reason For Gaining Refugee Status In Israel?

Should a family be granted asylum in Israel because if deported back to the Ivory Coast the family's daughter will be forcibly circumcised?

An Implausible Bobov Lie

A man creeps into a bunkhouse of a hasidic boys camp at approximately 4:00 am. He is seen on security camera footage in the bunkhouse hallway, going in and out of the rooms where 12- and 13-year-old boys are sleeping. He spends a few minutes in several of these rooms. Bobov waits almost 32 hours before reporting the incident. And Bobov claims that the man could not have abused the boys because there was "not enough time to commit an act of molestation." This claim is clearly false, but police seem to be accepting it as true. Why?

Haredi Man Busted In Modesty Squad Prostitution Extortion Scheme

A haredi man has reportedly been arrested and indicted after he set up other haredim who contacted online a person they thought was a female prostitute selling sex. The alleged extortionist worked with a haredi modesty squad. He allegedly threatened at least one of the haredi men who went to meet the prostitute with a beating to be carried out by four modesty squad members unless the victim paid thousands of dollars in protection money. The victim also had to surrender his cell phone and pledge to stay out of the online chat room. Police believe there are many more haredi victims who are afraid to come forward.

Moshe Rubashkin Violates Parole To Go To Mikva

The brother of former Agriprocessors VP Sholom Rubashkin violated his parole by cutting off his electronic ankle bracelet for Passover so he could immerse in a mikva. But Moshe Rubashkin got caught.

Internal Hasidic Politics Causes Demise Of “Umbrella” Hasidic Kosher Supervision

Hisachdus, an Israeli umbrella glatt kosher supervision, launched three years ago to unify several disparate hasidic supervisions, has closed.

Cops Bristle At Shomrim Bid To Conceal Evidence Of Crimes

As the NYPD bristles at Shomrim's insistence that publicly funded security camera footage be censored by Shomrim before police are allowed to view it, Brooklyn's ethics-challenged District Attorney Charles J. Hynes refuses to criticize the haredi vigilante group.

Three Brooklyn Hasidim Busted For Laundering Millions Of Dollars Of Drug Money

Three Brooklyn hasidim – Samuel Ashkenazi, 43; Samuel “Benzi” Goldberger, 34; and Samuel Blau, 50 – were arrested Wednesday for allegedly laundering “millions of dollars for an international drug ring that operates in Israel, England and the US.”

Murder In Malcha Mall

A young girl has apparently been murdered in the Malcha shopping mall in Jerusalem.

Rubashkin Reply Brief To Govt's Opposition To Supreme Court Appeal

Here is the reply brief from Sholom Rubashkin's attorneys that was filed in response to the government's opposition to the US Supreme Court taking Rubashkin's case.

Video: Israeli Makes Working Bicycle Out Of Cardboard

Izhar Gafni hopes his invention will allow cheap bicycles to be sold in very poor countries so that people who now walk miles every day to get to work or school will be able to ride bikes instead, cutting down their communte times by hours.

Haredi IDF Soldiers Say Drivers Of Gender Segregated Public Buses Refused To Let Them Ride

Two separate Egged bus drivers allegedly refused to allow haredi male IDF soldiers to travel on their gender segregated buses in violation of the law. The soldiers tried to board near a haredi kibbutz that is used as a vacation spot and conference center for haredi groups. The implication is that the haredi soldiers were not allowed to ride because they are haredim who serve in the army.

Whitewashing The Satmar Rebbe On The Anniversary Of His Death

It's the 33 yartzeit of the Satmar rebbe , Yoel Teitelbaum, and haredim associated with Edah Charedit figures (Rabbi Yair Hoffman, for example) and Satmar hasidim extoll the greatness of a man who was arguably one of the worst Jewish leaders in history.

Man Claims Haredi Pol Barred His Daughter From School In Kindergarten Turf War

A haredi resident of the Israeli haredi city of Elad claims the city's haredi deputy mayor, who is also a rabbi, blocked the man's daughter from enrolling in first grade in a haredi school as revenge for the man opening a kindergarten that competes with one owned by the deputy mayor.

Rescued From Slavery

Judie Oron knows the price of freedom. So does her daughter Wuditu: $111. That's the price Oron paid to free the 17-year-old Ethiopian Jew from a life of slavery and forced prostitution.

Nonprofits Petition High Court To Stop Haredi Stipends

The Israeli nonprofits Hiddush, which advocates religious freedom and denominational equality within Judaism; Israel Hofshit; and the Israeli Forum for Equal Service; joined with former Member of Knesset Roni Barizon to petition the High Court of Justice in an attempt to stop the right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from giving stipends and welfare payments to 54,000 haredi yeshiva students who are evading military service.

Rotten Apple? Rabbis Want Apple To Stop Selling Notorious Antisemitic Forgery

The Conference of European Rabbis wants Apple to remove an Arabic language version of the notorious antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, from the iTunes store. Apple failed to respond to the request or to repeated calls from media seeking comment.

Baltimore Haredi Rabbi Warns Community About Pedophile

A warning signed by Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer is posted in at least two Baltimore synagogues, Congregation Kol Torah (headed by Rabbi Yosef Berger), and Kehillas Bnai Torah (headed by Rabbi Jonathan Seidemann.)

The Distortions Of Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Britain's outgoing chief rabbi tries to pull an intellectual fast one in defense of brit milah, Jewish ritual circumcision. But Sacks – who is considered to be a student of philosophy – is outed by Allan Nadler.

Haredi Rabbis Call On Government To Stop Haredi Draft

“[Do] not change in any way the state of affairs regarding yeshiva students which has been in effect from ancient times here in the Land of Israel,” the rabbis wrote.

Two Israelis Arrested In Rabbi Blackmail Plot

Two Israeli men were arrested by Israel Police and indicted for trying to blackmail and extort an unnamed American-based rabbi. Shai Cohen and Simon Suriana allegedly hired two women to seduce the rabbi with the intent of using images of the encounters to blackmail him.

Haredi Male Employment Up By 28% – Or Is It?

The government-controlled Bank of Israel issues a study showing that 45% of haredi men now work, up from 35% in 2002. In fact, the employment rate for haredi men went from 38% in 2009 to 45% in 2011 – an amazing jump. But is this really good news?

Kosher Ice Cream Truck “War” Leads To Arrests

A kosher ice cream truck “war” in Sullivan County has led to two arrests and numerous police calls.

Haredi Rabbis Allegedly Hid Evidence Of Child Rapes, Granted Haredi Rapist Access To His Children

The State of Israel’s official Jerusalem rabbinic court, which is haredi-controlled, reportedly concealed evidence that a haredi elementary school teacher had raped boys.

Report: Lev Tahor Cult Uses Violence, Extortion, Manipulation To Terrorize Members

Part One of an in-depth Hebrew series of reports on Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans and his haredi Lev Tahor cult exposes violence, extortion and manipulation by Helbrans used to keep his cult members under his control.

Haredim At War With Each Other Over Graves

In a new letter published in Israeli haredi papers today, Rabbi Moshe Shternbach, the head of the Mea-Shearim-based haredi umbrella organization Eda Haredit’s rabbinical court, accused the haredi Atra Kadisha organization of fraudulently staging sometimes violent protests against construction in the city of Be’er Sheva that it believes may desecrate ancient Jewish graves.

19-Year-Old Female Blocked From Boarding Public Bus, Harassed By Haredim

A 19-year-old off-duty female soldier was extensively harassed by haredim as she tried to take a public bus from Shoham to Jerusalem on Friday.

A Chabad Messianist License Plate

Spotted near 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York – Chabad's international headquarters.

New Child Sexual Abuse At A Bobover Camp Shows How Things Have – And Have Not – Changed For Haredim With Regard To Reporting Abuse

Camp officials take at least 32 hours to report a series of sexual assaults against several children to police.