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Blog Schedule

The Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins tonight, and the first two holy days end Tuesday night about 45 minutes after sunset.

Monsey Rabbi Fined For Failure To Provide Renters With Potable Water

Rabbi Mayer Weinstein, the owner of10 Nesher Court in Monsey, New York, was fined $1,000 for failing to provide tenants with potable water.

Missing Suicidal Boy

If you see Tzvi Stolzenberg, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Haredi Rabbis Ban Candle Lighting In Sukkahs

Lighting candles in a sukkah is a very unsafe practice, unless someone is going to be awake and watching over them at all times, and is prepared to put out a fire if the candles start one. Haredi rabbis have reacted to years of sukkah fires by ruling that it is better not to light Shabbat and Yom Tov candles outside in your sukkah.

Police, Haredim, City Reach Deal Over Forced Gender Segregation – But Is the Deal Legal?

After talks between senior haredi community leaders, police and the Jerusalem city government, leaders of the Toldos Aharon hasidic dynasty – the leading drivers behind forced public gender segregation in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood during the Sukkot holiday – reportedly agreed that Toldos Aharon won’t use “ushers” to gender segregate Mea Shearim’s streets this year or to impose the sect’s “modesty rules” on passersby.

Former Aide To Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto Linked To Investigation Of Illegal Drug Dealing

Ofer Biton, the New-York-City-based Israeli national who was once the right hand man of supposed kabbalist and rabbi-to-the-stars Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, was reportedly once a suspect in a large ecstasy drug investigation.

Lubavitch-Chabad v Northwestern University Complaint Shows Chabad Lied

"Northwestern had no legal reason to disassociate from the Tannenbaum House. The University knew that its proffered reasons [serving alcohol to minors and serving alcohol by a campus organization, both violations of university policy] were specious and based upon innuendo and falsehood," Chabad's complaint reads – even though its rabbi has already admitted that he did, in fact, repeatedly and regularly serve alcohol to minors.

Study Indicates That Herpes Frequently Sheds And Can Be Transmitted Even When Mohel Is Shows No Symptoms Of The Virus

"At least 70% of the population shed HSV-1 asymptomatically at least once a month, and many individuals appear to shed HSV-1 more than six times a month. Shedding HSV-1 is present at many intraoral sites, for brief periods, at copy numbers sufficient to be transmitted, and even in seronegative individuals."

As Sukkot Approaches, Jerusalem Activists Worry About More Illegal Haredi Gender Segregation

In previous years, police have allowed the gender segregation to take place – including haredim blocking the main entrances to Mea Shearim and only allowing one gender to enter at each entrance. Haredim hired private guards and appointed ushers to enforce the gender segregation, and violence against people who failed to go along with it was reported.

Chabad Rabbi Skirts Local Kashrut Council, Sparking Anger

When Chabad Rabbi Mendel Jacobs took over the kosher Hello Deli in Glasgow, Scotland  last month, he announced new kosher supervision as well as new ownership – himself and his wife Tzirl.

More Than 100 Chabad Hasidim Evicted From Dangerous Temporary Transient Hotel In Crown Heights

More than 100 Chabad yeshiva students from Israel visiting Brooklyn for the autumn Jewish holidays have reportedly been evicted from their dangerous temporary living quarters by the city.

Video: Neturei Karta Meets With Ahmadinejad

Iran's genocidal leader meets with the haredi anti-Zionist fringe group Neturei Karta.

Israel, Racism, Xenophobia – And Daycare

Outside the real estate agent's office, Blessing and her husband stood together with the journalist and biographer Yael Gvirtz.. "People were running in the street with bottles of beer in their hands, and were trying to get others to join their demonstration against the foreigners," Gvirtz recalls. "A couple of times they said to me, 'Give us these two.' They were standing there, holding a bag of money in their hands, looking at each another. Blessing's husband said, 'We have to decide what to do: we can take the small amount of savings that we have and save ourselves, or we can stay with the children.' It took them two minutes to decide in favor of the daycare. They were two human beings who made the decision of their lives. It was then that I said we have to help them as much as possible."

Dereliction Of Duty: Jewish Donors, Federation Drastically Underfund Needs Of Jewish Poor

[More than] 30 kosher food pantries and soup kitchens in the city’s five boroughs supplied year round by City Harvest, New York City’s nonprofit food rescue operation, with fresh produce and other provisions. For most, it is their only source of fresh produce and their major supplier of food. But the Jewish Federation and Jewish donors who support Jewish causes barely give this major supplier of food to these kosher food pantries and kosher soup kitchens – including those in haredi areas – any funding.

Intent To Deceive: Haredi Rabbis Twist The Truth To Skirt US Law And Mislead Their Followers

Claims — advanced primarily by one infectious diseases doctor, Daniel Berman of Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx — that the government data are “scant” or “inconclusive,” and that the risks of MbP have not been adequately proved, have been vigorously challenged by leading infectious diseases specialists as well as professional organizations, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association and the Israeli Pediatric Association. Not only do these individuals and organizations stand by the CDC’s report, but many have told The Jewish Week that they strongly suspect that incidents of metzitzah b’peh-related infections — both viral and bacterial — are underreported and under-recognized by doctors who are unaware of the practice.

Chabad Claims Shabbat Dinners Are Jewish "Rituals" That Allow It To Serve Alcohol To Minors

Rabbi Klein insists that he did not violate sate law. He says an Illinois state law allows people under the age of 21 to consume alcohol during religious ceremonies. Klein admitted that alcohol was served during Chabad's Shabbat dinners. “The service of alcohol at Chabad was associated with Jewish ritual and celebration,” Klein said. “It is part of the Jewish culture.” Klein repeatedly served hard liqor and wine to underage students at these dinners and on trips to Israel. Chabad is suing Northwesten University in Federal court, claiming religious discrimination after it lost official status because of the alcohol.

Jews Stone Cars On Yom Kippur As Police Do Nothing

As police reportedly stood by and did nothing, hundreds of Jews reportedly stoned cars in Jerusalem after Yom Kippur Kol Nidre services Tuesday night, damaging dozens of vehicles – including many that were marked as belonging to local hospitals.

Chabad Forced Off Campus Due To Underage Drinking

The Northwestern University Chabad House repeatedly served alcohol to underage students in violation of the university's policy and local law, and ignorned warnings from the university to cease and desist doing so.

Blog Schedule

Tonight and tomorrow is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which (for otherwise healthy people) is marked most prominently by approximately 25 hours of complete fasting.

Will God Forgive Your Sins If You Did This?

Haredi and Orthodox Jews descended on Sheepshead Bay to cast bread crumbs – and their sins – in the water ahead of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement which begins tonight. But will the symbolic dumping of sins into a body of water work if this is the end result?

Hasidim Getting Through The Yom Kippur Fast – With An IV Drip

Hasidim who are too sick or too frail to safely fast are increasingly getting hooked up to IV drips on Yom Kippur in order to keep the 'fast' – even though doing so is arguably a violation of halakha, Jewish law.

US Supreme Court Releases Orders List – Without Rubashkin's Case

The new list of orders from the United States Supreme Court was just released a moment ago. It lists cases whose Writs of Certiorari have been accepted. Rubashkin's case is not on it.

The Unethical, Abusive Cult Rabbi Yeshiva University And Modern Orthodoxy Won't Discipline

The young rabbis saw a madrich – an older student appointed as a guide or counselor for the younger, just out of high school Americans, Canadians and other Westerners who were on the one year program – throwing unopened and mail sent to some of those students by their families into the garbage – unread and undelivered.

Aaron Rubashkin's And Family's Bid To Hide Assets Litigated – With Mixed Results

Rubashkin bid "was wholly insufficient…The remaining contentions of the plaintiffs and the defendant are either without merit or not properly before this Court."

What Do You Think?

The United States Supreme Court is deciding as early as today if it will take the case of Agriprocessors former Vice President, Sholom Rubashkin, who is serving a 27-year-prison-sentence for 86 bank-fraud-related convictions.

Israeli Zionist Orthodox Woman Stirs Online Flap After Calling African Refugees “Animals”

A right wing Zionist Orthodox went to South Tel Aviv on a “safari” and took pictures in which she posed near African refugees who she referred to as “animals.”

Israelis Killed In Car Accident With Non-Kosher Animal – Which Haredi Paper Refuses To Name

Two Israelis were killed when the car they were in struck a wild animal on a West Bank road. A haredi paper reported the accident – but would not name the animal, allegedly because it is not kosher.

Kabbalist Rabbi Promises Investors 2X to 3X Return On Money

Flim-flam artist and 'kabbalist'-to-the-stars Rabbu Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto helped broker a huge deal between the financially ailing Nochi Dankner (Pinto's friend) and Eduardo Elsztain. Pinto reportedly promised Elsztain that investors would see their investments "doubled and tripled."

Burn iPhones, Haredi Rabbi Rules

A senior haredi rabbi has ruled that not only it is forbidden to own an iPhone, it is forbidden to sell or give one to a non-Jew. There, the rabbi says, you must burn them.

Audio: New BBC Profile Of Haredim

Clive Lawton, who describes himself as Modern Orthodox, travels to north Manchester with his guide Dr. Yaakov Wise to meet the haredi community there, which is both a window and mirror on to the whole Jewish diaspora, but he finds that as the community increases in size, it becomes more introverted.

Israel's Haredi-Secular Culture Clash Played Out – On The Hands Of A Clock

Israel moves its clocks back by an hour tonight, putting the country on its winter clock more than a month ahead of Europe and the U.S. and adding to the rising anger that many Israelis feel toward the haredi minority that is forcing the change.

Boteach Sex Book Number One Crown Heights Summer Read

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s book “Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy" was the most checked-out nonfiction title in the Crown Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library this summer. But what books made up the rest of the top te?

Bringing Down Mercy From The Heavens By…Harassing Beggars And Depriving Them Of Donations

A Brooklyn hasidic synagogue now bans beggars from collecting inside the synagogue and from collecting outside near the front door, as well. Instead, the beggars have been told to stand on the other side of the street. If they disobey and try to collect in front of the synagogue, the synagogue's administrators threatened to call police and have the beggars arrested.

Chabad Rabbi Who Allegedly Threatens And Harasses Members He Dislikes Receives Warning Letter From Synagogue

"We [are] writing to you in relation to two specific serious issues that the Yeshivah Shule Committee believes need to be addressed immediately. 1. Your abuse and threatening behaviour towards Mr N Werdiger in the foyer of the Shule on Shabbos Chanukah 5771 2. The unauthorised removal of signs and damage to the noticeboard. The Committee has made several attempts to resolve these matters, and have also asked that you attend a meeting with Rabbi Telsner Shlita.…"

Guest Post: Surviving Bais Mikroh Of Monsey

As I close my eyes I recall the feelings of shame, uncertainty, and terror of my surroundings.…I will never forget my first grade substitute [rebbe]…who would snap his belt in our faces and say, "I'll give you an injection for your infection." One day…I spoke out in class and he hit me with his belt. …I went home and told my parents…and they decided to… talk to him. Afterwards, [the substitute rebbe] came back to class, reached into his desk drawer and took out a marker. On the board he drew a straight line bent over at the top half and said, “If a tree is bent over to one side and you want to straighten it out, it’s not enough to just bend it straight because then it will just bend right back. In order to get it straight, you would have to bend it all the way to the left and then it will come back to the middle. So too, if a boy is laughing in class, it is not enough to make him stop laughing because he will just start laughing again. But if you make him cry then he will not laugh again.”

Exclusive: Dueling Jewish Submissions To Parliamentary Committee Investigating Child Sex Abuse Coverups In Religious Organizations

Melbourne Jewry's roof body, the JCCV, has submitted a self-serving report to a Victorian Parliamentary committee regarding the steps it claims to have taken to combat child sexual abuse and to properly handle allegations of these crimes when they do occur. But a submission made by Jewish alleged victims of these crimes at Chabad's Yeshivah Centre shows the depth of the child sexual abuse problem in that segment of the Jewish community – including reporting coverups of child rape and sexual abuse carried out by Chabad's leaders. It also helps to expose the JCCV's lack of action and its unethical handling of its most senior staff member, now just resigned, who is sleeping with a convicted pedophile. Here are both reports.

DA Can Keep Sex Tape Of Underage Hasidic Girl Locked Up – For Now

An explicit video made of an underage alleged rape victim having sex with her boyfriend will reportedly remain locked up in the Brooklyn DA’s safe — for now – even though a Brooklyn hasidic rabbi and his attorneys want the tape to be made available to jurors in his trial.

Can You Live On $4.50 Per Day? Some Rabbis Will Try, But They Won't Be Haredi Or From YU

Rabbis and cantors from across America – except for haredim and the center Orthodox – have agreed to spend no more than $4.50 per day per person for food and beverages as part of the third year of the Jewish Community Food Stamp Challenge. $4.50 per day is the amount of money allocated per day for individuals on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that is more commonly known as Food Stamps.

Haredi Pols Distance Jews From Judaism, Poll Finds

A poll conducted and released before Rosh Hashana for Hiddush, an Israeli religious freedom lobby and education nonprofit, shows that 67% of Israel’s Jewish population thinks that the activities of haredi political parties distance Israeli Jews from Judaism.

Anti-Kapparot Activists To Protest In Crown Heights

"Chicken kaporos is cruel, needless, embarrassing, and a violation of New York State Anti-Cruelty Law Article 26."

Rubashkin Propaganda Film Trailer

A pro-Sholom Rubashkin propaganda film is in the works, as we reported previously. A trailer for the film has just been posted online, it plays like a propaganda film from the old Soviet Union. It is completely one-sided. It misrepresents what Rubashkin actually did and what he was convicted of doing.

Modesty Squad Made Up Of Haredi Women Harasses Seculars And Tourists In Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s large open air market, Mahane Yehuda, is gentrifying. In the last few years, Mahane Yehuda has gone from a gritty remnant of an earlier time to a hip destination, a place where tourists, secular Jerusalemites, and the remaining older traditional Jews of the neighborhoods surrounding the market all shop together with haredim, who are gradually taking over the neighborhoods surrounding it – and who do not like the market's change.

Where Haredi Girls Go To Learn

"Any discussion about the study material is explosive, including the core subjects. Other seminaries teach "secular" subjects, but there the girls are not allowed to matriculate. For many years this ban was enforced due to the steadfast view taken by the leader of Lithuanian Jewry, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, against higher education. The great separatist maintained that matriculation would break down the barrier to the university - which is why the number of Haredi girls' schools offering matriculation studies can be counted on one hand."

Newly Discovered 2nd Century Gospel Says Jesus Had A Wife

The small papyrus fragment, which has been authenticated, shows that some early Christians rejected priestly celebecy and saw Jesus as a married man – just as his earliest Jewish followers probably did.

Hiding In Plain Sight

How do pedophiles molest so many children without being caught? They often hide in plain sight.

Romney Blames The Poor For Being Poor

"All right, there are 47 percent who are with [President Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.…[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Haredi Baby Drowns On Rosh Hashana

A haredi baby from Monsey died in Borough Park Monday night after apparently falling into an open toilet.

Blog Schedule

Tonight is Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year.

Overwhelming Majority Of Secular Israelis Fed Up With Haredim, Want Total Separation Of Religion From State

A comprehensive poll of Israelis shows that secular and non-haredi Israeli Jews are fed up with haredi behavior, and they demand change.

Video: Haredi Rabbi Compares NYC Board of Health To "Judenrat," Nazis

Here is a brief video of Rabbi William Handler, a well-known haredi spokesperson, confusing the basic facts regarding this issue (many of which are clarified above) and accusing Jews who want to cooperate with NYC's decision to require an informed consent from parents before MBP can be done the "Judenrat." He also says that mohels will refuse to wear the "yellow stars" the city is imposing on them. Handler cites Dr. Daniel Berman's father, as well, and says the risk of getting herpes with MBP is the same as the risk of getting herpes from a circumcision done without MBP, which is absolutely false. Like his son Daniel, Simeon Berman seems fond of misleading people about this issue. Handler – whose intentions are far from pure – is clearly one of the people both Bermans misled.