FailedMessiah.com

Kiryas Joel Given Sweetheart Grant To Pay For Pollution Cleanup, Assemblyman-Elect Alleges

“This is the furthest thing from economic development. The list of projects for the Mid-Hudson Region is tremendous: attracting commercial and residential improvement, renovating historical sites, and creating jobs. Then, there’s a grant to bail KJ out for violations against its pollution permit.…Any other municipality that faces environmental violations is on the hook to fix the problem.  The same clearly doesn’t apply to Kiryas Joel – state taxpayers are footing their bill yet again."

Pee Wee Basketball Team Forced To Forfeit Game When Orthodox Opponent Demands That It Bench Its Lone Girl Player

The Orthodox team of little 10-year-old boys demanded that a non-Orthodox team bench its lone little 10-year-old girl player or the Orthodox team said it would refuse to play the game. When the non-Orthodox team refused to comply with the demand, the Orthodox team walked off the court and out of the sports complex – and was awarded the game by forfeit for doing so.

Most Israelis, Even Right Wing Israelis, Would Divide Jerusalem For Peace

The polls show that a majority of Likud-Beiteinu and the even farther right Habayit Hayehudi voters would support a peace deal establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders if Israel was allowed to retain major West Bank settlement blocs and Jerusalem was divided.

Masked Men Break Into Office Of Haredi Breakaway Faction Member On Shabbat

The office of Rabbi Menachem Carmel, a member of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach's Netzach ultra-conservative breakaway faction from United Torah Judaism, was broken into on Shabbat. Apparently only documents related to UTJ housing deals from Carmel's days as UTJ's housing point man were taken. The two male burglars wore masks (and were probably Israeli Arabs or non-Jewish Russians hired to do the job). The theft appears to be related to the split with UTJ.

Scuffle In Chabad's Main Synagogue Over Rebbe Dollar Ritual

A small scuffle developed in 770 Eastern Parkway Sunday when Israeli Chabad yeshiva students tried to clear space to begin the "dollars" ritual – handing out dollar bills to be given to charity as if it were the late Rebbe, who passed away in 1994, giving them out. The yeshiva students believe the Rebbe is alive, well and in 770, even though we can't usually see him.

Lack Of Faith May Be A Psychological Issue That Requires Medical Treatment, Noted Haredi Psychiatrist Says

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski tells a yeshiva student who has tried hard to remove doubts he has about Judaism but can't that he may have a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that requires medical treatment.

Voting For Likud-Yisrael Beitenu Violates Torah Law, Haredi Rabbi Says

Rabbi Ya’akov Yosef, Shas founder and spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s most controversial son, has now issued a statement asserting that anyone who votes for the Likud-Yisrael Beitenu list in those upcoming elections has transgressed an “iussur d’oraita,” a biblical commandment – in other words, the Likud voter will have sinned by transgressing biblical law, the most severe form of transgression of Jewish law there is.

Secular Group Seeks Ban For Shas Smartphone App

Despite the haredi ban on smartphone use, the Sefardi haredi Shas Party – which draws a significant number of votes from traditional non-haredi Sefardi voters –  has released a free Android smartphone app, Maran Shlita, which allows users to virtually follow Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef throughout his daily activities. But this time, it isn’t haredi rabbis who want the evil technology banned – it’s Hiddush, a secular group that advocates for freedom from religion.

Zionist Orthodox High School Students Attacked By Haredim In Mea Shearim

Hey, thanks for coming! Mind if we dump a load of dirty diapers on your heads? Students from the Bnei Akiva affiliated Ohr Etzion Zionist Orthodox army preparation high school were met with curses and dirty diapers when they visited the haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim Thursday.

Former IDF Major General Sees Danger In Zionist Orthodox Community’s Growing Extremism

Former Major-General Elazar Stern was sharply critical of HaBayit HaYehudi's leader Naftali Bennett, noting that the role of a leader is to inspire people to want to move in the correct direction and to lead them there, not to exploit crass populist sentiments that are destructive for the country and for society in the long run.

New Study Shows YU Researcher, Others Appear To Have Cooked The Genetic Books To ‘Prove' Middle Eastern Origin Of The Jewish People When One May Not Really Exist

"The various groups of Jews in the world today do not share a common genetic origin. We are talking here about groups that are very heterogeneous and which are connected solely by religion…[the] genome of European Jews is a mosaic of ancient peoples and its origin is largely Khazar.”

London Shomrim Stops Credit Card Bank Scam That Targeted Elderly

Volunteers from the Golders Green, London Shomrim volunteer community security group stopped an attempted credit card fraud that targeted an elderly couple.

More Jews In Israel Opt Not To Circumcise Their Sons

"It's the same as if someone would tell me 'it's our culture to cut off a finger when he is born,' People should see it as abuse because it is done to a baby without asking him."

OUTRAGE: Man Who Firebombed Occupied African Refugee Kindergarten And Homes To Get No Jail Time

The attempted murder by arson of dozens of men, women and children will bring an estimated sentence of only 6 months of community service. Is it open season on African refugees in Benjamin Netanyahu's quasi-democratic Israeli state?

Video: Agudah Head Attacks Bloggers At Opening Of Agudah Convention

The great threats to the haredi world apparently are the media and  bloggers which the haredi world "suffer[s] from," Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, Agudath Israel of America's most senior rabbi, said at the today's opening of the group's national convention. Rabbi Uren Reich attacked NYC for its stance on metzitzah b'peh, making the inane remark that there are lots of dangerous things people do every day, and NYC doesn't regulate them.

The Dangers Of Metzitzah B'Peh That Haredim Tried To Hide

The haredi journal Dialogue published an issue this month that largely deals with metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking many haredi mohels do. MBP transmits disease, injures, maims and even kills babies. After publishing pro-MBP material, Dialogue was approached and asked to run a piece by leading specialists who oppose it. Dialogue agreed and made it appear that this article would get the same status as the pro-MBP article that preceded it – as a stand-alone piece. But instead, without notice Dialogue flooded the issue with pro-MBP articles to bombard readers with largely extraneous, irrelevant and misleading information. So here is that lone anti MBP article by actual, real, leading medical experts for you to read.

Three Settler Youth Indicted For Hate Crimes Against Palestinians

"These price tag actions against innocent people and their property, who were chosen only because they are Arab, were meant to convey various messages in violent and offensive ways…The perpetrators of the price tag actions hoped to cause agitation and disquiet in the Judea and Samaria areas, and in residential areas populated by Arabs in Israel, and lead to agitation in these and other areas in a manner that might lead to disruption of law and order by the Arab and Palestinian population in Israel and in Judea and Samaria, which would compel the police and security forces to divert larger resources to restore law and order in these areas."

For Israel, Haredim And Settlers Will Continue To Freeload And The Genuinely Poor Will Suffer

As Israel's economy shrinks and a $4 billion dollar deficit is forecast for 2013, Israel has hard budgetary choices to make. Of all those possible choices – cutting welfare payments and subsidies to haredim and subsidies to West Bank settlements – make the most economic and moral sense. The haredim contribute the least of any Jewish group to Israeli society and to the economy and Israel's defense, and the settlements are a tremendous drain on resources, have raised a generation of shockingly radical extremists, and are very unpopular with most Israelis. But Israel's right and center-right politicians will probably not make any significant cuts to those budgets for craven political and ideological reasons. So who will suffer in the end? Israel's elderly, its poor, its homeless, its chronically ill. They will pay with their bodies and even with their lives for haredi freeloading and Zionist Orthodox extremism.

Lipa Schmeltzer Goes To College – And He Wants You To Go, Too

“I never got an education other than biblical stuff,” reported Schmeltzer. “I called up someone in New Square and he got me a paper saying I had graduated high school.” Not surprisingly, the registrar at Rockland Community College, a two-year school which is part of the State University of New York system, informed Schmeltzer that the paper he was holding was of little value. As English is actually Schmeltzer’s second language, he spent eighteen months working towards his high school equivalency diploma, taking classes at the Rockland County Board of Cooperative Educational Services as well as studying with private tutor Chaim Glovinsky in order to pass the series of five tests which would award him a General Equivalency Diploma and allow him to enroll in college.

Rabbi Who Stole His Own Community’s Torah Scrolls Pleads Guilty

Rabbi Yehuda Rosilio, the former rabbi of Moshav Brosh in the northwestern Negev, pleaded guilty today in Be'er Sheva Magistrates Court to stealing his own community's Torah scrolls. The specific charges included aggravated theft, aggravated fraud, fraud, breach of trust and causing insult to religion.

When Is A Woman Like A Valued Pot?

When she is governed by Jewish law – especially when that Jewish law is administered by haredim.

Haredi Rabbi Sentenced To Year In Slammer For Money Laundering In Solomon Dwek New Jersey Sting

Rabbi Lavel Schwartz was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to launder $200,000 to $400,000 in money that he believed to be the proceeds of illegal activities.

No Representation, No Votes: Haredi Women Threaten Not To Vote For Haredi Parties That Refuse To Put Women On Their Knesset Lists

A group of haredi women insist that haredi political parties and rabbinical leaders are intentionally "misleading the public" by claiming that Jewish law forbids women from running for public office and serving in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

In A First For Israel, State Rabbinic Court Denies Woman Alimony Based On Alleged Lesbian Affair

Lesbian relationships are forbidden under Jewish law but generally bear no punishment and are not viewed as severe violations, unlike homosexual sex or heterosexual marital infidelity, which both carry severe punishments. Even so, the rabbis equated the purported affair with heterosexual infidelity, which carries the biblical death penalty, forced the woman to accept a divorce and denied her alimony.

Man Sentenced To 10 Years For Child Rape

A 23-year-old man wore a kippah in court as he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for repeatedly raping two young brothers. Jeremy Roberts was also found guilty of 52 counts of possessing indecent photographs of children. On release from prison, Roberts will also have stringent controls placed on him in perpetuity for any contact with children under 16-years-old.

After Disastrous Arrest Of American Female Rabbi And British Teens At Kotel, Netanyahu Asks Sharansky To Deal With The Problem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency to find a solution for Jewish female groups that want to pray at the Western Wall, known as the Kotel in Hebrew, but that do not want to follow restrictive haredi interpretations of Jewish law.

Ancient Jewish Temple Competing With Temple Of David And Solomon Found Only 3 Miles From Temple Mount

“There has been nothing like it in the archaeology of the Land of Israel until now. It’s not one room; it’s a large complex with lots of animal bones all around. We have to recall that [the] Arad [temple] is a two-day walk from Jerusalem. I assume that the population in the Negev needed a site for their ritual cult, but Motza is five kilometers [about 3 miles] from Jerusalem. Why did they need another temple [while Judean kings sat on the throne in Jerusalem]?”

Chief Rabbis Protest “Blasphemous” Art, Threaten To Find Ways To Close Gallery

"This shows contempt for holy writings that [according to Jewish law] must be buried in a genizah. I hope God-fearing people will not buy these displays for art, but to bring them to genizah facilities for burial that they deserve. It is inconceivable that a thing like this [art show] could occur in the Land of Israel.”

Matisyahu Talks About Crown Heights, Cutting His Beard, And How Being Hasidic Helped sell His Music

"I had moved out of Crown Heights (neighborhood of Brooklyn). I didn't want to confront the people over there. I think that most Hasidic people that I know, that I am actually friends with or that are acquaintances, all say that they think I seem like a happier person now than I was then, and they respect my decision. There were times, late at night or whatever, where I would go online and I was interested or I would check it out, but it always came back to bite me in the ass because you read those comments that are just mean and it hurts."

Agudah Convention To Deal With 'Important' Issues Of The Day: Internet, Heretic Bloggers, Preserving Penis Sucking Ritual

The theme of this year's Agudah convention is, "our responsibilities to one another in times of challenge." But judging from Agudah's convention program, these "responsibilities" apparently do not include responsibilities to sexually abused children, agunot, beaten wives and children, or the victims of a multitude of haredi scams.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg’s Attacker Charged With 4 Counts Of Assault And Criminal Weapons Possession

Meilech Schnitzler was indicted for Attempted Assault in the First Degree for throwing a cup of bleach in Rosenberg’s face on a Williamsburg street on December 11.

Leading MO Rabbi Calls For Independent Investigation Into YU Child Sex Abuse Coverup Allegations

On December 13, Yeshiva University President, Richard Joel sent an email to the school’s supporters saying:

 “…I welcome the opportunity to personally and confidentially discuss any issues with anyone who may have suffered harm.”

 Sorry, President Joel.  You are not the address to which concerned students should go. When I attended Yeshiva University I was taught the phrase nogea badavar, which roughly means “conflict of interest.” 
The responsible thing is to hire an independent firm to review the school’s record, past and present. 

Senior administrators of the University have told me that the school has hired an attorney to lead an investigation. But such an investigation will be of limited value if it is not truly independent. The Jewish community needs Yeshiva University to answer these questions. There is too much at stake.

Rubashkin Son-In-Law Sued Over Alleged Mikva Child Sexual Abuse

Rabbi Yaakov Weiss, a Chabad-ordained rabbi who pleaded guilty in 2010 to child endangerment after admitting in court that he knowingly had inappropriate physical contact with two 13-year-old boys in an Albany, New York area mikva in separate 2007 incidents is now being sued by the boys’ families.

Jewish Mother Who Kidnapped Her Kids From Her Non-Jewish Husband Can Keep Them, Israeli Court Rules

A Tel Aviv District Court overturned a Ramat Gan Family Court decision Monday, ruling that a Jewish mother who kidnapped her children and brought them to Israel should be allowed to keep her children and stay in the country, rather than return them to The Netherlands where the children’s non-Jewish father lives.

The Homophobic Chairman Of The Zionist Orthodox Habayit Hayehudi Political Party

Naftali Bennett is clearly homophobic – and he wants the Israel he hopes to lead to be homophobic, too.

Haredi Lottery For Yeshiva Students Aims To Cut Down On Elections Talk, Ramp Up Torah Study

"As the election approaches, in these days when the evil inclination is trying to lure the public with lashon hara (gossip), controversies and the denigration of Torah students, an initiative, already joined by thousands of yeshiva students, has taken off, promising a fair prize."

Outlandish Haredi MK Asks Elections Committee To Block Kadima Campaign Ads

Rabbi Israel Eichler warns of the dangers of such a campaign “that may lead to bloodshed,” adding  that “the use of the military to incite the masses was used in Europe, since the Crusades to the Russian czar, not to mention the more difficult times that followed.” He calls on the committee to disqualify “Kadima’s anti-Semitic propaganda campaign.”

No Matter How Cruel, Your Meat Is Still Glatt Kosher, Israel’s Chief Rabbis Say

The chief rabbis eat with a forked tongue. If a restaurant hires belly dancers or dresses its waitstaff in skimpy costumes, it can lose its kosher supervision. The same is true if it puts a Christmas tree in its lobby for tourists or hosts a New Year’s Eve Party on December 31st. But if a slaughterhouse is caught on tape repeatedly torturing animals in violation of Jewish and secular law, Israel’s chief rabbis say their hands are suddenly tied. There’s nothing they can do, and the slaughterhouse’s kosher supervision has to remain – and this true even when everyone involved, including the company’s CEO, admits the animal cruelty took place.

It's Not Their Fault – They're Only Teachers

A haredi education "expert" explains why so many haredi kids talk to strangers when they should not, and why this alarming security gap is not the fault of their teachers or school principals – even though it really is.

IDF Says It Might Allow Haredim To Get Induction Physical From Private Doctors To Avoid Testicles Issue

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe is upset over stories that yeshiva students have been forced to undergo the standard medical exams given to all male inductees. Those exams include a testicles check, and the doctors carrying out the exams can sometimes be females. When haredi leaders first approached the IDF with complaints about female doctors several weeks ago, the IDF pledged to immediately ensure that all the doctors examining the haredi inductees would be males, but this did not satisfy haredi leaders, who seemed upset by the idea of testicle checks no matter who carried them out.

Breathless Haredi Election Reporting Volume 1: Haredim Gather To "Safeguard" Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's Honor

In a breathless writing style that only a haredi mother could love, we learn that "[h]undreds of Ashdod and area residents turned out on Monday, the eve of 12 Teves 5773 for an Asifa to decry election campaign events in which the kovod of Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita is being compromised."

Haredim Threaten Riots Over Ashkelon Building Complex

"What is happening is simple: They're going to build a large complex, the antiquities authority found graves while excavating, and at a lower level they also found graves from the Second Temple period. In the past there was a city here and people were buried here. There was also a Jewish settlement, but even if they are not Jewish, it is prohibited to dig under a Muslim cemetery - it's not humane."

IRS Seizes Chabad Yeshiva, Synagogue

The IRS has seized Chabad’s Worcester, Massachusetts yeshiva day school and synagogue for unpaid taxes. Chabad owes Uncle Sam $435,235.31 in unpaid taxes dating back to 2004. Almost all of those unpaid taxes are payroll taxes.

Haredim Allegedly Beat Arab Boy In What Police Are Calling A Hate Crime

"My son said he and his friends were hanging out near the train station when two religious-looking guys showed up. One of them grabbed him and knocked him down and hit him repeatedly over the head…People keep talking about peace, but what is this 'peace'? What do they want? What did my son do to them?”

Nittel Nacht: No Sex, No Torah, Just Fear Of Evil Spiritual Forces Associated With Jesus

Tonight is Christmas Eve – better known in the haredi world as Nittel Nacht. Hasidic Jews believe that evil spiritual forces are at full force tonight and to prevent giving strength to any of these impure forces, hasidim do not study Torah, Talmud, halakha or other Jewish religious subjects, and they also abstain from having sex.

High Court Issues Injunction To Stop Chief Rabbis From Doling Out Patronage Jobs To Unqualified Friends, Relatives and Political Cronies

The High Court of Justice issued an interim injunction that forbids the Council of the Chief Rabbinate from ordaining anyone as a rabbi who has not actually passed the required written exams. The Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah (NTA) organization petitioned the court, claiming that the Council’s practice of ordaining rabbis who have not passed the required written exams is not transparent and has been used unequally to dole out patronage jobs to unqualified friends, relative and cronies.

Kedassia Retracts Halpern Shul Explusion

"The letter signed by Chaim Schneck was released as a result of a misunderstanding and the Beish Hamedrash Divrei Chaim remains affiliated to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Greetings of Peace. Moshe Chaim Efraim Padwa."

New Year’s Eve Parties “Idol Worship,” Haifa Rabbis Say

Haifa’s state-funded haredi-controlled Rabbinate issued a stern warning last week to hotels and event halls. Host a New Year’s Eve party or celebration in your establishment and we’ll remove your kosher supervision.

Former Sefardi Chief Rabbi Indicted For Fraud, Breach of Trust

According to the indictment, between 1999 and 2003 approximately 1,500 police officers, soldiers and cadets attended various religious colleges for several hours per week but were granted diplomas as if they had completed five years of studies. The certificates enabled them to get higher salaries from the state – as much as 4,000 shekels (about $1,050) monthly – and cost the state hundreds of millions of shekels in total.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern's Synagogue No Longer Affiliated With Kedassia

The following sign is posted in Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (Kedassia) synagogues in London. Accused sex offender Rabbi Chaim Halpern's personal synagogue has been cut off from membership in the haredi umbrella organization Kedassia after weeks of Kedassia trying to protect Halpern.