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Jerusalem Haredi Man Convicted Of Sodomy And Indecent Assault On Haredi Kids

Binyamin Schatz, a 46-year-old haredi man from Jerusalem, was convicted today in Jerusalem District Court on sodomy and indecent assault against charges. Schatz sexually abused several haredi children in 2009 and 2010. The youngest child was seven-years-old when he was sexually abused.

Chabad Man Beaten After Resisting Arrest Sues City

Ehud Halevy, a 21-year-old Brooklyn man who was beaten by police at the Chabad ALIYA Institute youth center in Crown Heights after resisting them, has now filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city.

Haredi Schools Heavily Censor Textbooks, Many Males Graduate Illiterate

"Textbooks from UTA acquired by DNAinfo.com New York show the heavy hand of censorship — in addition to pages of text being blacked out, full-length trousers were added to a cartoon bear to protect the animal's modesty."

Hard Right Political Party Linked To Rabbi Meir Kahane Wins Chabad Town In Landslide

The Otzma LeYisrael (Strength to Israel) political party, co-headed by an open disciple of the late hard right extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, won the votes of Chabad's own Israeli town, Kfar Chabad, in a landslide yesterday. Here are the results:

Rubashkin Son-In-Law Settles Molestation Civil Suit Out Of Court After Haredi Beit Din Threatens Victims' Families

Had the civil case proceeded to trial, jurors would have heard details from Weiss' sworn deposition by the family's attorney in 2012. A copy of the deposition obtained by the Times Union last year showed Weiss admitted he became sexually aroused at different times with both boys in a mikvah, a small pool used for spiritual purification. Court papers show the victim's attorney, Richard Ancowitz, asked Weiss if the physical contact between him and the boys was intentional or a result of carelessness. "Um, that was intended," Weiss replied.

Israel: Final Election Results

Here are the final election results with 99.5% of cast votes calculated.

Former Modern Orthodox Yeshiva Teacher Pleads Guilty To Child Porn, Enticement Charges – Faces Up To Life In Prison

A former teacher at the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, New Jersey, 27-year-old Evan Zauder, has pleaded guilty to child pornography and enticement charges. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison.

Manhattan's 16th Street Synagogue Evicted

"The locks were changed and a legal possession notice was posted today at 3 West 16th Street — marking the long-fought eviction of the Sixteenth Street Synagogue from its home of 67 years, The Real Deal has learned. The eviction paves the way for the the building’s owner, Jack Braha, to transform the six-story, 15,368-square-foot property into luxury rentals."

Exit Polls Show Strong Results For The Left, Yair Lapid's Party Projected To Win 18-19 Seats

Shas may get 13 seats; United Torah Judaism 6.

Hasidim Stage Protests At Polling Places In Bid To Disrupt Israeli Elections

The vehemently anti-Zionist hasidic group staged protests in the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, in Bnei Brak, and in Ramat Beit Shemseh – all Satmar strongholds. Smaller protests broke out spontaneously throughout the day at other polling stations.

Weberman Victim's Full Impact Statement

She was sexually abused by Rabbi Nechemya Weberman for three years beginning when she was 12-years-old. Here's what she told the judge before Weberman's sentencing today.

Wife Of Polygamist 'Rabbi' Tells All

She loved the self-proclaimed rabbi Philip Sharp, worked hard on the family farm and tried to get along with his 5 other 'wives'. But finally the isolation, jealously and loneliness became too much and she found the courage to leave her 'husband', who had become known throughout Britain as the 'rampant rabbi'.

Weberman Sentenced To 103 Years In Prison

Rabbi Nechemya Weberman, 54, was sentenced to 103 years in prison today for sexually abusing a young girl over the course of three years, beginning when she was 12-years-old.

Zionists Are Evil, Amalek, Must Be Fought, Satmar Rebbe Says

"[T]here is no stricter prohibition in the Torah than [than the one forbidding] participating in the elections. The ideas of Zionism include all the heresy and apostasy.…The Zionists came from the seed of Amalek. There has never been such a sect that caused so much damage to the Jewish people…The Zionists are real Amaleks, and therefore every Jew must engage in an all-out war against them.”

Haredim Complain To Central Elections Committee Over “Immodestly Dressed” Poll Worker

A polling station in the Jerusalem haredi neighborhood of Bayit Vegan saw voting delays today when haredi voters refused to vote because the station’s female supervisor was dressed in pants.

Report: Many NY Haredi Schools Violate The Law, Teach Little Or No Secular Subjects

DNAInfo is publishing a series of reports this week on the haredi school system in NYC. What it found is what I've reported previously and which many of you know firsthand – many, if not most, haredi schools teach little or no secular subjects. By law, these yeshivas and schools have to give their students a secular education that is equivalent to what students are offered in public school. But they do not do that and the state and city look the other way, even as the federal government tries to demand accountability.

Right Wing Zionist Orthodox Party Ignores Injunction Over Deceptive Campaign Ads, Is Fined

The chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee Justice Elyakim Rubinstein was reportedly enraged after the right wing Zionist Orthodox Habayit Hayehudi political party ignored an injunction he had issued banning one of its campaign ads as deceptive.

Vicious Anti-Zionist Children’s Book Distributed By Satmar In Hopes Of Convincing Haredim Not To Vote

Tens of thousands of copies of a children’s book depicting Zionists as Nazi collaborators have been published and distributed in haredi areas of Israel by Satmar hasidim in the hope that this propaganda will influence the parents of those children and cause them not to vote in today’s national elections.

Shas Caught Intentionally Violating Election Law Again, Is Fined

The head of Israel’s Central Election Committee Justice Elyakim Rubinstein fined the Sefardi haredi Shas political party NIS 37,000 ($10,000) today for intentionally violating Israel’s election law by giving away amulets and offering blessings in return for votes.

Amid Internal Discord And External Threats, The OU Schedules Rare Contested Elections

The OU’s elections are normally pro forma and candidates usually run unopposed – but not this time, when voters will be be asked to choose between choose between to opposing candidates, current president Steven Simcha Katz and former president Harvey Blitz. Blitz and Katz strongly disagree about how the OU is being run.

At Last Minute, Haredi Pols Try To Woo Working Haredim To Prevent Hemorrhage Of Votes

Haredi politicians are reportedly working hard – and at last minute – to woo the votes of a haredi group they had previously intentionally neglected: haredim who work for a living, attend college, and/or serve in the IDF.

Naftali Bennett Attacked By Haredim At Western Wall

The chairman of the right wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi political party Naftali Bennett was attacked by a haredi mob at the Kotel, Western Wall, earlier today as he attempted to pray.

Notorious Chabad-Ordained Rabbi Endorses Right Wing Party

Sholom DovBer Wolpo called for civil war over settlement evacuation and teamed up with followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in a Knesset run. Now the notorious rabbi – perhaps the most popular rabbi on the Chabad street in Israel today – has endorsed the right wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi political party in Tuesday's elections.

Video: Jerusalem Welcome Ceremony For Satmar Rebbe

The Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum arrived in Israel yesterday and was welcomed by a massive welcome ceremony on the edge of Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. Thousands of haredim filled the streets to listen to haredi rabbis rail against Zionism, the state, the Tuesday's national elections, and the upcoming draft of haredi yeshiva students. During his speech, the Rebbe told haredim that the Torah forbids them from voting in Tuesday's elections.

Israel’s Orthodox Election Committee Head Allows Haredi Party To Offer Blessings For Votes, Despite Law Forbidding It

Election Committee head Justice Elyakim Rubinstein – who is himself Orthodox – suggested that UTJ change the text of the ad from “blessed with” to “merited with.” Another sentence that had the phrase “will be blessed from the source of all blessings” should be altered to “will merit all goodness from the source of all bounty,” Rubinstein ordered.

Video: Satmar Rebbe Arrives In Israel, Speaks To Tens Of Thousands Of Haredim, Tries To Disrupt Elections – Israel Does Nothing

The Satmar Rebbe arrived in Israel today and spoke to a huge gathering of haredim. He told them voting is forbidden by Torah law insisted that they not to vote. He did not retract his well-publicized promise to pay haredi $100 each if the guaranteed they won't vote by giving his representatitives their state ID papers. Israel did not arrest him.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s Books Burned, Police Investigate

Police reportedly believe that the books were burned as part of the internecine fighting between Sephardi haredi rabbis caused by Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak’s rebellion against Yosef and Shas.

Chief Rabbi Wants New One-Way Glass Installed As Barrier Between Men And Women At Kotel

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger reportedly decided to call for the new barrier after he received a growing number of complaints about cases of women standing on chairs to peer over the existing barrier to see into the men’s area, primarily during bar mitzvahs and other celebrations.

More Weberman Victims Found

Rabbi Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed Satmar hasidic counselor faces up to 117 years in prison for sexually abusing a Brooklyn girl beginning when she was 12-years-old and continuing until she was 15. Weberman is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. Now an investigation has found that Weberman violated at least 10 other girls and women — including teens and married women he counseled.

Cops Bust 9 Arabs For Snowball Attack

Detectives from the Israel Police Jerusalem District's Minority Division arrested six Arab youths, several of them minors, for allegedly attacking two haredi youths outside the Damascus Gate with snowballs more than a week ago.

VIDEO: Satmar Rebbe Gets Massive Sendoff With Police Escort

Last night, the Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum left on a trip to Israel, his first since becoming rebbe several years ago. Teitelbaum's stated aim for the trip – besides attending a granddaughter's wedding – is to disrupt Israel's national elections scheduled for Tuesday and to encourage haredim to resist the military draft. He got a massive sendoff in Brooklyn last night and a large police escort that appeared to be supplemented with several private SUVs with (illegally) blaring sirens.

Scandal-Plagued Haredi-Controled School Board Threatens To Sue The State – Again

The scandal-plagued haredi-controled East Ramapo school district is threatening to sue New York State’s Department of Education as that state department is in the process of challenging East Ramapo on its handling of haredi special education student placements.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Calls Zionist Orthodox Party “Goyyim” Who Want To “Abolish The Torah”

The spiritual leader of the Sefardi haredi Shas political party Rabbi Ovadia Yosef attacked the right wing Zionist Orthodox Habayit Hayehudi party Saturday night, calling it a party of “goyyim” that wants to "abolish the Torah.”

Britain's Channel 4 To Air Undercover Investigation Into Child Abuse

"...Channel 4 Dispatches Special: A victim of child sex abuse in a British religious community goes undercover to expose the way his community has for decades been dealing with paedophilia."

Video: Rockland County Judges Give Child Rapist, Child Sex Abuser No-Prison Plea Deals

Two haredim in bedroom suburbs of New York City got sweetheart plea deals earlier this week from judges in Rockland County. Both haredim pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges – one of them involving anal rape. But even though one of those cases involves repeated anal rape of the child, neither haredi man will serve a day in prison.

Shas Caught In Alleged "Amulets" For Votes Scam

The Sefardi haredi Shas party has allegedly violated Israel's elections law again by modifying a traveler's prayer card to turn it into an amulet that appears to offer Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's special blessing in return for voting for Shas.

Belzer Rebbe Says Real Jews In "Exile" Living Among "Israelis Who Act Like Goyim"

Almost every Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader attended a United Torah Judaism campaign rally last night in Jerusalem. But it was the looming draft of haredi yeshiva students and the High Court of Justice's ruling cutting off government stipends and other benefits to them that was the focus of the evening.

Russia Threatens To "Retaliate" Against US Over Chabad Books Ruling

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered Russia to pay fines of $50,000 per day until it returns the Schneersohn Collection of books and manuscripts to Chabad in Brooklyn. In response, Russia threatened to "retaliate" against the US if it tries to enforce that ruling.

Understanding Jewish Divorce In 1884

How did a small fur trading post deep in the American Midwest that had recently grown into a small but thriving town understand Jews and Orthodox Judaism? With hostility? Curiosity? A mixture of both? And what does this question have to do with Jewish divorce?

Haredi Robo Call Promises You Will Get Married This Year – If You Press 1 Now

A haredi robo call from 386-506-8669 promises singles that they will get married this year – if you press 1 now. The "holy mekubal Rabbi Yechiel Abuchatzeira, shlita" guarantees it.

Custody Battle In Satmar Rebbe's In-Law's Family Goes To Court Over 7-Year-Old's Planned Trip To Israel

"The attorney for the child, who met with his client on one (1) occasion with the assistance of a Yiddish interpreter supplied by the mother, has taken the position, on [*8]behalf of his client, that his client would miss the mother if she were to travel to Israel, but that he was experiencing serious and significant confusion and concerns about a child of his community being in Israel…The mother has failed to meet her burden that a temporary order of custody for the purpose of travel would be in the child's best interest."

Thousands Of Haredim Expected At Jerusalem Welcome Ceremony For Satmar Rebbe

Thousands of haredim are reportedly expected to take part in a major ceremony Sunday night to welcome the Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitlebaum, who is arriving on a visit from New York. The ceremony will also double as a protest against the Zionist government and the looming military draft of haredim.

12 Haredi Nonprofits Disqualified From Land Bid After Allegedly Forming An Illegal “Cartel” To Block Non-Haredi Bids

Israel’s Lands Authority (ILA) disqualified tenders from 12 haredi nonprofits that were bidding for building rights in the developing city of Harish, finding that the charities formed an illegal “cartel” and worked together against a competing non-haredi group. A non-haredi buyers group had previously raised suspicions of price-fixing among the haredi groups in violation of Israel’s land tenders law.

Haredi Rabbis Panic Over High Court Ruling Cutting Off Yeshiva Funding

Panicked haredi yeshiva heads met in an unscheduled emergency session in response to a High Court of Justice ruling temporarily barring the government from paying yeshiva student’s stipends and other related welfare benefits.

Breakaway Ashkenazi Haredi Faction Pulls Out Of Elections, Calls On Haredim To Vote For United Torah Judaism Party

Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach’s breakaway Netach faction has pulled out of Israel’s national elections and Auerbach issued a public call for all haredim to vote for the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) Knesset list. Auerbach met yesterday with the Gerrer Rebbe, who controls the hasidic half of UTJ. His announcement in support of UTJ was published in today’s Hamodia, a haredi daily controlled by Ger, Netzach’s own daily HaPeles. Yated Ne'eman, the haredi daily controlled by Auerbach's rival Degel HaTorah, did not carry the announcement.

New Genetic Study Reportedly Proves Khazar Ancestry For Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews are a mix of genetic ancestries, far more of which than previously thought originating in tribes from the Caucasus – a region that sits in between Eastern Europe and Asia between the Black and the Caspian seas. Those Slav, Scythian, Hunnic-Bulgar, Iranian, Alan and Turkic tribes formed a confederation that created the Khazar empire – which at its height stretched from Kiev in the west to the Aral Sea in the southeast.

Rockland County Accountant Gets 3 Years In $6 Million Ponzi Scheme

Alan Ritter ran an 11-year, $6 million Ponzi scheme. Ritter also embezzled funds entrusted to him by several clients, using their money to cover the interest payments on the Ponzi scheme loans and to pay for his personal expenses.

Chief Rabbinate Allegedly Orders Rabbinic Judge To Boycott Leading Women’s Conference

The relationship between Israel’s state-sponsored rabbinical courts and Israeli women’s organizations reportedly reached a new low this week after a judge from the city of Netanya’s rabbinical court abruptly canceled his participation in the annual conference of Bar Ilan University’s Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women's Status. Rabbi Yair Ben-Menachem was allegedly ordered by Israel’s state-sponsored haredi-controled chief rabbinate, which runs the state’s rabbinical courts, to boycott the conference due to what it considers to be an assault on the rabbinical court system by women’s groups.

New Square Hasid Faces Trial For Illegally Subdiving Residential Property

More than a year after Joseph Klein, a New Square-based serially bad property manager, was charged with  illegally dividing a house into apartments, a jury trial was tentatively scheduled Wednesday for Feb. 28 unless he agrees to a plea deal that includes a $10,000 fine.

Activists Seek To Ban Haredi Rabbis’ Pronouncement On Upcoming Elections

Hiddush, an Israeli organization that promotes religious freedom and equality, has asked Israel’s Central Elections Committee to ban a kol koreh – a rabbinic pronouncement usually issued on giant wall posters and in ads in haredi newspapers (and secondarily on haredi news websites) – from top Ashkenazi haredi rabbis ordering haredim to vote in Tuesday’s national elections.