FailedMessiah.com

Williamsburg Rabbis Ban Chol HaMoed Plays Due To 'Immodesty' And Women

Rabbis of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based Hisachdus rabbinic organization, which is dominated by Satmar, have banned Chol HaMoed plays due the 'immodesty' that would otherwise be caused when women go out in public to see them.

Three Chabad Hasidim Arrested For Drug Possession, Related Charges, In Crown Heights

While the first two hasidim were being detained, a 28-year-old Chabad man tried to sneak a duffel bag out of the van without police noticing. But they saw and him and confronted him. The man insisted that the bag was his. Police searched the bag and found amphetamines and marijuana and arrested the man, as well. He is reportedly the same man who was arrested in the basement of Chabad’s Aliya Center for troubled and “off the derech” youth several months ago on charges of drug and weapons possession.

Haredi Man, Suspected Of Serial Sexual Assaults Against Little Haredi Girls, Indicted

Braverman allegedly has a long history of sexually abusing children, but his haredi victims and their families refused to cooperate with police because of the halakhic (Orthodox-haredi Jewish law) prohibition against mesirah (informing on another Jew) and because local haredi rabbis ordered them not to, claiming that Braverman was in therapy and being medicated to prevent recurrence.

Agudath Israel Of America Spokesman: Blame Hotplate Manufacturer For Deadly Fire, Not Haredim!

"…The insinuation that observant Jews engage in dangerous Sabbath practices and are indifferent to the hazards of fire and electricity is a pernicious one. To be sure, smoke detectors – which fire officials suspect were absent on the main floor of the Brooklyn house – are life-savers. But they are not a Sabbath issue. All homes should have detectors on each floor, and, indeed had they been installed on the main floor of this house, where the fire broke out in the kitchen, that might well have prevented the fire from spreading before the occupants became aware of it.…"

After Long Fight, Disputed Secular School Building Given To Haredim

The school had been divided earlier in the school year, with roughly half remaining a secular school and half becoming a haredi girls school. But the manner in which that division took place – including city workers erecting makeshift walls without warning so the haredi students would not be able to see the secular students and teachers or interact with them in any way – sparked protests from secular parents and a court case. Even the playground was divided by an 8-foot wall so haredi children and teachers would not be 'corrupted' by the seculars.

Babies' Posture May Affect Memory And Learning

Researchers examined the role bodily position played in the brain's ability to "map" names to objects. They found that consistency of the body's posture and spatial relationship to an object as an object's name was shown and spoken aloud were critical to successfully connecting the name to the object.

Hamodia: Ignore The Physical Causes Of The Fire And Repent

"When learning of a tragedy of any sort, there is a natural inclination to make inquiries as to precisely what occurred and how it happened. Often, these questions are driven by a fear of this happening to us, and the subconscious desire to use this detailed information to distance our own circumstances from those of the victims and comfort ourselves with the thought that this couldn’t happen to us. But as Torah Jews, we must seek to quell this inclination…"

Free Fire Safety Training And Smoke Alarm Giveaway Tomorrow In Brooklyn

Local politicians, businesses and nonprofits are sponsoring a free fire safety training seminar and smoke alarm giveaway tomorrow in Brooklyn. Here are the details…

Rabbi Mendel Epstein Took $60,000 To Extort Aharon Friedman, Rabbi-Attorney Testifies

Tamar Epstein’s attorney testified today that Rabbi Mendel Epstein (who is not related to her) told Tamar Epstein’s family to pay Rabbi Mendel Epstein's two synagogues $60,000 to get her an Orthodox Jewish religious divorce known as a get.

FDNY's Fire Safety Recommendations For Jewish Observances

The Fire Department of New York's information handout for Orthodox and haredi Jews on fire safety and candle safety. Note how many of the recommendations do not jibe with haredi or even Orthodox observance and practice.

Video: NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind Warns About Hotplates, Urgent Need For Working Smoke Alarms

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind emotionally argues that Shabbat hotplate use has to be reevaluated and that every home has to have working smoke alarms immediately – two points no haredi rabbinic group has yet made.

Video: Father Speaking At Burial Of His 7 Children

The father of the seven Sassoon children killed in a horrific house fire in Brooklyn early Saturday morning speaks at their burial in Jerusalem earlier today.

Did A Volcanic Cataclysm 40,000 Years Ago Trigger The Final Demise Of The Neanderthals?

Researchers note that the CI volcanic eruption approximately coincided with the final decline of Neanderthals as well as with dramatic territorial and cultural advances among anatomically modern humans.

Chabad Tries To Take Jerusalem Properties Of Late Millionaire Guma Aguiar

The Chabad Movement in Israel has filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court demanding the court recognize its ownership of two properties one owned by the late multimillionaire Guma Aguiar.

A Grotesque Smear: Rockland County Haredi PR Video Plays Holocaust Card, Equates The Situation Of Haredim In Rockland To Paris Terror Attacks

Satmar hasidic PR hack Yossi Gestetner's Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) has released a disgusting video that smears opponents of the haredi community as anti-Semites and potential terrorists without ever once mentioning the very real misbehavior of many haredim. It pulls from a tiny minority of opponents who are (or can be construed as) anti-Semitic and smears the vast majority of opponents with that very broad brush. And the video is narrated by the hasidic Majority Leader of the Rockland County Legislature Aaron Wieder.

Smoke Alarm And Fire Safety Information

Most of what you need to know about smoke alarms and basic fire safety. Please take a minute or two to read this and then pass the information on to others. And make sure to check your smoke alarms – or install some now if you don't have any or if you don't have them in correct locations.

Will Israel Survive The Premiership Of Benjamin Netanyahu?

“There is a rightist public that is deeply connected to Likud that Netanyahu reached in the final days. He used the most fraudulent and racist utterances that exist. And it worked.…something should be learned from the principal motif that caused this process. He more or less defined half the nation as traitors. That’s the rhetoric."

Funeral At 3 PM Today For 7 Haredi Siblings Killed In Horrific House Fire

The funeral for the seven Sassoon children killed in the horrific house fire in Brooklyn early Saturday will be held at 3 pm today.

Support State Fiscal Monitor For Scandal-Plagued Haredi-Controlled School District, County Executive Says

…Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year appointed Hank Greenberg, a former federal prosecutor, to assess the East Ramapo school board's conduct and fiscal management. He found that board members had shown favoritism to the Orthodox Jewish students who attend private schools in the district and recommended legislative action to give an appointee veto power over the board's "bad decisions." His findings didn't reveal school board members acting "out of base or venal motives," but rather so influenced by the community from which they've come that it has "blinded them to the needs of the entire community.…"

Free Smoke Alarms, Batteries In Brooklyn Today

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) will be giving out smoke alarms, batteries and fire safety education materials at four locations in Flatbush, Brooklyn today from 11:00AM – 3:00PM at the following locations:

Video: Jeffrey Goldberg, Ari Shavit, And Other Experts Talk About The Israeli Election And Israel's Deteriorating Relationships With The US And The West

Charlie Rose hosted this discussion Wednesday night between various Israeli and American journalists and academics and a Palestinian think tank scholar.

IDF Bars Female Officer From Mess Hall Where New ‘Haredi’ Recruits – Most of Whom Were Not Actually Haredi Or Even Orthodox – Were Eating

The IDF closed a mess hall to women and blocked a female officer who tried to enter, all because new recruits the IDF has designated as haredi were inside eating.

Horrific: Seven Haredi Children Killed In Brooklyn Home Fire Sparked By Shabbat Hot Plate; Lack Of Smoke Alarms Likely Contributed To Deaths

Seven haredi siblings were killed Friday night when an untended Shabbat hotplate sparked a fire that destroyed their house – a house that had no smoke alarms on the first and second floors, where the sleeping children were trapped by flames and smoke.

Ladies, Measure Your Skirt Length!

Ladies, it's time to measure your skirt length to make sure it is long enough and covers enough of your flesh. Here's a how-to instruction guide slash measurement card from a Lakewood, New Jersey haredi modesty organization to help you do it.

On Eve Of Election, Netanyahu Promised Chabad He Will Never Cede Land To Arabs, Palestinians

On the eve of this week’s Knesset elections and desperate for a win as opinion polls showed his Likud Party floundering – largely because of his own unpopularity – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a prominent Israeli haredi man to the grave of the late Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York to pray for his victory and promise that he will remain faithful to the Land of Israel.

Video: Solomon Dwek Addresses The Court

Solomon Dwek was released from federal prison this week, as FailedMessiah.com reported early today. Here's video of his court appearance. Note how much thinner Dwek is now than he was in his 2009 mug shot (at right).

Leaked EU Report Harshly Condemns Israel, Urges Sanctions And Says Arab-Jewish Tensions In Jerusalem At Near-All-Time High

A leaked EU report on the status of Jerusalem warns that the city has reached a dangerous level of “polarisation and violence” more severe than anything since the end of the second Intifada in 2005. It places much of the blame for that tension on Israel, and urges the EU to impose measures akin to sanctions on Israel.

Prehistoric Stone Tools Found In Israel Bear 500,000-Year-Old Animal Residue

Sound faintly biblically familiar? Some 2.5 million years ago, early humans survived on a paltry diet of plants. As the human brain expanded, however, it required more substantial nourishment — namely fat and meat — to sustain it. This drove prehistoric man, who lacked the requisite claws and sharp teeth of carnivores, to develop the skills and tools necessary to hunt animals and butcher fat and meat from large carcasses. Some of those 500,000-year-old tools have been found and have now been analyzed by researchers at Tel Aviv University.

Solomon Dwek Gets Out Of Prison Early

Less than 30 months after being sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the largest corruption sting in New Jersey history, cooperating witness Solomon Dwek was released from federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland. He was transferred to a residential re-entry center in Baltimore where his family now live, and was immediately transferred from there into home confinement.

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto Misses Court Date, Prosecutors Want To Seize Bond And May Void Plea Deal

Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office may void the plea bargain it signed with Sefardi haredi kabbalist-to-the-stars Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto (pictured at right) after Pinto failed to appear for court hearings, prosecutors reportedly told the court yesterday.

Charges To Be Dropped Against One Hasidic Shomrim Member Indicted For Gang Assault

Charges one of the five indicted hasidic Shomrim street patrol members who allegedly savagely beat a gay black man walking home from a party in the early hours of December 1, 2013 reportedly will be dropped.

Alleged Haredi Pedophile May Walk Free Because Rabbis Ordered Victims’ Families Not To Talk To Police

The parents and their victimized children are refusing to cooperate because haredi rabbis signed an agreement with the suspect that stipulates that he will undergo medical and psychological treatment. But police say the suspect stopped treatment on his own, violating that agreement – an agreement which in is illegal. And the haredi man allegedly sexually assaulted another girl, this one about 5-years-old, in a stairway last week – which took place after the agreement with the haredi rabbis was allegedly signed and then violated.

Video: Aron Tzvi "Aaron" Rabiner Talks About His Bloomingburg Election Win

Aron Tzvi "Aaron" Rabiner talks about his (as yet unofficial) election victory Wednesday. Rabiner is the first hasidic person to hold a seat on the tiny village of Bloomingburg, New York's village board. Hasidim and Modern Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm have used what many say is deception (and, some allege, bribery and other illegal tactics) to gain control of the 420-person village in the Catskill Mountains and convert it to a hasidic shtetl.

Conservative Rabbis Condemn Prime Minister Netanyahu Over Divisive Racist Comments

"…On Election Day, March 17, 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel was endangered by Israeli Arabs exercising their right to vote. ‘The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are going en masse to the polls,’ said Prime Minister Netanyahu. This statement, which indefensibly singled out the Arab citizens of Israel, is unacceptable and undermines the principles upon which the State of Israel was founded.…"

New York City Jewish Federation's Primary Social Services Agency Declares Bankruptcy After Flagrant Mismanagement

The Federation Employment and Guidance Service's (FEGS)  salaries for its top executives increased even as program revenue declined. It's financial management system was 'outdated," and its administrative cost structure was "overly prohibitive" was "significantly more than target industry standards."

Human Parasites Found In Medieval Era Jerusalem Latrine Reveal Links – Including The Spread Of Disease –Between The Middle East And Europe, Researchers Find

A new analysis of a medieval cesspit in the Christian quarter of the old city of Jerusalem has revealed the presence of a number of ancient parasite eggs, providing a window into the nature and spread of infectious diseases in the Middle East during the 15th century.

Haredi Yeshiva Honors Alleged Sex Offender

Yosef Meystel was accused of child molestation during the time he was the administrator of the Rabbi Naftali Riff Yeshiva in South Bend, Indiana, and misconduct when he was the administrator of a nursing home owned by Rabbi Morris Esformes, whose homes have been cited for horrific abuses that led to the deaths of residents. Even so, yet another haredi institution, this time Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi / Bais Yaakov, is honoring him.

Video: Hasidic Candidate For Bloomingburg Village Board Has Reportedly Won By A Two Vote Margin

Aron Tzvi "Aaron" Rabiner is the hasidic candidate in today's election for the village board of Bloomingburg, New York, the tiny 420-person village in the Catskills that had the misfortune to have a stealth front man for Modern Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm sell it on a low-density golf course vacation home complex only to find later that the new development was really a 396-unit high-density Satmar hasidic village called Kiryas Yated Lev. Satmar has moved to take over the tiny village, and many locals – a number of them non-Orthodox Jews – are fighting to prevent that from happening. This may be the last election which will see a non-hasidic majority elected.

Top Belgian Orthodox Diamond Dealer Jailed, Allegedly Trafficked In Cocaine And Cooperated With Notorious South American Terror Group

Serge Muller, a top Orthodox diamond dealer based in Antwerp, Belgium, is in a Montenegro jail awaiting extradition to Belgium where Muller will face charges of international trade in cocaine, laundering of drug money and membership of a criminal organization.

Somali Anti-Islam Activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Says She Wants To Convert To Judaism

“I hope and pray I die in bed of old age at 100. But if they get me before then, please, I beg of you, do not give in."

How Netanyahu Won

"…[T]he polls published last week, before the polling blackout began, which showed Likud trailing by an average of four seats, were pretty accurate. They were spot on when it came to the size of the Zionist Union and of the main blocs. Likud’s perceived weakness was probably also a clear snapshot of Netanyahu’s lack of popularity. He won this election by convincing over 200,000 voters who were planning to vote for [the right-wing Zionist Orthodox] Habayit Hayehudi, [the Sefardi haredi] Shas, [the Likud breakaway] Kulanu and [the Shas hard right-wing breakaway] Yahad [parties] to change their minds in the last six days of the campaign.…"

Video: Newly Released Photo Of Chofetz Chaim Shows Iconic Photo, Painting Used For Decades Is Not Actually Him, Haredi Historian Says

Hasidic historian and Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch releases real photo (seen at right and below) of Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, better known as the Chofetz Chaim, which Deutsch says proves the iconic photo and painting of the late haredi leader, who died in the early 1930s, is not really him.

If Haredi Rabbis Refuse To Report Child Sex Abuse, Why Should We Believe They Will Report Infected Mohels?

"Mayor de Blasio…is either hopelessly naive or so cynical that he’s knowingly selling children’s lives in exchange for a bloc vote. Either way, the public needs to send him a clear message that we value the safety of New York’s children over his desire to win the next election."

Likud Wins Surprise Decisive Victory After Netanyahu Demagogues On Election Day

After warning Jewish Israelis on election day that Arabs were coming out to vote in droves and they better rush to the polls to save Israel from the Arab-Israeli onslaught – a level of overt racism never before exhibited by an Israeli leader – right-wing votes coalesced around Benjamin Netanyahu, giving the heavily disliked prime minister's party 30 seats and likely giving Netanyahu the premiership once again.

Shas-Linked Haredi Radio Station Violates Law, Direct Central Elections Committee Order, And Illegally Campaigns On Election Day

The Central Election Committee issued an emergency order to the Sefardi haredi Shas Party-linked Kol Chai Radio to stop airing Shas campaign ads and propaganda on election day in violation of the law. The Shas-controlled radio station responded by ignoring the order and running the illegal campaign ads and material anyway.

Names Of Israeli Haredi Rabbis Who Encouraged Voting In Today's Election "Should Be Blotted Out," Williamsburg Hasidic Rebbe Says

"The name of the wicked should rot. All these instigators and subverters who order [Jews] to go to vote [in today's national election in Israel] [–] [non-hasidic supreme haredi rabbinic leader] Aharon Leib Steinman, Yisrultcha Hager [the Vizhniter Rebbe], Yenkel Alter [the Gerrer Rebbe], Berl Rokach [the Belzer Rebbe] [–] yimach shmom vezichrom [their names and memory should be blotted out.]"

Formerly Orthodox New York City Police Department Auxiliary Officer Charged With Hacking Into NYPD Computer And FBI Database

Earlier today, a criminal complaint was unsealed charging Yehuda Katz, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) Auxiliary Deputy Inspector assigned to the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, with executing a scheme to hack into a restricted NYPD computer and other sensitive law enforcement databases in order to defraud accident victims.

So Far, There Are 51 Open Police Investigations Into Alleged Voter Fraud In Israel’s National Election Held Today

Twenty-three suspects are reportedly still being pursued by police, while one man – likely an activist of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party – has already been arrested. Several polling places were also closed due to voting irregularities and alleged voter impersonation.

Video: Should The Jews Leave Europe?

Jeffrey Goldberg and Leon Wieseltier talk about a question many European Jews are taking seriously in the wake of recent terror attacks and a large spike in anti-Semitism: Is it time for all Jews to flee Europe?

Alleged Voter Fraud In Haredi, Arab-Israeli Polling Stations, Violence And A Haredi 'Get Out Of Hell Free' Card Predictably Mar Israel's National Election

At least two political parties are alleging that in many haredi polling stations, their party’s voter slip/ballots are missing so voters cannot vote for their party and that the key of party symbols is missing their party. Both are violations of election law and constitute voter fraud.