FailedMessiah.com

Hasidim, Lamm, Sue Sullivan County Over Alleged Voter Discrimination

Modern Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm and a group of Satmar hasidim are suing the Sullivan County Board of Elections over alleged discrimination – even though some of these same hasidim and Lamm were caught attempting to commit what many call voter fraud.

Pro-Prodfather, Anti-Mesirah Appeal Posted On Front Door Of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky's Yeshiva Torah Vodaas

The poster criticizes Rabbi Dovid Wax, himself arrested in a get (Jewish religious divorce) extortion scheme, for his scheduled testimony against the alleged Prodfather Rabbi Mendel Epstein, who allegedly kidnapped recalcitrant husbands and extorted and tortured them, sometimes with an electric cattle prod, until they granted Jewish religious divorces known as a get. Epstein charged women as much as $100,000 each for that service.

Did Mayo Clinic Researchers Find An Actual Fountain Of Youth?

"If translatable to humans -- which makes sense as we were using human cells in many of the tests - this type of therapy could keep the effects of aging at bay and significantly extend the healthspan of patients," says James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Mayo Clinic Kogod Center on Aging and senior author of the study.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's Daughter Reportedly Blocked From Running For Knesset, Threatened By Shas Party Rabbis And Apparatchiks

Adina Bar-Shalom, who is due to get the Israel Prize this year, wanted to run for Knesset, but the rabbis and apparatchiks of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party her late father founded blocked her from doing so by threatening to ban her and destroy her life's work.

Sefardi Haredi Kabbalist Says He Has Cancer And Is Too Sick To Return To Israel To Stand Trial, Court Doesn’t Believe Him

Is Sefardi haredi kabbalist to the stars Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto faking an illness to avoid having to return to Israel to face justice?

Elderly Man Missing In Melbourne

Harry Szmerling is 83 years old and was last seen at Montefiore Homes in Melbourne at around 1.30 pm yesterday.

Repeal Of Informed Consent Requirement For Dangerous Haredi Circumcision Practice Delayed

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has delayed plans to repeal the city’s informed consent requirement for metzitzah b’peh (MBP), the dangerous direct mouth-to-bleeding-penis sucking done by many haredi mohels after cutting off the baby’s foreskin – likely because it did not have the votes on the Board of Health to pass the repeal.

Video: Purim At The Lelover Rebbe's Tish

Purim at the Lelover Rebbe's synagogue.

New Proposed Law Targets Serial Violator Of Open Meeting Law, Satmar Hasidic Village Of Kiryas Joel

“Right in our back yard, the Village of Kiryas Joel has proven time and time again that they have no respect for the Open Meetings Law and for the Freedom of Information Law. They are flagrant violators of both of these laws."

Embarrassing Picture Of The Day

The Sefardi haredi Shas Party has a campaign billboard featuring the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef running in a very inconvenient and embarrassing location.

Joseph "Yossi" Ross Sentenced To 18 Months In Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty Fraud

Joseph "Yossi" Ross – a top Breslov hasidic lay leader – helped William E. Rapfogel and others steal at least $9 million from the NYC Jewish Federation's anti-poverty arm.

How Serious Is Chabad's Claim To Want To Help Its Victims Of Child Sex Abuse? Not Very, Emails Reveal

"Recognising the need for action, [Chabad's] Yeshivah Centre [in Melbourne, Australia] is establishing a discreet and confidential process through which Yeshivah Centre will provide victims and their families with our full support, professional counselling, and personal apologies. We are appointing an eminent and independent committee with expertise in providing support to victims of child sex abuse to assist us in managing this process. Of course, this will not affect victims' rights in any way. Further details will be provided once the process is finalised." But when asked 10 days ago to provide immediate help for two victims, Chabad was unable to provide any – or to even properly respond to the request.

Ancient Fossils Reveal Diversity In The Body Structure Of Human Ancestors

Recently discovered 1.9 million-year-old pelvis and thigh bones change perspective on human evolution, scientists say.

Israel’s HPV Vaccination Program Expands – Because Zionist Orthodox And Haredi Parents Refuse To Use It

Israel’s Ministry of Health will now offer Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines to eighth-grade boys as well as girls in the hopes this will prevent boys from transmitting the cancer-causing virus to girls when they get older. The money the program is using to expand comes from unused money allocated to vaccinate haredi and Zionist Orthodox girls.

As Her Husband Sits In Prison, Judy Rapfogel Makes More Money Than The Governor, Despite The Fact That Her Disgraced Boss Is No Longer Speaker Of The NYS Assembly

A month after disgraced Assemblyman Sheldon Silver resigned from his post as the New York State Assembly’s speaker, his top aide Judy Rapfogel remains employed – and makes more money than the governor.

Top Sefardi Haredi Rabbi Was Lenient On Conversions To Judaism – Until He Entered Politics

A handwritten letter by a senior Sefardi haredi rabbi, Meir Mazuz, the spiritual leader of former Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai’s new Yahad Party, shows that Mazuz adopted a lenient position on conversion to Judaism – something Mazuz now claims he never did.

Orthodox Man Convicted Of Praying While Driving

An Orthodox man stopped by Jerusalem Police for driving while wearing tefillin and a tallit (and, apparently, praying as well) was convicted by a Jerusalem court Sunday morning.

Brooklyn DA Reportedly Punishes Staffers Left Over From Hynes Regime

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has banished veteran staffers to office purgatory, where they remove staples or shred documents eight hours a day. One staffer — paid her usual rate of $23 an hour to do the menial work — was so fed up, she quit after five months. “I was reprimanded the first day because I tore a corner off [the paper] when I couldn’t get a staple out,” she said, adding, “I felt so disgraced. It was a torture chamber.”

Alcohol Abuse By Haredi Teens Reportedly Widespread, Rises To Dangerous Level

"…[T]here are hundreds of young men getting seriously drunk to the point where they need medical attention. There are Hatzolah calls, hospital visits, and thousands of incidents of vomiting. There are home break-ins in which the drunken to Lot-level-shikrus Yeshiva student needs a bed to stay. There are DUI and there are arrests. There was even a case of a life-threatening stabbing, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery – a stabbing from unzer to unzer. And thousands of mothers are worried sick…"

Video: Vehemently Anti-Zionist Haredim Burn Poster Of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who died in late 2013, was the most important Sefardi haredi rabbi of his generation. But he also served as Chief Rabbi of Israel in the 1970s, and Mea Shearim's vehemently anti-Zionist haredim have never forgiven him for that, as the following video shot last week on Shushan Purim shows.

Halakha Of The Day: What To Do If You're Bentching In The Home Of A Goy

"If one eats in a goy’s house or in a similar place, for example a hotel belonging to a goy, there is a discussion in Halacha about changing the Nusach of Bentching, such that instead of saying Horachamon Hu Yishlach Brocho Merubo BeBayis Hazeh, that Hashem should send blessing to this home, which according to many Poiskim is not said when eating in the home of a goy, it would be replaced by a different text…"

Why Have Rabbis Telsner And Kluwgant Been Allowed To Continue Supervising Kosher Food?

It is but days since the Royal Commission finished its inquiries into the Melbourne and Sydney Chabad child sex abuse scandal and already some progress has been made. Regrettably, in the area of kashrut a glaring oversight remains unchanged. That oversight is the continued employment and involvement of Rabbis Tzvi Hirsh Telsner and Meir Shlomo Kluwgant. Kluwgant was caught lying to Australia's Royal Commission investigation child sex abuse at Chabad institutions and Telsner's testimony there was so problematic, many people want him to be fired. So why are these two men still supervising kosher food production and animal slaughter?

Top Haredi Rabbi Hospitalized In Serious Condition

The 101-year-old top posek (decisor of halakha, Orthodox Jewish law) for hasidic communities worldwide is hospitalized in serious condition on respirator.

Anyone But Netanyahu: Tens Of Thousands Demonstrate Against The Prime Minister In Tel Aviv

Tens of thousands of Israelis came to Rabin Square in Tel Aviv tonight to demand a new government headed by anyone except current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel Police estimated the crowd at 40,000 while the centrist and left-of-center organizers claimed double that amount showed up, +972 reported – the rough  equivalent of drawing a crowd of 2 million to 4 million in the US.

Animal Welfare Petition Calling For Ban On All Un-Stunned Slaughter Rockets To Top Of All Government Petitions, But British Government Says It Won’t Listen Anyway, Won’t Ban Shechita Or Halal

A petition demanding a ban on all un-stunned animal slaughter now has more than 100,000 signatures, but the British government still insists it has “no intention” of banning shecita or halal slaughter anyway, the Daily Mail reported. Only religious slaughter – primarily Muslim halal slaughter and Jewish kosher slaughter known as “shechita” – are currently exempt from British law that mandates that animals be stunned or sedated just before slaughter to minimize their suffering.

Video: Ringling Brothers Barnum And Baily Circus' Jewish Human Female Cannonball

Gemma “The Jet” Kirby, 25, considers soaring several hundred feet through the air at 75 miles per hour an average day’s work. She’s the youngest performing human cannonball in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus – and she’s a Jew who travels with a menorah, made her own Passover seder on the road, and went on a Birthright trip.

Top Rabbi Confronted Accused Pedophile Todros Grynhaus, Court Hears

The only thing Rabbi Todros Grynhaus reportedly said once confronted was "what do you want me to do?" Grynhaus was later reported to police (apparently by one of his alleged victims), was arrested, released on bail and the fled to Israel using a false passport. He was spotted there and reported to British police, who asked for and eventually got Grynhaus extradited. And now he's on trial in Manchester facing six child sex abuse charges related to two young teen haredi girls.

After 18 Years Of Refusal, Man Finally Gives Wife A Get

18 years of refusing to grant a Jewish religious divorce known as a “get” to his wife culminating in a two-month stint in prison ended Wednesday when a recalcitrant husband finally did the right thing and granted the get. While the length of this case is unusual – a much more normal length for get refusal is closer to five years – the fact that the haredi-controlled state-employed beit din waited a very long time before imprisoning the recalcitrant husband is not.

Police Raid Home In Haredi Town, Confiscate Large Quantity Of Dangerous Illegal Fireworks

A 23-year-old man from the overwhelmingly haredi town of Elad in central Israel was detained by police for questioning Wednesday night after a large cache of dangerous illegal fireworks was found in his family home.

Reliance On Smartphones Linked To Lazy Thinking

"Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence. Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research."

Earliest Known Fossil Remains Of Human Ancestor Found In Ethiopia

The fossil, the left side of a lower jaw with five teeth, has been dated to 2.8 million years ago, which predates the previously known fossils of the Homo lineage by approximately 400,000 years.

Judaism, Chabad Style

"Your personal guide to Judaism" courtesy of Shaul Israel Goldberg, a Chabad hasid from Kfar Chabad, Israel.

Kiryas Joel PR Mailing

No, folks, this is not a Purim joke.

Bostoner Rebbe Equates LGBT Jews To Murderers

"There is a community which wants to murder other people. It's their nature and they must murder – so we should give them equality? Why give them equality, because they are murderers?" Horowitz said during a rare press conference held at his Jerusalem home.

Cleveland Haredi Rabbi Still In Jail Awaiting Trial On Child Sex Charges

Rabbi Frederick “Ephraim” Karp was indicted last week in Maryland on child sexual abuse and related charges and remains in jail pending trial.

Purim In Borough Park May Shock You – And Terrify Non-Jewish Neighbors

In Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York, Purim customs die hard. In fact, one old (and very limited) Purim custom, hanging Haman and his sons in effigy, has been revived there. But in this version, Haman and his sons are dressed like local non-Jews – not like Persians 2,500 years ago – sending a very chilling (if perhaps unintended) message to non-Jewish neighbors.

Chabad Rabbi Says He Doubted 12-Year-Old’s Abuse Story And Failed To Call Police Because She Was “Prone To Bend The Truth To Get Out Of Trouble”

Chabad Rabbi Baruch Lesches, once the #2 Chabad rabbi and the top posek (decisor of Orthodox Jewish law) in Sydney, Australia, has told the Australian Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse at Chabad institutions in a belated written statement that when a 12-year-old girl complained to him about being sexually abused by Daniel “Gug” Hayman – a wealthy Chabad hasid since convicted of a different case of child sex abuse – he doubted her story and did not call police because “she was prone to bend the truth to get out of trouble."

Purim – Chabad Syle

Halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) puts great emphasis on giving tzedaka (loosely translated as "charity"), and on no day is giving charity more important than Purim. Halakha commands all Jews to give charity to poor people on this day and mandates extra concern for their well-being. So how is this very great mitzvah (religious commandment) carried out in Chabad's main synagogue located at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn?

The Pain Of Ostracism, Shunning And Exclusion

Our need to matter and our need to belong are as fundamental as our need to eat and breathe. Therefore ostracism -- rejection, silence, exclusion -- is one of the most powerful punishments that one person can inflict on another. Brain scans have shown that this rejection is actually experienced as physical pain, and that this pain is experienced whether those that reject us are close friends or family or total strangers, and whether the act is overt exclusion or merely looking away. Most typically, ostracism causes us to act to be included again -- to belong again -- although not necessarily with the same group.

Lie To The Royal Commission, Read The Megillah For The Main Chabad Synagogue Only Days Later

Does Chabad take its rabbis' disgraceful behavior seriously? Is it really trying to learn from the Royal Commission? Many child sex abuse victims and advocates doubt it and Chabad continues to show nothing has really changed. Thursday morning in Melbourne, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant – who was exposed on the witness stand at the Royal Commission to be a liar who tried to enforce Chabad's coverup of child sex abuse – was given the honor of reading the Megillah for the entire congregation in Chabad's main synagogue in Melbourne's Yeshivah Centre, the epicenter for child rape and abuse in Chabad.

A Purim Miracle You Likely Have Never Heard About And That Jews Don't Celebrate

Jewish history has several Purims. The most famous – and, perhaps, the least true – is the Purim we will celebrate tonight and tomorrow. And then there is the Purim of Frankfort-on-Main, celebrating the deliverance (by the mayor, his troops and the emperor, no less) from mob violence and the ransacking of the ghetto. And there are others. One of these is rarely mentioned. It took place not long before the time of the Hanukkah story and involves an amazing miracle. Yet rabbis do not talk about it and we do not commemorate it. Why?

Is Whey Milk? And If It Isn't, Does That Make Whey Protein Drinks Pareve?

There are lots of good reasons people cite to support not keeping kosher, from scandals at kosher slaughterhouses across the globe to the Mafia-like tactics of some kosher food distributors. But the best reason not to keep kosher is that many of the kosher 'laws' we follow today are really nothing more than humrot (stringencies) and customs, not actual halakhot – as this post shows.

Rabbinic Supporters Of Dangerous Circumcision Practice Issue Anti-Israel Statement

The statement, released at the demonstration against Netanyahu staged by Satmar near Israel's consulate in Manhattan yesterday, contains what is essentially a condensed restatement of Satmar's anti-Zionist theology.

Satmar Hasidic Village Holds Public Hearing In Middle Of Dangerous Snowstorm, Shutting Out Many Opponents

County Executive Steve Neuhaus issued a statement before the hearing calling on Kiryas Joel to reschedule it for the safety of the public. Kiryas Joel’s leaders ignored him.

New Jewish Community Letter On Australian Child Sex Abuse Scandal

In light of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and the historical cases of abuse that have come to light at various institutions, Mount Scopus Memorial College is taking its role in the community very seriously. To this end, we are writing to past students and to parents of current students to encourage anyone with information regarding any instances of abuse that may have occurred within the College (and its external activities) to report to Victoria Police (and, if they so choose, to the College leadership). This applies both to those who believe that they were victims of abuse, and to those who may have knowledge of any abuse of others.…

Haredi Leaders Admit Herpes Testing Doesn't Work, Want To Continue Dangerous Circumcision Practice Anyway

“How can you be certain that at any given time the mohel doesn’t have the virus? Because he may have been tested a year ago and he may have contracted the virus since then. There’s no foolproof way of doing something like that…"

Genetic Research Challenges Popular Theory On Origin Of Languages

"Their genetic profiles show remarkable similarity despite vast geographic distances and differences in material culture. Whether from Hungary, Germany or Spain, the first farmers are genetically almost identical and must have come from the same origin."

Liberal Zionist Orthodox Rabbis Launch New Halakhic Prenup

A new halakhic prenuptial agreement, drafted over a period of years by the liberal Zionist Orthodox Tzohar rabbinical association in conjunction with the Israel Bar Association, penalizes spouses of either gender who refuse to grant or accept a Jewish religious divorce known as a get.

Netanyahu's Speech; Obama's Response

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a strong speech in the well of the US Congress today. But US President Barack Obama's response was also strong, and while the speech will likely help Netanyahu's short term reelection campaign, in the long term, Netanyahu has likely done serious damage to the US-Israel friendship and gained nothing for causing that damage other than his own personal benefit.

Modern Orthodox Advocacy Group Seeks To Make Ancient Ceremony Less Uncomfortable For The Women Forced To Participate In It

Responding to what it says are numerous complaints it has received from women compelled to go through it, ITIM – a Modern Orthodox-run nonprofit that helps people navigate through Israel’s byzantine state-mandated haredi-controlled Jewish religious court system and related state bureaucracy – has asked Israel’s haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate to regulate the use of halitza, an obscure “spitting” rite which if not done can prohibit a women who has lost her husband from remarrying.