FailedMessiah.com

State Of Israel Says It Is “Not A Priority” To Fund Suicide Prevention And Mental Health Services For New Immigrants, Even Though One-Third Of Israeli Suicides Are New Immigrants

More than one-third suicides in Israel over the past decade were new immigrants, but the State of Israel is steadfastly refusing to fund services for new immigrants that would reduce that suicide rate because the state says it is “not a priority."

Jewish Healthcare Charity Settles Medicaid Fraud Suit For $47 Million

A Jewish healthcare charity founded by the Bertha Alperstein, the wife of Talmud scholar and Rabbi Abraham Alperstein, almost a century ago in his honor has agreed to repay $47 million to the State of New York and the US government to settle charges of Medicaid fraud. CenterLight Healthcare, previously the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services, was founded as Beth Abraham in 1920 to serve as a nursing home for the Jewish poor. It reportedly admitted this week to having over 1,200 ineligible members in its Medicaid-sponsored long term care plan.

Shocking: Bronx Assisted Living Facility Serving Non-Jews Gave Millions Of Dollars To Haredi Yeshivas And Charities In Israel

A Bronx nursing home and assisted living facility serves an almost exclusively non-Jewish population. Even so, the nonprofit has sent more than $20 million dollars to hasidic and Orthodox charities, mostly yeshivas and other institutions owned by the Belz, Skvere and Sanz hasidic dynasties, many located in Israel. Some money even went to Aish HaTorah to convert non-Orthodox Jews to Orthodoxy. Sitting on the board of this Bronx nonprofit are some of the most powerful men in the haredi community, men who sit on the board of Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union. One of them, Abraham Biderman, is the new head of the scandal-plagued Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the Jewish community's NYC anti-poverty arm that was looted of millions of dollars by its former CEO William E. Rapfogel, who like Biderman is an Orthodox Jew.

Video: A History Of Autism

The rate of diagnosed cases of autism has more than doubled since 2000 and researchers have spent millions looking for causes and cures. Author Steve Silberman explores the history behind this dramatic increase, and shows autism has always been much more common than we realized, in part because it was misdiagnosed as other disorders and mental illnesses. And it doesn't come from wi-fi or power lines or vaccines.

Attention Cheders And Day Schools: New Study Indicates Students’ Cognitive Functioning Improves When Using Standing Desks

Do students think best when on their feet? A new study by the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health indicates they do.

Haredi Health Minister Releases Plan To Legalize Medical Marijuana

Israel’s haredi Minister of Health Rabbi Yaakov Litzman published a plan today to legalize the widespread production and sale of medical marijuana.

Kosher Industry PR Flack Argues Medical Marijuana – And Water – Both Need Kosher Supervision

"…I have long learned that even the most benign products like water do need certification because of the complexities of modern mass production. Second, in a generation that is seeking to ingest everything kosher, why not offer the kosher certification, especially if the manufacturer seeks and desires the kosher certification as a marketing tool? …I wonder whether those whose knee-jerk reaction is to mock the kosher certification of a product that on the surface may not require kosher certification are in fact doing a disservice to kosher as a whole.…"

High Court Orders Baby's Immediate “Limited” Autopsy Despite Haredi Riots

Moshe Mizrahi, the 4-month-old grandson of Beit Shemesh’s haredi mayor Rabbi Moshe Abutbol, was buried Thursday night – but not before his body was autopsied against the wishes of his family and the haredi community.

UPDATED: Haredim Riot And Stone Police Over Baby's Autopsy

Haredim rioted, stoned police, and set garbage dumpsters on fire in Jerusalem overnight to protest a state-ordered autopsy of a four-month-old baby likely killed by an abusive caregiver.

Self-Criticism Can Be Lethal, Israeli Researcher Finds

"Self-criticism is a personality trait characterized as the tendency to set unrealistically high standards for one's self and an expression of hostility and derogation when these high standards are, inevitably, not met. This type of behavior leaves people depressed, anxious, suffering from other symptoms, and potentially suicidal."

Let Wounded Terrorists Die, Top Haredi Rabbi Rules

The #2 non-hasidic Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader in Israel (and arguably worldwide, as well) Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky told the heads of Israel’s haredi United Hatzolah volunteer ambulance and paramedic organization today that they their organizations should refuse to treat wounded Palestinian terrorists until all non-terrorists have been treated, even if the terrorist is the most seriously injured of all the wounded. And, Kanievsky continued, if that terrorist is in danger of dying from his wounds, United Hatzolah should refuse to treat him and allow him to die rather than save his life.

Kosher Pot To Be Sold In NY

It’s official. There’s now kosher-certified pot and you’ll be able to buy it in New York next month – provided you have a doctor’s prescription and don't care that the kosher supervision is completely unnecessary.

A Lucrative Business

Braemoor Health Center is a modest nursing home in Brockton, licensed to care for 120 residents. But Larry Lipschutz, who owns the property, was able to wring $1.8 million in pay out of it last year, according to state records. His son, Avi “Zisha” Lipschutz, who holds the state license to run the nursing home, extracted nearly $900,000 from Braemoor as payments to a realty company and four management firms he owns. As the owners were taking all this money out of Braemoor, Braemoor racked up 3-1/2 times as many health and safety problems as the state average, federal documents show.

Study: Childhood Concussions Impair Brain Function

A new study has found that pre-adolescent children who have had concussions have impaired brain function two years following the injury.

Study: PTSD Resources For US Sex Abuse Victims Lacking

A new review study shows what almost every victim of child sex abuse and rape already knows: information and resources regarding effective therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are not easily available.

New Study Shows How To Make Bicycling Safer For Kids With ADHD

Kids with ADHD have more bicycle accidents at busy intersections because they're impulsive and struggle to pay attention. Here’s what you can do to help them bike safer.

New Jersey Judge Orders Quack Orthodox Gay-To-Straight Therapy Organization To Close Forever

JONAH, the fraudulent Orthodox gay-to-straight conversion therapy program that has been the darling of many Orthodox and haredi rabbis, has been ordered by a New Jersey court to permanently close.

Elderly Mohel Who Cut Off Baby's Penis Moves To Have Ban Against Him Lifted

Haredi Rabbi Samuel Sigmund Suchard is lobbying top haredi rabbis in Israel to have them support lifting the ban placed on him by South Africa's top haredi rabbis 16 months after Suchard, who is in his 80s, cut off a large part of a baby's penis during a circumcision he was performing.

Dozens Of Haredi Children Seriously Burned By Shabbat Hot Water Urns

"The burns are deep and inevitably require skin grafts. That means at least five days in hospital and a surgical procedure where we take skin from elsewhere for the graft. And the smaller the child, the more it tends to fall over their head and body. So, with younger children, it results in extensive, permanent scarring, often on visible places, which will affect them for the rest of their lives. [The burns can also negatively impact the children’s] confidence, their ability to get undressed in front of fellow students at school - and for young girls, burns on the chest can affect breast development.”

Haredi Mentally Ill Get Extra Levels Of Privacy Non-Haredim Do Not Receive

“There is great pressure on the HMOs by the Health Ministry to make mental health services accessible to the haredi population. They have more power than the HMOs, given the haredi lobby, and they use it. The agreement with Bayit Cham is different from the one with the community mental health clinics, and that’s a result of those same pressures.”

Johannesburg Beit Din And Chief Rabbi Ban Mohel Who Amputated Large Part Of Baby’s Penis

A mohel who severed a large part of a baby’s penis leaving him permanently disfigured has been banned for life from ever circumcising again.

Important New Study Shows Increase In Infant Deaths Attributed To Crib Bumpers

A new study shows that the number of infant deaths and injuries attributed to crib bumpers (like those shown in the photo to the right) has spiked significantly in recent years. The findings stem from an analysis by a professor emeritus at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and two former researchers with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The study authors recommend that sale of the items be banned.

Another Word On Suicide, Tabloid Journalism, And Unlicensed Hasidic "Therapists"

Did an hasidic unlicensed mental health therapist – who, I'm told, specialized in telling the women she "treated" that the solution to their mental health issues was to become more religious and more hasidic – play a role in the suicide deaths of two sisters from the Belz hasidic community of Brooklyn?

A Brief Word On Suicide, Part 2

A very tragic part of life is that some people commit suicide. They often do so even when they have loving families and a good support system.

Following A Healthy, Doctor Recommended Diet But Still Can't Lose Weight? Israeli Researchers Discover Why

Ever wonder why you and friend can eat an almost identical diet, choose the same foods and follow the same recipes, but she loses weight or maintains a healthy weight while you lard on the pounds? Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science appear to have discovered why.

Whooping Cough Outbreak In Haredi Town Of Lakewood, NJ

The haredi enclave of Lakewood, New Jersey had three reported cases of pertussis (whooping cough) last week alone.

Scientists Say Alzheimer's Is Probably A Collection Of Diseases That Should Be Classified And Treated Separately

Deciphering the mechanism that underlies the development of Alzheimer's disease in certain families but not in others, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Faculty of Medicine have proposed that the malady is actually a collection of diseases that probably should be treated with a variety of different approaches.

Top Haredi Leader Says Non-Jewish Physicians Are Not Truly Merciful, Only Jewish Physicians Are

Are non-Jewish doctors truly merciful? In other words, does the good they do come from the Divine attribute of mercy or is it drawn from or motivated by something else? The top haredi rabbi in the world answers that 'pressing' question in a way that at this point likely won't surprise you.

Haredi Women’s Political Party To Post Until-Now-Forbidden Breast Cancer Awareness Ads In Haredi Areas Across Israel

"They simply don't talk about the disease because it's allegedly immodest. It's incomprehensible that the [haredi rabbis'] modesty consideration exceeds the [haredi rabbis'] consideration for saving lives” – but it does.

Magnesium During Labor May Reduce Risk of Fever in Mothers and Complications in Babies

Women who received magnesium sulfate during labor were less likely to develop maternal fever, a condition that can lead to a variety of complications in newborns including difficulty breathing, seizures, cerebral palsy and a condition known as “floppy baby syndrome,” characterized by inadequate muscle tone.

For The First Time, All Pediatricians In The US Are Asked To Screen Children For Hunger, Food Insecurity

For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending that pediatricians screen all children for food insecurity. Children who live in households that are food insecure, even at the lowest levels, get sick more often, recover more slowly from illness, have poorer overall health and are hospitalized more frequently. Early childhood malnutrition also is tied to conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life.

Some Patients In A Vegetative State Are Aware Of Their Surroundings, Doctors Find

New insight into a vital cerebral pathway has explained how some patients in a vegetative state (not brain dead or brainstem dead patients)  are aware of their surroundings despite appearing to be unconscious and being behaviorally unresponsive.

Whooping Cough Outbreak In Haredi Brooklyn

"…An outbreak of pertussis is ongoing among the Orthodox Jewish communities in Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Borough Park, Brooklyn. From October 2014 through October 2015, 109 cases of pertussis have been reported to the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), with an increase in cases over the past four months. The majority of cases (90%) are children aged  less than 19 years (median age 4 years), of whom 52% were unvaccinated or not up to date with pertussis-containing vaccine. Infants aged less than 1 year account for 34%…of cases. Of the 37 mothers of infants with pertussis, only 3 (8%) received the recommended tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination during their most recent pregnancy.  Five infants were hospitalized, including one who had pneumonia.…"

Moroccan Rabbis Banned Dangerous Haredi Circumcision Practice In 1952

In 1952, the leading Orthodox and haredi rabbis of Morocco – including known kabbalists – unanimously banned metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the direct mouth-to-bleeding-penis suction done by some mohels after cutting off the baby's foreskin, because protecting babies' lives was more important than doing MBP – a lesson today's haredi rabbis (and NYC's corrupt mayor) have not yet learned.

Simple Dietary Supplement Might Fix Ailing Body Clocks, Israeli Researcher Find

A simple inexpensive dietary supplement appears to be able to repair damage to the body's circadian rhythms. That would not only improve sleep, it might also fight off Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, body inflammation, and even some forms of cancer.

Agudath Israel's Hurricane Alert Warns Of High Winds And Structural Damage, But Does Not Say To Take Down Sukkahs

But don't blame Agudah alone. NYC is also warning o fhigh winds and danger of flying sukkahs. But it doesn't ask Jews to take their sukkahs down, despite the fact that it nearly impossible to adequately secure most sukkahs against 40 or 50 mph winds.

OU-RCA Joint Statement On Impending Storm And Shabbat-Yom Tov Observance

The Orthodox Union (OU) and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) have issued a joint statement on storm preparedness, Shabbat and holiday observance, and your sukkah as a large storm with high winds approaches the greater New York City area.

NJ Sukkah Gets Building Code Violation

Building a sukkah without a permit. Sukkah must be removed by 10-9-2015, well after Sukkot is over – just like the old joke.

NYC Sukkah Hurricane Alert

NYC may be hit with very strong winds and a possible hurricane on Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and this poses extreme danger to people living near things like sukkahs, which can easily become missiles that slam through windows and windshields, and strike pedestrians. Here's NYC's very understated warning.

Massive Jewish Social Services Agency’s Execs Got Fat Payouts As Bankruptcy Loomed

One month before one of the largest Jewish charities in the country admitted to donors that it had lost $20 million, the agency’s executive vice president got a $92,000 bonus. Not long after, Gail Magaliff, the group’s former CEO, got nearly $43,000 for unused vacation time.

Negative Spiritual Beliefs Associated with More Pain and Worse Physical, Mental Health

“In general, the more religious or spiritual you are, the healthier you are, which makes sense [because of reduced stress levels and greater sense of community and purpose]. But for some individuals, even if they have even the smallest degree of negative spirituality – basically, when individuals believe they’re ill because they’ve done something wrong and God is punishing them – their health is worse.”

NYC Hid Haredi Baby’s Metzitzah B'Peh Herpes Infection From Public In Run-Up To Regulation Change

The city was notified of the infection in April but hushed it up until after it, at the urging of Mayor Bill de Blasio and health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, voted to end its weak informed consent requirement for MBP and move to an even less restrictive protocol based almost entirely on voluntary cooperation from haredim – cooperation that does not appear to be forthcoming.

Genetic Analysis Supports Prediction That Spontaneous Rare Gene Mutations Cause Half Of All Autism Cases

A new study appears to show devastating “ultra-rare” gene mutations play a causal role in roughly half of all cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Risking Life In Order To Fast On Yom Kippur

“…There are [haredi rabbinic] opinions that state that a choleh [ill person], who is not currently in  danger and is eating only to prevent potential danger, should begin receiving nutrition via an IV from before the onset of Yom Kippur.…”

Does Herpes Cause Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease?

A new review of more than 200 studies appears to show that herpes may be a cause of late-onset Alzheimer's Disease. And that would mean the dangerous haredi circumcision practice metzitzah b'peh (MBP), in which haredi mohels use direct oral-to-bleeding-penis suction on babies after cutting off the foreskin, may  therefore doom haredi babies who survive initial herpes infections transmitted to them through MBP to suffering from Alzheimer's Disease in later life. Studies done last year already showed that having herpes doubles the risk of getting Alzheimer's. Despite these and many other dangers caused by MBP, including the deaths of babies, haredi rabbis refuse to stop the practice.

Is This A Safer Shabbat Hotplate?

BenTzion Davis says it is, and shows you why he's making that claim in a short video that compares the new plata he designed with the standard versions now commercially available.

UPDATED: New York City Repeals Metzitzah B’Peh Informed Consent Requirement

The New York City Board of Health approved the repeal of the city’s mandatory consent requirement for the dangerous, primarily haredi, oral suction circumcision practice known as metzitzah b’peh (MBP).

Lakewood Doctors Lash Out At Rabbis Over Vaccines

Lakewood Yeshiva's top rabbis ruled that vaccines are optional, that non-vaccinated children must be allowed to attend haredi schools, that anyone who forces or compels another person to vaccinate their children has committed a sin, and that anyone who encourages vaccination is obligated to pay compensation and damages for any child who allegedly falls ill from those vaccines. But at the same time, people who are urged by rabbis or others not to vaccinate their children, and whose children then fall ill (or even die), are not entitled to compensation or damages. And now a long list of Lakewood physicians are fighting back against the rabbis.

Study: Arabs Or Jews, Kids Who Need Pain Relief In Israeli ERs Get It

Children with broken bones or joint dislocations in northern Israel emergency departments received equal pain treatment, regardless of their ethnicity or the ethnicity of the nurses who treated them, even during a period of armed conflict between the two ethnic groups.

Whooping Cough Outbreak In Haredi Brooklyn

There's a significant increase in the number of cases of pertussis (Whooping Cough) in the Brooklyn haredi community, and most of the cases are children who have not been vaccinated or whose vaccines are not up-to-date.