The people gathered in small clumps, on this Sunday early in Advent, chatting and laughing before entering the sanctuary.  Some sipped coffee while they caught up on the week’s events.  Outside in the bright sun the children were playing.  A man with a yellow dog who was walking by the church stopped and asked the children for directions to the rail yards.

The children invited the man into the church.  They tied his dog outside and brought it a bowl of water and someone gave it a cupcake.  They led the man to the preacher, telling him that the stranger needed directions and a little money for food.

The preacher, tall, well-groomed in his black robe and satin stole looked at the man and caught the smell of whiskey.  He invited the man to worship and said that afterwards we’d see about some food.

That Sunday amid the handsome suits and stylish dresses, the colorful wool sweaters, and the neatly styled hair and deodorized bodies, sat a man in a torn jacket, baggy pants and wearing shoes with cracked soles. 

They had gathered on this morning to keep their observance of Advent.  They spoke and sang of things to come, of waiting, of expectation, and of hope.  The minister admonished the people to be alert, on the look-out, for Christ might come at any moment.  Afterwards the people went downstairs for a pot-luck lunch and an afternoon of games and songs and making gifts for shut-ins.

The man in the torn coat did not join them, though he was invited.  He sat on a gray folding chair upstairs and talked about Jesus and wept.  He said he knew he had done bad, that he was just a bum.  He rode in empty boxcars across the country with his dog.  Then he said his father sold him when he was six for a case of beer.

The pastor was uneasy.  He needed to be downstairs to say the grace.  Was the man’s story true?  How many other churches had he been to that morning?  He handed him a sack of food and drove the man and his yellow dog to the rail yards.

The children who had found the man asked their teacher why he had no money and why he wouldn’t stay with them and how could your parents sell you and wasn’t his dog wonderful and would he come again?  “I don’t think so,” said the teacher.

Christ entered our midst, right on schedule with our liturgical calendar, wearing a torn jacket.  His only follower was a yellow dog.  There was whiskey on his breath.  He saw quickly how the inn was full. 

We told him politely as possible that we just didn’t have much room for folks who ride boxcars and have a problem with alcohol.

Once a young student asked a rabbi how it was that no one ever saw God any more.  The rabbi responded:  “Because nowadays no one is willing to stoop so low.”

Think of the person you have most despised, whom you have found utterly repulsive, revolting.  See that person in your mind.  Recall your disgust.  Now answer this question:  Who did you think it was that needed to be loved, anyway?

For God so loved the world . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crowstoburnaby/170684833/
                                                 

This post is an excerpt from a Reader’s Drama I wrote many years ago, titled Adventually – Waiting for the Messiah. It is also a true story.

More about prayer:   www.fromholyground.org

Contact Loretta at
lross@fromholyground.org, www.fbook.me/sanctuary

 Follow at http://twitter.com/lfross

The people of Switzerland took a courageous stand in their recent vote against Islamic intolerance.  Islamic leaders are whining like babies over this vote.  The Quran  is the blueprint of how the words in it demand a takeover of the World.  Other countries of the World need to also protect themselves from Islamic intolerance.  Ignorant World Leaders will now try to pressure Switzerland to not abide by the vote results.  Wise people know the Truth, but fools stay addicted to their foolishness

Swiss ban mosque minarets in surprise vote

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 29, 6:40 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_minaret_ban
GENEVA – Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.
Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland’s international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.
“The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights,” said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was “grief and deep disappointment.”
About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying, “That is not my Switzerland,” placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.
“We’re sorry,” said another sign. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, “Swiss passport for sale.”
The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.
Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland’s 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practices their religion, the government says.
The country’s four standing minarets, which won’t be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.
The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights group with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country “because Muslims don’t just practice religion.”
“The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls,” the sponsors said. They said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared mosques to Islam’s military barracks and called “the minarets our bayonets.” [Editor’s note: Najmadin Erbakan, former Prime Minister of Turkey, is on record stating “…we are coming here [to Germany] to take control of your country…”] Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem many years before he became prime minister.
Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.
But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country’s largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.
“It’s a sad day for freedom of religion,” said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. “A constitutional amendment that’s targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent.”
He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.
Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.
The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.
It said that “Muslims in Switzerland are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before.” It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.
Sunday’s results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn’t want to appear intolerant.
“The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way,” said Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. “Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore.”
The People’s Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.
Geneva’s main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin’s call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.
_________
Associated Press Writers Shafika Mattar in Amman, Jordan, Eliane Engeler in Basel, Jennifer Quinn in London and Giovanni Fontana in Rome contributed to this report.

Have A Little Faith: A True Story

By Mitch Albom

Published September 29, 2009 (Hardcover) Hyperion

More Info: Mitch Albom

I read Have A Little Faith, hearing Mitch Albom’s voice – his cadence – in my mind.  I play his words of wisdom — from interviews I’ve done with him — in my seminars.

I hear his words — they are in my heart now — the rough edges of a slight New Jersey accent, familiar because of the years I grew up in Jersey.

I hear Mitch’s words, and I am home.  I read his words, and I am home in a greater sense.

Mitch interweaves his story of going home — because his childhood rabbi stuns him by asking him to deliver his eulogy — with the story of a pastor closer to his adult home in Detroit.  The rabbi washed out of seminary, and was given a second chance after he turned the life of a child around.  The child, not so incidentally, of a great Jewish scholar.

Mitch beautifully puts it, “The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his.”  The Detroit pastor turned his own life around after breaking all Ten Commandments, and surrendering one pivotal night to Jesus.

Mitch talks about ritual, and to the rabbi, this is vital, “Faith is about doing.  You are how you act, not just how you believe.”

Faith gathers us all together, weaves our stories into one, blends our Gods into one deep, peaceful breath. I can’t help but remember pulling on my first nylons and garter belt, and white gloves, and simple dress at age eleven, to go see my best friend Michael be bar mitzvahed.  The temple was deep in the most pure Jewish neighborhoods in New York.  Hebrew was fluent.  The women and children were sent upstairs, the men downstairs.

Michael was brilliant, and I didn’t understand a word, except the word for Blessing.  I had grown up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, and loved the feeling of being embraced by the warmth of their faith.  I don’t know how to spell the words I loved – menorrah, mezzuzah, yamulke.  In my mind, they are Light, Home, Covering. Mitch talks of marrying a Christian Arab woman, and his rabbi sees only their love for each other.  Trouble comes, and the rabbi walks arm in arm with the priest.

I won’t tell you everything – you must have this for yourself.  Have A Little Faith blooms within, an experience treasured, a gentle roller coaster of emotion, delivering laughter and tears.  Mitch Albom – The Storyteller — his rabbi would be proud.

Friend linked me to this song by Rabbi Shergill. Read the background behind the lyrics, and the song will have a completely new meaning.

Lyrics:

Mera naam Bilqis Yakub Rasool
Mujhse hui bas ek hi bhool
Ki jab dhhundhhte thhe vo Ram ko
To maen khadi thhi, rah mein

Pehle ek ne puchha na mujhe kuchh pata thha
Dujey ko bhi mera yehi javab thha
Fir itno ne puchha ki mera ab saval hai ki

Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Mera naam Shriman Satyendra Dubey
Jo kehna thha vo keh chukey
Ab padhey hain rah mein
Dil mein liye ek goli

Bas itna kasoor ki hamne likha thaa
Vo sach jo har kisi ki zuban thaa
Par sach yahan ho jatey hain zehreelay

Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Mujhe kehte hain anna Manjunath
Maine dekhi bhatakti ek laash
Zamir ki beech sarhak Lakhimpur Kherhi

Adarsh phasa jahan naaron mein
Aur chor bharey darbaron mein
Vahan maut akhlaq ki hai ik khabar baasi

Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Mazha nau aahe Navleen Kumar
Unnees june unnees bar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees baar

Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees baar

Looto dehaat kholo bazaar
Nallasopara aur Virar
Chheeno zameen hamse humhe
Bhejo pataal

Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Translation can be found here. The background behind the lyrics can be found here and here . Read this to know more about Bilqis, Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath and Navleen Kumar.

Sigh! Stuff like this happens all the time, where there is a blatant crime, and the following investigations span through the complications of legalities, time, corruption and then they eventually lose focus. This song is a complete mockery of ‘Truth, Pride and Integrity’ Indians are proud of.

Sigh!

I understand that postmodern can be quite scary. It can be metaphored as someone pulling the whole rug out from underneath your feet. And most modernists might have been the ones’ to put the rug there. But, nonetheless, the rug is there. But like any old rug it can collect dust, become congested and even old and tattered. So, postmodernism proposes that we need a new rug. A new way to look at things. And the rug they bring in to replace the old rug may look different and may even cover only certain aspects of the floor. But generally, it is a rug. Where the modern rug tried to fit into every genre and every space and find an answer for everything, the postmodern rug seeks to ask questions and understands that sometimes those questions lead to more questions. And that questions are not the enemy, they lead us into a mischevious child-like wonder that draws us to seek the adventure in all we say and do. If we don’t have questions than we have no journey to find the answers. If all we have is answers, what are the right questions? I think postmodernism allows to search. To be in awe and to be in wonder of the reality that life is bigger than finding answers. That life is bigger than certainty. That life is bigger than one religious system. I think also postmodernism reminds us what it looks like to rediscover our innocence. Rabbi Jesus had this tendency to use a child as a metaphor for rediscovering the child like qualities within. The trusting and the curious questioning that both reside within a child’s mind. The audacity to try anything once even if there are apparent dangers staring you in the face. The hunger to want to learn more. The ability to have a wide-eyed defiant hope in the midst of hopeless situations. These are the qualities that postmodernism hopes to reintroduce and restore to the conversation.

Postmodernism is such a vast subject, I definitely don’t seek to contain it in any one blog but only dip into the well of benefits we can gain from it.

A Serious Man is a modern masterpiece. I loved every moment of it. I would expect nothing less from the greatest directors working today, and in my opinion of all time. A Serious Man was so monumentally enthralling and thought-provoking, while at the same time being whole-heartedly entertaining and down right hilarious. It’s a must see really. The Coen Brothers mananged to capture the perfect amount of character and meaning into one hour and forty-five minute movie.

It tells the tale of a rough patch in the simple life of Larry Gopnik and his attempt to find clarity. That’s it. That’s really the best summary I could possibly give you. It’s simplicity is the most genius thing about it. A Serious Man tells a very simple tale and yet is still able to establish very meaningful undertones.

Every single actor and actor fell perfectly into place, as did every well-thought out detail of the movie. Everyone brought their A-game, but the best part of it is, there’s no big name actors. If your a real Coen fan, you’ll be able to spot a few regulars, but for the most part, we only know these people by the characters their portraying in this film. And to tell you the truth, they couldn’t be performing more perfectly.

The Coen Brothers are at the top of their game here and when aren’t they. Last year they threw out the fantastic film Burn After Reading, which was highly overlooked. I loved it, but it was nothing compared to this piece of art. There is not a single person who can tell a story as well as the Coen Brothers. Hands down, they are the greatest and if they keep dishing out movies this good I won’t ever have to debate that fact.

A Serious Man is a beautiful and poetic look at life and the difficulties it entails. A Serious Man wasn’t just a fantastic movie. It was also a reminder. There was another reminder that came out this year, it was a masterpiece entitled Inglourious Basterds. This is another reminder appropriately wrapped by the two greatest minds working today. A Serious Man is the Coen Brother’s way of reminding me why I love the art of cinema.

Grade: A+

Even among the wise there is confusion. Even among the learned there is dismay. Even among the pious there is greed. Why is it we hold others to a standard we ourselves cannot keep? Why is it we would trust those who cannot trust themselves? Why is it we would hold the word of one person above all others? Surely if God is God, He would make Himself known to us in a way each and every individual could understand. Cannot the foolish know love? Cannot the uneducated know love? Cannot even the wicked know love? None comes before another for we are all in this together. Listen not to me, for even I can be confused. Listen to the wisdom of your heart.

Chabad-Labovitch rabbis in New York City. Their orthodox racist teachings have permeated every section of the Israeli government and has made Israel into a militaristic totalitarian state. Israel is a friend of India and the Chabad-Labovitch Movement has centers in India, but few Indians know anything about the modern Jewish state and the Zionist ideology that guides its policies. Jewish Halakha religious law is the source of Islamic Shariah law  – some historians believe Mohammad had a Jewish rabbi as a teacher – but Shariah law is almost humane compared to the rabid bigotry and racism of Jewish Halakha law. – IS

Chabad’s Lost Messiah: Did the Rebbe really believe he was the messiah? – Tomer Persico

Israel and Anti-Gentile Traditions – Ari Alexander

“Perhaps most disturbingly, Shahak cites a booklet published by the Central Regional Command of the Israeli Army which states that it is permissible, and even encouraged, to kill civilians encountered in war. “In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians, that is, civilians who are ostensibly good.” In a footnote, Shahak mentions that this booklet was withdrawn from circulation on the command of the Chief of Staff, but he nonetheless, believes that even the brief appearance of such a text can only be explained by an accurate assessment of the inequality in Jewish tradition between the lives of Jews and non-Jews.”

Despite its title, Israel Shahak’s Jewish History, Jewish Religion (1994) is not your average intro-to-Judaism book. It is more likely to be found in a Muslim day school in Damascus than a Jewish day school in New York, more likely to be cited on a neo-Nazi website, than your local synagogue’s.

Shahak’s book is an overview of Judaism and Zionism, which focuses on Jewish anti-Gentile traditions. Though he recognizes that many of these teachings are no longer authoritative, Shahak believes that they have, nonetheless, had a profound influence on the development of Jewish identity over the centuries. Most importantly, he believes that they have seeped into Zionist ideology and have affected the way Israel interacts with its non-Jewish citizens and neighbors.

Shahak, a Holocaust survivor who died in 2001, was for many years a professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also led the Israeli Civil Rights League from the mid-1970s until 1990. In Israel, he was a controversial figure, but he was revered by the international left as a tireless advocate for human rights.

Are Jewish Lives Worth More?

In Jewish History, Jewish Religion Shahak brings numerous texts and legal rulings to demonstrate Jewish antipathy to non-Jews. He mentions a passage from the Talmud that says that Jesus will be punished in hell by being immersed in boiling excrement. He relates that Jewish tradition teaches pious Jews to burn copies of the New Testament and curse the mothers of the dead when passing non-Jewish cemeteries. Shahak highlights the famous passage from Leviticus commanding Jews to “love thy neighbor as thyself” and mentions that, according to rabbinic interpretation, “thy neighbor” refers only to Jews.

Shahak further suggests that the Jewish tradition values Jewish life more than Gentile life. He cites Maimonides’ assertion that whereas one who murders a Jew is subject to the death penalty, one who murders a non-Jew is not (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Murder 2:11). According to another leading commentator, indirectly causing the death of a non-Jew is no sin at all (Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, Bayit Hadash, commentary on Bet Yosef, Yoreh Deah 158).

Shahak reiterates the well-known Jewish teaching that the duty to save a life supersedes all other obligations and notes that the rabbis interpreted this to apply to Jews only. According to the Talmud, “Gentiles are neither to be lifted [out of a well] nor hauled down [into it]” (Tractate Avodah Zarah, 26b). Maimonides writes: “As for Gentiles with whom we are not at war…their death must not be caused, but it is forbidden to save them if they are at the point of death; if, for example, one of them is seen falling into the sea, he should not be rescued, for it is written: ‘neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy fellow’–but [a Gentile] is not thy fellow” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Murder 4:11).

Indeed, Maimonides is the focus of much of Shahak’s analysis. Shahak believes that the 12th-century philosopher and talmudist was a Gentile-hater and racist. He quotes Maimonides’ statement that, “their [the Turks and the

blacks] nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings” (Guide For the Perplexed, Book III, Chapter 51).

Practical Ramifications

Shahak recognizes that many of these traditions are not followed in practice, but he believes that, in general, they have been covered up, instead of confronted. In support of this claim, he refers to another a violent passage from Maimonides that is not translated in the bilingual addition of the Guide published in Jerusalem in 1962. He sees this as a deliberate deception on the part of the editors to soften classical Jewish militancy. His own English translation of the passage, which discusses the command to kill Jewish infidels reads: “It is a duty to exterminate them with one’s own hands. Such as Jesus of Nazareth and his pupils, and Tzadoq and Baitos [the founders of the

Sadducees] and their pupils, may the name of the wicked rot.”

According to Shahak, Jewish “traditions of contempt” infiltrated Zionism and have affected Israeli policy towards its Arab citizens and the Palestinians. He cites three main areas where he believes this has occurred: residency rights, employment rights, and equality before the law.

As an example, he mentions that 92% of Israel’s land is legally restricted to Jews. While in other countries it would be labeled anti-Semitic if a policy excluded Jews from living on or owning land, in the Israeli context Jews tolerate it. He adds that based on the distinction in classical Judaism between reverence for Jewish cemeteries and not for non-Jewish ones, the state of Israel has destroyed hundreds of Muslim cemeteries, including one in order to build the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv.

Perhaps most disturbingly, Shahak cites a booklet published by the Central Regional Command of the Israeli Army which states that it is permissible, and even encouraged, to kill civilians encountered in war. “In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians, that is, civilians who are ostensibly good.” In a footnote, Shahak mentions that this booklet was withdrawn from circulation on the command of the Chief of Staff, but he nonetheless, believes that even the brief appearance of such a text can only be explained by an accurate assessment of the inequality in Jewish tradition between the lives of Jews and non-Jews.

Jews Have Ignored Shahak’s Work, Others Haven’t

Whatever your opinion of Shahak and his arguments, Jewish History, Jewish Religion should be taken seriously for a number of reasons.

For one, the texts that Shahak cites are real (though Shahak’s sporadic use of footnotes makes it difficult to check all of them). Oftentimes, the interpretation of these texts is debatable and their prominence in Judaism negligible, but nonetheless, they are part of Jewish tradition and, therefore, cannot be ignored. And, indeed, they are not ignored. As alluded to above, Shahak’s work is very popular in both Arab and Muslim circles (Radio Islam contains the full text of Shahak’s work) as well as groups that are often openly anti-Semitic (David Duke and Bradley Smith include Shahak’s book on their websites).

Others use Shahak’s work in their presentation of Judaism, and that fact alone should make it relevant to contemporary Jews.

Shahak was an ardent secularist and anti-Zionist, but he wrote his book as a challenge to Jews to engage the chauvinist, dehumanizing elements of Jewish tradition and to help create a self-critical and sensitive modern Judaism. It’s true that he combed the rabbinic tradition in search of hateful passages, often–though by no means always–misinterpreting them and taking them out of context, but this may be beside the point.

Jewish texts exist that can be–and are–understood to be vehemently xenophobic. These texts must be openly and honestly grappled with, explained, and if necessary, repudiated.

Ari Alexander studies the modern Middle East at Oxford University.

• Halakha: Jewish biblical, talmudic & rabbinic law.

A Palestinian boy has his arm severed for throwing stones, allegedly by Jewish West Bank settlers. These hate crimes are permitted under Jewish Halakha religious law. The Israeli “Ma’ariv” newspaper of Nov. 9, 2009 reports that a new book by two rabbis called “Torat ha-Melekh” (“The King’s Teaching”) contains 30 pages on these Halakha laws permitting Jews to kill and maim non-Jews. The book has received glowing endorsements from leading Israeli rabbis. The authors do not fear prosecution because Maimonides (1135-1204) and Nahmanides (1194-1270), Judaism’s traditional lawgivers after Moses, would also have to be put on trial. – IS

The Complete Guide to Killing Non-Jews

Updated Version of The Complete Guide to Killing Non-Jews

Coteret: What you can’t read in Haaretz

Israel Shahak 1933-2001 – Christopher Hitchens

Only the other day, I read some sanguinary proclamation from the rabbinical commander of the Shas party, Ovadia Yosef, himself much sought after by both Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. It was a vulgar demand for the holy extermination of non-Jews; the vilest effusions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad would have been hard-pressed to match it. The man wants a dictatorial theocracy for Jews and helotry or expulsion for the Palestinians, and he sees (as Shahak did in reverse) the connection. This is not a detail; Yosef’s government receives an enormous US subsidy, and his intended victims live (and die, every day) under a Pax Americana. Men like Shahak, who force us to face these responsibilities, are naturally rare. He was never interviewed by the New York Times, and its obituary pages have let pass the death of a great and serious man.

In early June I sat on a panel, in front of a large and mainly Arab audience, with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. Our hosts, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, had asked for a discussion of contrasting images of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The general tempo of the meeting was encouragingly nontribal; there were many criticisms of Arab regimes and societies, and one of our co-panelists, Raghida Dergham, had recently been indicted in her absence by a Lebanese military prosecutor for the offense of sharing a panel discussion with an Israeli. However, it’s safe to say that most of those attending were aching for a chance to question Friedman in person. He was accused directly at one point of writing in a lofty and condescending manner about the Palestinian people. To this he replied hotly and eloquently, saying that he had always believed that “the Jewish people will never be at home in Palestine until the Palestinian people are at home there.”

That was well said, and I hadn’t at the time read his then-most-recent column, so I didn’t think to reply. But in that article he wrote that Chairman Arafat, by his endless double-dealing, had emptied the well of international sympathy for his cause. This is a very Times-ish rhetoric, of course. You have to think about it for a second. It suggests that rights, for Palestinians, are not something innate or inalienable. They are, instead, a reward for good behavior, or for getting a good press. It’s hard to get more patronizing than that. During the first intifada, in the late 1980s, the Palestinians denied themselves the recourse to arms, mounted a civil resistance, produced voices like Hanan Ashrawi and greatly stirred world opinion. For this they were offered some noncontiguous enclaves within an Israeli-controlled and Israeli-settled condominium. Better than nothing, you might say. But it’s the very deal the Israeli settlers reject in their own case, and they do not even live in Israel “proper.” (They just have the support of the armed forces of Israel “proper.”) So now things are not so nice and many Palestinians have turned violent and even–whatever next?–religious and fanatical. Naughty, naughty. No self-determination for you. And this from those who achieved statehood not by making nice but as a consequence of some very ruthless behavior indeed.

I am writing these lines in memoriam for my dear friend and comrade Dr. Israel Shahak, who died on July 2. His home on Bartenura Street in Jerusalem was a library of information about the human rights of the oppressed. The families of prisoners, the staff of closed and censored publications, the victims of eviction and confiscation–none were ever turned away. I have met influential “civil society” Palestinians alive today who were protected as students when Israel was a professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University; from him they learned never to generalize about Jews. And they respected him not just for his consistent stand against discrimination but also because–he never condescended to them. He detested nationalism and religion and made no secret of his contempt for the grasping Arafat entourage. But, as he once put it to me, “I will now only meet with Palestinian spokesmen when we are out of the country. I have some severe criticisms to present to them. But I cannot do this while they are living under occupation and I can ‘visit’ them as a privileged citizen.” This apparently small point of ethical etiquette contains almost the whole dimension of what is missing from our present discourse: the element of elementary dignity and genuine mutual recognition.

Shahak’s childhood was spent in Nazified Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; at the end of the war he was the only male left in his family. He reached Palestine before statehood, in 1945. In 1956 he heard David Ben-Gurion make a demagogic speech about the Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt, referring to this dirty war as a campaign for “the kingdom of David and Solomon.” That instilled in him the germinal feelings of opposition. By the end of his life, he had produced a scholarly body of work that showed the indissoluble connection between messianic delusions and racial and political ones. He had also, during his chairmanship of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, set a personal example that would be very difficult to emulate.

He had no heroes and no dogmas and no party allegiances. If he admitted to any intellectual model, it would have been Spinoza. For Shahak, the liberation of the Jewish people was an aspect of the Enlightenment, and involved their own self-emancipation from ghetto life and from clerical control, no less than from ancient “Gentile” prejudice. It therefore naturally ensued that Jews should never traffic in superstitions or racial myths; they stood to lose the most from the toleration of such rubbish. And it went almost without saying that there could be no defensible Jewish excuse for denying the human rights of others. He was a brilliant and devoted student of the archeology of Jerusalem and Palestine: I would give anything for a videotape of the conducted tours of the city that he gave me, and of the confrontation in which he vanquished one of the propagandist guides on the heights of Masada. For him, the built and the written record made it plain that Palestine had never been the exclusive possession of any one people, let alone any one “faith.”

Only the other day, I read some sanguinary proclamation from the rabbinical commander of the Shas party, Ovadia Yosef, himself much sought after by both Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. It was a vulgar demand for the holy extermination of non-Jews; the vilest effusions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad would have been hard-pressed to match it. The man wants a dictatorial theocracy for Jews and helotry or expulsion for the Palestinians, and he sees (as Shahak did in reverse) the connection. This is not a detail; Yosef’s government receives an enormous US subsidy, and his intended victims live (and die, every day) under a Pax Americana. Men like Shahak, who force us to face these responsibilities, are naturally rare. He was never interviewed by the New York Times, and its obituary pages have let pass the death of a great and serious man.

This is taken from a historian by the name of Karen Armstrong. You can google her to find her books!!

*Armstrong: “Yahweh had always been a transcendent deity, who directed human beings from above and without. The Rabbis made him intimately present within mankind and the smallest details of life. After the loss of the Temple and the harrowing experience of yet another exile, the Jews needed a God in their midst. The Rabbis did not construct any formal doctrines about God. Instead, they experienced him as an almost tangible presence. Their spirituality has been described as a state of ‘normal mysticism.’ . . .

“So strong was their sense of presence that any official, objective doctrines would have been quite out of place. The Rabbis frequently suggested that on Mount Sinai, each one of the Israelites who had been standing at the foot of the mountain had experienced God in a different way. God had, as it were, adapted himself to each person ‘according to the comprehension of each.’ As one Rabbi put it, ‘God does not come to man oppressively but commensurately with a man’s power of receiving him.’ . . .

Any official doctrine would limit the essential mystery of God. The Rabbis pointed out that he was utterly incomprehensible. . . . Jews were even forbidden to pronounce his name, a powerful reminder that any attempt to express him was bound to be inadequate: the divine name was written YHWH and not pronounced in any reading of the scripture. . . .The Rabbis even warned the Israelites against praising God too frequently in their prayers, because their words were bound to be defective.” (73-4)

How does one define tzniut (modesty)? The truth is in everyday Jewish parlance it’s more or less taken to mean the way one dresses. Elbows and knees are supposed to be covered as are the collarbones and all places in between. Some say women’s bare legs are supposed to be covered by hose. Some say not. Some say tzniut includes women not wearing trousers, some disagree. Different sections of religious Judaism define it their way and within those sections, individuals define it personally sometimes (as I do).

It can also refer to one’s behaviour too. In this instance tzniut can mean not drawing attention to oneself. For example: I was once in a store and a whole bunch of teenage girls from the local ultra-religious girls’ school came in. They were all wearing long skirts and long sleeved shirts, their hair was tied back modestly, no make up on. They were dressed in a modest manner, but they drew attention because they were loud and obnoxious and fooling around in a manner that was not modest at all and totally inappropriate. It seems as if we expect better behaviour from people who dress more modestly. Which is a total fallacy but that is a post for a different day.

I grew up Modern Orthodox, wearing trousers and short sleeves. I lived in my jeans. I miss wearing jeans. They were part of my uniform growing up. Came home from school, threw off the grey long skirt, the grey jumper and the white shirt, pulled on the jeans and a sweatshirt and was good to go. I was comfortable. You are never as comfy as when wearing jeans or sweatpants. You cannot just lay about comfortably in a skirt, even if it’s a long denim one. You just are more aware of your behaviour. Which is kind of the whole point I suppose.

Someone explained it to me like this , when you go to a wedding, or a party, or some kind of simcha (joyous event) and you dress up, you feel different. You are careful how you sit, how you move, because you are wearing your finest clothes and you don’t want to wrinkle them or spoil them. You behave in a more dignified manner. We are always in front of God so we are supposed to stand to attention and be aware of where we are.

Well, that’s all well and good, but you cannot be stiff all the time. You have to let your hair down a bit. You have to be able to be comfortable in your own home at least. I don’t know, I don’t think I subscribe to that philosophy.

I have a lot of issues with conformity. I don’t like being boxed in, being told what to do. I am a dafkanik…tell me to do something and I want to do the opposite. I have written previously on the blog about my troubles with covering my hair – eventually I came to it on my own terms.

Tzniut seems to be a hard one for me too but I think I have reached a place where I am happy with my level. I like attention. I am being totally honest here. I like walking into a room and being noticed. I dress for that too. Yes it helps to be a skinny wench with an awesome figure, especially when one has birthed four big-headed children and is well entrenched in her 30s. God has also blessed me with a pleasant face and a huge smile (ok we can say big mouth, but huge smile sounds better) and obviously I have a HUGE ego….. This is the way God created me. I am 100% natural, no additions, no subtractions, no Botox. Why should I hide myself away?

I am always respectful. When I attend functions at the boys’ yeshiva everything that is supposed to be covered is covered. I sit quietly on my side of the mechitzah. I act in a manner befitting the environment however much it peeves me.

When I go to shul or religious events I dress respectfully. Is it all dark colours and monochromatic? Absolutely not. I am a colorful person, and I refuse to tame that down as well. I wear lots of bright colours, pinks and reds and greens. I am flamboyant, but within limits. I wear high hells because I can walk in them and I absolutely love to wear them. I dress for me, for no one else. I do not dress to prove a point to anyone.

Do I cover my *nees? Technically I do. I won’t wear a short on the knee skirt with bare legs, even in the summer. If I plan to be barelegged then I will wear a skirt that covers my knees. When I wear my short skirts I usually wear them with thick black tights, and only in the winter. In my mind, therefore my *nees are covered. However, the skirts I am talking about are to the top of my knee, and NOT mid thigh. I have my limits. I am a woman of extremes. I either wear long skirts to the ankle, or knee length. No calf length for me. This is the way I am comfortable. Does my skirt length make me a terrible person? Someone who always wears long skirts and dresses modestly according to the technical definitions – is she better than me?

I show no cleavage, my shirt collars are always near or on the collarbone, but I don’t measure it. My elbows are almost always covered, because I honestly don’t like anyone looking at them. Ick.

So I guess I set my own standards and limits. People may even call me a hypocrite. When I was doing the dating thing a rebbetzin (rabbi’s wife) told me to dress differently. That I would not find a husband if I continued to dress in this manner.  No high heels, tone down the make up, wear clothes a size bigger than I should etc… Basically, deny who I am in order to catch a good one! My husband loves the way I look, and appreciates that I make an effort with my appearance. If he has a problem with an item of clothing that I have donned, he isn’t afraid to tell me, and I will usually respect his opinion.

You know, you can ask 10 different religious Jewish women about tzniut and get ten different answers. The laws and customs of today are different that they were scores of years ago. In the 1920s it was scandalous to show ankles. In the 1960s so many of our religious mothers wore mini skirts. Each community seems to have its own standard. I dress the way I feel comfortable dressing. I behave in public in a modest manner, I am not loud and boisterous and I know how to respect decorum. I do not draw attention to myself with behaviour or with loud speech.

So I guess that is my definition of tzniut. I toe the line, but up to a point.

I just wanted to add that we were discussing this a lot on twitter the past couple of days, and it seems to me that when discussing tzniut it seems heavily weighted on the female side. What women should and shouldn’t wear. There are similar standards for men, but I hardly ever hear them talked about.

*Hameivin Yavin…..

In Haaretz the other day there was an article detailing some recent statements by the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defence Force (the IDF, or the IOF – the Israeli Occupation Force – as some more appropriately call it).

The Israel Defense Forces’ chief rabbi told students in a pre-army yeshiva program
last week that soldiers who “show mercy” toward the enemy in wartime will be
“damned.”

Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki also told the yeshiva students that religious individuals
made better combat troops.

Speaking Thursday at the Hesder yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Karnei
Shomron , Rontzki referred to Maimonides’ discourse on the laws of war. That text
quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: “Cursed be he that doeth the
work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword
from blood.”

In Rontzki’s words, “In times of war, whoever doesn’t fight with all his heart and
soul is damned – if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his
enemy when no mercy should be shown.”

Rontzki’s remarks came during a ceremony to celebrate a new Torah scroll at the
yeshiva. The service was held in commemoration of Yosef Fink, one of two yeshiva
students kidnapped by Hezbollah in 1986.

Their bodies were returned 10 years later in a prisoner exchange.

Rontzki also referred specifically to the Israel Defense Forces’ conduct during
Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. “Apropos all that we’ve heard in the media of late,
thank God that the people of Israel has united recently around the simple
understanding of how it must fight. One of the major innovations of that offensive
was the conduct of war – not as some kind of mission or detention.”

“We all remember the beginning of the war, with a major attack of 80 planes bombing
various places, and then artillery, mortar and tank fire and so forth, as in war,”
he said. “Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery
of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has – to fight as if to
truly determine the mission.”

Rontzki also referred to the qualities of the ideal combat soldier.

“In Israel’s wars, warriors are God-fearing people, righteous people, people who
don’t have sins on their hands,” he said. “One needs to fight with an understanding
of what one is fighting for.”

Pretty amazing, hey. As a post on Jewschool pointed out, this sort of argument comes rather close to the language of holy war, or jihad. Which leads me to think about the various ways in which Israel does the sorts of things which it accuses Palestinians of doing. That is, there are all these anxieties that Palestinians will perpetrate violence against Israelis, that Palestinian adults are indoctrinating Palestinian children to hate Israeli children, that Palestinians don’t know the ‘true’ histories of the past. But, it seems to me, these anxieties are often a reflection of what Israelis are doing themselves: the use of violence in particular is a stark example of a situation wherein Israeli actions are projected onto Palestinians.

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to a sermon by Rabbi Zoe Klein and it struck me that she and her sermon were a perfect addition to our BNI region’s blog.  A sermon? you might ask. Read the message below and tell me if you have not renewed your respect for the power of words and how you may use them effectively. — Cys Bronner, BNI4Success Executive Director.

Words
By Guest Blogger, Rabbi Zoe Klein

Chanel # 5 is the fragrance from Parisian couturier Coco Chanel, and has been on selling continuously since 1921. “The perfume tries to capture the scent of extreme freshness of the northern lakes under the midnight sun.”

“I want to give women an artificial perfume,” said Chanel. “Yes, I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made.”

The name, “No. 5” reflects its science,
It was the first perfume
To use so much synthetics.

Advertisers often look for names
That sound scientific.
Look at the back of shampoo bottles
And you’ll find words that hardly make sense,
But sound really important…
I know that oil is bad for hair,
But suddenly “micro-oil” sounds essential.

Shopping for shampoo you are lured by new lexicons:

Fruitify
Nature-fusion
Breakage Restoratives
Elasteesse complex
Protective radiance
Curl quencher
Hydra-repair
Volumizing logistics…
Pin-straight ever-pure
Moisture lock
Color firm gloss
Thermogenic
Basic texturizing
Intensive restructuring emolliant
Volumactive Keratin
Luster tonic
Ultra-riche lather
Anti-fade replenishing life extender
Fast Fortified Amino Scalp Therapy
Shine-revealing caviar
Body-infusion thickening diametress –
Panthonelized sunsilk vitamino frizz-combatant
Color-oxidation-preventor alpha and beta hydroxy
Nutritive Sattin, bonacure ultimate kiwi shimmer-light hydraliscious brightening featherweight maximum vibrancy holistic vegan photobrush finish transforming revivalistic jojoba…

And all of that sounds better in french…

WORDS…can mean so much and so little…

In THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, there is a great scene
Where Humpty Dumpty says: “There’s glory for you!’
`I don’t know what you mean by “glory”,’ Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!”‘
`But “glory” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Alice objected.
`When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
`The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
`The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master — that’s all.’
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. `They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’
`Would you tell me please,’ said Alice, `what that means?’
`Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. `I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’
`That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.’

Words – in our Torah portion, God created the world through words…through speaking, “let there be…” God said, and there was.

Can mean so much and so little…
And we lift the words that mean so much
To the same level that means so little,

Cantor Kent pointed out today’s paper…
Goldman Sachs article, same page as story of homeless 90 year old,
Both stories elevated to the same place…

When a child is tantruming, we say use your words…
But how?

Having published a novel, I put a lot of words out in the world…
And in turn I’ve receive a lot of words,
Stories of people who have read it,
Reactions, anecdotes…
“People are annoyed at me in my ride-share van for reading passages out loud!”
“I was hoping for swine-flu so I could stay home and finish it!”
“Thank you for helping me through difficult times breast-feeding.”
“I read it to my mother before she died.”
I also receive critique…
“…not enough vampires in the book…”

Joe Queenan in the Wall Street Journal wrote:
I cannot help wondering what a typical Amazon.com review might have looked like had the Internet existed centuries ago:
• ”King Lear”—Average reader rating: Two stars. The author tells us: “As like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.” Oh, right, like I didn’t know that? Like I didn’t know that to be or not to be is the question? Like I didn’t know that the fault lies not in us but in the stars? Tell me something I don’t know, Mr. Bard of Whatever.
• ”The 120 Days of Sodom”—Average Reader’s Rating: Five stars. OK, so I like totally pre-ordered this book based on the author’s name, which just happens to be the same as my maiden name—Marquis de. Yeah, a sketchy reason to buy a book, but I was pumped. But when it got here I didn’t understand it at all. It just didn’t go anywhere. It just kept repeating itself. I went through it a few times more, searching for some deeper, awesome meaning, but just ended up totally bummed. Actually, some parts of it were kind of gross.
• ”Oedipus Rex”—Average reader rating: Four stars. Sophocles is a satisfying author who writes in clear, snappy prose. Youngsters in particular could learn a lot by imitating Mr. Rex, until he goes a bit off the rails toward the end. Nothing earth-shattering here, but zippy stuff. Have to admit I’m still puzzled by the weird subplot involving Mr. Rex’s mother.
• ”On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres”—Average Reader Rating: Three stars. Those who have read my countless reviews elsewhere know that I am a mathematician, astronomer, polyglot and philosopher in my own right, and therefore uniquely qualified to discuss everything from Zeno’s Paradox to Gordian’s Knot. Mostly, I think my fellow polymath Copernicus has done a pretty solid job here. The thing most laymen don’t realize—unlike mathematicians/ philosophers/astronomers/polymaths like me (as those familiar with my numerous other reviews can tell you)—is that people like Copernicus are really good with numbers. Just as I am. Really, really good. (Me, that is.) Readers seeking more of my unique insights can reach me at Igor@mymommysbasement.com.
• ”Deuteronomy”—Average Reader’s Rating: Three stars. I don’t get it. I’ve read most of the books in this series, and they totally kick butt, but this one leaves me scratching my head. Is there a story here? Am I missing something? Why so much talk about clean and unclean beasts? The author really got on a roll with Genesis and Exodus, and I was on the edge of my seat when I read The Book of Numbers. But this one runs out of gas early. Now I’m glad I skipped Leviticus!

With reality television
We have shows where it is okay to say,
“All your efforts are for naught, your work is terrible,
And you’ll never amount to anything in this business,”
We’ve fostered a culture of cruelty with words…
Words are weapons, pointed and sharp,
And apparently, entertaining…

In Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s book Words that Hurt, Words that Heal, he wrote:
Words said about us define our place in the world.
Once that place, our reputation is defined,
Particularly if it is negative, it is very hard to reverse.
President Andrew Jackson, who along with his wife
Was the subject of relentless malicious gossip once noted
“the murderer only takes the life of the parent and leaves his character as a goodly heritage to his children, while the slanderer takes away his goodly reputation and leaves him a living monument to his children’s disgrace.”

Jewish tradition actually views words as tangible things…dvarim…
God created the world through words…
Like God, we also create with words.
Read a novel, so moved by fate of a character we feel love or hate or anger…
Made us cry…even though the individual never existed,
All that happened was that a writer took a blank piece of paper and through words alone crated human beings so real that they evoked our deepest emotions.

It is obvious that words are powerful, but the truth is, we tend to use them lightly. We choose our clothes more carefully than we choose our words, though what we say about and to others can define them indelibly.

Dr. Andrew Wood wrote that the more we speak negatively about someone, the more we alienate ourselves from that person…one who speaks unfairly about many people comes to distance and alienate himself from many individuals, and Dr Wood notes, alienation is a major cause of depression…one of the most widespread and rapidly growing disorders in America…

People who minimize the amount of gossup in which they engage generally find that their connections to others become more intimate and satisfying…you’d think it was the opposite…but when you refrain from gossip about others, you tend to focus more on yourself and the person with whom you are speaking. The relationship is invariably emotionally deeper.

Larger society…need more civilized discourse…
Medieval crusaders didn’t wake up one morning and begin randomly killing Jews, rather they and their ancestors had been conditioned for centuries to think of Jews a certain way, once those verbal characterizations take place, it’s easier to hurt, to kill…

Use words carefully…
They do actually mean something,
More than that,
They create worlds…
and sell perfume and shampoo,
and seal friendships,
or destroy them,
and alienate us
and make us depressed,
and redeem us
and allow us to start over again.

Every prayer ends with a word…
How often when you speak,
Would anyone answer you,
Not with a defense,
Or a counter-offense,
Or more gossip,
But amen…
Your breath is a gift from God,
Harness it,
And make prayers.
Amen.

ZOË KLEIN pursued the rabbinate out of a passion for ancient texts, mythology, liturgy and poetry. Zoë Klein has written for Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and Tikkun. She has written chapters in a number of collections including The Women’s Torah. You can reach her by emailing: zoe@templeisaiah.com

I will be adding new stories as I find them. All new entries will be added at the bottom of the list.

Just added a new article November 19 2009

Sunday, November 08, 2009
An Open Letter To Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, Mashgiach, Bais Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey

This is a time line of one Rabbi who was allowed to continue his assault of children for years. ( #43 on the list below).  This will give you and idea of how they are protected and can continue their abuse for years.

A must Read Letter about abusive misconduct from 1967 to 2006

If you are being sexually assualted go to the Police and report it.

Left to any church they will do little to help you.  Victims who report the abuse to any church will be coerced into silence, which is wrong as the perpetrator will continue to abuse others.

Some have abused over 500 children or more in their life time.  One perpetrator can ruin the lives of many.  Find someone you can trust and tell them what happened to you.

Most Recent Case I am aware of

Israeli rabbi charged with raping teens October 21 2009

Older Cases and there are a lot. Seems someone has been keeping a record of them all. I am not sure if all the links still are active.

Cases of Clergy Abuse and Other Trusted Officials

1. Case of Rabbi Yoram Aberjil (Netivot, Israel) (Accused of cult like practices and sexual harassment of young women and treatening the lives of the survivors and those who support them.)
2. Case of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (Beit El, Israel) (Two women accused the rabbi of creating emotionally intimate relationships with them. These relationships included his expressions of his love for them during regular late-night phone conversations, extracting details from them of their sexuality and promoting an unhealthy emotional dependence on him).
3. Case of Rabbi Aryeh Blaut (AKA: Louis Blaut, Louis Steven Blaut, Louis A. Blaut, Louis S. Blaut) (Seattle, WA) (Convicted sex offender on federal charges of possession of child pornography.  According to the United States Department of Probation, Louis Blaut is not allowed contact with anyone under the age of eighteen on the internet or in person).
4. Case of Rabbi Jerry Brauner (Boro Park, Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted on the charges of Sexual Abuse-1st Degree and Sexual Abuse-3rd:Subject Another Person to Sex Contact Without Consent. He was sentenced to 11 years probation, with the condition he must participate in a sex offender treatment program. Brauner has been on probation since 2002 for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old boy.  On December 27, 2006, Jerry Brauner was arrested on charges of stealing a half-million-dollar home from a cancer-stricken woman, using a forged power of attorney to sell it and pocket the profits. Brauner is being held in lieu of $85,000 bail for lying about prior sex-abuse convictions when he applied for his notary’s license.)
5. Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (AKA: Lippa Brenner) (Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of child molestation.  The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.  He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years’ probation.)
6. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of child molestation)
7. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Winnipeg, Canada, New York, NY) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980’s. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)
8. Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accused of several cases of child molestation, and sexual assault of young adult women)
9. Case Rabbi Perry Ian Cohen – Montreal and Toronto Canada (Accused of sexual abuse of a seventeen year old. Fired for sexual impropriety with congregants)
10. Case of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen (Israel) (Accused of sexually harassing students at Bar-Ilan University)
11. Case of Rabbi Asher Dahan, Be’er Sheva, Israel (Arrested after being accused of raping and sexually abusing two 17-year-old girls after he offered “to redeem them of sin and evil inclinations.”)
12. Case of Rabbi Anthony Dee (Blackpool England; Portsmouth, England) (Former synagogue minister Reverend Anthony Dee found guilty of sexually abusing two boys and a girl in Blackpool and Portsmouth, England. This is the first set of convictions, there was a second set of convictions in 1997.)
13. Case of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann (AKA: Moshe Eiseman) – Mashgiach Ruchni Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case – Accused of child sexual abuse)
14. Case of Rabbi Elior Chen (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of cultic type practices)
15. Case of Rabbi Arnold Fink – Beth El Hebrew Congregation – Alexandria, VA (Accused of Professional Rabbinic Sexual Misconduct)
16. Case of Rabbi Benyamin Yaakov Fleischman (AKA Benyamin Fleischman, Ben Fleischman)- Photographer (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted of sexually assaulting a minor.)
17. Case of Rabbi Gershon Freidlin (Colonia, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA; Washington, PA) (Rabbi Gershon Freidlin pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment , saying he had touched the youth’s penis and buttocks while applying tanning lotion on the boy on July 10, 1995  Under the terms of a plea agreement, the rabbi will not be jailed for the crime, but faces up to five years probation.)
18. Case of Yehudah Friedlander – Rabbi ’s Assistant (Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. Friedlander was the assistant to the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas)
19. Case of Cantor Stuart Friedman (Halifax,Canada-Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Baltimore) (Convicted and sentanced to 15 months in federal prison on one count of distributing child pornography).
20. Case of Cantor Philip Friedman (Albany, NY, Queens, NY, Long Island, NY) (Temple Israel fired its longtime cantor for “inappropriate behavior” toward a member of the congregation, and the Albany County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating the matter.)
21. Case of Rabbi Jacob Frank (AKA: Yaakov Frank) and the Frankist Movement (Convicted of cultic type practices and sexual offenses.)
22. Case of Rabbi Lewis Furman of Ohr Somayach, Johannesburg, South Africa (Prominent South African rabbi who was allegedly caught having an affair with a married woman. He is also accused of being “serial philanderer” — was forced to resign his position in South Africa and will not practise as a rabbi in this country again.)
23. Rabbi Tobias Gabriel (Toronto, Canada) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accused by more then one woman of clergy sexual abuse / professional sexual misconduct).
24. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Gafni (aka: Marc Gafni, Mordechai Winiarz, Marc Winiarz) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accused sexually abusing teenage girls, attempted sexual assault of a young adult, and also accused of cult like practices).
25. Case of Rabbi Shimon Gerlick (Nahariya, Israel) (Arrest for allegedly committing indecent sexual acts with a two minors and and adult woman)
26. Case of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg (St. Paul, MN) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Resigned as senior rabbi at Temple of Aaron, shortly after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a former congregation member who accused him of sexual misconduct. A criminal investigation into the case also is being closed, with no charges forthcoming).
27. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg (Boca Raton, FL) (Pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs in a washroom at a Palm Beach Mall.)
28. Case of Rabbi/Cantor Sidney Goldenberg (Levittown,NY; Seaford, NY; Bayshore, NY; Petaluma, CA; Coney Island, NY) (Convicted of molesting children. The first complaints came in 1971.  He was finally convicted in 1997.)
29. Case of Cantor Joel Gordon (Buffalo Grove, IL) (Convicted of having keeping a house of prostitution and involvement in a prostitution ring.)
30. Case of Rabbi Mark A. Golub – Mental Health Counselor (Newport, Virginia) (Had professional counseling license revolked for having sex with a female client, according to a state disciplinary order).
31. Case of Rabbi Sidney Greenbaum (AKA: Rabbi Zalman Greenbaum, Professor Zalman Greenbaum) (Pleaded guilty at Hendon magistrates’ court to three charges of indecent assault on young boys)
32. Case of Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Grunwald (AKA: Israel Grunwald) (Borough Park/Brooklyn NY) (In a plea bargin agreement Rabbi Israel Grunwald agreed to 500 hours of community service and counseling after being accused of fondling a 15-year-old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia.  The charges against him were then dropped.)
33. Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner (Borough Park/Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of sexually abusing a developmentally disabled boy)
34. Case of Cantor Mark Horowitz, Temple Beth Am in Amherst (Getzville, NY) (Charged with committing lewd acts on an undercover police officer.)
35. Case of Rabbi (Alan J.) Shneur Horowitz (Hagerstown, MD; Israel; Schenectady, NY; California; Iowa) (Convicted and sentenced to 10 – 20 years in prison for sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient. Allegedly, he has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D. A graduate of Duke University, and was a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).
36. Case of Rabbi Steven J. Kaplan (Saskatoon, Canada) (Allegations, detailed in court documents, that he lacked proper ordination, sexually harassed female congregants and committed adultery with one of them).
37. Case of Rabbi David Kaye (Potomac, MD; Rockville, MD; San Antonio, TX) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Featured on “Dateline NBC” for seeking a sexual encounter with an underage boy in a chat room. NBC News conducted a sting in August, (2005) working with a group called “Perverted Justice.” Members of the group, posing as underage boys and girls, entered Internet chat rooms and waited for adults to engage them in conversations)
38. Case of Rabbi David Kedmi – Certified Mohel (New Hempstead, NY; Spring Valley, NY) (Accused of Battery and Breach of Contract.)
39. Case of Case of Rabbanit Bruria Keren (AKA: Burka Wearing Mother) (Beit Shemish, Israel) (Arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and physical abuse of her twelve children. She has also been accused of cult like practices)
40. Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum (New York, NY) (Convicted of child pornography on the internet)
41. Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner (San Francisco, CA) (Confessed to sexually exploited or harassing three congregants and a synagogue employee)
42. Case of Rabbi Yisucher Kohn (AKA: Barry Kohn) (New Square, NY) (Convicted of Sexual Abuse 1st: Sexual Contact With Individual Less Than 11Years Old.)
43. Case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko (AKA: Joel Kolko, Yudi Kolko) - Yeshiva Torah Temimah (New York, NY) (Arrested in New York City on December 7, 2006 following a long-term police investigation.  He was charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and endangering the welfare of a child.  The most recent sexual abuse was allegedly against an 8-year-old boy, who says he was abused while he was in the first grade during the 2002-03 school year.Rabbi Yudi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah were hit with a $20 million civil lawsuit on May 5, 2006, accusing him of molesting two students more than 25 years ago.  One of the alleged victims said Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, sexually assaulted him when he was a seventh-grade student).
44. Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Kopolevitch (Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted of molesting students at Rosh Yeshiva, Netiv Meir yeshiva high school)
45. Case of Rabbi Mahluf Aminadav Krispin – Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Bialik (suspected and charged with the sexual assault of two women)
46. Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner (New York, NY) (Convicted – child molestation.  Sentencing still pending after 2 years)
47. Case of Rabbi Avraham M. Leizerowitz  (AKA: Avraham Mordecai Lazerewitz) - Geres Misivta Bais Yisroel School, (Borough Park Brooklyn) – (A civil suit was filed against Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Leiverowitz of the Gerrer Mesivta High School in Borough Park Brooklyn. The charges include improperly touching a boy during a one-on-one help session in the rabbi’s office in the Borough Park secondary school.  Three other older boys have also come forward making similar allegations.)
48. Case of Cantor Steven Joel Levin (AKA: Steven Levin, Steve Levin, Steven J. Levin) (Allegations were made against Cantor Steven Joel Levin of child molestation. There was also a seperate allegation of professional sexual misconduct by another party.)’
49. Case of Rabbi Stanley Z. Levitt (Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD) (Several adults who have accused Rabbi Stanley Levitt of child molestation over the last forty years.)
50. Case of Rabbi Jerrold Martin Levy (Boca Raton, FL) (Convicted of two counts of soliciting sex through the Internet and two counts of child pornography.  He was sentenced to six years and sex in prison.  He was caught in the “Candyman” year-long sting operation by the US government.)
51. Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew (Pottville, IA and Chapel Hill, NC) (Accused of exposing himself and touching his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home)
52. Case of Rabbi David E. Lipman – Kiruv Rabbi (Prescott, AZ; Cranston, R.I.) (Pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a Class 2 felony, and three counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, Class 3 felonies.  Lipman pleaded guilty to pertain to the computer images of children younger than the age of 15. ).
53. Case of Rabbi/Psychologist Mordecai Magencey (St. Louis, MO) (Lost his license to practice in the State of Missouri because of his sexual misconduct with his patients.)
54. Case of Rabbi Richard Marcovitz (Oklahoma City, OK) (Convicted of indecent or lewd acts with a child, and sexual battery)
55. Rabbi Jacob A. Max (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted on charges of a sex offense in the fourth degree and second degree)
56. Case of Rabbi Samuel Mendelowitz – Licensed Marriage Counselor (Teaneck, NJ) (Accused of gross malpractice with four female patients between 1981 and 1992. He allegedly pressured women to remove their blouses and touched them sexually, engaged in masturbation and oral sex with one patient, and disparaged their husbands and urged them to have extramarital sex with what he called “surrogate lovers” male patients in his group sessions.)
57. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Menken (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Serious allegations have been made against Rabbi Yaakov Menken which include sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault. Menken’s alleged modus operandi (M.O.) is of becoming a father figure to vulnerable young women and eventually allegedly sexually assaulting them.)
58. Case of Rabbi Yona Metzger (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of sexually misconduct with four men)
59. Case of Rabbi Juda Mintz – AKA: Yehuda Mintz (Montreal, Canada; Williamsburg, NY; Atlanta, GA; Mt. Freedom, NJ; Los Angeles, CA; Venice, CA) (Convicted – internet sting on child pornography)
60. Case of Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz, M.Sc., Ph.D., L.N.H.A. (Chicago, IL; Brooklyn, NY; Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of two counts of sex abuse with boys at a special education school in New York. He is currently a college professor in Jerusalem, Israel).
61. Case of Rabbi Shalom Nagar – AKA Shlomo Nagar (Ariel, Israel) (Arrested for allegedly raping a woman who had turned to him for advice.  Nagar, married with children, has served for many years as the chief rabbi of this mainly secular town, the largest Jewish settlement in Samaria)
62. Case of Cantor Howard Nevison (New York, NY) (Nevison pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, terroristic threats, simple assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. Two felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse will be dismissed when Nevison is sentenced. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.)
63. Case of Rabbi Gabriel Ohayon (Boca Raton, FL) (Alleged rabbinical sexual misconduct.  A former employee sued a Boca Raton Judaic studies institute, alleging that Rabbi Gabriel Ohayon groped and sexually harassed her).
64. Case of Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Oratz (AKA: Yehoda A. Oratz) (LAKEWOOD, NJ; Marietta, GA; Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of stalking children under the age of thirteen, and then sexually assaulting them.  The Victims did NOT know the offender.Please note that there is more then one Rabbi Yehuda Oratz.  This convicted offender was born on April 11, 1967).
65. Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair (Beverly Hills, CA) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Convicted, pleaded no contest to oral copulation with a 14-year-old minor. )
66. Case of Cantor Alain Oziel (New York, NY; Toronto, Canada) (Convicted on one count of indecent assault, gross indecency and attempted buggery during the period January 1, 1981, to December 31, 1982, of a teenage boy.  He was sentenced to five years’ in prison. Oziel’s sentence was reduced due to his deteriorating health).
67. Case of Rabbi Haim Pardes – Former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court (Israel) (Convicted of sexually blackmailing” and performing “licentious acts” with women who sought his counsel in a synagogue. Pardes was sentenced to six months in prison and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500).
68. Case of Lou Pearlman – Mentor to the Stars (Queens, NY, Hollywood, CA) (Alleged child molester)
69. Case of Rabbi Avrohom Reichman (Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of child molestation)
70. Case of Shimon Rosen (Monsey, NY) (Convicted sex offender)
71. Case of Cantor Stanley Rosenfeld (Warwick, RI) (Convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy he was tutoring.)
72. Case of Rabbi Edward Schlaeger (Shelton, CT; West Haven, CT) ( Arrested on a warrant Saturday and charged with one count of third-degree possession of child pornography.)
73. Case of Rabbi Arthur Charles Shalman (AKA Charles Friedman, Charlie Frideman, Arthur Friedman, Arthur Shalman) (Buffalo, NY) (The Rabbinical Assembly concluded that Rabbi Shalman violated several principles of rabbinic conduct. Accused of sexual misconduct toward female congregational members. )
74. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accused of molesting several boys.)
75. Case of Cantor Robert Shapiro (Detroit, MI) (Pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a mentally retarded person. In return, Norfolk County prosecutors dropped seven counts of rape.)
76. Case of Yisroel Shapiro (Baltimore, MD) (Accused of molesting children)
77. Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein (Las Vegas, NV) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Originally arraigned on one count each of attempted sexual assault, battery with intent to commit sexual assault and open and gross lewdness. On December 19, 2002, Michael Segelstein pled guilty to the lessor charges of open or gross lewdness, in which he received one year suspended sentence with conditions and court ordered into counseling. According to court documents, Segelstein’s probation was successfully completed. He has since been discharged. A civil suit is currently pending.)
78. Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel (New York, NY; Jerusalem, Israel) (“Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel is one of the most notorious pedophiles he has known, leaving hundreds of boys he has victimized. At one point Rabbi Shach made a rabbinic decree stating that Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel could NEVER teach again.” “Ben Zion has left survivors in both the United States and Israel.” “His modus operandi was extremely violent and barbaric.” )
79. Case of Rabbi Jack Sparks (Talleyville, DE; Newark, DE) (Arrested on charges of child endangerment of a fourteen-year-old boy.)
80. Case of Rabbi David Alan Stein (AKA: David Stein, David A. Stein) – Dean of Jewish Life, American Hebrew Academy’s former director of campus (Greensboro, NC) (charged with eight counts of having sex with a student. The alleged sex acts occurred on campus during the 2006-07 school year. The student was a 16-year-old male.)
81. Case of Robert Sternberg (AKA: Yerachiel Sherberg, Robert Stein) (Monsey, NY) (Convicted sex offender)
82. Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Sultanovitch (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of sexually molesting a number of adult yeshiva students at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva)
83. Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Los Angeles, CA) (Charges dismissed at the request of the District Attorney’s Office, which conceded it had insufficient evidence to prosecute.Teitelbaum then a filed a $10-million damage suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. In his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was “devastating” to their credibility.)
84. Case of Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler (Los Angeles, CA; North Hollywood, CA) (Accused of sexually abusing teenage girls. Please Note: There is more then one Rabbi Aron Tendler.  This page is about Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler, who was born on January 15, 1955.)
85. Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler (AKA: Mordechai Tendler) (Monsey, NY) (Accused of innappropriate sexual behavior with women in he counseled that had gone on for years. According to Rabbi Benzion Y. Wosner, head of the Shevet Levi rabbinical court in Monsey, One should never allow their wives or daughters to go to Rabbi Mordecai Tendler at all including [for] counseling… and all his rulings are null and void.” He also stated: “The RCA had every right to oust this rabbi from their organization, and his own congregation has the same obligation.” In conclusion, he wrote, “the rabbi can no longer officiate at divorces, weddings, etc.)
86. Case of Rabbi Isadore Trachtman (Chicago, IL and Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
87. Case of Rabbi Hirsch Travis (Monsey, NY) (Charged with the sexual abuse of an unidentified 27-year-old female patient.  He was also charged with posing as a Brooklyn doctor specializing in infertility problems, and illegally operating the Fertility Foundation in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.)
88. Case of Rabbi Eliyahu Tzabari – Former chief rabbi of Ganei Tikva, Israel (Charged with sexually abusing a women with whom he counseled).
89. Case of Rabbi Ivan Wachmann – Manchester, England (Accused of sexual misconduct with women from his Manchester synagogue)
90. Case of the Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus (AKA: The Rabbi at Hillel Torah (Chicago, IL) (arrested on October 26, 1999 and chargedwith sexual exploitation of a child.  The report states that while he was tutoring an 11-year-old child, Wainhaus removed all of his clothing and exposed himself to the minor while stating that the minor “was a very sexy child”)
91. Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg (Baltimore, MD, Santa Clara, CA and Har Nof, Israel) (There is a Call for Action on this case.  Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
92. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiner (New York, NY and Israel) (Accused of molesting boy at Camp Mogen Avraham, New York)
93. Case of Rabbi Israel Weingarten (Monsey, NY; England; Israel; Belgium) (
94. Case of Rabbi Nachman Weisfeld (Northern, Israel) (Convicted of physically and sexually abusing children under his care in an education institution)
95. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiss (Loudonville, NY) (Accused and arrested on charges of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy).
96. Case of Rabbi Don Well – Principal (Brooklyn, NY) (Accused and charged with Rabbi one count of third-degree sexual abuse).
97. Case of Cantor Phillip Wittlin (Harrisburg, PA) (Convicted of molesting two girls)
98. Case of Rabbi Hershel J. Worch (Manchester, England, Mbale, Uganda; Melbourne, Australia; Pawtucket, RI; Chicago, IL; Istanbul, Turkey) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Formerly known as the Case of the Unnamed Rabbi in West Rogers Park).  Accused of cult like practice which include BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism).  The alleged offender originially mmets his victims on line. Allegations include using a mixture of kabbalah, hypno-eroticism and other manipulative techniques to enagage his potential victims prior to sexually assaulting them.
99. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov (Los Angeles, CA) (WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California for past 2 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California authorities at: (916) 227-4974. Convicted of sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys)
100. Case of Sabbatai Zevi (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses.)
101. Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman (New York, NY) (Suspended from the Reform movement’s rabbinic organization because of sexual impropriety was later hired to a top position by a program that sends thousands of young Jews on free trips to Israel..  Sheldon Zimmerman was based in Cincinnati, OH, yet, also had responsibility for the Hebrew Union College’s campuses in New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA and Jerusalem, Israel .)
102. Case of the Rabbi Max Zucker (Dallas, TX) (Accused by three women of improperly touching)
103. Case of a List of Abuses at Ner Israel (Toronto, Canada) (High school student, said he was assaulted by two college students)
104. Case of The Zwi Migdal Society (Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Poland) (According to reports there were rabbis who were members of the society. From the 1860s to the beginning of the Second World War, thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. This hugely profitable (annual revenues of $50 million in the 1890s) commerce in flesh was operated by the Zwi Migdal, a criminal association)
105. Case of The Unnamed Kidnapping Chazen /Cantor (Toronto, Canada) (Accused of kidnapping young boys from Europe and bringing them to Toronto, Canada)
106. Case of the Unnamed New York Rabbi Who Has An Unhealthy Interest In Teenage Boys
107. Case of the Unnamed Rabbi – Principal Who Inpregnated A Girl With Learning Disabilities (There is a Call for Action on this case. The Awareness Center is looking for all the information we can find regarding the Rabbi-Prinicipal who inpregnated a girl with learning disabilities at school he was principal at.)
108. Case of The Unnamed Orthodox Rabbi (Quebec, Canada) (An undercover reporter posed as an employee of an escort service.  One of her two clients included a Hasidic rabbi, who masturbated in a motel room while looking at pornography on television and at the reporter in her underwear.)
109. Case of 40-year-old man residing in an ultra-orthodox yeshiva (Several yeshiva students have testified in the case and verified suspicions that a 40-year-old man who resides in the yeshiva sexually assaulted them).

(Top)

1. Case of Yisrael Abadi – Teacher (Holon, Israel) (Convicted of sexually molesting three children, aged eight to 10, in the synagogue where he teaches)
2. Case of Faiz Suleiman Abukarinat – The Negev Pedophile (Israel) (Convicted of kidnapping and raping three girls from Beersheba and Ashdod)
3. Case of Eugene Abrams (AKA: Eugene George Harris) (Long Island, NY; Miami, FL) (Convicted on 77 counts of child of rape, incest, sodomy and obscenity involving five young girls, including his own daughter.  He spent 10 years in Attica State Prison. He was also convicted of running a nationwide child pornography ring on Long Island, He relocated to Flordia and was charged and convicted ofsexually assaulting a 4 1/2-year-old girl).
4. Case of Joyce Abrams (North Bellmore, NY) (Convicted of running a nationwide pornography ring with her husband Eugene Abrams, out of their home. One of the victms was her own daughter).
5. Case of Faiz Suleiman Abukarinat – The Negev Pedophile (Israel) (convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for kidnapping and raping three girls from Beersheba and Ashdod)
6. Case of Errine Renata Acciaroli (AKA: Shlomit Acciaroli) – Special Education Teacher  (Hamilton, Canada) (Found guilty of professional misconduct for kissing a 10th grade student after asking him to make love to her and showering him with gifts, e-mails, phone calls and visits to his home)
7. Case of Arie Adler and Marisa Rimland (New York, NY) (Arie Adler was accused of molesting his daughter. Marisa Rimland murdered her daughter, and then committed suicide).
8. Case of Gerald “Ajax” Ackerman – Former Mayor (Port Huron, MI) (Convicted and sentenced to up to 38 years in prison for having sex with children he was supervising as part of a youth program he ran).
9. Case of Simcha Adler – Ohel Counselor (Borough Park/Brooklyn, NY (Plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy.)
10. Case of Ya’acov Agmon – Director of Habima Theater (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Accused of sexually harassing a secretary who worked for him for two-and-a-half years with words and deeds, and of committing indecent acts against her on three separate occasions. The prosecution closed the file for lack of sufficient evidence).
11. Case of Tal Alaluf (Arrested and confessed to raping a 13-year-old boy he “groomed” via an Internet chat room, according to police detectives).
12. Case of Hen Alkobi (Haifa, Israel) (Accused of raping and sexually abusing teenage girls in the Haifa area, ended in a plea bargain arrangement.)
13. Case of Ben Amotz (Tel Aviv and Jaffa, Israel) (Allegedly lured 12 to 13-year-old girls to his apartment using drugs)
14. Case of Isa al-Natcha (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentence to 25 years for robbery, rape and false imprisonment, terrorized the women working at the brothels, raped them and stole money and possessions from them.)
15. Case of Igor Antapika – Haifa, Israel; Soviet Union (AKA: Street Stairwell Rapist) (sentenced Igor Antapika, known as “the stairwell rapist,” to 31 years in prison. The 25-year-old serial rapist who had terrorized Haifa women in 2004 was convicted on eight of nine counts. He earned his nickname after assaulting his victims in dark stairwells in the city’s Hadar and Carmel neighborhoods)
16. Case of Herbert Aptheker - (Accused of sexually abusing his daughter)
17. Case of Eugene Loub Aronin – School Counselor (Joppa, TX and Buffalo Grove, IL (Convicted in 1984 of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy)
18. Case of David Carl Arndt, M.D. (Boston, MA) (Charged with four counts of statutory child rape and one count each of indecent assault and battery, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, contributing to the delinquency of a child, and possession of the drugs ketamine hydrochloride (“Special K”) and methamphetamine).
19. Case of Michael Ashbal – Hebrew Academy Teacher (Miami Beach, FL; Barbados) (Arrested for allegedly fondling an 11-year-old male student.)
20. Case of Stanley Ashman (AKA: Stanley Virgil Ashman, Butch Ashman) (Baltimore, MD) (In 2006, police overheard a telephone conversation between the woman and Ashman in which the former teacher admitted to having sex with her when she was 14, and repeatedly apologized, according to court records)
21. Case of  Samuel S. Aster – Music Teacher/College Professor (Teaneck, NJ) (Gave prosecutors a sworn statement detailing the crimes and his videotaping of them.)
22. Case of Yehezkel Atar (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted of raping a nine-year-old girl).
23. Case of Boris Bardichevsky (Petah Tikva, Israel) (Arrested this week by the Israel Police’s Etgar unit on suspicion of trading in women).
24. Case of Leeore Batshaw – Psychology Student at The University of Winnipeg (Israel) (Convicted – internet sting on child pornography)
25. Case of Philip Bender, Consultant (Columbia, MD; Baltimore, MD) (Pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse in return for prosecutors’ recommendation for probation before judgment).
26. Case of Uriel P. Bendavid – AKA: Peter Bendavid, Peter U. Ben, Peter U. Bendavid, Peter U. David, Peter D. King (Passaic, NJ) (Convicted of endagering the welfare of a child  The victims were students at the school where Bendavid taught)
27. Case of Ralph Harrison Benning (Fulton County, GA) (pleaded guilty to molesting and murdering Peter Downing Howell Jr., 8. Benning told police he killed Howell on the site where he was molested as a child).
28. Case of Shimon Bentov (Jerusalem, Israel) (Charged with alleging he committed sexual assaults on children and child-pornography offences).
29. Case of Achi Ben Shalom – Music Teacher (San Francisco, CA) (Arrested for alleged “lewd and lascivious acts” with a female student).
30. Case of Robert Berezin (Brooklyn, NY; Skokie, IL) (Allegations were made that he entered the apartment of one of his tenents in the middle of the night, pushed her against the door, groped and forced his tongue into her mouth. When he was leaving, she said, he suggested she could provide sexual favors in lieu of rent).
31. Case of Alexander Berg (Czech Republic; Haifa, Israel; Petah Tikva, Israel; Tel Aviv, Israel) (Extradited from the Czech Republic to Israel under suspicion of involvement in women trafficking, as well as a myriad of related offenses including pimping, imprisonment, assault, threats and rape.)
32. Case of Jonathan (Yochanan) Berkowitz, MSW, CSW, LMSW – Yoga Instructor (Monsey, NY; New York City, NY; Passaic, NJ; Clifton, NJ) (Allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior and of allged date rape)
33. Case of Harvey N. Berish – School Teacher (Bronx, NY) (Drama teacher in an intermediate school in the Bronx was arrested on charges that he had sexually abused four boy pupils).
34. Case of Ariel Berlin – Retired Travel Agent (Arrested along with an a father who is an Ex-convict, who offered up his 5-year-old daughter for sex).
35. Case of David Steven Berman (Ruislip, England) (Convicted and sentenced to prison.  Berman admitted to 13 charges of making indecent images of children. Judge Jeremy Connor stated: “The images showed children as young as six, some with elements of sadism.”)
36. Case of Yoav Biran (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of distributing child pornography over the Internet, also of preforming indecent acts on children.  Also see: Case of Rafael Kaplanovsky and Case of Itai Snapier).
37. Case of Moni Biton (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentence to sentenced to 22 years for purchased a stun gun, tear gas, knives and scissors, and decided in advance which brothels him and his friends would attack).
38. Case of Yaron Blanc (Ariel, Israel) (Accused of using the internet to lure minors for sexual activity)
39. Case of Baron Bloom (London, England) (Convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl. The judge ordered Bloom’s name to be placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment).
40. Case of Harold Bloom – Humanities and English Professor at Yale (New Haven, CT) (Accused of sexually harassing students).
41. Case of Yossi Boker, Assistant Commander – Police Investigative Department (Jerusalem, Israel) (Arrested on charges of sexual harassment.)
42. Case of Yitzhak Bohasilovsky (Bnei Brak, Israel) - (confessed to series of indecent acts involving 300 children)
43. Case of Nachman Borenstein – Teacher’s Aide at Talmud Torah (Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted of molesting five children)
44. Case of Peter Braunstein (New York, NY) (Accused of drugging and molesting a woman for 13 hours.  He entered her apartment by wearing a firefighter’s uniform, after allegedly setting small hallway blazes to trick his way into her apartment.)
45. Case of Zerach Brown (AKA: Scott Brown) (Seattle, WA; New York, NY) (Arrested in 1999 in Mountaindale, NY on charges relating to sexually improper conduct in respect to minors.)
46. Case of Michael Broman (Givatayim, Israel) (Arrested this week by the Israel Police’s Etgar unit on suspicion of trading in women).
47. Case of Rami Buchnik – Physical Education Teacher (Tiberias, Israel) (Arrested after complaints that he had been molesting youths at several kibbutzim in the region. He was also charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm).
48. Case of Lieutenant Colonel Eli Buhbut – Israel Defense Forces (Accused of sexually assaulting another officer)
49. Case of Franklin “Jack” Burr – Piano Teacher (Edison, NJ) (On trial charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He is facing up to 20 years in prison).
50. Case of Ralph Capone – School Custodian, Patachogue: Medford School District (Long Island, NY) (Accused of asking two male students in their 20s, working on the High School equivalency diploma, claimed Capone asked them for oral sex).
51. Case of Chaim Ciment (Williamsburg/Brooklyn, NY) (Accused and charged with first-degree sexual abuse, after allegations were made that he fondled a 17 year old girl in an elevator).
52. Case of Adiah Cohen, Moshav Shadot, Israel (Accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the washroom of DOME in Tel Aviv)
53. Case of David Cohen (Jupiter, FL) (Convicted of Lewd, Lascivious Child acts with a minor child)
54. Case of James A. Cohen – Jewish Youth Group Leader (Davi, FL) (Convicted child molester, sentenced to 9 years for assaulting 4 boys)
55. Case of Larry Cohen – Soccer Coach (Lake Oswego, OR) (Accused of molesting two individuals.)
56. Case of Lawrence Cohen – Kindergarten School Teacher (Manalapan, NJ; Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for transmitting child pornography through his home computer).
57. Case of Lewis K. Cohen (AKA: Keith Cohen, Lewis Cohen) (Milwaukee, WI) (Convicted after being charged with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and child enticement-exposing sex organs.  Cohen used his work and home computers to engage in sexually explicit conversations with a 14-year-old boy in Internet chat rooms. The complaint also charges that Cohen sent nude photographs of himself and other males to the boy via e-mail).
58. Case of Phillip “Eli” Cohen (London, England) (Accused of 13 charges of indecently assaulting a boy and four offences of indecently assaulting a girl)
59. Case of Seth David Cohen, MD (Southfield, Michigan) (Convicted- Pled no contest to Accosting a Minor for Immoral Purposes)
60. Case of Stephen Colmer (Brooklyn, NY; Passaic, NJ; Jerusalem, Israel) (Indicted on charges of child sexual abuse.  He attempted to escape facing charges by moving to Israel)
61. Case of Victor Wayne Cooper (CA) (Convicted of four counts of lewd and lascivious acts upon a child. He is serving four consecutive terms of fifteen years to life due to two prior rape convictions).
62. Case of Stuart Cooperman, MD – Pediatrican (Merrick, New York) (Accused of molesting six female patience).
63. Case of Corrido (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Suspected of sexually abusing several minors claims to have witnessed the murder of 10-year-old Alexandra Brandt in 1994)
64. Case of Jon Andrew Cottriel (Holdenville, OK) (Convicted of Forcible Sodomy and Rape in the 1st Degree).
65. Case of Gil Dahan (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).
66. Case of Oren Danan (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Confessed to child abduction, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a neighborhood girl)
67. Case of Sliman Dawiri (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentence to 28 years for robbery, rape and false imprisonment, terrorized the women working at the brothels, raped them and stole money and possessions from them).
68. Case of Lior Dekel (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested after the girl told her school counselor of the rape. In the past, a court acquitted Dekel of rape charges against a 16-year-old girl due to lack of evidence.)
69. Case of Gary Dolovich, former Executive Director of Manitoba Kosher, Winnipeg, Canada (Arrested and charged with 17 counts of distributing child pornography).
70. Case of Eric Dorfner, BBYO Group Leader (Evesham/Cherry Hill, NJ) (Plead guilty and was sentenced to five years in state prison for sexually abusing two teenage boys once in his care.
71. Case of Gary Edelman (Skokie, IL) (Convicted sex offender)
72. Case of Mordechai Ehrman (AKA: Morton Ehrman) – Simcha’s Play Group (Brooklyn, NY) Accused of molesting dozens of students).
73. Case of Ariel Elimelech, Jerusalem, Israel (Convicted of rape and indecent assault under aggravated circumstances, of two minors aged 14 and 17)
74. Case of Victor Einhorn – Owner of Two Brooklyn-Based Bus Companies (Brooklyn, NY) (Pleaded guilty to two of 12 counts of unlawfully transporting minors to a New Jersey hotel for sex)
75. Case of Benjamin Elisha (Miami, FL) (Convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old in a Swap Shop restroom).
76. Case of Jeffrey Epstein (New York, NY; Virgin Islands) (Allegedly solicited sex with a minor at least three times between August 1 – October 31, 2005. He has been charged with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and of lewd and lascivious molestation).
77. Case of Werner Erhard (AKA: John Paul Rosenberg) Founder EST (now called Landmark Forum) (Accused of incest, which were later recanted.  Also accused of cult like practices)
78. Earl R. Everett – Teacher South County Jewish Community Day School (Boca Raton, FL) (Arrested and charged with sexual battery on a child under the age of 12 (the girl was 7).  His victim was not one of his students.)
79. Case of Shmuel Faber – KACH Rescue Squad Volunteer, Israel (Accused of sexually pressuring two women into sexual acts, so that they could obtain better treatment).
80. Case of Ed Fagan, Attorney (Short Hills, NJ) (Accused of paying to have sex with a minor)
81. Case of Naftali Feig (Chicago, IL; Beachwood OH; Cleveland, OH; Far Rockaway, NY; St. Louis, MO) (Convicted after communicating online for months with an investigor posing as 12-year-old girls.)
82. Case of Robert Feivish – security guard (Brooklyn, NY) (Convictedof sexually abusing a teenage boy over the course of a year, at times in a synagogue).
83. Case of Joseph Fisher (Jerusalem, Israel)
84. Case of Irina Fishman (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted of delivering women to work as prostitutes)
85. Case of Zora Flagashvili (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).
86. Case of Hbrandon Lee Flagner (Akron, OH) (Convicted of the kidnapping and aggravated murder of Tiffany Jennifer Papesh a 8-year-old girl. Flagner also claimed to have molested hundreds of girls during his life. While in prison, Flagner convert to Judaism by an Chasidic rabbi.)
87. Case of Rabbi G. George Fox (Galveston, TX)
88. Case of Kenneth A. Frank, MD (AKA: Yonatan Efrat) (Bakersfield, CA; Ra’anana, Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel) (Frank was convicted on Dec. 20, 1989, in Kern County (California) of drugging and raping two woman in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986)
89. Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman “Capturing the Friedmans” (Great Neck, NY) (Convicted sex offenders).  Also see:  Case of Ross Goldstein
90. Case of Steven Lewis Friedman (Interstate, CO; Citrus, FL; Hewlett, NY) (Convicted sex offender).
91. Case of Steven Frucht – Housekeeping Supervisor – Yeshiva University (New York, NY) (Accused of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment of at least four female employees)
92. Case of Dennis E. Fulbright (Boley, Oklahoma) (Convicted of Lewd or indecent acts with a child under 16, Rape in the first degree, Burglary, nad Larceny of Merch from Retaile.)
93. Case of Ramon Gantz – Gym Boss (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentanced after slipped two tablets of the dance drug into the victim’s orange juice after she rebuffed his romantic advances on a Monarch flight from Tel Aviv to Gatwick).
94. Case of Ellen Garfield – Music teacher (Boston, MA) (Acquitted of charges she raped a 14-year-old boy.)
95. Case of Avraham Ger (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Accused of sexually assaulting several girls and boys)
96. Case of Daniel Gersh – Former FA-Registered Coach (Bloomingburg, New York; Ilford, Essex, England) (Arrested after admitting to 60 counts of assault and related charges, including molesting nine boys, aged seven to 11, and filming several of them.  Daniel Gersh stated in court: “My life is over. I have been trying to hide this since I was 13 years old.”)
97. Case of Ovadia Gershon – Director of Group home for Mentally Challenged minors (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted raping a mentally challenged resident in a group home in Tel Aviv, Israel)
98. Case of Barry Gerstein – Attorney at Law (Beverly, MA) (Convicted and sentenced to serve seven to fifteen years at MCI-Walpole and ordered to serve a concurrent ten- to eighteen-year sentence for the cases in Norfolk County)
99. Case of Ofer Glazer (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted of two incidents of committing obscene acts and of sexual harassment).
100. Case of Richard “Steve” Goldberg (Long Beach, CA) (Allegedly engaging in sex acts with several girls under 10 in California.  He is on the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list)
101. Case of Shaul Golan – Chief Financial Officer, Shalem Center (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of sexual harassment, is facing a criminal investigation for embezzlement. Shaul Golan was a former senior official at a prominent Jerusalem think tank).
102. Case of Eugene Gold, the former Brooklyn District Attorney (New York, NY; Israel) (Confessed that he had fondled the 10-year-old daughter of an Alabama prosecutor and agreed to undergo psychiatric treatment to avoid prosecution.)
103. Case of Jeremy D. Goldberg (Highland Park, IL) (Convicted on charges of possessing child pornography).
104. Case of Aron Goldberger (Baltimore, MD, Israel) (self-described religious scholar convicted of molesting his children)
105. Case of Hanan Goldblatt (AKA: Hannan Goldblatt) - Children’s Televison Actor (Beit Nehamia, Israel) (Pled Guilty to having sexual intercourse with two of the minors he is suspected of raping, but said both cases were consensual.)
106. Case of Arieh (Arik) Goldman (Ramle, Israel) (Arrested after being accused of molesting 43 children)
107. Case of Robert Goldman – Sportscaster – CLTV (Aurora, IL) (Convicted of indecent solicitation of a child).
108. Case of Neil Goldschmidt (Former Governor of Oregon / Former Cabinet Member to President Jimmy Carter) (Confessed to having a sexual relationship with a teenager girl while he was mayor of Portland).
109. Case of Alvin “Al” Goldstein – Executive Editor, Milky Way Productions (New York, NY) “Allegations of sexual harassment made against Goldstein over the years. Named in an indictment along with Milky Way Productions after Eugene Abrams a advertised for girl models between the ages of 4 and 14 years of age in issues of Screen magazine which is published by Milky Way Productions.)
110. Case Andrew B. Goldstein (Pinellas, FL) (Convicted of possession of child pornography and unlawful sexual activity with certain minors.)
111. Case of Craig Goldstein (Mastic Beach, NY) (Convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and sodomy in the second degree with an eleven-year-old boy.)
112. Case of Jeremy Goldstein – Former Ohio State University Student (Cleveland, Ohio)  (Plead guilty to a charge of criminal sexual imposition. Sentenced to two-years probation and is now attending New York University. Several women came forward making allegations of sexual assault)
113. Case of Ross Goldstein (Great Neck, NY) (Convicting of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance.  He was Sentenced to four concurrent indeterminated terms of 2 to 6 years imprisonment. Also see: Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman)
114. Case of Israel Goluboff (AKA: Lester Mor, Lester Goluboff) – Caricaturist (Whiting, NJ; Manchester, NJ) (Convicted in Essex County (NJ) in 1985 of aggravated sexual assault on a girl under the age of 13. He has served his time and is considered a Tier 2, or moderate-risk, sex offender by the state of New Jersey. According to his listing on the State Police sex offender Web site, he had victimized children who worked with him in his caricature sketching business).
115. Case of Lawrence Gordon (Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of murdering eight-year-old boy in 1982.  In 1973 Gordon had been convicted of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child)
116. Case of David Graetz (Kiryat Ata, Israel) (Accused of attempted sexual assault of a neighbor.  The alleged victim stated that she beat her alleged assailent to death in self-defense).
117. Case of Marc Evan Greenberg – Webe Web Corp (Fort Lauderdale, FL) (Alabama federal grand jury indicted Marc Greenberg and Jeffrey Libman for operating a child modeling Web site that gained national attention for posting provocative photos of underage girls. Both were charged with 80 counts of conspiring to use minors for sexual photos and interstate transportation of such photos.)
118. Case of Leslie Griesdorf, DDS – Dentist (Toronto, Canada) (Received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography. Griesdorf was originially charged with making, importing, accessing and possessing pornography, plus obtaining the sexual services of someone under 18 years of age. This case involved the largest collection of child pornography in Canadian history.)
119. Case of Moshe Grots (Convicted of assisting in the rape and the confinement of a 20 year-old mentally disabled woman).
120. Case of Ilan Hacham – Maternity Ward Nurse (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested and charged with allegedly molesting two women in maternity ward of Assaf Harofeh Hospital).
121. Case of Ya’akov Ha’elyon – Tel Aviv Arts School (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Highly regarded educator at an “enlightened” secular liberal arts school accused of abusing children).
122. Case of Yoel Hagirm (Kfar Kasam, Israel) (Accused of sexually assaulting co-workers at hospital in Israel)
123. Case of Uzi Hakhmon – Coach of a Boys’ Soccer Team (Tiberias, Israel) (Arrested on suspicion of raping and sexually assaulting several members of the team – all of them minors).
124. Case of Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman (Baltimore, MD) (Accused of having sexually inappropriate converstations with a 16 year-old boy).
125. Case of Micha Hanan, Principal Beit Rotenberg (Haifa, Israel) (Accused of sodomizing several youths between the ages of 14 and 18. Allegations date back to 1994).
126. Case of David B. Harrington – School Principal / Big Brother (Rockville, MD) (Convicted sex offender.  Cases from the 1960’s – 1980’s.)
127. Case of Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans (Monsey, NY) (Convicted.)
128. Case of Eric Hindin – Jewish Big Brother Volunteer (Newton, MA) (Convicted of 35 counts of child rape. He was sentenced to 20-22 years in prison).
129. Case of Yoni Hovra – High School Teacher (Petah Tikva, Israel) (Arrested and charged with raping and sexually abusing 14 of his pupils. According to the charge sheet, Hovra slipped prescription sleeping tablets into the drinks of some male students who visited him at home, so that they would not be aware of the assault).
130. Case of Ronny Hubara – School Teacher (Petach Tikva, Israel) (After being accused of molesting children, police confiscate child pornographyfrom the home of the school teacher).
131. Case of Martin Frankel – Former Financier (Confessed to having desires to having sex with children)
132. Case of Lord Greville Janner – Former British Labour MP (London, England) (Accused of molesting a boyt in a group home for over two years).
133. Case of Jay Jarvis (AKA: Elber John Jarvis) – Beth El Hebrew Congregation Brotherhood’s – 2005 Man of the Year (Arlingon, VA) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Pled guilty to sexual contact with a young child).
134. Case of Yosef Jibli – Jewish Agency’s Head of Administration (Jerusalem, Israel) (Charged in a Jerusalem Magistrates Court with “exploiting his authority” to sodomize a 17-year-old female high school pupil).
135. Case of Andrew Josephs – Hebrew Teacher (Parklands Court, Edgware, UK) (Charged with five counts of indecent assault, possession of indecent photographs of children, three of sexual assault of a child and two of abuse of trust between December 8, 2003, and August 4, 2004.  Josephs, denies all the allegations and claims the boy’s have concocted their stories)
136. Case of Daniel Joubert (South Africa; Tel Aviv, Israel; Petach Tikva, Israel ) (Convicted and sentanced to 25 years on two counts of violent rape and one count of grave sexual abuse.The first assult involved an attack on a 75-year-old woman.)
137. Case of Albert Junatanov (Los Angeles, CA) (Accused of physically abuse and sexually assaulting his children).
138. Case of Samuel (Shmuel) Juravel Savannah, GA (formerly of Baltimore, MD) (Arrested by Agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI (Feb. 21, 2005) at a Birmingham hotel after he arranged to have sex with a minor).
139. Case of Rafael Kaplanovsky (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of distributing child pornography over the Internet.  Also see Case of Yoav Biran and Case of Itai Snapier).
140. Case of Ryan Karben – Assemblyman (Rockland County, NY) (Allegations of childhood sexual abuse).
141. Case of Ariel Katsav (Jerusalem, Israel) – Son of Israeli President (Accused of sexual harassment.  Israel Railways said that the younger Katsav, Ariel is senior member of the Israel Railways PR staff.  He was accused of verbally harassing a coworker.  He is the son of Israeli President Moshe Katsav.)
142. Case of Moshe Katsav – President of Israel (Jerusalem, Israel) (Allegations of professional sexual misconduct).
143. Case of Martin Kaufman (Baltimore, MD) (Listed on the National Sex Offenders Registry under the category of “Sexually Violent Offenders)
144. Case of David Kay (Chicago, IL) (Accused of sexually abusing children at the Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center).
145. Case of Judge Ronald Kline (Turtle Rock, CA) (Molestation charges against former Judge Ronald Kline, were dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on the prosecution of old sex crimes. The original charges stated that Kline molested a 14-year-old boy in 1979).
146. Case of Sofia Kochik (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentenced to four years in jail for trafficking in women, running a brothel, false imprisonment and solicitation).
147. Case of Lee Kolker (Creve Coeur, MO, Fairview Heights, MO) (Convicted of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse. Kolker was acquitted of one felony count of sexual abuse; that charge related to an allegation that he had fondled a third girl.)
148. Case of Aaron Kosminski (Jack the Ripper) – London, England (Allegedly murdered at least five prostitutes in the 1880s.  Aaron Kosminski, a hairdresser living in Whitechapel, East London, who was eventually committed to a lunatic asylum, where he died.)
149. Case of John Joseph Kosky (aka Jonathan Kaye) , School Teacher (Melbourne/Perth, Australia) (Convicted of Organising Child Sex Tour in Thailand: Sentenced in 2003 to 6years jail/ 3years non parole).
150. Case of Michael Koval (Rockland County, NY) (Convicted, served six months for first-degree sexual abuse involving two girls under the age of 11. He was convicted in 1996).
151. Case of David Kramer (University City, MO; Olivette, MO; St. Louis, MO) ( Pled guilty to 2 counts of sexual molestation of a minor and was sentenced to 7 years in prison.)
152. Case of Wilfred Krichefski – Community Leader (Jersey, England) (Accused of molesting boys at a children’s home where 200 are feared to have been attacked)
153. Case of Joseph Krim – Teacher (Aztec, NM) (Convicted – pleaded guilty to child pornography charges has been sentenced to six years in prison.)
154. Case of Stanislav Kuperman (Arrested as part of an operation launched by Tel Aviv detectives, in which an officer was sent undercover to purchase women over the telephone)
155. Case of Sergei Kuperman – Dentist (Rishon Letzion, Israel) (Suspected of sexually assaulting a woman and aslo trafficking in women).
156. Case of Seymour Kushner – Retired Music Teacher (Hartsdale, NY) (Convicted after pleading guilty to a federal grand jury charge of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sex).
157. Case of Moti Lahav (Migdal Ha’emek, Israel) (Confessed to sodomizing and sexually abusing two male youths and one female youth he met via the Internet).
158. Case of Levy Lalik (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested for allegedly sexually abusing and murdering his two-month-old daughter)
159. Case of Sidney Landau (AKA: Sid Landau, Sid Landall) (Santa Ana, CA; Queens, NY) (Multiple convictions of child sex abuse)
160. Case of Itai Leibovich – Kindergarten Security Guard at a Kindergarten – (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted on two counts of rape and other counts of sodomy, attempted rape and indecent assault of four girls aged six to eleven).
161. Case of Malka Leifer, Principal, Adass Israel Girls School (Elsternwick, Australia) - (Accused of molesting teenage girls).
162. Case of Vitaly Levshin – Pianist (Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Moldova, US) (Charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Toronto boy and making thousands of child-pornography images that he distributed around the world).
163. Case of Leo Lewie (Beverly Hills, CA) (Convicted of murdering his wifeand his stepdaughter. Prior to the murders, there were allegations of two counts of child molestation and two counts of statutory rape).
164. Case of Marc Lewis – Tennis Coach (AKA Mark Lewish) (Edgware, England) (Convicted of sexual assault of a fifteen-year-old girl with two of his friends.  Lewis is an award-winning Wimbledon tennis coach. Police were unable to charge the other men because they only discovered their identities 12 months after the alleged offences. In England, unlawful sexual intercourse cases the suspect has to be charged within a year of the offence. Lewis refused to name either man during police interview).
165. Case of Howard Lichtenstein, Dentist (Skokie, Illinois) (Convicted of indecent solicitation of a child.)
166. Case of Brad J. Liebermam – AKA “the Plumber Rapist” (Skokie, IL) (Serial rapist. Convicted on over a dozen counts of criminal sexual assaults in the 1970’s and 80’s. AKA: the “Plumber Rapist”.  Pose as a plumber, when women let him into their apartments, he would sexually assault them)
167. Case of Anton Nikolayevich Lipin (Baltimore, MD) (Listed on the National Sex Offenders Registry under the category of Child Sexual Offenders)
168. Case of Sidney Landau (Anaheim, CA; Placentia, California; Santa Ana, CA; San Francisco, CA; Queens, NY) ( In 1982, Landau was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy and served two years in prison. After a 1988 conviction for molesting an 8-year-old Anaheim boy, he served eight more years)
169. Case of Jeffrey Robert Libman – Webe Web Corp (Fort Lauderdale, FL) (Alabama federal grand jury indicted Marc Greenberg and Jeffrey Libman for operating a child modeling Web site that gained national attention for posting provocative photos of underage girls. Both were charged with 80 counts of conspiring to use minors for sexual photos and interstate transportation of such photos)
170. Case of Simon Livshitz (Haifa, Israel) (Suspected in the trafficking of women. Charged with money laundering leading to property and funds confiscate by police).
171. Case of Matthew A. Lowe – Baby sitter, Camp Counselor Temp Dor Dorim (Weston, FL) (Pleaded no contest in circuit court to three counts: two misdemeanor charges of exposure of sexual organs and one felony charge of aggravated battery)
172. Case of Michael Lytton (Ilford, England) (Convicted of sexually assaulting a woman after posing as a clinical psychologist).
173. Case of Meir Maman, Tiberias, Israel (Indicte on charges of sodomizing and sexually molesting 10 young boys, including a three-year-old, over the past few years).
174. Case of Perry March – Attorney at Lawyer (Nashville, TN) (Allegations made of sexual harrassment, with an out of court settlement.  Arrested and chared with murder of his wife)
175. Case of Rochelle Marcus (Accused of sexually abusing children at the Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center).
176. Case of Jacek Marczsewski (Far Rockaway, NY) (Charged with sexually abusing a child)
177. Case of Marla Marks (Dorset, England) (Mother Accused of Incest)
178. Case of Roger Mason Levin, MD (Palo Alto, CA; Menlo Park, CA) (Allegations of child sexual abuse and professional sexual misconduct span for over 20 years. There were also allegations of possessing child pornography)
179. Case of Sergei Mayatski (Eilat, Israel) (Charged with of sexually abusing 13 year old teenager from Minsk, Belarus over the past three years. Mayatski admitted that he had sex with the teen, but said it was consensual and that it was partly done for educational purposes).
180. Case of Adam Melzer – Youth Supervisor and Coach (River Edge, NJ.; Teneck, NJ (Arrested and charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly asking four 16-18 year-old boys to give him naked pictures of themselves.)
181. Case of Yosef Meystel (AKA: Joseph Meystel) – Yeshiva Administrator, Rabbi Naftoli Riff Yeshiva (South Bend, IN; Chicago, IL. (Accused of child molestation)
182. Case of Meyer Miller (AKA: Unnamed Kosher Butcher) (Chicago, IL) (Accused of molesting children for over 30 years)
183. Case of Morris Ray Millman (Chicago, IL) (Convicted of aggravated kidnapin, aggravated criminal sexual abuse with bodily harm)
184. Case of Avi Mizrahi (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).
185. Case of David Mizrahi (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).
186. Case of Mordechai Mizrahi (Convicted of a gang rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old mentally disabled woman, and of confining her).
187. Case of Yosaf Mizrahi (Brooklyn, NY) (Arrested for promoting prostitution — an indication he was involved in the operation of the brothel, and not merely a customer).
188. Case of Yitzhak Mordechai – Israeli Public Official (Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted of sexual assault)
189. Case of Bernard Mutterperl (Brooklyn, NY) (Charged attempted kidnapping (upgraded from first- and second-degree unlawful imprisonment), third-degree burglary and endangering the welfare of a child.)
190. Case of Laizer Nabochov (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested this week by the Israel Police’s Etgar unit on suspicion of trading in women).
191. Case of Dan Nadger – Cook at Gan City Wedding Hall (Rehovot, Israel) (Tel Aviv District Court Judge Noga Ohad on Wednesday released a rape suspect to house arrest, saying that he and the victim of the alleged attack were “jointly responsible for what occurred.”)
192. Case of Lawrence Nevison (New York, NY) (Convicted of molesting his nephew.  He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)
193. Case of Stuart Nevison (AKA: Stewart Nevison ) (New York, NY) (Convicted of molesting his cousin.  He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)
194. The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950’s (Baltimore, MD) (Students accused of sexually molesting a younger student)
195. Case of David Newman (Los Angeles, CA) (Pleaded no contest to a felony lewd act against a 15-year-old).
196. Case of the New York Society for the Deaf’s Home (New York, NY) (Accused of treating disabled patients “like animals,” beaten, drugged and robbed of their government checks).
197. Case of Arkadi Nissanov (Jerusalem, Israel) (Arrested this week by the Israel Police’s Etgar unit on suspicion of trading in women).
198. Case of Yosef Sagiv Ofri – Israeli Vice Consul, Security Officer (Atlanta, GA; Tel Aviv, Israel) (Accused of using the internet and email in order to persuade a child to carry out illegal acts such as sodomy and severe sexual abuse.  The Jerusalem Post reports that Ofri is a security officer with the consulate and carries an Israeli diplomatic passport. The Israeli Embassy in Washington confirmed that Ofri had been charged but refused to release more information on the case.)
199. Case of Steven Howard Oken (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted of a series of sexual assaults and murders.  Received the death penalty)
200. Case of Ephraim Ohana (AKA: Efraim Ohana) (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. A letter from the Vaad HaRabbonim of Greater Baltimore has been issued regarding Efraim Ohana which states that he should be refused entry into all synagogues and homes in the Baltimore community.)
201. Case of Raymond M. Pietrowski (Chicago, IL and Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted in the attempted rape of an 11-year-old boy will serve no prison time but instead will spend 10 years on probation in Israel)
202. Case of Mark Pikovsky (Convicted and sentanced to five years for trafficking women for prostitution).
203. Case of Arthur S Pomerantz – School Psychologist, (Silver Spring, MD) (Convicted, on charges of child sexual abuse)
204. Case of Roman Polanski (AKA: Raimund Liebling) Filmmaker- (Los Angeles, CA; Paris France) (Convicted sex offender who fled the United States following his arrest for drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl back in the 1980’s)
205. Case of Haim Ramon – Defense Minister (Jerusalem, Israel) (Stands trial for indecent assault on charges of having forcibly kissed a female soldier in an Israeli government office).
206. Case of Moshe Reichman (Golders Green and Stamford Hill – London, England) (Arrested and charged with raping a boy in a synagogue men’s room. He is accused of four offences which allegedly took place in 2004)
207. Case of the Rogers Park JCC, (Chicago, Illinois) (This was the first case of alleged mass molestation recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual abuse by a group of adults, consists of 246 allegations that staff members abused children enrolled at the center, according to the Illinois Department of children and Family Services).
208. Case of Harold S. (Ontario, Canada) (Confessed to having sexual relations with a boy)
209. Case of Gadi Saban, Israeli soap opera star (Arrested and charged with the rape, attempted rape and indecent assault on a woman in the bathroom of a Tel Aviv night club).
210. Case of Guy Joseph Raz (AKA: Guy Raz) – Hebrew School Teacher (Pasadena, CA) (Convicted, plead guilty on federal charges that he used the Internet to solicit sex from a 13-year-old former student)
211. Case of Avi Rodef Shalom (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prision for sexually assaulting a six-and-a-half year old girl)
212. Case of Tuvya Rokach – Monsey, NY; Brooklyn, NY; Toronto, Canada (Rokach with second-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.Rokach also is being investigated by police in Toronto, apparently where he had lived before coming to Monsey, police said).
213. Case of Darryl Rosen, Police Officer (Sacramento, CA)
214. Case of Sam Rosenbloom – Operates an On-Line Succah business at http://www.succah.com (Accused of Domestic Violence and refusing to give his wife a Get <Jewish divorce>).
215. Case of Jonathan Rosenthal – Community Police Liason (London, England) (Acquitted of sexually assaulting a few children, after a jury used ancient common law right, deciding evidence wasn’t strong enough.)
216. Case of Rabbi Joel Roth (Alegedly making a sexually explicit statement to a student at the seminary)
217. Case of Marni Nasia-Rubin (Toledo, OH) (Convicted, pleaded no contest to one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor).
218. Case of Adam Theodore Rubin – Teacher, Coach and Girl Scout Coordinator (Arnold, MD) (Convicted of using a computer to solicit sex with a minor, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia).
219. Case of Tuvya Sa’ar – Director-General of the Israel Journalists’ Union (Tel Aviv) (Arrested on suspicion of having intercourse with a minor and coercing her for sexual favors.)
220. Case of Kenneth Shackman (London, England) (Convicted, found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault.  He was sentenced to four-and- a-half years in prison for sexually abusing three young girls over 20 years ago.  was found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault.)
221. Case of Arthur Samet (Borough Park, NY) (Arrested in October, 2008 and charged with sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child beginning in December 2001 at the 14th Ave)
222. Case of Drew Sanders (New Springville, NY; Staten Island, NY) (Pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible touching)
223. Case of Aryeh Scher – Israeli vice-consul (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (Accused of possession of child pornography.  Charges dropped when Scher fled the country).
224. Case of George Schteinberg – Teacher (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (Accused of possession of child pornography.  Charges dropped when Schteinberg fled the country).
225. Case of Pinchas Schneider – restaurateur (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Accused and ndicted on rape and assault charges).
226. Case of Yaakov Shneiderman (Be’er Sheva, Israel) (Arrested this week by the Israel Police’s Etgar unit on suspicion of trading in women).
227. Case of Adrian Schwartz (Rishon Lezion) (Convicted, sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a 10 year-old-girl and a 23-year-old woman).
228. Case of David Schwartz – Camp Counselor (Culver City, CA) (Convicted and sentenced to one year in residential treatment and five years’ probation for molesting a 4-year-old boy in his care at summer camp. A six-year prison sentence was suspended).
229. Case of Jerrold Schwartz – Scoutmaster (New York, NY) (Convicted and sentanced to 8 years in prison for multiple counts of sodomizing his former scout ).
230. Case of Stanley D. Schwartz (Rockville, MD) (Convicted on molestation charges, after 15-year-old exchange student from Kuwait told detectives that Schwartz fondled him Aug. 27, 2008.  Schwartz, who was acting as a surrogate guardian because the teenager’s host parents couldn’t take care of him that night.  Similar allegations were made back in the early 1990’s, yet no charges were ever brought up against him).
231. Case of Michal Schwartz Shenbaum (AKA: Unnamed Abusive Mother From Jerusalem) (Jerusalem, Israel) (Arrested on charges of child abuse.  Allegations were made of cult like practices)
232. Case of Dana R. Schwartzenfeld (Buffalo Grove, IL; West Bloomfield, MI) (Convicted on charges relating to grabbing and massaged a students genitals through his slacks.)
233. Case of Benny Sela (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Escaped from prison - Benny Sela known as the “Tel Aviv serial rapist” was convicted in October, 2000 on 13 counts of rape. Sela tortured, beat and raped dozens of little girls and women, terrorizing an entire city for months.
234. Case of Gal Shamir (Holon, Israel) (Convicted to 17 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting six children.
235. Case of Yitzhak Sha’ari and the House hostel – International Youth Hostel (Jerusalem, Israel) (The local building and planning committee cited allegations of sexual harassment against Sha’ari published in the popular U.S. student travel guide Let’s Go.)
236. Case of Boris Shimshishvilli (Arrested as part of an operation launched by Tel Aviv detectives, in which an officer was sent undercover to purchase women over the telephone).
237. Case of Grig Sholkin (Israel) (Convicted of human trafficking, assault and other charges, by his own admission. He has not yet been sentenced).
238. Case of Jackie Shoshan (Be’er Sheva, Israel) (Convicted of 14 indecent acts against a 13 year old boy)
239. Case of Zalman Silber (Monsey, NY; Borough Park, NY; Brooklyn, NY) (Arrested and charged with pretending to be a doctor and giving unsuspecting women “gynecological exams,”. Silber was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and unauthorized practice and professions for impersonating a doctor. He allegedly molested two women, ages 18 and 20. But police sources told the News that investigators believe he may have begun his activities in 2003.)
240. Case of Irwin Silverman – Chief Counsel to U.S. secretary of interior 1933-53 (Accused of molesting his daughter Sue William Silverman).
241. Case of Robert A. Singer – CEO, National Children’s Museum (Arrested on child pornography charges, accused of using his work computer to send explicit images to others — including an undercover New York City detective)
242. Case of Blake Sinrod – Teacher and Camp Counselor (West Boca Raton, FL) (Arrested and charged with molesting two students in his elementary classroom. It has been reported that there might be eight other victims as well.  Sinrod faces five felony counts on charges.  It appears that Sinrod targeted children of non-English-speaking parents so they would have a hard time reporting it.)
243. Case of Paul Slifer – Teacher (Livingston, NJ) (Accused of sexually assaulting a several students, and impersonating a doctor).
244. Case of Itai Snapier (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of distributing child pornography over the Internet.  Also see: Case of Yoav Biran and Case of Rafael Kaplanovsky )
245. Case of Ari Sorkin – Synagogue Youth Worker (Elkins Park, PA) (Convicted of molesting a 16 yr. old girl)
246. Case of Nachman Stal  (Kiryat Sefer, Israel; Tel Aviv, Israel; London England) (a Ger Chasid, was convicted of raping a boy under the age of 16 in Tel Aviv between April and May 1998 and indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16 in Tel Aviv between December 1998 and February 1999.)
247. Case of Martin H. Stein, MD – Psychiatrist (Arlington, VA) (Stripped of his medical licenses in Virginia and the District for negligence, inappropriate and excessive prescribing of drugs for patients as young as 4 and sexually intimate behavior with a patient.)
248. Case of Robert Sternberg (Monsey, NY) (Convicted sex offender)
249. Case of Uri Suissa, Senior Justice Ministry official, Israel (Accused of sexually harassed a female worker and that pressure was put on her to deny the charge).
250. Case of Robert Taylor – Former Board Member Temple Beth Emet (Los Angeles, CA) (Convicted of molesting a boy, served a sex month jail sentance).
251. Cases of Vladislav Vaksler (Czech Republic; Haifa, Israel; Petah Tikva, Israel; Tel Aviv, Israel) (Extradited from the Czech Republic to Israel under suspicion of involvement in women trafficking, as well as a myriad of related offenses including pimping, imprisonment, assault, threats and rape.)
252. Case of Alan Edwin Waldman (Pikesville, MD) (Listed on the National Sex Offenders Registry under the category of Child Sexual Offenders.  Charged with 2nd Degree Sex Offense).
253. Case of Mark Anthony Wares (Hutchinson, Kansas) (Convicted of aggravated sexual battery and making a terrorist threat.(2) While on parole from these charges, he was convicted of kidnaping and aggravated battery. He is presently serving a sentence of twenty to forty-five years.)
254. Case of Jonathan Warrents (Newcastle, England) (Convicted on charges of gross indecency with an 11-year-old boy.  Warrents had a previous sex offence conviction dating back 25 years.  In January, 2006 Warrents was barred from saying Kaddish for his mother at Newcastle’s United Hebrew Congregation.).
255. Case of Sanford Wasserman (Tamarac, FL)
256. Case of Howard Marc Watzman, MD – Pediatrician (Chicago, IL; Peoria, IL; Rockford,IL; Wichita, KS; Philadelphia, PA and in Maryland) (Pleaded guilty to charges that he spent thousands of dollars collecting hundreds of computer images of child pornography including photos of victims as young as 4 years old engaging in sex with adults).
257. Case of David Douglas Webber – Mashgiach “Kashrut Supervisor” – (Calgory, Canada) (Convicted and sentenced to six years for possessing child pornography and molesting seven boys over the past eight years).
258. Case of David Weinberg – former Bar-Ilan University spokesperson (Israel) – (Convicted of sexual harassment and indecent assault).
259. Case of Joshua Adam Weinstein (Toronto, Canada) (Arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault, four counts of sexual interference, and one count each of invitation to sexual touching and luring a child under 14 years of age (by Internet))
260. Case of Yeedle Werdyger – Chassidic Singer (Jerusalem, Israel) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Arrested for drugging teenage girls some of whom were below the age of 16, video tayping and then having sexual relations with them.  Charges were dropped due to lack of evidence after Werdyger tried to swallow the memory disc of his computer, breaking the chip as he chewed it.).
261. Case of Adam Wexler – Musician (Bat Ayin, Israel) (Arrested for rape and “maasim megunim ” (tranlation: bad things)of a girl when she was seven (she is now 16 or 17)  He is a resident of Bat Ayin)
262. Case of Michael Scott Wheeler -Teacher at Tucson Hebrew Academy (Tucson, AZ) (Convicted on  two counts of child abuse.)
263. Case of Yona Weinberg, MSW, LCSW (Brooklyn, NY) (Arrested after allegations were made of improperly touching several boys, aged 12 and 14.  A two of the boys stated they were abused while Weinberg was assisting them with their religious studies at Khal Beth Abraham Congregation. Other victims include clients from Weinberg’s work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.)
264. Case of Omer Yaish (Mea Shearim), Jerusalem, Israel (Suspected of sexually molesting at least seven haredi children, aged nine to 15, in the neighborhood over the last three and a half years.)
265. Case of Peter Yarrow – Singer (Pleaded guilty to taking “immoral and improper liberties” with a 14-year-old girl back in 1970, was pardoned by Carter in 1981).
266. Case of Jacki Yazdi (Jerusalem, Israel) (Charged with raping two of his employees at Tropicana, a brothel that flourished in Jerusalem, prior to being shut down by authorities in 2003).
267. Case of Michael Yeikovsky (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted of delivering women to work as prostitutes)
268. Case of Uriel Yitzhaki – Former Israeli Consul in Holland (Accused of sexually assaulting a female subordinate 10 years ago, during an earlier stint in the embassy in Holland. According to the complainant, she went to a casino one night with several other embassy employees, including Yitzhaki, and at some point, she went out to their car to fetch something. Yitzhaki then fell upon her, tore her clothes and tried to rape her, but she managed to push him off and escape.)
269. Wayne Stephen Young – Fish Store Owner (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted of the murder of Esther Lebowitz. Sentenced him to life in prison)
270. Case Benjamin Yudkin (Oxford, England) (Pleaded guilty to possessing pseudo-photographic images on his computer of naked girls under the age of 16)
271. Case of Moshe Meshi Zahav (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of molesting adolescent girls who were runaways or in boarding schools. Allegedely the Zahav gave his alleged victims thousands of Shekels and expensive gifts, and then pressured them to have sexual intercourse with him).
272. Case of Dr. Yosef Zaider – Psychologist and T.V. Show Host (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted on three counts of sexual assault)
273. Case of Colonel Atef Zaher, IDF (Israel) (Convicted of indecent sexual acts and illegal intercourse, and was acquitted of the crime of rape.)
274. Case of Arnold Zar-Kessler – Headmaster, Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston (The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination reached a decision June 28, 2004 to dismiss the complaint of sexual harassment against the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston and its headmaster, finding that there was a lack of probable cause).
275. Case of Yitzhak Zarif, 26 (Ra’anana, Israel) (Accused of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl. He was found not-fit to stand trail andwas committed to a mental hospital by the Tel Aviv District Court).
276. Case of Michael Leon Zeve – AKA: Michael Silver (Detroit, MI; Irvine, CA; Tel Aviv, Israel) (Accused of molesting a neighborhood child and members of a youth roller hockey team he coached between 1996 and 2000).
277. Case of David Zimmer (Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of Sexual Abuse-1st Degree of a ten year old female child).
278. Case of Avi Zohar – Or Yehuda Toy Store Employee (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Arrested on suspicion of trying to induce boys aged 12 to 14 to perform sexual acts).

Unnamed Cases

1. Case of Several Unnamed Child Sex Offenders in Har Nof (Jerusalem, Israel) (Outlines several cases of alleged child sex offenders in the charedi town of Har Nof)
2. Case of Two Unnamed Adolescent Males in Rehovot (Jerusalem, Israel) (Two adolescent males were arrested after accusations were made that they beat and sexually assaulted a seventeen year old female for over a sex month period).
3. Case of Two Unnamed 14-year-old Sex Offenders (Convicted of indecent acts against a five- year-old girl)
4. Case of Three Unnamed Babysitting Youths (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted and sentenced to two years’ probation and public service)
5. Case of the Unnamed Babysitting Sex Offender (Kibbutz Misgav Am, Israel) (Convicted and sentanced to 28 months after sexually assauling a five-year-old.  The criminal was a relative of the girl for whom he was a babysitter).
6. Case of the Unnamed Be’er Sheva Sex Offender (Be’er Sheva, Israel) (Convicted of sexually molesting a four-year-old girl and of raping a middle-aged woman).
7. Case of the Unnamed B’Nai Torah Congegation – Hillel Community Day School janitor (Boca Raton, FL) (Accused of child molestation).
8. Case of the Unnamed Haredi Friend of an Orthodox Singer (Jerusalem, Israel) (Two haredi men, YeedleWerdyger and an unnamed friend, were arrested for enticing girls, some of whom were below the age of 16, to take dangerous drugs and then to have sexual relations with them).
9. Case of the Unnamed Cook at Camp Kee Tov, Troy, MO (near St. Louis) (Camp Kee Tov was accused of covering up sexual abuse by an employee).
10. Case of the Unnamed Cop (Tel Aviv Israel) (Convicted of sexually assaulting his younger brother)
11. Case of the Unnamed Elementary School Principal (Haifa, Israel) (Convicted of sexually abusing students, aged eight to eleven).
12. Case of the Unnamed Father committing Incest (Eilat, Israel) (Convicted of sexually assaulting his eleven children.  Serving a 10-year term).
13. Case of Unnamed Father committing Incest in Karmiel, Israel (Allegations that a father had raped his daughter for the last eight years).
14. Case of Unnamed Father committing Incest at Kibbutz Evron – Nahariya, Israel (Allegations that a father had sexual relations with his 12-year-old daughter).
15. Case of the Unnamed Fifty-Five-Year-Old Father (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Charged with molesting a nine-year-old girl several times)
16. Case of Unnamed Fifty-One-Year-Old Father Committing Incest (Central Israel) (Charged a 51-year-old man from the center of the country with raping and sodomizing his nine-year-old daughter. The man had been pardoned five years previously after being convicted of sodomizing and abusing another man.)
17. Case of the Unnamed Internet Pedophile (Kfar Sava, Israel) (Arrested on suspicions he molested at least six children between the ages of 8 and 15 after luring them via the Internet.)
18. Case of the Unnamed Kemp Hills Juvenile Sex Offenders (Silver Springs, MD) (Allegations have been made that children from the same family have been molesting other children in the neighborhood.  It has been suggested that the chldren who are offending are”sexually reactive”.  Allegations have also been a made against the parents of the alleged juvenile offenders).
19. Case of the Unnamed Father committing Incest at Kibbutz Evron – Nahariya, Israel (Allegations that a father had sexual relations with his 12-year-old daughter).
20. Case of Unnamed Father committing incest on his two daughters (Zevulun, Israel) (Arrested on suspicion of having sexual relations with his four-and five-year-old daughters).
21. Case of the Unnamed Father committing Incest from Delaware (New Castle, DE) (Father accused of alleged child molestation)
22. Case of the Unnamed Father committing Incest in a Mazda 323 (Be’er Sheva and Negev, Israel) (Accused of being a serial child rapist)
23. Case of the Unnamed Father committing Incest who is Fiftyone-years-old (Central Israel) (Charged a 51-year-old man from Central Israel, with raping and sodomizing his nine-year-old daughter. The man had been pardoned five years previously after being convicted of sodomizing and abusing another man).
24. Case of the Unnamed Soviet Father committing Incest (Rishon Letzion, Israel) (Accused of sexually and physically assaulting his 17 year old daughter).
25. Case of the Unnamed Father who Sold his Mentally-Handicapped Daughter (Central Israel) (Convicted & sentenced to 14 years’ for selling his 11- year-old mentally-handicapped daughter to a friend to rape in exchange for NIS 50 ($12.00).
26. Case of Unnamed Father/Grandfather Vs. State of Israel Vs.(Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted – 68 year old Israeli religious man pled guilty to repeated molestation of his granddaughter, was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
27. Case of the Unnamed Father/Grandfather (Ashkelon, Israel) (Accused of molesting his daughter and granddaughter)
28. Case of the Unnamed Grandfather (Tel Aviv) (Charged with raping and sodomizing two of his grandchildren).
29. Case of the Unnamed Female (Three) Teenagers who Beat and Sexually Assault Younger Girl (Rishon Letzion, Israel) (Accused of molesting at least 2 younger girls in the neighborhood).
30. Case of the Unnamed Fifty-eight-year-old man from Petah Tikva, Israel (Charged in Tel Aviv District Court with repeatedly raping the 10- year-old daughter of his girlfriend over a three-year period).
31. Case of the Unnamed Fiftyfive-year-old Man (Tel Aviv) (Charged with molesting a nine-year-old girl several times). .
32. Case of Unnamed Florida pedophile who works with Jewish youth (FL) (Accused of molesting children in his care)
33. Case of the Unnamed Forth Individual (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of distributing child pornography over the Internet, a gag order has been placed on the name).
34. Case of the Unnamed Fortysix-year-old Man (Herzliya, Israel) (Charged with molested a 10-year-old neighborhood girl several times from 1989 through 1991 in his car. Also allegedly took the girl to a public park, waiting until other children left to abuse her).
35. Case of Four Unnamed Israeli soldiers (Israel) (Suspected of raping a female soldier while on vacation in the southern town of Eilat. Another soldier is suspected of witnessing the rape without trying to prevent it.)
36. Case of the Unnamed Four Suspected Web Pedophiles (Jerusalem, Israel) (Arrested in connection with an international child pornography ring.  Also see:Case of Yoav Biran and Case of Rafael Kaplanovsky)
37. Case of the Unnamed Fourteen-year-old boy (Haifa, Israel) (Accused of the rape of a five-year-old girl and a six-year-old girl).
38. Case of the Unnamed Fourteen-year-old Rapist (Convicted and sentenced a 14-year-old boy to 15 years in prison and three years of probation for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl).
39. Case of Two Unnamed 14-year-old Sex Offenders (Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted of indecent acts against a five- year-old girl).
40. Case of the Unnamed Gang Rapes (Rishon Letzion and Ashdod, Israel) (gang rapes in two different towns)
41. Case of the Unnamed Hadera Train Station Sex Offender (Haifa, Israel) (Accused of raping a pregnant woman)
42. Case of the Unnamed Haredi Israeli Soldier (Jerusalem, Israel) (An Israeli soldier serving in a predominantly haredi combat unit was under arrest for allegedly having sexual relations with several 16 year male teens in his room in the Soldier’s House soldiers’ quarters in Jerusalem.)
43. Case of an Unnamed Israeli Public Figure (Accused of committing indecent acts, including sodomy, on his stepson).
44. Case of the Unnamed Jaffa Teenage Serial Sex Offender (Arrested and confessed to molesting 20 children aged eight to 12 over the past half year).
45. Case of the Unnamed Jewish Youth Group Leader/Rabbinical Student (Queens, NY) (Accused of molesting an 11 year old boy in the basement of a synagogue).
46. Case of Unnamed Jewish Quarter child molester (Jerusalem, Israel) (suspicions in the quarter that the 16-year-old arrested by the police in 1988 had “taken the rap” for his older brothers, who are still on the loose. The youth was eventually institutionalized. This case involves a 5 year old male victim).
47. Case of the Unnamed Lakewood Rapist (Lakewood, NJ) (The attacker dragged his 19-year-old victim into his green Jeep Cherokee and used restraints to keep her there. He returned her to the gym about 5 a.m. Monday.)
48. Case of the Lower East Side Ex-Convict Unnamed Father (Arrested after admitting that he had sex with his 5-year-old daughter and later offered her up to another man (Ariel Berlin), who was a sexual partner of his).
49. Case of Unnamed Maccabi Haifa player, Israel (Accused of sexual abuse and assault)
50. Case of the Unnamed Maintenance Worker at Congregation Netzah Yisrael (Ashkelon, Israel) (Arrested and accused of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl at a city pre-school complex. The suspect has also been accused in another case – he was also questioned following similar allegations in Eilat. No indictment has emerged from the Eilat case).
51. Case of the Unnamed Man Wanted by the FBI Found in Israel (Los Angeles, CA; Eilat Israel) (The 47-year-old man, who is a US citizen was withheld by the police at the FBI’s request, is suspected of serious sex crimes against several relatives, including his granddaughter)
52. Case of the Unnamed Man who Paid to have sex with a Mentally-Handicaped Girl (Central Israel) (Convicted of sexual assault, and was sentenced to 16 years in jail after paying the girls father to have sex with her).
53. Case of the Unnamed Man who Molested his Wifes Younger Siblings (Netanya, Israel) (Arrested after being accused of molesting wife’s four siblings, three girls aged 5, 8 and 12 and a 3-year-old boy).
54. Case of the Unnamed Man from Ramle, Israel (A man was arrested after stabbing a 13 year old girl, over an argument over payment for her services).
55. Case of the Unnamed Abusive Mother from Netivot (Netivot, Israel)
56. Case of Unnamed Principal’s Husband at the Tel Aviv Arts School (Tel Aviv, Israel)
57. Case of Unnamed Principal in a Brooklyn yeshiva (Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of molesting students)
58. Case of the Unnamed Repeat Sex Offender (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted unnamed Sex offender sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl. After choking her until she lost consciousness, the assailant rolled her up in a carpet and left her for dead outside).
59. Case of the Unnamed Rishon Letzion Rapist (A 13-year-old girl filed a complaint at a Rishon Letzion police station stating she had been sexually assaulted by two men).
60. Case of the Unnamed Safad Rapist (Safad, Israel) (Allegations were made that a man wearing hassidic garb sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl).
61. Case of the Unnamed Senior Driver Licensing Inspector And A Driving Instructor (Negev, Israel) (Arrested a senior driver licensing inspector and a driving instructor on suspicion of having offered to grant a young woman a license if she agreed to have sexual relations with both of them.)
62. Case of the Unnamed Serial Pedophile (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Man arrested this weekend on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl who was found rolled up in a carpet.)
63. Case of the Unnamed 17-year old Rapist (Central Israel) (Accused of sexually assaulting a girl from his school for over two years).
64. Case of the Unnamed Seventy-eight-year old man from Jaffa, Israel (Charged with raping his friend’s five- year-old daughter.)
65. Case of Unnamed Teacher in Eda Haredit School, Israel (Sexually molested at least two of the pupils in a school belonging to the hassidic sect)
66. Case of Unnamed Teacher at Michael Sobell Sinai School (England)
67. Case of the Unnamed Three Students from Bat Yam Yeshiva (Ayalon Region, Israel) (Three students aged 13-14 were arrested and confessed to the allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old schoolmate)
68. Case of the Unnamed Two Sharon Region Absorption Center Rapist (Two Alleged rapists (aged 17 and 18) were arrested).
69. Case of the Unnamed Sibiling Incest (Zevulun, Israel) (Arrested after allegedly forcing his seven-year-old sister to have sexual relations with him several times).
70. Case of the Unnamed Six Male Teenagers (Kibbutz Shomrat, Israel) (Accused and Convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, over a period of several days on the kibbutz)
71. Case of the Unnamed Sixteen-year-old repeat sex offender (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Convicted of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy and confessed to sexually assaulting another child, who was his 10 year-old neighbor).
72. Case of Unnamed Sixty-year-old Man (Herzliya, Israel) (Charged with sexually abusing a neighborhood boy, 11, after inviting him to try his exercise bicycle in the basement).
73. Case of the Unnamed Sixty-four-year-old Neighbor (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Charged in Tel Aviv District Court with systematically raping and sexually assaulting a 20-year-old man over an 11-year-period).
74. Case of the Unnamed Synagogue Rapist (Jerusalem Israel) (Accused and arrested.  20 year old Jerusalem man was under arrest for sexually assaulting at least ten children in a city synagogue).
75. Case of the Three Unnamed Students from Bat Yam Yeshiva (Three students aged 13-14 were arrested and confessed to the allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old schoolmate)
76. Case of Three Unnamed Female Teenagers who Beat and Sexually Assault Younger Girl (Rishon Letzion, Israel) (Accused of molesting at least 2 younger girls in the neighborhood).
77. Case of the Unnamed Two Sharon Region Absorption Center Rapist (Two Alleged rapists (aged 17 and 18) were arrested).
78. Case of Two Unnamed men from the West Bank village of Yata (Two men from the West Bank village of Yata have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a teenage girl and enticing her to use drugs).
79. Case of Two Unnamed Students who attempted to Film Female Classmates (Holon, Israel) (Arrested after allegations were made that two high school students, both aged 16, attempted to film female classmates in the school’s bathrooms).
80. Case of Unnamed Teacher Molesting Students (1853) (Accused of molesting students back in 1800’s that were under the age of 13).
81. Case of Unnamed Thirty-five-year-old man from Bnei Brak, Israel (Arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting his neighbor and performing indecent acts on him).
82. Case of the Unnamed Thirty-three-year-old Man (Petah Tikva) (Accused of raping a colleague).
83. Case of the Unnamed Twenty-one-year-old Man (Beersheba, Israel) (Charged with raping a five-year-old girl whose mother had asked him to bring her home to a Beersheba absorption center from kindergarten).
84. Case of the Unnamed Yachting Instructor (Herzliya, Israel) (Arrested on suspicion of abusing four 11-year-olds)
85. Case of the Unnamed Youth Basketball Coach (Jerusalem, Israel) (Arrested after six youths complained to police).

1. Case of The Dentist Couple (Kfar Sava, Israel) (Charged with Severely Abusing Daughters)
2. Case of Rabbi Bernard Freilich (Borough Park/Brooklyn, NY) (Acquitted of death threats to an alleged victim)
3. Case of Kenneth Gribetz, District Attorney (Rockland County, NY) (Plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of defrauding the government in a deal he worked out with the U.S. Attorney. Although married, a father and grandfather, Gribetz was partly done in by his former mistress, who went to the media with information about him.)
4. Case of Michael Hersh, Miriam Hersh, and Rabbi Aharon Schechter (Brooklyn, NY) (Allegations were made that Isaac Hersh’s parents and rabbi knew that Isaac hersh would be abused and neglected if he was sent to Tranquility Bay Reform School in Jamaica).
5. Case of Jewish School in Manchester, England (School was under investigation by social services over allegations that pupils have been mentally abused).
6. Case of Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Los Angeles, CA) (Accused of Rabbinical Sexual Misconduct by congregants after learning Rabbi Jacobs was having an alleged affair with Anina Green, who was later murdered by her husband according to Michele Samit’s book, “No Sanctuary: The True Story of a Rabbi’s Deadly Affair” )
7. Modesty Patrol (Jerusalem, Israel)
8. Case of Amy Neustein (This is a case of alleged child abuse and neglect. As of October 27, 2008 there have never been any allegations of a sex crime)
9. Case of Rabbi Sholom Twersky (Brooklyn, NY) – (this is a ase of alleged child physical abuse).
10. Case of Rabbi Gershon Winkler (Cuba, NM; Thousand Oaks, CA) (“Acknowledged that he fathered a child with a student, carried on several “intimate relationships” with students over the years and said he is currently in a relationship with two women.” Winklder also believes it is wrong to insist on an “across-the-board” ban on sexual relationships involving rabbis and followers, teachers and students, and counselors and patients.”)

Source

UK rabbi ‘offered cocaine for sex’

November 19 2009

A rabbi from northwest Britain has been accused of financing a drug-dealing business and offering cocaine to girls in exchange for sex, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported Wednesday.

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish, of Upper Park Road, Salford, is said to have rented an apartment where he could “relax and have a party”. Police raided the flat and discovered a total of 101 grams (3.6 ounces) of cocaine and more than £17,000 (about $28,567).

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Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech haolam, shehechiyanu, vkiyimanu, vhigiyanu, lazman hazeh.

Praised be You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who has kept us alive,
sustained us and permitted us to reach this season..

One down, 99 to go …

In Judaism, our sages teach us that we are supposed to say 100 blessings a day – 100 blessings that thank God for various things in our lives – eating a piece of bread, being in the presence of a great scholar, seeing a rainbow, waking up in the morning, drinking a glass of wine, or two, or three, or four if it’s Passover.  Even the very act of being alive merits a prayer that begins “Baruch atah adonai” – praised are you God, for giving “X.”

And so, our American Holiday expresses a very deep religious mandate – that of appreciation, of happiness, of joy. Our morning liturgy expresses this quite beautifully when we exclaim, “Mah Rabu Maasecha Adonai,” “How great are your works, O God!” WE are God’s works.

On Thanksgiving, we thank God for what is right next to us. Each other. We thank God for friendship, for love, for colleagues, for the power of community. It’s no wonder our pilgrims celebrated with a large feast, followed by a game of football, of course … Eating is communal, the act of eating in and of itself represents joy, a certain thanksgiving all its own!

This week’s Torah portion starts off very onimously; Jacob has just left his home, afraid for his life as he not only stole the birthright from Esau, but deceived his very own father into thinking he was, in fact, his older brother. Rebecca sends him away, by himself, with only his fears and insecurities. Exhausted, he falls asleep on a rock, has a dream of angels going up and down a ladder, and then wakes up, exclaiming something that may be the hallmark not only of Judaism, but of religion:

God was in this place and I did not know!

There’s a story of a famous rabbi – Rabbi Mendl Of Kotsk; he used to ask everyone he came across one simple question. “Where do you find God?” Answers were as diverse as the people he approached, of course. Once, after asking someone his famous question, someone threw it back onto him, saying, “Rabbi, where do YOU find God?” The Kotsker Rebbe answered, “I find God … wherever and whenever I let God in.”

God was in this place and I do not know. For me, at times in my life, I could say, “God IS in this place, and I do not know.” Put another way, a miracle is only a miracle, if we choose to view it AS a miracle. Our lives are a miracle, if we observe them as such. God is in our lives, but only if we choose and allow it.

I think our rabbis understood this when they commanded us to say 100 blessings a day. Because saying a blessnig does two things; it recognizes the power of a moment, bringing thanksgiving to an occurrence in your life; but also, the very SAYING of the blessing can create the power of a moment! It forces us to see that God not only WAS there, but IS here, and WILL be here.

Paris. 1922. If you were strolling around the Parisian streets that summer, you might have came across a newspaper called L’Intransigeant, a popular periodical at the time. It had a section that posed various thought-provoking questions, and its editorial staff solicited responses from French socialites and intellectuals. The topics ranged from the practical: “Do you have any suggestions for improving traffic congestion in Paris” to the philosophical: “What is the ideal education to give your daughter?” In the summer of 1922, one of its columnists posed the following question. I’d like to think it was meant for the special “High Holiday” issue of the paper. Here’s a translation of the question:

“An American scientist announces that the world will end, or at least that such a huge part of the continent will be destroyed, and in such a sudden way, that death will be the certain fate of hundreds of millions of people. If this prediction were confirmed, what do you think would be its effects on people between the time when they acquired the aforementioned certainty and the moment of cataclysm? Finally, as far as you’re concerned, what would you do in this last hour?”

A number of celebrities replied – writers, sportsmen, even a well-known palm reader. Some speculated that morality would cease to exist, as long term consequences will have vanished along with the foretold eschatological disaster. Others surmised that passions for worldly pleasures would consume one’s mind, so much so that people would forget about the apocalypse, up until the moment of its arrival.

How would you respond?

As we stand together on this night of Yom Kippur – this night of Kol Nidrei in which we think upon our past promises, our future vows, and our present self – a better question is: How WILL you respond?

Unlike the question posed in the newspaper, my question is not a hypothetical. I think it is perhaps the question of the High Holidays. And on Yom Kippur, as the gates are about to close, as we stand and pray with rumbling stomachs and slightly nervous hearts, we get ready for n’ilah, the final service – in which God locks the gates. We pray that each of us has a G’mar V’Hatimah Tovah ­– literally meaning a good sealing – a good ending. And so, our tradition asks each of us the same question as the secular Parisian paper: In this last hour, what will you do?

Yom Kippur reminds us of our own mortality. In many ways, it is a dress rehearsal for death. We afflict our bodies by fasting and our souls by confessing, we abstain from music and parties. We recite a vidui, a confession, a prayer that is only recited on two occasions – today, on Yom Kippur, and at the conclusion of each of our lives. We pray to a God that decides who shall die and who shall live, and as we say the words of the Unatanetokef prayer, verbalizing the ways that God can end our lives, we feel that yes, today is awesome, and full of dread. For on this day, God brings us to the precipice of death – confronting our true selves – our mortality – our finitude. And tomorrow evening, just as we light the Havdalah candle, God returns us to the tasks of our daily lives. But it won’t be the same – the journey will change us. We learn to die so that we learn to live.

Many of you may have scene the movie Fight Club, a movie I would recommend, but not for the faint of heart. It’s violence and dystopia are disturbing, but beyond the movie’s fast-paced editing and photography tricks lies a very insightful and inspirational message.

In one scene, the protagonist, Tyler Durden, walks into a Gas Station and forces the clerk outside. He steals his wallet, grabs his drivers license out and says, “Raymond K. Hessel. – before you worked at this gas station, what did you want to be?” Scared beyond belief, it takes Raymond a while to respond but when he does he shakily says, “I want to be a veterinarian.” Tyler says, “I’m going to check in on you in six months – you better be on your way to becoming a vet.” Later in the movie, the camera pans around After leaving the gas station, Tyler says, “Tomorrow morning, Raymond will eat breakfast. And it will taste better than any breakfast ever has.” Because Raymond feels a renewed purpose to his life, because he now has a second chance – he will look on his life with new eyes.

Judaism as well teaches us to look at things with new eyes. Each morning, Jews say “Mah Rabu Ma’asecha Adonai!” – How great and awesome are your works, O God. Like the thundering blast of the shofar, these liturgical words awaken us from our slumber, sensitizing us to the wonderment of living. But the routines of our lives dulls our appreciation; we lose what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel calls radical amazement. What once was exciting is now dull. What was once an amazing love seems like a responsibility, or a burden. Wonderful friendships seem staid. Old hobbies no longer hold our attention. What once seemed so meaningful and special is now covered with dust. A popular comedy a few years back had a jaded 30-something looking at his daughter, wistfully remarking, “I wish I liked ANYTHING as much as my kids like bubbles.”

The act of daily living sometimes serves as a vaccine that renders us immune to … the miracle of daily living. Yom Kippur forces us to break the neglect that we’ve had for our own lives. It reminds us that there will be a last hour, a last day. And gives us a second chance to reclaim that sense of radical amazement.

Each of us is taught: “Repent one day before you die.” Of course, we don’t have full control over the length of our life’s journey, and so, the teaching goes, we must repent every day. Because we just don’t know. But on Yom Kippur, today is the day. And if we do our work, in some ways each of us will die – because we will emerge through the locked gates tomorrow with more courage, more openness, more kindness, more forgiveness, more hope. Yom Kippur is meant not just to inspire us, to comfort us, or even to discomfort us. It is meant to change us. To paraphrase the Rainer Maria Rilke quote I read last week, Yom Kippur helps each of us be a poet, with the ability to draw forth life’s riches.

(brief pause)

In high school, I once said: “I’m going to start a procrastination club. But you know what, not today.” Our biggest problem is not that our lives are too short, but that they are too long! We assume there will be a tomorrow. And a next week. And a next year. And so, we don’t go to veterinary school, we don’t apologize to loved ones, we don’t fulfill the very dreams that make us who we are. We have an assumption that tomorrow will be better – easier. Grudges will end. Disputes will disappear. All will be well. But Ironically, it is our insistence to push things forward into an idealized future that keeps us running along the same hamster wheel, perpetuating a status quo. Yom Kippur reminds us that we can wait no longer. Yom Kippur’s themes pull back the curtain on our illusory assumptions of a better future. This somber day screams to us that even as we pray today for a better tomorrow, we must create that better tomorrow, today. The difference can be summed up this way: John Mayer sings a song, “Waiting for the world to change.” Ghandi said, “BE the change you want to see in the world.”

Let’s return to our French paper in 1922, and the Yom Kippur themed question that it posed. I’m going to read the translated response of an author who had spent the last 12 years writing what would become one of literature’s most revered masterpieces, “In Remembrance of Things Past.” Coming in at well over a million words, it is a 7-volume work that looks back on the life of its protagonist, re-creating and analyzing memories, reflecting on life lived, drawing realizations from past events and people encountered. This 24 hour period is the same. Anyway, known to be a good sport, its author, Marcel Proust responded to the question.

I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it – our life – hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly.

But let all this threaten to become impossible for however, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are human.”

Once upon a time ….

The community was in crisis. It started as a slight food shortage, but turned into something much worse. Friends and families were fighting; attitudes were negative, and the general feeling in the town was not positive. The Ba’al Shem Tov, the community’s rabbi, went into the forest, prayed, and the next day, almost by magic, everything was fixed. People were happy, suffering stopped; the crisis went away.

But what the people didn’t know is that the Ba’al Shem Tov went into a very particular part of the forest, recited a very specific prayer, and lit a fire in a very specific, detailed way. Only after these rituals did God answer his prayers.

Anyway, years later, there was a crisis again, and this time, the Maggid of Mezrich, was the community rebbe. He did remember the precise spot of the forest, and he also remembered the detailed particulars of how the Ba’al Shem Tov lit the fire, but he did not remember the prayer. Nevertheless, God presented him a solution as well.

Hundreds of years later, there was yet another crisis, in that same small village. And there was no rebbe in the community. But one man, the village elder, stepped up and said that he would try. He walked deep into the forest, the fading sunlight trailing behind him. He didn’t know where in the forest to go. Nor did he remember the rituals involved in lighting the fire. He didn’t even remember the specific prayer. But he did remember that once, many years ago, there was a man named the Ba’al Shem Tov who did know these things And THAT was enough – a vague memory of a story. No rituals, no particulars. Just the memory.

This is one of my favorite stories. My professor Lenny Kravitz would call it amphibolous, open to more than one meaning. On one hand, the story reflects the power of memory: we have nostalgia for our ancestors in the shtetl; we reference allusions to Tevya’s outbursts of “Tradition,” We recite the constant liturgical reminders that God freed us from Egypt. And today, we ask God to “remember” us onto life. It is this command, this mitzvah – to zachor – to remember – that appears more than any other command in the entire Torah. This story, then, is itself a memory – a memory highlighting the tremendous power of Jewish memory. That’s one perspective.

Once upon a time …

1992 was my first summer as a camp counselor. After I graduated High School, I wanted to try and be a counselor. That first day, I felt like I was surrounded by giants. Those Camp Colemanites who knew every cheer, and knew when to insert what words into the birkat hamazon. For those of you who grew up at camps, you know who you are … Anyways, I was wide eyed with wonder and shell-shocked with nervousness. Bobby, our camp director brought the staff together during orientation and taught us a lesson that is as much Torah as … well .. .the Torah. “Every tradition begins with a new idea.”

During these high holidays, each of us walks through a dark forest, looking for help. Health issues, financial troubles, relationship problems, regrets, anger … we come here with our hopes, andalso with our pain. And, we too want to know the formula to fix it. And we can either do what those before us did, down to the minutia of arranging sticks in a particular position before lighting a fire, or we can create new traditions.

Many of us know Jewish history. We went to Hebrew school, many of us had a bar or bat mitzvah, some of us attend adult education classes. But whereas we are somewhat aware of Jewish biography, we are hard pressed to think about a spiritual AUTO-biography.

Our tradition teaches us that we pray to the “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, god of Jacob,” in order that we can also learn to pray to the “God of ME.” We need to move beyond history, and toward experience. The focus is not third person learning, but first person life. Theology IS autobiography. Make new memories.

This is the flip side to the forest story. As beautiful as it is, I also find this story heartbreaking. Despite living in different times and different circumstances, each rabbi or leader feels obligated to do exactly what the Ba’al Shem Tov did, instead of finding their OWN solution. Instead of creating a new tradition, they hold on to a shadow of a forgotten memory.

It reminds me of the story about Rabbi Zusya, who is found crying at his desk. He comes upon the epiphany that God does not want him to be as courageous as Abraham, or a leader like Moses. No, God wants Zusya to be Zusya. Make new memories.

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Filmstreams Gala Event. We watched as the acclaimed actress Debra Winger along with out own local Omaha boy, Alexander Payne had an intimate, charming conversation. Debra referred to moving cinematic experiences as “once upon a time” events – she talked about the power of movies to change us, to enlighten us, to challenge us.

We can use this as a metaphor for the memories of our lives; these “once upon a time memories” are the moments that you remember forever. They made you laugh, they made you reflect, they made you cry, they made you … you. And even though the event itself ends, even though our memories-our forests- have boundaries to them, they loop back into us like a klein bottle.

A klein bottle is an optical illusion in which the spout of a bottle goes back into itself. The source feeds the result, and that result becomes a new source. Every tradition began as a new idea. Our memories feed our soul. The challenge is that they can either keep us stuck – going round and round in an endless feedback loop. At the same time, it is these same memories that can free us.

Paul Simon sang, “Preserve your memories; they are all that’s left of you.” As we celebrate holidays, observe sacred rites, chant the Torah, and observe the mitzvot, as we come here to reflect and remember, we recall our “once upon a time” moments, recalling the forests, the fires, and the rituals.

But we do not just hearken toward the past; we hope for the future. And that future is uncertain. I’ve mentioned before that the Day of Atonement is really the Day of MAYBE. Because MAYBE we will be inscribed in the book of life. MAYBE we’ll have health and prosperity. MAYBE we’ll meet someone special (knock on wood!)

This is the power of Genesis. As disturbing as it is, the story of the binding of Isaac, the Akeidah , highlights an incredible character trait of Abraham. He was able to let go. Most of his life was built upon a promise of future descendants. And this is exactly what God asks him to sacrifice. Abraham volunteers to throw out a future that was foretold by none less than God. Abraham doesn’t hesitate; he’s unafraid to walk into a new forest, to light a new fire, creating new rituals, and dreaming new dreams. And we are his descendants.

For me, those Torah covers are white not merely to convey a sense of purity and moral strength, but also the vast openness of possibility. If we let them.

I think Paul Simon is wrong; memories are not all that is left of us. It is precisely the opposite – what’s left of us, as we reflect upon our past, is the ability to create new memories.

Rainer Maria Wilke wrote,

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.”

And Our Torah …. in just two words: choose life.

We ask God to inscribe us in the book of life. But really, I think it’s the other way around. God asks US to inscribe OURSELVES. God wants me to journey into the dark forest. God wants me to recall the memories of stories of others, understanding their fires and rituals. And then, to create my own.

Once upon a time … That time is now. What’s the rest of the story?

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; they’re all that’s left you

- Paul Simon

It was a late night at Camp Coleman. There were no cabin hoppers, Malka had tucked everyone into bed, counselors had already come back from Hofbra … I mean, Huddle House. But high on Mount Yonah, one man was restless. He was expecting to see his long lost friend for the “Bavarian Get-Together” reunion, but he hadn’t shown up yet. Thinking his friend might be lost, he started walking toward Cleveland, on Rt 129. After walking quite a ways, he heard a rustling. Scared, he jumped into a pit right next to mile marker 14. He waited to see what the rustling may have been – because after all … he feared it was … Joe McCarthy.

His friend was lost as well. Instead of going to Yonah, he ended up in Cleveland, and around mile marker 14, heard some rustling, also got scared, and jumped into a ditch.

Both friends startle each other, start laughing uncontrollably and hug each other fiercly. And each keeps asking, “How did this happen?!”

Well, wouldn’t you know it, a rabbi HAPPENED to be walking out of Camp Coleman at that exact moment. The rabbi whispers something to each long lost friend. Each, exclaim, “the Reform Rabbi is right! I am here because of you and you are here because of me.”

And here we are; regardless of when we were. Right now, we’re all in that same place, near mile marker 14 – I am here because of you. You are here because of me.

———–

We’re toward the end of our Torah – in these last portions, Moses reminds the Israelites of what they’ve been through, constantly commanding them – commanding us – to remember; Moses tells us to remember that “my father was a fugitive Aramean,” a line we repeat every year at the Passover table. He commands us to remember that God freed us from Egypt with an outstretched arm. He commands us to remember the miracles and signs that God performed. It is this command, this mitzvah, that is repeated more than any other verb in the entirety of our Torah – the command to remember.

The Israelites are on the cusp of entering the promised land. But instead of moving forward – instead of entering that promised land of milk and honey, they pause. In fact, for almost a fifth of the torah – this entire book of Deuteronomy, they stop to reflect. And to prioritize what they have gone through; to organize the memories of their lives, taking stock of their lives – and as Moses constantly reminds them, to remember the signs and miracles that God has given. We’re having a “Deutoronomy” of sorts right here …

And we remember pretty well. We remember where our names are located on color war plaques. We remember where in the art room we painted our names. We remember who our camp mommy was in 1981. We remember where we were when the tornado came. We remember the times we beat the Barney staff at basketball … Oh wait, maybe not. And for those many of us who came back year after year, it was to keep those memories going.

One of my most important camp memories is also one of the first. 1992 – it was my first summer at Camp Coleman. Too nervous to go as a camper, I decided to try to be a counselor, and came to Camp just after I graduated High School. That first day, I felt that I was surrounded by GIANTS – those Colemanites who knew every song and cheer, the exact path of the James Bond trail, and when to insert what words into the birkat hamazon. You know who you are. I was wide-eyed with wonder and shell-shocked with nervousness. That summer, there was another first timer, who also happened to be the new camp director, Bobby Harris. He brought the staff together into a circle and said, “Every tradition begins with a new idea.” Now for some of the staff who had come with long camp memories, a new idea was cancelling Stanley Cup Night or God forbid, changing to 4 teams for Maccabiah.

Life experience changes tradition. Whether it’s 40 years of wandering the desert, or the transition from camper to staff. It HAS to!

If we went by tradition alone, our spiritual life would be nothing but historical re-creation. In the amidah that we just sung, we said the words “god of Abraham, god of Isaac, god of Jacob, sarah ….” These emphasize that our relationship with God is not one that is learned; it is one that is experienced. It’s not one to be copied or emulated; it’s one to be created, just as we learn from tradition, to make them our own. And for so many of us, we created this here.

And so, as the seasons go round and round, we are in fact on a carousel of time. But it doesn’t go round and round. It spirals – because we, like the Israelites, move forward – I always say that camp helped me to discover talents. Helped us to discover challenges we then worked on overcoming. Taught us how to swing a bat, swim, run a program, be a friend, lead a service, work as a team. Memories aren’t all that’s left of us. It’s the possibility to CREATE memories that is left of us.

I’ve seen the film, Indian Summer, 10 times or so. And every time, toward the end of the movie, there’s one line that gets me. Many of you have probably seen this movie – it’s about a group of thirty somethings that go back to Camp Tamawka, where they grew up at. Anyway, two characters want to take over the camp from the most legendary of camp counselors/mentors/daddy’s/gamad/what have you, “Unca Lou.” The problem is that they don’t have money to buy the camp. Without skipping a beat, Unca Lou says he’ll just give it to them, saying, , “On paper it’s nothing but a bunch of old buldings. Just old buildings.”

On paper, our Torah is just a bunch of words. But put it together with a few hundred people in a small town secluded within the woods of northern Georgia, put a dairy queen a few miles out and a Bavarian Village nearby, and there’s something life-changing. We talk about camp in job interviews, we try talk about it with other friends who look at us like we’re nuts; it’s in our soul. For me …. this place, these relationships – this is part of my Torah. As I re-tell my story, my Deuteronomy, this is the place I grew up, and became a better part of myself.

As the days came closer to this weekend, I kept checking the list of who is coming to this reunion?! Thinking back to past summers, I remember as each summer started, I wondered if so-and-so would be here THIS summer. Bobby, you started a tradition during staff orientation where we talked about those that weren’t able to be here, for one reason or another.

This weekend, I think of Jo-Ellen Unger, Malka Altman, Mike Russo, Alan Levy – the first person to say hello to me on the misrad porch that summer of 1992. Each of us has a huge list of these people, people who influenced us, or taught us, or simply made us smile. And as we did last night, we think of those who have passed away. I think about Elizabeth Harr, Jason Boas, and Shelly Plotkin. Each of us bears witness to the memory of those who gave this place life. And continue to. They too are with us this weekend. They are part of our Deuteronomy; they are written on the Torah scroll of our lives.

I am here because of you, and you are here because of me. Our shared memories of this place are part of who we are – but they will also lead us to the first book of our Torah, to Genesis, as we make new memories, giving space for new people and new ideas to be added to our own, continuing to transform this place of old buildings, to our home of Camp Coleman.

(sing) I wanna sing sing sing I wanna shout shout shout I wanna sing I wanna shout, praise the lord!

Praising the Lord, giving thanks to God, it’s a huge liturgical theme in our liturgy. We thank God for allowing us to wake up, for giving us the miracles of daily life. We give praise for health, for jobs, for friendship, for love. The rabbis teach us that we are to thank God at least 100 times a day – 100 blessings. Whether it be the thankfulness we feel when we break bread at a meal, or the exuberant joy at a wedding, Jews are commanded to show gratitude. Our Talmud teaches this when it asks, “Who is wise?” the answer, “He that is happy with his lot.” To be happy means to appreciate. To notice. To take stock. And we do that through song. (talk about psalm 150 for a bit)

This weekend, Jews celebrate “Shabbat Shira,” the Sabbath of song. It is called that due to this weeks reading from the Torah, taken from the book of Exodus. After 420 years of slavery, God performed ten plagues – ten miracles, and Pharoah finally let them go. With Moses as their guide, they walked out of Egypt. But there was a problem; Pharoah changed his mind and sent his strongest men and fastest horses after them. The Egyptian army was close behind them, and in front of them, the imposing obstacle of the Red Sea. At the last possible moment, making for drama of the highest order, God splits the Red Sea, the Isrealites walk through.

As they march through the sea, Moses starts singing. And suddenly, not unlike a Broadway play in which characters channel their feelings through spontaneous song, all the Israelites were singing in unison: Mi Chamocha BaElim Adonai – Who is like YOU god?

At every fixed prayer service in the Jewish liturgical calendar, we sing this song – the same words that we sang thousands of years ago. The song brings us back to this moment, reminding us of the miracle of the Red sea, certainly, but also the miracles of our daily lives. It focuses our thoughts and intentions. And that is the power of song.

You hear a song on the radio and think of your high school graduation, your first kiss, your wedding, your job, your children, a dance, a deceased relative. Song helps us remember. Music acts as a soulful mnemonic device – a means to forever hold a moment in our brain, and our heart.

Here’s another story:

The Israelites were standing in front of a large body of water. Enemies were behind them, closing in fast. God splits the sea. Israelites go to safety. Sound familiar?

This story, though, refers not to the splitting of the Red Sea. It takes place in a different part of the Bible, in the book of Joshua. But whereas the crossing of the Red Sea is embedded into our souls, our daily liturgy 3 times a day, our Passover celebration and our collective memory, the Joshua tale is relegated mostly to text study and adult education classes. But Why?! The two stories, the narratives, are exactly the same.

One might argue that this incident must pale in comparison to what happened at the Dead Sea. Except if anything, this story is MORE powerful! The story occurs as the Israelites are on the cusp of reaching the promised land, Israel. It’s a glorious moment, as powerful as any cinematic images we have of the Red Sea. This is the compliment to our Exodus story, if not the culmination of it. In terms of historical significance, there is nothing as powerful as finally gaining entrance to the promised land, something that was first promised to Abraham so many generations earlier.

On this Sabbath of Song, I argue that the only difference between the two stories is that of song – in the second, as the miracle happened, there was not a self-realization of that miracle – there was no song. The song at the Red Sea did not just commemorate a historical event, it also helped to create one.

Lawrence Kushner, a Reform Rabbi, tells this story: When the Red Sea parted; everyone was running through the Red Sea, celebrating, dancing, hugging. But there were two guys in back who just didn’t get it. They were complaining. They were walking through the river and were complaining about the smell, wondering when it would be lunch time. After a few minutes, one of their friends said, “Guys! Look up!” It was then that they NOTICED the walls of the Red Sea, surrounding them in comfort, in freedom, and in community. And then started singing.

To me, the moral of the story is this – a miracle is not a miracle unless we choose to look at it AS a miracle. Singing forces us to look up.

Singing causes us to stop and observe the “walls” that are around us in our lives. Whereas it’s extremely easy to read without passion and energy, singing requires intention and effort, thoughtfulness and energy.

This Song of the Sea – it was snug in a certain place, at a certain point in history, and by certain group of people. Whereas the song is particular, its message is universal – each of our lives gives us all sorts of moments, all sorts of miracles, if we dare to see them. We can choose to walk through life so that we smell the dead fish, complaining of hunger and exhaustion, or we can look up, hold hands with our brothers and sisters and exclaim,

( sing) I wanna sing sing sing I wanna shout shout shout I wanna sing I wanna shout praise the Lord!