Video Of Abandoned Rubashkin Mill

WFMZ TV has video of Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin’s burned out, long abandoned Allentown, PA mill.

Here’s the money quote:

[City council person Gail] Hoover says in a perfect world the owner of this building would pay to fix the problem … but he’s nowhere to be found.

Ever thought of looking in Brooklyn?

Flap Over Israel Organ Donations – How Haredim Prevent Lifesaving Transplants

The Jerusalem Post reports:

…Ninety of the Knessets 120 members were persuaded over several months by Knesset Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee chairman MK Shaul Yahalom to sign a potential organ donor card distributed by the ADI organization. The other 30, most of them secular, refused for "personal or family" reasons, while haredi and other religious MKs declined mostly for "religious reasons." …

Health Minister Dan Naveh said that only 4 percent of the population, or 270,000 Israelis, bear an ADI organ donor card. Every year, an average of 100 patients die for lack of a donor organ, and 100 more suffer a deterioration in their health while waiting in the queue.

Tel Aviv University biomedical ethics expert Prof. Amos Shapira said he opposed compensation for live organ donors because it would be "unjustified and unethical as long as organ donations from cadavers did not reach their potential. It would give legitimacy to people to harm themselves. It is clear that these donations would come from the poor." Shapira added that such compensation would not wipe out the black market in organs. "I am in favor of incentives for organ donation from cadavers. Families who donated their loved one’s organs should have priority in receiving organs, and money can be given in the form of participation in funeral expenses or a discount in health taxes," he said.

But Shmuel Yelenick, a Hebrew University legal expert, said that he favored compensation to live donors as well as families of deceased donors because of the many people who die waiting for an organ donation.

Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Halperin, the Health Ministry’s chief medical ethics adviser and a physician, said that while saving lives was a major commandment, one may not kill someone to save a life. He added that the Chief Rabbinate was unwilling to encourage the signing of ADI cards as long as proper supervision and setting down conditions for removing organs was not agreed upon. Halperin said that the Chief Rabbinate took this position when Prof. Avinoam Reches, a senior Hadassah University Medical Center neurologist, withdrew his consent for a representative of the rabbinate to be involved in this supervision.

Of course, what Rabbi Dr. Halperin fails to mention is the original dispute goes back to the halakhic definition of death. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein considered brain stem death to be halakhic death. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Aurebach, influenced by ‘medical advisors’ (Rabbi Halperin among them?) who misrepresented brain stem death and the procedures necessary to confirm it, originally ruled against accepting brain stem death as halakhic death. When confronted with evidence of his ‘medical advisors’ malfeasance, Rabbi Auerbach retracted. That retraction was not published by Rabbi Auerbach before his death and was not published by his handlers after it. However, a copy of Rabbi Auerbach’s retraction was published by Rabbi Feinstein’s family.

As might be expected, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv opposes equating brain stem death with halakhic death. Like his rulings on the Rabbi Slifkin Ban, Indian-hair wigs, etc., Rabbi Elyashiv’s reasoning is based on bad information – information that Rabbi Elyashiv surely knows to be flawed. But the evil one of Mea Shearim consistently refuses to correct his mistakes and has proven himself to be far less than honest.

So more people will die waiting for organs. What a holy man.

The NY Times On the Resurgence Of Mikvah Use

The New York Times has a piece on the resurgence of mikvah use in America:

The effort to revive mikvahs has been largely motivated by a mandate from Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson, of the Lubavitch movement, who died in 1994. He assigned rabbinical emissaries to set up Jewish communities worldwide and directed them to build mikvahs and promote their use. Now there are mikvahs in places like Anchorage, Bangkok and Bogota, Colombia, Rabbi Shmotkin said.

Funny, isn’t it, that, according to the NY Times, non-Chabad Orthodox Jews play no role in mikvah resurgence. I guess the kollel movement and Modern Orthodoxy need to hire a PR firm.

World Organization For Animal Health (OIE) Adopts Standards On Animal Welfare – Including Shechita

The 167-member OIE has adopted standards on animal welfare:

Standards on animal welfare, included in 4 chapters, were adopted (i.e. slaughter for human consumption, including religious slaughter; land and sea transport of animals; humane killing of animals for disease control purposes). For the 1st time, an organisation with a global mandate provides the international community with standards in this field.

The standards went into effect at the conclusion of the 73rd General Session on Friday, May 27, 2005.

Details to follow shortly.

Small Kosher Veal Slaughterhouse Loses Big Contract Over Failed Animal Welfare Audit – Slaughterhouse Used Shackle And Hoist Hanging Shechita

From Kosher Today:

SYSCO Pulls License from Veal Producer Over Kosher Slaughter
(Brooklyn) Atlantic Veal, a 50-year old Brooklyn-based producer of veal with a slaughterhouse in Ohio, has lost its license to do business with SYSCO, the world s largest foodservice company, after an auditor failed the company because of its kosher production at the plant. Kosher Today has learned that Atlantic had acceded to SYSCO’S request for an audit based on animal welfare standards of the American Meat Institute, which includes the recommendation that head restraints [i.e., the ASPCA pen designed by Temple Grandin] be used in the kosher slaughter of veal. The USDA supervised plant, which occasionally produces kosher and halal meat, uses the hanging method of schechita without the restraints, which a company spokesman says follows the religious dictum for slaughter by the religious authorities supervising the plant. Atlantic received a 100% rating from the auditor until he discovered the kosher slaughter. To the company, the! loss of the estimated $7 million in business is devastating, especially since SYSCO was not buying the kosher production and the kosher processed foods were in full compliance with USDA regulations and religious law. Food sources say that Atlantic is determined to win back the business that it had lost from the large foodservice company. SYSCO – an acronym for Systems and Services Company – reported $29.3 billion in sales in fiscal year 2004.

Official Chabad News Service Lies About Fire Inspection Flap, Endangerment Of Children, Violation Of City Health And Safety Laws

The Lubavitch News Service has published Chabad’s official spin on NYC’s closure of a Chabad daycare center for health and fire code violations:

…[N]ormal naptime at the preschool had been disturbed by an intrusive
contingent of firefighters and city officials who came prodding and
poking their way into classrooms in search of building and code
violations. Turns out all that was missing was a Certificate of
Occupancy, which is now being processed.…

[A]s five year olds sang “G-d Bless America,” practicing for their upcoming preschool graduation, four fully uniformed firefighters entered the classrooms. Without asking permission of the teachers, city building inspectors strode into the five-year-olds’ room to snap pictures of the classroom layout.

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, New York Channel One, among other news media, swarmed the school, blocking traffic with their satellite news vans, to get the scoop on what turned out to be a slow news day. The fire chief’s trucks and several police cars parked around the school added to the drama. Reporters hounded parents as they picked up their children at the 3:00 p.m. dismissal.…

While local news broadcasts carried melodramatic reports about the shut down, smartly attired Staten Islanders dined on a smorgasbord of puff pastries, Israeli food, and carving board meats to inaugurate Chabad’s new building.

Here is the truth Chabad does not report:

1. Fire inspectors had initially inspected the site weeks ago during Passover.
2. Chabad did not have a license.
3. Chabad told the fire inspectors they didn’t have the
   license on hand because it was Passover.
4. When the Fire Department revisited the daycare center, they quickly learned there
   was no Health Department license to run a day-care center at Harold
   Street.
5. Chabad’s building had no sprinkler system and insufficient fire exits.

In other words:

1. Chabad lied to city officials.
2. Chabad endangered children.
3. Chabad is now lying to cover up its previous lies.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky controls the day-to-day operation of Chabad worldwide and is the man who controls the Lubavitch News Service. Let NYC try him, his chief aids and Rabbi Moshe Katzman, the daycare center’s director, with reckless endangerment of minors and intentional violation of fire and safety codes.

The haredi and Chabad worlds need to be taught a lesson, and the city’s children need to be protected.

Mayor Bloomberg, will you act? Or will you cover for an important voting block – a voting block you are very close to?

Washington Times On Bnei Menashe Aliya

… When Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi, announced recently in Jerusalem that he accepted the Bnei Menashe as one of the 10 "lost tribes" of Israel, Mr. Singson began to believe that God had finally smiled on him.…

When news of the March 29 announcement of Israel’s recognition of their tribe reached Bnei Menashe villages spread across the two hill states of northeast India, people erupted in celebration.

"It is the greatest gift from God in my life. I never believed that He could be so kind to me so soon," said Rakhel, 21, who dreams of emigrating to Israel with her four brothers, two sisters and parents and working as a nanny there.

At special thanksgiving prayers as Bnei Menashes flocked to 32 synagogues across northeast India, community leaders said the tribe had become closer to Israel after rabbinical recognition.

"This recognition clearly means we have got into the process to return to our homeland [Israel], ending our 2,726-year exodus," said Mr. Singson, who is chairman of the Beth Shalom synagogue in Churachandpur.

On April 23, as Jews around the world celebrated Passover — their departure led by Moses from slavery in Egypt in the 13th century B.C. — Bnei Menashes in India celebrated the holy day with unprecedented enthusiasm, believing that it was their last in "a foreign land."

Read it all here.

Illegal Chabad Daycare Closed By NYC – Chabad Center Unlicensed, Had Many Fire, Health And Safety Violations

From the New York Post:

FDNY SHUTS TOT CENTER
By ERIN CALABESEand JENNIFER FERMINO

May 27, 2005 — A Staten Island day-care center was shut down yesterday when firefighters — after reading about its grand-opening celebrations in a local paper — paid a surprise inspection and found it was unlicensed.

The Torah Tots Academy, which was run by the Jewish sect Chabad Lubavitch, had about 80 kids from 2 to 5 years old enrolled, authorities said.

The site of the day-care center — which was run out of two neighboring houses, at 289 Harold St. and 389 Bradley Ave., and a trailer — was also home to Yeshiva Mesivta Menachem and a synagogue.

FDNY brass had initially inspected the site weeks ago.

The program’s coordinators had said then that they didn’t have the license on them because it was Passover, fire officials said.…

Once the authorities revisited the place, they quickly learned there was no Health Department license to run a day-care center at Harold Street.

Inspectors also found that at the Harold Street building there was no sprinkler system and insufficient fire exits.…

I think NYC should charge Chabad and the center’s ‘head shaliach’ Rabbi Moshe Katzman with reckless endangerment. It would set an example that would prevent many future tragedies, and would also teach an important lesson in Jewish law – dinei malkhuta dina, the laws of your country (especially health and safety laws) have the force of halakha and must be followed.

Halakha is always stricter with possible danger to life than it is with any other mitzvot (except for the three cardinal mitzvot one can not violate in order to save a life).

What Chabad and Rabbi Katzman have done is worse than feeding those children non-kosher food or giving them shatnes mats to take naps on and should be treated as such.

Famine Ravages Southern Sudan

Sudanese children eat boiled leaves – their only meal of the day.

They’ll run out of leaves soon.

Lag BaOmer

From today’s Jerusalem Post:

"Lithuanian" haredim, who tend to be more rational in their devotion and shun emphasis on Kabbala, are less likely to trek to Meron.

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the preeminent Lithuanian spiritual leader on halachic opinion, once expressed this approach in a pithy statement, "Sure, Rabbi Shimon is alive, right here in my Talmud".

More on Lag BaOmer here.

First Ethiopian Jews Arrive In Israel – Attend Mizrachi Religious Zionist School

1955: The first Ethiopian Jews to arrive in Israel find homes at AMIT Kfar Batya. Most eventually return to Ethiopia as educators and community leaders. [Photo: AMIT.]

Allentown May Be Forced To Pay $400,000 To Raze Rubashkin Mill – Rubashkin, Rubashkin’s Brooklyn-Based Orthodox Lender Refuse To Comply – Fire-Gutted Building Dangerously Unsafe

The Allentown, Pennsylvania textile mill owned by Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin is so unsafe that the city may spend $400,000 to tear it down:

City officials say the fenced-in site is unsafe and has suffered a series of break-ins and even a small fire since an April 19 blaze gutted the clothing factory and was later declared arson.

The owners of the property, which is scheduled for sheriff’s sale on Friday, have not responded to a raze or repair order issued by the city, which will have to find the $400,000 in a tight budget.

”When the building owners don’t meet their responsibilities, the city has to step in and do something,” said Lauren Giguere, acting director of community and economic development.

”There is fencing up around the property, but it is right at the edge of a residential neighborhood. There are children who play around the area, and people who are breaking into the property.” …

”It is tight, but it is a no-win situation,” Giguere said. ”We have to find it somewhere. We can’t just let it sit there when a building is constituted as dangerous for the public. It is structurally unsound, the beams and columns were twisted by the heat. There are some hazardous and flammable materials still on the property.”…

In several letters to both Skyline and Supreme, city code inspectors cited the property as a public nuisance, and required the owners to remove junk, secure openings with plywood, reinforce and seal the roof and exterior walls, and make interior floors and walls structurally sound.

The 41/2-story, 112,444- square-foot structure had been closed since at least 1999. As of 2004, the building owed $140,000 in property taxes.

Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin, brother of AgriProcessors Rabbi Sholom M. Rubashkin, served 15 months in Federal prision for bank fraud. Released last year, Rabbi Rubashkin was promptly elected president of the Chabad-Lubavitch controlled Crown Heights [Brooklyn, NY] Community Council.

National Geographic Has Story On Rubashkin, Postville

The June issue of National Geographic Magazine has a story on Rubashkin, PETA and the Great Kosher Meat Scandal of 2004. Don’t miss the pictures.

Evolution Meets Judaism – A.K.A., Rabbi Slifkin Gets Mugged By The ‘Gedolim’

The Scientist has a piece on the recent controversy surrounding Rabbi Nosson Slifkin:

…  "Intelligent design usually involves arguing that there are structures in living creatures which cannot be explained by naturalistic processes," [Rabbi Slifkin] writes via E-mail. "I think that this is a potentially problematic approach, certainly from a Jewish perspective. Judaism has always focused on seeing God in the design of the laws of nature, not in creating phenomena that can’t be explained by natural laws – yet."

… "Jews are generally less insistent than Christians on literal readings of scripture (due to a long tradition of rabbinic deeper interpretations of the Bible). In addition, miracles and supernatural acts are much less significant in Judaism than in Christianity."

Slifkin’s views – see more at [http://www.zootorah.com] – have not been without their opponents in the Jewish community.

… "I knew that these ideas were regarded with deep loathing in certain insular circles, amongst people who have had no exposure to modern science," he says. "But I did not think that my books would penetrate these circles … and indeed they didn’t, which is why for years there was no uproar [until] certain troublemakers brought them to the attention of people who would not have noticed them otherwise."

"What was interesting is that those who strongly opposed my books totally underestimated how widely these ideas are accepted in the Orthodox Jewish world," Slifkin says. "The overwhelming majority of the community, including many rabbis and community leaders, were sympathetic to my views."…

Yes, but they are too cowardly to publicly stand up and say so.