Kolko case Correction: The Family requested the Psak from Rav Sternbuch - not Beis Din

I want to make a correction regarding the reason for Rav Moshe Sternbuch's involvement in the Kolko case. Contrary to what I reported in some of my posts - the beis din did not request the psak. The family of the victim requested the psak and received one in writing  - that they were obligated to report the abuse.   The actual psak - Hebrew and English - is found here.

This doesn't change the essential point - since the father received a psak to go to the police he can not be a moser. Even if he hadn't received a psak he was obligated to go because of the din of rodef.

I have correct my posts to reflect this information. Please let me know of instances that I have missed.

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This is the translation of the psak.

Concerning your question regarding someone who is suspected of the disgusting and serious crime [of pedophilia], And there are those who claim he confessed and a high level rav verified that there seems to be a solid basis to the suspicions and it is also well known that this disease [pedophilia] is difficult [for the pedophile to stop abusing children]. Therefore we are obligated to report him because he is a danger to the community. In addition someone who interferes with reporting him can possibly be causing additional harm to the community. In particular in our days where pedophilia has become widespread - we are obligated to report him. See the Taz Yoreh Deah, #154.

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RCA Issues Clarification of Its Position on reporting Abuse - Kolko case & Rav Belsky

Update: The RCA acknowledges it is bothered by the fact that Rav Belsky's position on the Kolko case is inconsistent with the official position of the RCA. However they allow him to deviate in the Kolko case - because he claims he has investigated the matter and knows Kolko to be innocent.

It fails to explain on what basis Rav Belsky has come to conclusion that Koko is innocent - despite the president of the RCA writing me that, "Concerning the Kolko case, Rabbi Belsky made it clear, based upon his involvement in the case, that he believes the defendant to be innocent of the charges and that the accusers are actually the guilty parties. He is convinced of this position, in spite of what seems to be overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

The RCA clarification also fails to deal with the fact that Rav Belsky has done much more than simply cling to the belief in Kolko's innocence "despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."  1) There is no basis in Jewish law for calling someone a moser if he received a psak that it is obligated to go to the police. In this case he received a written psak from   Rav Moshe Sternbuch that he was obligated to report the abuse [update and correction]   [ 2) Rav Belsky not only has proclaimed Kolko innocent but he accused the victim's father of sexual abusing his own son and said that the victims's father reported Kolko to the police only to avoid being blamed himself. This astounding slander - which has no basis in fact - does not seem to bother the RCA - why not? Rabbi Goldin claims - contrary to the obvious translation of Rav Belsky's defamatory letter that "Rabbi Belsky did not accuse the father of abuse-but rather of rishus. He claims that the allegations were trumped up and that Kolko was framed and forced to accept a plea deal". Even if Rabbi Goldin's reading is accepted - Rav Belsky has presented no evidence to justify this slander. Why does the RCA allow Rav Belsky to continue to slander a great talmid chachom without any apparent justification?

In sum - How can the RCA make this "clarification" without addressing the elephant in the room of Rav Belsky obscene public slander of the father of the victim?
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RCA   Jun 12, 2013 -- The RCA remains steadfast in combating and condemning all forms of abuse. We are encouraged by the process that led to the guilty plea of Yosef Kolko, an Orthodox Jew who pleaded guilty for the sexual molestation of a young boy. For many years the RCA has condemned the efforts of many parts of the Jewish community to cover up or ignore allegations of abuse, viewing these efforts as against Jewish law, illegal, and irresponsible to the welfare of victims and the greater community. The RCA strongly advocates, as a matter of Jewish law, the reporting of reasonable suspicions of all forms of child abuse to the civil authorities and full cooperation with the criminal justice system. The RCA decries any invocation of Jewish law or communal interests as tools in silencing victims or witnesses from reporting abuse or from receiving therapeutic and communal support.

Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, President of the RCA, and Rabbi Mark Dratch, Executive Vice President of the RCA, concerned with the reported position of Rabbi Yisrael Belsky in the Kolko case met with Rabbi Belsky. Rabbi Belsky stated that based upon his knowledge of the case, which he explained at length, he deeply believes in Kolko’s innocence. When asked for clarification of his opinion concerning the reporting of suspicions of abuse in general, Rabbi Belsky informed us that he favors the reporting of credible suspicions of abuse directly to the civil authorities without the need to seek prior rabbinic permission. Upon our request, Rabbi Belsky recorded this position in writing in a letter sent to us and publicized a week after our meeting. Many feel that this is a significant achievement.

The RCA appreciates that this distinguished scholar has gone on record with this position, a position that echoes the RCA’s longstanding policy. We are confident that this statement will be helpful to many victims in the future. Nevertheless, due to the facts of the Kolko case as we understand them, the RCA disagrees with Rabbi Belsky’s defense of this admitted perpetrator. We pledge to work toward the time when all victims of abuse will find strength, healing, and justice with the support of their communities, its members, and its leaders.

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Historically Jews gave up religious practice when it became a burden - not because of loss of faith

Researching the impact of modernization in the 18th and 19th century, I am struck by how modern are the issues. The following is an excerpt from one of  Prof Feiner's works. He believes that secularization preceded ideology. Jews gave up religion when the price they needed to pay to keep it outweighed what they saw as its value. The cost-benefits issue is much more important than issues of theology.

The Origin of Jewish Secularization by Shmuel Feiner 2010 -Pages 105-108) In his study of secularization in England, Roy Porter points to a series of   measures that could be used to evaluate the growing erosion of the Christian   religion: in the big cities, churches were no longer major places of assembly,   and the clergy no longer served as the main sources of authority. The pace of   life in England quickened, and business, which dictated the pulse of urban life,   increased the influence of practical, rational, and earthly considerations in life.   In addition, physicians demonstrated that human intervention could help   people with their problems no less than the clergy, and they opposed folk med­icine and superstition, albeit not always with success. Despite the competition   between the concept of Christian providence as a worldview and the scientific   view, faith did not disappear, as a statement from that period revealed:"Superstition is said to be driven out of the world; no such thing, it is only   driven out of books and talk.?" At the same time, the rise in the consumption   of pleasures and the leisure culture contributed to secularization in England   and elsewhere in Western and Central Europe. Jeremy Bentham asserted that   if man were to choose the ascetic way of life proposed by religion, the world   would turn into hell because man is a creature who is meant to enjoy life. As a result   of the expansion of literacy in Europe and the publication of numerous peri­odicals, information about the earthly world and critical ideas became avail­   able to more people. But secularization did not depend on the adoption of a   secular world view. As John McManners argues, this trend was also a protest   against the constant demands of the Christian religion and an expression of   people's desire to cast off the burden of religion: "Secularization was the inevi­table counterpart, the opposite side of the coin, the reaction of human nature   to a demand almost too intense to bear.”

To Remove the Shackles of the Commandments: Indifference and Laxity

Beginning in the 1760s, religious laxity among the Jewish minority in Europe   gained momentum. In this decade, secularization expanded and deepened rel­ative to the past; this process would grow in intensity in the coming decades and reach its peak toward the end of the century in several communities in   Central and Western Europe. It was not the result of an earthquake that raised   questions about divine providence, nor was it the Haskalah's criticism of religion. But McManners's remark about secularization as the individual's reaction to the increasingly unbearable burden of religion can provide an insight   into Jewish secularization. At a time when halakhic literature and moral ser­mons were posing severe demands, individuals were attempting to throw off   religious prohibitions. To understand the traditional position that preceded   secularization, the point of departure need not be the normative system for   which the rabbinical elite was responsible, but rather the more widespread   popular understanding of religion in terms of obligations and discipline. What   is the meaning of loyalty to religion? When, for example, a London Jew was   asked to testify in court as to the character of Michael Levy, a young man   accused of a terrible act of sodomy, and to depict him as honest and moral,   he said the following: "[Levy] always resorted to the hours of prayer, minded his religion, and was timorous of God. My servant was acquainted with him,   and told me he was one that observed the Sabbath."

As we have seen, to understand the historical process that took place in   the first half of the century and distanced European Jews from religion as a   worldview and a way of life, we need to listen to the relatively obscure voices   that tell us that dissatisfaction with religious tradition, faith, and obligations   increased particularly among the younger generation, those born at the end of   the forties, fifties, or the early sixties. Some of them, spurred by their desire to   embark on an independent path and to cast off the burden of religion, also   took more radical steps of rebellion against the religion.[...]

For those men and women who grew up in a world dominated by eco­nomic considerations and interests, aspirations to climb the social ladder, modern acculturation, and the fostering of strong links to European culture, languages, and values, the demands of the halakhah were intolerably harsh, and the religious world picture was foreign and meaningless. The sharp contradiction between traditional religion and life ill the European city was for them unbearable, even humiliating: "The religion that was taught to us, then,   was full of mystical principles. The story of the primeval world was full of  secrets, dark, incoherent; the events were foreign and, down to the last shades   of meaning, so dissimilar to the occurrences of the world in which we lived   that they seemed almost unbelievable. Characters, states of mind, and feelings   of people who emerge in sacred scriptures not only were puzzling for us in   matters of expression but also, for the most part, stood in contrast to our feel­ings, expressions, and ways of acting."

The prayers were incomprehensible and meaningless, and the religion in its traditional form was at odds with their aesthetic sensibility; to them, the   commandments were embarrassing customs devoid of content, which "do   injury to sense and spirit." Traditional education may have kept young men from falling into moral degeneration and atheism, but in Friedlander's view,   it led to a counterreaction-to hostility toward religious practice, alienation,   skepticism, and a desire for release: "Who can describe the passage from the   slavery of the spirit into freedom! Who can calculate the delight, and thus the   strengthened energy of the soul, of a man who rises from the feeling that he has shackles to the decision to throw them off!”

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Yair Lapid: Video of what a poor boxer he was 20 years ago

Tablet Magazine  discovers an old video clip of Yair Lapid outclassed in the boxing ring  Tablet - vacuous celebrity candidates are bad news "But slogans and gimmicks—Lapid playing Beatles songs on his guitar in front of adoring audiences, ... —are one thing. Deficits are another. Israel’s currently stands at nearly $10 billion, equivalent to 4.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, double the number originally allotted for by the state’s budget. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz have sworn up and down that taxes would not be raised nor deep spending cuts enacted. It’s hard to imagine how either measure is avoidable en route to recovery."

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Education Ministry threatens chareidi schools over core curriculum - 4 months to comply!

YNET   On the path to another confrontation with the haredim: Ynet has learned that the Education Ministry will inform the High Court of Justice Wednesday that if within four months, the haredi educational system does not reach an agreement with the State regarding the issue of core studies, the government will propose a law obligating them to introduce core subjects to all state schools, including Meitzav standardized testing (tests examining schools’ efficiency and growth measures). 

The response of the Education Ministry will be given to the High Court following an appeal that was filed in 2010 by the Israel Religious Action Center – of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. In the coming days, talks will begin between the Education Ministry and representatives of the haredi community, in an attempt to summarize understandings over the next few months, and avoid conflict with the haredi sector.  

Education Minister Shai Piron announced during budget discussions that he would work to establish haredi public schools while cutting budgets to haredi tracks. The scheduled negotiations are part of this move. In the coming days, Director General of the Education Ministry Dalit Stauber is expected to meet with representatives of the schools to promote the plan. [...]

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The "hate crime against gays" blamed on Chareidim turns out to be personal revenge

YNet see background by Avi Shafran Eli Yishai demands an apology
 They were four partners in crime who swore to never mention it. It was the terrible secret of the 2009 shooting at the Barnoar youth center in Tel Aviv that bound them together – an incident that sent shockwaves through the entire nation. Thousands were investigated in connection with the shootings, millions of shekels were spent to no avail, until one of the four felt betrayed and spoke to police.

On Tuesday, one day after the farce surrounding the lifting and restoring the gag order on the details of the case, the gag order on the publication of the name of the main suspect in the 2009 youth center shooting was lifted. Police said 23-year-old Pardes Katz resident Hagai Felician is suspected of shooting two people dead [...]

It has been also cleared for publication that Felician carried out the deadly attack to avenge the sexual abuse of his 15-year-old relative by a grown man he expected to be at the center.

Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16 were killed on the August 1, 2009 when a veiled man entered the Barnoar LGBT youth center in Tel Aviv and began shooting at the teens gathered there. Eleven others were injured.

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How do we know Weberman is guilty of abuse? - posts discussing the evidence

Satmar still has not given up in trying to free Weberman and is conducting a compaign against his conviction, jailing and his victim. The following are some of the important posts regarding the guilt of Weberman which you can show to his defenders.

There seems to be an inherent belief in these people that any male who is convicted of sexual abuse of a woman or child must be innocent. Furthermore anyone who has been convicted by the secular goverment must be innocent. Finally anyone who is a talmid chachom, a nice guy and has ever done anything for the community is incapable of committing a crime.

These are the posts dealing with the validity of the guilty verdict in the Weberman trial

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-y-horowitz-update-re-weberma-trial.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/rabbi-ronnie-greenwalds-view-of.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/pearl-engelman-who-is-nechemia-weberman.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/how-do-we-know-weberman-is-guilty-as.html

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