Scoring at the Mets Game

Apparently, it is not unusual for elementary school students to have a crush on their teachers. I say "apparently" because it is not a matter of firsthand knowledge for me. To me, teachers -- even the ones I personally liked -- were agents of The Enemy. As much as I enjoyed many aspects of my grade school and high school experience, I was always, from day one, disdainful of the controlling authority they represented. It was not until college that I had anything remotely resembling an attraction for any of my professors (and the most that ever came of that was, on one occasion, when she gave me a ride in her car to the train station on a foul weather day).

[As surely you gather, I knew quite well the furniture layouts inside the principals' offices of the schools I attended.].

It was only at the verge of my adulthood that I began to realize that the teachers who knocked me around the most for my less-than-optimal attitudes were the ones who believed, deep in their hearts, that I would one day wise up and become a respectable and contributing member of society. It was "tough love" in an era before that term was widely used. Their faith in me was not misplaced, I am grateful to report. And I am willing to bet that, as long as they were able, they followed my career from afar, along with other problem children whom they helped to set straight, just as I take due note of my own former students who achieve in their chosen fields.

No, I did not cuddle up with adoration to my teachers. But some kids do. And such kids are vulnerable, big time, if the teacher to whom the cuddle up has nefarious intentions.

Randy Mudge is one such teacher. Mudge, of the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District in New York was suspended by the Commissioner of Education upon the finding that, on at least two occasions (in 1989 and 1992), he gave favored treatment to certain female students under his tutelage, and then, after they graduated and attained the legal age of 18 years, took them to Mets games and, after the respective games, had nominally consensual sex with the respective young ladies in the back of his vehicle in the Shea Stadium parking lot.

The Education Commissioner found that Mudge had groomed the young ladies for the sex while they were still his students and underage, and, finding that he lacked the requisite good moral character, suspended his teaching certificate for a year.

Mudge appealed, and the Court backed the Commissioner.


My questions:

1. Does the Education Department really expect that Mudge will somehow acquire the good moral character necessary to be a school teacher during the course of his one-year suspension?

2. What took so long for the case to be reported and acted upon?

3. What parent of a teenage girl would allow their daughter to go out to a baseball game, with a male teacher, unaccompanied? [Note: There were several outings to Mets games before graduation, before the ones when Mudge actually shtupped his by then former students.].

On this last one, I have a theory, albeit not a scientifically-tested one: People who are raised to never question authority have too much trust for any authority. Such blind trust is passed down from generation to generation, resulting in a society that is easily led astray by the government, etc.

But, having had an innate disdain for authority, I never had that problem!

The mom of a student who attended my son's day school (but who was not in my son's class) reported to my wife that her daughter had seen my son standing out in the hallway, obviously for disciplinary purposes. At the parent-teacher conference night about a week later, my son's rabbi/teacher told me and my wife that our son had gotten a bit out of bounds, and it was necessary to expel him from the classroom.

The colloquy went something like this:

Rabbi: "Your son has, of late, gotten a bit disruptive in class, so I had to make him stand outside in the hall a few times in the past two weeks."

Wife: "What did he do?"

Rabbi: "He wouldn't pay attention and was telling jokes to the other boys when I was trying to teach."

Wife: "So did you send him to the Principal's Office?"

Rabbi: "No! I just sent him out to stand in the hall. Sending him to the Principal's office would only brand him. I just wanted to get him out of the classroom so I could teach. Unless they are really, really disruptive or dangerous, I keep the Principal out of it"

Me (to Wife): "I always knew that our son was an outstanding student!!"


My wife began to wince, but the Rabbi laughed. And I knew that he would appreciate the humor. After all, we had known him when he was still in high school, and knew that he, in a similar vein, had also been "outstanding" in the hall on more than one occasion. The Rabbi, too, had a healthy portion of skepticism for authority and the government.

Somehow, I think that this Rabbi's daughters are not going to be such easy scores at any baseball game. As it is, they do not blindly accept whatever the government feeds them.

Dubai's Securities and Security

The posting of 15 December 2009 discusses how that technology known as text messaging is causing great consternation to various rabbis, who continually attempt to ban it amongst their followers (and have even resorted to litigation to try to limit the scourge of the cell phone text message). Well, it seems that in the 19 February 2010 edition of Yated Ne'eman, a newspaper by and for the more insular religious Jewish communities, Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg mentions in his regular column on page 14 that he himself actually received a text message. Having duly noted the foregoing, I now segue over to the notion that modern communications technology is now being used to protect the Jewish people and to strike at those who would destroy us.


The story of the 19 January 2010 death of Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai under highly suspicious circumstances is now making the rounds. The smart money says that the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, was behind it. It has created an international scandal for all sorts of reasons. I have no specific "privileged information" on any particulars; I only know what I read in the media. Accordingly, my comments, which follow (in no particular order), are of necessity mostly conjecture and speculation. Time will tell how close to or far from the mark they are:

1. For those who have time to watch, videos released by the Dubai police are, in sequential order, here, here and here (they total nearly a half hour viewing time). The use of cell phones and other modern communications is passim.

2. I will not get into the morality of such cloak-and-dagger operations, other than to say that such activities are a tangled and dirty business of which I have not had any part, and have no intention of playing any part in the future. Those who would criticize Israel for Mossad's activities of this sort are, of course, free to do so, but I insist that they hold all other countries to the same standard as the one they impose upon Israel.


3. Espionage as a patriotic act was glorified in the 1960's and early 1970's by the TV sitcom "Get Smart" (which was a spoof of "The Man From Uncle" sitcom, which in turn was a spoof of Ian Fleming's "James Bond" books-cum-movies). There was also the "Mission Impossible" drama series. More realistic in a sense, however, was the TV show "The Prisoner" which starred Patrick McGoohan. Having previously served as a spy (as documented in the prior TV show "Secret Agent"), McGoohan's character resigns from the spy agency, and is imprisoned. The plot of each episode is that The Prisoner refuses to divulge why he quit.

What little I do know about the espionage business is that once you get involved in it, you can never quit. Your handlers will continue to demand that you produce, else you be outed and turned in to the authorities. Without going into details, I know of certain people who had to look over their shoulders every minute of the day because of their past involvements in espionage. It is not a life I would choose for myself.


4. Assuming that the Dubai operation was indeed Mossad's work, the much-needed objective of eliminating Mahmoud al Mabhouh was certainly achieved. Nevertheless, it seems that Mossad underestimated the degree of sophistication of Dubai's security infrastructure. There are certainly evidence leads to be followed from the videos, which surely will complicate matters for the Mossad agents and operatives who in any way participated.


5. The smart money says that some Fatah people helped in the operation. This is probably true, but I think that the Mossad also had operatives on the staff of one or more of the hotels involved.

6. The UK and Ireland are obviously hopping up and down mad and angry about this, given the use of passport information from the respective countries. All else being equal, UK and Ireland have to follow the leads and exact some sort of diplomatic recompense from Israel. All is not equal, however, and this aspect of the game may well be completely changed if Israel were to somehow produce (A) some individual wanted by the law enforcement or espionage organizations in UK and/or Ireland; or (B) some information which, if made public, would cause significant personal and professional embarrassment to a high-ranking UK and/or Ireland government official. I would bet upon the latter, but would not discount the former.

7. Given Dubai's precarious financial position, this is the least of that city-state's worries. I also take this opportunity to note the irony of Dubai's poor condition of financial solvency and possible default on certain major debt instruments backed by its government. Dubai, you will recall, is one of the few places in the world that still has the institution of debtors' prison.

8. Meanwhile, Britain and the other civilized countries continue to vilify and condemn Israel, even as they express great relief that a particularly dangerous terrorist has been removed from the world.

Does the Rabbi Keep a Kosher Kitchen?

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"When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king!"



The news from Los Angeles is a big tax evasion and money laundering bust which has ensnared Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka in Boro Park. The details of the bust, including whether or not Rabbi Weisz is or is not innocent or guilty, are not particularly relevant for the purposes of this blog posting. All of the suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and such presumption will pertain to this posting as well.

Imprimis, there are a number of rabbis who are known as the Grand Rabbi of the Spinka hassidim. Thus, Rebbetzin Sarah Bluma Horowitz, the Spinka Rebbetzin who died in a tragic traffic accident in the summer of 2006, was married to a different Spinka Grand Rabbi (and she might still be alive today had she been wearing a seatbelt, but that's a whole different ball of wax).

Assuming, again, that the Rabbi is in fact innocent and will ultimately be exonerated from these charges, the very fact of the indictment and arrest are problematic. I have taught my son to respect rabbis (though, like his father, he does question them from time to time), and I want people to know that the Torah is a good thing and that my religious Jewish lifestyle is a good thing.

Even if the Rabbi is exonerated, the very fact of his arrest and indictment has complicated my life, even though I am not connected with the Rabbi's religious institutions, do not live in the Rabbi's neighborhood, and indeed, do not recall ever meeting him. From my days with the various government agencies, the rule was (and still is) that avoiding impropriety is not enough; the very appearance of impropriety must also be avoided.

And, of course, the enemies of the Jewish people will also try to get some traction out of this one.

I have read the 40-page Indictment instrument (which does not seem to be posted anywhere, but which was graciously e-mailed to me by the Public Affairs Officer in the U.S. Attorney's office). Seems that there is an unindicted co-conspirator, one "R.K.," who seems to be cooperating with the prosecution. Most social groups view snitches with at least some degree of negativity; in the religious Jewish community this degree of negativity rises to the level of disdain and revulsion. Is "R.K." singing in return for lenity? Very likely! But, from a prosecutorial standpoint, the question must also be asked as to just how credible a witness he might make. My take on it: Excellent chance that if the matter goes to trial, "R.K." will be put on the witness stand and will sing his song of sixpence before the jury. But "R.K.'s" testimony will likely not be the prosecution's sole (or even chief) evidence. From the transactions described in the Indictment, there likely will be a confirmatory paper trail.

In the Spring of 2004, the IRS sent out numerous signals that it would soon be paying enhanced attention to tax-exempt organizations. Then IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson, in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, gave hints that churches and similar religious organizations would thenceforth no longer be sacrosanctly immune from the IRS's scrutiny.

The first sentence of the US Attorney's press release announcing the indictment reads as follows:


"The Grand Rabbi of Spinka, a religious group within Orthodox Judaism, was arrested this morning along with several associates charged in an indictment that alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud U.S. government agencies, to operate a underground money transfer system and to launder money through an Israeli bank."


And of what relevance, many are now asking, is the fact the people involved may be Orthodox Jews? Isn't that first sentence grounded in some sort of bigotry?

My take on it: No! The fact that the defendants are Orthodox Jews is only incidental. But the fact that it involves religious organizations is paramount!! The press release is sending the metamessage that religious groups can no longer find refuge in their religious observance from the requirements to obey the tax laws!

Of no less significance than the first sentence in the US Attorney's press release is the last sentence in the document: "The case is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS-Criminal Investigation."

"Ongoing investigation?" I very strongly anticipate some additional blackbirds to come out of the pie.

I certainly hope that the Rabbi is exonerated in the proceedings to follow, but am not willing to make book that such a state of affairs is in fact the case. Let the legal process move forward, and let the chips fall wherever they may.

How do the Rabbis call this one?

I'm now back in busy mode. I have started teaching again, and so far, the semester has been busy as usual for this time of the year, but no remarkable incidents thus far. This, of course, suits me very well.

I had an appointment in Manhattan this morning, but it was scrubbed on account of the fatal incident at the Kingston Avenue station, which suspended train service from Brooklyn to Manhattan on the 2, 3, 4 & 5 trains. Fortunately, the E train was operational, and I was able to get to school in time to teach my class. One of my colleagues was kind enough to give me a ride home, so I didn't have to take the Long Island Railroad back.

If you are sitting in a courtroom and your cell phone goes off, it will be confiscated by the court officer. As a result of this well publicized and consistently enforced policy, I have heard damn few cellphones ring in courtrooms.

Compare that with the cell phone policies in synagogues! In one of the shuls I have frequent occasion to visit, there is a poster on the wall imploring everyone to respect the sanctity and dignity of the venue by switching off their cellphones during prayer. But 4 of the past 6 times I have davened there, at least one cell phone went off during prayer. They have a rule which is not enforced, so everyone considers it to be a joke.

Exacerbating the travesty is that the cell phone that went off during davening, in all but one instance, had an owner who is a rabbi.

If the rabbis won't abide by the shul's cell phone policy, then how can anyone else be expected to?