A Spanking for Spinka

The Agudath Israel of America is an advocacy organization for the more religiously observant Jewish groups. It presents and asserts many issues and viewpoints I consider to be necessary. I am grateful that it exists, and am not above sending it a modest monetary donation from time to time.

It therefore pains me to say that the Agudath Israel is a troubled organization. It is not a bad organization, but it is troubled because some of its past statements and suboptimal judgment calls are now coming back to haunt it. [N.B. I have similar sentiments regarding the Republican Party, for analogous reasons.].

This Blog's posting on 21 December 2007 commented on a tax fraud indictment case in Los Angeles, a case that involves the Spinka institutions. My very reliable sources now inform me that the Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, has signed a plea agreement whereby he will plead guilty to a felony conspirary charge and face up to 5 years imprisonment. The plea agreement is "wired," that is, the agreement is contingent upon the entry into of plea agreements by Rabbi Weisz's codefendants, and disposition agreements by the various Spinka institutions. My sources tell me that understandings have, for the most part, been reached regarding the codefendants' pleas, but that the disposition agreements with the corporate parties are still not in the zone of agreement.

The Spinka Chassidic community is one of the Agudath Israel's constituencies. The Spinka tax fraud case implicates, and may well exacerbate, the Agudath Israel's troubles. Please bear with me on this analysis:

Some time last April, apparently after Pesach, the Agudath Israel issued a statement (jointly with Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools) regarding sexual abuse in religious Jewish institutions. The long and short of the statement is that the two organizations (A) " fully acknowledge the horror of child sexual abuse and the devastating long-term scars it all too often creates;" but (B) are concerned that legislation currently under consideration in Albany (if indeed anything at all is being done in Albany) might be so overly broad as to saddle educational institutions with "potentially crippling financial liability" for long past indiscretions by individuals who are dead, retired, or otherwise long gone from such educational institutions. Within the four corners of the policy statement document, I am 100% with Agudath Israel.

But the AI-TU joint statement was not written on a fresh klaf. At Agudath Israel's 2006 national convention, a speech was made by Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon wherein it was effectively admitted that many in the Agudath Israel leadership have swept under the rug the matter of sexual molestation in Yeshivas, in deference to the feelings of the families of the accused (and, in come cases, proven) molesters. Others have, and not without foundation, accused Agudath Israel of indecisiveness and stalling on the matter.

Before sexual abuse issue became THE big sore matter with Agudath Israel, there were some charges, again not without foundation, that the rabbis of Agudath Israel were wont to encourage abused wives to give in to their abusive husbands' monetary demands and not make a public issue of it. Indeed, in an article published in the Jewish Observer, the Agudath Israel's (almost) monthly magazine (as I recall, some time between 2000 and 2002 or thenabout), there was an effective denial that the problem was exacerbated by the various rabbis' entreaties to the abused wives to surrender to their husbands' monetary demands in exchange for the divorce.

And so, the Agudath Israel now has a public relations problem with its constituencies. Its failure to admit its shortcomings and lapses leaves many of its constituents (and former constituents) very skeptical.

Getting back to the Joint Statement, if one takes it at its face value (which I in fact do), a cardinal concern of the Agudath Israel is to maintain the viability of the religious Jewish day schools. This is also a concern of mine, and a cause to which much of my family's tzedaka (charity) allocations are directed. The way I read the Spinka situation, there is a serious question as to whether the Spinka educational institutions involved in the indictment can continue to financially survive if they agree to the settlements I would expect the government to demand, and/or the tax assessments the IRS is likely to have made and/or be in the process of making. Which puts the Agudath Israel right back on Square One!

The Agudath Israel needs to take corrective discipline with its misbehaving bratty children, instead of trying to convince the principal to not suspend the kids each time they misbehave. It should position itself as a proponent of compliance with tax laws instead of as a cover-upper of tax cheats, and as a proponent of zero tolerance for sexual abusers instead of a cover-upper of sexual abuse. This will take some practical leadership.

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I personally believe that Agudath Israel is capable of such leadership if they make the necessary changes in their policies and procedures (and, perhaps, personnel). For the sake of the future of American Jewry, I hope that I am correct on this score!

Entering the Cyber Stone Age

The posting on this Blog from 2 August 2009 speculates whether the Agudath Israel of America will eventually get itself a website.

[To bring everyone up to speed, the Agudath Israel of America is an advocacy group for some of the more insular segments of the religious Jewish community (NOT to be confused with Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex, NJ, which does have its own website.). In such circles, there is much consternation with the new technologies, including and especially the Internet. A more in-depth analysis of this phenomenon is to be found in an article by Nathaniel Deutsch entitled "The Forbidden Fork, the Cell Phone Holocaust, and Other Haredi Encounters with Technology."].

The newspaper Hamodia has published an interview with Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, written by Rabbis Avraham Heschel and Yosef Rapaport. Rabbi Perlow is the top rabbinical banana at the Agudath Israel. Given Hamodia's editorial policies, it is more likely than not the interview questions were scripted in advance and/or edited afterwards by the Agudath Israel. I say this not to cast any negativity upon Hamodia, but only to acknowledge what I believe to be the likely facts. Consistent with the policies which Hamodia freely concedes as its own, the publication of the Perlow interview is likely an instrumentality of Agudath Israel's policies.

In the interview, Rabbi Perlow admits that the Internet's use can be restricted, but cannot be banned outright because (A) it is now increasingly a necessity for earning a living; and (B) most of the community would not adhere to the ban. The Rabbi also admitted that most of the insular community does in fact use the Internet.

It is likely, in my mind, that this is a calculated step towards the Agudath Israel's adoption of a website at some time in the future.

The foregoing contentions were conceived prior to my accession last evening of the succeeding edition of Hamodia, which, through a fortuitous chain of events, I managed to get hold of shortly after its publication instead of about a week later. This latest edition of Hamodia, along with the latest edition of Yated Ne'eman (which I got hold of along with Hamodia, through the same chain of events), published an account of the Agudath Israel's Thanksgiving Weekend Convention in East Brunswick, NJ. At the Convention, Rabbi Perlow, consistent with some of his statements in the Hamodia interview, addressed the problem of children who have not been placed in a religious school.

That issue made the rounds in late October, when Rabbi Aron Krausz strongly condemned those schools that reject students for petty and picayune reasons.

Also in the 3 December 2010 edition of Yated Ne'eman, on page 22, is an article by Avrohom Birnbaum entitled "It's Time to Bring Back the Jewish Observer!" (exclamation point in original). Rabbi Birnbaum was a panelist at one of the sessions at the Agudath Israel convention, and, as such, expressed sentiment that the Jewish Observer, an AI publication now (to use a Catholic term) in limbo, ought to be restored to its former status as a viable thought-provoking intellectual publication. Rabbi Birnbaum reported the response to his call to bring back the Jewish Observer as 100% positive, and that "the first person to spring up and applaud that clarion call was the Agudah's Executive Vice President, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel." While the JO's current induced coma has been presented as a financial-based decision (and finances, no doubt, did play a role), howcum the AI's own EVP cannot, after a year and a half, get it going again? Methinks that the prospect of the involvement of the Internet medium has some of the rabbis spooked.

But why would Yated Ne'eman publish Rabbi Birnbaum's account if it were totally contrary to rabbinical sentiment? Methinks that it is part of a strategy for the AI to be able to backtrack, without backtracking, on the anti-Internet posture it has assumed in very, very recent times.

And so, I see a pattern here. Rabbi Krausz comes out against those schools that reject Jewish children, and Agudath Israel follows suit at its Convention. Rabbi Birnbaum calls for the revival of the Jewish Observer, and Rabbi Zweibel agrees enthusiastically (although, to be sure, doesn't decree the magazine back to life). In recent years, the Agudath Israel's rabbinical leaders have, after years of denial, finally admitted that there is abuse of children at the yeshivas (but still strongly opposes efforts to hold accountable the responsible individuals).

Once upon a time, the rabbis controlled, to a large extent, the flow of information to and from their communities. Now, with the Internet technologies, that prerogative has largely disappeared. The management of information requires more proactivity than silence and denial. Remember that the flow of information through channels not controlled by the Politburo is what brought down the former Soviet Union

I cannot help but ask whether the Agudath Israel is providing leadership, or followership. And I stand by my belief that the Agudath Israel will eventually find a face-saving way to go cyber.

Agudah Watching

The Agudath Israel of America's annual Convention this past Thanksgiving weekend has provided much grist for the mill [here, here and here, for example]. Blogwise, I have held my fire on it, but that does not mean that I have not been following it with great interest. [For the uninitiated, the Agudath Israel is an "umbrella group" advocating the interests of the more insular Jewish factions in America.].

The main reason I did not attend the Convention myself is that the extended Thanksgiving weekend has become a time for my family to travel and visit our relatives and friends. The combination of geography and our family priorities do not facilitate my personal attendance.

But because I was not there personally, I must digest and assimilate second-hand information, and I want to tap diverse sources for that info, including but not limited to blogs, personal accounts of friends, clients and acquaintances who were there, and, of course, the newsrags. In the latter regard, the 2 December 2009 copy of Hamodia, and the 4 December 2009 copy of Yated Ne'eman, which take a circuitous route through many hands before coming into mine, reached me a bit earlier than what has been the norm for the past few months. Sure enough, each covered the Convention.

As discussed in several postings this past summer [15 July 2001, 31 July 2009, 13 August 2009, and, more to the point, 2 August 2009], the Agudath Israel is a troubled organization now in a state of flux. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, having recently been elevated to the position of Agudath Israel's Executive Vice President, now needs to kick butt and make some people uncomfortable. This he purported to do at the Convention, if only by the mere passing mention of the problems of domestic violence and sexual abuse in his plenary speech. This is a milestone for Agudath Israel; formerly, those issues were swept under the rug and their seriousness if not existence within the religious Jewish community denied.

The 2 December 2009 Hamodia's treatment of the Convention is interesting. Firstly, there is an editorial on page D37 entitled "Crisis in our Community: Under the Rug? Denial? Or Confrontation and Solution." This editorial reveals that, upon advice of the ranking rabbinical sages, Hamodia will "begin to address these topics, albeit in a sensitive and appropriate way." This, of course, is a tacit admission that Hamodia has heretofore taken pains to not address domestic violence and sexual abuse. And into the editorial's disclosure that Hamodia's challenge is "to balance the need to educate about what to beware of against the danger of enlightening the youth about things they should never know" one can read that its coverage will seldom if at all be front-page.

Indeed, elsewhere in the 2 December 2009 edition, the Convention was extensively covered, but mostly on the financial improprieties issues. The rabbis invariably are less uncomfortable and embarrassed over monetary scandals than sexual ones.

As for Yated Ne'eman, its coverage of the Convention was not as extensive as that of Hamodia, neither in verbiage nor photographs. Yated's references to the sexual abuse and domestic violence was indirect at best, a situation into which I do not read too much because (A) Yated's comparatively short article had to cover other matters from the Convention; and (B) it was Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, the Editor of Yated Ne'eman, who first broke ground by mentioning in a printed editorial the taboo subjects nobody wishes to discuss.

In my little Long Island community, we are one of a small group of families that comprise our congregation [I am uncomfortable using the word "Orthodox" to label Jews, but that is how our congregation is usually labeled.] For most of my life, I have never had the luxury of being able to squabble with my fellow Jews. Unfortunately, in many of the heavily populated religious Jewish communities, the residents frequently avail themselves of such pastimes, to the detriment of all involved. One of the more notorious of such shameful altercations involves one brother and his faction against another brother and his faction.

[We Jews are often accused by others of being clannish. Perhaps we are. When my family relocated and my sister and I enrolled in the local junior high school, we made it necessary to use two hands to count the Jewish students there. We all had to stick together. And, in the early 1970's, when my family was driving through the South towards Dallas, we needed some more rope to lash the luggage to the roof rack of the station wagon, so in a small Alabama town we stopped at a hardware merchant which happened to be the local "Jew Store" (seems that even the smallest of Southern towns often had at least one Jewish merchant). While we neither requested nor received any special discount, the proprietor and my father did spend more than a few minutes shmoozing, they let us all use the restroom facilities, and we received good advice as to places to go and to avoid along the remainder of our trek (this was before the Interstate Highway System was fully functional).].


There are various kulturkampfen within the big Agudath Israel kettle. Zwiebel needs to manage them (he certainly cannot halt them). So now, the question is whether Zwiebel is really trying to be a catalyst of change within Agudath Israel of America, or whether he is trying to put up a front by saying the right things, to delay the dirty work until the poor bastard who becomes the next Executive Veep gets stuck with the problem.

I would like to think that Zwiebel is genuinely trying to change the culture of the Agudath Israel so that it might better advocate for its constituency (of which I would like to think I am one). I cannot help but harbor a considerable amount of skepticism, though. One cannot ignore the fact that Zwiebel is an entrenched company man, and accordingly, there remains some question as to just how clean his broom can really be. But he is a highly intelligent and perceptive person, and he no doubt knows well that if he doesn't do some cleaning up, then the Agudath Israel of America may well cease to exist. This I really, really do not want to see happen.

And so, one may view the most recent Agudath Israel Convention as a turning point. Which direction -- upward or downward -- remains to be seen.

With that background, I now pose the following imponderable:

The Agudah [Hebrew grammatical and dialectical issues result in various spellings of the word] has been sullied by certain problems of many of its various constituents, namely, financial improprieties and tax scandals, sexual abuse scandals, and domestic violence. It is those fires that the Agudahniks have, of late, been scrambling to douse. The efforts so expended sap its strength to lobby the solons for favorable legislation, or, more commonly, against unfavorable legislation.

In this latter regard, the same-sex "marriage" measure that recently lost in Albany, and the one now going onto the table in Trenton, have been quite a consternation to the Agudath Israel. [For the record, I personally oppose quite vehemently giving legislative imprimatur to such abominations, but believe that two consenting adults should not have to abide the government insinuating itself into the bedroom.]. The Agudath Israel has been speaking to the various Assemblycritters in terms of public morality.

How can the Agudath Israel credibly make the public morality argument when they themselves have so long facilitated, through denial and sweeping beneath the rug, the immorality of sexual abuse and domestic violence in the religious Jewish community?

Bad Deal for the Yeshiva

As mentioned in several prior postings, the Agudath Israel of America has allowed itself to become entangled in fiascos that deviate from, and are, in many respects, contrary to its noble mission to facilitate and bolster the quality of life for religious Jewish observance and education in America. The new Executive Vice President, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, apparently has been tasked to redirect the organization. Some of the toochases he will need to kick belong to some very prominent rabbis.

As synopsized in the posting of 15 July 2009, Agudath Israel had, over the years, fallen into the denial trap with respect to various types of abuses within the religious Jewish community. Prior to the modern information technologies, a newspaper editor really could control the flow of information (and, for that matter, a leader such as a rabbi wielded even greater control over information before newspapers became the norm in the community). Accordingly, it was in many respects appropriate policy to restrain word of an occasional from going out to "the street" while the rabbis and community leaders worked to help the victim.

Add to this the fact that the religious community prided itself that certain behaviors contrary to the Torah were in fact rare within the community. Under such circumstances, it was more convenient to deny that the misbehaviors occurred than to confront the misbehaviors and the misbehavers. In fact, it was -- and still is -- a community taboo to even mention such misbehaviors by name.

And so, the Agudath Israel now finds itself ensnared in its past policies of denying that certain occurrences within the insular religious community occurred.

Addressing the problems of sexual abuses by the clergy, New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey introduced Assembly Bill 2596, the Child Victims Act, which would extend the statute of limitations to bring civil suit against, inter alia, educational institutions, for sexual abuse of children.

The Markey Bill presented a double whammy for Agudath Israel. For one thing, it brought home the uncomfortable fact that sexual abuse of children by clergy in the religious schools is not the exclusive province of the Catholic Church. Of more practical concern, however, was the fear that some financially strapped yeshivas might now be subject to existence-ending litigation on account of past wrongs by long departed employees. And so, the Agudath Israel issued a policy statement against the Markey Bill. [Given the oft-expressed attitude that sexual abuse by the clergy is a Catholic problem and we, the Rabbis, are not as depraved as some of the Catholic clergy, it is more than a little bit ironic that Agudath Israel is now working with the Catholic Church in opposing the Markey Bill.].

In short, the combination of s-e-x-u-a-l i-m-p-r-o-p-r-i-e-t-y and m-o-n-e-y have tripped up the Agudath Israel.

With its opposition of the Markey Bill, the AI has now postured itself as a champion of financial stability for yeshivas and other religious Jewish institutions. Which is why AI and Rabbi Zwiebel have just been thrown a real screwball pitch.

The recent mass arrests in Newark, which ensnared several rabbis, are more than just an embarrassment to the Agudath Israel (and indeed, this Jew is quite disgusted and embarrassed by them). The Newark arrests all resulted from the various songs sung by one Solomon Dwek, the Rabbi's son who, being under investigation for some significant bank fraud, chose to deliver up some more fish to the FBI in order to posture himself for some merciful treatment. Solomon Drek is, quite appropriately, scorned and reviled in the Jewish community for squealing on his fellow Jews (and, I suspect, will find few if any admirers among the gentiles).

But Dwek's problems, which started from his construction business being whipsawed in a bad econonomy, have also landed him in Bankruptcy Court. And now, the Trustee of Dwek's bankruptcy estate is now suing Dwek's father's yeshiva, the Deal Yeshiva, claiming that about $13 million of Dwek's ill-gotten gains traversed through the Deal Yeshiva's bank accounts. The Yeshiva is reportedly behind in the payment of salaries to its rank-and-file employees.

Now, if Agudath Israel of America is so staunch an advocate of financial security for yeshivas, how is it going to handle this one? What say you, Rabbi Zwiebel?

Will the Agudath Israel go Cyber?

The previous posting included the comment:

"(E) Personal sentiment: It would not surprise me in the least if, within the next few months or years, the Agudath Israel of America erects a website. I leave it to those in the pari-mutuel profession to assign particular odds to particular time frames."



Some further discussion of this and related matters occurred during Shabbat, so I will now expand upon it. I also have gotten hold of a generally-addressed missive dated 11 June 2009 from Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, the Executive VP of Agudath Israel, regarding the its Jewish Observer magazine. The letter includes the following passage:

" [G]iven the harsh economic realities of our times, and the proliferation in recent years of a number of other worthy publications that cater to the Torah community, we believe the time has arrived to do some fresh thinking about The Jewish Observer -- its format, its content, its role in serving the community today."


The letter goes on to say that publication will be suspended for a few months while the Jewish Observer gets reinvented, and beseeching the loyal readership's patience and understanding.

Fair enough!


If you have spent Shabbat in Bnei Brak in Israel, you will know that among the first matters to be attended to after Havdalah is the announcements, over the loudspeakers, of the names of those who passed away during Shabbat (statistically speaking, at least one can be expected on any given Shabbat). Such a method of communication suffices quite well for Bnei Brak, and might conceivably suffice for neighborhoods such as Borough Park or Crown Heights. Agudath Israel's symposium last Tuesday drew from a wider area than the individual neighborhood in which it was held. In other words, the bullhorn announcement method that works so well in Bnei Brak would not have sufficed to get the word out in time. And, I am informed, the Agudath Israel did use e-mail to publicize its symposium, and did make sure that certain websites got word of it as well.


Historically, the rabbis have always received technological innovations with great suspicion. This is not to say that the rabbis did not understand the technical aspects of the innovations, nor that the rabbis didn't use the innovations. But the rabbis, quite appropriately, have always been concerned about the effects of the technological innovations upon society in general, and the Jewish community in particular. The printing press, for example, caused much consternation among the rabbis when it first came out, but the rabbis eventually embraced it, but not without placing caveats and restrictions upon its use. To this day, books written on religious subjects often have one or more rabbi's imprimatur letter in the prefatory material.

Reading between the lines in Rabbi Zwiebel's letter, the Jewish Observer is now suffering from competition from the Internet. AI and its affiliate rabbis have pronounced many restrictions upon the use of the Internet, and indeed, have branded it as evil. And now, having made such pronouncements, they will have to find a way to use the Internet's positive attributes while avoiding its negative attributes to whatever extent is possible.

Also, there are some conflicts within the AI itself. Specifically, there are conflicts of style and philosophy between the Chassidic and the other religiously observant. And while the factions usually tend to manage their differences quite well, there had been a certain degree of pandering to the Chassidic faction by the others over the years.

And now, AI is a troubled organization that needs redirection to its core values and purposes. On account of the misbehaviors of some individuals from amongst its constituent groups, AI has, in many respects, morphed from an organization advocating statutes and administrative rules which are friendly to the observance of Jewish rituals and the safety and well-being of religious Jews, to an organization that scrambles to cover up the indiscretions of its wayward brats, and/or implore the prosecutors and judiciary for leniency towards the same. Zwiebel understands that the organization he leads has been distracted, and must refocus on its core values.

My rhetorical question: If the Agudath Israel of America can hastily convene a seminar on a few days notice, why does it need a few months to think about what it is going to do with its Jewish Observer publication? Fundraising may well be part of it, but I strongly suspect that it may have more to do with convincing the anti-Internet factions of the need to redirect the organization's public affairs agenda, including, perhaps, the necessity for an Agudath Israel website.

Reason to Believe, or just Conjecture

The 14 July 2011 posting to this Blog speculated as to the possibilities of the Agudath Israel of America being concerned for collateral damage from the media feeding frenzy regarding the murder in Brooklyn of Leiby Kletzky. If the speculations did not hit the bull's eye, neither were they too far off target.

To square everything up front, I do not consider myself to be an opponent of the Agudath Israel of America, and respect and appreciate its many good works on behalf of the religiously observant Jewish community (of which I am a member). But neither is the Agudath Israel above criticism, nor should it be.

Having learned the harsh and painful lessons of history, the Jewish community inherently takes a very dim view of Jews reporting their fellow Jews to the secular governmental authorities. It is more than a social norm; the Rabbis inserted a section into the daily prayer routine addressing the issue.

This is not to say that one should NEVER report a wrongdoer, even under Rabbinical law. But the presumption is that whatever wrong the wrongdoing Jew has done to his fellow Jews does not warrant intervention by the secular authorities, and that the situation is best dealt with by Rabbis and community leaders.

Unfortunately, the theory has not panned out in practice. I shall not now get into the psychosocial analysis; suffice it to say that certain types of aberrant behavior are not adequately understood by non-experts, and that ordinary rabbinical training in a Yeshiva does not constitute adequate expertise.

The Agudath Israel of America is essentially a political organ that does the bidding of the leaders of the European yeshiva world which has been transplanted to America following World War II. A legitimate purpose, if followed correctly.

But the problems of sexual abuse have been amplified on account of the failure of the Rabbis to recognize the dynamics of the crime and the criminal. There has been a big cover-up, analogous in many (but not all) respects to the problems now facing the Catholic Church.

And certain Rabbinical leaders have made statements to the effect that one must obtain permission from a rabbi to report the misdeeds to the authorities.

The Agudath Israel has issued so-called "clarification" of its position. Distilled to its essence, the AI's position per its "clarification" (which has many attributes of a back-tracking) is:

A. One is allowed to report it if one has sufficient reason to believe ("raglayim la’davar" in Hebrew) that it is abuse.

B. One is not allowed to report it if it is only conjecture ("'eizeh dimyon" in Hebrew). This is not a bad thing, inasmuch as many innocent people's lives have been destroyed by false accusations.

C. The differences between certainty and speculation are so complex and intricate that one needs to consult with a rabbi to really determine which is which (unless, perhaps, one actually saw it happen in real time).

I shall not now add to the feeding frenzy by linking to the numerous posting made with the past 24 hours; and I don't want to unnecessarily parrot other commentators. This Blog is not intended to be a "me, too" organ. It suffices to now say that the Agudath Israel's "clarification" has, in many quarters, created more controversy and confusion than it has clarified. Many individuals and organizations who, even a year ago, would have been squarely in the Agudath Israel's corner are now beginning to ask questions.

Some background: A number of years ago I was on the board of a Jewish day school. To the best of my knowledge, there was never any problem regarding abuse of students by school employees (though we did have other types of problems to address). During that time, however, I did have many occasions to compare notes with board members of other institutions.

One such board member (with whom I had a legal case unrelated to either of our institutions) told me that he had an abuser in the employ of his institution, and that the abuser was quietly fired, and was teaching at another institution. My acquaintance told me that he mentioned at board meetings that, as an attorney, he would be concerned regarding liability of the institution (this is before such a thing became the big concern it now is), and he threatened to do the reporting himself if the Executive Director did not. Within a week, he was preempted by the abuser's girlfriend (or rather, ex-girlfriend), who learned that her daughter had been abused by this guy.

The norm was to quietly fire the abuser, and keep quiet about it, even as the abuser went somewhere else to teach and abuse. I am not convinced that the practice has totally ended (though the threat of lawsuits has curtailed it significantly).

Perhaps the litmus test should be whether one feels strongly enough to terminate the employment of the person in question. If you truly believe that he may be the victim of false accusations, then you should have the fortitude to keep him in your employ, and stand behind him and back him up.

If, however, you yourself are not confident enough to keep him in your employ, then that should be your "raglayim la’davar," your sufficient reason to believe. When it comes to sexual abuse, if he's bad enough for you to fire, he's bad enough for you to report to the authorities.

How Fallen are the Mighty!

This posting is an expansion upon a reply posting I made to another blog.

The Agudath Israel of America is an organization that is now in crisis. Accordingly, my relationship to AIA is now not entirely comfortable. On the one hand, AIA has long advocated for the needs of religious Jews such as myself, and has done -- and continues to do -- some very positive things (not all of which are visible on the radar monitor). On the other hand, AIA now has a leadership crisis. The AIA of today is not the same AIA of twenty years ago. The individuals constituting AIA's leadership are each too caught up in their respective personal or partisan agendas to effectively advocate for the good of the religious Jewish community at large (Harry Maryles has analyzed the dynamics of this).

And there are other religious Jewish organizations which, while not directly under the AIA umbrella, are, to one degree or another, de facto allies of AIA, on particular issues if not on a wholesale basis. But AIA has, with good foundation, long claimed to be the alpha (or, rather, Aleph) lion in the pride, and has implicitly been acknowledged as such by the various religious Jewish leaders.

But the individual rabbinical leaders have each tried (and, to one degree or another, succeeded) in having AIA take on the particular agenda of their own particular subconstituency, effectively taking a "one size fits all" posture for matters where this is definitely not appropriate. As a result of the various individual dysfunctions, AIA has now morphed from clean advocacy from the moral high ground to hastily wiping the shit off the collective faces of the religious Jewish community and categorically denying that there are any foul odors in the air.


Some examples:

On 25 September 2002, over 200 New York City firefighters responded to a blaze in Brooklyn. Two firefighters were injured. The fire was the result of arson, as part of an insurance fraud and bankruptcy fraud scheme by the Jacobowitz family. There was also an attempt to bribe a fire marshal. While the Agudath Israel of America did not explicitly come out to advocate lenity for the Jacobowitzes, the Satmar Rebbe (of whose insular community the Jacobowitz family is part) did try to mobilize support for them.

The AIA long denied that there was sexual molestation in the yeshivas, until it simply could no longer deny the obvious. Today, AIA still lobbies the New York State Legislature to prevent a relaxation of the statute of limitations.

AIA took a leading role in appealing for clemency for Martin Grossman, who was sentenced to die for brutally murdering a Florida Wildlife Officer while Grossman was out on parole for other crimes.


And today, they now are whining that the sentence for Sholom Rubashkin was unfair (okay, I concede that 27 years is a bit excessive for big time bank fraud, and I agree that a sentence of 7 to 10 years would be more appropriate).

And so, over a decade or so, the Agudath Israel of America has ceded the moral high ground, and now comes to me to beseech my support in helping out fraudsters, arsonists, child molesters, spouse abusers, and cop killers. Where do I, as an honest, law-abiding religious Jew, fit in to Agudath Israel's agenda? When will the Agudath Israel of America start to once again advocate for us, instead of viewing us collectively as a potential ATM to help finance their damage control for damage that they are no longer able to cover up? And how can we law-abiding religious Jews expect AIA to return to the moral high ground when its own Executive Vice President has disrespectfully flouted the law by not keeping his New York attorney registration current?

We law-abiding and honest religious Jews are becoming very frustrated at the Agudath Israel's disconnection from us, from the constituency it is supposed to represent and champion.

Horrible Crime, Lots of Repercussions:

As this posting is being composed, the big news story unfolding is the gruesome murder and dismemberment of Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn as he was returning from day camp. There is a sufficient media feeding frenzy going on that there is no need to link to anything in this posting. Needless to say, the politicians are in on the feeding frenzy as well.

First and foremost, my condolences go out to Leiby's family. I cannot even imagine what they are going through.

In journalism school (not that I ever went to J-School), they teach that stories of a dog biting a man are not newsworthy, but when a man bites a dog, it's usually good for the front page. What is unusual about this story is that the suspect is from the same religious Jewish community as Leiby. Hey, when Gentiles kill one another, nobody makes a big deal about it (just ask the people of South Sudan or Rwanda or places like that), but when Jews kill one another it upsets the whole world!

My instincts tell me (and my friends and acquaintances in law enforcement seem to have similar gut hunches) that (A) Leiby and/or his family have/had some familiarity with the perp; and (B) the perp probably has some prior experience in this type of misdeed.


My observations:

1. In many insular Jewish circles, pains are taken to give the dead various honorifics in speech and writing. I myself, for example, will often (but not always) add a phrase such as "may they rest in peace" when speaking of my departed grandparents. But many blogs and newssites use the honorific "HY'D" which is the transliteration of the abbreviation for HaShem Yikom Damo, which is Hebrew for "May G-d avenge his blood." HY'D is commonly used in connection with those killed by Gentile enemies of the Jewish people (think victims of the Nazis). In the case of Leiby, it is now being used in connection with someone killed by a fellow Jew.


2. Everyone in Leiby's community seems to be trying to keep the true facts from the young children. Counseling experts are giving advice on how to break it to the children. Okay, I agree that there is a right way and a wrong way to break the news to the children, but keeping them in ignorance is the coward's way out. In such regard, when I was 5 years old, a 3-year-old playmate of mine was sexually molested and murdered, and her body stuffed in a cabinet in the basement of the teenage perp. I had just been over her house with my mom the week before. My dad was in the searching party, and my mom had gone to junior high with the assistant District Attorney on the case. My parents found a way to tell me that this young girl was killed, and though they didn't give all of the graphic details, neither did they deny that something terrible had happened to the playmate and that I would not be seeing her again. And they did it without having to engage the services of a counsellor or psychologist.

3. The Agudath Israel of America has released a public statement on Leiby's murder. It includes the sentence "We join the entire community in expressing our tremendous gratitude to the New York City Police Department, the FBI and local government officials for their round-the-clock efforts in leaving no stone unturned in their search; and we hope and trust that the perpetrator of this murder of an innocent boy will swiftly be brought to justice."

You will recall that the insular factions represented by Agudath Israel have, of late, been taking the attitude in deed if not in word that it is better to sweep child molestation under the rug and let the rabbis handle it, but one should not go report it to the authorities without sparingly-granted rabbinical permission. The irony of the Agudath Israel's statement about Leiby is not lost on many, including myself.


If it turns out that the perp had a record which was covered up by someone in the Agudath Israel constituency, then the Agudath Israel would have excellent reason to be concerned about its continued viability as an organization, what with its steadfast support of those who have covered up and continue to cover up the child molestation.

Methinks that the Agudath Israel's chickens may be coming home to roost!

Why the Battle of Albany was Lost

Until now, I really, really, have been too engrossed and occupied to comment on this same-gender marriage law enacted by the New York State Legislature. This one truly causes conflicting sentiments.

On one hand, I abhor and detest the very thought of same-gender sexual relationships.

On the other hand, what consenting adults do or do not do in that aspect of their lives is, all else being equal, a private and personal matter into which nobody should intrude, least of all the government.

The two men (or two women) who live together in a homosexual relationship, all else being equal, are not threatening anyone else's lives, safety or marriage. And so, as much as I disapprove of such relationships, I do not view it as any business into which I should personally insinuate myself.

The problem is that there is an extremely nefarious element amongst the homosexual community. There are those who actively seek to impose their own sexual values upon the rest of society, including and especially the recruitment of adolescent youths (and, for that matter, younger individuals).

There are many who claim that this so-called "gay marriage" law is merely a civil rights matter, and that all they wish to do is live and let live. But too, too many of these same advocates of "same-sex marriage" have tolerated if not encouraged the active participation of groups such as NAMBLA in their "gay pride parades" and other events. NAMBLA's unabashed agenda is very coercive, brutal and violent, and a menace to society.

There is a need to make distinction between the civil rights of individuals who happen to espouse homosexual preferences, and those who would use the civil rights line as an instrument to advance their violent and evil agenda.

The two most vocal lobbies against the legislation in Albany were the Catholic Church and the Agudath Israel of America. Why did they fail to stop the legislation?

My theory is that each of those two organizations has, over the past 10 or 20 years, ceded the moral high ground which they had previously occupied. And each of those two organizations has gotten a little more than a tiny bit arrogant in claiming the high moral ground they in fact have been in the process of abandoning.

Others who are or were more intimately involved with the Catholic Church can certainly provide more detailed accounts of the Church's lapses; my expertise in this area is effectively limited to what I read in the media, mainstream and otherwise.

But, as reflected in prior postings, I do have firsthand personal knowledge of the Agudath Israel of America and its strengths and weaknesses. The Agudah's stances on sexual misconduct have been too hypocritical for them to effectively hold the moral high ground, and have been exacerbated by their support of the wrong side in criminal matters other than sexual misconduct.

Sexual matters notwithstanding, the various religious Jewish organizations, including but not limited to the Agudath Israel, have made another mistake which has served to compound their losses of stature as exemplars of morality, namely, they have played the wrong political cards. For many years the religious Jewish newspapers have all been fawning over Sheldon Silver, the powerful New York State Assembly Speaker, because he happens to be a nominally religious Jew and he happens to be a Sabbath observer. They have done this even when they disagreed with his political stance. And, in the case of the same-gender marriage legislation, the Agudath Israel got bitten in the toochas by its inane presumption that Shelly Silver's religious values would trump his political agenda for such an important issue.

Before the Catholic Church and the Agudath Israel of America can deign to dictate morality, they will need to clean up their acts and reclaim the moral high ground. As matters currently stand, Governor Andrew Cuomo's morality score is, in many respects, higher than that of either organization.

Lawyer Number 1676253

In 1964, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the British Prime Minister, belatedly realized that he had forgotten to register to vote, and accordingly, could not participate in his own election. It was somewhat of a minor embarrassment at worst; all Sir Alec lost was one of the popular votes, which did not affect the outcome of the election. One need not actually vote in order to be Prime Minister of England.

Last week, the New York Law Journal published a 15-page listing of New York attorneys admitted in the First Department who were delinquent in their registration, along with notice to show that they are in compliance with the registration requirements (i.e., submit the registration form and pay the biennial fee). Apparently, all the lawyers there have not brought their registration status into compliance, despite several notifications sent out by the Office of Court Administration and/or the Disciplinary Committee. The next step, for any of the listed lawyers who fails to comply, is disbarment.

As an attorney admitted to practice in several jurisdictions, including New York, I take somewhat of a hard line view of this. It goes beyond being a week or a month late with getting in the papers and the check; it is now a complete disregard for their professional responsibilities. I can almost understand, and am predisposed to a somewhat more gracious view, with respect to those lawyers who practice out-of-state or out-of-country. And, of course, there invariably are a few who have gone deceased and, as such, are neither able nor qualified to bring their registrations into currency.

But as for the living and breathing New York lawyers, they begin to become a disgrace to the profession, and a cloud upon the integrity of those of us who do comply with the rules.

This Blog has made several postings regarding the Agudath Israel of America, an organization currently in a period of tribulation. Harry Maryles has likewise posted about Agudath Israel on his blog. I will not now go into the niceties of the Agudath Israel's leadership problems, other than to generally state that, unfortunately, it has problems in exercising effective leadership to fulfill what are supposed to be its core mission and values.

The most effective way to lead is by example. After a number of blunders during the past decade or two, AIA needs to set some positive examples for its constituency.

The last lawyer's name enumerated in the New York Law Journal's aforementioned listing is one David Zwiebel, who is none other than Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, the Agudath Israel of America's Executive Vice President. According to the New York State Unified Court System's website, Zwiebel (whose New York Attorney Registration Number is 1676253 is slated to reregister in December 2010, which means that his registration last lapsed (i.e., he didn't pay the biennial registration fee) in December 2008, about a year-and-a-half ago. And while Rabbi Zwiebel might arguably not have to practice law as such in his capacity as EVP of AIA, his continuing lapse into delinquent status detracts significantly from his credibility as a spokesperson for an organization that has taken and continues to take so many public stands with respect to so many cases in the courts, civil and criminal. In light of Zwiebel's risk of disbarment, this matter well exceeds the magnitude of ironic embarrassment inherent in Sir Alec Douglas-Home's neglecting to register to vote.

Zwiebel's registration (or lack thereof) may, in and of itself, pale in comparison to Agudath Israel of America's other problems and issues, but, as a poor public example, it is emblematic of AIA's leadership crisis.

A Session for Confession

The 15 July 2009 posting regarding the Spinka scandal and the Agudath Israel stated:


"The Agudath Israel needs to take corrective discipline with its misbehaving bratty children, instead of trying to convince the principal to not suspend the kids each time they misbehave. It should position itself as a proponent of compliance with tax laws instead of as a cover-upper of tax cheats, and as a proponent of zero tolerance for sexual abusers instead of a cover-upper of sexual abuse. This will take some practical leadership."


Perhaps the Agudath Israel is coming through. In a hurried response to the mass arrests in New Jersey (which only exacerbate the AI's increasingly embarassing public image), the AI convened a hastily-planned symposium (for men only, but that's a whole separate issue). The speakers at the symposium included none other than Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, who spoke some very contrite words. The speakers also included high-profile criminal defense attorney Benjamin Brafman, who said many of the things I have been saying for years. The videos of the event are very, very interesting, and can be viewed here if you have the time and inclination.


My take on it:

(A) Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel recently assumed the post of Executive Vice President of the Agudath Israel of America. He is a lawyer, and understands many of the legal nuances involved far better than mere rabbis.

(B) The Spinka Rebbe, having signed the tentative plea agreement, now has to do all sorts of contritional acts. Moreover, the plea agreement is a "package deal" contingent upon, inter alia, "a case disposition agreement executed by representatives of Spinka and all of its constituent organizations." The Rebbe's reference in his discourse to various watchdog-type committees is probably a reference to the terms and conditions of such case disposition agreements.

(C) In one of the videos, (approx. 2:00), Ben Brafman tells a semi-humorous story wherein he attended a minyan (English translation: A group of at least 10 Jewish men convened for prayer service) to say Kaddish for his father, and the guy selected to lead was his former client. Understand that Ben Brafman's clients are all criminal defendants. This, no doubt, made many of the AI hierarchy people in attendance wince.

(D) This symposium would have been unimaginable a year ago. But now, AA seems to be moving rapidly out of denial mode and is confronting problems which, only a short while ago, it would never admit existed. With the Jersey arrests making the headlines, the AI hierarchy now is beginning to realize that it can no longer go about delivering the morality lecture when so many members of so many of its affiliated groups are not behaving in a moral manner. Expect more events and missives with the new "obey the laws" message!

(E) Personal sentiment: It would not surprise me in the least if, within the next few months or years, the Agudath Israel of America erects a website. I leave it to those in the pari-mutuel profession to assign particular odds to particular time frames.

Agudath Israel in Cyberspace

Been away from posting for a while, what with the holidays and business and family things.

I have been trying, with varying success, to avoid discussion of the great farce known as the 2016 Presidential Election.

In more than a few postings past, I have speculated not so much whether as when the Agudath Israel of America will hop aboard the internet train.  The Agudath Israel is a loosely-organized advocacy group that purports to advance the interest of the insular religious Jewish community.  I have had past occasion to interact with the AI, and hold many of its officials and functionaries in very high esteem.

But there are various factions within AI, including many which remain totally and absolutely against the use of the internet.  For a while, it looked as though such factions would prevail in the internal debate within AI.  It seems, however, that the practical heads within AI have prevailed (mostly).

It has come to my attention that the upcoming 2016 AI Convention has a website.  Moreover, for all intents and purposes, AI itself now has its own website, albeit under the name "Lefkowitz Leadership Initiative"; that way they can have an official website without having an official website.

My wife and I caught some flak here in Israel not too long ago for using our smartphones; we were with some of my wife's 2nd and 3rd cousins in Bnei Brak, a largely insular community (which is more dependent upon non-religious and non-Jewish help and money than it cares to admit).  In the social groups my wife's cousins frequent, people are ostracized for possessing smartphones, which are considered to be a bad influence.  What stopped the flak was when my wife showed how she can use her smartphone to access vital medical information and facts to treat patients, including patients with conditions related to my wife's subspecialty.

Exit question:  If you were offered $100,000 to remain in a cabin in the woods for 3 months without any telephone, television, radio, or internet access, would you go for it?

The Cloud on the Agudath Israel has a Filthy Silver Lining

Recall that the posting of 30 June 2011 discoursed about the chickens coming home to roost at the poultry farms of the Agudath Israel of America (and also passingly mentions the Catholic Church, the particulars of which are deferred to those having greater expertise than my own on the organization).  The thesis was that those two organizations were getting payback for abandoning the high ground of morality, even as they asserted the morality arguments for their positions (which happened to be with respect to the New York same-gender marriage legislation).  The posting specifically mentions the Agudath Israel's political entanglement with the now soon-to-be-ex New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Well, today, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced the arrest of Shelly Silver on various corruption-related charges. The announcement gives links to the Criminal Complaint and the Seizure Affidavit.

Shelly is, of course, presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  It does seem, however, that there are multiple money trails that the prosecutors are prepared to reveal at trial; the case against Mr. Silver seems quite strong.

I reassert my contentions that any organization that purports itself to be the guardian and defender of the moral high ground cannot long maintain its credibility by insinuating itself under the bedsheets of the corrupt and immoral politicians.

It does not take much clairvoyance to predict that there will be repercussions in various and sundry places.  It may prove very interesting to see who else Shelly takes with him in his descending trajectory.  Keep this one on your radar screens.