New York State law says that mandatory reporters who suspect a child has been sexually abused have to report that suspicion to police or to child services. Agudah says Jewish mandatory reporters should not follow New York law, and a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA refuses to say the DA will enforce the law against mandatory reporters who follow Agudah's dictate rather than the law.
UPDATE: The family of Aron Rottenberg says he was attacked because he started a prayer group outside the authority of Grand Rabbi David Twersky, and that Twersky's followers have been trying to drive him from the community ever since.
Schneerson died in 1994 without naming a successor, and the Chabad movement has been without a Rebbe ever since. There's a small but vocal and growing faction of Lubavitchers who believe their last, deceased Rebbe was the Moshiach - i.e., the Messiah, the prophesied hero of the Bible who will unite and rule over the Jews and usher in God's kingdom on Earth. Being deceased would seem to be an obvious disqualifier for messianic status, Schneerson's devotees, commonly referred to as "mesichists".
The opinion poll revealed the number of Americans who think the US needs to support Israel dropped to 51 percent in July from 58 percent in June and 63 percent in August 2009.
In Germany, 50 percent of the respondents said they had "very cold" or unfavorable feelings toward Israel, compared with 39 percent who said they experienced "cold" or "very cold" feelings toward Palestinians.
In Sweden, the situation was similar to that in Germany, with 49 percent saying their feelings toward Israel were "cold" or "very cold."
In France, those sympathizing with Israel did not go beyond 24 percent and the number, though narrowly, was outweighed by 31 percent who said that felt "cold" or "very cold" feelings toward it.
Vayoel Moshe (Hebrew: ויואל משה) is a Hebrew book written by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, leader of the Satmar Hasidic movement, in the year 1961. It made his case that Judaism is against Zionism.
None of the nearly $1 million set aside to tackle sex abuse in New York's ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities has been spent, even as another program set up to help scrambles for cash.
A fine looking collection of texts. Here's a couple, but there's stuff such as Shas I've never heard of:
Haaretz, 4 January 2010