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Jewish Journal

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July 17, 2013

Sex-offender teacher fled with help of Jewish school, prosecutor alleges

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An American-born teacher who pleaded guilty to child molestation at a Jewish school in Melbourne was assisted in fleeing to Israel by his employer, a prosecutor alleged.

In a pre-sentencing hearing Wednesday at the County Court of Victoria, the prosecution argued that David Kramer should receive the maximum sentence of five years in prison when he is sentenced on July 24.

Prosecutor Brett Sennett told the court that Rabbi Avrohom Glick, the then-principal of the Chabad-run boys’ school in Melbourne, did not report allegations about Kramer to police because he was “concerned for his welfare.” Instead, Sennett told the court, the college paid for Kramer to flee to Israel in 1993 before he returned to America, where he offended again.

Kramer’s attorney, Tim Marsh, attempted to shift blame from his client to the college.

“There could have been an investigation, there should have been an investigation, but instead there was a cover-up,” he said.

In April, Kramer pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault and one charge of committing an indecent act with a minor at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College in the early 1990s. Of the four victims, two now reside in the United States.

Kramer, 52, was extradited from America to Australia last year after he had served a four-year jail sentence for sodomizing a 12-year-old child at a St. Louis synagogue.

Manny Waks, the head of Tzedek, a support group for Jewish victims of child sex abuse, said outside court that the revelations about Glick were “absolutely astounding” and called on him to resign from his post at the college.

“It’s clear that the Yeshivah leadership cared solely for the welfare of the perpetrator,” he said. “It seems no consideration whatsoever was given to the welfare of the victims. Yeshivah and its leadership need to be held to full account.”

Last year, Yeshivah apologized “unreservedly” to victims for “any historical wrongs that may have occurred.”

Kramer’s sentencing next week will bring to a close the first in a series of child sex abuse cases that have rocked the Jewish community in Australia.

Sex-offender teacher fled with help of Jewish school, prosecutor alleges Read More »

White Privilege

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Of all the things not to like about the Trayvon Martin killing and subsequent events – and nothing could possibly even come close to outweighing the tragedy of an unarmed teenager being killed on his way home from the convenience store – there is at least one good thing coming out of it. And that is the discussion about racial profiling and its opposite, white privilege.

Although some white people may have an inkling of what white privilege is and how it advantages us, for many of us, it’s hard to get our minds around it. Young black males and other minorities live with profiling, and are reminded of it every time they are pulled over and/or questioned by police. It’s in their face every time it happens.

For white people, though, white privilege is not obvious. That’s because almost every time it happens, we have no idea it’s occurring. We only get a hint of it every once in a while. That’s what makes it so easy for us to dismiss it as nonexistent, uncommon, or unimportant.

Two years ago, my husband and I were driving in a rural, predominantly white area, when he was pulled over for speeding. “Are you heading up to the slopes to ski?” the officer asked my husband, peering into the back of the car, where no ski equipment was visible.

“No,” my husband replied, gesturing toward me, “We’re on our way to her father’s funeral.”

“I’m sorry,” said the officer, handing my husband’s driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance back to him, and then he let us go on our way without a ticket.

Would we have been treated differently if we had been two young black men, or members of any other minority group? I have no idea. And I have no way to know. Perhaps the officer, seeing no ski equipment and hearing of the reason for the trip, would have let anyone go without a ticket. But I doubt it.

Even more suspicious was a sobriety check point at which I was pulled over several years ago. “Have you had anything to drink tonight?” the officer asked me.

“No,” I replied.

“May I see your driver’s license?” he continued, holding out his hand.

“It’s in my purse in the trunk,” I told him.

“Do you know your driver’s license number?” he inquired.

“Um, it’s C05…something…I think,” I offered.

“Ok,” he said, and he let me go without asking me to retrieve my license from the trunk of the car. I was shocked.

You see, around this time the police in the county where this happened were being accused of staging sobriety checkpoints not just for the purpose of catching drunk drivers, but also for the purpose of arresting, and impounding the cars of, undocumented immigrants.

I am quite certain that if I had been latina, or if I had spoken with an accent, the officer would have insisted that I get my driver’s license out of the trunk . I am certain he would have checked it to make sure it was valid. It’s preposterous to think this was anything other than a case of white privilege in action.

I understand why it’s so hard for many of us to know when we’re the recipients of the advantages of white privilege. And I understand why that makes it hard for some of us to believe that it exists in any substantial way. So I’m grateful that this horrible tragedy of Trayvon’s death has at least gotten some of us to talk about it, because recognizing there is a problem is the first step toward solving it.

—————-
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BDS becomes law in the EU: Why the European Union’s boycott of Israeli products is wrong

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According to a new guideline adopted by the European Union, contracts between EU member states and Israel must include a clause stating that east Jerusalem and the West Bank are not part of the State of Israel and therefore not part of the contract. This means that any cooperation, awarding of grants, prizes and funding for any Israeli entity in the specified areas will be forbidden.

The issue of settlements has been around for a while now. Some believe Israel should leave these territories, some believe that a place where Israelis live is a part of Israel. But more than a hypothetical discussion, it has also been an issue of disagreement between Israel and the EU. For more than a decade, the EU is making attempts to push Israel into officially disconnect with the settlements, which has been referred to as “occupied Palestinian territories.”  After years of using words, they decided to take action, but this action was not to mediate peace talks or arrange a big Middle East summit, but to take sides, and cut connections with the parts of Israel they don't like. The EU is a symbol of globalization. It is a symbol of an advanced world where we are not divided by borders, but live together in one, united community. Now, this symbol of the new enlightened world has decided it has the right to draw a line in the middle of a country. Let there be no mistake: what the EU did is boycott, more than any protest by a small group of young people threatening Alicia Keys or Elton John to stay home.

The EU decided to not wait any longer for peace talks, and instead unilaterally asserted a one-sided opinion upon a complex and yet unresolved issue. By taking charge, they made the talks, the negotiation redundant.  I know that our government did not play along with the EU. The Israeli government had been forewarned and ignored by the EU, but that still does not give the EU the right to determine the fate of people who currently live in those places. The peace process, eventually, is entirely up to the two sides involved. People from the outside can help, advise or encourage. Any actions beyond can only push peace further away. Whether there will be an agreement far ahead where Israel gives these territories is hard to tell, but until then, no one has the right to distinguish them from the rest of Israel outside a hypothetical discussion.

Imagine you wake up one day to a whole new reality, where you are no longer considered a part of your country. But this decision was not made by your government, but rather by someone else who is believed to know better. Imagine your hard work and produce will be marked, from now on, so that people from an entire continent will not do business with you. This is what will happen in Israel, starting this Friday. The EU drew a new border line and one side will be counted for, while the other will be boycotted.

I don't know what the future of the settlements will be. Maybe people will have to give up their homes for peace, maybe not. Maybe the peace talks are taking too long, maybe it is a good thing. I don't know, and I know I don't get to decide. Too bad the EU has yet to come to a similar realization.

BDS becomes law in the EU: Why the European Union’s boycott of Israeli products is wrong Read More »

July 17, 2013

Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads, News, Rosners Domain-mobile /

The US

Headline:  Samantha Power’s Senate hearing has amicable prelude

To Read: Three Iran experts- Luers, Pickering, and Walsh- point out the limits of coercion in America's dealings with Teheran-

If the United States is to reach an agreement with Iran about its nuclear program, Washington will have to develop new approaches to thinking about Iran. The administration should recall JFK’s charge fifty years ago for Americans “not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.” There is yet time for diplomacy, but the longer real negotiations are delayed, the greater is the risk of conflict in the increasingly violent environment of the Middle East. Delays could well result in a further loss of trust and misunderstanding and digging in on both sides. This in turn would make a mutually acceptable outcome more difficult.  

Quote: “we have warned Mr. Snowden that any actions by him connected with harming Russian-American relations are unacceptable”, Vladimir Putin trying to calm down the Snowden-related tensions between Russia and the US.

Number: 8, President Obama's approval ratings have dropped by 8 percentage points since last month.  

 

Israel

Headline: Israel in damage control mode after EU decision

To Read:  Israel' Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, describes how a bloc of Arab countries boycotted a UN entrepreneurial convention just because Israel was the co-host-   

Most recently, on June 26, a group of Arab states boycotted a U.N. conference, co-hosted by the Israeli delegation, based on our December resolution. One would think that it's hard to find fault with bringing entrepreneurial innovation, creativity, and ingenuity to bear on some of the world's most pressing problems. Yet, the Arab bloc sought to undermine this event for one simple reason — Israel was one of the co-hosts. It appears the Arab states would sooner keep their citizens shackled by hardship than accept the key to unlocking progress — so long as Israel is the locksmith.

Quote:  “If we can't delay this decision we need to act; take areas in the Israeli consensus like greater Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Ma'aleh Adumim, Givat Ze'ev, Betar Illit etc., annex them into Israel and apply Israeli law on them”, Likud Minister Israel Katz suggesting some provocative reactions to the EU decision.

Number: 1071, the number of new West-Bank housing units Israel is set to approve.

 

The Middle East

Headline: Egypt's interim government gets to work amid protests, deadlock

To Read: According to Turkish journalist Kadri Gursel, Turkey has been basing its foreign policy on a great big illusion-

After the onset of the Arab Spring, Turkey shaped its policy in the eastern Mediterranean on a fantasy of “Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] internationalism” through which to create a new regional order hand in hand with other Sunni Islamist actors. This strategic approach would bestow Turkey with “game changing and proprietor of the change” roles to allow it to assume a superior position among its partners. The foreign policy makers in Ankara enunciated this wishful thinking on many occasions using a variety of different words.

Quote:  “[The UN] has not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago”, The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, commenting on Syria's refugee crisis.

Number: 5, the number of hours John Kerry and PA President Abbas spent together yesterday.

 

The Jewish World

Headline: In Style of Bloomberg, Wealthy Technology Executive Will Enter Mayor’s Race

To Read: Rabbi Gilad Kariv believes that Israelis still has a lot to learn from Diaspora Jewry-  

Diaspora Jewry provides a constant moral and value-based reminder of what it means to live as a minority. In an era when Jewish sovereignty is required to exercise force, and has to a large extent become addicted to force, this reminder is more needed than ever.

Quote:  “Right now we are not planning any legislative action in this matter”, Polish PM, Donald Tusk, announcing that he is not going to lift his country's Kosher slaughter ban.

Number: 40, the percent increase of French Jews making Aliya in the past year.

July 17, 2013 Read More »

This week in power: Portugal, Poland, NFL player, Tisha B’Av message

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A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Portugal law
A bill passed in Portugal this week that allows Jewish descendants of expelled Jews to come back, making it the only country besides for Israel with a Jewish law of return. “The law is a commendable initiative,” said Nuno Wahnon Martins, the director of European affairs for B’nai B’rith International, ” target=”_blank”>asked Edwin Frankel at the Examiner.Jew

Jewish slaughter
A defeat in Polish parliament of a bill meant to reverse January’s ban on ritual slaughter has many people up in arms. They cited animal cruelty in the ruling. “To complicate matters, kosher slaughter has not stopped altogether since the ban entered into force at the beginning of the year. Poland’s Jewish community is using a 1997 agreement between itself and the state, which allows religious slaughter. The practice’s legal status remains unclear,” ” target=”_blank”>wrote Ben Cohen at Commentary.

Aliya back on
After a two-week impasse, aliya has returned, ” target=”_blank”>wrote Yousef Munayyer at The Daily Beast. “I think we should ask Yahoo! why they would publish a piece that accuses an NFL player of anti-Semitism without one solitary quote or piece of actual evidence. This is worse than your typical 'keep your politics out of my sports' hit piece. It’s slander,” ” target=”_blank”>wrote Josh Gerstein at The Jewish Press. “On Tisha B’Av, of all days, we are not meant to point to flaws outside ourselves, however apparent they may be, but rather to examine those within. After all, we can never truly know the minds and motivations of others. The only baseless hatred we can diagnose is our own,” This week in power: Portugal, Poland, NFL player, Tisha B’Av message Read More »

Kerry urges Israel to ‘look hard’ at Arab peace initiative

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel on Thursday to consider carefully a 2002 Arab League peace initiative that it rejected in the past.

“Israel needs to look hard at this initiative, which promises Israel peace with 22 Arab nations and 35 Muslim nations – a total of 57 nations that are standing and waiting for the possibility of making peace with Israel,” he said in Amman, where he met officials from Arab League member countries.

The plan, put forward by Saudi Arabia at an Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002, offered full recognition of Israel but only if it gave up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agreed to a “just solution” for Palestinian refugees. Softening the plan three months ago, a top Qatari official raised the possibility of land swaps in setting future Israeli-Palestinian borders.

Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Dan Williams

Kerry urges Israel to ‘look hard’ at Arab peace initiative Read More »

Bar Refaeli kissed a girl

Leave a Comment / Hollywood, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Here, for your viewing pleasure, a photo of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli making out with another woman.

According to TMZ, the women Refaeli is kissing is her friend Orna Elovitch. This is just the latest racy, publicly shared shot from Refaeli, who recently posted a picture of herself wearing nothing but sneakers and Christian Louboutin shopping bags.

Bar Refaeli kissed a girl Read More »

Adam Levine engaged to Behati Prinsloo

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Mazel Tov to Adam Levine and his brand-new fiancé, Victoria’s Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo.

To clarify, Namibia-born Prinsloo, 24, is not the same model Levine, 34, was seeing this spring. The newly engaged couple was on a break back then, during which time the Jewish Maroon 5 frontman got together with Sports Illustrated model Nina Agdal. Not to be confused with Sports Illustrated model Anne Vyalitsyna, who broke up with Levine in 2012, after two years together. Anyway, that’s all in the past.

“Adam Levine and his girlfriend Behati Prinsloo are excited to announce they are engaged to be married,” Levine’s rep told People. “The couple recently reunited and Adam proposed this weekend in Los Angeles.”

We wish them well!

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Opposing gay marriage is opposing love

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

One comes to understand many things after 97 years of life. Here’s one: Sex may fade, but love … that’s forever.

So says Issur Danielovitch, the man better known to the world as the nonagenarian actor Kirk Douglas. In an item this week on the Huffington Post, Douglas comes to the defense of his “friend” David Wolpe, the influential Los Angeles rabbi recently the subject of a front-page story in The New York Times describing the blowback in his congregation to his decision to perform gay marriage ceremonies.

Opposing gay marriage, Douglas writes, is opposing love. And who could be against love? Douglas even includes a poem to demonstrate how love can persevere into old age. Here’s the first few stanzas:

    Romance Begins at 80
    And I ought to know.
    I live with a girl
    Who will tell you so.

    I sit by her bath
    As she soaks in the tub.
    Then help her out
    For a strong towel rub.

    She likes that a lot
    But before I tire.
    It’s time to pour the wine
    And start lighting the fire.

    As the fire crackles,
    We talk of the past
    We met over 50 years ago
    Did you think it would last?

Opposing gay marriage is opposing love Read More »

EU issues new guidelines on West Bank — but do they matter?

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There’s been much handwringing this week about a set of new European Union directives that render Israeli projects in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank ineligible for EU funding or grants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an indignant statement saying he would “not allow the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan to be harmed” by the new regulations and suggesting that the European Union invest its energy in stopping the civil war in Syria or Iran’s nuclear program.

Bibi was outdone by Uri Ariel, Israel’s minister of housing from the Jewish Home party, who reportedly compared the guidelines to boycotts against Jews in Europe 76 years ago.

Haaretz, which broke the story Tuesday, described the guidelines this way: “The European Union has published a guideline for all 28 member states forbidding any funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, research funds or prizes to anyone residing in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”

Actually, no. For one thing, the guidelines apply only to the EU, not to its member states. And according to the guidelines, a copy of which was obtained by JTA (they are due to be published Friday), the benefits in question are “grants … prizes and financial instruments to dedicated investment vehicles.”

“Only Israeli entities having their place of establishment within Israel’s pre-1967 borders will be considered eligible,” reads the document, whose stated aim is “to ensure the respect of EU positions and commitments in conformity with international law on the non-recognition by the EU of Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.”

An unnamed senior Israeli official quoted by Haaretz describes the guidelines as an “earthquake,” saying, “This is the first time such an official, explicit guideline has been published by the European Union bodies.”

That’s true only if one ignores the Dec. 10, 2012, statement by EU foreign ministers that “all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.”

Then there’s the statement by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers last year saying they support labeling Israeli goods from settlements, an issue whose likely economic impact probably dwarfs the effect of an odd grant or prize.

According to The New York Times, the EU is trying to downplay the significance of the guidelines. The newspaper also reported that the guidelines could complicate John Kerry’s efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks by hardening Israeli positions at a delicate moment.

But actual impact on the ground? A senior Israeli diplomat in Europe told JTA on condition of anonymity that the guidelines are “much ado about nothing” because the European Union already declines to reward Israeli entities and activities based in areas it believes Israel is illegally occupying.

“For many years, any engagement with the EU has a territorial clause, which means it does not apply to areas the EU doesn’t regard as belonging to Israel,” the diplomat said.

EU issues new guidelines on West Bank — but do they matter? Read More »