Haitian Immigration

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

Fact Sheet on Haitian Immigrants in the United States

WASHINGTON (January 25) – Since the terrible tragedy in Haiti, many have sought information about the Haitian community in the United States. Below are some basic socio-demographic statistics:

  • The last Census Bureau data (2008) indicates there are 546,000 Haitian immigrants in the United States. That is up from 408,000 in 2000 and 218,000 in 1990.1
  • Of the 546,000 foreign-born Haitians in the United States, 48 percent are naturalized U.S. citizens; this compares to 43 percent for the overall foreign-born population.2
  • The top states of Haitian immigrant settlement are Florida (251,963; 46%), New York (135,836; 25%) New Jersey (43,316; 8%), Massachusetts (36,779; 7%), Georgia (13,287; 2%), and Maryland (11,266; 2%).3
  • Our best estimate is that there are 75,000 to 125,000 illegal Haitian immigrants in the country. In 2000, the INS estimated there were 76,000 illegal Haitian immigrants.4
  • When it extended Temporary Protected Status to Haitians, the Department of Homeland Security estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people could be eligible. While most are illegal immigrants, this estimate also includes those on temporary visas such as tourists, foreign students, and guest workers who will not have to go home.5
  • Between 2000 and 2008, 183,188 Haitians were given green cards (permanent residence). These figures do not include those who entered on a long-term, temporary basis such as guest workers and foreign students nor does it include short term visitors like tourists. Of those given permanent residence, 135,913 (74 percent) were admitted under family-based immigration.6
  • There are 310,000 U.S.-born Americans who have at least one parent born in Haiti.7
  • Of Haitian immigrants (ages 25 to 65) 22 percent have not graduated from high school and 18 percent have a college degree. This compares to 9 percent and 30 percent, respectively, for native-born Americans.8
  • The share of Haitian immigrants and their young children (under 18) living in poverty is 20 percent. For native-born Americans and their young children it is 11.6 percent.9
  • The share of Haitian immigrants and their young children who lack health insurance is 29.5 percent. For native-born Americans and their children it is 12.6 percent.10
  • Of households headed by Haitian immigrants 46 percent use at least one major welfare program. For households headed by native-born Americans it is 20 percent.11
  • The share of Haitian immigrants who own their own home is 49 percent. For native-born Americans it is 69 percent.12

For more information on the subject, please visit our Haitian Immigration overview page.

End Notes

1 Figure for 1990 and 2000 come from the public use file of the 1990 and 2000 Census. See

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Mother Me

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

One of the traits I love most about myself is my ability to draw out mothering from women.

I can’t get enough!

Hey, have you noticed sex differences in Facebook pictures? Girls pick up photos of themselves looking cute. Guys put up photos of themselves looking stupid. What’s up with that?

Also, why are girls into vampires and guys are into zombies? I guess girls like vampires because of that predator-prey thing and girls like being prey. Also, vampires are sexy and passionate and give eternal youth.

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Prager Complex

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

Dr. Z emails: Luke your complicated relationship with Prager has a name… Its an Oedipus Complex:

– You came alone into a new religion/community/city: Mother.
– He became your model to amulet. A father figure.

Through him you were seeking validation. Dennis is Guru and his followers are reminding of family. You joined seeking an happy ending to your searches.

in every family occurs a power struggle over control. It occurs when the Papoose starts speaking for himself and rebel a little. This is called in psychological jargon: Individuation. Big Papa looks at this unfavorably. At first tries to smack Papoose into the straight line he drew. As Papoose refuses to give in, ‘Big Papa’ becomes enraged sending some threatening directives. When it does not work, He banishes him off his kingdom. When you took the title “The moral leader” You wedded the community. Since then you are dangling between the need to ‘kill him’ and missing the love you… never got from him.

So what’s next, you ask? Stop stumbling blindly with the hate/love dependency on Dennis Prager. He like most of us has feet of clay. He is NOT representing Judaism. You are a legitimate Jew, now. You have your own voice and we all hear it clearly.

GET OVER HIM and move on!

Q. I never thought about it before, I wonder, is he becoming a cult leader???

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EconStories.tv

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

This comes from my former UCLA economics professor Russell Roberts, an Orthodox Jew. Our wide-ranging conversations in 1988-1989 were life-changing.

Here’s his story:

Russell Roberts is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Distinguished Scholar at the Mercatus Center, and a research fellow at Stanford University

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A Pity

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Luke Ford

Gadi Pickholz from the Israel Fathers Rights Advocacy Council emails:

It is a pity your reporting has been so inaccurate in the disputed Get case in LA.

Without getting into specific details, the reality of the situation is that the husband in this case appeared voluntarily before a recognized and approved Bet Din and provided a kosher Get. The wife has refused to accept this Get pending revaluation of the financial settlement package,

As Rav Ben Dahan, Av Bet Din of the Israeli government Rabbanut Bet Din reports in his recent annual report, the number of cases of wives refusing kosher Gets as a strategy to secure better financial settlements is now slightly surpassing husbands refusing to give Gets.

The behavior of the LA rabbinate in this case was particularly appalling. While the lynch mob they whipped into a frenzy from their pulpits may have been ignorant of both halacha and details of the case, the same cannot be said of the Rabbis involved. They knew they were wrong; they knew they were significantly misrepresenting both fact and halacha, and they knew they were directly intervening in an active civil divorce proceeding rather than acting as a voluntary arbitration panel accepted by both sides — which remains a criminal act in the United States.

Ultimately, the case underscores just how important a Big Business divorce has become, particularly in the more affluent modern orthodox world. This dispute, ultimately, came down to LA Rabbis objecting to another Bet Din receiving the financial fruits of a very wealthy divorce in their town, and an insistence that the LA Rabbis enjoy a monopoly on this very lucrative business.

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I’m Sharing My Feelings Live On My Cam

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Luke Ford

Click here to join the fun!

TheUpperWestSidePosek: How are you feeling? Share your emotions with us
YourMoralLeader: just got out of therapy
YourMoralLeader: i feel tingly yet tired
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Do you think you will have enough years in your life to fully get in touch with your feelings and properly write about them for the rest of the world to appreciate?
TheUpperWestSidePosek: So many feelings, so little time.

YourMoralLeader: I feel the Colts will win the Super Bowl
TheUpperWestSidePosek: If only you had a dollar for every word you ever wrote about your feelings.
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Payton Manning is da bomb
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Favre really blew it yesterday. So did his receivers
YourMoralLeader: Favre’s fault
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Had he just run those 8 yards instead of trying to be the hero, they would have been in great field goal position, and that would’ve been that
TheUpperWestSidePosek: That, plus interceptions, s**tty hands on balls, doomed them. So now this unclean and unholy city of New Orleans is going to celebrate going to the super bowl
TheUpperWestSidePosek: When what they require is a cultural shift that leads them to root for their schools to dominate spelling bees and science fairs

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He Sees The End From The Beginning

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Luke Ford

“You see the end of things right from the beginning,” says his therapist.

He’s jolted. “My previous therapist said that,” he says. “Not the one before you, but the one before the one before you. She said I was always prepared for loss. That I always expected the teat to go dry. That I’d just suck away for all I could get because I felt sure it would go dry.”

“Your writing comes first for you,” says his therapist.

“Yes,” he says. “It’s number one. That makes decision-making easy. Everything else in my life, everyone else in my life, is subordinate to my writing. It doesn’t matter if I am lying in the gutter or davening at shul or standing on a porn set. They are all opportunities to write. Each perspective is but raw material in my artistic hand.

“I’m all about the work. I’m ready to sacrifice everything for my art.”

“That sounds very lonely,” says his therapist.

“Yeah, it can be,” he says. “It’s good to have your priorities.

“I’ve been jazzed about Dennis Prager since I started listening to him in the fall of 1988. I was so thrilled to finally meet him in Tampa Bay in January 1994. He said he might have work for me if I were in Los Angeles.

“I said I might be moving to LA. His office asked for my resume. I polished it up and sent it off. I moved to LA. I interviewed for two hours with Prager’s right hand man, Mark Wilcox.

“I didn’t get the job.

“I started going to Stephen S. Wise temple on Shabbos morning. Because Dennis Prager went there. He spoke at least once a month.

“I developed this whole social circle around Dennis. It was this whole group of people I knew in common with Dennis.

“I’d always had this relationship with Dennis where I argued with him. I heard him on the radio and then I started calling his show and arguing with him.

“Then I started writing my autobiography and I had several chapters in it about his effect on my life. Dennis’s wife Fran and some of the friends we had in common read this.

“So I’ve always liked being in dialogue with Dennis.

“When I started coming around Stephen S. Wise, I realized I’d have to adjust. The price of being in Dennis Prager’s social circle was that you could cause no waves for the great man. He was carrying big enough burdens. He didn’t need any of us adding to them.

“So I started keeping quiet. I was very respectful with my disagreements. It was important to me to belong.

“Then I got a real computer in July 1997 and I started writing about the porn industry. I noted how much Dennis Prager had affected my views on porn and related moral issues. So people started questioning me, how does Dennis feel about what you’re doing?

“It was constant. I felt bad. I didn’t want Dennis to get contaminated by my choice to write on the porn industry but it was inevitably happening. I felt him distance himself from me. I felt various of the friends we had in common distance themselves from me. I realized that we were all headed for a break.

“I had a choice. I could keep writing freely or I could preserve my place in Dennis Prager’s social circle. I had to choose. Even if I stopped writing on porn, whatever I wrote, people would press me if I departed too severely from Dennis Prager’s guidelines. So I had to choose between my membership in Prager’s social circle and my desire to write freely.

“I was told very clearly by Prager’s personal assistant that she would not talk to me again, Dennis would not talk to me again, that the friends I had in common with Dennis would not talk to me again, if I proceeded with my idea of writing about him.

“I heard the warning and I proceeded with the writing anyway. And everything she said came true. I was intellectually prepared for this loss, but emotionally, I was not prepared. I was devastated. I felt like my world had cracked apart. I had alienated the man I admired most in the world, and I had alienated myself from all the people we had in common. My whole group of friends in Los Angeles disappeared.

“So I entered therapy.

“Over the years, I’ve gotten to make the choice again and again — between writing what I wanted and belonging to the group. I always chose my writing.”

“Do you think that is serving some need?” asks his therapist.

“Wow,” he says. “Wow. It could be that my devotion to my craft is in part an excuse to distance myself from others, to always be prepared to lose all relationships and community. My writing might be a sword with which I keep others at bay. Wow. Wow. Wow. I think there’s something to that. Writing is not just a heroic quest for me, it’s an excuse to have sub-standard relationships.

“I’m always preparing myself for the loss of some beloved relationship. I tend to devalue my relationships. Because they are flawed in various ways, I tell myself they don’t matter so much, because I don’t want to face up to the pain of desperately wanting to be in a relationship with someone who may not want me as much. There’s only so much disparity I can handle before I get anxious and want to run.”

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Shaarei Tefillah Ripped Apart Over Meir Kin Divorce Dispute?

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Luke Ford

Mark emails:

Dear Luke:

Regarding your article about Shaarei Tefila, Youve been mislead once again. There are about 5-6 disgruntled members of Sharrei Tefila who just come for the Shabbos Kiddush every week and dont even participate in the services. Aaron Kin singlehandedly cannot remove the Rabbi as it is done by a Vote from the Board of Directors. The Rabbi nearly lost his job 3 years ago as well and has been hanging by a thread for the past 3 years. The majority of the shul feels the same and want to move on to find a more likable Rabbi. Rabbi Kosofsky is a nice person but simply not a match to this shul. The rabble rousers enjoy mixing in Meir Kin into Shaarei Tefila affairs, but in reality it has nothing to do with his Divorce. Incidently, Meir Kin has been getting Aliyas in Shaarei Tefila and even honored to lead the Services because the RCC has removed his Seiruv months ago. Therefore those people who fed you this “news bulletin” were simply lying and looking to stir trouble. You can always find bitter, jealous and troublemakers in every Shul.

So why did the RCC drop its seiruv against Meir Kin?

Mark replies: “Because they realized they have no case. You have done a wonderful job in the past posting all of his supporting documents and the RCC saw that the community wasn’t buying the BS of Bnai David or Beth Jacob. See lonnakin.blogspot.com”

Here’s another email:

It’s true that Rabbi Kosofsky has had a hard time obtaining the shul’s support these past seven years. He works hard and is a very nice gentleman and a real mentsch…however, he does not have the personality for a pulpit job.

On the other hand, Aaron Kin is not a mentsch [and the paragraph that follows details various complaints about Aaron Kin].

The bottom line is that this once proud shul has gone down the tubes. The only solution is to get rid of Kin immediately and offer the rabbi a part-time contract until he finds something else.

I wrote previous to these emails: The background to last night’s Shaarei Tefilah unofficial meeting about Aaron Kin, the president of Shaarei Tefilah, is the bitter divorce dispute of Aaron’s brother Meir Kin. Background.

The RCC has issued a seiruv (contempt order) against Meir Kin. They are ordering him to come to their Beit Din to give his wife a divorce.

The RCC has organized marches outside of Meir Kin’s residence (Meir’s parents home). They have denounced Aaron Kin publicly. They have engaged all the main Orthodox pulpit rabbis in Los Angeles in their fight, including Sharei Tefillah’s Rabbi Nochum Kosovsky.

In early May, 2009, this announcement went out to the members of Orthodox shuls around Los Angeles:

A follow-up demonstration will take place later that evening, at the back entrance of Congregation Shaarei Tefila, on Poinsettia Place near the corner of Beverly Blvd, from 7:15-8:15pm. We will stand in front of Shaarei Tefila to inform the members of the shul that it is intolerable to stand idly by while Lonna suffers as an agunah. We are not rallying against the shul; we are protesting Meir Kin and anyone who supports him or abets his behavior, especially his brother Aaron Kin who is the president of Shaarei Tefila.

Meir Kin sometimes davens at Shaarei Tefila. Because of the RCC seiruv against him, Rabbi Nochum Kosovsky instructed the gabbai not to give Meir an aliyah (call to the Torah). Aaron Kin did not react well to this and would like to eject Rabbi Nochum Kosovsky from the shul.

The only pulpit rabbi in Los Angeles who will ever buck the RCC is Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky (who has not opposed the RCC in this matter).

Aaron Kin seems in complete control of the board of Shaarei Tefilah.

I doubt that Aaron Kin will rest until he’s seen justice for the humiliation of his brother Meir. On the other hand, Rabbi Kosovsky is not going to side against the RCC.

This seems to be a battle between an unmovable object (Rabbi Kosovsky) and an irresistible force (Aaron Kin).

President Aaron Kin and Dr. Yossie Schames have ruled Shaarei Tefila for years.

What’s that old saw about academic disputes? The fights are so bitter because the stakes are so small?

All this over an aliyah?

Shaarei Tefilah is a slowly dying Modern Orthodox shul in the traditional Jewish neighborhood of Beverly and Fairfax Blvds. It’s average age of membership is about 50. Demography seems to doom the shul as a Modern Orthodox institution.

Last night, various RCC rabbis from the community gathered with some dissenters at Shaarei Tefilah to see what they could do about Aaron Kin.

Aaron Kin was not present at the meeting.

Posted in Aaron Kin, Divorce, Meir Kin, R. Nochum Kosovsky, Rabbis, RCC, Shaarei Tefila, Synagogue | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shaarei Tefillah Ripped Apart Over Meir Kin Divorce Dispute?

Shaarey Zedek Overflowing

Posted on January 24, 2010 by Luke Ford

The shul has a great rabbi (the learned Jonathan Rosenberg) and an overflowing membership. It’s main problem is that its building isn’t big enough to house everybody.

The right-wing breakaway a few years ago didn’t harm Shaarey Zedek. It just gave its members some breathing room.

I think the rabbi’s contract is up around Passover. I’m sure the shul will renew it. Whether he will take it, I don’t know.

The social life of Shaarey Zedek is more intense than ever. There’s a men’s club. There’s abundant Torah learning. There’s lots of stuff for kids.

A lot of Orthodox Jews in the neighborhood can’t afford to belong to Shaarey Zedek, so they daven at Chabad or the right-wing breakaway.

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg doesn’t need to cater to anybody. He is learned in Torah. He commands respect. He has his congregation’s allegiance.

Rabbi George Lintz of Shaarey Zedek was a protege of David Rubin, the former president of Yeshivat Yavneh who’s been charged with rigging government contracts.

In 2001, the SEC caught George Lintz with his hand in the cookie jar.

Here are some details from 2001:

On February 14, the Commission instituted and simultaneously settled a public administrative proceeding against George M. Lintz (Lintz), former CEO and president of Lintz Glover White & Co. (LGW) , a now defunct broker-dealer that was located in Sherman Oaks, California The Commission found that Lintz failed reasonably to supervise Robert I. Spruill (Spruill), who was a registered representative with LGW from July 1996 to January 1998. The Commission found that Spruill aided and abetted a kickback scheme by Alan Brian Bond (Bond), president of Bond, Procope Capital Management, Inc., a former investment adviser. On December 16, 1999, the Commission filed a complaint in federal court in the Southern District of New York charging Bond with antifraud violations for receiving over $6.9 million in commission kickbacks and charging Spruill with aiding and abetting some of Bond’s violations. The Commission found that Lintz failed to respond to red flags or suggestions of irregularity raised by Spruill’s relationship with Bond. Lintz, without admitting or denying the commission’ s findings, consented to an order that barred him from association in a supervisory capacity with any broker or dealer and ordered him to pay a $30,000 civil money penalty. (ReI. 34-43961; File No. 3-10422)

The SEC ruled that George Lintz couldn’t be a supervising broker-dealer. You should’ve known that your subordinates were scheming with illegal kickbacks.

George Lintz settled with the SEC. He didn’t go to prison.

Lintz then got into business with a scientist (a PhD from Cal-Tech) in the San Fernando Valley. Lintz became the Co-Founder, COO and CEO of QPC Lasers Inc. (QPCI) which went broke last year.

Lintz raised tens of thousands of dollars from members of Shaarey Zedek (including from one of the children of Rabbi Menachem Gottesman). The venture went bust. There’s no sign of any fraud. It probably had no chance of success unless it invented lightning in the bottle.

Orthodox synagogues are terribly vulnerable to these types of schemes. They think they’re going to make money because they’re all so smart and they trust each other with their money.

I’m thinking about Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s real estate trust that went broke in the early 1990s. Many members of the Pacific Jewish Center and the Los Angeles Orthodox community invested in it and lost everything.

George Lintz was trying to the end to keep this laser business afloat, going up to people to invest more money until he was just told to go away.

George Lintz has a bare-bones new company (Bellaire REIT) that invests in lousy properties in black parts of town.

According to BusinessWeek.com:

George M. Lintz MBA co-founded QPC Lasers Inc. in 2000 and served as its Consultant. Mr. Lintz served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of QPC Lasers, Inc. until April 6, 2009 and also served as its Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer. Mr. Lintz started QPC after a fifteen year career in investment banking. He founded Lintz Glover White & Company, Inc. in 1987 and ran the NASD Broker-Dealer until it was acquired in December 1999. During … his tenure at Lintz Glover White, he financed a number of early stage companies from the technology and finance industries. He was a founder of G&H Financial, a commercial finance lender. He was a Co-Founder of Planning Force Inc., and served as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer since May 12, 2006. He serves as the Chairman of the financial advisory panel appointed by U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson. He served as the Chairman of G&H Financial from 1989 to 1994, in which capacity he provided asset-based financing for manufacturing companies. He served as an Executive Vice Chairman and a Director of QPC Lasers, Inc. until June 2009. He served as Director of Planning Force Inc. since May 12, 2006. Mr. Lintz holds an MBA in Finance from New York University in 1984.

According to LinkedIn: “With 25 years of investment & finance experience, founded Bellaire REIT in May 2009. Accumulating a portfolio of B&C apartment buildings in Los Angeles; providing cash-flow & extraordinary upside potential. Access to off-market properties priced below market value.”

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Dennis Prager Concludes His Teaching Of The Torah

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Luke Ford

In April 1992, Dennis Prager began teaching the Torah verse-by-verse at what was then the University of Judaism (now known as American Jewish University). On February 2, 2010, he was due to finish.

A check of DennisPrager.com on Jan. 22, 2010, revealed that the price to buy all of the CDs for Prager’s commentary on Genesis was $544 (if you download the content, it costs but $442). The price for Exodus on CD was $952. The price for the first half of Leviticus on CD was $320. The price for Numbers on CD was $476. The price for Deuteronomy on CD was $690.

I can only imagine the savings if you call the Prager Store and get all five books of the Torah. I expect it would be in the neighborhood of $3,000.

I’m unaware of other commentaries on the Torah that cost so much.

Here’s a quote from Dennis on the AJU website: “I have been teaching the Torah verse by verse at the American Jewish University since April 1992. Why have I devoted so much time and effort to teaching the Torah? Because I believe that the Torah is the most relevant guide to life available to us. I believe that the most esoteric and even “boring” sections have secrets of wisdom that when unlocked give any of us a happier, deeper, wiser life. The Torah is not merely an ancient holy book. It is life-changing in every one of its chapters. I invite you to take time out from the intensity of daily life and spend four nights with me in one of the most intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually exciting journeys any of us can make. No background or previous study is necessary.”

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