An Update On Mashgiach Robert Frank

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Luke Ford

Here’s The Jewish Week story that came out Wednesday.

I call Robert Thursday afternoon.

Robert: “That lunatic that emailed you, Joel, he was probably my boss using my pen name because that’s the way my boss used to talk to me all the time when I had problems.

“I like the way you wrote on the bottom that they [the Orthodox Union and the Montefiore Hospital] never replied to you. They don’t care.

“I filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations board against the hospital for dismissing me and against the Hospital Worker’s Union for not assisting me in preventing my termination. Those are federal charges.”

Luke: “So what did you think of The Jewish Week article?”

Robert: “It was OK. It was pretty good. The guy called me up and I gave him my story over the phone. The Orthodox Union‘s Rabbi Yaakov Luban, when I met him about 18 months ago, he came to the hospital when I went over the other rabbi’s head [Barry Kwiatkovsky], said he wasn’t going to help me with my disciplinary write-ups from the hospital. The OU doesn’t care what goes on. It’s about money. If they were to lift their hashgacha [kosher supervision], it would be an embarrassment to them.

“The guy they sent in to investigate was their paid man. They claimed he was independent. Of course he was going to find that there were no problems. He works for them. It wasn’t like he worked for another kashrut agency.

“I have no health insurance. Now I’ve got to wait for Medicaid. It could take me two months. If my wife and I get sick, we’re stuck.

“The last time I had to go to the hospital when I didn’t have any health insurance, I got a bill for $15,000.

“We have food stamps and that’s it.

“My wife takes high-blood pressure pills. Now she can’t afford them. If she runs out of her supply, who knows what will happen?”

Luke: “What kind of reactions are you getting?”

Robert: “I’m having a lot of people call up and say, ‘Wow, I’m proud of you for what you did. We’re afraid of these people. Other mashgiachs in other restaurants are afraid of them.'”

Luke: “Afraid of who?”

Robert: “Other mashgiachs are afraid of their employers. They’re afraid to speak up…

“Employers would rather get rid of a mashgiach who’s causing trouble and bring in another guy who will cooperate.”

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Explaining Child Abuse

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Luke Ford

This is from Haaretz:

The best part of these is when the rabbi/minister/priest tries to explain why what he’s doing isn’t what it looks like he’s doing, in this case:

“Police said the rabbi told them he was not harassing the children, according to Channel 10, but that he was studying child sexual assault and trying to find out when children are exposed to sexual subject matter.”

To borrow from Richard Dawson, “Survey says, the number one answer is: When a pedophile rabbi makes obscene phone calls to them!”

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Shannon Orand Converts To Judaism

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Luke Ford

Five Town Jewish Times – Thursday, January 07, 2010:

Shannon Orand, the woman who was taken advantage of by Leib Tropper, the former head of the Eternal Jewish Family, has successfully converted to Judaism in Eretz Yisroel as reported by Jewish Israel.

Members of the Beit Din were the highly respected Chief Rabbi Dov Lior of Hevron, Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed, and Rabbi Rafi Ostroff. Another highly respected Rav officiated over the conversion.

Shannon withstood an extremely challenging test over these past few weeks, as news of Leib Tropper

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‘Why You Trying To Look Like A Schoolboy, Nigger?’

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Luke Ford

I’m walking home from the library. A young black man follows me carrying a bag.

It’s dark. I cross to the other side of the street next to the basketball court. From there, a group of young black men yell out at the young man, “Why You Trying To Look Like A Schoolboy, Nigger?”

He keeps silent and skulks on.

I look at him differently. So that bag was filled with books? I guess we have a lot in common. We could hang. Man, I had no idea of the pressure you were under from your friends. Books are life, man. They are a tree of life to those who hold them close.

Report:

A three man panel of the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, by a two to one split vote, has determined that Washington state law, which prohibits convicted felons from voting, violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The ruling was based upon the statistical fact that blacks are much more likely to be in prison in Washington State than other racial groups, considering the percent of the state’s population that is black.

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I Tend To Date Smart But Cruel Women

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Luke Ford

I’ll never forget the day my therapist asked me, “What do you get out of being in an emotionally unsafe relationship?”

I’d never though of that. The question took me aback, but then I quickly answered, “It leaves me free to look. I’m not risking anything precious. I can talk to all the women I want and see if I can find someone better for me.

“If I walked around with a million dollar diamond entrusted to me and I also knew that it would be really easy to lose it, it could happen any moment, I’d feel tremendous anxiety. On the other hand, if you gave me a $1 diamond and told me I could lose it easily, I wouldn’t care so much.

“By not caring so much, I’m less vulnerable. I’m more safe in the emotionally unsafe relationship.

“But what if my girlfriend was a million dollar diamond? That would demand more from me. I’d have to kick things up a notch. And I’d walk around beaming. I’d be so proud. I’d be so careful of my million-dollar diamond. But a girlfriend worth only a dollar, I can be careless with her. I can be mediocre. I don’t have to take great care of her.”

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Why Men Cheat – A Debate Between Dennis Prager And Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Luke Ford

Are men naturally polygamous? Find out on January 13th when besteselling author Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and radio talk show host Dennis Prager debate the topic live at Temple Beth Am.

WHEN: January 13 @ 8pm

WHERE: Temple Beth Am

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Leftism As Religion

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Luke Ford

From DennisPrager.com:

Prager H1: Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota will not run for re-election in the fall. They have both been badly damaged by ObamaCare and the administrations policies. Why are Democrats falling on their swords to pass unpopular policies?.. Dennis talks to Jeff Jacoby, columnist for the Boston Globe, about the reasons why the Mayo Clinic is abandoning Medicare patients

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Why Do Jews Hate Sarah Palin?

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Luke Ford

I don’t think they do. Liberal Jews like liberal non-Jews hate Sarah Palin.

Politically conservative Jews, like conservative non-Jews, like Sarah Palin.

Charles emails: “Us liberal Jews (including us chareidi liberal Jews) dislike Sara Palin not because she is an idiot right wing nut job. We dislike her because she is an idiot right wing nut job that is taken seriously by a significant minority. It is the significant minority that concerns us, and she stands for them. Not trivial. Crazy right wingers historically are the most rabid anti-Semites. There is a temporary alignment on Israel policy with Jews that serves an evangelical agenda that is not as deeply rooted as the doctrine and cultural memory of hatred for Jews and other

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The Jewish Week Covers Whistleblower Robert Frank

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Luke Ford

Joel emails me: LukeFord,

In recents weeks I have been following a line of posts that you have on your website regarding a disgruntled employee of Montefiore hospital, Mr. Robert Frank. It appears to me that till now no evidence has been put forth by you or Mr. frank regarding these allegations. Today The Jewish Week has posted an article regarding this matter after conducting an investigation and interveiwing all those involved with this situation. As I certainly understand your desire to uncover some of the not so pleasant instances in our community, I also feel that proper journalism calls for you to objectively look at both sides of the story. Now after reading this article, your dislike for the OU may cause you to disregard this article entirely however I do believe that you may agree with me that “The Jewish Week” is a credible news source. Please read the article an take ALL the facts into consideration and perhaps display to your readers the truth behind this story. Don’t let Robert Frank use your website for his personal gain. clearly Robert frank is an unstable person seeking retribution from the hospital. He has made it clear on several occasions throughout the numerous articles that he has posted that if the hospital would simply give him his job back than he would be happy. Frank is not a man trying to do justice to the world, nor is he a man with moral objectives to his job, he simply wants to manipulate the system to his advantage.

The Jewish Week reports:

A kashrut supervisor who was fired from his post at a Montefiore Medical Center kitchen says he paid the price for exposing what he claims were kosher violations at the Bronx hospital.

But an executive of the Orthodox Union, which placed him there, insists any infractions were routine and that the mashgiach, Robert Frank, tried to use them as bargaining chips to deal with disciplinary measures taken against him by the hospital.

The tangled tale of allegations and counter allegations raises the specter of conflicts of interest that could arise when supervisors rely on those they supervise for their livelihood.

Much of the story of this story is the blog that broke the story and how this little blog pushed The Jewish Week to publish a story they did not want to touch.

My evidence for this assertion? How many similar whistleblowing stories has The Jewish Week published in the past? Very few, if any. The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and The Jewish Week of New York and other members of the establishment Jewish press are continually pushed by blogs to report on scandals that they would otherwise prefer to ignore to maintain their cozy relationship with advertisers and sources.

I wonder how smart was it for the Orthodox Union and the hospital to hold off responding to this story for six weeks? I emailed both parties Nov. 26, 2009. They chose not to respond.

I guess it was so important to them to get their chosen newspaper to tell their story that they were willing to suffer in silence the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

I say to the Orthodox Union and Montefiore Hospital, how did that work out for you? It’s no skin off my nose if you choose not to answer my emails. It just makes you look bad when only one side of the story is told on my blog.

The Jewish Journal’s Amy Klein wrote in the New York Times Sept. 5, 2008: “He was always hounding our newspaper to cover scandals in the Jewish community. As a blogger he had

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What Makes For A Good Marriage

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Luke Ford

In his third hour today, Dennis Prager, who’s on his third marriage, said: “Let me give you a realization I came to about life that I did not know 20 years ago. The role of luck in good marriage. I am now convinced that the vast majority of long-term good marriages are good because they’re lucky that they found the right person for them. Period. End of issue.

“Had you asked me this 30 years ago, I would’ve said, shared values and a lot of noble-sounding things. People who worked hard on their marriage.

“I look at my parents who had 69 years of marriage. And they would be the first to tell you that they had a great marriage…because they were unbelievably lucky. They met the right person for themselves. People in happy marriages should be very humble about judging people who are less happy or are in divorce situations.”

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