Jewish author connected to Rabbi Hershy Worch’s former synagogue (Hamakom Synagogue) in Australia writes a book about an abusive Rabbi

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

Jewish Whistleblower writes:

Jewish author connected to Rabbi Hershy Worch’s former synagogue (Hamakom Synagogue) in Australia writes a book about an abusive Rabbi who is "a charismatic US rabbi who rides into town on a page of Kabbalah, bringing with him an irresistible mix of personality, mystical teachings and guitar playing".

Sound familiar?

I don’t believe the following is about Hershy Worch. It’s about the type of man who gave Worsh semicha (rabbinic ordination) — Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Yvonne Fein writes for the Australian Jewish News:

This week, Hybrid Publishers will release my latest novel, The Torn Messiah.

Between its covers, I have told a strange and disturbing story about rabbis and students, masters and disciples.

The Torn Messiah is a psychological thriller set in contemporary Melbourne.

It centres on a charismatic New York rabbi who rides into town on a page of Kabbalah, bringing with him an irresistible mix of personality, mystical teachings and guitar playing.

Melbourne’s vulnerable Jewish youth flock to him, hungry for any teaching which will show them a way of identifying Jewishly beyond the narrow confines of Holocaust and Zionism.

And while the protagonists are Jews who walk our well-known, Caulfield streets, the tale inside the novel is a universal one, grappling with a global dilemma.

How should we respond to the enchantment of those who would fill our brains with exhilarating ideas, our hearts with music and pleasure and yet manipulate our consciousness for their own dubious ends -– sexual, spiritual or emotional?

What defence can we mount against such a profound abuse of power as well as against the potent seductiveness possessed by texts, ancient or modern, when they combine with bitter-sweet melodies filtered through generations of suffering.

The Torn Messiah reveals how an authority figure steeped in spiritual mysticism can endanger the susceptible and the defenceless and perhaps it asks more questions than it is able to answer.

In addition to the above, JWB includes this in his email:

2)
http://www.j-net.com.au/synagogues.html

NAME Hamakom
CONTACT Yvonne Fein
PHONE 03 9528 4382
EMAIL [email protected]
WEB

3)
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Worch_Hershy.html
Regarding Rabbi Jeremy Hershy Worch – While in Melbourne, Australia
From a group of men and women in Melbourne Australia who wish to remain anonymous – December 6, 2004

Hershy Worch came to Melbourne, Australia with his wife and young family in 1995. He was initially employed by the Hillel Foundation. As rabbi of the Hamakom Synagogue, he was then financially supported by members of his community from the years 1995-1997.

During this time both his behaviour and demeanour with his female students were consistently predatory, manipulative and abusive. He proactively sought ‘romantic’ and sexual relationships wtih many many women, specifically targeting those who were emotionally vulnerable and fostering acute dependency. He consistently used his role as counselor to make sexual advances towards those who came to him in need. He had ‘romantic’ sexual relationships with married and unmarried women who ranged in age from 20 to 50.

His inappropriate behaviour towards female students included:

Physical sexual interactions

Predatory behavior in the pursuit of women: e.g. late night phone calls and invitations to teach women privately.

Using the teaching of Torah as a tool of seduction.

Using group situations with himself at the centre – that utilized his musical, vocal and narrative ‘talents’ – to manipulate individuals and create a cultic environment around ‘Kabbalah’ classes.

Using his relationships with students to influence them to ‘rescue’ him by financially and publically supporting and defending him.

His abuse of his position as rabbi, chazzan and counselor traumatized this community leaving wounds that took and are still taking many years to heal. Reputations were publicly compromised and personal lives were taken over.

Those who have followed his career since he left Australia and returned to the United States have observed a repetition of these patterns. We trust that with our testimony and others you will do everything within your power to expose Hershy Worch and warn individuals and communities who may be vulnerable to his ‘teachings’ and promises of insight and enlightenment.

4) Sample pages from book
http://www.hybridpublishers.com.au/titles/48.html

5) Interview scheduled in June
http://www.shalom.edu.au/limmudoz/contentPageM.php?pageName=sessions

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Who’s Got The Hubris?

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

From the Jewish Journal:

 

By Danielle Berrin, Circuit Editor
Bill Maher and Tony Snow at AJU’s 2008 Public Lecture Series at Universal Studios on April 28


…Hubris from both speakers — potshots, crude jokes, even cuss words — cheapened an otherwise dynamic debate.

The aim of the lecture series, which has also included Tony Blair, Karl Rove and Arianna Huffington this season, is to posture divisive speakers on polar ends of the political spectrum in front of a mostly liberal-leaning Los Angeles audience. While the crowd vacillated between laughing at Maher’s outrageousness and appreciating Snow’s clear-mindedness, in the end, bandying politics as entertainment did not necessarily elevate political discourse.

I’m tired of journalists abusing news stories to lecture us about the cheapening of political discourse. Why not just report what happened and let the reader decide whether political discourse was cheapened?

 

I find this kind of writing — telling us what to think about jokes — a cheapening of journalism.

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Jewish Journal Profiles Professor Kevin MacDonald

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

Brad A. Greenberg writes:

It wasn’t until the ’90s that MacDonald began to see Jewish communities as inimical entities slowly destroying their hosts.

"Jews are inevitably going to be an elite," he said. "They are smart; they are well organized. The problem, from my point of view, is that there is a hostility there, a fear and hostility, that over the past 40 years has resulted in some changes that have not been in the interest of people like me. As simple as that."

MacDonald’s core complaint is Jewish influence on immigration laws. He blames passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, which abolished national origin quotas and made immigration easier for non-Westerners, on a Jewish desire to oust European Americans from the majority.

"European people in this country will be a minority in a few years," MacDonald said. "I don’t think that would have happened if we had had a sense of ourselves as a culture worth defending. Now, everything is up for grabs."

… "My adviser, Benson Ginsburg, wrote an article saying that wolves would be a better model for human behavior than chimpanzees, because of social bonds and their acting like a family," MacDonald said. "They have to police the boundaries and police in-group behavior; you can’t have freeloaders. My earliest research on the behavior of Jews focused on that, and you see wolf packs do that."

MacDonald began to think of Judaism as the vehicle through which an evolutionary strategy was mechanized.

…Jews have grown increasingly successful because of a eugenics program built into the religion — Talmud study, which helped determine which men got the prettiest wives, the best business opportunities and the most children.

"These documents contain a vast amount of material for which there are no practical functions at all," MacDonald wrote. "The incredible elaboration of Jewish religious law in these writings suggests that this mass of material is the result of intense intellectual competition within the Jewish community and that the resulting Torah then provided an arena for intellectual competition within the Jewish community."

[Luke: Ernest van den Haag said the same thing in his famous book The Jewish Mystique. I don’t remember many complaints then.]

…"We already see numerous examples in which coalitions of minority groups attempt to influence public policy, including immigration policy, against the interests of the European majority. And we must realize that placing ourselves in a position of vulnerability would be extremely risky, given the deep sense of historical grievance harbored by many ethnic activists toward Europeans," MacDonald wrote.

"This is especially the case with Jews, and of course Jews have shown a tendency to become part of the elite in Western societies. We have recently seen reports in the press of religious Jews spitting on Christian symbols in Israel, thereby resurrecting an age-old Jewish practice. Indeed, hatred toward all things European is normative among a great many strongly identified Jews."

In fact, there were reports from Ha’aretz and Christianity Today in 2004 of a spate of spitting incidents in Jerusalem, in which ultra-Orthodox Jews allegedly assaulted Christians. However, spitting, like the blood libel that claims Jews ritually slaughter Christian children and bake their blood into matzah, is not and never has been an "age-old Jewish practice."

[Luke: Is this true about spitting? It is not an ancient and common Jewish practice toward churches?]

… "White people have legitimate ethnic interests. To the extent that that is all they believe, then we are on the same page," he said. "I don’t like to use words like white supremacists. You could say that Koreans in Korea are Korean supremacists if they want to maintain their culture. It is kind of a loaded word; it is a politically charged word of the left, basically, to pathologize any sense of having an ethnicity and culture by people like me. I reject that."

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Daily Yid Off The Air

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

There was a falling out between the Daily Yid (a Satmar in Williamsburg) and Leah Kleim over the past week.

I suspect that that had something to do with the following email I received: "with joy and happiness we notifu you that our main contributer has resigned and he asks us to relay to u his deep felt thanks for your collaboration hep links tips and chizuk please be advised that the daiy yid is now discontinuing his work feel free to delete all your links to us and may u be blessed for your support! we hopefully achieved our goal and we made a difference the community saw that there are people willing to stand up for them and this was a great kidush hashem. may u al be blessed with peace and happiness health and joy for ever!"

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My Mom & Dad In The Chatroom

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

Or somebody imitating them:

GillianFord:  Nobody checks for sinkers or floaters like you, Des! Our boy has been such a heartache. Why does he remain so silent? And why must he continually abuse the kindness of the Jewish people that he’s forced himself upon?
RevDesmondFord:  His silence is a measure of his cowardice. And his anti-semitic activities are another manifestation of the blasted "hee-hee" personality that I tried to knock out of him as a young pup.
GillianFord:  I recall when we thought at one time his problems were hormonal in nature. I was all set to fix him up, but then the little bugger asked me, "Mummy, will I grow breasts like yours?" Then he cracked a fat and did his "monkey business" right in the kitchen
RevDesmondFord:  SPEAK UP, BOY! Blasted little turd.
GillianFord:  I was aghast and agog, but I never told you for fear of what you’d do to him.
RevDesmondFord:  You should have told me, Gill.
GillianFord:  Yes, Luke, please don’t ignore your family like this.
RevDesmondFord:  I’d have straightened him out on the spot.
guest22:  I need alot of help tonight
guest22:  hello my morel leader
RevDesmondFord:  It’s not your fault, Gill. Why, I recall the time you brought home a red rubber enema kit in hopes that a hot-water treatment might do some good.
guest22:  please help me!!!!!!!!!!!!
Moses:  i need some help wrapping tefillin…anyone?
RevDesmondFord:  but the boy’s rectum had twisted in a loop due to his frolics with the wallabees. we had to push it back in.
guest22:  put between your legs
RevDesmondFord:  My son is a fraud and an anti-semite. I suggest seeking legitimate religious counsel.
guest22:  and wrap the alumuin
GillianFord:  But his anus would often loop out of his rectum, Des! Do you recall what a time we had trying to force it back into place. And the entire time he would wiggle his bum most obscenely while cracking a fat.
Moses:  seriously…any tefillin experts out there?
GillianFord:  Why won’t you speak to us, son? We only want to help.
guest22:  you people are very sick
RevDesmondFord:  i remember that all too well, Gill.
RevDesmondFord:  i clouted him a good one – that put him to sleep, at least.
guest22:  where is your web cam
Moses:  folks, seriously, the cam with the port st. lucis police scanner is more exciting
guest22:  helloooooo
GillianFord:  Luke, please tell us more about thsi Rabbi Gadol you’ve created and whom you believe "converted" you. This is a clear manifestation of a mental illness.
RevDesmondFord:  never mind my son’s narcissistic "web cam" – he’s a dullard, a fraud and a mentally ill ponce beyond all hope or help.
guest22:  WHERE IS YOUR WEB CAM!!!!!!
RevDesmondFord:  Yes, son, let’s hear about the imaginary Rabbi.
User guest22 left the room.
RevDesmondFord:  remember, whelp: self-administered "conversion" = no conversion at all.
GillianFord:  For years I suffered from bouts of suicidal depression…a hormonal imbalance, I thought at the time. ow I realize that it was the boy. THE BOY!!!!
RevDesmondFord:  I told you, Gill.
GillianFord:  Des, where did we go wrong? Was it myr well-intended coddling?
RevDesmondFord:  I’m glad you believe me now. Shame it took so long; perhaps we could have simply put the boy in a home for the mentally infirm.
RevDesmondFord:  There’s no point in shilly-shallying about the root of this mess.
GillianFord:  I would have been willing to try what the Yanks clal "tough love." We could have driven him to the bush and let him sort things out abo style.
RevDesmondFord:  Our c**t of a son would not have survived. A blessing, that would have been.
RevDesmondFord:  ISN’T THAT RIGHT, BOY?
GillianFord:  Luke, how do you arrive at the conclusion that you’re a "moral leader?" From childhood you’ve been disobedient and a liar. Why, your candy intake alone was staggering…and expressly against out beliefs.
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, I commend you on the letter you wrote about the boy. You made some fair-dinkum sound points.
RevDesmondFord:  Not only a liar, but a malicious little c**t.
GillianFord:  I regret it did little good. But I felt sorry for the child. His dreams of being devoured by snakes touched my heart. I realize now that, in a Freudian sense, this was just another manifestation of his homosexuality, but, still…
RevDesmondFord:  The shame of it is he thinks his rot is "clever" – much as his mentally deficient fans find humour in their own fecal matter. SINKERS, the lot of you!
RevDesmondFord:  i ought to strangle the ba***rd.
RevDesmondFord:  WHAT’S THE MATTER, BOY?
GillianFord:  For a clever lot, they have very little to say, Des. This is Luke’s problem. He’ll take attention from wherever he can find it. This lot of mouth-breathers has me scared!
RevDesmondFord:  Notice how silent he is when there are no mildly retarded 18-year-old girls to "impress" with the pap he spews over the internet!
RevDesmondFord:  What a worthless c**t.
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, how is our other son Paul doing? And dear Ellen?
GillianFord:  Oh, I checked in earlier, Des, and he was quite the little chatterbox. Offering to show the poor feeble-minded child his "etchings." He was trying to use double-entendres…and not doing it well.
RevDesmondFord:  Typical. It’s like when he plagiarizes the work of others and calls it "satire."
GillianFord:  Oh, Paul! Why he’s the light of our life, Des! he found his own way in the world. Ellen too. Luke was as clingy as one of those vines the abos find so useful in their stone-age lifestyle.
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, may God forgive me, but I couldn’t fail to notice that Holly Randall has a bum as big as all outdoors! At least that sheila wised up on the subject of our wretched son.
GillianFord:  I must say, I’ve been quite disturbed by some our boy’s "writings," if you can call them that.
RevDesmondFord:  Rightly so.
GillianFord:  For example: Acting in anger and hatred throughout my life, I frequently precipitated what I feared most, the loss of friendships and the need to rely upon the very people I’d abused.Acting in anger and hatred throughout my life, I frequently precipitate
GillianFord:  d what I feared most, the loss of friendships and the need to rely upon the very people I’d abused.d what I feared most, the loss of friendships and the need to rely upon the very people I’d abused.
GillianFord:  My, a simple solution would just be to stop behaving like a fair-dinkum…what’s the word I’m looking for, Des?
GillianFord:  Oh, yes, PONCE! There. I said it.
RevDesmondFord:  I wouldn’t call them writings – I’d call it hysterical bleating and mewling. That’s what our son does when he’s not puking up electronic plagiarism or casting ill-founded aspersions on others in a charade of superiority.
RevDesmondFord:  the self-absorbed c**t. i believe that’s the word you’re looking for, Gill: c**t.
GillianFord:  he also wrote: By age ten many of the boys in my school had powerful sex drives which they released through mutual masturbationBy age ten many of the boys in my school had powerful sex drives which they released through mutual masturbation
RevDesmondFord:  sounds like Luke and that scamp Wayne Cherry.
GillianFord:  Oh, Des, how many times did we interrupt Luke and Wayne Cherry? Even the cold spray from a garden couldn’t separate those two.
RevDesmondFord:  i should have knocked their skulls together and scrambled their spilled brains for breakfast with some Weet-Bix.
GillianFord:  Oh, Des, when you talk like that, ny hormone levels fluctuate wildly!
RevDesmondFord:  Here’s another quote from Luke that reveals much of his sorry character:
RevDesmondFord:  "Compared to most Jews, I’m the Messiah."
RevDesmondFord:  can you believe the boy actually made such a statement?
RevDesmondFord:  I know, Gill, you say he has a mental illness — but I say it’s nothing a cricket bat couldn’t cure!
GillianFord:  I blame that on his birth mother Gwen. She layed some "heavy" burdens on the boy when she told him he’d do "great things" for God. Most biys would have grown out of that, but Luke never did.
RevDesmondFord:  well, she paid for it in the end, I’m sad to say. the rotten fruit of her womb gave her cancer, he did.
RevDesmondFord:  I only married Gwen because her vagina resembled a box jellyfish.
User Moses left the room.
GillianFord:  Well, Des, there have been some interesting studies that indicate that a severe wallop or several to the head will craete hormonal changes. Perhaps that would set the boy straight. Or as "straight" as we could hope for at this date.
User guest24 left the room.
RevDesmondFord:  I fear it’s a lost cause, Gill.
RevDesmondFord:  The best we can do now is to hope he’ll stick a gun in his mouth and decorate that squalid "hovel" of his with shards of his skull.
GillianFord:  Well, let;s not forget that episode of Gilligan’s Island where Gilligan took a lump to the noggin from a coconut and became an entirely diffeent person from the blow.
GillianFord:  Of course, a second blow caused Gilligan to revert the same moron he had been before. Tragic, really.
RevDesmondFord:  Y’know, Gill, I ought to use that as a parable in my next sermon.
GillianFord:  But perhaps worth a try. Son? Can your father and I smash you in the cranium with a coconut?
RevDesmondFord:  Makes about as much sense as everything else we do in the SDA!
RevDesmondFord:  I’ll blind the boy with one blow to the noggin.
RevDesmondFord:  Just one shot – boom, boom, out go the lights!
GillianFord:  Now, Des, you know the National Geographic noted how long we SDA’ers live due to our our active lifestyles and healthy diets of grains and legumes…which don’t include stolen Cocoa Krispies intended for the homeless!
RevDesmondFord:  I was just berating the boy about that incident; true to form, he remained silent. Because he has no excuse.
RevDesmondFord:  Next time, I’ll make him buy TRIPLE what he stole from the homeless and make him eat a live cane toad.
GillianFord:  The boy does have an unhealthy passion for sweets. Why once I caught him inserting a peppermint into his anus and then into gob while he did his "monkey business" in the back yard.
RevDesmondFord:  Do you know what the boy had the nerve to say when I confronted him about his theft?
GillianFord:  He was lost in his own little world, I’ll tell you. He started to frighten me. And the neighbors too, no doubt.
RevDesmondFord:  "Stolen Cocoa Krispies taste the sweetest, Dad." It was then that I fetched my cricket bat and swung it straight at his face. Hence the ugliness you see before you now.
RevDesmondFord:  What’s the matter, son? SPEAK UP!!!
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, why do you think the boy is so dumbstruck?
GillianFord:  I thought that was due to his auto accident. You know the one where he was blinded by the sun and drove smack into a school bus? I believe it damaged a gland in his head.
GillianFord:  And possibly his brain!
RevDesmondFord:  I’d gladly sacrifice a second schoolbus to see Luke removed from the earth.
GillianFord:  But, son, please explain to us your fascination with pretend Judaism. And don’t say it’s just just to "honk off" your dad.
RevDesmondFord:  it’s obvious, Gill.
GillianFord:  Oh, Des, speaking of school buses, do you recall that wonderful joke you told me when we were courting?
YourMoralLeader:  hi
RevDesmondFord:  Why, no!
GillianFord:  You asked me what was yellow on the outside, black on the inside and screams.
GillianFord:  I said I had no idea.
RevDesmondFord:  perhaps our son can provide the punchline!
GillianFord:  You said, and I’ll never forget this, "A bus full of fair-dinkum abos going over a cliff."
RevDesmondFord:  Well, I suppose we did have a few laughs… even though our wretched son made us deadly ill most of the time.
GillianFord:  I believe this is where Luke gets some his racial fears. But I still don’t get why he takes out his hatred on the Jews who never did anything to him but reject him for the fraud he so obviously is.
RevDesmondFord:  as I said, Gill, it’s obvious.
GillianFord:  Please, son, won’t you speak to us?
GillianFord:  Exlain yourself so that we can understand.
YourMoralLeader:  Hi mom and dad
GillianFord:  At last! Our boy speaks, Des!
RevDesmondFord:  factor in his obsession with Dennis Prager, who rejected him; and, really, that fixation is no more than the perspective of any right-wing nutter tuning into talk radio.
RevDesmondFord:  You sicken me, son. WHy did you drive your stepmum to suicidal depression?
GillianFord:  I for one felt vey sorry for his hero Dennis. Luke terribly abused their relationship.
RevDesmondFord:  Yes, I felt sorry for the man, too.
GillianFord:  It’s true, son. I thought it was the hormones, but it was YOU!!!!!
GillianFord:  Won’t you have a dialogie with us, son?
RevDesmondFord:  yes, SPEAK UP, son!
RevDesmondFord:  tell us about the imaginary rabbi who "converted" you. Your stepmum is keen to hear about it.
GillianFord:  Yes, Luke, we’re your parents. We only wants what’s best for you: a padded room at a quiet facility where you ca receive the care you need.
RevDesmondFord:  son, did you know that memorizing religious rituals in a half-arsed fashion does not give you any legitimate right to pose as a Jewish person?
GillianFord:  That would be the same as an abo trying to be a member of the SDA.
RevDesmondFord:  Say what you like about the abos and their bloody mischief, but those heathen savages would never sink to the scummy level of our son Luke’s behavior, Gill.
GillianFord:  From what we’ve read, they’ve become fair-dnkum sexualized through the drnking of spirits and watching porn…they bugger their own children!
RevDesmondFord:  not unlike our son.
GillianFord:  But I believe the fraud our son is prpetrating is even worse. He’s civilized.
RevDesmondFord:  yes, far worse.
RevDesmondFord:  he’s deceitful and false in all things.
GillianFord:  Tell us about your self-performed conversion, son.
GillianFord:  You’ll feel better when you do.
RevDesmondFord:  and he’s remarkably quiet without any of his "supporters" around to bolster his specious arguments.
RevDesmondFord:  SPEAK UP, BOY!
RevDesmondFord:  before i clout you on the noggin!
GillianFord:  Another selection from our son’s "writing," Des:
GillianFord:  One day in fourth grade, a friend and I got caught looking at his brother’s porn collection. I have never been so frightened. One day in fourth grade, a friend and I got caught looking at his brother’s porn collection. I have never been so frightened.
RevDesmondFord:  i remember that day. Luke cracked a fat and pounced on his friend Wayne Cherry.
GillianFord:  Perhaps this was what sent him on the road to sodomy? Luke, whn I’d spank you for misbehaving, you’d often crack a fat.
RevDesmondFord:  it was awful, Gill.
GillianFord:  And yet, we’d so often catch you alone with wayne Cherry. "Cherry the Fairy," I believe is what the other boys called him.
RevDesmondFord:  almost as abhorrent as the boy’s current charade.
GillianFord:  Son, why won’t you speak to us? Have we noot been good parents to you?
RevDesmondFord:  Luke, your stepmum and I would like the address of your synagogue and the name of your rabbi. We’ve compiled a selection of your anti-semitic internet blather that would be of keen interest to the congregation.
GillianFord:  Yes, Luke, it’s really the only way you can be a true "moral leader."
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, I still can’t get over the whelp’s statement: "Compared to most Jews, I’m the Messiah."
RevDesmondFord:  I ought to get hold of this Brad Greenberg chap and set him straight on the subject.
GillianFord:  More from his "writing," Des:
GillianFord:  After hearing a powerful sermon on the End of Time, I once burst out to the evangelist, "If I make the world better, I’ll only delay the Second Coming of Jesus."After hearing a powerful sermon on the End of Time,
GillianFord:   I once burst out to the evangelist, "If I make the world better, I’ll only delay the Second Coming of Jesus." I once burst out to the evangelist, "If I make the world better, I’ll only delay the Second Coming of Jesus."
GillianFord:  "That’s right," said my father. "Don’t mess it up, boy." "That’s right," said my father. "Don’t mess it up, boy."
GillianFord:  He then handed my my well-worn spoon and anther burst cane toad. "Now start chewing, lad!" I was deadly scared. He then handed my my well-worn spoon and anther burst cane toad. "Now start chewing, lad!" I was deadly scared.
RevDesmondFord:  That’s right – don’t mess it up, boy!
GillianFord:  Des, you were a fine father. Too bad Luke was so obstinate.
RevDesmondFord:  Gill, I know I blamed you for all the mollycoddling but it’s time we faced the truth: our son is s**t.
RevDesmondFord:  should have snapped his neck when he was a child.
GillianFord:  I’m afraid I have to agree, Des.
GillianFord:  At 41 years of age, he still hasn’t changed.
RevDesmondFord:  at least our son Paul turned out well.
GillianFord:  I still believe a good treatment with the right hormones could cure the booy. His old website had pictures of him with what looked like a penis in his mouth.
GillianFord:  He also said that he was  a homosexual.
RevDesmondFord:  A 41-year-old man who spends his days breathing heavily into a web-cam to borderline retards, hoping to slip his wormy c**k into some sheila. And calling himself a "moral leader" at that, while defaming the Jews every chance he gets.
GillianFord:  He later told his brother Paul it was "a joke." But, Des, you’re a paragon of manliness, does a masculine man say such things? Even in jest?
RevDesmondFord:  he’s desperate to feel superior.
GillianFord:  Perhaps we should have him committed? He does have a gun. He could be a dange to himself and others.
RevDesmondFord:  No man makes such jests – Gill, it’s as if we raised an ugly girl who has permanently stalled at age 13.
GillianFord:  Please, Luke, I beg of you, tell us the story of your conversion.
GillianFord:  It might help us understand.
GillianFord:  Your continued silence only makes yo seem like the petulant child you wee growing up.
GillianFord:  Would you like mummy to spank you again?
RevDesmondFord:  which would explain the "blog" – the equivalent of a teenaged girl’s diary. It’s certainly not writing of any caliber I’d recognize. It’s the absence of any standards on the internet that allows Luke to "publish" this garbage.
GillianFord:  Oh, Des, I feel we’re fighting for a lost cause.
GillianFord:  I feel a hormonal imbalance coming on! I feel…so…dizzy!!!!
RevDesmondFord:  He claims to be an "author" yet all of his so-called books are SELF-PUBLISHED – really, nothing more than anti-semitic tracts.
RevDesmondFord:  Calm down, Gill!
GillianFord:  Do you have your old Tommy Roe records? hearing "Dizzy" would make me feel so much better!
RevDesmondFord:  The boy shattered them all while wrsetling with Wayne Cherry.
RevDesmondFord:  Then he broke my Bubble Puppy album.
RevDesmondFord:  I was full of hot smoke and sassafrass that day, I’ll tell you!
GillianFord:  I’ve also noticed that even on his website that he does very little "writing." He mostly copies and pastes. That’s not really writing, is it Desmond?
GillianFord:  When I wrote my book, I didn’t copy and paste.
RevDesmondFord:  No, it’s not writing at all. Yet he passes himself off as a credible source of information.
RevDesmondFord:  SPEAK UP, SON!
GillianFord:  Des! I’m feeling funny down in my "female parts!" It’s the hormones!!!!!!
RevDesmondFord:  I’m telling you, Gill, it’s just the boy. He’s upsetting you.
RevDesmondFord:  Won’t even speak to his own parents.
GillianFord:  Take out your Canned Heat records and soothe me to the dulcet tones of Bob Hite and Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson.
RevDesmondFord:  He’s too busy attempting to defame rabbis and spread the word about his own misplaced sense of superiority.
GillianFord:  I feel like a volcano about to erupt, Desmond!
GillianFord:  I’m angry and sad…and I can’t stop crying. To be ignored like this by our own son.
RevDesmondFord:  that, and trolling for sheilas. A true "moral leader" – his crippled congregation of social retards embraces his rot with the mindless fervor of a pack of bloody abos!
GillianFord:  Well, perhaps like those abos, Des, we should shuffle off to salvage what can of this evening.
RevDesmondFord:  I know, Gill. Youve got to get hold of yourself – this depression is nothing more than a normal reaction to raising a turd for a son.
RevDesmondFord:  I’ll fetch the Johnny Rivers album – get me some legumes, Gill. We must be strong.
GillianFord:  I want to tear out my hair and teeth, Des! What a sinker we have loosed upon the world. If there was only some way to pull a handle and flush him away.
RevDesmondFord:  There might be, Gill. When I find the address of his synagogue, I’ll march down there straightaway and enlighten them all as to our son’s true motives.
GillianFord:  Johnny Rivers? I LOVE Johnny Rivers!!!
RevDesmondFord:  That man is a genius.
GillianFord:  Let’s go, Des! Put on that L.A. Regge album…the one with "Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu!"
RevDesmondFord:  I can see that our son has no appetite for argument – without teenaged girls to serve as his cheerleaders, he’s deaf and dumb. I’ll meet you by the record player, Gill.
GillianFord:  While we enjoy the shank of the evening, our son can wallow in his own misery on "The Poor Side of Town."
RevDesmondFord:  Cheers, Gill!
RevDesmondFord:  And son? BUGGER OFF!
GillianFord:  Cheers, Des!

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Conversion Controversy

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

Hirhurim reports:

Late last week, the Chief Rabbinical High Court in Israel ruled that all conversions over the past 20 years by R. Haim Druckman–the head of the Conversion Administration–are invalid. This led to an uproar and Chief (Sephardic) Rabbi Shlomo Amar has announced that the ruling is invalid. Here are some headlines on the story:

I’ll bet that R. Shlomo Goren is probably looking down on all of this with great interest.

Below is the full RCA press release (link):
Click here to read more

RCA Affirms its Support for Israel’s Conversion Authority
RCA Reacts to Ruling of Israeli Rabbinical Appeals Court regarding Past Conversions by the Israeli Conversion Authority

May 6, 2008 — Leviticus 19:33 : "You (plural) shall not oppress the convert in your land."
Commentary of the Netziv: "The plural form of the verse teaches us that a third party who sees the oppression of a convert and does not protest is also guilty of oppression."

The Rabbinical Council of America, having taken note of the recent ruling of the Bet Din Elyon (Rabbinic Court of Appeals) of Israel, nullifying certain conversions performed by the State Conversion Authority led by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, has today issued the following statement:

Having reviewed the ruling of the Bet Din Elyon in detail, and being fully mindful of the respect due the rulings of duly constituted rabbinical courts in their respective jurisdictions, the RCA finds it necessary to state for the record that in our view the ruling itself, as well as the language and tone thereof, are entirely beyond the pale of acceptable halachic practice, violate numerous Torah laws regarding converts and their families, create a massive desecration of God’s name, insult outstanding rabbinic leaders and halachic scholars in Israel, and are a reprehensible cause of widespread conflict and animosity within the Jewish people in Israel and beyond. The RCA is appalled that such a ruling has been issued by that court.

We have been assured by Israel’s Chief Rabbi Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar, who is also the President of the Rabbinical Courts System of Israel, that in releasing this ruling the court in question directly countermanded his instructions and policies. He has confirmed that the ruling has no legal standing at this time. We commend Rav Amar for his positive role in this matter since its very inception in the Ashdod regional court.

We add our rabbinic voice to those of others who have called for a thorough review and repudiation of the actions of a select few of the Bet Din Elyon, who in this ruling as in other previous instances, have sought to undermine the Conversion Authority.

For this reason, and others, it is more important than ever that the Conversion Authority be strengthened in its important work in bringing about halachicly proper conversions to our faith and to the Jewish people.

Given the very public nature of the challenge posed by the ruling in question, we call on the Chief Rabbis of Israel to reaffirm their support of the Conversion Authority and its leadership in clear and unambiguous terms at the earliest possible time. Until that will happen, each passing day will cause reprehensible anguish to halachic converts, irreparable harm to the fabric of the Jewish people, and a considerable debasement of the good name of Torah, halachah, and tradition.

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Scud Stud Vs. Charlie Wilson’s War

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

ERSNews reports:

Canadian journalist, turned politician — turned journalist again, Arthur Kent has a new lawsuit pending against the filmmakers of the recent Hollywood film “Charlie Wilson’s War”.  The 2007 film, which did less than blockbuster box office (although a respectable 66 million was nothing to dismiss) grabbed mixed reviews.  The movie stars Tom Hanks, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts.  The story follows the exploits of a U.S. Congressman from Texas who helped facilitate the CIA and the U.S. support for the Afghan “mujahedeen” fighters who ultimately drove the former Soviet Union’s Red Army from Afghanistan.  According to the film’s PR it’s “based on an unbelievable true story”.  Mr. Kent begs to differ.

As ERSNews first reported this past February, Kent, doesn’t think to highly of the film on many fronts.  He is now suing the filmmakers over what he claims was the unapproved illegal use of his reporting from Afghanistan in the film without his permission or credit.

The Enterprise Report has obtained the lawsuit filed just last week in Los Angeles Federal Court.  Take a read.  Although it’s not as compelling as front line battlefield reporting and even less entertaining than a Tom Hanks acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, it will be fun to watch and see how this one pans out.  We’ll keep you posted as this Hollywood saga unfolds!

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For Religious Reasons, He Stopped Having Sex With Men

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

From wikipedia:

David Benkof (born David Bianco in 1970) is an American journalist-entrepreneur. He was raised St. Louis, Missouri and then went to college at Stanford University, where he came out as gay his freshmen year. He served as the international president of United Synagogue Youth.[1]

In 1995, he founded Q Syndicate, gay-press syndication service that provides columns, cartoons, crossword puzzles and horoscopes to about 100 gay and lesbian newspapers. In 2001, he sold a majority interest in Q Syndicate to Rivendell Marketing, and served as vice president for two years before selling the rest of the company.[2] He is a prolific writer, publishing Modern Jewish history for everyone in 1997 and Gay Essentials: Facts for Your Queer Brain in 1999. In 2002 and 2003 he wrote the column “Over the Rainbow” for Q Syndicate.[3]

In 2003, he announced that he was going to stop having sex with men for religious reasons, and that he was shedding the label gay, preferring not to label his sexuality.[4] He continued on to say “I believe that within a couple years I’m probably going to be married with a growing family.”[5] He has always been a devout Jew, and says that one reason he changed was because "Gay sex is just inconsistent with traditional religious life." To reflect his change in sexual identity, and to honor his grandfather, Julius Benkof, David Bianco changed his name to David Benkof.[2] David identifies as bisexual, but abstains from having sex with men.[2]

He has since become a strong opponent of same-sex marriage.[6] In response to arguments for gay marriages, he wrote “This reasoning is not only flawed, it insults the millions of Americans whose traditional faiths call on us to defend marriage as a central institution in society defined as a union between a man and a woman.”[7]

He now lives in St. Louis.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Alexandra Wall Queer Jew ‘comes out’ again — as celibate, Orthodox j., March 7, 2003.
  2. ^ a b c Seeley, Christopher. Gay Jewish writer gives up sex with men Dec. 19, 2003
  3. ^ Over the Rainbow
  4. ^ Rex Wockner David Bianco Would Rather be a Traditional Jew than Gay
  5. ^ Homosexual Reparative therapy of the ‘GOD’ kind
  6. ^ David Benkof, Beautiful and loving — but don’t call it holy j., November 26, 2003
  7. ^ David Benkof The Law and Religion: Religious views have a place in same-sex marriage debate, j., January 18, 2004

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Separate Hatzalah Units For Women & Men

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Luke Ford

Here’s the pdf.

We wouldn’t want a man touching a woman, now would we?

Joe emails: "It the new sqare hasidic comunity secluded in upstate new york google them their rabbe is rabbi davi twersky shlita they have their own govermnet structure now they devided the hatslah which is emergency ambultet sevice like in all jewish comunitys who have their own he made a seperet orgenazition hatslalh only for women because men arnt aloud to touch or look at women so if the patinat is a women they send a lady trained medic on the scece. This is a very importnet new level of holiness in life that will be copied eventualy to all frum jewish nieberhoods."

According to Wikipedia:

Hatzolah ("rescue" or "relief" in Hebrew: ?????), is a volunteer Emergency Medical Service (EMS) organization functioning in Israel and in many Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in major cities of the United States, as well as in Australia, South Africa, Mexico City, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Russia[1] and the United Kingdom[2] (where it is known as Hatzola).

In the United States, Hatzolah was founded in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York by Rabbi Hershel Weber in the late 1960’s and has grown to become the largest all-volunteer ambulance service in the US[3]. The volunteers are trained EMTs or paramedics.

In marked distinction from most US EMS organizations, Hatzolah uses a fly-car system, where assigned members respond to the emergency with their private cars, with one member assigned to pick up the ambulance from the base location. Each Hatzolah volunteer is fully equipped with EMT or paramedic supplies. This system decreases response times dramatically. As an example, New York City EMS’s overall response times, though they vary by the severity of the emergency, averaged 5 minutes and 43 seconds for fiscal year 2007 [4] [5], while Hatzolah of Borough Park’s daytime response time averages under 4 minutes, with overall night-time averages of 7-8 minutes, regardless of the severity of the call.[3] Each Hatzolah neighborhood’s response time varies. Hatzolah of Los Angeles, for example, boasts a 90 second average response time. [6] One unique aspect of this primarily Jewish run ambulance service is that it still operates on shabbat. Having been used almost exclusively by the Jewish population, due to its extremely fast response time, many non Jews have been calling on them when requiring medical assistance.

I got this email:

He says that its better for the ROCHNIYES. Maybe he has a point. But will he let his housewives, mothers of kids, drive cars to save lives?? Does he think a woman can carry s tretcher like a man?? Do they have the energy to give CPR 5 times to somone who needs it after a whole day of cooking and cleaning and changind diapers?? Didnt anybody teach him Chamira Skanta My’isira?? Of all the big tzadikim and roshay yeshivos of all time. now in 2008 this shmuck decided to be holy?? you call up skver hatzulah: adress? what happened? is the unconcious? cross streets? Man or woman?? Oy, youll have to wait five minutes " Any WOMAN available for 1220 jackson street??" one more point, nowadays we have the loyal hatzulah member angles who run out in middle of the seder nacht to save lives, but, as hard as it is, the mother can still watch the kids, serve the food, and life can go on. What happens if the mother needs to run out in middle of the seder???? Holy skvere rebbe, this can win the prize for the most stupid idea of the century

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Chabad Crown Heights Patrol Stops Black On Black Rape

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Luke Ford

Satmarer Chosid emails:

The Lubavitcher Chassidim’s "SHMIRA" patrol stop and prevent a Rape in the nick of time, where both the perpetrator and the victim were both Black! Political ramifications of this has rocked the DA’s office who had previously been critical of the Chassidic Patrol "SHMIRA". Lubavitcher Chassidim are now demanding form the DA to give credit where credit is due, in face of his prior criticism. So far the DA’s office has not commented yet.

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