Tzedek-Tzedek

Today Israel is reeling in shock from the Moshe Katsav guilty verdict. Like everyone else, my initial reaction to this first-impact shock is transient, and is unlikely to resemble my thoughts and feelings in a week, a month or a year. That said, here we go… The victims were heard. Even above the voice of Moshe Katsav, the President of Israel himself, his expensive lawyers, Establishment support and hitherto popularity. A mere secretary, and an 18 year old national service volunteer, had the tremendous guts to accuse the most prestigious man in the country of disgusting crimes - but for which there were no other witnesses. Her word, against His. On this absolutely uneven playing field, these women stuck to their guns, and remarkably the legal system found their word to be true, and Him to be a liar and sex offender. This represents a tremendous Victory for Sex Abuse Victims Everywhere. It also is a remarkable victory for Israel’s system of Justice. The Presiden...

Following the murder on 18th December of Kaye Susan Wilson, an American tourist, in the hills near Beit Shemesh, Israel's Channel Two News aired this short documentary piece about the illegal Arab workers in Beit Shemesh. Rabbi Dov Lipman is rallying concerned citizens to protest the presence in the town of potentially dangerous illegals. To sign the peition (preferably in Hebrew):   http://atzuma.co.il/ protectbetshemesh   Here is the TV clip, about the illegal workers in Beit Shemesh...

Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!!

By Rabbi Dov Lipman MURDER SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN BET SHEMESH   Last Saturday night, residents of RBS Bet saw two suspicious Arabs enter one of the buildings of the construction site in Kiryat Belz, right in the beginning of RBS Bet.  They alerted police who immediately suspected that they could have been involved in the horrible murder of the US citizen in the woods near Bet Shemesh.  On Sunday afternoon, plain clothed police raided the site and ended up arresting two suspects in the murder.  The police have not released any further information.  (DL - Once the police release all the information, I will be organizing a mass public outcry regarding the illegal workers throughout the city, and especially those who linger at the entrance to RBS Bet and in other locations throughout the day.  I will send out all the information once our mode of action is finalized.)  --------------- CITY TACKLES YOUTH ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE The city has hired Shl...

Who would have thought , just a few years ago, that the great taboos of Jewish communal life, child sex abuse and wife abuse, would be the subject of an exhaustive and authoritative book by Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn, an important rabbi and scholar. On the other hand, the fact that no Jewish book publisher was willing to even stock this important book, nor was any other rabbi willing to give the book a public haskama , shows that even this erudite and passionate work, is more akin to just the first step of Chairman Mao’s Great March. Regretfully, there is much more work to be done in bringing more sunlight to this methodically hidden aspect of Jewish communal life. Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn’s powerful two volume book Child & Domestic Abuse reveals the horrors of child abuse and wife beating in the orthodox Jewish community.  Rabbi Eidensohn has  collected a series of articles by psychologists, lawyers, abuse survivors, communal activists and rabbis. In addition, in the secon...

Pini Taub Speaks Out: This is well worth taking a few minutes to watch BOTH parts. Part One Part Two