Yeshiva World News

The following letter was sent by the PETA organization (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to Rabbi Luzer Weiss, in regards to their complaints that following Kapparos last year, a large Kaparos center in Crown Heights was throwing away dead chickens instead of giving them to the poor.

Last year, YWN posted an extensive letter written by PETA to Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (For that letter, click HERE)

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Luzer Weiss, Director
Kosher Law Enforcement Division
Brooklyn Office
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
55 Hanson Pl.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1583

Re: Consumer Fraud Alert

Dear Rabbi Weiss:

In advance of this year’s kapporos events, we request that the Kosher Law Enforcement Division investigate possible consumer fraud committed annually by Rabbi Shea Hecht of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE).

On September 20, 2007, NCFJE disposed of approximately two-thirds of the thousands of slaughtered chickens at its kapporos operation. These are chickens consumers expected to be processed for meat and distributed as tzedakah. The two-thirds figure was confirmed by NCFJE’s Yosef Moya in a meeting that I had with him and Rabbi Hecht on December 31, 2007, at NCFJE’s head office in Crown Heights. Furthermore, at the NCFJE’s September 20, 2007, kapporos event, PETA videotaped XXXX -who was responsible for ticket sales-as he stated that most of the slaughtered chickens would not be processed and would just be thrown in the garbage.
He attempted to justify this by adding that the money used to purchase the thousands of discarded slaughtered chickens may then be used to buy replacement chickens to feed the poor. PETA has enclosed a DVD of this conversation and additional footage of the hundreds of bags of slaughtered chickens that would be left for trash. These bags were subsequently placed inside a rented container labeled #12, which was picked up by Greg’s Express at approximately 7 a.m. on September 21, 2007.

The deceptive practice conducted by NCFJE of selling such a huge number of chickens for kapporos-while fully aware that there was no logistical plan in place to process even one-third of them-constitutes a fundamental violation of the principle of bal tashchit (wasteful, wanton destruction). This disposal of the slaughtered chickens demonstrates a shameless violation of the intent and practice of the kapporos ritual.
As such, we request that this be investigated as a legal matter of possible deceptive advertising and consumer fraud.

Such types of deceptive practices have been documented for the past several years throughout different kapporos centers in Brooklyn. Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum of The Jewish Press wrote:

KIS [Kashrus Information Service] found that, in addition to chickens being reused repeatedly (literally deceiving the paying public) they were not provided enough room, not fed properly, if at all, were being schechted by unqualified and unsupervised shochtim and improperly disposed of. . . .

The hashgachah must oversee that no tza’ar ba’alei chaim (abuse) of chickens takes place … and that the ultimate disposition of the slaughtered chickens are to poor families or religious institutions.

Participants at NCFJE clearly did not expect the chickens they made kapporos with-in such an intimate and solemn ritual-to be disposed of as trash. Nor did they expect the money that they paid to be so deliberately squandered. Had they known that their chickens would be bagged as garbage, requiring the purchase of replacement chickens, they might have opted for another location that gave the full percentage of their fee to charity. Or they might have opted to use the religiously sanctioned alternative of doing kapporos with money, thus ensuring that 100 percent of their tzedakah would go directly to the needy.

In the private December 31, 2007, meeting in Crown Heights and in subsequent correspondence, Rabbi Hecht has made it clear that he sees no problem with these methods. He has brazenly asserted that he does not intend to change anything.

At this meeting, I also brought up other issues that we documented on video as part of NCFJE’s kapporos in 2007, including the following:

*Abandoned chickens in cardboard boxes on the street *Abusive mishandling of birds by adult and juvenile participants and workers *Seven full crates of dead chickens who died in transport in crowded cages or died while waiting for hours without any food or water *Still-conscious birds who were put in garbage bags following ineffective shechita *Numerous health violations

Rabbi Tannenbaum also wrote:

A continuation of kapparos kashrus abuses cannot be allowed to continue.
The kosher consuming public must become sensitive to this issue and register its outrage. . . .

Reviewing the entire current kapparos situation, using alternatives to chickens such as money to tzedakah, might be a desirable option.

We will be releasing footage of all these abuses (please see the second enclosed DVD) and submitting a full report to the Kashrus Information Service detailing all these serious problems. In every step of the process, it is clear that Rabbi Hecht is intentionally operating at a volume well beyond the capabilities of NCFJE, and he makes no effort to ensure that the birds are treated according to the principle of tsa’ar ba’alei chayim.

Since kapporos in 2007, PETA has tried to work quietly behind the scenes with NCFJE to help the organization recognize and resolve these issues.
However, it is evident that Rabbi Hecht takes no responsibility for any of these problems and expresses no regret or remorse for the flagrant cruelty or the gratuitous slaughter that has misled participants and wasted lives and money. In addition, Rabbi Hecht will not entertain any measures to abate this waste and suffering. On April 1, 2008, Rabbi Hecht informed us that he was ending all correspondence with PETA on this issue.

For all the reasons outlined above, we respectfully request that the Kosher Law Enforcement Division investigate whether deceptive advertising and fraud were committed by Rabbi Hecht. We also ask the Kosher Law Enforcement Division to take all necessary measures to ensure that this disgraceful conduct is not repeated by NCFJE this year.

Sincerely,
Philip Schein
Policy Department
PETA

(INVITATION IN EXTENDED ARTICLE) The Zaka organization of Israel which has invited unwanted attention to itself in the past seems to have done it again. It has sent out invitations for a Washington DC fundraiser on September 16th honoring none other than the disgraced former Rockland County NY Assemblyman, Ryan Karben.

Monsey residents who remember his embarrassing resignation following revelations in Albany of immoral acts perpetrated by him, are scratching their heads over this dubious honor and wondering how this shameful honor was achieved.

(Click on image to ENLARGE) The wound of his public disgrace and inglorious end is still fresh in many memories.

(Pinchos Gordon – YWN)

[UPDATE IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] A cleaning lady has been arrested this morning in Kiryas Joel, after a successful operation by the Kiryas Joel Public Safety Officers, YWN has learned.

The 23-year-old (Hispanic) female who was working in numerous homes throughout Kiryas Joel, was suspected of robbing the homes that she was working in. Residents were complaining to Public Safety that money was constantly missing from the homes she was working in, so a plan was put into place to nab the thief.

On Monday morning, a sophisticated sting operation was organized in the home she was scheduled to work in. Sure enough, just 30 minutes after starting her work day, the currency was missing, and the woman was apprehended – with the stolen money in her possession.

She was taken away in a New York State Police cruiser, and charged with grand larceny. She is expected to be taken before a judge on Monday afternoon.

Kiryas Joel Public Safety Director Moses Witroil spoke with YWN – and publicly urges anyone using a cleaning lady to never keep valuables out in the open. “No matter how much you trust your cleaning help, remember that they are not your family member, and valuables must be kept out of sight”.

UPDATE 5:30PM EST: The suspect has been charged with 3 counts of grand larceny, and placed in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $7,500 bail (cash) or $1,500 bond.

(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN Sullivan County News Desk)

Last week, the Orthodox Jewish day schools in Houston were notified by the Department of External Funding of the Houston Independent School District of a significant funding allocation to their schools.  This year’s private school allocations resulted in $610,000 being directed towards a number of private educational institutions.  The Houston Orthodox Jewish day schools were recipients of $70,000 of these funds.  Rabbi Asher Block, Agudath Israel’s Texas Regional Director, commented, “I am delighted that our local schools will finally be receiving equitable funding for critical programs in which many thousands of non-public school children already participate across the country.”

These monies were directed to the day schools as a result of extensive collaboration between community groups and the Houston school board.  Rabbi Block, together with leaders in the Houston-Galvaston Catholic Archdiocese and other faith-based groups in Houston, worked diligently with school board officials on this issue over the last several months.  Their dedication and hard work resulted in the successful expansion of federal funding for the private schools they represent.  Allocated as per the guidelines in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the funds can be used to purchase educational supplies and textbooks or to cover staffing expenses for remedial math and reading programs in the private schools.  These services are slated for implementation in the beginning of October. 

“This significant development is the culmination of many long hours of hard work and resolve on the part of Rabbi Block and Agudath Israel toward ensuring that the children in our community receive the services they rightly deserve,” noted Dr. Zev Munk, Advisory Board Chairman of Agudath Israel of Texas.   

Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, National Director of Government Affairs for Agudath Israel stated, “This allocation provides vital funding for our schools and demonstrates how important entitlement funds are to the educational success of our children.  We look forward to the day when funding comes to our families in the form of school vouchers –giving parents a real choice when it comes to the education of their children.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)

(Click on image to ENLARGE) The following article appeared in the Syracuse Online / Post Standard:

Syracuse, NY: Joseph Levy didn’t notice the truck in front of him last week Thursday morning until concrete and dust from the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 690 [Syracuse-area highway] rained down on his car. “It was like an explosion,” said Levy, a volunteer EMT from Brooklyn.

The truck in the right lane continued down the highway a bit. Levin pulled over.

In his rearview mirror he could only see dust.

Levy grabbed his medical bag, got out of his car and walked into the cloud. Inside, he found a sport utility vehicle against the guardrail, its engine running and smoking.

He reached into the car, shut off the engine and saw seven people in need.

“It was an unbelievable scene,” he said.

In the front, Alan Zimmer was complaining about the pain, Levin said. He had an open leg fracture, Levy said.

In the passenger seat was Jennifer Zimmer, unconscious and bleeding from the hand and leg.

Right smack between them sat a large chunk of concrete, Levin said.

Behind them were a small child and the child’s grandfather. In the third row were the grandmother and two more children.

The children were crying and the grandparents were asking: What happened? The adults were in shock.

Levin opened a side door and moved into the middle row of seats with the grandfather and child and began to work.

“For five to 10 minutes, it was just me and seven patients,” he said.

Levy is a property manager by profession and makes a trip to Buffalo twice a month. He was driving back to Brooklyn on Thursday when the lift on the back of a flatbed Mack truck smacked Crosswalk No. 2, a pedestrian bridge over I-690 west of the state fairgrounds.

Levy became known in news reports as an anonymous good Samaritan, the first on the scene to give medical aid.

In the SUV, he was stopping bleeding and calming everyone in the car.

“Everyone’s alive,” he told them.

At the window appeared Dr. Mike Loeb, a medical resident on his way home. He asked if he could help.

Levy asked if Loeb was a medical doctor, and on hearing that he was, Levin told him to grab some gloves from the medical bag and get to work.

Loeb worked on the father while Levin worked on the mother, who had regained consciousness.

The father was removed first, Levy said. Then several firefighters rolled the concrete chunk out of the car.

To get the mother out, the roof of the vehicle had to be cut off. Levin covered the woman to protect her from debris.

“That’s when I finally got out of the car, when they got the roof off,” he said.

Troopers took him to an air-conditioned car and gave him a bottle of water, he said. He left about 12:45 p.m. and continued on his drive.

Levy has been an EMT for 16 years with Hatzolah volunteer ambulance service in Brooklyn. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was on duty transporting victims of the World Trade Center to the hospital.

Levy was waiting for the next patient when the towers collapsed. He and another EMT were covered with debris and had to be dug out, he said.

Even after that experience, he said he has never been to anything like the crash Thursday.

“Everything is meant to be for a reason,” he said. “I believe I was there for a reason.”

(Photo Credit: YW-88)

Good Samaritan Hospital is asking the NY State Department of Health for permission to build a new $2.8 million rapid admissions unit that it hopes will ease wait times in the emergency room.

The hospital hopes to build a 10-bed ward where emergency-room patients who need to be admitted to the hospital will be treated until a bed becomes available in other parts of the facility.

The proposed new ward would become part of a multimillion-dollar renovation of the emergency department.

Construction would start as soon as the state approves the plan. Hospital officials hope the new unit will be open by the end of the year.

The number of visits to the emergency room has increased dramatically in the past several years.

There were 32,370 visits to the emergency room in 2002, compared with 36,740 in 2007, according to the hospital.

(Source: LoHud.com)

North Jersey’s residential real estate market continues to sink into its first slump since the mid-1990s, with foreclosure action soaring and property sales plummeting. The foreclosure map shows which communities have the highest and lowest rates of homeowners in default on their mortgages. The property sales map shows how much the number of sales has dropped across the region. Click on any town on the maps to get more details about foreclosure actions, property sales and median prices.

Foreclosure actions in northern New Jersey nearly tripled in the first five months of 2008 over the same period in 2007, according to a report in the Record.

The report said the volume of housing sales has plummeted this year and prices are down. Median home prices declined 2.3 percent in Bergen County and 8.2 percent in Passaic County in the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 2007, according to an analysis of public property records.