Vaad of 5 Towns Permits Radio for Shabbos

The following email was sent from the Achiezer Organization to residents of Far Rockaway and the Five Towns on Thursday evening.
We understand that many in the community may be scared, concerned, or simply unsure of what should or should not be done in anticipation of the predicted Hurricane Irene which potentially might hit our neighborhood this weekend.
We have been working over the last several hours with community leaders exploring all possibilities which we may face during this storm.
Below are some the key points which were discussed on an emergency conference call with participants from Achiezer, Hatzolah, 101 Precinct, Nassau County Precinct, JCC, Office of Emergency Management, and local Rabbonim.

Over the next few hours, once the significance of the storm is further clarified, we will announce potential evacuation procedures and other urgent advisories.
1) Please identify any elderly or handicapped people in your vicinity who may be unable to move on their own, should an evacuation be ordered. Once we have a roster of these individuals we can work together with community agencies to ensure that this population is cared for.
2) Although the storm is not projected to hit until Sunday morning/afternoon, those who will feel more comfortable avoiding the storm should make plans to be away for Shabbos. This is the safest measure which can be taken in the event of a real Hurricane.
3) The Vaad Harabonim of the Five Towns has paskined that it is permissible, and strongly encouraged, that you leave a battery powered radio set to a news channel over Shabbos.
Again we stress that the foregoing is a conglomerated effort of the Office of Emergency Management, the Police Department, Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County, Achiezer, The Vaad of the Five Towns, the JCC, Local Rabbanim & many of the community organizations who will decide the best course of action to ensure that community members are safe and informed as developments occur.
We wish to reiterate that these plans are preliminary and precautionary.
As soon as we have a more clear directive of the forecasted path of this storm, we will immediately pass this information along.
Mark Gross
Hatzalah of the Rockaways & Nassau County
Rabbi Boruch B. Bender
ACHIEZER
Rabbi Tzvi Flaum
Vaad Harabonim of Far Rockaway & The Five Towns
Richard Altabe
JCC
Natan Mandelbaum & Alex Glucksman
NYC OEM

The Ban On Vosizneias

The following letter to the editor appeared in the January 13, 2011 issue of the 5 Towns Jewish Times by Dr. Asher Lipner. This letter speakes for itself!

To the Editor, thank you so much for analyzing the controversy about the latest rabbinic ban on an internet site. And thank you for your courageous coverage of the epidemic of child abuse in our community.

In your recent article on the rabbinic ban against Vos Iz Neias, you quoted people involved in putting together the ban as commenting that the fact that VIN is anonymous makes it difficult for the banners to negotiate with them. This appears to be quite hypocritical, as the “anti-VIN activists” hide behind an anonymous interview, and nobody seems to know for sure who they are. This certainly makes it difficult for the community to “negotiate” the ban because it seems to most people that it is one more example of leading rabbis being manipulated by individuals with a personal agenda.

Furthermore, their claim that the rabbis who signed the ban “are grateful to VIN for what it has accomplished” in the area of reporting on child molestation in the community would be laughable if it were not so devastatingly false.

If the rabbis were at all interested in helping survivors of abuse tell their stories or providing parents with information about the dangerous individuals who have harmed children, they would be allowing and even instructing those newspapers and blogs that are under their influence to do so, and stop preventing child advocates and survivors from using the Charedi media to inform people and save lives.

I have personally been told by editors of Charedi papers that they feel they must ask Agudah rabbis permission before publishing articles and they have not been permitted to warn parents of this life-and-death issue, because it is “too controversial” for the rabbis.

Until this changes, parents must hope and pray that the ban on VIN fails, as so many other bans have, and that VIN continues to provide lifesaving information despite the fact that our leadership wants to continue to cover it up.

Asher Lipner, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Executive Vice President, Jewish Board of Advocates for Children