Local civilians in Gaza filmed and uploaded a video to YouTube that shows cattle tied to poles, trees, and vehicles before being stabbed in the neck and eyes. One animal was shot in the kneecaps by an assault rifle.
Animals Australia said the footage, filmed during a ritual called the “festival of sacrifice”, was some of the worst seen in a series of animal welfare outrages involving Australian cattle.
The prophesies of our Holy Neviem coming true with the help of the great Jewish people of the State of Israel!
The annual Arava Open Day celebrated its 25th year with a colorful exhibition that drew crowds from all over Israel and around the world.
The tens of thousands of people visiting the Northern and Central Arava R&D station had two days (January 20 – 21) to see the agricultural, residential and tourism developments in the Arava.
The KKL-JNF pavilion at the exhibition presented its diverse projects for developing agriculture and sustainable water resources.
Dr Michael Salamon, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, is the founder and director of ADC Psychological Services in New York. He is the author of numerous articles, several psychological tests and books including "The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures" (Urim Publications) and "Every Pot Has a Cover" (University Press of America). His newest book is called "Abuse in the Jewish Community: Religious and Communal Factors that Undermine the Apprehension of Offenders and the Treatment of Victims."
Dusizneis posted a video of Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz speaking at a gathering in Lakewood New Jersey a few days ago. The headline read – “A Path-Breaking Speech by R’ Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz About Serious Issue Facing Lakewood Community”. By the time the video was posted on the news site I must have seen Rechnitz’s comments and video links on my Facebook and Twitter feeds posted at least a dozen times. R. Rechnitz is famous for his generosity and is according to Wikipedia “an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of TwinMed, LLC and owner of Brius Healthcare Services, the largest nursing home provider in the State of California.” He recently purchased meals for some 400 American soldiers returning to the US who he met by chance while he was traveling to Israel, in the Shannon airport. He also purchased Powerball lottery tickets for his employees.
What Mr. Rechnitz said in Lakewood deserves the attention it is receiving. He called to task the mind set of Lakewood insularity that seeks to exclude certain individuals, especially children, who do not fit exactly into the rigid and increasingly stringent mold that the community stridently demands. You can watch the video and hear his passion and concern, and every word spoken is true. He confronts the false belief of superiority and that “your children are not good enough for my children” to go to school with and he speaks of the unacceptable rigidity the community adheres to exclude others even though they are part of the same group.
Rechnitz is spot on. I cannot begin to tell you how many families I have seen, who have taken a full day to drive to see me, to try to help their children, and themselves get through the trauma of rejection, and THEN go right back to the same community that has rejected them. The rejection is often for things like wearing a kippah that is not large enough for the community standards or davening without a jacket, or a skirt that does not go quite the minimum two and a half inches below the knee, or Gd forbid, speaking to a member of the opposite sex, or wanting to go to college or…well you get the picture.
But beyond this is the fact that there are now a good number of Lakewood people trying to discredit Rechnitz. As the owner of a large chain of health facilities it is inevitable that his organization is under investigation. He has not been personally implicated and there have not been any reports finalized yet. Still, for many Lakewooders Rechnitz is now persona non grata, and someone to vilify. But that cannot happen. And that is what really makes this story so important.
Remember the asaifa, the gathering to demand that the internet be banned? And, that you should only use a kosher phone not a smart phone with an internet connection? Internet connections were and in many communities remain, the work of the devil. This story is precisely why there was such an intense push to ban internet services. Rechnitz’s speech has caught on like wild fire. It has gone viral and that is simply too threatening to certain community members. It is threatening to their power, to their religious and social base and to their rigid but unsupportable lifestyle.
This is not just a clarion issue for Lakewood. Rechnitz has exposed the failings of Hareidi communities everywhere. What happens in Lakewood happens in other places. There will be people who, because of this unwanted media attention will become even more rigid. There will be others, however, who will use this viral event to begin the tedious but necessary process of change, welcoming diversity within the parameters of true Jewish life, not a false rigidity created of whole cloth that has no basis in Halacha.
I welcome his comments. Despite the efforts of some, Rechnitz cannot be easily dismissed. As a philanthropist with well known largess his words carry significant weight. One can only hope that he is heeded. If not, there will be a seismic shift in this, and similar communities with the potential to create havoc between the old order and a young society exposed to the hypocrisy of exclusion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday for his remarks on the Palestinian Israeli conflict.
Earlier in the day, Moon condemned the current wave of Palestinian terror against Israel, but added that "it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism."
"The secretary-general's remarks provide a tailwind for terror. There is no justification for terror. Those Palestinians who murder do not want to build a state, they want to destroy a state and they say this openly," Netanyahu said.
"They want to murder Jews for being Jews and they say this openly. They do not murder for peace and they do not murder for human rights," he added.
Netanyahu then attacked the United Nations in general.
"The United Nations long ago lost its neutrality and its moral force, and the secretary general's remarks do not improve its standing," Netanyahu said.
Moon, Speaking to the UN Security Council in a session on the current situation in the Middle East, Ban said that 2016 had started with "unacceptable levels of violence."
He said, however, that security measures alone could not stop the violence. "They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians – especially young people."
Ban called for equal justice for both Israelis and Palestinians alike who commit such crimes.
"Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process. Some have taken me to task for pointing out this indisputable truth. Yet, as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism," he said.
The UN chief said that "Progress towards peace requires a freeze of Israel’s settlement enterprise."
"Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community. They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution," he said.
He also addressed the situation in the Gaza Strip, condemning Hamas rocket fire, and warning that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains perilous. "I continue to strongly believe that conditions in Gaza pose a severe threat to long-term peace and security in the region."
Finally these arrogant Lakewood "askanim" getting a kick in the teeth by R' Rechnitz ! The only town in the world with the most Roshei Yeshivos, yet are afraid to put their foot down and instead look away while precious children have no place in a Yeshivah! They shukkle and daven so so so erlich but don't care if a child that doesn't fit into their own agenda ..... have no place in a Yeshivah ..... These Yeshivas schnooor and schnoor but let Jewish children rot ! Finally a guy telling these guys off .... hope it works! Kudos to R" Rechnitz!
The problem Mr. Rechnitz addressed was the growing number of rejected children – children that have been excluded or precluded from attending any of the fine mosdos in Lakewood.
He addressed the bullet-like blow to the self-esteem of these children – to the instantaneous destruction of the self-worth of our youth, possibly never to be restored again.
He first spoke of almanos and young children who have lost their fathers. He spoke of the daily tzaar of the almanah. How they had lost the man who stood with them under the Chuppa not so long ago.. Who smiled, laughed, and danced before them. He spoke how he had spent Shabbos with yesomos and yesomim. Young boys under Bar Mitzvah, who don’t have a hand to hold onto, when they walk to Shul on Shabbos.
And then, Reb Shlomo Yehudah spoke of our own self-made problem – a problem we ourselves have created because of our attitudes. He spoke of fathers who don’t know where to turn, who were made to feel that they failed their innocent children. Of Mothers who cry themselves to sleep every night. He spoke of the children who at a tender young age, try to put on a normal face, but hide in their room and cry and cry more. This child’s parents have already cried their hearts out to their Rabbanim, to the school administration. “Please, please take our child. It’s six weeks, and he’s still not in school.”
He spoke of a 13 year old girl, who clearly sees that nobody wants her. She’s the town’s Pesoles. “Can you imagine,” Mr. Rechnitz asked, “an innocent Bas Yisroel, putting on a face for her friends, claiming she hasn’t had enough time to decide which school to go to, only to lay her head down on her pillow at night, the pillow which is still wet from the tears of the night before?”
He remarked that just on his drive into Lakewood that day, he received three calls from parents who asked him, “I hear you’re coming to Lakewood, can you speak to so and so. And I will address every one of them, because how can I not?
We are a nation who is Noseh B’oel Chaveiro. How can we be comfortable just because everything is fine and dandy by us, while someone else is clearly suffering.
Forget Ahavas Yisroel. I won’t ask for that much, but another Yid needs us, another Yid is crying out to us. How can we not answer him, yet expect Hashem to answer us, to take care of our needs?”
Reb Shlomo Yehudah explained the rishonim on the Takana of Rav Yehoshua Ben Gamla, “Even if ONE child in not in school, any child, Nishtachach Torah M’yisroel.”
“Yehoshua Ben Gamla, as the Kohen Gadol, under Roman rule, knew that it was incumbent on him to make sure that every last child had a Cheder to go to. Zachur oisio ish l’tov, because if not for him, Nishtachach Torah M’Yisroel,” Reb Shlomo Yehuda continued.
And then he delivered the death thrust – the unmitigated, unvarnished truth, designed to open every one’s eyes to the tragedy unfolding in the heart of the greatest Torah city in the country.
“L’tzaareinu Harav, we have a Machla in Lakewood.
No other out of town community would ever allow a child to be left without a school.
In Los Angeles, if a child wouldn’t have a school the first day, the whole community would be all over it. The same thing would happen in Baltimore, Chicago and Toronto or anywhere else.
This is basically a Lakewood Machla. Yes, there’s a few kids in Monsey, more than a few kids in Brooklyn, but nowhere else and in no other time in history was this problem close to the magnitude it is in Lakewood..
Even the children that get in, how many of them and their parents shvitz for months, making phone calls, waiting for phone calls?”
He explained, of course that, “No one will dispute that Lakewood is everything right.. There is nothing as beautiful, no picture or painting, no scenery in the world that even slightly compares to the beauty of Lakewood. Walking into the multiple Chadorim and hearing the chorus of Komitz Aleph-Uh, Komitz Bais-buh, the angelic tune of our Tinokos Shel Bais Raban repeating pasuk after Pasuk after their Rebbe. The Rebbeim have a special place in their heart, a unique love for every single Talmid. You walk into the Kollelim..they’re so arayngetun in their learning. Their Ahavas Hatorah, their Simchas Hachaim. Chaim sheyesh bohem ahavas Hatorah V’yiras Shomayim…
But when it comes to schooling, we become Meshuga L’oisoi Davar..
We profess to teach Torah, and the importance of Daas Torah, yet when any Rosh Hayeshiva calls up a mosad to try to get a child in, they’re turned down with the swipe of a hand. How hypocritical can we be?”
He explained that the Roshei Mosdos shouldn’t take the blame. “They know that it just takes a few missteps, a few wrong decisions, a few wrong children, and next year, they quickly become the nebech school.”
He explained that the blame lies mostly on our shoulders. He said, “Many of us have created for ourselves a new Torah, a new Yiddishkeit, that makes us feel good about ourselves, but has little to do with Hashem’s Torah that He gave us 3300 years ago. We turned our Frumkeit into an idol, and we have forgotten some of the basic tenets of Yiddishkeit.”
He presented a list of five very false Ani Maamins:
1. I believe that “I am better than you.”
2. I believe that I have to show all my chumros, so everyone can see how frum I am.
3. I believe that “your children are not good enough for my children.”
4. I believe that the Torah was given to perfect children and perfect families.
5. I believe there is no room for individuality; we must all fit into the same perfect model.
And then he asked all present to declare the truth:
“1. We believe that Hashem loves every Yid, adult or child, unconditionally, and with tremendous Ahava. We can never know the value of a particular Neshama. Every neshamah is a “chelek elokah memmaal.”
Someone who is really frum loves every Yid with all his heart and all his soul. The notion that some of us are “better,” holier, and superior than others, is primitive, false, and simply foolish. Hashem calls each Yid his only child, yet we say, “You are not really that worthy.”
B’michilas Kvoidchem, we’ve skipped over the fundamentals and went directly to the Chumros. Bein Adam L’chaveiro is a nice thing if we can work it into our schedule, but Chas V’shalom, if my neighbor is struggling, instead of opening my heart to him, I become a cruel and arrogant Jew, and I think I am frum!
This is our Ani Maamin #1. Don’t tell me, you love me and you hate some of my children.it means you do not love me. Do not tell Hashem, I love you but I dislike some of your children.
Ani maamin #2. We believe that Torah is based on humility, on genuine relationships and dedication.. But if a yid is arrogant and elitist, Hashem runs away from him. It is time to realize how our elitism has destroyed our ruchniyus.
Ani maamin #3. We believe that every child is priceless, his or her value is infinite. For every child we need mesiras nefesh. The Midrash says, if one of the 3 million Jews were not by Sinai, the Torah could not be given. Everyone had to be there. How we can say, that some of our children do not belong in our schools? If we would have said that at Har Sinai, we would have never had a Torah!
Ani maamin #4. I believe that we all struggle. Torah was not given to perfect people. It was given to people who struggle with life and who have ups and downs. We all need each other and must learn from each other. The Gemarah says in Shabbos, that Torah could not be given to angels; only to people who fall and stumble. Yet we.. invented that Torah is only for angels!
Ani maamin #5. I believe that not everybody has to be, or even can be, the same. The Mishnah says in Sanhedrin that Hashem created every person different. Why? Because he wants us to be different.
Let us respect differences. Let us respect individual journeys. Let us respect Neshamos not only robots. Let us respect hearts not only machines. Let us not crush every kid into a particular box even if he is sticking out. Let us be a little more confident and secure, and tolerate different types of people.
Reb Shlomo Yehudah continued, “I am heartbroken for one particular conversation that occurs nonstop in Lakewood. Parents call up a school and say: if you take in so and so, I am not sending my child. The school buckles under and rejects that child.
I tell you today with all my heart:
SHUMU SHAMAYIM AL ZOIS! This is a churban for klal yisroel! How dare you destroy another child’s life because if your opinions of the other child?! How dare you become a murderer like that? How dare you face Hashem by davening when you snuffed out a Yiddishe Neshama? How DARE you?”
He exhorted the listeners, “This is mammash shefechus damim. If the school isn’t good enough for your child, shut your mouth and go find him a school that does work, or create your own school just for your child. Make a yeshiva just for him.
I call on every principal, every Rosh Hamosod, no, I’m not calling on you. I’m munning you. That from today on, if you ever get such a comment, that if you take in that kid, the other family will not send their kid to your school, have the courage to tell them, “We apologize, but we clearly are not the place for your child prodigy.”
And then he added, “And if you are afraid of the money.. you call me. I will supplement!”
Reb Shlomo Yehudah ended with the following thought, “Suddenly, when it comes to the most important thing, we leave out Hashem from the entire picture!…There goes that Bitachon.
Hillary addressing the Jewish Federation in Iowa, starts choking and then sips water without making a bracha and then eats a candy without making a bracha just like Eisav! Where was Ezra the Kapo to help her out?
Way before "Satmar re-writers of Jewish History" mocked the view of the Gedoilie Yisroel that said that the "in- gathering of the Jews to Israel and building the infrastructure of the State was the aschalta de'Geulah" .......... Rashi z"l, that lived over a thousand years before the Satmar Dynasty, writes in Mesachtas Sanhedrin 88a on the top of the page ..... "The beginning of redemption will be seen in the fruits of the land of Israel that Israel gives forth, in abundance" Even a blind man can see that the finest fruits in the entire world are grown in Israel. The finest wines come from Israel; Israel having won countless awards for the best wines! So B'H the "aschalta de"geulah" is already here in full force ... something that all frum Jews were waiting for years ... and it has finally come to fruition (no pun intended). But those who deny this premise, should watch themselves since those who didn't believe in the "aschalta De'Geulah" in Mitzraim, remained there! Happy Tu B'Shvat --- Israel Arbor Day!
Thirty-five chareidim joined Israel Police last week as part of their national service. They join the 140 chareidim already serving in Israel Police as an option towards fulfilling their mandatory service – an alternative to IDF service.
They will enter courses to equip them with the necessary knowledge to perform their duties, as well as being certified in the use of a firearm. They will join routine patrols as well as the technological and intelligence branches of the department.
Israel Police officials report that they are continuing efforts to build an environment that will be viewed as comfortable and inviting for chareidim to encourage more members of the chareidi community to select Israel Police as a public service option.
It seems that the miracles that Hashem did for the Jews when they left Egypt .... having the Egyptians drown while pursuing the Jews .... is repeating itself with the Arab murderers drowning in their own mud ...just like we read in this week's parsha, Parshas Be' shallach! Hashem is continuing to perform miracles for the Zionist nation and that should give all of us hope!
As Jews around the world continue to beseech the One Above to continue the nurturing rains of winter in the Land of Israel, Mohammed Ashour al-Naj’ar, has found his rest after many hard hours living as a tunnel digger in Gaza.
The Izz a-Din al-Qassam military wing of Hamas announced Saturday al-Naj’ar, 31, was buried alive in a tunnel collapse due to weather conditions.
The Khan Younis resident added his body to those of numerous other victims who chose to uselessly sacrifice their lives to the terrorist organization.
The soft sands of Gaza are easy for diggers to tunnel through, but that same softness becomes a death trap when the moisture seeps in from the heavy rains of winter. It is then that the weight of the mud above transforms their work environment into a grave.
I went into two different supermarkets in Monsey and noticed thousands of Kedem Grape Juice boxes with prices reduced to half the normal price ..... What was happening? Was Kedem finally having some rachmonis on the hard working people with large families???? In my naivete, I thought that Kedem finally decided to give back to the community ....by lowering their prices!
Nope ... no such luck... I asked the managers of the supermarkets what Kedem's cheshben was? Ahah! They were laughing their heads off ... and whispered a big secret to me .... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... "Welch got into the kosher market and the OU will now give a hechsher on the grape juice!" What?????????????? So the truth is that Kedem that dominates the Kosher Grape Juice market, is freaking out that Welch Grape Juice, that is organic with no sulfates, and very reasonably priced, will now be an alternative to the frum families! To think that all these years they were ripping off the arumehleit... Pass me some of that juice ,.....im'me'chayeh
At this time, we can win against Israel, only by keeping up with our era and enhancing innovation and creativity in all of today’s fields.
In fact, the spread of Islamized groups today that carry the slogan of “Elimination of Israel” and states that support these groups have actually presented the best of gifts to Israel. This enemy exploits the existence of these regimes, trends and currents, in the media and on the political level, in order to always portray itself as the victim, thus earning the sympathy of the international community, specifically the Western society. Such sympathy is translated into more political, military, economical and media support to the Israeli entity.
So where does this dangerous fool come off to lobby for an organization that supports the destruction of the State of Israel?
Why is this sick bastard getting any respect from Jewish people .....?
Is this how low we go to sell our own blood for a couple of dollars.
This arrogant piece of vermin just sold himself to the devil!
The Murderer and his victim, his wife Dr. Robin Goldman
Jules Reich, 61, was in the hospital being questioned Wednesday for allegedly killing his 58-year-old wife, Dr. Robin Goldman, according to the Journal News.
The pair were active in the Young Israel of Scarsdale congregation in New Rochelle, a modern Orthodox congregation, and also involved with the Westchester Jewish Council. The victim’s distraught son Adam Reich described his mother as a wonderful woman.
Police rushed to the couple’s massive, $2.8 million mansion on Lincoln Road in Westchester County — about 23 miles north of Manhattan — after receiving a 10 a.m. 911 call that Goldman had been stabbed.
The call came from Reich, an international tax specialist and corporate consultant who is a partner at WeiserMazars LLP on W. 50th St. in Midtown.
No charges had been filed as of early Wednesday evening, officials said.
Goldman was a pediatrician affiliated with the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, officials said.
A law enforcement source said the killing was “domestic” in nature.
The suspect was hospitalized Wednesday evening and was being questioned.
“This is not a random act,” Scarsdale police Capt. Thomas Alpizio told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “This is an isolated incident.”
GOOGLE MAPS STREET VIEW
Dr. Robin Goldman, 58, was stabbed to death at her massive, $2.8 million mansion on Lincoln Road Wednesday morning in Scarsdale, Westchester County.
The home, which has a pool, bathhouse and greenhouse, is owned by Goldman and Reich, records show.
A call to WeiserMazars LLP was not returned Wednesday evening.
The couple bought the house, which sits on 1.3 acres, in 1997.
The last homicide to take place in Scarsdale was in 1977, according to the Journal News.
That's the newly revised number of people killed by American police in 2015. Where is the world outcry? Why is the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom quiet? Where is the UN's Kock im oon? In self defence, Israel kills 121 Arab savages that murder for the sake of murdering and the world screams.... but the United States kills 1,204 Americans and not a peep out of anyone?
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Rabbi Ronald Greenwald zt”l of Monsey, NY. A renowned mechanech,askan and advocate, Rabbi Greenwald earned the respect of Jews across the religious spectrum for his dedication to helping Jews whenever and wherever he could.
Born January 8, 1934, in New York City, “Ronnie,” as everyone knew him, made a career of spy trading, international hostage mediation, and other forms of high-stakes, high-intrigue diplomacy.
A one-man chessed organization, in Boro Park, in Monsey, at Camp Magen Avraham and Camp Sternberg, and working for many organizations and institutions, thousands of people benefited from the selflessness and care of Rabbi Greenwald.
Rabbi Greenwald was born to European Jewish immigrant parents and raised on the lower east side of Manhattan before his family relocated to Brownsville in Brooklyn. He studied at Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland after high school. After getting married, he settled in Boro Park and, the early years of his marriage, he worked as a rebbi and teacher in Brooklyn yeshivos.
Rabbi Greenwald became active in politics in 1962, at the age of 28, lobbying on behalf of Torah Umesorah to promote the creation and success of Jewish day schools in the United States. At the request of activist George Klein, Rabbi Greenwald became involved in the gubernatorial campaign of Nelson A. Rockefeller and helped Rockefeller win an unprecedented share of the Jewish vote for a Republican at the time. After this success, the Rockefeller campaign recommended Rabbi Greenwald to the campaign of Richard M. Nixon and the Nixon re-election campaign appointed Rabbi Greenwald to work for the President’s 1972 re-election in the Jewish community. In winning 35% of the Jewish vote in 1972, Nixon, like Rockefeller, did far better among Jewish voters than would be expected from a Republican in that era.
During the Nixon administration, Rabbi Greenwald served as liaison between the administration and the Jewish community in a variety of ways. He obtained a $1 million grant to open a legal aid office in Brooklyn to assist the needy in the community of Williamsburg among other accomplishments.
During the Watergate scandal, Rabbi Greenwald contacted various Democratic Jewish members of Congress, including Elizabeth Holtzman, Bella Abzug and Arlen Specter to try to convince them that impeaching the president would weaken the United States and, by extension, hurt Israel, which, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War needed the support of a strong United States. Although his entreaties did not work, as President Nixon was eventually forced to resign rather than face impeachment, he did earn a Presidential letter of thanks.
Rabbi Greenwald was involved in scores of release efforts for various prisoners from around the world.
In perhaps his highest profile case, Rabbi Greenwald worked closely with Representative Benjamin Gilman and East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel to secure the release Soviet dissident and Refusenik Natan Sharansky from Soviet prison in the late 1970s. He made more than 25 trips across the “Iron Curtain” to East Germany as part of that effort. The Rockland Journal News reported that Rabbi Greenwald was the “man behind the talks” that freed Sharansky.
In conjunction with Representative Gilman, Rabbi Greenwald negotiated the rescue a 24-year-old Israeli citizen named Miron Markus in 1978 who was living in Zimbabwe. Mr. Markus was captured when an airplane piloted by his brother-in-law, Jackie Bloch, was forced to land
in Mozambique, where Mr. Bloch was killed and Markus taken hostage. Rabbi Greenwald, Congressman Gilman and others arranged for a complex swap that involved four countries Mozambique, Israel, the United States and East Germany, convicted East German spy Robert Thompson and U.S. student Alan van Norman.
Raul Granados was kidnapped by leftist guerillas in November 1979 while at a soccer game in Guatemala City. Rabbi Greenwald, working again with Representative Gilman, helped broker the exchange of Mr. Granados in exchange for a ransom payment of $4,000,000.
Vladimir Raiz, a Soviet molecular biologist, had been denied permission to leave the former Soviet Union for 18 years before Rabbi Greenwald entered the picture. Rabbi Greenwald secretly met with Raiz in Lithuania in 1989. Following negotiations with Soviet authorities, Raiz and his family were permitted to emigrate in 1990.
In 1994, political activist and New York native Lori Berenson was arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason by a Peruvian military tribunal. She was accused of belonging to a Marxist rebel group and plotting to overthrow the Peruvian government. With the support of President Bill Clinton. in 2000, Rabbi Greenwald led a delegation of American negotiators to Peru to press the Peruvian government to free Berenson or, at least, to grant her a new trial in a civilian court. The effort succeeded and Berenson was afforded a new trial in civilian court. At her subsequent trial, Berenson was convicted again and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Rabbi Greenwald was involved in many of the attempts to gain clemency for Jonathan Pollard by convincing the then serving President of the United States to pardon Pollard or to commute his sentence. Particularly noteworthy was his effort to set up a three way trade involving Israel, the United States and Russia. Under Rabbi Greenwald’s proposal, Israel would release Professor Marcus Klingberg, who was being held by Israel or suspected Russian spy Shabattai Kalmanovich to Russia, the Russians would release Dmitri Polyakov (known to the FBI as “Top Hat”) or Anatoly Filatov, who were both being held by Russia on suspicion of having spied for the United States, and the U.S. would pardon Pollard and allow him to move to Israel. Congressman Benjamin Gilman and Sam Nunn’s former chief of staff, Jeff Smith (who would later become chief council for the CIA) were also involved in the proposed transaction.
Unfortunately for Pollard, the effort broke down when Yossi Ben Aharon, assistant to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir insisted on Israel negotiating directly with the Russians rather than through an intermediary such as Rabbi Greenwald. The Israeli negotiating effort never gained traction, and Pollard remained in prison until 2015.
Rabbi Greenwald’s and others’ efforts to convince U.S. President Bill Clinton to commute Pollard’s sentence were hampered in large part by a letter written to Clinton by Donald Rumsfeld and signed by seven former Secretaries of Defense, urging the President not to pardon Pollard.
In 1983, Dr. Alfred Zehe, an East German scientist attending a conference in Massachusetts, was arrested for conspiracy to violate U.S. espionage laws for allegedly handing secret “sonar plan” documents to East German operatives in Mexico. East German lawyer and spy trader Wolfgang Vogel was put in charge of the effort to free Zehe. He brought in Alan Dershowitz to oversee the legalities of the effort and Greenwald to act as a person liaison between him and Zehe.
Rabbi Greenwald visited Zehe several times in prison. During this time, he learned that Zehe was being threatened with being brought to trial under espionage charges that carried the threat of many decades in prison while being cajoled to turn over to the CIA whatever information he had that might be helpful to that agency. Rabbi Greenwald conveyed messages to Zehe from his family urging him to do whatever it took to allow himself to be released as soon as possible. Eventually, Zehe pled guilty and conducted a full debriefing in exchange for the promise of a light sentence. He was released as part an exchange of agents in June 1985.
Rabbi Greenwald was a featured speaker at many conventions and gatherings throughout his career.
In September 1997, during a visit of scores of rabbonim and others to Lithuania to commemorate the 200th yahrtzeit of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Greenwald personally successfully negotiated with the Lithuanian government to allow the burial of several desecrated Sifrei Torah. The Sifrei Torah were among hundreds of Sifrei Torah that had been disgraced by the Nazis and/or the Lithuanians during World War II. With the negotiated help of the government, Rabbi Greenwald and others located over three hundred Sifrei Torah, including some that were being held in the basement of a church. They were able to salvage most of the scrolls for further use. The Sifrei Torah that could not be salvaged were buried in a ceremony attended by visiting Jews from around the World and Lithuanian officials.
The day prior to the levaya, Rabbi Greenwald was invited to address the Lithuanian Parliament.
During the same visit, Rabbi Greenwald intervened with the Prime Minister to prevent the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Vilnius. The Lithuanian government was going to raze the cemetery and erect a shopping mall on the site. Rabbi Greenwald contacted the Prime Minister’s office and promised the Prime Minister that saving the cemetery would bring him great blessing. As Rabbi Greenwald had previously interceded on Lithuania’s behalf as it sought to enter NATO, his words carried strong influence with the Prime Minister and his request was heeded.
On November 15, 2009, The Yitti Liebel Help Line honored Rabbi Greenwald by dedicating the event and the journal as a tribute to him. The journal cover page referred to him as a “champion of chessed” and as a “living, one man chessed organization.” The journal credited him with saving Jews from eastern Europe and Africa and proclaimed that “thousands of people owe more than they can ever repay to one hero – Ronnie.”
Rabbi Greenwald had a variety of unusual ties to South Africa in the Apartheid era. He was the diplomatic representative of the African Bantustan of Bophuthatswana in the United States, when that “homeland” lacked international recognition.
When not engaged in high-stakes international diplomacy, Rabbi Greenwald operated Camp Sternberg, a summer camp in the Catskills, and ran Monsey Academy for Girls, a private high school in Rockland County, New York, of which he was the founder.
Rabbi Greenwald served as chairman of the board of the Women’s League in Rockland County, which creates and oversees adult group homes in that county, and of the Borough Park branch of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (JBFCS). He also served on the Board of Governors of the Orthodox Union and as acting chairman of Magenu.
Rabbi Greenwald was on vacation in Florida and had been feeling fine when he retired for the night. He was niftar overnight in his sleep.
His passing has plunged his thousands of friends and admirers into mourning.
Levaya details will be provided when they are available.
UPDATE, 10:10 a.m.: The aron will be flown to New York and the levaya is expected to be held this afternoon in Monsey, NY. The aron will then be flown from JFK International Airport to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah there. Further details will be provided once they are finalized.
VIDEO: Rabbi Greenwald at a melava malka this past Motzoei Shabbos:
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