Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The "brilliant" Obama consults with Al Sharpton about tax rates
President Barack Obama met with several MSNBC hosts this afternoon at the White House to discuss tax rates, according to Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery. The reporter wondered if an "MSNBC love fest" was going on at the White House.
Here's Bendery's reporting, in a series of tweets:
Just passed Al Sharpton walking into the WH.— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012
Also, Al Sharpton is so unbelievably tiny now. I actually gasped when I saw him pass by just now. Hope he's ok.— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012
Rachel Maddow is now in the West Wing. How do I know this? I just walked in with her.— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012
Never met Maddow until now. We kind of look alike, esp today. My intro: "Are you my long lost sister?" Her: "Glad we both got the memo."— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012
Maddow, heading into West Wing, said she was here for a "hippie cabal." Asked if I was coming. NO, DAMN IT, I WASN'T INVITED.— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012
So... in the last hour, I watched Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell all walk into the West Wing. MSNBC love fest?
Suicidal liberal Jews celebrate Palestinian sovereignty
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| B'nai Yeshurin |
A large New York City synagogue cheered the decision of the U.N. creating the state of Palestine, according to press reports.
Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is well known for its charismatic rabbis, very musical prayer services and its extreme liberal positions on social issues.
But on Friday, when their rabbis and lay leaders sent an e-mail enthusiastically supporting the United Nations vote to upgrade Palestine to a state observer, the statement was more than even some of its famously liberal parishioners could bear.
"The U.N. vote yesterday is a great moment for us, as citizens of the world," the e-mail that was sent to all members of the congregation, said. "This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition."
The statement, in a time when the U.N. vote was rejected by the governments of the U.S. and
Israel, as well as many of the leaders of American Jewish organizations, reflects a split between
American Jews and willingness to disagree publicly with Israel.
Clergy in several Jewish congregations have, in various ways, acted favorably on the U.N. vote. But B'nai Jeshurun is remarkable for its size and importance and the congregation's reaction was swift. Allan Ripp, a member, said he and his wife were horrified.
"We are in a kind of shock," he said. "It's not like we do not support the two-state solution, but say this like a warm hug, is like a high-five to the PLO, and that has left us dumbfounded
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Mother of Victim testifies at Weberman trial
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| Mother of victim |
Testimony continued Monday in the sex abuse case of a prominent ultra Orthodox leader in Brooklyn’s Satmar community.
The mother of the now-17-year-old accuser testified that she trusted counselor Nechemya Weberman. But the woman testified that she had no idea that her daughter was locked in a room alone with a man, which is a clear violation of Satmar law.
The mother testified that it was always a struggle to keep her youngest daughter out of trouble at her Satmar school because the girl fought modesty rules.
It was the school that ordered the girl to continue counseling with Weberman, 54, or be kicked out, WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell reported.
The school reportedly considered the accuser an angry, damaged child with pure hatred in her heart, Cornell reported.
The mother testified that her daughter is lovely, respectful, understanding and smart.
On cross-examination, the mother was reluctant to admit that she told her daughter that Weberman was responsible for getting her boyfriend arrested on statutory rape charges.
Weberman’s defense team last week argued that the sexual abuse charges were brought by the accuser as revenge for betraying her trust, Cornell reported.
The mother eventually testified that she told her daughter that she suspected Weberman was involved in getting the boy arrested but that she had only recently come to that conclusion, Cornell reported.
Weberman is on trial for allegedly molesting the girl from the time she was just 12 years old in 2007 through 2010.
On Friday, the alleged victim testified that he showed her pornography and forced her to re-enact the sex acts in an isolated room, according to the New York Daily News.
On the witness stand, she testified that Weberman was respected as a leader whom everyone knew and was a member of the modesty committee that enforces morality rules, the Daily News reported.
The victim testified earlier last week that Weberman kept molesting her despite her resistance.
“He proceeded to kiss me. He touched me…I yelled for him to stop. He said, ‘You see, if you yell stop, I stop. I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not doing anything you don’t want me to do,’” the victim said Tuesday.
At one point, the teen said she stopped eating for three days. The accuser said she was so depressed she couldn’t even talk to Weberman.
The teen also described another incident in which she claimed Weberman came to her home.
“He got into bed with me and I wanted to die,” the teen stated in court last Tuesday.
She said she eventually was able to tell a school counselor what was taking place.
On Thursday, defense attorney Michael Farkus claimed the now-married accuser fabricated the charges to get back at Weberman for betraying her confidence.
The defense pointed out that one day after she told Weberman she was romantically involved with a boyfriend, which is strictly forbidden in the Satmar community, her father had the boy arrested.
What the jury did not hear in court was that the father followed Weberman’s suggestion to install a hidden camera to spy on his daughter’s romantic encounters with the boy, Cornell reported.
The charges against the young man were later dropped.
Also during the trial last week, nearly 100 observers had their cell phones confiscated after some were caught snapping photos inside the courtroom.
The angry judge scolded the observers, saying a crime was committed inside the courtroom when people took cell phone pictures of the sex abuse accuser as she testified.
Three ultra Orthodox men, identified as supporters of Weberman, were arrested on charges they photographed the accuser as she testified.
They were arraigned Friday evening and face contempt charges for taking pictures in a courtroom without a court order.
Weberman has pleaded not guilty to charges of committing a criminal sex act, rape, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse.
Yegutkin guilty of 75 counts of sexual abuse.
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the conviction of Emanuel Yegutkin, 33, for sexually abusing three young boys over the course of 10 years.
Yegutkin was convicted before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dineen Riviezzo on 75 counts of charges including three counts of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, The top charge, Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.
Yegutkin will be back in court on December 17 to announce a sentencing date.
District Attorney Hynes said, “This violent sexual predator faces the remainder of his life behind bars. This should serve as a clear message that those who would sexually abuse children in this county will be punished severely.”
Yegutkin was a principal of a private Jewish high school in Brooklyn. He became a close friend of the victims’ family after attending the school where the victims’ father worked, and visited their home frequently. The victims did not attend Yegutkin’s school. From 1996 to 2005, Yegutkin sexually abused two of the boys when they were ages seven to 15-years-old, and in 2008, exposed the third boy to pornography. Yegutkin was arrested in January 2009.
At trial, the three victims testified against Yegutkin. The trial began on October 18th. The jury, consisting of seven men and five women, were in deliberations since November 29. They came back with a guilty verdict today, finding Yegutkin guilty on all 75 counts.
Monday, December 3, 2012
France and Britain recall ambassadors to Israel, because Israel will allow Jews to build in their own land!
France and Britain have warned Israel that they are ready to recall their ambassadors, over Israel’s decision to build more Jewish homes in Jerusalem, according to press reports.
Everyone expected that a move from Israel to build new settlements in previously off limits territory just outside of a Jerusalem area known as E1, will bring international condemnation. However, few have guessed it would send ambassadors from European nations fleeing Israel.
According to a recent report from an Israeli newspaper, that's exactly what diplomats from France and Britain are thinking. Specifically, the newspaper report cited senior European diplomats as saying that the two countries are considering "the unprecedented step of recalling their ambassadors." One diplomat told the newspaper: "This time it will not be just words. Real action will be taken against Israel."
The sobering news comes just three days after the widely publicized and controversial decision by
The strip of land outside Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 war from Jordan. The strip of land connects the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem. However, the new 3000 unit project that will be built on that land will also cut off Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem, “making a contiguous Palestinian state backed by the United Nations last week, practically impossible," according to experts in the region.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Photos of the Weberman "gangsters" who made a huge Chillul Hashem
These alleged intimidators must think they’re judge and jury.
Four Orthodox Jewish men were hauled out of a Brooklyn courtroom and arrested yesterday after they allegedly used gangland tactics to intimidate a teen as she bravely testified about her alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a prominent Hasidic leader.
The sex-abuse trial of Nechemya Weberman was thrown into an uproar when the accused child molester’s supporters surreptitiously snapped iPhone pictures of the 17-year-old on the stand.
The four were nabbed after one of the images of the girl was posted to a Twitter account.
Gabriella Bass
IN A PIXEL: Court spectators Lemon Juice, Joseph Fried, Yona Weisman and Abraham Zupnick were led out in cuffs after they allegedly snapped pix of the alleged victim, one of which landed on Twitter.
Gabriella Bass
Joseph Fried
Gabriella Bass
Yonah Weissman
Gabriella Bass
Abraham Zupnick
Weberman, 54, is accused of sexually abusing the girl over three years — starting when she was 12 — after her parents sent her to him for counseling.
A day earlier, the alleged victim was left trembling after Weberman allegedly glared at her through a glass door to the courthouse conference room where she sat during a break in her testimony.
Yesterday, the judge lashed into the four men — all members of the insular Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism in Williamsburg, of which Weberman is a leader — for outing the young woman as she testified about alleged sex abuse that prosecutors say Weberman made her endure during what were supposed to be counseling sessions.
“You know about the Torah, you know about rabbinical courts. This is a civil court!” Supreme Court Justice John Ingram thundered to the four men after they were caught.
“Your phones will be held for possible criminal prosecution. You may wish to avail yourself of counsel.”
Lemon Juice, 30, Joseph Fried, 23, Yona Weisman, 23, and Abraham Zupnick, 23, were walked in handcuffs from Brooklyn Supreme Court to the Brooklyn DA’s Office for questioning.
They were facing criminal contempt charges that could carry up to a year in prison, a source said.
“I didn’t take a picture,” Weisman protested weakly.
“They’re on Weberman’s side. All they want to do is give her hell,” fumed Sori Schlafrig, 18, a friend of the girl. “I think they should rot in jail.”
After the men were removed, Ingram ordered all spectators to surrender their phones at the courtroom door, adding that photos were also taken of Weberman and a defense attorney.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you people! Turn off your phones!” Ingram railed.
“Now we have to take all their phones, just like in a gang trial,” said a law-enforcement source. “It’s the same thing you have with the Bloods or the Crips.”
Earlier in the trial, the girl testified that her father lost his business and her nieces were forced to leave their school after she came forward.
Yesterday, white paper was taped over the glass partition through which Weberman glared.
In June, four ultra-Orthodox men also were charged with trying to force the teen to drop the case.
Frum News blogs are not reporting Weberman Trial
UPDATE!Nov 29 7:09PM
So now VIN did report that 4 people were arrested for taking pictures in court of the victim, but they left WEBERMAN'S name out, but they are reporting that Rabbi Pinto will be indicted soon; in this report they mention Pinto's name because he is not a Satmar Chassid!
Weberman "gangsters" take picture of victim in court
Reporters live-tweeting the Nechemya Weberman trial on Thursday reported that testimony was abruptly stopped and spectators cleared after two supporters of the accused Williamsburg rapist were held for illegally taking a picture of the alleged victim with cell phones while she was on the stand and emailing it out.
Hon. John G. Ingram justice of the State Supreme Court, Kings County, is overseeing the trial.
Oren Yaniv, reporter for the New York Daily News and Pervaiz Shallwani of the Wall Street Journal tweeted the bombshell news.
Weberman allegedly raped and sexually abused a young Hasidic girl for years. Since coming forward last year, the woman, now 17, and her husband have allegedly been the target of a massive intimidation effort, reports the New York Daily News.
One man allegedly offered them $500,000 to flee to Israel. Three other men ripped the husband's kosher certificate from his restaurant, causing him to close the business. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes filed witness intimidation indictments against the men, the News reports.
Weberman intimidates the victim!
Court officers had to move an accused molester back into a courtroom in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday after he appeared to menacingly stare at his teenage accuser through a glass door.
The 17-year-old girl was having a moment of peace in an interview room during recess in the trial of Nechemya Weberman, whom she has accused of sexually abusing her four times a week for three years starting from the time she was 12.
But when the beautiful teenager looked up, she saw Weberman, staring at her through the glass long enough to set the officers scrambling.
George Farkas, a member of Weberman’s defense team, was quick to call the menacing allegation “pure unadulterated bulls---.”
But Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, director of the Center for Jewish Family Life, which publishes the children's book "Let's Play Safe!" about how kids can protect themselves from molesters, told the Daily News, “I was there. I saw it.”
She was having none of it, heading calmly back to the witness stand in her Ugg boots and chic outfit, looking nothing like the covered-up daughter of the Satmar sect she once was. Now it was her turn to stare Weberman down, as she coolly answered lawyer Michael Farkas’ questions about a boyfriend she dared to have, known in court as Mr. S.
Farkas asked about her parents’ opposition to her romance.
What the jury didn’t hear was that the girl’s father, at Weberman’s suggestion, set up a video camera that recorded her lovemaking, and that the boyfriend was busted on statutory rape charges, later dropped. Weberman’s defense is that this girl, then 15, concocted her entire accusation in revenge for his betrayal.
It is difficult to imagine a girl more trapped in a free country. Weberman, 54 and a fellow member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, was not only her father’s business partner, he was her unlicensed therapist. Yeshiva officials sent her to him when she dared to wear sheer tights to school and write poetry. He insisted on seeing her four times a week, when the alleged abuse, including oral sex, took place.
There were no Satmars there to support the girl, but the court was filled with Lubavitcher and other Orthodox Jews.
“We are an insular community — with us it’s not six degrees of separation, it’s two or three,” said Ezra Max, a teacher. “So for children or young adults who’ve been abused, it’s an additional challenge for them to come forward.”
“I just think she’s so brave,” said a girl who identified herself as the best friend of the witness. “I’m just so proud of her.”
jmolloy@nydailynews.com
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