Satmar controls the Brooklyn DA, makes sure that the brothers that bullied Weberman's victim, goes scott free!

Protest against Frum Rabbis that support gay candidates for mayor,

"Holy" Rabbonim  who hate each other will unite to fight the State of Israel, but will have no problems endorsing gay and "gay supporting" candidates for mayor. Finally there is a small group that is exposing these "Rabbinic  Hypocrites" ..see www.unitedtosaveamerica.blogspot.com

The Two Satmar Brother Rabbis that hate each other, will unite to protest against Israel

Wow! Parshas Korach all over again!
Two brothers that are in Secular Court fighting over $$$$$$$$$$$$, and who hate each others guts, will unite to fight against Israel... How nice!
The Zalmanites and the Aharonites, have united to stage a large anti-Israel demonstration to be held this Sunday at the Federal Plaza Center in Lower Manhattan.
During a time where all nations of the world are ganging up on Israel, two leaders of thousands of Satmar Chasidim decide to make piece so they can join the rest of the goyim to attack Israel!
Waiting for Moshiach???

Child Rapist Rabbi Grynhaus arrested in Israel

"Groiser" Rabbi Grynhaus

Update! Israel has denied Grynhaus citizenship and will deport the "chazir."

Authorities have confirmed that Todros Grynhaus, a suspected sex offender wanted for jumping bail in Salford, UK, has been arrested by Israeli police.

The JC.com (http://bit.ly/XPbMwz) is reporting that Greater Manchester Police, who had been seeking the 48 year-old Grynhaus since he jumped bail two weeks ago, confirmed that the man they believe to be Grynhuas has been arrested in Jerusalem where he was allegedly living under a false identity.

Grynhaus, the son of a very influential Rabbi who is in charge of the department of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in London that certifies kosher food, was charged in December with six counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault against three minors, all under 15.

Grynhaus entered a ‘not guilty’ plea at his December hearing. Bail conditions stipulated that he surrender his passport and report to the Salford police station every Wednesday—a condition that was relaxed in order to allow him to visit his family in London.

Multiple unconfirmed reports said that Grynhaus then fled the UK using the passport of another hasid, given to him by a wealthy member of Britain’s hared community.

There will now be a process to ensure Grynhaus’ return to the UK, but police said it was too early to say whether extradition will be requested under the current bilateral agreement between Israel and the UK.

Rabbis ban Israeli Parade because of Gay participation, but they have no problem with endorsing Gay candidates!

The following article was submitted to YWN by the writer, Alan Betsalel Friedlander. It has not been edited in any form by YWN, and presented in its entirety below:

The Celebrate Israel Parade is an event attended heavily by Modern Orthodox Jewish attendees. A group listed only by its initials as a participant in this year’s parade participants list actually has a hidden agenda. In a brazen attempt to force Orthodox Jews to accept their way of life at the Torah’s expense, the understanding that was maintained for two decades has been overturned, without asking for Rabbinic authorization.

In the 1990′s Rabbi Aharon Soloveichik, Zt”l (OBM), protested against showing tolerance toward homosexuals as a public marching group at the Celebrate Israel Parade. Up until last year, his advice had been heeded. Avi Goldstein brought this to the attention of the community this year and so many leading Rabbis have signed a letter that proclaims:

”Any participation in any event that includes so called “Orthodox” groups, who in any way condone or support toevah (abomination), or a deviant way of life, is asur (forbidden). Whoever is a participant or spectator is an assistant to a sinful matter. Such a brazen public chilul HaShem (desecration of the Divine Name) needs to be denounced.

Co-Signatory Rabbi Yehuda Sheinkopf said the following: “We could not let this group march under a banner of Orthodoxy without a response that this is not Orthodoxy, is it contrary to the Torah. These rabbis feel that it must be known that to join with such a group is assisting their agenda which is contrary to the Torah.”

Rabbi Yisroel Belsky gave a heter (leniency) if due to the short notice for someone who feels committed to the event what should they do so they can still attend without violating halacha. The answer was on condition that they protest the participation of the forbidden group(s).

If you wish to protest this event, the 2013 Parade occurs this Sunday, June 2, from 11 AM to 4PM in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue from 57th Street to 74th.

Due to the late nature of disclosure, this list of signatories (in alphabetical order) is still being populated even as this story goes to press.

Rabbi Yisroel Belsky

Rabbi Eliyahu Elbaz

Rabbi Eliezer Ginzburg

Rabbi Yosef Rabinowitz

Rabbi Aharon Moshe Schechter

Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman

Rabbi Avrohom Schorr

Rabbi Yehuda Sheinkopf

Charedi Rabbi: The Jewish Community Should Deal With Molesters Just Like Murderers

from the Jewish home LA:

Rabbi Avrohom StulbergerThe recent guilty plea of an Orthodox Rabbi to molestation charges in New Jersey as well as the District Attorney’s expressed hope that this case will encourage other parents of abused children from the Orthodox community to come forward to report crimes, beg the questions that have bothered me for years : Why is there such a reticence on the part of Orthodox Jews to put these perpetrators behind bars?

Why are threats of retribution aimed at the victims and their families if they report these crimes, when logic dictates that our wrath should be aimed at the abuser and not at the abused?

I recently read an article in the L.A. Times about Phil Jackson’s new book, and what he says in it about Kobe Bryant. Jackson writes that he harbored a deep underlying hatred for Bryant the year that he was accused of sexual assault, because Jackson’s daughter was a victim of a similar assault years earlier. That episode, therefore, hit Jackson close to home. It struck me clearly that the mere fact that Jackson had a daughter wasn’t enough to affect him deeply. The basic feelings of empathy and compassion that dictate revulsion at the mere mention of such a heinous crime were apparently beyond even beyond Phil Jackson’s capabilities.

I am not here to criticize Jackson, but could it be that we the chosen people, are mired in the same place? Do we hear the words “abuse” and “molestation”, shake our heads and move on?

Do we, Heaven forbid have to feel the pain personally before we react the way a parent of a victim would? Let me make a suggestion: let us rename these people “murderers” instead of molesters. From a religious point of view , that is exactly what they are. Killing one’s souls, in Jewish law, is at least as destructive as killing one physically.

In addition when a Rabbi or other religious authority figure invades a child’s world with abuse, he shatters the positive association with Torah that so significantly contributes to the child’s spirituality. When we compound the tragedy with intimation and cover-up, we bear the guilt of both pushing the knife into the hearts of the victims, and becoming accessories to the future murders of innocent neshamos.

I am not being overly dramatic. Listen to the mental health professionals and hear how much of a struggle it is to rebuild theses victims’ self- esteem and trust. Can a Jew come to love Torah when its representative has so ravaged his inner peace and self-worth?

The Torah commands us not to stand by idly as our fellow Jew’s blood is being spilled. This Halacha clearly encompasses more than actual blood: one’s mental and spiritual health are within its purview as well. Factoring in the intimacy issues that abuse raises later in life, the damaged caused is incalculable. Arguably, there is no greater single threat to a chid’s emerging Ruchnius than suffering the pain of sexual abuse.

So let’s stop focusing on the sterling reputations of perpetrators and their family members, who inevitably rally to the molesters side. Let’s stop nonsensically pretending that we are turning innocent people over to the KGB or the Gestapo. Let’s stop listening to the empty promises that it won’t happen again. Instead, let’s start looking into these children’s hearts and let us cry at the agony that we see.

Let’s look honestly at the fact that today as an Orthodox community we cannot manage our own house, and cannot promise that there will be no more victims. We don’t have the power. We don’t have the authority. And sadly, I fear that we don’t have the empathy.

Rabbi Avrohom Stulberger is a prominent Charedi Rabbi and noted speaker. Rabbi Stulberger has been the Dean of Valley Torah High School for 27 years. Serves as the President of the Yeshiva Principals council of LA and has served on the Halachic Advisory Board of Aleinu Jewish Family Services for over a decade.

Frum Couple indicted for killing lady and melting her body

The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed an indictment against Ze’ev and Olga Gorelik for allegedly murdering Iris Gorelik Visilib and melting her body with chemicals to cover up the crime.

The alleged murder was also shocking in the defendants’ alleged use of the Internet to research techniques for melting the body and use of Skype to coordinate the crime.

The defendants were charged with murder, destroying evidence and obstruction of justice – by melting the body.

Ze’ev and Iris were married from 1995 to 2009 and had two children. In 2007, Ze’ev left his wife and moved in with a woman named Ana Tortikovsky with whom he had a daughter in 2008. The indictment does not specify anything else regarding Ana, but it does state that in 2011, Ze’ev married Olga.

Ze’ev was obligated by court order to pay child support to Iris for the benefit of their children, and recently his overdue debt to her had reached nearly NIS 70,000. Following Ze’ev’s failure to pay, Iris filed a collection action and eventually placed a lien on Ze’ev’s salary to garnish his wages in February.

Starting on March 11, the indictment stated that Olga started doing suspicious Internet searches. First she engaged with “the chemical forum, how to melt hair.” On March 12, she did dozens of online searches about “different ways for how to melt a person’s body,” “how to hide a body,” “which chemicals are the best to melt a body in home condition” and others, said the indictment.

Later, on March 12, Ze’ev bought a series of chemicals which would later be used to melt the body at a store in Jerusalem, the indictment alleged.

According to the indictment, on April 29, Ze’ev went to meet up with Iris at her office. He and Iris then traveled to Ze’ev and Olga’s residence.
The indictment was unclear on where Olga was during the murder itself, but she was close by enough to give Ze’ev additional “operational” strategy details about which neighbors 

were nearby.

Upon entering the residence, Ze’ev stabbed Iris to death, said the indictment. Next, the indictment said that Ze’ev and Olga melted Iris’s body using a series of chemicals. The two drove and parked Iris’s car in the east Jerusalem neighborhood Beit Hanina to throw off any potential police investigation, according to the indictment.However, the next morning the police arrived at their residence to investigate that Iris was missing and arrested the two upon finding Iris’s melted remains.The state also requested to remand both defendants to police custody until the end of the proceedings. The state’s motion for remand will be heard on June 3.

Young Frum 20 year old gets a brutal beating, 1 suspect arrested, Video

One arrest has been made in the brutal Far Rockaway beating and robbery of a 20 year old Orthodox man, which took place at 9:40 PM on Sunday night, as previously reported on VIN News. In an interview with VIN News, Officer Markowski of the NYPD’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information confirmed a fifteen year old male was arrested at 10:15 this morning by police officer Michael Legutko and was charged with two counts of robbery in the second degree. Police are not releasing the name of the alleged attacker. Rockaway Citzens Safety Patrol coordinator Jason Shtundel praised the NYPD’s Anti Crime Unit and Deputy Inspector Kevin Mahoney for their fast response to the incident and said that further breaks in the case are expected shortly. “They have a pretty good idea of who to pick up next and we expect further arrests to be made soon,” Shtundel told VIN News. Advertisement: Shtundel credited the video footage taken from the a neighbor’s surveillance camera with being a key factor in the rapid apprehension of a suspect and stressed the benefits of installing video security systems as an important safety measure. “Not only do they help the police make arrests in cases like these, but they also act as a deterrent to prevent crimes,” said Shtundel.

$25,000.00 Reward in 1986 Chaim Weiss Murder, Scroll down for Video

The unsolved killing of a 15-year-old rabbinical student found bludgeoned to death in his dormitory at a suburban New York yeshiva in 1986 is receiving renewed attention from homicide detectives.

“There’s somebody out there that knows a secret,” said Lt. John Azzata, commander of the Nassau County Police homicide squad. “I’m looking for that person to give me that secret.”
Flanked by the victim’s father, county officials announced Tuesday they were increasing the reward for information leading to the arrest of Chaim Weiss’ killer from $5,000 to $25,000.
The announcement came at a press conference intended to spark renewed interest in the case, Azzata said, adding that police have already begun to receive telephone tips.
Interest in the case has faded in the more than quarter century since. NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” featured it in the early 1990s and articles about the killing have appeared in various publications, but police have yet to unravel the mystery.
Police were quick to note that the reopening of the case was not due to any new evidence that had recently come to light.

Weiss was described at the time as a bright student. He was found bludgeoned to death in his room at a religious school in Long Beach, a Long Island community east of New York City, after he failed to show up for morning prayers.
The Nov. 1, 1986, slaying shocked the Orthodox Jewish community and from the beginning, police have acknowledged having no suspects.
There were no signs that anyone broke into the room.
It was later revealed that the victim’s body had been moved to the floor from his bed, where he is believed to have been slain with a sharp, blunt object. Also, a window in the dormitory room was left open despite late autumn temperatures that hovered in the low 40s. Some have suggested the moving of the body and the opening of the window were somehow related to the young man’s religious faith.
On Tuesday, chief of detectives Rick Capece specifically addressed the Jewish community, saying that detectives were aware that witnesses may be reticent to suggest those who may have been involved in the killing without having “positive proof” of their involvement.
“We are sensitive to and respect that belief,” Capece said. “However a homicide has occurred and we need any information that can help us solve this case and bring justice and peace to the Weiss family.”
Nassau County Police are requesting that anyone who was at the yeshiva at the time of the murder to contact them at 516 573 7788.
In addition to Crime Stoppers flyers detailing known information about the case and asking anyone with any information to call Crime Stoppers or the Nassau County Homicide Squad, the police department also gave out contact information for Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of the Rabbinical Council of America.
“Given our public position concerning coming forward to authorities, particularly in abuse cases, they called and had asked me to make a public statement urging anyone with any information to come forward.  Obviously anyone with any information is obligated to speak to the authorities and tell them what they know.”
Rabbi Goldin had originally been scheduled to speak at the press conference but was unable to attend due to a communication error regarding the timing of today’s press conference.
Anton Weiss, the boy’s father, spoke briefly at Tuesday’s news conference but declined to answer any reporter questions, citing a desire to protect his family’s privacy.
He noted his son’s classmates would be in their early 40s by now.
“His classmates by now are married, are parents on their own and understand what it means to be a parent,” Weiss said. “I am appealing to you and urging you in the strongest way, if you have any information that you feel the police might need in this murder investigation, I ask you, I urge you, to please contact the police department.”

In addition to Crime Stoppers flyers detailing known information about the case and asking anyone with any information to call Crime Stoppers or the Nassau County Homicide Squad, the police department also gave out contact information for Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Did Rabbi Belsky have "ne'geeois" when he paskened that Doheney Meat in LA was Kosher?

uh oh! 
Read this opinion from frumfollies:

Owning a well-run, established business in a growing market is nice. But a monopoly in the same market – now that is splendid. Los Angeles may be heading to a kosher meat distribution monopoly.  Until shortly before Passover 2013, LA was divided into two kosher meat silos. Most of the kosher supervision (hashgachah) in town was provided by the Rabbinical Council of California (RRC). Every restaurant, caterer and retail shop under the RRC had to buy their meat from the RRC certified distributer, Doheney Kosher Meats. The smaller Kehilla Kosher certification (under Rabbi Avrohom Teichman)  required their establishments to buy meat from Western Kosher.  In effect, there was a meat distribution monopoly within each hashgachah.

Then a tsunami overturned this tidy arrangement. According to the LA Times,

The controversy started Sunday when a video taken by a private investigator surfaced, purporting to show Doheny workers bringing in boxes of meat late at night without the required supervision of the independent inspector, known as amashgiach, tasked with overseeing the store. The video later aired on KTLA-TV Channel 5. After viewing the videotape, the Rabbinical Council of California pulled Doheny’s kosher certification. A group of rabbis also met with Michael Engelman, Doheny’s owner. According to the council, Engelman initially denied any wrongdoing but later “admitted to bringing unauthorized products to the store on two to three occasions.”

This scandal could have turned into a disaster. It broke just before Passover. Imagine every caterer, restaurant, and kosher home that depended on RCC meat products being forced to toss their meat, kosher or replace their utensils, and start all over buying and cooking their food. Also consider the financial damages to consumers or businesses and their lawsuits against Doheney and the RCC.

The RCC evaded this disaster by issuing an announcement:

On Sunday March 24th, the RCC’s … leading members of the Vaad Hakashrus met and, assessing the evidence of policy violations as compelling, ordered the immediate removal of our certification……

In implementing that decision … the RCC consulted with Rav Yisroel Belsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Torah V’Daas and Posek for the OU Kashrut Division, and a nationally recognized kashrus authority. At 8pm, Rabbi Belsky issued his ruling, based on the application of normative Halachic principles, permitting the use of products purchased from the store prior to the suspension of the certification.

But the RCC’s problems were not over. Kehilla Kosher, the RCC’s main competitor did not embrace Belsky’s heter (lenient ruling). According to Yeshiva World News, on April 8 they announced,

As to the recent development involving Doheny Meats, Kehilla has not made any official statement nor has Kehilla authorized the publication of any position regarding whether or not there is a halachic need to kosher utensils in private homes, at business establishments or at catering establishments. (Moshe Zyskind, Chairman of the Board; Avrohom Teichman, Rav Hamachshir).

However, Kehilla, while it could cause some damage to the RCC, was not their biggest problem. The RCC needed to keep the meat distribution flowing, and given their policies and business interests they wanted it to be a distributor under their auspices. Returning the hashagachah to Engelman was not going to wash, not after those videos ran on local TV news.

Within a week, Doheney had a new owner, Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz. Initial reports portrayed him as a white knight eager to rescue a vital community resource. According to the LA Jewish Journal,

Rechnitz, a prominent local businessman and philanthropist, has purchased Doheny…… on Sunday, March 31, just one week after … the RCC, revoked the store’s certification…… (as) “A favor to the community……

RCC President Rabbi Meyer H. May… (said)  “He’s going to preserve the richness of the meat supply and preserve the price structure for consumers.”

Rechnitz was one of a handful of non-rabbis who attended a hastily organized meeting on Sunday, March 24, when Engelman spoke to the RCC’s leadership and rabbis ……

Over the course of a week of negotiations, Rechnitz spent between eight and ten hours with Engelman; he said he does not believe Engelman brought the unsupervised products into Doheny to respond to specific customers’ requests, as some have suggested.

Rechnitz said Engelman himself couldn’t fully explain why he brought the unsupervised meat into the store,…… Money may not have been the motivating factor, Rechnitz said, “Because it wasn’t that much of a difference, based on the quantity.” ……

Over the course of the week of negotiations he became a bit more optimistic about the business prospects for the company. “I didn’t have time to send in a forensic accounting team,” he said, but Engelman told him that Doheny’s gross sales on the retail and distribution sides added up to approximately $8 million a year.

That said, Rechnitz said he hopes to remain a mostly silent investor in Doheny, and won’t aim to build its market share at the expense of other distributors……

In his philanthropic work, Rechnitz has also come to the aid of embattled organizations. Last year, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Rechnitz donated $1 million to an organization that supports Jewish day schools in the New York area. In 2011, Rechnitz donated $5 million to the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which was struggling under millions in debt following the death of its chief rabbi and fundraiser. That same year, Rechnitz also helped save Chabad of California’s headquarters from foreclosure. But Rechnitz is also known for charitable giving of a very different sort. Every Saturday night, Jews line up outside his family’s home. Until six months ago, those who came walked away with checks; now they leave with gift cards to one of two kosher markets in the area near Fairfax and La Brea.

My first reaction was, wow, what a great guy! He made the culprit take a loss and he is going to sell it for the price he bought it. But then I remembered that Rechnitz was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, the man who ruled all meat bought before the closure could be presumed kosher. I knew Belsky based his ruling on the halachicprincipal of rov (majority) where we presume a particular item kosher under uncertain circumstances when we know that the majority of such items are kosher.

I am suspicious of Belsky. I know he is a lamdan (rabbinic scholar). But when it came to sex abuse he defended the innocence of the Kolkos because they insisted they were innocent. He maintained that position while refusing to talk to the accusers. That got me wondering how good a job he did in examining the facts in this case.

Did Belsky have any way of absolutely knowing how much non-approved meat was smuggled into the plant? Rechnitz says “that he believes Engelman with “99 percent” confidence” How the hell can Rechnitz or anyone besides Engelman know that with certainty? What sort of smart businessman trusts a known fraudster’s version when the guy has an incentive to minimize his culpability?

I would have been more impressed if the RCC reported that they did an intensive audit of Doheneys purchases and sales, and randomly verified his records by confirming them with outside buyers and sellers. Of course, they wouldn’t have been caught with their pants down if they had been doing that all along.

I also remembered that during the Rubashkin trial in 2009, prosecutors exhibited fabricated invoices to Doheney for more than a million dollars of meat when the actual debt was in the range of $300,000-$400,000. The prosecutors claimed that Rubashkin and Engelman colluded to inflate Rubashkin’s receivables to justify a larger credit line and to reduce Doheney’s tax liability. Naturally they both denied those allegations. With the benefit of hindsight I wonder if this was also a way for Doheney to fool the RCC about the size of his purchases from Rubashkin. I would hope that the RCC and Belsky seriously investigated that possibility. If he repeated that same maneuver several times a year with several suppliers, the majority of his sales of eight million dollars a year could easily have been based on meat not accounted for with purchases from kosher sources. Such numbers would have overturned any justification for a ruling based on rov.

The RCC had a conflict of interest when they investigated the fraud. They knew it was going to be exposed with video on local TV News (Link). So they had to fess up but they had motives for minimizing its scope to lessen the damage to their reputation and income.

How else can one explain the RCC claim that while the meat that was smuggled in was not glatt, it was kosher, even though they never had any proof? Incredibly, Rabbi May even admitted to a reporter, “We didn’t ask him for evidence”

So, now we have Belsky determining rov based on inadequate numbers and evidence from a sloppy investigation conducted by self-interested rabbis.

But wait, it gets worse. Rechnitz, the supposedly disinterested white-knight buyer of Doheney is not sticking to his plan of finding a buyer to restore the operation under RCC supervision. According to Jonah Lowenfeld of the Jewish Journal,

Shlomo Rechnitz … bought the shop [Doheney meats] and its distribution arm on March 31 and then transferred the agreement to David Kagan, owner of Western Kosher, the competing kosher retailer, on April 8.

Wow! LA is now a town with just one kosher meat distributor. Naturally the fight is on about which kosher agency will control it. According to the same article in the Jewish Journal,

Reached by phone on May 21, Kagan declined to comment. On Tuesday, Rechnitz declined to comment about the negotiations on the record, other than to say that they are ongoing. On that same day, [RCC President Rabbi Meyer] May said he isn’t sure exactly who currently owns the shop, but he appeared to be expecting Rechnitz to make good on his promise that the reopened Doheny would remain under the RCC’s certification. “We won’t accept that Doheny will open up under Kehilla,” May said. Whether the RCC would, in fact, be able to stop that from happening is unclear.

So now we have Rechnitz backing out of promises he made when he first got involved in the investigation and purchase. You don’t have to be a genius to realize a lot of money can be made buying a business at distressed prices and converting it into the final piece of a monopoly. Anyone who has ever traded the Monopoly Boardwalk card understands this. Rechnitz of course will claim he sold it for the price he bought it. But none of us know what that price was; the deal with Engelmanincluded a non-disclosure agreement about the price.

I am sure Rechnitz appreciated the potential for profit in the deal. According to the LA Jewish Journal,

Rechnitz described the final selling price as “sizable,” but not as big as it might have been prior to the scandal……“It definitely came at a major discount due to the fact of what [Engelman] did, or what he tried to get away with,” Rechnitz said. “He definitely was not rewarded for his actions.”

Rechnitz has experience working with organizations at times of crisis. In his role as CEO of one of his companies, Brius Management Co., which manages multiple nursing homes across California, Rechnitz told a reporter in 2011 that his company looked mostly for “distressed facilities.”

Belsky shouldn’t have agreed to be a posek in this case. He had a conflict of interest. He knew, or should have anticipated that his son-in-law might make big bucks from his ruling. Belsky should also have offered some evidence of due diligence in his determinations other than the self-serving summaries of a superficial investigation conducted by culpable parties at the RCC and his son-in-law, Rechnitz.

Unfortunately, Belsky has a pattern of ruling in favor of his krovim (close ones) on the basis of their reports without listening to the opposing side. Belsky slandered the family of the victim of Yosef Kolko without even talking to them. He did the same for his buddy Yehuda (Joel) Kolko. Both ended up being convicted of the very abuse that Belsky denied. I have argued elsewhere that Belsky should be removed as Senior Posek of OU Kosher because of his misconduct.

Belsky’s defenders at the Orthodox Union (OU) insist that his bizarre antics about sex abuse are not pertinent to his qualifications as a posek for kosher. Maybe, now they can see that Belsky’s misconduct extends to kashrus as well.

Belsky’s dwindling band of defenders say he enhances the standing of the OU in the heimish world. Actually, his psak in LA is not working. Three establishments are already known to have dropped their RCC hashgachah and more are expected to make the shift in the coming weeks. It is time for the Orthodox Union to realize that Belsky isn’t just a bad posek; he is also a bad business decision.

Some people are writing the OU to demand that he publicly repudiate his position about the innocence of the Kolkos and his slander of the victims. I think these letter writers are aiming too low. The OU’s members and consumers deserve an honorableposek.

Let me offer a marketing argument to the mercenaries at the OU who insist they need Belsky for the heimish market. The OU cannot win by out-frumming its competitors. But it can demonstrate superior erlichkeit and integrity. They cannot win by using a beard like Belsky. They can win by showing they are worthy carriers of the legacy of the Rav, Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of course he had and has his detractors in theheimish world. But very few in that world disputed his towering lomdus and integrity. It is time for the OU to draw on, and play to, the strengths of Modern Orthodoxy instead of cowering and trying to disavow their congregations and rabbis. Belsky is not the way to do it. Even if they insist on having a high profile heimish posek there are many worthy alternatives.