R’ Pinchos Stolper Founder of NCSY Passes on at 90

 

We regret to inform you of the petira of Rabbi Pinchas Stolper zt’l at the age of 90.

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, internationally renowned pioneer in Jewish youth work, was widely respected as a lecturer, teacher, educator, author and thinker. Rabbi Stolper was the founder of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) which he served for 25 years as National Director – from its infancy through its seminal role in the international Teshuva movement.

During more than forty years of working with Jewish youth, he met and counseled thousands of young people. One of the world’s largest and most respected youth movements today, NCSY serves over 40,000 young people in the United States, Canada and Israel with fresh, innovative and creative educational programs.

Rabbi Stolper subsequently served as the Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union for close to 20 years.

A loyal and dedicated disciple of HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Hutner, he was a musmach of the Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin / Gur Aryeh Kollel, and held degrees from Brooklyn College and the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research.

A prolific writer and editor, he was responsible for over 20 volumes and hundreds of articles on Jewish life and thought earning him a broad following as a major Jewish thinker, innovator and leader.

Rabbi Stolper made it his life mission to disseminate the teachings of his Rebbi, Rav Yitzchak Hutner zt’l by writing sefarim that translated and elucidated Rav Hunter’s magnum opus, Pachad Yitzchak.

Rabbi Stolper was also credited with discovering the talent of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Rabbi Stolper subsequently hired him to write books for NCSY, thus catapulting Rabbi Kaplan’s career in Kiruv literature.

Rabbi Stolper lived in Chicago for the last several years. He is survived by his wife, Rebbetzin Elaine Stolper and his two children, Rabbi Akiva Stolper of Flatbush, former Rav of Congregation Ohr Chaim in Miami Beach and Rebbetzin Michal Cohen (wife of Rabbi Zev Cohen) of Chicago. He was predeceased by his daughter, Mrs. Malkie Kaweblum. He also leaves behind thousands of talmidim, who are talmidei chachomim, respected community leaders and distinguished baalei batim.

The levaya will be held on Thursday, May 26th at 9:00AM at Shomrei Hadas, 3803 14th Avenue. The kevura will be in Eretz Yisroel on Har Hamenuchos on Friday, May 27th. Shiva information to follow. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

DIN's Take on the Murder of 19 Children and 2 Adults in Texas

 

DIN readers are usually up to date with the news and know that 19 children and two adults were killed on Tuesday and dozens more injured in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The shooter was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, who was subsequently killed. The gunman also shot and killed his grandmother before embarking on the shooting spree at the school. The students who were shot dead were between second and fourth grades, and between the ages of 7 and 10.

Of course the DemonRats are blaming the guns and so are many frum Jews. I am not privy of all the gun regulations now in effect and so I don't have an opinion on this until I do some research. But I do know that a gun stopped him and if there were some more adults on campus with guns this would have never happened. 

But I believe I have my finger on the problem and I have not seen anyone talk about it. 

I am on Social Media and Social Media no matter the platform, have ads. 

Facebook has a ribbon on the bottom of the page which lets you choose various functions from a menu. There is a "home" button where you can see all the posts from those who you made "friends" with. 

Then there is a "Gaming" button that lets you play games. 

The "games" are practically all violent. In some of the games you can walk down a busy street with random people walking around and you can just walk over to anyone and punch him in the face without any warnings. These fictional characters look very realistic.

In the ad promoting this particular game, you can see the guy playing the game, which shows a guy or gal controlling the character on the screen, which goes over to a young mother pushing a carriage with a child in it, grab the child toss it into traffic and then punching the young mother to death. The creator of the game not satiated with the violence this character just perpetrated on his victim, finds an elderly guy walking with a cane and proceeds to grab the cane and repeatedly beat the old man with his cane around his head and torso until he collapses.

Now what I just described is just the ad which is supposed to entice you to enter this game, it's not the game. Who knows what violence is in the game itself?

In another ad a young man walks around with a submachine gun and kills all police he sees.

I have just described the "mild" games. This is all on Facebook . Tik Tak is far worse because they have actual people committing violent crimes on random people and then displaying this for the entire world to see.

את חטאי אני מזכיר היום When I was a child growing up, I remember watching movies in which the character got killed. But until he got killed, you got to know him, you saw that he was a family man had one or two children, and may have had parents, and when he was killed, I felt really bad for him and the family that he left behind. 

Today's movies, open up with a scene where a guy murders 10 -20 random people in the first 2 minutes of the film. Children watching this violent movie have no connections or feelings to the people murdered and therefore have absolutely no empathy for the victims.

Most of the videos and movies catering to children and teenagers are loaded with violent content and I'm including cartoons. Remember most children today, don't play outside (except in Israel) they go to an empty home and immediately go to their gaming videos etc and play these violent games. They can even play with others over the internet with people in another state or country; they don't even have to know these competitors. Some of this children are experts in these games and know how to navigate the screen perpetrating the most violence that he can muster without getting his own character hurt . The winner is the one who did the most damage. 

Since they are playing with competitors that they don't even know, they have little or no social interaction with their "live" peers. No one even knows them even in their own school environment. They are for the most part loners. They are also very dangerous. 

I really believe that this is where "the dog is buried." 

A teenager watching or playing a game where he can just walk over to random people  and either torture or kill them in a setting that looks so real and believable, will lose all sensitivity and empathy for the people around him.

He will kill his own grandmother or murder his entire family without giving it a thought.

I believe this is the problem and until others see it this way, violence will continue unabated with or without gun control laws. 

ה' ירחם

I thought Following Yevamos was Confusing Until I saw this freak

 

What is happening pic.twitter.com/UFldAI2uy5

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 25, 2022

CNN's Blood Libel Against the Jews Takes Off in Full Swing

 

What CNN wrote is an outright lie https://t.co/ILFhVSnE83

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) May 25, 2022

One of the ‘witnesses’ relied upon by @CNN, in their hit piece on #Israel, over death of #ShireenAbuAkleh. https://t.co/T2k3lqMeoI pic.twitter.com/My096w5vXK

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 25, 2022

Chabad Ignoring G-d's Message and Proudly Proclaim “We’re Returning:” to Ukraine

 

Even Pharo's sorcerers said אצבע אלוקים הוא "It's a finger of G-d"

 Hashem got Putin to go into the Jewish blood soaked countries, to make sure that Jews would finally get out , and  yet this open message falls on the Chabad's deaf ears. 

Way in the beginning when Putin was just threatening Chabad Rabbis were encouraging the Ukrainian Jews to stay.  It was only when Putin was nibbling at their heals that they asked the world for help and tried to get the Ukrainian Jews to leave..

The Israeli Government has said that all Jews from the Ukraine can make Aliyah. Why are Jews still there?

A message to the Chabad Rabbis: Enough already! Either stay in the Shvartza Crown Heights or come to Israel and do kiruv here! The Ukrainian Jews want to stay and live with the murderers of their relatives, let them stay.  Heed the signs from Hashem and come home!

Several months after the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, a special conference took place in New York regarding the welfare of Jews in Ukraine at which a decision was made for Rabbanim and Chabad shlichim to gradually return to their communities despite the ongoing war.

The meeting was hosted by HaRav Moshe Kotlarsky, director of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and Vice-Chairman of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, and attended by businessman and philanthropist George Rohr, a major donor for kehillos and mosdos in Ukraine for the past 32 years, and prominent Ukraine Rabbanim including the Rav of Dneiper, Rav Shmuel Kamintesky, Rav of Odesasa, Rav Avraham Wolf, Rav of Kharkiv, Rav Moshe Moskowitz, Rav of western Ukraine, Rav Shlomo Wilhem of Zhytomyr, and others.

There are currently about 155 Rabbanim and Chabad shlichim serving in about 30 different communities in Ukrainian cities. Some of the communities suffered severe damage since the war began, especially the devastated city of Mariupol. Other cities still have many Jews living there, including men of enlistment age who were banned from leaving Ukraine and the elderly and handicapped.

Some of the Rabbanim, such as Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky, stayed in Ukraine throughout the war and other Rabbanim left Ukraine and led their communities from afar. The gradual return of the Rabbanim will enable them to preserve the remaining communities and redevelop community institutions.

The Kiddush Club

 

"This is why Jews need their own country"

 

Yesterday an antisemitic mob led by Ali Dawah surrounded and attacked me.

We refuse to be intimidated by such thuggery.

Am Yisrael Chai. pic.twitter.com/z05LNgB7nw

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) May 23, 2022

Dayan Peretz Rottenberg Chased by Gerer Pogromists Shouting "Sheygatz ..Tinoifas" Taken right out of Satmar Handbook

 

'שייגעץ, 'טינופת': עשרות חסידי גור רודפים אחרי הדיין הרב פרץ רוטנברג, מאנשי הגר"ש אלתר שיצא מהמקווה. pic.twitter.com/z58obqMqJy

— שימי שפר (@Shimishafer) May 21, 2022

Son of the Gerer Rebbe R' Avraham Mordchai Alter Visits Skverer Rebbe to Get Support for the Gerer Pogroms

 

הרה"צ רבי אברהם מרדכי אלתר בנו של האדמו"ר מגור הגיע לביקור מיוחד במעונו של האדמו"ר מסקווירא ושוחח עמו ממושכות בנושא חג השבועות הקרב ובא. pic.twitter.com/pUYd0tSG7u

— יעקב מלמד (@yaakov_melamed) May 24, 2022

What's behind the Ger Pogrom against R' Shaul Alter

 Clashes between rival factions of the Ger Hasidic sect spread across the country over the weekend, exposing a growing and increasingly violent rift in Israel’s largest and most powerful ultra-Orthodox dynasty.

Street fighting erupted Friday in three separate places – the southern city of Ashdod, the predominantly Haredi city of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. Tensions spiked after followers of Rabbi Shaul Alter – the former dean of the movement’s flagship yeshiva in Jerusalem – reportedly hurled insults at Grand Rebbe Yaakov Alter, the movement’s leader and Shaul Alter’s cousin, as the grand rabbi was visiting his mother-in-law’s grave in north Tel Aviv the previous evening.

The fighting, which continued through Saturday evening, comes after years of acrimony between the cousins, who both descend from previous grand rabbis and have competing power bases within the movement.

While Shaul Alter’s followers have not officially set themselves up as a new movement, they have largely been independent since 2019 when a small group of dissatisfied Ger Hasidim declared him their leader, joining him at his Simhat Torah services in defiance of their nominal rebbe. 

Rabbi Boylan's Lame Excuse Why The FJJ (Flatbush Jewish Journal) Chose Not to write about the 3 most Important Events that took place In Eretz Yisrael

I don't always read the FJJ, the Flatbush Jewish Journal, but it must have been Seyata De'Shmaya that I perused last week's issue.

I lived in Flatbush for many years and I found the shaven and "Flatbush bearded" community, a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment. 

BTW, this is the only place on earth where you can still see clean shaven guys with bekeshes,. What's up with that?

I digress.

 These guys are by-in-large children of Holocaust survivors who became very successful financially and comfortable in their million dollar homes, but learned nothing from their own history, so Israel is the furthest thing on their minds. 

Yes, they will come to Israel once in a while to visit their daughters attending seminaries that have $30,000 tuitions, but this is for shidduch reasons. Their married children they send for two or three years to Mir Yerushalyim to start them off, but the children know they will come back to the USA back to the materialistic world of the Goldene Medina. 

I have met many of them when they come for Shabbos and I can tell you first hand that the majority of them are spoiled who lack nothing, B"H. I am frightened for them if their fortunes should G-d forbid change. The kids I meet, both the guys and their wives have absolutely no connection to Israel and when they speak I can hear their anti-Israel biases that they inevitably picked up in their affluent Flatbush homes. Their parents learned in the best yeshivos in the USA that never offered them any love for the Land and in fact discouraged any connection to not only the State of Israel but offered them no understanding of the importance and the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. Except for the dying Young Israels, no shuls in Flatbush make a mi-shebeirach for the State or even for the chayalim.

It is this environment that the FJJ flourishes and it is this type of community that produces the Rabbi Boyans of the world!

The State of Israel, yes the Zionist State of Israel is the home of close to 7 million Jews, bli eyin hara. For this reason alone a Jewish Newspaper in a Jewish Community should have the decency to acknowledge a holiday that is being celebrated by millions of Israeli Jews. We are not asking for 20 page spreads, we are asking for an Honorable Mention. 

I have read many of R' Boylans letters to the editors previously, but this one piqued my interests because it reflects the deep divide between the "yeshivish" world and reality! 

To excuse the FJJ's disgusting omittance of three meaningful consecutive events that were taking place in Eretz Yisrael with the supposedly "Daas Torah" dictum hits a new low for even the FJJ. I showed Rabbi Boyan's letter to three different Holocaust survivors here in Beit Shemesh to see and read  their reactions just to make sure that I am on target. They were outraged! 

Below and after the break is Rabbi Boylan's letter to the editor and my remarks in red.

David Reichman, was the runner who died in Brooklyn Half Marathon

 The 32-year-old runner who collapsed and died after finishing the Brooklyn Half Marathon was identified Sunday as a behavioral therapist who got his master’s degree in social work from New York University.

David Reichman, of Manhattan, collapsed on the boardwalk after finishing the 13-mile race at Ocean Parkway at Brighton Beach on Saturday amid sweltering heat. He was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.

Reichman (inset) was a founder of Field Trip Health, a mental health and psychotherapy company in Kips Bay, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“I approach psychotherapy with seriousness and humor,” Reichman wrote on his profile on Psychology Today. “I’ll listen, offer direction, and challenge you to be the best version of yourself.”

A graduate of Concordia University, according to his LinkedIn, Reichman later attended the NYU Silver School of Social Work.

He worked for two years as a substance use specialist for NYC Health + Hospitals, before launching Field Trip Health in October 2020, the profile states.

The company says that it is “redefining mental health and well-being through ground-breaking work in psychedelics and psychedelic-enhanced psychotherapy,” according to the firm’s  LinkedIn page.

“For those who this may be appropriate, I offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy,” Reichman added on his Psychology Today profile.

The therapist lived in Flatbush with his girlfriend until moving to Manhattan in March, the super at his Brooklyn building, who would only identify himself as Ozzie, told The Post on Sunday.

Reichman’s death at Saturday’s 22,000-runner race has raised questions about why the event was allowed to take place on an unseasonably hot and humid day. 

Israeli Judge Rules That Jews Can Say Shema, Prayers On Har Habyit

 

First a note To All Amoratzim: 

There are different areas of Har Habais, some of which can be entered even betuma, according to Halacha. Obviously, ascending Har Habais requires perfect knowledge of what’s mutar and what’s osur, but there are many other areas in Halacha, such as hilchos Shabos and taharas hamishpocha for example, where isur koreis is at stake. The proper approach is to actually learn the sugya and become knowledgeable of the actual dinim. If you are too lazy or too stupid to learn the real halachos, at least don’t be proud of your amoratzus by saying that everything is prohibited.

To all the “masters” of political science: 

you cannot “provoke” the islamonazis any more than your very existence as a Jew already “provokes” these savages. No, controlling our holy places will not make the rabid dogs hate us more, as they already hate us at the maximum level, and they will try to attack us no matter what we do or don’t do. However, don’t forget that it is only H’ that controls the world, as opposed to the political “cheshbonos”, and it definitely brings kitrug in shamaim when fools such as you are perfectly fine with the Chilul H’ of the islamonazi savages trampling mekom kodesh hakedoshim, in an ostensibly Jewish state with an ostensibly Jewish army nonetheless! If the medina was a truly Jewish state, they would have actually accepted the gift that H’ presented to us in 1967, demolished the islamonazi structures on Har Habais, had rabanut fence off no-go areas and control the proper behavior and dress code for the visitors. Arabs themselves were preparing for the demolition in 1967, and even had each stone of their structures numbered in order to facilitate putting it up elsewhere, but the evil Judenrat elites immediately gave away Har Habais to the islamonazis, which paradoxically not only failed in making the islamonazis like us, but actually made them hate us even more.

Here is a letter from the Rambam detailing his going up to the Har Habyis

R' Shmuel Schorr son of Monsey Rav Avraham Schorr Beaten during the Gerer Pogrom

 Rav Shmuel Yosef Schorr, son of Hagaon Rav Avraham Schorr, renowned Flatbush Rabbi and son of Rav Gedalia Schorr, suffered serious injuries after he was attacked by chasidim during the clashes which broke out over the weekend. Rabbi Schorr collapsed on Motzaei Shabbos and was rushed to hospital suffering from apparent intracranial bleeding.

Rabbi Schorr is a disciple of Rabbi Shaul Alter. His name is Shmuel Yosef Ben Feiga.

Reports say that more than 70 of Rabbi Shaul’s chasidim were injured during the fights which broke out in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh. Huge piles of garbage were thrown opposite the house of Rav Shaul in Elkana Street, Jerusalem by his opponents. Rav Shaul apologized to his neighbors for “the situation which has arisen.”

In Bnei Brak, some chasidim attacked the principal of the Beis Yaakov “Yashan” girls seminar in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yisrael Levin, and Rabbi Mordechai David Abramowitz as they were returning from Shabbos prayers. Eyewitnesses said that Rabbi Levin was dragged by his peyos on the road and his spodik (chasidic hat) was thrown in the garbage.

In Ashdod’s Rova Zayin, chasidim came to the shul of Rav Shaul’s chasidim armed with batons and started wrecking the shul, causing significant damage.

Eida Ha'Chareidis Orders Editors of "Peshutoi Shel Mikra" to Reprint to accommodate Their Censorship

 

I am a big fan of this beautiful commentary of the Torah and Rashi. I find it far superior than the Artscroll Translation of  The Chumash and Rashi. Of course Peshutoi Shel Mikra is in Loshon Ha'Koidesh.

The set had an "haskama" of the Rachmestrivka Rebbe of Yerushlayim, had the haskama R' Dovid Cohen the Chevroiner Rosh Yeshiva, had the haskama of the Tolner Rebbe, the haskama R' Azriel Auerbach,and it had the haskama of the ida Ha'chardies itself.

So what happened? 

Some shmeggegie didn't like one of the commentaries, probably because it have had too much love for Eretz Yisrael and approached the Eida and asked them to rescind their haskama.

The Eida called the editor, Harav Zalman Leib Gottleib in for a meeting and told him to recall the sets. R' Zalman Leib tried to reason with them and told them that this would be an impossible task since thousands of these sets were already sold. The Eida  acquiesced and they agreed that all future editions will have the "damaging material" left out and a new more "Chareidie political correct" commentary inserted in its place. They also agreed not to reveal which commentary was the problem.

So I'm waiting with bated breath to get the new set and compare the commentaries. 

Stay tuned!

Iran Revolutionary Guard Member Is Shot Dead In Tehran

 

 A senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed outside his home in Tehran on Sunday by unidentified gunmen on a motorbike, state TV reported, giving only scant details about the attack.

The two assailants shot Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari five times in his car in the heart of the capital, state media said.

Reports identified Khodayari only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s elite Quds force that oversees operations abroad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Security forces were pursuing the suspected assailants, state TV reported, without offering further details or giving a motive for the killing.

NY commencement speaker calls for global intifada, murder of Israel-supporters

 

I hope that a pop-pop [pf gunfire] is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime,” Nerdeen Kiswani said.

By World Israel News Staff

An anti-Israel activist whose commencement speech at City University of New York sparked controversy said during her remarks that she is the victim of a Zionist conspiracy to silence her.

Nerdeen Kiswani was selected as the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony for CUNY’s School of Law, a choice that drew backlash from Jewish groups concerned about her history of anti-Israel statements and past comments calling for the murder of Zionists.

Kiswani, the founder of pro-Palestine advocacy group Within Our Lifetime, has repeatedly called for the state of Israel to be destroyed, and recently liked an Instagram post praising the Palestinian terrorists who brutally murdered three Israelis with an axe in Elad.

Rather than acknowledging her critics’ concern over her membership in a group that calls for a “globalized intifada” and that her demonization of Israel has created an environment on campus that is not safe for Jewish students, Kiswani complained that she was being silenced for political reasons.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported that during Kiswani’s speech, which was focused on the Palestinian cause rather than the students, university, or field of law, she asserted that she was “facing a campaign of Zionist harassment by well-funded organizations with ties to the Israeli government and military on the basis of my Palestinian identity and organizing.”

Kiswani also took time during her speech to slam CUNY for an organized trip to Israel, which she said was “an affront to everyone fighting for liberation” at the school.

In July 2021, Kiswani advocated for the murder of people who support Israel. “I hope that a pop-pop [pf gunfire] is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime,” she said.

“It’s one thing to have a political person who you don’t agree with,” a CUNY student told JTA. “But she calls for the actual murder of Jews. It’s really setting a precedent that CUNY is OK with having people in their school who are out to hurt us.”

Are All the Babies Born Now in the Wrong Bodies?

If this spike in trans children is all biological, why is it regional? Either Ohio is shaming them or California is creating them. pic.twitter.com/t3Tx23MOsu

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) May 21, 2022

Toimcha Shabbos?????

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @adorable.monkey

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by میمون پیمون🤭😁 (@meimoon_darmani)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @monkey.lovable

"Google Translate" Now Messing With the Holy Shabbat

 

Hillary Clinton’s sordid legacy of lies Unfolding in the Courts

 

Proving that what’s old is new again, here is how the late William Safire began his New York Times column of Jan. 8, 1996: 

“Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar. 

“Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.” 

Safire detailed a series of situations where Hillary Clinton was caught in obvious lies, and there is a straight line to the Hillary Clinton whose shadow hangs over the Michael Sussmann trial in Washington. Once again, Clinton is being exposed as “compelled to mislead” and ensnaring “her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.” 

And to think she almost got away with stealing the presidency. 

It is in keeping with her history that she is portrayed as the off-stage chief conniver at a trial that is, like her, something of a throwback. Coming six years after the 2016 presidential campaign, the Sussmann trial inevitably carries an air of anti-climax. 

After all, we have known since the Robert Mueller report in 2019 that the charge that Donald Trump colluded with Russia was fake news. And we have known for almost as long that Clinton’s campaign secretly funded the smear merchants at Fusion GPS who hired Christopher Steele who fabricated a “dossier” that was long on lies and gossip and short on facts. 

How Woke Destroyed the Career of A Brilliant Jewish Cancer Biologist

David Sabatini 

Kristin Knouse 

 A renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist who was axed after having a consensual fling with a much younger colleague, said the mushrooming scandal forced him on the unemployment line.

David Sabatini, 54, whose research involved unraveling how tumors develop, resigned from MIT last month and has been surviving on employment after fellow scientist Kristin Knouse claimed he “groomed” and “coerced” her into a sexual relationship, according to a report and court papers.

A longtime friend and dean at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine tried to offer him a job, but after an uproar, the school announced on May 3 that it would not hire him despite the fact that colleagues described him in a recent article as one of the world’s greatest scientists — a “genius” in line for the Nobel Prize.

“What wormhole did my life take, to … protests and being called a sexual predator? What quirk in the universe allowed this to happen?” said Sabatini, who has denied wrongdoing and noted Knouse did not work in his lab or report to him.

In an October lawsuit against MIT, Sabatini said that his relationship with Knouse, who is 21 years his junior, was consensual — and told a reporter he was shocked to find himself the subject of protests at NYU when the school explored the possibility of hiring him.

Sabatini has contended he and Knouse began their fling during a 2018 conference, while he was in the midst of a divorce. By 2020, he thought the affair had cooled, though he claims Knouse wanted to continue. By October 2020, she complained she’d been harassed, and in a later lawsuit alleged Sabitini oversaw a “sexualized” environment in his lab.

Since his departure from MIT, he has been despondent, he said. He stopped eating and sleeping, dropped 35 pounds in three months, “cried a lot and his hair was falling out,” according to the article on Bari Weiss’ “Common Sense” SubStack column.

It’s not just Sabatini dealing with the fallout.

After the Grossman School of Medicine announced it would not hire him, the National Institutes of Health decided to audit $500 million in grant money overseen by the dean who first considered bringing him aboard, Common Sense reported.

Dafna Bar-Sagi, a vice dean for science and chief scientific officer at the med school, called Sabatini “one of the greatest scientists of our century,” and oversaw an investigation of the allegations against him “at the risk of depriving society of the benefit of having someone like this continuing their career and making really meaningful discoveries that can affect human health for generations,” she told the outlet.

NIH said it received anonymous complaints about Bar-Sagi and recently sent NYU a letter raising concerns about her ability to provide “a safe environment for trainees,” Common Sense reported.

“If there was anything untoward about this man’s behavior, we would not have touched him with a 10-foot pole,” Ken Langone, the chair of the board for NYU Langone Medical Center, told Common Sense, calling the work to vet Sabatini “exhaustive.”

Outside lawyers consulted by NYU, who reviewed a report into the allegations done by MIT, found Sabatini was not given due process, the university told Common Sense

“If people are close minded to the idea that there can be a consensual relationship between two adults, I’m afraid we can’t make any traction,” said NYU Medical School Dean Robert Grossman.

The NIH did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Knouse did not respond to an email seeking comment.