First Amendment Activist is in Danger. Lakewood is a War Zone. Litvaks Attack Hassidim? A Load of Nonsense…

When Harming Another Becomes An Indoctrinated Acceptable Practice, Religious Belief Has Little Value

Published 5.13.21 10:33 am, edited 5.16.21 6:07pm

Dear Readers:

Before we begin, we had contemplated whiting out the faces of the children in the photos below. But they are published and we decided we would follow the lead of the publication. The children and parents, it would seem, take such pride in their behavior.

The story is not about the “Litvaks versus the Hasidim. That is a load of “Chara” put out as poor excuse to enshroud deeply violent behavior. The violence is against one family, that of First Amendment Activist. It is intended to shut him up. And, in our view, there is little difference between indoctrinating your children to violently terrorize a family or strapping a bomb to their waists and telling them to explode it where it can cause the most damage – all for a cause – religion.

We have relied on facts presented by First Amendment Activist, a fellow blogger and journalist looking out for the well-being of his friends, family and Jewish brethren in Lakewood, Toms River and Ocean County, New Jersey. A fact-check of FAA’s material is nothing if not accurate. Scary thing for a community that wants to keep its dirty laundry out of plain sight.

EVERYONE, bar none, should be thankful for his advocacy in New Jersey. What the protesters are doing is not a “great goal” as stated by a Rebbitzin in the article below. These children, encouraged by their parents, are treacherous savages trying to silence a blogger and activist.

First Amendment Activist is a deeply religious person, with a steady ethical and moral set of views and standards grounded in a belief in G-d, family and country. He should be declared a hero in his community. Instead, he is now being treated as a Pariah. Sadly, the hierarchy of police, government, the mayor, the governing bodies are doing nothing to assist him as he gets his house “egged” on a daily basis, as he gets ostracized and as his family gets threatened with violence. All in the name of G-d? No. All in the name of covering up crimes committed in the name of G-d. That is nothing if not G-dless.

The responsible parties of these children who find pleasure in violence, are parents who have taught their children that this behavior is okay, acceptable, if not encouraged. Religious, allegedly devout parents are teaching their children that violence is to be rewarded. The JNews which published this story has it all wrong. The “Litvaks versus the Hassidim” story is not the reason for these young thugs to behave as they are behaving.

Yes. The Litvaks and the Hassidim in Ocean County, generally and Lakewood, particularly, are not allied. They are engaged in their own version of a holy war. But the reality of the story has little to do with that battle. The story should have been focused on the utter savagery being imparted upon one family. It is covered under a shroud of this holy war. And that is a lie.

To the parents of the children pictured in the below, public clips, you should be ashamed of yourselves, teaching your children that “egging” houses, that calling someone a “moser” is okay. The children are dressed as G-d faring disciples. Sadly, the children suffer the sins of the parents and they are nothing, if not thugs and hoodlums bullying and endorsing violence.

Vaccinating the Gay Away, ummm.. Huh? Part II, Notes on the Video and More Dangerous Conspiracy Theories

Published with the Permission of the Author

WRITTEN BY WARREN BURSTEIN AND FOUND ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE

This is going to be long. It’s a review of the video behind this article https://www.israelhayom.com/…/popular-rabbi-warns-follower…/ (Popular rabbi warns followers COVID vaccine ‘could make you gay’). I’m not going to link to the video, but if you want to watch it for yourself, search on YouTube for הרב דניאל עשור and find the video he posted on Jan 10. It’s all in Hebrew, so if your Hebrew isn’t good or nonexistent, read on.

If you only want to hear about the claim that the vaccine makes people gay, skip to the paragraph that starts with “15:50”

The video is 42 minutes long, throughout all you see is a still of the speaker and the title of the video, over a background of a blackboard full of equations and diagrams that keeps zooming in and repeating. Most of it is hidden by the still images, but I was able to see the equation for zero point energy, and velocity of an object in a gravitational field as a function of distance fallen. This is the only video on his channel with this (at least in the thumbnail), so it may have been chosen to give the impression that this video contains some science, but those two equations have nothing to do with the COVID-19 vaccine.

00:55 There’s no plague, there might be a disease

01:00 The number of people vaccinated in Israel is “Aravushi” propaganda, like during wartime. The word in quotes is a Hebrew derogatory word for Arabs. It’s a a diminutive, and usually is positive (for example, you might call a child, lover, or close friend “Danielush”) but this is an exception. See here (in Hebrew) https://he.wikipedia.org/…/%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%99_%…

02:10 Jews are being used as test subjects (this is somewhat true, Israel is collecting data for Pfizer, but Israel isn’t the only country currently administering the vaccine. I don’t think Great Britain is experimenting on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, now if they gave it to Charles, but I digress) and this is reminiscent of medical experimentation during the Holocaust. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law)

02:25 He explains how the vaccine works, mRNA doesn’t change DNA so there’s no cause for concern, it makes proteins in ribosomes which stimulates the immune system, and he at least gives a good explanation of what he disagrees with, conspiracy theorists very often do not do that.

05:00 A Professor Alon Sadeh claims that if it didn’t change DNA, immunity wouldn’t last. This is wrong, because the immune system doesn’t require continuous production of the spike protein, it has memory. I found Sadeh’s article about the vaccine (https://drive.google.com/…/15flcRcrqY3l1m2ettOXoOuJgvG…/view), and after the amount of time it took to watch the video I don’t feel like reading six pages in Hebrew so I’m only responding to Asor’s summary of what Sadeh said. However he doesn’t seem to be a professor, he’s been a researcher at universities in the past, but he only has a Masters degree and currently teaches at an elementary school in Rechovot (https://shuvu-rehovot.tik-tak.net/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95…/)

06:50 The vaccine is intended to change DNA. Mentions Yuval Harari who has written about changing human DNA, but has not, as far as I can tell, said that the vaccine is an instance of that.

08:46 Goes back to Alon Sadeh and (unnamed) others who think the vaccine is designed to alter DNA

09:23 Raises the possibility that the immune system would attack cells that are making spike proteins. I haven’t found an article dealing with this, but the vaccine went into Stage 1 tests in August and mRNA vaccines have been in veterinary use for longer.

14:00 There is a protein in the human placenta similar to the spike protein so this could prevent pregnancies and repeats the misinterpretation of Bill Gates’ claim that vaccination would reduce overpopulation (but it’s not by killing people, it’s by parents not having large families so at least some children survive). There have been woman who got pregnant after receiving the vaccine in Phase 3 trials, the only pregnancy loss was in the placebo group (https://hartfordhealthcare.org/abou…/news-press/news-detail…)

15:50 The vaccine contains fetal tissues, and this is known to cause “inverted tendencies” (religious Hebrew for homosexuality) but he gives no evidence.. In fact, while Pfizer and Moderna tested the vaccines on fetal cell lines, there are no fetal cells in the vaccine (https://www.nebraskamed.com/…/you-asked-we-answered-do-the-…)

16:37 Either Bill Gates or someone from Pfizer who resembles him somewhat gave a speech, which is on the net, but he doesn’t say where, about how religious fundamentalist extremists have an unnamed hormone in their brain, and speculates that if a vaccine could be made to neutralize it, religious fundamentalist extremism could be eliminated. He confuses religious fundamentalist extremism with all religion, but that may not be an accident … In any case, there’s no evidence that this vaccine would have that effect.

18:20 While the vaccine does not contain chips, it does contain an unnamed nanotechnology ingredient. In fact, it’s a nanoparticle lipid which helps the mRNA get to where it needs to (https://www.reuters.com/…/fact-check-lipid-nanoparticles-in…)

The rest of the video is religious arguments and repetitions of earlier claims that I’ll skip, the only point I want to highlight is that at 36:25 he refers to the belief, common among religious Jewish conspiracy-messianic-theorists, that before the coming of the Messiah, the “erev rav” will rule the land of Israel. The phrase is found in Exodus 12:38 and is understood to refer to non-Hebrew people who joined in the Exodus from Egypt, and classical rabbinic sources blame them for problems such as the sin of Golden Calf. In mystical sources they are said to be reincarnated and cause problems of Jews in later generations. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erev_Rav), and in contemporary discussions is used rather the same way as the phrase “Jews in Name Only”. It sometimes turns up in discussions around Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination, but in this video the implication is that the current Prime Minister is no better.

Apples and Trees, Kings County, Q-Anon FBI Arrests, DC Coup, Radical Fundamentalism…

Orthodox Jews waving Trump flags in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, October 7, 2020.Credit: YUKI IWAMURA/ REUTERS

How Far Will We Go In Our Support of…

Dear Readers:

This is being written in direct response to calls to publish more about the arrests in Washington, DC, particularly as they relate to the Jewish community and the arrest of a resident of Kings County. For a host of reasons I decided to stay away from the topic; but its absence on these pages has raised as many questions as it has avoided. I will begin by stating that I have shied away from this topic because, on the one hand, if there is one thing I have come to adopt in the last few years it is a firm belief that the system of electing judges and politicians in Kings County, NY is entirely corrupt. The law firms who are on the committees to elect judges, who control the slate, and who are in positions within the power structure in Kings County are in direct conflict of interest with the public’s right to judicial integrity. As such, both the attorneys and their hand-picked elected judges and politicians are ripe for manipulation and all is lost for a fair playing field for anyone on the other side of the kingmakers. I posit that only a judge who is independent can possibly be impartial. And it is my belief that absolute power corrupts absolutely. On the other hand, and taking a consistent view on fairness, reporting the subject of those arrested should also be fair. And, I do not believe it has been.

If I am honest, my feelings about Kings County politics, both judicial and governmental have tempered my approach to anything related to that subject. However, my position as a parent, an idealist and someone who believes that we should be more charitable and kind and that sites like mine should have integrity provides guidance on how I will treat the arrest of a Kings County native, something that will be clear as you continue reading.

Before you read further, be warned. I was not a fan of Trumpism. But, that was more about his brash, childish, vindictive, narcissistic and self-serving traits as a human being. Old-school Republicanism is something I go back and forth on. The office of President in all of its old school formalities are requirements to which I ascribe whomever holds that position. We spent years building up our government; and the office of President should be dignified regardless of the affiliation of the politician who sits there. Even Nixon respected the office and wanted to leave with dignity. Trump, not so much. And Trumpism, the embodiment of the man and his politics, is a frightening window into extremism American style. The following editorial will reflect this view. If you are a forever Trumper, my comments after the first few paragraphs will not be for you. Let’s agree to disagree.

I will start with this: HOW THE DC ARRESTS ARE BEING REPORTED AND SIGNIFICANT BIASES

The arrests of the people in Washington, DC for the role they played in the coup d’etat has highlighted famous figures, likely because it seems so shocking. I premise later some thoughts on that. For now, all of the arrests should be about the individuals, not their families. Some of those arrested are police officers, some governmental figures, GOP lawmakers, some military figures, some violent, some less so, and some Olympic athletes. They were each, in my view, a victim of ideological, neo-Fascist indoctrination with few exceptions. They were following what I firmly believe to have been a false narrative: “Stop the Steal.” That narrative has been a recurring theme through Trump’s entire Presidency, one that attributes his failures to things “stolen from him.” Each person that attended that rally but crossed the line of violence and organized coup is individually accountable for his or her actions. But collectively their leaders, whether governmental, social or religious are no less culpable.

The media coverage of each arrest has focused on the name of the person, not who that person’s parents are, with extremely rare exception. In New York the high profile arrest of a 34-year-old son of a Kings County Practicing Orthodox Jewish judge is one such exception and an unfair stain on the father for the actions of the son. The subject’s father is a registered Democrat and his brother is the executive director of Chovevei Zion, a politically conservative Orthodox advocacy organization as well as a Brooklyn district leader and vice president of the South Brooklyn Conservative club. Clearly there is a difference of opinion on politics within that family. Sitting at the Passover Seder must be an interesting, if not potentially volatile experience. Both of the sons are adults. They both can think for themselves. What happens next is up to the family; but unless the arrested man’s father convinced him to take an active stand in DC, a potentially violent stand, his father should be given his privacy and not made the focus of news articles or media attention.

Vaccinate the Gay Away…. Huh? Rabbi Daniel Asor and His Dangerous Assertions…

If Vaccinations Cause Homosexuality, Can they Then Cure It?

There are no words to describe the the following article which almost feels like it should be satirical, if it were not such a serious and perilous approach to both vaccinations and homosexuality. Rabbi David Asor, who has tens of thousands of followers has told his followers that vaccinating against Covid-19 using a vaccination that has an embryonic substrate could cause homosexuality. It is important to note that leading religious leaders have supported vaccinating their communities. But Asor’s positions are dangerous.

Fervently religious observers of all faiths, sports fans, rioters and many protestors have put their followers, fans and fellow supporters at great risk. They have spread that risk to innocents, civilians with whom they come into contact following their acts of Constitutionally protected speech and assembly. Thousands and thousands have died or been sickened, some losing their livelihoods, some losing their homes, some spending months in and out of autoimmune flare-ups, not because they made a choice to be a proverbial conscientious objector. How Constitutional freedoms even have a place in a world that has been wholly upended due to Covid-19 remains a point of scholarly debate – but that’s an article for another day.

It may be that the only path to normalcy is vaccination, a point many religious leaders have acknowledged. But Azor is afraid of injecting a homosexuality gene? Huh?

Rabbi David Azor believes – and has preached his gospel – that Covid-19 was spread to cull the population, that Bill Gates is “trying to establish a new world order,” that a number of US governmental organizations are trying to create a “brutal arm” and that the vaccinations against Covid-19 can cause homosexuality. Let’s just say for a second that all of those assertions are correct. Ask yourself to define “organized and zealous” religious practice. Is it not similarly a way of controlling fellow followers, creating a religious world order? All organized religion, protest, cronyism, following is a form of control – whether it is control of religious belief and activity, methodology in protest, cronyism to political parties – it is all about control and some sort of vast organizing of the controlling body versus the controlled populous.

While many would disagree, sexual orientation and preference is not a choice. It is as much a part of a person’s being as their DNA. And it should be embraced like blue eyes, red hair, height and everything else there is about a person. We don’t need to love it or even approve of it, but acceptance and tolerance should come without question, it should be part of this “world order” to which Asor ascribes. To assume homosexuality can be “cured” by prayer, conversion therapy or some other form of demeaning and dehumanizing practice is to engage in abuse. Full stop. To assume that it can be spread or somehow injected is an absurdity.

But, let’s assume for a second that Asor is correct, that a virus based in human embryonic substrate can somehow cause homosexuality – only for the purposes of academic argument, we ask Rabbi Daniel Asor if the converse is also true.

If vaccinations can cause homosexuality then is the converse also true? Can vaccinations then cure homosexuality? Certainly it must work both ways?

Israel has vaccinated 1.8 million people in record time | Illustration: Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Popular rabbi warns followers COVID vaccine ‘could make you gay’

In addition to purporting a false link between vaccines and homosexuality, Rabbi Daniel Asor also claims that both the virus and the vaccines are the work of a “global malicious government” trying to “establish a new world order.”

Rabbi Daniel Asor’s assertion goes against decrees issued by leading rabbis in Israel and around the world, who have called on ultra-Orthodox society to take every precaution against the global pandemic, including getting vaccinated.

The Haredi community has recorded extremely high morbidity rates due to repeated flouting of social distancing directives.

Asor, who has tens of thousands of followers on social media, is no stranger to controversy. In his latest online sermons, he argued that “any vaccine made using an embryonic substrate, and we have evidence of this, causes opposite tendencies. Vaccines are taken from an embryonic substrate, and they did that here, too, so … it can cause opposite tendencies.”

In addition to purporting a false link between vaccines and homosexuality, Assur also advocates various conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, claiming, among other things, that both the virus and the vaccines are the work of a “global malicious government,” comprising the Freemasons, the Illuminati, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and others, who are “trying to establish a new world order.”

He further argues that the virus was released to “cull global population” and that the vaccines seek to further this agenda.

Asor calls the World Health Organization and pharma giants Pfizer and Moderna “criminal organizations” that have deliberately mislead ultra-Orthodox leaders into supporting vaccination drives by presenting them with false data on its components and efficiency.

Further spinning his conspiracy theory, Asor claims that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, a Department of Homeland Security that has joined forces with Israel’s National Emergency Authority to battle the pandemic, maintains a “brutal army” in Israel that will be secretly embedded with local law enforcement to further the global government’s nefarious agenda.

It should be stressed that leading rabbis in the Sephardi and Ashkenazi comminutes have deemed COVID-19 vaccines to be safe and are urging their followers to be immunized.

To continue reading, click here.

The Massive Funeral Reported Earlier Today Makes the Papers – Covid-19 and Superspreading at a Satmar Funeral

Maskless funeral goers in Williamsburg from the New York Post

NYC synagogue foiled over giant wedding succeeds in holding jam-packed funeral

A Brooklyn synagogue that was stopped by the state before it could host a massive wedding in October finally succeeded on Monday in pulling off another potential super-spreader event — a jam-packed funeral.

The Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar went coronavirus rogue for the funeral of 94-year-old former chief Satmar judge Rabbi Yisroel Chaim Menashe Friedman — with up to an estimated 5,000 people cramming the house of worship at 152 Rodney St. in Williamsburg.

Bodies were pressed in on all sides and spilled out onto the sidewalk as just a fraction of the Hasidic crowd was seen wearing masks.

Five NYPD officers were seen standing nearby outside the house of worship — where a crowd of men and boys failed to socially distance, many also maskless or with their masks down around their necks.

“Normally, we would avoid having such a crowd unless it was for something very, very important. This was one of those times,’’ said an attendee whose first name is Lipa.

“This man was a giant,’’ he said of Friedman. “He was there from the beginning, when the community was rebuilding after the war. A very, very holy man. For someone like him, you couldn’t keep people from coming even if you wanted to.”

To continue reading click here.

The Supreme Court, Covid-19 and Religious Freedoms, Tone Deafness

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – First Amendment

Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in October.
(photo credit: YUKI IWAMURA/REUTERS) Photo from the following article in The Jerusalem Post

Dear Readers,

I write this in response to an Op-Ed posted by Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel regarding the recent decision of the Supreme Court in which the Archdiosese of New York and Agudath Israel were a party. It is written with the utmost respect. The Op-Ed in Haaretz is entitled, “Why Are Jews Flinging anti-Semitic Libels at Jews Who Simply Want to Pray in Synagogue?”

I value our Constitution and the principles it purports to enshrine. Freedom of Religious Practice and Assembly being two of the great rights supposedly guaranteed under the First Amendment to that Constitution. But, I propose this: Is the freedom to not practice a religion, the freedom to be free from the religious whims of another also enshrined in the First Amendment? The Supreme Court, in rendering its decision in this case, seems to think not.

The basis of the Supreme Court decision was, indeed, draconian restrictions on religious practice by Governor Cuomo, wherein he color coded certain areas of New York and within those zones restricted gatherings of, in this instance, greater than between 10 and 25 people. That number was arbitrary. It had some basis in reasoning from public health experts; but it ignored indoor space size and in effect was not even-handed. That being said, it was not as proposed by the Plaintiffs intended to single out the Orthodox Jewish synagogues and religious churches but rather to provide a voice of reason to religious adherents who have been congregating in large and maskless numbers. Unfortunately, that brush painted with broad strokes the religious Jewish community.

Governor Cuomo’s mandates admittedly would have made far more sense, and been far more palatable and even-handed, had the restrictions been fluid with the size of any space. In other words, if the capacity of an indoor space is safely 1000, the limit of gathering within that space should have been 10% or 15%. Similarly, if the limit of capacity of a location is 100 people, 10% or 15% would have been a fair and uniform method of keeping attendance at any location to a minimum while Covid-19 is spreading. Governor Cuomo’s restrictions were not consistent and uniform and that may have been a problem, but it was not the focus of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Rather, the protected class within the context of the ruling related to the definition of “an essential business” and whether the practice of religious belief is “essential.” In response, I similarly ask if the decision to not practice religion is also “essential.” The comparison used by the litigants in the case was that of synagogues and churches to liquor stores and bicycle shops, the latter of which were not restricted in the same or similar manner under Governor Cuomo’s restrictions as the former.

I maintain that comparing liquor stores and bicycle stores to synagogues and churches is not an apples-to-apples comparison in terms of how each is “attended” by the general public and thus how each is affected by the Covid-19 contagion. The numbers in New York have quantifiably proven that the pandemic adversely affects large numbers of people enclosed indoors for extended periods of time in far greater numbers than those who go to purchase items in stores. In other words, the results of walking in to buy a bicycle or a bottle of wine is far different than the results of congregating for long periods of time in a synagogue or a church. And, it is upon that basis that the Supreme Court should have ruled.

In wine stores, bicycle stores and other stores, people enter, look around, purchase something or not and leave. The ingress and egress are not all at once but sporadically; and liquor stores and bicycle stores generally do not attract crowds of people. In churches and synagogues people are in attendance in large numbers for hours. They come and go at generally the same time and congregate and talk amongst themselves before and after services. Attendees dance and they sing and they are indoors together in a closed (and sometimes poorly ventilated space) for lengthy periods of time. This is an important distinction that should have been made by the majority of the Supreme Court; and the one Justice Sotomayor made in her scathing dissenting opinion.

What was ignored both in the litigants’ papers and in the ruling itself is that mask and social distance restrictions are, have been and continue to be ignored by much of the religious community, at least the religious Jewish community. The photo above says it all “We will not comply”. That is the attitude that has been taken since the Covid-19 pandemic began and one that puts everyone at risk.

Thousands Attend Massive Funeral in Israel Little Regard for Public Safety in Covid-19, Government Gutless

Thousands attend Jerusalem funeral of top rabbi who died from COVID-19

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men attend the funeral of late Rabbi Aharon David Hadash, spiritual leader of the Mir Yeshiva, in Jerusalem, on December 3, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Thousands of people took part in a Jerusalem funeral procession Thursday for a senior ultra-Orthodox rabbi who died after being infected with the coronavirus, with many disregarding Health Ministry social distancing rules.

Rabbi Aharon David Hadash, who died overnight Wednesday at the age of 93, was the spiritual leader of the world-famous Mir Yeshiva, one of the largest and most famous Talmudic colleges. He reportedly was diagnosed with COVID-19 two months ago and, although initially thought to be making a recovery, his condition recently deteriorated.

Funerals are currently limited to 20 people under government-mandated restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Yeshiva representatives were said to have reached an understanding with the Israel Police to enable a larger number of people to attend the funeral– with participants separated into groups of limited numbers that would maintain social distancing among themselves.

בניגוד להנחיות: קהל רב מתכנס כעת סמוך לישיבת מיר בירושלים, שם נשמעים הספדים לרב אהרן חדש. כוחות משטרה נמצאים במקום והם נערכים למסע הלוויה שייצא מהישיבה להר המנוחות בגבעת שאול@SuleimanMas1 pic.twitter.com/whVxLdKJZk

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 3, 2020

הלוויית הרב אהרן חדש: תיעוד נוסף מההתקהלות בישיבת מיר@SuleimanMas1 pic.twitter.com/WsIjEuRrWz

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 3, 2020

Minor scuffles broke out as police tried to block mourners taking part in the funeral procession from advancing beyond the Kikar Hashabat intersection, according to video aired by the Kan public broadcaster.

Continue reading at The Times of Israel by clicking here.