Stonewall means fight!

For New Yorkers and most Americans of a certain age who aren't living in a cave, the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village represents the struggle of gay Americans for basic human rights other Americans have long taken for granted. It all began 40 years ago in June. Gay Americans, even in a sophisticated and cosmopolitan place like New York City, lived closeted lives of constant fear. They got together in gay bars that were connected with organized crime and were constantly raided by police, who would rough up and arrest patrons. The Stonewall was one such bar, and was routinely raided one evening in late June 1969, only this time it would not be routine. The patrons decided they had had enough. They resisted, sparking three nights of confrontations between young gay men and the police. I'm deliberately not calling them riots, because they were very mild compared to the racial rioting that was tearing American cities apart in the late '60s. One thing led to another, and here we are today.



I recently ran by the Stonewall Inn. For me it represents a piece of my city's history and a piece of Americana. You don't have to be gay to appreciate the universal struggle for human rights. It resonates with me as an American and more so as a Jew because of our history of being denied the most basic human rights in unhappy lands of persecution. When one man's rights are taken away, all men are diminished. I'm not talking about changing the definition of marriage now - though who would have dreamed 40 years ago that we as a country would be debating that today? I'm talking about the right to live anywhere one can afford, to hold a job whose duties one can perform, to be served in a place of public accommodation, and the like. I'm talking about the right not to have to live a lie - whether that means going to the company picnic with a kippa on one's head or with one's gay partner (or both - click here!). Above all, I am talking about the right to walk the streets in safety, without fear of being set upon and beaten because some thugs perceive you, rightly or wrongly, as gay, black, Jewish or whatever. Both gays and Orthodox Jews suffered from a stereotype as sissies (or, to quote R. Meir Kahane hy"d, patsies) who can be physically attacked and beaten with impunity. Many of my friends were beaten on the street growing up identifiably Jewish in the '60s, though praise God that changed in the aftermath of the Six Day War. And it did not change because of the goodness of thugs' hearts. It changed because the Israeli army and air force showed the world another image of the Jew, that of a strong Jew able and willing to stand up for himself. And that is what Stonewall did for gays. One Matthew Shepard is one too many. And the solution for gays is the same as it was for us Jews - an ability and willingness to teach hoodlums a lesson with Jewish or gay fists.

When in the course of Jewish events. . . .

When in the Course of Jewish events it becomes necessary for one group of Jews to dissolve the Torah bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the Jews of earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of us Torah-observant Jews; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to alter our former Systems of Government. The history of the present haredi establishment is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over us Jews. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid Torah world.



They have sought to annul our rights as Western men and women and citizens of democratic countries to read and study what we wish, and to enjoy music and the creative arts, rights inestimable to us and formidable to tyrants only, by banning books and concerts and harassing authors, artists and performers.

They have usurped our parental authority with respect to children in yeshivot by punishing them for dress, conduct and association, including with the opposite sex, off school premises and outside school hours. Our sons, and especially daughters, live in unremitting fear of being followed around and reported on by yeshiva spies.

They have created and nurtured a culture of parasitism, encouraging able-bodied young men to sit in yeshiva indefinitely and live off the labor of others, including elderly parents and in-laws, and forcing on such young men the shame and indignity of accepting assistance that Western enlightened governments provide for those unable to provide for themselves. They have denigrated and devalued secular studies that might give young men the means to earn a livelihood and provide for their families in manly fashion. They have told our daughters in front of their classmates that they are second rate because we, their fathers, work and provide for our families. They have discouraged in their yeshivot all forms of physical exercise that might endow our young men with manly health and vigor, opting instead for sedentary living, unhealthful diet and the resulting chronic weakness and sickness. They have forbidden our young men to fulfill their duty to defend our country against the merciless Arab savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In sum, they have endeavored to turn the order of nature upside down, extolling the weak, effeminate and parasitical over the strong, upright and manly. To us, Purim comes but once a year.

They have systematically deprived our young of any opportunity to meet in a wholesome environment, resulting in an unprecedented shiddukh crisis.

They have allowed teachers and administrators in their yeshivot to abuse our children sexually in the most heinous and abominable fashion, discouraging victims from reporting these crimes to the lawful constituted authorities and allowing the criminals to continue in employment.

They have led the charge to deprive gay citizens of their basic human rights, rights denied us Jews in the stinkholes of Eastern Europe where they remain culturally rooted. They have embarrassed us all with their gratuitous hatred and bigotry.

They have subordinated the kashrut certification process to their insatiable lust for money and power, having ordered shopkeepers to remove from their shelves products certified by none other than R. Moshe Soloveichik. The Soloveichik name speaks for itself, but those who ordered the removal, causing grievous personal anguish and financial loss to innocent shopkeepers struggling to make a living, wanted their cronies cut in on the action. They have also withheld certification from establishments whose food is kosher, in order to enforce an ambience that meets with their approval but that would make it impossible for such establishments to operate profitably. These and other sordid episodes have fed the public's cynicism with regard to kosher supervision.

They have allowed women seeking gittin to be held up for ransom and blackmail by their husbands, and have accorded those husbands all the honors and privileges due members in good standing of our communities, despite seruvim issued against them by recognized batei din.

They have endeavored, through violence and threats of violence, to reduce our women to slaves and chattel, as they are reduced in benighted Muslim lands but as we, citizens of enlightened Western societies, deem insufferable. Self-appointed "tznius police" set fire to clothing stores whose wares do not meet with their approval. They throw bleach at and otherwise physically attack women walking on public thoroughfares when their dress is not up to the goons' standards. They force women to sit in the back of public buses; those who dare refuse are beaten up and publicly humiliated. Shopkeepers are told to maintain separate hours for male and female patrons, and told that they might end up dead if they don't comply. They have defaced pictures of a female candidate for Prime Minister on lawfully placed campaign posters. These criminals and hoodlums cynically manipulate a corrupt political system to ensure that they are not called to account for their crimes.

They, a bunch of unelected petty tyrants, have sponsored an atmosphere of disrespect and comtempt for duly elected and lawfully constituted secular authorities. By their silence, and sometimes worse, they have made it permissible and even praiseworthy to lie, cheat and steal from the government, as long as they are not caught. They relate to our enlightened governments as if they were the Tsarist tyrants who singled us out for persecution. But they are not bashful about accepting aid from those same governments so they can maintain their parasitic lifestyle.


In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Jewish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their gedolim to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement in democratic societies. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, to be stood with when they are right and vigorously opposed when they are wrong .

We, therefore, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of our Torah communities, solemnly publish and declare, That these communities are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent agents, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to Agudat Yisrael and its Moatzot Gedolei Torah, in the United States, Israel and throughout the world, and that all religious connection between our communities and said Moatzot and their ideological confreres, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent agents, they have full Power to choose their own authority figures, establish schools for the training of our young as committed Jews and proud citizens of free societies and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent agents may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Fire them all

You're the president of a company. You have an important project that could be life or death for the company. You assign it to a team that had been reasonably successful before. They promptly fall apart in petty squabbling and the project does not get done, costing the company millions of dollars. What would you do? I'm not an MBA, but I suppose a smart executive would fire the whole bunch. I don't want to hear their excuses, who started what, who did what to whom. You're a drag on the company. Out - all of you!

That is the situation we New Yorkers face with our State Senate. A couple of ethically challenged Senators switched parties, causing a deadlock over control. For several weeks the Senators have been acting like a bunch of kindergarten kids arguing over their toys. They have not had a proper legislative session, despite the best efforts of our inept governor. For weeks urgent public business has not been attended to. Among other items, mayoral control of New York City's public schools expired because it had not been renewed by the deadline, June 30. Whatever one thinks of mayoral control, administrators, teachers, parents and students have a right to know who is running the joint. The mayor is doing his best to reconstitute the system as it was before mayoral control, but the new Board of Education does not know for how long they will be in charge, or indeed what the limits of their power are right now. That is no way to run a railroad. The Markey bill, needed to protect yeshiva and other private-school students from sexual predators on staff, was passed by the Assembly and remains in limbo until our Senators start acting like adults. There is no end in sight. New York is the laughingstock of the nation. The terms of the Senators expire next year, as does that of the governor. I say we get rid of the whole Senate. We have long had too high a tolerance for crookedness in Albany, but we did expect the Legislature to hold sessions and get the job done. Now the Senators are simply not doing the job we elected them - and are still paying them - to do. So let's start grooming credible candidates - honest and upright men for a change - in each district to run against the current senators in the primaries and general election. And let the next legislature amend the state constitution to allow us to recall politicians who don't know the meaning of honesty, integrity and work ethic.

My Birthday

June 30 was my 57th birthday and humanity got a present. As I do on most birthdays, I ran down to the New York Blood Center in Brooklyn and donated a pint of blood. Blood is always needed in this city, and in summer it is in particularly short supply. As medical technology advances more is needed. Despite the efforts of medical scientists, no substitute for blood exists. If the right type is not available, surgery might have to be cancelled or, God forbid, patients might die. I will never know who benefited from my pint of blood, and they (today's technology allows blood to be fractionated into several components and given to several different people) will never know me. That is exactly how I want it, and the Rambam considers that the highest level of tzedaka.
The whole process takes about an hour of your time. Your blood pressure and hemoglobin will be tested to make sure you are able to spare the blood - and possibly to alert you to health problems. The discomfort is no greater than a pinprick; it should be the worst discomfort you ever feel. I donate several times a year, usually at Yeshivah of Flatbush. Blood drives are held all over town; if your workplace does not sponsor one it can arrange a drive by contacting the Blood Center (affiliated with the American Red Cross). It is a practical way to thank God for your robust good health.
Lo ta'amod al dam rei'ekha.

The heck with the rabbis - Protect our kids

By now, unless you live in a cave you know about the raging sex abuse scandal in the Orthodox community. Our children are molested in yeshivot, which hush up the incidents and all too often allow the guilty teachers to continue teaching. Victims and their families are intimidated from reporting the crimes to authorities; they fear social ostracism and worse. The few that come forward find that justice is elusive. Perpetrators get off with a slap on the wrist that neither deters future evildoers nor encourages other victims to come forward. Victims are left with no recourse other than street justice. They are scarred for life; understandably, many leave the Orthodox community. Often they cannot come to terms with what happened to them, and do not report the crimes until much later in life. New York has a five-year statute of limitations (five years after the crime or after the victim turns 18, whichever is later), so victims of this horrible crime often are shut out of the justice system.


A bill that would partially remedy this situation, known as the Markey bill, is making its way through the New York legislature. Since New York has the country's largest concentration of Orthodox Jews and yeshivot, what happens here will have a far-reaching effect on our community and our children's well-being. The bill would extend the statute of limitations to ten years, and open a one-year "window" for victims up to age 53 to bring civil suits and/or criminal charges against alleged perpetrators no matter when the crime allegedly occurred. It would apply to public as well as private schools, even though there is little need for it in public schools. Students and families there are not bashful about bringing complaints (indeed, students often get rid, at least temporarily, of teachers they don't like by making false charges of abuse) and teachers are mandated reporters; if they hear of or suspect molestations, they must report it or face losing their jobs. I know; I teach in public school.


The bill is opposed by outfits like Agudat Yisrael and Torah U'Mesorah. One would think that their top priority would be to protect yeshiva children, but instead they are acting as a trade association for criminal rabbis and teachers, protecting them from embarrassment and denying justice to their victims. Contrast this to my own "trade association," the United Federation of Teachers, which is committed to removing child-molesting teachers from the classroom, after due process to be sure. The "religious" groups claim that the bill would allow actions against yeshivot and teachers for incidents that took place long ago, when the institutions might have been under different management, and that hefty judgments might cause those institutions to go bankrupt and shut down. To counter this, and to allay complaints that private schools were being singled out, the age limit was inserted and the bill was extended to cover public as well as private institutions. Nevertheless, Agudat Yisrael and Torah U'meorah remain opposed and enjoy substantial political clout.


Their fears are largely unfounded. Plaintiffs and prosecutors still need to prove their cases. As a judge told us several times when I was serving on a jury, "The people [prosecution] have the entire burden of proof; it never shifts to the defendant." The older a case is, the more likely it is that memories become stale, witnesses die or move away and cannot be reached, or physical evidence deteriorates or simply disappears. An alleged victim's say-so is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It is doubtful that even Adolf Eichmann would be convicted if he were brought to trial today. Yeshivot carry liability insurance, and when a yeshiva's management changes its lawyers see that the new administration cannot be held liable for the misdeeds of the old. The only yeshiva I know of whose existence might be threatened by the Markey bill if it becomes law is Torah Temeiah in Brooklyn, also known as Torah Temimah. There, a known child abuser, "Rabbi" Yehuda Kolko, was protected for some 40 years by a principal, Moron Rasha Hayeshiva Lipa Margulies, who remains at the helm of the yeshiva. Even after Kolko's crimes became public knowledge, "Rabbi" Margulies kept him on payroll until a public outcry forced his hand. Incidentally, this thoroughly evil and contemptible man was recruited by his rabbinical colleagues to sign onto their infamous concert ban. Kolko was arrested and allowed to plead guilty to a relatively minor misdemeanor charge. He still lives in our community and does not even have to register as a sex offender. How any parent can send a child to Torah Temeiah knowing these facts is beyond me. If lawsuits force it to shut down, so be it; such a yeshiva does not deserve to exist.


The Orthodox establishment's opposition to the bill is just one more instance where our authority figures show that they are about money and power, not about Torah. They care more for the "good name" of themselves and their yeshivot than about our children. It is time for us to tell them what to do and where to go. The Markey bill was passed by the Assembly and awaits action by the Senate. Along with much other urgent public business, it is being held up by the shenanigans in the New York State Senate, itself an outrage but that's another tale. When the politicians decide to desist from their own vainglory and do the job we elected them to do, it is incumbent on us to contact them and tell them in no uncertain terms that we expect them to pass the Markey bill with no further weakening, never mind the Orthodox establishment. It is also incumbent on us to let prosecutors, particularly Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, know that we expect them to get tough on child molesters, no matter their faith and/or connections, when there are victims and families willing to testify, and that we will hold them accountable at the polls if they do not.



Since the Orthodox establishment and yeshiva administrators are unable or unwilling to protect our children, we as parents must teach them to protect themselves. It goes something like this:

No one but a medical professional has a right to touch your body in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable. No one but a medical professional (assuming an older child out of diapers) has a right to touch you at all on parts of your body covered by a bathing suit. If a rebbe, teacher or anybody else tries to touch you, or tells you to touch him, in such a manner, leave immediately. Kick the offender in the groin if you have to, but leave the building. Get to a pay phone (or use your cell phone), call the police and call us. Then come home immediately unless the police tell you otherwise. Do not wash any part of your body; you might be destroying evidence. We, Mommy and Daddy, will see to it that So-and-so never hurts you or any kid again. You will not have to set foot in that building until So-and-so is gone. If we have to, we will find another school for you. And then make certain that your children understand.

It is sad that things have come to such a pass in our community. When I was a child I and my friends did not have to worry about such things. If we can change the community mindset to one in which our children's well-being has priority over the image of yeshivot and those who run them, then maybe our grandchildren will not have to worry about such things.

Tel Aviv in Central Park

This Sunday, June 21, being Father's Day, Manhattan's Central Park will host our annual Father's Day five-mile race to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer research. It is also the day of the summer solstice and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the longest day of the year. May our lives be filled with bright sunshine, literally and figuratively.
After the race and close to the finish (I doubt if it was planned that way but it's beautiful) Tel-Aviv will be holding a beach party (complete with trucked-in sand) to celebrate its centennial. It runs from 11 AM to 6 PM and will feature live music, backgammon, matkot (Israeli paddleball) and other Israeli beach fare. There will be (ssssh) mixed seating, so you can bring/meet a member of the opposite sex. Come and experience life as it was when we were normal, without the crazy rabbis telling us what to do.

Hit like a Jew hits

Today is Kaf Sivan, little noticed now but a fast day in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe to commemmorate the massacres of 1648-49 in what is now eastern Poland and western Ukraine. That region always was rife with violent Jew hatred. Many Poles and Ukrainians eagerly collaborated with the Nazis in killing Jews, and even after the war there was a pogrom in Kielce where over 40 returning Jews were murdered.
Under the Soviets street violence between Ukrainians and Jews was common, but a heartwarming story came out when Jews started leaving for Israel after the Six Day War. When Ukrainians would attack a Jew on the street, onlookers would cheer the Ukrainians to "beat the Jew." After the Six Day War, when two Ukrainian boys got into a fight onlookers would exhort one or the other to "hit like a Jew hits." The two sound more similar in Ukrainian than in English.

What a difference 300 years makes!