Dirty Poems & Sex Abuse: Two Jewish Educators in Big Trouble

How about the Catch-22 last paragraph in the article:  "The Australian Jewish News also reported that on Saturday
last week, Rabbi Beck addressed the community and said they should
not consider Mrs Leifer guilty of any crimes because there had been
no investigation. He told the congregation that if they discussed
the matter, it would be considered lashon hara (malicious gossip),
the paper reported."

"The Awareness Center" is a totally bogus site run by a woman named Vicki Polin who was on Oprah's show back in the 80's saying that her family were members of a cult that sacrificed babies and ate them or something....PUH-lease....she takes away from the valid accusations of abuse and makes a mockery out of them.  Aside from the fact that most Rabbanim have totally pulled away from her and no longer support her or her site, she has made many many enemies by her fraudulent fundraising that never actually helps anyone but her, as well as defamed people with no verifiable sources.  She is proof that anyone can say anything on the internet with no way of verifying information and literally destroy peoples lives.  If she were really trying to do a community service, why does she have dead rabbis (who therefore aren't really a THREAT) suce as Shlomo Carlebach and Jacob Frank on there?  Duh.

http://www.erichufschmid.net/TFC/Video-PhilosophyOfZionismAndIsrael.html

5) Jewish woman says murder rituals still occur

Ariel Toaff, a Jewish professor in Israel, claims that Jews murdered Christians during the Middle Ages to use their blood in rituals:
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/08/wjews08.xml

The Wikipedia summary of this professor:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Toaff

A Jewish woman in Chicago, Vicki Polin, claimed on the Oprah television show in 1989 that murder rituals still occur in her family! Video at this page (4 minutes):
usajewish.com/downloads/vicki-devil-worship.HTML

If that link fails, a direct link to the video is here:
vicki-devil-worship.wmv

Here is the audio only (for those of you who have trouble playing the video, such as people with Macintosh computers):
Vicki-Polin-on-Oprah.mp3

After watching that video, you might enjoy this page:
judicial-inc.biz/Grimes.htm

Hellmut Schramm wrote a book on this issue in 1941: jrbooksonline.com/schramm/schramm.htm
 

Rachel76 - You're linking to blood libel websites?!? Seriously?

Anyway, I'll take your word about Polin and that she manages the website.  So what?  If the cases she's presenting on her website are legitimate, it doesn't really matter who's running it. If there are any false accusations on the page, then by all means, expose them. Otherwise it's just an ad-hominem attack.

If only more Jews would publish their bad poetry on the Internet, and worry less about how their community might ostracize or censor them, perhaps we'd have healthier communities comprised of individuals that relish in creative expression and artistic sharing. Having your old poetry with, heaven forfend, abrasive language, available on the Internet doesn't make you an idiot or a bad leader -- it makes you more recognizably human and interesting -- especially if it's good poetry. Shame on Leo Baeck Jewish Day School.

Tmara,

 You may want to rethink the cite to The Awareness Center. There are surely many more credible sources for the same point.  

 There is more on Vicki Polin at http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/vicki_polin.htm

http://www.usajewish.com/archive/CONSUMER_ALERT.htm 

I don't know whether these stories are accurate, but they do raise a red flag. I believe Luke Ford has posted on Jewcy before. You might ask him to respond to these issues. I'm surely not the only one confused and troubled by the reporting.

Thanks

" If the cases she's presenting on her website are legitimate, it doesn't really matter who's running it. If there are any false accusations on the page, then by all means, expose them. Otherwise it's just an ad-hominem attack"

The problem appears to be that the site includes legitimate cases and annonymous and potentilaly erroneous cases. The stories about the site raise concerns and there are better, more reputable sources out there.

The Washington Jewish Week noted:

"Among those who were formerly listed but resigned for other reasons is Rabbi Mark Dratch, who chairs the Rabbinical Council of America's Task Force on Rabbinic Improprieties and has founded the organization JSafe to deal with sexual abuse in the Jewish community.

Dratch said he left the Awareness Center board in "disagreement with [Polin] on the standards required for publishing on her Web site. I wasn't satisfied with the threshold of verification. There are people who've been victimized and others who've been subject to false reports also being victimized. The big problem we have in this area is verifying the allegations and moving forward."

I'm Jewish. I used to have five brothers but I ate four of them. I now have one brother but I'm planning on eating him soon. I also have information regarding sexual abuse in synagogues and jewish dayschools throughout the country. I'm going to post all the details on my website.

Oh my God...Polin actually lists the long-dead Jacob Frank on her site? That is hilarious, and anomalous as well. Unlike your garden-variety sexual molester in a position of authority, Frank didn't see the need to keep his or his followers' perverted acts a secret. Far from it; he proudly acknowledged them as necessary "descents into sin" for the purpose of bringing redemption. And yeah, in any case he's hardly an urgent threat to the safety of our children.

On a more somber note, Polin's site closely resembles certain anti-Semitic sites I came across, a few years back, which catalogued every case they could find of a rabbi, cantor, educator or other Jewish professional convicted or forced to resign because of sexual offences, as "proof" that Jews are sickos. (And which conveniently left out the just-as-common instances of sexual abuse by non-Jews, religious/communal leaders or otherwise.) No, I'm not going to link to those sites, if indeed any of them still operate at this time. But the Awareness Center's close similarity to those sites makes me wonder, is Polin "merely" insane, or a particularly odd example of--I hate to use this term because it's bandied about so indiscriminately--Jewish self-hatred?

I'm not sure why Rachel76 lumps together Vicki Polin with Toaff. The latter produced a book which purports to demonstrate that the blood libel-i.e., that Jews murder Christians and use their blood in rituals-is in part based on actual historical events (incidentally, the Wiki link Rachel provided suggests he has retracted this claim). He has rightly been pilloried by historians who've demonstrated that his knowledge and methods are entirely insufficient and in no way support his conclusions.

Polin, on the other hand, appears to be a pathetic individual who is committed to notions of memory formation and retrieval, common to all ritual abuse crusaders, that have no support among cognitive scientists and who thinks she suffers from MPD, an almost certainly fictional and iatrogenic malady. She appears indistinguishable from those deluded Christians who've claimed that their pastors or congregations don cloaks and summon Martian robots who then dine upon their children.

Unlike Toaff, whose claims about crimes by Jews against Christians resonate with long-standing anti-Semitic delusions, Polin restricts herself to supposed crimes within the Jewish community.

As do all such advocates, she surely overestimates the incidence of abuse, and her ancillary embroidery (devil worship, et al) are the sad evidence of an overburdened mind.

It's regrettable that we live among racists who happily pounce upon claims like Ms. Polin's to buttress their lunacies, but this shouldn't matter.

Denounce Polin for her bad science, pity her for stunted development, but don't criticize her because assholes delight in her ramblings. And don't equate her pitiful efforts to put her disorganized internal world aright with a faux-historian's shabby attempt to rehabilitate a calumny.   

Unfortunately, the Awareness Center has taken an important issue and trivialized it by including some "offenders" who had clearly been proven innocent of allegations against them.  While the "center" might believe that "where there's smoke there's fire," neither American nor Jewish law agree.  When you have innocent people listed on such a site, it detracts from the credibility of the site when it does actually identify others who are pedophiles.

i was told to contact the awareness centre re zalman cohen the raping rabbi of jerusalem. they were supposed to help.no wonder she never replied to my email.now i am horifffed t read that this place is also just another diaster.so now i know that when a organization is recommended to me as helping abuse victims, they themselves

may be perverts, like zalman he has the tlc life coach school, like the other witch who put herself on jewcy nvsh18 -   my neighbour who uses photographer as a front to find innocents for indecent photos for her pervert boyfirends/ i put out info about her to warn others. so now vicky as well. where the hell does it stop.

there must be a very special punishment for people like those above. that will have to comfort me while i find another way to stop the  perverts

we must expose the guilty and stop hiding behind lashon hara. but they must be guilty.blaming an innocent man or woman based on nonsense is a very serious and terrible crime to commit against anyone. 

on our tv we had an interview with the husband of the women who was accused of abuisng her children, the three year old is in a coma, . they are religious and it caused a huge huge scandal here. now clearly there was something horrendous going on.

the husband told this story, they were very happily married for many years and then they met rav chen and he startted to manipulate them. the wife was fooled by him. the husband eventually was forced to leave. he would not condemn his wife and kept saying she was brainwashed. it was a very touching, honest interview.whether the wife was a monster or not,the husband loved her and wanted to protect her. he spoke so softly and so sadly, it was one  of the most tragic cases i have ever seen. the husband will never recover and dont even begin about the children, he is so torn about the torture done to his kids.

so dont be quick to blame, wait for facts, i can not forgive this wife, for allowing her little precious children to go through hell, but her husband can. go figure.it says something about loyalty that so few marriages have today.the husband in no way justified the treatment of his children, he had been overseas. whether he shares blame or not, is another question. but it made me be less quick to judge. the whole country was totally outraged.

 then we had the taliban women. totally a mental case and her weird followers. she wears 12 layers of clothes and would not show her face at the coutt case. no doubt there.

we must not make false accusations and not believe false. but but there are so many geniune cases that never get reported, or are played down

our dreadful judges in israel do not give punishement for child rape, abuse, it is absolutely disgusting we are all fed up with our awful judges. may they rot in hell. they also dont punish terrorists, murderers, and killers on our roads. no one is punished. but  14 years old girls who protested gush katif sit in jail.

welcome to israel.

shabbat shalom

ruth in jerusalem

Is this Ruth Cohen Harif, the woman who wonders around the center of Jerusalem with a tambourine, looks likes something a dog dragged in for breakfast? I never knew a bag lady, who is always asking for charity could afford a computer, an apartment in the center of Jerusalem, as well as spending all of her time attacking people on the internet. It makes on think….

jerusalem central

is a well-known Christian missionary who targets all the people who expose her missionary activities and speaks evil against them for revenge.

Her accusations are unfounded, and if you continue printing them, you will find yourself being sued.  I warned you once in private, This is your public email. Take all her crap down that has my ID on it or I will sue.

I beg anyone who has any pornography pictures that I have supposedly published - according to Ruth Cohen Harif - to come forward and show me so I may collect the money on them. Please send links and dates!!! I need the money!

ruth cohen harif

to all of my fans out there, hi nofia vered shem tov who loves me so much and my other huge fan who says i look like a bag lady. did anyone ever see a bag lady with a tambourine? anyway i have a backpack like many of the young kids here in israel have - mine has a pretty barbie photo on it 

 i have been reluctant to post my photo as i get to much male attention anyway here in jerusalem, and preferred not to get more through the net.,i am going to regret this  but i will  post my photos on the net soon 

i thought by using my real name it would be enough to  prove that my claims are  true. ok its the new world of photo and video. so so on you will all be able to see me and think for yourself, if i am the beauty or the beast? 

anyway i also get emails telling me for ex - i wish i had your coah and one day i pray i will have your strength (to expose evil)

still alive, dancing and enjoying jerusalem

ruth cohen harif