The Vicious Babushka

Two New Jersey Men Indicted in Series of Synagogue Bombings

Graziano and Dalal

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men were formally charged Friday in a series of firebomb attacks on synagogues across northern New Jersey.

A grand jury in Hackensack handed up a 30-count indictment against Aakash Dalal of New Brunswick and Anthony M. Graziano of Lodi, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

Graziano faces nine counts of attempted murder stemming from the firebombing of a rabbi’s residence in Rutherford on Jan. 11, 2012. Police said Molotov cocktails were thrown at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford, igniting a fire in the second-floor bedroom of the rabbi’s residence where he, his wife, five children and his parents were sleeping at the time and escaped serious injury.

Both Graziano and Dalal are charged with bias intimidation, conspiracy to commit arson upon a synagogue and aggravated arson. They also face charges related to terrorism, possession of destructive devices and hindering apprehension.

The two were both 19 at the time, and are childhood friends from Lodi. They are facing up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.

Read more at Daily Record.

Concentration Camp Slogan Found at Old Detroit Automotive Site

Big letters have been placed on the overpass at the Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit that read in German “Work will make you Free,” concerning some metro Detroiters, given the resemblance to an infamous sign at the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. It’s unclear who put up the letters.

In capital red letters on a white background, the new sign at the decaying site on Detroit’s east side reads: “Arbeit Macht Frei,” the exact same words at the entrance to the concentration camps in Poland where Jews were forced to work and were murdered. The sign, which was used at other Nazi camps, became well known as an international symbol of cruelty.

“I found it disturbing,” said David Schulman, 53, a Huntington Woods resident who came across the Detroit sign while driving home last week from Belle Isle. His grandmother had family members killed in the Holocaust.

“It’s a form of hate speech,” Schulman said. “It really appalled me.”

An attorney who represents the owner of the plant said he wasn’t aware of the sign until contacted by the Free Press, but now intends to remove it or cover it up.

“This is a disgusting act,” said Troy attorney John Bologna, who represents the plant’s owner Dominic Cristini. Cristini is in a legal dispute with the city over the plant’s ownership.

The sign consists of separate white rectangular pieces for each letter. The style of the lettering in the Detroit sign has specific similarities to the Nazi sign at Auschwitz that made it unique: for example, the upper half of the letter “B” in “Arbeit” (“Work”) is bigger than the lower half, just like it is in Auschwitz.

The letters appear to have been hung there sometime this year, said Schulman. He didn’t notice them when driving about a month ago by the overpass, which sits across East Grand Boulevard near Concord Street.

The plant has become a symbol of Detroit’s industrial decline. Designed by the noted architect Albert Kahn, the Packard Plant used to be an auto manufacturing facility where thousands worked and was a symbol of the strength of blue-collar labor in America’s Midwest.

Read more at Detroit Free Press.

Broad Jewish support for Obama’s gun proposals

Uniformity of Jewish response to gun control proposals contrast to Republican opposition to Obama's suggested measures.

WASHINGTON - US President Obama's new gun control proposals drew broad Jewish communal support.

The uniformity of the Jewish response to the proposals unveiled Wednesday stood in contrast to Republican opposition to many of the suggested measures, including a ban on assault weapons and tighter background checks on gun purchasers.

Supportive statements came from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella for public policy groups, as well as Reform, Conservative and Orthodox umbrella groups.

Obama said he plans to issue 23 executive orders while his vice president, Joe Biden, attempts to shepherd parallel legislation through Congress in the wake of the massacre last month of 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

A number of the proposals, including hiring security officials for schools, are not controversial. But most fall on the fault line of the gun control debate that has for decades exercised the American public.

"We recognize that this is a complex issue," Rabbi Steve Gutow, the JCPA's president, said in a statement. "The memory of Newtown is still fresh, and so is Aurora, Tucson, Fort Hood and other massacres that remind us that something must be done -- and that there isn’t a single solution to preventing mass violence.  We appreciate the administration’s understanding that there are multiple causes which must be addressed. It is crucial that passions not ebb nor our country return to complacency."

In its statement, the Orthodox Union said that it understood from conversations with White House officials that the security officials hired for schools would be available to parochial establishments as well.

"The Orthodox Union has been informed by the White House that the funding proposal may be used to place the new officers in Jewish and other nonpublic schools to provide security, counseling, and safety education," it said in a statement.

Other organizations welcoming the initiative included Jewish Women International, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reform movement's Religious Action Center, B'nai B'rith International, the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice as well as leading Jewish lawmakers, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

Read more at Jerusalem Post.

Swedish artist uses Jewish Holocaust victims' ashes for "Artwork"

Artwork created using Holocaust victims' remains

Carl Michael von Hausswolff mixed the ashes from the infamous Nazi facility with water to compose a small painting of grey streaks. The work now hangs in a gallery in the Swedish city of Lund.

But Salomon Schulman, a leading voice in Sweden's Jewish community who lost many relatives to the Holocaust, has condemned the painting as "revolting".

"Who knows," he wrote in a letter to a local newspaper. "Maybe some of the ashes originated from my relatives. No one knows where they were deported: all my mother's siblings and their children, and my grandparents.

"I will never go to this gallery and it as view the desecration of Jewish bodies," he added. "I am sickened by his work and obsession with necrophilia."

Mr Von Hausswolff took [STOLE--VB] the ashes during a 1989 visit to Majdanek, which, during its 34 months in operation from 1941 to 1944, claimed around 79,000 lives, the vast majority of them Polish Jews. The artist said the ashes appeared to "contain the memories and the souls of people: people tormented and murdered by other people in the most viscous [sic! Telegraph typo, not Vicious Babushka's] war of the 20th Century".

Read more at Telegraph.

Someone should steal this "painting" and bury it.

Woman Confronts Thief Who is Using Her Stolen Credit Card

Dina Wohlhendler

Manhattan, NY - A Borough Park woman turned in an impressive piece of detective work yesterday, as a shopping expedition in Manhattan set off a chain of events that ended with a recently released felon being taken into police custody.

24 year old, Dina Wohlhendler was shopping at Zara’s when she noticed that her wallet was missing. Thinking that she had left her wallet, which contained a substantial amount of cash as well as several credit cards and a debit card.

As Mrs. Wohlhendler headed back to her office located just one block away, she received an alert from Chase Bank informing her that a $211 charge had been made on her debit card at a Midtown Urban Outfitters store.

“I knew that Urban Outfitters had opened up a new location on 43rd and 5th and I wasn’t far from there,” Mrs. Wohlhendler told VIN News.  “I ran over and asked the cashier if they remembered anyone making a large purchase, but there were no customers that stood out in their minds.”

Going back out onto 5th Avenue, Mrs. Wohlhendler began walking uptown hoping to somehow spot the thief on her own, when she noticed a Best Buy located one block to the north.  Acting on instinct, she entered the store where she observed a woman, holding an Urban Outfitters bag, purchasing a cell phone.  Coming closer to the shopper, she noticed the name on the credit card being offered to the cashier was none other than her own.

“I started yelling at her,” said Mrs. Wohlhendler.  “At first she denied that the card was mine, but then she started yelling at me.  She started running away towards the back of the store, but I ran after her, calling for security.  She started throwing the merchandise from Urban Outfitters at me, then some cash, then my wallet, screaming ‘here is your stuff back, it is just a mix-up.’”

Best Buy security detained the woman and insisted that the pair wait for police to clarify the matter.

“As we were waiting, she said to me ‘you have your stuff back, this is just a waste of time’”, recalled Mrs. Wohlhendler.  “Then she took another tack saying, ‘I am Muslim, you are Jewish.  You are all greedy, why can’t you just let it go?’”

Upon their arrival, police immediately found inconsistencies in the suspect’s story, who first insisted that she hadn’t used the credit card, but store surveillance tapes indicated otherwise.

Read more at Vos iz Neias. 

1 Brother Convicted, 1 Acquitted in Baltimore Neighborhood Watch Case

Eliyahu Werdesheim leaves the Baltimore courtroom with his wife.

BALTIMORE –  One brother was convicted and the other was exonerated Thursday in the 2010 beating of a black teenager they encountered while patrolling as watch volunteers in their Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

Judge Pamela White ruled from the bench against Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim, 24 and 22. They opted for a bench trial after withdrawing a motion to move their trial because of publicity comparing their case to the fatal shooting of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

Both were charged with false imprisonment, second-degree assault and carrying a deadly weapon with intent to injure. The judge found Eliyahu not guilty of the weapon charge and cleared Avi on all three.

They had no visible reaction when the verdict was read, though Eliyahu's wife ran from the courtroom in tears. They could have faced up to 13 years if convicted on all three charges.

Prosecutors said the brothers attacked the teen, hitting him with a radio and holding him on the ground. But Eliyahu testified that he acted in self-defense when the teen attacked him with a nail-studded plank and said his brother wasn't involved in the fight. The judge rejected Eliyahu's claim of self-defense.

Read more at Fox News.

There have been other incidents of self-styled "Shomrim" ["Guardians" in Hebrew] beating up random people, carrying out vigilante-style revenge actions, and in some cases just getting into gangsta "rumbles" with rival gangs. They have been blamed for the slow police response in the tragic Leiby Kletzky murder case last year.

In the Wake of Passover, Scammers Dump Holy Scraps They Were Paid to Bury

Abandoned "Shemos" in Boro Park

Several weeks ago, the NY Times reported:

On any ordinary day, yellow school buses with the Hebrew names of yeshivas dominate the ultra-Orthodox landscape of Borough Park, Brooklyn. But in the days before Passover, large trucks parked along many of the sidewalks are far more striking, particularly those bearing signs with a Hebrew word obscure even to most Jews: Sheimos.

Sheimos (pronounced SHAME-os) is a term for religious books containing the Hebrew name of God that need to be ritually buried in the ground.

As Passover approaches, Orthodox Jews strive to rid their homes of even the slightest trace of bread or other unleavened grain products known as chametz, almost down to the molecule. Bibles, prayer books and volumes of Talmud receive a thorough airing as well, and the most dog-eared specimens are often discarded. But Jewish religious law considers throwing them in the trash a desecration.

So parked all day on many streets in Borough Park and nearby neighborhoods like Midwood are trucks whose drivers will carry books to a cemetery upstate for a fee of about $8 to $10 a box.

Today, it was reported:

Brooklyn, NY - Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) was outraged to learn that a van full of shaimos had been abandoned in Borough Park.

A resident of the community called the Assemblyman this morning to complain of a van that had been parked in the community since Pesach. When a member of the Assemblyman’s staff went to investigate, he discovered a box van with out-of-state license plates that had received several parking tickets. A look inside revealed that the back of the van was full of boxes containing shaimos (books or other sacred objects which can no longer be used but may not be destroyed).

“This is not the first time that con artists have pulled this kind of stunt,” said Assemblyman Hikind. “The disposal of shaimos is often done around Pesach when people are cleaning and they have no idea who it is that’s accepting their packages of shaimos on the streets. It’s a cash-and-carry business that’s ripe for scammers. What an absolute disgrace.”

Read more at Vos Iz Neias.

Rabbi, Children, Shot at Jewish School in Toulouse, France

Rabbi Yahonatan Sandler HY"D and his family

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — A motorcycle gunman opened fire Monday in front of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two small sons and one other child, the prosecutor's office said.

It was at least the third deadly motorcycle shooting in France in a week, shocking the country and prompting strong emotions and high-level discussions in Israel. French prosecutors were studying possible terrorist links, but the motive for Monday's attack was unclear.

Concerns about a serial killer emerged, as investigators examined whether Monday's shooting was linked to two deadly shooting attacks in the Toulouse region last week that killed three French paratroopers and left another seriously injured. French media reported those paratroopers were of Arab origin.

President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the school, ordering increased security at Jewish and Muslim buildings around Toulouse, while his prime minister ordered officials to "secure" all school and religious buildings in France.

A 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in Monday's attack, just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school, a junior high and high school in a quiet residential neighborhood, Toulouse Prosecutor Michel Valet said. Witnesses said the man worked at the school.

Valet said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old was seriously injured.

"He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults," he said. "The children were chased inside the school."

Sarkozy denounced "the savagery" of Monday's attack on a school, and vowed to find the killer or killers. "We will find him," he said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told The Associated Press that the suspect in Monday's school shootings made his getaway on a dark-colored scooter — just as the assailant or assailants did in the two shootings last week.

The school targeted Monday, behind a high white wall with few external markings, was cordoned off by police, who then escorted other children out as forensics police combed the scene.

One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son wearing a yarmulke walked away from the site, their faces visibly pained. A video camera was visible at the school's entrance.

Read more at Associated Press.

The Satmar Chainsaw Massacre, or, The Adventures of Liar McPantsonfire

Based on a fake story.

With allegations of communal cover-ups involving child sexual abuse dogging the haredi community over the past several years, it may not be much of a stretch for some readers to believe a gruesome story that appears in a new memoir about growing up in, and leaving, the Satmar community.

The story, recounted by Deborah Feldman in “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” (Simon and Schuster), involves the alleged mutilation and murder of a boy by his own father — supposedly for masturbating — and the subsequent cover-up of the crime by Hatzolah, the community’s volunteer ambulance service.

The only problem, however, is that based on information obtained by The Jewish Week, the story seems not be true.

Feldman claims she first learned of the grisly crime from her husband who had, in turn, heard about it from his brother, allegedly a member of Hatzolah at the time, who had been called to the blood-soaked scene. Apparently, the boy’s “penis was cut off with a jig saw and his throat was slit too,” Feldman writes.

Feldman recounts that her husband told her his brother “said the neighbors told him they heard loud arguing coming from the house. When he called the [volunteer ambulance] dispatch, they told him to go home and keep quiet about it, that they would take care of it. He said they buried him in thirty minutes and they didn’t even issue a death certificate.”

Read more at The Jewish Week.

Even "The Forward," which is a loud cheerleader of anything which is unfriendly to the Hasidic community, finds this "memoir" too much to swallow.

While everyone has the right to choose the lifestyle and faith they wish to lead, Ms. Feldman's silly antics are embarrassing to those with more compelling, and more truthful stories to tell. There is much resentment against her, not only from the community that she so cheerfully maligns with sensational, made-up gossip, but from others who have more legitimate complaints, who feel that she has discredited them all.

There are people who have left the community after being molested, after suffering from bullying attacks, who have even lost dear friends to suicide due to doubts about sexual identity and anti-gay bullying. These are serious issues that need to be addressed, but this sensationally stupid fake "memoir" is making a mockery out of other people's genuine pain as well as fueling genuine anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile Debbie is spending money like a drunken sailor, and probably has big plans to become a movie star, a contestant on "American Idol" and maybe star in her own reality show, even sing and dance at the Super Bowl Half Time. (OK I made that last one up)

Get real, Debbie. So you're not a Satmar any more, welcome to real life. You're just a shlump like the rest of us.

Palestinian TV Broadcasts Show Praising Baby Killers

 

Palestinian television aired an interview with the relatives of the Fogel family murderers earlier this month, praising the two cousins convicted with the brutal attack as "heroes."

The broadcast was aired as part of a weekly show on the Palestinian state-run station called "For You," which focuses on Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

The show featured the aunt and mother of Hakim Awad, who along with his cousin Amjad was convicted of brutally stabbing to death five Fogel family members in an attack on their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on the night of March 11, 2011.

Hakim Awad's mother sent her regards to her son, proudly describing him as the perpetrator of the Itamar attack and that he was sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.

Awad's aunt then proceeded to describe her nephew as a "hero and a legend."

Read more at Haaretz.

The Bridge Troll Launches Attack Advert Against Judge who Ordered him Jailed

 

From Detroit Free Press

The Ambassador Bridge company has aired another television ad in its campaign to defeat Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed new bridge to Canada, this time directly criticizing the judge who threw bridge company leaders in jail this month.

The 30-second spot shows a photograph of Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards and, in a voice-over commentary, calls him “an activist Detroit judge” who put bridge officials in jail.

Edwards’ office said he would have no comment on the ad.

The ad implies that Edwards acted because Snyder recently appointed Edwards’ son to a judgeship in Wayne County.

Earlier this month, Edwards jailed bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun and his top aide, Dan Stamper, president of the Detroit International Bridge Co., for civil contempt of court for the DIBC’s failure to complete the long-delayed Gateway project at the Ambassador Bridge as the judge ordered in February 2010.

In the new ad, the company says that it is the Michigan Department of Transportation that has refused to finish the project because “Gov. Snyder wants to build his own $2-billion bridge.”

And the ad implies that taxpayers will have to pay for the bridge even though Snyder has made clear that Canada will front Michigan’s portion of the cost and be paid back through future bridge tolls.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said the administration has found it “challenging” to counter the advertising onslaught, which she said totaled more than $5 million before this latest round began.

Read more at Detroit Free Press.

The Troll is whining that the state Department of Transportation is responsible for completing the access ramps, not him as the court ruled. The ramps could have been completed already if he had spent the money on his obligations instead of these attack ads.

FTC Shuts Down Acai Berry Weight Loss Scam Sites

They'll be back with some other weird old scam.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Expect to see fewer "newsy" online advertisements hawking acai berry diet pills.

Federal regulators announced settlements Wednesday with six online marketers who were accused of using fake news sites on the Internet to entice customers to buy acai berry weight-loss products. They promised rapid and substantial weight loss, sometimes claiming people could lose 25 pounds in four weeks without changing their diets or exercising.

The Federal Trade Commission says it was all a scam.

The FTC accused the marketers of designing websites that falsely appeared as if they were part of legitimate news organizations. They flashed investigative-sounding headlines and presented a reporter's "first-hand experience" with acai berry supplements.

The commission went to court in April, seeking temporary restraining orders against the marketers. All six have since taken down their sites pushing the pills.

Acai is a dark purple fruit from a palm found in Central and South America. The marketers advertised their supplement as a weight-loss aid, and often sold with a separate "colon cleanser" product.

Four other similar cases are pending.

"We have ongoing efforts to aggressively challenge deceptive advertisements over the Internet like the fake news sites attacked here, and our enforcement actions can potentially reach anyone in the chain between a seller and the consumer," said Steven Wernikoff, an FTC attorney in Chicago.

Consumers paid $70 to $100 for a supply of the pills, according to FTC attorney Matthew Wernz.

Read more at Associated Press.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff (A Modern Fairy Tale)

The Troll on the Bridge

Once upon a time, there were Three Billy Goats Gruff, and their names were Robbie, Rapey, and Stabby. The Three Billy Goats lived in the land of Detroit, which was very poor and they often did not have enough to eat, or good health care. But just across the river was the Land of Canada, which had low-cost pharmaceuticals and Free Health Care for All. So the oldest Billy Goat Gruff said to his siblings, "Let us go over the river to Canada, where we can frolic in the meadow and enjoy Free Health Care!" And the other Billy Goats said, "Yeah, let's go to Canada!"

So the littlest Billy Goat set out for Canada across the Bridge. Trip trap, trip trap. And the mean old ugly Troll who owned the Bridge yelled out "WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN ACROSS MY BRIDGE!"

"It is I, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff!"

"What's your name, Billy Goat Gruff?"

"My name is Robbie" said the littlest Billy Goat Gruff.

"Well if your name is Robbie," said the Troll, "I am going to rob you!"

"What's your name?" cried Robbie, the frightened little Billy Goat Gruff.

"My name is Matty," said the Troll.

"Well, then I will Matt you!"

"Oh ho," said the Troll and he showed Robbie the collection of mats in his Troll Cave, everything from $12.99 bath mats from Bed, Bath & Beyond to antique Persian prayer mats worth many thousands of dollars. "There is nothing you can mat me with that I don't already have!"

"Well then," said the littlest Billy Goat Gruff, "I have nothing for you to rob, Mr. Troll, Matty, sir! Why don't you wait for my sister, Rapey, and you can rob and rape her!"

"What kind of a sick perv are you," said the Troll, "you would give up your own sister for me to rob and rape?"

"But that's in the original story! The littlest Billy Goat Gruff tells the Troll to wait for the next Billy Goat!"

"Well OK then," said the Troll. "Now get out of here before I change my mind!" And Robbie, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff, scampered across the Bridge to Canada, where there was Free Health Care for All.

The Troll kind of liked the idea of robbing and raping the next Billy Goat, so he went into his Troll Cave and prepared a nice cocktail with some roofies. Then he looked around and decided that his Troll Cave was not romantic enough (Trolls need a very run-down and decrepit environment) and he looked for another Troll Cave that was even more ruined and destroyed. He looked at the old Clark St. Assembly Plant and the David Whitney Building, but what finally caught his eye was the Michigan Central Depot. "Aha!" cried the Troll. "This is the most devastated ruin in all of Detroit!" and he promptly bought the Michigan Central Depot as a Troll Hideout in which to do all his evil deeds.

Soon enough, Middle Billy Goat Gruff (actually a Nanny Goat for you nit pickers) came tripping over the Bridge. Trip trap, trip trap. "WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN OVER MY BRIDGE!" yelled the Troll.

"It is I, the Middle Billy Goat Gruff!"

"Are you the one they call Rapey?" inquired the Troll with a mean gleam in his eye. "Why don't we step into my Troll Cave and enjoy a cocktail together?"

"Oh no you don't!" cried Rapey, brandishing a can of Pepper Spray at the Troll. "Just you wait until my brother, the Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, shows up here. He will kick your ass!"

"My ass is very well protected," sneered the Troll. "I have a swarm of lawyer Trolls who will guarantee that I can rob and rape you and totally get away with it! Now drink this roofie cocktail!"

Rapey squirted the Pepper Spray directly into the Troll's eyes and scampered over the Bridge to Canada, where there is Free Health Care for All.

The Troll screamed in rage and anger and then called in his swarm of lawyer Trolls on how he could sue Rapey and get the rape and robbery that he deserved. But the lawyers informed him that since Rapey had fled to Canada, there was no way he could make her come back across the border.

The Troll vowed revenge and in the meantime he built a huge Duty Free Plaza underneath his Bridge. He built a huge fuel reservoir which he filled with Duty Free diesel fuel and gasoline, and a Duty Free Store which he filled with the finest Duty Free liquor, cigarettes, fragrances and cosmetics, but which he sold for pennies less than the retail price and kept the difference for himself. He blocked off all the access roads so that no one could pass over the Bridge without visiting the Duty Free Store (which prices were not any different than any other retail store, and higher than online).

The Troll took out his rage on the humble citizens of "Mexican Town" a little village in the shadow of the Troll's Bridge. Because the Troll had blocked all the highway access ramps, large container trucks rumbled through the narrow streets of the quiet village, creating monstrous traffic jams. The villagers banded together, formed a group called "Occupy The Troll's Bridge" and marching with torches and pitchforks, presented the Troll with court orders to remove the barricades and complete the highway access ramps. The Troll used the court orders to wipe his horny, gamy troll buttocks and jeered at the villagers: "Make me!"

The villagers met up with the oldest and the biggest Billy Goat Gruff, Stabby, and voted him the leader of their group. Followed by a phalanx of process servers and officers of the court, The Biggest Billy Goat Gruff set off across the Bridge. Trip, trap, trip, trap!

"WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN ACROSS MY BRIDGE!" yelled the Troll.

"It is I, Stabby, the Oldest and Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, with the villagers of Occupy The Bridge and a swarm of process servers and police officers and WE ARE ALL HERE TO KICK YOUR ASS!" shouted the Billy Goat Gruff. 

The Troll and his swarm of lawyer trolls put up a fight, but the Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, the villagers, police officers and Occupy the Bridge managed to overpower the Troll and cast him into a dark, dank dungeon where, they said, he would remain until the barricades were removed, the highway access ramps completed, and prices at the Duty Free Store brought down to reflect the Duty-Freeness.

"F*** YOU!" roared the Troll. "I like it in here! Anyway my swarm of lawyers will get me out tomorrow!"

The police officers then arrested Stabby the Billy Goat Gruff for carrying a concealed switchblade while attempting to cross an international border.

NJ Synagogue Bombing Escalated from Hate Crime to Attempted Murder

 

RUTHERFORD, NJ (CBSNewYork) – Authorities are investigating a firebombing of a northern New Jersey home attached to a synagogue as attempted murder and bias-related arson.

The fire was reported around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford.

Police say someone through explosive devices through the window.

“Incendiary devices were used to attempt to start of a fire in the upstairs portion of the structure which is a residence,” Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg.

Rabbi Nosson Schuman, who lives in the home with his wife and five children, said he saw a flash of fire outside his bedroom window before his bedspread caught fire.

“The fire in the bedroom, I had to go put it out. My quilt was on fire. I had to put it out,” he told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams. “Got the kids out and realized that this must have been a continuation of the hate crimes that have been occurring throughout the area.”

Schuman said damage to his home and congregation were minimal. Rutherford Police Capt. Hal Ciser said no one was injured.

Authorities say multiple devices were tossed at the home, including Molotov cocktails and rigged aerosol cans. All appeared as if they were being aimed at the second floor of the house.

Officials say whoever did this was targeting Schuman.

“At this point it’s not just a hate crime and a bias crime. It’s now an attempted murder,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.

It comes just one day before a meeting between representatives of more than 80 synagogues, law enforcement and some Jewish day schools to discuss several incidents targeting Jewish temples in Bergen County.

There was a suspicious fire and two anti-Semitic graffiti incidents in the past few weeks.

The crimes have shaken the community, but Rabbi Neal Borovitz with the Jewish Federation of northern New Jersey says the police are doing all they can.

“Right after the first attack in Maywood, the chief of police in River Edge where my synagogue is located called me to remind me ‘Rabbi, I know you guys turn your lights off to save energy. I want you to keep them on all night,’” he told WCBS 880 reporter Marla Diamond. “We have to be more vigilant without being paranoid.”

Read more at CBS News.

Brooklyn Car Fire "Hate Crime" Revealed to be Insurance Fraud

Scam disguised as a "hate crime"

Police have told community leaders that car firebombings that rattled a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn were probably an insurance scam, and not a hate crime, the Daily News has learned.

Vandals on Nov. 11 torched three cars in Midwood, tried to set a fourth afire and scrawled messages of hate — swastikas, KKK and “f--- the Jews” — on a nearby van and benches.

The pre-dawn incident led to denunciations from Mayor Bloomberg and other elected officials.

To date, there have been no arrests and police have not definitively ruled out any motive.

But police sources said investigators now believe the graffiti was probably scrawled in a ruse to make the firebombings look like an act of hate.

“We’re investigating the possibility that some of the evidence was manufactured to make this look like a bias crime,’’ one source said.

Another source said investigators are “pretty certain” the cars were torched so someone could collect insurance money.

“We don’t think it’s about hating Jews,’’ the second source said.

The owner of one of the torched cars did not live in the neighborhood, a community source briefed on the investigation said.

“That’s what tipped off the detectives,” the source said.

A fourth source said beer bottles found at the scene appear to have been wiped clean of fingerprints, suggesting the work of someone meticulous, not someone lashing out in hate.

Read more at NY Daily News.

Doofus of the Day: Author, Caught Plagiarizing Red-Handed, Freaks Out Accusing Victim of Child Abuse! And Utters a Death Threat!

Plagiarizing is bad, mmkay?

An intense legal drama came to an end after four years Sunday, when the Jerusalem District Court ruled unequivocally that writer Naomi Ragen used copied parts from Sarah Shapiro's book in her own novel "Sotah".

Shapiro, an ultra-Orthodox author who writes in English to haredi women, published the book "Growing with My Children: A Jewish Mother's Diary" in 1990. The book is a diary Shapiro wrote as a young, tired and inexperienced haredi mother.

According to the statement of claim, she was amazed to discover segments allegedly copied from her work in the English-language version of Ragen's "Sotah".

Both books, the claim stated, describe a woman's fear that she may be pregnant again shortly after giving birth and her hopes that the exhaustion and nausea are the result of stomach virus. Both books then include a dialogue on anger and the ability to change this trait in one's personality.

According to the statement of claim, there is a similarity in the sequence of issues and motifs in parts of the work, alongside similar uses of language and terminology and identical dialogues, sometimes even word for word.

Judge Joseph Shapira fully accepted Shapiro's claim. In a 92-page verdict, the judge explained why he decided to convict Ragen of copyright infringement, theft, negligence and unjust enrichment.

According to the verdict, Ragen "copied fundamental parts from the plaintiff's work."

The court compared the books and found "textual resemblance and identicalness in the characters and segments… A significant part of the similarity is expressed in literal identicalness between the texts in both works."
 
'A cultural disgrace'

During the trial, Ragen claimed that it was all a mistake and that some of Shapiro's text "got stuck in my head". But the judge rejected her explanation, calling it "unreasonable and unreliable".

Read more at YNet.

But, instead of apologizing and making restitution as she was ordered by the court, Naomi Ragen had a raging, frothing, possibly drunken meltdown and wrote the following:

Dear Friends,

I wanted you to hear this from me. As some of you may have heard, for the last few years I have been hounded by two hareidi women authors who have sued me in Israeli courts for copyright infringement based on several sentence and word fragments. I have been fighting these ridiculous allegations as best I can.

Earlier this week, to my absolute horror, the judge involved decided to find in favor of one of them, a woman named Sarah Shapiro who wrote a book in 1992 called "Growing with my Children" in which she detailed her physical abuse of her small children [in addition to plagiarism it appears that the esteemed author Ms. Ragen has now committed libel--VB] and her attempts to gain control of her temper. This book was given to me by her editor who asked me to encourage her in her writings. I did the best I could, hoping that it would help her and her family. [That's not what she testified in court.]

[...]

And then Naomi says: The Tal case was decided completely in my favor after Tal passed away. 
[Is this what I think it is--a thinly veiled death threat? VB]

Read the rest of this insane, screeching, hate-crazed rant at Arutz Sheva.

Naomi needs to spend some time in a quiet room. It is doubtful that her attorney or her agent approved of this essay, which contradicts everything that was reported about this case in YNet and Haaretz, media sources that can hardly be said to be sympathetic or a party to an "evil Haredi plot to silence the courageous woman author." As reported in the article above, a totally secular judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

Plagiarism is like a drug. A writer may get away with it once, and goes on to copy again and again. However in this day and age of digital scanning, plagiarism is one of the stupidest and crudest things a writer can possibly attempt.

She needs to get over herself and stop acting like one of the evil characters in her own (or maybe someone else's?) stories.

"The Tal case was decided completely in my favor after Tal passed away."

Naomi should have a nice, cozy conversation in a small windowless room with some tough Shin Bet agents (female of course!) for a couple of hours, just to tell them all the names of her crazypants obsessed stalker fans, the ones who might want to do something special to make their heroine's sad go away.

Neo-Nazis Developed A Holocaust-Themed "Monopoly" Game

A neo-Nazi gang suspected of murdering 10 people developed their own version of the board game Monopoly featuring death camps and gas works.

Called "Pogromly" and intended for other far-right extremists the game has the names of four Nazi concentration camps instead of the railway stations found on the traditional Monopoly board.

Players have the chance to buy Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck, with each camp costing 4,000 reichsmarks, the currency used in Hitler's Germany.

A number of sets of the game were discovered in a garage used by the gang the self-styled National Socialist Underground amongst bomb-making equipment and unused nail bombs last month.

Players start on a square emblazoned with a swastika and also have the chance of landing on a numbers of squares marked with the SS emblem. The board also comes with pictures of Hitler and sinister looking Jews.

It is thought the game is based loosely on events surrounding Kristallnacht. On the night of November 8, 1938, the Nazi's unleashed a violent pogrom against German Jews, destroying hundreds of synagogues and Jewish-owned business, and arresting 30,000 people, many of whom were sent to concentration camps.

The gang, apparently, produced dozens of Pogromly sets, which retailed on the underground far-right scene for about £42, as a way of supplementing their finances from 2000 to 2011.

The games were sold by an associate of the gang Andre K., who has since been arrested, although, apparently, they suspected he was pocketing too much of the proceeds.

A report by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine said that gang members called other extremists to complain about the lack of money they were receiving from their colleague.

Pogromly comes as the latest lurid twist in the scandal surrounding the operations of the National Socialist Underground. Despite murdering nine men of immigrant background and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007, and conducting 14 bank robberies, police remained oblivious to the gang's existence.

It was not exposed until a botched bank raid last month led to two members committing suicide and the survivor handing herself into the police.

Read more at Telegraph.

FBI Arrests Members of the "Amish Taliban"

Lester Mullet, Amish hair-cutting terrorist.

BERGHOLZ, Ohio (AP) — Authorities raided the compound of a breakaway Amish group on Wednesday morning and arrested seven men on federal hate crime charges in hair-cutting attacks against Amish men and women.

Among those arrested were the group's leader, Sam Mullet, and three of his sons, said Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Several members of the group carried out the attacks in September and October by forcefully cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women, authorities have said. Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

The attacks struck at the core of the Amish identity and tested their principles. They strongly believe that they must be forgiving in order for God to forgive them, which often means handing out their own punishment and not reporting crimes to law enforcement.

Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal of the hair-cutting was to send a message to Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

"They changed the rulings of our church here, and they're trying to force their way down our throat, make us do like they want us to do, and we're not going to do that," Mullet said.

Seven men were in custody and expected to be arraigned Wednesday. They include Mullet; his sons Johnny, Lester and Daniel; Levi Miller; Eli Miller; and Emanuel Schrock. The charges carry a penalty of up 10 years in prison.

The men were sleeping when the FBI and local police showed up at their homes before dawn Wednesday, Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. Three men initially refused to come out of their rooms, but all seven were arrested without incident, he said.

Authorities were holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon to explain why they charged the men with hate crimes.

The attacks came amid long-simmering tension between Mullet's group, which he established in 1995, and Amish bishops. Arlene Miller, the wife of one victim, said several bishops hadn't condoned Mullet's decision to excommunicate several members who previously left his community, saying there was no spiritual justification for his action.

One of Mullet's daughters-in-law and a former brother-in-law told investigators that Mullet controls everything that happens within the community outside Bergholz and that he allowed others to beat members of the group who disobeyed him, according to an affidavit filed in federal court Wednesday.

Mullet punished some by making them sleep in a chicken coop for days and was sexually intimate with married women in the community so that he could "cleanse them of the devil," the two said in the affidavit.

Both said they left the community because they did not want to live under Mullet's control.

read more at Associated Press.

Tunisia Issues Arrest Warrant for Suha Arafat

TUNIS — A Tunisian court has issued an international arrest warrant against the widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over alleged corruption, a justice official said Monday.

Suha Arafat, who was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship in 2007 following a dispute with the former ruling family and currently lives in Malta, vehemently denied any corruption allegations and said she was ready to lay the case bare.

Justice ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine el Abidine told AFP that a Tunis court had issued the warrant against 48-year-old Suha Arafat, but gave no reason for the move.

According to Tunisian papers, Arafat's widow is wanted over alleged corruption dating to the spring of 2007, when she founded the Carthage International School in Tunis with the country's much-vilified former first lady Leila Trabelsi.

The two women then fell out, purportedly over Suha Arafat's criticism of an alleged move by Trabelsi to close down another private school that would have been in direct competition with their joint venture.

According to a US diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks, Suha Arafat met the then US ambassador after the dispute and lashed out at the ruling family.

She said that now ousted dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali would spend all day in his residence running after his young son and "simply does what his wife asks him to do".

She was subsequently declared persona non grata, stripped of her Tunisian nationality in 2007, less than a year after acquiring it, and expelled.

She settled in Malta, where her brother served as Palestinian ambassador.

In an interview with AFP in English at her Malta home, Arafat said she would fight the charges "as I fought a lot of things".

"I was so much astonished, badly astonished actually because I was a victim of the Tunisian dictatorship," said the 48-year-old, adding that she had "not been informed officially" of any warrant and had read about it in the press.

"I have all the documents, all the information, everything that proves that I have nothing to do with that school," she said, in reference to the Carthage International School.

"I left that school immediately... because the First Lady she was doing corruption. I told her not to do this corruption," she added.

"I said I can't stand this that you are doing this to other schools so she said: 'Okay you don't want, leave it.'"

Speaking to AFP by phone earlier Monday, Suha Arafat said she had hired a lawyer to defend her case.

"I reject all the accusations listed in the media; I am ready to deal with this issue, to submit documents, and I have entrusted a Tunisian lawyer to present these documents," she said.

Born into a well-to-do Christian Palestinian family, Suha Arafat married the historic leader in 1990, though the marriage was not revealed until two years later.

She served as secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which was based in Tunisia between 1982 and 1994.

Suha Arafat gave birth to the couple's only child Zahwa in 1995, in a private hospital in Paris, but marital life quickly degenerated into de facto separation.

While her husband shepherded the Palestinian cause in Gaza and Ramallah, Suha was often accused of siphoning the aspiring state's meagre public funds to bankroll her lavish lifestyle in Paris.

Read more at AFP.

Must have been over this.

Gangsta Warfare Erupts in Jerusalem

A group of Hasidim brutally attacked Avraham Hirschman, 36, a father of six, Thursday, resulting in his hospitalization with fractures and other serious injuries.

Residents of the Mea She'arim neighborhood in Jerusalem fear the violence that has erupted between two ultra-Orthodox sects will grow and complain the police are not protecting them.

On Tuesday night a group of Hasidim brutally attacked Avraham Hirschman, 36, a father of six, with clubs, kicks and blows. Hirschman was hospitalized with fractures and other serious injuries.

"They said we'll murder you," Hirschman told Haaretz. "The police knew in advance they were planning the attack but didn't lift a finger."

The assault was part of a violent dispute between members of the large Hasidic Gerrer dynasty and the fanatic Sikrikim group (named after the Sicarii sect in 70 C.E. ) in Mea She'arim.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in the neighborhood following the attack and many prayed for Hirschman's recovery. Many protesters condemned the Gerrer Hasids for the attack, but the ultra-Orthodox newspapers of all the factions are ignoring the affair and some ultra-Orthodox figures have even expressed sympathy for the perpetrators rather than the victim.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the voluntary emergency response organization Zaka, came out openly against Hirschman and his colleagues. "They must be beaten up. The Sikrikim understand only force. They can't employ violence all the time and then shed crocodile tears," he said.

The Batei Warsaw quarter in Mea She'arim was built in the Ottoman period as a hostel for yeshiva students from Poland. Their families receive tiny apartments for key money or low rent. The Polish Gerrer dynasty, which always had people in the neighborhood committee, has gained almost complete control of it in recent years and is now planning to expand the quarter.

Although they do not recognize the state or its institutions, the Batei Warsaw tenants, most of whom belong to other ultra-Orthodox factions, have filed a court suit to stop the Gerrer Hasids' expansion. This move is believed to have sparked the recent hostilities.

Read more at Haaretz.

I am very familiar with this neighborhood, lived in Mea Shearim for three years and frequently visited friends and relatives in the Batei Varsha.

Avraham Hirschmann who is represented here in Haaretz as an innocent victim, belongs to a gand of thugs called the "Sicariim" after the old assassin gang during the time of the Roman Empire. He and his homeys have been responsible for throwing acid at women they thought were dressed immodestly, firebombing bookstores that sold "heretical" material, and general mayhem and mischief.

There is a turf war going on between this gang and the Gerrer Hasidim, who are known as generally moderate, politically active citizens, and who serve in the IDF.