Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein, past president of the Rabbinical Council of America (the main Modern Orthodox rabbinic group) and Rabbi of Young Israel of Scarsdale, NY, and his wife Deborah died when their home burned down at 3:30 this morning. The fire was apparently caused by a bolt of lightning, and there were explosions heard from the house. The congregation heard of the ...
In another proof that real life outdoes film in the sensationalism department, the ultra-orthodox community of Lakewood, NJ was shocked to learn that a member of their community had been exposed as a non-Jewish identity thief from Kansas. The young man, whom they had come to know as "Natan Levy," was actually Ted Riley Floyd of Wichita, Kansas. Floyd had apparently been ...
Isaac Hersh, the son of the CEO of a prominent Orthodox organization based in Brooklyn, was recently rescued from a torture camp in Jamaica and brought home to America in what has to be the most sensational story to come out of the Orthodox world in a long time. I happen to have some inside info on what transpired and wanted to share it. None of this is confirmed or official and should not be repeated as absolute fact, but the essentials of the story were covered already in the NY Post and the Jewish Week. Hersh had been abused by his father and ran away to live with a family in Texas. The Texan family, headed by a prominent rabbi, took him in lovingly and treated him like a son. He was described as a normal, well adjusted teen. Eventually, Isaac's parents lured him back to Brooklyn with promises of financial assistance, as well as promises to help him secure a visa to work in Canada as a summer camp counselor. When he reached Brooklyn he was bound, gagged and handcuffed, thrown in the back of a van, and flown to Jamaica to a "boot camp" for troubled teens with the Orwellian name "Tranquility Bay." While I usually detest Holocaust analogies, one cannot help but describe this "boot camp" as a concentration camp. Punishments included being forced to eat your own vomit and lying face down in the mud for 24 hours without moving. And that was for minor infractions like starting at the guards the wrong way. Hersh said he had a friend who laid that way for weeks on end (while being fed) because he kept moving. He also said every other kid there was a murderer or gangster. ...
