This is a groundbreaking case for atheists and humanists, in part
because it is the first in the nation to assert the rights of
nonbelievers solely via Equal Protection and nondiscrimination-normally
these cases are dealt with under the First Amendment. The Equal
Protection clause was cited in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) to
fight racial discrimination, and has also been the basis for many other
decisions rejecting discrimination against people belonging to various
groups. The Secular Coalition for America's Director of Federal and
State Affairs, Kelly Damerow (pictured below, right) was on-site at the
courthouse with Niose after the oral arguments. Secular Coalition for
Massachusetts co-chairs Zachary Bos and Ellery Schempp organized a rally
outside of the courthouse yesterday morning in support of the case.
View Niose's oral arguments, as well as case docket and briefs here.
Friday, September 6, 2013
"Under God" Case in Massachusetts Supreme Court
Secular Coalition for America President, David Niose Wednesday presented oral arguments
to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, as the attorney for the plaintiff
in the case "Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District." The case
challenges a state law that requires daily school-sponsored and
teacher-led classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Niose, on
behalf of his client, argued that the wording "under God" in the Pledge
discriminates against atheists and other nonbelievers, by instilling and
defining patriotism according to a god belief.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Soviet Yiddish Writers Remembered
On August 12th, 1952, the cream of the crop of the Soviet Yiddish world were summarily executed as retribution for their support of the war effort against Nazi Germany. 61 years later, we show that we have not forgotten them and that we still remember them, for their contributions both to literature and to humankind.
The Congress for Jewish Culture together with COJECO - Council of Jewish Emgire Community Organizations, CYCO Yiddish Books, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research cordially invite you to attend a memorial program for the Yiddish artists and writers who suffered under Stalinist repression
Monday, August 12th from 7 PM to 8 PM
at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
Admission free. Reserve your seat here.
In the program:
Dovid Bergelson in Berlin
Professor Marc Caplan
Johns Hopkins University
Lost and Found Project with Anna Zicer Medvinskiy, Yelena Shmulenson and Dmitri Slepovitch. Paula Teitelbaum will sing songs from the Soviet Yiddish repertoire.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Don’t Subject U.S. Veterans to ‘Spiritual Healing’
The
Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to change VA materials and the VA website, which currently
promote "spirituality."
FFRF makes this request to support the 23.1% of men and women in the military who identify as atheist, agnostic, or as having no religious preference.
FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki on July 29 requesting the VA stop promoting religion and spirituality to veterans, thereby alienating nearly one-fourth of veterans.
The "Spiritual Healing and Connection" section of the VA website violates the Constitution and pushes religion and "spirituality" on veterans, FFRF charges.
"Not only are they arbitrarily told that something is wrong with them, they are prescribed 'prayer and reading scriptures' as one remedy," Elliott wrote.
The federal website endorses assertions from a VA chaplain that health providers should treat "mind, body and spirit" saying, "Holistic health is a three-legged stool. If one leg is missing, the stool isn't stable."
The website also encourages veterans to visit VA chaplains. The military has refused to accept humanist or secular chaplains.
The VA and its website imply that the nonreligious men and women serving in the military are somehow incomplete, and demonstrate the lack of resources and support available to them.
"The VA is a secular branch of a secular government and has no business interfering with the private religious views of its veterans," Elliott wrote.
FFRF sued the Department of Veterans Affairs over its integration of spirituality into healthcare in 2006. The case was lost not in its merits but on taxpayer standing in 2008.
FFRF is a national nonprofit that works for the separation of state and church and has 19,000 members, a quarter of whom are veterans.
FFRF makes this request to support the 23.1% of men and women in the military who identify as atheist, agnostic, or as having no religious preference.
FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki on July 29 requesting the VA stop promoting religion and spirituality to veterans, thereby alienating nearly one-fourth of veterans.
The "Spiritual Healing and Connection" section of the VA website violates the Constitution and pushes religion and "spirituality" on veterans, FFRF charges.
"Not only are they arbitrarily told that something is wrong with them, they are prescribed 'prayer and reading scriptures' as one remedy," Elliott wrote.
The federal website endorses assertions from a VA chaplain that health providers should treat "mind, body and spirit" saying, "Holistic health is a three-legged stool. If one leg is missing, the stool isn't stable."
The website also encourages veterans to visit VA chaplains. The military has refused to accept humanist or secular chaplains.
The VA and its website imply that the nonreligious men and women serving in the military are somehow incomplete, and demonstrate the lack of resources and support available to them.
"The VA is a secular branch of a secular government and has no business interfering with the private religious views of its veterans," Elliott wrote.
FFRF sued the Department of Veterans Affairs over its integration of spirituality into healthcare in 2006. The case was lost not in its merits but on taxpayer standing in 2008.
FFRF is a national nonprofit that works for the separation of state and church and has 19,000 members, a quarter of whom are veterans.
Rabbi Impersonating a Cop (Allegedly) Redux
Couldn't he have just prayed instead? As reported in The New York Post on 7/19/2013:
In the space of about 19 hours ending yesterday, a Westchester County rabbi was arrested or arraigned on three separate charges of impersonating a cop.
In each case, Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski was angered when other motorists drove too slowly or cut him off, police say. So he allegedly flashed a phony badge and tried to get them to pull over.
The rabbi’s unusual case made headlines after his first arrest, and the story gained momentum as others came forward to tell authorities he tried to stop them while driving.
The latest arrest stemmed from an encounter in Yonkers in April when “what appeared to be minor road rage escalated,” State Police Investigator Joseph Becerra said yesterday.
He said Borodowski angrily waved a badge at a driver who cut him off on I-87. “Words were exchanged,” Becerra said. The other driver and his passenger “felt they were intimidated by this individual, and he was purporting to be a police officer.”
The passenger videotaped some of the encounter, he said. The footage is not being released.
Borodowski surrendered yesterday at a State Police barracks in Hawthorne and was charged with the misdemeanor form of criminal impersonation. He is due in court July 29
The rabbi’s lawyer, Andrew Rubin, said Borodowski suffers from bipolar disorder.
Yesterday’s arrest came just a few hours after Borodowski pleaded not guilty in Mamaroneck Village Court to the same charge, stemming from a June incident in which Borodowski is accused of pulling his Camry alongside a woman’s car, flashing a badge and shouting “Police! Police! Pull over!”
Cops said he told them, “That girl was driving too slow, and I hate when people do this.” He denied posing as a police officer.
Prosecutor Diana Hedayati reduced the charge to a misdemeanor because the rabbi did not commit another crime while allegedly posing as an officer.
Judge Daniel Gallagher ordered a psychiatric evaluation and adjourned the case to Sept. 12.
Borodowski did not speak during the proceeding and refused to answer questions outside court.
On Wednesday, Borodowski was arrested in White Plains. A driver there complained the rabbi had confronted him in a rage in May, claiming to be an officer and displaying a badge.
The driver said it appeared that Borodowski wanted him to drive faster.
Borodowski is still listed as the leader of a congregation in Larchmont.
Now Even Frum Jews Can Safely Go Down Under
According to The New York Post,
A West Coast manufacturer of personal lubricants says it’s become the first company to have its slippery stuff blessed for use by religious Jews.
Trigg Laboratories announced yesterday that the Rabbinical Council of California had certified 95 percent of its “Wet”-brand products as kosher after an intensive, two-year review.
As part of the process, the company said it submitted its entire 52,000-square-foot plant in Valencia, Calif., to strict “kosherization” procedures.
Approved “Wet” lubes will now be stamped with a “K” to show they meet the standards of Jewish dietary law, known as “kashrut,” which prohibits the consumption of certain animals and requires the ritual slaughter of those deemed edible.
In touting the certification, company founder Michael Trigg lifted a line from an old Hebrew National commercial for its kosher hot dogs.
“We’ve always maintained the highest standards of production and quality control for our entire line of premium products,” Trigg said. “The ‘K’ imprint on our packages says that we maintain the highest standards of purity and answer to a higher authority.”
The Rabbinical Council of California didn’t return a call for comment, but Trigg spokesman Dean Draznin said its review included checking the company’s manufacturing methods and suppliers of raw materials.
He said the certification ensures that none of Trigg’s products contain ingredients derived from pigs or shellfish, and that any other animals used to create the joy gels were treated humanely.
Draznin also said Trigg sought the certification because it plans to start selling its “Wet” products in Israel, where “its a given that if it’s sold, it needs to meet kosher laws.”
According to the Web site of the Orthodox Union, which calls itself “the world leader in kosher certification,” only three lubricants are currently certified kosher. But all three are industrial products for greasing hydraulics and machinery used in food preparation.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of the best-selling book “Kosher Sex,” hailed yesterday’s announcement.
“It’s nice to see that rabbis are not shying away from addressing sexual aid, which will facilitate great excitement in the bedroom,” he said. “People misunderstand Orthodox Jews, in that they believe that they have sex through a sheet with a hole in the middle, that Orthodoxy is profoundly prudish. Nothing can be further from the truth.
“Orthodoxy is profoundly passionate. Orthodox couples have great sex lives, they’re encouraged to. . . . Anyone who portrays Orthodoxy in a different light and . . . believes that Orthodoxy encourages sexual repression really knows nothing about the Jewish religion.”
An Orthodox rabbi who works as a kosher supervisor — but who didn’t want be identified due to the subject matter — said the newly kosher lube should glide off the shelves.
“There’s probably a market for it,” he said. “I’m sure for some people it’s better to have something that’s kosher than something that isn’t.”
Rabbi Impersonated a Cop To Speed Up Traffic
As reported by Associated Press on 7/15/2013:
Some drivers in the suburbs north of New York City were
startled when they saw a man waving his arms, honking his horn and
flashing a silver badge in a frantic effort to get them to pull over in
traffic.
Even more surprising was who was suspected of doing it: a respected rabbi.
Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski has been arrested in one case and is being
investigated in at least two more in which authorities say the apparent
reason for trying to pull people over was to rage at them for cutting
him off or driving too slowly.
"That girl was driving too slow and I hate when people do this," the 49-year-old Borodowski told investigators after he was charged with impersonating a police officer in June, when he allegedly pulled his Camry alongside a woman's car in Mamaroneck, flashed a badge and shouted: "Police! Police! Pull over!"
The woman, whose name has not been made public, did not pull over. According to her lawyer, Richard Clifford, the rabbi "just laid on the horn and started screaming at her" as she obeyed a 20-mph limit in a school zone. "She was so freaked out with the horn honking and the screaming that she called police immediately. ... I believe my client was in danger with this guy and if she had gotten out of her car it could have escalated."
Borodowski denied to police he was trying to impersonate an officer, saying he was telling the woman only that he would be "calling the police."
Police confiscated the badge, which read: "Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Officer 1338." Judie Glave, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the bridge and tunnel authority, said the badge is "totally fake."
Borodowski's lawyer, Andrew Rubin, acknowledged that the rabbi's behavior has been "manic" and said he's suffering from bipolar disorder. The lawyer said the rabbi will plead not guilty in court this week. A previous hearing was postponed because the rabbi was hospitalized.
The rabbi has been fired from a position at prestigious Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, one of the world's largest Jewish houses of worship. He also leads a congregation in Larchmont.
The odd saga of the rabbi has grabbed headlines in the car-centric suburbs and gained momentum after his arrest, when other drivers came forward saying he had tried to pull them over, too.
When Peter Moses' wife saw the story on the TV news, "She shouted, 'Oh my God, the guy who stopped us did it to someone else — and he's a rabbi!'" said Moses, a public relations consultant in White Plains.
Moses said that in May, a motorist tailgated him on a drive from Scarsdale to White Plains, "obviously trying to make me go faster" than the 40- mph limit. Instead, Moses slowed, and the driver passed him and then blocked his path.
"He's shouting, 'I'm a police officer, pull over!' and he's got this little badge that he's waving at us. I told my wife, 'That's not a police officer,'" Moses said.
"Then he's out of his car and he's screaming: 'I can arrest you! I can have you arrested!' I said, 'Fine, call the police,' then he storms back to his car and drives off."
Moses said his wife asked him not to report the incident but changed her mind when they learned of the arrest in Mamaroneck. "What we want is for the rabbi to get the emotional help he so obviously needs," he said.
Yet another driver handed State Police a video of a confrontation in late April on Interstate 87 near Yonkers. The man told authorities that he swerved in front of a driver who then flashed a badge and demanded that he pull over.
Police are not releasing the video, but a still image from it obtained by The Journal News shows a man who looks like Borodowski sticking his head out of his car window, his wispy graying hair blowing in the wind, who appears to be shouting and waving a silver badge in a leather case.
"He was holding up this tiny badge, and I knew the guy could no way be a cop in any sense of the word," the driver, whose name has not been made public, told the newspaper. When he challenged the man, he drove off.
The three complaints prompted the trustees of Temple Emanu-El to dismiss Borodowski as executive director of the Skirball Center for Jewish Learning "in the best interests of the congregation," said Mark Weisstuch, administrative vice president.
Borodowski was still listed as rabbi on the Web site for Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont. A call to the synagogue there was answered by a man who said: "No comment. That's his personal life."
The synagogue
of Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont, is depicted on Friday, July
12. The congregation's rabbi, Alfredo Borodowski, is charged with
impersonating a police officer by flashing a badge and ordering a fellow
motorist to pull over, angered by her slow driving.
Even more surprising was who was suspected of doing it: a respected rabbi.
"That girl was driving too slow and I hate when people do this," the 49-year-old Borodowski told investigators after he was charged with impersonating a police officer in June, when he allegedly pulled his Camry alongside a woman's car in Mamaroneck, flashed a badge and shouted: "Police! Police! Pull over!"
The woman, whose name has not been made public, did not pull over. According to her lawyer, Richard Clifford, the rabbi "just laid on the horn and started screaming at her" as she obeyed a 20-mph limit in a school zone. "She was so freaked out with the horn honking and the screaming that she called police immediately. ... I believe my client was in danger with this guy and if she had gotten out of her car it could have escalated."
Borodowski denied to police he was trying to impersonate an officer, saying he was telling the woman only that he would be "calling the police."
Police confiscated the badge, which read: "Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Officer 1338." Judie Glave, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the bridge and tunnel authority, said the badge is "totally fake."
Borodowski's lawyer, Andrew Rubin, acknowledged that the rabbi's behavior has been "manic" and said he's suffering from bipolar disorder. The lawyer said the rabbi will plead not guilty in court this week. A previous hearing was postponed because the rabbi was hospitalized.
The rabbi has been fired from a position at prestigious Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, one of the world's largest Jewish houses of worship. He also leads a congregation in Larchmont.
The odd saga of the rabbi has grabbed headlines in the car-centric suburbs and gained momentum after his arrest, when other drivers came forward saying he had tried to pull them over, too.
When Peter Moses' wife saw the story on the TV news, "She shouted, 'Oh my God, the guy who stopped us did it to someone else — and he's a rabbi!'" said Moses, a public relations consultant in White Plains.
Moses said that in May, a motorist tailgated him on a drive from Scarsdale to White Plains, "obviously trying to make me go faster" than the 40- mph limit. Instead, Moses slowed, and the driver passed him and then blocked his path.
"He's shouting, 'I'm a police officer, pull over!' and he's got this little badge that he's waving at us. I told my wife, 'That's not a police officer,'" Moses said.
"Then he's out of his car and he's screaming: 'I can arrest you! I can have you arrested!' I said, 'Fine, call the police,' then he storms back to his car and drives off."
Moses said his wife asked him not to report the incident but changed her mind when they learned of the arrest in Mamaroneck. "What we want is for the rabbi to get the emotional help he so obviously needs," he said.
Yet another driver handed State Police a video of a confrontation in late April on Interstate 87 near Yonkers. The man told authorities that he swerved in front of a driver who then flashed a badge and demanded that he pull over.
Police are not releasing the video, but a still image from it obtained by The Journal News shows a man who looks like Borodowski sticking his head out of his car window, his wispy graying hair blowing in the wind, who appears to be shouting and waving a silver badge in a leather case.
"He was holding up this tiny badge, and I knew the guy could no way be a cop in any sense of the word," the driver, whose name has not been made public, told the newspaper. When he challenged the man, he drove off.
The three complaints prompted the trustees of Temple Emanu-El to dismiss Borodowski as executive director of the Skirball Center for Jewish Learning "in the best interests of the congregation," said Mark Weisstuch, administrative vice president.
Borodowski was still listed as rabbi on the Web site for Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont. A call to the synagogue there was answered by a man who said: "No comment. That's his personal life."
Saudi Airlines Discriminating Against Israeli Citizens?!
I am not sure how this is news, but on July 15, 2003, The New York Post reported that "Saudi Arabian Airlines is discriminating against Israeli citizens by
refusing to fly them from US airports — even when passengers are simply
looking to transfer in Saudi Arabia to another country". Officially or perhaps unofficially, it wasn't only Israelis--no Jews are allowed to set foot in the kingdom. A long time ago, when I was working for Chase (now part of JP Morgan Chase), we had a Saudi client, the Bank of Ryiadh. Someone had to travel there to install the system, train the users, etc. My boss was very surprised to learn that I am Jewish (she naively thought that I was Russian), so I couldn't go. Neither could any other of my Jewish coworkers.
A simple Internet search yielded this article from 2 years ago. Like I said, how is this news?
A simple Internet search yielded this article from 2 years ago. Like I said, how is this news?
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