Ner Israel President Sheftel Neuberger left a voice mail to our managing editor Alan Feiler telling him that he would not talk to the Jewish Times anymore since we wrote articles about the dead child molester Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro.
Times like these make me miss his late father, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, even more.
The reason Neuberger won’t talk is because he sees it is a violation of Jewish law for us to write the truth about a dead person. In this case, the truth is that Ephraim Shapiro molested on occasions too numerous to count, both boys and girls. It wasn’t until years after his death that the truth started emerging like ooze from a waste dump that this man had ruined the lives of many innocent people.
Alan Feiler was calling Neuberger to learn if the yeshiva had done any internal counseling with its student population over the apparent suicide of one of its own students.
What Neuberger and those who think like him don’t get is that Ephraim Shapiro (I hesitate to use the word rabbi, a term of respect here) was more alive than some of the people whose spirits he so arrogantly killed. Think about it, he molested people in a matter of moments leaving them with an imprint that could for some last forever. And what is so interesting, we have reason to believe that there is at least one former Shapiro student who allegedly committed suicide because of possible molestation from his teacher.
So don’t comment Sheftel Neuberger. Your silence says it all.

It’s all about Iran.
You can call him evil, you can call him like Hitler, you can call him what ever you want, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, and it pains me to even write his name, it is so Haman-like, has been calling for the destruction of Israel.
How many times does he have to issue another threat to the Jewish State before we “get”it. Iran doesn’t have to fire a nuclear or conventional warhead towards Israel to get at least some of its work done.
It is using its foot soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon.
These are not “insurgents” nor are they “militants” like NPR, the Baltimore Sun or any other media outlet likes to call them. They are soldiers. They don’t wear green or khaki uniforms, chevrons on their sleeves or special helmets. But make no mistake about it, they are soldiers.
During warfare, civilians die. We would never have liberated France from the Nazis if we had tried to cherry pick our artillery or infantry attacks on the villages from Normandy to Berlin. Houses get destroyed by bombs, innocent people go hungry. It’s awful, but it happens.
In our country, during the U.S. Civil War, the north issued the final blow on the South by setting Atlanta on fire.
I hate it, you hate it, but Hamas is not massing its 25,000 combatants in companies or regiments, marching in lock step, using warfare strategies of convention. They are launching rockets, taking down the launchers and assimilating into the general population.
That is just part of their strategy.
They are trained by Iran and they are often equipped by Iran.
Why wouldn’t Iran want to open a second front in all of this at this time? They see the world sentiment is anti-Israel. The TV is filled with images of dead Palestinians. Those same cameras weren’t anywhere to be found when the rockets starting falling on Sderot years ago.
And now we are to begin a transition of power in the United States.
Our new President is going to have to make it abundantly clear to Iran, that the power and commitment of the United States is with Israel.
If that doesn’t happen, then no matter how mentally deranged we want to call Iran’s leader, Israel could in grave danger.
Last spring I took a trip to Sderot and Ashkelon. The person from Israel driving a small contingent of American Jewish journalists to Sderot was the vice president of marketing for a major Israeli tourist provider. He was Israeli, he was a veteran of the 1982 war in Lebanon. He was from Tel Aviv. And he had no idea of what was happening to Sderot.
Over and over again, I watched him while experts told us that first the target would be Sderot, then it would be Ashkelon, then Ashdod, and then Tel Aviv.
The disengagement from Gaza was supposed to bring peace.
Instead here we are, thousands of rocket attacks later.
The last thing Iran wants is peace.
It wants Israel gone. It’s serious.
I hope our country’s leaders are more serious.