I would like to say a few words regarding some forces who ‘Kvetch’ often about the Board of Education of the East Ramapo (NY) Central School District: They are driven by hate!

They – The mid-Hudson and Westchester regions director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) , and the President of the Spring Valley, NY chapter of the NAACP – work officially to fight discrimination and to protect Civil Rights, but it is likely hate that drives them to file complains and publish negative reports against the Orthodox Jewish/Hasidic Board members who have a majority on the nine-seat School District’s BOE.

A sample of a disgraceful anti-Jewish move by the NAACP is the Press Release the Spring Valley chapter published in the afternoon of Monday, April 18, announcing that the US Department of Education’s Civil Right Division opened an investigation against The Board in response to a complaint filed by the NAACP. The problem? Well, the Federal DOE notified the NAACP and The Board in a letter dated ten days earlier – April 8 – about the inquiry. In fact, Wilbur Aldridge, director for the mid-Hudson and Westchester regions of the NAACP, told LoHud.com, the online edition of the Journal News, that news about the investigation came “last week,” (the week of April 10), yet the NAACP produced its Press Release only on Monday the 18′th, hours before the eight-day Passover holiday kicked in. With this deliberate delay, the NAACP limited  the ability of The Board to respond to the allegations in a timely fashion, since the Board adjourned for the holiday with its majority Orthodox Jewish/Hasidic members about to fully observe – without cell phone and electronic communications means – five of the following eight days starting with Sun Set of the 18′th.

The shameless act by the NAACP went a step further, including strongly misleading the press as to the will of the U.S. Department of Education. Wilbur Aldridge, the NAACP Mid-Hudson Director was quoted by the Journal News that “We cannot release any information as to what they’re looking at or what they’re looking for, but we do know that they have begun an investigation into the functioning of the East Ramapo School District,” and – reported LoHud – “adding that the U.S. Department of Education has asked [The NAACP] that the particulars of the investigation be withheld.”

The above information is contrary to what the Civil Right Office wrote to the ERCSD Board in its letter informing them about the Investigation. The Letter writes, “Under the Freedom of Information Act, it may be necessary to release this letter and related correspondence, and records upon request.” But again, the NAACP told differently to the press, likely with the goal to paint the Majority Jewish Board members in a dark light at a time when they hat limited-to-no reasonable chance to respond to the allegations.

It is a shame that people working for The NAACP, a group out there to advance the needs of minorities, uses religion and race to undermine members of another minority group while using severely handicapped and developmentally challenged kids as pawns. The disgrace grows even more when considering that the NAACP Spring Valley Chapter is located in one of New York’s most diverse villages whose Orthodox Jewish and Hasidic members shaped history eighteen months ago by making possible to elect New York State’s first Haitian American Mayor!

The Board Members at the ERCSD are using the success of the Private School system (where 2/3 of the local students are enrolled), to enhance multiple parts of the Public School system, most notably the Special Education division. This was done while keeping tax increases to a minimum; a move away from the past and a helpful move for locals in the troubling economic times of recent years. But from local groups and individual mouth-pieces, the Board gets mostly only complaints, fights, arguments and attacks, and at last this shameful act by the NAACP.

I hope the national NAACP will move to denounce its Spring Valley chapter and the Director of its Mid-Hudson and Westchester regions, and instruct them to work hand-in-hand with members of all communities for the good and the education of children in The District.

Contact: yossi@yossigestetner.com

Regardless your party affiliation, please write in less than 100 characters whom you would support/want to see as the Republicans Presidential candidate for 2012. Be it a person that is running, be it a person you want to see run. Regardless, please email it to yossi@yossigestetner.com. (add your Party affiliation and age if you wish to do so.)

The article that I posted Friday on my Blog was automatically sent to the email list Saturday afternoon. I apologize for not adjusting the delivery time that it should arrive Friday afternoon or perhaps Saturday night.

Yossi Gestetner

Check out our new page, the Yiddish Page: http://yossigestetner.com/yiddish/

First article there speaks of how Jewish retail store owners, mostly groceries, hand-out jobs in ways that it comes back to bite the owners. Check it out. You may like the content. Thanks!

Feel free to e-mail me anytime yossi@yossigestetner.com

As I pointed out on Twitter, Democrats are called ‘Democrats’ despite the fact that their party name is ‘The Democratic Party.’ For example: Schumer and Gillibrand are NY Democrats.

Now, why would we say ‘Schumer and Gillibrand are Democrats,’ but we will say ‘Schumer and Gillibrand, Democratic Senators from NY’? Why add this ‘tic’?

The answer is simple: Schumer’s initial party name was ‘Democrat,’ (and/or ‘The New Democrat’). But to fool voters into thinking that Democrats are “Democratic” while their opponents are Communists or what have you, the Democrats changed their party name to ‘The Democratic Party,’ but its members are still good-old ‘Democrats.’

Any time Democrats can brainwash voters about their intentions, the Democrats like to be called by their Party name, such as “Schumer, Democratic Senator from NY.” But old habits die hard so he and his buddies call themselves and are called ”The Democrats.”

To rub it into the Democrats, they should from now on be called ”The Democratics,” or in singular term ‘Democratic,” like Charlie Rangel, Democratic, NY.

The Democratics will sure hate that they are always named ‘The Democratics’, but if they can’t stand it, Democratics should ALWAYS be called Democrat/Democrats, and stop playing this undemocratic game…

By the way, does anyone know how many seats the Democratics will lose in November? Few think that my Congressman, a NY Democratic, will lose his seat.

I am a registered Republican with Conservative views on most issue. However, after long debate with close friends and supporters, I concluded that I will have to run for office as a Democrat.

The reason is this: Back in 2005, some people close to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were embroiled in some corruption, or allegations of it. DeLay claimed he did nothing wrong, but to the constant drum beat of “corruption” and with the “support” of his colleagues, he stepped down from his powerful position and left Congress altogether.

This guy was cleared by the DOJ on August 16, 2010. Now let’s look at a different story.

In 2008, stories started swirling around another Congressman. Between others he was accused of “forgetting” annually to report to Congress rental properties he had outside this country, and was also accused of not paying tax on these earnings. However, despite these and other two-year-long accusations, and despite being recently indicted by the House Ethics Committee on a total of thirteen House violations (including things that are violations of the LAW, not just ‘House Rules’), this person is still a Congressman! 

If you wonder what the difference is between these two, look no further than their Party Line. Tom DeLay is a Republican, and the other Congressman, known as Charles Rangel, is a Democrat. As a Democrat, you stand a better chance to stay around with Chutzpa mostly because your friends circle the wagons for you – regardless if it is improper behavior in the Oval Office; regardless if you had shady property deals as a Senator from Nevada; regardless if as a Senator from NY, your staff dug up the Credit Report of a Black Candidate seeking office, and regardless if you are ‘sloppy’ while stuffing down your socks classified documents that can implicate you in being negligence regarding the 9/11 attacks.

As long you are a Democrat, you are good to go. However, if you are a Republican, the odds are that media reports will endlessly be against you, while your colleagues jump atop of each other to push you under the bus.

Due to all this, I decided that if I will be running for office, I will likely do it as a Democrat. This will increase the odds of not losing my job and reputation when being accused of things that I didn’t do (as it was with the DeLay). As a Democrat, I stand a chance of becoming Treasury Secretary and/or having all powerful people at my birthday party despite not paying thousands of dollars in tax on an annual basis.

Christopher St. Lawrence (D), Supervisor of the Town Of Ramapo, in Rockland County NY, has recently published a letter asking all residence to enter an I.C.E., In Case of Emergency contact in their self phones. The gain? In case of emergency, say someone is found passed out, the arriving emergency personal should know where to call. They will flip open the person’s handheld device, search the Contact Section for ICE and dial the first or any other number posted to be reached In Case of Emergency.

This idea is probably not new, but I saw it first only recently. I think it is cool, depsite the “privecy issues” that some of my Conservative friends may have with this…

Just as note: while the ICE number is likely a person that is already saved in your phone, you still have the option of saving the number again under a new name. It works with my junk phone. It should work with your’s too.

After Martin Grossman’s death sentence was carried out, a press conference was held by the Park family. Ms. Betsy Park, the sister of Peggy Park, the Wildlife officer killed by Grossman, said as follows: “we were harassed over the past week, and I think it is reprehensible for any cause.” I didn’t hear directly from Park that she meant harassment from Jewish groups. However, some news agencies implied, and others said explicitly, that the harassment came from Jews.

I would like to set the record straight here:

No leader of the Orthodox Jewish community, and nor anyone working on their behalf, did any type of harassment to the Park family. I cannot take responsibility if some renegades within the Jewish community did things on their own that irked the Park family. (I am not even aware that such things took place.)

The only “harassment” that came from the Jewish community was an offer to bring closure to the Park family in form of memorializing the dedicated work of Peggy Park, by laying the groundwork for a Foundation that would help the families of Law Enforcement officers who die in the line of duty. In exchange for this foundation – that would have gotten a six-digit figure to get off the ground – the Parks family would agree to inform Governor Crist that from their end, they are not seeking the death penalty at the current time.

Considering that the effort to gain a 60-day stay of execution for Grossman was running against the clock, extraordinary efforts were put in motion to get in-touch with the Park family. After ongoing debates, the family’s final and unequivocal decision was that they will try getting closure via the execution of Grossman, which was fully within their right. The working group had hoped for a different outcome, but following the carrying-out of the Grossman sentence, the group didn’t question the judgment of the Park family.

More details about this and other aspect of the Grossman Story will God-willing follow in a forthcoming article that is being put together for Yiddish and English publication. Stay tuned.

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