By Rusty Brooks

While the Biden administration is considering the first major federal tax hike in decades, the NY state legislature is looking at similar measures.

Democrats who control the state legislature took another step toward raising tax rates for wealthy New Yorkers Monday, with each chamber presenting its own proposal for this year’s state budget — valued at more than $192 billion, NPR reported.

Governor Cuomo is not thrilled with the idea.

“How you raise revenue can actually raise revenue, or can cost you revenue,” Cuomo said. “If you’re not careful the way you do it, you may actually lose money for the state because businesses and residents will make changes.”

Historically Cuomo has been against raising taxes on the wealthy.

Cuomo has warned that higher taxes could drive the rich out of New York and take their tax revenue with them. The top 1% of earners in New York generates nearly half of the state’s revenue from income taxes, according to state data, NPR reported.

NY Post Summarized the “progressive” tax proposals:

• A graduated tax hike on millionaires. The current income tax rate for single filers making more than $1 million and couples earning more than $2 million is 8.82 percent. That rate would rise to 11.85 percent. There also would be two new brackets: one for taxpayers earning between $5 million and $25 million and another for those making more than $25 million. The former would be taxed at a 10.85 percent rate, while the later would be slammed with 11.85 percent.

The moves would generate an estimated $4.3 billion, the lawmakers said.

• A new capital gains tax of 1 percent on those earning more than $1 million a year, boosting state coffers by about $700 million.
• A new progressive state tax on those with pied-a-terres, mansion town homes — or anything in between — used as a second home in New York City. The new levy would raise a projected $300 million for the state.
• An estate tax boost from 16 percent to 20 percent, raking in another $130 million.
• A new 18 percent “surcharge” on corporate franchises, utilities, and insurance companies — which could mean higher bills for customers. That tax would generate $1 billion, the lawmakers said.
• The reinstatement of a minimum business tax on corporate capital, earning another $150 million for the state.
• A recording tax on “mezzanine debt and preferred equity investments,’’ which would add another $171 million to state coffers.

Senator Schumer earlier this month claimed that the new COVID stimulus package would essentially wipe out NY’s budget deficit.

By Andre Malo

According to the Jewish Rights Group, 16 Hasidic men, including a group traveling from New York to Vienna, were detained at a German airport for more than 10 hours, the New York Post reported.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism told the press that five of the men were first stopped by authorities in Frankfurt on March 7 and detained without food and water, while other Hasidim were “rounded up” and also held

Some members of the group were pulled away and “harshly interrogated,” the release said.

“It’s unconscionable for something like this to happen to innocent people anywhere, but even more so to identifiable Jews in Germany, of all places,” Hikind said in a statement.

“They reached out to share their story with me,” he said. “I can tell you the trauma and pain they suffered is scarring and traumatic, so we are calling on the German government to investigate this appalling treatment of innocent people immediately.”

Officials at the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt and the U.S. Embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

The 16 detainees were eventually allowed to travel to Vienna, but only after denial signatures were signed that cleared the German government of wrongdoing, NY Post reported

According to a video interview released by Hikind’s group, the detained men said the problems began after five New Yorkers were stopped at border control at Frankfurt airport.

“As soon as I handed my documents to the officer, he looked at me, he said to me,‘ Are the five of you together? “He asks,” said one of the men. “I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said we had to step aside.”

“Two more people on our flight will get there,” he said. “They took their papers and immediately told us to stand by them. So we immediately realized that this was a Jewish thing.

“No one (other) was stopped for more than a minute,” he said. “When they saw the document, they said, ‘Next.’ The seven Jews, the Hasidic Jews, were told to stay away.”

The men said they contacted the U.S. consulate while they were in custody and said “they are checking my documents, they may be fraudsters.”

By: Ilana Siyance

President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Thursday.

The federal coronavirus relief package will include about $6 billion in local aid to New York City, $6.5 billion to the MTA, and relief for restaurants, small businesses and entertainment sites. The stimulus passed in the House and Senate despite unanimous Republican opposition.

Mayor Bill de Blasio lauded the package saying, “Take stock of this moment, everyone, because it’s extraordinary,” de Blasio said. “The biggest action by the federal government for the people of this country since the New Deal.”

“There’s funding for vaccines, funding for schools, funding to bring our schools back strong in September, funding to help our restaurants survive and thrive, and the wonderful initiative Save our Stages — which I know was a particular labor of love for Senator Schumer — bringing back Broadway, Off-Broadway, so much of the culture that makes New York City great,” de Blasio said.

As per Patch, eligible New Yorkers can prepare to receive a $1,400 stimulus check, with direct deposit payments starting the week of March 17, and paper checks being sent out the week after. To be eligible, individuals will need to earn $75,000 or less, or single parents earning up to $120,000 and couples with household income of under $160,000. Eligible couples filing taxes jointly can get $2,800, and eligible dependents can also add on $1,400 each. The child tax credit is also being increased from $2,000, to a new max of $3,600 per child under 6 and $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 16 for 2021. This will primarily benefit individuals earning under $75,000 a year, or $150,000 as a couple.

The plan also extends federal unemployment payments of $300 per week through Sept. 6. The proposed $15 federal minimum wage increase did not get passed with the bill. The stimulus also targets help for the MTA, helping the agency avoid the mass transit cuts warned against for months. Debt-ridden taxi drivers can also look forward to the taxi medallion relief fund.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo hailed the passage of the “historic” bill. “This legislation confronts the dual health and economic crises created by the war on COVID by providing much-needed relief to lift New York families out of dire economic straits, critical funds to expand and accelerate New York’s growing vaccination efforts and targeted relief for state and local governments,” Cuomo said in a statement.

By Don Driggers

The Public Theater has just announced that Shakespeare in the Park, which plays outdoors at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre will return this summer. A statement from the theater reads:

We have spent the last year getting ready. We have been producing new work and preparing a safe return. We’ve grieved, Zoomed, innovated, supported our communities, and connected our city. We’ve gathered brilliant artists to imagine summer under the stars in Central Park and are planning a return of Free Shakespeare in the Park beginning July 5 through August 29, with MERRY WIVES, a fresh and joyous adaptation, by Jocelyn Bioh, of Shakespeare’s MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR directed by our Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

This will not be a traditional production of a Shakespeare classic, it will instead be a “woke” adaption, including a mostly black cast.

“Set in South Harlem amidst a vibrant and eclectic community of West African immigrants, MERRY WIVES will be a celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality. A New York story about the tricks of the heart, performed in the heart of the City”, the Public Theater stated in a press release.

The Merry Wives of Windsor or Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play’s title is a reference to the town of Windsor, also the location of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. It is one of the least acclaimed Shakespeare work by critics and historians.

With “woke” academics targeting all European and American art and culture as racist, there have been efforts to actually stop teaching Shakespeare in High School and University; it comes as no shock that the popular free outdoor theater series, has succumbed to wokeness and moved an English comedy out of Windsor and into Harlem.

Since 1962, over five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at The Delacorte Theater. Conceived by founder Joseph Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park continues to be the bedrock of the Company’s mission to increase access and engage the community.

Public theater stated: in partnership with City officials, health and safety experts, and with our theatrical unions, the performance schedule, safety protocols, and free ticket distribution details will be forthcoming over the next several weeks.”

By Hellen Zaboulani

Philanthropist Marina Kellen French has donated $35 million to the Hospital for Special Surgery.

The top rated facility for musculoskeletal health and orthopedics, founded in 1863, will use the gift to undertake an impressive expansion. As reported by the NY Post, the New York institution has plans to build a new 12-story waterfront building over the FDR Drive. The $200 million project is the heart of a proposed $300 million modernization of the HSS campus.

The mini-tower, for which ground breaking is set for October, is slated to add 100,000 square feet of floor space for the hospital and provide more private patient rooms. The expansion will not add any hospital beds, but will increase the hospital’s operating capacity by about 25 percent. Operating rooms will be redone to add efficiency, and doctors’ offices and clinical and research facilities will be reconfigured.

“It positions HSS to do what we do best well into the future. It will allow us to give our patients who come from around the world the very best care through the next set of decades,” said HSS CEO, Louis A. Shapiro, who called it a “transformative” addition to the campus.

The HSS campus already includes over ten buildings on the East River between East 71st and 75th streets. The new 12-story building will connect to the hospital’s existing main building, with a third-floor sky bridge over East 71st Street. The plan received approval under the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, back in the 1990s and already has the needed permits. “We’ve owned the air rights for years and now, we’re finally able to do this,” said HSS surgeon-in-chief emeritus Dr. Thomas P. Sculco. “It will be amazing for our patients, not only for the facilities, but for the views they’ll have over the East River.” The hospital has been eyeing such a project for decades.

Sculco credited Mrs. French for making the dream a reality. “Amazing — it was in the beginning of the pandemic, [when we were] struggling to keep the hospital afloat,” he recalled. “That’s when Marina stepped up and said, ‘we want to make a difference.’ ”

“Marina has been unbelievably generous to us over the years,” Sculco said. “Her foundation’s total gifts to us, including this latest, total over $60 million.” French is vice president of her parents’ foundation, the Anna-Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation. The tower will also bear her parents’ names.

By: Paolo Santalucia & Nicole Winfield

A looted mosaic that once decorated a ship of the Roman Emperor Caligula and ended up as a coffee table in New York City finally returned home Thursday, as details emerged about the lucky break in the investigation that got it there.

Officials unveiled the mosaic at the Museum of Roman Ships, which was built in the 1930s specifically to house the treasures of two huge ceremonial ships Caligula commissioned in around AD 40. The ships eventually sank and were excavated from the depths of Lake Nemi, in the Alban hills south of Rome, starting in the late 1890s.

The mosaic, a 1.5 square-meter geometric print in rich green, reddish-purple and white stone, was part of an inlaid floor on one of the ships, which were designed and decorated essentially as floating palazzi in a testament to Caligula’s greatness.

It’s unclear when the mosaic passed into private hands or under what circumstances. But eventually it was purchased by a New York antiquities dealer and her Italian journalist husband, who shipped it back to New York and made a coffee table out of it for their Park Avenue apartment.

And there it sat, relatively undisturbed, until Oct. 23, 2013. That night, at the Bulgari jewelry store on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue, marble and stones expert Dario Del Bufalo was giving a lecture and book signing for his new book “Porphyry,” on the rare reddish-purple stone preferred by the Roman emperors, that was attended by New York’s cultural elite.

As he was signing books, Del Bufalo said he overheard two women who were leafing through his book exclaim “This is Helen’s mosaic! This is Helen’s mosaic!’” after seeing a photograph of the work.

“I didn’t understand,” Del Bufalo said Thursday as the mosaic was put on display at the Nemi museum. “There were a lot of art experts and I asked ‘Who is Helen?’ And they told me she is a woman who has a house on Park Avenue and this same mosaic.”

Helen was Helen Fioratti, the antiquities dealer, and soon she would be caught up in the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the Italian culture ministry and carabinieri art squad, all of which were hunting down antiquities that had been looted from Italy and ended up in private collections and top U.S. museums.

The Manhattan DA’s office in October 2017 announced it had seized the mosaic and turned it back over to Italian consular authorities, who repatriated it to Italy. It has been on temporary exhibition since then in Italy but on Thursday was returned to the Nemi museum, with the other artifacts from Caligula’s ships.

Fioratti told The Associated Press at the time of the seizure that she had bought the mosaic in good faith more than 40 years earlier while she was living in Italy and had been told it belonged to the aristocratic Barberini family. She was never prosecuted, and decided not to contest the seizure because she believed it would cost too much and take too long.

“It was an innocent purchase,” she said then, adding that the sale had been brokered by an Italian art historian known for his work recovering art stolen by the Nazis. “We were very happy with it. We loved it. We had it for years and years, and people always complimented us on it.”

Del Bufalo said the district attorney’s office eventually asked him to authenticate the mosaic. He said he immediately recognized the round porphyry pieces used, as well as the restoration of a vertical crack.

“When they showed me the photos of the mosaic belonging to this woman who was living in New York, I told them; ‘Yes, it is exactly that same one,’” he said.

  (AP)

By Ilana Siyance

New York City has unveiled its first concrete plan to aid drivers, who have been ailing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and before that through predatory loans.

As reported by the NY Times, on Tuesday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to spend $65 million, from the stimulus funds it is slated to receive from the federal government, to help restructure outstanding loans owned by the drivers. Many drivers have fallen deep in debt from loans that they took out to pay for medallions, or city permits which give them permission to own their own cabs. The city made a lot of money on the medallions, at the expense of the taxi drivers, many of whom became victims to abusive lenders, and exaggerated interest rates.

Their businesses were then battered by competition from ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft. The pandemic was the cherry on top, devastating demand and leaving many of the small cab owners close to bankruptcy. As of January 2021, revenue for the taxi industry was still 80 percent lower than January last year.

City Hall’s plan, named the Taxi Medallion Owner-Driver Relief Fund, will provide up to $29,000 in no-interest loans to each of roughly 3,000 drivers who purchased a medallion for their own cab. “This new plan will be a difference-maker for many, many drivers,” Mr. de Blasio said at a news conference.

The proposal would not be a full bailout— it would still leave drivers in debt, with large monthly payments. On average, most of the drivers owe roughly $500,000 in loans. Still, the deal would help them negotiate with their lenders, and to lower the debt in exchange for a down payment towards the loans. “This proposal recognizes that taxis are a critical part of New York City’s infrastructure, and provides owner-drivers meaningful relief that will help them restructure their loans — lowering their monthly payments and bolstering their economic prospects, while stabilizing the industry,” said a spokesman for the largest holder of medallion loans, Marblegate Asset Management.

The plan also has its fair share of critics, however, who say it does not go far enough. “The mayor’s proposal is a disgrace and fails to deliver the significant relief drivers deserve,” said City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who had recommended a more generous proposal which could forgive more debt using less city money. “There is no excuse not to address the crisis with a real solution. We have the means — we just need the will to meaningfully act.”

By: Charles MacGuire

New York City has paid $3.2 million to purchase the former home of two Brooklyn abolitionists who harbored slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. As reported by Crain’s NY, the home purchased at 227 Duffield St. in Downtown Brooklyn was once owned by Harriet and Thomas Truesdell from 1851 to 1863. The Truesdells were well-known abolitionists who aided slaves who escaped from the South. The couple had befriended illustrious personalities including Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Lloyd Garrison. Harriet Truesdell had died in the home in 1862. This 4-story building, originally built in 1847-50, has long been the subject of controversy. There have been at least two major efforts to develop the site.

Last month, the city officially changed the status of the address, marking it as a landmark, to prevent developers from turning it into a high-rise apartment building. Duffield Street has also been renamed Abolitionist Place. As yet, specific plans for the property have not been announced, however, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city will be “doing something special” to honor its role in the abolitionist efforts.

“It’s a place where abolitionists risked their livelihoods and lives so that African people who were enslaved could travel safely to freedom,” said Chirlane McCray, NYC’s first lady.

The redone three-unit Greek Revival–style building was almost demolished back in 2007 with plans to develop a public park, but protesters had put up a good fight, leaving the plan in the dust. City officials did end up making Willoughby Square Park, a rare piece of greenery amidst the office and apartment buildings now towering through the neighborhood. Look-alike buildings at 223 and 225 met with the wrecking ball to make way for the park in the south east corner of Willoughby and Duffield.

As per Crain’s, in 2015, Samiel Hanasab had purchased a share in the property at 227 Duffield St for $439,000, then completed the purchase in 2017 for another $149,000. The building was approved for a 13-story, 21-unit development which would have included a 34-car garage. Demolition was slated to be done in 2019, but those efforts too were thwarted.

Activists have argued that the home, which was once part of a hub of African-American culture, is among the only houses left in the area after an aggressive rezoning effort in 2004. This house is being touted as the last remaining connection to the dedicated Abolitionist community active in the area in the mid-19th century.

By Serach Nissim

Thousands of graduate students and student workers at Columbia University went on Strike on Monday after hitting a brick wall in negotiations with school administrators again.

As reported by the NY Post, the student workers, which began a union four years ago are stalled in negotiations with Columbia U over the terms of their first student worker contract. The graduate students are requesting higher wages and better benefits citing the rising costs of living. They are also demanding an effective system to probe allegations of sexual harassment or discrimination. Representatives said the Union members will stop working or conducting research for the university until their demands are satisfied.

“For the things that arguably don’t cost the University money, when they deny us those demands, they deny us dignity, and for the economic asks, they deny us literally the material conditions we need to live a livable life in New York City,” said Steven Lazickas, Graduate Workers of Columbia-UAW bargaining committee member. “They pay us starvation wages, so they’re denying us a healthy life and they’re denying us dignity. And that’s why we’re going on strike.”

City Comptroller and mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer voiced his support for the student on Monday. “Two years at the bargaining table is two years too long,” he wrote in a tweet. “Columbia must do right by these workers and students.” In the meantime, Columbia U has threatened to withhold payments for any member who actively participates in the strike, as per a statement from the Graduate Workers of Columbia. In a show of support many faculty members and other students have vowed not to report strike activities, so as to protect the workers from the repercussions. A GoFundMe page has even been set up to compensate strikers from whom payment is withheld. As of Tuesday at noon, the fundraiser has gathered over $66,000 from 1.1k donors.

The university said that the decision to strike come as the talks were making progress, and maintained that the timing is difficult as the university is suffering financial setbacks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The disappointment many of us feel is grounded not only in the significant burden that our campus would be compelled to bear in the event of a strike during one of the most stressful times in the history of students, staff, and faculty at Columbia, but because, after a long period of relative stasis, there has been considerable progress in our negotiations,” wrote Columbia Interim Provost, Ira Katznelson.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

As momentum keeps building for the incredible movement to free all Agunos, news broke on Tuesday afternoon that yet another recalcitrant husband gave his wife a Get in the #FreeMichelle case, according to a VIN report.

On Tuesday afternoon, Michelle received her Get from her husband Jonathan Abtan. VIN reported that the public is encouraged to keep up their efforts, as positive results come from the public outcry against Get withholding along with the invaluable support for the tragic plight of Agunos.

As the Jewish Voice neared its deadline on Tuesday night, it was reported by VIN that rallies are scheduled to take place in both Boca Raton, Florida and in Lakewood, New Jersey on Tuesday evening to exhort Aaron Silberberg to give his wife Devorah a Get.

According to the VIN report, the rumor mill was in full swing on Tuesday afternoon, as Aaron Silberberg himself was busy disseminating egregious propaganda by communicating online that the Siruv from the Beis Din of America against him was cancelled, and that the rallies themselves had been cancelled.

On Tuesday afternoon, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton sat down with Rabbi Avi Kahan, a well respected Rav from New City who deals with many Agunah issues. Together they recorded a video to dispel these aforementioned rumors, and to explain why the rallies are still very much scheduled to take place, as was reported by VIN.

Also on Tuesday, word reached the Jewish Voice that another man who had adamantly refused to give his wife Esther a get was the focus of demonstrators who had gathered at his home on West 8th Street in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. The man in question, David Ohayon is well known in the community in which he resides as someone who is attempting to punish his wife by not allowing her freedom to begin a new life.

According to a source who is familiar with the details of the case and who spoke to the Jewish Voice on the condition of anonymity said that Ohayon has a 94-year old mother who is extremely upset by the negative attention that the family has received. “I spoke to Ohayon’s brother and the guy was literally shaking because of the controversy that has been swirling around their family. Ohayon’s brother is extremely worried about their mother and he does not want any coverage whatsoever about this case.”

On that note, the anonymous source said that thus far, very positive results have been achieved in obtaining Gets for chained women in the Sephardic community because of people in the community who have joined forces in unity and have organized daily demonstrations outside of the homes of those men who refuse to give their wives a get. In addition, the community’s use of social media platforms has been yet another decisive tool in achieving results as the messages are going out far and wide and on a continual basis.

Said the source, “Our rabbis really tried their best to cajole these men into giving their wives a get and while we greatly appreciate the time and energy they put into this, in the end, it appears that these men were more fearful of public ridicule and shame than they were of any rabbinical decree issued against them. “

Last week, the Jewish Voice reported about Jeff Hafif, the man who was arrested on Thursday for severely abusing his wife in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. He had intentionally withheld a Get (bill of Jewish divorce) for 17 years from his previous wife and finally gave a Get on Sunday morning.

Hafif’s arrest came after a recording was circulated of Hafif verbally abusing his wife and children.

According to comments on the SYAlerts page on Instagram, Yvette Khafif was given her get on Sunday morning after 17 long years waiting for it. The alert said” Just got off the phone with Rabbi Eli Mansour. A get has been given to Yvette Hhafif after 17 years. Thanks to the hard work of Rabbi Shaul Maslaton as well as Mr. Joe Alaham, Mr. Jack Saade, Mr. Edmond Nahum! Thanks to our community – She is a free woman!”

Hafif’s case was also just one out of many cases that are the center of a new but quickly growing movement on social media, in which Jewish influencers are using their platforms to promote and gain public support for Agunos, taking back control of a broken system that has thus far failed to help these victims properly, according to a report on Vois Es Nais. Many of these social media campaigns resulted in public rallies outside the homes of these recalcitrant husbands, effectively creating a social pressure unlike any that had been seen before, according to the VIN report.

A phalanx of NYPD officers arrived at the home of Hafif to make the arrest. Community members became aware of the tragic situation and held a demonstration outside of Hafif’s home, where hundreds of people chanted “Give her a Get!!” and proceeded to throw eggs at the home. They returned for several consecutive evenings to ratchet up the pressure on Hafif to adhere to Jewish law. According to Jewish law and rabbinical decrees, it is permissible and even encouraged to persuade a recalcitrant husband to give his estranged wife a Get.

The message is clear. The community is no longer willing to tolerate Get withholding, and community members are willing to step up and make their voices heard publicly, according to the VIN report.

According to reports, prominent community member, Mr. Harry Adjmi was also instrumental in helping the Get come to fruition. This is at least the second Get Mr. Adjmi was involved with over recent weeks, according to the VIN report. Adjmi was also instrumental in the Get of the #FreeElizabeth movement as well.

The case in point, Elizabeth K., a woman living in Brooklyn, who has been waiting four years to receive her get, got it on Motzei Shabbat. Instagram was particularly effective in this get – because there is a newly empowered group of Influencers on Instagram that arranged an impromptu rally, according to the VIN report.

“People came out of the woodworks,” remarked Avi David, who observed the rally.“The rally was actually planned, but many other women showed up because it went viral on Instagram and everyone’s Facebook page,” he continued.

Commenting on the Hafif get, Rabbi Dr. Noam Weinberg tweeted: BREAKING IN FLATBUSH: Jeff Hafif Gives Wife A Get After SEVENTEEN YEARS As Movement Grows To Pressure Husbands!!! Let’s keep the pressure on and get these women the freedom they deserve! Who is next? @RStomel @skjask

Elizabeth and Evet may have their Get, but much work remains to be done as there are still many women in the community who are still stuck in limbo marriages, according to the VIN report.

The social media movements remain strong, and there are many rallies being planned at this time where community members will come out and offer support in calling for these husbands to finally free their wives, as was reported by VIN.

Sources in the Sephardic community told the Jewish Voice that the issue of men who refuse to give their wives a get was something that they had thought they were immune to. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a well placed source in the community said, “For many years now, we thought the problem of men not giving their ex-wives a get only went on in the Ashkenazic community. If you read the Jewish Press, for instance, you will see that each week, without fail, they present a growing list of men who are in direct violation of Jewish law and rabbinic decisions by refusing to give a get. Despite community pressure, they are adamant about making the lives of the women they were married to and had children with a total nightmare.”

The unnamed source added with indignation in his voice, “How dare these men behave is such a despicable manner. How dare they call themselves Jews and participate in the synagogue and in community affairs. They should hang their heads in shame and the community should continue to place enormous pressure on them until they fully comply with Jewish law.”

According to a web site named Ora, other men have also been served with a seruv for a get but have not complied.

• David Nachmani and his wife have had a legal divorce since 2007. There is a siruv against him from Beis Din of America. His wife has been an Agunah for 13 and ½ years.
• Moshe Stern has been separated from his wife Patricia since 1995 – that’s 26 years. Patricia lives in Israel. Moshe Stern moves around all over the place. His last known location, however, was in Boro Park. The Psak against Moshe Stern was from the Rabbanut of Eretz Yisroel, signed by Rabbi Ezra Batzri and Rabbi Benyamin Levy and Rabbi Masoud El-Chadad.

Ora, however, follows the advice of leading and nationally recognized Poskim, according to the VIN report.

“There is a debate among the Poskim regarding the parameters of what defines an improper get me’usa. Ora only publicizes the seruvim issued by the Beis Din and with their authorization to publicize it,” explained Rabbi Yonatan Klayman, Director of Advocacy for Ora.

“It also makes a big difference if we are contacted early on. Ora works closely with the Batei Dinim, the Agunah and their legal representatives to make sure that everyone is on board with the process. The Beis Din generally authorizes publicizing a seruv when, in their view, it would be impossible to obtain otherwise. That’s why pressure implanted thoughtfully,” remarked Keshet Star, CEO of Ora.