Sunday, January 10, 2010

Tom Kaplan - Coffee for Me, Worms for Her


NYTimes

UP AND SCRAMBLING Sunday is the designated morning for my wife to sleep in, so I make sure I'm up early, by 7:30, because one of the kids is usually up around then, and once one is up, the other one seems to follow pretty quickly. My day starts with us making something they call Papa's Special Eggs, which technically are scrambled eggs. I use olive oil, not butter, and some sea salt and a little bit of skim milk; I lean on the healthy side of the equation, but according to the kids, these are the benchmark of great eggs.[...]

14 comments :

  1. Recipients and PublicityJanuary 10, 2010 at 9:09 PM

    Do any of the foods he eats and the resturants he goes to with his wife and kids have a reliable hechsher from a known mashgiach and kashrut agency, or does he rely on a "heter" from Tropper and all the great sages who just think whatever he does is marvelous?

    Notice how the article does NOT mention his association as co-head and co-founder of the disgraced EJF nor does it mention his loss in court of his own Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation with its web of connection to shady rabbis like Tropper, his BEST friend in the whole wide world, or the fallout with his sister and nephew Guma Aguiar.

    Someone has planted this fluffy PR piece and made sure that the supposed NY Times expose about the Tropper sex scandal at EJF funded by Kaplan never got published. No wonder the NY Times has gone downhill and is on the verge of bankruptcy save for the last minute investment of a Mexican billionaire. Maybe Kaplan would like to buy the NY Times next, who knows.

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  2. R. Eidensohn -- Whatever happened with last Monday's meeting of Kaplan and EJF that you had a post about last week?

    Any decisions regarding his continuing funding of EJF?

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  3. Somebody needs to lighten up, "Recipients..." Why isn't Tom Kaplan a victim also? Isn't he a baal tsedaka who meant well? Leib Tropper has the comportment of a friendly, gregarious man. The truth is, Tropper did have the germ of a good idea that he was able to sell. The good idea was a uniform standard of geirus, to replace an ad hoc "system" producing a fair number of questionable geirim. The idea went sour for a number of reasons, particularly for his proseltyzing, his bossy demeanor, and his personal corruption.

    Recall that Tropper originally attracted the rabbinic spectrum, ranging from Rav Herschel Schachter at RIETS, to Rav Reuven Feinstein. Rav Schachter, at some point, walked away. The point is that quite a few credible rabbis did see a potential good idea in the making.

    The trickle of rabbinic conmdemnation of Tropper is now a steadier flow, but I don't see anybody faulting Tom Kaplan. Rav Dunner from the London Beis Din simply suggested, Mr. Kaplan, please consider donating to Jewish education.

    Tom Kaplan is not hiding the fact he does not keep strictly kosher, or maybe not even kosher at all. He told the reporter where he eats, and the Times article has the links to the actual menus. Maybe he orders the salmon, and a salad, who knows. More importantly, he's married to a Jewish woman, has two nice kids, and we know he's a big supporter of the 92nd Street Y, a social and cultural center for Jewish people. He gives millions to the Y, and other worthy causes.

    Nu, its a fluffy piece, and doesn't suggest otherwise.

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  4. Any decisions regarding his continuing funding of EJF?
    =============
    Haven't heard anything

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  5. I was going to post exactly what Jewish Observer posted. Now I can just "second" it.

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  6. Recipients and PublicityJanuary 10, 2010 at 11:48 PM

    "Jewish Observer said... etc"

    If you have been following events and discussions on this blog the last two years at least you will see that Tom Kaplan is no "innocent babe in the woods" -- yes it is true that he is naive billionaire who in the same breath wants to save all the wildcats of the planet, endear himself to rabbis galore, while he feeds his pet tortoise worms and forgets to tell the NY Times about his other passion of pouring tens of millions into the dead-in-the-water-EJF while standing 100% behind his now-openly-disgraced bossom buddies and "spiritual" mentors and idols Leib and Leba Tropper. He hasn't said a word against Tropper in spite of all the disgrace and Tropper's humiliating resignation or anything about it!

    Kaplan is not a dumb bumpkin. He is a hard core ball player (bad puns in light of revelations about Tropper's sexcapades) who is 100% alligned with Tropper fighting for his credibility and at least half his fortune from Leor Energy against his estranged emboldened nephew Guma Aguiar to whom he has already lost in court when he claimed that Guma was a "messiah aspirant" (a "title" better suited to the megolomanical Tropper) and duly lost the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation fair and square in court to his nephew-rival and Tropper's arch nemesis Guma Aguiar.

    So to focus on the silly fluff, as you admit it is just fluffy nonsense in this piece, and to ignore the harder and tougher relities of the titanic struggle between Kaplan and his nephew Guma and between Tropper and the rabbis in his corner (namely R Reuven Feinstein and R EB Wachtfogel) against Guma Aguiar with his team rabbis in his corner (mainly all of the Chabad rabbis, most Religious Zionist rabbis in Israel, and a sprinkling of Haredi rabbis as well) and this all makes for a dynamite topic to write about concerning Tom Kaplan and his wealthy-in-her-own-right wife Dafna Recanati and their disgraced unfrocked gurus Leib and Leba Tropper, and this utter shtuss and stupid silly nonsense about feeding worms to tortoises is nuts, since he can't very well show himself feeding flesh to the hungry lions and leopards or justifying how he backed a big-time loser like Tropper=EJF that he wasted/s tens of millions on.

    This is all so weird, and yet you feel it's ok to make an "argument" for the absurd. How much are you being paid to defend Tom Kaplan, and by implication Tropper too, by the way?

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  7. "How much are you being paid to defend Tom Kaplan, and by implication Tropper too, by the way?"

    Halevei, halevei, halevei, a famous song, by Chassan Moishe Oysher, sung in duet with the shmaltzy Barry Sisters of Borscht Belt fame. You'd probably call it a fluffy song, and you'd be right. Go look it up on You Tube, and if you're not too fussy about kol isha, tell me if you, Enjoy!

    Dear Recipients...Have rachmonus on the Jewish bloggerati. Yes, I have been following the story for quite a while. I even did some seat-of-the-pants Internet research on Tom Kaplan before posting. I discovered a wing named after his mother at a Florida hospital where kidney transplants are performed. Ooooh....that works for me. And probably for you too.

    Robin Finn is a familiar name to Times readers. She, the writer, has been there for decades, making an early start in Sports. I hate sarcasm, but I think she knows how to Google. I infer she knew about the EJF stuff, and didn't use it. EJF red meat is not masthead "fit to print" in a fluff piece.

    Today is Sunday, and fluff is good. Sunday is both the Christian and American day of rest, yom rishon for us. It has a different mood than Saturday. The Times, sotte voce, recognizes that, and hence, the weekly fluff. Its family day. People are interested in how others spend their Sunday time. Tom Kaplan likes to unwind by feeding the pet turtle, hanging out with his kids, shmoozing with the Y Director, and so on. Next week, somebody else will be written about. I plan on reading it.

    Fluff is good. Fluffy pillows, fluffy clouds. Fluffy the cocker spaniel whose ears the kids like to pull. Halevei, we need more fluff in this world.

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  8. I like the fluff too. It feels good to read about the turtle, the Fair Trade coffee and the scrambled eggs. Give the guy a break!

    I like Kaplan's funding of PKD (Kidney disease) research since it is in my family too.

    Tom Kaplan is Jewish, his wife is Jewish, their kids are Jewish. That is good news in and of itself. Fluffy good news!

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  9. Kaplan knew at least since 2006 what Tropper is up to. He was informed about Tropper revoking conversion of woman because she sometimes wore pants, he was there when r' Eisenstein's de-legitimized most modern orthodox rabbis.

    This june he was sat smiling fpom ear to ear while Tropper and his rabbis publiclicly lynched rabbi Druckman.

    He is Tropper enabler and as just as guilty

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  10. Recipients and PublicityJanuary 11, 2010 at 1:26 PM

    So now what do we know about Tom Kaplan, and tell us if it all adds up?: He feeds worms to tortoises on Sundays, he likes to preserve lions and tigers, he founded the discredited EJF, his gurus are Leib abd Leba Tropper, his wife is a mysterious Israeli actress from a family of billionaires in their own right Dafna Recanati, he admits that he is not Jewishly religiously observant, he dolls out money through his chosen distributor the corrupt Tropper, he has a sister who became Christian that married a Christian evangelical in Brazil, he has a nephew Guma who is challenging him in courts and with whom he has had to split his fortunes from Leor Energy so far as they battle in courts, he went to Oxford University and he is now the head of the 92nd Street Y crowned by none other than Michael Steinhart a proudly atheist philanthropist (he says this himself, it's not a secret) and, oh yeah, Kaplan takes his family to eat at treif restaurants by his own admission in the Times. This is the guy whom gedolim think is the greatest thing since the inventions of sliced bread, the toaster and cream cheese -- they just can't seem to sake off the curse of the tainted money they were handed from Kaplan via the radiocative fingers of Tropper.

    So who are Tom Kaplan and Dafna Recanati, after all, they have chosen to keep EJF alive? ... They are public figures, now noted and glorified in the Times (not the first time by the way) and they cannot ask for anonymity and seek publicity at the same time.

    Nothing about Tom Kaplan and Dafna Recanati adds up, and in light of their unbroken support of the disgraced duo Leib abd Leba Tropper, and their onging unstinting support for the doomed EJF operation, they owe the intelligent public who do not read or buy the lies of the Times on matters of Jews or Israel, Jew and gentile alike, a more open book accounting of their true selves and not rely on paid-for bobba meises about feeding over-fed fat cat tortoises (couldn't resist that mixed metaphor with a real tortoise) and how they visit all the "healthy" treif restaurants in Manhattan with no mention of the many rabbis and the EJF dead duck, now sounding like a daffy ventriloquist's voice as Tropper spouts through surrogates, that should not be fed another dime for fear of further contamination of Klal Yisroel.

    As for "Jewish Observer" she is just another Tropper troll. I can tell it's not a man writing, and by the way, do people still read the Times when everyone is plugged in to the net with their hand-held and laptop devices? Honey, keep reading this blog, you will learn a lot more than just those fluffy lies in the Times.

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  11. Dear Rav Daniel,
    What the point of posting the article of the New York Times on Tom Kaplan?

    ALl the best,

    Yeshoua

    PS What does Rav Sternbuch feel about the internet? It seems to me that those who wat to assur the internet have not created a bigger Yatzer horah than before when kids read the newspaper that want to know what is this about internet?

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  12. I think the article in the Times is interesting because it exists.

    Tropper's sister in law is a big PR power. The article makes Kaplan out to be a really good, regular guy who loves animals and was smart enough to make a fortune. The subliminal message is that he must really love people.

    But the key to the PR piece is that it does not have a "comment" button, at least the last time I looked. It's important that you hear what they want you to hear, and it's also important that nobody puts any real world truth into the bio.

    Will they do Tropper next?

    I think we may need to stop looking at Kaplan as a victim sometime soon.

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  13. Honoring a Remarkable Patient

    The Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation in the Department of Surgery, one of the top five programs of its kind in the country, has been renamed in memory of Lillian Jean Kaplan. Established through the support of her family, The Lillian Jean Kaplan Renal Transplantation Center houses the division’s clinical transplant program and active research at the forefront of studies in donor organ tolerance.

    Funds from the donation also established the Joshua Miller, M.D., Chair in Transplant Surgery to honor the founder of the University of Miami’s transplant program. George W. Burke, M.D., chief of kidney and pancreas transplantation, is the first physician named to the chair, which will provide the resources to continue Miller’s commitment to improving transplant treatment, education, and research.In appreciation of the care Lillian Jean Kaplan received as kidney transplant recipient at UM/Jackson and longtime patient of Miller, who now serves as codirector of the center that bears her name, the Kaplan family has funded a permanent memorial.“Lillian Jean Kaplan had a bright and indomitable human spirit of graciousness, sophistication, and unsinkable optimism,” says Miller. “Our work at the center that bears her name will be a testament to her and her family in the wish for a brighter tomorrow.”

    More than 200 family members and friends of Lillian Jean Kaplan gathered on the School of Medicine’s Schoninger Research Quadrangle last December for the center’s dedication. In a tribute to his late mother, Thomas Kaplan recalled her characteristic strength and noted the honor he felt in giving to the transplantation program that extended her life. The organ transplant program at UM/Jackson was instituted in 1978 under the direction of Miller. In its first year, 28 kidney transplants were performed. Today, UM/Jackson has the third most active organ transplant program in the nation, performing more than 500 organ transplants last year.

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  14. Re: Honoring a Remarkable Patient

    Good deal. I hope he gave them the money originally earmarked for EJF.

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