Gun Owners Alliance ALERTS!

Greetings to all,

I have received a reply from Rabbi Rob Mermelstein, author of the ever popular "Ask the Rabbi" column that was for several years, hosted on the JPFO website. Rabbi Mermelstein was replying to my previous alert as found at:

http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Rabbi_Mermelstein.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Rabbi_Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/JPFO_Webmaster.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-Good_Ending-01.htm

Please read the above URL to gain understanding if you did not receive our original alert. Or, please request at Support@GunOwnersAlliance.com for an e-mail copy of the original alerts. We will be glad to send it out.

Frankly, Rabbi Mermelstein's reply was sadly predictable. I have included his reply directly below my comments. Please be sure to read it, after reading my introduction. Unfortunately, I too, can relate to his experience with Aaron Zelman, Executive Director of JPFO. My experience is documented at http://www.gunownersalliance.com/JPFO_Webmaster.htm and also another similar experience at http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Lethal-Laws_Statement.htm

You see, I have known Reuven (this is Rob's Jewish first name) since late 1997. In December 1997, I became webmaster for JPFO and I fielded e-mail to be sent to Rabbi Mermelstein, in which he would reply, and I would publish it within the "Ask the Rabbi" column of the JPFO website. Rob and I forged a friendship during that time that has grown until this day. I truly cherish Rob's friendship, and hope to be of assistance in whatever capacity I can help, in resurrecting the "Ask the Rabbi" column.

I still have about 60 website files of when I was webmaster for JPFO, of Rob's original material for the "Ask the Rabbi" column that could be used to start his column back. At least Rabbi Mermelstein would not start with a blank website page. I would be more than glad to host his column again, but this will be to Rob's choosing. Regardless, I will support his decision.

Please continue to contact Rabbi Mermelstein at:

Rabbi@GunOwnersAlliance.com

....and encourage him to start his ever popular "Ask the Rabbi" column back up. Let him know how much you benefited from his column, and how you miss it now. As a courtesy, please cc: me at...

Director@GunOwnersAlliance.com

And by all means, forward this alert to your friends, and especially those who remember Rabbi Mermelstein, and miss his pro-gun perspectives. We need to get the word out!

With Respect,

Gun Owners Alliance
Chris W. Stark - Director
***********************

A Note of Appreciation to Thoughtful Writers

From Rabbi Rob Mermelstein - Former JPFO "Ask the Rabbi" Columnist
Rabbi Mermelstein's e-mail: Rabbi@GunOwnersAlliance.com


To many kind-hearted ladies and gentlemen:

Imagine my wide-eyed reaction staring at a PC monitor screen today before the sun even rose to find a mass e-mail sent out by Chris Stark regarding, of all things, me.

It was always my practice to give a personal reply to everything, and that means everything, that came to this mailbox through the several webmasters employed by JPFO. Please forgive me for bulk packaging this one, as time isn't a commodity in great supply.

That's a mixed blessing.

I thank G-d each day that He sees fit to provide me with an opportunity to be gainfully employed in the private sector. A position as a pulpit rabbi, I decided while still a rabbinical student over a quarter century ago, wasn't in the cards. That work requires a politician, deal maker, peacemaker, always smiling and telling people what they want to hear. No, a life aspiring to remain Mr. Popularity with a few hundred people, or more properly, employers, wasn't for me.

I've sought my livelihood in the private sector for the past two decades since emerging from rabbinical academy at age 29. I've gone from being employee to employer and now employee again, maintained work weeks of six days and hours on each of those days that nobody would work a plow horse. A lot of good it has done me. My father was wrong. Hard work does more to cause sleep deprivation than build character, but I won't disabuse Dad of the notion. :-)

You've read about the rift between JPFO's only salaried employee, Aaron Zelman, and myself. Every word is true, but there's far more to the sad story.

Call me narrow minded, but I was brought up to believe that unlawfully depriving a person of his or her property is theft. After demanding that my work, which is still my property, be removed from the website of JPFO ( http://www.jpfo.org ) I asked that all my files be returned to me to set up shop, without a thought to making a profit, elsewhere on the Web. Zelman decided that since I had dispensed advice through his organization's website,  both publicly and privately, he should be indemnified against future lawsuits brought by someone who might be so disgruntled by free and solicited advice (the page was called "Ask the Rabbi" -- can that mission be accomplished without giving advice?) that they'd go to some slip and fall, ambulance chasing lawyer to be "compensated" for their grief and/or displeasure.

My own advice to myself over many years, "No good deed ever goes unpunished", came to haunt me! Zelman expected me to sign a Release of Liability so absurdly lopsided in his direction that I had to pay for legal counsel out of my own pocket to draft a revision. Zelman, whenever he needs a lawyer -- and he's needed one in the past over another incident involving the alleged theft of intellectual property ( http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Lethal-Laws_Statement.htm ) -- could merely dip into his own non-profit 501(c)(3) treasury and draw whatever it took to cover the legal costs. No big deal at all! It's not his money!

To make a disgusting story brief, he and I (his lawyer and my lawyer, rather) finally had a Release draft that counsel advised me to sign in exchange for the return of my copyright protected work being held hostage. The files were initially held until I'd return the "unearned" portion of the $250 paid each month to me in advance, as I tendered my resignation in mid-month. Enough irate e-mail poured in to Zelman's mailbox that he dropped the demand for money and swapped it for the demand of a Release.

The following e-mail, dated 10/31/02, was sent to Zelman:

Aaron:

The most recently received Release agreement is acceptable.

Provide the name and address of your attorney. I will only return my signed Release to him, as a licensed legal practitioner and a member of the Bar of the state of Wisconsin. I require of your attorney a statement, duly signed on his letterhead with his certification that he is in fact licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, that all the files on the CD of my writings are intact, and unchanged in any shape, manner or form. This statement is to be sent Certified Mail under separate cover before the files are returned. If the files are returned without the receipt of this statement preceding them, I will not accept delivery of the media and my signed Release will be rendered null and void. Also, I require that the CD or CDs with my writings are returned to me promptly by your attorney's office, and not by you, Ken Holder, or any other officer, Board member, or designated person of JPFO, by Certified U.S. Mail within seven (7) days upon your attorney's receipt of my signed Release. Your attorney will readily understand the implications in his returning partial or corrupted files. It would be in yours and his best interests to view the electronic media to ensure it is complete and in an uncorrupted format.

It seems either he, you, or the both of you, finally awakened to the fact that your previous Release provisions were illegal, unenforceable and, most egregious of all, unconstitutional, insofar as you attempted to abridge my rights to freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

Your personal actions, in light of the four years of tireless toil I'd given to JPFO, essentially without compensation, are repugnant, disgraceful, and an utter contradiction to all the values you and JPFO espouse. I am ashamed that you are a Jew.

Upon receipt of your lawyer's mailing address the Release will be returned with my signature.

Rabbi R. Mermelstein

[End]

And that was the last I've heard from Mr. Bill of Rights, the protector of the Constitution in Hartford, Wisconsin. You are free to forward this to anyone so foolish with his or her money to consider buying a membership or making a donation to JPFO. Zelman, whom I have every reason to believe is making a very lucrative living from your hard
earned dollars, is a textbook thief -- a thieving protector of your Constitutional rights, if that makes any sense.

"Thou shalt not steal" isn't implicit in the Bill of Rights. Yes, that's obviously the fault of the Founders and justification for Zelman to just take what he wants out of sheer bellicosity.  That man isn't merely a fraud. He is a larcenous fraud.

Odd, but nobody has sued he or I yet for free and solicited advice given through the website of JPFO!

Should I be bent out of shape? If I am it's only because evil has triumphed. Zelman knows well that I haven't the financial resources to sue him for the return of all that published correspondence written over a period of four years. Had I exercised any foresight those files would have been backed up on my own computer. More disturbing is the silence from other literary contributors and supporters of JPFO who seem to draw a difficult to comprehend distinction between whatever good JPFO does and its criminal Executive Director -- one close confidante in particular who refused to intervene and retrieve my property under threat of his termination of free services -- with full knowledge that Zelman cannot write anything on his own, never has, never will, and must rely on the work of others, in most cases rendered gratis or at little expense to him and his organization, and with the knowledge that Zelman pockets hard cash from what he gets others to do for him.

The truth is I don't care about those files. Evil has a sneaky way of catching up with its couriers. Zelman will get his due, either in this world or the next. That stuff came from me, most of it without a great deal of time consuming research, and could be rewritten if necessary. Strangely enough those replies that required huge effort were addressed to people who wished to remain anonymous, or else the topic was very private and had nothing to do with RKBA. There are many troubled people in the world. They don't need a bona fide psychologist or marriage counselor. Merely someone to lean on is what they seek. It never occurred to me that anyone would sue for bad advice, and thus far I'm vindicated in that belief.

It is now 2135 hours. I put in over eleven hours of work at my place of employment today. Our youngest son, the last of our children still living with us, went over his homework with me as we do each evening after grabbing a plate of leftovers from the fridge. The energy to do anything else just isn't there.

Chris Stark's open letter was both a very warm surprise and wonderfully flattering. So too are the numerous notes from well-wishers who would like to see the former "Ask the Rabbi" column resume. To be painfully honest, I miss writing that column more than many people miss reading it. It gave a great deal of needed depth to my daily existence. There's only so much you can mull over things at the office after hours, and the time isn't billable. :-)

In short, a thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who wrote and offered encouragement to revive something I truly enjoyed. I'm just exhausted physically, and that has a direct bearing on clarity of thought -- something that may come easily to great writers, but for me takes real sweat.

The idea isn't dead, just on hiatus for the time. Should circumstances give me a second wind I'd revisit the concept.

Thanks to you all for making my day. Chris Stark has my complete consent to publish this letter as he sees fit.

Best,

Rabbi R. Mermelstein

http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Rabbi_Mermelstein.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Rabbi_Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/JPFO_Webmaster.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-Good_Ending-01.htm

If you are as upset as I am, of Aaron Zelman's mistreatment of Rabbi Mermelstein (as documented above), here is their contact information:

Contact Aaron Zelman at execpc@JPFO.org and webmaster@JPFO.org Would you like to invest less than a dollar and tell Zelman personally what you think about all this? JPFO's phone number is (262) 673-9745. The JPFO fax phone number is (262) 673-9746. YOU CAN ALSO CALL MR. ZELMAN TOLL FREE AT 1-800-869-1884 AND LET HIM PAY FOR THE CALL!!

Please continue to contact Rabbi Mermelstein at:

Rabbi@GunOwnersAlliance.com

....and encourage him to start his ever popular "Ask the Rabbi" column back up. Let him know how much you benefited from his column, and how you miss it now. As a courtesy, please cc: me at...

Director@GunOwnersAlliance.com

And by all means, forward this alert to your friends, and especially those who remember Rabbi Mermelstein, and miss his pro-gun perspectives. We need to get the word out!

With Respect,

Gun Owners Alliance
Chris W. Stark - Director
***********************