Gun Owners Alliance ALERTS!

I am very pleased to provide below, and explanation of what has happened to a VERY POPULAR pro-gun columnist, Rabbi Reuven Mermelstein of "Ask the Rabbi", formerly read at the JPFO.org website.

As well, be watching the Gun Owners Alliance website, for in the very near future, we hope to be hosting Rabbi Reuven Mermelstein's "Ask the Rabbi" column!

In the mean time, please read the letter below, specifically written to his devout following of pro-2nd amendment followers.

Rabbi Reuven Mermelstein can be contacted by e-mail at Rabbi@GunOwnersAlliance.com

http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-02.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

With Respect,

Gun Owners Alliance
Chris W. Stark - Director
http://www.GunOwnersAlliance.com
Director@GunOwnersAlliance.com
**********************************

In 1997 Rabbi Reuven Mermelstein, living in Los Angeles, contacted Aaron Zelman, Executive Director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, often referred to by its initials of JPFO ( http://www.jpfo.org ) to offer his services. A life long gun owner, Rabbi Mermelstein had served in the US Army Infantry for three years during the closing years of the Vietnam era, attended rabbinical academies for nine years to earn his rabbinical ordination, and started his own company manufacturing ammunition for wholesale distribution throughout the country. He was the Handloading Editor for Petersen's HANDGUNS, featured on the masthead of that publication for 3 ½ years. Who could possibly be more qualified to write for JPFO, furthering the goals of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms movement while interjecting a hearty dose of Jewish flavor at the same time? Rabbi Mermelstein plays down the uniqueness of his diverse background and experiences, but most of his readers found the combination of themes present in one man to be nothing short of unique.

When the rabbi placed that first telephone call to Aaron Zelman he wasn't looking for employment with a paycheck. He was gainfully, if not richly, employed full-time in the private sector with only the desire to help out an organization that, according to his research, was worthy of support. Zelman, always a fountain of ideas, most of them good (read on, dear reader!), suggested an Ask the Rabbi column on JPFO's fledgling web site hosted by Second Amendment freedom fighter and former San Jose, CA, police officer Leroy Pyle ( http://www.paulrevere.org/ ), and named Rabbi Mermelstein the Editorial Director for JPFO - even going so far as to order new letterheads reflecting the exciting addition to JPFO's staff.

According to Rabbi Mermelstein, he was completely computer illiterate. In his words, "I was a gross computer ignoramus - 144 times more clueless than an ordinary ignoramus." All that would soon change. With an ancient Intel 386 (a pre-Pentium, snail slow but serviceable) PC and a copy of "Windows 3.1 for Dummies", Rabbi Mermelstein became, in his words, "a garden variety, rather than a gross, computer ignoramus". He forsook his electric typewriter, since Aaron Zelman agreed to reimburse him for a monthly dial up modem Internet account and a dedicated telephone line - a $40.00 check faithfully mailed each month from Milwaukee.  Rabbi Mermelstein didn't ask for a dime more; he was happy to be useful writing RKBA essays and replying to several e-mail questions each week in the late evening hours (except for Friday nights, the start of the Jewish Sabbath, Rabbi Mermelstein emphasizes). The workload was light, the e-mail thought provoking and the general reception from JPFO's web visitors to the Ask the Rabbi column was quite favorable. (The real truth is that many of us admirers of Rabbi Mermelstein's writing only pointed our browsers to www.jpfo.org to see what he had added each week. His wit and clarity added a whole new dimension to RKBA and JPFO's web site was the only place to find it. The rest of the site was boring and ho-hum, at best).

Paraphrasing Rabbi Mermelstein's answers to our questions about the demise of his Ask the Rabbi column ("Hey, what happened to him?"), we've learned that after 1-½ years into his work the word really started to get around cyberspace about his great page. The hours put into it increased dramatically, and he soon found himself putting in 10 and even 20-hour weeks. This was on top of his regular full-time employment in the private sector. JPFO's former webmaster (Gun Owners Alliance, Chris W. Stark - Director) convinced Aaron Zelman that if he was getting paid to keep the web site current, Rabbi Mermelstein should be entitled to something for his time too. Zelman agreed, and began sending a monthly gratuity of $200.00 in addition to the ISP and dedicated modem line charges. Most months, according to Rabbi Mermelstein, he averaged about three or four dollars an hour. A mere fraction of his correspondence, the rabbi explained, was posted each week on his web page. He spent most of his time engaged in very private exchanges with writers who asked that their letters not be published, even providing his own email address to keep JPFO's webmaster from seeing the letters. Many of them involved people with alcohol and drug abuse problems, intimate marital issues and even a few unfortunate souls and their pleas for help with problems so weighty that they were on the brink of suicide. Rabbi Mermelstein has no special expertise in these areas, much less framed certifications or degrees in social work or psychology, but to quote him, "When you're alone, watching another human being drowning, you don't place a 'help wanted' ad in the newspaper for a trained lifeguard!" He just applied calm common sense in dealing with these problems; often calling people long distance to show them someone cared. Never once did he ask Aaron Zelman to reimburse him for his expenses. Rabbi Mermelstein explains, "Human beings should do that sort of thing for one another. What's a few bucks when someone is asking for help?"

This background information brings us to May of this year, 2002.

Rabbi Mermelstein continues to believe that Aaron Zelman committed a major editorial blunder in one specific instance. The issue at stake was more philosophical than earth shaking, but as Editorial Director he objected rather strongly using well thought out reasoning. He wasn't merely overruled by Aaron Zelman, who single handedly runs JPFO in an autocratic manner. Rabbi Mermelstein was completely ignored. Officially JPFO has a Board of Directors to satisfy Wisconsin state law governing corporations (JPFO is a IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation), but Aaron Zelman makes all his own decisions regarding the organization's goals and funds disbursements without soliciting the advice and consent from these Board members.

At that point, Rabbi Mermelstein found himself irrelevant to the organization and considered tendering his resignation. A JPFO insider who must remain nameless convinced him not to quit. When Aaron Zelman mailed the regular monthly stipend check, he attached a handwritten note with the demand that he be copied on all correspondence destined for posting on the Ask the Rabbi page. He never explained the reason behind his order. Zelman could have laid down that ground rule from Day One, Rabbi Mermelstein explains, but waited four years.

That was quite enough for Rabbi Mermelstein. He tendered his resignation to Aaron Zelman in June 2002.

Now Rabbi Mermelstein has asked Zelman that all the files from his four years of Ask the Rabbi, those questions and replies posted on www.jpfo.org, be returned to him on CD as his lawful copyright protected property. Zelman refuses to do so unless the rabbi (get this!) returns the last check paid to him since he didn't finish out the month! (Before you stop reading here, thinking that an appeal to raise $250 in ransom money is coming, calm down. No request of any sort will ever be made.) Would you "buy back" your own property? Forget for a moment that Rabbi Mermelstein toiled for 18 months as a pure volunteer. Forget that he never demanded a paycheck for his work, and that when a stipend was finally offered it amounted to less than half the current minimum wage. The rights to Rabbi Mermelstein's writing were never assigned to JPFO or Aaron Zelman, yet Zelman is holding this property hostage until he gets back $250.

If you are as enraged by this heavy handed and shameless theft as we are, if you enjoyed reading Rabbi Mermelstein's column and miss its presence on the Internet, do something about it that won't cost you a dime!

Voice your disgust with this ridiculous and criminal situation directly to Aaron Zelman. Shout at him how he and his otherwise fine organization that postures itself as the defender of liberty and the Bill of Rights is a laughable farce if he feels he can abuse a former close ally who worked tirelessly for years!

It may come as a surprise to some that Rabbi Mermelstein isn't the first to be involved in a serious dispute over intellectual and monetary property with Aaron Zelman.

Alan Rice and Jay Simkin were founder directors of JPFO together with Zelman. Read their version of a much larger dispute that went to court and cost all parties to the litigation thousands of dollars. Rice and Simkin had to pay for their legal representation out of pocket. Zelman used many thousands of dollars raised through membership dues and donations to pay his lawyers -- http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Lethal-Laws_Statement.htm

Do you see a pattern emerging, as we do?

http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-01.htm
http://www.gunownersalliance.com/Mermelstein-02.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

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!!

Criminality and evil can only exist when good people sit back and let it happen. Don't let Aaron Zelman, Executive Director of JPFO, get away with this theft of copyright protected property belonging to Rabbi Mermelstein.

E-mail, call or fax. BUT DO IT TODAY.

Rabbi Reuven Mermelstein can be contacted by e-mail at Rabbi@GunOwnersAlliance.com

With Respect,

Gun Owners Alliance
Chris W. Stark - Director
http://www.GunOwnersAlliance.com
Director@GunOwnersAlliance.com