The onslaught still rages. In 2015, an orchestrated legal attack by the notorious Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) targeted a New Jersey man and a small non-profit organization (JONAH) resulting in financial destruction and stripping them of their constitutional rights. They were silenced through a scandalous twist of law. One of the former leaders, Arthur Goldberg, has since opened a website about the Jewish worldview on all human behavior. The same radical-seculars are now going in to finish off the dissemination of Orthodox Jewish thought from American soil through total bankrupcy. Goldberg is appealing to the state Supreme Court. A crowd-funding initiative has been launched to help maintain justice for religious freedom.
The website ‘The Stream’ is covering the story. A few years ago, ‘The Stream’ reported on the legal persecution of Arthur Goldberg and his associates by the smear-mongering Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Now that Biden has the backs of radical left-wing fanatics, this group is pushing for more. Religious thought itself is confidently under siege. Goldberg is a faithful 80-year-old Orthodox Jew who stands up for the natural law and those who support it. So, the SPLC has decided to destroy his life, to drive him out of the public square, to prevent him from making a living, and take his family home. What was the thought crime that he allegedly committed?
Here is their interview with Goldberg.
Interviewer:
“The Stream has covered the legal persecution you and your associates are enduring at the hands of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Can you briefly sum it up in laymen’s terms for our readers?”
Arthur Goldberg:
“I helped found JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing). It provided resources for those who with unwanted same-sex attractions, pornography, and sex addiction.
In 2012 the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sued JONAH as well as several individuals under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA). After four years of litigation, the SPLC was able to successfully argue that our referrals to independent counselors involved a form of fraudulent commerce. This was based on the erroneous theory that no one is capable of changing his sexual behaviors. This was the first case to ever apply the CFA law to a duly constituted not for profit religious organization. This holding is antithetical to the very concept of consumer fraud. Neither co-director ever received compensation for our multi-year volunteer work.
The SPLC and their legal allies shut down three religious initiatives with which I was involved. Those were JONAH, the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA), and Funding Morality. The trial judge also crushed my own individual liberties. He ordered me to pay a multi-million-dollar penalty. He also barred me from participating in any not- for-profit organization operating in New Jersey. He further denied me First Amendment rights such as freedom of speech and association.
Please be aware that in order to attempt to cover some of the costs, I mortgaged my family home in Jersey City, where my family has lived for some 45 years. This is something that a person nearly 80 years old should not be forced to do. I have been married to my wife Jane for 51 years, have four children, and six grandchildren.
As individuals, my co-director and I have been hunted for close to 8 years by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and their allied attorneys. We are now personally obligated for literally millions of dollars we need to raise to cover the fees and costs involved.
In addition, judge Bariso ignored documents executed by the plaintiffs in which they acknowledged that no guarantees were offered in the treatments offered by the independent counselors to whom JONAH referred them. Most egregiously, during that trial that the judge denied us the opportunity to present expert witnesses.
These people had actually successfully counseled people with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). I have written a book on the subject: “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality and the Power to Change”.
Bariso stated in a written opinion that the theory that unwanted SSA can be changed “is not novel but – like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it – instead is outdated and refuted.” Thus, by disallowing any testimony from expert witnesses about the ability to change sexual preference (as well as several other adverse rulings), he made the outcome inevitable.
Interviewer:
“Your enemies weren’t satisfied with closing down JONAH. They asked for and got an injunction forbidding you from ever being involved with any effort to help LGBT people who sought spiritual and psychological counsel. They pursued your every attempt to engage in the public square.”
Goldberg:
“After the forced dissolution of JONAH, I created a new faith-based not-for-profit think tank: the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA). JIFGA advocated in favor of the laws given by G-d to Noah after the Biblical flood (the Noahide Code). The same New Jersey judge decided a follow up lawsuit filed by SPLC and its allied attorneys against JIFGA and us as the two co-directors.
This second case held that JIFGA was an “alter-ego” of JONAH and applied the injunctions of the former case to the 2019 case. It ordered all its activities to be shut down. This was so in spite of the vastly different mission statements and activities between JONAH and JIFGA. The SPLC and their legal allies accessed 70,000 emails in their effort to prove what they characterized as defiance of the 2016 court’s order by allegedly continuing to carry out the work of JONAH. We are appealing the trial court’s decisions.
This second court ruling went far beyond the initial abridgment of the first case’s denying religious rights. The Court also denied the constitutional right to speak about beliefs. This included, according to the Court, any promotion of therapy for unwanted same-sex attractions even though the previous case documents permitted advocacy. The court also asserted that a judgement under the CFA by a state court extends beyond New Jersey’s state borders. In addition, many of the court’s “findings” were based on hearsay and assumptions and were contrary to the facts.”
Interviewer:
“The judge further used the previous rulings to close down your crowd-sourcing site, Funding Morality. Stream readers will remember that, perhaps: It was the means by which Brett Kavanaugh hearings drive-by victim Mark Judge rebuilt his life. How did the court justify closing it?”
Arthur Goldberg:
“The Funding Morality website provided online fundraising tools to individuals and nonprofit organizations enabling them to raise money consistent with the moral ethical values of the Noahide laws. Like other individuals, Mark Judge used the website.
In his case, to rebuild his life after being dragged into the Kavanaugh hearings. Those caused him to lose his housing, his job, and to be liable for substantial legal fees. Several pro-life charitable projects used the site to raise funds.
The platform was also used by a third party to raise money for some planned videos to honor the legacy of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi who had suddenly passed away. Citing only the planned Nicolsoi videos, the trial court concluded that the operation of Funding Morality participated in so-called “conversion therapy” related commerce in violation of the permanent injunction.
We believe that conclusion is wrong for three reasons:
(a) Under the Federal Communications Decency Act, sec. 230, JIFGA is immune from liability for third-party fundraising activities.
(b) The trial court’s decision ignores the fact that Funding Morality was an internet platform that others used for fund-raising. JIFGA itself did not raise funds and had no control over funds raised via funding morality.
(c) The fundraising for the Nicolosi videos is constitutionally protected speech. This was the type of advocacy that was excluded from the permanent injunction.
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Crowd-funding action
You can help Mr. Goldberg cover the huge costs by donating a small gift at the Natural Law Defense Fund.
- by credit card: choose (when asked) Defense Fund former JIFGA:
2. by Paypal:
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JB