[UPDATE IN EXTENDED STORY] 1:20PM EST: The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. As YWN reported, Senator Kennedy had been rushed to the hospital on Saturday after suffering a seizure, and doctors have just announced that a tumor has been found in the Senators brain. No further information has been released to the media regarding the tumor. UPDATE 1:15PM EST: Healthday News reported the following:
Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the last surviving brother in an American political dynasty, has a malignant brain tumor, his doctors reported Tuesday.
Doctors treating the 76-year-old senator, who has been in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston since he suffered a seizure on Saturday, said that tests showed a tumor in his left parietal lobe. They said preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, the Associated Press reported.
Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman in the department of neurology and Dr. Larry Ronan, a primary care physician, issued the following statement, according to MSNBC: “Over the course of the last several days, we’ve done a series of tests on Senator Kennedy to determine the cause of his seizure. He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and is up and walking around the hospital. Some of the tests we had performed were inconclusive, particularly in light of the fact that the senator had severe narrowing of the left carotid artery and underwent surgery just six months ago.”
They added: “However, preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe. The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy. Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Sen. Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis. Sen. Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in good spirits and full of energy.”
Kennedy, the second-longest serving Democratic senator currently in Congress, suffered the seizure while at his Hyannisport compound and was taken by helicopter to Boston Saturday morning.
According to the Boston Globe, a government official who accompanied the senator on the helicopter trip from Hyannisport to Boston said that Kennedy had experienced a second seizure during the ride. The report of a second seizure has not been confirmed.
Kennedy’s son Edward arrived at the hospital at about 1 p.m., the newspaper said, and his daughter, Kara, arrived about an hour later. His wife, Victoria, was at his bedside, the Globe reported, and his senatorial colleague from Massachusetts, John Kerry, also came to visit, as did his nephew, former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy.
In October 2007, a partially blocked carotid artery in Kennedy’s neck was discovered during a routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. Doctors cleared the blockage, and Kennedy was released to convalesce in Hyannisport. The Globe reported at the time that the blockage could have caused a stroke, but that the chief of vascular surgery at Massachusetts General described the procedure as “routine, uneventful, and successful.”
According to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Sen. Kennedy’s father, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, suffered a series of strokes in 1961 at the age of 73. The thromboses left him virtually paralyzed and unable to speak. He died in 1969.
Kennedy is the youngest of nine children, and became a U.S. senator in 1962. His older brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963. Another brother, Robert Kennedy, who was also a U.S. Senator, was assassinated in 1968 during his presidential campaign.
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50 Responses
the klalah lives on!!!!!
I was wondering the story behind his Obama endorsement. May he have a peaceful recovery.
How is he related to JFK?
#1. What a wrong statement. a)you do not know why he is sick b) if it were a ‘klala’ how come he lived so long? c) YWN reports that a fanmous Israeli rav was just rehospitalized – was that also a klala?
For those who don’t know:
His eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane crash. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968.
Charvona,
Sorry, but Appleguy has a point!
The old Jo Kennedy was an outspoken antisemite, he told Roosevelt not to appease the Jews when he was ambassador during the second world war.
After the war, a few Gedolim got together and put a Kllalah on the family and apparantly with the family history……Tzaddik Gozer , Hakodosh B Hu mikayem
charvona–
your obviously that smart so ill explain it to u like a child………the kennedy family has a klalh from the satmer rebbe that each of its family male members will die a misah meshuna. one died in ww2, one was assassinated and one crashed into a tree. his klalah is stil going as he will ultimately have a long way to go while sufferring too. #1 was 100% right.
To expound on #7: the father of the clan, Joseph P. was notoriously anti-semitic. When broached with possibly aiding to save thousands of Jewish lives during WWII, with very little effort on his part, he commented to the beseecher a very derogatory remark about Jews, and the waste of saving Jewish lives. Thereupon, the person cursed Joseph P. that his descendents will be cursed.
If you will look at history, scandals, assasinations, death-by-freak accidents have been plaguing the Kennedy family ever since, moreso than any other political figure.
are you all crazy to talk like that?? The man, who is a human being by the way, has just been diagnosed with something very serious and it is all over the news. I could care less about his politics — or anynone else’s for that matter because RSO runs the world– but where is the RACHAMIM??? If you want to speculate about the klala or any other idiocy, do so in private at least. I would normally not comment on such a story — there is NO story except that someone is sick (and it should not be broadcast all over…just shows american, goish lack of tznius and respect for privacy, etc.– but the previous comments really insensed me.
I am not sure about the validaty of the story but there is a story that Joseph Kennedy (JFK’s Father) made his way to the Court of St. James as ambassador in 1937. On a trip back to the United States, aboard an ocean liner that was also carrying a Lubavitcher rabbi named Israel Jacobson and six of his yeshiva students, who were fleeing the Nazis, Kennedy complained to the ship’s captain about the distracting noises caused by the Jewish passengers praying on the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah. He demanded that they be forbidden to continue exercises so distracting to fellow passengers. “Rabbi Jacobson put a curse on Kennedy, damning him and all his male offspring to tragic fates.
The facts are as follows:
1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the eldest son of the Kennedy patriarch Joseph Kennedy, is killed over the English Channel while flying a mission during World War II.
1948 – Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, dies in a plane crash in France.
1955 – Jacqueline Kennedy suffers a miscarriage.
1956 – Jacqueline Kennedy gives birth to a stillborn daughter. (Although the daughter was unnamed and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her parents with a marker reading “Daughter”, later reports indicated that the Kennedys had intended to call her “Arabella Kennedy”.)
December 19, 1961 – Joseph P. Kennedy, the family patriarch, suffers a greatly disabling stroke which makes movement and communication extremely difficult and limited until his death.
August 7, 1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy , the second son of John and Jacqueline Kennedy, dies two days after his birth, nearly six weeks premature.
November 22, 1963 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas (see John F. Kennedy assassination).
1964 – Ted Kennedy is in a plane crash in which one of his aides and the pilot were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II (D-Ind.) and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
June 5, 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, brother to both John and Ted, is shot multiple times in Los Angeles, immediately following his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary (see Robert F. Kennedy assassination). He died the next day. To say that he was assassinated on June 5, or June 6, 1968, is incorrect, for he lived slightly more than a day after he was shot.
1969 – “Chappaquiddick Incident” – A car driven by Ted Kennedy goes off a bridge. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former aide to Robert Kennedy, dies in the accident.
1973 – Edward Kennedy, Jr. At the age of twelve loses his right leg due to bone cancer.
1973 – Joseph P. Kennedy II, son of Robert and Ethel, is the driver in a Cape Cod car accident that leaves one passenger permanently paralyzed.
1973 – Alexander Onassis, stepson of Jacqueline Kennedy, dies in a plane crash.
1984 – David A. Kennedy, a son of Robert, dies from a Demerol and cocaine overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida hotel room.
1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis dies after a brief battle with cancer.
1997 – Michael Kennedy, another son of Robert, dies in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado.
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr.; his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; and Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette died when the private plane Kennedy was piloting crashes into the Atlantic Ocean on a hazy evening en route from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard.
SHAME ON YOU
Number 16, Save your Rachamim for other things
NOT RISHAIM!
charliehall why should we daven for him if he is cursed then we should not daven for him and we should not waste our tefillos and tears on him
The Gadol was NOT the Satmar Rav but Teb Aron Kotler and/or Reb Eliezer Silver,
Torahis 1
There is MORE to the Mary Jo Kopechne story than the fact that he was just drunk,,,,,he wanted her out of the way apprantly, Vehamaivin Yovin!! He insisted that he tried to save her yet he ONLY reported the story 9 hours after it happened,,,,
Edward Kennedy is a stalwart supporter of Israel. He does not deserve this type of abuse. No one does.
#16 – is he such a fine example of a human being? His father’s sins notwithstanding, he himself is directly responsible for the death of a woman. The details of that story are suppressed but the fact that he is a Kennedy does not stop people outside the US “justice” system from calling him a murderer.
We have all heard these klala stories for years. But, is there anyone who personally heard this klala from any of the above Gedolim?
to have abrain tumor, you must have a brain!please he is such a rasha liberal(sorry for the redundancy)he is immoral and should be in jail so please there is no mitzva to look for good qualities in such people
to # 25 is that his only shortoming. what about hiw own immorality and overall bad behavior/
Mary Joe remains unavenged.
Despite all the tragedies mentioned above, the thing that makes Joe Kennedy (or whatever is left of him) turn over in the grave more than any other, is that JFK’s only surviving daughter is married to a Jew – shlossberg
Excuse me, I don’t live in the States, but it seems to me that too much talking in the effentlichkayt about klolles by rabbonim, etc., etc., ken zayn a bisl geferlach far undz. Outside the States, we would think twice about posting such comments on public figures… GEDENK, alle kennen zeyen vos mir schreyben.
#20
Lets just assume that the original recipient of the curse was a rasha, can you please tell me how Ted Kennedy was a rasha????
I would still like to hear an actual source for this curse and who placed it
Yeesh. K’lalah indeed. Let’s take a look at some of the facts.
Joe Kennedy Jr. died in 1944 in World War II. This was a fate shared by about 416,000 other Americans. While the loss of a son in war is tragic, this is hardly a fate unique to the Kennedys. Many other families lost more than one son, including (most famously) the Sullivan Family. In addition, the mission that Joe Kennedy undertook (voluntarily, I might add) was extremely dangerous, involving flying a plane full of explosives.
Jacqueline Kennedy suffering a miscarriage is again not a particularly unique Kennedy fate, as it is something that (tragically) happens to lots of women every year.
When Joe P. Kennedy suffered his stroke in 1961, he was well over seventy years old. It’s was not then (and tragically,is still not now) unusual to have a stroke at that age.
JFK went to Dallas against the advice of his Secret Service people. He rode around in an open motorcar when he knew that there were people in Dallas who meant him harm.
In addition, when you are President of the U.S., you automatically have a much higher chance of being an assassination target than a “regular Joe.” The same thing could be said about RFK (since he was running for President in a year that was turbulent with high-profile assassinations).
Ted Kennedy seems to have cheated death several times. Between his plane crash in 64 and his car crash in 69, and his being struck by lightning (and surviving) in 2006 leads me to wonder if he’s actually being protected rather than cursed.
The fact that he has a tumor now at age 76 is hardly sign of a curse either.
The other things that happened are things that could just as easily happen in any other family. The fact of the matter is that the Kennedy clan is large (again, hardly the sign of a curse) and any little incident with them makes the news because of their heavy involvement in politics for the last 60+ years.
Bottom line — I call bunk on the curse.
The Wolf
#19 sammygol,
180 degrees? methinks you missed the post about satmar and lubavitch becoming buddies again.
o.k. there is a well known Kennedy curse.even the times called it that years ago. so how is he still alive? rumor has it many years ago there was a frTm boy who needed emergency surgery in Boston on erev shabbos to save his life.(this was before the days of medivac)through political channels Ted Kennedy volunteered his personal chopper to transport this boy. One mitzvah can ward off a klalah of 70 yrs!! that is what we should see.
I heard Senator Kennedy did not give Chai Rotel last Lag B’aomer.
WolfishMusings
While I totally think the curse is bunk and there are probably a hundred conflicting stories, your attempt at finding a specific explanation at each and every cause is death is the exact same thing the skeptic do when they try rationalize your beliefs. Let me ask you this, IF there WAS a curse, how would you think they would be fulfilled? I just want to see if you are consistent.
And I thought the curse was over when the RedSox won the World Series
Since everyone is on board as praising their rebbe as the one to give the k’lola, I will add mine here.
I had heard that Sen Ted met the Bostoner Rebbe from Boston Shlita and he asked the Rebbe what he could do to “reverse the curse” (this “curse reversing” seems to be a Boston thing!). The rebbe told him he would be ok as long as he votes pro Israel.
I cannot vouch for the validity of this story but Sen Ted has been a supporter of the m’dina while in the Senate. As to when (or if) this story happened, I was told it occured right around the time of his “accident” at Chappaquiddick.
ML
I don’t believe the “Klalah”
Why was it that Mengele lived to a ripe old age?
Why are practically all the nazis living in Argentina in their 80’s?
Why weren’t they part of the “klalah”
The answer is: that the Ribono Shel Olom runs this world and we have no idea what’s really going on!
Fartig
#41 the fact that other rishoim are still around and alive doesn’t deny the validity of a klala on the kenedy family. Its not just a jewish thing. If you google kenedy family curse, you will come up with a whole list of sites and articles.
hello if so many ppl from so many diff communities heard of the klalah dont u think it might have some basis???
Kennedy is a murderer. He killed in cold blood an innocent woman. He drove her into the lake, and let her drown without calling for assistance. They only pulled her body from the lake about 24 hours later after someone spotted Kennedy’s car submerged.
He deserves no pity.
Talk about lack of Hakarot Hatov!
Not only has Sentaor Ted Kennedy been an unswerving supporter of Israel, but just ask the Massachuset’s Jewish community, especially the BOSTONER CHASSIDIC COMMUNITY about his kindness and genuine concern. For those of you too lazy to do your own research, you can even read about his decency in one of the Hanoch Teller stories, where he paid out of his own pocket to airlift an injured child to a hospital in the 1960’s, and when thanked by the Bostoner Rebbe replied “One mitzvah deserves another” The Bostoner Rebbe had appeared in public with JFK during an election to implicitly endorse him.
Senator Kennedy has done much for Jews and Israel. If that’s the gratitude he gets from frum yidden, why should anyone help Jews?
He is a cold blooded killer who got away with first degree murder.
#45
Joseph
I suggest you do some actual reading into the “Chappaquiddick incident” before you make such bold claims of driving her into the lake and that he “LET” her drown
Is’nt kennedy an airport?
#20 BY girl – are you the Gadol Hador that you are now declaring for klal Yisrael who the reshaim ARE and who we should feel rachamim for??!
Did Hashem appoint you his politzai? I suggest you look within, I am sure you have plenty of things to work on as we all do.
#25 — “is he such a fine example of a human being?” so we should start speculating why Hashem is punishing him, making jokes and rejoicing just because someone is sick?
We should be menches, not just yap away.
#28 – of course I could go on. I mentioned one person that he murdered just to keep it short. Unfortunately, most of the people he murdered do not have names as they were killed before they were born.
Let me ask you this, IF there WAS a curse, how would you think they would be fulfilled?
That’s a fair question. Let’s look at it this way:
Joe Kennedy had three sons who served in World War II (Ted was too young). One died on a dangerous mission. One managed to miraculously survive his boat being rammed. Robert enlisted late in the war and seems to have escaped without any harm. If there was a curse, I’d think that all three would have died.
If there was a curse, I’d think that Joe Kennedy’s kids would not have become the numerous clan that they have. Yet, most of them have gone on to have numerous kids. If there was a curse, Joe Kennedy’s descendants could have ended up like Lincoln’s… all dead.
If there was a curse, I would think that the family would have faded from the ranks of the rich and powerful long ago. Yet, even today, the Kennedys are not only a wealthy family, they are still politically influential, with many members of the family actively involved in politics in several states.
If there was a curse, I think that bad things would happen to them at a statistically higher rater than they would to another family in identical circumstances. However, given the fame, fortune, chosen vocations and numerous progeny of the Kennedys, I think that most of the things that have happened are probably well within the statistical norms.
The Wolf
Holy Hyrx: I am quite familiar with the “Chappaquiddick incident”. Kennedy murdered his passenger by driving her into the lake and NOT calling for assistance, thereby letting her drown.
Read the Wikipedia (which is very sympathetic to Kennedy and his political party) entry on the Chappaquiddick incident.
Wolf
I still think you are doing the same thing that skeptics do. All you are saying is “I would think,” ” If there was a curse, I think…” When bringing up Israel and Jewish survival, they simply bring up statistics and other explanations to prove their point. But you on that case would disagree with them probably. So why are you trying to find statistical arguments here? That fact is, even Ted himself thought there might be a curse (probably tongue and cheek though). There is even a wiki page devoted to it. Apparently, their family DO suffer from a huge loss of life that HAS given some people a sense of pause.
Apparently, their family DO suffer from a huge loss of life that HAS given some people a sense of pause.
All families suffer loss. Some however, experience greater loss due to certain factors. Sure, most families have not had two sons die in assassinations, but then again, most families don’t have two sons running for (or becoming) President of the United States.
You have to expect that all families will have some problems. We all have relatives who are sick and have died. We all know people who have been in car crashes. The question is not if these things happen, but do they happen with a greater frequency than you would otherwise expect. Pointing to Ted Kennedy and seeing that he has a tumor and saying “see, it’s a curse” doesn’t prove anything because a person of his age coming down with a brain tumor is not an unusual occurrence.
When a person has a larger family, it is normal that they will have more problems than in a smaller family. The Kennedys are rather numerous. Their chosen occupation of politics sometimes puts them in harm’s way. Their fame makes any little incident (which in your family or mine would be quickly hidden) seem very, very large. Their choice of lifestyle leaves them open to possible hazard that others don’t face (i.e. you don’t see many homeless bums dying in skiing accidents).
The bottom line is this: If you had a thousand similar families with similar circumstances, would a significant percentage of them have similar problems? I’m fairly confident that they would.
The Wolf
I’ll reserve my Klalah for Jimmy Carter. He deserves it a lot. YMC”S
Wolf
I think you are purposefully ignoring the thrust of my comment to you. Nevermind then.
Holy Hyrax – And I think you are purposely ignoring my point about the murder by lack of calling for assistance and allowing his victim to drown.
Joseph,
My point to you was simply that the way you phrased your statemtent it sounded like he deliberately wanted her dead. I don’t think that is true, though him NOT calling for assistance is a pure horrendous act. And if he was drunk, then he should have been tried as anyone else here today.
#3 did you not just read the article or maybe you just skipped staight to the intersting part so you can give your piace of mind so next time mr”only simchas” dont speak with a irrelivant comment & also maybe next time you should just go comment on onlysimchas.com & maybe then people will understand you!
61- calm down. #3 only asked a simple question that can be answered in a few words. No need to get so worked up over it.