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"Jews For Money" - Shameless!

August 7, 2013, 8:03 am
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There are greedy landlords renting properties in Lakewood to convicted & very dangerous child molesters on the State Police registry as well as pimps & drug dealers as they are the only tenants willing to pay a very high rent no one else would be willing to pay and they pay it in cash. There is a network between these landlords where they will provide recommendations of which criminal is a good payer. Denmark Lane which is a predominately frum street in Jackson just over the Lakewood border had a drug dealer renting an upscale house from a heimishe. One day SWAT came & blocked off the street to arrest the dealer and his associates and confiscate their large stash of heroin. These rentals are also a magnet for prostitutes coming day & night for these tenants. And there are dedicated houses of prostitution renting from "us".

There are at least a dozen molesters in Lakewood who are renting from heimishe landlords as proven by online property tax records. These molesters who are on the NJ State Police registry are all not Jewish. Some of them are exceedingly more dangerous & violent than typical molesters. Some are living in the middle of frum developments where children are playing in the street or yards not visible from the street, all without adult supervision. The description on the registry of what some of these creeps have done to random victims will make you shake. (There are also 2 "frum" offenders living in Lakewood who own their own homes)
 
There are some rabbonim who sort of want to do something about it but they are scratching their rears more than coming up with a timely & effective plan. Some of the landlords are very powerful and it is feared that personalities in the "establishment" might have their gullibility played on to protect the landlords. You wouldn't believe some of the naive parents in Lakewood how I hear they are asking if maybe the non-Jewish molesters "did teshuva?", etc, and still let their kids play outside unsupervised. (I guess if Kolko could have done "teshuva" then why not lowlife non-Jews too?)

LOOK AT THE CREEPS:

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/142-north-oakland-street-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2467532
 
Joseph Schon 1654 49th St, Brooklyn
 
https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

KEARY J BRADLEY
Male Black
142 NORTH OAKLAND STREET
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
OFFENDER SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AN INFANT

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/269-n-hope-chapel-road-jackson-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2435060

Esther Tress is the wife of Zvi Tress in Toronto. Their kids in Lakewood manage several properties for them and a lot of people are intimidated by them and afraid to say anything.
 
This house is on a very large property, the first in Jackson NJ that backs on to several homes on Shonny Dr in Lakewood and some on New Central in Lakewood. There is no fence on part of the perimeter. Many frum children are playing in the area unsupervised.
 
Tress's molester was originally on the registry with a very violent description. Then he disappeared for a while before resurfacing with the description replaced with "modus operandi under review" which might mean a lawyer was hired to dispute his description.

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

LUIS M ROSAPONCE
Male Other
269 NORTH HOPE CHAPEL ROAD
JACKSON TWP, NJ 08527
 
AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT
 
Victims:  x -  Under13   x -  Male 

M.O. UNDER REVIEW

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/1405-marshall-street-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2482102

The Lakewood address for Meilech & Chaya Wislicki  is only a PO box. they seem to live in Boro Park at 1649 51st St and go to the bungalows at Silver Pond cottages in South Fallsburg.

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

WILLIAM H JENKINS
Male Black
1405 MARSHALL STREET
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT

Victims:  x -  Under13   x -  Under18   x -  Female
 
VICTIMIZED FAMILY MEMBER AND NEIGHBOR

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/500-clifton-avenue-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2464172

The rabbi of Sons of Israel which owns this building is Tendler, son of the Tendler who was menahel of Ner Yisroel Baltimore.

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

ANDRE C GADSON
Male Black
500 CLIFTON AVENUE APT 305
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
ENDANGERING THE WELFARE OF A CHILD

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/259-zachary-court-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2472033

Moshe Koot / Katz. Online records show that the the Koots & Katzes are mishpocho

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

EDWIN J JORDAN
Male Black
259 ZACHARY COURT
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONTACT

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/19-holly-street-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2475099

Aryeh Weinstein - there is more than one aryeh weinstein. this is probably the one who is a real estate developer

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

TIMOTHY M PEACE
Male Black
19 HOLLY STREET
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701

OFFENDER WAS CONVICTED OF 2 COUNTS OF ENDANGERING
THE WELFARE OF A CHILD FOR EXPOSING HIMSELF WITH TWO
TEENAGE FEMALES.
IN 2001 OFFENDER WAS CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
WITH TEENAGE FEMALE

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/496-massachusetts-avenue-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2471683

Shmuel Benvenisti might be a  Sefardi who lives in the Deal area but owns businesses in Lakewood

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

GEORGE J MOREY
Male White
496 MASSACHUSETTS AV APT 6
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
ENDANGERING THE WELFARE OF A CHILD

Victims:  x -  Under13   x -  Male   x -  Female

OFFENDER VICTIMIZED CHILDREN WHILE BABYSITTING

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/524-massachusetts-avenue-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2471750

Naftoly Weber from Williamsburg is a notorious slumlord who owns S&Y Realty.

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

CHARLES L LLOYD
Male Black
524 MASSACHUSETTS AVE #5
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
SEXUAL ASSAULT

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female
 
Nathan Mermelstein of 146 West Caranetta Dr is one owner at least of this real estate holding company
 
http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Lakewood_NJ-6267412/

the company's phone number belongs to Mermelstein

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

ROBERTO RIVERA
Male Black
45 BRYAN STREET
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT

Victims:  x -  Under13   x -  Female

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/1511-august-drive-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2468219

Eytan & Blimi (Herskowitz) Aviv (any relation to Lakewood's anti-corruption crusader Hershel?)

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

MICHAEL A TRANCHINA
Male White
1511 AUGUST DRIVE
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
SEXUAL ASSAULT

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female

OBTAINED ACCESS TO VICTIMS
THROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/sr.cgi?&district=1515&ms_user=&srnum=5862974&block=89&lot=3&qual=

MOSESON, MORDECHAI
201 FOURTEENTH ST
LAKEWOOD NJ

Property location: 316 1st St

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/m4.cgi?district=1515&l02=151500089____00003_________M

6 APTS

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

MICHAEL P SCOTT
Male White
316 1ST STREET APT 1C
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701

COMPLETE STRANGER TO VICTIM. HE REAR ENDED VICTIM'S MOTOR
VEHICLE AFTERWHICH HE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED VICTIM & ATTEMPTED
TO KILL VICTIM BY BEATING HER HEAD ON ROCKS WHICH BROKE
HER JAW.

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/m4.cgi?district=1515&l02=151501440____00002_306C1000M

The Wiesners are Conservative Jews in Edison who before that lived in Lakewood & Brooklyn

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

ALBERT T MALLIA
Male White
306 JOSEPH DRIVE
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
SEXUAL ASSAULT

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/1162-idalia-avenue-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2477579

Chanie Lieberman of Far Rockaway (who appears to be related to the sofer Rabbi Moshe Lieberman) might be the only landlord unaware there is a molester living at their property as someone may have illegally subleased the basement.

https://www16.state.nj.us/LPS_spoff/individualResults.jsp

GEORGE P DECROSTA
Male White
1162 IDALIA AVENUE BSMNT APT
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONTACT

Victims:  x -  Under18   x -  Female

REGISTRANT APPROACHED YOUNG FEMALE STRANGERS
ON THE STREET
 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/19/officials-crack-human-trafficking-ring-in-nj/2567717/

The video here shows 1093 Brook Rd where Federal agents raided a house of prostitution rented from a frum doctor. It is across the street from Mesivta Keren HaTorah & the frum development including the street where the doctor himself lives.

http://www.njtaxrecords.net/r/1093-brook-road-lakewood-ocean-county-nj-property-tax-record-2466542

Dr. Marcos Alfie lives around the corner at 3 Lucerne. It is actually a mostly chassidishe development where all the streets are named for resorts in Schweitz that chassidim frequent, such as "Arosa".

http://radaris.com/p/Marcos/Alfie/

Alfie is a Sefardi who previously lived in Detroit & Brooklyn. He is married to Sara Laniado

http://www.meridianhealth.com/MH/HealthInformation/Publications/KidViewsMagazine/2011/Fall2011/CouldYourChildHaveAcidReflux.cfm

Marcos Alfie, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

Time Magazine believes that Alfie's tenants have ties to a notorious drug cartel in Mexico:

http://world.time.com/2013/07/31/the-mexican-drug-cartels-other-business-sex-trafficking/

Narco gangs like the Zetas — a criminal army founded by defectors from the Mexican military — have diversified their portfolio to include kidnapping, extortion, theft of crude oil, gun running and lucrative human-trafficking networks.

This month, police in New Jersey arrested six Mexican nationals on sex-trafficking and organized-crime charges following a raid on a brothel in the town of Lakewood.
Gangs like the Zetas are involved in human trafficking at many links on the chain. Cartels control most of Mexico’s smuggling networks through which victims are moved,
 
In one account taken by the former deputy Orozco, a woman from El Salvador described how she was kidnapped by the Zetas in Mexico, repeatedly raped and then also forced to cook and wash bloody clothes and machetes. While she was finally freed by one of her captors, other women are believed to experience similar brutal treatment before ultimately being murdered. This month, a mother located the body of her daughter in Oaxaca state after a two-year-long search; she discovered that her daughter had been held by a gang of Zetas and was repeatedly raped before being decapitated.

In western Michoacán state, the brutal Knights Templar cartel is alleged to have kidnapped large numbers of girls and held them for sex. Jose Manuel Mireles, a doctor who has become the leader of an armed vigilante group fighting the cartel in the village of Tepalcatepec, said the cartel’s systematic use of rape as a tool of terror was the final spark that made residents take up guns this year. “They arrived at people’s houses and said, ‘Bathe your daughter, she is going to stay with me for some time,’ and they wouldn’t return her until she was pregnant,” Mireles said in  a video testimony
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OWNER OF MUSIC SCHOOLS CHARGED WITH MOLESTING 9 YEAR-OLD!

August 7, 2013, 5:53 pm
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Owner of Music Schools Charged With Molesting 9-Year-Old


 

In April, the girl’s mother walked in on the owner, Ilya Lehman, during a private lesson at the girl’s home on the Upper West Side, prosecutors said. The mother found Mr. Lehman inappropriately touching the girl, prosecutors said in court records, and the next day the girl told her mother that Mr. Lehman had repeatedly touched her under her panties and had her touch him inside his underwear.       
The girl’s parents soon after confronted Mr. Lehman, a naturalized United States citizen from Russia, and he left for Russia, returned to New York briefly, then went back to Russia again, according to prosecutors. He was arrested on July 15 at Kennedy International Airport as he returned to New York after nearly three months.
      
Mr. Lehman runs three locations of his music and dance school, The Early Ear, on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan. The schools offer classes for children from 4 months to 5 years old, according to its Web site.
      
Mr. Lehman modeled the schools after a program he created in the former Soviet Union, with the objective to prepare students for private instruction by age 5, according to a 2004 article published in The New York Observer. The article said that Mr. Lehman has a doctorate in music from the Moscow Conservatory and founded the school with his son, Michael, in 1992.
      
“The most important point,” he was quoted as saying, was “that kids love you.”
      
Because he is considered a flight risk, Mr. Lehman has been held without bail since his arrest. He appeared at State Supreme Court on Wednesday and was arraigned on two counts of sexual abuse, each of which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
      
Mr. Lehman’s lawyer, Raymond R. Granger, pleaded not guilty on his client’s behalf and then said that Mr. Lehman was having difficulty understanding the proceeding. Justice Jill Konviser scheduled another appearance, with an interpreter present, for Thursday morning.
      
Outside of court, Mr. Granger said his client would fight the charges.
      
“This case is based entirely on a statement from a child who originally stated that nothing inappropriate had happened, and whose subsequent statement to the contrary was made under what may have been extremely suggestive circumstances,” he said.
      
Justice Konviser asked Nahal Batmanghelidj, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, whether Mr. Lehman had been offered a plea deal. Ms. Batmanghelidj said he had not because more victims may come forward.
      
“At this time, we don’t know what direction this investigation is heading,” Ms. Batmanghelidj said.
A spokeswoman for Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, said in a statement that parents who are concerned because their children have worked with Mr. Lehman can contact the office’s child abuse hot line at (212) 335-4308.
      
“If parents plan on speaking with their own children about this matter, they should feel free to consult the D.A.’s office or an appropriate Web site for guidance on such conversations,” said the spokeswoman, Joan Vollero.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/nyregion/owner-of-music-schools-charged-with-molesting-9-year-old.html?ref=nyregion
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A Rotten Tree Produces Rotten Apples!

August 7, 2013, 8:10 pm
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Zvi Belsky
What does a Yeshiva do when one of their staff is caught downloading porn, chatting online, meeting other women and then finally getting divorced ?

After years of being rattled by fighting for the leadership of the Yeshiva, it finally was somewhat worked out and things seemed as they were getting quiet. Now the Telshe Yeshiva of Wickliffe Ohio is once again being thrown into turmoil but this time with a sex scandal. Rabbi Tzvi Belsky (son of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky) and married to the granddaughter of the late Mentor the Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Stein was hired as the executive director of the Yeshiva. With the urging of his uncle Rabbi Moshe Ruven Barkin, Belsky was ushered in as the savior for the withering Telshe Yeshiva.

 A promising future was the slogan of this new administration. In the beginning things looked good as they did alot of PR and put the Yeshiva back on the minds of people. A dinner in the memory of Reb Chaim Stein was held with the attendance of about 600 people, much more then the Yeshiva ever had before. From there things didn't continue as planned. As the promising future was not materializing people once again were keeping their money from the Yeshiva, and the Yeshiva suddenly began falling behind in checks. One check a month the Yeshiva is always able to give thanks to the generosity of the Klein family who promised the late Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Stein that they would do that. In the last six months that is the only check the faculty has been receiving.

 Last summer many of us heard that Tzvi Belsky the fundraiser/executive director of the Yeshiva was having martial problems. At that time he was also teaching in the Yeshiva Camp Kol Torah as he did for the last few years. The problems at that time were involving porn addiction, sex chatting, strip clubs, and he was sent to therapy. If anything went on between Belsky and boys in Camp Kol Torah isn't known yet, but we do know that they refused to rehire him this year. Do they have more information that we don't have as of now? Well Belsky went to N.Y. for therapy and at the same time was able to enjoy his freedom of traveling to visit his online friends and the N.Y./N.J.strip clubs.

 Finally, he was busted in those places, online girls were chatting him on public computers and porn movies were found hidden on his computer.

 His wife realizing that she was married to a pervert that even therapy couldn't help. went for divorce. As the stories of all Belsky's action began spreading more people suddenly had what to add, never davening, Chillul Shabbos, prostitutes and much more. Belsky, realizing he was in trouble began trying to win over the faculty of the Yeshiva. Being behind in checks, which in essence means not doing a good fundraising job he immediately contacted his brother in law Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz from L.A. to give the Yeshiva 50k so he can give a check and then hopefully everyone will look away from all his other actions. When he gave out the check and that still didn't happen he began threatening the Yeshiva that the land adjacent to the Yeshiva that is owned by his brother in law will be used against the interests of the Yeshiva. Getting another 50k for a second check and hopefully with that threat he is hoping his job will be secured.

 The latest tactic of Belsky to secure his job is by refusing a Get to his wife unless she signs an agreement stating she wants him living and working in Telshe. Also threatening if she doesn't sign such a agreement, that with the help of his uncle M.R. Barkin to have people rally against her father's position in the Yeshiva.

 What will the faculty of Telshe Yeshiva do now?

 Will they sell themselves out to this pervert, spouse cheating, porn addict etc. and let him stay as the name and face of their Yeshiva or will they do the correct thing and have him replaced with a more qualified individual that will not be a disgrace for a upstanding Orthodox Yeshiva ? Time and public opinion will be the deciding factor.

 Calls to the Telshe Yeshiva went unanswered and a search for more I information on Belsky resulted in two LLC listed under his name and address. The company Bell Fundraising Solutions and Tzvi Belsky LLC are both owned and operated from his home address but with no contact information.
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Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l - In Memoriam - His Yahrzeit - The Third Day Of Elul

August 8, 2013, 9:00 pm
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Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz was born in the town of Willig in Hungary in 1886 into a family of G-d-fearing Sanzer chassidim. At a young age -- when he was already studying Shulchan Oruch Yore De'ah with Shach, Taz and the Pri Megadim -- he had acquired a name as a scholar who brimmed with deep religious passion. He studied under the Arugas Habosem, the B'eer Shmuel, and the Shevet Sofer, Rav Simcha Bunim Sofer --the three leading gedolim of Hungary at the time, and received semichah from them.

A person of deep complexity and contemplation, he pursued Jewish philosophy and mussar privately, and at a young age had completed the entire works of the Maharal, Kuzari, Mesilas Yeshorim, and works of chassidus. He avidly studied the works of Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch in the original German. He saw Rav Hirsch as his ideal because Hirsch had successfully devised a religious Jewish weltanschauung that could stand up to the challenges of modernity. (Nothing showed his diverse interests more than the fact that he spent his entire wedding dowry on buying a set of Zev Yaavetz's history books.)

Although Rav Shraga Feivel appeared an unassuming young man, he had a rare strain of boundless idealism running through his fabric. When he came across the statement in the gemora that, "Were Israel to keep two Shabbosim in a row, the Redemption would immediately come" he promised himself then and there that he would work to draw the hearts of Jews back to their Father in Heaven.

In the early years of the twentieth century, when Jews all over the world were blindly rushing to embrace enlightenment, communism, socialism and every other "ism" besides their ancestral heritage, his dream appeared as unpractical, wishful thinking.

At age 22 he married, and settled near his father's home in the town of Humina. In 1913, he decided to leave for the U.S. for reasons never clearly defined by him. Before he left, he received a brocho from Rav Yeshaya of Krestira, who foretold that he would accomplish great things in America.

The first few years in the U.S. Rav Shraga Feivel spent trying his hand at different professions. Although an expert at the laws of shechita, he saw after a day that this profession did not suit him. He taught in talmud Torahs in New York, Bridgeport and Scranton, before he returned to New York and opened an ice cream business.

Although he still dreamed of opening a yeshiva, he had discovered that in the U.S., all the power was concentrated in the hands of a talmud Torah's president and board of directors, and the principal and teachers were viewed as merely low level servants. He dreamed of succeeding in his business and with the funds, opening his own yeshiva. However, his business was not succeeding as planned, possibly because his head was more in his Torah studies than in ice cream.

Kashruth and educating the public

Rav Shraga Feivel was a lover of Jewish liturgical music; he and chazzan Yossele Rosenblatt became friends and together created The Jewish Light (Dos Yiddishe Licht) newspaper. The intent was to inform the Jewish public about the awareness of their heritage, shmiras hamitzvas, the importance of keeping the kashruth laws; and they wanted to give their secular brothers an alternative to The Forward (and The Workmen's Circle/Bund). He was way ahead of his times; the public was not interested for the most part in their message, and the paper folded leaving them deep in debt.

Rav Shraga Feivel, realizing that his business enterprises were failing, in the summer of 1921, after being pursued by various members of the board, he finally agreed to take a teaching job at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, which at the time was a "talmud Torah" rather than a yeshiva. Many of the teachers were not shomrei Torah and mitzvos, a very sore spot in the side of Rav Shraga Feivel, and added to his hesitancy of joining the school. He was certain that the Torah could only be learned, if taught by frum teachers. A series of illnesses that struck him didn't allow him to take the job until Elul 1923, when he was appointed to teach the eighth grade class.

Rav Nesanel Quinn, a student who had arrived the year before and later became principal of Jewish studies in the yeshiva, recounts, "In the first days after he came to the yeshiva, even the worst students began to feel more positive about their Jewish studies. He tried -- and succeeded -- in making Torah study beloved to them, and in giving them the feeling of closeness to Hashem. They began to keep mitzvos not out of habit but out of deep feeling. He imbued one with pride to study Torah, and that nothing in this world could compare to Torah study."

The Yeshiva Leaps Spiritually

The board hired Reb Shraga Feivel for just six months on a trial basis instead of a year, as they had done with all the previous principals, and if they weren't satisfied, they could fire him. To their surprise, Reb Shraga Feivel told them that he wasn't even interested in a six-month contract. He offered that they could hire him on the basis that if at any point they were dissatisfied, they could fire him on the spot. All the previous principals had insisted on a detailed contract for an entire year.

Rav Shraga Feivel began the next day. He found a group of cool, impassive teachers whose resentment of him bristled under the surface. The teachers too were all of Polish or Russian extraction, and they could not respect the Hungarian man who "lacked up-to-date scholastic and educational training" and proudly sported a beard and payos.

But as the following weeks unfolded, and each teacher had the occasion to meet and discuss topics with him, they soon stood open-mouthed before Rav Shraga Feivel's vast knowledge. The teacher who was expert in Hebrew grammar soon discovered that Rav Shraga Feivel was a giant in dikduk. The teacher whose specialty was Jewish history soon discovered that Rav Shraga Feivel knew far more than he.

Within a few weeks, the entire staff was united in their reverence and respect for the new principal who each admitted towered far above him. Rav Shraga Feivel began his innovative program right away.

On his first day as principal, Rav Shraga Feivel dictated a letter to the members of the board. He wrote them that a person cannot be balabos (board member) over a yeshiva unless he appreciates Torah. He demanded that every one of them attend a Torah shiur at least twice a week. The board members were astonished -- but they complied.

Rav Shraga Feivel gave a shiur in the home of Reb Benzion Weberman where he impressed the committee members with his deep religious, educational and personal ideals. They began to understand that it wasn't sufficient for a child to have a Jewish education only until his bar mitzva years, which was the standard in America until then.

In addition to winning over the rebbes and the parents, Rav Shraga Feivel soon was idolized by the students. They had never seen a principal who taught with such heart and neshomoh. On holidays he made assemblies and parties, and would dance with the students. He would sing soulful songs "Kadsheinu" and "Vetaheir libeinu" with such ecstasy that all the students were swept up with the same emotion.

"It isn't the slightest exaggeration to say that Rav Shraga Feivel blew a new soul into us, of a natural Jewish approach to our Torah. We could clearly sense how the Shechina was present in every class. A new spirit blew in the life of the yeshiva -- and all this he did quietly, without noise, without giving orders."

Torah Vodaath's name began to spread far and wide in New York. There was no longer any need to recruit bochurim for the yeshiva and the problem now became how to find enough room for all the boys. The crowding forced the committee to open classes in rented apartments around the district. Classes were held in the Keap Street beis hamedrash, the Lincoln business school, and the Beis Aaron shtiebel on Division Avenue. At the same time, the spiritual growth fostered by Rav Shraga Feivel kept pace with the physical growth of the yeshiva.

The Mesivta is Founded

The idea of a Jewish high school was still far-fetched. When the end of the year drew near, Rav Shraga Feivel persuaded the parents of the eighth-grade boys to keep their sons in the yeshiva for "just one more year." Rav Shraga Feivel arranged for the youths to study in a local high school at night where courses were offered for adults who had not completed their high school diploma. He knew such a school would have less of an influence on his students than learning in a public school with youth their age. Besides the hours at night devoted to secular studies, the boys studied Jewish studies from early in the morning and even late at night after they finished their secular studies.

When the end of the year came around again, Rav Shraga Feivel convinced the parents to agree to just one more year. And when that year finished, the parents were willing to agree to another year. At that point, he found himself with a group of high school youths whose dedication to Torah study remained strong and unswerving.

Says Rav Nesanel Quinn, one of the students of this group, "Our study day was long and exhausting, but Rav Shraga Feivel pushed us to study Torah additional hours, on our own initiative, as it were, until late at night. I remember that he sat and studied Torah with us every Thursday night until almost midnight, and we felt that Torah study was so sweet that we almost didn't feel tired. Our load of studies was not easy, particularly if you compared it to the study program in a public school. But none of us ever complained. The frequent recesses of course helped to release the tension, but mainly what helped was that in our society, everyone was working hard and no one had it easy. So the heavy load on us wasn't viewed as anything extraordinary. We were so busy with our studies that we virtually had no time to spend on small talk."

When Rav Shraga Feivel was ready to implement his next educational endeavor -- the Mesivta -- he already had a group of older boys who had spent 12 years in intense Jewish education and the idea of continuing Jewish studies after elementary school was becoming more palatable.

When Rav Shraga Feivel asked to open a full high school division, with structured Jewish and secular studies offered within the format of the school in 1927, his request met with resistance from the board. The board, truth to tell, had nobly maintained the elementary school through unflagging and exhaustive efforts, but to undertake the support of a high school on top of that was a burden that the members saw as overwhelmingly difficult and perhaps unjustified.

Mr. Avrohom Lewin, a board member backed Rav Shraga Feivel. Despite the failure of Mr. Lewin's business during the growing Depression that hit America in those years, he staunchly agreed to buy a building at 505 Bedford Avenue for the Mesivta (as Rav Shraga Feivel called the high school to differentiate it from the elementary school, which was called "the yeshiva").

Shortly after Mr. Lewin purchased it, taking out large loans in his name, a real estate agent offered to buy it back from him at a much higher price -- that would have landed him a profit equal to three years of livelihood. But Mr. Lewin passed the difficult trial, and made the building available to the yeshiva. Eventually, the committee board agreed to take the Mesivta under its wing and pay for its cost. However, the burden of running and maintaining it fell upon Rav Shraga Feivel.

It must be emphasized what an immense achievement this was. Not only had Yeshiva Torah Vodaath acquired a sterling name as a yeshiva with undiluted Torah values, but it was the only yeshiva at the time with an excellent high school program. The other yeshiva schools, such as Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef, Rav Shlomo Kluger and Tiferes Yerushalayim, were only elementary schools with at best afternoon programs for public high school students.

Rav Shraga Feivel's concept of the Mesivta program had no parallel in any yeshiva in the world -- and not just because he incorporated secular studies and a high school degree into the yeshiva. This in itself was an act of genius. He understood that for American Jewry to flourish, yeshiva boys must have a secular education. He insisted that his talmidim excel in the secular program as well. When he asked the European gedolim about the issue of secular studies in the yeshiva, the only shaila was could it be housed in the same building as used for limudei kodesh.(There were fanatics on the board, that insisted the yeshiva change its name from Torah Vodaath to a name that did not imply that there was daas outside of Torah. He strongly disagreed with that premise, as did Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch)

Besides gemora being taught on a high level, he insisted that the curriculum include Chumash and Novi with their commentaries, the meanings of the prayers, knowledge of the 613 mitzvos, Jewish law, and sifrei yirah and mussar such as Sha'arei Teshuvah, Mesilas Yeshorim, and for select students, even Doros Harishonim, the detailed Jewish history book written by Rav Y. Halevi. Many of the latter courses he personally taught. He saw the utter importance of giving his students a solid foundation in Jewish faith and hashkofo that was taken for granted in the European yeshivos.

The atmosphere of the yeshiva was an unusual mix of Litvish learning taught by great Litvish scholars some of whom he brought over from Europe, with chassidic enthusiasm and soul which he himself injected. He integrated different approaches from various groups in Klal Yisroel and knew how to create a harmonious synthesis that appealed to his American students.

Although his influence permeated the yeshiva and every student in it, he humbly kept himself to the sidelines and refused to accept the title of "Rosh Mesivta" or even the more routine title of "Rabbi." He could not be found at the Mizrach of the beis hamedrash during prayers. He was the hinge on which the entire yeshiva turned, but to the unknowing eye, he seemed just an unassuming person filling a nondescript role. Who had ever heard of a man who built an entire yeshiva with mesiras nefesh -- only to refuse to take the mantle of honor it would bequeath to him?

In the shiurim Rav Shraga Feivel gave to the classes of the Mesivta he spoke constantly of Eretz Yisroel and the negative effect of college (he later altered his opinion, and asked Rabbi Hutner to apply for a college charter from New York State, under changing circumstances and an evolving necessity for many talmidim). Had he lived,  a college would have been built under the auspices of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:


Courtesy of the Mendlowitz Family Archives and Philip Fishman
In one shiur, to the astonished eyes of his students who didn't know if he was hallucinating or really meant it, he said that the day would come when he would found a kollel avreichim for them to continue their studies in Eretz Yisroel after their weddings. No one in their wildest dreams at the time even considered continuing their Torah studies after their weddings. Each student felt that his hands were full with just remaining in yeshiva for high school despite the disapproval of his parents, the mockery of his neighbors, the haughty looks of his more Americanized friends, and the spirit of materialism and heresy that blew in powerful gusts all around him.

The Mesivta grew, and Rav Shraga Feivel realized his dream of creating knowledgeable, deeply religious and committed Jews. Years later, he created Beis Midrash Elyon in an "unknown" town called Monsey near Spring Valley, where hand-picked married students engaged in high-level Jewish studies and where Torah students went in the summer for a combined program of summer relaxation and Torah study. This was the first kollel of its kind in the United States.

Wellsprings of the Mesivta

Rav Shraga Feivel created soldiers who went forth to Jewish communities outside of New York and founded yeshivas and saved the remnant of religious Jews from going lost. He sent students to found new yeshivos: Lakewood, Telz, and the Nitra Yeshiva, and he gave up his own sorely-needed supporters instructing them to help support new yeshivos that were opening up elsewhere. He founded Beis Midrash Elyon, for advanced Torah study at a kollel level. One of his greatest dreams came to fruition when Torah Umesorah, whose goal was to create day schools and yeshivos all over the world, was founded.

By the time Rav Shraga Feivel passed away in 1948, American religious Jewry was still small and tender, but had deep and strong roots. Yeshivas Torah Vodaath had sprouted numerous rabbis and activists that helped create the prominent religious Jewish communities that we see today spread out throughout the U.S. and Canada.

With the mighty personality of Rav Shlomo Heiman, the rosh yeshiva who taught the older bochurim of the Mesivta from the years 1933-1943, Rav Shraga Feivel produced the first team of Torah scholars of stature on American soil, all of whom had incubated in the classrooms of Torah Vodaath. They continued to reinvigorate Jewish religious life around the globe throughout the twentieth century.

The fabric of the American Jewish community began to change in the 1950s. The flood of survivors and the local religious community opened new yeshivos, the religious community burgeoned, a new religious-American weltanschauung developed which enabled a religious Jew to face American society with confidence and independence.

His love for his fellow Jew was expressed best by Rabbi Weissmandel in his book "The Unheeded Cry.""(Paraphrased) There was no rabbi in the U.S.A. that cared for the plight of European Jewry more than the saintly Rav Shraga Feivel, and helped greatly in the fundraising and hatzoloh efforts to save every Jew possible."

Rav Shraga Feivel took seriously ill in 1948. He was an ardent zionist; he urged his son in-law, Rabbi Alexander Linchner, to go to Israel and save the Sephardi children from secularism. Boys Town Jerusalem was established in 1949, the largest yeshiva/trade school of its kind anywhere in the world.

He asked that he be buried in a non-monumented grave in the Arugas Habosem cemetery on Long Island until the situation in Israel would enable his burial there. He was laid to rest in his final resting place in Bnei Brak. Rav Eliyahu Dessler zt"l, in his will, requested that he be buried next to Rav Shraga Feivel. Until this day, the Kehillas Arugas Habosem has left his original grave empty.

It is not an exaggeration to say that there was no man that impacted the American Jewish landscape with such purpose, clarity of thought, and vision, as the saintly Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh levracha.

(Much of the material was taken from Shlucha DeRachmana (written in Hebrew) by R' Aaron Suraski who interviewed many family members. Mr. M. Samsonowitz gathered and had written much of the material. Although this piece had other important figures mentioned in the establishment of the American yeshiva movement, upon extensive research, I had discovered that they were greatly exaggerated to the point of being fabricated, and could not at all discern the true from the false, so I eliminated that material entirely. The above edited piece, is accurate, although not the entire story.)


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The Dangers Of "Willful Blindness"!

August 12, 2013, 9:36 am
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Gayla Benefield was just doing her job -- until she uncovered an awful secret about her hometown that meant its mortality rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the U.S. But when she tried to tell people about it, she learned an even more shocking truth: People didn’t want to know. In a talk that’s part history lesson, part call-to-action, Margaret Heffernan demonstrates the danger of "willful blindness" and praises ordinary people like Benefield who are willing to speak up.

WATCH VIDEO:
http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness.html?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2013-08-12
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Article 2

August 14, 2013, 8:26 am
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Expert: Child sex abuse an ‘epidemic’

                    

BELVIDERE — Last week’s arrest of a Belvidere North High School teacher charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual assault shined light on a crime often referred to as “the silent epidemic.”

The crime is silent, in part, because nearly three out of four children or 73 percent of the victims do not tell anyone about the abuse for at least one year, while many never say anything at all, said Darkness to Light President and CEO Jolie Logan.


It’s also an epidemic in part because child sexual abuse ranks second to homicide as the most expensive victim crime in the U.S., where immediate and long-term costs exceed $35 billion annually, according to the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse & Neglect. The study is a congressionally mandated periodic research to assess the incidence of child abuse and neglect in the United States.

Cathy Townsend of Darkness to Light said educating adults about the steps they can take to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse is the mission of the Charleston, S.C.-based non-profit.

 Darkness to Light has provided training to more than 30,000 of South Carolina’s 54,000 teachers. School districts in the state are recognized as some of the country’s most progressive in preventing child sex abuse.

Jenee A. Blackert, 30, of Poplar Grove was charged Thursday with four counts of criminal sexual assault. It marks the second time in six years a Belvidere School District teacher has been charged with a sexual crime involving a student.

School District Superintendent Michael Houselog said all complaints of sexual abuse are taken seriously and investigated by school officials and, if necessary, law enforcement.

“Our students have not been bashful in reporting,” he said. “When kids are made to feel uncomfortable, we follow up on it.”

Townsend said one of the best steps a school district can take to prevent child abuse by a teacher is eliminate the opportunity for it by limiting one-on-one encounters.

She said a code of conduct should specify where and when a teacher can touch a child.
“A pat on the shoulder, a high-five? Fine. A pat on the butt? No.”

She also said a child should never ride alone with a teacher.

Red flags or precursors to child sex abuse include signs of “grooming.”

“Showing increasing affection to a child, patting and then hugging, gift giving. The child loses sense of where the boundaries lie,” Townsend said. “When the offender makes their move, the student often thinks, ‘Oh. I owe it to him.’”

Townsend said families also can be groomed.

“The teacher will baby-sit a child, take the child to a ball game. Parents are often honored that a teacher is taking extra time and attention with their child.”

While parents are left feeling betrayed upon learning their child was abused by a teacher, Townsend said the short- and long-term effects on the child can include changes in behavior, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school and alcoholism.

According to Darkness to Light, in 95 percent of all child sexual abuse cases, the offender is someone the child knows and trusts.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen


Comment or view comments »


Read more:http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1592820063/Expert-Child-sex-abuse-an-epidemic#ixzz2bxPRSZBg 


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August 17, 2013, 9:12 pm
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The Torah and child sexual abuse


by Rabbi Simon Jacobson




Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Everything we build and teach our children, all our investments and dedication to good, all our moral standards, our entire education system, can be wiped out in one fell swoop when we or our children are violated.

The first of all ethical and Torah axioms must be stated at the outset: No one has a right to in any way violate in any way the body or soul of another human being.

 Indeed, we don’t even have the right to mutilate our own bodies, because your body does not belong to you; it is “Divine property.”

No crime is worse that assaulting another’s dignity — which is compared to the dignity of G-d Himself, being that every person was created in the Divine Image. Even a hanged murderer must not be defiled and his body not left to hang overnight because it reflects the Divine Image. How much more so — infinitely more so — regarding a live person and innocent child.

Abuse, in any form or shape, physical, psychological, verbal, emotional or sexual, is above all a violent crime — a terrible crime. Abusing another (even if it’s intangible) is no different than taking a weapon and beating someone to a pulp. And because of its terrible long-term effects, the crime is that much worse.

The next question is this: What are our obligations as parents, teachers, writers, Web site editors or just plain adult citizens when it comes to abuse?

On one hand, we are talking about protecting innocent people from criminal predators, which clearly is a major obligation and a priority concern. On the other hand, we do have laws prohibiting embarrassing people (even criminals) in public, always hopeful, allowing people to correct their ways. We have laws about avoiding gossip and speaking ill about others (lashon harah), and not feeding into the base instinct of “talking about others” or “mob mentality” witch-hunting expeditions.

We have several obligations when we see or know about a crime, as well as obligations to prevent further crimes:

1) A witness to a crime who does not testify “must bear his guilt” (Leviticus 5:1).

2) “Do not place a stumbling block before the blind” (Leviticus 19:14), which includes the obligation to warn someone from a danger we are aware of. If you see someone walking down the street and you know that farther down the block there is an uncovered pit in the ground or a man with a gun, you are obligated to warn him. If we are aware of a predator, we must do everything possible to protect people from him.

3) “Do not stand still over your neighbor’s blood (when your neighbor’s life is in danger)” (Leviticus 19:16). It’s interesting to note that this commandment follows (in the same verse) “do not go around as a gossiper among your people,” suggesting that gossip is an issue only when no life is in danger. But if a life is in danger, then “do not stand still” even if means speaking about it in public.

4) “You must admonish your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him” (Leviticus 19:17). If one does not admonish, then he is responsible for the other’s sin (Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive 205; see Shabbat 54b. 119b). Although at the outset rebuke must be done “in private, kindly and gently,” not to embarrass him publicly (Arkhin 16b; Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative 305), but if it doesn’t help, the obligation is to admonish him in public (Rambam Deos 6:8. Shulchan Aruch HaRav Hilchos Onaah v’Gneivas Daas 30).

This is true even about a crime that does not affect other people. All the care taken about public shame is because the crime does not affect the public. And even then, there are situations where the admonishment must be done publicly. By contrast, in our discussion about abuse, which affects others, all these restrictions do not apply: Embarrassment of a criminal is never an excuse or a reason to put anyone else in potential danger.

Based on the above, I would submit the following criteria to determine whether to publish and publicize the name of a molester:

1) The abuse must be established without a shred of (reasonable) doubt. Because just as we must protect the potential victims of abuse, we also are obligated to protect the reputations of the innocent, and not wrongly accuse anyone without evidence or witnesses.

 2) Publicizing the fact will serve as a deterrent or even possible deterrent of further crimes, or will warn and protect possible future victims. If that is true, then lashon harah does not apply. It would be the equivalent of saying that it is lashon harah to warn someone of a weapon-wielding criminal who may cause harm.

3) Even if a name is not available to be publicized, the issue of abuse itself must be addressed for the same reasons stated: to make the public aware of the dangers, to protect innocent children.

The argument that publicity will give the community a “bad name” and “why wash our dirty laundry in public?” does not supersede the obligation to protect the innocent from being hurt.
Anyone who suggests that abuse must be overlooked, because (as one person told me) it “happens all the time” and “by many people, including our leaders,” or for any other reasons — is not different from ignoring any other crime, and is in itself a grave crime.

One could even argue that the greatest “kiddush HaShem” (sanctifying God’s name) is when a Torah-based community demonstrates that it doesn’t just mechanically follow the laws or isn’t merely concerned with reputations, but that it sets and demands the highest standard of accountability among its citizens, and invests the greatest possible measures to protect its children from predators, create trust and absolutely will not tolerate any breach or abuse. That the greatest sin of all is ignoring or minimizing crimes being perpetrated against our most innocent and vulnerable members: our children.

In conclusion: The bottom line in all matters regarding abuse is one and only one thing: protecting the innocent. Not the reputation of an individual, not the reputation of the community, not anything but the welfare of our children. In every given case, whether to publicize, whether to take any other action, the question that must be asked is this: What is best for the victims? Will or can this action help prevent someone from being hurt or not? If the answer is yes or even maybe yes, then the action should be taken.

The crisis has reached a boiling point where it must be addressed and brought to the attention of the public to make everyone aware of the dangers, the long-term consequences and the zero-tolerance policy that needs to be applied to every form of abuse.

Anything less would be irresponsible, immoral and, yes, in some way complicit.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson is the author of the best-selling book “Toward a Meaningful Life.” He heads The Meaningful Life Center (meaningfullife.com), in Manhattan, N.Y., which bridges the secular and the spiritual through a wide variety of live and on-line programming.
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August 21, 2013, 4:47 pm
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Nechemya Weberman


 		 
 
 
THE DEVIL OF WILLIAMSBURGH!

   

 		 

 		  
One of the most shocking child sex scandals in recent memory unfolded in an insular community in the hipster capital of the world, where a prominent hasidic counselor sexually abused a teenage girl...and the community largely turned on the girl.....
 
  WATCH 30 MINUTE VIDEO:

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/inside-a-different-kind-of-religious-sex-scandal/51fffe862b8c2a20f000095c
 

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Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim calls for rabbis to confront abuse in communities

August 23, 2013, 7:24 am
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Yehudis Goldsobel. Picture: Nigel Sutton.Yehudis Goldsobel. Picture: Nigel Sutton.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
12:00 PM

As a young girl, Yehudis Goldsobel felt powerless to stop the sex abuse she suffered at the hands of a family friend.

 

In June this year, almost 15 years after the abuse first began, the 27-year-old saw some of her power restored as her abuser Menachem Levy, 41, a Golders Green father-of-six, was jailed for three years for his crimes.
 
Waiving her right to lifelong anonymity, Ms Goldsobel has now taken the decision to speak out about her experience in order to tackle the challenges facing victims of abuse in Orthodox Jewish communities.

She said: “We don’t have sex education and we are not taught about abuse. Rabbis don’t want to know the word abuse, they don’t want to think it exists. Ignorance is bliss.
“They don’t want to admit that Jews could do this because Jews are supposed to live a life of goodness.

“I feel until the day the rabbis stand up publicly and say, ‘We will support victims of abuse in our communities and not the perpetrators’, it will continue to go the way it is.”
In her bid to change the “way it is” for Jewish victims of abuse, Ms Goldsobel started charity Migdal Emunah two years ago, offering therapy and advice sessions for victims of childhood abuse and their families across north London.

Having recently graduated with a degree in psychology, she is now working on an educational programme to roll out in Orthodox Jewish communities to inform children of the dangers and better equip rabbis and community leaders with the skills needed to deal with the issue of abuse.
“I’ve met people who were beaten on a daily basis as children but didn’t realise what was happening,” said Ms Goldsobel.

“Whether emotional, physical or sexual abuse, it all needs to be dealt with. Knowledge, as they say, is power. So if a child is aware of certain things they can protect themselves.”
From the age of 13, Ms Goldsobel was abused by Levy, of Princes Park Avenue, Golders Green, over a six-year period.

The court heard the abuse took place in his car, at his home and even during visits, as a close family friend, to Ms Goldsobel’s childhood home in Stamford Hill.

“He would continually follow me until he got what he wanted,” she said.

“So sometimes it would be easier to give him what he wanted so he wouldn’t torment me.

“He put me in a box. He kept telling me that it was my fault and that there was something wrong with me and that I was making him do these things.”

It wasn’t until some years later, as an adult, that Ms Goldsobel felt able to tell her parents about the abuse she suffered.

She began receiving therapy and, to avoid being labelled a “snitch”, sought assistance in dealing with Levy from local rabbis, rather than going outside of the community to the police.

“I went to see rabbis and they said, ‘We don’t know how to deal with this’,” explained Ms Goldsobel.
“After months of dealing with the rabbis, I got really fed up and so I walked into the police station in May 2011.”

Ms Goldsobel’s decision was met with disdain from friends within the community, many of whom stopped speaking to her for taking her grievances to the police without a rabbi’s blessing and accused her of bringing shame upon her family.

It is an experience she says has left her feeling “disillusioned” with the community she grew up in yet determined to bring change.

“I keep talking to rabbis. Some will talk to me and some will not. Some of them are slowly coming around to what I am saying,” she said.

“Our communities are very secluded. We build walls very high to protect the community but when you’ve got a rotten apple inside, how do you get rid of it if the walls are too high?”

For more information about Ms Goldsobel’s charity, visit www.migdalemunah.com
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Not Enough Progress By Rabbis, Leaders On Dealing With Sexual Abuse

August 24, 2013, 9:00 pm
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by Rabbi Heshie Billet

The time for serious vigilance of child abuse in the (Modern) Orthodox Jewish community is long overdue. It is time that lay and religious communal leaders have zero tolerance for child abusers and cease to cover up, enable, or protect them.
 
In recent years, both in Israel and in America, our community has learned many painful lessons on this topic, and institutions that have owned up to mistakes made in the past and seek ways to create policies that would avoid repeating these mistakes have made some progress.

 But we have not done enough. The progress made has been insufficient.

The most severe consequence of sexual abuse of children (and of enabling abuse by protecting offenders) is suicide. Tragically this has occurred in the Orthodox Jewish community. That makes it a form of murder. It is time that parents learn to overcome the taboo of reporting abusers to the authorities. Therapists tell me that it is in the best mental health interest of their children to do so. Parents who don’t report abuse often say they are trying to protect their children by allowing the incident to quietly blow over, lest their children become publicly shamed or stigmatized.

 But in fact the opposite is true. Children are harmed much more when incidents are not reported and dealt with.

There can be no mercy for abusers.

 If they are not stopped they will abuse other people’s children. In a sense, a failure to report (or to enable) makes one an indirect accessory to future crimes. And far worse than those who fail to report are those communal leaders who use their authority (or their synagogues, schools, or organizations) in ways that either directly or indirectly promote further abuse. This is done by refusing to take abuse seriously and maintaining abusers in settings where they have continued access to children, such that further abuse will surely occur.

Abuse is also indirectly promoted by leaders who discourage or disparage parents or others who are doing the right thing by reporting abuse to the authorities. I offer here one example of each type of promotion of abuse, not from the past, but now – one in Israel and one in America.

The religious Zionist community in Israel established the Takanah Forum about a decade ago as a reaction to tragic incidents of sexual abuse that occurred in both boys' and girls' schools. A large panel of leading roshei yeshiva [rabbinic heads of yeshivas], male and female educators, rabbis, therapists, and jurists was formed to respond to complaints of sexual abuse not subject to the jurisdiction of the criminal legal system in Israel. Wherever possible, complainants are encouraged to go to the authorities.

Their most famous and tragic case related to allegations that Rabbi Mordechai Elon, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKotel and charismatic rabbi to many young men and families, who was found guilty of inappropriate physical behavior with a number of boys/young men (http://takana.org.il/en/the-alon-case/). The charges were made public in February 2010, after Rabbi Elon refused to cease his educational activities and refused to stop meeting young men privately, as Takanah had urged him to do.

The panel reviewing the Rabbi Elon case included such prominent figures as Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and Bar Ilan law professor Yedidia Stern.

Since then, Rabbi Elon has refused to comply and has relocated to Migdal in the north where he has a Beit Midrash, and he still lectures around the country. Many of his followers remain staunch believers in him despite the prestigious ethical members of the Takanah panel and despite his conviction in court earlier this month on two charges of sexually assaulting a minor. He is due to be sentenced in October.

The Takanah Forum declared that the charges for which Rabbi Elon was tried pale before the allegations presented to the Forum which were not subject to criminal prosecution. But Rabbi Elon continues to claim innocence, teach and lecture, and lash out against the Takanah Forum, which he publicly called a kangaroo court.

In defiance of Takanah's warnings, Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of Yeshivot Bnei Akiva (YBA), the network of Bnei Akiva yeshivas in Israel, engaged Rabbi Elon to teach in his boys' yeshiva, Ohr Etzion, and rehired him after Rabbi Elon's conviction.

Psychologist and others have observed that this case highlights the danger of charismatic figures, and a failure of the Israeli rabbinate. Followers caught in the allure of such individuals surrender their freedom of choice. We call groups like this a cult. Furthermore, besides the broader Takanah panel, most of the Israeli rabbinate has chosen to remain silent on this case. Rabbi Druckman has gone a step further by enabling Rabbi Elon to teach in a boys’ school, which could potentially have tragic consequences.

Rabbi Druckman did the same thing in the 1990s, allowing Rabbi Ze'ev Kopolovich, rosh yeshiva of YBA's flagship high school, Netiv Meir, to continue teaching there even after Rabbi Kopolovich had been alleged to have sexually assaulted 10 students. This went on until the rabbi was arrested and jailed.

YBA must insist that Rabbi Druckman retract the Rav Elon appointment. If he refuses, the organization must override his decision.

In the U.S., parents of a boy in Lakewood, NJ pressed charges of sexual molestation against Rabbi Yosef Kolko. Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, the Orthodox Union’s halachic authority for kashrut, publicly accused those parents of “mesirah,” the crime of turning a Jew over to secular authorities. As a result, the complainants were driven out of Lakewood. A few months ago Rabbi Kolko confessed to his crimes. Nevertheless, Rabbi Belsky continues to condemn the complainants as “mosrim.” (And the lowlife, menuvel, degenerate Belsky accused the father of the child of being the real molester of his own child and not Kolko -- all this to cover for Kolko.  There's not a greater twisted, evil person in the entire Jewish community than Belsky. How shameful that Yeshiva Torah Vodaath let's him walk in the building, never mind keeps him as the Rosh Yeshiva) --- UOJ)  His position is contrary to the OU's position and that of its rabbinic arm, the Rabbinical Council of America, that child abuse must be reportedto the secular authorities.

The OU (and Yeshiva Torah Vodaath - I'm talking to you Chaim Leshkowitz - UOJ) has refused to publicly rebuke or take any action against Rabbi Belsky.

 It is time that the OU.... publicly condemn his defiance of the rules of the RCA and the OU. Principles must trump kashrut revenues in a major Orthodox organization’s order of priorities. The existence of the Takanah Forum in Israel is refreshing. Nothing like it exists yet in the United States, though still our community has made some progress in recent years.

But the fact that communal leaders in these two cases are protecting and enabling abusers, or condemning legitimate accusers, underscores that our community still has a long way to go. And given the high stakes of life and death and mental health of our children, we can’t afford to wait.  Things will only change if our community loudly and articulately demands it.

Rabbi Heshie Billet, a former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Woodmere. 
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The Devil of Williamsburgh - Part Two

August 25, 2013, 9:45 pm
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Content Section

How One Sex Abuse Case Tore Apart the Williamsburg Hasidim

The story of how the repeated sexual abuse of one Hasidic girl by a prominent man shook up her community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and tore apart their world. An excerpt from Allison Yarrow’s The Devil of Williamsburg.
Nestled within modern-day Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the hipster capital of the world, is an ultra-Orthodox community that claims to be the world’s largest sect of Hasidic Jews. In Satmar Williamsburg, there is no president, no Internet. Just God. Religious laws govern life. All of it. What you eat, what you wear, what you say, what you do. Many of these laws—strict laws—lord over relationships between women and men. So many laws that 12-year-old Rayna (the victim's name has been changed in this piece—her identity is sealed by the court as she was a minor when the abuses took place) could hardly keep track. She knew that socializing, dating, kissing, or even being alone in a room with a man who was not a family member were all forbidden. She knew that when women walk down the street, Orthodox men avert their eyes.
Orthodox Therapist Abuse
Nechemya Weberman attends a fundraiser in Brooklyn, where his supporters contributed to a legal defense fund for his trial on charges of sexually abusing a girl he was supposed to be counseling. (AP)

In a building not far from Williamsburg’s trendy clubs and local food stores, Rayna, her father, and a stranger are parsing her future on this day in 2007. Her father had brought her to Nechemya Weberman’s fifth-floor home office after school. Rayna had been seeing a boy, her first crush, and they were regularly texting and talking on the phone. The boy had approached Rayna. He made her feel giddy and shy at the same time. He was unlike the other boys she knew.

Rayna’s parents were distraught. Their daughter didn’t understand the gravity of what she was doing, they thought. Her mother, Emily, grew increasingly distressed as she listened in on her daughter’s calls with the boy. She and her husband feared this illicit relationship would threaten Rayna’s marriage prospects. After all, Rayna wasn’t like other girls. She was pretty and sweet. And she was a Satmar, a member of one of the world’s largest, most powerful groups of Hasidic Jews.
 

In Williamsburg, Nechemya Weberman was a revered leader and a counselor to wayward youth. Rayna’s parents respected him, and had entrusted him with advising Rayna’s older siblings before they left the nest.
 

Rayna’s strict yeshiva school had learned of her illicit behavior, and they too promoted Weberman as a therapist. The yeshiva would later threaten to end her education if she refused appointments with Weberman. Her parents were desperate. Their daughter’s future in the Satmar community was at stake.
 

That afternoon, Weberman sat in front of father and daughter at his table with his back to the windows. The men spoke to each other in Yiddish, the tongue Satmar Hasidim use in work, worship, and family life. When the men finished discussing business, all were quiet for a long time. Weberman sensed that the girl was upset, that she didn’t want to talk to him, but having counseled many before her, he believed he could get her to talk to him, to open up.
 

Rayna was upset. She and the boy were young and maybe even in love. They were doing nothing wrong, but no one understood. She sat silently and stared straight ahead. Her eyes landed on a computer, an uncommon sight in a Satmar home, because religious leaders forbid them.

The “outcome of abuse is in a way far worse than murder,” Rayna later wrote. “With murder, the person is dead and it is final. By abuse the victim experiences death over and over, again and again.”

Weberman asked her father to leave. An attempt at further defiance, Rayna didn’t even watch as he stood and walked out the door. Weberman told Rayna that her father would wait for her downstairs in the car, but that was not true. He tried to coax the distraught girl out of silence, inquiring about her school and family life, but her replies were clipped. She was furious—at her father for bringing her here, at this man who knew nothing of her struggles or her life. Rage boiled inside her thin frame. Sitting face to face with a Satmar man schooling her in atavistic Satmar rules was the last place she wanted to be.
 

“Why should I talk to you? You look like a Hasidic fuck. You look like my father,” Rayna said.

“I’m not like your father,” Weberman said. “You can choose whether you talk to me or not.”

They sat silently, for longer now. Rayna eyed the older man, with his salt-and-pepper beard and peyos dangling in front of his ears. They all looked the same to her, the gods and kings and kingmakers of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her whole life and being were dominated by these men—men who thought they were the holiest on earth. They wore the same hair, hats, and coats. Some spent all day praying in Satmar synagogues, or studying texts in Satmar yeshivas. Others were shopkeepers, bus drivers, or landlords. A regal few were spiritual counselors, like Weberman, bringing wayward kids and teens back from the brink of ruined lives.
 

“Why do you want to talk to a guy?” Weberman asked her, inching closer.
 

“I don’t know,” she said, but that was a lie. She had seen romantic love in the banned movies and magazines she devoured in secret. She dreamed of what she saw, handholding and kissing, the kind of love that might lift her out of the suffocating box she lived in.
 

She spent four hours at Weberman’s that night. He told her she was a beautiful girl, special and smart, and that he had watched her grow up. He said he would continue to watch and help if she would let him. Weberman said she would become even more beautiful, and strong, and one day she would be queen of a Satmar home all her own, loved like the great women of the Bible—Esther and Miriam and Rachel. This fantasy appealed to her, and as she listened, she softened.
 

He asked her questions, one after another, more than she could remember ever being asked before. How is your school? Do you have friends? Is your home a happy place? It seemed he cared for her, the way he asked the questions, his voice lilting up and his dark eyes on hers as he waited for her answers. So when he began to touch her, she thought he was trying to help her.
 

She yielded to his hands on her body, over her clothes first, then beneath them. He touched her breasts and her stomach, her neck and face, continuing to talk to her about the boy she was seeing, asking his name, what he was like, why she was drawn to him. Reminding her that young Satmar boys were dangerous, that they could jeopardize her path to becoming a prosperous Satmar wife and mother. Rayna knew this touching was out of her control, but what she didn’t know was how very wrong it was. She was not even a teenager. This man made her nervous, this friend of her father and counselor to her siblings, but he also validated her belief in romantic love, and listened to her as if he cared a great deal about her life.
 

After the appointment was over, it was dark outside.
 

“You’ll come see me again,” Weberman said. “We share a destiny.” He watched the beauty mark on her cheek as she nodded.
 

Rayna walked the 25 minutes home alone. The streets were bustling with Satmar night owls, who stroll Lee Avenue until the early morning hours. She would make this walk hundreds of times over the next three years, often not returning home until after midnight or one in the morning. Not only did her parents not seem to mind, they barely noticed. They had already raised her older siblings and married them off. Rayna often felt left behind and small in her large family. Here was a prominent man in the community who predicted a special destiny for her.
devil-in-williamsburg-yarrow-cover
'The Devil of Williamsburg' by Allison Yarrow. 47 pp. Amazon Kindle Single. $2.

Nearly four years later, when Chani Segall heard of these late-night visits, and of Rayna walking home alone after them, she was shocked. “As a mother, where the heck were you and how did you let this happen?” asked the administrator at a religious girls school in Midwood, Brooklyn, where Rayna would later find a new family.
 

Rayna’s mother, Emily, claims she had no idea what her daughter had endured over those years.

“She never told me face to face until this got out. She never told me, she never told us. I couldn’t stop crying. I had vases of tears filled,” she said.
 

What began with the community elder hugging, touching, and kissing the girl he was hired to counsel grew bolder with progressive sessions until he was raping her regularly.
 

Rayna’s face reddens and she fills with tears recalling the specifics: Weberman forcing her to perform oral sex on him. Surprising her at her house and raping her in her own bed. Burning her with candle wax and matches, which left gruesome scars. Making her copy acts in the pornographic films he showed her behind a triple-locked door.
 

The “outcome of abuse is in a way far worse than murder,”  Rayna later wrote. “With murder, the person is dead and it is final. By abuse the victim experiences death over and over, again and again.”

• • •

In December 2012, more than five years after the abuse of Rayna began, 54-year-old Nechemya Weberman was found guilty of 59 counts of sexual assault of a minor after an exhausting two-week trial. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who had long been criticized for reluctance to prosecute ultra-Orthodox sex abuse cases, now nabbed a victory with Weberman’s conviction within a year of Hynes’s reelection bid. The powerful Weberman’s 103-year sentence was a record for a Hasidic man convicted in a Brooklyn courtroom.
 

While past complaints of sex abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community centered on old men and young boys, this time the victim was a young, beautiful, and charismatic girl. Still, Rayna’s family was defamed and intimidated in their own community because she went public. The life of the man she married, Hershey, was threatened, and his business was destroyed. The intimidation, a legal fees fundraiser for Weberman, and the trial itself made national headlines. In past trials of Orthodox sex cases, court benches brimmed with the accused’s supporters, never the victim’s, but Rayna drew more supporters than victims before her. A community that once denied that sexual abuse festered within its ranks now had factions acknowledging it, combating it, and beginning to heal. Rayna changed everything.
 

An excerpt from Allison Yarrow’s Amazon Kindle Single The Devil of Williamsburg.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Allison Yarrow is assignment editor and a staff writer at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Her essays and journalism have appeared in Huffington Post, Slate, CNN.com, Poets & Writers magazine, and The Forward. She created and hosted the Yid Lit podcast, which interviews authors of literary fiction and nonfiction. Previously, as an associate producer at NBC News Productions, Allison produced health segments for a nationally syndicated program hosted by Hoda Kotb and long-form documentary hours for MSNBC.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

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"He Keeps a Machete by the Nightstand".........

August 27, 2013, 10:13 pm
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On Marrying a Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Dealing with misinformation, feeling powerless, and slowly getting better together

(Wikimedia)
I thought the article would validate my husband’s experience. That’s why I emailed him the link to the decade-old New York magazine article about his alma mater, the American Boychoir School for vocal prodigies, where alumni from as late as the 1990s estimate that one in five boys were molested. Boys like Travis.

“It used to feel like an isolated incident that affected just me," Trav said.

It was the end of my workday on an October afternoon; I had just set my keys on the kitchen table. My coat was still buttoned.

“Now I know I spent nearly three years of my childhood at a boarding school not just with random pedophiles, but in a culture that allowed it.”

As his wife, how do I respond? That he survived? That he’s brave? That he’s a hero for letting me talk about it? That I will stand beside him with a personal mission and public vow that nobody will ever hurt him, physically or emotionally, again, the way they did during his 30 months as a choirboy from 1988 to 1990?.

Trav deflects these statements. He understands my protective instincts, but it makes him feel weak and uncomfortable when I say the words with such elevated drama. He is not brave, he says. Not a survivor, and certainly no hero. It doesn’t matter anymore, he says, so I suck in my breath and nod.
Mostly, I listen. I listen, and I do not laugh when my husband needs to secure the perimeter of our home each night. He keeps a machete by the nightstand. A long pillow divides our bed.

Trav believes his story is too familiar to be interesting. “I’m just another kid who got molested.” This breaks my heart to hear, but he’s not wrong about his story not being unique: The generally accepted estimate is that one in six men are sexually abused as children.
When high profile cases dominate the news, I feel for the victims, but I also scan for images of their partners and wonder how they deal with it. I want to ask what’s inside their medicine cabinets and if their husbands sometimes wince when touched, too.
I want my husband to sleep at night, and if it takes a machete in the bedroom, I‘ve learned not to mind.

Search for Americana singers in our state, and ................

READ ENTIRE FULL LENGTH ESSAY:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/on-marrying-a-survivor-of-childhood-sexual-abuse/278967/

What Can Be Done About Pedophilia?



http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/qa-james-cantor-phd-on-pedophilia/279024/
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Orthodox Groups Under Fire From Within For Inaction On Defender Of Pedophile

August 28, 2013, 6:58 am
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 Gary Rosenblatt       
Editor and Publisher       

Two prominent Orthodox rabbis — one a former president of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) — spoke out forcefully this past week on the need for transparency and justice on sexual abuse in the community, and criticized the Orthodox Union (OU) and the RCA for not taking a stronger stand against a well-known rabbinic authority on kashrut who defended a confessed pedophile.

Rabbi Heshie Billet, spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Woodmere and a former president of the RCA, wrote an Opinion column on The Jewish Week website. The piece, “Not Enough Progress By Rabbis, Leaders On Dealing With Sexual Abuse,” described the role Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, a major kashrut expert and halachic consultant to the OU, played in publicly defending a confessed sexual abuser, Rabbi Yosef Kolko, who taught youngsters at a Lakewood, N.J., yeshiva.

Further, Rabbi Belsky accused the parents of the victim of going to the police, and wrote that one who does so is guilty of being a moser, the rabbinic term for a Jew who informs on another Jew, and, wrote Rabbi Belsky,“has no share in the world to come.”

Under communal pressure, the boy’s parents moved away from the Lakewood community.

“The OU has refused to publicly rebuke or take any action against Rabbi Belsky,” Rabbi Billet wrote, calling on the major Orthodox group to “publicly condemn his defiance of the rules of the RCA and the OU,” which say child abuse must be reported to the secular authorities.

“Principles must trump kashrut revenues in a major Orthodox organization’s order of priorities,” Rabbi Billet wrote.

Mayer Fertig, chief communications officer of the OU, told The Jewish Week that while the organization has “high regard” for Rabbi Belsky in terms of his kashrut expertise, it “profoundly disagrees with his conclusion and whatever actions he may have taken” regarding the Kolko case, and has told him so in private conversations.

“In no way does Rabbi Belsky speak for the OU,” Fertig said.

Several sources say OU officials were embarrassed and angered when Rabbi Belsky publicly came to the defense of Rabbi Kolko several months ago in a letter distributed in Hebrew in Lakewood. But insiders acknowledge that no action was taken against him because his kashrut expertise is highly respected in the haredi community, a major market, and there is concern that if he were to be terminated or publicly called out, some haredim would look elsewhere for kosher supervision.

“You can make a strong argument that principle should trump all,” one OU source noted, “but it’s not a simple issue here, and the pragmatists want to keep it quiet.”

The OU is by far the world leader in the field of kashrut supervision.

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, spiritual leader of the Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida, in his weekly column to congregants, referred to the Belsky incident without mentioning names.

Among other cases cited he wrote: “When a major Jewish organization retains a rabbi who continues to defend a pedophile who pled guilty in court, and continues to defend a letter he wrote stating that the victim who reported the pedophile is a moser who has no portion in the world to come, it is on the wrong side of this issue.

“We, the rabbinic community and the leadership of the Modern Orthodox establishment,” Rabbi Goldberg wrote, “are in profound need of collective teshuva [repentance].”

Similarly, Rabbi Billet wrote that “the fact that communal leaders … are protecting and enabling abusers, or condemning legitimate accusers, underscores that our community still has a long way to go.”

Gary@jewishweek.org
 

 

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"Every 10 Seconds in the United States, a Call is Made About a Child Being Abused"

August 29, 2013, 8:14 am
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Michael Reagan: How I Overcame Child Sexual Abuse

 
Wednesday, 28 Aug 2013 03:22 PM
By Sandy Fitzgerald and Kathleen Walter
                                                                                                                                                          Every 10 seconds in the United States, a call is made about a child being abused, but the laws "always seem to be helping the adults," — a trend Michael Reagan hopes to change.

Reagan, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and child pornography, along with Childhelp, a national child abuse hotline, have declared a call to action to stop children from being victimized.

Reagan, the adopted son of the late President Ronald Reagan and the president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation, has spent the past 25 years raising awareness about the scourge of child abuse, after detailing his own experiences in 1987 through his book "On the Outside Looking In."

Story continues below.



"So many people really have no concept about how many kids are abused every single year," Reagan told Newsmax.TV. "Just to give you an idea, every 10 seconds, there is a call made about a child being abused. Five children die every single day because of child abuse, and 400,000 children will be taken out of their homes this year because of neglect and abuse. It is discouraged in America and it's the least talked about issue in America. We talk about always helping the children but we always seem to be helping the adults."

Reagan and Childhelp are pushing for all states to adopt Erin’s Law, a mandate to teach prevention education in every school in America. In addition, they want to implement Childhelps' "Speak Up Be Safe" program and to make the country aware of key resources available on Americans' smartphones and by encouraging them to call the Childhelp National Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD. (1-800-422-4453).

Childhelp is a non-profit organization that works to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected, and at-risk children. The organization is not affiliated with Child Protective Services or any government agency, political party, religious denomination, or other entities.

"Childhelp has a back to school program, a Be Safe initiative calling on Erin's Law to be passed in every state in this country that would require in fact the curriculum in schools to in fact teach kids about being safe," said Reagan, who was abused by a day camp counselor in the 1950s, when he was only eight years old.

"Don Havlik was the name," he said. "He died about seven years ago, and he had taken naked photographs of me as an 8-year-old child, and had me in fact develop the photographs when I was almost turning nine. [He] put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'wouldn't your mother like a copy of this?'"

Reagan said his life "absolutely ended" that day.

"I thought I was going to Hell, and I didn't know if people would see me as gay or heterosexual," he said. "My dad ran for governor, my dad ran for president, and I knew there were photographs out there."

Reagan kept his secret for the next 30 years, finally revealing to his father and First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1987 what had happened.

Reagan said his father reacted by saying "I'll go out and kick the guy's butt," and Nancy Reagan responded, "Honey, I don't think he has a butt anymore."

But, he told Newsmax, parents also need to be aware about what could be happening to their own children.

"As parents, we're so busy we've forgotten to raise our own children and somehow we're wanting to trust all those who we put our children in their care," he said. "Sometimes we need to be careful."

Havlik died at 83 about seven years ago, and his sister-in-law told Reagan the photographs had finally been destroyed.

"Now think about that, photographs taken in 1953, 1954 were not destroyed until seven years ago because these people use them as trading cards in their lives," said Reagan.

Reagan also said he disagrees with recent New Jersey legislation signed by Gov. Chris Christie that bars therapists from helping children overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, including minors whose attractions come from childhood sexual abuse.

"There's a lot of children who are in the homosexual community that are there because it's a safe haven for them having been sexually abused," said Reagan, "They're the ones who truly, in fact, need to have some help. So to opt them out of the situation is not the right thing to do."

Reagan also accused lawmakers of being a "bunch of old fogies sitting on Capitol Hill that really don't get it."

Sex trafficking is a $12 billion per year industry, said Reagan, and there are few places in the United States to help children who have been recruited into the trade.

"It's like America doesn't want to talk about it, because to talk about means we have to accept it," said Reagan. "But just to give you an idea, within 48 hours of your child running away from home, whatever the reason is – they're being sexually abused. Congress talks a lot about it but doesn't do very much about it."

  http://www.newsmax.com/us/reagan-child-abuse-awareness/2013/08/28/id/522726#ixzz2dN3hH6dM
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August 30, 2013, 2:28 pm
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 TV News 12
Sex abuse victim from New Square speaks exclusively to News 12
 
In an exclusive TV News 12 Special Report by Tara Rosenblum, Yossi tells how he was sexually abused by Rabbi Herschel Taubenfeld, a teacher in New York's Rockland County Hasidic community of New Square (home of the Skver sect).
 
Yossi asked for help from the head rabbis of New Square who maintain their own communal sex crimes unit called the VAAD. The agency told him to see a therapist. Two months later, Yossi reported the abuse to the Ramapo police. Yossi recounts how he was offered  $100,000 to keep quiet about the situation, which he refused. Taubenfeld admitted to the crimes, but religious leaders in the community sent Taubenfeld to Israel to obtain an honorary rabbinical ordination. 
 
Taubenfeld was charged with 30 counts of forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sex abuse yet avoided jail time in exchange for six years probation. 
 
Click here to watch the entire special report.

 CLICK BELOW FOR RADIO COMMERCIALS:
http://www.sfjny.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=67
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In the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis "Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman." 
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Established halacha (Jewish Law) places a child molester in the category of rodef (an imminent threat), in part due to a recidivism rate well in excess of 50-percent. In his 2004 psak (ruling) on this issue, the late Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv writes that one should report those who sexually abuse children directly to the police and that doing so is of benefit to society.Click here to read a partial translation of this ruling and here for the full responsa in Hebrew.
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For additional information please visit our website at www.sfjny.org.
Contact us at info@sfjny.org.
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ALL IN THE FAMILY - THE DEVIL OF WILLIAMSBURG - PART THREE

September 1, 2013, 10:41 pm
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A sex-abuse trial sheds light on why institutions from the Catholic Church to Penn State ostracize victims and protect the accused

By / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS                                                                                                         


 

NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi
Nechemya Weberman Was Sentenced in January
 

                       













Last November, Nechemya Weberman, pillar of his community and unlicensed counselor of wayward children, swore to a standing-room-only Brooklyn courtroom that he had only been trying to save the life of the girl who’d once called him “Daddy,” who was now accusing him of raping her for years, beginning when she was 12 years old and in sixth grade.

Many observers thought he looked smug as he testified, and why wouldn’t he? With the vehement backing of most of the tightly knit, deeply insular Satmar Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, the 54-year-old former driver for its spiritual leader, the Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, felt he could get away with anything.

After all, he always had.

Members of the Satmar collective, who consider themselves members of one of the world’s holiest communities, closed ranks to defend an accused child molester from the secular world — and cast out the girl who’d accused him.

She wasn’t their concern. She’d gone outside of the family.

Mirroring groups from the Catholic church to Penn staters, Satmars attacked the victim, more concerned with protecting itself from the outside world than with the evil within.

Some of Weberman’s supporters conceded that he may have sexually abused children, but were nonetheless more concerned with the indignity of one of their own facing a jury they saw not as peers but as a collection of anti-Semites and (some irony here) sexual deviants, and the prospect of one of their own ending up in a state prison, cut off from the community.

Because its members vote in blocs, as their spiritual leaders instruct, the group has outsized sway in election years — and could prove crucial in the current races for mayor and Brooklyn district attorney. Despite keeping the outside world at arm’s length, with a separate language, culture and dress code, their votes have helped convince elected officials to subsidize separate services, from ambulances to patrol groups to schools. Even criminal matters among Satmars are often adjudicated by rabbis rather than the state.

See, Satmar is a family — of parents, daughters, sons, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws, each belonging to the whole. Descending from Hungarian and Romanian Jews who fled their villages mostly during and after the Holocaust, they now live as a group in Brooklyn, close by but culturally cut off from their Latino, African American, Caribbean and hipster neighbors in Williamsburg. (A second Satmar community lives upstate in Kiryas Joel, the village with America’s highest poverty rate.) ..............
          
READ ENTIRE STORY:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/family-article-1.1442082














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Light Unto Nations?

September 2, 2013, 8:19 am
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So it turns out that Y.U. is just one more religious institution among many in America in which young people were abused by people with authority, which failed to protect those whom it was responsible to protect and which now is doing the best it can to acknowledge its wrongdoing while protecting itself. No ohr lagoyim — light unto nations — here, just an administration and a board that is k’chol hagoyim: just like everyone else.

On August 26, the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, hired by Yeshiva University to look into allegations of past abuse at the university’s High School for Boys, finally concluded its eight-month investigation and released a report detailing its findings. As one of the high school students abused in the early 1970s and as one of the more than 145 people interviewed in the investigation — though not party to the impending multi-party lawsuit against Y.U., now $380 million — I am disappointed, though not surprised, by the report. Eight months, 6,300 hours of investigation, more than 145 interviews and the best that Y.U.’s administration and board could come up with was three paragraphs that said many people were abused at many Y.U. institutions but they could not give any details because of “pending litigation.” Of course some people are happy with this and some people are angry.

Kevin Mulhearn, a lawyer for the group of students that filed the lawsuit, called the report, as one would expect, “a gross disappointment,” while those abused students, willing to be quoted, were justifiably “shocked.” As someone who spent more than two hours being interviewed and rehashing what was so locked away that I never even mentioned it to my wife of 30 years, nor to my brother, who also attended the Y.U. high school and unbeknown to me was similarly abused — I can attest that it is shocking to have your traumatic experience summarized in a few legally cool paragraphs.

Y.U. President Richard Joel expressed in an equally expected way the school’s “deepest and heartfelt remorse,” and his hope that this “recognition” brings “comfort and closure.” This was an appropriately lawyerly response, with a concluding flourish referring to Yom Kippur, the High Holy Days season and forgiveness — as if this process has been anything like Maimonides’s wrenching prescription for genuine teshuvah, repentance.

There we have it — a report that offers nothing we don’t already know. (Though I want to make clear that the lawyer who interviewed me was thorough, extremely professional, compassionate and honest.) The report confirms that a part of Y.U.’s high school (and university) culture was predatory and that until 2001, the school’s administration simply did not do what any decent and morally evolved authorities are supposed to do: protect and ensure the safety of its students. No surprises here, and actually quite sad.

It seems the adversarial nature of our legal system is set up to ensure that truth and justice, let alone repentance and repair, are not really the issues. So we now have victims who are understandably suing for millions of dollars, though one wonders what amount of money can actually make up for the loss of innocence and the life-long trauma of being abused by one’s rebbe. And we have a leading Jewish institution that now must go into protection mode. No doubt for solid legal reasons it refuses to release the full report, will offer what I am sure are heartfelt but rote admissions of shame and then request forgiveness, in soulful, pretty Jewish language, for acts committed long ago.

What won’t we have? We will have no serious ethical or spiritual reflection about the relationship between patriarchal all-male adolescent communities and sexual predators. We will not have any conversation about the relationship between highly hierarchical religious cultures in which idealization and transference are common psychological features and lead to abuse of power. We will have no collective thinking about possible common causes for such abuse shared with other religious communities that have been guilty of similar crimes. And of course we will have no public conversation — by a religious and spiritual institution, no less — about the difference between legal categories of civil liability and the psycho-spiritual and psycho-social category of healing and teshuvah.

So it turns out that Y.U. is just one more religious institution among many in America in which young people were abused by people with authority, which failed to protect those whom it was responsible to protect and which now is doing the best it can to acknowledge its wrongdoing while protecting itself. No ohr lagoyim— light unto nations — here, just an administration and a board that is k’chol hagoyim: just like everyone else.


READ MORE:
http://forward.com/articles/183120/yu-reports-three-paragraphs-fails-to-do-justice-to/
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Yisroel Belsky's Vile Self-Interest Will Have Serious Consequences For Kolko!

September 7, 2013, 9:40 pm
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Yosef Kolko, former Lakewood yeshiva counselor, seeks to nullify plea in molestation case

 BACKGROUND: PIECE BY RABBI BILLET A FEW WEEKS AGO CAUSED BELSKY TO CONVINCE KOLKO TO ATTEMPT TO WITHDRAW HIS GUILTY PLEA:

 In Part: "Parents of a boy in Lakewood, NJ pressed charges of sexual molestation against Rabbi Yosef Kolko. Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, the Orthodox Union’s halachic authority for kashrut, publicly accused those parents of “mesirah,” the crime of turning a Jew over to secular authorities.

As a result, the complainants were driven out of Lakewood. A few months ago Rabbi Kolko confessed to his crimes. Nevertheless, Rabbi Belsky continues to condemn the complainants as “mosrim.” (And the lowlife, menuvel, degenerate Belsky accused the father of the child of being the real molester of his own child and not Kolko -- all this to cover for Kolko.  There's not a greater twisted, evil person in the entire Jewish community than Belsky. How shameful that Yeshiva Torah Vodaath let's him walk in the building, never mind keeps him as the Rosh Yeshiva) --- UOJ)  His position is contrary to the OU's position and that of its rabbinic arm, the Rabbinical Council of America, that child abuse must be reportedto the secular authorities.

The OU (and Yeshiva Torah Vodaath - I'm talking to you Chaim Leshkowitz - UOJ) has refused to publicly rebuke or take any action against Rabbi Belsky.

 It is time that the OU.... publicly condemn his defiance of the rules of the RCA and the OU. Principles must trump kashrut revenues in a major Orthodox organization’s order of priorities. The existence of the Takanah Forum in Israel is refreshing. Nothing like it exists yet in the United States, though still our community has made some progress in recent years.

But the fact that communal leaders in these two cases are protecting and enabling abusers, or condemning legitimate accusers, underscores that our community still has a long way to go. And given the high stakes of life and death and mental health of our children, we can’t afford to wait.  Things will only change if our community loudly and articulately demands it."

Rabbi Heshie Billet, a former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Woodmere. 

 ENTIRE ARTICLE BY RABBI BILLET: http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2013/08/not-enough-progress-by-rabbis-leaders.html

The Face Of Evil


Yosef Kolko's Mugshot

TOMS RIVER— The lawyer representing a former yeshiva camp counselor in a Lakewood sexual abuse case wants to have his client’s guilty plea nullified, claiming the defendant was pressured by the community into admitting guilt in the case.
Alan L. Zegas, a Chatham attorney representing Yosef Kolko, filed a motion to withdraw his client’s guilty plea.

Kolko, 39, of Geffen Drive in Lakewood, had been scheduled to be sentenced in the child sex-abuse case on Wednesday, but Zegas’ motion prompted its postponement.

When reached by telephone and asked for the reasons why Kolko should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, Zegas responded, “He was significantly pressured to pleaded (guilty). There are other reasons as well that interfered with his ability to make a voluntary, willing decision.

“Even when the plea was taken, there was reference to him feeling pressure from the community,” Zegas said of his client.

When specifically asked from whom the pressure came, Zegas responded, “From many sources. That will be explained in the brief.”

Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson gave Zegas until Sept. 30 to file a brief outlining the reasons why he should consider allowing the guilty plea to be withdrawn.

Hodgson scheduled a hearing on the motion for Oct. 17. If Zegas doesn’t convince the judge to allow his client to withdraw his guilty plea, Hodgson will proceed to sentence Kolko that day, according to court officials.

The defendant could face up to 40 years in prison, although Hodgson, when accepting Kolko’s guilty plea, told him he would consider capping any prison term at 15 years.

Kolko pleaded guilty May 13 to aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, a boy who was 11 and 12 years old when the abuse occurred in 2008 and 2009.

Kolko was the boy’s camp counselor at Yachad, a summer camp that is run by the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood. He also was a teacher at Yeshiva Orchos Chaim in Lakewood.

Kolko admitted performing various acts of molestation on the child only after Senior Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro told the judge that two more potential victims of Kolko’s had come forward to authorities. Pierro said the state would not bring further charges against Kolko related to the other victims, in exchange for his guilty plea.

Zegas said some of the factors a judge would consider in deciding whether a guilty plea can be withdrawn are whether the plea agreement was entered into voluntarily and knowingly and whether the defendant had a full understanding of the consequences of his plea.

Zegas replaced Michael F. Bachner, who was Kolko’s attorney during the trial and guilty plea.
Kathleen Hopkins: 732-643-4202; khopkins@ njpressmedia.com

http://www.app.com/article/20130904/NJNEWS14/309040035/Yosef-Kolko-former-Lakewood-yeshiva-counselor-to-be-sentenced-in-molestation-case-today?nclick_check=1
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The New Science of (The Diseased) Mind

September 9, 2013, 8:28 am
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Sholom Tendler
Yisroel Belsky




Yehuda Kolko

"ANY discussion of the biological basis of psychiatric disorders must include genetics. And, indeed, we are beginning to fit new pieces into the puzzle of how genetic mutations influence brain development. ........Our understanding of the biology of mental disorders has been slow in coming, but recent advances like these have shown us that mental disorders are biological in nature, that people are not responsible for having schizophrenia or depression, and that individual biology and genetics make significant contributions........"

READ ENTIRE ARTICE: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/opinion/sunday/the-new-science-of-mind.html?pagewanted=1&src=recg
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"Cultural Cover-Up"

September 11, 2013, 9:56 pm
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Rabbi Moshe Gutnick apologises for child sex abuse in Jewish community

Updated Wed 11 Sep 2013, 5:03pm AEST
Related Story: Rabbi pleads guilty to child sex abuse
 
Australia's most senior orthodox rabbi, Moshe Gutnick, has formally apologised for child sexual abuse within the Jewish community.
 
In a written apology on the eve of Yom Kippur, he said the issue has been handled inappropriately with a culture of covering up abuse.

Rabbi Gutnick asked victims of abuse for forgiveness and urged them to come forward to ensure police can prosecute the perpetrators.

"We need to empower ourselves and victims to help to bring this scourge to an end," he said.

Talking to reporters, the rabbi addressed what he called a "cultural cover-up" with those inside the church refusing to contact the proper authorities in the belief sexual assault was a church issue, not a criminal one.

"I'm not talking about any specific incident or case. I'm talking about there was this idea of keeping the problem in house," he said.

"For something that was part of much of our thought processes and that again was completely wrong and we have to now be very open about what takes place."

He also acknowledged how a case he handled in 1987 has remained with him over the decades since.

CLICK ON AUDIO LINK:
Audio: Senior Rabbi apologises for 'culture of cover-up' over sexual abuse (The World Today)

"I received an anonymous phone call from a very young person telling me that they had been sexually abused," he said.

"At the time I reported it to the people involved but I didn't take it very seriously."

Rabbi Gutnick said he now regrets not taking action at the the time to catch and punish the perpetrator.

"If I would have done more, if I would have followed it up, if the perpetrator would have then been identified and caught, then there are many victims after that that would have been saved," he said.

In addition to the apology, the letter also addressed the behaviour of those inside the church, calling upon the majority of rabbi's to adopt a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Tzedek, a group advocating for Jewish victims of child sexual abuse, has welcomed the letter, describing it as a ground breaking milestone for the Jewish community.

The founder and chief of Tzedek, Manny Weks, says an apology is an important step in the healing process for victims.

"I don't necessarily think that it is all of a sudden going to change overnight," he said.

"But it certainly does send out a very strong message that the peak body of the rabbinate and the orthodox community in Australia has taken an unequivocal position on this matter.

"It leaves no ambiguity on how they need to respond to this issue."

Topics:sexual-offences, judaism, melbourne-3000
 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-11/rabbi-moshe-gutnick-apologises-for-child-sex-abuse-in-jewish-co/4950432?section=vic
   
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