What is wrong with this picture? These Neturei Karta terrorists are relishing in their misery and stupidity.
Rabbi attacked for defending Naveh
Rabbi Aharon Bina, head of the Nativ Aryeh Yeshiva, has come under fire in more right-wing religious Zionist circles for expressing unqualified support for OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh.
"One who vindicates an evil man is an abomination of God," wrote members of an organization called The Jewish Heart [Halev Hayehudi] in pashkevilim [black and white notices] posted in religious Zionist neighborhoods.
Bina told The Jerusalem Post that one of his children was harassed.
The notices and harassment were a reaction to ads sponsored by Bina that appeared in several Israeli newspapers including the right-leaning Mekor Rishon, Hatzofeh and B'Sheva.
In the ads, Bina praises Naveh for his "brave spirit and self-sacrificing for the Land of Israel, Torah and the Jewish nation in every place and in every time."
B'Sheva, which openly identifies with settlement causes, was flooded with complaints after Bina's ad was published last week.
Immanuel Shilo, editor-in-chief of B'Sheva, who stressed that he had nothing to do with the managerial decision to allow Bina's ad to run, explained the rationale behind the decision, saying: "The management felt that Rabbi Bina's opinion was within the boundaries of legitimate free expression."
Naveh has been sharply criticized by settlement leaders for issuing over 20 restraining orders against residents of Judea and Samaria, many of whom are fathers of large families. Settlers claim the restraining orders smack of "totalitarianism" and attempts at "thought control."
The IDF claims that the removal of "extremist elements" has successfully calmed the normally tense relations between settlers and Palestinians.
Naveh is also blamed for purposely using violence against settlers. Naveh commanded security forces at Amona, where settlers, who tried to prevent the destruction of illegal houses, were violently beaten by police. Settlers recently commemorated the first anniversary of the bloody conflict. For several months a few dozen of them have staged weekly demonstrations outside Naveh's house in Givat Shmuel, a residential town just east of Tel Aviv.
A group of rabbis on the fringe of religious Zionist consensus even issued a halachic opinion arguing that Naveh was a "moser" - loosely translated as a traitor who turns Jews over to the gentile enemy. According to Maimonides, a "moser" may be killed, although contemporary rabbinic courts are not allowed to decree capital punishment.
"I felt I could not just keep quiet as those Natorei Karta with knitted kippot attacked a man who has done so much for his people and for the Land of Israel," said Bina.
Bina told how his father, Rabbi Aryeh Bina, who established the prestigious Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School, led a solidarity rally for former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek after he was beaten up by haredi extremists.
"I'm following in my father's footsteps," said Bina.
Naveh, a religious Zionist, is a graduate of Aryeh Bina's Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School, as are other leading IDF officers such as Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern, the head of the Personnel Directorate, and Maj.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen, commander of the IDF College, who have served in controversial roles during and after disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.
In an e-mail caustically critical of Bina that reached The Jerusalem Post, the unnamed author said that Netiv Meir, which means "Path of Light," should be called "The Path of Darkness."
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of Ateret Kohanim Yeshiva and a major mainstream leader of religious Zionism, came to Bina's defense.
"Undoubtedly, it is a bad thing to expel Jews from their homes," said Aviner, referring to Naveh's restraining orders. "The Land of Israel does not belong to Naveh or to the Israeli government.
"But I agree with Rabbi Bina that it is wrong to terrorize people," added Aviner. "Even if Naveh himself resorts to terrorizing settlers, that does not permit anyone to do the same to him."
Aviner said that he personally sent a supportive letter to Naveh praising him for his selfless duty to the nation.
Rabbi Yossi Pel'i, a member of Halev Hayehudi who lives in Yitzhar, said that he did not understand how Bina could support Naveh.
"After the crimes he committed at Amona, after expelling innocent people from their homes for political reasons, he should step down," he said. "It is particularly bad because Naveh wears a kippa, which makes his actions not only a crime against the Jewish people but a desecration of God's name."
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359763931&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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A Convicted child predator is on the prowl for Yeshiva boys, offering to give them rides in his car.
Yaakov Borchardt, is STILL on the loose and possibly preying on your child. WATCH OUT for this sick prick, and make sure to WARN your children not to accept hitchhiking rides from ANYBODY. If you love your child and want him in good health, take out 5-10 minutes to express the DANGER that lurks in our own backyard, and to recognize sex-lures often used by these pedophiles. In this case it was the lure of a nice Jewish man offering a ride to a Yeshiva boy waiting by a bus stop on Coney Island Ave in Brooklyn. Thanks to G-D, and for the bravery of this boy's father, a Jewish soul was saved.
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Are these freaks; JEWS or PALESTINIAN lovers?
There are some Jews that don’t believe that the state of Israel should exist. This was made clear when an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect called Neturei Karta attended a conference in Iran to discuss the Holocaust. The conference was hosted by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Neturei Karta’s Hasidic Jews oppose the Jewish state on religious grounds and believe Jews should live under Arab Muslim rule until the Messiah comes. They sent a delegation of six representatives to the conference. One of them, Rabbi Yisroel D. Weiss, gave a speech defending their position. Another representative, UK-based Rabbi Aharon Cohen prayed that:
“The underlying cause of strife and bloodshed in the Middle East, namely the state known as Israel, be totally and peacefully dissolved”.In its place, Rabbi Cohen said, should be “a regime fully in accordance with the aspirations of the Palestinians when Arab and Jew will be able to live peacefully together as they did for centuries”.
Neturei Karta believes the very idea of an Israeli state goes against the Jewish religion.
However Neturei Karta’s views are regarded with abhorrence by most other Orthodox Jews, according to Rabbi Jeremy Rosen of the Yakar centre in London.
=======================================================“And I think, frankly, even among the Hasidic world, by and large Neturei Karta are regarded as freaks,” the Orthodox rabbi told the BBC News website.
FREEHOLD
A rabbi who lives in Cherry Hill admitted stealing more than $86,000 from his former congregation in Monmouth County.
Rabbi Peter Light, 48, on Tuesday said he took funds between July 2004 and July 2006 from a fund intended to help needy members of the Marlboro Jewish Center, Congregation Ohev Shalom.
Light, who pleaded guilty to theft by deception at a court hearing in Freehold, is free on his own recognizance. Under a plea agreement, he is to receive a five-year prison term when he is sentenced May 4.Published: February 01. 2007 3:10AM
Ex-rabbi admits stealing funds for needy
As head of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Marlboro, Rabbi Peter Light was in charge of a discretionary fund to help the needy.
But prosecutors said Light used his discretion to give himself more than $86,000 from that fund to pay his personal expenses.
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Former Memphis rabbi headed to prison
By James Dowd
Contact
January 31, 2007
A former Memphis rabbi who stole more than $86,000 from a New Jersey congregation will likely spend the next five years behind bars. Rabbi Peter Light, who resigned last year at Congregation Oheve Shalom in Marlboro, N.J., pled guilty Monday to "theft by deception," a second-degree crime. He had been accused of stealing money from the "Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund" for personal use. Light faced up to 10 years, but the plea agreement calls for him to serve five years at New Jersey State Prison. He will be sentenced May 4. Light was at Beth Sholom Synagogue in Memphis from 1990 to 2004. He was installed in Marlboro as rabbi-in-charge on July 15, 2004, but unexpectedly stepped down from his post last June. After his resignation, temple leaders launched an investigation and discovered that during his tenure, Light diverted thousands of dollars in congregational donations for personal use. Light's departure - and dishonesty - left the congregation reeling, said Jeff Sacks, president of Oheve Shalom. Many members left and a large number of those who remained are still hurting. "This has caused tremendous pain to our congregation," Sacks said. "...Our faith and trust have gone."
Former rabbi admits stealing $86,000 of congregation's money
NEWSDAYJanuary 31, 2007
MARLBORO, N.J. -- A former Monmouth County rabbi has admitted he improperly spent $86,000 from a fund kept by his congregation, authorities said.
Peter Light, former chief rabbi of Congregation Ohev Shalom, the Marlboro Jewish Center, pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing money for personal use from a fund meant to be help congregants going through hard times.
Light, who was hired in Marlboro in 2004 and had worked at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Memphis, Tenn., from 1990 to 2004, is likely to face a five-year prison sentence under an agreement that was reached following his plea, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said.
The rabbi resigned from his post in June after talk about misuse of the fund spread through the congregation and temple officials launched an internal investigation. The results were put into a report that was handed to authorities.
"By stealing from a charitable account established by the Marlboro Jewish Center, Light placed his selfish personal interests above the expectations and the needs of the congregation he led," Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said.
Superior Court Judge Ira E. Kreizman is scheduled to sentence Light on May 4.
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| Muslim congressman condemns Iran’s Holocaust denial |
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| U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the sole Muslim in Congress, met with Jewish organizational officials and condemned Iran’s Holocaust denial. “He was unequivocal in terms of his condemnation of the Iranian president,” said Rabbi Marc Schneier, a founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, after his meeting Wednesday with the freshman congressman and Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress. “It’s a significant voice to join the condemnation, not just as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, but as the only Islamic member of Congress.” Singer said the meeting is part of WJC’s efforts to solicit condemnations of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial from world leaders. He is traveling to Brazil and India in coming days as part of the campaign. |
| Slovakia’s chief rabbi attacked |
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| Slovakia’s chief rabbi was the victim of anti-Semitic verbal attacks. Three men accosted Rabbi Baruch Meyers and his 12-year-old son as they were leaving Bratislava’s only synagogue Saturday and yelled, “Jew, Jew Jew,” “Jews to the oven,” “Sieg Heil” and “Juden raus,” or “Jews out.” “They were very aggressive and I was worried they would attack us,” Meyers told JTA. He and his son ran away from the men, who he said were in their late 20s. Police arrested two of the men, and said they were drunk. The police informed Meyers that the men would be charged with expressing sympathy with a movement that denies fundamental human rights. If convicted, the men could face up to three years in jail. Meyers noted that police understood that he could not sign the complaint without violating the Sabbath and allowed him to return afterward to provide his signature. “Such incidents almost never occur in Slovakia, which is a tolerant country,” said Meyers, who was assaulted by skinheads in 1993 and 1995. |
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Was Alleged Sex Abuser's Confession Voluntary?
Last Update: Feb 1, 2007 11:21 PM
Watch This Video Patrice Walsh (Rochester, N.Y.) - Lawyers for a man accused of sexually abusing two four-year-olds in a Penfield daycare center today asked a judge to throw out his alleged confession.
Michael Bennett allegedly admitted molesting one of the victims in a videotaped confession, but his attorney said those statements were not made voluntarily.
Five hours worth of video and audio tapes record three conversations Monroe County Sheriff's investigators had with Michael Bennett. Part of one of the tapes was played in court Thursday.
The video was shot at a Hess gas station in Webster where police read Bennett his rights. During that taped conversation, police said Bennett admitted molesting one of the young victims inside a bathroom at Pepper Hill Daycare Center.
Prosecutors say Bennett's alleged statements, made on both video and audio tape, are crucial evidence in their case. During the three hour court hearing, the investigator who took the statements said they were made voluntarily.
Investigator Patrick Crough testified he told Bennett he couldn't make any promises or deals; at that point Bennett made the admissions, according to Crough.
"It was an evolutionary process of him displaying guilt," Crough told the court.
Judge Alex Renzi will decide if the videotaped statements can be used as evidence in Bennett’s trial which begins May 7. A written decision will be issued in a few week
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David John Sprong Jr. recently rented a house in Humble, Texas, under the name John Ellison and is believed to have fled after the television show America s Most Wanted featured him on Saturday. Sprong, his girlfriend, Clara Lynette Lyn Rodaer, and a 10-year-old daughter, may still be in the Houston area, FBI special agent Shauna Dunlap said.
Last spring, Sprong skipped a $1 million bond in Sacramento, where authorities charged him in connection with several molestation cases involving young girls. Under California law, he could have been sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of being a habitual sex offender with multiple victims.
His criminal history speaks for itself, Dunlap said. I certainly consider him a danger to the public, especially to children.
Oprah Winfrey included Sprong, an auto mechanic, on her list of child sexual predators. She will give a $100,000 reward for information leading to their arrests.
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Click2Houston.com
Related To Story |
FBI: Fugitive Sex Offender Spotted In Baytown
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Appeals court denies new trial for convicted child molester
HOWELL, Mich. A Howell man convicted of molesting his stepdaughter will remain behind bars after the state appeals court refused his request for a new trial.
A Livingston County jury found the 51-year-old man guilty in May 2005. He was sentenced to 25 to 40 years in prison.The victim had testified the assaults began after her mother was hospitalized for surgery in the mid-1990's.In his appeal, the stepfather alleged prosecutorial misconduct during his trial as well as errors committed by the judge at the time of sentencing.The appellate court disagreed, affirming both his conviction and sentence.=============================================
Bellevue report: Assistant pastor guilty of sex abuse against son
Published: January 30, 2007
CORDOVA, Tenn. (ABP) -- Paul Williams, minister of prayer and special projects at Bellevue Baptist Church, sexually abused his son 17 years ago, according to a report from the church’s investigative committee. The committee announced its findings to the congregation Jan. 28.
“Paul Williams engaged in egregious, perverse, sexual activity with his adolescent son over a period of 12 to 18 months,” the report said. “Paul became convicted of his actions, and he stopped. He asked for forgiveness from his son and never touched him inappropriately again. At that time Paul told no one else.”
Williams first came under public suspicion Dec. 17, after Bellevue leaders told the church he had committed a “moral failure” that required his leave of absence and an investigation into the allegations. Williams has since been fired.
The month-long investigation, lead by David Coombs, administrative pastor, included interviews with witnesses, the seizure of Williams’ computers, and three face-to-face interviews with Williams.
Williams, who had served at Bellevue for 34 years, told investigators he was sexually abused as a child.
Steve Gaines, senior pastor at the Memphis-area megachurch, told the congregation Williams had confessed the misconduct to him six months earlier. Gaines later said he should have immediately disclosed the information to church leadership. Gaines did not participate in the investigation.
At least 10 people affiliated with the church knew about the abuse before Dec. 7, when William’s now-married son and two friends told Gaines, the report said. The group included family members, a retired Bellevue staff member, and Jamie Fish, who works in the church’s Biblical Guidance office. Adrian Rogers, the now-deceased legendary pastor of Bellevue, reportedly was unaware of Williams' abuse.
Christa Brown, founder of Voice to Stop Baptist Predators, said she isn’t surprised that so many people knew about the abuse. The “miracle” is that it was publicized at all, she said. Brown also works for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a volunteer self-help organization of survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
“In many ways, the dynamics of clergy abuse are akin to the dynamics of incest, except the church family is much bigger,” she said. “In most cases, other ministerial colleagues and deacons and often even church family members are simply not capable of receiving that kind of information about a beloved minister and objectively considering it, investigating, and doing the right thing.”
That’s why churches should use outside intervention with cases like this, Brown added. She emphasized that denominational offices should give congregations resources for handling clergy abuse. And she called for a denominational office -- not run by the local churches -- to which victims can report crimes.
“If a church with the sort of resources that Bellevue has … still did such an awful job of handling this, why would anyone imagine that churches with much lesser resources would be capable of handling it any better than Bellevue?” she said. “They aren't. It's usually even worse.”
Had Williams considered the welfare of the church family, he would have resigned, committee members said. While molesting a child is bad enough, to continue working in ministerial duties involving sensitive issues is without excuse, committee members wrote in the report.
“Starting with Paul, there appears to have been no serious consideration given by anyone to the health and safety of the Bellevue family,” the report said. “On Paul’s part, there appears to never have been any time in 17 years that any consideration was given to the effect that having a child molester on the ministerial staff of Bellevue Baptist Church would have on the church. His only consideration appears to have been to keep his job and, in the team’s opinion, to stay out of jail.”
According to the report, Williams did not seek help for himself or his son until recently, when his son initiated counseling. Williams told investigators he “checked every year or so to make sure all was right” between the two of them.
Calling the church “ill-prepared,” the report blamed a “lack of knowledge” for the delay in removing Williams from his post. No policies on problems of “a sensitive nature” existed, and a precedent of keeping those issues under wraps in order to protect the church and families from embarrassment led leaders to avoid disclosure, the report said.
“Policies, procedures and protocols were and are inadequate,” committee members said. “There has been a feeling that policy and procedures of this type [regarding sexual abuse] were more suitable for the world than for the church. This feeling is not only found in Bellevue Baptist Church, but also is prevalent across churches in general. The events relating to the Paul Williams issue have vividly brought to light the need for change.”
The investigation committee stated Williams “did not pose a danger or risk to children at the church” from 2006, when Bellevue Baptist Church ministers learned of his past sexual misconduct, until the time of his dismissal. However, some church members told interviewers they felt they had been violated by Williams when he asked inappropriate questions in the course of his ministerial duties.
The committee recommended that Bellevue provide or pay for counseling for those who felt they were harmed by Williams or felt hurt by the church’s inaction. Bellevue is in contact with the Tennessee Department of Child Services through its attorneys and is cooperating fully with that agency.
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Child molester ordered to pay restitution
Money to compensate victims’ treatment costs
Convicted child molester Eric Lynn Brown, currently serving a 102-year prison sentence for multiple counts of sexually touching boys over a 10-year period, has been told to pay more than $12,000 in victim restitution.
During a Jan. 8 hearing at the San Ber nardino County Superior Court in Victorville, the former Victor Valley Junior High School counselor was ordered to compensate the victims’ counseling board for the treatment costs of his victims.
Deputy District Attor ney Mary Ashley acknowledged Brown, who went to prison in 2005 unrepentant for his crimes, will probably never be able to pay the entire amount, since he’ll likely be in prison for the rest of his life.
Still, she said, “he’ll be held accountable.”
Brown was found guilty of molesting 12 male youths multiple times while he worked as a counselor at Victor Valley Junior High School in Victorville.
Ashley said the trauma of sexual abuse can last throughout a victim’s life. Of the group Brown attacked, she said, two are in prison, another has served jail time and one committed suicide.
“The pain does not go away,” Ashley said.
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Serial molester set for life in prison
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| Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller listens to a judge in a San Jose, Calif., courtroom on Monday as he is sentenced. AP Photo |
Associated Press Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, a child molester with convictions in Oregon and several other states over three decades and a knack for avoiding prison, was sentenced Monday to 152 years to life for sexually abusing two 12-year-old boys.
Schwartzmiller, 65, shackled at the wrists and wearing a red jailhouse jumpsuit and using a cane, did not speak before his sentencing in Santa Clara County Superior Court on 11 felony counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor charge of child pornography possession.
He chuckled when Judge Edward Lee asked if he knew about his right to appeal, answering in the affirmative that he knows the procedure.
Schwartzmiller, who acted as his own lawyer in the October trial, routinely files mountains of legal arguments in his cases and has overturned two prior convictions.
Lee said that despite Schwartzmiller's legal savvy in getting some previous charges dismissed, he will spend the rest of his days filing appeals from a prison cell.
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“For all that above-average intelligence and charm, I have a couple of faults (with you) - an English teacher might call them tragic faults,” Lee said. “You have no empathy for your victims; that's not particularly unusual. And you cannot see yourself as others see you.”
After the hearing, Schwartzmiller leaned on his cane and hobbled back to the locked holding area, apparently joking with a deputy before turning back to flash a grin at investigators.
Melinda Hall, the public defender assigned to represent Schwartzmiller at the sentencing, said she spoke with him briefly after the hearing and described his mood as “accepting.”
“There's nothing that surprised him,” said Hall, adding that the appeals process was already under way. “He knew exactly what the judge was going to do before it happened.”
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When Schwartzmiller was arrested in June 2005, investigators found a graphic 456-page memoir describing sexual abuse, binders full of child pornography and 1,500 notebook pages with headings including “blond boys,” “no, but yes boys,” and “best of the best, 13 and under.”
Schwartzmiller, who had at least three molestation convictions and a dozen arrests over three decades, abused as many as 100 boys in eight states, Mexico and Brazil from 1969 to 2005, prosecutors said.
Schwartzmiller told jurors that he was innocent and maligned by a society that doesn't accept men who love boys.
During his testimony, Schwartzmiller said the memoir and notebook entries were fiction.
He blamed roommate Frederick Everts - also a convicted child molester - for the child porn. Schwartzmiller also said he could not have molested the two San Jose boys, who are cousins, because he was either at a construction job or bedridden with a bad back at the time.
Outside court Monday, prosecutor Steve Fein said he stands by his assertion that Schwartzmiller molested hundreds of boys, even though other victims weren't included in the San Jose case.
Fein said between 30 and 40 people have come forward since Schwartzmiller's arrest to claim they also were victimized, and some of the details of their stories have been corroborated.
Fein said he did everything in his power to ensure Schwartzmiller had a fair trial that would hold up on appeal.
“Look at his demeanor in court - he's smiling, he's telling everyone he's going to appeal and he's going to win. In his mind, he's the smartest one in the room,” Fein said. “That's his downfall - his narcissism. My hope is that everything he does from now on will be from a prison cell.”
Although police say Schwartzmiller appears to have spent much of the past three decades in California, he also has been arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Idaho, Oregon, Arkansas and Washington. He has lived in Nevada, Texas and Washington.
In 1984, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld a 1978 conviction for molesting two 14-year-old boys and characterized Schwartzmiller as a “repeat offender” who “uses his intelligence to take advantage of the weak and oppressed and those who are in need.”
Schwartzmiller “frequents areas where young boys may be found, befriends boys with no father figure in the home, entices them from their homes, lowers their natural inhibitions through the use of drugs and alcohol, and commits sex acts upon them,” the justices wrote.
At the time of his arrest in 2005, he was wanted in Oregon on felony sexual assault charges involving a minor. After serving prison time in Idaho for child molestation in the late 1970s, he lived in Brazil, and was extradited from there to Idaho again in the late 1980s.
Schwartzmiller has used aliases including Dean Harmon and Dean Miller.
He apparently gained the trust of victims and parents by working as a home renovation contractor. He didn't register as a sex offender so he did not appear in the “Megan's Law” databases in California or other states, police said.
San Jose police got involved after Schwartzmiller allegedly befriended the two San Jose boys with gifts, invited them to his house for video games and movies, and molested them.
He was arrested in May 2005 in Everett, Wash. and returned to San Jose the following month.
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Molester gets 16-plus years in prison
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 31, 2007
EL CAJON – A San Diego man who coaxed two East County boys into sex by sponsoring their bicycle racing, giving them alcohol and showing them pornographic videos was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison yesterday.
Robert “Eric” Buss “is a predator and represents a danger to this community,” probation officials said in a written report to Superior Court Judge Herbert J. Exarhos.
Buss, 39, pleaded guilty Sept. 21 to multiple counts of molesting the boys starting when they were 10 and 12 and continuing for up to five years.
One boy, now 16, told probation officials that Buss at one point forced him to have sex by threatening him with a knife, according to the report.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, Exarhos sentenced Buss to 16 years and eight months in prison.
Buss said little in court yesterday other than to give one-word answers to the judge in reviewing the plea agreement.
Probation officials in their report said Buss denied doing anything wrong. They said Buss told them the boys made up the accusations against him because they owed him money, and one boy was angry when Buss refused to give him a ride late one night.
Buss told probation officials that one boy was a “pathological liar.” He said he pleaded guilty to avoid a trial and a possibly longer prison sentence should a jury have found him guilty, according to the report.
The mother of one victim told the judge that her son has become distant and doesn't sleep at night.
“He doesn't trust, he doesn't allow affection,” she said.
The boy's father broke into tears and said he had considered Buss a close friend.
“I don't think (Buss) should be out there so he can do this to another kid,” the father said. “My kid is very angry.”
Prosecutor Victor Barr told the judge that Buss' actions were especially serious because he molested the boys over a period of several years.
“He fostered this relationship for the purpose of molesting these boys,” Barr said.
Defense attorney Dawn Beebe told the judge that the case against Buss “lends itself to revulsion by everyone,” but that Buss should be given some consideration because he had no criminal record and otherwise “had a very exemplary life in the community.”
“This has ruined his life as well as the boys,' ” Beebe said.
Police have said that Buss frequented BMX bicycle racing tracks in Kearny Mesa and Lakeside.
Buss, an electrician, was living with his parents in their Webster home when he was arrested in August after one of the boys told his mother what had happened and she went to police.
Ray Huard: (619) 542-4597; ray.huard@uniontrib.com===============================================
| Crown Asks for 8 Year Sentence |
He'll spend the next 8 years in a Federal Penetentiary for sexual crimes against some of our local kids, if a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence is accepted.
49 year old Donald Black was in Moose Jaw court yesterday to answer to charges of making child pornography, possessing child pornography, 2 counts of invitation to sexual touching and 3 counts of sexual exploitation.
One of the children he abused was just 18 months old. The others were 4 and 5 years old at the time of the crimes, some committed only a year ago.
The victims were captured on video and in photographs.
Black pleaded guilty to the 7 charges several weeks ago.
His wife, Audrey, has pleaded guilty to 5 charges in connection to the same case. She will be sentenced in March.
Donald Black will be sentenced February 14th.
Both remain in custody.
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More charges against convicted child molester headed toward trial
SUNBURY — A 39-year-old RRD Sunbury man serving a lengthy prison term for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old in Snyder County is headed to trial in Northumberland County for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl.
Richard A. Daddario Sr. was scheduled to enter a plea Monday in Northumberland County Court on charges he sexually assaulted the 13-year-old in Upper Augusta Township between July 2004 and June 2005.
Instead, he’s opted to take the case to trial.
A former youth minister, Mr. Daddario is already serving a 25-year to 90-year prison sentence after being convicted last fall by a Snyder County jury on four counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, one count of aggravated indecent assault and five counts of corruption of minors for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Monroe Township, Snyder County, and outside Sunbury, Northumberland County, between Dec. 2003 and March 2004.
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Accused Child Molester May Get OutLauren LeamanczykWAUWATOSA - A Wauwatosa neighborhood is bracing for the possible release of an alleged child pornographer and molester.
Joseph Hallows, 68, is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl and having oral sex with a 13-year-old boy. Both alleged incidents happened in the early 1990’s. Police say they also found several pieces of child pornography in Hallows’ home.
He was arrested and charged a year ago and has been confined to the Milwaukee County Criminal Justice Facility ever since. Hallows was being held on $250,000 bail. Last week, Judge William Brash reduced that bail to a $105,000 real estate bond and $2,500 cash.
Hallows’ attorney, Gerry Boyle, said that is an amount he hopes his client can post. He also said Hallows is no longer a danger because he’s old and in poor health.
Neighbors disagree. They were furious about the judge’s decision and fearful for their children. Bob Wendelberger said he feels like the justice system failed his kids,
"You would hope that once they catch him they would keep them away from kids and neighborhoods like this," he said.
Other neighbors say they doubt Hallows will follow the rules if he’s released. Hallows will be forced to wear a global positioning system and avoid contact with anyone under 18.
Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov
Chabad Chedar Menachem School
WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California for past 2 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California authorities at: (916) 227-4974. Convicted of sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys)
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Rabbi sentenced to year in prison for lewd acts
Hebrew Teacher Pleads Guilty to Lewd Acts
LA Times - February 5, 2002
From Times Staff Reports
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000009105feb05.story
LOS ANGELES - A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood pleaded guilty Monday to sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys.
Mordecai Yomtov, 36, a teacher at Chedar Menachem School, was charged in December with committing 10 lewd acts against three boys, ages 8 to 10. Conviction on all counts could have sent him to prison for 40 years, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Irene Wakabayashi.
In the plea arrangement, he was allowed to plead guilty to two acts of continuous sexual abuse of minors and one count of lewd conduct, Wakabayashi said.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer ordered that he not associate with minors or seek any jobs teaching minors.
The all-male Orthodox Jewish school on Melrose Avenue serves about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Rabbi Jailed - Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles - December 14, 2001
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=7856
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
Rabbi arrested on 10 counts of molestation
By JULIE GRUENBAUM FAX
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 21, 2001
LOS ANGELES -- A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school remained at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles this week in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov was arrested last Monday on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children.
The arrest came after a Los Angeles Police Department investigation into claims last month by three boys, ages eight to 10, that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught eight- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a kindergarten- through eighth-grade school with 220 boys.
Cheder Menachem issued a written statement following the arrest.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," it read. "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," Cunin said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin says Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come into the school.
"We are all of us doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should G-d forbid ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," Cunin said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said that the school seems to be taking all the right restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope with the situation.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, says situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system," Fox said. "We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for our own moral welfare."
In the past, such attitudes have made Orthodox clergy and leaders reluctant to deal with these issues, but in recent years he has seen a growing willingness to address issues of domestic and child abuse and sexual deviance, Fox said.
"There has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and more and more the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims," he said.
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, The International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which put together a think tank in September, 2000 in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service in Los Angeles has an Orthodox counseling division staffed by Orthodox professionals, sensitive to the community's particular cultural and religious milieu.
Fox also says he has seen a rise in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and at conferences targeted at youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, Fox acknowledges that the educational efforts have not reached every corner of the community.
"There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity," Fox said.
But even those communities are increasingly turning toward the growing pool of Orthodox mental health professionals.
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for LA's Jewish Family Service.
JFS has developed Steps to Safety, a three-pronged abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
"Preschools have been enormously responsive to the program, but it's been difficult to get into day schools in general," she said.
"Part of it is there are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it."
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program to see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
One Orthodox mental health professional said the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no, they need to be taught that their privates are their own, they need to be taught that any time an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they say Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an "I told you so" attitude, there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem can only increase awareness.
"There's always been a 'kill the messenger' attitude in religious circles, when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," he said. "Everyone used to hush these things up and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in mental health community that now maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention.''
LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, December 5, 2001
http://www.lapdonline.org/press_releases/2001/12/pr01804.htm
Hollywood: On Monday, December 3, 2001, the Los Angeles Police Department's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, arrested 36 year-old Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov for Lewd Acts With Children Under 14 Years of Age.
In November 2001, three students of the Chedar Menachem School in Hollywood, an all boys Jewish school, reported to the LAPD that their Hebrew teacher kept each of them in the classroom and individually molested them. The acts occurred throughout the school year when the other students were at recess. The victims range in age from eight to ten. Officials from the school have been cooperative with the investigators.
On December 5, 2001, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Christina Flemming filed ten felony counts that included Continuous Lewd Acts with a Child Under 14 Years of Age. The Office of the District Attorney suggested that bail be set at 3.5 million dollars. Yomtov was arraigned today in Division 30. Further court dates are pending.
Detectives are requesting assistance from the public in identifying other possible victims. Rabbi Yomtov taught Hebrew at the Chedar Menachem School for the last seven years. His students were boys in the 8-10 year age group. A photograph of Rabbi Yomtov is available at Media Relations Section.
Anyone with information should call Juvenile Division's Sexually Exploited Child Unit at 213-485-2883 during the week days. On weekends and during off-hours, call the 24-hour toll free number at Detective Information Desk, 1-877-LAWFULL (1-877-529-3855).
This press release was prepared by Public Information Officer Grace Brady, Media Relations Section, 213-485-3586. For Release 5:00 pm PST
A Rabbi Is Accused Of Molesting A Student - More Possible Victims
ABC News - Dec 6, 2001
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/120601_nw_rabbi_molestation.html
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said. The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police. Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
Rabbi Accused of Molesting Young Male Students
By KENNETH REICH, TIMES STAFF WRITER
December 7, 2001 - LOS ANGELES TIMES
http://latimes.com/news/local/la-000097287dec07.story
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood was in jail Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of committing lewd acts with three of his male students, ages 8 to 10.
Los Angeles police said Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on 10 felony counts, one for each alleged act. They appealed to the public to come forward to identify other incidents that may have occurred during the last seven years.
Yomtov has taught during that time at the Chedar Menachem School, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school serving about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school, at 5120 Melrose Ave., was in session behind locked gates as usual Thursday and officials declined to discuss the case beyond issuing a written statement.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," the statement said. "We request that our privacy be respected.
"The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities," it said.
Yomtov was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17 in Judge Michael Sauer's court. Detectives said the investigation began last month after three students each reported to the LAPD that Yomtov had molested them in a classroom while other students were at recess.
Det. Dale Darraclough said police experience in such cases has been that other students may have been molested too, and so the police are asking anyone with further knowledge to call investigators at a 24-hour toll-free number, (877) 529-3855.
A Rabbi Is Accused Of Molesting A Student - More Possible Victims
December 6, 2001
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said.
The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police.
Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=7856
December 14, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
==========================================Case of Rabbi Jeremy Hershy Worch
(Formerly known as the Case of the Unnamed Rabbi in West Rogers Park)
Manchester, England; Mbale, Uganda
Melbourne, Australia; Pawtucket, RI;
Chicago, IL; Istanbul, Turkey
CALL TO ACTION: Rabbi Hershy Worch and his new "Yeshiva"
The Awareness Center is DEMANDING the Orthodox Union (OU), the Rabbinic Council of America (RCA) and Alliance for Jewish Renewal (ALEPH) to make a public statements denouncing the actions and behavior of Rabbi Hershy Worch. By not doing so is condoning his behavior, and advocating for hto continue luring in nonobservant women into learning about his "Torah of Desire."
Hershy Worch received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who was considered to be an orthodox rabbi. Recently Worch created his own Yeshiva and is now planning on giving his students his own Rabbinic Ordination.
According to rabbinic resources, the only way to revoke an ordination is for the rabbi who granted the title to revoke it. Since Shlomo Carlebach passed way, it is said there is no way to have his rabbinic title removed. I've also been informed that once individual becomes a rabbi, halachicly he/she can ordain another individual.
In the past the alleged survivors of Rabbi Hershy Worch have spoken to rabbis at both the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and also to Rabbis at the CRC (Chicago Rabbinical Council).
Unfortunately because Rabbi Hershy Worch is not a member of either rabbinical organization , the survivors were told that nothing could be done.
Since Shlomo Carlebach gave Hershy Worch a rabbinic ordination, he is consider to be an orthodox rabbi, The Awareness Center is asking that the Orthodox Union, Rabbinical Counsel of America and Alliance for Jewish Renewal hire an agency suggested by The Awareness Center to do an investigation of the claims. Once the investigation is completed, The Awareness Center is demanding that a public statement on their web pages.
The allegations against Rabbi Hershy Worch include Rabbinical Sexual Misconduct and also the claims of his rewriting and misuse of Torah. These claims have been following Hershy Worch around the world for several years.
It is time for the three Jewish organizations to stop passing the buck and do the right thing!
Jeremy Hershy Worch was born in Manchester, England, on May 20, 1954. He recieved his smicha (ordaination) from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach in 1992.
There have been several serious allegations made claiming Reb Hershy's behavior as being predatory, manipulative and sexually abusive. Allegations have been made in while residing in Chicago; from a group from the Hamakom Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia; and from other locations.
Rabbi Worch has been accused of utilizing a mixture of kabbalah, hypno-eroticism and other manipulative techniques to enagage his potential victims prior to sexually assaulting them.
There have been allegations that Reb Hershy creates a cult-like devotion to himself utilizing trance-like-states, guided meditation, hypnosis; all under the guise of kabbalah teachings. Allegedly his MO (modus operandi) has been to use such techniques on women with histories of childhood abuse, so that he can lead them into BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism). activities with him.
Rabbi Worch has allegedly written a "BDSM-Kabbalah" and finds his "students" over the internet, primarily through his Livejournal "Kabbalah_101" community.
Background Information - Rabbi Hershel Worch
By Levi ben Avraham
Jeremy Hershy Worch was born in Manchester, England, on May 20, 1954. He was ordained by R. Shlomo Carlebach in 1992. (One report says Carlebach gave Worch semicha so that Worch would have a way to make a living to support his family.) . Rabbi Worch has six adult children from his first marriage and three young children from his second marriage. Both ended in divorce. On November 11, 2004, rabbi Worch lost custody of his three young children.
Hershel Worch has gone through the 12-step program for drug and alcohol abuse and he has the lingo down pat (see, for example, his book The Kabbalist Haggadah). Twelve-step programs are a great way to get laid. Many people substitute sex addiction for drug and alcohol addiction.
Chicago Orthodox rabbi Jeremy Hershy Worch has numerous friends who say he's a righteous rabbi. Some say he's the only rabbi who understands them. Others say rabbi Worch is a sexual predator.
Some women who've known Rabbi Worch intimately allege that he uses kabbalah, hypno-eroticism and other manipulation techniques to have sex with women and to take their money.
Though he is into the BDSM (bondage - domination - sadism - masochism) scene, he principally seeks out (say critics of his) those who are not into BDSM and are therefore more susceptible to his influence and less likely to understand healthy boundaries.
Rabbi J. Hershy Worch didn't show up to his last court date (January, 2005) to challenge custody/visitation rights to his children that he lost a few months ago. The rumors are that he has moved out of his apartment and sold the contents. It is believed that he relocated to Istanbul, Turkey.
Published Online March 23, 1998
By LYNDA ZIMMER News-Gazette Staff Writer
www.news-gazette.com/ngsearch/story.cfm?number=2425
CHAMPAIGN - Rabbi Hershy Worch, director of Hillel Foundation during the 1997-98 school year, has lost his job. The foundation - at 503 E. John St., C - serves Jewish students on the University of Illinois campus. It was the first Hillel established in the country.
Worch supporters describe him as an exceptional teacher who got a raw deal. Critics acknowledge his teaching talents but say he was no administrator. Portia Shah, a Muslim student, said she was one of about 15 students and community members who went to a Hillel board meeting last week to support Worch because he had welcomed Muslim, Hindu and Christian students to Hillel.
English born, Worch took rabbinical training in his teen-age years and 20s; moved to Israel and New York to become what he called "a starving artist" in his early and mid-30s; then became a rabbi who worked with a congregation in Rhode Island and students in Australia before taking the Champaign job.
Worch and his wife have 4-year-old and 2-year-old sons and a third child due by early May.
Serious allegations made against a Rabbi in Chicago
By Vicki Polin
The Awareness Center - October 14, 2004
Dear Friends:
There have been some serious allegations made regarding a rabbi who resides in (West Rogers Park) Chicago, IL.
The alleged offender originally meets his victims on line, and then after time connects with them in person. The allegations that have been made include the rabbi using a form of hypnosis and then sexually assaulting his alleged victims.
If you or anyone you or anyone you know has been victimized by this man, please call the Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline and let them know your story. Tell them that The Awareness Center suggested you call. The Rape Crisis Hotline is being made aware of the situation and are extremely sensitive to the issues that are involved in this case.
The Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline's phone number is: 1(888) 293-2080.
Sincerely,
Vicki Polin, MA, ATR, LCPC
Executive Director - The Awareness Center
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org
The Awareness Center - October 14, 2004
If you have information on this case please contact the following people (Tell them that The Awareness Center suggested you call):
Rape Victim Advocates (RVA)
(888) 293-2080 or (312) 663-6303
228 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 240, Chicago, IL 60604
http://www.rapevictimadvocates.org
Rabbi Mark Dratch -JSafe
mdratch@jsafe.org (203) 358-2200
Rabbi Josef Ozarowski -Chicago Rabbinical council
ravjoeo@crcweb.org (773) 465-3900
Regarding Rabbi Jeremy Hershy Worch - While in Melbourne, Australia
From a group of men and women in Melbourne Australia who wish to remain anonymous - December 6, 2004
Hershy Worch came to Melbourne, Australia with his wife and young family in 1995. He was initially employed by the Hillel Foundation. As rabbi of the Hamakom Synagogue, he was then financially supported by members of his community from the years 1995-1997.
During this time both his behaviour and demeanour with his female students were consistently predatory, manipulative and abusive. He proactively sought 'romantic' and sexual relationships wtih many many women, specifically targeting those who were emotionally vulnerable and fostering acute dependency. He consistently used his role as counselor to make sexual advances towards those who came to him in need. He had 'romantic' sexual relationships with married and unmarried women who ranged in age from 20 to 50.
His inappropriate behaviour towards female students included:
Physical sexual interactions
Predatory behavior in the pursuit of women: e.g. late night phone calls and invitations to teach women privately.
Using the teaching of Torah as a tool of seduction.
Using group situations with himself at the centre - that utilized his musical, vocal and narrative 'talents' - to manipulate individuals and create a cultic environment around 'Kabbalah' classes.
Using his relationships with students to influence them to 'rescue' him by financially and publically supporting and defending him.
His abuse of his position as rabbi, chazzan and counselor traumatized this community leaving wounds that took and are still taking many years to heal. Reputations were publicly compromised and personal lives were taken over.
Those who have followed his career since he left Australia and returned to the United States have observed a repetition of these patterns. We trust that with our testimony and others you will do everything within your power to expose Hershy Worch and warn individuals and communities who may be vulnerable to his 'teachings' and promises of insight and enlightenment.
Newspaper publisher becomes the story before debate
Yori Yanover, publisher of the Grand Street News
By Ronda Kaysen
Volume 75, Number 8 | June 13- 20, 2005
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_115/newspaperpublisher.html
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_114/newspaperpublisher.html
Much thought isn't usually given to moderators. By definition, they are thought to be moderate, but Yori Yanover, who was tapped to facilitate Tuesday night's City Council District 2 debate, has some strong opinions about the feminist, gay rights and psychoanalytic movements and isn't afraid to blog them.
On Tuesday morning, hours before 12 of the candidates vying to fill Margarita Lopez's City Council seat gathered at the Henry Street Settlement for their first public debate, an anonymous e-mail circulated among the candidates, urging them to boycott the event, which was to include three panelists asking questions in addition to Yanover, who was to moderate. The writer, identifying himself only as Constitution Man of the Committee to Boycott LoHo Realty and their Grand Street News, pointed to a private Web blog penned by the debate's moderator as cause for a candidate-wide boycott.
The blog, www.usajewish.com, was written by Yanover, the publisher of Grand Street News, a booklet-size community newspaper sponsored by LoHo Realty. The entries in question address an ongoing dispute within the Jewish community about a handful of rabbis accused of sexual impropriety.
In one entry, Yanover responds to sexual allegations against the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach lodged by several women after Carlebach's death. The allegations were never brought to court. In response to the unsubstantiated allegations, Yanover, in his blog, blamed the "homosexual movement, the feminist movement and the psychoanalytical movement. All three movements have politicized the sexual, and with that, robbed us of the carefree availability of our sexual expression," he wrote.
"The gay rights, feminist and psychological movements have changed how society approached sex in worrisome ways," Yanover told The Villager. "Making a sexual mistake in this society is the most dangerous thing that can happen to you. The boss who 10 years ago may have said something cheeky to a secretary or a female underling, now he's going in the other direction. This is part of the anxiety of our culture."
One candidate, Brian Kavanagh, withdrew his name from the debate after learning about Yanover's statements. "The moderator of a debate is not merely a bystander, but controls the forum and has a public presence and I think that choosing this particular person under the present circumstances shows some insensitivity both to the gay and lesbian community and also to victims of rape," said Kavanagh, describing the blog entries as "reprehensible."
"Is she concerned? I'm sure she would be concerned with anything that's homophobic or anti-women," said Roberto Caballero, who is gay and is the campaign manager for Reverend Joan Brightharp, the only member of the clergy in the race. Brightharp, however, planned to attend the debate, which occurred as The Villager went to press.
Yanover is a strong presence in the Lower East Side community. In fact, Grand Street News approached Henry Street Settlement several months ago to co-sponsor the debate along with LoHo Realty. Some local figures have jumped to his defense in the wake of the Tuesday morning e-mail. "I believe in supporting good people," said Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3. "He is not homophobic, he is not anti-feminist. He and his wife are feminists and they're raising their daughter to be a feminist." Stetzer and David McWater, C.B. 3 chairperson, were profiled by Grand Street News within the past year and their photo appeared on its cover.
Henry Street Settlement, which hosted the event, had no intentions of canceling or changing moderators on Tuesday afternoon. "At this point, we're not making any changes," said Kathleen Gupta, a chief administrator for the Henry Street Settlement, two hours before the event. "We're just moving forward and hoping it'll be a productive evening."
Rosie Mendez, the only openly gay candidate in the race, had not read the e-mail when she spoke to The Villager on Tuesday afternoon and was reluctant to take a position. "I have to ask myself, `Why today, a couple of hours before the debate, is this coming to light?' " she said. "This has been planned a long time ago. It's interesting that this has come out now." Mendez planned to attend the event.
The author of the e-mail that pointed candidates and The Villager to the blog did not return requests for comment, nor did he respond to requests to identify himself.
Bias is often subjective and, according to Yanover, the comments on his blog — all of which were removed on Tuesday afternoon — were part of a larger dialogue within the Jewish community. The blog entries in question were written last winter, he said, in response to comments made last October by an organization, the Awareness Center, about his close friend Rabbi Jeremy Hershy Worch.
The Awareness Center, a Maryland-based organization, is "dedicated to addressing sexual violence in Jewish communities around the world," according to its Web site. Among the alleged perpetrators of sexual violence accused on the Web site is Yanover's friend Worch.
"Every time you Google the guy's name, every time he applies for a job," the link to the Awareness Center Web site appears at the top of the search engine, said Yanover. "His name is destroyed. What can you do about this? All you can do is cower away or you can fight this."
And so Yanover printed the full name, address and telephone number of the woman who made the accusations against Worch, removing the "the shelter of anonymity" that protected her.
"This woman destroyed the life of a man, she accused him of despicable things and hid behind a veil of anonymity and she did not deserve it [anonymity]," said Yanover in a telephone interview, pointing out that no charges were ever brought against Worch.
Ironically, the Internet and the infinite memory of Google may now have turned on Yanover, thrusting his online ramblings into the political arena. "A friend of mine last October was destroyed by sinister people and it's been my business to defend his good name," he said. "And if I get skewered by that then that's the way it has to be."
Call To Action:URGENT - Gafni and Worch Speaking in Chicago?
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - April 20, 2006
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Halacha-SexualVictimization/message/915
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16).
According to a blog ran by Yori Yanover, Marc Gafni and Hershy Worch are planing on speaking at a cafe in Chicago. I have not been able to verify that this is true, yet due to the shortage of time I thought I would make sure you are aware of this possible situation. I've tried calling the "No Exit Cafe," yet no one answered.
I understand that the majority of people in the conservative or orthodox community would not attend this function, the problem is that many unsuspecting Jew's and non-Jews may attend.
Please calll the "No Exit Cafe" to help verify that Marc Winiarz (AKA: Mordechai Gafni, and Hershy Worch are speaking. If they are, please WARN the owners of the cafe that both of these individuals have serious allegations of sexual violence made against them.
No Exit Cafe:
(773) 743-3355
To remind you about Gafni and Worch, please read the following two web pages:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/gafni_mordechai.html
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/worch_hershy.html
_____________________________________
USAJEWISH
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Mordechai Gafni and Hershy Worch in Open Dscussion of the Izbicer
A gig for Chicagoans... There will be a Symposium at the No Exit Cafe 6970 N. Glenwood, Chicago this coming Sunday afternoon with Rabbi Gafni and J. Hershy Worch and friends - between 3:00 pm and 4:30 pm. If you'd like to come and meet some of the other local Chevrah, you'd be most welcome. Bring your questions and curiosity... Yours truly will be listening online via Skype and might get into the discussion if they'll let me...
posted by Yori Yanover at Thursday, April 20, 2006
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10 comments:
Friday, February 02, 2007 by Staff Writer
Tu B'Shevat – Celebrating the Jewish New Year for trees
On the third day of creation, God created "seed-bearing plants, fruit trees after their kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it" (Genesis 1:11). God then put Adam in the garden to "till it and tend it" (2:15), making humans stewards of the earth.
Tu B'Shevat - the 15th day of the month of Shevat, which falls on Feb. 3rd this year - is the date used by farmers to calculate the year's crop yield and determine the tithe that the Bible requires, according to the Mishnah.
As the Jewish Arbor Day, Tu B'Shevat embodies a strong dedication to ecology, environmentalism and conservation.
"Tu B'Shevat reminds us that no matter what happens, we all have to share this planet and care for it," said Russell F. Robinson, CEO of Jewish National Fund.
During the early pioneer movement of Palestine in late 18th and early 19th century, Jewish settlers linked the environmentalism of Tu B'Shevat with the practice of planting trees in the land of Israel. In recent years, Jewish environmentalists adopted Tu B'Shevat as a "Jewish Earth Day," with organized meals, tree-plantings and ecological restoration activities, as a way to express a specifically Jewish commitment to caring for nature and protecting the land.
Celebrating Tu B'Shevat with a seder meal, has become traditional for families and congregations around the world. During a Tu B'Shevat seder, seven species of fruits and grains from Israel are blessed and eaten. The seven species are wheat, barley, grapes, fig, pomegranate, olive and dates (Deuteronomy 8:8).
In Israel, Tu B'Shevat is a time for families to get together, visit forests and plant trees.
Lebanon conflict triggered record race-hate attacks on Jews
Attacks on Jews in Britain rose to record levels last year, a new report shows.
There were 594 antisemitic incidents in 2006, up 31 per cent from 2005, the Community Security Trust (CST) says.
More than one-fifth of the incidents took place during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in July and August.
This is the highest level since the CST began collating antisemitic incidents in 1984 and 12 per cent more than the previous record in 2004.
The total included 112 violent assaults (up 37 per cent on 2005), 70 incidents of damage to property (up 46 per cent), 365 of abusive behaviour (up 34 per cent) and 27 threats (up eight per cent).
Jewish schools or schoolchildren were targeted in 59 of the incidents and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated nine times.
The CST, which aims to en-sure the security of Britain's Jewish community, also recorded 20 cases of mass-produced antisemitic literature, down 26 per cent from the previous year.
It said the figures continued a trend since 2000 of high numbers of attacks occ-urring in association with events here and overseas.
The report notes that last year's increase was "largely a consequence" of the conflict in Lebanon, with a sharp rise recorded after war broke out on July 12.
CST spokesman Mark Gardner said: "Antisemitic hate crime levels have doubled in the last 10 years. This is un-acceptable racism that many Jews had hoped and believed was a thing of the past.
"Today's antisemitism is a wave of hatred, intimidation and abuse against British Jews, who are stupidly blamed and randomly attacked over international tensions for which they bear no responsibility.
"We call upon the police, Government, political parties and democrats everywhere to act loudly and clearly against this hateful trend."
The victims were Jewish individuals in 227 cases, of whom 121 were visibly identifiable as Jewish, the charity said. Another 82 incidents targeted synagogues.
Apart from the Lebanon fighting, the report says other "less powerful" trigger events included the suspension of London mayor Ken Livingstone, later quashed by the High Court, for likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard – mentioned by the perpetrators of 11 incidents.
The jailing in Austria of Holocaust denier David Irving was mentioned in five other incidents.
The CST received reports of a further 306 incidents that were ruled not to be antisemitic and were not included in the total.
Communities and Local Government Minister Phil Woolas said Britain had one of the strongest legal frameworks for protecting people from persecution on the grounds of faith or race.
He said: "As Ruth Kelly made clear in her speech on Holocaust Memorial Day at the weekend, we will not tolerate racially motivated crime of any kind.
"We understand the concerns of Jewish communities and support the police and prosecuting authorities in taking a tough line to stamp out antisemitism wherever it occurs."
He said the Government would shortly publish a "robust" response to the all-party parliamentary inquiry into prejudice against Jews.
Lee Jasper, director of policing and equalities for Mr Livingstone, questioned the CST's figures, pointing to decreases in offences shown by Metropolitan Police figures.
But Mr Gardner said antisemitic incidents were "far more likely" to be reported to the CST than to police because of its strong links to the Jewish community.
Independent criminological analysis had also found the CST's data likely to be more accurate, he said.
Denis MacShane: Page 13.
02 February 2007
AFP News brief
Israeli president courts mystic Jews over rape charge
Israeli President Moshe Katsav is courting local leaders of Kabbalah, the mystical offshoot of the Jewish faith, following the announcement he faces an indictment for rape, the local press has said.
Katsav, whose entourage now includes a battery of lawyers, this week visited one of the world's authorities in Kabbalah, an esoteric branch of Judaism whose most famous adherent is international superstar Madonna.
Katsav met Rabbi David Abuhazira, whose followers also include thousands of Israelis, in the northern Mediterranean resort of Nahariya, the Yediot Aharonot daily said Friday.
On Wednesday Katsav visited Rabbi Bnayahu Shmueli, another rabbinical sage and a long-time friend of the beleaguered president, the newspaper said.
The 61-year-old Iranian-born father of five, facing the worst charges ever levelled against an Israeli leader, has repeatedly denied the allegations against him and claimed to be the victim of a "witch-hunt."
Katsav, a religious Jew, suspended himself from his post last week after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided to indict him on charges of raping a female employee when he was tourism minister, sexual harassment, abuse of power, breach of trust and accepting bribes.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 16 years' imprisonment.
The president's largely ceremonial duties have now been assumed by parliament speaker Dalia Yitzik.
Former Israeli minister guilty of sexual molestation
Thursday, February 1, 2007
JERUSALEM - Reuters
An Israeli court yesterday convicted former Justice Minister Haim Ramon of sexually molesting a woman soldier, one of several scandals that have cast shadows on Israeli leaders.
The guilty verdict was unlikely to have a direct impact on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political fortunes, but officials said he was expected to reshuffle his cabinet now that his Kadima party colleague would not be returning.
Ramon, 56, resigned from the government in August after he was indicted.
The soldier alleged that Ramon forcibly kissed her after posing, at her request, for a photograph with her at the prime minister's bureau, where she was stationed. He said she had initiated the kiss.
�Minister Haim Ramon was convicted unanimously of sexual molestation,� a Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court spokeswoman said after the three-judge panel issued its ruling. He could face up to three years' imprisonment.
The high-profile case captured headlines in Israel and television and radio stations carried Ramon's arrival in court and the spokeswoman's statement live.
Israel has been rocked by multiple scandals that have led many Israelis to question whether corruption is rampant within their government. Women's rights activists have long complained that machoism is pervasive in Israeli society.
President Moshe Katsav began a leave of absence last week after the attorney-general said he would draft an indictment against him for suspicions he had raped a female employee and sexually assaulted other women who worked for him.
Katsav has denied any wrongdoing in a case that many Israeli feminists see as a significant triumph in a decades-old battle against macho workplace ethics in the Jewish state.
Olmert is being investigated for his role in the 2005 privatization of an Israeli bank and is also suspected of allegedly appointing cronies to a business authority before he was elected prime minister.
Israel's state comptroller is also examining the terms of his sale of an apartment in Jerusalem. Olmert has said he did nothing wrong in any of the matters under investigation.
Israel's military chief of staff resigned this month in the wake of a government inquiry into the state leadership's handling of Israel's inconclusive war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon last summer.
Approval ratings of both Olmert, who is due to testify today before the Lebanon war commission, and Defense Minister Amir Peretz of the center-left Labor party have fallen sharply since the end of the 34-day war.
Scandals and disputes plague ultra-Orthodox circles in the U.S.
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - Disgraceful scandals have been shaking up and embarrassing the Hasidic-Haredi camp in the American Orthodox community. These are what the rabbis describe as "impure incidents" that have recently occurred in Hasidic-Haredi circles to an extent that is mortifying community leaders and activists.
The famous incident that took place recently, and will not soon be forgotten in the Orthodox community, is that of a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) butcher shop owner from Monsey, New York who knowingly sold non-kosher meat to thousands of town residents, most of whom are Haredi. The man, who regularly taught a daily Talmud class and led prayers on the High Holy days, sold treife (non-kosher) meat to yeshivas and other religious institutions. After the shocking story was exposed, a day of fasting and prayer was declared in the town, "to absolve the terrible impediment of eating treife, which carries a severe punishment even when done unintentionally."
Shock and disgust of a kind the American Haredi community has not experienced for years were stirred by photographs published in the media worldwide, of a group of Hasidim with beards and side locks hugging and kissing the president of Iran. The Hasidim who participated in the Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran were not Israeli, and some of them were identified as belonging to a small circle of extremist Hasidim active in New York.
Haredi rabbis and activists in New York are astonished, and hard put to explain how an internal quarrel in the Hasidic Satmar community between the two sons of the previous admor (Hasidic leader), who are each fighting to succeed their father as the head of the Satmar Hasids, reached a non-Jewish court of law. "Heaven forfend," shouted a Hasidic rabbi in a closed meeting of Haredi rabbis that recently took place in Brooklyn. "In our worst nightmares we never imagined that two well-known Hasidic figures would ask for a ruling on their conflict outside a rabbinical court, and would prefer a state court." After all, the rabbi explained, this is a serious prohibition that is defined in the Jewish sources as a desecration of God's name.
The Orthodox community is trying to prevent many serious problems from being publicized. One problem that is arousing great concern is the spreading incidence of drunkenness in Orthodox synagogues. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (the OU) recently sent out an internal flier warning about the unacceptable practice by worshippers who drink large quantities of hard liquor in synagogue before the end of Sabbath morning prayers; this leads to drunkenness and the disgrace of their places of worship.
But what is seen as having the potential for catastrophe, with an immediate and tangible threat to the character and status of the large Hasidic community in New York, are the bitter disputes and conflicts taking place within the large and important Hasidic courts in the United States. In the wake of internal conflicts, which in some cases have spilled over into violence, the two famous Hasidic dynasties - Satmar and Bobov - recently split. Each of these communities is now headed by two rabbinical leaders, who are at odds with one another and whose followers have turned into rival and hostile camps. Lubavitch Hasidism (Chabad), on the other hand, in contrast to its great influence during the lifetime of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, has become mainly an organizational framework that is represented by the thousands of shluhim (emissaries) who operate under its auspices all over the world.
Behind a facade of success and power, major Hasidic courts in the U.S. have recently become arenas for internecine struggles for power and prestige. Factions and rival groups are fighting, sometimes using physical violence, with the declared aim of glorifying the name of the Hasidic leader they favor and insulting the leader they have abandoned.
"It's impossible to exaggerate," complain activists in the Hasidic sector in off-the-record conversations. "The mutual accusations and slander and the acts of subterfuge designed to undermine the authority of the admors, which are taking place today within the two great Hasidic movements in America, have the nature of divine punishment."
"The serious quarrels among Satmar and Bobov Hasidim have released destructive energies that our ancestors never dreamed of," said a Hasidic rabbi in Brooklyn.
Conversations with rabbis and activists in the Hasidic community reveal their discomfort and serious concern. According to them, the Hasidic movement in America is in the throes of its most serious crisis since it began to take root in the reality of the new world in the early 1960s and to become involved as a unique stream in the Jewish community.
The expansion and strengthening of American Hasidism was led by the heads of the three major courts - the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum; the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson; and the Bobover Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam.
The disputes that erupted occasionally in the past between the Lubavitch and Satmar Hasidim were mainly ideological in nature and touched on the issue of relations with Israel, which were nurtured by the Lubavitch and rejected by the Satmar. But both of the admors were cautious and did not allow the hotheads among their followers to overstep the boundary they had drawn for the disputes. The Bobover Rebbe made sure not to intervene in any dispute and warned his followers not to become involved in fights and conflicts between the followers of other courts.
The affair of the Hasidim who met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran is dismissed by the leaders of the Satmar Hasidim as an event that was inflated by the media in order to undermine the Satmar Hasidim. "It's not even a group, but a small number of sick and crazy individuals who have no connection with Satmar Hasidism," says Rabbi Hertz Frankel, a well-known figure in Brooklyn, who is among the leaders of the Satmar educational network.
"Their meeting with the Iranian president is not their first embarrassing act, or even their worst," explains Frankel. "The old admor, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, was known for avoiding any appearance of cooperation with Arabs. Many years ago, the rabbi cancelled a demonstration in New York against Golda Meir after it became known that Arabs were planning to demonstrate against her."
The real distress felt by the Satmar Hasidim is a result of the irreversible rift between the two brothers, each of whom has designated himself the heir of their late father. Each is serving as admor of one of the two Satmar factions created as a result of the conflict between them. Although one faction, under the leadership of Rabbi Zalman Leib, is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the other, headed by Rabbi Aharon, is based in Kiryas Joel in upstate New York - the conflicts between the two camps continue, and the fights between them are described as venomous.
Already before the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, passed away last April, there were signs of the dispute between his two sons, Rabbi Aharon, 52, and Rabbi Zalman Leib, 50, who is also known as Yekusiel Yehudah. Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum convened the entire family in his home in Williamsburg on Pesah in 1999, and declared, "I'm not getting any younger and I want to appoint a rabbi in Williamsburg to replace me."
According to people who were close to the late rabbi, his elder son, Aharon, refrained from replying to his father's proposal, and at the same time took steps that were interpreted as a deliberate attempt on his part to take over the leadership of Satmar after his father's death.
On the other hand, his brother, Zalman Leib, remained close to his father. According to his followers, the father showed special signs of affection toward his younger son, and made it clear in various ways that he preferred him to his eldest as the leader of the community.
"The serious dispute in Satmar Hasidism is also perhaps an unavoidable outcome of the significant growth in the number of Hasidim and disciples of this Hasidic court," explains a veteran community activist in Williamsburg.
"Today there is a huge reservoir of Hasidim among the Satmars, which could suffice for five or even seven admors," said a Williamsburg activist. "For the most part, the Hasidim today are American born, and many of them are wealthy even by international standards.
"The disputes cost money, a lot of money," says the man. And in both groups there are elements who are funding the ongoing dispute between the two admors. "Lawyers who represent the two rival brothers in court receive huge fees for professional services, which to date amount to millions of dollars." These huge sums were raised from the donations of wealthy Hasidim.
The quarrel in Bobov Hasidism erupted after the death over a year ago of the previous admor, Rabbi Naftali Halberstam, who was the eldest son of the Admor Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the man who rehabilitated Bobov Hasidism in the U.S. and turned it into a leading and influential Hasidic center.
Most of the Hasidim designated Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam, the brother of the late admor, who already during the lifetime of his father and his brother was an admired and beloved Hasidic figure. However, the son-in-law of the late admor, Rabbi Mordechai David Ungar, refused to accept his uncle's authority, and declared that he was the heir of the late admor, and the current head of Bobov Hasidism.
Older Hasidim who follow Rabbi Ben Zion claim that his father Rabbi Shlomo used to say that he preferred his son to his son-in-law as his successor and heir to the leadership. That is why in their opinion Ungar is "brazen and quarrelsome."
"It is possible that the splits in the Hasidic courts are not such a bad thing," said a Hasidic rabbi in Brooklyn. "The courts have tens of thousands of Hasidim, and they are growing and multiplying. It is possible that the continuing growth will lead to a situation where the admors will not be capable of leading such large communities, and it is a good thing that young people will emerge from these courts and participate in the leadership. The problem is that the splits are accompanied by disputes."
I was wondering if I can contact you?
Email me at:
Matzil_Nefoshos@yahoo.com
It will be confidential.
YOB is complaining about bus service. I say screw you. Don't you think hiding molestation is a real issue to complain about rather than these feeble-silly comments by Yehuda Tunkel, executive director of the Yeshiva of Brooklyn.
"The schedule was completely not the way it should be, you can't believe it," said Yehuda Tunkel, executive director of the Yeshiva of Brooklyn. "Early dismissal was turned into late dismissal."
New York Post
A SABBATH 'SABOTAGE'
By DAVID ANDREATTA, Education Reporter
February 3, 2007 -- It was high holy chaos hours before the Jewish Sabbath yesterday, as school bus companies scrambled to retrieve students at scores of yeshivas whose traditional early Friday dismissals were botched by the city's school-bus bosses.
"The schedule was completely not the way it should be, you can't believe it," said Yehuda Tunkel, executive director of the Yeshiva of Brooklyn. "Early dismissal was turned into late dismissal."
Rabbis and yeshiva directors across the city said they were flooded with phone calls from parents worried that their children would be waiting for hours to be picked up, or that they wouldn't be home before sundown.
Most yeshivas in the winter months dismiss students between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. The Department of Education-contracted buses serve 122 yeshivas around the city.
In the end, pickups were close to being on time, but not before bus companies reverted to their previous schedules and yeshivas contacted the firms to confirm buses were on their way.
At Yeshiva Ketana Shaarei Torah in Coney Island, the situation grew so desperate that school officials summoned parents to pick up their kids rather than gamble on having buses not show up on time.
The city Department of Education contends that verifying early dismissals at yeshivas and other schools, and making appropriate arrangements, has always been the responsibility of contracted bus companies and remains so under the route changes.
But officials from bus companies insist that the duty of telling drivers where and when to pick up kids now rests with the department.
Embassy Row
Published January 24, 2007
Threat from within
In his new job, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States is trying to defuse a population time bomb that threatens to make Jews a minority in a land created as a homeland for them.
"I see the mission as ensuring the future of the state of Israel as a Jewish state," Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said in a telephone interview yesterday from his home near Tel Aviv.
If birthrate trends remain unchanged, Israeli Arabs could outnumber Israeli Jews within 50 years, unless Israel attracts a major and steady influx of foreign Jews. The immigration of Jews to Israel is Mr. Ayalon's responsibility as co-chairman of a nongovernmental organization called Nefesh B'Nefesh.
"I view Israel as the biblical, historical place of the Jewish people," he said.
Israel is also a shelter for Jews.
"After the Holocaust, we learned that a people without a land is a people ... not protected. With radical Islam, terrorism and the rise of anti-Semitism, Israel is more of a shelter [for Jews] than ever before."
Mr. Ayalon, ambassador here from July 2002 until this past November, said he hopes to attract at least 10,000 immigrants a year through his organization, which will focus on Jews in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia because they are usually better educated and affluent and would bring with them the values of Western democratic traditions.
"Israel now is racked by scandal. Jews from North America bring a cleaner political climate," he said.
Jews now account for 80 percent of Israel's population of 7 million, Mr. Ayalon said. Arab Israelis make up 18 percent, but their fertility rate is 3.3 children per adult, while the Jewish fertility rate is 2.7, he said.
Nefesh B'Nefesh was founded in 2001 by Tony Gelbart, a Florida business executive and co-chairman, and Joshua Fass, a rabbi in Jerusalem who serves as secretary-general. It works closely with the Israeli government's own immigration bureaus but offers different services.
Mr. Ayalon said Nefesh B'Nefesh facilitates immigration by helping Jews secure jobs, housing and educational placement for their children before they reach Israel.
"To uproot and leave it is the most difficult thing to do. We help smooth the transition and promote their absorption into Israel," he said.
"We have a track record," Mr. Ayalon said of Nefesh B'Nefesh. "Our retention rate is 99 percent of more than 10,000 Jews who have come to Israel over the past five years.
"My job is to raise the profile."
More information about the group is posted on its Web site, www.nbn.org.il.
Lebanon 'for all'
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon yesterday tried to blunt criticism from the extremist Hezbollah by insisting that Lebanese themselves settle the political crisis that threatens the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman said the United States is "not interested in imposing solutions," according to reports from Beirut.
"We support peaceful dialogue among the Lebanese themselves," he said. "We sincerely hope that the door is still open to Arab mediation that showed such promise in bringing the Lebanese together."
Mr. Feltman added that an international donor conference scheduled to open in Paris tomorrow should benefit all Lebanese, whether they support Mr. Siniora or the pro-Syrian opposition.
The conference is "positive for all of Lebanon, not for any particular Lebanese group," he said after meeting with Nabih Berri, the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has accused Mr. Siniora of being a puppet of the United States.
"The aim [of the United States] is to strengthen the government of Fuad Siniora because in reality it is their government," Agence France-Presse quoted the sheik as saying in an interview last week.
•Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@ washingtontimes.com.
===============================
JARED LEONE
Published January 28, 2007
There are 1,250 registered sex offenders and predators in Pinellas County.
For every one that is identified, 12 are not.
Thirty-three percent of girls and 16 percent of boys will be sexually abused before they become adults.
Those were facts shared with parents during a workshop Thursday on child sexual abuse and abduction prevention. Pinellas County sheriff's Cpl. Denise Nestor taught the two-hour class at the Town Hall in Redington Beach.
Jennifer Tennant, 33, of Redington Shores found out about the workshop from a flier her kids brought home from school.
"You know it happens all the time, but to hear the numbers, it was absolutely scary," Tennant said.
It's important to teach children to be wary of strangers, Nestor said, but it's also important for parents to know that most sex abuse is by someone who is close to the family.
Make good choices about the people you are friends with, Nestor told parents.
"You need to wrap your brain around the fact that this person is trying to gain your trust to get access to (your children)," she said.
Nestor said the average molester of girls will have 50 or more victims; the average molester of boys will have more than 150 victims. Molesters also have a process of selecting their victims, she said as she pointed to a yellow school crossing sign on the big screen.
"Hunters go where the deer are," Nestor said.
After hearing Nestor's crime prevention class, Tennant said she was fearful for her children but with education and reinforcement, she said she can keep them safe. Tennant said one tip, urging children to kick and scream, is something she will reiterate and work on with her children.
"I am going to talk with them all week," Tennant said. "I don't want my kids to be victims."
Fast Facts:
To keep kids safe
- Ask children open-ended questions and never punish them for what they say to make sure they feel they can tell you anything.
- Discuss some of the lures a predator might use, like helping to find a lost puppy or checking out video games in the car.
- Establish emergency plans. For instance, if a parent and child are separated, tell children to wait at the last place both were together.
- Because most predators are men, teach children to seek help from women in emergencies.
- Keep an updated identity kit that includes the child's recent picture, height and weight.
- Teach children their full names, those of their parents, their address and phone number.
- Monitor children's online activities.
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Judge revokes arrangement that allowed molester to attend Penn
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. A Pennsylvania judge has revoked an arrangement that allowed a convicted child molester to leave prison for up to 12 hours a day to work on his graduate economics degree.
The judge called the arrangement inappropriate and barred Kurt Mitman of McLean, Virginia from returning to the University of Pennsylvania.
The 25-year-old Mitman pleaded guilty last year to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy he met during a summer program for gifted students.
He was sentenced to two to five years in prison.
The victim's mother found out about the arrangement in December after looking at a Web site for registered sex offenders.
She notified prosecutors, who said they had been unaware of the arrangement and demanded a hearing.
================================================
Judge revokes arrangement that allowed molester to attend Penn
Associated Press
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A judge on Friday revoked an arrangement that had allowed a convicted child molester to leave prison for up to 12 hours a day to work on his graduate economics degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
Calling the arrangement inappropriate, Bucks County Judge Theodore Fritsch barred Kurt E. Mitman from returning to the Ivy League campus, even if he wore an electronic monitoring device.
Mitman, 25, of McLean, Va., pleaded guilty last year to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy he met during a summer program for gifted students. He was sentenced to two to five years in prison.
The victim's mother found out about the arrangement in December after looking at a Web site for registered sex offenders and finding a Philadelphia address listed for Mitman. She notified prosecutors, who said they had been unaware of the arrangement and demanded a hearing.
Mitman's attorney, Richard Fink, argued Friday that the arrangement was not much different from work release privileges granted to other defendants. He also cited his client's exceptional academic abilities; Mitman graduated from the University of Virginia in 2004 and won a prestigious Marshall Scholarship to study physics at Oxford University in England.
But the judge said that should not give him special privileges.
"I note that his studies are not in public health or safety, but that he is furthering his career in the field of economics," Fritsch said.
The abuse started when the boy was attending a three-week summer course at Lafayette College in Easton, where Mitman was a youth counselor. After beginning a relationship with the boy at the college, Mitman assaulted the child at his grandparents' Warminster home.
Information from: Bucks County Courier Times, http://www.phillyburbs.com
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Penn Student Heads Back To Bucks County Jail
Image
Karen Adams
Reporting
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA A convicted sex offender is now banned from leaving a Bucks County jail to attend grad school classes.
He was allowed to commute back and forth for months before the shocked mother of the boy he admitted to molesting tipped-off authorities.
Kurt Mitman's attorney plans to appeal the decision Friday. But for now he must wait until he gets out of prison before resuming classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
Officers escorted jailed child molester Kurt Mitman back to prison after a judge revoked his academic release, saying the 25 year-old's attorney did not have a secure enough plan to monitor him while away from jail.
The decision ends Mitman's long 12 hour day away from prison to attend graduate classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I looked on the internet and I figured out that he was attending classes at the University of Pennsylvania and I couldn't believe it," said the victim's mother.
Mitman's victim's mother notified the Bucks County District Attorney's office after learning her son's attacker was being allowed to attend classes alone at the University of Pennsylvania. It brought about the hearing in which she spoke.
"It's an extremely rotten precedent to allow the mother of the victim to come in and testify that she objects to it," said Richard Fink, Mitman's Attorney.
"She certainly has rights to be heard, whether it's at a parole hearing, whether it be at any future hearings in this matter," said Jennifer Schorn, Bucks County D.A. Office.
Mitman was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison in 2005 after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14 year-old boy he met at summer camp for gifted students. His attorney says since then, Mitman, who won a prestigious scholarship to Oxford University, has been doing everything right.
"A brilliant student, who's done everything that he can to affect change in his life has to sit in a cell for a year," said Fink.
"I don't think it'll ever be wrong time. I don't think the defendant will give up trying to get out of prison," said the victim's mother.
Mitman has already served one and a half years of his prison sentence. He's eligible for parole in September.
=========================================================
Student who is a Molester is Ordered To Stop Studies at University of Pennsylvania
Posted 3 hours ago by Critical_Conformity in Crime and viewed 47 times
image
25-year-old Kurt Mitman, was commuting to class from a Bucks County prison, as part of a work release program. At a court hearing, a judge ruled that Mitman could not return to Univeristy.
Full story: nbc10.com
The Bucks County correctional facility does allow some inmates to pursue academic study programs as an effort to rehabilitate them,However they have never before allowed a sex offender to pursue such a program.
The District Attorney's office said it was never notified by the correctional facility about its decision to allow Mitman to study at Penn.
They said had it known, it would not have been allowed.
Student who is a Molester is Ordered To Stop Studies at University of Pennsylvania
Posted 3 hours ago by Critical_Conformity in Crime and viewed 47 times
image
25-year-old Kurt Mitman, was commuting to class from a Bucks County prison, as part of a work release program. At a court hearing, a judge ruled that Mitman could not return to Univeristy.
Full story: nbc10.com
The Bucks County correctional facility does allow some inmates to pursue academic study programs as an effort to rehabilitate them,However they have never before allowed a sex offender to pursue such a program.
=============================
Convicted child molester gets four years
By BENJAMIN ROODE | Friday February 02 2007, 6:04am
SANDUSKY
Victims and family members wept and consoled each other after an Erie County judge sentenced a convicted child molester to four years in prison.
Joseph Buday, 100 block of State St. in Norwalk, will spend time in prison for inappropriately touching two young girls with whom he was acquainted during a two-year period from 2003-05.
Buday originally was charged with two counts of rape, three counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.
The rape and dissemination charges were dropped in the deal because the families and victims didn't want the children to testify in open court, said Erie County assistant prosecutor Mary Ann Barylski.
The family agreed the three imposition charges were enough, she said.
The girls and family members reported the contact in August 2005 to Erie County Sheriff's deputies at a child advocacy center.
One girl, then 14, said Buday molested her at a swimming pool in June that year. The other girl reported repeated acts during a two-year period beginning in 2003.
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2007-01-12
How one Boston synagogue met the challenge of the cantor's sexual abuse
By Richard Greenberg, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
As an attorney representing several victims of sexually predatory Catholic priests, Mark Itzkowitz has witnessed the church's pedophilia scandal from an almost too-close-for-comfort vantage point.
"Some of the details are absolutely horrifying," said Itzkowitz, 49, who lives in the Boston area. "I've seen things that have made my blood run cold."
Not long ago, Itzkowitz's life took a surreal turn when he found himself confronting clergy sexual abuse from a different perspective: The problem had come home to roost in his own synagogue.
Robert Shapiro, the esteemed, longtime cantor of Temple Beth Am, a Conservative synagogue in Randolph, Mass., was accused of repeatedly molesting a mentally challenged congregant, a woman in her late 20s and early 30s when the incidents allegedly occurred between 2001 and 2003.
When the news broke in early February 2003, Beth Am was within days of again renewing the then-70-year-old Shapiro's contract.
"The people in the synagogue would have followed him to the ends of the earth," Itzkowitz said. "He had been there longer than the rabbi -- more than 20 years."
Once the shock of the disclosure wore off, Beth Am leaders regrouped and tried to figure out how to manage the situation. That involved not only ensuring that criminal, civil and moral justice would prevail but also preventing the congregation from disintegrating.
In-house guidelines were nonexistent. And attempts to find advice from officials at the Conservative movement's headquarters were unsuccessful, according to both Itzkowitz, the synagogue board's attorney, and its rabbi, Loel Weiss.
While Jewish morality is founded on the Torah and other sacred texts, "synagogues aren't Coca-Cola or IBM churning out specific policies and procedures on right and wrong," Weiss said. "There is a certain expectation that in a religious institution, people will act properly. But what could have been written on a piece of paper? My mind doesn't think in those terms."
Weiss said the little practical information he found that helped guide him through "this hell," as he put it, was contained in a book about a suburban New Jersey congregation whose rabbi had become involved in a major crime.
"It confirmed my instincts that we needed to give people in the congregation a chance to share their sadness," Weiss said. "Remember that even before the allegations had been confirmed, people were basically sitting shiva for a longtime cantor who was in many cases a friend of theirs."
The task faced by Beth Am was daunting: While the case was being investigated internally -- and by the police -- the rights of the alleged perpetrator and the victim and her family had to be preserved. Meanwhile, the congregation had to be protected. So Shapiro was suspended with pay pending completion of the police investigation.
That probe ultimately revealed that the victim had been assaulted at the synagogue, at Shapiro's home, in his pool, in a car and elsewhere. Shapiro was allowed to be alone with the woman because he was a trusted friend of her family, who eventually sued Shapiro, as well as Beth Am, Weiss and the former congregation president.
The latter three defendants were dismissed from the suit after the judge determined they could not have known that Shapiro posed a risk, according to news accounts. Regarding damage control at Beth Am, Itzkowitz said he resolved to do the opposite of what the Catholic Church had done when its priests became embroiled in controversy.
Rather than circling the wagons, stonewalling and failing to acknowledge the community's anguish, Beth Am officials would be forthcoming, compassionate and responsive, he said.
Since Shapiro had privately tutored many bar and bat mitzvah students, several parents were concerned that their children might also have been victimized. Synagogue representatives were able to assuage their fears, however, noting that there was no evidence of other incidents involving the cantor -- at Beth Am or elsewhere.
"This was not a case where somebody passed the buck to us," Weiss said.
Shapiro originally was charged with seven counts of rape, but as part of a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in September 2005 to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a mentally retarded person. He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and 10 years probation.
========================================
Analysis: So how bad is the corruption?
Anshel Pfeffer, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 4, 2007
How serious is the Tax Authority scandal, really? After the initial shock of the arrests of its senior officials on Tuesday passed, you could hear two conflicting views in financial and legal circles on Tax Authority Director Jacky Matza's alleged wrongdoings.
"Matza deserves the Israel Prize," said a lawyer who represents some of the country's largest businesses.
"In the year he's been on the job, he brought in billions for the country. The national tax revenues are up 7 percent thanks to him and if he cut some deals with businessmen on the way, that's fine, it's only helped the economy."
"Matza has done nothing," a director of a major government agency said, sounding an opposite judgment. "Revenue is up because of growth. He was the wrong candidate for the job and I can easily believe that he had to pay some favors in return for his appointment."
Whether or not Matza and his colleagues were partners in organized crime or simply cutting through red tape, the difference of opinion is just an echo of a much wider argument. Is Israel in danger of drowning under a dirty wave of serious corruption, or is this just a normal level of public impropriety and those saying otherwise simply conducting a witch hunt?
On the face of it, there's ample ammunition for the charge that politics in Israel has never been so corrupt. It's not only Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior figures in Kadima who are mired in assorted investigations and allegations of serious corruption, the other main parties are also tainted. In the Likud, Binyamin Netanyahu and Limor Livnat are both involved in the investigation over whether they allowed public funds to be used for opinion polls.
And Labor still has a time bomb ticking under it: Will the police open another investigation into allegations of fraud in the way Amir Peretz signed up new party members before the leadership primary.
Last week, former Shas MK Ofer Hugi was convicted on serious fraud charges, the fifth parliamentarian from that party to be found guilty in a decade. Former minister Shlomo Benizri might soon become No. 6 when the verdict in his bribery case is delivered.
On trial alongside him is one of the country's most popular spiritual leaders, Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, and only a few months ago the attorney-general announced that Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger should resign after lying over receiving illegal hospitality.
Nor is the highest holder of secular office clean of suspicion. President Moshe Katsav is under investigation, not only for sexual assault but also for illegally handing out pardons.
Corruption is routinely uncovered in local government and in the civil service. Now that it's reached the elite branch of the Treasury, no one seems immune.
But is it really as bad as it used to be? Corruption scandals have broken out before. The revelation that Israel Air Force Brig.-Gen. Rami Dotan received millions of dollars in bribes from American defense companies rocked the IDF 16 years ago and caused major damages to the strategic relationship with the US. Since then the army has been relatively corruption free, but that hasn't helped its image over the last few months.
For the state's first 25 years its leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, regularly covered up cases of embezzlement, resolving matters behind closed doors. Former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner reminisced on Army Radio this week that when she was a young police prosecutor 50 years ago, it was unheard of for a politician to be brought in for questioning.
In the mid-1970s, then-attorney-general Aharon Barak put a stop to all that by relentlessly pursuing investigations and pressing charges against corruption in high places, until he finally brought down prime minister Yitzhak Rabin over his wife's illegal foreign bank account. Are we now undergoing a wave of allegations similar to the one that finally ended the days of the eternal Mapai government?
The present attorney-general, Menahem Mazuz, began his tenure by deciding not to press charges against prime minister Ariel Sharon over the Greek Island case and sharply criticizing former state prosecutor Edna Arbel for being much too eager to put politicians on trial, even when the evidence was insufficient to secure a conviction.
It seems that the various law enforcement agencies are prone to shooting themselves in the foot. As in the case of prosecutor Liora Glatt-Berkovich, who ended up in the dock after leaking the investigation of an illegal loan received by Sharon. The latest anticorruption warrior, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, has run into a storm of controversy over his gung ho attitude, and his special advisor of corruption, former Police Cmdr. Yaakov Borovsky, is himself being investigated for dirty dealings.
Many politicians, leaders and businesspeople are now accusing the police, Justice Ministry and media of overhyping the corruption threat and creating a climate that threatens to paralyze the government and the economy, and deter talented individuals from entering politics. There is a great degree of self-rightousness in this claim. A more convincing argument might be that the public's tolerance toward corruption in high places might have been higher if Israel's leadership was at least seen as capable of running the country.
Lord Acton's famous dictum that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" has a less-known third part; "Great men are almost always bad men." If our politicians and senior officials were indeed great men, we might be a little more forgiving of their bad sides.
=======================================================
Embassy Row
Published January 24, 2007
Threat from within
In his new job, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States is trying to defuse a population time bomb that threatens to make Jews a minority in a land created as a homeland for them.
"I see the mission as ensuring the future of the state of Israel as a Jewish state," Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said in a telephone interview yesterday from his home near Tel Aviv.
If birthrate trends remain unchanged, Israeli Arabs could outnumber Israeli Jews within 50 years, unless Israel attracts a major and steady influx of foreign Jews. The immigration of Jews to Israel is Mr. Ayalon's responsibility as co-chairman of a nongovernmental organization called Nefesh B'Nefesh.
"I view Israel as the biblical, historical place of the Jewish people," he said.
Israel is also a shelter for Jews.
"After the Holocaust, we learned that a people without a land is a people ... not protected. With radical Islam, terrorism and the rise of anti-Semitism, Israel is more of a shelter [for Jews] than ever before."
Mr. Ayalon, ambassador here from July 2002 until this past November, said he hopes to attract at least 10,000 immigrants a year through his organization, which will focus on Jews in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia because they are usually better educated and affluent and would bring with them the values of Western democratic traditions.
"Israel now is racked by scandal. Jews from North America bring a cleaner political climate," he said.
Jews now account for 80 percent of Israel's population of 7 million, Mr. Ayalon said. Arab Israelis make up 18 percent, but their fertility rate is 3.3 children per adult, while the Jewish fertility rate is 2.7, he said.
Nefesh B'Nefesh was founded in 2001 by Tony Gelbart, a Florida business executive and co-chairman, and Joshua Fass, a rabbi in Jerusalem who serves as secretary-general. It works closely with the Israeli government's own immigration bureaus but offers different services.
Mr. Ayalon said Nefesh B'Nefesh facilitates immigration by helping Jews secure jobs, housing and educational placement for their children before they reach Israel.
"To uproot and leave it is the most difficult thing to do. We help smooth the transition and promote their absorption into Israel," he said.
"We have a track record," Mr. Ayalon said of Nefesh B'Nefesh. "Our retention rate is 99 percent of more than 10,000 Jews who have come to Israel over the past five years.
"My job is to raise the profile."
More information about the group is posted on its Web site, www.nbn.org.il.
Lebanon 'for all'
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon yesterday tried to blunt criticism from the extremist Hezbollah by insisting that Lebanese themselves settle the political crisis that threatens the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman said the United States is "not interested in imposing solutions," according to reports from Beirut.
"We support peaceful dialogue among the Lebanese themselves," he said. "We sincerely hope that the door is still open to Arab mediation that showed such promise in bringing the Lebanese together."
Mr. Feltman added that an international donor conference scheduled to open in Paris tomorrow should benefit all Lebanese, whether they support Mr. Siniora or the pro-Syrian opposition.
The conference is "positive for all of Lebanon, not for any particular Lebanese group," he said after meeting with Nabih Berri, the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has accused Mr. Siniora of being a puppet of the United States.
"The aim [of the United States] is to strengthen the government of Fuad Siniora because in reality it is their government," Agence France-Presse quoted the sheik as saying in an interview last week.
•Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@ washingtontimes.com.
==============================
Child molester's trial begins; release possible
Indeterminate term sought at hospital
By Dana Littlefield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 20, 2007
A Superior Court trial began yesterday that could determine whether a convicted child molester from San Diego County will again be released from a state mental hospital.
Matthew Hedge, 43, pleaded guilty in 1989 to molesting two boys and two girls. After completing his prison term, he was classified as a “sexually violent predator” and sent to Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County for treatment.
He was the first sex offender from San Diego County to complete a lengthy treatment program at Atascadero and be released under state supervision. He was placed in a trailer outside the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa in November 2005, but was sent back to the hospital two months later for further treatment after authorities became concerned about his behavior.
The District Attorney's Office filed a petition last year asking that Hedge be committed to the hospital for an indeterminate term, a provision allowed under recent changes to state law. Previously, sexual predators could only be committed to a state hospital for two years at a time.
After hearing testimony from doctors and other witnesses, a jury will be asked to determine whether Hedge still fits the predator criteria, meaning the convicted offender has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes him likely to commit additional crimes.
If the jury finds Hedge no longer fits the criteria, he will be released from the hospital without formal supervision.
Deputy District Attorney Kristen Spieler told the jury yesterday that Hedge has a history of pedophilia dating to when he was 13. She said the evidence would show Hedge has a tendency to lie and manipulate others, making it harder for him to manage his urges.
Hedge's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Marian Gaston told the jury that Hedge no longer fits the state's definition of a sexually violent predator. She said Hedge has worked for 10 years to gain a better understanding of his past and who he is today.
“Treatment is as precious to Matthew Hedge as air,” Gaston said.
Dana Littlefield: (619) 542-4590; dana.littlefield@uniontrib.com
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permalink
Written by Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
Tuesday, 23 January 2007
Las Cruces man, 30, sentenced for assaulting girlfriend's daughter for 2 years.
Christopher Primero, 30, of Las Cruces, was sentenced Friday to 54 years in prison despite a last-minute attempt to change his plea in the sexual assault of his girlfriend's daughter over a two-year period that began when the girl was 6, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported today on its Web site.
Primero was arrested by Dona Ana County sheriff's deputies in October 2004 after the girl came forward with the allegations, and as part of a plea agreement last October, he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, the Sun-News reported.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped 21 other charges against Primero in the original indictment.
But Primero, who was facing a possible 90-year prison sentence under the plea agreement, tried to change his plea last Friday, but state District Judge Mike Murphy denied his request, ordering him to serve 54 years in prison, with 36 years of the sentence to be served concurrently, the Sun-News said.
District Attorney Susana Martinez had asked for the maximum possible sentence, the paper said
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Judge orders child molester to serve home confinement
Officials speak praise of Stump
By Brad Zinn/staff
bzinn@newsleader.com
STAUNTON — Prison would be a "death sentence" for convicted child molester Gerald Stump, who suffers from heart disease, Judge Thomas H. Wood said Monday when he ordered the retired high school teacher to serve two years of home incarceration during a sentencing hearing in Augusta County Circuit Court.
In September, Wood convicted Stump, 67, of Stuarts Draft, on two charges of aggravated sexual assault. The case involved two 9-year-old girls who testified they were molested at Stump's Kindig Road home during an 11-month period beginning in December 2004.
Monday, a parade of witnesses — including the former mayor of Staunton — spoke glowingly of Stump.
"There's not much not to like about Gerald," said G. John Avoli, Staunton mayor from 1992 to 2006. Avoli and Stump taught at Wilson Memorial High School in the 1970s.
"He's the type of teacher I would hire over and over again," said Pam Ungar, the assistant superintendent of instruction for Augusta County Public Schools. Ungar said ever since the allegations of molestation surfaced, "No one has come forward to say anything against Mr. Stump."
More than two dozen Stump supporters attended the hearing.
At his trial, Stump, a former advanced placement course teacher who retired in 1996, denied molesting the girls. He admitted to drawing on their stomachs and backs and said he gave one a quick kiss on the lips.
The girls testified they were fondled by Stump while sitting on his lap playing computer games. One said Stump licked her ear and stuck his tongue inside her mouth. A sexual assault nurse for the University of Virginia Medical Center also testified she found tissue damage in the genital area of one of the victims during an examination.
The allegations against Stump came to light in November when one of the victims was overheard telling the other that she "hated Gerald," according to testimony. When pressed for more information, both girls told their parents they were molested.
For the sentencing hearing, Stump hired a new attorney, Charles C. Cosby Jr. of Richmond. Cosby asked Wood for home incarceration with sex offender treatment and noted, "Certainly 67 years of good means something."
Given a chance to speak, Stump said the ordeal has been the "most horrendous period of my life," labeling it a "nightmare with no awakening." He added, "The legacy I have hoped to leave has been ruined along with my reputation."
In 1998, then-Stuarts Draft Elementary School was renamed after Stump's father, Guy K. Stump.
Wood sentenced Stump to concurrent 12-year terms, suspending all but two years in ordering the home confinement with electronic monitoring. While under confinement, Stump cannot have unsupervised contact with any child younger than 18. Upon his release, Stump will be on 20 years probation.
Shortly after the sentence was delivered, the parents of one of the victims stormed angrily out of the courtroom.
Assistant prosecutor John Chilton Reed said, "I'm disappointed for the children, but I understand why the judge did what he did."
================
Staff and wire reports
The Desert Sun
January 24, 2007
Convicted child molester Joseph Edward Duncan III has confessed to the 1997 abduction and killing of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, federal prosecutors in Idaho said Tuesday.
Their disclosure comes days after Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco announced a first-degree murder charge against Duncan for Anthony's killing and that Riverside County prosecutors will seek the death penalty in their case.
On Tuesday, Pacheco, who has declined to discuss details of the evidence, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Federal officials in Idaho said Duncan has also confessed to the 1996 killings of two other children, Carmen Cubias, 9, and Sammiejo White, 11, in Washington state.
Duncan served time in Washington for a 1980 conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy. He was paroled in 1994 but returned to prison in 1997 for violating parole and was released in July 2000.
Authorities released the new information in the 1996 case Tuesday after announcing that they plan to seek the death penalty against Duncan in Idaho.
In a separate 2005 case, he is accused of kidnapping two northern Idaho children, crossing state lines and killing one of them.
Pacheco believes federal officials in Idaho should hold off trying Duncan in order to allow Riverside County to proceed with its trial.
Anthony was forced into a car at knifepoint near his Beaumont home on April 4, 1997. His body was discovered April 19, 1997, along Berdoo Canyon Road, just north of Indio.
Investigators linked Duncan to Anthony by matching a partial thumb print found on duct tape used to bind the boy.
Pacheco said Anthony's family has waited long enough for justice in the decade-old case.
Pacheco has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to intercede with Idaho's governor in an effort to get Duncan extradited to California.
However, federal prosecutors last week obtained a 10-count indictment against the 43-year-old sexual predator, who is detained in Idaho.
They are seeking the death penalty against Duncan, alleging that in May 2005 he kidnapped Dylan Groene, 9, and his sister, Shasta, then 8, from their home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and took them to the mountains of Montana, where he sexually abused them for weeks before killing Dylan.
The boy's body was found at a remote campsite.
In July 2005, Duncan was arrested after a waitress recognized him and Shasta as they ate at an Idaho Denny's restaurant.
Last October, Duncan pleaded guilty in Idaho state court to first-degree murder and kidnapping for the May 16, 2005, hammer slayings of Dylan and Shasta's mother, Brenda Groene; her fiance, Mark McKenzie, and Groene's 13-year-old son, Slade. Authorities believe he killed the them to get the younger children.
If federal prosecutors fail to win a death sentence in their case, Duncan will be returned to the Idaho state court, where a jury will be impaneled for a death penalty hearing on the murder confessions, officials said.
Only after those proceedings are completed, which could take some time, would he be returned to California.
===================
Prison term expired seven years ago
By TYLER TREADWAY
tyler.treadway@scripps.com
January 25, 2007
FORT PIERCE — A six-member jury took slightly less than 90 minutes Wednesday to decide that a man convicted of child molestation in 1996 should remain incarcerated despite the fact that his prison term expired years ago.
Aaron Bradford, 35, has been held under the Jimmy Ryce Act, a state law that allows inmates to be held involuntarily in a treatment center after their sentences are finished if they are found to be sexually violent predators and dangerous to the community.
The act took effect Jan. 1, 1999, and is named after 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce, who was raped and murdered in 1995 in Miami by a repeat sex offender.
Bradford was a traveling carnival worker when he was accused of molesting nine young relatives in Indiana and Fort Pierce. He pleaded no contest to sexual battery charges and was sentenced five years in prison and 25 years of probation. His scheduled release date was Nov. 1, 1999.
Bradford's case and several others have been stalled while the Florida Supreme Court reviewed the law. After the court issued its opinion and further clarified it last June, the cases were finally given the go-ahead to move forward.
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Alleged child molester in court
26.01.2007
By RAE WILSON A GOLDEN Beach woman has been committed to stand trial for allegedly indecently dealing with four children while she was working at a Coast childcare centre and a fifth child while she was babysitting.
The 23-year-old, who was committed to stand trial on Monday for allegedly molesting three other children she had been babysitting, suffers an intellectual learning disability and a borderline personality disorder.
Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard the woman was working at the childcare centre through an employment agency which helped integrate learning-challenged people into the workforce.
The woman allegedly confessed to indecently dealing with four of the infants under her care, aged one to two, between December 2004 and July 2005.
But solicitor Chelsea Emery, from Ryan and Bosscher Lawyers, said the personality disorder could have symptoms where the sufferer would fabricate events.
Ms Emery questioned the childcare centre director about her statement claiming the woman was a “compulsive liar”.
The childcare centre director told the court the woman had lied at least three times about a child dying after choking on a piece steak while she was babysitting.
She said she regularly lied about her diet, exercising and consuming cordial at the centre.
The director she said she did not believe the woman would have touched the children inappropriately.
When asked if she thought the alleged confessions were another example of the woman’s regular attention seeking, she agreed.
“Absolutely, especially when my child is supposed to be involved,” she said.
During both committal hearings, Ms Emery questioned why further admissions had never led to charges or were not followed up.
Police were notified after the woman allegedly made admissions about abusing the eight children to a counsellor, who contacted the Department of Child Safety.
==========
Molester sent to state pen
By LES STEWART
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News
A 35-year-old North Londonderry man was sentenced to state prison yesterday for having indecent contact with a 13-year-old girl and secretly filming four girls and a 7-year-old boy in the bathroom of his home.
Rustyn Holp of Syner Road was sentenced to six to 131⁄2 years and fined $1,550 for aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, possession of child pornography, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and invasion of privacy.
In October, a jury convicted Holp of having indecent contact with a 13-year-old girl and filming four girls and a boy as they used the bathroom in Holp’s home between July 2005 and January last year.
During his trial, Holp admitted he had touched one of the 13-year-old girls but said it happened during horseplay. He also admitted transferring the video of the 13-year-old girl onto two computers and editing the film of the girl taking a shower.
In August, Holp pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping three teenage girls in his bathroom during a sleepover Jan. 13 last year.
Yesterday, Judge Bradford H. Charles said he had received more letters in the Holp case than in any other he has handled in the past three years. From reading the letters, the judge said, he does not know what kind of person Holp is. Some letters describe him as a man who blames his wife, while others describe him as willing to take responsibility for what he did.
Charles noted a comment from a letter written by Holp’s father: “Rusty, for all his failings, is not an evil person.”
Holp’s mother wrote that she did not understand how additional jail time would serve any purpose, the judge said.
But Charles said more prison time would accomplish several things, including showing the victims they are not to blame for Holp’s action, showing Holp he is accountable for his actions and letting others know this type of behavior is unacceptable.
The judge also noted letters he received from several of the victims. One wrote that she lost her best friend when the charges came to light. “You took my sense of security. I don’t feel safe anymore,” another wrote. A third wrote she was thankful she was not a hunter, because if she had a gun she would have shot Holp.
Holp’s own letter to the judge showed a lack of responsibility in the matter, Charles said. In it, Holp blamed his wife, his employer and the victims, and he denied taking the girls’ innocence.
“None of these girls involved are innocent,” Charles read from Holp’s letter.
“You’re 35, and these girls were 13,” Charles told Holp. “You’re the adult. You didn’t act like one.”
“There are five young women, I believe, who have been gravely harmed,” Megan Ryland-Tanner, an assistant district attorney, said before Holp was sentenced.
Ryland-Tanner noted that Holp’s mother wrote about his impulsive behavior, temper tantrums and refusal to take responsibility for his own actions when he was young.
Ryland-Tanner added that she was concerned about Holp’s letter, blaming his poor relationship with his wife and claiming the girls teased him and acted in a provocative manner.
“He’s too busy placing blame on everyone else involved,” the prosecutor said. “The things that Mr. Holp has done are horrendous.”
LesStewart@LDNews.com
====================
Oklahoma police say accused Arizona child impostor is molester suspect
Jan 28, 2007 08:27 AM
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Police say a convicted sex offender involved in a bizarre Arizona case may have molested children in El Reno, where records show he lived from 2003 to 2005, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Neil Havens Rodreick II, 29, claimed to be a 13-year-old boy when he lived in El Reno, although investigators have found no record of Rodreick enrolling in school there, El Reno police Lt. Van Gillock told The Oklahoman in a copyrighted story.
Rodreick is facing several charges in Arizona, where he and three other men were arrested Jan. 17 after Rodreick enrolled in seventh grade of a charter school as a 12-year-old named Casey Price. He previously spent 45 days as a student in another Arizona school.
Rodreick was indicted Friday on 15 criminal charges, including assault, child pornography and failing to register as a sex offender.
He apparently had fooled two of the men, with whom he had been having a sexual relationship for about two years, into thinking he was a juvenile.
The third man, Brian J. Nellis, 34, is an Oklahoma sex offender who served time with Rodreick at the Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Taft.
"He called himself Casey Rodreick when he was here," Gillock said. "He was claiming to be 13. He was introducing Nellis as his uncle."
In Arizona, investigators recovered video tapes, compact disks, computers and various documents from the Chino Valley home where the four men lived, said Susan Quayle, spokeswoman for the Yavapai County sheriff's office.
Some of the video shows Rodreick engaged in sex acts with what appear to be juveniles.
At least two children in the videos may be from El Reno, Gillock told The Oklahoman.
In Oklahoma, Rodreick initially was convicted in Grady County of making a lewd proposal to a child in 1996, court records show. Prosecutors there said he molested three other children between the ages of 7 and 9 while he was still a juvenile.
Court records show Rodreick's mother died of an aneurysm at age 46, when Rodreick was 15.
"He has never gotten over it," his father told a Grady County judge in a 1996 presentencing report. "He in a way was mad at himself because they had a fight that morning, the day of her death."
In the Grady County case that sent him to prison, Rodreick led a 6-year-old boy from a school bus stop to Rodreick's "clubhouse," where he told the boy he'd have to pass a test in order to join his club, records show.
The "test" involved the boy pulling down his pants and lying face-down so that Rodreick could "teach him about sex."
The boy refused and left.
Each of the other incidents, records show, were similar to that one.
============================
Arizona Girl Kidnapped by Molester Found
The Associated Press
January 27, 2007
CBNNews.com -- MARICOPA, Ariz. (AP) -- A six-year-old Arizona kidnap victim is back with her family and police are looking for a registered sex offender from Louisiana believed to have abducted her.
The suspect, identified as 26-year-old George Horner, had been staying with the girl and her mother at their home in Maricopa, Arizona, some 100 miles south of Phoenix. It turns out he's a registered sex offender. The mother describes him as a friend-of-a-friend and says she wouldn't have allowed him within a "hundred (m) million miles" of the place if she had known.
The youngster disappeared Friday after Horner was supposed to have driven her to school. She was found later walking by herself in a town 20 miles away and taken to a hospital, where she was reunited with her mother.
Investigators say the girl was apparently molested.
=======================
New Jones Sheriff Website Has Most Wanted, Molester Registry
Submitted by Mike Roberts on Fri, 01/26/2007 - 2:05pm.
* News
* Local
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office is taking to the web in a big new way. The office now has a website on a par with much larger agencies nationwide.
The site features information about the office’s different departments, instructions on how to pay traffic fines and information about becoming a deputy. It also has a complete rogue’s gallery of wanted fugitives and sex offenders. But most interesting are some of its other features: internet safety tips, tips for kids on avoiding violence, information on local curfews and a safety guide for babysitters.
In his web message to citizens, Sheriff R.N. “Butch” Reece calls the new site an “…accurate and timely representation of the law enforcement stance in this county.”
To access the new Jones County Sheriff website, go to http://www.jcsheriff.org.
====================
Local molester finds trouble in the Midwest
Released from prison, Robert Briglia, now of Missouri, is accused of being near a school.
Friday, January 26, 2007
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times
A convicted Warren County child molester now living in Missouri has come under heavy scrutiny in his new home state after being charged last month with being within 500 feet of a school.
Robert P. Briglia, 27, had permission from New Jersey authorities to relocate to Missouri and live with his family after his release from prison. The recent infraction that now jeopardizes Briglia's freedom occurred in the same Missouri county where a recently recovered teenager was kidnapped four years ago.
"Don't write a story," Briglia said from his Missouri home Thursday. "I'm going to turn around and do a lawsuit. I'm going to have my dad call you."
After his arrest in December, Briglia was freed from a Missouri jail after posting $10,000 bail and placed on house arrest with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Hauswirth said.
Briglia lives in a farm area in Belgrade, Mo., southwest of St. Louis. The town is in Washington County, the same county where accused kidnapper Michael Devlin allegedly abducted now 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck four years ago.
The highly publicized case -- which broke days after Devlin allegedly kidnapped 13-year-old Ben Ownby -- sparked an atmosphere of heightened vigilance in this southeastern Missouri community, authorities said.
Briglia moved to the area last summer after his release from state prison in New Jersey.
He drew a four-year sentence in August 2003 after pleading guilty earlier that year to second-degree sexual assault involving one victim and two counts of endangering the welfare of two other children.
He met his victims at the Faith Community Assembly of God Church in Palmer Township where he helped church members watch over a church-sponsored boys' group called the Royal Rangers.
He had no prior criminal history at the time, records show. Authorities said Briglia molested the three children in his Pohatcong Township apartment from June 1 to June 25, 2002. He was initially charged with engaging in acts of sexual penetration with an 8-year-old boy, having sexual contact with a 6-year-old girl and engaging in sexual conduct with a 9-year-old boy.
Briglia is scheduled to remain on parole until Nov. 21, 2008. If convicted of the charge in Missouri he could be returned to prison in New Jersey, authorities said. Briglia is also subject to community supervision for life.
The approval to move from New Jersey to Missouri followed an investigation by authorities in both states.
Last week, a warrant for his arrest was issued after authorities in Missouri received a report that Briglia was on the grounds of the North County Elementary School in Washington County. That allegation which arose amid the Devlin kidnapping arrest -- was dismissed after an investigation showed he only drove past the school, Hauswirth said.
"The warrant was a precautionary measure," the spokesman said. "We err on the side of caution. We continue to watch him closely."
Hauswirth said "the safety of the community is our most important priority, especially regarding children. We feel like we made the right decision."
Briglia remains charged with being within 500 feet of an elementary school in Caledonia, Mo.
The mother of a 9-year-old boy in nearby Iron County said videotape of Briglia's vehicle is on local Web sites. The truck has a blue light on top and the number 6 painted on both sides.
"Why would the state of Missouri allow another sex offender to move into our state?" said the woman who requested anonymity to protect her son. "We don't have enough already?"
Briglia is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a bond hearing linked to the misdemeanor charge lodged by the Washington County Prosecutor's Office on Dec. 22. The county Sheriff's Department investigated the case.
New Jersey Parole Board Capt. Sean Asay said Briglia was released from the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility on Nov. 19, 2005. The conditions of his parole include sex-offender mental health evaluations.
If Briglia is convicted in Missouri, Asay said that state's authorities would submit a report to the New Jersey Parole Board with a recommendation. Parole board members would make the final decision on whether Briglia goes back to prison in New Jersey.
Briglia allegedly went within 500 feet of the Valley R-VI Elementary School in Caledonia, Mo.
School district Superintendent Steve Yount said he sent letters home to parents after the Briglia arrest.
Briglia's photograph was also circulated among all district employees including bus drivers and custodians, Yount said.
"I think people are extra sensitive," Yount said. "But they're handling it rationally."
The school is a 20-minute drive from where the Hornbeck kidnapping occurred, the superintendent said.
Reporter Tom Quigley can be reached at 908-475-8184 or by e-mail at tquigley@express-times.com.
==========================
By Tracy Hughes
OBSERVER STAFF
Jan 24 2007
A Salmon Arm man has been sent to jail for sexually assaulting a child.
David Wayne Halls was ordered to serve 15 months in jail, was placed on three years probation, has been prohibited from attending parks, playgrounds, schools or other places where children may be present, must provide a DNA sample and has been banned from owning firearms for 10 years.
The case involves Halls repeatedly abusing a girl from the time she was 10 years old until her late teens. The incidents involved fondling, sexual touching, getting the girl to pose for nude photos and offering her money to have sexual intercourse.
Sexual intercourse did not take place.
Halls told the girl if she told anyone about the abuse or refused his advances he would kill himself.
Crown Counsel Greg Koturbash was seeking a jail term for Halls, noting the case had a number of aggravating factors, including that Halls was in a position of trust.
“There was a breach of trust, plus the fact that Mr. Halls was serving another conditional sentence for criminal harassment during the time some of these offenses took place.”
During the sentencing Halls’ defence lawyer, David Ertl, was asking for a conditional sentence to be served in the community, which would include a period of house arrest, rather than jail time.
When contacted by the Observer, Ertl declined to comment on the case.
In his sentence, Justice Wilfred Klinger took into account that Halls sought out psychiatric counselling following his arrest. However, he still ruled in favour of a jail term.
Koturbash says Halls will be sent to a prison in the Lower Mainland where he is considered a good candidate for sex offender rehabilitation.
====================
Molester Poses as Student in School
By Amanda Lee Meyers
The Associated Press
January 25, 2007
CBNNews.com -- SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) -- Experts on child exploitation are all too familiar with sex offenders working as scout leaders, coaches and teachers, but this was a new one - a boyish-looking man who posed as a 12-year-old and enrolled in school in what may have been a scheme to find kids to molest.
Now parents in this Phoenix suburb where 29-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick II attended a charter school for four months are asking their children if they had any contact with this "classmate."
And police are interviewing parents, students and teachers, and checking at least three other Arizona schools where Rodreick, a convicted sex offender from Oklahoma, also enrolled.
"We told him that it was a scary man who passed himself off as a kid that went to school for a bit," said Erika Ton Loy, whose 7-year-old son attends the charter school, the Imagine School. "When we heard more about it on the news, we got him up out of bed. My husband wanted to make sure he didn't recognize this guy, and he was like, `Have you seen this guy?' and he said, 'No, I don't know who the heck he is."'
Rodreick - who is about 5 feet 6 and 120 pounds, shaved his body hair and used makeup in an attempt to cover his stubble - has been charged with forgery and fraud in the school-enrollment con, as well as assault against a girl. But investigators have refused to release details of that crime and will not say whether he met the girl through the school scam.
Officials also said Thursday that a search of the home where he was staying yielded a video of Rodreick engaging in sex acts with an unidentified child.
Using the name Casey Price, Rodreick attended the Imagine School from August to November before the seventh-grader was thrown out for poor attendance. Investigators said he was caught when he attended school for a day last week in Chino Valley, about 90 miles from Phoenix.
On Jan. 9, Rodreick enrolled as Casey Price at YCFA Achieve Academy, a charter school in Prescott Valley, about 75 miles from Phoenix, said Amy Rezzonico, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Education. It was unclear whether he attended school there, and officials at the school declined to comment Thursday.
Rodreick also was enrolled at a charter school as a seventh-grader named Casey Rodreick for a few weeks in 2005 in the community of Payson, about 65 miles from Phoenix.
Rodreick did not provide that school with all the proper paperwork, said Detective George Ratliff of the Gila County Sheriff's Office. Rodreick withdrew after attending nine of the 21 days he was enrolled there when the school persisted in trying to obtain the paperwork.
Ratliff said there is no evidence any children at the Payson school were victimized.
While authorities have not said why Rodreick may have posed as a boy at the schools, officials in Chino Valley said it may have been to lure children for sex.
"Usually sex offenders try to develop a relationship with the children who they are going to attempt to exploit," said Robert Geffner, a psychologist in California who is editor of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. "They look for vulnerability, they try to develop a close relationship of trust and dependence with that child. One of best ways to do that is to interact in a safe setting with a child."
Kenneth Lanning, who helped investigate child sex crimes as an agent with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit for 30 years, said he has never heard of an adult successfully pretending to be a child so young and enrolling in school.
But he said investigators should not be too quick to assume Rodreick sexually assaulted anyone. Rodreick could have had other reasons for posing as a boy, such as fulfilling a sexual need just by being near children, Lanning said.
Rodreick, who is in jail, declined a request for an interview.
He was living in Chino Valley with two men he had conned into believing he was a 12-year-old, authorities said. The two men, ages 43 and 61, were charged with attempted child molestation and attempted sexual contact with a minor.
In 1996, he was convicted in Oklahoma of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy. He served about six years in prison.
Rhonda Cagle, a spokeswoman for the Imagine School, said no students have come forward to accuse Rodreick of molesting them.
Rodreick was an average student who kept to himself and turned in his homework, she said.
"This individual stood out in our pickup line every day right with all of our other students. Parents walked by, students walk by, staff walked by," she said. "There was no questions or concerns by anybody that were ever raised with our administration team here in regards to this individual, so I would certainly say he blended in quite well."
The school did not realize it had been conned until Rodreick was arrested at the Chino Valley school. School officials there said they called police because his birth certificate and other documents looked forged. But at the time, they thought they might be dealing with a child who had been abducted.
===================
Alleged child molester gets out of jail
By ANDREW WOLFE, Telegraph staff
awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com
Published: Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007
NASHUA – A former youth soccer coach confessed to molesting two 12-year-old boys after being confronted by other alleged abuse victims, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Ralph Fiscale, 60, of 26 Ministerial Drive, has been jailed since his arrest Nov. 6, unable to post $50,000 cash bail.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Arthur Brennan agreed Wednesday to change Fiscale’s bail to cash or bond. The judge released Fiscale to his niece, who lives in Westford, Mass., with the requirement he not be in contact with anyone younger than 16.
Prosecutors argued Fiscale is a dangerous, untreated sex offender and should remain jailed.
“This is behavior, potentially, that has been going on for years, or went on for years and then stopped, and then started again,” Assistant County Attorney Justin Shepherd said, apparently referring to earlier allegations of abuse.
Prosecutors are still investigating those earlierallegations to determine whether any of the alleged abuse took place in New Hampshire and if so, whether it can still be prosecuted, Shepherd said.
Fiscale surrendered himself to police on the very same day that “prior alleged victims confronted the defendant at his home,” Shepherd said.
Bush argued Fiscale plans to seek counseling while awaiting trial, expected to be scheduled in July. Bail is a constitutional right for persons accused, but not convicted, of any crime short of first-degree murder.
Brennan said he would order, at Bush’s suggestion, that Fiscale remain essentially under house arrest, allowed to leave only for medical or legal appointments.
Fiscale will have to phone probation officers daily and will be barred from any contact with minors.
Fiscale is charged with two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, alleging that he fondled two boys whom he had befriended through his work at the nonprofit Live and Let Live horse rescue farm in Chichester. Each of the charges carries a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison.
Fiscale was long active in coaching youth soccer teams around the region, but no allegations have surfaced as a result of his contacts with children through soccer.
Fiscale was arrested after he showed up at the Merrimack Police Department and gave a statement admitting to the alleged abuse, police have reported. Prosecutors declined to comment on whether Fiscale also admitted to the earlier alleged abuse.
Fiscale has been unable to tap into his own assets to post bail, Bush said. The two boys whom Fiscale is accused of fondling have sued him in Merrimack County Superior Court and got an attachment against Fiscale’s property and assets, Bush said. Fiscale’s wife also has filed for divorce, he said.
Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
=================
Child molester deported
A Belgian pedophile wanted for various crimes in his own country was arrested and deported yesterday by the immigration authorities.
Luc Van Hecke, who was escorted by immigration agent Adrian Mangondato and National Bureau of Investigation agent Ablezer Rovera, boarded a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight KL804 bound for Amsterdam at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal-1.
Hecke is wanted in Belgium and has been sentenced for seven years’ imprisonment for sexual exploitations of children, child pornography and rape by the correctional court of Oudenaarde.
Immigration intelligence chief Faisal Hussin said the Belgian fugitive arrived on Oct. 11, 2004 as a tourist but has not extended his stay, making him an undesirable alien.
The Belgian embassy sought the assistance of the immigration and NBI for his arrest after the Belgium Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs Service canceled his Belgian passport due to his conviction.
Hecke managed to hide and live with a Filipina wife in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, for almost two years.
With the help of Puerto Princesa local police authorities, the Belgian national was located and brought to Manila.
Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez ordered the inclusion of Hecke in the bureau’s blacklist to prevent him from returning to the Philippines. Vito Barcelo
==============================
Accused child molester waives hearing
By Nick Casey--[ nick@hmbreview.com ]
A man accused of molesting four boys at a Half Moon Bay martial arts studio remained free for more than two weeks after the accusations because prosecutors wanted Half Moon Bay police to gather more evidence.
Joao Pierini, 35, was arrested on Jan. 4 - 20 days after four boys came forward with allegations that he had touched them inappropriately. Pierini now faces eight misdemeanor charges and one felony count, including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, annoying a child under 18 and lewd and lascivious behavior, according to the San Mateo County district attorney's office.
Pierini has waived his right to a preliminary hearing and entered a not-guilty plea to the charges. Pierini remained in custody Tuesday, in lieu of $500,000 bail, and will return to court for a Feb. 2 arraignment.
According to investigators, on Dec. 15 Pierini ran into the four juveniles at the Starbucks coffee shop in Strawflower Village and invited them back to drink beer at his studio, located at 2830 N. Cabrillo Highway.
During the visit, Pierini reportedly gave inappropriate massages to each of the juveniles and fondled the genitals of one boy. The boys reported the incident to a parent who told Half Moon Bay police on Dec. 16, said Steve Wagstaffe, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County.
Before making their arrest, police gathered additional evidence for the case that had been requested by the district attorney's office. Pierini was not judged to be a flight risk, according to Wagstaffe.
Pierini, a third-degree black belt who has practiced martial arts for 25 years, arrived from Brazil in 1999, according to his school's Web site.
He has worked with and around minors on the Coastside for months. Half Moon Bay High School has hosted several California Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Opens, as well as a mixed martial arts exhibition. Pierini served as tournament director for all those events.
Susan Million, the high school's principal, said she did not think Pierini's presence at the school during the weekend events posed a threat to students. The competitions principally involved adults and not juveniles, according to the Half Moon Bay police department.
Police Chief Ike Ortiz said, to his knowledge, no prior complaint had been filed against Pierini.
"We've done our best to give this a fair investigation and now this is in the hands of the district attorney," he said.
==========================
EXCLUSIVE
Paedo school bus driver No2
By THE INVESTIGATOR
January 29, 2007
A RAT-FACED paedophile is driving a school bus — after being cleared by council officials.
Convicted child molester Nicholas Emms, 35, drives pupils aged nine to 13 to and from school each day.
He is the second paedophile school bus driver to be exposed by The Sun in a week.
Married Emms, who has kids of his own, confessed even HE would be worried if someone with his convictions was driving his children to school.
But the pervert, who indecently assaulted a girl under 14, claimed: “I’m not a danger. I’ve been cleared for school runs.”
Emms was sentenced to two years’ probation at Worcester Crown Court in 1989.
He now works unsupervised for Ann’s Executive Coaches in Pershore, Worcs.
The company holds the county council contract to drive children to schools across the area.
Council officials cleared Emms for the job after deciding his conviction was not serious enough to warrant a ban.
If only they knew ... schoolkids on bus as perv at wheel
A bus company source said: “It is hard to believe anyone with a conviction for sex offences against a child would be allowed to drive a school bus. Is it really worth the risk?”
Emms, of Defford, Worcs, admitted: “I would be concerned if someone with similar convictions was driving my children to school. But there is nothing to be concerned about. The kids know me — we have fun.”
He said the conviction happened when he was a teenager, adding: “Everybody was having a laugh in those days.”
The council insisted it had checked Emms and was satisfied he posed no risk.
Last week bus driver David Skinner, 59, of Margate, Kent, was suspended after we exposed him as a paedophile who attacked a girl while babysitting.
=============
COUNCIL TO FOOT BILL AS RABBI IS CLEARED
hg.editorial@archant.co.uk
02 February 2007
A STAMFORD Hill rabbi cleared in the High Court of making too much noise at his synagogue has accused Hackney Council of wasting time and money pursuing the case.
The two-and-a-half year dispute between Moshe Rottenberg and the local authority over the chanting and wailing coming from his synagogue and school ended on Wednesday last week.
Two judges ruled the noise was not a nuisance, leaving the council with an estimated £14,000 court bill.
"I don't think the council can believe it's gone so badly for them," said Mr Rottenberg, 55, speaking to the Gazette from his home in Heathland Road, Stamford Hill.
The dispute centres on religious services held at the semi-detached building in Bethune Road.
Neighbour Maryam Hafezji complained that stamping, singing and wailing made it hard to hear the TV or hold conversations.
The council's noise enforcement team issued the rabbi with a noise abatement notice in October, 2004.
The council subsequently took the rabbi to court and in March last year he was found guilty of breaching the order on six separate occasions.
Sitting at Thames magistrates' court, District Judge Read gave him a conditional discharge for two years and ordered him to pay £4,000 in costs.
Angered by that verdict, Mr Rottenberg appealed to the Crown Court.
His lawyers argued the noise was infrequent and was more of an "irritation" than a nuisance. A judge at Southwark Crown Court agreed and cleared Mr Rottenberg of all six charges.
At the High Court last week, barrister Simon Butler, for the council, sought to overturn Mr Rottenberg's appeal.
He argued that the Crown Court had been wrong to impose its view over the professional environmental officers.
However, Lord Justice Scott Baker, sitting with Mr Justice David Clarke, said the final decision lay with the Crown Court.
The semi-detached property in Bethune Road has been a school since 1982 and it currently caters for about 15 boys. It was granted planning permission to become a place of worship in 1998.
The judges ordered the council to pay Mr Rottenberg's £7,120 legal costs.
On top of its own £4,778 legal costs and its decision to order a copy of the transcript of evidence at an estimated cost of £2,000, the council's total bill is likely to be about £14,000.
FOR THE FULL STORY SEE THIS WEEK'S GAZETTE AVAILABLE NOW.
==============
Religious leaders meet with Rice over Mideast peacemaking
Wire Services
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held a private meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press for a greater U.S. role in ending Mideast violence.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, said the religious leaders asked for high-level engagement with both the Israelis and the Palestinians "that holds both sides accountable in a step-by-step peace process."
The group also promised to "say tough things to our communities here and in the region" about what must be done to bring about peace.
Along with Rice and McCarrick, the meeting Monday included Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori; Sayyid M. Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North America; Rabbi Paul Menitoff, a leader in Reform Judaism; and Rabbi Amy Small, a leader of the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism.
The leaders are part of the National Interreligious Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, which represents more than 35 religious groups and supports a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
==================
Cherry Hill rabbi admits theft of funds
FREEHOLD
A rabbi who lives in Cherry Hill admitted stealing more than $86,000 from his former congregation in Monmouth County.
Rabbi Peter Light, 48, on Tuesday said he took funds between July 2004 and July 2006 from a fund intended to help needy members of the Marlboro Jewish Center, Congregation Ohev Shalom.
Light, who pleaded guilty to theft by deception at a court hearing in Freehold, is free on his own recognizance. Under a plea agreement, he is to receive a five-year prison term when he is sentenced May 4.
Published: February 01. 2007
==============
The Star Ledger
Ex-rabbi admits stealing funds for needy
Thursday, February 01, 2007
As head of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Marlboro, Rabbi Peter Light was in charge of a discretionary fund to help the needy.
But prosecutors said Light used his discretion to give himself more than $86,000 from that fund to pay his personal expenses.
Light, 48, of Cherry Hill, pleaded guilty Tuesday to theft by deception, a second-degree crime that could send him to prison for five years.
During his plea before Superior Court Judge Ira Kreizman in Freehold, Light admitted stealing the money between July 2004 -- shortly after he arrived at the Marlboro Jewish Center -- and July 2006 -- just before he resigned.
Among Light's duties as rabbi-in-charge at Congregation Ohev Shalom, he had control of the "Rabbi's Discretionary Fund" a collection mainly of donations to help needy members of the congregation, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin.
His was the sole signature needed on the account, and he routinely dipped into the fund to pay for his personal expenditures, the prosecutor said.
"By stealing from a charitable account established by the Marlboro Jewish Center, Light placed his selfish personal interests above the expectations and needs of the congregation he led," Valentin said in a prepared statement. "This deliberate criminal conduct impeded the congregation's ability to serve those who required assistance."
Light, who is free on his own recognizance, faces five years in prison when he is sentenced May 4, the prosecutor said.
-- MaryAnn Spoto
=======================
Published: 02.01.2007
'Comic Book Rabbi' set for appearance in Tucson
By Shelley Shelton
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
If you go
What: An evening with Simcha Weinstein, the "Comic Book Rabbi," who wrote "Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero."
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 11.
Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road.
Cost: Free.
Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Star on Jan. 30.
As part of its first winter retreat on Feb. 11, the Tucson group B'nai Tzedek — a youth philanthropy program that got off the ground last month — will meet with a man known as the "Comic Book Rabbi."
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is the author of "Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero."
The book looks at several popular comic book characters and how they have ties to Jewish history and culture, said Abigail Foss, B'nai Tzedek coordinator.
Because comic books resonate more with teens than an adult talking at them about what they need to do, Weinstein seemed like a good choice of speaker to have at the group's first retreat, Foss said.
"This is our first winter retreat, so we wanted to bring in someone that was maybe a little outside the box," she said.
A big part of Judaism is the concept that each Jew is responsible for doing his or her part to heal the world, she said.
She pointed out that Superman was created by two Jewish teenagers in the late 1930s, when a big, dark force was loose in the world. "That wasn't coincidental."
Comic book superheroes have always carried a deep message, she said.
They are compelled to do good, frequently struggling with that obligation.
"Responsibilities aren't just all free and easy," she said. "The idea behind superheroes is that they're trying to make the world better in some way."
B'nai Tzedek works to empower teens to think of themselves as people who have something to give, Foss said.
In the evening after the retreat, Weinstein will take the stage at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center for a brief talk followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing. He will have copies of his book available for sale, Foss said.
If you go
What: An evening with Simcha Weinstein, the "Comic Book Rabbi," who wrote "Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero."
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 11.
Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road.
Cost: Free.
● Send story ideas about people or happenings in the Foothills or Tanque Verde Valley to reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or call her at 434-4078.
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Breaking News
Anti-Zionist leader Sheinberger dies
Rabbi Yosef Sheinberger, leader of the fervently Orthodox Edah Haredit stream, died in Jerusalem.
He was 87.
Sheinberger, whose name was synonymous with the anti-Zionist group, established its mouthpiece, the Ha’Edah newspaper.
“Yosef Sheinberger was the Edah Haredit and the Edah Haredit was Sheinberger,” Ha’Edah editor Shmuel Popenheim told the Jerusalem Post.
“He was the one who enlisted the rabbis, he was the one who led the struggles against Shabbat desecration and immodesty, he was the one who did the fund raising abroad.”
Sheinberger’s grandson Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA, a Jewish relief group that works at terrorist bombing sites, told the Post that in the vacuum left by the death of the “foreign minister of the Edah,” Edah Haredit was vulnerable to takeover by “small extremist groups.”
Sheinberger also was responsible for some major and controversial decisions, including a 1981 decree that barred children of Edah Haredit from attending any educational institution that accepts state funding, the Post reported.
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