 The compromise supported by the 5 Towns Jewish Times and others is nothing more than a sham to discourage and prevent victims from ever seeking civil justice  |
The Zalkin Law Firm Explains Why a Compromise with Institutions that Harbored Pedophiles is Bad Policy
Sexual Abuse Attorney Irwin Zalkin explains why a compromise with the institutions that harbored pedophiles is bad policy.
New York, New York (PRWEB) May 6, 2009 -- Recently, the New York Assembly has begun to consider whether it should limit the amount of money that a jury can award to remedy the damage endured by a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. That proposal was supported in a recent article in 5 Towns Jewish Times, entitled "Sexual Abuse Legislation: A Proposed Strategy For Reform," by David Mandel. Under the proposed scheme, regardless of the facts in a case and the financial cost to the survivor of taking on well funded and insured religious corporations at trial, the most that can be recovered is $500,000. The attorney representing the victim would be limited to a 10% fee. "Such a compromise, to please pedophiles and their masters, is bad policy," states Irwin Zalkin, an attorney helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse (http://www.zalkin.com) across the country. "The compromise supported by the 5 Towns Jewish Times and others is nothing more than a sham to discourage and prevent victims from ever seeking civil justice," said Zalkin.
As Zalkin explains, "The institutions protected by the compromise supported by Mandel and 5 Towns Jewish Times are those who have purposely engaged in acts which deceived whole communities regarding the safety of children left in their care."
"The offending institutions have insurance and their own substantial resources to hire the biggest most expensive law firms to put on million dollar defenses. The survivor, of course, has none of these resources," states Zalkin. He further explains that: "For survivors their only hope of equaling the playing field is to hire a lawyer on a contingency basis who gets nothing if there is no recovery. That lawyer has to spend thousands of hours of work and advance the thousands of dollars to hire a team of professionals including, investigators; forensic experts in psychiatry or psychology; and various disciplines of rehabilitation; experts regarding what were the best practices to follow when caring for children; and economists." "The compromise scheme would ensure that, at the most, a long suffering David must once again take the field against a well conditioned and equipped Goliath. At the end of the day the wounded child remains forever maimed," said Zalkin.
With offices in New York and San Diego, The Zalkin Law Firm is one of the premier sexual abuse and personal injury law firms in the country. The firm's lawyers have achieved groundbreaking results in numerous high-profile clergy abuse (http://www.nyclergyabuse.com) cases across the United States. Mr. Zalkin has negotiated over $200 million in settlements in Catholic clergy sex abuse (http://news.zalkin.com) cases.
Mr. Zalkin is available to speak to the media about clergy sexual abuse and the Child Victim's Act of New York (A2596). Please call Lisa Maynes (212-889-1300) to arrange interviews. To speak to Mr. Zalkin about legal representation, please call The Zalkin Law Firm (212-889-1300).
The Zalkin Law Firm, P.C.
http://www.Zalkin.com
800-724-3235
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62 comments:
The Jewish Week's Hella Winston Reports:
A married Jew with peyos and a black hat, Stefan Colmer used to spend hours, according to reports, reading the Talmud in the main study hall of the Mirrer Yeshiva on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. While there, he also befriended some boys in and around the yeshiva and, on occasion, invited a few of them to his nearby home.
And, according to a source close to the case, Colmer allegedly sexually abused several of them — in addition to other young boys from the “general neighborhood” near the yeshiva, a law enforcement source believes.
Colmer, 32, who moved to Israel in early 2007, weeks before any of his alleged victims approached the police, was extradited to Brooklyn in January 2008 and is now being held at Rikers Island, awaiting trial on charges that he sodomized two teenage boys, both 13 at the time, on numerous occasions. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted on all charges.
What isn’t in the criminal charges against Colmer is that, according to numerous sources familiar with the facts, several years before allegedly abusing the two victims named in the May 2007 indictment he was treated in the sex-offender program of a prominent Jewish agency — only to leave of his own volition before his treatment was completed.
Read in full at:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15703/News/New_York.html
Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for Survivors for Justice, said: “We stand for the basic truth that pedophiles must be reported directly to the authorities, who alone have the ability to investigate, arrest and monitor the behavior of offenders.
“Treatment has its place, and that place is within the structure of our criminal justice system. The staggering number of incidents of abuse we have become aware of in the short time we have been existence,” Soury continued, “does nothing but drive home the point that no rabbi or communal organization, no matter how well meaning or technically legal their actions, has the moral right to play Russian Roulette with our children’s lives.”
"To sum things up, I most certainly feel change and improvement in our understanding and treatment of abuse and abusers is desperately needed - it is something I have loudly and passionately advocated for many years now. The Markey Bill, however, is a crude tool to accomplish that task, one that is, in my opinion, driven by a host of agendas diametrically opposed to ours and one that, to loosely quote from the carefully written and nuanced statement by our gedolim, shlita, has the ability to cause material damage to the mosdos haTorah our parents and grandparents built over the past hundred years with their sweat and tears. It is therefore my recommendation that members of our community oppose this particular bill as it is currently written."
Just because the Markey bill isn't perfect doesn't mean it shouldn't be supported, something Horowitz fails to grasp.
By his own admission he trashes those responsible for perpetrating these crimes. Why then oppose it?
The good outweighs the bad. There is no question about that. Horowitz - shame on you!
R' Yankel Horowitz was one of the few to grab my attention with his openly candid remarks in support of abuse victims.
He was brazen enough to support the extradition of Monster Mondrowitz. His approach was a very much needed breath of fresh air, especially this coming from a rabbinic scholar.
And now this OPED.. The illogical reasoning.. A very flawed defense in opposition of all he has written and done in the past is mind boggling to say the least.
Step by step we need to take apart the Jewish Fress piece, because there are many disingenuous assumptions or theories. We shall get to that soon.
Meanwhile, cross off the name of Yankel and put him on the other side, the one where the church and agudah stand hand in hand in a silent but deadly demonstration and denial against humanity and justice!
Rav Yaakov Horowitz feels the same way we do. It is simply unfair to bankrupt the private schools.
He additionally will not respect a senator who supports gay marriage. Even if that senator wants to help save kids from child predators.
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Ex-teacher tied to sex abuse of boys over 30 years ago
SMITHVILLE, Ont.—A former teacher from Niagara Falls, Ont., has been arrested on charges of inappropriate sexual contact with grade-school pupils more than three decades ago, the Niagara Regional Police Service said.
Wayne C. Thompson, 69, who worked as a teacher, guidance counselor and vice principal at College Street Public School in Smithville, is accused of victimizing boys from 1973 to 1976. He was charged with four counts of indecent assault on a male.
Find this article at:
http://www.buffalonews.com/437/story/662440.html
If already it is a given that the torah institutions will become financially bankrupt as a result of the Markey bill; why should the torah brains be so concerned about it if they are truly not guilty of the accusations?
A case will be made and jurors will reach a decision. If yeshiva "x" has nothing to hide, there's a fair shot they will be exonerated.
Chances are this heavy resistance to Markey is because THEY ARE GUILTY, and Horowitz and Agudah know this surely.
Why does Yankel Horowitz want to protect institutions that harbored pedophiles in the past? That makes no sense at all. If they committed crimes they deserve to be shut down.
Butchers who needed practice in kosher slaughtering were apparently responsible for the headless calf found behind a Jewish school in a New York City suburb.
Police in Ramapo found the decapitated animal Monday night, hanging from a tree in the back yard of a yeshiva in a residential neighborhood. The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Gershon Borenfreund, did not return phone calls. But he told an Orthodox Jewish Internet site that a group of people used the yeshiva's yard to practice the rules of kosher slaughtering "without our permission." (AP)
Petah Tikva man accused of raping woman while posing as rabbi
By Yuval Goren, Haaretz Correspondent
A Petah Tikva man was arrested early on Thursday on suspicion raping a woman who regularly came to his house to get his blessing, after he presented himself as an eminent rabbi.
The woman, 37, of Ashkelon, complained to Petah Tikva Police earlier this week. She said she's visited the suspect for the past six months to get his alleged blessings and good-luck amulets.
Police say that the man, 60, also published ads in a daily paper in which he gave the victim's details and said she was looking for a ?sponsor."
The man initially denied the allegations but admitted soon after his arrest and expressed remorse.
"When the investigation started he denied the allegations and said the woman was trying to blackmail him," Superintendent Yaron Ahrak of Petah Tikva police said. "But then we realized he wasn't a rabbi and he admitted and expressed remorse."
Police will request to extend his remand at the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court later on Thursday. They believe his arrest will induce other victims to complain, which will bolster the case against him.
“They are willing to protect the community at the expense of the children,“ said a woman who claims she was abused by her father, a rabbi, and who asked to be identified only by her first name, Nanette. The woman’s father did not return repeated messages seeking comment.
She said that when she began discussing the accusations against her father, her rabbi said if she continued to speak about it publicly, no other Orthodox Jews would be willing to marry any of her siblings. She says her family refused to speak with her.
“My sister told me until I stop the slander, she can’t be my sister,“ she said.
“One of the things they say is when people speak out like this it causes desecration of God’s name,“ she said. “But the real desecration to God is that they are willing to protect the community at the expense of the children.“
"Bringing lawsuits against yeshivos would not even rate in the "top ten" if I were to compile a list of things I would recommend to keep today's children safe and to professionally treat the countless victims of abuse in our community."
Right on the money, again, is Rabbi Yosef Blau, Shlita.
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http://www.rabbihorowitz.com/PYes/ArticleDetails.cfm?Book_ID=1170&ThisGroup_ID=262&Type=Article&SID=2
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6. role of enablers 5/6/09 - 12:55 PM
Yosef Blau - New York, New York - yoblau@yu.edu
Your analysis of dealing with abuse ignores the critical role of enablers who allow the predators to continue to hurt new victims and keep the original survivors from coming foward. The only institutions that need to fear the Markey bill are those who have protected abusers. Even in family situations it is the silence of others that keep the children suffering.
The attempt to malign the motives of the supporters of the Marky bill is a classic technique to avoid dealing with its merits. I have personally participated in two programs with proponents of this bill and similar ones in other states and heard nothing to support the claim that the survivors and their supporters who spoke or attended the programs were motivated by animus to private or parochial schools. It is true that the Catholic priests who participated are angry with the church's hiearchy for decades of coverup. The lack of a single law suit after a major scandal in NCSY was because the survivors saw that the OU created an independent commission, accepted responsibility and made changes both in leadership and in procedures. The yeshiva in Brooklyn which is being sued supported the abuser for decades and still denies that any abuse occured.
Steve's comment on Rabbi Horowitz's blog tells it like it is.
Agroisen yasher koyach Steve!
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13. 5/6/09 - 4:08 PM
steve - brooklyn, ny
With all due respect, Rabbi, these words do not sound like yours at all. You have been a hero for those downtrodden survivors of sexual abuse, both through your firsthand dealings with them and through your extensive writings on the subject. You fulfilled the words of the navi Yeshaya, "Asheru Chamotz", strengthen the victims, more than any other Orthodox rabbi alive today. That is why I am so shocked and disillusioned by this article and by your position on the Markey bill. I don't think you realize that you are figuratively spitting in the face of these survivors. Instead of giving them strength, you are giving strength to the evil child molesters and to those that enabled them. Asheru Chamotz V'Lo Chometz, give strength to the victims and not to the perpetrators, is how the gemara explains the navi's words.
The argument about public school students not being included in the Markey Bill is the same nonsense being peddled by the Catholic Church, y'mach shemam v'zichram. As poster #1 pointed out, public school students already have legislation passed that protects them such as mandatory reporting, mandatory fingerprinting, and mandatory background checks. A child molester who has been accused once in a public school would be terminated and prosecuted immediately. What legal recourse do we have when one of our children is molested in a yeshiva? If the family comes forward at all, which is highly unlikely considering the stigma attached (shidduchim), what incentive does the yeshiva have to terminate him and turn him over? None. They will most likely deny the charges and muzzle the victim and his family. Rabbi Horowitz, the victims have been muzzled long enough. Furthermore, your assertion that the Markey Bill does not cover public school children is inaccurate. The window also permits victims of public entities to avoid the statute of limitations, because claims against public institutions brought under federal civil rights law (42 U.S.C. § 1983) are not subject to the 90-day notice of claim. (Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131.) Also, if two children are drowning, and you can only save one, would you let both of them drown in protest over the fact that you can't save both? Our children are drowning on a daily basis. We need to enact legislation now that will send a clear message to the molesters and enablers. In California, they were able to expose over three hundred child molesters due to the passage of a similar bill. Meanwhile, not one yeshiva or mossad was bankrupted.
To join forces and use the same rhetoric as the Catholic Church in an attempt to thwart this legislation is a Chillul Hashem. The Carholic Church has their reasons- they have plenty to cover up. We are not supposed to be like them. To quote the same perek in Yeshaya, Kisdom Hayeena K'Amora Daminu. Have we become like Sodom and Gemorrah where our sins have reached such a level that we need to emulate the Church and attempt a coverup? Do we need to continue to muzzle these victims that have been victimized over and over again? They have been victimized first by their molesters (usually multiple times), then by their menahel, then by the community and now by the unnamed rabbis who have once again formed an alliance with the Church. This is not the first time. They did it before when a mandatory reporting bill was introduced in Albany.
Your ideas of fighting this plague of child molestation are all well and good. We need to implement them immediately. However, without legislation and cooperation from the authorities. It is quite obvious by now that we cannot police ourselves. Our rabbis are overwhelmed and do not have the expertise in investigating these cases. Unless there is fear of repercussions to the molester and the institution, there will be no progress. You can hand out leaflets from today until tomorrow to every parent and student about safety and about "good touch and bad touch". The predators are not afraid of you. They are not afraid of leaflets. They are not afraid of any of us here. The only thing they fear is the law. As long as well intentioned people like yourself and the Agudah rabbis side with the Church to help muzzle the victims, you are handing the molesters a victory. You are strengthening them and encouraging them. You are giving them the chizuk their yetzer hara is looking for to continue their criminal behavior. Furthermore, as long as certain rabbis pervert halacha by misapplying the laws of mesira, lashon hara and archaos to cases of child sexual abuse, the molesters will continue to be emboldened. These Zaken Mamres must be stopped and put in their place. The halacha is clear in cases of a rodef that everything must be done to stop him and that includes going to the police. As far as archaot, as long as our batei dinim are powerless and refuse to hear the cases of these victims, they are positively allowed to seek recourse from the secular courts.
I will conclude my words by pleading with you to reconsider your position. Your tireless work on behalf of these victims should not be overshadowed by this apparent mental lapse. We are all human and we all make mistakes. Please have some consideration for these long suffering victims. Asheru Chamotz V'Lo Chometz!
http://www.rabbihorowitz.com/PYes/ArticleDetails.cfm?Book_ID=1170&ThisGroup_ID=262&Type=Article&SID=2
Kosher women’s shelter expanding as demand grows
By JANICE ARNOLD, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 07 May 2009
MONTREAL — Twenty years ago, Miriam Charron would never have dreamed that the women’s shelter of which she was founding president would still be in operation today.
But Auberge Shalom… pour femmes, a refuge for women and their dependent children from abusive relationships, is not only still around, its services continue to expand and it is looking for larger premises.
Auberge was established by the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and is the only shelter of its kind under Jewish auspices in Canada. Its planned move to a new home is the first in its history.
Conjugal violence was a taboo subject in the Montreal Jewish community when the NCJW began laying the groundwork for the non-profit Auberge Shalom 25 years ago.
The murder by her husband of a Jewish woman, Donna Kertzer Rose, in suburban Dollard des Ormeaux, in 1984 shook the community out of its complacency and spurred the NCJW to action.
The NCJW’s first task was convincing Jewish community leaders and rabbis that this was an issue that affected Jews as much as the general population, said Charron, who remains on the shelter’s board. With testimonials from social workers and doctors on its prevalence, the matter could no longer be ignored.
After five years of fundraising and negotiations with the Quebec government for support, Auberge Shalom opened in 1989 in the west end, in a converted duplex donated by businessman Leonard Ellen.
Auberge Shalom is kosher and follows Jewish observances, but it has been open to all women from day one.
Over the years, an average of close to 18 per cent of clients occupying its 12 beds has been Jewish. In 2008, a quarter of the women living-in were Jewish.
The occupancy rate has ranged from 70 to 100 per cent over years. Last year, the shelter was above capacity.
Women can stay up to three months, at no charge. There is a 24-hour staff, with a corps of volunteers –women and men – who accompany clients to court or other appointments or babysit the kids.
“But this is not a hotel – the women have to take the first steps toward helping themselves. Otherwise, they can’t stay,” said Diane Sasson, executive director for the past 14 years.
Since 2002, Auberge Shalom has also had an off-site counselling centre for women who prefer not to stay in a shelter. Last year, 37 per cent of those using this service were Jewish.
Jewish women tend to be more reluctant to stay in a shelter, especially one under community auspices, perhaps because they fear being found out, Sasson said. But Auberge Shalom’s location and services are strictly confidential.
When it first opened, Auberge Shalom only accepted women who were in physical danger, but over the years the criteria have been expanded to include psychological and economic hardship at the hands of their husbands or partners.
In addition to its direct services to women affected, Auberge Shalom has worked tirelessly to raise the public’s awareness of conjugal violence, sponsored programs aimed at prevention and advocated for the rights of victims.
Charron will be honoured at a 20th anniversary fundraising breakfast May 21 at the Just for Laughs Loft, a venue that demonstrates that the Auberge’s leaders have not lost their sense of humour despite the bleakness of the work they do. The guest speaker is lawyer Adelia Ferreira, who has long experience in domestic violence cases.
So far, an angel like Ellen has not been found to provide the Auberge with a new home, said Sasson. They are looking for somewhere that will be convenient to the Jewish community but still be kept confidential.
Despite the thousands of people who have passed through Auberge Shalom over the years, whether clients, staff, volunteers or service providers, its whereabouts have remained generally unknown. There have only been two or three incidents when a spouse has turned up, and they have ended peacefully.
The number of beds may not be increased at the new place, but more space is needed for offices and the auxiliary services the Auberge provides, such as a legal clinic and children’s programs. This expansion has been made possible by increased government funding, which now covers two-thirds of the budget.
The rest is raised privately. No money is received or requested from Federation CJA, Sasson said.
Sasson and Charron see a greater acceptance in the community that domestic abuse is a fact and must be tackled head-on, but talking about it is another thing.
“This is still a very private issue, it’s not named easily,” Sasson said. “Even among those who are victims, there is a reluctance to associate what they are experiencing with spousal abuse. They don’t want to admit they are victims. It is still quite shameful, but less so.”
Progress has been made in reaching out to the insular haredi communities, which are traditionally wary of going outside their milieu for help. Auberge Shalom has a special program with its own counsellor for haredi women.
Auberge Shalom was actually a trail-blazer not only in the Jewish community, but also in Quebec. Until 1986, spousal violence was seen as a “private affair” and police were not obliged to press charges, Sasson pointed out. Women’s shelters were few when Auberge opened.
Today, it is one of about 20 women’s shelters in the Montreal area, but only one of two in the west end.
Women wanting to come to the shelter must be referred by social services or police or conjugal violence hot-lines, or at least call first.
The philosophy of Auberge Shalom is not to counsel women to leave abusive spouses, but to give them the guidance and information that will enable them to make their own choice about their future. “Too many of these women have had someone else – their family, their partner, professionals – make decisions for them all their lives,” Sasson said.
Sasson joined Auberge Shalom without a social work or counselling background. Her interest was in women’s and human rights.
“I see so much courage and strength in these women that it’s really an honour to work with them. And quite motivating.”
For tickets to the Auberge Shalom 20th anniversary breakfast, phone 731-0833.
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Clergy Abuse Lawyers in New York and California
When you have survived sexual abuse at the hands of a member of the Catholic clergy, you deserve to get justice for the suffering, humiliation, shame and other emotions that often accompany these types of abuse cases. With the help of an experienced clergy abuse attorney, you can get the help that you need when you have survived such an ordeal.
Just like with any other type of sexual abuse, clergy abuse can leave a lasting impression on your life in many ways. Often, individuals who have suffered sex abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest have troubles in other areas of their lives. This has been shown to be the truth in countless cases across the United States and other countries. If you or a loved one has been abused by a priest, please don't hesitate to contact the Zalkin Law Firm.
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If you or a loved one has been the victim of sexual abuse, the results can be emotionally scarring and life-changing. As one of the leading nationwide sexual abuse firms, our attorneys have a complete and thorough understanding of the legal process that a survivor will have to tackle to recover damages for the physical and mental effects of sexual abuse. The attorneys at the Zalkin Law Firm have the utmost respect for survivors of abuse and they will use every piece of ammunition in their vast legal arsenal to help you achieve a satisfactory outcome in your case.
If you are a survivor of sexual abuse or clergy abuse, there is no better ally than an aggressive and experienced attorney with your best interests at heart. With years of success in sexual abuse and clergy abuse cases, the lawyers at the Zalkin Law Firm can offer you peace of mind in your suit. Areas of practice include:
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Jewish leaders are praising the move to drop criminal charges against two former AIPAC officials, but say serious questions must be answered about why Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman were targeted for investigation in the first place.
“I’m relieved and happy” for Rosen and Weissman and “happy for the community,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations, but “I think there are a lot of questions that need to be addressed.”
May 8, 2009
Ramapo yeshiva offers neighbors apology for cow slaughter
Jane Lerner
jlerner@lohud.com
RAMAPO - The operators of a yeshiva where a cow was slaughtered in the backyard earlier this week have written a letter apologizing to neighbors for the incident and promising that it will never happen again.
"The unfortunate incident that took place on Monday evening on our school property was totally not within parameters of our school charter or mission purpose," states the letter signed by Rabbi Gershon Bornfreund, administrator of the Bobover Yeshiva of Monsey. "Ritual animal slaughter is beyond the scope of elementary school education."
In an interview yesterday, Bornfreund said that the person who killed the cow was studying to be come a ritual slaughterer and got permission from someone affiliated with the school who was not authorized to give the OK.
"There aren't even words to say how sorry we are," Bornfreund said.
Neighbors said yesterday that the letter was hand-delivered Wednesday evening to people who live near the school at 609 Route 306, bordering the villages of Pomona and Wesley Hills.
Part of it reads: "As your neighbors and as upright citizens, and as Orthodox Jews we know that we must treat others with the respect and sensitivity that they are due. Again, we deeply apologize for causing any aggravation and we truly ask for your understanding and acceptance."
Neighbors were skeptical.
"It's better than nothing," Rodney Wechsler, who lives next door to the school, said of the letter. "It was obviously written by a lawyer to cover them."
His wife and 3-year-old son looked out of their kitchen window Monday evening and saw men with knives slaughtering then decapitating the brown and white spotted cow.
The yeshiva, in a Colonial-style house in a largely residential area that town officials maintain is being illegally used as a school, will go before the town's Zoning Board next week to seek variances to allow the construction of a building on the property to serve 250 students. The 2-acre site also has a nursery school.
Neighbors said they fear that the cow incident is another in a long list of violations on the part of the yeshiva.
The Bobover Yeshiva moved to the property in 2006 and began using it as a school without town or Department of Health approval.
"From the day they moved in and opened an illegal school, there's been nothing but trouble," said neighbor Carol Friedman. "Why can't they follow the law like everyone else?"
Bornfreund said the school has tried to be a good neighbor and even delivered baskets filled with candy to some neighbors before the Jewish holiday of Purim.
"We want to get along with the community," he said. "We want to have a good relationship with our neighbors."
He said that the school is working hard to make sure that its expansion plans will provide enough of a buffer so that neighbors are not bothered.
The yeshiva is also working to make sure that all safety and zoning issues are addressed.
The yeshiva was fined $2,000 in February by the Rockland County Board of Health for operating a school without getting a permit for a public water supply. That violation has not yet been corrected and the fine has not been paid, health officials said.
Additional Facts
If you go
What: Bobover Yeshiva will appear before the Ramapo Zoning Board of Appeals.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Ramapo Town Hall, 237 Route 59, Airmont
Another kind of abuse worth noting is emotional abuse. It is the mental tension one must endure from the Rebbe or teacher who conforms to what is known as "frumkeit syndrome."
Their terrible conduct is just as lethal as a knife through someones heart.
Take for instance the unconscionable sin of which one "Rebbe" did to a child. He called him a "shaygatz" in front of the whole class for having "long hair."
He repeatedly mocked him for it. How do you think this boy felt? Horrible, of course!
This resulted in this child getting teased mercilessly and beat up by classmates.
When "shaygetz" complained to the "Rebbe", his response was - so - when are you going to cut your hair already?
This kid ended up "off the derech."
That's just one of hundreds of similar experiences.
School is where child spends most of his time (more than home). The mechanchim better stop with labeling students just because they are not as "frum" as you'd like them to be.
Reality check:
The "Rabbi" who kills a child on the inside, ain lo chelek leolam abah, and surely they will be punished severely in the days to come.
NY rabbi gets 30 years for child molestation
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York rabbi convicted of molesting his daughter has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Monsey rabbi Israel Weingarten was found guilty in March of abusing his daughter through much of her childhood.
The trial was traumatic for his victim, now 27. Weingarten acted as his own attorney and put his daughter through a grueling cross examination.
Federal Judge John Gleeson told Weingarten on Friday that his behavior during the trial had made his crime even worse, saying "You seemed to enjoy yourself in a perverse sort of way."
The judge said he would never forget the woman's pain.
Rabbi Sentenced To 30 Years For Molesting Daughter
Posted on Saturday, 9 of May , 2009 at 7:21 pm
BROOKLYN—A Hasidic rabbi, convicted by a federal jury of molesting his daughter over a seven year period, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Israel Weingarten, 59, of Monsey, who represented himself at trial, was found guilty in March of five counts of transporting his daughter in foreign commerce for the purpose of sexually abusing her during the spring and summer of 1997.
The convictions followed a week-long trial. Weingarten could have received up to 50 years’ in prison.
Weingarten’s daughter is now 27. She is one of seven Weingarten children. Her six siblings, ages 13 to 23, support their father. She testified that she had been molested by her father while living with her family in Hasidic communities in Belgium, Israel and New York.
Weingarten claimed that he had been falsely accused by a daughter who had rebelled against a strict upbringing.
The young woman had testified that she had come forward with the charges against her father at the urging of her mother who was battling Weingarten in a custody dispute. She said she had tried to forget everything that had happened to her as her father had warned her that would never be able to prove that he had molested her.
In 2003, she told the FBI that she had been molested since the age of 9. 5-09-09
http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-TEMPEST-IN-TEMPLE_05-10-09_2EE2FEF_v12.1148be6.html
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Books: ‘Tempest in the Temple’ looks at Jewish leaders and child sex scandals
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 10, 2009
By Anne Grant
Special to The Journal
For decades, while victims of child sex abuse fought Roman Catholic bishops in New England, dozens more in Brooklyn, N.Y., met a wall of resistance from District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes and the informal council of Orthodox Jewish leaders who assured Hynes’ long tenure in office. Jewish victims feared reprisals against their families in Orthodox communities even after five non-Jews, beginning with an Italian-American boy, persuaded a grand jury to indict a charming yeshiva administrator, child therapist, and rabbi, Avrohom Mondrowitz.
The New York Times gave the story a few lines in 1984, when Mondrowitz, charged with sex crimes against children, disappeared. The Times reported nothing further for 23 years. This book skillfully gathers the voices of those who struggled against official silence to speak truth and demand justice in this case and others.
The editor, sociologist Amy Neustein, has midwifed an endangered subject matter to safety in the Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, & Life. She dedicates the book to the memory of her father, an Orthodox rabbi.
Among the startling histories recounted is the case against Rabbi Solomon Hafner in 2000, when a Yiddish-language newspaper in Brooklyn published a full-page notice signed by 50 prominent rabbis. They reminded readers of the “severe prohibition” against informing non-Jewish authorities against another Jew. This included reporting child abuse to police. The ad warned in religious Hebrew that such a mitzvah [positive commandment] entitled any Jew to kill the informer.
Mitzvahs like this defended against Czarist goons and Nazi storm troopers. But what if a rabbi sets up a fraudulent yeshiva to scam Pell grants? If secular authorities and media pursue these crimes, will they be smeared as anti-Semites? What if authorities allow Jewish leaders to assault Jewish children with impunity? How will modern ethicists parse the caveats of the people who gave us the Ten Commandments?
Neustein’s fascinating collection includes perspectives from rabbis, lawyers, psychotherapists, social workers, and educators who seek to empower children against predators. One chapter tells the parallel history of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
“In a place where no one will take responsibility,” advised the sage Hillel, “try to be responsible.” Attorney Michael Lesher pursued Mondrowitz to Israel, where authorities arrested the rabbi in 2007. If the Israeli Supreme Court denies his appeal, the prisoner will return to Brooklyn to face his accusers. This book helps us begin the discussions we have resisted too long.
grant275@cox.net
The Rubashkin Rorschach Test
By Avi Shafran
‘Rubashkin,” to me, conjures blackness. No, not as in clothing. As in a Rorschach blot. As a screen onto which people have projected their feelings about Jews, especially Orthodox ones.
A prosecutor and a judge denied former Agriprocessors plant manager Sholom Rubashkin bail in part because, like all Jews, he qualifies for automatic citizenship in Israel. Yes, what you smell is a whiff of the old “dual loyalty” stench.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, the Forward reporter who spearheaded the Postville story described the Agriprocessors plant as a place where “Bearded, Orthodox rabbis… buzzed around,” ensuring adherence only to ritual laws and not values. The Orthodox Jew is painted as narrow-minded.
Non-Orthodox rabbis, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and others all eagerly shared their own dark visions of Agriprocessors.
Accusations were accepted as facts, revealing more about the critics than about their target.
So the lessons are not new ones: Jews, to many, are invidious. And the Orthodox have become the Jews’ Jews.
Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.
Plenty of people go off the path because of the "jew" who behaves worse than most goyim. The "jew" who steals and cons from others. The "jew" who withholds workers wages and schemes the government and taxpayers. The "jew" who acts with malicious intent and acts all pious on the outside. That "jew" is a fraud! That "jew" will suffer in the end.
Sexual Abuse: Sequoia's Story
By Migdalia Roman, 18, Staff Writer
Originally Published: Apr 18, 2002
Revised: Apr 18, 2007
My friend Sequoia Banfield is a survivor of sexual abuse. Sequoia, who's 19 and lives in New Jersey, agreed to share her story with me. "I don't mind talking about what happened to me now, especially if it helps another person," she says.
Sequoia (left) and Migdalia, fall 2002
It all started around July 1996, when I was 13. My mother, who is deaf and a single mother of three, worked full time. On days off, she tried to spend time with her kids, but socialize, too. So, she'd take us to the Saturday deaf festivals at Six Flags Great Adventure. It was a great place for my mother to relax … but it eventually turned into the gates of hell for me.
One Saturday, my mother recognized an old high-school friend, Sara, and they talked. Sara told my mother that she and her husband, Anthony, lived nearby and that she was looking for work. At that time, my mother needed a baby-sitter for me and my sister, who was 12.
A week later, Sara, who was 38, and Anthony, who was 39, came to visit us. When they walked in the door, my sister and I thought they were a very affectionate couple and Wow, he's big!
Before they left, Sara and Anthony gave us a hug. Anthony held me so tight, and I thought that was weird, because he had just met me. But I let it go, thinking that he was just an affectionate person.
Sara and Anthony started visiting every week, and we felt more and more comfortable with them. Soon my mother trusted them. She trusted them so much that she asked Sara to baby-sit us after school and on some weekends, at her home, when my mom was working.
A Secret
On one weekend visit, Sara left us in the house with Anthony, so she could run to the store. I was in the guest bedroom, on the computer, and my sister was in the living room, watching TV.
Anthony came into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. He stood behind me and started to rub my neckline. It made me feel very uncomfortable, because he was rubbing my neck hard and breathing hard. I asked him, "Could you stop? Because it hurts me," and he said, "OK."
Then he sat on the bed next to my chair and stared at me. I ignored him, hoping he'd just leave. Then he asked me to sit next to him on the bed. I didn't want to, but I did, because I obeyed my elders.
As I sat next to him, I felt really weird. He smiled at me and took my left hand and placed it over his pants and on his genitals. I tried to pull my hand away, but he pulled it back and placed it on the same spot.
Maybe the typical person would've jumped up and run, but I was too scared. I didn't know what to do. When he placed my hand on his genitals again, I looked in the opposite direction and held my hand in a tight fist. I tried to resist.
The incident lasted about four minutes.
At the end, Anthony said, "You have to keep this a secret, just between me and you."
I just looked at him with an expression of confusion and disgust.
Not a Word
That night I went home filled with anger. At first, I was extra quiet, so quiet that my mother kept asking me what was wrong. I was usually a chatterbox, so something had to be wrong if I wasn't talking.
After she asked me for the fourth time, I blew up at her. I told her to leave me alone. I was so upset that I didn't even realize my little sister was acting differently, too.
We were scheduled to sleep over at Sara and Anthony's the next Saturday. I really wanted to do something before then.
Finally late that night, I woke up my sister and told her what happened. She broke down, cried, and blurted out that he did almost the same thing to her—except that he touched her. The feeling I had was indescribable—I wanted to hurt him. But we decided to keep quiet; we just thought that no one would believe us.
The Saturday that I never wanted to come, came. But Anthony didn't do anything. I was so relieved. I thought: It's over! I can finally move on!
A Threat
But I guess Anthony just wanted to take a break, because the week after that, he went back to what he did. This time it was worse.
My mother was out of town. Sara and Anthony were baby-sitters for the evening. My sister and I slept together in the guest room, hoping he'd be too scared to try something with the both of us there.
At two in the morning, I awoke to the feeling of warm skin pressed against my thighs. I sat up and there was Anthony, with his pants down and both of his hands on my thighs.
All at once, I looked to see where my sister was, if the door to the bedroom was open, and if I had a chance to escape. My sister was there, but asleep; the door was closed; and Anthony was practically on top of me.
I started to cry, and he put his hands over my mouth. Then he fondled my vagina and fondled himself in front of me.
The next morning, his exact words were, "You have to keep this between you and me. If I find out that you or your sister told anyone, I will call DYFS [Division of Youth and Family Services] and tell them your mother is neglecting you, and then they will give you to me."
At first I thought he'd never get away with it, because my mother took great care of us. But then I thought about how convincing he was; I felt like he could manipulate the system.
Silence Broken
Anthony sexually abused my sister and me for eight more months. We were badly affected by it. We lost our appetites; our grades took a downward plunge. We detached ourselves from friends, and our emotions went haywire.
Then one day, we couldn't hold it in anymore.
My sister and I told my mother and her boyfriend. At first, she was in shock. But when she saw us cry, trying to blurt out how we felt, she started to cry.
"Oh, my babies," she said. "I'm so sorry; I'm so sorry … did he hurt you? What did he do? How long did he do it? My god, why didn't you tell me?!"
My mother's boyfriend just hugged us and said, "It's going to be OK."
Sequoia: "I never let what
happened hold me back."
Two Survivors
After confronting Anthony at his house, my mother filed a complaint with the police, and he was arrested. Then we went though two years of court hearings. We found out that my sister and I weren't the only victims. And he went to jail for what he did to us.
Telling was definitely worth it. We didn't deserve to be hurt; what we deserved was our childhood. Today I live with the fact that I was sexually abused. But I never let what happened hold me back from my happiness, my priorities, and my life.
Editors' Note: If you're a male or female victim of sexual abuse or another form of sexual assault, you can get help. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
This is great news. When will the rest of these abusers receive their fair share of justice, namely, ("Rabbis") Moshe Reichman, Yehuda Nussbaum, Abe Mondrowitz, Efraim Byrks, A.M. Lazerowitz - and all those who continue to harbor and protect these frauds.
Plague among R. Akiva's Disciples Ends (circa 120 CE)
In the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, a plague decimated 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva--a result, says the Talmud, of the fact that they "did not respect one another." The plague's cessation on Iyar 18--the 33rd day of the Omer Count or "Lag BaOmer"--is one of the reasons that the day is celebrated each year (see "Laws and Customs" below).
Links: Rabbi Akiva
Passing of R. Shimon bar Yochai (2nd century CE) More
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ("Rashbi"), was a leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva and one of the most important tana'im whose teachings of Torah law are collected in the Mishnah. He was also the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the "Kabbalah", and is the author of the basic work of Kabbalah, the Zohar. For 13 years Rabbi Shimon hid in a cave to escape the wrath of the Romans whose government he criticized. On the day of his passing--Iyar 18, the 33rd day of the Omer Count--Rabbi Shimon gathered his disciples and revealed many of the deepest secrets of the divine wisdom, and instructed them to mark the date as "the day of my joy."
Links: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
Passing of Rama (1573?) More
Rabbi Moshe Isereles ("Rama") of Cracow (1525-1573?) authored the glosses ("hagga'ot") on R. Yosef Caro's the Code of Jewish Law and is regarded as the definitive Halachic authority for Ashkenazic Jews.
Links: Rabbi Moshe Isserlis
Ettingen Jews Acquitted (1690) More
Following a blood libel and the decree, if found guilty, to destroy the synagogue of Ettingen, Switzerland, the Jews were acquitted. The local Jews celebrated this day as a local "Purim" celebration-day of thanksgiving.
Links: The Other Purims
IDF Created (1948) More
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was created on Lag BaOmer of 1948. The IDF comprises the Israeli army, Israeli air force and Israeli navy. It was formed to defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Israel and combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily lives of its inhabitants.
Links: Israel Defense Force (IDF)
Hurva Synagogue Destroyed (1948) More
The Hurva synagogue located, in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was captured and dynamited by the Arab Legion of Jordan during the battle for Old Jerusalem in 1948.
The synagogue was built by the group of disciples of Rabbi Elijah (the "Vilna Gaon") who immigrated from Lithuania in 1864. The synagogue was built on the ruins of the synagogue built by Rabbi Judah Chassid (Segal) and his disciples in 1700, which was destroyed by Arab mobs in 1721. It was therefore named the "Hurvat Rabbi Judah HaChassid" -- the ruins of Rabbi Judah the Chassid, or simply "The Hurva" -- The Ruin.
Laws and Customs Open All
Lag BaOmer More
Lag BaOmer (the 33rd day of the Omer count) celebrates the end of the plague amongst Rabbi Akiva's students, and the ascent on high of the soul of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (see "Today in Jewish History"). The mourning practices of the Omer period are suspended, which is why many three-year-old boys receive their first haircut on this day. Many visit the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron in northern Israel. It is customary to go on outings and to light bonfires; children play with bow-and-arrows to recall that "during the lifetime of Rabbi Shimon the rainbow (--a sign of the world's unworthiness, as per Genesis 9:14) was not seen."
The Lubavitcher Rebbe initiated the organization of parades of Jewish unity and pride on Lag BaOmer and on a number of occasions (in 1953, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1987 and 1990) he addressed the parade held near his headquarters in Brooklyn in which thousands of Jewish children and their teachers participated.
Links: Lag BaOmer: The Mystic Dimension
Count "Thirty-Four Days to the Omer" Tonight More
Tomorrow is the thirty-fourth day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is thirty-four days, which are four weeks and six days, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Tonight's Sefirah: Yesod sheb'Hod -- "Connection in Humility"
The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
Links:
How to count the Omer
The deeper significance of the Omer Count
Cambridge —
Many, if not most, of my Catholic friends have adult children whom they raised in the Catholic faith but who no longer profess themselves Catholic.
Among these middle-aged or older parents, this fact often provokes discussion. They wonder how this happened, how their children’s strong Catholic upbringing did not “take.” Sometimes, they confess to being unhappy at this outcome.
Though I have not heard parents of other faiths talk about this subject, they may feel the same way. Observant parents — Protestants, Jewish or Muslim — are unlikely to feel indifferent when their children reject the religion in which they grew up.
Many of these people probably do not realize that, for Americans, leaving their religion is a widespread tendency. In a poll published this year, the Pew Trust finds that “about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.”
In the study, Pew discloses the reasons why Americans change religions or give up on religion altogether. Some of these findings challenge views that were long familiar to me and to many other people.
Continued...
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/lifestyle/columnists/x1393570858/Griffin-A-study-on-why-people-abandon-their-religion
Pope's Holocaust speech offered no empathy - rabbi
Israel's Holocaust memorial chairman expressed disappointment at a speech by Pope Benedict on Monday in which he strove to repair relations between Jews and the Catholic Church, damaged by a Holocaust-denying bishop.
"There certainly was no apology expressed here," Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, chairman of the Yad Vashem council, told Israeli television on the first day of the papal visit.
The German-born pope made a moving speech, he said, but added: "Something was missing. There was no mention of the Germans or the Nazis who participated in the butchery, nor a word of regret."
Nor was there an "expression of empathy with the sorrow."
Lau also criticised the pope for not specifically saying six million Jews were killed -- though Pope Benedict did use this figure earlier in the day during another speech.
The pope is a schmuck. Obama sucks. Agudah are all frauds. We are doomed!
“My sister told me until I stop the slander, she can’t be my sister,“ she said. -------------------------------
Yes - your sister was correct. Who are you to slander your father? Incest happens and you should get over it. Your siblings will never find a shidduch because of you.
I will not hesitate to hand out a hazmanah to you if you don't take my advice. Loshan Horah and Chillul Hashem will not be tolerated.
Postville struggling to find its way one year after raid
By RICHARD MIAL / rmial@lacrossetribune.com
Jonathan Then and I share the same taste in boys. I don't think he will be as lucky as to get no jail time like myself. He needs DA Hynes - not the alter pisher from Manhattan.
*
A Hunter College student studying to be a teacher is due back in court next week after being arraigned on charges he sexually abused children in Manhattan.
Jonathan Then, 20, pleaded not guilty to felony assault and sex abuse charges Friday.
The Manhattan District Attorney said Then abused three boys between the ages of eight and 10 while babysitting on the Upper East Side.
Then pleaded not guilty last month to sexually abusing an eight-year-old boy in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said they found evidence of child pornography on Then's computer.
They said Then worked as a live-in nanny and babysitter for at least 20 families in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, and also volunteered in elementary and private schools and worked at several camps.
Prosecutors said Then advertised babysitting services on the Internet.
Officials of one the websites where he advertised, Sittercity.com, posted a message saying they are saddened to hear about the case and are working with authorities.
As of late Saturday, Then's defense attorney had not commented on the case.
Prosecutors are asking anyone with information to call their family violence and child abuse hotline at 1-212-335-4308.
A controversial play that attracted sold-out audiences at Israel's national theater for five years comes to the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center's Jewish Cultural Arts Theatre this month.
Women's Minyan, which premiered in 2002 at Israel's National Theatre, Habima, is based on the true story of an ultra-orthodox rabbi's wife who was forced to abandon her husband and 12 children due to physical abuse and his infidelity.
The play written by best-selling author Naomi Ragen, runs through May 24.
Michael Andron, who is directing the JCC's production, reached out to Ragen several months ago. The playwright, who lives in Israel, made it possible for Andron to speak to the woman who inspired the role of Chana, the protagonist of Women's Minyan.
''It's a very universal story,'' said Andron, who said the real-life Chana, who prefers to be known only by her first name, Rachel, will attend performances on Sunday and Wednesday. Both of those dates have been sold out.
A minyan is a religious term for a 10-man quorum required for communal prayers. The play's ironic title refers to the 10 women, most from Chana's own family, who agree to listen to her sad story -- and judge whether she has a right to see her own children.
Most members of the all-female cast have worked with Andron before -- including attending classes he taught at nearby Hillel Community Theatre. He and wife Lillian, who also appears in the play, directed plays at the community theater for about 20 years. Andron became artistic director of the JCC's Cultural Arts Theatre two years ago -- and has worked to upgrade costumes, set design, lighting and sound.
''The impact that he's had with this program on these children is incredible,'' said Denise Tamir, a program co-chair. Tamir's daughter, Arielle, 17, plays one of Chana's children.
Both Arielle and her sister, Danielle Tamir, 21, studied with the Androns at Hillel from grade school to high school. Danielle is currently studying theater at Northwestern University. Arielle plans to study theater at Emory University next year.
Students from 14 local schools participate in the program, which offers acting classes and produces plays for all age groups, said Denise Tamir.
The program has added the Stafman Lounge black box theater in recent years. The theater was funded through sources such as Hillel, JCC student alumni, relatives of drama students and theater attendees. Tamir said the organization raised $100,0000 in two months.
''People knew the value of what Michael did,'' Tamir said. 'So it was a fairly easy sell to say, `Listen we want to expand that program, we want to broaden it, we want to make it available to so many more kids.' ''
Following performances of Women's Minyan, Jewish Community Service's Shalom Bayit will hold a question-and-answer session on domestic abuse issues.
Shalom Bayit and the Greater Miami Section of the National Council of Jewish Women together granted $5,000 to the Jewish Cultural Arts Theatre to help sponsor the production.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/aventura/story/1043689.html
This is a courageous boycott. Underwear displays can cause somebody to get aroused and that is a sin of itself.
*
Rabbi Threatens Stores' Kosher Status Over Scantily Clad Models
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A rabbi is calling for the boycott of stores that use mannequins dressed in bathing suits, underwear and other scantily clad outfits, saying it damages a person's soul, AFP reported.
Rabbi Rafael Cohen in the Israeli city of Tiberias, also called for the mannequins, as well as "obscene photographs," to be taken down and threatened that stores who failed to comply would lose their kosher certification.
He said the mannequins "elicit sorrow among the passers-by on the road."
"Modest" mannequins, Cohen said, are all right. "But there are mannequins that are really revolting, mannequins in bathing suits that damage our souls," AFP reported.
Pope Pays Homage to Holocaust Victims in Israel
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15779/News/New_York.html
The Orthodox Union says 135 existing schools in North America are in discussions about creating new, discount full-time Jewish education for $6,500 per year, or less than half the current average of $15,000.
Dis peersen who rite dis is a fen of mines. Bloggers cuas me diareah and asach tzuraehs.
-----------------------------------
http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2009/05/abuses-by-clergy-a-note-of-skepticism.html
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Please understand, I'm not denying that massive widespread abuses have been committed by clergy of various faiths and denominations. Given the power that comes with their jobs, and given the corrosive effects of secular culture with its cynical influence, it's not so shocking that some clerics would abuse what power they still have over their flocks.
At the same time, a note of caution and skepticism is in order. The case of alleged misconduct by a cleric with which I'm most familiar -- not sexual in nature -- is absolutely shot through with lies and libels against an innocent man. I know this can happen. I've seen how people can be eager, sickeningly so, to believe the worst on the strength of mere rumors. I also know that in this Internet age, standards of reporting are shockingly low, even when the stakes include ruining lives.
It casts no aspersion on victims and their truthfulness to say that there exists a significant public eager, slavering, to hear accounts of abuse.
There are websites that specialize in this -- drooling for stories in which rabbis, for example, are shown to be liars, hypocrites and abusers. Anonymous accusations are welcome and believed without further investigation. I know the Jewish sites of this kind best. They are egregious.
There really is tremendous wickedness out there, but it's not only from abusive clerics.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2009/05/abuses-by-clergy-a-note-of-skepticism.html
I wanted to respond to a few points.
There are websites that specialize in this --
A review of more than 2000 such sites shows a common theme found in the vast majority of these sites - they get put up as a last resort as they have generally exhausted other avenues with little result and less direct response - this occurs across the range of religions - by the time someone turns to putting their story on the Internet they are angry and frustrated due to the lack of response and the lack of justice and an adherence to both the principals of human rights and the teachings of whichever religious group. These sites do speak very loudly of horror as unfortunately the only way to speak of horrors such as these is to speak of the horrors hey have experienced. In short this can be described as a lack of communication between the victim and his church/religion. A visit to some of these sites will show this theme on a repeated basis. Finding someone within church/religions who have the qualifications/experience to talk and discuss their issues is the prime cause - victims repeatedly account their experiences of attempting to establish some form of communication - when a human response is almost entirely deficient from the church/religious bodies and the only avenue of contact made available is via a legal process which has been stacked against them due to this aspect being a result of the prolonged cover-up of sex abuse by church/religious and in particular the Catholic church. Until there is a human needs based door opened by church/religious where abuses have occurred I imagine the numbers of these sites will continue to grow - our observations tell us that they doubled in number in just over 10 months.
In regards the numbers of false claims including false memory or repressed memory claims - combined these amount to approx. 1.4% of all claims made and victims once again repeatedly point this out only to hear from those afraid that their church is being ripped off by the majority of claimants when in fact based on the facts that is not the case.
Feeling appropriately sickened is not really an appropriate response. When something can sicken a person to the degree these victims have been feeling sickened and failing to become active in repairing or finding avenues which will permit church/religious responses to the victims of sexual abuse to be both humane and moral - that simply is not happening - that aspect often causes further severe harm to victims and causes them such outrage that they feel the world should hear of the original abuses and the subsequent abuses found in their attempting to reconcile with what after all has been their abuser.
There are religious out there trying to help in the right way, I have spoken to a number and they too have some similar laments in that through their own processes the crimes and the needs appear to become minimized and lost within their own ranks. Those are the men I feel for as they try in vain to assist victims and to educate their hierarchy into appropriate ways to deal with these matters.
Spreading and acting on rumors is wrong. But urging those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to come forward, speak up, and get help is crucial if we are to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.
Religious figures and institutions have considerable power and can be intimidating. When an adult is raped by a pastor or a child is molested by a rabbi, we have two choices. We can passively sit back and do nothing. Or we can reach out to those suffering in silence, shame and self-blame. We choose the latter course.
David Clohessy
National Director, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
St. Louis MO
314 566 9790
SNAPnetwork.org
By: Olivia Wiznitzer & Estee Goldschmidt
Posted: 5/5/09
The Observer: Could you please explain who you are and what you do (aside from your activism regarding sexual abuse), your role as Mashgiach Ruchani, etc- basically so everyone has some idea of who you are at the university.
Rabbi Yosef Blau: You know what my title is [Mashgiach Ruchani: Spiritual Advisor]: how it plays out in Yeshiva is a good question. I do a lot of different things at Yeshiva. There's a traditional role of Mashgiach which I try to fulfill which involves periodically giving public talks and also being available and working on issues with students, religious or not, which are on their mind. This is the role I have played in Yeshiva over the years. Every situation evolves in its own way and one of the things it evolves into is because of my nature and my interest, I've become somewhat of a bridge between the Yeshiva and the College. And therefore there are issues that are brought to my attention, heated questions of when students don't know if they can take certain courses or don't know how to explain their religious concerns to a professor or vice versa where a professor doesn't understand where their students are coming from and needs someone to explain to the professor what our culture consists of, what the issues and concerns that a student has. In its most recent form, this has involved my literally giving tours to various people to the Beis Midrash to expose them to what we do since many of them have no idea as to what our students do in the morning. Obviously there are secular faculty who know of this, but for those who don't, you need someone to help explain. You could say this should go both ways, but once again, the Roshei Yeshiva have been to Yeshiva College themselves. I do a lot of things in between; I do a lot of different things representing and trying to be the glue in two parts of the institution to get it working well together. Whether that's the formal role of Mashigach: not necessarily. It happens to fit me, so I do it.
The Observer: How did you get so involved in issues of child abuse in the Orthodox community?
Rabbi Blau: In life we do not choose the things to involve ourselves in. God runs the world in a way that we get caught into and exposed to certain things. I was first involved because of small issues, ands later became aware of problematic individuals within the orthodox community. I was one of the judges in the beis din [court of Jewish law] of the Lanner case, which consisted of wonderful people who wanted to carry out a fair judgment. However, circumstances were awkward.
The system that we had until now was not able to deal with the problem of child abuse. I felt guilty before the people who came forward and brought testimony, therefore I took on the responsibility to prevent people from being hurt in the future.
The Observer: What exactly does your activism entail? Do you speak often about the subject of sexual abuse, meet with victims, have you joined an organization- in what way do you consider yourself an activist regarding sexual abuse?
Rabbi Blau: I try in general to separate this from what I do in Yeshiva so that much of the stuff that I do is more individualized. There are people who contact me about personal issues and concerns and I try to be responsive and helpful to them rather than activist in the sense of running organizations and the like. Now periodically I do participate in different things. There is now a Jewish Board for Children, so I have agreed to be on the Rabbinic Advisory Board. I keep this relatively low profile because my major responsibility is to do the job I do, and if I spend too much time in other areas then it would be taking away from the work I should be doing and the work they pay me to do. And therefore I try not to get involved too often. The context at which I spoke at Stern is that there was a Shabbaton where they asked me to speak and it was an appropriate forum. It happens to be a particularly appropriate time because there is 1) Legislation coming up in the state of New York 2) the Orthodox community has become much more aware of this problem in recent times and it is much more on people's agenda than it was in years ago.
The Observer: What were some of the things you learned from your involvement?
Rabbi Blau: I have been disillusioned in the following three areas:
Jews, respected in the community, who are extremely smart, talented and capable-can never the less have abusive personalities and can harm children.
I also learned that in general people do not change. Abusing children is not a sickness that vanishes after six months of therapy.
Despite the fact that it is unpleasant to hand matters over to secular authorities, I have realized that our community is simply not equipped well enough to deal with issues of abuse. We cannot investigate properly, and we cannot take measures strong enough to protect children from potential abuse.
The Observer: Can you provide us with a practical example of inability of the Orthodox world to respond to child abuse from a halakhic and legal standpoint?
Rabbi Blau: More often than rabbis and teachers abusing children, sexual abuse happens in the home by people whom the children view as authorities. Those acts are not committed in public, therefore, kosher witnesses are practically impossible to find. Even if the parents are guilty, the bet din does not possess the authority to take the children away.
We live in community that denies the problem of child abuse and therefore does not do anything about it. Members if the community must understand that it is not enough to fire a staff member who has abused children in the past. Such a person has to remain far away from children. There are countless stories of teachers who retired from their positions, only to find another job in a different institution. Even if the percentage of child abusers is relatively small, the traumatic effect it has on children is enormous.
Institutions just want to rid themselves of a problem-to clear its reputation, parents do not want people to know because of the negative effects such information can have on reputation, shidduchim [marriage], and publicity. The fact that a large percentage of people who sexually abuse children, are themselves victims of abuse also keeps families interested in silence. The Community does not want publicity either. However, silence does not help.
The Observer: What do you think the role of newspapers and the press is in terms of publicizing offenders/ sexual abusers? Is this something they should do or ought they to keep quiet?
Rabbi Blau: There's the theoretical answer and the realistic one. Theoretically, one should not want to try people in newspapers. Newspapers are not objective sources. People can be convicted over media which is unfair. Media is not a trial. It does not necessarily produce accurate results. But having said that, in a practical sense at the present time, the newspapers have proved to be a very effective tool, perhaps a necessary tool, because of the community. Obviously, the problem of abuse is not restricted to any one community; I don't want to even think that. The Orthodox Jewish community, which is one that is uncomfortable with acknowledging problems in the community, tends to therefore deny the problems. The media has turned out to be, to play a very important role in forcing the community to confront the issues rather than stay in denial. And in very specific situations, the media has been really responsible for something happening. There are specific cases- one well-known case in the Modern Orthodox community was the case of a very prominent, perhaps in many respects, the leading person at NCSY for a quarter of the century, very charismatic and unfortunately also very inappropriate in his behavior with teenage women in one way and in another way with teenage boys, sexual things with the women, kicking the boys in the groin, and nothing was done until a Jewish weekly ran articles. Similar things in the Chareidi community - the community gets angry at the newspapers and thinks they are anti-Orthodoxy. And sometimes, not always, that is true. But it's also true that if a community does not face the issues, they fester. Since in general (and there are exceptions to every rule) but in general, sexual abusers do not change. They do not get better. Even with treatment, the repeat rate of offense is extremely high. Even if there is a relatively small number of people [who are abusers], if they are not stopped, they can harm tremendous numbers. The examples I mentioned, this person who was a youth leader; there are also examples of teachers in schools, a teacher can affect hundreds and hundreds of kids. In our community, it is very hard, because of the way the community looks at people who have been victimized. There are literally people who think that if this information gets out it will hurt the victims' families for shidduchim. And the community has not, up until now, faced the issue squarely, so the media is the only way to get attention. Similarly, in New York, more attention was given when an Orthodox assemblyman in New York started commenting about sexual abuse cases on a radio program that he gives. That unfortunately makes it almost a necessity to publicize. Otherwise, these people just go and hide. So the media can play a very important role in dealing with it; it's important that the media be very responsible in this regard. If they spread stories about someone who is actually innocent, they can destroy someone's life.
The Observer: Do you think enough Rabbanim/ Roshei Yeshiva (both here at YU and throughout the world) know about sexual abuse? Do they speak out about it? Ought they to speak out more? What are ways in which they can help?
Rabbi Blau: I think that there are people who take an active role in dealing with it and I think it's important that we train Rabbanim to be aware of this because when such events occur, when a child was abused, they often go first to the Rabbanim! And if the Rabbanim are not well-trained and don't understand these matters, the Rabbanim can obviously not be helpful. I think this has started to change. One of the people who changes pastoral psychology in Yeshiva is Dr. Pelcovitz who is a well-known person in this area. Up until now, people don't know much about it and don't know how to give intelligent responses to it. This is also a very difficult area because we don't want to believe it's going on. For a couple of reasons. Because it's a horrible thing, because we don't want to believe it happens in our community and because part of our religious way of looking at the world is to believe that someone who keeps Torah and mitzvos you become a better person. So how can it be that someone who is nominally observant can do such a thing? I think there are answers to that question. The notion that when you are shomer mitzvos [keep God's commandments], you suddenly do no wrong is not found anywhere. Jews have a yetzer hara [evil inclination] like everyone else and do things wrong like everyone else. Without getting into what's an illness, it's clear that there are people who have ways of looking at a certain things that are sources of tremendous problem. It is our job to protect victims, not the image of the community. This is a big problem for the Orthodox community. The Orthodox community often feels threatened. The Orthodox community does not often get very good press; it's seen as strange and therefore feels like it has to preserve its image. In the Chareidi world there's an even bigger problem because they are endlessly concerned with maintaining the image of the community. Interestingly, the blogs play in a role in this. There are a number of blogs: Un-Orthodox Jew is the primary one, Failed Messiah, Harry Maryles now, because many of the people in the community feel that they have no voice and they can only call out their pain on a blog where they can be anonymous or use a pseudonym. I want to be fair. I think the leadership of the community has started to shift its concerns. This past March, the Yated Ne'eman, which practically never writes negative things about the Orthodox Jewish community, had an editorial about this. Now it's true the editorial is very defensive of Rabbanim and how much they have done, but this is not a publication that often writes about internal problems for others. Mispacha magazine interviewed Dr. Pelcovitz. Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz in Monsey who works a great deal with at-risk teenagers, kids who have dropped out of the system, observance, yeshiva, school, they're spending time on the streets; he has publicly said that the number of people who have been abused as children [and then leave Orthodoxy] is far greater than all the other reasons that people give. There's a growing awareness in the community.
The Observer: Sometimes principals of schools forgive abuse (physical abuse, usually) because they think they are doing a mitzva by allowing the teacher to stay on and make a parnassa. Do you think that is correct behavior?
Rabbi Blau: I think it's absurd. We don't have schools for teachers to make a living. We have schools for children to learn. And if we worry about people making a livelihood, we should find other ways of their making a living, but not at the expense of children.
There's a story that's told and I can't vouch for its authenticity that one of R' Aaron Kotler's talmidim [students] wanted to teach but was having trouble controlling the class. So the principal wanted to let him go but he felt terrible, so he asked R' Kotler whether he should let him go and R' Kotler said, "Oh, it's a rachmonos [a pity]" and the principal thought he couldn't let him go because it was a "rachmonos" for his wife and children. "No!" said R' Kotler; "it's a rachmonos on the children [that this man was teaching] !" I am speaking from my own perspective. It takes a lot of mesiras nefesh [self-sacrifice] to be in Chinuch [teaching]. If a teacher can't control himself and will beat the children, then what is the good of that? Some people think, by the way, that emotional abuse can be more traumatic than physical and sexual.
The Observer: The website http://www.sol-reform.com/ (Reform the Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse) was recently started by Cardozo Law School, an affiliate of Yeshiva University. Did you have any involvement with that? What are your thoughts on the site and its aims?
Rabbi Blau: I was not involved in that directly. I participated in the one-day conference on March 3 that was held in Cardozo by Mark Hamilton and a group of Cardozo Advocates for Kids. It wasn't just Jewish things. They asked me to speak about the Orthodox Jewish community and I chose to speak about why the Orthodox Jewish community has difficulty going to the authorities on these things, because I felt it was important on the one hand for people to understand the factors that stand in the way of Orthodox Jews going to secular authorities. On the other hand, I wasn't trying to justify it; I was going to explain why I think the internal mechanisms are really incapable of dealing with this and why therefore I think they [members of the Orthodox Jewish community] have to cooperate and go to the police.
The issue involved is that a child being abused is extremely traumatic and very difficult and children rarely come forward. It's particularly problematic for them if they are abused by someone they see as an authority figure which could mean an adult, parent, close relative or a teacher, coach; anyone who is authority to them. And therefore abused children won't tell anybody. And only years later when the effect upon them causes them to get help, because something's off and there's something preventing them from developing normal relationships or they react strangely to certain stimuli, that they begin to be able to deal with what they went through. And because of it a statue of limitations that would seem reasonable in other settings is not in this case, because it often takes more time. Here's a very practical application: There was a certain Din Torah I was on involving accusations against this youth director at NCSY. The Beis Din put a 10-year limitation on these complaints; we said nothing has happened in the last 10 years; it can't be an ongoing problem. It turns out that precisely the people who were now adults and had spouses who had been hurt more than 10 years ago were able to come forward and we excluded them because we never thought it would take that long. So it's important not to have an early statute of limitations that would prevent people from being able to come forward. Two versions of the bill are appearing before the State Assembly; one would extend the age to which one could testify to 25, the other to 28 (as opposed to only 23). Whatever changes have taken place in the Catholic Church has been because of the many lawsuits against the Church. Orthodox community also worries about Orthodox institutions being sued, even though, within the Orthodox community, there is a great deal of reluctance to go to court and sue people. Also remember, that because of the nature of the hierarchy system of the Catholic Church, the responsibility can be easily established. If a parish priest is reassigned to another parish, that was a decision made by the Church because the Church decided to send him. In the Jewish community, it's very different! No rabbinic authority can force the congregation at which you pray to hire your present Rabbi. No one can force one school to hire a teacher who was let go by another school.
The Observer: How can a victim of sexual abuse react (what kinds of feelings, emotions, long-term effects can abuse have on someone?)
Rabbi Blau: I cannot really answer that very well. You should speak with psychologists and psychiatrists. But I do know, having had many conversations with survivors of abuse, that people are all different. If they had a teacher who abused kids for many years, or a youth director who abused kids for many years, for some kids they have not been seriously affected, others have been terribly traumatized. Some kids are able to talk about it, get professional help and some kids can't even acknowledge it; they have no idea what's going on. There's no single response that all people have to this. If you read books about trauma victims and soldiers after war, when they've seen people die around them or were seriously injured in bombings or the like, some of them move on with their lives and maybe are strengthened by it and are certainly not destroyed by it and others are never able to make a normal life. There's all kinds of studies to try to figure out why some people can handle this and why some people can't. Some studies talk about genetic predispositions and emotional things, supportive environments making a difference in people's lives and how they handle it. One of the things that enables victims to become survivors is the notion that they are not only victims, that they can respond, that they can not take revenge but works toward justice. If you were a kid in school, and let's get away from sexual things, and you're in 5th grade, beaten to a pulp, and you come back as an adult and see that Rebbe as an honored member of the community and his Torah is recognized, every time you see him paying no consequences for what he did to you, it hurts more and more. But if you know the community had stopped it and did not let it continue and there was a response, I think it would affect you as well! And you would be strengthened by it. Actually, a young man in Chicago made a film about sexual abuse, "Narrow Bridge." I've spoken to him. One of the ways that he responded was by making the film. One of the worst things about being a victim in any situation is being helpless and those who are not helpless become tremendously strengthened by it. When they are able to stand up to do something to prevent others from being abused. You talk to top psychologists, and you'll get more precise answers. I am an amateur.
The Observer: How is the attitude towards abuse changing in the Orthodox community?
Rabbi Blau: Different sectors of the Jewish Orthodox community are responding to the challenge very differently. So far, the charedi [ultra-Orthodox] society is dealing with issues of abuse as quietly and privately as possible since they want to protect rabbinic reputation and they do not want negative publicity to leave the community. Also, going public and giving over the case to authorities is viewed as taboo in the charedi community-mesirah (lit. betraying); although from a halakhic perspective one is allowed, even obligated to hand issue over to police, since the abuser is an ongoing danger to children.
There was a first grade rabbi in Brooklyn who abused his students and campers in summer camp for over thirty years. When word got out, the yeshiva supported him the whole time, without acknowledging anything. Parents and families did not react with the exception of one family who moved their kids from the school. If the community had reacted differently, if the yeshiva staff knew that as a result, all students would leave, they would dismiss the teacher immediately.
Lanner was a very capable man who worked in NCSY and brought many people closer to Judaism. Former youth of NCSY accused him of abusive behaviors. It was very difficult to have a proper proceeding in the bet din, since for many people who were present-he was a spiritual hero. Those people who covered up for him presented a huge challenge and embarrassment to the victims who were able to summon the courage and testify in public. Eventually though, the modern orthodox community did come to terms with reality, the bet din met with victims; rabbis held a public apology in Bet Midrash of Yeshiva University. Such an admission is not yet visible in the charedi world.
There is a tremendous scandal in the Catholic Church. Yet they are almost a perfect group for suing in justice court. They are guilty for covering up for priests who abused children. Unlike Jewish communities, where the congregation elects their rabbis, appointment in the Catholic Church is from the top-that is their Hierarchy. Therefore, one can trace responsibility back to the Church directly. Catholicism also believes in repentance; therefore, they often forgave priests and gave them a new chance by relocating them to another church. To be precise, the Church keeps records of all such transactions, which serves as evidence in court. To top it all off, the Catholic Church has lot of money, which makes it worth the fight for the victims.
It is harder to pin down authority in the Jewish community, since rabbis do not assign other rabbis to congregations.
The problems with the law are that: there is a statute of limitations of when one can sue for child abuse-up to twenty-three years of age. Although it sounds reasonable, it is not. A child does not report abuse at the age of nine years old. They are kids; traumatized, confused, often think that they are guilty, lack strength to respond, especially if the abuser was a semi-authority figure in their life. It takes time until those children grow into adults; surround them with a supportive environment; go through therapy. Therefore, congressional representatives are trying to up the stature to twenty-eight years of age and leave one year for those who did not come forward until now to speak up. Obviously, the church opposes this. There are sectors within the Orthodox community (Satmar Hassidim) which support the Church.
Joel Engelmann is a formerly religious young man; today he is unobservant. A rabbi in school abused him as a six year old. I met his mother who still is orthodox. She and her son approached the school requesting to have that teacher dismissed, and if not, they threatened to go to court. The school agreed and fired the teacher; over the summer when the Joel turned twenty-three years old (too old to go to court) the school reinstated the teacher to his previous position!
The Observer: Why would sectors of the Orthodox community, such as Satmar Hassidim, support the Church when it comes to not changing the statute of limitations on evidence?
Rabbi Blau: Because there is one particular case involving the Satmar community which I know of, and maybe more. Someone who was abused in a Satmar school and he and his brother's very involved (supporting him) went to Satmar last year and Satmar agreed to remove the teacher from the school. At that point the young man was 22 and ½ years old. As soon as he turned 23, when the statute of limitations ended, they rehired the teacher. And he tried to sue them and he can't! He can't do anything because of the Statute of Limitations. Also, even though the issues are not restricted in any sense of the word to only religious institutions- saying that most abuses are perpetrated by rabbis and priests is clearly not true; there are all kinds of people, nevertheless, it is religious institutions that are most concerned about how they are perceived. They have other areas of common interest; for example, government funding for non-public education, vouchers an d things like that. There's a commonality of interests between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Jewish community. The reason why is quite obvious. They both run private schools and are concerned that economically it's extremely difficult to keep these schools going- expenses are great. Double program at Jewish day school, costs a lot of money- there's a limit to how much you can charge people. So the government supports vouchers and other programs, whether it's money for school textbooks or special education, there's a very strong joint interest between the Catholic community and Orthodox Jewish community so they become partners. There's an organization called Teach NYS and they honored the Cardinal and the Chief Executive of the OU! Because in this area [of education] they are working together. So there are people who are Jewish who think we should be supportive of the Catholic Church and work with them.
The Observer: What message would you like to give YU students?
Rabbi Blau: The situation in the orthodox community will not change until the people change their attitudes towards abuse. We must create a generation that will think in different terms. We must applaud bravery of victims who admit their experiences. We must support leaders who fight abuse. I would not be able to do the work I am doing without the support of the YU body. Do not tolerate silent leadership. Students as citizens have tremendous power as voters to vote for legislations that will prevent abuse and protect our children.
If someone approaches you saying that he/she is a victim of abuse, listen to him or her. I became famous [for sexual abuse activism] because I offered a listening ear to anyone who approached me, although I understand that some of the stories are not true.
It is time that the Orthodox community shows that it is in favor of protecting its children before its institutions and reputation.
Who needs the "New Kosher Ethic Seal"? As Jews we may or may not opt to take a shower, would that make us ethically immoral? ----
One prominent rabbi, speaking on the condition of anomynity, questioned whether abuse allegations were true.
"If there's a family fight, a dispute in the family, it could start with verbal abuse. What happens next? You know and I know, it becomes 'he raped me,' or whatever," the rabbi said. "If you're telling me there are allegations of abuse, I don't know what 'allegations' really means."
60-year-old ‘child molester’ busted
* Youngest of five children escapes, informs police and parents
* Accused says he abducted, sexually assaulted three children to avenge their ‘father’s sin’
LAHORE: Tibbi City Police arrested a 60-year-old man with a previous criminal record on the charges of child molestation and enforced slavery, and recovered five children and a dagger from his custody on Wednesday.
The accused was identified as Muhammad Latif alias Umar Daraz. Investigation Inspector Malik Hayat told Daily Times the accused was arrested from his residence in Street Number 3 of Gulshan-e-Ravi in Makka Colony. Sub-Inspector Khalid Virk said the accused was not disclosing his real name. He said a first information report (FIR) had been registered on the complaint of Muhammad Aslam under Section 264-A. He said the accused had previously been sent on a judicial remand of two years after cases were registered against him on April 13, 2002, August 17, 2003, and December 24, 2004.
Hayat said the accused had abducted eight-year-old Shoaib Ali, his nine-year-old brother Shamrez Ali, and their 10-year-old uncle Mohsin Ali from outside the Attique Stadium near Minar-e-Pakistan. He said the accused offered the children a job with a daily wage of Rs 200 per day. He said the accused later detained the boys at his residence in Gulshan-e-Ravi. Two more children, nine-year-old Ali Ahmed and 12-year-old Shahnawaz were also abducted by the accused from Data Darbar using the same method.
Escape: However, during the course of detention, the youngest of the boys, eight-year-old Shoaib, managed to flee from the house and approached his parents. The child was brought to a police station where he narrated the story. Upon conducting a raid, the police arrested the accused and recovered the remaining four boys.
Shahnawaz, who was in police custody with the other boys, told Daily Times he ran away from home some weeks ago after his father physically tortured him. He said he was forced to wash dishes and remained in the house all day to escape the wrath of the accused.
Responding to a question, Shahnawaz said with a bowed head that the accused also sexually assaulted him several times. He said the other boys had also been subjected to sexual harassment. Shoaib told Daily Times he had been serving the accused by buying groceries. He said the accused threatened to murder his brother and uncle if he attempted to escape or acquire help. He said the old man had used the dagger to threaten them on numerous occasions, adding that he made his mind to flee and approach his father.
Shamrez told Daily Times the accused had been training them to beg. He said they were unaware of where he would take the children for this purpose.
Accused: Latif told Daily Times he abducted the two brothers and their uncle to avenge the sins of their father Aslam. He alleged Aslam had an illicit relationships with his (Latif’s) wife. He said his wife had become a prostitute, along with his two young daughters, and the three were living in red light areas. Responding to a question, he said the other two boys were working for him and he never sexually assaulted them.
Don't you dare call me a fraud. The mispallelim in Baltimore under my auspicious are all good people.
Yes, you may think Baltimore is the breeding ground for molesters and that we perpetrate cover-ups, but that shouldn't interfere with my rabbinical ordination; nor should anyone ever go to the police to report it. Chances are Reb Max and other Baltimore sex offenders have done tshuva.
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The Baltimore Jewish Times broke a story about sex offense allegations against Rabbi Jacob Max, a preeminent rabbi of greater Baltimore's Jewish community for nearly sixty years. Last month the elderly and well-loved rabbi was tried and found guilty in the District Court of Maryland,. and was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year and a year of probation. The coverage of this story by the Jewish Times has been a source of significant controversy within the Jewish community, with some readers praising the Jewish Times for its uncovering of a large number of claimants against Rabbi Max, and other accusing the Jewish Times of "salacious" or shoddy reporting.
Today the Baltimore Sun reported that Rabbi Max's attorney David B. Irwin indicated that his client would not be filing an appeal.
Under Maryland's rules of procedure, criminal trials before the District Court of Maryland may be appealed "de novo," i.e. from the beginning with a new trial, after a conviction through the filing of a Notice of Appeal within 30 days of the conviction. This "do-over" is conducted before the Circuit Court of the respective county/Baltimore City and may be conducted before a jury if the defendant is otherwise entited to a jury for the specific charges.
I have no opinion about the innocence or guilt of Rabbi Max. While the conviction and failure to appeal would lead a reasonably cautious person to assume guilt or the likelihood of guilt, I just don't claim to know enough to start opining. In general, my bias is to believe claimants of sexual victimization; the humiliation and scrutiny that they often endure is enough to discourage the casual scammer or fabulist. On the other hand, this bias served me poorly in the Duke lacrosse case, where I found the claims by the exotic dancer of victimization by some of Duke's lacrosse players to be plausible for quite a while. Accordingly, I remain agnostic on that point. What is clear is that of the rabbi and his accuser, there were a victim and a victimizer between the two of them. I hope the rabbi is in fact guilty, rather than unjustly convicted and too weary to clear his name.
The co-chairman of the Bilateral Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See is urging Pope Benedict to state publicly that Jews need not convert to Catholicism. Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, who addressed the Synod of Bishops last October, writes:
In the Second Vatican Council and the Nostra Aetate document, it was made clear that no efforts would be made by the Catholic Church to convert Jews. Rather, the Jewish people should continue the faith of its forefathers as expressed in the Bible and rabbinic literature. The Jewish people remain a people of God’s covenant, a people chosen by God to give the world the Bible. Put simply, the Catholic Church accepted the theological principle that Jews need not change their religion to merit redemption. I hope you will take the opportunity during your visit in Israel to reiterate this fact … I do hope now to get your help as a religious leader-- as well as the help of the entire free world-- to protect, defend and save Israel, the one and only sovereign state of the "People of the Book" from the hands of its enemies.
The text of Nostra Aetate (the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions) does not appear to address the issue of Jewish conversion.
Sounding the depths of the mystery which is the Church, this sacred Council remembers the spiritual ties which link the people of the New Covenant to the stock of Abraham.
The Church of Christ acknowledges that in God’s plan of salvation the beginning of her faith and election is to be found in the patriarchs. Moses and the prophets. She professes that all Christ’s faithful, who as men of faith are sons of Abraham (cf. Gal. 3:7), are included in the same patriarch’s call and that the salvation of the Church is mystically prefigured in the exodus of God’s chosen people from the land of bondage On this account the Church cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament by way of that people with whom God in his inexpressible mercy established the ancient covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws nourishment from that good olive tree onto which the wild olive branches of the Gentiles have been grafted (cf. Rom. 11:17-24). The Church believes that Christ who is our peace has through his cross reconciled Jews and Gentiles and made them one in himself (cf. Eph. 2:14-16).
Likewise, the Church keeps ever before her mind the words of the apostle Paul about his kinsmen: "they are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh, is the Christ" (Rom. 9:4-5), the son of the virgin Mary. She is mindful, moreover, that the apostles, the pillars on which the Church stands, are of Jewish descent, as are many of those early disciples who proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to the world.
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize God’s moment when it came (cf. Lk. 19:42) Jews for the most part did not accept the Gospel; on the contrary, many opposed The spreading of it (cf. Rom. 11:28). Even so, The apostle Paul maintains that the Jews remain very dear to God. for the sake of the patriarchs since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made.2 Together with the prophets and that same apostle, the Church awaits the day, known to God alone, when all peoples will call on God with one voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3 :9 cf. Is. 66:23; Ps. 65:4; Rom. 11:11-32)
Since Christians and Jews have such a common spiritual heritage, this sacred Council wishes to encourage and further mutual understanding and appreciation. This can be obtained, especially, by way of biblical and theological enquiry and through friendly discussions.
Even though the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ (cf. John 19:6), neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion. lt. is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture. Consequently, all must take care, lest in catechizing or in preaching the Word of God, they teach anything which is not in accord with the truth of the Gospel message or the spirit of Christ.
Indeed the Church reproves every form of persecution against whomsoever it may be directed. Remembering, then, her common heritage with the Jews and moved not by any political consideration, but solely by the religious motivation of Christian charity, she deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of antisemitism Ieveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.
The Church always held and continues to hold that Christ out of infinite love freely underwent suffering and death because of the sins of all men, so that all might attain salvation. It is the duty of the Church, therefore, in her preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God’s universal love and the source of all grace.
Cow causes accident on Highway 65
An accident on State Highway 65 leaves a Comanche woman in critical condition.
It happened near Highway 53 in Cotton County.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol was says Sandra Daffern was in the south bound lane when she hit a cow and then crashed head-on with another car in the north bound lane.
The driver of that car was taken to the hospital in good condition.
Daffern was flown by Air-Evac to OU Medical Center were she is in critical condition with internal, leg and head injuries.
OHP says both drivers were wearing seat belts.
We had nothing to do with this...
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Five residents of the Tlamim community in southern Israel were arrested Monday on suspicion of kidnapping and extorting Rabbi Nir Ben-Artzi, head of the "Talmei Geula" non-profit organization.
The men are accused of holding the rabbi against his will in Tiberias for three years.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3717637,00.html
Police: Volunteer NY EMT sexually abused boy
May 18, 2009
WOLCOTT, N.Y. - An upstate New York emergency medical technician remains in jail after authorities charged him with sexually assaulting a child.
State police say 33-year-old Nathan Schwarz of Cato is charged with five counts of sexual assault against a child, including predatory sexual assault.
Troopers say Schwarz worked as an EMT for volunteer ambulance companies in Wolcott and Red Creek, communities in Wayne County 45 miles east of Rochester.
Police say they found pictures of a sexual nature involving a 10-year-old boy on Schwarz's cell phone.
Investigators say the boy is a family friend, and they believe the sex abuse had been going on for two years.
Schwarz is in Wayne County Jail on $20,000 cash bail or $40,000 bond. Police couldn't say whether Schwarz had an attorney.
Diverse Crowd Expected At Agudah Dinner, May 17
The Agudath Israel anniversary dinner draws a large crowd; that much is well known. Less known, though, or at least less appreciated, is the makeup of the crowd it draws—and what that says.
As in years past, the upcoming 87th Agudah anniversary dinner, on Sunday, May 17, will see many guests converge on the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan. Among them will be many “k’lei kodesh,” yeshiva educators and administrators. They will be there to show their recognition of Agudath Israel’s work on behalf of Jewish educational institutions. Aside from the Agudah’s intensive and constant work to ensure that yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs receive their fair share of permissible governmental funding—both federal and state—and aside from its tenacious interaction with government officials to prevent funding and services to yeshivas from being cut, Agudath Israel provides advice and assistance to hundreds of mosdos in the New York area and across the country on a constant basis.
The organization’s Education Affairs division issues alerts and newsletters on an almost weekly basis to all Orthodox institutions, providing administrators information and advice that goes far in helping them do their jobs. So the presence of educators of our community’s boys and girls, and administrators of their educational institutions, at the Agudah dinner is an act of hakaras ha’tov, recognition of the good work Agudah does for yeshivas.
In attendance as well will be many rabbanim and rashei yeshiva. They will be there because they know the important role Agudath Israel plays in promoting Torah study and, most importantly, unity within the camp of Jews faithful to Torah. They are also particularly keenly aware of how the Agudah stands up for Torah values in the public sphere, something so vital in our times of dizzying and often disturbing political and social change.
Then there are the doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other observant professionals. What they realize is the work the Agudah does on behalf of those Jews in need of professional services. Many of those professionals volunteer their services through the Agudath Israel “constituent services” office, which suggests the right people to help in cases that run the gamut from end-of-life issues to Sabbath observance problems to custody cases.
Elected officials at the city, state, and federal levels make it a priority to be at the Agudah dinner, too. They know well the role Agudath Israel plays in advocating for the rights and needs of the Orthodox Jewish community, and its impressive presence in legislative and court chambers across the country. Most important, they know that the organization is synonymous with integrity and responsibility.
And, of course, many will be the officers, board members, trustees, and askanim of Agudath Israel itself, who play so critical a role in keeping the organization and its work vibrant and on-target. They will be joined by a broad cross-section of K’lal Yisrael, Jews from all walks of life who will be there simply to show their support and encouragement to the Agudah. Whether they are members of the chassidic, “yeshivish” or Edut HaMizrach communities, they are part and parcel of what makes Agudath Israel what it is, and they attend the dinner to show they are unified under its banner.
Honorees at the dinner will include Avrohom Halpern, who will receive the Rabbi Moshe Sherer Memorial Award for lifelong devotion to K’lal Yisrael; The Jewish Observer, which will be honored as the recipient of the HaGaon Rav Aharon Kotler Memorial Award, for distinguished service to Torah; Irwin Mehl, z’l, whose family will accept the Reb Elimelech Tress Memorial Award in tribute to Mr. Mehl’s role in preserving the legacy of the she’eris ha’pleitah; and Binyomin Berger, who will receive the Moreinu Yaakov Rosenheim Memorial Award, for distinguished service to Agudath Israel.
Avodas Hakodesh awardees will be Ronald Coleman, Yankie Klein, Yosef Rapaport and Dovid Winiarz. Rabbi Raymond Haber will be the recipient of the Wolf Friedman Leadership Award. Shimon Lefkowitz will serve as dinner chairman and Meir Lichtenstein as co-chairman.
Agudath Israel heartily extends an invitation to everyone who wishes to lend support at its 87th anniversary dinner on May 17 at the New York Hilton. Reservations can be made by calling 212-797-8177, faxing 646-254-1640, or e-mailing dinner@agudathisrael.org.
Agudah informs about flu
April 29, 2009
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Agudath Israel sent information on the swine flu to its more than 600 educational institutions.
The Tuesday memorandum to the yeshivot, bais yaakovs and day schools Agudah services included a question-and-answer sheet prepared by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. It also included a sample letter to parents, prepared by the New York State Education Department, that schools can easily modify for their own use.
The memo also notified schools how they can remain up to date with the latest information on the spread of the disease.
More than have 150 people have been killed in Mexico by the latest outbreak of swine flu. Cases have been reported in 11 U.S. states, notably among New York students, as well as countries throughout the world, including Israel.
Get the full scoop on the Weingarten case:
Israel weingarten's brother shares his statement to the court
Leo Weingarten, who is Israel Weingarten’s younger brother, prepared a statement to be read at the end of Israel’s sentencing hearing, in support of his niece - the victim.
Click here
This reminds me when some guy gave me a beating at a bris I attended.
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Victim's mother pummels molester at NJ courthouse
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man in court to be sentenced for assaulting and harassing teenage girls has been beaten in a corridor by the mother of one of his victims.
The mother attacked 39-year-old Pascual Gonzalez in the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown on Monday, tearing the buttons off his shirt. Sheriff's officers restrained her.
Gonzalez wasn't injured. The Roxbury resident then was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl last year and harassing and touching her friend. The volunteer sports coach had pleaded guilty in January.
He cried before the judge and apologized for his crimes. He says he wishes "this had never, ever, ever happened."
The woman who beat him hasn't been charged.
I heard truck drivers at the Agudah dinner were honored with free kool-aid drinks. I was wondering why I didn't get mine.
Lehigh Twp / Region -
State police arrested a 46-year old man from the state of Utah last Thursday in Lehigh Township.
While on a routine patrol just after midnight, state troopers observed a suspicious truck parked at the Lukoil Gas Station off Route 507 in the township.
State troopers became suspicious while speaking to the truck’s operator - a Roosevelt, Utah resident whose name was not released in the state police public report. “While speaking to the operator troopers observed several indicators of criminal activity,” said Trooper T. J. Horan.
They eventually searched his truck, finding a .380 hi-point semi-automatic handgun, with a loaded magazine.
He was taken into custody on illegal possession of a firearm and arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Bonnie Carney.
He was placed in Wayne County Jail, in lieu of $10,000 bail.
• A Honesdale man wanted in New Jersey was taken into custody.
Stephen Joseph Lupyak III, 43, allegedly had an active warrant out for his arrest by Sussex County, NJ authorities, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.
Sussex County, NJ borders Pike County. He was found at a Texas Township residence on April 21.
State police did not report what the warrant pertained to; they considered him a fugitive of justice, however.
Lupyak was arraigned by the Magisterial District Judge in Honesdale, and placed in Wayne County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail pending extradition to New Jersey.
• State police are investigating a theft at Butch’s Garage in Salem Township last Monday.
Someone stole various car parts from the front of the garage. The incident is believed to have occurred sometime after midnight into the morning hours.
• State police are investigating a smashed truck window incident at a Texas Township residence last Thursday. The crime occurred on Terrace Street at about 1 a.m.
TITLE OF BILL : An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in
relation to the timeliness of prosecutions for certain sex offenses;
and to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the
timeliness for commencing certain civil actions related to sex
offenses
PURPOSE : The bill amends the criminal Procedure Law and the civil
Practice Law an4 Rules to extend the statute of limitations for
criminal and civil actions for sex offenses under article one hundred
thirty of the Penal Law committed against a child less than eighteen
years of age, for incest against a child less then eighteen years of
age or the use of a child in a sexual performance.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS : Section one of the bill amends the Criminal
Procedure Law to increase the criminal statute of limitation for the
prosecution of certain sex.offenses committed against a child under
the age of eighteen, for incest against a child less then eighteen
years of age or the use of a child in a sexual performance. The period
of limitation would not begin to run until the child reaches the age
of 23 years or the offense is reported to a law enforcement agency or
the statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment.
Section two of the bill would extend the civil statute of limitation
for causes of action to remedy injuries or conditions suffered as a
result of conduct which would constitute a sexual offense as defined
in article one hundred thirty of the penal law committed against a
child less than eighteen years of age, incest as defined in section
255.25,255.26 or 255.27 of the penal law committed against a child
less than eighteen years of age, or the use of, a child in a sexual
performance as defined in section 263.05 of the penal law. Such action
would have to be commenced within five years after the child reaches
the age of 23 years. Under current law, the criminal statute of
limitations in child sexual abuse cases in which a victim does not
report the crime to law enforcement is not applied until the victim
reaches age 18. This bill would add five years to the statute; so that
the five year statute of limitations in such cases would not begin to
run until the victim turned age 23 (extending the time for prosecution
until a child victim reached age 28).
Section three of the bill would revive expired civil causes of action
based on conduct which would constitute a sexual offense as defined in
article one hundred thirty of the penal law committed against a child
less than eighteen years of age, incest as defined in section 255.25,
255.26 or 255.27 of ,the penal law committed against a child less than
eighteen. years of age, or the use of a child in a sexual performance
as defined in section 263.05 of the penal law. Persons for whom the
right to bring a civil action has been foreclosed because of the
current civil statute of limitations bar would be given a one-year
"window period" from the date of enactment of the bill, regardless of
their age, in which to bring an action to recover damages for any past
instance of child sexual abuse. Prior to the commencement of the
action, the plaintiff must obtain a certificate of merit by a mental
health expert that states in reasonable detail the facts and opinions
relied upon for concluding that the plaintiff was a victim of sexual
abuse. The complaint shall be accompanied by a certificate of merit as
described in subdivision (c) of this section.
Section four of the bill is a savings clause.
Section five of the bill is the effective date. The bill would take
effect immediately but section three which revives expired claims
would take effect 60 days after becoming law.
JUSTIFICATION : Sex crimes, particularly those committed against
children, are among the most heinous and deeply disturbing in our
society. They are crimes that leave life-long scars, multiple victims
and require an all encompassing strategy to combat. This proposal
would extend the authority to prosecute and to bring a civil lawsuit
for damages in child sexual abuse cases in three significant ways,
regardless of whether or not DNA evidence is available. This bill
will provide a remedy for those whose lives have been unalterably
changed by the horror of childhood sexual abuse. Victims of these
horrific crimes will get their day in court and be able to seek the
justice they have been denied.
After 20 years, child abuse case goes to court
TRIAL OF SEAN WRIGHT: Woman, 31, returns to Alaska to tell her story.
By MEGAN HOLLAND
mholland@adn.com
(05/18/09 22:37:37)
It took her 10 years to tell what happened, and another 10 for the case to go to trial, but the woman, now 31, says she remembers it all.
Even in a system where the time between charges and verdict can be years, the Sean Wright child sex abuse trial is unusual.
"This is surreal," the woman said Monday as she prepared to walk into an Anchorage courtroom and, for the first time in more than a decade, see the man police say molested her starting when she was 9 years old.
Even after all these years, she still feels uncomfortable talking about it and doesn't want her full name used. Her first name is Nellie.
Back then, Nellie was a gawky kid who says she woke up early every morning to make sure her alcoholic mother got to work on time. Today she is a polished attorney from Boston with a circle of friends who have become her family -- a family without demons.
On the stand Monday morning, Nellie never looked directly at Wright, sitting at the defendant's table. Even though so much time has passed, she said the pictures of her mother's boyfriend sneaking into her bedroom still live in her mind.
Ten years ago Wright was charged with 19 counts of sexually molesting her and two other girls, allegations he denies. He has been fighting the charges and the state's efforts to bring him to trial ever since. Because of the statute of limitations, charges against one victim have been lost, leaving two, now grown women, and 13 counts.
The charges surfaced in 1999 after Wright's stepdaughter -- abused long after Nellie had left Alaska, according to prosecutors -- told her mother she didn't want Wright touching her anymore.
By then, Nellie was 21, living in Everett, Wash., and working as a paralegal.
When the statements by Wright's stepdaughter got the investigation started, Alaska State Troopers, familiar with child abuse patterns, tracked Nellie down. When they told her about the new charges, Nellie started to sob on the phone.
Did he also touch you? the investigator asked.
Yes.
Suddenly, the secret she had hidden was coming out. She gathered family, friends and boyfriend at her apartment to tell them. She spoke to her stepmother. Then her father. He was the biggest hurdle, she said, for the same reason she didn't tell him when she was a child. Even at age 12, she knew her father would go after Wright and get himself in trouble.
After court Monday, sitting with his daughter, it was clear she was right to be concerned "I would have killed the son of a bitch," her father said.
Wright was charged in 1999, but he was out of state and it was years before the law caught up with him. There's a dispute about how hard they did or didn't try.
He was extradited from Minnesota in late 2004 and spent most of 2005 in jail. He bailed out and has been free on bail ever since, living in Alaska, working on the North Slope, working out of state, and moving on with his life. He has a new wife.
In 2007, Wright filed a federal lawsuit against the prosecutors and an Alaska Superior Court judge saying the law should have caught up with him sooner and therefore violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. That case is still unsettled.
No one seems able to explain exactly why five years elapsed between his eventual capture and his trial.
And no one told Nellie in 1999 it would take 10 years. For all that time, she has had to plan class schedules, vacation time, much of her life around being available to show up in court.
On the stand Monday, Nellie detailed for the jury her mother's alcoholism, her parents' divorce, losing their home to foreclosure, eviction and a treacherous existence where she and her older brother bounced from house to house.
Rich & Rare whiskey and Xanax became staples of her mother's life.
When her mother met Wright, he was a positive influence. He made her happy. He supported her. He helped battle her demons, Nellie said. In the end, when her mother collapsed in 1995 with throat cancer complications, it was Wright who was by her side soaking up her blood, trying to save her life. It was Wright who ended up with her mother's ashes.
Outside the courtroom Monday, Nellie said she told only one person about the abuse back when it started -- a neighborhood friend. The friend told her mother, who then told Nellie's mother.
When Nellie and her mother talked, it was a typical night at home. Her mother was drunk and yelled at her. But, soon afterward, she kicked Wright out of the house.
It didn't last. He was back a week later.
Nellie still thinks about her mother's reaction. Was it denial? Did the alcohol ruin her judgement? Did she not believe, or just not care?
Wright's defense attorney John Bernitz is trying to paint a picture of Nellie as a competent, accomplished lawyer who never liked Wright and is lying. He said her brother was once accused of inappropriately touching a neighborhood girl, so if anyone abused Nellie, perhaps it was him.
On the witness stand, Nellie often touched her mother's ring, on her right hand. She talked about the mother she tried to nurse out of alcoholism, the mother she feels she failed when she was 12 years old and opted to live with her father Outside.
She never lived with her mother again because when her mother passed out at night and when her older brother wasn't in the house, Wright sneaked into her bedroom, she told the jury. She stopped wearing a nightgown and started wearing heavy sweats to bed. But he would remove those to get at her.
Nellie blames herself for what happened to the second little girl 10 years later. If only she had stood up for herself, if only she had told. It's one more regret she carries with her.
Asked on the witness stand what she thinks of Wright now, the grown-up Nellie said she had mixed feelings. He was there to take care of her mother and that meant the world to her. She will be forever grateful for that, she said.
When pressed, though, she settled on, "I hate him."
The trial continues today.
Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.
Rabbi Aharon Cohen from the anti-Zionist movement of Neturei Karta on Monday called for global sanctions against Israel. "Sanction against Israeli goods must become global," Rabbi Aharon Cohen, a Neturei Karta member from Manchester, England said, speaking in a conference on "Palestine: Duty of Nations" here in Tehran on Monday.
"We must uproot the regime (Israel), sanctions are not effective unless they are global," Cohen reiterated.
Condemning Israel's onslaughts on the defenseless people of Palestine, Rabbi Cohen noted, "We must display that Zionism is bad for all, both for the Palestinians and the Jews as well as the whole world."
Reminding that Zionism is against Judaism, he stated, "Anti-Zionism does not mean anti-Semitism."
This is exactly why Agudah and I are opposed to the one year window. Any senior citizen can now bring forward abuse from decades ago that we are not responsible for. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406364_abuse.html
'I just wanted it to stop,' says plaintiff in priest abuse trial
Victim says abuse began when he was in eighth grade
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Last updated 11:41 a.m. PT
By VANESSA HO
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
He was an eighth-grade boy from a devout Catholic family when the priest befriended him. But the friendship soon evolved into abuse in which the priest sexually touched him during boating trips and later assaulting him on overnight trips, the victim testified Tuesday.
"It hurt. I don't know how long it was (going on for), but I just wanted it to stop," the man, now a 44-year-old jewelry company manager from Auburn, said from the witness stand.
"He told me everything would be okay, and that it was just between him and me, and nobody else needed to know."
A plaintiff in a rare civil trial involving the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese, the man has alleged that the church knew, or should have known, that the priest was a serial child molester in the late 70s. He is one of four plaintiffs who had originally sued the church; the other three have settled. The case is the first sex-abuse claim against the Archdiocese to go to trial.
The priest, Patrick O'Donnell, testified last week that he molested at least 30 boys, including the plaintiff, during his 15-year priesthood. Most of that time was spent in Spokane, where church leaders knew he was a sexual predator, as they bounced him among parishes and repeatedly sent him into treatment. In 1976, the Spokane bishop learned that O'Donnell was molesting a 14-year-old boy and quickly sent him to Seattle for sexual-deviancy treatment. Someone arranged for O'Donnell to live at St. Paul's parish in Rainier Beach for two years, where the priest continued to assault boys, including the plaintiff.
In tearful testimony laden with long pauses, the man described how O'Donnell, who ran a teen club at the church, first abused him on O'Donnell's boat during a trip on Lake Washington.
"He came into the cabin, and he came up behind me and grabbed my genitals, and pulled my pants down," he said.
Later, after O'Donnell left the parish, he invited the boy and another boy to visit him in Spokane. "(My mother) said, 'Oh, Father O'Donnell has invited you guys to the lake. That sounds like fun, don't you think?'" the man recalled.
But after he and his friend took a bus to Spokane, O'Donnell took the boys on a boat trip, and then sexually assaulted the plaintiff in an attack more violent than his previous assaults. When it was over, the victim recalled how he had gone the bathroom, crying, and then waited until his abuser had fallen asleep before returning to bed.
It would be the first of two trips the boy made to the priest, and the first of two similar assaults.
Seattlepi.com is not identifying the man, because it usually does not name victims of sexual assault.
Earlier testimony showed that O'Donnell had abused the plaintiff in the Spokane area in the company of another child molester, a Boy Scout leader who later killed himself during a police investigation into his crimes. The victim recalled how he and the priest had slept in one bed in a cabin, while the Boy Scout leader and the other boy were in another bedroom.
The man said he never told his parents or anyone else about the abuse, because the abuser was a priest and he was worried that no one would believe him. He said he didn't know why he visited the priest after he left, and that his past decisions have been difficult for him.
It wasn't until 2005, after the man read newspaper stories on O'Donnell, that he told his wife of many decades what had happened.
"I thought I was the only one that was being abused," he said, crying. "I didn't know there were others."
The case -- plagued with memory lapses, deaths of key witnesses, and 30-year-old allegations --has been an examination of how the local Catholic church has dealt with clerical sexual abuse in the past. Two top former leaders have testified so far, including former Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, describing the secrecy that once surrounded child-molesting priests and the belief that they were treatable and worthy of second chances.
Hunthausen and his former top aide have denied knowing anything about O'Donnell's past during his time in Seattle. Hunthausen testified that he thought the priest was in Seattle to study, and that he believed the priest was "in good standing," because he had been sent my his friend, the bishop of Spokane.
While serving in Seattle, O'Donnell described how he had abused adolescent boys while undergoing treatment and earning his doctorate's degree from the University of Washington.
He admitted showering with boys at the Connolly Center gym at Seattle University and swimming naked with them. He testified that after he left St. Paul's in 1978, he invited some of the boys -- including the plaintiff -- to visit him in Spokane, where he molested them on his boat and in a cabin.
The Spokane Diocese stripped O'Donnell of his ministerial faculties in 1986, after which he worked as a psychologist in Bellevue. In 1988, police questioned him about the presence of naked boys in his Yarrow Bay swimming pool. O'Donnell testified that the boys had just been "changing clothes."
Vanessa Ho can be reached at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com.
The bloggers are shakranim. The Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah spent many hours figuring the best method of refuah. It is well established that this is a boro park matter and that agudah had no way to get involved in yudi kolko's sexcapades with kleiner kinderlach.
New York Jewish Sexual Abuse Lawyer
Rabbi Sexual Abuse Attorney in New York
Have you been sexually abused by a member of the Jewish or Jewish Orthodox Community?
Sexual abuse occurs in many communities and institutions throughout the United States. Abusive individuals who prey on children, adolescents and young adults can be found in any setting or religious group or denomination. Recently, light has been shed on acts of sexual abuse perpetrated by rabbis, spiritual teachers and other leaders in the Jewish faith.
Reports of abuse, complaints against rabbis, teachers, mentors and other authority figures in the Jewish community have reportedly gone ignored or unnoticed in previous years. With recent media and public attention on sexual molestation, abuse and inappropriate behavior in religious institutions and groups, many survivors and their families have made the decision to come forward with their own stories of illegal and immoral sexual abuse.
Jewish Orthodox Community Sexual Abuse Lawyer
At the Zalkin Law Firm, it is our mission to provide legal representation and assistance to survivors of sexual abuse throughout the country. If you have been abused by a rabbi or other member of the Jewish faith, orthodox or otherwise, you do have legal rights and you can receive the help and support that you need. We understand that it can be very difficult to relate your story even if it occurred many years in the past. That is why we are dedicated to providing a safe, welcoming environment in which you and your family are protected and supported throughout the process.
Children and adults who have suffered sexual abuse often feel emotions such as shame, regret, embarrassment and anger as a direct result of their experiences. Many times, these thoughts and feelings can inhibit a person from going to parents, authorities or other individuals who could offer help and assistance. We at the Zalkin Law Firm encourage and support those survivors who have been able to come forward and we want to help others who have similar situations.
If you or a loved one has been sexually abused by a member of the Jewish community, please contact a New York Sexual Abuse Attorney at the Zalkin Law Firm. We can help you.
http://matzav.com/photos-novominsker-rebbe-addresses-agudath-israels-87th-anniversary-dinner/
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“We live in changing times,” Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudas Yisroel observed, but “the truth is that times always change. “The challenges and pitfalls of one generation are not those of another.” And with that introduction, the Rebbe chose the occasion of Agudas Yisroel’s 87th anniversary dinner last night to address two painful social issues facing the observant Jewish world at present.First, however, he reminded his listeners that what makes Agudas Yisroel special is that “it seeks the truth of Torah” and discerns it in the understanding of Gedolei Torah. That determination to divine what is proper for Klal Yisroel “resists even well-meaning daas baalei batim,” Rabbi Perlow proclaimed, and certainly “the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters” of the notion that “they know better what is good for the Jews.”
“A serious issue” has arisen in our community, the Rebbe went on. “Individuals have been hurt and deserve redress, acknowledgment and empathy.” There is a need, the Rosh Agudas Yisroel continued, “for tikkun ha’ovar” - correcting the past - and for addressing the future, “creating means to guide against wrongdoing to children.”
Not many people, Rabbi Perlow noted, know of the countless hours spent by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel and the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah Umesorah over the past two years discussing the many complex facets, including the implications “for mosdos haTorah.”
“No one really knows the sensitivity that went into this entire process,” over the course of many meetings regarding “this painful parsha.”
He called his listeners to carefully read and comprehend the joint statement that was issued several weeks ago by Agudas Yisroel and Torah Umesorah, reflecting the conclusion of the rabbonim at their helms. “It was carefully drafted,” he averred, “and is not to be misread or treated cavalierly.”
That statement made clear that the signatory organizations fully acknowledge the horror of abuse, “the devastating long-term scars it all too often creates,” and the fact that “for too long many victims have suffered alone.” It declared that Agudas Yisroel and Torah Umesorah would have “no objection to legislation designed to give victims of abuse greater recourse against perpetrators. Nor would we object to extending statutes of limitations for criminal proceedings against perpetrators.” But it objected to legislation that, due to its proposed year-long total suspension of the statute of limitations for civil suits against institutions, could, with the proliferation of lawsuits that might come in its wake, “destroy schools, houses of worship that sponsor youth programs, summer camps and other institutions that are the very lifeblood of our community.”
The second contemporary issue addressed by the Rebbe at the Agudah dinner involved an issue born of the constant balancing a Torah-faithful community has to undertake when living in a larger culture with very different ideals, some of them even “repugnant to our sacred values.”
“We live in a malchus shel chesed,” Rabbi Perlow asserted, “and we appreciate all that it has done for us.” At the same time, though, he continued, “we must proclaim Sheim Shomayim loud and clear,” and must declare “our opposition and strong protest” against efforts to “change the meaning of marriage” - the agenda of legislation currently before the New York State legislature.
“No one really knows the sensitivity that went into this entire process,” over the course of many meetings regarding “this painful parsha.”
Translation:
No one knows how hard we tried to deceive YOU. No one knows how hard we TRIED to cover up this painful parsha. No one knows how hard I tried persuading the great torah minds that this is a Boro Park matter.
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