"Yeshiva" of Brooklyn also Guilty of Child Abuse

What's In The Mind Of A Child Killer?

2011-07-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

By Sheila Anne Feeney

What's in the mind of a child killer?

Photo credit: amNY

What on earth could compel a man to kill and chop up a little boy, keeping the child's dismembered feet in his refrigerator?
It’s possible that Levi Aron, 35, the Kensington man accused of killing 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, might be severely mentally ill or have a personality disorder. But “most of us gravitate to thinking that this fellow was a pedophile,” who allegedly killed the child for sexual excitement or to prevent him from telling anyone about a sexual assault, said N.G. Berrill, director of New York Forensic, a behavioral science consultant group.
Aron reportedly told cops he killed the boy in a panic, but that explanation didn’t wash with experts.
“That’s an after-the-fact statement offenders make,” to obscure actual motives, said Stanton Samenow, author of “Inside the Criminal Mind.” “There may have been sexual interest and there are very high odds there was sexual contact,” Samenow said.
Sometimes “there is sexual gratification in the dismemberment itself,” added Louis Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College and author of “Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicide.”
The boy’s feet may have been kept as some sort of “trophy” or “prize,” possibly to be used for sexual gratification at a later time, Berrill added.
Rarely do such crimes occur out of the blue, nor are they out of character, said Samenow. While little is known at this point about the suspect, Samenow said that forensic investigations usually reveal a history of atypical, antisocial behaviors which may include deviant sexual interests, an extensive fantasy life, the need to control others, an inability to get along with peers or to respond in a constructive way to life’s challenges, and a track record of intimidating, deceptive, and even violent behavior.
Aron may have been abused himself, added Berrill, explaining that for some victims, committing violent acts is a way for them to “relive the experience” of their own childhoods but in the role of the aggressor.
But no history of abuse can justify the murder of an innocent child.
“People who commit terrible crimes come from all walks of life. It’s not the environment that makes them violent, but the way they respond and the way they think,” Samenow said. “Typically, these people who have a brother or sister who grew up in the same environment, but who do not rush out and kill eight-year-olds,” he added.
The Kletzky murder rivets the attention of all New York in part because stranger abductions of children are “enormously, enormously rare,” in the words of Schlesinger. And they are almost inconceivable in the Orthodox community, which is believed by researchers to have lower rates of substance abuse and violence than society at large.
Parents need not put their children on lock-down out of fear for their safety, Schlesinger stressed, noting the Casey Anthony case is more representative of most child murders.
“The typical person who kills a child is the child’s mother, father, step father or another member of the family,” Schlesinger said.
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The Accused Killer in His Own Words

Read a partial transcript of the confession that police say Levi Aron gave during questioning

By Jonathan Dienst

This transcript has been edited to remove parts of an extremely graphic nature. It has not been edited for clarity. These are the suspect's words as written on a legal pad during questioning, according to law enforcement sources.

My name is Levi Aron... On Monday evening around 5:30 I went to my dentist, Dr. Sorcher, to make a payment for visit for exam routine.

A boy approached me on where the Judaica book store was. He was still there when went out from the dentist’s office. He asked me for a ride to the Judaica book store. While on the way he changed his mind and wasn’t sure where he wanted to go.

So I asked if he wanted to go for the ride -- wedding in Monsey -- since I didn’t think I was going to stay for the whole thing since my back was hurting. He said ok.

Due to traffic, I got back around 11:30 p.m. … so I brought him to my house thinking I’d bring him to his house the next day. He watched TV then fell asleep in the front room. I went to the middle room to sleep. That next morning, he was still sleeping when I was ready to leave.

So I woke him and told him I’ll bring him to his house… when I saw the flyers I panicked and was afraid. When I got home he was still there so I made him a tuna sandwich....

Afterwards -- I panicked because I didn’t know what to do with the body.… carried parts to the back room placing parts between the freezer and the refrigerator …

… went to clean up a little then took a second shower. I panicked and .. Then putting the parts in a suitcase. Then carrying suitcase to the car …placing in backseat on floor behind passenger side.

… drove around approximately around 20 minutes before placing it in the dumpster on 20th street just before 4th Avenue. Then went home to clean and organize.

I understand this may be wrong and I’m sorry for the hurt that I have caused.

Belzer Child Molester Mendel (Menachem) Deutsch Case

2011-07-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Coalition Against Legal Abuse in New York reports:

Last week Wednesday, two boys were molested within an hour of each other, inside the Belzer Synagogue in Boro Park on 15^th Avenue. On Erev Shabbos, the NY Post published the news about the sexual attack on two young boys. Detailing how the pedophile lured the boys, aged 11 and 12 into the basement of the shul. Soon after, CALA learned that the surveillance footage was subpoenaed to assist the investigation.
Mi KeAmcha Yisroel! Only three weeks ago, CALA wrote about the Belz Chassidim, how they made the news on their heroic stance on sexual abuse and the steps they have taken for prevention, including surveillance and bathroom monitors. Additionally, their one-strike-and you’re-out policy has helped this investigation come to a swift end.
At around 4:30 pm, the suspect turned himself in to the 66^th precinct, accompanied by one of the Belzer Dayanim, and a criminal defense attorney. Again, Belz has taken a strong stance on reporting abuse and putting an end to these types of crimes. It is admirable that a dayan, upon learning the identity of the pedophile from the surveillance footage, actually turned him in, despite the rebbish lineage of the suspect. Kol Hakavod!
The 19 year old suspect, named Menachem Deutsch, is called Mendel amongst his fellow Belzers, and lives near the 15^th Avenue Shul where the attack took place. Married for less than a year, he is one of the first grandchildren from the prominent Deutsch family to marry. Originally from Monsey, New York, he married in to a choshiva Belzer Family. His wife is a Schiff from home, a granddaughter of the “Shotz” Moskowitz family, the first grandchild to be married in that family.
Hashem should continue to protect our children and send continued strength and wisdom to the leaders of our community. May they continue to do the right thing.
The question remains: Will he now admit who molested him? Apparently, the family of the first victim already withdrew the charges.
NY Post Update: Brooklyn Teen Surrenders in Abuse Case

Sex Scandals In Religion Will Be Defeated Just Like The Killing Of Osama bin Laden

2011-05-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

The New York State Police at Monroe announce the arrest of: JOSEPH GELBMAN, age 52, 191 Gibber Road, Kiamesha Lake, N ew York, 12751. GELBMAN was charged with Sexual Abuse 3^rd degree, Forcible Touching and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, all misdemeanors. The investigation revealed that on Thursday, April 14, 2011, GELBMAN drove a fourteen (14) year old male to the America
’s Best Value Inn located in the Town of Woodbury and had sexual contact with the victim.
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Vision TV To Air 4-part Series SEX SCANDAL IN RELIGION

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The saying may be New Testament, but – as detailed in a provocative four-part Cogent/Benger TV series - sexual betrayal by spiritual leaders is not confined to any Church, Temple or Mosque. The original series Sex Scandals In Religion offers viewers an unprecedented look at misbehavior manifested in four religions. The four half-hour episodes - produced by Toronto based Cogent/Benger Productions Inc. - take an intimate, compelling and emotional look at the dark secrets that lurk inside houses of the spirit. Sex Scandals In Religion looks beyond the infamous and well-publicized sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to stunning stories of sexual misfeasance in four other world religions. In Buddhism, a world-renowned Rinpoche is accused by several women of sexual exploitation; in Islam, the actions of zealots leads to the religiously justified rape of students and gays; in Orthodox Jewry, the mechanisms of justice are obscured in case involving a rabbi and young boys; and in Christian Evangelism, a homophobic black bishop in Atlanta is accused of the serial molestation of fatherless boys. Sex Scandals In Religion will air on consecutive Mondays, beginning with episode 1 In The Name of the Ayatollah May 9 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on Vision TV. Episode 1: In The Name of The Ayatollah Directed by Robin Benger The Mullahs of Iran authorize and justify the rape and sodomy of dissidents. State agents of this Islamic country have used the Holy Koran to violently enforce the authority of Clerics over the bodies and souls of all those who dare disagree with their singular vision of the road to Paradise. From refugee havens in Turkey, the victims seek justice. Episode 2: Wall Of Silence Directed by Alan Mendelsohn Deep within a reclusive orthodox Jewish community rests a horrific scandal. A shocked Brooklyn community shields an accused pedophile, as if the accusation itself has broken a covenant. The believers believe that speaking of the evil is worse than the evil itself. Pain, suffering, humiliation and recrimination is the price they pay for this tenet. Episode 3: In The Name Of Enlightenment Directed by Debi Goodwin A Buddhist Master beloved by millions uses his position and authority to take advantage of young women. For over three decades, complaints are dismissed as the grumblings of the uninitiated. A Guru focused on his own pleasure turns the path to enlightenment into the road to sexual servitude. Episode 4: In The Name Of The Lord Directed by Peter Findlay In the Deep South of America, a charismatic preacher rallies the nation against the evils of homosexuality - but this Leader of the Flock coaches fatherless young men with questionable intent. Supporters dismiss the allegations of impropriety and shun the victims. The stain of accusation and lawsuits follow God’s preacher in this examination of power, persuasion and corrupted scripture. Sex Scandals in Religion is Produced by Christopher Sumpton and Robin Benger. Directors include Alan Mendelsohn, Robin Benger, Debi Goodwin, and Peter Findlay. About Cogent/Benger Productions Cogent/Benger Productions Inc. has been producing high-profile network documentaries and specials since 1998. The company has a reputation for producing films destined for a wide public that explore major social issues.

Survivors and Friends

2011-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

Survivors and Friends is a non-profit organization that was founded by annie, a Survivor of sexual abuse herself. Survivors and Friends exists to provide hope, encouragement, and support for survivors of sexual abuse, incest, and rape, and their friends and family.

Here you will find articles on sexual abuse, incest, rape, and on abuse recovery, which are written by other Survivors or the loved ones of Survivors. You will also find the Survivor's Community--a place where you can safely (and anonymously) talk with other Survivors who may have faced some of the same trials that you may be facing--or have faced in the past. We have forums for partners and parents of survivors as well. We hope that you will find this site helpful in the recovery process.

In the future, we hope to also provide some chat rooms for you to communicate with each other.

Remember, you are not alone.

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Dancing in the Shadows by Laura Bryannan

Chapter 1

SURVIVOR "CHECKLIST"

Did you know that many incest and sexual abuse survivors are not aware they were abused? The psyche effectively blocks the trauma from the conscious mind so the person can continue to move forward and function in life. However, the trauma is never completely erased from a survivor's experience. Some survivors who have no conscious memories of abuse have always had a feeling something happened to them but, because they can't remember anything specific, they tell themselves the feeling must be wrong. If you are one of these people, there is a good chance that you are right-- something did happen to you, even if you can't remember exactly what. So, don't let the fact that you have no solid memories or "movies" keep you from exploring this issue.
Incest and abuse survivors often develop telling pathologies as they grow up. These pathologies are actually the various ways a survivor learned to cope with the abuse as a child, and were extremely healthy (perhaps even lifesaving) at the time, but are now in the way of their becoming a fully-functioning adult. So, if you've been working on a specific problem in yourself for some time and haven't been able to get anywhere with it, it's possible that you haven't been asking the right questions about it.
The book Secret Survivors, by E. Sue Blume (John Wiley & Sons, 1990), has a checklist of some of the many symptoms that can develop from sexual abuse. Of course these kinds of symptoms can develop from other causes as well, but if you see yourself in the discussion below, it's worth asking yourself the question, "Is it possible that I am this way because I experienced incest or sexual abuse as a child?" I'd like to summarize some of the most relevant points below.
Do you have issues with your body? Problems such as swallowing and gagging sensitivities, eating disorders, addictions to drugs or alcohol, skin carving or other self-abuse, the need to wear baggy clothes, or a fear of removing clothing even when appropriate (swimming or bathing, for example) often have their roots in childhood sexual abuse.
Survivors often have trouble expressing their anger, or live in constant fear of the anger of others. Some survivors, on the other hand, find anger and violence extremely erotic. Others are rage-alcoholics, and have trouble seeing the damage their outbursts have on the people around them. Another path survivors take is to become obsessed with suicide and death, or they spend their life in and out of depression. Many survivors remember being terminally shy and afraid as a child and, as adults, get very nervous when being watched; extreme cases border on paranoia.
Constant hand washing, lock checking, and other obsessive-compulsive behaviors are often unconscious attempts to clean what feels defiled, fix what feels broken, or secure what feels unsafe. Unexplainable fears about particular rooms or people are another clue. Abuse often leaves one feeling different from the rest of humanity, or even crazy.
One of the biggest red flags is loss of memory. If you can't remember anything before the age of six, for example, it's possible you've blocked out something painful to know about. Some survivors get more specific in their block-outs: they can remember being little but not their childhood bedroom or the kitchen, etc. Sometimes a survivor will only block out a specific person. If grandma lived with your family as a child but you can't remember any interaction with her, this is an important clue.
The pattern I've noticed to be most prevalent in otherwise healthy persons who do not remember being abused is a sexualizing of the identity. Survivors are taught that the way to get love is to put out sexually. So, when survivors become teens and young adults they often do just that! Are you someone who has had a long and somewhat promiscuous history of relationships with people who just aren't right for you--people who are unstable, substance abusers, violent, emotionally-withholding or unfaithful? It's possible you've simply been acting out what you were taught as a child.
Another clue can be found when the above-described person finally breaks that pattern and finds a healthy, loving partner to be in relationship with. A woman who has been a "hot mama" in unhealthy relationships often finds that, in a loving relationship, she loses her interest in sex entirely! Or, she wants to be sexual but finds that, instead of arousing her, her usual turn-ons now bring uncomfortable, icky or scary feelings.
The converse of this issue also occurs. I have seen many survivors let go of otherwise loving relationships because their partner's sex drive was not as active as theirs (the sex drive of an abuse survivor can be like a bottomless pit of need, by the way). Since people who were sexually abused often have their entire self-worth wrapped up in their sexual performing, a survivor has a hard time believing that their partner can really love them if they're not having sex as often as the survivor needs to feel safe.
A tangent to this problem is the woman who experiences her loving, kind and supportive partners as boring. A woman coming out of an abusive background will generally feel attracted to people who mirror the energies of her abuser. If her abuser was angry and violent, only these kinds of partners turn her on. If her abuser was distant, keeping her always at arm's length, she can only fall in love with distant, emotionally-withholding partners. If you are someone who thrives on emotional turbulence and high drama in your relationships, and are bored to tears with the loving folks you've met, you may be stuck in a self-abusive pattern that began in your childhood.
Another path abuse survivors take is to become totally asexual. These people often gravitate toward the myriad religious and philosophical systems which teach that sexual expression is a hindrance to one's spiritual development. This, of course, is the ultimate safe place for many abused people. Survivors in this environment are encouraged to spend their entire lives cut off from their bodies; freedom from sexual impulses is seen as a high spiritual goal. Thus, the survivor will never have to confront the awful memories that lie beneath the surface of their consciousness.
These are only some of the more obvious ways sexual abuse survivors act out. If you don't see yourself in any of the above descriptions, but still feel that something happened to you, please continue to explore this possibility. Incest and sexual abuse experiences are as varied as there are humans on this planet, and not all damaging experiences ever involve actual sexual activity. Sometimes all it takes is one inappropriate touch or glance--baby sitter fondling little girl's crotch, or uncle watching niece in the bathroom--and a child can be permanently shamed. Parents who tease their daughter about the size of her breasts (or who allow other family members to do so), a divorced father who tells his daughter all women are whores, are often setting up patterns in their little girls that may never be healed. These things are also abuse, even though intercourse never occurred.
The fundamental rule you should remember when reviewing your history to look for clues of abuse is this: there is a usually a good reason for every strange thing you notice about yourself. If you have phobias, sexual kinks, behavior glitches, etc., there is a very good chance someone taught them to you! These kinds of things did not come from the Original Manufacturer, they developed from misuse-of-product. No matter how bizarre the behavior or phobia, I have yet to discover a woman who did not ultimately find that it was produced by some corresponding form of abuse.
So, if you have fantasies of being tied up and sexually tortured, there's a good chance someone did that to you and you've blocked it out. If going into the bathroom after dark gives you anxiety attacks, there's a good chance that something horrible happened to you in a bathroom at night earlier in your life. Give yourself permission to believe that these kinds of behaviors have a reasonable and rational cause and you'll find that your life is full of clues about what may have happened to you.
Go to Table of Contents

Last Updated: 7jun10
Laura Bryannan
LauraBryannan@hotmail.com

Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse Must Be Abolished

2011-02-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.cleananpress.com/abuse/stories.htm
Readings from Dr. Lynn Daugherty's classic bestseller. . .

Why Me?
Help for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse
(Even if they are adults now), 4th Edition

When something bad happens to you, it often helps to know you are not alone. You feel better if you know that other people have had the same kinds of problems.

Here are some experiences other victims of child sexual abuse (molestation, rape or incest) have had (described in "PG" terms for this website). Some boys or girls were victims of brief incidents of sexual abuse. Other boys or girls were victims of sexual abuse as part of a continuing relationship. Still others were victims of incest. All of these stories are true. The names and some of the details have been changed to protect the privacy of the victims.

All these people were victims of sexual abuse when they were children. Was your experience like any of these? Was what happened to you like any of the things that happened to them? Did you feel any of the same emotions? Did you think or do any of the same things they did?

Brief incidents
Brief incidents of child sexual abuse (molestation, rape or incest) can take many forms. Some have great impact on the victim and others have little effect. Many children, both boys and girls, are victimized in these ways. Here are some of their stories.

Connie, age 33
I have always been terrified of hospitals, but I never knew why. Then one day it came back to me. When I was 12, I had my tonsils out. I remember a nurse came into my room one night after my parents had gone home. I was half asleep because of medication. She started rubbing my head, then my body under the sheet. She massaged my breasts, then my thighs and pubic area . . . . I was scared and felt so helpless. I just "froze" until she quit and went away. I have had this really emotional reaction to hospitals ever since but had blocked out that whole incident.

Carlos, age 16
I was at the beach one day when I was about 12. I was all alone in the changing room when this old man came in. He came over to me while I was starting to put on my swimming trunks. He grabbed for me but I got away and ran home. I don’t go back there alone anymore.

Tina, age 13
I was walking along the road and this guy stopped in a van. He offered me a ride and I said, "No, I am almost home." Then he opened the door and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me in. I was too scared to run. He told me to shut up and sit there. We drove out into the hills and he raped me . . . . He did it twice. He kept saying he knew I liked it. Then he drove me back to town and let me out in the park. I walked home crying.

My mom kept asking me what was wrong until I told her. She told my dad and he went wild. I was afraid he was going to hit me, but he kept saying he was just mad at the guy.

They took me to the hospital for an examination. I don’t remember much. Then we went to the police station. They were really nice, but they just kept asking me the same questions over and over like they didn’t believe me.

The worst part was going back to school. Everybody asked me dumb questions and I felt like a freak. They all knew what had happened. They looked at me weird. I just felt dirty. I’d be sitting there in class and like a dream it would be happening again. I’d see the man and the van. I’d just sit there shaking.

I got real upset when we had to go to the preliminary hearing. I couldn’t sleep and then I threw up just before court. I’m so scared that they will let the guy out.

Glenda, age 16
It was really weird. I had just gotten my driver’s license and we went over to this older guy’s house. There were three of us girls. They knew him, but I didn’t. He gave us some beer and some pot. We were having a good time. Then he started joking around and trying to undress us. He said I could take his Mustang out for a drive once he "got to know me." We were being silly and were mainly in our underwear then. He was being real friendly, acting silly and tickling us.

He showed us his bedroom and he had a video camera by the bed. He wanted us to get on the bed and do things with each other while he filmed it. I wouldn’t do it though and I felt real weird and left.

They stayed, but the next day they said they hadn’t done anything. I felt so dirty after that. Wow! If anybody knew what I had been doing there I would have died. He said lots of girls had done that stuff for him, but I don’t know. I’ve been so afraid the other girls would tell somebody what we were doing.

Greg, age 20
I was twelve years old when they put me in the juvenile detention center the first time. I had just been hanging around and the cops picked me up for curfew violation. I spent the night there and most of the next day.

That night, after the guard had left, the other guy in my room started hassling me. He was bigger but not a lot older, just tough. He wanted me to masturbate him but I wouldn’t. Finally he backed me us against the wall and said, "You’ve got three seconds, sucker! Go down or die!" . . . . After I did what he wanted, then he left me alone. I lay awake all night though, scared to death of him.

Read other stories of boys and girls who were victims of brief incidents of child sexual abuse (molestation, rape, and incest) in Why Me? Help for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse (Even if they are adults now) by Dr. Lynn Daugherty.

Continuing Relationships
Sexual abuse (molestation or rape) often takes place in the context of a continuing relationship. It may go on for a long time before anyone finds out. The boy or girl victim often knows, likes and trusts the abuser. Parents are usually very surprised when they find out what has been happening. Parents usually think of a child molester or a child rapist as a dangerous stranger, not as someone who might be a relative, neighbor or family friend.

Read stories of boys and girls victimized in continuing relationships in Why Me? Help for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse (Even if they are adults now) by Dr. Lynn Daugherty.

Incest
Many boys or girls are sexually abused through incest. Some statistics suggest that as many as one child in every 100 is the victim of incest. Most don’t tell anyone about the abuse until they get older. Some never tell.

Jackie’s story is typical of many girls who are sexually abused by their fathers or stepfathers. She was abused by her stepfather for many years before she told anyone. The abuse started gradually but became more frequent and open as time went on. Her mother did little to stop the abuse. Jackie finally reported it as a teenager. Then she was removed from the home. Her stepfather was convicted of child sexual abuse and placed on probation on the condition that he obtain psychological treatment.
Jackie, age 18

My stepfather was the one who did it. He started when I was about six, I guess. He would come in to tuck me in at night and sometimes just run his hand over my body. It felt good and I didn’t think that was anything wrong.

Later on Daddy started doing other things with his hands . . . . That didn’t seem right but I was supposed to obey him. Then he started kissing me and kissing me under the covers. I must have been ten by then.

I was frightened. I knew my mother would punish me if she found out and I knew Daddy would be mad at me, too. I felt like it was my fault, but I didn’t understand how. I didn’t want anyone to find out how bad I was.

I remember lying awake in the dark hoping he wouldn’t come. I told myself I would jump up and run if he came, but I never did. I just lay there and hoped he would go away soon. Then I would cry and finally go to sleep. But then I would have nightmares about monsters.

One night my mother came in and saw him. She got real mad. He cried and promised never to do it again. She never said anything to me, but I always felt like she was mad at me too. We started to go to church then. He went every night they had a service.

Nothing happened again until I was 12. The he started being real nice to me again. By then I was doing a lot of the work around the house. My mother was always tired. She just never seemed very happy. My stepfather and I always had a good time together though. We would go to the grocery store to pick up whatever we needed for dinner. It would be just me and him. My brothers and sisters would stay at home. Sometimes he’d buy me something special on those trips. He always took my part with my younger brother and sisters. They knew they couldn’t mess with me when he was around. It was pretty nice sometimes, the special way he treated me.

Then he started coming into my room again at night. I don’t think my mother ever knew about it. He would cry sometimes and say he loved me. He said they’d split up the family if anybody knew what was happening. He said my mom would probably get real sick if she ever found out.

He didn’t come in very often. Just a couple of times a month maybe. I started lying awake again waiting for him, hating it. I was so ashamed. What if other people found out? My brothers and sisters said I was the favorite. What if they knew what I had done?

I felt so rotten, like I was all alone and always would be. How could I ever tell anybody about anything so awful? I thought about running away or killing myself, but I was afraid to do either one. I wished someone would stop him, but I knew I had to keep doing what he wanted or terrible things would happen.

My mom even asked me once if he ever did "those things" to me again. I couldn’t let her know, so I said no. If she had cared more, it seems like she would have checked more though. I guess she just didn’t care as long as I didn’t cause her any problems.

Then the trouble started when I wanted to go out with boys. He started getting real mean about letting me leave the house alone. He would make me turn down dates and, when I turned 15, he wouldn’t let me get a driver’s license. He said it gave me too much freedom. He was always asking who I was with, what I was doing and would get mad if boys called me on the phone. Sometimes I saw him in the car following us when I did go out.

He would do all sorts of nice things for me though. He gave me money any time I wanted it and would buy me clothes if I wanted. I would get sick about myself though. It was like I was selling myself to him for the things I wanted to do. I couldn’t tell anybody then because I hadn’t said anything before. They would just say I was a whore. Maybe I was. I felt so rotten. My mother was mad at me a lot because she said he would do anything I asked. I knew she’d be mad if she found out why.

Then he put me on restriction just because I came home late from the movies. I wasn’t even with a boy, but he still got mad. He said I couldn’t go anywhere for a month and then he slapped me and called me a tramp. I was real scared and mad at him and mad at my mom.

The next day in school I kept crying and they took me to the counselor. First I told her it was because my stepdad had slapped me, but then I told her the truth. Then everything got to be a big mess. She called the cops and they arrested him. He didn’t stay in jail long though.

Everybody is mad at me now. I’m living with my aunt and I’m not supposed to see him anymore. I know what he did was wrong, but sometimes I still feel like I am to blame. It is hard to shake the feeling that I caused all these problems. I wonder if I will ever feel different.
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Facts About Sexual Abuse

Facts About Sexual Abuse

One out of every three girls and one out of every eight boys will be sexually abused by age 18.

Eighty to ninety percent of offenders are family members or someone close to the family.

When sexual abuse occurs within a family, it is likely to continue for a period of time, even years, until it is discovered and stopped.

Both males and females sexually offend, however males represent a higher percentage of known sex offenders.

The media reports information on the highest risk offenders; however the majority of sex offenders are unknown to the general public either because information isn’t publicized or because they haven’t been caught yet.

While most other criminals decrease their criminal activity as they age, sex offenders typically do not. Most sex offenders continue to offend until they are physically incapable. Successful completion of sex offender treatment can interrupt this behavior; however extreme caution around children will continue to be necessary.

Child sexual abuse usually begins with a sex offender gaining both the parent’s and the child’s trust and friendship. Once a relationship has been established, the offender will begin to test the child’s knowledge and ability to protect themselves. Sexual jokes, back rubs, “accidental” sexual touching, and hugging, often done in the presence of the parent, are utilized to “test the waters”. If the offender isn’t given the message that these behaviors are inappropriate he/she will increase the amount and type of sexual exposure. To adjust the child to sexual activity, offenders commonly utilize casual or “accidental” exposure to pornography. This entire process is known as grooming.

Children who are well informed and empowered to act, and who have someone who will listen to them can, in many cases, prevent or stop sexual abuse. Offenders do not usually choose victims who are likely to resist or tell.

Sexual abuse can cause long-lasting problems well into adulthood. It is important to get your child into counseling after abuse has been disclosed. It is also often necessary and healthy for adult survivors of child sexual abuse to re-enter counseling at various periods of their life to assist in working through issues that resurface.

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http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/about
When I first announced that I was launching a series of articles about child safety and child sexual abuse issues, I wasn’t quite prepared for the number of emails I received from people wanting to not only express their appreciation that I’m doing this series, but several of them wanted to tell me their personal story of being a victim of sexual abuse, but didn’t feel comfortable leaving a public comment on the post. You may be wondering why I’m even doing this series, since the subject of sexually abused children tends to send chills down the spine of most parents, including mine.
I’ll tell you why I’m doing these posts. I was a victim of sexual abuse when I was a young child, and when I became an adult I did a tremendous amount of research on the subject in order to learn the facts about children being sexually abused, so I could do everything possible to protect my own children from ever becoming a victim.
But, it didn’t work. Despite knowing the statistics and all the known signs and symptoms of child sexual abuse; understanding the “grooming” methods child molesters often use on intended victims; teaching and reminding my children about “good touch, bad touch” on a regular basis; having excellent communication with my children; one of my sons was sexually abused at a young age by a highly respected church minister and close family friend, inside the church we attended at that time.
If you think it is only necessary to watch out for “strangers” who might want to hurt your child, you would be mistaken. You know, “stranger danger” and all that jazz. That is a myth, so forget that idea. Having been abused myself, and being the mother of a child who was sexually abused, I have a lot to say to people who are either uninformed, misinformed, or completely and utterly clueless.
4 Common Myths about Child Sexual Abuse:
Myth #1: You believe that since you live in a nice, safe neighborhood, where you know all your neighbors on a first name basis, and your children play with their children, hanging out at each other’s houses etc, that all is well on the home front.
Fact: Child sexual abuse can happen anywhere, in any neighborhood, in every religion or church group, covering all racial boundaries or ethnic groups, and it certainly doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are. You can live in a beautiful, gated-community of homes worth millions of dollars, and your child is still not protected from being molested or abused.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice national statistics, 1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 5 boys will become victims of sexual abuse by the time they reach their 18th birthday. Not only that, but statistics show that children in elementary school are the most vulnerable and likely targets, and children with disabilities have even higher risk factors. That’s not good news for parents with little children, making it vitally important for parents to become educated about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in society today, without becoming completely paranoid about it.
Myth #2: You have already talked with your children about not allowing anyone to touch their private parts, perhaps even calling those body parts by their proper name, and you believe that’s pretty much all there is to do. You may even have said to your children something like, “No matter what, you can always tell me anything that is on your mind, and I will believe you”.
Fact: Sexual abuse occurs by forcing or manipulating a child in a way that allows the sexual offender to touch the child’s private parts (which may or may not include penetration), or takes photo’s of children without any clothes on, or when an offender exposes themselves to a child, etc. Children need to be taught about sexual abuse, and they need to learn and know the words “sexual abuse”. Listen, you can tell your children over and over about “good touch vs. bad touch” and proper names of body parts, but if your child doesn’t know the correct terminology, how are they going to know how to tell you they were “sexually abused”?!
Myth #3: Most sexual abuse cases are committed by people who are complete strangers to you or your child.
Fact: Closely monitoring the online database for sex offenders who may have moved into your neighborhood simply isn’t enough. 85-90% of child sexual abuse cases are committed by trusted family members and close friends. That includes fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins, babysitters, daycare workers, boyfriends of single mom’s, fellow church members and clergy, and so on.
If I have to write a thousand more posts about sexually abused children, to make it crystal clear who the most likely offenders are, I will write them gladly if it will help just one more parent develop greater awareness to this issue.
Myth #4: You believe that your child would automatically tell you that he or she had been sexually abused. You may say to yourself, “My child and I have such great communication, that I KNOW my child would come and tell me immediately”.
Fact: Most sexually abused children do not tell anyone they were abused, even when directly asked by parents or other authority figures. Victims of sexual abuse are often too afraid that the news will hurt their parents, or they are afraid of not being believed, or they were threatened in some way by the offender.
While some schools offer programs that provide useful information and resources, for children and parents alike, the responsibility of educating children about sexual abuse belongs to the parents. And by the way, sexual abuse does occur in schools too!
Were you a victim of child sexual abuse at some point in your life? Are you a parent of a child who was sexually abused, perhaps now dealing with the agony of not knowing it was happening? Even if you personally have never been abused in this way, I can promise you that someone you know has been victimized sexually, but they just haven’t told you their personal story.
Further Reading-
Signs and Symptoms of Child Sexual Abuse
The Profile of A Pedophile: Identifying Characteristics and Behaviors of Child Molesters
Launching the Child Safety and Child Sexual Abuse Series
Why Kids Don’t Tell? Talking to Your Children about Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse Books-Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse-Healing Sexual Abuse
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Iowa State University
http://www.savp.iastate.edu/abuse/statistics.html

Sexual Abuse Statistics

Sexual Abuse Statistics:

90% of all campus rapes occur when alcohol has been used by either the assailant or the victim. (Facts on Tap website)
One in twelve college males admit to having committed acts that meet the legal definition of rape or acquaintance rape. (Facts on Tap website)
55% of female students and 75% of male students involved in acquaintance rape admit to having been drinking or using drugs when the incident occurred. (Facts on Tap website)
Female college freshman are at the highest risk for sexual assault between the first day of school and Thanksgiving break. (Facts on Tap website)
Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America someone is sexually assaulted. (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, RAINN website)
In 2003, there were 198,850 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. (2003 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS))
1 in 4 girls are sexually assaulted before the age of 18. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1999)
A recently published eight year study indicates that when perpetrators of rape are current or former husbands or boyfriends, the crimes go unreported to police 77 percent of the time. When perpetrators are friends or acquaintances, the rapes go unreported 61 percent of the time; and when the perpetrators are strangers, the rapes go unreported 54 percent of the time. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002)
84% of sexual assault victims know the offender. (National Victim Center, 1992. US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991)
One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice Centers for Disease & Prevention, 1998)
In 2003, nine out of ten rape victims were female. (NCVS 2003)
About three percent of American men – a total of 2.78 million men – have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, 1998)
In 2003, one in every ten rape victims was male. (NCVS 2003)

Statistics in Iowa:

2,070 sex offenses were reported to Iowa law enforcement agencies in 2003. (IowaCASA Statistics, 2003)
Over 70.4% of rapes reported to Iowa law enforcement in 2003 were committed by someone known to the victim. (IowaCASA Statistics, 2003)
70.8% rape victims knew their attacker. (IowaCASA Statistics, 2003)

Story County SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) statistics:

There were 55 SART responses in 2004.
Breakdown of the 55 cases in 2004:

65% were between the ages of 18-25
98% were female and 2% male
47% of victims were ISU students
54% were acquaintances
71% of victims reported having used alcohol or other drugs
61% of victims reported that the perpetrator used alcohol or other drugs

Leopards Don't Change Their Spots

2011-01-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

Why is this pig smiling?

Why is Nussbaum employed by Yeshiva of Brooklyn?

How is Mandel seriously a "rabbi" when he openly provides refuge to a sadistic pedophile, but not only that - surrounds the predator with prey which to prey upon?

Mandel is a sinner. The big cheese of Agudas Yisorel is merely a reflection of a monstrous 'Jew' trying in no uncertain terms to undermine our better judgment and wit. He reasons, if he put on an act of piousness, mainly carrying about business as usual, no one would challenge the pile of debris swept under the rug. The yob tyrant/rasha knows the sad truth, most yidden look the other way, not wishing to be associated with any stigma.

in 2011, many folks are intelligent enough to see past that, but many are still not. Unfortunately, too many remain shortsighted, most having already buried their heads in the sand a long time ago.

Cathy Spatz Widom

Cathy Spatz Widom is Professor of Criminal Justice and Psychology at the State University of New York in Albany, and a recognized national expert on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect. Her highly respected research includes an important and ongoing longitudinal study of a large sample of children with confirmed severe abuse in childhood. Such prospective studies, in which abused children are followed over time, are particularly valuable in the present context because they can be used to study current memories of people who were definitely abused as children. In the two studies below, one on physical abuse on the other sexual abuse, the findings suggest that for both forms of abuse the accuracy of retrospective reports depends on a complex array of factors, including sample selection and assessment methods, whether the person is male or female, and current mental health status (e.g., suffering from depression or not).
Widom, C. S. & Shepard, R. L. (1996). Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood victimization: Part 1. Childhood physical abuse. Psychological Assessment, 8, 412-421.

Abstract: Using data from a study with prospective-cohorts design in which children who were physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected about 20 years ago were followed up along with a matched control group, accuracy of adult recollections of childhood physical abuse was assessed. Two hour in-person interviews were conducted in young adulthood with 1,196 of the original 1,575 participants. Two measures (including the Conflict Tactics Scale) were used to assess histories of childhood physical abuse. Results indicate good discriminant validity and predictive efficiency of the self-report measures, despite substantial underreporting by physically abused respondents. Tests of construct validity reveal shared method variance, with self-report measures predicting self-reported violence and official reports of physical abuse predicting arrests for violence. Findings are discussed in the context of other research on the accuracy of adult recollections of childhood experiences. Excerpts from the Discussion:
     ". . . In many ways, these findings indicate accuracy in retrospective self-reports and good discriminant validity. Individuals who were physically abused, based on official records, retrospectively reported the highest rates of childhood physical abuse in the sample. On the CTS (Severe Violence and Very Severe Violence subscales) and the SRCAP [Self-Report Measure of Childhood Physical Abuse], physically abused individuals reported significantly higher rates of physical abuse than did individuals who had experienced sexual abuse or neglect in childhood and individuals who were part of a matched control group. The extent of remembering (i.e., the percentage of individuals who had been physically abused who reported having been physically abused on one of the measures used here) is in line with previous research. These results also reveal that the extent of reporting a history of childhood physical abuse varied dramatically by the criterion (or measure) used.
     "At the same time, there is a problem in underreporting of physical abuse. A substantial group of individuals who were physically abused do not report having been physically abused in childhood. Of the 110 people in the sample who had documented cases of physical abuse in childhood, 60-62% reported abuse using the CTS-VSV and SRCAP. This means that approximately 40% of individuals with documented histories of physical abuse did not report. Whether these people did not report (as suggested by Della Femina et al., 1990) because of embarrassment, a wish to protect parents, a sense of having deserved the abuse, a conscious wish to forget the past, or lack of confidence in or rapport with the interviewer, we do not know. But these findings suggest that a substantial minority would not be included in retrospective self-report assessments of childhood physical abuse. A more lenient criterion (such as the CTS-Minor Violence subscale) would capture most of the physically abused people (see Table 2); however, this criterion also identifies 92% of the sexual abuse and neglect cases and 86% of the control participants as having been physically abused in childhood. Using the CTS-Minor Violence subscale, the rate of false positives (as presented in Table 5) approaches almost half the sample. These findings illustrate that the rate of false positives is directly related to the measure of childhood physical abuse used. . .
     "Henry et al. (1994) concluded that reliance on retrospective reports about psychosocial variables should be treated with caution. They suggested that "the use of retrospective reports should be limited to testing hypotheses about the relative standing of individuals in a distribution and should not be used to test hypotheses that demand precision in estimating event frequencies and event dates" (p. 92). We support their recommendation to use caution against overly simplistic interpretations that take retrospective reports at face value.
     "These methodological problems pose significant challenges to researchers in the field. Notwithstanding the real difficulties involved, there is a critical need to develop reliable and valid ways to assess histories of childhood victimization. . . ."

Widom, C. S. & Morris, S. (1997). Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood victimization: Part 2. Childhood sexual abuse. Psychological Assessment, 8, 412-421.

Abstract: Questions have been raised about the accuracy of retrospective self-reported information about childhood sexual abuse. Using data from a prospective-cohorts-design study, a large group of children who were sexually and physically abused or neglected approximately 20 years ago were followed up and compared with a matched control group. Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood sexual abuse was assessed using 4 different measures, completed in the context of a 2-hr in-person interview in young adulthood ( N = 1, 196). Results indicate gender differences in reporting and accuracy, substantial underreporting by sexually abused respondents in general, good discriminant validity and predictive efficiency of self-report measures for women, and some support for the construct validity of the measures. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed. Excerpts from the Introduction:
     ". . . [A] significant risk of distortion and loss of information is associated with the recollection of events from a prior time period. If asked to recall childhood events, it is possible that respondents forget or redefine their behaviors in accordance with later life circumstances or their current situation. It is also possible that a person might redefine someone else's behavior in light of current knowledge. Unconscious denial (or repression of childhood traumatic events) may also be at work in preventing the recollection of severe cases of childhood abuse. Furthermore, given society's disapproval of various forms of family violence, a person may be embarrassed to report such experiences or unwilling to reveal such private information in the context of an interview setting. Thus, for a variety of reasons, there may be considerable slippage in accuracy in retrospective reporting. . . .
     "Empirical findings suggest that a person's cognitive appraisal of life events strongly influences his or her response (Lazarus & Launier, 1978). The same event may be perceived by different individuals as irrelevant, benign, positive, or threatening and harmful. It is likely that a child's cognitive appraisal of early childhood events will also determine at least in part whether they are experienced as neutral, negative, or harmful. The child's perception might reflect events occurring subsequent to the abuse experience as well as the child's perception of the experience. Theoretically, this is also important because long-term consequences may depend on the person's awareness or memory of the earlier abusive experience or experiences. Considering Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) discussion of the role of cognitive appraisal in mediating one's response to stress, it may be that children who do not define their early childhood experiences as abusive will show better outcomes.
     "There may also be gender differences in reporting or willingness to report childhood sexual abuse for a variety of reasons. Female psychiatric patients have been found more likely than male patients to report histories of sexual abuse. . ., female patients have been found more likely than male patients to reveal childhood sexual assault experiences to therapists (Jacobson & Richardson, 1987), and women have reported greater likelihood than men of being a victim of sexual assault (Burnam et al., 1988). Social pressures against reporting early childhood sexual experiences and embarrassment may lead to greater reluctance among men to report, whereas it may be socially more acceptable for women to report such histories. On the other hand, some of the apparent underreporting may be associated with the small number of male victims of sexual abuse in most studies (Finkelhor, 1990).
     "One approach to assessing the power or efficiency of retrospective self-report measures is to calculate the relative improvement over chance (RIOC). Loeber and Dishion (1983) devised this index to represent the improvement over chance as a function of the range of its possible predictive efficiency. . . .
     "A second approach to establishing the usefulness of retrospective reports of childhood sexual abuse is based on the construct validation process, one of the techniques used to establish the psychometric qualities of assessment instruments. In addition to establishing the validity of retrospective self-report measures using "known groups," construct validity attempts to assess how these self-report measures theoretically relate to other variables or indexes. That is, there are certain theoretical expectations about the way people who have a history of childhood sexual abuse should behave or should manifest certain outcomes. Based on logical relationships, then, tests of construct validity can offer evidence that these measures do or do not measure childhood sexual abuse, without providing definitive proof."
     "To validate our retrospective self-report measures of childhood sexual abuse, three outcomes frequently associated with childhood sexual abuse (depression, alcohol problems, and suicide attempts) will be assessed. Ideally, retrospective reports of childhood sexual abuse should relate to subsequent outcomes similar to the way official reports of childhood sexual abuse relate to these outcomes.
Excerpts from the Discussion:
     "We examined the accuracy of four retrospective self-report measures of childhood sexual abuse. In general, we found that women and men differ in the extent to which they recall or report having experienced childhood sexual abuse. Approximately 16% of men with documented cases of sexual abuse considered their early childhood experiences sexual abuse, compared with 64% of women with documented cases of sexual abuse. These gender differences may reflect inadequate measurement techniques or an unwillingness on the part of men to disclose this information. They may also reflect differences in the meaning of these behaviors for men and women, particularly viewed in a cultural context. Gender differences in reporting and in perceptions of early childhood experiences may reflect early socialization experiences in which men learn to view these behaviors as nonpredatory and nonabusive. Many of the sexual experiences considered to be sexual abuse (e.g., showing/touching sex organs, kissing in a sexual way) may be seen as developmental rites of passage, part of a learning process. Men reported more sexual experiences in which they touched the other person. Social pressures against reporting certain kinds of early childhood experiences may also lead to greater reluctance among men to report. Future research ought to examine whether the underreporting by men is due to embarrassment or to perceptions about sexual experiences.
     "In our examination of the validity of retrospective self-report measures of childhood sexual abuse using known groups, we also found gender differences in the discriminant validity of the four measures. Our results indicate good discriminant validity for the self-report measures used here for women but much less so for men. A higher percentage of women with official histories of childhood sexual abuse recall or report sexual abuse in young adulthood than do women with histories of physical abuse or neglect, who in turn report higher levels than nonabused and nonneglected controls (Table 3). On the other hand, men in our sample with documented cases of sexual abuse do not report higher levels of sexual experiences (any sex before age 12) than do men with documented cases of physical abuse or neglect or control men. Sexually abused men are significantly more likely to consider that they were sexually abused and to report more often having had sex against their will than are controls, but so are physically abused or neglected men. It is noteworthy that more physically abused or neglected men reported having had sex with an older person than did sexually abused men, none of whom reported having had this experience in childhood.
     "Overall, we found substantial underreporting of sexual abuse among known victims of childhood sexual abuse. This is particularly impressive because these are court-substantiated (documented) cases of childhood sexual abuse. Much attention has been paid to the lack of recall or failure to report histories of childhood sexual abuse among known victims of abuse. Although this lack of reporting is significant, it may not be surprising when viewed in a somewhat different context. Nonreporting by crime victims in the context of victimization surveys has been studied for a number of years (Garofalo & Hindelang, 1977), and problems with respondent embarrassment about the incident or "protective mechanisms," or simply memory decay or forgetting have been described. . . .
     "For women, we found strong relationships between retrospective self-report measures of childhood sexual abuse and the three outcomes examined here: DSM-III-R diagnoses of depression and alcohol abuse/dependence and suicide attempts. We also found that women with documented cases of childhood sexual abuse who were followed up prospectively into young adulthood were at increased risk for having alcohol abuse/dependence diagnosis and for making suicide attempts.
     "It was surprising that we did not find that women or men with documented cases of childhood sexual abuse were at increased risk of being diagnosed with depression according to DSM-III-R criteria, despite the widespread belief that childhood sexual abuse leads to depression. We did, however, find a significant relationship between retrospective self-report measures of childhood sexual abuse and depression diagnosis. Thus, this pattern of findings suggests that the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and depression is complicated and may depend on a person's cognitive appraisal of early life events (cf. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Individuals who meet the criteria for a DSM-III-R depression diagnosis (current or remitted) are more likely to recall having been sexually abused in childhood than individuals without depression diagnoses, although individuals with documented cases of sexual abuse in childhood who were followed up into young adulthood were not at increased risk of receiving a depression diagnosis. This was true for men as well as women in this sample. . . .
     "The underreporting we found means that there is a substantial group of people with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse who do not report these experiences when asked in young adulthood to do so. Whether this is due to loss of memory, denial, or embarrassment is not known. However, there are important implications from these these findings for other researchers and clinicians. For researchers, the underreporting of childhood sexual abuse poses a serious concern for epidemiological research, especially that which involves a large proportion of men. For clinicians, these findings reinforce the need to develop more sensitive techniques to elicit this information from men.

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'Gedolim' CLUELESS !!! Moetzes Gedolei Hatora's outlook in 2011 is still: don't report sexual abuse to authorities, try to squash the facts internally via intimidation tactics. SHAMEFUL!

Mayor Bloomberg crowed Monday that city streets have never been safer - day or night - for women, but some skeptical New York ladies suggested he take a walk in their neighborhoods.
At a tour of a Queens school Monday night, the mayor proudly declared: "People don't remember 10 years ago. They've really already forgotten when you couldn't walk the streets."
"Today, a woman could walk in virtually every neighborhood in this city during the day and not look over her shoulder, and most neighborhoods at night," he added.
But Bronx resident Carla Banks, 31, said living on the upper East Side has left the mayor clueless about what women face.
"Bloomberg's trippin'," said Banks, of Kingsbridge Heights. "This isn't the upper East Side. He's definitely out of touch with what women deal with in the Bronx."
Her pal Devon Irving, 29, said he should take a solo stroll down her block. "I know the mayor doesn't have to worry about walking home from the subway, but I sure do," said Irving, of Mount Eden. "If he thinks we don't still have to watch our backs, he's crazy."
Nora Nestor, 32, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said she wouldn't change where she lives, but she never lets her guard down.
"I love my neighborhood. I feel safe in it, but I wouldn't walk anywhere in New York without being aware of what's behind my shoulder," she said. "As a woman, you have to be aware of your surroundings."
Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Elizabeth Truemper, 25, said some parts of Brooklyn are more dangerous for women than men.
"There's no way I'd walk from Bed-Stuy to Bushwick, but I have male friends that walk from Bushwick to Bed-Stuy," she said.
The mayor boasted about female safety after Rabbi Yaakov Bender, the dean of Yeshiva Darchei Torah School in Far Rockaway, thanked him and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly for keeping the streets safe.
But at a community meeting the mayor later attended in Far Rockaway, Beverly Champion didn't second the sentiment.
She complained to the mayor about crime in housing developments, saying, "I've lived here all my life, and I've never seen it as worse." Champion said she doesn't feel safe walking around with her purse and laughed when told what the mayor had said earlier about crime.
"He's not telling the truth," she said. "He just takes the reports that they give him, but he doesn't know."
Even women with tony Manhattan zip codes called the mayor out on his comments.
"He's a bit off the mark," said Carson Demmons, 26, of NoHo. "I've lived in neighborhoods where I wouldn't give it a second thought during the day, but it was a whole different story at night. You still need to keep your wits about you."
Bloomberg's boasts did get some support - from women who live in his neighborhood.
"Yes, it has gotten better," said upper East Sider Theresa Ackerly, 43. "This nabe changed a lot. Back in the '80s, there were a lot of gangs. Mayor Bloomberg is doing all right in terms of crime."
Meanwhile, at the community meeting, a crowd of 200 booed the mayor and the Department of Transportation Queens Borough commissioner, Maura McCarthy, when they spoke of planned bike lanes for the Rockaways.
Bloomberg later admitted that the lanes drew strong reactions from supporters and opponents.
"Bicycle lanes are one of the more controversial things, obviously," he said. "Some people love them and some people hate them. ... It's probably true that in many of these cases we could do a better job, and we're going to try to do that."

"The {FRUM} Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct"

2010-12-29T05:13:00.000-08:00

FIND OUT WHY RABBIS AND ORTHODOX LEADERS ARE RAVING ABOUT THIS GUIDE

Bond set in Fla. for author of pedophile guide

Phillip Ray Greaves II.

BARTOW, Fla. -- A judge set bail at $15,000 Wednesday for a Colorado man who wrote a how-to guide for pedophiles.
Phillip Greaves of Pueblo is charged with violating the state's obscenity law, a third-degree felony that could land him in prison for five years.
The 47-year-old was arrested Monday in Colorado, but Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd claims jurisdiction in the case because Greaves sold and mailed a copy of his book to undercover deputies in Florida who had requested a copy.
Court-appointed public defender Francis Solorzano, assigned because Greaves could not afford an attorney, first asked Judge John Kirkland to drop the case.
"Any finding of probable cause would tend to have a chilling effect on free speech," Solorzano said. "What we're dealing here is mere words. There are no images in the book."
But Kirkland said the judge who signed the arrest warrant had already found probable cause and he could not override that decision.
The self-published book - "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct" - caused a flap when it showed up on Amazon in November. It was later removed from the site.
Greaves, who has no criminal record, writes in the book that pedophiles are misunderstood, as the word literally means to love a child. He adds it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.
Judd said he was incensed when he heard about the book and that no one had arrested Greaves for selling it. The book, Judd said, included first-person descriptions of sexual encounters, purportedly written from a child's point of view.
During the hearing Wednesday, Greaves' attorney asked Kirkland to reduce or eliminate the $15,000 bond.
"It is 15 times the standard bond schedule for a third-degree felony," Solorzano said. "That should be considered excessive."
But prosecutor Brad Copley said the state believes the $15,000 bond "is on the low side."
Kirkland decided to keep the bond at $15,000. If Greaves does post it, he must stay in the state of Florida, not use a computer and not have contact with anyone under 18.
Solorzano said it is unlikely Greaves will be able to raise the bail money. He is being held at the Polk County Jail and told local media on Tuesday that he "only has sex with grown-ups" and that writing and selling his book falls under his constitutional right to free speech.
He is charged under Florida's obscenity law, which prohibits the "distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors."
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Pope, Gedolim reflect on the 70's

Pope Benedict used his annual speech to Rome's cardinals and bishops on Monday (Dec. 20) to ask them to reflect on the church's responsibility in the child sex abuse scandals.

Benedict qualified his mea culpa by stating that the scandal (in which priests who sexually abused children were often ignored or protected by the Catholic Church) was partly justified by the broader social context. Benedict said that while the church accepted some responsibility, he could not be silent about ''the context of these times.... There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society." [History of Pornography No More Prudent Than Present]

Benedict claimed that as recently as the 1970s, "pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children." In this climate, the Catholic Church's actions were merely reflecting the moral relativism of the times: "It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself," Benedict said. That is, church leaders weren't sure if child sexual abuse was wrong, since secular society seemed to accept it.

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At age 101, pedophile dies, ending an ugly tale

Theodore A. Sypnier, a 101-year-old pedophile, went to prison last spring saying he would rather die than spend another day behind bars.
He died early Tuesday, and his daughter says the family is relieved.
"The world is that much safer because he is not here," said Martha Juchnowski, his daughter and one of his victims. "I think I can speak for my family: There is a sense of relief. This has been a horrible thing that has been hanging over our heads all our lives."
Sypnier, the oldest inmate imprisoned by the state, died of natural causes at 12:23 a.m. Tuesday in a prison medical unit, according to Linda M. Foglia, spokeswoman for the Department of Correctional Services.
Before he was sent back to prison in April on a parole violation, Sypnier, weeping, told The Buffalo News, "I don't want to go back. I'd rather die."
As word spread of his death, no tears were being shed for the man who authorities said sexually attacked children for decades in Buffalo and later in the Town of Tonawanda.
"I hope this brings a little bit of comfort to his family and those he hurt so deeply. You can't go back and change things," said the Rev. Terry J. King, whose organization, Saving Grace Ministries, assists ex-convicts.
Sypnier had received temporary shelter in King's East Side halfway house after he was released on parole in the fall of 2009.
"We did not want him to hurt again or victimize anyone. Certainly he had hurt enough people through his lifetime," King said. "It is sad all the way around."
Last Wednesday, Sypnier's health began to fail, and he was transferred from Groveland Correctional Facility in Livingston County to the Coxsackie Correctional Facility's regional medical unit in Greene County, south of Albany.
A prison chaplain spoke with Sypnier in his final days, but Juchnowski said she was not aware that he had expressed any remorse.
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Male Survivor

10 Daily Affirmations for Male Survivors

Howard Fradkin, Ph.D., LICDC, Co-Chairperson, MaleSurvivor Weekends of Recovery

Recovery is absolutely possible and achievable for me.
I will practice being disloyal to dysfunction and loyal to functionality.
I give myself permission to connect to loving, affirmative, strong, sensitive, accepting men and women in my community.
I release and forgive myself for any responsibility I have accepted in the past for my abuse.
The abuser (s) from the past chose to hurt me; I will stop repeating the lie that it just happened to me.
Offering myself daily compassion is necessary for my healing and growth.
I commit to connecting to the boy inside me today so we can play, laugh and experience joy together, even if just for a minute or two.
I believe deep inside me I possess the ability to face the truth of my abuse and to learn to use new tools for healing.
I have the right and the ability to speak the truth of my abuse and deserve to be heard, understood, believed and supported.
Feeling is healing; as I heal, I develop the ability to experience a wider range of emotions to enhance my health and connections to others.

Child Sexual Predator "Rabbi" Yehuda Kolko Arrested Again

2010-11-24T21:21:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn rabbi busted for violating order of protection against boy, 12

BY Simone Weichselbaum, Michael Mclaughlin and Barry Paddock
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, November 22nd 2010, 4:00 AM

Egan-Chin/News

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was charged with sexual abuse in 2006.

Related News

A Brooklyn rabbi was arrested for violating an order of protection against a 12-year-old boy he is accused of sexually molesting, police said.
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was charged with sexual abuse in 2006, accused of molesting students at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn, where he was a teacher. He pleaded guilty to child endangerment.
He was accused of violating an order of protection on Nov. 12 by stopping and glared at one of the victim after they crossed paths on the street.
The boy is set to testify in a civil suit against the school in March, a family advocate said.
"The experience of again being threatened and intimidated by Kolko these past weeks retraumatized him," the boy's father said in a statement to the Daily News. "He can't sleep. He's afraid to go outside."
The father filed a complaint with cops, who arrested Kolko Saturday.
Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Evelyn Laporte warned Kolko to stay away from his accusers at his arraignment on Sunday night. Kolko was released on his own recognizance.
Defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz scoffed at the new charges.
"These days they arrest people if you look at them the wrong way. It's not a crime," said Schwartz, accusing the victims of trying to set up Kolko.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/11/22/2010-11-22_bust_perv_rabbi_for_glare_at_victim.html#ixzz16GgNhuCf
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The Grooming Process of a Child Sexual Predator.

by Megan Bayliss | More from this Blogger
Grooming is a process of desensitization that predators use on children to prepare and trick them into accepting sexual abuse. Once the predator has gained the child's trust and confidence, they use everyday behaviours, like telling an inappropriate joke, a touch on the upper arm that lingers a little too long or a kiss on the lips to test whether your child is likely to tell on them. If the perpetrator is satisfied that your child won't tell, the predator moves onto other forms of bad touching. If the child still doesn't tell, then the abuse continues along the continuum of abuse from non contact, to contact and often ending with penetration and sometimes even homicide.
Just as we groom ourselves before going out to make us look presentable, predators often groom themselves as wonderful, caring people. They may involve themselves in your family's life and often do great things in the community. This is a trick. This is their game. This is their way of being open about being sneaky and of gaining more access to your child. They often set themselves up to be high profile in a community and they spend a lot of energy in ensuring their innocence. They can sometimes be the person that we would first approach to baby-sit while we go to dinner. They are so good with the kids, so loving and protective, so eager to assist.
Grooming can take many months, and includes grooming adults around the child. Including you. The child's support networks are groomed to disbelieve any thing their child may say about bad touches. The predator may try to win your confidence and support by having some quick conversations with you about a lie the child told or they may even suggest that there's something unbalanced about your child. They do it so caringly and openly portray their concern and willingness to support you. The quick comments may well be true. The child may have lied or may even be acting out of character. But, just remember that if a child lies once it doesn't doom them to an eternal cycle of lying. If ever your child says they've been abused, always believe them, even if you think it's impossible. Remember, your thoughts of impossibility may be because you've been groomed.
Developed world research suggests that eighty-five percent of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by somebody well known to the child: somebody that has access to your child on an ongoing basis. This may suggest that the grooming has become so entrenched into our daily life that we fail to recognize it as grooming. Predators need access to children and the family home is a great place to find kids.
Sometimes we are married to the perpetrators and do not know it because they have groomed us so well. Yes, even some parents sexually abuse their own children. Females too, sexually abuse. Mostly though, parents and grandparents love their children and want to protect them. If you know a family member, or anyone else, who may be abusing children you need to get them some help. The only way to get help is to tell someone in a position to act upon and stop the abuse: the police or child welfare authority in your state. You cannot assist, or change perpetrators, because you would do so at the risk of your child. Failure to protect children is as bad as abusing the child yourself. Darkness to Light suggests that an average serial perpetrator may abuse 400 children in a lifetime. By not protecting one child, you are also failing to protect other children. Please report.
In this age of terrorism, we are quick to act on any suspicious activity. We are trying to prevent further acts of terror by recognizing the warning signs and intervening before something happens. Child sexual abusers are domestic terrorists and their acts affect our children for many years to come. Prevent the infiltration of domestic terrorism by recognizing the grooming process and stopping it now.
In tomorrow's blog we'll look at why children don't always tell you they've been abused. Believe it or not, the silence can also be a part of the grooming process. In the meantime, here's some related Families.com articles to ponder: Our children in danger from sexual molestors. Coping with sexual assault. Coping with sexual assault 2. Teaching children about child molesters. The epidemic of online child sexual crimes.

90% of all children sexually assaulted by someone they know and trust

2010-10-29T13:28:00.000-07:00


By Samuel Newhouse Brooklyn Daily Eagle JAY STREET — An Orthodox Jewish child molester who was sentenced to a maximum of 30 years earlier this year appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday for a pretrial hearing in yet another case of alleged sexual abuse of a minor. Baruch Lebovits, 59, of Borough Park, who was convicted of sexually molesting a teenager in his community, appeared before Kings County Supreme Court Justice Patricia Di Mango, the same Brooklyn judge who sentenced him in April to 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison. Justice Di Mango gave Lebovits the maximum sentence for each of eight counts of abusing a 16-year-old Borough Park resident, whom Lebovits lured on several occasions in 2004 and 2005 to his silver Toyota for “driving lessons” before performing oral sex on the victim, who was a friend of Lebovits’ son. Now Lebovits has at least one more active sexual abuse case and could face even more indictments, as several alleged victims came forward after Lebovits was sentenced. Sources in law enforcement have called the crimes Lebovits has been charged with “the tip of the iceberg.” One alleged victim said Lebovits fondled him in a mikvah or ritual bath while the victim was a teen, but made the claim after being arrested himself for allegedly fondling a 12-year-old in a mikvah, according to the Daily News. Despite these allegations, Lebovits, a cantor (traditional Jewish singer) and a local teacher, still has some supporters in the community. But the father of the victim whose testimony led to Lebovits’ April sentence has called Lebovits a “grand-molester.” Read more: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=38583 ====================================================================== http://www.csasurvivor.net/?page_id=222 JAMAICA:PUBLIC OUTRAGE, EXPOSE MOLESTERS NOW! MARY CLARKE, Children’s Advocate, on Wednesday appealed to members of the public not to shield child abusers. She made the appeal while addressing the launch of the child abuse prevention campaign at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital. She said her office was concerned that children who are to appear before the courts as victims of rape and carnal abuse often miss court dates. “When the summons are to be served for them to come to court, they cannot be found. Mother’s don’t know, guardians don’t know, community members don’t know, and after the date of the case, the child reappears,” she said. “I am calling on you today to be responsible citizens - that is being very irresponsible. You are protecting abusers, you are helping no one.” SIMILAR APPEAL Public Defender, Howard Hamilton, also made a similar appeal. He said men who have sex with one-month-old babies and young children because they believe that they can be cured from a sexually transferred disease should cease this atrocity. “This can no longer continue, men cannot be allowed to go to a four-month-old infant, so let this be a turning point in Jamaica,” he said. Mrs. Clarke said since the beginning of the year, there were 80 cases of sexual and physical abuse cases reported at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital. Of this number, 14 could not be traced because wrong addresses were given. “Parents, guardians, caregivers, you have a responsibility for your children. You must give the correct addresses and phone numbers. Why are you concealing the children who need the psycho-social support to help them get over the hurt that they have felt, why? Why are you hiding the abusers?” she asked. She said of the 14, five were assaulted and nine were physically injured. She said during last year, there were 8,275 victims of major crimes. Of this number, 24 per cent were children under 14 years old. Rose Robinson-Hall, chairman and coordinator of the Child Abuse Mitigation Project at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital, told The Gleaner that the child abuse campaign would involve in-house training of staff to recognise behaviours that are abusive and to be able to respond appropriately to these cases. AWARENESS IS YOUR BEST DEFENSE BECOME A WATCHDOG “AWARENESS IF YOUR BEST DEFENSE” OVER HALF A MILLION SEXUAL PREDATORS LIVING IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES SEXUAL ABUSE BEFORE 18TH BIRTHDAY IS A REALITY FOR GIRLS AND BOYS 1 in 5 girls will be sexually assaulted before 18 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted before 18 1 in 5 children propositioned on the Internet 90% of all children sexually assaulted by someone they know and trust According to a National Institute of Justice study done in 1996, child sexual abuse costs America $23 billion. Victims of child sexual abuse generally spend more on psychiatric care services throughout their lives More is spent on special educational services. The loss in potential and productivity, and these expenses would not be necessary if not for sexual abuse and its financial drain to each and everyone of us A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY MAY BE NO FRIEND AT ALL 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused or sexually assaulted by their 18th birthday The perpertrators aren’t “dirty old men hiding in the bushes” but family members For More Information http://www.familywatchdog.us ======================================================================= TWENTY-FOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN THE AREA OF CHILD ABUSE What constitutes child abuse and neglect? Who has to report child abuse and neglect? If I report, am I breaking confidentiality? Under what circumstances do I have a duty to report child abuse? How do I report? and What information am I required to disclose in a child abuse report? Will I get in trouble if I do not report child abuse as required under laws of my state? Will I get in trouble if I do report? and Can I be sued by the person I report? Do I have to report every instance of child abuse? Do I have to report if the suspected abuser is in treatment or if I believe the reporting would do more harm than good? What will be the response to my report? Are there issues I should consider for disclosure? How shall I handle a child’s disclosure of abuse by a parent? How shall I handle a child’s disclosure of abuse by a non-family member? What are some possible effects for the child, the family, and treatment when a disclosure or report are made? What are possible beneficial effects of reporting for the child and family? What are some of the possible personal issues I should be aware of in handling disclosure and reporting? What are the characteristics and symptoms of a child who has been abused? How do I recognize and verify what abuse had occurred? Are there psychological measures to assist in evaluations of victims of child abuse? What special considerations are there in the assessment of victims of child abuse? What are the emotional demands of providing intervention services to victims of child abuse? What roles can I play in supporting and providing intervention services to the victims of child abuse? How do I provide treatment to a child who has been abused? What are the therapeutic issues, reasonable goals, and special considerations when providing treatment to a child who has been abused? From The American Psychological Association’s (APA, 1995) Committee on Professional Practice and Standards ======================================================================== EXPOSE THE PERP: THE AFTERMATH As you heal from child sexual abuse and talk more about the trauma, you will become more comfortable with what you tell others, especially family members. The details you share of the abuse is up to you, and you can choose to share what you are confident about. Usually a survivor will share with a family member you are most comfortable with, because you will receive various responses from family. Usually a survivor will tell a family member what took place and immediately the family member will want to know what exactly happened between you and perpertrator. Then after the family member has time to absorb the information they will want to talk more about the perpertrator. Family members will express different emotions,and ask all sorts of questions. Believe it or not this communication will help make a better relationship between family members, because communication is taking place and that is one of the key steps to healing. Now as a survivor you have the option to answer and not answer questions, the ones that make you uncomfortable, you need to say that you cannot answer. As a general rule, your privacy and boundaries are important here. Each time your family asks questions about the abuse, be prepared for different reactions, be thoughtful of your family’s emotions now, because these emotions will affect you too. As these discussions take place, a survivor can reexperience thoughts about the sexual abuse that they resolved. This is normal part of what happens when telling the family what happened. Please be prepared that not all family members will believe what you have to say about the perpertrator, you may feel angry with family for this, even sad, but it is important that you know the truth, and again ” the truth shall set you free”, and its not about changing anyone else but changing and healing yourself.. As you heal you will become better at setting boundaries, and developing healthy relationships, promoting safety and trust in your life. Family members who respect and trust you are those you keep close to you. To avoid unstable relationship there must be trust, not chaos, crisis and inconsistency, and as a survivor we want to definelty avoid this in our lives. Here are few ideas: Establishing Boundaries: No one touches you without your permission and consent, and you touch no one without their persmission and consent. Choose who you want to be sexual with, some one who is safe and you feel comfortable and who you have a reciprocity in terms of respect, love and care. Trust is conditional; people earn trust, as well they earn yours. There are different levels of trust for different people. Do not tolerate disrespectful behavior and speak up when it happens. Honor your feelings and those of others Stand up for your self and believe in you right to do so. Give yourself permission to be who you are and to try new experiences Affirm your life today, and acknowledge the good that exist in your life today Take time for yourself and not allow others to intrude on your time. Say no and do not feel guilty. Praise yourself often. Excerpts from Healing from the Trauma of Sexual abuse by Karen Duncan. ========================================================================= CONFRONTING ABUSE IN THE ORTHODOX COMMUNITY (This article first appeared in NEFESH) By Rabbi Yosef Blau It is no longer possible to ignore the tragic reality that sexual, physical and emotional abuse exists within the Orthodox community. Recent revelations about rabbis and teachers abusing adolescents, often continuing to abuse for decades, dramatically remind us that our existing mechanisms are failing to deal with the problem. I am not aware of any statistics which clarify whether the numbers of offenders is substantial, but even a small number can traumatize hundreds of victims. The full measure of the horrendous nature of abuse is not always apparent from a technical halakhic perspective. Two teenagers touching each other inappropriately are guilty of the same sin as a forty-year old rabbi touching a thirteen- year old female student. We intuitively recognize that the rabbi has used his position as an authority figure to manipulate a vulnerable child, though she is an adult according to halakha. A pedophile who abuses minors even if he gets their approval is halakhicly a rapist but not if he does the same with an adolescent boy or girl. It is even more difficult to pinpoint the sin when dealing with emotional abuse and manipulation. While one can make similar technical arguments in other areas of halakha, its significance in this context is its use as cover for the many who do not want to deal with the full implications of confronting rabbinical abuse. Not wanting to see themselves as lacking sympathy for victims, people can claim to be concerned about preserving halkhic standards. How rare it is to have two witnesses who saw the abuse. Even when the pattern of abuse is clear the question remains how to effectively deal with the abuser in a way that at least limits his ability to move elsewhere and continue to abuse new people. Schools fire abusive teachers who then move to another community and start teaching (and abusing) in the new yeshiva. Going public is seen as causing a chilul Hashem and going to secular authorities as mesira. Virtually all poskim agree that if there is danger to future victims then there is no halakhic issue of mesira but practically the taboo of mesira remains. Victims are discouraged from coming forward on other grounds as well. It will hurt potential shidduchim, not only for the victim but for members of his family as well. Compassion is expressed for the reputations of members of the abuser’s family as well. The probability that the family members may have suffered abuse themselves and suffer from being in ongoing contact with the abuser, is not understood. Taking the accusation to a Beis Din unfortunately is rarely effective. Few rabbis have any training in recognizing abuse and the rabbinical courts have no investigative arm. Some abusers are charismatic leaders and have followers who will say whatever they ask them to say. Perjury to a Beis Din is not punished and in many cases the witness, in support of his mentor, has no difficulty with distorting what occurred. The cultic element in the guru’s leadership is hard for us to acknowledge. A rabbi promoting Judaism is seen as incapable of being a cult leader. Newspapers, particularly Jewish newspapers are assumed to be anti-Orthodox. Speaking to them is almost the act of a traitor. Yet at the present time the media has played a primary role in the increased awareness of this problem and an abuser whose name that has appeared in the media is unlikely to be hired by a new school or youth movement. Two recent cases point to differing approaches now being used. In one story from Israel a commission including a rabbi, a psychologist and a judge evaluated allegations and the accused was fired from his teaching position. He hired a lawyer and is fighting for reinstatement. The Israeli media have picked up the story. A recent article in Maariv broadened the discussion to quote varying views about rabbis counseling married women. The other case involved allegations that had been investigated twenty years ago and a resulting agreement that an individual would leave Jewish education, which was not effectively enforced. After two decades it became difficult to reconstruct what had occurred. Supporters of the accused spoke freely to the media while victims used pseudonyms. New allegations surfaced and a major expose appeared in the papers and a new Beit Din was formed to decide how to deal with the accusations. While no formal announcement has been made, their apparent decision was to send the case to a religious court in Israel that will deal with the charges. Despite growing awareness and concern no consensus has yet emerged. Rabbis are not trained to recognize abuse nor given an approach to aid them in responding when they realize that it is occurring. Principals are not equipped to respond to accusations against teachers in their schools. Rabbinical organizations do not have rules of appropriate conduct. Accused abusers retain memberships in these organizations without any process to remove their names. Our community has not been educated to recognize abuse nor to appreciate the ongoing trauma of victims. Headlines in newspapers are not effective educational tools. Often the response is to express anger at the paper and then ignore the abuse. Until the mentality of the community changes little progress will be made. Even if a method will be developed to get rabbinical approval for victims to go to the police much of the problem will remain. Not every manifestation of abuse involves criminal behavior. “Rabbis” who seduce women as part of outreach or marital therapy are not guilty of a punishable offence. Proper utilization of secular authorities is a necessary step but clearly not a total solution. In Chicago, after there were a number of serious incidents, a special Beit Din, whose members are respected across the Orthodox spectrum, was established to deal with accusations of abuse. Similar rabbinical courts in other major cities, whose judges would be trained to recognize abuse and would have appropriate mental health professionals as consultants, should be introduced. Creating special rabbinical courts is a powerful statement that a serious problem needs to be addressed. Nefesh professionals have a critical role to play in educating the Orthodox community, in treating and supporting victims and in serving as consultants for schools and organizations. Only people who are trained can lead a systematic campaign explaining the nature of abuse and the need to confront it openly. Stigma has to be removed from victims. Invariably when the identity of an abuser is revealed the response of far too many is “We have known that for years.” Enabling abusers to continue, covering their crimes to protect the image of the community, contribute to innocents being traumatized. Judith Herman in her book on trauma points out that both the abuser and the victims turn to others for support. The victim needs action while the abuser only asks for our silence. It is time to stop the silence. The true chilul Hashem is that we allow victims to continue to suffer in order to preserve our community’s image.

Hashem Yirachem Aleinu!

2010-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.juf.org/news/local.aspx?id=63724#

Address by Rachel Zimmerman, coordinator of Project Shield at the Jewish Child and Family Services and recipient of the 2010 Samuel A. Goldsmith Award, at the 110th Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Sept. 15, 2010.
Thank you- It is a great honor to be receiving this award- but really, I can’t accept it on my own for what is truly being honored today is the work of many.
Let me just take a moment to say congratulations to David, Lisa, Jason and Rabbi Kurtz- I am honored to be sharing the morning with you.
I also want to thank G-d first and foremost for giving me the strength to reach this point.
Last October- I did something really brave and somewhat crazy- I ran my first marathon.
Three years ago, when I started running, I couldn’t run a mile.
But I started jogging for a couple of minutes at a time before collapsing breatheless.
Then I celebrated being able to run for 30 minutes straight.
Suddenly I could run 5 miles and onward I went from there.
Crossing the finish line of first marathon was a life altering moment. Not just because of the cool bragging rights (though that’s nice) but because I never in my life thought I could do it. And as I spent five hours running that fateful Sunday morning I consistently received messages from every part of my body saying “stop”, I’m, tired, :you can’t do this”, “you’re not ready yet”, “This hurts”, “you’ll never make it”. And as I heard the barrage of complaints I closed my eyes and told myself over and over again “I can and I will, I can and I will, I can and I will”.
Three years ago I took on the job as the coordinator of Project Shield.
The task seemed daunting, the distance that needed to be covered seemed too great. You want me to do what? Sexual abuse of children is a hard topic to talk about. I expected doors to be slammed in my face, inquiries about training to be denied, and people to not want to believe that this is an issue happening in our very own community.
But in reality, the CDC cites that 1 in 4 women will be sexually abused before the age of 18 and 1 in 6 men. I have yet to do a training or a presentation where someone hasn’t come up to me afterwards or contacted me a couple of days later to tell me that they were abused, or a loved one was abused. The survivors of this silent epidemic are to be found in every country, in every culture, in every religion, and in every community.
With all of this information I took a deep breath- I closed my eyes and said “I can and I will” There was a lot of education to be done and so I took my first step forward.
And so it began. But just like with running- the gains that were being made in a short period of time were incredible. My fears started to fall by the wayside- camps said yes to having their staff trained. Parents showed up to prevention talks, and Rabbis requested meetings with me to hear more about what they could do.
But there is one main and very significant difference between running and Project Shield- Running is a one-man sport. If you fall or get hurt your race is over.
Project Shield is a team effort. Every month, every week, and every day, more and more people are joining our team. It is through the efforts of one of the most amazing teams ever put together that Shield had grown and succeeded in the astounding way that it has.
First- The Jewish Federation. Without your guidance, your funding, your unwavering support, your advice and expertise- we would not be the program that we are today.
Secondly- JCFS. What an incredible organization JCFS is. The breadth and depth of all the work we do takes my breathe away when I stop to think about it. Everyone from our wonderful executive director Howard Sitron, to our amazing Director of Community Programs, Planning, and Development- Suzanne Franklin, every clinician, every program staff, and every support staff- they have all put their hand in to help and to ask “what can we do to help you make Project Shield stronger.”
Third- the Project Shield Advisory Council. A little over two years ago we invited a group of professionals from inside and outside the Jewish community to come together to help advise our program. Together that council formed a strong voice and each member of the council has used their own strengths and programs to open doors for Shield programming. I am awed by each one of them on a constant basis.
Fourth- The leaders of the Jewish community. Every Rabbi, Every School Principal, and Every Camp Director, and Every Lay Leader that I have contacted have each been instrumental in taking the messages of Project Shield and making them a reality within each organization that they serve. I am honored to live and work in a community that has the leaders that it has.
Fifth- My incredible supervisors. The one’s that got me into this embaressing speech in the first place by nominating me. Amy Rubin and Lynn Shyman. I come to work knowing that no problem is too big to be overcome- because I have the incredible daily advice and guidance from these incredible women. They support me and the program in every way imaginable and I truly believe that I am the luckiest employee of JCFS for having such an amazing supervisory team. I learn from you both on everything from how to be a professional, how to write a proper English sentence, how to build community collaborations, to how to handle a crisis situations. The love and admiration I have for you both is never ending. Thank you!
And lastly, but most importantly on the Project Shield team is my family. Without which I could never do what I do. So thank you to my amazing parents. Thank you to my amazing in-laws. Thank you to my four beautiful children who are so tolerant with my schedules and with all my crazy ways. A big I love you to my beautiful and sweet daughter Devorah who is here representing all of her siblings- And thank you the most to my husband. My husband is my role model, my Rabbi, and my best friend all in one. Thank you for enabling a moment like this to happen.
So back to last October when I crossed that marathon finish line- oh and by the way- just to answer my most frequently asked question- Yes I do run in a skirt- and nah- it’s not hard at all- but I digress- anyway- so when I crossed the line, besides for being exhausted- I thought to myself- I need to do this again. There are more races to be run and more miles to be logged. This race is just the beginning…….
And today as I stand here I realize- that we the Project Shield team have come a long way, but we have a lot more to do and more distance to cover. So to end- I invite you all- every person in this room- to take the message of project shield, and help us to create safer Jewish homes by starting conversations in your own lives, with your own family members, and with organizations that you’re involved with. Learn about the signs of symptoms of child sexual abuse, urge parents to learn how to talk to their children about prevention- because Education is power and the key to prevention.
And if we – the Project Shield team of today’s annual meeting – all step up to day “we can and we will, we can and we will” imagine where we’ll all be in three more years from now.
Thank you!

Rabbinic Sewage Suffocating Holy Torah

2010-08-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Guilty or Innocent?

"Hazmana" Belsky leading the pack

Lakewood Orthodox Jewish
leaders want abuse
accusations addressed
As rift widens, community insists problems
should be brought to rabbis
By ZACH PATBERG • STAFF WRITER • August 25,
2010
One man's criminal accusation that a teacher
molested his young son has widened the rift in the
Orthodox Jewish community over where religious
rights stop and the justice system begins.
Some inside the tight-knit enclave praised the
child's father for bypassing religious protocols last
year and reporting the alleged attack first to Ocean
County prosecutors. Others believe he committed a
sin because he failed to get permission from a
rabbinic court before pressing charges against a
fellow Jew.

"The first step is to go to rabbis,'' said Rabbi Shmuel
Meir Katz, a senior Dayan, or decider of Jewish law.
He teaches at Beth Medrash Govoha, a yeshiva in
Lakewood that is one of the foremost Jewish
universities in the world. "We have our own system.
We have our own laws, and as long as the Bais Din
(rabbinical tribunal) feels competent on taking care
of something themselves, that's our surest recourse
in our circles.''

At the center of the controversy are the criminal
charges against Yosef Kolko, 36, a former camp
counselor and local yeshiva teacher. At his
arraignment Tuesday, Kolko pleaded not guilty to
charges of aggravated sexual assault and child
endangerment. The child was between 11 and 12
years old when the more than yearlong alleged
abuse began in Lakewood, according to the
indictment. The Asbury Park Press is withholding
the father's name to protect the child's identity.
The case is a stark example of what Ocean County
Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford described as a "wall
of silence'' in the community that has made
investigating crimes difficult.

The decision of the child's father to go immediately
to authorities last year has sparked reprisals,
according to prosecutors and witnesses.

Attempts were made to pressure the father to drop the
charges. Fliers about him were circulated. In June, a
Lakewood resident was arrested and charged with
witness-tampering.

Eight months ago, religious leaders and county law
enforcement authorities pledged to work together to
better prosecute crimes within the Orthodox
community. Since then, more sex crimes in
Lakewood have been reported, but there is no
information if those cases came from inside or
outside the Orthodox community.
But the Kolko case has exposed a strong
undercurrent of resistance to outside involvement.

A recent flier criticizing the father included a decree
signed by prominent rabbis that discouraged
cooperation with secular courts.

On June 30, at a charity fundraiser in Lakewood, a
flier was circulated with a letter titled "How (the child's father) Makes a Mockery of
the Torah.'' It described the father's choice to go to
prosecutors as a "terrible deed,'' according to a t
ranslation from Hebrew. It also threatened to
publicize the names of his supporters if they don't
""repent.''
"We hope that after tonight further letters will not be
necessary,'' it stated. "However, let the perpetrators
of this (shameful thing) know that ... we will not stop
(until this horrible shame is removed from us).''
The letter includes the name of a Bronx rabbi, Abba
Hershkowitz, and his phone number. It is otherwise
unsigned. It could not be verified that Hershkowitz
approved the letter.
Attached to the same flier was a proclamation
signed by nine Lakewood rabbis that instructs
people to bring allegations to a Bais Din rabbinical
tribunal before alerting government authorities.

At this point, there is no evidence that the signers
of the proclamation meant to have their names
distributed with the letter.
The proclamation reads in part: "And if, in fact, he
has transgressed and has gone so far as to bring
the matter to the secular (nonreligious) courts, he
is, perforce, obligated to do everything possible in
order to remove any scintilla of accusation against
the other party from the secular courts,'' it states,
according to a translation by Rina Ne'eman Hebrew
Language Services in New Brunswick paid for by the
Press. "And it need not be stated that it is forbidden
(for him) to continue to cooperate with them (secular
courts) and to assist them in their efforts to pursue
a Jew.''
The proclamation, dated in the spring of 2010, is
signed by some of Lakewood's leading authorities
on Jewish law, including heads of yeshivas and
synagogues, Bais Din judges and two rabbis from
the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva.
Three rabbis confirmed they signed the
proclamation but declined to say more. They were
Avrohom Spitzer, a Dayan; Yosef Zimbal, a rabbi at
Westgate Congregation; and Simcha Bunim Cohen, a
rabbi at Congregation Ateres Yeshaya. Another,
Rabbi Shmuel Katz, said he did not remember the

exact contents of the decree but nonetheless
repeated its philosophy.
"From the time we open our eyes in the morning,
our religion tells us how to take care of this,'' he
said.
Katz compared the religious and legal courts to the
two houses of Congress. Batei Din, he said, offers a
platform for cooler heads to prevail when dealing
with emotional issues that may otherwise spark rash
accusations and damage reputations.
While he put both systems on equal footing, Katz
did say accusers should go to rabbis before the
police. He added that if a rabbi were unsure of the
answer or direction to proceed, he would be
obligated to consult professionals.
When asked if that included going to law
enforcement, Katz didn't specify.

"If somebody's engaging in devious activities, he
(the consulted rabbi) should speak to an expert in
those things,'' he said. "And if he doesn't know, he
says he doesn't know.''
Such an internal system has previously raised
concerns among child advocates and some
Orthodox families who fear it can act as a
gatekeeper in sex-abuse cases. Its lack of
investigative skills and real judicial authority, they
say, leave wide cracks through which pedophiles
can, and have, slipped.

Ford, the Ocean County prosecutor, said she does
not condone going to a rabbi first about a crime, as
third-party delays can contaminate evidence and
hinder investigations.
But, she said, sex crimes, more so than most
offenses, often are reported to a confidant before
law enforcement because of their sensitive nature.
Ford said she recognizes this "reality'' as her office
tries to "penetrate a wall of silence that has
admittedly existed in the Orthodox community for
many years.''
However, when people are ordered to first seek
rabbinic permission, she said, "that clearly conflicts
with the law.''
"And someone would not be insulated from liability
or even prosecution if they fail to report to
authorities reasonable suspicions,'' she said.

In the Kolko case, another man, Shaul Luban of
Lakewood, was charged with witness-tampering. Prosecutors say he sent text
messages that urged people to pressure the child's
father to drop the charges.
The letter with Hershkowitz's name is in that same
vein and is being investigated, said Assistant
Prosecutor Lara Pierro, who is handling the Kolko
case.
"When we receive word that there's pressure on the
family, we pursue it,'' she said.
Messages seeking comment and left with
Hershkowitz at the number listed on the letter and at
the college in Riverdale, N.Y., where he works, were
not returned.

However, a relative, Brooklyn Rabbi Yisroel Belsky,
supported the position stated in the letter, saying
"such behavior (as that of the victim's father)
wouldn't be tolerated'' elsewhere. "When your child
tells you something, you don't go straight to a prosecutor, you go to a Bais Din and let them
examine the (evidence).''
Belsky, a rabbi at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in the
Flatbush section of Brooklyn and a member of the
Orthodox Union, a national Jewish lobby, said he
has not seen the flier but claims "there's no evidence
at all'' against Kolko.

Not all rabbinic leaders agree. Rabbi Dovid Cohen,
an authority on Jewish law in Brooklyn, said he
received a call not long ago. It was from a
representative of the Orthodox community who
asked if the Kolko allegation should be taken to
prosecutors.
"Not only do I permit it, it is an obligation,'' he said
he replied.
"There are others who disagree,'' Cohen said
recently. "Those people aren't for molesters; they simply feel that there's a chance a
person will be slandered. ... They feel it's not ethical
to go to authorities until it's first verified by a Bais
Din. That's where we differ.''
Cohen said he heard about the fliers in Lakewood
after a social worker called and told him the father
was "getting a lot of pressure.'' The father could not
be reached for comment.
Rabbi Weisberg of the Vaad said he believes those
who signed the proclamation were expressing
themselves "as individuals and not as some
organized body.''

click here for full article

One in four children being victimized? That's about seven children in every classroom. That's a significant proportion of the population.

2010-07-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.cliffviewpilot.com/editorials/op-ed/1501-orthodox-challenged-by-child-abuse-reports-against-rabbis

Orthodox face 'double whammy' in reporting child sex abuse
Friday, 23 July 2010 19:17 Asher Lipner
OPINION: An Orthodox couple from Lakewood are very special and heroic people. When they found out that their son was molested by a rabbi, they confronted the rabbi and got him to admit it.

But when the rabbi became defiant and would not go to therapy or agree to leave the synagogue, they went to the police and had him arrested.

The mother has said that more than any act of communal concern or heroism, she did this as a simple Jewish mother for her son. She knew that if the rabbi was allowed to get away with it and nothing to happen to him, her son would forever feel abandoned and unprotected at his time of need.

The family is now suffering the "double trauma" of most victims in our community. One, their son has symptoms of PTSD. He was a very, very religious boy. His father is a Torah scholar and a majority member in the town. A Posek halacha

But the family as a whole is paying a double price. For going to the police to protect their child, something that in other communities is considered normal parenting, they are being attacked as "anti-Torah," by evil people. I would like to call them ignorant people.

In Lakewood, most people have spent years learning Torah. And even if you want to say that they don't understand the "long term ramifications" of sexual abuse (do they think it is GOOD for the kids?), they certainly know it is not something that they would want to happen to theirs. And Hillel said that the whole Torah while standing on one foot can be summarized as "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you."

(one who issues rulings within the community). And he was not supposed to be exposed to sexual situations and certainly not the sexual act before marriage. His innocence was robbed. His spirtuality is being challenged. His sense of security shaken.

lakewood
SIDEBAR: The battle over sex abuse reporting in the Orthodox community is exploding worldwide, and one of the hubs is in New Jersey. State law requires anyone with reasonable suspicion to alert authorities. But rabbinical authority has ruled in Orthodox communities for thousands of years, mainly due to splits with secular law over civil issues (unlike the Catholic Church scandals). Victims have been threatened, ostracized and driven out. Yet, in the wake of the latest incident, rabbinical and secular authorities in Lakewood say they are trying to "bridge the gap."
It would be such a big Mitzvah (good deed) for each and every one of us to write a letter to the family thanking them for the heroic service they have done for all of us, and for the example they set of good Jewish parenting that we should all strive for.

I will not tell you what to write, because I know each of you can say the right thing if you look into your hearts. Thank you, and we should all be eager to see this plague stamped out from our community once and for all.

Emails can be sent either to CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or to lipnera@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

lipner
Rabbi Dr. Asher Lipner, Ph.D., an ordained Orthodox Rabbi, is Vice-President of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children. The opinions expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the position of any organization.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Some Jewish expressions in the rabbi's piece have been changed to more common vernacular. The parents' names have been removed to protect the child's identity.

ALSO SEE:

Sex abuse demands greater defense of children

Orthodox hope guilty plea in sex case changes approach to offenders

Passaic predator case marks change in Orthodox reaction
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~ Abuse changes your life...Fight Back and change the life of your abusers by Breaking Your Silence on Abuse! ~

Patty Rase Hopson

~ Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime. ~

Herbert Ward

~ Everyone is an abused child, if you think about what governments do. ~

Tim Roth

~ Child abuse does not go away, but 90 percent of child abuse is preventable ~

Karen Adams

~ Child abuse and neglect offend the basic values of our state. We have a responsibility to provide safe settings for at-risk children and facilitate permanent placement for children who cannot return home. ~

Matt Blunt

~ The consequences of your denial will be with you for a lifetime and will be passed down to the next generations. Break your Silence on Abuse! ~

Patty Rase Hopson

~ The only reason why child abuse is alive today, is because we as adults fail our children when we fail to listen to them. Listen to a child today! ~

Heather McClane

~ I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention. ~

Kenny Guinn

~ One in four children being victimized? That's about seven children in every classroom. That's a significant proportion of the population. ~

Wendy Craig

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What Agudah Won't tell you

A Partial Biography of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko & Rabbi Lipa Margulies

[This summary was written by an anonymous ultra-Orthodox insider and published as part of an open letter during the first week of December, 2006. The events dated after July, 2006 have been added by this website's adminstrator.]
· 1967 – While working as Dormitory Counselor at Yeshivas Mir, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko calls a student (name withheld) out of his dormitory room and begins discussing matters of a sexual nature with him while rubbing up against him in an aroused state. This abuse continues for the remainder of the school year and into the summer season at Camp Agudah [then owned by Agudath Israel of America]. This student is now a distinguished Manhattan attorney living happily with his partner in New York City and insists that his lifestyle choice has absolutely nothing to do with his abuse by Kolko.
· 1969 thru 1971 - Rabbi Yehuda Kolko begins abusing Dovid Framowitz in Yeshiva Torah Vodaas of Flatbush (now known as Yeshiva Torah Temimah) and Camp Agudah, the details of which abuse are now public knowledge. Mr. Framowitz, a grandfather living in Eretz Yisroel, has not gone a day since being abused without reliving the unspeakable agony he suffered at Kolko’s hands.
· 1972 - Rabbi Yehuda Kolko sexually abuses two young campers (names withheld at the request of the victims) in Camp Agudah who complain to their counselor. Their counselor reports the complaint to Rabbi Simcha Kaufman. The abuse of these two boys cease for the remainder of that summer. Rabbi Simcha Kaufman is a co-worker of Kolko in Yeshiva Torah Temimah (more on Kaufman below) and was a co-worker of Kolko in Camp Agudah until 1976 when Kolko voluntarily left Camp Agudah after he co-founded Camp Ma-Na-Vu with Rabbi Lipa Geldwirth, another co-worker of his at Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· 1977 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, employed as a Rebbe in Yeshiva Torah Temimah in the morning, is employed in the afternoons by Yeshiva Karlin Stolin as Secular Studies Principal. During the course of his short tenure in Yeshiva Karlin Stolin numerous complaints are lodged by both students and parents (names withheld at the request of the victims) accusing Kolko of sexually abusing boys in the Yeshiva. Rabbi Shmuel Dishon asks Kolko to leave the employ of the Yeshiva.
· 1977 on – Eyewitness testimony and accusations of sexual abuse by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko of students at Yeshiva Torah Temimah and Camp Ma-Na-Vu reach a crescendo which culminates in several businessmen approaching Rabbi Lipa Margulies in 1984 and offering to fund a retirement package for Rabbi Yehuda Kolko provided he seeks employment away from children. Rabbi Lipa Margulies steadfastly refuses to accept the offer and suggests that those parents who disagree with his decision remove their children from his Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· 1981 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko sexually abuses a twelve year old student of Yeshiva Torah Temimah (name withheld at the request of the victim.) This victim publicizes the abuse and acts out, vandalizing Kolko’s home and car. Rabbi Lipa Margulies calls this victims father and warns him that if this activity does not stop his other children would be expelled from Yeshiva and the safety of his family could not be guaranteed. This victim is subsequently referred to Avrohom Mondrowitz for counseling.
· 1984 – As instructed by Rabbi Avigdor Miller, an Askan calls for a meeting which takes place at the home of Rabbi Yakov Perlow (the Novominsker) and is attended by Rabbi Avrohom Pam, Rabbi Elya Svei, Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller, Rabbi Aharon Schechter, Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman, Rabbi Shia Fishman and Rabbi Yankel Bender. At this meeting, chaired by Rabbi Perlow, the Askan discusses what is transpiring to innocent boys at the hands of Rabbi pedophiles and requests that Torah Umesorah and the Rabbonim issue a statement calling for their removal from Chinuch. Rabbi Svei informs this Askan that Torah Umesorah has consulted their attorneys who advised that for Torah Umesorah to admit knowledge of such abuse would subject Torah Umesorah, its staff, all its member schools and their staff to liability for not having reported their knowledge to the authorities earlier. Accordingly, Rabbi Elya Svei informs the Askan, neither he nor Torah Umesorah will do anything about this problem.
· 1984 thru 1985 – At directed by Rabbi Avrohom Pam an Askan approaches Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman and the two meet with Rabbi Shia (Joshua) Fishman in the office of Torah Umesorah. Both Scheinerman and Fishman neglect to inform this Askan that Fishman had been instructed by Torah Umesorah’s lawyer to do nothing about this issue. Rabbi Fishman requests the names of Kolko’s victims and promises absolute confidentiality. Names are provided to Rabbi Fishman who begins his own investigation of the allegations. He meets with and speaks with several victims who pour their hearts out to him after he guarantees them confidentiality. Rabbi Shia Fishman promptly discloses all he has learned to Rabbi Lipa Margulies who in turn publicly disparages and discredits each and every one of those boys who were brave enough to step forward.
· 1985 – A follow up meeting takes place at the home of Rabbi Simcha Kaufman and includes Rabbi Kaufman, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, Rabbi Shia Fishman, an Askan and an eyewitness. The eyewitness recounts his personal knowledge of Rabbi Kolko’s sexual abuse of boys and discusses the information he had gleaned from others. Rabbi Lipa Margulies insists that the charges are all fabrications and attacks the reputations of everyone involved in seeking the removal of Kolko from his Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Rabbi Shia Fishman subsequently informs anyone who asks that he can not deal with this issue as he is old (50 at the time) and will lose his job if he pursues this matter.
· 1985 – Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman is offered a lucrative and prestigious position as Rav of a Shul (a position he holds to this day) and is told that he must cease and desist from his actions against Yeshiva Torah Temimah Rabbeim (his own words) which he promptly does. Scheinerman abandons ship explaining that it is not appropriate for a rabbi of his stature to deal with these matters. Rabbi Yehoshua Leiman takes over.
· 1985 - Rabbi Yehoshua Leiman and others continue their quest for a solution and convene a Bais Din for this purpose. This Bais Din, consisting of Rabbi Menashe Klein, Rabbi Yechezkel Roth, Rabbi Aharon Stein, Rabbi Moshe Stern and Rabbi Chaim Yankel Tauber, is scheduled to hear testimony for two days after which they will rule on how to proceed. This panel meets and hears testimony for one day. Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Moshe Stern states that he is unable to participate in any more sessions and this Bais Din is disbanded without further explanation. In a private conversation with one of the Askanim, Rabbi Stern disclosed that he had been approached by Rabbi Lipa Margulies which resulted in the discontinuance of the Din Torah.
· 1985 – Upon the dissolution of the above Bais Din, Rabbi Lipa Margulies retains Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg to convene a second Bais Din for the purpose of clearing Rabbi Yehuda Kolko’s name. Rabbi Lipa Margulies then drafts Rabbi Friedman (the Tenka Rav) and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Brown to serve on Rabbi Scheinberg’s Bais Din. Prior to convening the Bais Din, Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg speaks with several of Kolko’s victims and asks them to describe what Kolko has done to them. Upon hearing the allegations Rabbi Scheinberg informs the boys that in the eyes of Halacha they had not been molested. Rabbi Scheinberg also calls the Askanim and tells them to cease and desist in their attempts to remove Kolko from Chinuch. Rabbi Avigdor Miller disagrees and instructs the Askanim in no uncertain terms to do whatever must be done to protect children from Kolko. Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg convenes the Bais Din and takes the position that Rabbi Kolko has a Chezkas Kashrus absent any testimony by two adult witnesses to any single event. Rabbi Friedman takes the position that in light of the persistent rumors Rabbi Kolko must be kept away from children. Rabbi Brown ultimately concedes that there is no Halachic evidence against Kolko and the Din Torah is concluded. Rabbi Lipa Margulies insists that he has a Psak from this Bais Din but to this day has refused to produce it. Regardless, it is of note that no victims testified before this Bais Din.
· 1987 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, having groomed a former first grade student of his for years, begins systematically sexually abusing this boy (name withheld at the request of the victim) both in and out of the Yeshiva Torah Temimah building. When this boy complains to Rabbi Lipa Margulies that his grades are slipping because Kolko is removing him from class almost daily, Margulies responds by slapping the boy across the face and throwing him out of his office. This young man is now living down south where he is on leave of absence from the U.S. Army.
· 2001 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, takes a young Yeshiva Torah Temimah student under his wing (name withheld at the request of the victim) and begins removing him from class for “special projects.” These special projects include the boy being sexually molested by Kolko in the basement of the Yeshiva, in Rabbi Kolko’s car and in Rabbi Kolko’s private office, which Rabbi Lipa Margulies has conveniently equipped with its own private bathroom. This young man is currently in therapy and hopes to be able to recover enough to be able to get married and start a family.
· 2005 – Dovid Framowitz, after years of searching on the internet, chances upon a post written by a blogger calling himself “Un-Orthodox Jew” which makes reference to Rabbi Lipa Margulies harboring Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a known pedophile, in his Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Dovid begins communicating with this blogger via e-mail who in turn posts Dovid’s story on his blog. Over the course of several months other victims of Kolko begin to step forward with their stories.
· January 2006 – Several Askonim decide that this four decade long Chillul Hashem must stop and approach both Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and Rabbi Lipa Margulies with a demand that Kolko be removed from Yeshiva Torah Temimah and Camp Silver Lake and further commit to spending the rest of his life in treatment and away from children. Both Kolko and Margulies refuse.
· February 2006 – A letter is drafted informing the public that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko is a dangerous pedophile and that Rabbi Lipa Margulies continues to employ him despite his knowledge of this fact. Copies of this draft letter are delivered to Kolko and Margulies. Both Kolko and Margulies are offered the opportunity to deal quietly with the issue and are informed that if they continue to refuse, the letter would be mass mailed to the entire community. Kolko responds by stating that “the matter has been taken care of” and Margulies responds by asking if anyone “thinks Kolko is still a threat” and declares “if anyone does not like the way I run my yeshiva let them not send their children to my yeshiva.” They refuse to comply and the letter is sent out in a mass mailing.
· February 2006 – Eli Greenwald, a graduate of Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, son of one of the founders of the Yeshiva and a parent in the Yeshiva receives the letter and spends a few days investigating the matter. He calls Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad, the Yeshiva’s Administrator, and requests a meeting of the Vaad HaHorim in order to address this serious issue. Rabbi Applegrad informs him that there will be no meeting as the allegations are false and that he and Rabbi Margulies have the matter under control. Mr. Greenwald called Rabbi Lipa Margulies and makes the same request of him. Rabbi Margulies responds by shouting at him.
· February 17, 2006 – Eli Greenwald is served with a Hazmana issued by Rabbi Yisroel Belsky calling him to a Din Torah to answer the charge of Hotzoas Shem Rah allegedly committed against Rabbi Yehuda Kolko. Mr. Greenwald responds on February 21, 2006, that he will appear for a Din Torah before the Bais Din of America. To this day there has been no reply to Mr. Greenwald’s response by either Kolko or Rabbi Yisroel Belsky.
· February 2006 – An Askan meets with Rabbi Yaakov Perlow and pleads with him to get involved in this matter. Rabbi Perlow refuses on the basis of his being a Yuchid and this being a Tzibur matter. After being pressed further Rabbi Perlow takes his final stand that this is a Flatbush matter and as he is a Boro Park Rabbi it would be unseemly for him to get involved in this matter.
· March 2006 – Rabbi Lipa Margulies reaches a standstill agreement with the Askonim by committing to appear before a panel consisting of two Rabbonim and one Frum lawyer, all three of whom had been chosen by him. Rabbi Lipa Margulies reneges on his promise to appear before this panel.
· March 23, 2006 – A Hazmana to a Din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a Din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a Bais Din of ZBLA. The Hazmana is ignored by all the defendants.
· March 30, 2006 – A second Hazmana to a Din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a Din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a Bais Din of ZBLA. By fax sent on April 5, 2006, Rabbi Lipa Margulies responds to this Hazmana stating he will not appear for a Din Torah “without a prior determination of the charges against Rabbi Kolko.” Rabbi Kolko continues to ignore the Hazmanas.
· April 6, 2006 – A third Hazmana to a Din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a Din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a Bais Din of ZBLA. By fax sent on April 10, 2006, Rabbi Lipa Margulies responds to this Hazmana by stating “the Hazmonah that you sent to us was not a valid Hazmonah.” Rabbi Kolko does not respond at all. It is of note that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko is still teaching in Yeshiva Torah Temimah while these exchange are taking place.
· May 4, 2006 – A lawsuit is filed in United States District Court: Eastern District of New York, naming Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc. and Camp Agudah as defendants. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· May 5, 2006 – Rabbi Simcha Kaufman approaches Dovid Framowitz and with tears in his eyes tells him that if only he had known what Rabbi Kolko was doing to him he would have put a stop to it. Of interest was Rabbi Simcha Kaufman’s complete denial of any prior knowledge of any accusation before Dovid Framowitz brought his lawsuit. Rabbi Simcha Kaufman pleads with Dovid to withdraw his lawsuit lest he hurt Rabbi Lipa Margulies and the Yeshiva.
· May 10, 2006 – After being approached for comment on several occasions by Robert Kolker, a reporter for New York Magazine, and with a 5:00 printing deadline looming, Rabbi Lipa Margulies issues a statement through his attorney at 4:30 PM. Beginning with a proclamation that Yeshiva Torah Temimah is the preeminent Yeshiva in the world followed by an absolute denial of all the allegations, the statement concludes with an announcement that Rabbi Kolko has agreed to a “leave of absence” pending the resolution of this matter. Despite this claim, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· May 12, 2006 – A second lawsuit is filed in United States District Court: Eastern District of New York naming Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc. as defendants. Still, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· May 15, 2006 – “On the Rabbi’s Knees – Do the Orthodox Jews Have a Catholic Priest Problem” a feature article in New York Magazine, a publication with a circulation of three million, is published. Within days of the publication of the article and after thirty-eight years of committing unspeakable acts of perversion in Yeshiva Torah Temimah, Kolko leaves the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah. It was only after the magazine hit the newsstands that Margulies succumbed to pressure and removed Kolko from the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
· July 2006 – Over the vocal protest of many residents and with the help of his friend Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko takes up summer residence at a home in Regency Estates in the Catskills. Despite the claim that Kolko was on a leave of absence from Yeshiva Torah Temimah, he continues working for Camp Silver Lake, Yeshiva Torah Temimah’s summer home. In addition, Kolko initiates and organizes a multi-camp excursion to Lake Compounce, a water park located in Connecticut, where he is seen frolicking with young boys in bathing suits. A media outcry ensues resulting in Kolko being banned from the park by its non-Jewish management. Astonishingly, in August Kolko organizes a second trip to Lake Compounce, which is attended by the same Frum boy’s camps who participated in the July trip.
- December 6, 2006 – A civil suit is filed against Mesivta Torah Temimah in Kings County (Brooklyn) NY by the parents of a boy, now 9, who claims Rabbi Kolko abused him in 2003 and 2004.

- December 7, 2006 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko is arrested in Brooklyn on criminal abuse charges.
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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3667308,00.html

Parents ignore child abuse at rabbi's advice

Police investigators stunned to find ultra-Orthodox parents ignored sexual abuse of their two children after their rabbi warned filing charges may invoke halachic rule equal to 'din moser'
Efrat Weiss

The Jerusalem Police recently revealed a stunning conspiracy of silence involving the sexual abuse of two children, ages four and nine, by a male relative. The investigation also revealed that the children's parents, their rabbi and their neighbors were all aware of the abuse, but chose to keep quiet.

Senior police NCO Aliza Aroch, who is the lead investigator in the case, told Ynet that police were contacted by a social worker, who reported getting a call from a woman who claimed to have witnessed the man molest the nine-year-old while they were at a doctor's waiting room.

Ordinance

Rabbi Aviner: Child abuse must be reported / Kobi Nahshoni

Prominent religious-Zionist leader lashes out at failure to inform authorities of such acts 'in order to have mercy on the abuser,' says 'first of all we must have pity on the helpless child'

Full story

The woman informed the doctor of what she saw and the two immediately contacted the social worker and the police. Both were deposed and the police promptly arrested the suspect.
The man, said Aroch, admitted the incident and assured the court it was a one-time digression. The Jerusalem District Court, however, ordered his arrest remanded for three days.
With the suspect in custody, the police began questioning the boy's parents and discovered that their nine-year-old son was suffering from autism and that they had two other children – a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old toddler.
After ascertaining that the suspect was a relative, investigators were amazed to learn that not only did the mother know the man was abusing both her sons, she had witnessed the acts on several occasions and did nothing.
She also told the police that her nine-year-old son had been subjected to the suspect's abuse since the age of two. The police suspect all three children also suffered physical abuse.
When asked why she did nothing, the mother reportedly told the investigators that she was "powerless."
During the course of the investigation, the police also found that several neighbors witnessed the suspect molesting the children in public, but failed to report him.

The children's father claimed that he consulted his rabbi, who told him that unless he witnesses the acts himself, reporting it would be like rendering a "Din Moser."
"Din Moser" is an ancient halachic law pertaining to informants, which according to the austere interpretation of Jewish tradition, equals a death sentence.
Once the gravity of the situation became apparent, the court ordered all three children be removed from home. The Jerusalem District Court also remanded both parents for five days.

"Rabbi" Shlomo Mandel Cries Crocodile Tears For Rubashkin - Still Employs Pedophile Rebbe (Nussbaum) At YOB - Shanda!!!

2010-06-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

The little man at the helm acting and screeching, grabbing a Kleenex, is a coward and an ignoramus. A small man accorded kovod for his putrid attempt to threaten and silence parents who wanted to go to the police and report a child molester in the 90's, and who still teaches boys today at Yeshiva Of Brooklyn.
The inmates are running the asylum!

Without getting into what sounds like forced "weeping" during the Tehillim bonanza for Rubashkin, what struck me the most is the hypocrisy surrounding the Mosdos, and what they view as essential, and more importantly the perception they emanate loud and clear - child sexual-abuse is an afterthought unworthy of Tehillim gatherings or taking concrete steps to eliminate offenders from having unconditional access to children.

Politics At The Expense Of Children's Lives

2010-06-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Marci Hamilton's Article hits the nail right on the head!

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100610.html

	Reforming the Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse: New York's Child Victims Act Shouldn't Be Political, But It Is
	By MARCI A. HAMILTON
	Thursday, June 10, 2010

Last week, the New York Child Victims Act (available at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5893A) was defeated in the Senate Codes Committee. For New York's children, it was a choice that favors child predators, and therefore a bad day. However, it was an interesting session and the bill will be re-introduced next session -- and every session until it is passed, according to sponsors Assemblywoman Marge Markey and Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. The only impact is that child predators have one more year to operate under the anonymity afforded by New York's extremely short statutes of limitations for child sex abuse.
The bill embodies the same type of statute of limitations ("SOL") reform that I've advocated in multiple columns here at FindLaw, and in my book Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. It would create a short 5-year extension for criminal and civil SOLs for child sex abuse, and it would open a "window" of one year for all past victims to come forward without having to worry about expired statutes of limitations. The extension is too short in my view, but the window is absolutely crucial to identifying child predators.
As I've explained, such reform is the only tried-and-true method for identifying hidden child perpetrators, as the enactment of the legislation establishing the California SOL window proved. In this column, I'll further discuss New York's continuing experience with reform for children.
The Recent History of the New York CVA
After the CVA thrice passed in the New York Assembly, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told the Senate that he would be more than willing to get the bill to the floor in the Assembly again, but first, it needs to be passed by the Senate.
Thus, the Senate's Codes Committee was the first stop. As noted above, the CVA was voted upon there, and lost last week. However, the CVA never even made it into a committee meeting when now-convicted Sen. Joseph Bruno was the Senate Majority Leader, so the fact that the bill even got a vote in a Senate Committee was history itself.
This legislation for child protection should have been a no-brainer. Instead, it has become thoroughly political. Reportedly, New York Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos ordered Republicans to vote against it in a bloc, and they did so in Committee -- even those who had told survivors they favored the bill and would vote for it.
If there had been any doubt about the source of the most virulent opposition to the bill, Senator Lanza made it crystal clear: It continues to be the Catholic Conference. Lanza basically spoke from their playbook, claiming that giving child-sex-abuse victims the ability to go to Court would "ruin" the Church, and that the introduction of the bill was driven by anti-Catholic animus. He became quite passionate, insisting that no one was going to "destroy my church." Sen. Flanagan, too, took his cue from the Catholic Conference, claiming (inaccurately) that the same bill has bankrupted the Church in California.
In sharp contrast, the hero of the day for children was Chair Eric Schneiderman, who, in measured tones, stated that the issue was a hard one, but in the United States, those who are harmed should have a remedy. With respect to New York's child-sex-abuse victims, the vast majority have been blocked from receiving any remedy at all because of overly-short SOLs. (The lack of such remedies not only leaves the victim without justice, but also allows known perpetrators to continue to enjoy secrecy and impunity.)
Schneiderman also responded to Senator Flanagan, correctly pointing out that the Church was not, in fact, bankrupted in California. Indeed, the only California diocese to bring voluntary bankruptcy proceedings was the San Diego Diocese, which was publicly chastised by the bankruptcy judge for misleading her about the extent of its impressive wealth. No services were cut, and no parishes or schools were closed because the victims created by the Church were permitted to go to court.
In the Codes Committee, three Democrats joined the Republicans in voting against letting the bill go to the floor, though none appeared at the Committee meeting, voting only in absentia. Sen. Shirley Huntley, whose website claims she has been a strong advocate for children, was a particular disappointment. Sen. Breslin, who is Catholic, and Sen. Jeff Klein also voted against SOL reform.
Legislators Who Seem to Care More About the Vandalism of Property than the Well-Being of Children
Here is where New York politics waltzed into Alice in Wonderland territory: Mere days after the Codes Committee killed the CVA this session, Sen. Jeff Klein -- one of a number of Senators who couldn't be bothered to show up for the Codes Committee vote on the CVA -- joined Archbishop Timothy Dolan and other religious leaders to tout S.1909, (available at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/api/1.0/html/bill/S1909), which increases the criminal penalties for vandalism of church and synagogue properties.
Klein, who was recently embroiled in an alleged pay-to-play scandal when he was caught selling $50,000 "exclusive meetings" to special interest groups, apparently has taken an active role in fighting against the vandalism of church walls. According to the Yonkers Insider, " In February of this year, Senator Klein helped clean up graffiti on the rectory wall of Saint Francis Xavier Church in Morris Park in the Bronx. Saint Francis Xavier Pastor Father Matthew Fiore reached out to Senator Klein's office after finding the graffiti on the rectory wall on the first floor of the church on the morning of Friday, February 19th. Within 24 hours of the Pastor contacting Klein's office, Senator Klein and his graffiti clean-up crew went to the church to remove the graffiti."
To quote one of the victims of incest who has been fighting for the CVA, in light of Klein's indifference to child-sex-abuse victims, his swiftness in addressing church graffiti issues was like a "kick in the gut." Recently, all one hears about is the mishandling of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church worldwide. Yet somehow, in New York, the Catholic Conference was capable of stifling all child-sex-abuse victims' claims and, at the very same time, obtaining for itself additional penalties against those who damage its property. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the New York Catholic Conference is putting property ahead of children's safety in light of these two developments, spanning just two days!
New York's Archbishop Has Proven Himself Indifferent to Children's Victimization
How could New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan be so tone-deaf that he would create the circumstances for such an unflattering and, frankly, unChristian, pairing of issues? Didn't Jesus throw out the moneychangers from the temple and threaten all who harmed the little ones? Once again, the Catholic bishops lack any sense of how what they do resonates with child-sex-abuse victims. They are persistently indifferent.
This incapacity for empathy with victims of priests was further underscored last week by the Pope, when he included Dolan on the committee of bishops that is charged with looking into the Irish child-sex-abuse situation. From a child-sex-abuse victim's perspective, what has Dolan done so far? As the Archbishop of Milwaukee -- his former post -- he succeeded in keeping the secrets of the Milwaukee Archdiocese by killing CVA reform when he was there. And now, he has succeeded on the same score in New York. One victim after another has blogged that putting Dolan on such a committee is the equivalent of letting the fox guard the henhouse. Some of them were even sharper in their language—describing the decision as a move that charged the fox with guarding the little chicks in the henhouse, easy pickings.
Currently, New York has one of the stingiest statutes of limitations for child sex abuse in the entire country -- 18 years-old for criminal charges and 23 for civil claims. In the future, it is inevitable that New York will radically expand these statutes of limitations for child sex abuse, because justice demands it, and because that is the trend in the entire country. Florida just eliminated all of its statutes of limitations for child sex abuse; Delaware did the same thing in 2007; Connecticut gives victims until age 48; Pennsylvania until age 53; New Jersey has a liberal discovery rule (which New York courts rejected, saying it was an issue for the legislature). Thus, the Catholic Conferences have their fingers in a dike that is crumbling around their hands. Yet it seems that they will keep those fingers in place as long as the bishops' lobbying dollars last, and as long as New York Senate members like Sens. Klein, Lanza, and Flanagan continue to act as they did last week.
Research establishes that one in four girls, and one in five boys, are sexually abused. Not only clergy child-sex-abuse victims, but incest victims too, are increasingly demanding their day in court, and the kind of statute-of-limitations reform that would make that possible. And there are a lot more incest victims than there are clergy victims. As society increasingly acknowledges the gravity and scope of the child-sex-abuse problem, and comes to understand the scientific studies showing that victims often need decades to come forward, citizens will demand laws that fit the needs of the victims, not the perpetrators or the institutions that assigned child abusers to work with children. Given the vital role of SOL reform in identifying perpetrators and creating justice for victims, and the growing political will of the victims, we may soon see New York legislators losing -- not holding -- seats when they let party leadership and the bishops drown out the voices of the victims.

Marci Hamilton, a FindLaw columnist, is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008). A review of Justice Denied appeared on this site on June 25, 2008. Her previous book is God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005), now available in paperback. Her email is hamilton02@aol.com.

A Ghastly Fame!

2010-05-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/may/26/wheres-justice/

Where’s the justice for victims of child molestation?

Children whose molestations are posted online face an ongoing battle for safety—and restitution—in adulthood

Abigail Goldman

Wed, May 26, 2010 (11:45 a.m.)

The world of child pornography has its own stars. Their images and video footage are among the world’s most downloaded—a ghastly fame that’s turned childhood tragedy into a perpetual nightmare for victims who, now adults, live in a world where their abuse is always being downloaded.
The “Vicky series,” for example, is a collection of still images and video footage of a pre-teen being raped and sexually assaulted by her father. It is widely considered to be among the most downloaded and traded child porn in the world.
“Vicky” was 10 when the abuse started. Today, she’s in her 20s. In April, a former Nevada resident was charged with tracking Vicky down and stalking her online. Gregory Hoffman, 41, first asked Vicky to be his MySpace friend. When she refused, the harassment began.
In one message, Hoffman wrote: “I loved and adored those videos very much. He jus [sic] wanted to show the world how gorgeous u really were. Is that such a crime??... I want u to talk to me about everything going on in ur life now.”
In another, he wrote: “I wanna make a new porno of u and me.”
Beyond these excerpts, Hoffman’s other messages aren’t exactly fit for print. Hoffman also contacted her friends, sending them photographic montages of Vicky as a young child, performing sex acts.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children attempts to identify victims of child pornography. They reportedly spent years looking for Vicky, who was finally identified when she went on national TV in hopes of drawing attention to the her case, after her father fled the country. He’s since been arrested, and Vicky now receives notifications every time someone is being prosecuted for possessing her images.
These notifications are frequent, and they make it difficult for the adult woman to leave the trauma of her childhood behind, according to Vicky’s attorney, Carol Hepburn. Vicky has a hard time interacting with the public; she has flashbacks and panic attacks and nightmares. She looks out into a crowd, and wonders who recognizes her as the girl her father dressed in skimpy clothes, tied up with ropes, and fed dirty lines to say to the camera.
“There is always a haunting fear of not knowing,” Hepburn says. “That person on the street may actually be a part her life as a closet pedophile.”
For the past year, Vicky and her attorney have fought for restitution or damages from people convicted of possessing her image or video—arguing that each download is a re-victimization, diminishing her potential and causing psychological trauma that must be treated with more counseling and more lawyers. This is a novel argument, one that Vicky and another young known victim of child pornography have only just started advancing in court, with varied success. In some cases, restitution has been flatly denied. In others, the awards are tremendous. A Florida man convicted of possessing and trading Vicky’s images was recently ordered to pay her almost $150,000.
Not everybody is certain this is fair or just. A February New York Times article cited the blog of a George Washington University professor who said demanding restitution in these cases “stretches personal accountability to the breaking point.”
And controversy or not, whether Vicky or any child porn victim will ever collect the money is questionable. People in prison don’t make much money, and any personal assets or funds a defendant has going into trial can be quickly consumed by attorneys.
Hoffman was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, and ordered to pay just over $150,000 in restitution, transferable to an account in Vicky’s name. Of course, the Hoffman case is somewhat different—he not only had Vicky’s images, he stalked her. How much this harassment figured into the restitution payment is unclear; federal prosecutors did not reply to the Weekly’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, Hoffman has taken steps to appeal his charge from behind bars. Vicky and her attorney will doubtless follow the case, and every other one filed from here on out.
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Please Sign This Petition To Protect New York's Children And Expose Sexual Abusers

A Petition to:

Hon. Sheldon Silver, Speaker, NY State Assembly
Hon. Malcolm Smith, President , NY State Senate
Hon. Pedro Espada, Jr., Majority Leader, NY State Senate
Hon. Dean Skelos, Minority Leader, NY State Senate
Hon. John Sampson, Leader, Democratic Conference, NY State Senate
Your State Assembly Member
Your State Senator

We Need to Protect NY's Children and Stop Shielding Sexual Abusers

I strongly urge you and your colleagues to support the Child Victim's Act of New York in a Special Session of the Legislature this fall (A2596B, Markey / S5893, Ruth Hassell Thompson).
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of UNKNOWN sex abusers of children living and working among us -- in schools, churches, synagogues, youth groups, and especially in families. To find and pursue them, our legislators must change the New York State statute of limitations (SOL), as two special grand juries in New York have declared.
According to the FBI, 1 in 5 of ALL children are sexually abused before they are 18! Many predators are life-long abusers, with as many as 100 victims. Yet, only 10% of this abuse is ever reported to authorities.
This epidemic is made worse by those who have criminally covered up for abusers and are themselves shielded by the state's statute. For example, two special grand juries in NYS -- Suffolk and Westchester -- have uncovered orchestrated criminal actions by religious institutions using deception and intimidation to delay victims from legal recourse until the statute of limitations expired.

There is one proven way to discover predators and their protectors.

"...the NYS legislature should enact a statute similar to the state of California that revives civil actions for damages for a period of one year...." -- Suffolk County Special Grand Jury.
When California enacted a similar law, it discovered more than 300 undetected predators. Delaware, a much smaller state, has discovered more than 60. Given that predators have multiple victims, thousands of children have now been protected in just these two pioneering states.

New York's children deserve this protection, too.

The Child Victims Act of New York will:

Expose UNKNOWN AND SHIELDED predators by suspending the statute of limitations for just one year, allowing cases to be revived.
Provide justice for victims who were unfairly or criminally denied their day in court.
The limit would be 35 years after age 18.
Provide additional time for future victims to overcome their trauma, extending the SOL from age 23 to 28.
Applies to all sectors, public and private
Save our state extensive financial and social costs by reducing the number of victims and abusers

Please protect New York's children. Don't shield their abusers!

I support the Child Victims Act of New York (A2596B/S5893).

~ 62469 petitions emailed. ~

We Have Enough Gun Control. What We Need Is Idiot Control.

2010-05-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/05/ultra-orthodox-child-abuse

The ultra-Orthodox face up to abuse
Catholicism doesn't have a monopoly on child abuse scandals, as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has discovered

The uncovering of sexual abuse perpetrated by religious leaders in the Catholic church is mirrored within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. As with the Catholic church, where the abuse was uncovered early on in the US, institutional child sexual abuse is starting to be prosecuted in New York. And as with the Catholic church, which has begun to change its stance on prosecuting priests, ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders are beginning to permit the reporting to police of these crimes. As with the Catholic church, Jewish victim support groups and advocates have brought these crimes to the public's attention. The question is whether, as with the Catholic church, this is far too little far too late.
A little known Jewish law called mesira, found in the Talmud with some scriptural support, forbids a Jew from reporting another Jew to the gentile authorities. The law was in response to non-Jewish governments whose courts were staffed by antisemites. According to Jewish leaders, those courts looked for any excuse to find against a Jew. Many rabbis took a rather dim view of gentile legal processes, advocating that their courts were flawed, antisemitic and less capable than Jewish courts. Mesira essentially allowed Jewish courts to retain control over all disputes, ensuring that religious law prevailed.
In today's society, where there are proper, transparent and just courts of law, the law of mesira has largely been abandoned. Most Jewish communities recognise the legal system of the countries where they live; saving relatively few disputes, mostly centring on religious issues such as divorce, for the Jewish courts. However, the ultra-Orthodox communities still use mesira to prohibit any Jew being reported to the non-Jewish authorities.
As can be imagined, this is a pretty dangerous stance to take, particularly in terms of violent criminals. Perpetrators of, for example, domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual crimes, are often protected by the ultra-Orthodox communities and dealt with "in-house". They are sometimes beaten up by the self-appointed Jewish "police", and often moved to areas where there is no knowledge of their crimes.
Perpetrators of child sexual abuse within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities have been afforded similar protection to Catholic priests. Rabbis have continued to teach, in their own or in new institutions. Yehuda Kolko allegedly had his crimes covered up by the Yeshiva Torah Temima school where he taught for over 25 years. Communities have shielded fugitives, such as Nachman Stal, who fled charges in Israel and was protected for almost a decade by the North London ultra-Orthodox community.
As with the Catholic church, silencing the victims has kept secret, at least from the wider public, ongoing abuse within ultra-Orthodox Jewish institutions. Various Jewish laws have been twisted and misused to threaten victims with divine retribution for reporting crimes. Families are told that their other children will not be given suitable matches for marriage, or won't be accepted by good schools, if the boat is rocked. Similar threats of communal ostracism were used by the Catholic church in Ireland to silence the many people who knew of abuse in Christian Brothers' institutions.
Within many closed, religious communities there is fear of communal repercussions, religious leaders, and ultimately of God. Fears are exploited to allow grave crimes to be covered up, and to continue within religious institutions. Motives of religious leaders may be hard to prove, but there are clear financial incentives as well as issues of power and control that have influenced the positions taken towards perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
There are huge financial implications for admitting abuse and permitting court cases. In the US alone, the Catholic church has paid over $2.5bn to victims. Little wonder then that ultra-Orthodox rabbis opposed New York's Markey bill which sought to extend the statute of limitations for criminal and civil cases about child sexual abuse. Now that abuse is coming to light, the financial implications could be devastating for institutions that covered up allegations and continued to employ abusers.
Similarly, leaders, seeking retain a tight grip of control over their communities, covered up scandals to avoid schisms, splits or defections. Yet these tactics have backfired. In silencing victims and protecting perpetrators, these religious communities face a crisis beyond anything they could have imagined.
As in the Catholic church, things are starting to change in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world. Top rabbis, such as Rav Elyashiv, have come out in support of reporting abuse to the police. Indeed, they have emphasised that prosecution is necessary to keep communities safe and to protect children. Self-appointed Jewish "police" in Flatbush have now told their community to report all abuse directly to the gentile police. Clearly, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world is learning from the recent spate of cases, the Catholic church's experience, and listening to the victims. But can it be enough to say that the institutions will change only once the scandals have broken, or is a Catholic-style crisis of faith about to hit the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community?
==========================================================================

http://blog.nj.com/njv_publicblog/2010/04/sexual_abuse_rampant_across_de.html

Sexual Abuse Rampant Across Denominations.

By Golumba

April 12, 2010, 4:54PM

FailedMessiah.com has done yeoman's work unfurling the hidden sex abuse in the Jewish community that's NOW going on, to the detriment of the children. This isn't about egregious abuse from 15 to 50 years ago, like the horrific Catholic history, but forums addressing crimes against New jersey children occuring NOW in Passaic, Lakewood and Teaneck. It's a familiar, but ghastly, routine: The victim reports the molestation to a rabbi, rather than face SHUNNING...not only for himself, but also for his entire family... by the whole community for bringing the crime to the attention of the police. When the rabbi takes the complaint of sexual abuse, the matter is covered up, handled "in house". Thanks to a new honesty, pedophile arrests are up 800% in Brooklyn, alone, amongst the Orthodox Jewish community.
In Lakewood, N.J., the "Rome" of Orthodox Judaism, the arrest of a Yeshiva teacher for molesting a young boy was a beginning, just last July. Nonetheless, pressure remains to let the child victims suffer and to clear all criminal abuse through a rabbi, and a closed rabbinical court. As one blogger noted, these religious leaders deny that "pedophilia is not a right of those in authority". In New Jersey, all matters that have been brought before a rabbinical court involving sexual abuse need to be brought to the attention of the police and the district attorney. This is an ongoing criminal conspiracy if rabbinical authorities are covering up crimes against children. Where's the Grand Jury?
Next: Brooklyn Orthodox sexual abuse and the good works of DA Charles "Joe" Hynes, a Catholic prosecutor with close ties to the new Orthodox reformers. A year ago he brought 26 sexual abuse cases against Yeshiva teachers, rabbis, camp counselors, merchants, and relatives of children. Yet, one Brooklyn rabbi cited Jewish law that calls for the killing of a Jew who informs on another Jew...even a pedophile. It gets worse.
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http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen04162010.html

A Case of Selective Journalism?

The New York Times vs. the Pope

By DAVID ROSEN
Since mid-February, the New York Times has led a systematic campaign exposing sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. The Times has run approximately four dozen front-page articles, follow-up stories and news reports as well as op-ed pieces and letters-to-the-editor on the sexual abuse of young people by Catholic prelates in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the globe. As America’s news-source of record, its attentions to this issue has been picked up by other media and also led to additional local follow-up reports. The Times’ reporting has also led to denunciations by the Vatican and others.

However, reading the Times’ coverage, it is striking that comparable issues of sexual abuse have not received the same sustained, in-depth, often front-page and editorial attention. Why has the sexual abuse of female soldiers in the military, of youthful inmates in the nation’s prison system, of boy scouts, of teen prostitutes, of Mormon girls and of youths within the Brooklyn Hassidic community not received the same scale of reporting? Indeed, these issues have been covered in occasional daily news reports. But why have they not received a comparable degree of attention?

As evident by what it chooses to focus its investigative resources on, the Times, like other information organizations, articulates an often-unstated political perspective. Its reprehensible policy of backing the Bush administration’s illegal invasion of Iraq, particularly through its publication of Judith Miller’s false reports, is illustrative of such unstated political decision-making masquerading as journalism. A more recent case is its cheerleading coverage of the rightwing campaign against Acorn and the disingenuous mea culpa by its Public Editor, Clark Hoyt.

A reader of the Times can appreciate the in-depth reporting about sexual abuse within the Church: it is a shameful practice that needs to be fully exposed. However, one must question the underlying agenda or intentionality of this campaign, especially in light of the fact that similar attention has not been given to other pressing sexual abuse issues that take place on a daily bases.

* * *

Word about America’s gravest religious sex scandal involving Catholic priests began to emerge in the mid-1980s, but did not fully grip the nation’s attention until the late-‘90s. And the New York Times did not break the story.

Sexual abuse of women and youthful male and female parishioners by individual Catholic clergy has taken place since time immemorial. However, with the rise of post-‘60s political environment, abuse finally came under intense public scrutiny. According to journalist Carl Cannon, Louisiana writer Jason Berry was the first to begin to raise the issue of sexual abuse by priests and the Church’s cover-up. The issue began to generate national attention when “The Phil Donahue Show” covered it on St. Patrick’s Day, 1988.

By the early-‘90s, momentum was building against the Church’s cover-up when indictments were handed down against John Porter for molesting twenty-eight boys in Fall River, MA, and John Geoghan, who molested young boys from at least 1972 but was not defrocked until 1998. In 2001, Kristen Lombardi, writing in the “Boston Phoenix,” directly tied Geoghan to the local Catholic hierarchy, naming Boston Cardinal Bernard Law as complicit in the cover-up. Geoghan was eventually convicted of child molestation and, in 2003, was murdered in prison; Law resigned in disgrace in 2005 and moved to the Vatican where he was rewarded with a high post in the Church bureaucracy.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in the spring of ’08, the first visit by a pope since the Church pedophile scandal broke. He came, in part, to reassure the millions of American Catholics who were deeply disturbed by the Church hierarchy’s role in the cover-up. At a well-publicized but private get-together, he met with victims of the abuse who came from two groups, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful. According to SNAP’s Edward Lozzi, “the meeting was forced upon the Pope by the victims.” He adds:

Pope Benedict was very uncomfortable meeting with the fiverepresentative victims who had been raped by priests and had their lives and families changed forever. This was a private meeting of course. The Pope was visibly embarrassed and in agony throughout the whole encounter.

Lozzi concludes, quite pessimistically, “… Ultimately that April meeting was just a publicity stunt by Benedict.”

Pope Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger, has lived nearly his entire adult life behind the walls of the Church. At age 12, he enrolled in a seminary near where he grew up in Traunstein, Germany. In 1945, after demobilizing from the German military and a brief internment as a POW, he entered Catholic seminary in Freising and was ordained in 1951. He became Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and, moving up the Church hierarchy, became Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faithful in 1981. In 1998, Cardinal Ratzinger became Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals and was elected Pope in 2005.

The Church’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faithful was traditionally known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. It was formally established in 1542 and, for the last four-and-a-half centuries, has enforced official Church doctrine. In the Church’s heyday, it undertook trials for heresy against both Protestants and Catholic reformers, including Galileo. As Cardinal and subsequently as pope, Ratzinger has steadfastly moved to maintain orthodox control of the Church’s bureaucracy and increasingly diverse followers.

In particular, the pope has systemically moved to reverse the changes instituted in Vatican II. These actions included: a return to the Latin mass; lifting of the excommunications of four reactionary bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X; moving to canonizing Pius 12 (who abandoned the Jews during WWII); and campaigning against Latin America priests sympathetic to liberation theology as exemplified by the recent appointment of the conservative (and Opus Dei member) archbishop of San Antonio, Mexiccan-born Jose Gomez, as archbishop of Los Angeles. Some within the Church wonder if he will overturn Vatican II’s most important action and reinstate the charge that Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus.

The pope continues to appear uncomfortable and embarrassed by the pedophile scandal, unable to grasp the scandal’s full moral and legal consequences. While Benedict has, up until recently, appeared to take seriously sexual-abuse charges against the clergy, he is ultimately a faithful follower of the traditions of the Inquisition. His primary duty seems to be to protect those who adhere to Church dogma even if they break secular laws. As such, the indiscreet actions of loyal servants of the bureaucracy are hushed up, offenders shifted to another parish and abusers permitted to continue to serve the Church. Sadly, it appears the neither the pope nor his loyal minions really comprehend (or care about) the institutional failure at the heart of the scandal: where Vatican II sought to open the Church to its faithful, Benedict seeks to limit accountability to only those who accept faithful obedience.

* * *

A review of Google listings of New York Times articles about the Catholic Church sexual abuse as well as sex scandals and related topics provides an invaluable insight into the newspaper’s apparent coverage policies. Like most media outlets, the Times gave extensive coverage to the misadventures of Tiger Woods, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer, among many other sex scandals involving celebrities and politicians.

The Times also reports on a wide array of other sex-related issues and a few are given significant coverage. Like other media outlets, the Times extensively covered the Texas polygamy scandal involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). From February thru June 2008, it ran about two-dozen articles, many informative accounts, about this religious cult and the ham-fisted efforts by Texas law enforcement to break it. Sadly, since the original controversy, the Times has given no real attention to this subject. [see “The New Texas Two-Step: Polygamy & State Regulation of Sexual Life,” CounterPunch, April 19-20, 2008]

Unfortunately, its coverage of most sex-related issues tends to be more episodic, with an occasional news report. Examples of such coverage include the use of rape as a military weapon in the Congo; the sexual abuse of boy scouts by scoutmasters; the sexual abuse of imprisoned young people; and the failed policies relating to sex offenders. These stories are often tied to a horrendous event, the issuance of an important study or an on-going court proceeding.

An illuminating example of this type of reporting involves the increasing incidence of rape and sexual abuse of U.S. female military personnel. The Times recently reported on the Defense Department’s release of its annual report “Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services.” [see “The Third Front: Sexual Assault in the U. S. Military,” CounterPunch, March 19-21, 2010] While the Times has addressed this issue repeatedly over the last decade, it has, like its coverage of Mormon polygamists, never undertaking a rigorous or in-depth investigation of the institutional sexism at their heart of the military.

The Times’ coverage of sexual abuse and a religious group is revealing. In March 2010, “Rabbi” Baruch Lebovits, a Brooklyn Hasidic Jew, was found guilty on eight of 10 counts of sexually molesting Jewish teens in 2004 and 2005. Lebovits, was the owner of a Borough Park travel agency and faces up to seven years in prison. This story was not reported by the New York Times but by the New York Daily News.

Sadly, the Times has offered little coverage of the mushrooming sexual abuse scandal involving Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Hasidics are ultra-orthodox Jewish sects such as the Satmars, Vizhnitzs and Bobovs. In October 2009, like other New York print and media outlets, it covered Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ press conference in October 2009. As it restated from a press release, over the preceding year, 26 Orthodox Jewish “yeshiva teachers, rabbis, camp counselors, merchants and relatives of children” were arrested and eight were convicted; 18 still awaited trial. [NY Times, October 13, 2009] Unfortunately, the cases involving Rabbis Avrohom Reichman and Yehuda Kolko, yet the 26 originally arrested by DA Hynes, have not been reported.

The Times can take an adversarial position with regard sex-related issues. During the summer and fall of 2008, it ran a series of articles regarding the horrendous treatment of teen prostitutes by the New York police and Court system and the need to pass the Safe Harbor Act for Exploited Children then pending before the State legislature. It also ran an editorial supporting Gov. David Paterson’s signing of the law. [see “Teen Prostitution in America: Looking for Safe Harbor,” CounterPunch, August 2-3, 2008.]

The New York Times has devoted extensive investigative resources and page space to exposing the sins of the Catholic Church and its sclerotic leadership to cover-up the long-endemic pedophilia scandal. This reporting has been valuable and one can hope for more of it. But one must ask why such extensive selective journalism has been devoted to this one sinful subject? Why has not similar attention been paid to the other equally troubling examples of sexual abuse of the young, of women and other powerless people, many living in the Times’ very backyard?

David Rosen is the author of “Sex Scandals America: Politics & the Ritual of Public Shaming” (Key, 2009); he can be reached at drosen@ix.netcom.com.

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, 59, Sentenced 32 Years For Sexually Abusing Teen

2010-04-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

==========================================================================
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-sex-abuse-32-years-max,0,4358743.story

BOROUGH PARK, N.Y. (WPIX) - Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, 59, the wealthy owner of a travel agency in Borough Park, Brooklyn, was hit Monday with a lengthy prison term for sexually abusing a then-16-year-old boy from his neighborhood.

Lebovits, a father of seven children and grandfather to 24, had long been the subject of talk in his community, but no action was ever taken against him, until three alleged victims came forward a couple of years ago.

Judge Patricia DiMango, of Brooklyn Supreme Court, sentenced Lebovits to a maximum term of 10 2/3 to 32 years. The victim in this first case told the jury that Lebovits performed oral sex on him in the rabbi's silver Toyota, on eight occasions between May 2004 and February 2005. The victim, now 22, testified he turned to drugs and alcohol after the abuse. The defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, argued the allegations were made up, as part of an extortion attempt, because Lebovits' son is a multi-millionaire.

In a surprise courtroom revelation, the judge read portions of Lebovits' probation report, where the rabbi confided to authorities that he himself was a victim of sexual abuse, when he was a boy. Lebovits said he was victimized the first time by an uncle in London, when he was just 11-years-old. He said a teenager abused him again, a year later, when he was 12.

Lebovits' victim, who admitted he stole money from poor boxes in the synagogue to feed his drug habit, read a statement to the judge before sentencing.

"Some people are telling me I'll regret going to the police. I feel every day Baruch Lebovits is in jail is a day kids in our community are safe," he said.

The victim's father then read his own statement to Judge DiMango, swaying back and forth at the table like he was saying daily prayers in his Orthodox Jewish faith:

"I ask you Mordechai Lebovits--where is your soul? You destroyed these children," said the victim's father,

Later, outside of court, the man revealed to PIX 11 News how community members from the synagogue lashed out against the family after they went public with the abuse complaints.

"Somebody almost kicked me .. they threw me out of the synagogue," he said.

Defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, took note that Lebovits worked for many years as a kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn and there was never one word of complaint from parents. He pointed to more than 100 letters of support for the rabbi, written by his family and other community members.

"In my religion, you would call the life Baruch Lebovits lived a saint -- this is a non-violent crime. Keep in mind, this is his first contact with the system," said Aidala.

But Judge DiMango was not swayed, although she noted, "Sex abuse often leads to sex abuse." Before imposing the maximum sentence, she said, "Abusing and harming children will not be tolerated."

A group of young men who say they are survivors of sexual abuse by teachers and counselors turned up in court to support the victim.

The defense plans to appeal the harsh sentence, claiming Lebovits is being punished, because he turned down a "plea bargain" offer before trial that would have carried a 1 1/3 to 4 year maximum penalty. Now the rabbi is looking at 32 years.
===========================================================================

http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/speech-by-father-of-lebovits-victim-to-sentencing-judge/

Speech By Father of Lebovits Victim to Sentencing Judge

by Yerachmiel Lopin on 04/12/2010

Below is the prepared text that the father of the victim shared with me yesterday and delivered to the judge in Brooklyn a few minutes ago. I will announce sentencing as soon it happens. The text has has been edited to remove names and other identifying information.

I would like to thank the judge, The Honorable Patricia M. Di Mango, for giving me the opportunity to speak at the sentencing of Baruch Mordechai Lebovits.
King David wrote: ”I thank G-d with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright” (Psalms 111:1). There is no more righteous place than where justice is done and executed. The prophet Isaiah said, “Zion should be redeemed through justice. I would like to thank the Honorable Justice Di Mango for conducting the trial with truth and dignity. I have to admit that I had my doubts about the outcome, but I know that if you have truth on your side justice will prevail. As Shakespeare said: “The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is”.
I want to thank Ms. Gregory and her staff and the DA’s office for endless hard work and sleepless nights to bring this case to trial regardless of the dark clouds, She directed those clouds at Mr. Lebovits so the sun should shine again on my son. It is said that in every dark place there is a spark of light that is called hope.
I thank Detective Steve for his tireless work and the fact the he was always available to us 24/7. I also want to thank Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg and the father of another victim. Without you I would not be here today. You were like Pinchus in the Bible.
I want to thank my wonderful parents and family who stood fast in the biggest crises facing them in and out of the community for giving our son emotional support, a hug, a laughter and sometimes, a tear. You kids are all standing tall as victory marches on and history was made.
It is said that you leave the best for the last. And so my beloved son, my heart is always with you. We are one soul in two bodies bonded forever. I am very proud of you as are all your friends, family and all those who took part in this case. You had the courage to bring to the authorities that evil man, who is a rabbi and a prominent businessman with many connections to top leaders in the community. You refused to be bribed to drop the case. You were subjected to mud slinging and character assassination in front of the entire community as you testified in the witness chair. But you persevered because you had one thing on your side and that is the truth.
The holy book The Zohar states that “Truth stands on its own feet and lies do not stand.” And so the jury gave it’s verdict siding with the truth.
My son, with your courage to come forward you made history, helping to put away this evil man. You made the community safer for other children. Martin Luther King JR said “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.”
I want to look this evil a man in his eyes. What this man did is not some tale or script in a horror movie. It is a real horror story of a man who lived in our community, was trusted by the children and the people. He went on to ruin so many innocent lives just to serve his own selfish sick pleasures. I ask you Mordechai Lebovits, where is your soul? After you had your sick fun you discarded these innocent children like trash. You wished to see them completely destroyed so they would not be able to testify against you. You never showed or had any remorse. You tried to destroy our son and his testimony by bringing in a rabbi, Berrel Ashkenazi, who himself is a alleged child molester, to testify on your behalf. But you just dug a deeper hole for yourself. As King David wrote “He who dug a pit has fallen into the ditch which he made. (Psalms 7:16).
But you cannot escape from the hands of G-D. Our son pulled himself out of the pit that you dug for him. He will go on with his life and G-D will give him strength and success while you will rot in a pit. .
Now, let me turn my attention and address the Lebovits family, friends and the so-called rabbis. You are not innocent either. You share the same guilt that Mordechai Lebovits does. You are just as guilty as he is because you all knew who he was, what he was doing and how he was destroying so many innocent children for years. You all came to support him while smirking and laughing at our son as he bravely testified. Our great Sages said that the one who sees someone committing evil and is silent is just as guilty as the evil perpetrator and gets the same punishment from G-D as the evildoer. There were rabbis who called me form Israel and ask me not to persecute him and just let him off the hook for his family’s sake. I told them that there is nothing in the Bible or the Talmud that tells us that justice should not be served for the sake of the family of the criminal. I ask those who pleaded mercy for this man” Did Mordechai Lebovits ever have mercy on the children he molested? Did he ever ask for their forgiveness for ruining their lives?
I would like to give you a summary of a quote from the Chief Rabbi Strenbuch of the Ultra Orthodox Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem (II:627). “It is not only allowed to bring the criminal to the authorities but it is a command to hand over such a person to the authorities. By handing him to the authorities you will eliminate desecration of G-D. There is no greater desecration of G-D than allowing a criminal like this to escape justice.”
I have a message for all those children molested by this or any other evil man and to their families. It took a long time for this man to be brought to justice, but as a Russian poet once wrote “Justice is like a train that always arrives late”. It is better late than never. Don’t be afraid to bring a perpetrator to justice.
In conclusion, I would like to ask the Honorable Justice Patricia M. Di Mango to impose the maximum sentence for the crimes committed by Mordechai Lebovits as he inflicted maximum suffering on his innocent victims with no remorse.
Thank you very much Justice Di Mango. May G-D bless you and G-D bless America!

Reproduction of Judaism - Chometz Everywhere - Rabbinic Donkeys And The Sewage Sludge Creation..

2010-04-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

A reader writes,

An issue that I believe has not received enough attention is the, it seems sometimes daily, bombardment of news concerning people in positions of rabbinical and halachic authority being shown to be frauds or worse. These types of behavior by the people we are taught in the frum world to emulate causes me and I'm sure many others to be turned off from Judaism. Even if such incidents do not cause us to stop practicing, they leave us all with a bad taste in our mouths. What I find most disturbing is the comparative silence of the powers that be including the Agudah, and the rabbis that are considered to be leaders in our community.

When a politician is exposed as a charlatan or a pervert, his associates will do their utmost to disassociate themselves from the scandal for they do not want to be thought of as condoning illicit behavior. They do not want their names and the values they supposedly represent and fight for tarnished by the inappropriate actions of a fellow politician, especially when it concerns abuse of a position of power, using it to take advantage of others who may be defenseless or in need of legitimate services provided by the dirty politician.

How much more so should the very people who are supposed to be examples for the rest of klal yisroel decry pervasive behavior when it is found among their own. Our religion is one that has been passed down from father to son and from rabbi to student, a mesorah. However, if some of the very people handing over the mesorah, or charged with ensuring the strict compliance of halachic standards (i.e. geirus) are found to be frauds or perverts, abusing their positions of authority for personal pleasure, they should be denounced in public. The message should be clear: that these people are not representative or representatives of our religion.

Furthermore, silence and outright cover-ups, only emboldens the perpetrators, the ones who haven't been caught, to continue with their disgusting, hurtful behavior. When a victim of sexual abuse does not hear the supposed champions of Torah condemning the actions of an abuser, they are left with a feeling of abandonment, desolation. The community they grew up in does not care about the suffering they endured. And what does it say about us as a community when one of the supposed strictest authorities on orthodox conversion is found to have been soliciting potential converts for sexual favors and there is not even a word of protest to be heard, not a peep. If a rabbi is approving converts based on the extent of sexual favors proffered, shouldn’t all conversions overseen by this individual come into question?

Are we prudes? Is it inappropriate for us to discuss these matters in public? Where is the shame? Why are these people not being denounced? Why the silence? I feel let down? It makes me resentful of the people who are supposed to be the shining examples for the rest of us. I'm sure that I'm not alone.
==========================================================================

A father's advice to the Holy Father

Q:A senior Vatican priest last week compared outrage at Pope Benedict's handling of sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to the persecution of the Jews. Church leaders disavowed the comments, but went on to complain about a "vile," anti-Vatican media campaign aimed at weakening the papacy and its authority. Is the news media being fair to the pope? Is the media biased against the Catholic Church or its hierarchy? How would you advise the pope?
I am a father. I have been a new father six times. I have said often --and I am not the least bit proud of my capacity to house this feeling-- that if anyone were to seriously harm one of my children, I could drive hundreds of miles days later, with all the time in the world to have cooled down, and kill the bastard with my own hands. Were this situation to occur, heaven forfend, would I actually behave as I have described? I pray I will never know, but if you value your life you don't want to test me.
I am the same man, the same father, you ask now if the news media is being fair to the pope in the sexual abuse scandal that currently rocks his church. No need to repeat the offenses, we all know them well and they are horrific. I do think the press is bending over backwards to be fair, and in return I ask this question:
Must I be a part of a "vile anti-Vatican campaign aimed at weakening the papacy..." when I answer that way? Until the pope opens up to us --what did the church know, when did the church first learn of it , and how was that information processed?-- I think the world press, on behalf of the world's families, owes it to us to stay circumspectly but diligently on the case. How would I advise the pope? Open up to us, Father.

=========================================================================

It can happen in your congregation, too.
The crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is a stark reminder that people we love and admire may turn out to be sex offenders, capable of causing irreparable damage to young lives. Various studies indicate that a not-insignificant minority of adults (perhaps 3 to 20%) may experience some sexual arousal toward children or teenagers. Most do not act on their attractions, but some do -- and they could well be some of the "nicest" people you know.
Despite the media myth that children are abused by strangers, in 90% of child sexual abuse cases, children know their abusers well. They are family members, teachers, scout leaders, athletic coaches, neighbors, babysitters and, as the world now knows, clergy.
Places of worship should be, and usually are, safe havens from the dangers of the world. Still, every congregation must implement policies and practices to reduce the possibility of sexual abuse. These policies can help to protect not just children, but also the adolescents and vulnerable adults in your community.
The following is a checklist of 10 critical steps that can help reduce the potential for abuse in your congregation:

Develop and implement a "Safe Congregation" policy that prescribes a code of ethical behavior and enunciates the congregation's safety procedures. Make sure congregants know about the policy. Provide copies to all employees, volunteers and job applicants. Let it be known that your faith community does everything possible to protect its members from abuse and harassment.
Create a Safe Congregations Committee or a Sexual Misconduct and Abuse Response Team, and provide them with the skills training they need to be effective guardians of the congregation. This committee will be responsible for adopting and enforcing safety policies, communicating with the congregation, and reporting regularly to the congregation's leadership.
Implement annual training for all volunteers in the religious education program so that they can recognize signs of possible sexual abuse and know what actions to take.
Know your state's laws about reporting concerns about child abuse. Make sure the pastor or rabbi, religious education director and board chair understand the procedures to follow. Unless they are mandated reporters (required by state law to report suspected child abuse directly to the authorities), religious educators and volunteers should have a clear policy about how and when to alert the professional ministerial staff about potential abuse.
Adopt a screening form for all employees and volunteers (adults and teenagers) who work with children and youth. The form should ask directly about histories of sexual offenses. The use of a screening form in and of itself may deter someone looking for easy access to children. Rigorous screening procedures demonstrate that your congregation is committed to being a safe place for children.
Implement a policy requiring that two adults be present in every class or program for children and youth, as well as in vehicles transporting young people to activities.
Offer annual adult education programs on sexual abuse prevention for parents and families, as well as for religious education teachers.
Offer regular sexuality education programs for children and adolescents as well, including sex abuse prevention, so they know how to recognize when an adult is acting inappropriately toward them. Every child, from the age of three onward, can learn "No, Go, Tell" - say no to the abuse, leave the situation as soon as possible, and tell a parent or trusted adult if someone tries to touch them or asks them to keep a secret about touching. Tell children that their religious educator, minister or rabbi, or youth leader can help them.
Be sure adults in your congregation (including youth ministers) understand the difference between working with youth and becoming their friends. Healthy adults do not seek friendships with children and teens. An unhealthy relationship initiated by a sex offender may begin as a mentor or friend relationship as the offender "grooms" the child for intimate behaviors.
Create and distribute a referral list of local organizations and therapists who specialize in sexual abuse prevention and treatment. Ask for help when you need it.

Congregations also should have procedures in place for how to respond when someone in the congregation is accused of abuse, or when a person with a history of sexual offenses wants to begin attending the congregation. My book, A Time to Heal: Protecting Children and Ministering to Sex Offenders, is available from Christian Community. An online guide, Balancing Acts: Keeping Children Safe in Congregations, developed for the Unitarian Universalist Association, offers provide a template appropriate for communities of faith in all traditions.
Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship can play an important role in helping prevent child abuse and equipping parents and children to be safe. Developing and implementing policies can assure that no child or teenager is abused in our sacred spaces.

Follow Rev. Debra Haffner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revdebra
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Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer abused an estimated 2,000 boys for decades without sanction

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Nachman Stal Sentenced to 13 Years Behind Bars For Sodomizing Youth --- Judges Blast Rabbis Who Praised Perp

2010-03-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3862588,00.html

13 years for pedophile who fled Israel

Judges criticize defense witnesses including rabbis for praising haredi man who was extradited from Britain to face accusations of sexual offences
Yoav Zitun

Nachman Stal, who fled to Britain after being accused of sodomizing a youth of 14 years, was sentenced Sunday to 13 years behind bars.

Stal, who was extradited to Israel in July last year, received 12 years' imprisonment for sexual offenses and an additional year for evading justice. Tel Aviv District Court also criticized rabbis who had come to Stal's defense.

The legal proceedings began a decade ago, when Stal was accused of indecent acts with a youth he had given a lift to as part of his job. According to the indictment, Stal touched the youth a number of times, and during one particular trip he stopped the vehicle near a bench, in a quiet place, and despite the youth's protests, sodomized him.

Pedophilia

Bnei Brak mayor: 'Pedophile capital' remarks baseless / Yoav Zeitun

Rabbi Yaacov Asher says National Council for the Child chairman did more harm to himself than to haredi city

Full Story

He then gave the youth NSI 200 ($50) and instructed him not to tell anyone. The youth finally told the rabbi of the school where he was studying. With support from this rabbi, he then submitted a complaint against Stal with the police.
In 2000, the accused fled Israel to Belgium, and the indictment was cancelled. A new indictment was submitted in 2005 when Stal returned to Israel, and one year later he again fled, this time to Britain.
The judges, headed by Judge George Kara, severely criticized the witnesses for the defense, including the wife and father of the accused, head of London's South Tottenham Jewish community Rabbi Michael Biberfeld, and Rabbi Yosef Krauser, who supervises the yeshivas in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood.

The four witnesses praised Stal during the trial. "There was no problem with him," the London rabbi said. "His actions were completely normal." Krauser added, "I pity his wife and nine children. They say he regrets his acts and he must be helped."

Stal's father said his son was a wonderful person, though he had noticed a decline in his son's behavior since 1990. His father and the defense team claimed that Stal had suffered from a brain tumor in 1997 which had affected his face and limbs.

The court noted that "all the witnesses saw the accused and his family as victims. They also tried to describe the accused as repentant. Why did none of the witnesses refer to the plaintiff, the only real victim? It would be expected of respected rabbis to say something, even if only a word, about the criminal actions of the accused. Why should they expect pity from the court when they don't have any pity for the victim?"

The court also queried whether those same rabbis were supposed to ignore the danger to the public posed by the accused. "Is an offense against someone from outside their community not considered an offense?"

The judges also referred to Stal's acts. "The accused took advantage of the victim's innocence and chose him in order to carry out his deviant acts," they wrote. "The accused tempted the victim a number of times, so that he would be easy prey."
In addition to the penalty of imprisonment, the court ruled that Stal must pay his victim compensation of NIS 50,000 ($13,500).
=========================================================================================================

http://gothamist.com/2010/03/09/post_135.php

Rabbi Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing Teen

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, courtesy FailedMessiah

The Borough Park rabbi/travel agent accused in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse was convicted yesterday of molesting a 16-year-old student. Baruch Lebovits could be sentenced to 32 years in jail, after being found guilty on eight counts. "I understand that there are a significant number of Jewish holidays coming up,” said the judge. “And I am sorry." The young victim testified that in 2004 Lebovits offered to let him drive his car, then unzipped his fly and performed oral sex on him. Among the rabbi’s other alleged victims is a young Hasidic man who committed suicide on his honeymoon, by jumping from the seventh story of a hotel.
Last week the victim—who’s since left the ultra-Orthodox community—said that after being abused by Rabbi Lebovits, he’s fallen prey to heroin and other substances. The defense attacked him as an unreliable addict, and insists he was trying to blackmail the powerful community leader. "We’re extremely disappointed," said lawyer Arthur Aidala of the guilty verdict. "We were hoping that the jury was going to see things differently...Mr. Lebovits still maintains his innocence." Friends and relatives gasped at the ruling, but at least one person was pleased. "Thank God, justice was served," said the father of the abused boy, according to the Daily News.
Lebovits was acquitted on two other counts, reports the Post, but still faces charges in two more molestation cases, that could earn him another eight years behind bars.

Brooklyn Man testifies Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz molested him as teenager

2010-03-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

In a halting voice, a 22-year-old man on Wednesday accused a Brooklyn rabbi of repeatedly molesting him when he was a teenager.

Supporters of Rabbi Baruch Lebovits packed the courtroom as the accuser took the witness stand to describe a series of assaults in a car between 2004 and 2005.
"Did he say anything?" Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory asked.
"He said something but I don't remember," murmured the young man, dressed in jeans, white shirt, tie and a yarmulke on shoulder-length black scraggly hair.
He spoke so softly and with such hesitation that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango repeatedly asked him to speak up.
"How did you feel?" Gregory asked of the alleged attacks.
"Very uncomfortable and confused," he said.
He sat less than 20 feet from Lebovits, 59, who was surrounded by supporters.
The rabbi, who owns a Borough Park travel agency, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of a criminal sexual act in the second-degree.
He's also awaiting trial on charges of molesting two others.
The man accusing him yesterday admitted he was in rehab for heroin and crack addiction that began after the incidents.
"It's a shame to talk about it and I have low self-esteem," he said, explaining to jurors why he didn't lodge charges until he'd left the Hasidic community.
Lebovits' lawyer hammered him in opening statements, calling him a con man with a history of drugs, crime and missed court dates.
"You're going to be sold a bill of goods," lawyer Arthur Aidala said, claiming the accuser intends to sue his client. "This is a con man that's going to take the stand.
"There's no video, there's no eyewitness, no DNA, there's no fingerprints... That evidence doesn't exist because all these acts Miss Gregory described didn't happen."

VeeBee

4:17 PM
Mar 3, 2010

Attorney Arthur Aidala: Generally MEN (young OR old) do not get on the witness stand and admit they've been molested unless it's true. Your client is going DOWN (as he should). Your client is DISGRACEFUL!!

hjo4

4:53 PM
Mar 3, 2010

A Rabbi Oy vey what is the world coming to.

ezekiel14

5:00 PM
Mar 3, 2010

hj04, let's see if he gets sentenced to any jail time.

monzon3

5:19 PM
Mar 3, 2010

Gee, a rabbi? How naughty. I hope the authorities put him in jail.

theodore bundy

5:30 PM
Mar 3, 2010

>>>>"There's no video, there's no eyewitness, no DNA, there's no fingerprints...<<<< How about his ugy, scary looking mug? That's all the evidence you need. That is pure evil in those eyes. The fact he runs a travel agency and calls himself a rabbi at the same time is enough evidence too! Guilty!

Anacondaman

5:31 PM
Mar 3, 2010

Yes, a rabbi... priests & pastors aren't the only depraved child predators; in fact, some have been GOPers, too. Check out: http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex_Scandals

seth fardy

5:35 PM
Mar 3, 2010

And democrats

Yankees621

5:36 PM
Mar 3, 2010

I understand Aidala has to defend his client but ad hominem attacks on an alleged abuse victims is unseemly. And, it turns jurors off. Male victims rarely, if ever, come forward. Add to that this young man came from the very cloistered Hasidic community where abuse of all sorts, especially at the hands of rabbis, is covered up. Already we hear about how his "supporters" turned out to intimidate the young man. The rabbi may be able to fool a jury and his congregation, but God sees all.

Azazel

5:38 PM
Mar 3, 2010

Cultic ritual and regulations is just a bunch of BS, when are people going to learn that these guy are just people; priest, pastor, rabbi, or iman. No God talks to them anymore than that God would talk to you. Break down the walls of religious organizations and you will be free !

NYCCrocheter

6:18 PM
Mar 3, 2010

Most unfortunately, the bulk of clergy abuse allegations are not from con artists, but from deeply disturbed people with a long history of substance abuse and/or use of psychotropic prescription medications like Prozac. Prozac halluncinations are based on worst fears. The accusers aren't horrible, but they are extremely unreliable and very sad, poor souls.

==========================================================================

http://gothamist.com/2010/03/03/on_trial_rabbi_accused_on_hundreds.php

Today a 22-year-old testified In Brooklyn Supreme Court that he was sexually molested by Borough Park Rabbi Baruch Lebovits. The young man, who's no longer part of the Hasidic community, was dressed in "jeans, white shirt, tie and a yarmulke" and spoke softly, according to the Daily News. "How did you feel?" asked the assistant district attorney. "Very uncomfortable and very confused," he responded. Lebovits will soon stand trial on charges of sodomizing two others, and has been accused of hundreds more counts of child rape and abuse [Pdf Charge Sheets]. Still, his lawyer called the witness a "con man" and warned the jury, "You're going to be sold a bill of goods."
Lebovits's accuser told the court the rabbi had assaulted him multiple times in a car between 2004 and 2005. Since the incident, he said, he's fallen prey to heroin and crack addiction. "It's a shame to talk about it and I have low self-esteem," said the man, who waited to press charges until after leaving the tight-knit religious group. But the defense railed on: "There's no video, there's no eyewitness, no DNA, there's no fingerprints... That evidence doesn't exist because all these acts...didn't happen."
If convicted, Lebovits faces a sentence of up to seven years on charges of criminal sexual acts in the second-degree. Late last year a Hasidic man named Motty Borger committed suicide by jumping from the seventh story of a hotel two days into his honeymoon, having confided to friend that he'd been molested by a prominent rabbi. According to Failed Messiah and the Post, that rabbi was Lebovits.

[1] | Gwinny

Just as in any community, the Hasids have pervs in their midst. This doesn't surprise me at all.

evbo replied to comment from Gwinny

Indeed. The only thing that surprises me is that we haven't heard about anything like this sooner. Move over, Catholics...it's the Hasids' turn!

Young People And Parents Are Charging They Are Victims Of Rabbi Mordechai (Motty) Elon's Sexual Harassment

2010-02-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

New harassment claims against Rabbi Elon

Since original case exposed, other young people turn to Takana forum, saying they were also victims of sexual harassment. Forum to hold emergency meeting. Deputy attorney general threatens to launch investigation into complaints
Kobi Nahshoni

Since the case of Rabbi Mordechai (Motty) Elon was published, Ynet has learned that other young people and parents have turned to the Takana forum claiming that they too were victims of Elon's sexual harassment.

Sources connected with the case confirmed that there had been further claims, though they have not yet been submitted formally to the Takana forum, the Religious Zionist organization charged with handling cases of sexual harassment among the movement's leaders.

Disbelief

Show of support in Migdal: We believe in Rabbi Elon / Sharon Roffe-Ofir

Dozens of supporters, students, and rabbis from around country flood into northern town of Migdal to show support for rabbi warned Monday by religious forum for handling sexual harassment. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu: I felt like my flesh was being cut; we must not let him be alone

Full Story

However, forum staff is already beginning to investigate, and members are due to hold an emergency meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening to discuss developments.

Attorney Ran Nizri, the attorney general's senior assistant, sent a letter to the Takana forum saying complaints filed against Rabbi Mordechai Elon for sexual harassment must be turned over to the police. He added that the police may launch an investigation into the complaints.

On Tuesday morning in the northern town of Migdal, Rabbi Elon had spoken to supporters, focusing on disproving and rejecting the allegations.

Rabbi Elon with supporters. (Photo: Gili Eliyahu)

Following the rabbi's sweeping denial and his claim that they were blood libels, forum members will also discuss whether to make details of the case public along with various documents.
In the light of the relatively moderate nature of the rabbi's speech, no dramatic decision is likely to be taken during Tuesday's meeting.

"We always knew that the real enemy who may cause Haman to win is jealousy and hate," Rabbi Elon had said. "We won't get swept up in this. I won't attack – we'll build. I refuse to take part in the mudslinging. And I ask everyone to refrain from this."

The rabbi had also spoken about the "exile" that had been imposed on him in Migdal and that for years he had tried to avoid blasphemy, which led him to do illogical things – against the advice of others.

Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
============================================================================================

Rabbi suspected of 'conning' NY Jews

Brooklyn DA investigating whether Elazar Abuchatzeira of Beersheba offered divine promises for thousands of dollars in cash
Ynet

The Brooklyn DA is looking into suspicions that Rabbi Elazar Abuchatzeira defrauded Jews from New York City and its surroundings out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
According to the report, the rabbi offered divine promises for cash.

Fraud Allegations

NY cantor accused of defrauding charities / News agencies

Daily News reports Benny Rogosnitzky of the prestigious Park East Synagogue accused of swindling National Council of Young Israel, education group Gateways out of more than $300,000

Full story

A stream of alleged victims from Borough Park, Brooklyn, to Englewood, NJ, said the rabbi, of Beersheba, demanded money from them during annual visits to Orthodox Jewish communities in the tri-state area.

"This man is hurting people," said Borough Park businessman Menachem Ellowich, 53, who signed over a check for $100,000 – shown to The Post – in exchange for a guarantee that his barren daughter would be able to conceive a child. That never happened.
He ruined my life. He ruined my finances by making these promises," the man said.
Brooklyn Assistant DA Eileen Ayvazian said the authorities were aware of the complaints. "It's an active investigation," she added.

Monster On The Loose: Avrohom Mondrowitz Abominations Has Possibly Snared More Victims In Israel

2010-01-20T04:05:00.000-08:00

The FORWARD reports

Mondrowitz Escapes Another Trial

By Nathan Jeffay

Published January 20, 2010

Haifa, Israel — For several dozen Americans who say they were sexually abused as children, news from Israel on January 14 ripped the scab off a still unhealed wound. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Avrohom Mondrowitz, their alleged abuser, will not be extradited to stand trial in America.

But that is not the only recent decision regarding Mondrowitz. The Forward has learned that Israeli prosecutors have decided Mondrowitz will not be charged in connection with child pornography they say they found in his home in 2007.

Justice Ministry spokeswoman, Adi Simchovitz said that the child pornography case against Mondrowitz was closed in March 2009 “for lack of evidence.” She declined to offer any details.

Under Israeli law, possession of child pornography is a criminal offense.

Mondrowitz, an American Orthodox rabbi and psychotherapist, fled the United States in 1985, before an arrest warrant could be executed on an indictment handed down against him for child abuse. He will be released from house arrest in Jerusalem on January 24, unless the Israeli government appeals.

Survivors for Justice, a New York-based support group for Orthodox victims of sexual abuse, termed the court’s extradition decision a “travesty.”

“At the very least, the authorities in Israel should be pursuing criminal charges against Mondrowitz for recent crimes that both they and the U.S. authorities have clear and convincing evidence of,” said SFJ president Ben Hirsch.

The saga of Mondrowitz’s escape from extradition began when he was indicted in Brooklyn on multiple counts of sodomy and sexual abuse of five children.

He fled to Israel, where courts ruled that because Israel’s definition of rape did not include sodomy, Mondrowitz had not broken Israeli law and could not be extradited.

Then, in 2007, the U.S. – Israel extradition agreement was amended to cover homosexual rape and his case was reconsidered. The Israeli government jailed him and sought an extension of his incarceration. At a hearing, prosecutors cited four pornographic films they said had been found during a search of his Jerusalem home. Judge Shimon Feinberg agreed to an extension, noting the government’s claim that Mondrowitz was “a threat to the public as evidenced by the material discovered in his home.” Mondrowitz was ultimately granted house arrest.

The Supreme Court ruled it could not apply the 2007 amendment retroactively.

Michael Lesher, a Passaic, N. J., attorney who represents six American Jews who claim Mondrowitz abused them as children, said, “We know now, which we didn’t before, just what kind of denial we are facing.

“We feel outrage, we feel bitterness and we feel rising anger that bringing Mondrowitz to justice is being resisted.”

One of the first instances in America involving ultra-Orthodox teachers and rabbis preying on their students to come to public attention, the Mondrowitz case is thought to have been prompted by complaints from more than 100 accusers, most of whom encountered Mondrowitz in the 1980s when he was practicing as a psychologist in Brooklyn.

Although Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes instituted the extradition proceedings against Mondrowitz in 2007, he has come under fire from child advocates who say he should have done so earlier.

Even Mondrowitz’s attorney, Eitan Maoz, echoed this view after the extradition ruling. He told the Jewish Star, a Long Island weekly, “In 1988, the law was amended in a way that the route to extradition was open and the district attorney was notified. But they did not do anything until 2007, when they decided to apply.”

Hynes has said that since the crime occurred before the law changed, the extradition request could not be applied retroactively.

Now, child advocates are waiting to hear whether the government will appeal the extradition ruling, issued by a limited bench of three Supreme Court justices who heard the case. The government has 45 days to decide. A single judge will then decide whether to accept the appeal. If accepted, the case would go before an expanded Supreme Court panel.

Maoz, Mondrowitz’s lawyer, called the court’s ruling “a very brave decision… especially at this time when the request for extradition came from the U.S.” He declined to comment on other matters relating to Mondrowitz.

Contact Nathan Jeffay at jeffay@forward.com

===============================================================

The Jewish Week Reports

Mondrowitz May Have Been Treating Boys Long After Indictment

by Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

With alleged Brooklyn child molester Avrohom Mondrowitz under house arrest until Jan. 24 following last week’s decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to deny his extradition to the U.S., new evidence has emerged that appears to indicate that Mondrowitz was treating adolescent boys in Israel as recently as 2006.

According to a document provided to The Jewish Week by New Jersey attorney Michael Lesher, and apparently obtained from Mondrowitz’s computer, Mondrowitz appears to have conducted an interview with and “assessment” of a 15-year-old boy who had been engaging in “improper behaviours [sic] with his peers.”

While the document contains the boy’s name, The Jewish Week is not publishing it to protect the identity of a minor.

It appears from the report, written as a letter and dated June 19, 2006, that Mondrowitz — who fled Brooklyn to Israel in late 1984 and was indicted on sodomy charges in 1985 — actually saw the teen in person, as opposed, for example, to having been sent a file for his review about the case. The boy is described in the letter as a “pleasant, neatly dressed, and polite 15-year-old.”

The assessment indicates that the boy was being seen by Mondrowitz in part regarding “normal hormonal and physical changes in his body.” It also notes that “Early adolescents may discover pleasurable self-stimulation. They form close friendships with peers and may experiment with them, or sometimes with somewhat younger peers, usually to satisfy curiosity. This quite normal experimentation phase usually fades and disappears.”

The lengthy report concludes with Mondrowitz suggesting that the boy “will appreciate and grow positively in Midos [positive characteristics] and Maasim Tovim” [good deeds] from “close interaction with a knowledgeable Mashgiach or other Torah-true guidance figure.”

The document indicates that the assessment was made at the request of the boy’s father and a Benyamin Rosenstein, whom, the documents make clear, is the father of Jerusalem City Councilman Shlomo Rosenstein, a member of the United Torah Judaism party.

The Jewish Week tried but was unable to reach Shlomo Rosenstein at his City Council office.
Mondrowitz’s name appears at the end of the assessment, followed by the credentials “Ph.D., L.N.H.A.” (Licensed Nursing Home Administrator), however there is no evidence he ever received a doctoral degree. Indeed, on a resumé obtained by The Jewish Week, Mondrowitz claimed to have earned a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1977 from “Teachers College, Colombia [sic] University.” A New York Police Department detective, now retired, is quoted in a 2007 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying that all of his diplomas, including his rabbinic ordination, are “fakes.”

According to Lesher, an attorney in Passaic, N.J., author and advocate who represents several men allegedly sexually abused by Mondrowitz, “The new evidence we have suggests that Mondrowitz was serving as a psychologist in Israel, despite many assurances from rabbis over the years [to the contrary].
“That,” Lesher continued, “is a stunning contradiction of what we have been led to believe all these years.”

Other documents provided by Lesher seem to suggest that Mondrowitz had discussed plans for a project, referred to only as “AOL,” with someone named Mr. Myers. While it is unclear from the documents precisely what “AOL” is, the letter suggests it is an “endeavor” in some way related to “alternative therapeutic interventions that have assisted and greatly improved the situation and success of many children and their families.”

The letter is written on Mondrowitz’s letterhead, containing his current address and phone number in Jerusalem, and his name is preceded by “Dr.”

The Jewish Week also obtained an index of material found on Mondrowitz’s hard drive, information that was also provided to the chief superintendent of Israel’s division of computer crime, Avi Aviv, in early 2007. The index notes that the drive contained two graphic video clips. One of the clips features “two young boys sitting together on a bed and getting undressed”; another depicts two boys engaged in “graphic” sexual activity.

The index also lists dozens of URLs for pornographic Web sites, some involving what appear to be minors, visited by the computer. It also notes the existence of e-mails written from Mondrowitz’s e-mail address to customer support at sites that appear to feature child pornography asking why his access is being denied when he paid for access to the sites.

According to the index, there is also evidence that Mondrowitz used an iMule program, which is a site used to share illegal images. The index also lists items apparently related to the “Thornhill University,” a bogus university from which Mondrowitz allegedly issued degrees and credentials. (Thornhill, sometimes described as a “degree mill,” appears on several lists of universities that have no legal authority to issue degrees.) These included e-mail folders for the aliases of various Thornhill University “employees,” including its president, Theodore Thorton. The drive also contained logos from various universities, presumably used in the creation of fake diplomas.

Reached Monday at their Jerusalem home, Mondrowitz’s wife, Raizel, said that Mondrowitz was “unavailable.” But she emphatically denied that he had been treating boys in Israel, though she did say he “had been a psychologist in Brooklyn.”

“He hasn’t had anything to do with treating anyone in 25 years,” she said.

She also told The Jewish Week that the letters suggesting otherwise were “absolute lies” from “the same people who have been going after him for years.”

Mondrowitz and his family have professed his innocence since he fled to Israel in 1984. After he left the U.S., he was indicted in absentia on four counts of sodomy and eight counts of sexual abuse in the first degree against four non-Jewish children in Brooklyn. (While Jewish children were among Mondrowitz’s alleged victims, they were not part of the grand jury that indicted him and thus not part of this case).

During his time in Brooklyn, Mondrowitz ran a child-counseling program out of his home and worked in a special-education school for boys that had connections to Ohel Children and Family Services. One of his alleged Jewish victims told The Jewish Week he was referred to Mondrowitz for counseling directly by Ohel. Several others made their way to him because he had a reputation within the community for being able to help “troubled” boys.

Prior to Mondrowitz’s arrest pursuant to an extradition request by the United States in late 2007 — and months after the Israeli authorities were alerted to Mondrowitz’s involvement in child pornography and the granting of bogus degrees — Israeli police found evidence of his involvement with films containing child pornography, according to court papers.

Mondrowitz has not been charged with any crimes in connection with these activities.
\
An e-mail to Aviv seeking comment on whether an arrest was planned was not returned. An e-mail to the spokesman for the Israeli State Attorney’s office was also not returned.

Recently, it came to light in a story on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, that a California Air Resources Board scientist from San Diego, Hien Tran, had bought a fake degree in applied statistics from Thornhill University.

According to Ben Hirsch, president of the advocacy group Survivors for Justice, “The Israeli government’s continued failure, thus far, to honor the Unites States’ request for the extradition of Avrohom Mondrowitz to face trial for the heinous crimes he was indicted for in 1984, raises troubling questions. That forced sodomy was legally not an extraditable offense in 1984 was a travesty then, and Israel’s failure to extradite Mondrowitz, now that the law in Israel has been corrected, is a travesty now.

“At the very least, the authorities in Israel should be pursuing criminal charges against Mondrowitz for recent crimes that both they and the U.S. authorities have clear and convincing evidence of. ... An indicted serial child rapist such as Mondrowitz has no place in any civilized society. He deserves to be judged by a Brooklyn jury for the unspeakable crimes he committed in Brooklyn.”

The new evidence about Mondrowitz’s actions since being indicted in 1985 comes after last week’s decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to deny what is the second extradition request made by the U.S. (An article on the ruling appeared last Wednesday on The Jewish Week Web site.)

Israeli state attorneys have until Jan. 24, 10 days after the court ruling, to decide whether to request an additional hearing.
\
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office expressed disappointment last Thursday after the ruling, which overturned a lower-court decision that Mondrowitz should be extradited to the U.S. for trial.

“We are disappointed by the decision,” said Jerry Schmetterer, director of public information for the DA’s office, which had been seeking Mondrowitz’s extradition. “We are working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Israel Ministry of Justice to see what remedies are available.”

Asked to elaborate, Schmetterer told The Jewish Week the remedies “would possibly be in the area of further appeals.”

At the time Mondrowitz fled to Israel in 1984, the extradition treaty between Israel and the U.S. did not cover charges of sodomy, which was among the crimes for which he was indicted. The first extradition request regarding Mondrowitz came in 1985, but the appeal was denied. A new request was filed after the treaty was amended in 2007. Last Thursday’s decision was on Mondrowitz’s appeal of that request.
This article was posted on The Jewish Week Web site, www.thejewishweek.com, on Monday, Jan. 18.
===============================================================

Haaretz Reports

Last update - 06:35 20/01/2010

Accused child molester Mondrowitz wins first battle against extradition

By Aviva Lori, Haaretz Correspondent

For the more than two years he was in prison, Avrohom Mondrowitz prayed to God for his freedom.

Two weeks ago, a three-judge Supreme Court panel ruled to release him to house arrest, reversing an earlier Jerusalem District Court decision that the 62-year-old member of the Gur Hasidic sect would be extradited to the United States for the alleged molestation of more than 100 children and adolescents.

Born in Poland, Mondrowitz immigrated to Israel with his family after World War II. In the 1950s, he immigrated again, to Chicago.

By the 1980s he was living in Brooklyn, where he presented himself as a rabbi and psychologist, an expert in childhood and adolescent problems, even though he had no accreditation in the field.

In 2007, former patients of Mondrowitz and students at the yeshiva at which he taught described to Haaretz just what happened behind closed doors.

The parents of Mark Weiss, then 14 years old, came from Chicago to Brooklyn for treatment with Mondrowitz. Weiss had nowhere to sleep, and his self-styled therapist invited him into his home.

"My parents knew and trusted Mondrowitz," said Weiss, now 42. "His family was on vacation in the Catskills, and he came to pick me up at the airport. At first it was a lot of fun; he took me all over the place.

"At night he came into my bed and touched me. He did everything, including acts of sodomy. I was naive - I didn't understand exactly what was going on. I thought it was part of him being nice," Weiss recalled.

Today Weiss is active in Survivors for Justice, an organization created in the United States by victims of Mondrowitz.

In 1984, the New York Police Department collected testimony from Mondrowitz's victims and their parents in the ultra-Orthodox communities of Brooklyn.

Officers drafted a 13-part indictment including first-degree sodomy, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Authorities in New York issued an arrest warrant, but when police came to detain him, Mondrowitz and his family had fled to Israel.

The U.S. Justice Department immediately issued an extradition request, but the extradition agreement between the United States and Israel did not include charges of sodomy, but only rape.

In Israel, Mondrowitz - married and the father of seven children - continued teaching in a yeshiva and counseling children. He is also suspected of having sold forged university degrees to anyone willing to pay.

Israel Police investigators have found significant material testifying to offenses both sexual and otherwise, including pedophile films and forged degrees from universities around the world.

Mondrowitz was first questioned by Israeli authorities in October 2007, then released to limited house arrest.

In January of that year, the Israel-U.S. extradition treaty was amended to include any offense that carries a sentence of one year or more.

The U.S. Justice Department immediately issued a new request for Mondrowitz's incarceration.

According to U.S. law, Mondrowitz's alleged offenses are not affected by a statute of limitations, given that the suspect fled to a foreign country.

Too much time has passed

One night in November 2007, Mondrowitz was seized at his home in Jerusalem's Nahlaot neighborhood and taken into custody, and a week later released to house arrest.

Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia wrote in the ruling that even if the alleged offenses had not exceeded the statute of limitations, Mondrowitz should not be extradited because the length of time passed since they allegedly occurred would make a fair trial impossible.

The court also ruled that Israel and the United States could have changed the extradition treaty long before they did, and even if it was amended in 2007, Mondrowitz was still entitled to the presumption of innocence.

In the coming days the State Prosecutor's Office will likely ask the Supreme Court to hold an additional hearing on Mondrowitz's case.

The New York-based president of Survivors for Justice, Ben Hirsch, said, "We won't rest and we won't be quiet until Mondrowitz is brought to a fair trial in Brooklyn, where he committed his criminal acts. How many children's lives will be ruined by that monster before the Israeli authorities decide to put an end to it? Should we understand from the Supreme Court's ruling that it is recommending that the U.S. government forcibly kidnap Mondrowitz to bring him to trial?"
==============================================================

The Jewish Star reports

Assessing blame, further options in notorious case

By Michael Orbach

Issue of January 22, 2010/ 7 Shvat 5770

Avrohom Mondrowitz will not be extradited to New York to be tried on multiple counts of child sexual abuse, Israel’s Supreme Court has decided. His attorney says the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is to blame but even one of the DA’s harshest critics calls that “preposterous.”
Mondrowitz, a charismatic, self-styled rabbi who faked his psychology credentials, was indicted for sexually abusing several Brooklyn boys a month after he fled to Israel in 1984. He is widely suspected of molesting dozens of boys, many of whom, twenty years later, are still unwilling to come forward.

The case is more involved that that of a single individual accused of committing serious crimes. The social service agency Ohel has vigorously denied having referred clients to Mondrowitz for counseling; and leaders of the frum community, specifically the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, were thought to have warned him of his impending arrest.
Elizabeth Holtzman, Brooklyn’s district attorney at the time, sought Mondrowitz’s extradition. However, the charges against him were not extraditable under the treaty between Israel and the United States in force at the time. That changed in 1988, but the next district attorney, Charles Hynes, chose to not pursue the case until 2007 when the treaty changed again. Hynes has been accused of sitting on the case under pressure from the same Borough Park communal leaders. After a renewed interest in the case, extradition proceedings began in earnest in 2007. Mondrowitz appealed and in a decision issued by the Israeli Supreme Court on Jan. 14, his appeal was sustained.
“The delay in the appellant’s extradition process — currently measured at 23 years — which could have been prevented by an earlier amendment of the extradition agreement, places a legal and ethical obstacle before the completion of the extradition,” wrote Justice Ayala Procaccia.

Eitan Moaz, Mondrowitz’s lawyer, attributed the defense’s success to inaction by the district attorney.
“In 1988 the law was amended in a way that the route to extradition was open and the district attorney was notified,” he explained.” But they did not do anything until 2007, when they decided to apply.”

“I’m not saying it was his fault, it was his decision,” he added. “This case was buried under ground.”

Moaz praised the judge’s decision, calling it “brave,” especially in light of the relationship between the United States and Israel.

Hynes is currently also fighting a Freedom of Information Act request by attorney Michael Lesher, concerning the DA’s conduct in the Mondrowitz case. On Nov. 23, 2009, a judge ordered Hynes to turn over to Lesher all of the documents concerning the district attorney’s handling of Mondrowitz.

“If the District Attorney has been telling the truth about his role in the attempted Mondrowitz extradition, he has nothing to hide; if he has not been telling the truth, he has no right to hide,” Lesher wrote in his affidavit.

Reached by phone on the day of the Israeli Supreme Court decision, Lesher became Hynes’ unlikely defender.

“It’s preposterous to blame the DA for the fact that Israel and America simply did not negotiate a new extradition treaty fast enough. I don’t say that as a defender of Hynes — he did plenty to bury the case -— but it isn’t his fault that the extradition treaty didn’t change sooner.”

“It was the wrong decision and protects a man whose crimes extend … far beyond him,” he said about the decision. “If prosecuted it [the case] would reveal so much about the corrupt underside of the society he comes from. All we ever wanted was simply for him to come to trial like others accused of such crimes. If he did come to trial we would learn a lot of unpleasant things, but invaluable things. I think there were a lot of people who didn’t want that to happen.”

Lesher added that said he believed the court’s decision had been made for “political considerations.”

Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesperson for the DA said that they were “disappointed” by the Israeli decision.

“We’re working with the [U.S.] Department of Justice and the [Israeli] Ministry of Justice to see what remedies are available,” he said.

If there is any further recourse that could see Mondrowitz brought back to New York, it’s a long shot, at best, according to his attorney, Moaz, who believes that Israel’s Supreme Court would need to call a new session with a panel of seven judges.

The decision to set Mondrowitz free “raise[s] troubling questions,” according to Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an advocacy organization for victims of sexual abuse inside the Jewish community.

“We are working with counsel to determine what can be done to help bring Mondrowitz to the U.S. to face trial for the terrible crimes [of which] he stands accused. We are saddened that Mondrowitz’s victims have been deprived of this important step towards closure and we will not rest until every possible legal means to bring this matter to the close it deserves have been exhausted,” he said via email.

The question now becomes what will happen to Mondrowitz. He remains under house arrest after being moved from the prison where he spent the last two years.

He is set to go free on bail in ten days. Documents Michael Lesher provided to the Jewish Star indicate that as recently as 2006 Mondrowitz was actively counseling adolescents under the same false credentials he used in the United States 20 years ago.

In an evaluation of a boy named Eliyahu, who engaged in “improper behaviors with his peers,” Mondrowitz wrote that the boy’s experimentation was “normal.”
“They form close relationships with peers and may experiment with them, or sometimes with somewhat younger peers, usually to satisfy curiosity. This quite normal experimentation phase usually fades and disappears,” Mondrowitz wrote.

Eliyahu would “benefit” from close interaction with a knowledgeable mashgiach or other Torah-true guidance figure,” Mondrowitz recommended.

“An adult supporting figure could teach and encourage Eliyahu that, like hunger, thirst, or other basic needs, other desires must be controlled, channeled and satisfied in the proper time, place and manner.”

In another set of documents, a Jerusalem City Council member, Shlomo Rozenshtein, responded to Mondrowitz’s pitch to develop a “Spiritual Centre” near the Kotel, cc’ing then-Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski on the e-mail.

“The City of Jerusalem and the State of Israel have a deep interest in an idea as beautiful and challenging as your ‘Spiritual Centre,’” he wrote.

At the Mondrowitz residence in Jerusalem a woman who answered the phone wouldn’t put Mondrowitz on the phone to speak with a reporter.

“Sorry,” she said before hanging up.

For at least one of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims, his freedom and the judge’s verdict are frightening.

“It’s not about vengeance. It’s about getting him of the street. I think the world is a less safe place because he’s out and feels empowered,” said Mark Weiss. “It’s pitiful, is what it is. I think humanity has dropped the ball.”

==============================================================

For more on Mondrowitz, just Google his name. You can also Visit Survivors For Justice.

How Does Rabbi Skip The Registry?

2010-01-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

Something very sinister is unraveling right before our very eyes. In a stunning turn of events, in what should have been a slam dunk conviction instead turned into a circus act. Rabbi Yaakov Weiss literally ducked justice, or some would argue it ducked him.

Either way it's deeply insulting that an admitted child abuser cuts a deal sweeter than milk chocolate. And it's highly problematic to have prosecutors sworn to pursue justice pervert it so.

We all know pressure exerted by the Jewish Orthodox community can weigh down the mightiest, but by golly - why here?

The rational explanation to conclude is we're dealing with dirty lawmakers and politicians, who for their own personal gain and ulterior motives are perpetrating these ridiculous outcomes.

Any reasonable mind knows that 9 out of 10 times a person charged with such crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and be required to register as a sex offender. But no - not here. Go figure!
==========================================================

I had to read the Jan. 12 story, "Rabbi takes a plea deal," twice to make sure that what I read the first time was correct. Why did prosecuters agree to a deal that allowed Rabbi Yaakov Weiss to plead guilty without having to register as a sex offender?

Parents with children who live in the same neighborhood as the rabbi deserve to know about his crime.

SUSAN BROWN

Loudonville

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=889107&category=opinion#ixzz0chuwPBjJ

===============================================================

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/01/rubashkin_son-i.php

Rubashkin Son-In-Law Yaakov Weiss Pleads Guilty in Boy-Molest Case, But Avoids Sex-Offender Registry

By Ward Harkavy in Crime and Punishment, Featured, Religion

Friday, Jan. 15 2010 @ 11:48AM

Yeah, pray you should!: The learned Yaakov Weiss, above, admitted to "... while naked, knowingly having inappropriate physical contact with a child, who was also naked at the time ..."

Yaakov Weiss, a son-in-law of crooked Kosher-meat-mogul Sholom Rubashkin, has pleaded guilty to child endangerment in a boy-sex case in Albany. Weiss admitted that he got naked with a 13-year-old boy and had "inappropriate physical contact" with the child.

But the goniff worked out a plea deal and miraculously won't wind up on the sex-offender registry. Which means he can resume his career of working with children.

This despite the fact that he was indicted for full-on molestation: trying to hide his salami in (or at least rub it on) the butts of two boys while they were all taking a mikveh — a ritual bath that's supposed to purify one's soul but clearly didn't have the desired effect.

And Weiss skated despite the fact that he admitted telling one of the two boys he was charged with molesting to lie to his mother and to police.

Weiss, 29, is married to the eldest daughter of Rubashkin, and they had moved from the powerful family's Brooklyn stronghold to the Albany suburb Colonie to run a Hebrew academy. His father-in-law, meanwhile, sits in an Iowa prison awaiting sentencing after being convicted in November of financial fraud.

These crimes are not the reasons these Orthodox Jewish guys — in this case, powerful Chabadniks — wear black hats. But black hats these two schnooks do wear. Meanwhile, Weiss's wife helped lead a Chabad rally Sunday in Crown Heights in support of her convicted dad. The women-and-girls-only rally drew more than 1,000.

Jew-hating extremists — like the schmucks at Rebel News — are having a field day with this.
===============================================================

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142736.html

Why rabbis sin

By Jeremy Rosen

one could be forgiven for thinking that this past year was a very bad one for Orthodox Judaism. Across the Jewish world, one scandal followed another: corrupt and criminal activity among kosher slaughterers and kashrut supervisors, drug smuggling, theft and other illegal financial practices, racial discrimination, sexual abuse, some rabbis recorded demanding sex for conversions and others taking drugs and employing prostitutes. One after another, the headlines have reiterated a sad litany of corruption among Orthodox Jews, in many cases among their rabbinical leaders.

None of this is new; it has been going on for a very long time. But for someone as committed to Torah as I am, this phenomenon represents, far more than theological issues, the most serious of challenges to faith.

I am tired of making excuses. Once I would argue that 2,000 years of oppression, hatred and exclusion had taught the Jews to do whatever they needed to survive. Or, I would note that much of Orthodox Jewry nowadays is barely a generation removed from life in an Eastern Europe where the state was an enemy and everyone had to break the rules in order to evade the discriminatory regimes. In Israel, one could put the blame on David Ben-Gurion, for not having separated religion and state, which in effect encouraged the Orthodox to indulge in all the temptations that accompany political power.

But as with attempts to rationalize terrorism, you go through the obvious list of justifications - poverty, alienation, discrimination - and then you find perpetrators who have suffered none of the above. Daily, we Orthodox repeat mantras about justice, charity and kindness in our prayers, and the more we seem to spout them, the less many of us seem to pay any attention to translating the words into actions.

Catholicism might chalk it up to original sin, explaining that we are all corrupt by nature. Judaism, however, tells us that we are not necessarily evil, but influenced from birth by two inclinations, one to do the right thing and the other to do what is wrong, and we can give priority to one over the other. So why do so many of us ignore our own rules and standards? Is being religious, perhaps, just a social phenomenon, an accident of birth, a system of habit, norms and customs carried out without thought or spiritual significance? After all, even though observance is intended to promote moral behavior and allows for repentance, most people only pay lip service to that. Some people do change. But the vast majority are the same after Yom Kippur as they were the day before.

One could also argue that some people are simply genetically disposed to be more concupiscent, greedy and immoral than others, just as others seem to be more naturally saintly. We all struggle against our evil inclinations, and some people appear to have it easier than others.

But there are other factors at play here. Wherever you have a self-perpetuating oligarchy, its members come to see themselves as above the law. Just as a regime of men usually discriminates against women. This is why the unfair laws of divorce in Judaism have still not been modified to remove the disgrace of male chauvinists who can blackmail their wives over a get. When a majority of rabbis turn a blind eye, claiming they can do nothing, they are really encouraging the process of coercion, providing easy outs to the men while refusing to budge for the women. Add to that the superstition factor - and a tendency to attribute superhuman powers to certain rabbis, so that many then fear crossing them - and you have additional opportunities for corruption.

It may be true that every religion has a similar problem, but that's no excuse. I don't deny the goodness, charity and spirituality that do exist within Orthodoxy, but I am concerned about so many who let the side down, and an automatic tendency of authority to blame the messenger.

Considering how religions seem incapable or unwilling to police themselves, what is the solution? Shedding constant and consistent light on the murky recesses of religious corruption, I would sugest. Most humans behave far better when they think they are being observed. If rabbis who are charlatans, predators, thieves and hypocrites know they are likely to be exposed, they might think twice about what they do. As it is, though, Orthodoxy tends to protect them, claiming wrongly that exposure breaches the laws of gossip and lashon hara. Religious leadership tends to close ranks, often blaming the victims or exonerating the perpetrators. Recent ads in the Orthodox press even claim that those convicted of fraud are like "captives" who must be freed.

All closed groups behave this way, not only Orthodox Jews. This is precisely why Israel's Supreme Court is so unpopular with the Haredi world - and so necessary, because it will recognize no such defenses. It is why a free press, and now the Internet too, is so important, and why public opinion must not let even outwardly pious criminals get away with their wrongdoings. This is why a code of human rights must coexist alongside Torah. It shouldn't need to, since Torah requires justice and righteousness. But when we see the outwardly observant betraying their core values while Orthodoxy stands idly by, we need the checks and balances that a universal system of legal ethics mandates.

Jeremy Rosen is a rabbi and writer. He lives in New York and blogs at jeremyrosen.com/blog

2010 - New Year, New Decade, New Child Molest Cover-Ups, Same Corroded Leadership & Inept Rabbinate!

2010-01-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Teacher faces trial in sex abuse case

by: SHEILA STOGSDILL World Correspondent
Friday, January 01, 2010
1/1/2010 4:26:25 AM

MIAMI, Okla. — A former Wyandotte band teacher charged with molesting two former students was held over for trial, court records show.

Brian Matthew Rash, 38, of Joplin, Mo., is charged in Ottawa County District Court in Miami with first-degree rape, first-degree attempted rape, four counts of rape by instrumentation and two counts of lewd and indecent proposal to a child. His preliminary hearing was held Monday, according to court records.

One victim, a now 21-year-old former band student, told authorities around 200 molestations occurred at Rash's residence, the Wyandotte School band room, Rash's van and hot tub, according to a probable cause affidavit. The first molestation occurred on out-of-town band trip where Rash supplied the 11-year-old victim with alcohol, the affidavit states.

Another victim, a now 22-year-old former band student, reported to authorities sexual misconduct activities with Rash when he was between ages 10 and 13, the affidavit states.

Rash was employed by Joplin Catholic School District from 1995 to 1997; Wyandotte Public School District from 1997 to 2000 and Neosho (Missouri) Public School District from 2000 to 2007.

He is being held on $650,000 bail and is set to return to court Jan. 15 for arraignment.

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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Police_-Coach-accused-of-sex-abuse-likely-skipped-out-of-U_S_-8700512-80348957.html

Police: Coach accused of sex abuse likely skipped out of U.S.

By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
December 31, 2009

A Little League baseball coach accused of molesting at least three of his players has fled the country and Fairfax police are asking for the public's help in bringing him to justice.

John E. Hamilton, 38, of Centreville, was scheduled to plead guilty in October to charges that would have put him behind bars for a long time. Instead, he failed to show up. Police believe Hamilton may have fled the country, and is hiding out in Denmark or Frankfurt, Germany.

His story was featured earlier this month on the television show "America's Most Wanted."

"We're hoping that anybody with knowledge about his whereabouts will come forward," said Fairfax County police officer Tawny Wright.

The investigation began earlier this year, when a 24-year-old man told police that he had been molested by his coach when he was 12, including in the parking lot of Carl Sandburg Middle School and at Hamilton's home.

The victim said seeing Hamilton with a young boy motivated him to come forward. Hamilton was arrested in May and at least two more young men have told authorities they had been abused by him, too.

Hamilton, who worked at his family's business, Wick's Sports Lettering in Alexandria, is listed as 6-foot-3, 285 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair.

Readers of The Washington Examiner have helped authorities captured two fugitives this month and police are hoping they can come through again this week.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Solvers by phone at 866-411-TIPS (8477) or Detective Jeremy Hinson at 703-246-7523.

smccabe@washingtonexaminer.com

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http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/

The Swimsuit Lesson!

2009-12-27T20:05:00.000-08:00

Fort Collins cop's book helps in child sex abuse cases

By Mike McPhee
The Denver Post

Posted: 12/27/2009 01:00:00 AM MST

Fort Collins police recently interviewed a young girl they suspected had been sexually abused, but she wouldn't talk.

On they way out, the cops gave her and her mother a copy of their colleague Sgt. Jon Holsten's book, "The Swimsuit Lesson," in which he explains to children that they should never be touched on any part of their body covered by a swimsuit.

On the way home, her mother noticed the girl in the back seat with her eyes closed, starting to cry. "What's wrong, honey?" the mother asked.

"I need to tell you everything," she said.

They returned to the police station, where she confided to the police exactly what had happened.

Why the change? She said, "Well, the little girl in the book didn't get in trouble by telling, so I figured I wouldn't either."

Holsten, when told that story, knew that the long hours and hard work and travel he'd done for his book was worth it.

Holsten's book, which he self-published four years ago, has sold more than 10,000 copies across the country and in Canada.

On his own — without an agent, a publisher or a publicist — he's managed to put the instructional, beautifully illustrated children's book into 600 elementary schools throughout New York City, and into school districts in Texas, Wyoming, Georgia and parts of Canada.

Holsten got the idea for the book while he was a detective. "About 85 percent of my caseload was child sex crimes," he said. "I was blindsided by the number of cases dropped on my desk. Parents have no clue how often these cases happen. And many don't know how to approach it with their kids. I found a simple way to address a complicated issue."

And it's not just for kids. A 90-year-old woman who saw Holsten on ABC's "Good Morning America" four years ago told her family for the first time that she'd been sexually abused as a child, he said.

Holsten, a 39-year-old father of six kids between the ages of 2 and 14, who works full-time on the midnight shift, has struggled with his project. He had to take out a second mortgage on his house to cover the $25,000 bill for printing and other expenses.

"I've been amazed. Most speakers average sales of their book to about 10 percent of their audiences," Holsten said. "I've been averaging 85 percent. But it's been very difficult to find an agent or a publicist. I don't know why."

Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com

Teaching kids about sex abuse

For more information about the $15.99 book, visit theswimsuitlesson.com.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14074963#ixzz0awN9YzFC
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Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg

Brooklyn, New York

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg is a dedicated community activist and advocate on safeguarding Jewish children from sexual abuse in Orthodox Jewish communities and schools.

Check out Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg's website in Isreal: www.nuchem-rosenberg.com

and www.klafkosher.com

Rabbi Rosenberg protests in front of the Supreme Court and Brooklyn District Attorney’s office located at 350 Jay St. Brooklyn N.Y.

Exposing Child Abuse Remains Anathema In Haredi-Land

2009-12-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Surfing the net in sin

Dec. 16, 2009
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST

Is it business and political interests or religious puritanism that is the motivation behind an attack led by rabbis on Internet news media sites catering to haredi audiences?

Sources in the haredi world say it's a little bit of both. Rabbis' religious sensibilities are being skillfully manipulated by businessmen and politicians, say the sources, to close down - or at least seriously damage the popularity of - several haredi Internet sites that offer news items, op-eds and talk-backs focusing on internal haredi issues, spiced with pictures and video clips.

Official rabbinic opinion allows surfing the Internet solely for business purposes. According to a recently released study by the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2008, 55 percent of haredim who own a computer also were connected to Internet, compared to a national average of 92%.

"B'Hadarei Haredim" (in haredi rooms), "Haredim", and "Kikar Shabbat" are the three biggest haredi sites, but there are smaller sites such as "Etrog", "Ladaat" and "Kugel".

All devote the vast majority of their screen space to issues such as new rabbinic decrees, interviews with haredi politicians and coverage of demonstrations.

While the haredi print media tend to deal with "hard news" such as political and diplomatic stories, the haredi Internet sites delve into the depths of internal haredi affairs. And sometimes things get racy.

"Kikar Shabbat" will be posting an op-ed about the sexual dangers of sending young boys to the mikveh (ritual bath), not from haredi mikveh-goers, but from secular perverts who frequent the baths.

True, the piece was carefully censored by the site's editorial staff to take out words like "sex", "backside" or "deviant". Still, the subject of child abuse is strictly taboo in the haredi printed media.

Unlike the three daily haredi newspapers - Hamodia, Yated Ne'eman and Hamevaser - Internet sites are not aligned with any political or rabbinic leadership. This freedom allows them to be much more critical of rabbis, politicians and other haredi figures.

Other subjects treated by the haredi Internet sites that would never be touched by the printed media are what one site manager called "fun" and "entertainment". There are interviews with haredi vocalists, video clips and coverage of other frivolous pastimes.

And the rabbis are not happy.

"For people who stumble into their trap and cooperate with them, we warn you with the strictest of warnings not to look at those stations," said a group of leading rabbis in a statement that has been published over the past week in the three haredi dailies.

"Nor should anyone - individuals, companies or organizations - advertise there. And all of the prohibitions set by rabbis regarding TV apply to Internet stations as well."

The statement was signed by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rabbi Haim Kanyevsky, Rabbi Aharon Yehudah Leib Steinman, Rabbi Israel Hager, the son of the Viznitz Rebbe, and Rabbi Nissim Karelitz.

As a result of the announcement Dov Fobrafsky and David Rotenberg, the founders of B'Haderei Haredim, the first haredi Internet site, resigned.

Fobrafsky told The Jerusalem Post that as a Jew faithful to rabbinic leadership he had no other choice.

"Whether or not I understand or agree with their ruling I have to accept it," Fobrafsky said, adding that he was looking to sell his shares in B'Haderei Haredim.

"If I could have at least been given the opportunity to explain my perspective to the rabbis who made the decision I would feel a little better. But I accept their decision nevertheless."

Fobrafsky said that he originally established B'Haderei Haredim eight years ago as an Internet forum that would offer an alternative to secular Internet forums that he said exposed young haredi men and women to negative influences.

Four years ago he added a news section to the forum, which has expanded over the years.

"Haredim are surfing on the Internet and there is really nothing we can do to stop them. My thinking was to provide a clean option to sites that have problematic content or ads. But the rabbis disagree," he said.

Just five months ago, Kikar Shabbat and Haredim set up sites that competed with B'Haderei Haredim.

Now Fobrafsky says he has come to the end of the road.

"Unless the rabbis decide to allow the Internet sites to continue under some kind of rabbinic supervision I will be unable to continue," he said.

Mani Gerah, manager of the Haredim site, said that if his rabbis tell him unequivocally that he must close down his site, he will listen.

"I am in consultation with my rabbis and whatever they tell me I will do."

Fobrafsky, Gerah and others involved with the haredi Internet sites say that while the rabbis' motivations were undoubtedly pure, there were political and business interests involved as well.

For instance, a series of negative news reports were published by the haredi sites against a prominent haredi mayor. They claim that it is not a coincidence that the rabbi of the mayor's city initiated the move against the haredi sites.

Also, the three haredi dailies have a vested interest in seeing the sites closed down.

"The dailies are afraid that they will lose advertising revenues to the haredi sites," said a source knowledgeable about the subject.

However, a senior editor of one of the dailies denied the Internet sites were a danger to revenues.

"Only 10 percent of the people who visit those sites belong to our readership," said the editor.

"The real story is that these sites simply went too far. They deal with subjects that are totally off limits in the haredi community, for instance, matters that have to do with the relations between men and women. They get into details of family purity. These are things that children must not be exposed to. It causes confusion.

"I believe the majority of the haredi public agree that the haredi sites have made themselves unbearable. One of two things will happen: either the sites will clean up their act and be put under rabbinic supervision or the few people who surf the Internet against the will of the rabbis will continue to do so."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1260930882895&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
[ Back to the Article ]

Agudath Israel Fraud Convention Highlights!

2009-11-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

Rabbi Shlomo Mandel still employs and gives refuge to child molester Rabbi Yehuda Nussbaum - having no qualms in endangering boys attending Yeshiva Of Brooklyn. Total hypocrisy. No Shame!

The Borough Park Rebbe invoking the name of G-D.

Lipa Margulies featured in audio/visual presentation titled “when it will be a kiddush Hashem!”

Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudas Yisroel, was the first of the evening’s speakers to address the session, which was entitled, “Yisroel Asher Becho Espo’or: Promoting K’vod Shomayim in Our Business and Interpersonal Dealings.”

He focused on a number of issues and ideas pertinent to that theme, which, in light of events both past and present, he called a “painful subject.” Noting the increased number of tragedies in the community over recent years and months, the Rebbe exhorted his listeners to introspect in light of the yesurim around them. We must not, he said, attribute sad circumstances to chance or nature but rather recognize that they demand
change of us - and that a “cloud” of chilul Hashem, the “most grave of all transgressions… hangs over us.”

Continue Reading HERE

Effects Of Child Sexual Abuse

2009-11-20T04:36:00.000-08:00

Child Sexual Abuse

No. 9; Updated May 2008

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult. The problem should be identified, the abuse stopped, and the child should receive professional help. The long-term emotional and psychological damage of sexual abuse can be devastating to the child.

Child sexual abuse can take place within the family, by a parent, step-parent, sibling or other relative; or outside the home, for example, by a friend, neighbor, child care person, teacher, or stranger. When sexual abuse has occurred, a child can develop a variety of distressing feelings, thoughts and behaviors.

No child is psychologically prepared to cope with repeated sexual stimulation. Even a two or three year old, who cannot know the sexual activity is wrong, will develop problems resulting from the inability to cope with the overstimulation.

The child of five or older who knows and cares for the abuser becomes trapped between affection or loyalty for the person, and the sense that the sexual activities are terribly wrong. If the child tries to break away from the sexual relationship, the abuser may threaten the child with violence or loss of love. When sexual abuse occurs within the family, the child may fear the anger, jealousy or shame of other family members, or be afraid the family will break up if the secret is told.

A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. The child may become withdrawn and mistrustful of adults, and can become suicidal.

Some children who have been sexually abused have difficulty relating to others except on sexual terms. Some sexually abused children become child abusers or prostitutes, or have other serious problems when they reach adulthood.

Often there are no obvious external signs of child sexual abuse. Some signs can only be detected on physical exam by a physician.

Sexually abused children may also develop the following:

unusual interest in or avoidance of all things of a sexual nature
sleep problems or nightmares
depression or withdrawal from friends or family
seductiveness
statements that their bodies are dirty or damaged, or fear that there is something wrong with them in the genital area
refusal to go to school
delinquency/conduct problems
secretiveness
aspects of sexual molestation in drawings, games, fantasies
unusual aggressiveness, or
suicidal behavior

Child sexual abusers can make the child extremely fearful of telling, and only when a special effort has helped the child to feel safe, can the child talk freely. If a child says that he or she has been molested, parents should try to remain calm and reassure the child that what happened was not their fault. Parents should seek a medical examination and psychiatric consultation.

Parents can prevent or lessen the chance of sexual abuse by:

Telling children that if someone tries to touch your body and do things that make you feel funny, say NO to that person and tell me right away
Teaching children that respect does not mean blind obedience to adults and to authority, for example, don't tell children to, Always do everything the teacher or baby-sitter tells you to do
Encouraging professional prevention programs in the local school system

Sexually abused children and their families need immediate professional evaluation and treatment. Child and adolescent psychiatrists can help abused children regain a sense of self-esteem, cope with feelings of guilt about the abuse, and begin the process of overcoming the trauma. Such treatment can help reduce the risk that the child will develop serious problems as an adult.

For additional information see Facts for Families:
#4 The Depressed Child
#5 Child Abuse
#10 Teen Suicide
#28 Responding to Child Sexual Abuse
#62 Talking to Your Kids about Sex
#73 Self-Injury in Adolescents
#00 Definition of a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

See also: Your Child (1998 Harper Collins) / Your Adolescent (1999 Harper Collins)

Click here to order Your Child from Harper Collins
Click here to order Your Adolescent from Harper Collins

Excerpts from Your Child on Sexual Abuse

Many parents are unsure or squeamish about bringing up sexual matters, especially with their children. Yet, there are ways of laying the groundwork so that you can talk to your child without scaring her. Establish an open dialogue about sexual issues early on. If you introduce the subject of sex in a discussion of abuse, there is the danger that the idea of sex may become automatically linked in your child’s mind with danger and anxiety.

If you have fostered in your child a sense of ownership regarding her body, she will likely have an instinct about what is okay for her body and what is not. You build on her natural sense of ownerships of her body by letting her pick out her own clothes or wash herself in her own way. Also, avoid pushing her to kiss or hug other adults when she clearly does not want to.

Finally, when parents treat their children’s bodies with respect, children tent to demand that others treat their bodies in a similar manner. Children who are consistently hit, grabbed, or physically punished at home may feel that adults are entitled to misuse their bodies simply because they are bigger.

Source: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/child_sexual_abuse

Accused Serial Child Rapist, Baruch Lebovits, May Have Abused Hundreds Of Children. People Aided & Abetted This Beastly Specimen!

2009-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Lebovits is rumored to be one of the men who molested a recent suicide.

"borger was in munkatch
lebowitz was in munkatch"

~~~ chaptzem

FailedMessiah Blog Has All The Scoop:

Baruch Lebovits Accused Of Hundreds Of Counts Of Child Rape And Abuse
Brother of Nikolsburger Rebbe owns a Brooklyn travel agency.

Lebovits is rumored to be one of the men who molested a recent suicide.

His next court appearance is scheduled for December 3, 2009 in front of Judge M. Gary.

Lebovits Davens in Beth Yakov Burshtin on 12av and 56 street and also is seen daily in Mikvah there.

Lebovits's travel agency is Best Way Travel, located at 963 55th St, Brooklyn, NY.

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The Jewish Community Online Suicide newlywed 'was sex-abused'

A report that a Brooklyn man who committed suicide two days after his wedding was a victim of sex abuse has riled the Orthodox community.

Mordechai (Motty) Borger, 24, jumped from the seventh-floor terrace of his hotel on November 5. His bride, Mali Gutman, whom he married on Nov 3 after they met through a matchmaker, was asleep in the room.

A spokeswoman for the NYC medical examiner’s office said the death has been ruled a suicide.

Activists working to expose sex-abuse scandals in Orthodox yeshivot said that a report in the New York Post that Mr Borger had been molested as a yeshivah student was accurate — despite angry comments posted from Mr Borger’s acquaintances. The Post, quoting an unnamed source, said that Mr Borger had told his wife about the abuse after the wedding. He was seen on security video footage in the hotel lift appearing agitated.

On the internet, the story prompted a huge number of comments asking questions about Mr Borger’s private life.

“He is a survivor” of sex abuse, said Vicki Polin, founder of the Awareness Centre, a Baltimore-based coalition. She said that Mr Borger had told his parents about the abuse, but they had not sent him to therapy or gone to the police.

Mr Borger’s father, Shmuel, the founder of Amudei Shaish Boys’ Choir, has posted an audio message on the web lamenting his son’s death after a “magnificent wedding” and noting that “a chosson’s week of sheva broches” turned into seven days of mourning.

He urges people to reach out to friends and family. “Don’t be ashamed to say I’m sorry,” he advises.

Ben Hirsch of the group Survivors for Justice said that while he does not know the truth of Mr Borger’s death, he does know of several suicides as a result of sexual abuse.

“The community’s protection of the abuser can sometimes do more damage than the abuse itself.”

Asher Lipner, vice-president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, said that sex-abuse victims can develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

“A young man who is newly married… it could trigger flashbacks to a time when he last experienced sexual contact, which was abuse,” he said.

He said there was growing pressure on the Orthodox community to publicise sex abuse in yeshivot, adding: “There is an incredible amount of pressure put on someone not to talk about what happened. For over 40 years we’ve had in our community 100 per cent denial that the problem exists. When you have a dirty secret and you cover it up, it grows like a cancer.”

Source URL: http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/22137/suicide-newlywed-was-sex-abused

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