MONDROWITZ: לשמור על הסוד– הרב י', שנפגע על ידי מונדרוביץ בעצמו, סבור שאין לחשוף התעללות בילדים בפומבי

If you can translate this, please do. Leave the translation as a comment to this post. Thanks!

Ha'aretz reports:

   

                             

לשמור על הסוד

הרב י', שנפגע על ידי מונדרוביץ בעצמו, סבור  שאין לחשוף התעללות בילדים בפומבי

הרב י', בן 39, מנתב את האנרגיות השליליות מהילדות לטיפול, בהתנדבות, בילדים חרדים שעברו התעללות מינית כמוהו. הקשר שלו עם מונדרוביץ התחיל בערך בגיל 12. הוא היה שכן שלו, גר באותו רחוב והיה חבר של הבנים שלו. "יום אחד, כשבאתי אליו הביתה, רציתי לשחק עם הבנים שלו, התברר שהם לא בבית. מונדרוביץ היה שם והזמין אותי למשרד שלו והתחיל לתת לי כסף וכל מיני מתנות יקרות. אני אף פעם לא לקחתי ממנו כלום, והוא שם את הידיים שלו איפה שלא צריך. אחרי הפעם הזאת אני לא רציתי לבוא לשם יותר, אבל הוא דיבר עם אבא שלי ושאל למה אני לא בא יותר לשחק עם הילדים שלו, ואבא שלי שלח אותי אליו והוא שוב עשה אותו דבר. הרגשתי שמשהו לא בסדר, אבל לא יכולתי להגיד לאבא שלי, אז הלכתי לשם ושוב הוא היה לבד. נדמה לי שהמשפחה שלו היתה בחופש, אני לא זוכר למה ואיך אבל נשארתי אצלו לישון וזוכר שבאמצע הלילה התעוררתי ואז הוא שוב נגע בי. אולי הוא נתן לי משהו שאמשיך לישון. בבוקר קמתי והלכתי הביתה". אחרי כמה פעמים הפסיק ללכת לשם ואף פעם לא סיפר דבר לאף אחד. "מונדרוביץ המשיך להתקשר לאבא שלי, ביקש שישלח אותי לשחק עם הילדים שלו, אבל אני לא הלכתי לשם אף פעם יותר וגם עם הילדים שלו הפסקתי לשחק. עד היום איש לא יודע על כך דבר. לא הורי, לא אשתי ולא הילדים שלי, אבל כשהתחילו לספר על מונדרוביץ, אמרתי לאיימי נוישטיין שאני יכול להאמין לכל מלה". י' באופן אישי לא חולם בלילות על רצח אבל מכיר אחרים שכן. "שמעתי שיש הרבה איטלקים, כאלה שהיו אז ילדים, שרוצים להרוג אותו", הוא אומר. י', בעצמו רב, מתנגד לחשיפת מעשי הזוועה של הרבנים בפומבי, לא כדי להגן עליהם אלא כדי להגן על הילדים. "לפנות למשטרה ולבית המשפט בארצות הברית זה סיפור ארוך של שנים ובינתיים החשיפה הורסת את הילד או הילדה שהיו קורבנות התעללות עוד יותר. את מונדרוביץ לא אכפת לי להביא למשפט כי היום כולם כבר מבוגרים". האם ילדים בקהילה החרדית חשופים יותר להתעללות? י' מספר כי לפני 15 שנים הכיר פדופיל מניו ג'רזי ששמע שהחברה החרדית סובלנית כלפי פדופילים. הוא קנה דירה בברוקלין, גידל זקן ופאות והתחיל לפגוע בילדים. כשתפסו ועצרו אותו, הפעיל י' את קשריו במשטרה. "דיברתי עם כמה חבר'ה שהיו להם קשרים עם שוטרים וכשהביאו אותו לבית המעצר, השוטרים אמרו בקול רם, שכל העצירים האחרים ישמעו, שהוא פדופיל ושמותר לעשות לו הכל. אחרי חמישה ימים בבית המעצר הוא הסכים להכל. היו לי אז קשרים עם התובע בברוקלין והשפעתי עליו שתהיה עסקת טיעון. העסקה קבעה שאסור לו יותר לגור בעיר אלא רק במקום מבודד. הוא מכר את הדירה שלו בברוקלין, בכלום כסף, ועבר משם לאזור כפרי. אני לא רציתי שיהיה משפט כדי שילדים שהוא פגע בהם לא יצטרכו להעיד נגדו". נתת יד להסתרה.  "רק כדי שהילדים לא ייפגעו עוד יותר. אבל אני בעד להילחם בזה מבפנים. אצלנו אם ילד יגיד שעשו לו משהו כזה, יזרקו אותו מבית הספר, לא רוצים שייצא שם רע לבית הספר. ואני בעד להוריד את הסטיגמה מהילדים שהתעללו בהם. האשמים הם בתי ספר והישיבות. שם צריך לעשות את

Comments

[adreck]

I can try:
One day when Shmarya was feelin` real goooooood,and they lived happily ever after

[Translator]

Summary: (the article is incomplete): A victim of M., now 39, tells his story of how he was assaulted by M., but argues that it is better to keep these incidents secret "and deal with them from inside", rather than go to police, where the legal process harms the [child] victims. Along the way he tells a bizarre story of a pedophile who moved into Brooklyn, grew a beard and payos etc etc. The interviewee, who claims "connections" with police, prosecutors etc , claims he was able to arrange a plea bargain... [Sounds very unconvincing to me].

The article is cut off at this point.

[Translator]

The end of the article:

The Schools and yeshivot are the guilty parties. That is where it is necessary to wage war.

(The schools and yeshivot expel victims of pedophilia, 'to protect their reputations') (sic)

[anon]

great comment on Chaptzem
The American justice system is indeed imperfect, as is any run by human beings. Anyone care to compare it to our present system of batei dinim?

[rebeljew]

Here is a complete translation:

To keep the secret

Rabbi Y, who was abused by Mondrowitz himself, thinks that one should not expose child abuse in public

Rav Y, 39 years old, reports on the negative consequences of children in treatment, voluntarily, for Haredi children who suffer the type of abuse that he did. His contact with Mondrowitz began when he was about 12. He was a neighbor, living on the same street, and he was friends with his (Mondrowitz's) children. "One day, When I came to his house, I wanted to play with his kids but found that they were not home. Mondrowitz was there, and he invited me into his office, and he give me money and all kinds of nice gifts. I never took anything from him, and he put his hands where it was inappropriate. After that, I did not want to go there anymore, but he spoke to my father why I did not come over to play with his kids anymore. So my father sent me there, and he did the same thing again. I felt that something was wrong, but I could not tell my father. So I went there, and again he was alone. I seem (to recall) that his family was away on vacation, I do not remember why or how, but I remained with him to sleep over, and I recall that in the middle of the night, I awoke, and he was touching me again. Perhaps, he had given me something so I would continue sleeping. In the morning I got up and went home."

After several times, he stopped going there, and he never told anyone. "Mondrowitz kept contact with my father, requesting that he send me to play with his kids, but I never went again and I stopped playing with his kids altogether. To this day, no one knew anything, not my parents, not my wife, not my kids, but when they started telling about Mondrowitz, I told Amy Neustein that I could believe every word.

Y, personally, did not dream at night about murder, but knew others that would. "I heard that there were many Italians, that were (treated) similar(ly) when they were children, that wanted to kill him." He says, Y, himself a Rabbi, is against publicly exposing atrocities committed by Rabbis, not to protect them, but to protect the children. "To open up to the police and the courts in the US, this is a long multi-year process, and meanwhile the exposure destroys the boy or girl who is an abuse victim even more. Mondrowitz is not forced to come to court, because now, all them are already grown."

Are children in the Haredi community more exposed to abuse? Y tells that 15 years ago, he knew of a pedophile in New Jersey who heard that the Haredi group were tolerant toward pedophiles. He bought an apartment in Brooklyn, grew a beard and payos, and began abusing children. When they caught him and detained him, Y activated his contacts with the police. "I spoke with many chevra who had contacts with the police, and when they brought him to jail, the police shouted out loud, so all the other prisoners would hear, that he was a pedophile and that they would be allowed to do anything to him. After 5 days in jail, he confessed everything. I had contacts with the Brooklyn prosecutor, and I influenced him to work out a deal. The deal stipulated that he cannot live in the city, but only an isolated area. He sold his apartment in Brooklyn, for virtually nothing, and he left there for some rural area. I did not want it to go to trial, so that the children he abused would not have to testify against him."

You helped to cover it up?? (Presumably this is the reporter's question)

"Only so that the children should not have to go through it again. But I advocate fighting from within. With us, if a child tells that someone did soemthing like this, we throw him out of school. They do not want that the school should get a bad reputation. But I advocate removing the stigma from children who are abused. The fault belongs to the schools and yeshivos. It is there, that they need to ..." (No more of the story is printed here.)

[Anon]

Is this a new article?

[shmuel]

Thanks for the translation.
We are pathetic. A victim doesn't want to expose this evil, "for the sake of the children." Thanks. Then pedophiles hear the charedi community is tolerant of them (!), so they invade, grow a beard and payos, and abuse their children. Still no response from the victims! It never ends. No dealing with police, the DA, proper authorities...we worry about the shidduch chances of the children. I am sickened to death by these people.

[Newsman]

Breaking news -- Mondrowitz's granddaughter, age 7, dies.

Daniella Fastag-Grunberg, the daughter of Faigy Fastag-Grunberg (nee Mondrowitz) died yesterday.

[red]

boruch dayan haemes.

[rebeljew]

Shmuel

It was not shidduch chances that drove Y, but what he perceives as harming the victim. Obviously, at the time, he did not even feel that he could confide in his parents. He arrived at this after studying the effects on recovering abuse victims, that this was very painful for them. I agree that we are 50 years behind the times. We should see child rape as a stigma on the child, but as a crime perpetrated against a defenseless victim. If kids were mugged by Rabbis, would the yeshivas cover it up or consider it a harm to their reputation to have these kids?

Also, Y states clearly that the matter of pedophiles is not tolerated in Haredi circles in his experience, and he brings a story as example. I hope that his experience is the rule and Kolko is the exception.

[janitor]

where did you hear that newman?
if true, it's very sad.

[R]

Well there is a difference between someone who just grows a beard and has peyot and a Rabbi who everyone respects etc etc.
So the one who just grew the beard gets kicked out, but the Rabbi gets to stay.
Haredim are tollerant of peadophiles when it's one of their own doing the crime. Anyone else and it kind of gets sorted.
Also this Rabbi Y speaks only of himself and how he feels. The fact he thinks he has to deal with this on his own not telling anyone is unhealthy. He didn't feel he could tell his parents what was going on sounds like he came from a family that didn't talk about anything. So that is how he believes one must be. This is not the case with everyone. Some kids told their parents who didn't believe or spoke to the school and nothing happened. I think those children have it far worse because not only are they let down by this abuser who they looked up to, but they are let down by their parents the people that are meant to protect them and also by the school they are attending. They are never moved out of the school or system and it's just a horrible cycle.
I agree it isn't nice for the victim to go through the whole trial and it isn't ideal.
Especially if nothing happens due to lack of evidence.

[Yehuda Draiman, Energy Analyst]

David Michael Draiman (born March 13, 1973 in Flatbush, New York)[1] is the lead singer for the band Disturbed, which hails from Chicago, Illinois. He was born to an Orthodox Jewish family.

He is one of six artists who sang for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, along with Jonathan Davis of KoЯn, Wayne Static of Static-X, Jay Gordon of Orgy, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and Marilyn Manson. He produced the album Believe as a response to his grandfather's death. He was recently added to the Hit Parader "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" in 2006 at #42.[2]

After attending Yeshivah High School at the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee, the Fasman Yeshiva High School and Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, and Valley Torah High School in North Hollywood, California, he spent the 1991-1992 academic year in the Neveh Zion Yeshiva in Telshe Stone, Jerusalem. He attended Loyola University Chicago where he triple majored in business administration, political science, and philosophy. He was considering law school before he joined the band, which he discovered in an ad in the Illinois Entertainer, a local music publication in Chicago. In 2003, he also started his own record label, Intoxication Records, along with band member/guitarist, Dan Donegan, and drummer, Mike Wengren. David has a brother Ben who lives in Jerusalem.

His last job before becoming a musician full-time was as a health care administrator at Ambassador Nursing and Rehab Center in Chicago. He has three homes, one in his Brooklyn hometown, one in Chicago, and one in L.A. The L.A. one, he says, is to "escape the Chicago winters."

Visually, David is easily recognized for his shaven head and dual labret piercings.