What's Different About The Newest Haredi Rabbi-On-Boy Sexual Abuse Case?

A child is sexually abused by a rabbi teaching in a haredi school. The school does nothing. Years later, the child, now a young adult, tells his parents. The parents push the school to fire the rabbi. The school doesn't. The victim sues.

So, what's different here than in other similar cases?

Plenty, including an alleged scheme to trick the victim into not calling police:

1. The family alleges the school did an investigation which found the rabbi guilty.

2. The school then 'fired' the rabbi and strongly urged the family not to call police.

3. The family agreed.

4. But, a few months later the statute of limitations ran out.

5. When that happened, the school 'rehired' the rabbi.

6. The victim, realizing he had been tricked, threatened to file a civil suit against the school and related organizations.

7. The school tried to cover up the 'rehiring' of the rabbi.

8. The victim and his family did not fall for that coverup.

9. The school refused to really fire the rabbi.

10. The victim filed suit earlier this week for $5 million dollars.

The school is Satmar's United Talmudical Academy, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

The Jewish Week broke the story Wednesday.

VIN posted the court papers Thursday.

The lesson here should be clear: Rabbis cannot and will not police other rabbis.

If you know or believe your child is being molested, go to the police immediately. Remaining silent endangers other children – and it may destroy your own.

[Hat Tips: JWB, steve, The Other DK, etc.]

Comments

[justajew]

Victim filed suit for $5m, not $50m.

[jewishwhistleblower]

I don't think I deserve a hat tip in the above case.

Here's a link of interest:
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/08/little-outcry-heard-alleged-victims-pyramid-scheme
Little outcry heard from alleged victims of pyramid scheme
...
Investor Joseph Shereshevsky's fellow Orthodox Jews are the principal victims he allegedly defrauded in a multimillion-dollar pyramid scheme, prosecutors say.

But there's little public outcry coming from his synagogue, B'nai Israel Congregation, and Jewish law may be part of the reason.

At the first Saturday service after Shereshevsky's Aug. 11 arrest, Rabbi Chaim Silver reminded members that Judaism forbids gossip, also known as "lashon hara," or evil speech.
...

[Shmarya]

Victim filed suit for $5m, not $50m.

Thanks! Fixed it.

[steve]

If you know or believe your child is being molested, go to the police immediately.

Halacha dictates going to the police. There is no issue of messira whatsoever regarding a molester who has a din of rodef. This has been confirmed by Rav Elyashiv and the Baltimore rabbis wrote this befeirush in their mea culpa of April 2007:

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/04/baltimore_rabbi.html

"As such it is already well established by our own Poskim that an abuser is to be considered a Rodef(pursuer), effectively poised to destroy innocent lives and, therefore, virtually all means may be used to stop him and bring him to justice. Communities and day schools-with the blessing of Gedolei Yisroel-have encouraged and facilitated the reporting of these crimes to the local authorities, who are most equipped to investigate and prosecute these complex cases."

I agree with everything in this paragraph except the part that "communities and day schools-with the blessing of Gedolei Yisroel-have encouraged and facilitated the reporting of these crimes to the local authorities." Nothing can be further from the truth as there has been a continued call for coverups and "dealing with these matters in private- to protect everyone". Many rabbis continue to pervert the halacha of messira and apply it to child molesters. Any rabbi that preaches such a halachic perversion is a Zaken Mamre and anyone who listens to him is a Chassid Shoteh. Eight months after this mea culpa, the Baltimore rabbis convened a conference where they once again called for going to the rabbis instead of the authorities. One of the speakers at that conference was David Mandel of Ohel who was quoted as saying that cases don’t need to be reported to outside authorities. He encouraged conversations between parents and the rabbi of a shul or a community.

So we have the Baltimore rabbis on the one hand stating the halacha correctly, but then going about business as usual and condoning the perversion of halacha. The public has been misinformed and miseducated for years regarding this halacha, that it will take a long time before they can be reprogrammed to do the right thing and go directly to the police in these cases.

[Rachel Batya]

Beautiful, steve--every word.

[steve]

Thanks Rachel Batya. First and foremost, I pray that there shouldn't be anymore victims of child sexual abuse. Until we are able to eradicate this plague, I pray that the survivors should have the courage to do the right thing and go to the police. Remember in the Mondrowitz case, dozens of Jewish boys were sodomized, r"l, and not one of them went to the police. The indictment was secured based on the testimony of his Italian victims. I'm slightly encouraged by the arrests of Yudi Kolko (despite the plea bargain), Stefan Colmer, Yona Weinberg and Adam Melzer. The survivors are beginning to follow the halacha properly and are going to the police. We need to continue spreading the word and pressuring the politicians to enact legislation to protect our children.

[Rachel Batya]

As a survivor, I don't think that you can do too much to encourage children to stand up for themselves. Victimized children feel so much shame, and yet, they have done nothing wrong. When the adults support them and seek justice on their behalf, the healing can be profound. Thank you for everything you're doing.

[devorah]

From personal experience, my own and others, it is obvious that rabbis will not "dob in" other rabbis. They don't care if children are molested or abused. They just remove the rabbi and send him on to another city to continue his abuse there.
I urge all victims and parents of victims to go to the police immediately. this is a matter of life and death, and protection of other children. Don't allow this state of affairs to continue. You are well within your rights, both morally and halachically, to prevent another child from being abused by a sexual predator, whether it is a rabbi or anyone else.
don't be intimidated by the "boys club" which sticks together and pats each other on the back, saying "don't worry mate, I'll look after you"..... while the poor victim just gets to suffer and has his life destroyed.

[avraham]

There really is not a lot one can do. My son is still in the home of a convicted child rapist. (The husband of my ex wife)I am still paying child support for him. My son was placed there by Ohel. I was trying to get custody and was in fact in court a non respondent i.e. not accused of any wrong doing.
But I was accused by Ohel of false things that they were actually doing. But they controlled the courts and police. I appealed to senators and congessmen.
But they said I had to go through the legal system that was controlled by the frum.
My children at the time all told me what was happening in foster care and begged me to get them out. Yet Ohel did all they could to stop me. I went to an old friend Rav Nelkenbaum the current Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir. But he too was powerless against Ohel.
The moral of the story? Who knows? But the frum are more outraged by a woman in jeans in Mean Shearim than child rape by rabbis.

[Yochanan Lavie]

"Mean Shearim" a pun or a typo? Either way, it's appropriate.