Letter Authentic: Haredi Gedolim Defend Accused Horrific Child Abuser Rabbi Elior Chen

"On a letter that my rabbis are signed on to, I also sign." – Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin reports:

…[R]ecently, a letter appeared, signed by several of the Gedolim, asserting that they know Elior Chen to be a marbitz Torah and a righteous person and thus innocent of all charges, and asking people to support him!

At first, I did not post about this, because I couldn't bring myself to believe that these signatures of the Gedolim were authentic. As much as I had seen what I believed to be improprieties in the Gedolim affixing their names to things, surely they couldn't do this. I was inclined to agree with all the commentators at the afore-posted link who insisted that the signatures must have been faked. People close to the Gedolim insisted that the letter was not authentic.

But then a neighbor of mine wrote to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, asking him why he signed it. He received the following reply:

על כתב שרבותי חתומים גם אני חותם

"On a letter that my rabbis are signed on to, I also sign."

The implications of this sentence are so appalling that I can't even think of how to write about it in a way that will do justice to it.…

After all the denials and all the spin, the truth finally is confirmed. 100-year-old Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, his octogenarian son-in-law Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, and other haredi gedolim signed the letter defending Rabbi Elior Chen.

Rabbi Slifkin notes:

…[O]ne has to wonder how a Rav could attest with certainty to the innocence of someone who has been indicted for such terrible crimes, with one child suffering permanent brain damage and in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, merely because other rabbis say that he is innocent.…

Chen and his followers allegedly put ret hot stones on the children, forced them to eat feces, and hit them with a hammer in a sick kabbalistic ceremony. It is widely considered to be the most horrific case of child abuse in the history of Israel.

But, just like they've defended so many other haredi child abusers – Vales, for example, or the infamous "starving mother" case – the gedolim defend Chen.

But unlike Rabbi Slifkin, this does not puzzle me.

The victims are, after all, only little children, far too young to have yet shown academic prowess (or, as in the Vales case, too young and also handicapped and unlikely to ever be scholars) and the abusers are haredi scholars and rabbis. And haredi rabbis trump little children almost every time.

This is not a case of frail gedolim making an age-induced error; this is a case of an immoral society being exposed for what it is.

Run away while you still can.

The Letter.

Rabbi Elior Chen Index.

Rabbi Slifkin's report as a PDF file:

Download The Gedolim and Elior Chen

[Hat Tip: Henry.]

Comments

[HaNavon]

this is the first sign of a cult.
a talmid chacham can do no wrong, no matter what evidence you have. we cannot speak against them, we have to accept everything they say, we cannot question anything.
let's cut our brains out and hand them to rav elyashiv, before we all realize how corrupt he and the rest of them really are!

time for a real revolution guys...i'm not kidding! the chareidim make up 10% of israel, they have 8 times as many children per generation, and their generations are shorter, so within 35-40 years they have a mathematical certainty of becoming the absolute majority of the country, they have shown that they have the agenda of replacing the government with a theocracy, which will be worse than iran, because iranians go to college and get jobs. if we don't act now in subverting their system from the inside, they will destroy any open minded person. these people believe that it's not enough to just hate anyone not like them, they believe that they have an obligation to force us to do and think like them, even at the pain of death!!

[Abracadabra]

HaNavon,

I agree that it's a problem. What do you propose as a solution to the problem?

A few years ago Netanyahu cut the child benefits that each family was getting which mostly affected the Chareidim because they had the most children and do not work. So, the Chareidim increased their tzedakah-raising campaigns and made fancy tzedakah posters, flyers and booklets and ran around the USA collecting money for the "poor and hungry of Israel". So, that didn't work.

So, what do you propose as a solution to the problem?

[HaNavon]

we have to take a lesson from the maskilim. organize. send black clad rabbis to teach the children on their turf. remember, anyone can be convinced of anything, unless he thinks that you're trying to convince him.

[HaNavon]

orphaned from up on high, free from the stained steel shackles of sainthood. even heroes dance in the ballroom of the damned...

[soso]

I thought Rav Elyashiv had learned his lesson from the Wallis case.

Obviously, I was mistaken.

Long live the child torturers!!! They are the true representatives of Torah values.

That's what we can learn from it.

[jay]

It's time for a three state solution. Cut 'em loose and let them fend for themselves , separated from other jews entirely.

[bootsy]

Wow! Way to miss the boat.

The people claiming it was forged were (& are) R Elyashivs people. Rabbi Kanievski signed b/c he thinks his father in law signed, he has no clue who Chen is.

[Bill]

Kanyevski's response is not dispositive.

The question posed to him was loaded and potentially misleading: -why- he signed it, not -whether- he signed it.

His generic reply demonstrates that he is a naive and gullible person. It does not prove that he signed the document in this instance.

[A E ANDERSON]

Reading this, I do not believe that the absurd allegations against Chen are credible. They bear in their wild scope too close a resemblance to the now debunked and discredited prosecutions brought during the Day Care Sex Abuse Hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_care_sex_abuse_hysteria)

I could accept that Chen may have thrashed naughty little children under his charge. I could accept that he might even have buggered, sodomised or fondled them. These are credible patterns of abuse.

But the forced consumption of feces, kabalistic torture rituals, burning with red hot stones clearly remove the entire affair from the realm of probability and credibility.

I note that in the Day Care Scares of the 1980s and 1990s, Satanic rituals and scatological activities were also alleged, and later debunked.

I'm sorry, this sounds too much like an anti-haredi re-hash of McMartin Preschool or Country Walk.

[Pessie Gelb]

These rabbis have no idea who Elior Chen yimach shmoi vzichroi is. These rabbis are so busy learning the hailige toire that they have no time to read newspapers and they dont read the news on the internet because they not only dont have internet but they also try to get us to stop using internet. All they know is that Elior Chen is a charaidi who is being persecuted and prosecuted by the evil anti-religious zionist government and that he must be innocent because the evil anti-religious zionist government is persecuting and prosecuting him.
These rabbis know that many charaidim who are completely innocent have been persecuted and prosecuted by the evil anti-religious zionist government and that many charaidim who are guilty of klainekait have been persecuted and prosecuted by the evil anti-religious zionists for major crimes that are much worse than the crimes that they actually commited.

[who knows]

Based on reply I must say that Kanevski is a morally corrupt person who's signature means absolutely nothing. He has no personal opinion and just signs anything that has signature of his rabbis.

[Pessie Gelb]

This is not the beginning of a cult. This is the beginning of a backlash.

[Pessie Gelb]

Rabbi Eliyashiv, Rabbi Kanievsky and all the other rabbis who signed this letter are not immoral or corrupt. They are just extremely naive to think that every charaidi who is persecuted and prosecuted by the zionists is innocent just because most charaidim who are persecuted and prosecuted by the zionists are innocent.

[Pessie Gelb]

Yisruel Valis killed his baby accidentaly. He is guilty of manslaughter, but the zionist governmentaccused him of murdering his baby andhad him convicted of murdering his baby. Instead of sentencing him to 6 years in jail he should have been
sentenced to take parenting classes.

[Pessie Gelb]

Bruria Keren is a religious fanatic who almost all charaidim consider to be overly fanatic. She locked out her 13 year old son one night because she was scared that he would make her kitchen traif. She also spanked her children. The evil zionist government decided to throw the book at her and accuse her of all kinds of things that she didnt do and exagerate what she did do because some of her children who had rebelled against religion accused her of all kinds of child abuse crimes that were a gross exageration of what she was guilty of. On the day of her sentencing 11 of her 12 children showed up in court to beg the court to show leniency toward their mother who they had accused of abusing them and sentence her to time served, but the evil zionist court decided to disregard the pleas of her children and sentence her to 4 years in jail.

[Pessie Gelb]

Last summer a mother who was 5 months pregnant revolted against the doctors at hadassah hospital because the doctors were trying to starve her 3 year old son to death. Instead of charging her with revolting against the authority of doctors they arrested her and threw her in jail and accused her of having a mental illness named munchhausen's syndrome by proxy and persecuted and prosecuted her for trying to starve her son. They threw her into a jail cell together with an arab woman who is a convicted murderer who threatened to murder her and made her sleep on the concrete floor while the arab woman slept on the jailcell's bed.
She would still be in jail if the charaidim would not have rioted for the purpose of demanding that this innocent pregnant woman be freed. The zionists continued to persecute and prosecute her until she gave birth to another son prematurely and the only reason that they gave up on prosecuting her is because ever since this premature birth she has been extremely sick and paralized and in a wheelchair unable to walk. her new baby boy is allready 4 months old and still in the hospital and still too sick to have his bris. We have to be mispalel that yenta bas yoicheved should have a refiah shlaimu and that the newborn baby boy bas yenta who doesnt even have a name because he is too sick to have a bris should have a refiah shlaimu.

[Pessie Gelb]

With all of these cases of completely innocent and semi innocent charaidim being thrown into jail by the evil zionists, it is no wonder that rabbis who are unaware of the details of the Elior Chen case falsely think he is innocent.

[shmulki]

e a anderson
this is exactly the way the natzis were thinking no one would beleive such horrible things so we can do it without fear its so unbeleivable that people would think that the person who says it is out of his mind the mentality of hitlers henchmen was such also its beyond beleive so dont worry no one would ever beleive the messenger

[Robert Wisler]

Could somebody please shut this "Pessie" up? Her (Pessie is a "she", right??) husband must go through gehenna every day because she can't keep her goddamned mouth shut!

[Bilaam's Ass]

Rob its the zionist meds she wont take.

[Bilaam's Ass]

Hanavon you are correct...

"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind."

Mahatma Gandhi
1869-1948, Political and Spiritual Leader

[Reb Yid]

Hanavon et al.:

You've posted tens, if not hundreds, of comments on this blog site. I'm curious to know how many anti-chareidi sentiments you've taken issue with, and with how many pro-chareidi sentiments you've agreed.

For all this bluster about blindly following an ideology, let's remember that be it Shabtai Tzvi, MM Schneerson, or any other "failed messiah", blind allegiance cuts both ways.

One is not an intellectual just b/c he disagrees with the establishment, and anger fogs one's thinking just as much as faith.

[Nurse Yachne]

AE ANDERSON--I'm a nurse, and I have taken care of two of the children, one of them over multiple hospitalizations. It's true. Ligation marks (rope tying), burn marks in which they were branded by heaters, burns on the soles of their feet. It was the most extreme case of prolonged physical abuse that most of the staff had ever seen.

In the last generation, child abuse cases up to and including murder, were rarely prosecuted because NO ONE could believe that a parent could do such things to his child, or any child. "Suffer The Children", a groundbreaking work in the physical pathology of abuse, convinced the world otherwise.

Some cases may be questionable, but not this one. The younger child is still hospitalized at Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, where he remains in a persistant vegetative state.

One of the reasons the Holocaust went on so long was that nobody believed than anyone could do such things.

There's a warm spot in the fires of hell for "Rabbi" Elior Chen, believe me.

[ZIY]

Thank you so much Nurse Yachne for your personal account. Please let us know any more details that are relevant.

I will only add that the authorities found manuals and journals in Elior's and his followers handwritings, describing in detail these barbaric torture acts. They also found the instruments that were used for these torture rituals. And the fact that Elior exploited religion and Kabbalah to execute these crimes makes it tenfold more sickening.

Aren't there any sane Chareidi rabbis out there that can sound the voice of reason in this case, or is it that once one mega-Gadol (e.g. Elioshov) makes a statement, no one is allowed to counter it since it is now "Da'as Torah"?

What would mavericks like Shteinman or Shterbuch say about this?

[Jeff Eyges]

the evil anti-religious zionist government

That's right, Pessie - if you repeat something over and over, that makes it true.

I am wondering, though, about what A. E. Anderson said above. These accusations are reminiscent of similar accusation made in this country during the eighties and nineties, which all turned out to be the result of mass hysteria and coerced testimony.

Still, there's child with permanent brain damage, so at least some of it must be true - and still, the Haredim cry about their persecution at the hands of the evil Zionist government. It really is time to cut the cord, once and for all. In addition to curtailing social services, a good first step would be to prosecute rabbis known to have protected these men. If that means jailing an elderly rabbi who has no clue and merely signs whatever is placed in front of him – I have no problem with that.

The only good to come from these situations is that they’re cutting their own collective throat. Their world is collapsing, and will soon be gone. I used to think it would take two generations; now, I don’t think it will take even one.

[soso]

" He is guilty of manslaughter, but the zionist government (..) convicted of murdering his baby"

Dear Pessi, you are not informed. He was not convicted of murder, only of manslaughter and recklessness.

Who told you he was convicted of murder?

If you do not believe "failed messiah", here is an article from "vosizneias" that also says he was convicted for manslaughter.

http://www.vosizneias.com/24748/2008/12/24/jerusalem-supreme-court-orders-father-accused-of-kiiling-his-baby-to-begin-jail-term/

[jay]

Pessie, the mother to whom you referred was on video removing feeding tubes from her three year old child's body. She's not a martyr, she's not innocent. She is a seriously sick woman who nearly killed her own child.

[soso]

"Last summer a mother who was 5 months pregnant revolted against the doctors at hadassah hospital"

Pessie, since you seem to be so near the events: do you happen to know how the starved child is doing now?

The only evidence that could support your theory (according to the facts I gathered from the medical report published by the mother's side) would be that the child is still heavily underweight and still has severe "failure to strive".

If the problem was solved by taking him away from the mother, I would suppose that the hospital's version is correct.

[soso]

sorry, I meant "failur to thrive".

[Nurse Yachne]

"Pessie, the mother to whom you referred was on video removing feeding tubes from her three year old child's body"

Not just feeding tubes, but also special IVs which had to be inserted under general anesthesia and put in with stitches.

[A. Nuran]

Jeff, the difference between this and the "Satanic Panic" of the 80s is that the whole "Satanic Ritual Abuse" thing was a literal witch hunt. I read a bunch of the police manuals of the day for an AoJ seminar. One of the signs of the supposed crimes was that there was no evidence. Those sneaky Satanists always removed all the props, all the dead bodies, all tears to vaginal or rectal tissue, all witnesses, all their ritual sites....

You get the idea. The fact that there was no evidence was evidence that this was going on. Only specially trained (Christian) therapists could pull out (read "create") the memories.

In these cases we have we have competent adult witnesses. We have physical evidence. In some cases we have the testimony of the criminals themselves.

There's no comparison between the two.

[Jeff Eyges]

In these cases we have we have competent adult witnesses. We have physical evidence. In some cases we have the testimony of the criminals themselves.

Ah - OK, A.N., thanks. I also read ZIY's comment that he posted while I was composing mine, in which he mentions journals in Chen's handwriting. That answers my question.

On Kvetcher, we also used to have a regular commenter who was a nurse in Israel. He told us it was quite common for Haredi children to suffer horrible accidents, such as, believe it or not, falling into a huge vat of cholent, because it was impossible for their mothers to watch twelve children all the time - and he was distressed by the cavalier attitude displayed by many of the parents. Someone put it this way: "We burned the baby? No problem - we'll just make another!"

It's just a toxic subculture.

[jay]

It does sound like a succulent cholent, though :-)

[Pessie Gelb]

What would you do if you found out from alternative medical practicioners that your child was being experimented on by hadassah hospital doctors?

[Pessie Gelb]

What would you do if you found out that your child is being expermented on by hadassah hospital doctors? Wouldnt you revolt against the doctors? Wouldnt you revolt against the doctors to the point that you might inadvertantly do something that might make your child's health even worse?

[Jeff Eyges]

What would you do if you found out from alternative medical practicioners that your child was being experimented on by hadassah hospital doctors?

What would you do if your rebbe told you to have yourself committed? Because I think it may be a real necessity.

[soso]

"What would you do if you found out that your child is being expermented on by hadassah hospital doctors?"

Pessie: the medical report published by the mother's supporters says the child came to hadassah hospital being severely underweight (8.14 kg) and undersized (81 cm). He had rashes on the skin that no-one could explain.

They did all imaginable (and very expensive) tests to
1) find the cause why he apparently could not digest food (and they could find no cause, all tests said "OK". So it was really mysterious)

2) Try to treat the rashes on the skin. The same phenomenon happened here: no apparent cause, and still impossible to heal.

The mother's side does not seem to contest the content of this medical report. Otherwise, they would not have published it in their brochures.

So you might call this "experimenting on an innocent child", but he was in mortal danger.

Eventually, they found the mysterious disease.

They removed the child from the mother, the skin rash disappeared, and it gained weight.

Since you do not seem to say that the child still has digestion problems, I would say: mystery solved, bravo hadassah.

If you want to read the medical report (in hebrew), you can find it in the brochure "blood libel"

[Pessie Gelb]

Tel Hashomer Hospital found the mysterious disease, not hadassah hospital which had only made the mysteriousous disease worse long before the mother got so mad at the doctors that she started playing around with the medical equipment after alternative medical practitioners started telling her that the doctors are only making her son's condition worse. Burich Hashaim her son Chaim is living by his uncle in Bais Sheimeish and he is going to school and gaining weight. We can not currently ask that Chaim should be returned to the care of his mother because his mother is currently so physically ill that she cannot even walk or take care of herself. Her new baby boy was born premature and is still in the hospital and is allready 4 months old and is still not healthy enough to be circumcized.

[Pessie Gelb]

If my rebbe told me to have myself commited I would know that he is a phony rebbe and go to another rebbe.

[Pessie Gelb]

Dear Jeff,
Why do you think that it might be a real necessity to for me to have myself commited?