New Square Appoints Committee To Deal With Sexual Abuse

“The problem has been going on since the world has been created. But the Rebbe felt a need to get serious about it and to help victims and stop predators… The Rebbe has given us a carte blanche.”

New Square appoints Vaad to deal with sexual abuse
by Michael Orbach • The Jewish Star

At noon on a Sunday afternoon, Isaac Brewer sits at his desk in the back of Fax Unlimited, the electronics store he operates on Route 59 in Spring Valley. The flat-screen monitor on his desk displays several camera views that let him watch the unattended front of the store. Every so often, a customer walks in and Brewer dishes with them over what printer to buy, and every so often, the phone rings and Brewer switches fluently between Yiddish and English, telling one customer that he’ll be happy to drop off a toner at so-and-so’s mother-in-law. And in between conversations, Brewer speaks about sexual abuse.

“The problem has been going on since the world has been created,” explained Brewer, black waistcoat and gray sweater draped over the back of his chair. “But the Rebbe felt a need to get serious about it and to help victims and stop predators… The Rebbe has given us a carte blanche.”

Brewer is part of a six-member committee established 18 months ago by the Skverer Rebbe, Rabbi Dovid Twersky, to combat sexual abuse inside the New Square chasidic community. The committee, known simply as the Vaad, in many ways represents a giant leap forward for the community in dealing with sexual abuse. Advocates for victims of sexual abuse are not as charitable, however, and view the Vaad as a continuation of the legacy of cover-ups that have tainted the larger Orthodox community’s past dealings regarding sexual abuse.

Part of the committee’s strength, Brewer maintains, derives from the insular nature of the community of New Square, which is considered secluded even by chareidi standards.

“We are a closed community,” said Brewer, who speaks eloquently with a slight accent that betrays his upbringing in England. “You can take it in a negative way, but in a positive way a predator cannot slip away to the next synagogue.”

Brewer is refreshingly candid about New Square’s past failures in dealing with sexual abusers inside the community.

“Previously, they were working with professionals, but a lot of education was missing,” Brewer said. “Things slipped away… We never turned a blind eye.”

He likened earlier attempts to deal with abusers to hiring amateur ’sharpshooters.’ “They’ll miss; we missed.”

Since its inception, the Vaad has met with some of the best known psychologists who practice in the Orthodox community, including Dr. David Pelcovitz, Hillel Sternstein, and Barry Horowitz of Ohel. Based on their meetings, the

Vaad developed a a three-pronged approach to the problem of sexual abuse: education, prevention, and taking care of the abusers and their victims.

Brewer says that all educators inside the New Square community have attended sessions about the identifying factors and symptoms of sexual abuse. Trained monitors have been placed inside all schools. It is their responsibility to look for signs of abnormalities in the classroom. Victims of sexual abuse inside the New Square community are sent to treatment, an almost unheard of occurrence in a chassidic community.

“Three years ago I would never understand the trauma he [the sexual abuse victim] goes through,” explained Brewer. “These people are going through an enormous amount of pain.”

More controversially however, the Vaad, under the direction of the psychologists, sends sexual abusers to treatment.

“There is no forgiveness,” Brewer explained “They pay for victim’s treatment, they go through their own treatment and there are measures of protection.”

Those measures include prohibitions against known abusers going to the mikvah, and cameras placed in populated areas.

Brewer declined to discuss whether the Vaad would be willing to work with secular authorities; it would be very hard to answer with yes or no across the board, he said. But he repeated a quote he attributed to a rabbi in the wake of the sentencing of Baruch Mordechai Lebovits, the convicted molester who received a maximum sentence last week.

“It’s a very sad day, but something had to happen,” Brewer quoted the unidentified rabbi as saying.

In certain cases, Brewer clarified, where there was “no way of being taken off the streets, [seeking help from authorities is] definitely an avenue, but I’m not sure this is the most effective [way]… They are not our enemies.”

So far, he explained, no predator, or mazzik, in his words, (literally: damager), that the Vaad has dealt with, has left New Square. But if one were to leave, Brewer said, there would be consequences.

“One of the leading gedolai HaTorah instructed that it was not right to find a mazzik and let him go. It is our job to put the hammer on him,” Brewer explained.

Brewer says the response inside the community has been overwhelmingly positive. The next obstacles the group faces are securing a permanent stream of funding and finding more psychologists who are fluent in Yiddish. He says the program would be expanded as needed.

“We are following instructions from the professionals to the letter,” stressed Brewer.

Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an organization that works with survivors of sexual abuse, was not impressed

“Dealing with reports of sexual abuse through even a well intentioned communal “Vaad,” serves one purpose, the cover-up of the crime,” said Hirsch. “Usually with catastrophic results, when the pedophile strikes again. Only when the residents of New Square realize that the only way to deal with the crime of sexual abuse is to report it directly to the sex crimes division of the police department, who are trained and equipped to investigate these crimes, will their community will be safe for their children.”

Marci Hamilton, the author of “Justice Denied: What America must to to Protect its Children,” compared the Vaad’s action to the Catholic Church.

“That’s just a conscious choice not to learn from the Catholic Church’s problem,” explained Hamilton. “What we know now is that in the Catholic Church and other religous organizations, when they choose to handle these issues internally and do not bring in prosecutors and the state agencies that are trained to deal with these issues, these predators get the better of them. No one should think they can handle this on their own. It’s both hubris and dangerous.”

The Vaad has already dealt with one high-profile case that reached the upper echelons of New Square society: Heshy Brier. Brier, in his 50’s, served in an unofficial capacity directly under the Skverer Rebbe. He is widely believed to have sexually abused hundreds of children over the years. Isaac Brewer of the Vaad would not comment on any specific cases for fear of undermining the Vaad, but reportedly Brier has been stripped of his power and is in treatment.

Kal Holczler, the founder of Voices of Dignity, a sexual abuse survivors organization, claims that he was sexually abused several times by Brier, even at times in the home of the Skverer Rebbe. Holczler’s entanglement with Brier is even more complicated given that, late last year, his sister married Brier’s son. At the time, Holczler sat down with his abuser.

“He didn’t want to go anywhere in public,” Holczler related. “We went to the Skverer Rebbe’s house in Nyack. We went next to the water and I told him how he had affected me and how there are other kids and I wanted to hear what that was like for him.”

Brier declined to speak about the allegations.

“I’m not going to comment on this,” he told The Jewish Star on Wednesday afternoon. “If you want to, go talk to the Vaad.”

Holczler also contends that sexual abuse is far more widespread in New Square than the Vaad maintains.

“I’ve sat with kids who are now in their 30’s. When they were 13, they told the Rebbe about sexual abuse and the family got kicked out of Skver,” Holczler said.

He said there are questions.  ”They are behind helping people to report, but what’s going on with the cases they know with offenders walking free?” asked Holczler. “There are people who are walking free that have offended and abused both sexes and they’re still free.

Holczler said that at a meeting he had with the Vaad last week, its members were receptive to the idea of working with the authorities.

“I would like them to assist me and any victims from Skver prosecute their offenders. For them to know that sexual abuse is not only a sickness but a crime. A crime that has affected hundreds of kids. For them to remove someone from office, for them to fire a melamed (a teacher), is not sufficient.”

Another abuse victim of sexual abuse from New Square spoke to The Jewish Star but asked that he not be identified in the newspaper.

“There’s a joke and it’s a very sad joke,” said the victim. “There was a guy trying to get a hitch on 45 going into Williamsburg [from New Square] and he stood there with his hand out. When someone drove by, he said ‘I want to go to America.’”

The therapist who treated Brier praised the Vaad’s action. He also asked to not be named in print.

“It’s a great example of the community in New Square shifting in a very positive direction,” the therapist said, “This guy was very very connected from all facets of the community. He helped build the medical center; he was involved in getting government benefits. This guy was very connected politically.

Unfortunately, he used his power and position to harm kids, which is the most devastating part. To me, the community responded to the allegations by not saying ‘How are we ever going to bring this guy down’ — but, ‘How can we protect the community in a way, and get the victims help, and how can we get this man help?’”

“It’s an extraordinarily painful case, but at the end it has gone well,” the therapist continued. “Not in terms of the pain, it doesn’t keep it away, but it shifted the dynamics from denial and blaming victims to getting everybody help.”

[Hat Tip: HaNavon.]

Comments

[Bill]

Wow! "Elegant" spin.

"This problem has been going on since the world was created," but unfortunately it hasn't been brought to our attention until very recently....

[Robert Wisler]

Looking at it kindly, perhaps the Skver rebbe has admitted his past mistakes by allowing the creation of this va'ad?

[solede]

Well: Than he should publicly ask for forgiveness from the family who was kicked out of Skver when accusations were raised.

This would be an adequate first step.

[Abracadabra]

Hey - this is more than ANY other Rebbe or other chassidic community has done. They are that admitting sexual abuse EXISTS in their community!! Whoah!

Of course it's way way way way overdue.

But Skver is the first. Now, let the rest of the Chassidic groups hop on board!

Any hey, if they take the abusers out back and beat the xxx out of them or run them out of town, then they've made progress! It's better than denying that the abuse exists and then socially ostracizing or abusing the victims!

[Mittlemench]

If this story has any meaning at all it is that Twersky must be on the verge of being indicted for sexual abuse.

[jewishwhistleblower]

It is clear that Kal Holczler should not be working with vulnerable survivors of abuse in the Jewish community.

Among other matters, Holczler is clearly connected to the One Taste movement which is inconsistant with Judaism.

See:
1) One Taste
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneTaste

2) JerryCandelaria (JerryCandelaria) on Twitter
twitter.com/jerrycandelaria
Candelaria has now protected his tweet, but google assists in disclosing the Daedone/Holczler/Candelaria connection by showing those tweeting with Candelaria include Nicole Daedone and Kal Holczler.

see: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Daedone+Holczler
Erik Schultz · Kal Holczler · Nikki Pava · Marc Scheff · Boreta / Glitch Mob ... Mob · Mitch Feigenberg · Nicole Daedone · Aaron S. Pava · Matt Ranney ...
twitter.com/jerrycandelaria

Nicole Daedone is the founder of One Taste. Jerry Candelaria of the Arete Center/Community has run programs with Daedone at One Taste. See http://www.sfstation.com/nicole-daedone-and-jerry-candelaria-intimacy-inside-out-e55641

3) Kal has recent ties to both cities where One Taste "urban retreat" centers are located, San Francisco and Manhattan:
http://www.friendsofbill.net/profile/KalHolczler?xg_source=profiles_memberList

[Joey]

Any organization that aligns themselves with ohel has zero credibility and is very dangerous. I have not seen any arrests coming out of that community and its no wonder.

[New Square abuse victims need help]

Just one more way to cover up the past, current, and future sexual abuse that exists in our community.

We need indictments, indictments, indictments until they're ALL in jail from the top to the bottom.

[steve]

I read this and I felt like rending my garments. Woe unto us! If this is called "dealing with sexual abuse", I hate to see what not dealing with it is. This town and Vaad thinks that they have their own autonomous government where they can decide what type of judgment to render to criminals. They think that by sending child molesters to therapists (not just any therapists, Yiddish speaking ones!), they will solve this problem once and for all.

A society that doesn't believe in accountability and consequences for crimes committed is a corrupt society imaging that of Sodom and Gomorrah. This system of protecting child molesters from the law and sending them to Yiddish speaking therapists instead, is another way of saying, "Leave us alone, we know better, we need more coverups, we don't want any negative publicity, it hurts our bank accounts."

This is what the Agudah's CD Zwiebel was referring to when he mentioned a "power grab from the rabbis" and that we shouldn't deprive the molester's family of its "breadwinner". What a demented line of thinking! If this was an one isolated community that has been enacting this policy, it wouldn't be so bad. However, this is the same pathetic response that Orthodox communities around the world have adopted. In Bnei Brak, the Beis Din came out with similar chochmos. They proudly declared that the secular courts send the molesters to prison and we offer them the option of therapy! Is it any wonder that child molestation is rampant in New Square, in Boro Park, in Williamsburg, in Flatbush, in Monsey, in Monroe, in Bnei Brak, in Geula, in Mea Shearim, in Lakewood... Did I leave out any shtetl? This "vaad" of New Square needs to be condemned in the sharpest tone and it needs to be disbanded immediately, just like the Lakewood beis din was put out of its misery by Rabbi M. Salomon. Enough coverups! Enough protection of the criminals at the expense of our children. They want therapy? Let them get it after they serve 10-15 years at Rikers. Y'mach Shemam V'zichram!

[steve]

ATTENTION: CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS:

IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 23, YOU MUST GO IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR LOCAL POLICE PRECINCT AND FILE A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST YOUR ABUSER. THIS IS A TORAH OBLIGATION AS WELL AS A CIVIC DUTY. YOU WILL BE SUPPORTED EVERY STEP OF THE WAY BY DECENT MEMBERS OF YOUR COMMUNITY. YOU WILL BE MAKING A TREMENDOUS KIDDUSH HASHEM AND YOU WILL BE SAVING COUNTLESS LIVES FROM RUIN. PLEASE CONTACT THE JBAC, Admin@JewishAdvocates.org, AND THEY WILL HELP YOU WITH ANY CONCERNS.

Criminal Cases
In New York, the statute of limitations for any kind of sexual assault (1st or 2nd degree) or molestation is 5 years. However, for sexual crimes involving children, incest, or child pornography, New York uses the same "tolling" system for criminal cases as it does for civil suits, meaning that the 5 year SOL does not begin to run until the victim reaches the age of 18.

[Pessie Gelb]

To all of you decrepid pedophiles, molesters, homosexual predators, and heterosexual predators:
Even if rabbis discourage or forbid victims from calling the police to have you arrested prosecuted and thrown into jail for so many years that you will probably never live long enough to get out of jail, many of your victims stop being religious because of the horrible toiaivu sins that you do to them and when they are no longer religious they no longer care about what rabbis say and they will have you arrested prosecuted and thrown into jail.

[Pessie Gelb]

Why are my comments not being posted?

[avrumy]

The question and answer to why the skver rebbe did this and why not untill now is one simple thing
He covered up for the biggest sexual abuser in skver the sherrif i think he was or whatever the one with control over that whole little shtetel as they call it and the reason they had to cover for him was he knows enough to have the rebbe himself behind bars so there was no choice for the rebbe and now he is trying to show that he is clean of such and like a pig is showing his legs (with boots) when he will get up and say you are allowed and must go to the police instead of making a vaad than i will change my tone untill than its BS

[Pessie Gelb]

The difference between Heshy Brier and Burich Mordechai Lebovits is that Heshy Brier admitted that he has a problem and went for therapy and Burich Mordechai Lebovits refused to admit that he has a problem and still refuses to admit that he has a problem. When Brier was told by the skverer rebbe that he has a psychological problem and needs psychological help he listened to the skverer rebbe and got psychological therapy, but when Lebovits was told by the minkartcher rebbe to plead guilty, Lebovits continued to refuse to admit that he has a problem and continued to pretend to be innocent because he doesnt want to admit to being a homosexual. Even at his sentencing Lebovits did not speak because for him to say anything would be to admit that he is a homosexual. The reason that Lebovits did not even apologise to his victims by his sentencing was that to apologise would be to admit that he did something homosexual and is a homosexual. Lebovits will not need therapy because by the time he gets out of jail he will either be dead or too old to do anything homosexual.
Other homosexual predators such as Brier will probably still end up in jail because they probably have victims who they caused to stop being religious and who will have them arrested and prosecuted.

[Pessie Gelb]

The victims who are still religious probably wont have to have their predators arrested because there are way too many victims who are not religious any more who will have their predators arrested. In the Lebovits case the victim who is not religious anymore had a very hard time when he was being cross examined by Lebovits's defence attorney that he almost broke down on the witness stand. Just imagine what it would be like for a yeshivo bucher who is still religious and still sheltered to have to be cross examined on the witness stand by Lebovits's lawyer. To my knowledge so far all of the victims who have had their predators sucessfully procecuted are not religious anymore and to my knowledge no homosexual predators from Williamsburg, Crown Heights, New Square, Monsey, Lakewood, Yerusholayim or Kiryas Yoiel have been prosecuted yet and that we have a lot of charaidi communities where Homosexual predators are still molesting yeshivo bucherim and getting away with it.

[Pessie Gelb]

All of these homosexual predators must be stoped one way or another if we want mushiach to come because mushiach has allready shown that he is not coming to a world that is full of sin.
The drawback to stopping a homosexual predator by having the homosexual predator get therapy is that most of the time homosexuals who go for therapy are not helped by therapy and remain practicing homosexuals even after extensive therapy. Maybe therapy could get the homosexual predators to realize that they are homosexuals and help them to channel their homosexuality into limiting their homosexual relationships to consenting adults who are allready practicing homosexuals.
Homosexual men who prey after boys who are not homosexual or even prey after men who are not homosexual are the scum of the earth and need to be locked up in jail even if their victims are over 18. Just because a yeshivo bucher turns 18 doesnt mean that he can be considered to be a consenting adult when a homosexual predator wants to do something to him. A consenting adult is somebody who allready has had a sexual experience as an adult and is therefore not ignorant of what the homosexual predator is doing to him.
Now that Lebovits is in jail I think that the homosexual predators are scared to molest bucherim under 18 and will instead start molesting bucherim over 18 and we have to find a way to stop them. Maybe the way to stop them is to use the skverer rebbe's approach because we live in a sick society that considers homosexual behavior to be normal and no worse than heterosexual behavior and to get the government to pass laws making it illegal for homosexual predators to prey on non-homosexual men over the age of 18 is almost impossible.

[Pessie Gelb]

The United States ARMED FORCES HAVE A POLICY that soldiers who are reported to do homosexual things with other soldiers are expelled from the army. Now the government wants to change this and allow men who are openly gay to be soldiers. If this happens homosexual predators will be able to get away with preying on non-homosexual soldiers and try to get non-homosexual soldiers to have homosexual affairs with them.

[Pessie Gelb]

We see from this whole mess that toire and mitzvois do not prevent men from becoming homosexual and that even when a man is circumcised by a moihel who is a yiras shumayam and even when a man is born and raised in a community where there are supposedly no homosexuals he still sometimes becomes a homosexual.
Sexologists say that about one sixth of all men are primarilly homosexual instead of primarilly heterosexual. While toire and mitzvois save some or even most of these men from the horrible disease of homosexuality, toire and mitzvois does not save all of these men from the horrible disease of homosexuality. Even if less than 1% of frum men are practicing homosexuals as opposed to 17% of the secular population that has nothing against homosexuality, it is a problem that has to be dealt with. Those men who are not capable of abstaining from the horrible toiaivu sin of mishkav zuchor should at least have their homosexuality channeled into homosexual affairs with consenting homosexual adult men.

[Pessie Gelb]

The main thing is that we have to protect our sons, whether they are under 18 or over 18, from falling into this horrible toiaivu abomination. I as the mother of a 22 year old son hope that my son has never been molested and that he has never learned anything about homosexuality. I am not close enough to my son to ask him anything, nor do I have any particular reason to suspect that my son has ever been molested and I never suspected that he has been molested. Now that I have found out from failedmessiah.com that the vast majority of yeshivo bucherim are molested, I hope that my son is in the minority that has never been molested. It is my fervent hope that very soon all molestation of yeshivo bucherim should stop even if in order to get this molestation to stop we have to put the homosexual predator molestors in jail. We have to put them in jail fast because if we dont put them in jail fast they will be free to prey after our sons who are over 18 without any fear of going to jail for molesting yeshivo bucherim who are over 18.

[charly]

pessie
you have good intentions,but
why dont you volanteer
for some good cause
you are wasting your precious time
with these comments

[never again]

Pessie Gelb,is a male pervert masquarading as a woman,would not be surprised if he himself is an abuser

[charly]

never again
how do you know
she claims she needs a get
witch her husband is withholding
lets help her get on track
she obvisly needs despret help
lets do that instead of making fun

[Pessie Gelb]

So Heshy Brier has taken Kalmen Holczer's sister to be his daughter-in-law so that Heshy Brier should be Kalmen Holczer's sister's father in law so that Kalmen Holczer wont do anything that would have Heshy Brier arrested and prosecuted and put in jail. Interesting motivation for making a shidach. You make a shidach for a molested victim's advocate' sister with the son of his homosexual predator molestor. Now he doesnt want to put his molestor in jail because who would want to have his sister's father-in-law put away in jail? The skverer rebbe is a genius when it comes to saving his chasidim from going to jail for non-federal crimes. I wonder if Burich Mordechai Lebovits or any of the other homosexual predator molestors ever thought of this. Making ones victim into a relative so that they wont want to prosecute their sister's father in law or some other in-law.

[Pessie Gelb]

My husband who refuses to give me a get is Elimelech Gelb. His address is 89a Division Avenue. Please make protest demonstrations in front of his house and try to influence him to give me a get.

[charly]

i told you pessie
many times
you must work in aprofessinal manner
you must contact aguna organizations
bloging wont help you

[Pessie Gelb]

In order to sucessfully prosecute another jew one has to be willing to be excomunicated for making a mesira on a jew. The only people who have so far sucessfully prosecuted their victims are those who have allready excomunicated themselves by leaving yidishkait. Nobody who is still religious has, to my knowledge, sucessfully prosecuted their abuser. Rather than concentrate on getting people who are still religious to call the police on their abusers, we should concentrate on getting those who are not religious anymore to come forward and call the police and prosecute their abusers. Even though Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg shalito gives a heter for everybody who has been molested to call the police and prosecute their abusers, I think that everybody who has been molested should before calling the police go to Rabbi Dr Asher Lipner for therapy and let Rabbi Dr Lipner call the police for them. To be able to withstand the cross examination of the defendant's lawyer one has to be psychologically prepared to live through this intense cross examination which means having to relive the horrible things that the molestor did to him which is something that an expert therapist might be able to help someone with. Also if a therapist is the person reporting the sexual abuse to the police instead of the abused calling the police himself, a therapist is more likely to be believed by the police, district attorney, judge, and jury than a victim who is a drug addict because he suffered the abuse. If a victim who became a drug addict or even if he didnt become a drug addict calls the police to say that he was sexually abused, he will be laughed at an accused of telling lies, but if a therapist reports the abuse it is more likely to bebelieved because therapists have more credibility than drug addicts, so instead of listening to Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg and immediately calling the police, one should instead see a therapist such as Rabbi Dr Asher Lipner and have the therapist take care of reporting the abuse to the police.

[Pessie Gelb]

Dear Charlie,
I have contacted aguna organizations and they wont help me because they are very scared of my husband and his family who are very powerful in williamsburg zaloini satmar. Marilyn Mattie Klein of Lmaan Bnois Yisrueil International has not called me back even though I have called her many times and has left many messages for her and none of the rabbis who are known for helping agunos have been interested in helping me. I think that the people who usually help agunos have been payed off by my husband to not help me.

[Pessie Gelb]

Even though failedmessiah.com is officially an anti-charaidi website, failedmessiah.com is saving many young charaidim from leaving yidishkait. Most people who are sexually abused by supposedly frum hypocrites consider frum people to be hypocrites and leave yidishkait because of it. When failedmessiah.com saves a yeshivo bucher from being molested by a homosexual predator molestor, it is one less charaidi yeshivo bucher going away from yidishkait. Keep up the good work saving our sons from going away from yidishkait by putting more homosexual predator molestors in jail and saving them from molesting more yeshivo bucherim.

[Pessie Gelb]

I fail to understand why the charaidi community, given the fact that orthodox jews are extremely anti-homosexual, doesnt brand all of these homosexual predator molestors as homosexuals and bash them with the worst possible type of gay bashing for being the homosexuals that they are. Instead of being called homosexuals, they are called by more moderate terms like pedophile, molestor, abuser, predator. Why not expose them for what they are? which is homosexuals who commit toiaivu abominations and teach these homosexual toiaivu abominations to young innocent yeshivo bucherim. Shame on you and burn in gehinom for 7000 years you homo fagot queer homosexual predators!

[steve]

Opinion: The next step in preventing sexual abuse

by Ben Hirsch

Issue of April 23, 2010/ 5 Iyar 5770
Last week, the Flatbush Shomrim issued an alert – a warning – to sex offenders that they would be arrested and prosecuted. The alert also instructed people to report sex crimes directly to the police. Judging from the positive blog posts and the flood of appreciative calls to the Shomrim hotline (to which I was in some cases privy) this message is a welcome one in our community. Indeed, the spate of recent arrests and convictions of those who have preyed sexually on young people seem to be a clear indication that, despite long-held communal norms and pressures, people are gaining the courage to do the right thing and report abusers to the authorities. The endorsement of this behavior by a trusted communal organization whose mission often puts it on the front lines dealing with this issue will, I believe, only reinforce this positive trend. However, in the midst of these positive developments, I am still left to wonder: where are the voices of our rabbinic leadership? While the Flatbush Shomrim alert seems to be endorsed by unnamed local rabbi(s), to date, not a single charedi rabbi has publicly expressed support for this position. Why?

Established halacha (Jewish Law) places a pedophile in the category of rodef (a pursuer), in part due to a recidivism rate well in excess of 50-percent, and clearly dictates an obligation to protect our community by reporting pedophiles to the police. In his 2004 psak (ruling) on this issue, Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv states that one should report those who sexually abuse children to the police. He went on to say that doing so is of benefit to society. Why haven’t our rabbis been publicizing this?

As reported in a New York Times article, “Orthodox Jews Rely More on Sex Abuse Prosecution” on October 13, 2009, David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America said, “The district attorney should be careful not to be seen as making a power grab from rabbinic authority.” Zwiebel’s statement followed the joint statement of the Moetzes Gedolai HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah Umesorah (The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools) in which they expressed their “vigorous” opposition to the Markey Bill, legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for the filing of criminal charges and civil claims in cases of childhood sexual abuse and open a limited one year window for currently time barred civil claims. In the statement, they explained that their decision was based on a fear of the “crippling financial liability” that could result from lawsuits that would jeopardize “the very existence” of yeshivas and communal institutions. Clearly they believe we have a serious problem.

From statements like these, one does not have to be a cynic to conclude that the rabbinic establishment has a vested interest in keeping reports of abuse within the community. For leaders who could be facing criminal and civil liability, invoking concepts like mesira and chilul Hashem to stop people from reporting is little more than a form of self-protection. Self-protection that, as the past 40 years have shown, has come at the expense of the protection of our community’s children.

Relying on the members of the Agudah’s Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah and Torah Umesorah’s Vaad Roshei Yeshiva, Chasidic rebbes, and community leaders such as Rabbi Joshua (Shia) Fishman of Torah Umesorah (who among other things, assisted Lipa Margulies of Yeshiva Torah Temimah as he intimidated victims of Yehuda Kolko from 1984 until 2006) and Rabbi David Niederman of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg (UJO) (who continues to actively protect pedophiles such as Rabbi Avrohom Reichman, still teaching in a Satmar boys school despite years of complaints) has netted our community the likes of Avrohom Mondrowitz (Chicago, IL, Brooklyn, NY and Jerusalem, Israel), Yehuda Kolko (Brooklyn, NY and Sullivan County, NY and Lakewood, NJ), Avrohom Reichman (Brooklyn, NY and Sullivan County, NY), Stephen Colmer (Brooklyn, NY, Passaic, NJ and Kiryat Sefer, Israel) Michael Sabo (Brooklyn, NY), Yona Weinberg (Brooklyn, NY), Israel Weingarten (New York, United Kingdom, Belgium and Israel) to name just a few.

More importantly, the cover-ups have resulted in hundreds of victims whose abuse could have been prevented. Dealing with reports of sexual abuse internally covers-up the crime, usually with catastrophic results when the pedophile strikes again–something we are hearing about daily in reports about the Catholic Church and frighteningly in our own community as well.

The Torah teaches us to avoid offering counsel in situations where we may be a Nogea B’Dovor (an interested party). This applies equally to rabbis, whom the Torah nowhere exempts from this rule. As such, because of their inherent conflicts of interest in this issue, I respectfully suggest that rabbis be precluded from being involved in this issue except in very limited ways–namely, encouraging people publicly and in private to go directly to the authorities and supporting them practically, emotionally and socially in that process.

I continue to hope for a day when our rabbinic leadership will publicly praise those who have the courage to report abusers to the police and join in our efforts to make our community safer for children.

In the meantime it’s up to us to lead by example. In the past few years more and more of us have been doing just that. We’ve created organizations whose mission is to support victims and their families who are dealing with cases of sexual abuse. These grassroots organizations provide referrals to mental health professionals, referrals to law enforcement as well as support and assistance as the case proceeds, support groups for survivors and their families, offer clinicians and advocates training to better deal with this issue and promote legislation that protect our children. These efforts are changing the way we as a community view and deal with this sensitive issue and in the words of Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv, in this there is a benefit to society.

Ben Hirsch is the president of Survivors for Justice ( www.sfjny.org ), an organization that advocates on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse and their families in the Orthodox community.

[Pessie Gelb]

Burich Mordechai Lebovits was not turned in by his victim. He was turned in by his victim's therapist HaRav Dr Asher Lipner shalito. We should turned the abusers into the police through trained respected therapists who will be believed by police, district attorneys, judges, and juries instead of turning the abusers in ourselves because a victim or a victim's parent is less likely to be believed than a therapist. Burich Mordechai Lebovits's defence was that his victim was not a credible witness because of his being a drug addict. If he would have turned in Burich Mordechai Lebovits for being a homosexual predator molestor most people wouldn't have believed the accusations against Lebovits, but since Lebovits was turned in by a therapist the unbelievable accusations against a rabbi who everybody thought was a tzadik became believable. The therapist against Lebovits is what won the case for us. If it would have been just the victim complaining against Lebovits, Lebovits would probably have been aquited by the jury.
Dont go straight to the police. Instead have a respected therapist report the abuse to the police.

[steve]

Pessie,

The victim went himself to the police in the Lebovits case. If the victim refuses to go to the police or testify, the molester will never be convicted, not even indicted. Victims must go themselves directly to the police. It is NOT mesirah when you are dealing with dangerous criminals. That is the halacha. Go to sleep Pessie. Good night.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Pessie, you allow yourself to be a prisoner of the haredi world.
Leave Williamsburg. Move into a normal Jewish neighborhood, like Modern Orthodox or maybe a nonreligious neighborhood with a Chabad shul. Everyone will embrace you as the good decent person that you are. Your ex-husband is drek, and as long as you stay in that neighborhood, you will remain a prisoner of the male power structure there.
I know it will be scary to do so, but leave that evil place.

[Pessie Gelb]

It is a mitzvo to kill a roidef. Being that we live in a society that doesnt allow Texas style justice or murder as they call it and that convicts the inflictors of Texas style justice of first degree murder, we have no choice but to make mesiras on roidfim and have them arrested and prosecuted by the government unless we want to go to death row for commiting first degree murder.
Even though it is a mitzvo to make a mesira on a roidef it is much harder to sucessfully testify against the roidef in court and to sucessfully get the roidef convicted and to sucessfully get the roidef sentenced to many years in prison. This is why I think that it is very important to have a therapist involved before calling the police.

[Jon]

Pessie, if you're going to write a post, write a post - not 13 separate posts.

[Pessie Gelb]

If I stay on an internet page too long my computer doesnt send the data that I typed so I have to send out my data within a few minutes of going onto an internet page. If I type too much at one time my computer doesnt send it. This is why I type multiple short to medium lenght comments instead of one long comment.

[Devorah]

Pessie, maybe you should type less and sleep more. I would love to help with your problems, but am not qualified. Isn't there a therapist here who posts?

[WoolSIlkCotton]

Pessie, first do your typing on Microsoft Word. When you are finished, copy-and-paste onto the comment box here.

[Devorah]

Wool, thank you for your suggestion to help Pessie. Now I won't have to take a Tylenol.

[Joel Berman]

Hi,

I don't understand why Brier is not in jail. He molested hundreds of children and he is not in jail?

Also, someone on here criticized Kal Holczler. I have spoken to Kal a number of times. He is doing very brave work from all I can see. (Maybe Mr. Whistleblower can state his own name. I followed his link and couldn't follow what his comlplaint is).

Last and most importnatly, if there are more suspected child molesters in New Square, please e-mail me (you can say "alleged", "heard of', "maybe" etc to protect yourselves) at jberman@taxcc.com. My name is Joel Berman. I live in Valley Village, California and my cell phone number is 818 519 5882. You are welcome to check me out/verify who I am.

It is a Mitzvah D'Reisa of Lo Sa'amod L'Reicha, "Don't stand by the blood of your brother" to stop this. I am not judging R Twersky or anyone else but this has to stop and we as adult Jews have to put in the necessary effort to stop it. Thank you.

[Eli]

In the beginning of the article you mentioned that he dropped of toner, I wanted to point out that the cheapest place to buy genuine xerox toner is City Toner

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