Another Haredi Child Sexual Abuse Scandal Rocks Israel

The abuse is thought to have gone on for 19 years with dozens of victims. No one called police or welfare officials to report the abuse. The accused pedophile continued to work around children even though his employers apparently were aware of the abuse for 17 years. The accused pedophile has fled to America, and Israel has decided not to seek extradition. Police say an entire generation of children became his sex slaves.

Teacher molested kids for 20 years, while community turned blind eye
Police are investigating a man who allegedly sexual abused dozens of children on Moshav Kommemiyut over two decades.
By Tamar Rotem

For almost 20 years, one man allegedly sexually abused dozens of children on Moshav Kommemiyut, an ultra-Orthodox community in the northern Negev. Yet no one ever complained - either to the police or to the welfare authorities.

The police have since opened an investigation into the abuses, but the suspect is in the U.S. and refuses to return. Meanwhile, some say community leaders knew of the crimes but did nothing to stop them.

At least one of the victims is suspected of having sexually abused younger children in turn.

The main suspect, Shimshon Walzer, began his alleged career as an abuser 19 years ago, while serving as a teacher at a religious elementary school. Two years later, rumors of his abusive conduct led to him being fired as a teacher. Yet for some reason, he was allowed to retain an office at the school.

Over the ensuing years, his conduct became ever more abusive, police say, and an entire generation of children became his sex slaves. According to the testimony they have collected, he abused his victims frequently and in broad daylight, in barns and chicken coops, in fields and even at the mikveh (ritual bath ).

The testimony reveals that the victims were usually young - aged 9 or 10, or sometimes a bit older - and generally came from families whose from lower social status. Walzer would allegedly pick them up from school or synagogue in his car.

Police have been conducting an undercover investigation of Walzer for the last few months. Over the course of the probe, they began to suspect that some of the victims had also been sexually abused by a second person.

Suspect indicted

That person, who was a minor at the time most of his alleged crimes were committed, was indicted two weeks ago on charges of sodomy and indecent assault, then released to house arrest. But Walzer was not indicted at the same time, because he was out of the country.

In April, Walzer had gone to the United States to raise funds for the elementary school and the moshav's synagogue. While there, he realized that the noose was tightening about his neck and decided not to return to Israel.

The prosecution recently decided not to seek his extradition, fearing the process was likely to prove complicated, due in part to the fact that the statute of limitations has already expired on some of his alleged crimes.

Some Kommemiyut residents, as well as some of the victims, told police the rabbi of the moshav, the principal of the school and members of the moshav's governing body all knew about the alleged abuse committed by the two suspects. But most residents denied that any abuse had occurred.

Walzer's attorney insisted that he had not returned because he was still fund-raising, and would "fight for the truth when he decides to return."

An attorney for the other suspect said his alleged victim "suffers from credibility problems, to say the least, and his desire to harm Haredi society in general, and the Walzer family in particular, is clear. We believe his testimony will not hold up."

Kommemiyut's rabbi, Mendel Mendelson, declined to respond to Haaretz's questions.

[Hat Tips: Nathaniel, Joel Katz (for the English language version of this article).]

Comments

[Jeff]

Hey, Harold, let me save you the trouble:

1. It's only the occasional bad apple.

2.There's nothing about the Haredi lifestyle that's particularly conducive to this behavior.

3.There are fewer Haredi molesters than there are in the goyishe velt.

4. You're all apikorsim and rashaim who are going to suffer in Gehinnom forever and ever and ever...

Did I leave anything out?

[seymour]

Did I leave anything out?

Posted by: Jeff | July 29, 2010 at 06:57 AM

Jeff the main problem is that code of silence mossur that does not allow the victims to go to the police. And the shame that if it is found out the boy will not be able to get married.

The community has no one to blame but themselves for listening blindly to their rabbies

[seymour]

I wonder who is hiding him in the USA?

[Chaim Ben Dovid]

Jeff: Yes, in the molester's defense, you forgot to mention that:

(a) He is machpid on Cholov Yisroel,
(b) He is machpid on Yoshon,
(c) He doesn't eat Gebroks on Pessach, and
(d) He davens with his tallis over his head.

[Zigi]

^^^

(e) And he was seen checking his nuts, err, strawberries.

[Jeff]

Hey, if he avoids kitniyot on Pesach, we've got a tzaddik!

[alternative childcare]

The important question is, where is he now? If he's in the US, religious children are almost certainly at risk! Where is he hiding out, who is he pretending to be?

[Jeff]

@seymour: Jeff the main problem is that code of silence mossur that does not allow the victims to go to the police. And the shame that if it is found out the boy will not be able to get married.

Yeah, I know. It's one of the many factors contributing to their demise.

[OMG]

As much as I like to throw the book as this pedophile, let’s not forget all the enablers, who knew and didn’t raise a finger to help theses poor children. There must be a way, theses evil enablers answer for their sins of omission. At least the pedophile could somewhat be understood, no justification, but he is sick, but the enablers, why would they look away? What should be the consequences for looking the other way?

[harold]

Sorry to disappoint you guys, but if true then he should be brought to justice. I see no reason for anyone to want to willingly and knowingly keep such a creature in their midst. To keep such a creature in your home or school or neighborhood just makes no sense. At the very least if you don’t want to call the police would be to run him out of town!

Anyway I always said (and I will repeat) given any large enough sample size of people you will invariably get the normal distribution of good and evil, tzadik and rasha. We are not exempt and here is its proof. So are there perverts among Jews – yes, are there perverts among Christians – yes, are there perverts among the Irish – yes. The best you can do is deal with them as they appear and try to foster an environment where the “curve” is more favorably skewed to the “good”

By the way is he a US citizen? If not, doesn't he at some point overstay his "welcome" and must return to Israel?

[pistabacsi]

hey jeff there is no bigger rosha then someone like you spewing hate at someone with whos oppinion you disagree you are repugnant to say the least, you are the one who will suffer like you want others to deep deep in gehenim you evil bastard denying the obvious

[pistabacsi]

sorry jeff i meant all that for harold sorry not you

[harold]

sorry jeff i meant all that for harold sorry not you

Hey, what did I say? I believe that I said that he should be brought to justice. I do not subscribe to "love all your fellow Jews" but at the same time do not hate entire groups either. I certainly have no love for this one. You will not hear me defend what he did or ask that he not be brought to justice for the crimes that he committed. I see nothing noble in hiding him, or giving him an office. There are more than enough decent people around who could have replaced this loser.

[seymour]

harold

At the very least if you don’t want to call the police would be to run him out of town!
------------------------------------

that is a no-no since he will just go to another community and do the same

[A. Nuran]

Harold, you're partially right. But the insular nature of the Haredi communities and their reflexive mistrust bordering on hatred of outsiders guarantees this sort of thing will continue. Roaches fear the light and breed in the dark. Until the Haredim stop poseking the Catholic Church it will continue.

The bare minimum steps would be:

Stop punishing the victims who come forward
Encourage members to go straight to the police
Cooperate with legal investigations

[who knows]

One day haredi community will wake up and begin to be mahmir on pedofiles and as with everything this community does they will go overboard and we will have witch hunts on innocent people in their midst.

[harold]

2.Encourage members to go straight to the police

I may be wrong but I believe it is not the police that are feared it is the vermin that swarm about them and of whom they are infested with. Of this I mean the heartless vultures known as the media. This is an uncontrolled unscrupulous collection of lowlifes who answer to no one, can say anything they want virtually without fear of repercussion. A body of parasites that with their words and images can destroy virtually anyone they want and then leave their rotting carcass to simply move on to their next victim. They have no ethics, no sense of sorry if they are wrong. No corrective action is taken by those animals to repair the damage that their cruel accusations have wroth on the innocent. They are an uncontrolled brood whose purpose has morphed from getting the news to a form of perverse form of gothic entertainment.

Whew, I am glad to get that off my chest, anyway, if it would be possible for the police and the legal system to do their work and investigation in a confidential manner so that if it turns out that the accusation or crime was unfounded and the lives of the innocent can go on unfettered then I can see the police being called more readily.

Understand, an accusation of certain crimes can cause irreparable harm. Friendships can be severed that cannot be repaired. Jobs can be lost and never to be regained. Scars can be formed that will be difficult or impossible to repair. A pervasive sense of doubt will linger for years never to be lifted.

The balance between the rights of the accused and the quest for justice is a difficult one. The police and its investigative arm is a wonderful force in both seeking justice and truth – but those maggots have taken roost within their midst is to say the least problematic.