Did English Rabbis Ask An Israeli Haredi Leader What They Should Do With An Alleged Sexual Abuser Who Is A Haredi Community Leader?

Is this letter to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky from British haredi rabbis authentic? Is the response from Rabbi Kanievsky genuine? Is this really  his handwriting? Why does the top fax date read "14 November 2012" but the fax date in the body of the letter read "9/06 2008"? Is this letter real?

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

Originally published at 8:30 pm CST 11-28-2012

A source in London sent me the letter posted below and his brief summary of its supposed import:

This letter shows that the rabbis of the London Beit Din asked Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak for advice about what to do regarding the allegations of sexual misconduct against Rabbi Chaim Halpern. It shows that Rabbi Kanievsky considered the testimony by victims and over [sic] evidence against him to be very credible and he advised them to help take Rabbi Halpern down.

Is this letter real? Or is it a forgery meant in part to protect haredi these haredi rabbis from possible obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges?

 

Update 10:12 pm CST – The same London source just sent me a full translation of the letter and Rabbi Kanievsky's response:

To the honorable, great sage, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky:

The Rabbis of Golder’s Green (a London neighborhood) are currently suffering a dilemma.  There is a rabbi, who is one of the rabbinic Judges of a Rabbinical Court in London, about whom there are many allegations which have continued over a significant period of time that he has become involved inappropriately women.  There is first-hand testimony about this by many of the women [victims] themselves, and this [testimony] appears to be extremely credible.

The [accused] rabbi himself denies everything, and states that the women who have testified against him are crazy, and that it is all false.  The local rabbis [of Golder's Green] are all of the opinion that they most remove him from his standing [as a rabbinic leader and judge].  However, the chief rabbi of his [the accused rabbi's] rabbinic court insists strongly that he not be removed because it is unfair to make his [the accused rabbi's] family suffer.  And also, he has an elderly father who is one of the local senior rabbis, and the chief rabbi of the [accused rabbi's] rabbinical court is concerned for his [the accused rabbi's father's] health. Because of these reasons, the [accused] rabbi still maintains his rabbinic post.

In the meantime, the local police are investigating the situation, and think that there are also violations of the laws of the state. 

They have already requested to speak with the rabbis in order to ascertain the details of these events.

They have asked the Master [Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky], may he live long, whether they should endeavor to remain silent and avoid assisting them [i.e., the police] or whether to the contrary since the above mentioned [accused] rabbi maintains his standing as a rabbinical authority, he is still in a situation that enables him to harm additional women, may the Merciful One spare us.

I shall conclude with a blessing that the Holy One should prolong the days of our master, may he live long, in goodness and tranquility

Signed, the local rabbis [of Golder’s Green, London].


[Handwritten response by Rabbi Kanievsky:]

Certainly, [the Rabbis of Golder’s Green must] partner their activity with the police.  It is necessary to banish him [the accused rabbi] from [his rabbinic position] there.

Comments

[FM Fan]

I'm betting that the people in London don't know how to set up their fax and the folks in Israel do.

Sounds legit.

[Uri]

Is this letter to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky from British haredi rabbis authentic? Is the response from Rabbi Kanievsky genuine? Is this really his handwriting? Why does the top fax date read "14 November 2012" but the fax date in the body of the letter read "9/06 2008"? Is this letter real?

Is this letter real? Doesn't appear to be.

[Bogus]

That's not Rav Chaim Kanievsky's handwriting. Not even close.

[think for a change]

The letter to RCK lacks proper grammar. RCK's handwriting is not the usual.

[Jay]

His handwriting can be seen here:

http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/letter_from_r_chaim_kanievsky_to_kletzky_wm.jpg

Bogus(8:44pm)is correct - not even close!

[Chaim Kanievsky]

That is definitely my secretary's handwriting.

[RMK]

You don't understand the dynamics. The Golder's Green rabonim are on a differnet beis din than Rabbi Halpern, who is on the Kedassia Beis Din, in Stamford Hill. The Golder's Green rabonim want to get rid of Halpern. They are appalled that the Kedassia Beis Din is worried about Halpern's father and the dignity of his family to such an extent that they have let him molest women for all these years. The Golder's Green rabbonim are on the right side of all this.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

[Handwritten response by Rabbi Kanievsky:]

"Certainly, [the Rabbis of Golder’s Green must] partner their activity with the police. It is necessary to banish him [the accused rabbi] from [his rabbinic position] there."
- - - - -

Stepford Wives much?

The Creator gave you a brain -- it's a sin not to use it.

[Alan]

What kind of f*ckwits need Chaim Kanievsky to answer this question?

[chaim moshe]

it is a genuine letter - nobody claimed it is his writing - it isnt, its a member of his entourage

[the godol hador]

"The letter to RCK lacks proper grammar."

You are a fool. It is perfectly normal rabbinic Hebrew.

[Londoner]

Enough is enough,
All this uncertainty is further destroying the community,
What is for certain,
CH definitely did something inappropriate for a Rov
As the saying go’s ( you all use this frays when something like this happens to a normal person) NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE so same applies here,

And the fact that all Rabbonim of London have not made a clear statement of some sort, and this shows a serious lack of responsibility from them towards us, the people of the community

On a personal note: I think the community deserves abusers whether albi-it Rabbonim or others, you all say we don’t want abusers in our community and when someone dos something about it, u curse them and hound them for it,

[joe]

don't know if he answerd that or not, but this is definitly not the handwriting from Rabbi Kanievsky

[joe]

the fax number above comes as registered to someone by the name of GUY SHAKURI that lives in Ramat Gan

[Barry]

That is definitely my secretary's handwriting .

No its not. Rabbi Menacham Mendel Schneerson just told me that its his.

Londoner, what sort of statement do you expect that London's rabbonim will make bearing in mind the phenomenally seedy and outrageous nature of the allegations involved. There are also issues of libel and possible criminal proceedings which make this a legal minefield.

Forget all the talk of touching women's hands with towels. The allegation is that this rabbi for his own sexual gratification but claiming that this was a relaxation and tension easing technique, regularly manually manipulated (with his fingers and not a towel) the vulvae of a considerable number of emotionally vunerable and naive young women sent to to him by his own congregants as well as outside organisations (such as Bikor Cholim d'Satmar amongst others)for therapy. This masturbatory technique would be expected to culminate in many of these women reaching orgasm (and at least one young woman has allegedly admitted to this). Hilariously in the statement he released on his resignation he wrote about 'withdrawing his hand for his own sake'.

You need to remember that the Hareidi community is so conservative that it finds it uncomfortable to even mention breasts in relation to cancer let alone the need for many women to relieve sexual tension through masturbation or use of a vibrator. How can it bring itself to publicly discuss the scandalous complaints now made or even the body parts involved.

The rabbi involved is not some Lubavitch Shaliach to Kathmandu, but a dayan and scion of the leading Chasidic rabbinic family in that part of London who are married into many the Chassidic sect leader families and the richest Hareidi families. These family relationships are probably the reason why London's Hareidi leaders find it impossible to act.

He has his own synagogue whose membership consider themselves as the most chosuv and farfrumpt in that area who look down at others for not being as machmir as them especially when it comes to Tzinius and Niddah. His congregants worship him and have spent a fortune on building him a beautiful home/synagogue and follow his strict Tznius chumras which lead to sexual frustration in their wives which allegedly he exploited.

There is another sensitive issue which this scandal would force Hareidim to confront. Upto about 100 years ago, doctors commonly regarded it as their duty to relieve 'hysteria' in women by external pelvic massage, culminating in orgasm. The young Sigmund Freud was trained in that technique. What however needs to be stressed is that women were happy to have this treatment and their husbands (who ignorant of the the nature of what happened but understood that it made their wives more relaxed) paid and regularly took their wives to be treated. This was subject of a recent British comedy see -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4FWReqkTWfA

It needs to be remembered that for every woman who objected to the alleged conduct, there will be more who enjoyed it. The reason everyone laughs at this Rabbi's congregants is because like these 19th century gentlemen, they were in effect paying for their wives to be 'jerked off' because they could not sexually satisfy themselves and these ladies like their husbands were as ignorant as to the nature of this conduct (apart from enjoying it) until it was explained to them. The prurient British tabloid will have a field day over this scandal

The conduct alleged could lead to criminal prosecution which on conviction is likely to lead to a 2 year prison sentence.

[Brian]

Barry said:

''His congregants worship him and have spent a fortune on building him a beautiful home/synagogue and follow his strict Tznius chumras which lead to sexual frustration in their wives which allegedly he exploited.''

You are making a mistake.

None of the alleged victims come from his Shul.

In any event, clearly you are not acquainted with his Shul for you to claim that they 'follow his strict Tznius chumras'. Anyone familiar with the Shul would be most surprised to hear this description.

It would appear you know precious little about his SHul and are merely regurgitating stuff you've read on other blogs/

[Yaknahaz]

CH Shul the most choshev??? Most of them have no beards or trimmed beards, wear kippah serugas, wear coloured shirts and have TV's in their homes.

So frumfrumpt they aint! There just a bunch if misnagdisher twats.

[Yaknahaz]

RCH Shul the most choshev??? Most of them have no beards or trimmed beards, wear kippah serugas, wear coloured shirts and have TV's in their homes.

So frumfrumpt they aint! There just a bunch of misnagdisher twats that pay lip service to the buddah halpern.

Posted b

[Binyomin]

No talk in all of the articles and blogposts about the victims.Who is taikng care of their needs?

[Dovid]

For starters it's not "Golder's Green." While the literacy of some haredim may be questionable, if the translation provided to Shmarya used this spelling (rather than it being a sloppy transcription by Shmarya), I would wonder about it.

RMK who posts above, seems to know an awful lot about this stuff and to have a strong opinion. And he also misspells it the same way. Time for Shmarya to check into some IP addresses again?

[Yidele]

As I personally contacted more Hagoen Harav rabbi chaim Kanievsky
Let it be clear to all!

Reb Chaim Kanievsky Sl. Was approached and he said that he will not become involved as well that he never wrote a letter in this ongoing issue in Golders Green!

I have letters from Reb Chaim Kanievsky Sl. Where he announces that his signatures are often faked.

So make your conclusion as such!

NEVER USE THE NAME OF A GODEL HADOR WITHOUT HIM AUTORIZING IT TO YOU!

[anon]

RCH is a gonner
question of time
the more he holds on the further he will fall The evil scoundrel.

He WILL HAVE A BAD ENDING THE WAY TESTIMONIES ARE COMING FORWARD

All his members must chuck him out
what the fuck are they doing with this serial offender???? fucking up their children too!!!