The Jerusalem Pedophile Ring That Almost Certainly Isn't

As I  first reported in May, the Nachlaot pedophile ring supposedly plaguing a haredi neighborhood of Jerusalem is almost certain a moral panic. There is no ring. Most – but not all – of the claims made of abuse are false. Israeli police, social workers, parents, rabbis, and neighbors all did things to corrupt evidence. And now the story continues.

File photo used for illustration purposes only

Or, more accurately, now someone has written a good, comprehensive piece on the panic. He misses a bit of the underlying reasons for the panic and misses a person who was key in spreading lies and inciting the panic – things I've previously reported on. (Please see the links at the bottom of this post.)

And he doesn't mention my reporting or cite me, even though some of his sources not only read FailedMessiah.com, but post comments here.

All that said, it's still an important piece that is well worth reading. And you can do that here.

I've done a few posts on Nachlaot and the pedophile "ring." Here are some of them that broke new ground, including reporting the name of the elderly woman beaten because she was thought to be a pedophile, a Christian missionary (and several other things) and explaining what she really is; explaining why the panic spread (and who was key in spreading it), and other related issues.

Related Posts:

Modesty Patrol Beats Elderly Woman.

Arrests Made In Beating Of Elderly Woman.

Two Indicted In Beating Of Elderly Woman.

When A Child Sexual Abuse investigation Goes Wrong.

Comments

[Bassy the Haredi Slayer]

The report neglects to mention that Zalman Cohen, the alleged serial molester and abuser who is in custody was the life coach for Sara Vorst' Ohel Sarah Imenu and some incidents happened in that school.

There were complains against him but Vorst who at that time was riding high because of her connections to Tropper and Eisenstein brushed them off. Now Tropper and Eisenstein cannot protect her and the chickens come home to roost.(Go Gur/Ger)

Vorst used to torture converts The Ohel Sarah Imenu Conversion Program and beatings could not have happened to a more deserving person.

http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=38359

[Maskil]

Everyone knows that her house leads to an intricate system of underground tunnels where a ring of pedophiles and alley cats rape and sexually abuse children. Any attempt to deny this is completely delusional.

[bas melech]

Just like charedim--blame the outsider for abuse and punishing without taking the accused to court. Evidently children suffered some kind of abuse. Maybe in cheder? I know rebbes in cheders abuse, and not from FM.

I've read articles in the past that indicates some kind of abuse occurred. The question is where, by whom, and how extensive.

[Makabit]

This kind of thing happens periodically. We did not leave the witch hunts in the Renaissance.

Was/is there abuse going on in this community? Probably. It's not uncommon. The kind of abuse that's now getting described, extreme, ritual, all-pervasive, involving dozens of adults and no physical evidence left behind? No.

Nor is this just a haredi thing. The people who got swept up in this were not haredim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

When this burns out, and the truth dawns on people, it will only make it harder for the community to deal with real-life sexual abuse in a sane way.

I pray that the police involved do some research and figure out that they have a classic ritual sexual abuse panic on their hands.

[leah amdur]

Zalman Cohen was sentenced to 9 years in jail. A few months ago. Do you know about this? Did you write on this to inform everyone?