Skullduggery And New Twists In The Case Of Rabbi Chaim Halpern

As leading haredi rabbis issue a letter saying Rabbi Chaim Halpern is unfit to serve as a rabbi, leaders of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations leaders received an email purporting to come from an American psychologist, “Ahron Hersh Fried”, which cast doubt on the allegations against Rabbi Chaim Halpern and suggested that he would probably be cleared .But it appears that the email may be a hoax. Rabbi Aharon Hersh Fried is the name of a psychologist at Yeshiva University in New York and he has made it clear that he is not the author of the email sent to the Union. Halpern is the son of the Union's president.

Kedassia, legally known as the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (of Britain), is reportedly calling in Israeli haredi rabbis to form a beit din, Jewish religious court, to look at allegations against Kedassia's disgraced member and former rabbinic court judge, Rabbi Chaim Halpern.

Good news?

Not really.

The prevailing thought about this seems to be that this special beit din will be used to whitewash Halpern's misbehavior, which involved clergy sexual abuse against women he counseled in his position of unlicensed marriage counselor.

There are crimes that appear to have been committed, and as I've written previously, rabbis can't handle cases like this, but police can – and should. And that's why victims should call police, report these crimes and work with police investigations and the Crown's attorneys to get Halpern arrested, indicted, tried and convicted.

Beit din whitewash or not, the move to muddy the waters to shield Halpern continues with this bizarre twist, reported by the Jewish Chronicle:

…Union leaders this week received an email purporting to come from an American psychologist, “Ahron Hersh Fried”, which cast doubt on the allegations against Rabbi Halpern and suggested that he would probably be cleared .

A senior Union figure suggested that the email be circulated to “relevant parties… maybe even to whoever can get it into the JC”.

But it appears that the email may be a hoax. Rabbi Aharon Hersh Fried is the name of a psychologist at Yeshiva University in New York and he has made it clear that he is not the author of the email sent to the Union.

Despite the subterfuge, several leading haredi rabbis, including Rabbi Ehrentreu, signed the following letter against Halpern [via IfYouTickleUs]:

Update 12-7-2012 at 12:41 am CST – The Times of Israel shamefully stole this story from IfYouTickleUs. It posted its report at 5:31 am 12-7-2012 Israel time and did not cite or credit IfYouTickleUs. I know for a fact that the Times of Israel reporter knows about IfYouTickleUs and knows he has been closely covering this story and that he has broken much of the news regarding it. But she doesn't cite him, just as she failed to cite him in any previous story she's done on Halpern.

IfYouTickleUs posted the letter at 10:50 pm London Time, which was 12:50 am Friday Jerusalem Time – almost five hours before the Times of Israel's piece was posted online.

Truly shameful.

Here is the entire Times of Israel report as a PDF that includes the article's time stamp:

Download Senior London rabbis break ranks to demand colleague in sex case step down | The Times of Israel

Here is the IfYouTickleUs post as a PDF file, including the time stamp and many comments – a large number of which were posted long before the Times of Israel posted its latest stolen "scoop":

Download If You Tickle Us...To boldly go…

Comments

[Snag]

Can you please credit the owner of the picture that you keep stealing.

[sabrina]

snag
he credits the owner very clearly. see the end of the post. now apologize please nicely.

[Bas Melech]

What do CH and NW have in common? Both middle aged, overweight, hairy men need to prove their masculinity and sex appeal by forcing young(er) good looking women to have sex with them. Using their authority, they think that the Torah doesn't apply to them, while they seduce and force women to explore sex acts forbidden to them. These men hide in religious garb to fool others, not to keep themselves holy.

All the time making a chillul HaShem.

[Ham Child]

Response from UOHC here,
https://twitter.com/barneyphill/status/276851756040867840/photo/1

[soso]

wow! what does that mean? uohc are cowards and do not dare to condemn their own? That really does make a bad impression!

[Me]

Heshy fried the blogger?

[Shmarya]

Heshy fried the blogger?

Posted by: Me | December 07, 2012 at 02:21 AM

WTF are you talking about? Can you read?

[Moishe Halpern]

Shmarya
The reason the Jewish Chronicle don't mention your site or the If You Tickle Us blog in their reports is because there has been a recent case in the UK where Twitter users forwarded defamatory information about Lord McAlpine and are being sued. They are wary that if they mention blogs as being the source, they themselves could be prosecuted.

I don't know about Times of Israel position on this.

[Shmarya]

…I don't know about Times of Israel position on this.

Posted by: Moishe Halpern | December 07, 2012 at 03:37 AM

I've had a discussion with the times of Israel journalist about an earlier theft, and she made no such claims.

[GABY LOCK]

WHY O WHY CAN NOT THE WOMEN
BE NAMED
ANSWER:
THERE ARE NO WOMEN
WE HAVE A VERY LITTLE PART ON OUR BODY
WHICH FILLS OUR HEAD
ORTHODOX AND NONE ORTHODOX
SEX,SEX,SEX,SEX
ALL WE TALK ABOUT IS SEX
THE PAPERS ARE FULL OF SEX
MORNING NOON AND NIGHT
ALL WE THINK ABOUT IN LIFE IS
FUCKING,FUCKING AND AGAIN FUCKING
MY NAME IS GABY LOCK

[WDwek]

so women - still wearing your righteous wigs for the abusers and rapists you look up to?

[Beth blumer]

PEOPLE WHO DONOT HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT AT HOME GO TO A RESTAURANT!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beth blumer]

JUST HEARD THAT THE GOLDERSGRRENER ISSUE WILL BE IN THE INTERNATIONAL PAPERS THIS WEEK IN EUROPE AND USA