Camp Dora Golding Child Sex Abuse Scandal: Camp, Alex Gold, Chisdai Ben Porat, Respond To Civil Suit

As first reported by FailedMessiah.com in February, an alleged victim of child sex abuse at Camp Dora Golding is suing the camp, its owner-director Alex Gold, and the alleged molester, Chisdai Ben Porat, who is currently in prison on child sex abuse charges. Here are the camp's, Gold's, and Ben Porat's responses to the lawsuit.

Chisdai Ben Porat mug shot

The FailedMessiah.com post from February 25 breaking the news about the civil suit  contains a pdf file of the civil complaint.

The newer court documents:

The camp's and Gold's response.

Ben Porat's response (starts on page 2).

The civil complant in an easier to read, online form.

Related:

All Camp Dora Golding Posts.

Comments

[ah-pee-chorus]

The civil complaint is so damning and sounds completely reasonable and true. The part about the 12 year old victim now being overprotective towards his younger siblings is heartbreaking. Page 10-no.73
The camps response seems criminal. More of the same...

[D]

in north miami beach is another staff member of camp dora golding who allegedly molested or behaved innapropriately with boys from the camp he has admitted climinbing ito bed with children
rabbi bod**** is now tutoring children after being fired from yeshiva elemantary school

[RWisler]

Why is it so hard for these guys to handle things the correct way? Did the camp's administrators have any notion that facilitating Ben Porat's escape to Canada would be successful? Did they think that they could sweep this under the rug? As soon as the boy reported the incident, authorities should have been called and then the parents. The boy suffers, the camp suffers (it'll surely go bankrupt), all because of the camp administrators' "deer-in-the-headlights" reaction to this tragedy.

[!! but a new name is coming...]

some technical questions:

par 43 says they called NY State Police. Would NY State police have transferred the call to Monroe County PA police?

par 67: why isn't that Rabbi named and/or does anyone know who it is???
also - why no mention of the video?

Heartbreaking and horrible. Rather not begin to imagine what the first victim is going through.

These parents really need to be commended for their quick actions (as does the employee who handed them the paper with the bus information. Whether or not its true that a ticket was being bought this employee clearly wanted the police to be called).

[Allan]

What is it about summer camp that makes otherwise extremely cautious parents suddenly turn over their kids to COMPLETE STRANGERS for several weeks? What are these parents thinking? Would they let their kids sleep in the home of a total stranger they met on the street?

Surely, people by now must be aware that summer camps are some of the favorite haunts of pedophiles and child molesters? -and it only takes one to ruin the lives of many children.

What do parents actually know about these “counselors” who will have virtually unrestricted access to their children - day and night - while they are far from home? The answer is usually “nothing.“ Do people even check whether criminal background checks on all their employees in their kids camp? Or are they blindly putting their trust in the ridiculous idea that a Jewish camp must surely be safe?

[RWisler]

Allan,
I went to summer camp from age 8 to 14 and never experienced any hint of pedophilia or untoward behavior from any of the counselors or staff. I learned valuable skills there that I've carried with me for my whole life. I've noticed that kids today are unable to arrange among themselves a "pickup" baseball game or a neighborhood game of "freeze tag" or "capture the flag" etc because they are so sheltered by the fears of their parents. Whenever I see kids playing ball in a neighborhood park, there's always an adult hovering over them. This is an unhealthy way to grow up.

I think that the answer is not denying the kids access to the sports and independence of summer camp, but rather having background checks of camp staff and certification of the camp by ACA etc. neither of which were done by Dora Golding.

[anuran]

Allan,
I have to agree with RWisler. I went to camp - Desert Sciences camp - for years. It was one of the best experiences of my life. As a kid I got to be part of real research. I learned about all sorts of things from plants to desert survival to paleontology and lapidary work. I even developed one or two social skills.

There was never even the hint of abuse.

[Scott]

As a matter of fact I actually worked in the kitchen of Dora Golding this past year, and there was a lawyer that came to speak to us on the staff orientation day and he was completly condemning anything close to illegal specifically sexual abuse, he told us the consequences, and spoke for around thirty minutes, and the message was Cristal clear, he even told us not to be alone with a camper, the fact that a few days after this someone went ahead and did this shows he is not mentally OK he needs help. What was Alex Gold supposed to do he's not a psychologist he's a camp director...

[Allan]

@RWisler and @Anuran

My own summer camp experience at a Jewish camp in the 70s was not as positive as yours. I still recall one abusive counselor who pulled me by the hair so hard it’s a wonder he didn’t tear my scalp off. . Other “counselors” forced us to play tackle football without any protective equipment whatsoever. The main hobby of the male counselors was to be constantly hitting on the 13 and 14 year old girls.

I agree that summer camps can be positive experiences. I’m not advocating abolishing them. However times have changed since we were kids and camps need to do extensive background checks on their staff and warn kids to be on their guard.