UPDATED and REPOSTED from 12-27-07: The Government of Israel appears to be admitting that haredi rabbis in the mid-1980s told Avrohom Mondrowitz to flee indictment in the US for the safety of Israel. Modrowitz did so and lived openly, freely and safely in Israel for more than 20 years.
Mondrowitz is to remain in jail until his next hearing, set to be
held on January 9, 2008. The entire court document is now posted as a
PDF file below. If you can translate, please do so and leave as a
comment to this post. Thanks!
Briefly, it seems Rabbi Meir Zilberstein, who is the head of the Ger Hasidim in Jerusalem, has offered to vouch for Mondrowitz and serve as a form of a guarantor, as has Mondrowitz's wife and children.
This proves Ger is officially backing Mondrowitz, because no such action could or would be taken by Rabbi Zilberstein without the direct approval of the Gerrer Rebbe himself.
The offer to guarantee Mondrowitz's court appearances is also of little value. I do not believe the court can hold Rabbi Zilberstein responsible for Mondrowitz's flight from justice if he should again flee. Further, the price in dollars to be paid in lost bail is minor to a family as wealthy as the Mondrowitz family and to Ger itself, which is exceedingly wealthy. The Gerrer Rebbe is one of the richest men in Israel.
If Mondrowitz is released on bail, expect him to flee justice. He'll probably be shielded by Ger in a development town where Ger has a presence. After a few months, he'll go from there to Jordon or Egypt using a non-Israeli passport. From there, he'll go elsewhere, perhaps to the FSU or even to a city in Western Europe, where he'll stay until he's hunted down – if he's hunted.
The government's official response in court to Mondrowitz's request for bail by Hershkowitz, the Government's attorney, is, roughly, as follows:
We oppose any kind of alternative to incarceration. We are speaking here of somebody charged with serious crimes of a sexual nature, against children. We are also talking about crimes he committed in his house. In our opinion house arrest is not appropriate. An alternative to incarceration is based on the trustworthiness of the respondent himself. The respondent has demonstrated throughout the years the ability to flee justice. He is not deserving of an more opportunities to flee from justice and extradition to the United States. It is not only an issue of whether we have confidence in the guarantors because, like the judge noted, one of them is the father of small children in the places in the area where the respondent lives. According to the detention service, the respondent was helped by the community. According to a previous investigation, it was discovered his flight to Israel was by the advice of the rabbis. Strictly speaking, even the bail amount was low in respect to the serious offenses described in this case. In our opinion the alternative to incarceration is not sufficient. We are requesting his incarceration until the extradition hearing.
The Government of Israel has officially admitted that rabbis told Mondrowitz to flee to Israel in the mid 1980s where he would be safe from American justice.
UPDATE 12-28-07 11:30 AM: Here is the entire document as a PDF file. Sorry for the delay.
Also, comments to the first post were lost. Please leave them again here. Sorry!
UPDATE 2, 12-28-07 3:00 PM:
The Forward has this quote from July of 2006 which speaks clearly to the rabbis intentions in this case, as I then reported:
…One member of Hynes’s Jewish council, Rabbi Herbert Bomzer, said he does not remember Mondrowitz’s extradition being discussed by the council. Bomzer did say that he knew Mondrowitz when the younger man was a counselor at Yeshiva University’s high school, and that Mondrowitz had been “loved” by the students.
When asked if he would now support extradition proceedings, Bomzer, president of the rabbinical board of Flatbush, said: “If he has managed to get to Israel and is protected by the law there — then leave it alone.”…
The entire Forward piece is here in PDF format, as well.
By the way, this means, I think, that the rabbis who told Mondrowitz to flee broke New York and US Law and are accessories after the fact to Mondrowitz's crimes. Will they be prosecuted? They should be.