Letter Authentic: Haredi Gedolim Defend Accused Horrific Child Abuser Rabbi Elior Chen

"On a letter that my rabbis are signed on to, I also sign." – Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin reports:

…[R]ecently, a letter appeared, signed by several of the Gedolim, asserting that they know Elior Chen to be a marbitz Torah and a righteous person and thus innocent of all charges, and asking people to support him!

At first, I did not post about this, because I couldn't bring myself to believe that these signatures of the Gedolim were authentic. As much as I had seen what I believed to be improprieties in the Gedolim affixing their names to things, surely they couldn't do this. I was inclined to agree with all the commentators at the afore-posted link who insisted that the signatures must have been faked. People close to the Gedolim insisted that the letter was not authentic.

But then a neighbor of mine wrote to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, asking him why he signed it. He received the following reply:

על כתב שרבותי חתומים גם אני חותם

"On a letter that my rabbis are signed on to, I also sign."

The implications of this sentence are so appalling that I can't even think of how to write about it in a way that will do justice to it.…

After all the denials and all the spin, the truth finally is confirmed. 100-year-old Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, his octogenarian son-in-law Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, and other haredi gedolim signed the letter defending Rabbi Elior Chen.

Rabbi Slifkin notes:

…[O]ne has to wonder how a Rav could attest with certainty to the innocence of someone who has been indicted for such terrible crimes, with one child suffering permanent brain damage and in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, merely because other rabbis say that he is innocent.…

Chen and his followers allegedly put ret hot stones on the children, forced them to eat feces, and hit them with a hammer in a sick kabbalistic ceremony. It is widely considered to be the most horrific case of child abuse in the history of Israel.

But, just like they've defended so many other haredi child abusers – Vales, for example, or the infamous "starving mother" case – the gedolim defend Chen.

But unlike Rabbi Slifkin, this does not puzzle me.

The victims are, after all, only little children, far too young to have yet shown academic prowess (or, as in the Vales case, too young and also handicapped and unlikely to ever be scholars) and the abusers are haredi scholars and rabbis. And haredi rabbis trump little children almost every time.

This is not a case of frail gedolim making an age-induced error; this is a case of an immoral society being exposed for what it is.

Run away while you still can.

The Letter.

Rabbi Elior Chen Index.

Rabbi Slifkin's report as a PDF file:

Download The Gedolim and Elior Chen

[Hat Tip: Henry.]