"The rabbi has done everything in his power to ensure that New Square has been a safe and peaceful community for decades," [the Skvere Rebbe David Twersky’s attorney Franklin H.] Snitow said in a statement. "Such [violent] behavior has never been nor will every be tolerated," he said. "In addition, we strongly believe that the civil case brought against the grand rebbe has no legal or factual basis."
Aron Rottenberg is the victim of a 4 am arson attack that nearly killed him and his entire family. Shaul Spitzer, the 19-year-old butler of the Skvere Rebbe who lived in the Rebbe’s house at the time of the attack, was arrested and charged with several crimes including attempted murder and attempted arson.
The attack took place after months of what Rottenberg and other New Square dissidents say was an officially ordered campaign of harassment and violence that included hurling stones through car windows and house windows, and 3 am threatening phone calls.
Rottenberg filed an $18 million lawsuit that alleges that the Skvere Rebbe was responsible for those months of intimidation that culminated in the May 22 arson attack.
Rottenberg sustained third-degree burns to more than 60 percent of his body in that attack and has undergone two skin graft procedures. He still requires months of physical and occupational therapy.
The Skvere Rebbe and Spitzer are co-defendants in an $18 million lawsuit filed by Rottenberg’s attorney Michael Sussman.
The Rebbe did not speak about the attack for almost one full week and then chose to make an exceedingly brief, unclear statement to yeshiva students that did not mention Rottenberg by name and appeared to equate Rottenberg and his attacker.
After increasing calls for the Rebbe to resign and for the Rebbe to be indicted, a slightly stronger statement was issued that still failed to mention Rottenberg by name.
The Journal News reports that Twersky’s attorney, Franklin H. Snitow, now says the Rebbe condemns all violence:
"The rabbi has done everything in his power to ensure that New Square has been a safe and peaceful community for decades," [the Skvere Rebbe David Twersky’s attorney Franklin H.] Snitow said in a statement.
"Such [violent] behavior has never been nor will every be tolerated," he said. "In addition, we strongly believe that the civil case brought against the grand rebbe has no legal or factual basis."
Rottenberg’s attorney, Michael Sussman, doesn’t buy it:
In an email this evening, Sussman called Snitow's statement "nonsense."
"The grand rabbi has sat by and allowed terror through the community," Sussman wrote. "The Rottenberg case is not isolated and Mr. Snitow should know better than to associate with profound lawlessness.
"I welcome the upcoming legal battle."