He spent years defending notorious criminals and survived a several attempts to kill or harm him, including a bomb placed in his house. But now Alex Lewenberg’s legal career may not survive his encounter with a victim of a Chabad pedophile.
Above: Alex Lewenberg
Chabad Pedophile’s Attorney May Be Disbarred Over Remarks Accusing Child Sex Abuse Victim Of Mesira
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
He spent years defending notorious criminals and survived a several attempts to kill or harm him, including a bomb placed in his house. But now Alex Lewenberg’s legal career may not survive his encounter with a victim of a Chabad pedophile.
The victim helped law enforcement in Melbourne, Australia arrest, prosecute and convict Chabad serial child rapist and abuser Samuel David Cyprys, who preyed on young male students at Chabad's Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne.
Lewenberg, a former boxer with a habit of representing notorious criminals, was Cyprys’s attorney.
Lewenberg spoke with that victim of Cyprys, both at trial and then again after Cyprys was convicted, to admonish him for cooperating with police and the prosecution.
“I am not exactly delighted that another Yid would assist police against an accused, no matter whatever he is accused of,” Lewenberg said on a secretly recorded audiotape of the conversation that took place after the conviction. “There is a tradition, if not a religious requirement, that you do not assist against (the people of Abraham),” Lewenberg noted, referring to the halakhic (Orthodox Jewish law) prohibition against mesira (informing on a fellow Jew to non-Jewish authorities).
Mesira supposedly began as a rabbinic fiat meant to prevent Jews from being turned over to anti-Semitic police and courts that would disproportionately punish them – a tool sometimes used by disreputable feuding Jewish businessmen to hurt their opponents.
Lewenberg admitted to making that remark and to making similar ones previously at trial in court while representing Cyprys, the Herald Sun reported.
In his own defense, Lewenberg reportedly told the Legal Services Commissioner his remarks to the victim must be understood in their proper context.
Lewenberg’s remarks to the victim were apparently primarily prompted by the victim telling the court that Israel’s Law of return has a history of being used by Jews seeking to flee prosecution. Jews who have done so – by far only a tiny minority of Jews who have legally immigrated to Israel using the Law of Return – can arrive in Israel and settle there very easily while extradition from Israel is often not an easy thing for countries, even western democracies, to achieve.
The Legal Services Commissioner believes what Lewenberg did amounts to professional misconduct and it asked the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for orders against Lewenberg. The Tribunal can impose fines, suspend Lewenberg, or ask the Supreme Court to disbar him.
Victims advocate Manny Waks, one of Cyprys’s long string of victims, said what Lewenberg did was try to intimidate the victim, and for that he should be properly punished to send the message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.
“The individual concerned – a victim of the Defendant – acted entirely appropriately in drawing the court's attention to Israel’s Law of Return which, on occasions, has been misused by criminals to escape justice in their country of residence. He is to be commended for having done so. The concept of Mesira to which Mr. Lewenberg refers – informing against a fellow Jew to secular authorities – has been invoked against me and other victims, in Australia and elsewhere, to deter us from seeking justice against our abusers and the communal leaders who covered up our abuse,” Waks said in a statement.
“The reality is that the concept arose in times when Jews were persecuted and would not be afforded fair treatment under the local legal system. It has no relevance today in Australia or any other western society, and has only been invoked by those concerned to avoid the attention of the legal system for different reasons. It is difficult to understand how anybody can practice law in Australia today and hold the views expressed by Mr. Lewenberg. I hope that Mr. Lewenberg is appropriately sanctioned for his conduct and that the legal system will again send a strong message to the community that victims of child sexual abuse need to be supported and encouraged to seek justice, not intimidated and vilified for doing so,” Waks concluded.
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