Aaron Twerski-I am ashamed and greatly angered by what you did. I truly believe that your participation last night has damaged the Jews!

A Very Respected Criminal Defense Attorney Writes:

Dear Professor Twerski:

I apologize for writing this after the fact, and I have as yet heard no reports how the meeting went last night. And while as a criminal defense attorney I truly believe that all are presumed innocent until proven guilty, that is in the eyes of the law, but not in the eyes of a 'kahal' who must be concerned about 35 years of a 'shmu'ah' that has surrounded Rabbis Kolko and Margulies and YTT.

The (so far) lack of proof in the eyes of the law and halacha - although there seem to be many more than 'al pi shnayim aydim' around - may not condemn the parties yet legally, but I believe it does not give anyone the right for others to go out of their way in order to give them the cloak of purity and innocence as this hastily prepared meeting featuring yourself and David Mandel did. Clearly this was a P.R. campaign to make the public believe that Rabbi Margulies is innocent of all 'charges' against him. To the extent that you are (in my humble opinion) prematurely 'mesayai'a' him 'lidvar aveirah' - to perpetuate his claim of innocence in the cover-up - I am ashamed of you and greatly angered by what you did.

I truly believe that your participation last night has brought great harm and damage to the Jewish community at large, to your own reputation, to the institution that you are employed by, and to hundreds and hundreds of innocent kinderlach.

Had you truly been interested in helping alert the community to this problem, you would have received the invitation from Rabbi Margulies and then done all you could to move the meeting to another location, had it sponsored by an independent group, and found a sponsor for an ad and mailing that said "Invitation to all YTT Parents and Parents of any and all Yeshiva students to come hear experts on the topic 'Keeping your children safe and Preventing Abuse' ."

By allowing your name to appear on a YTT letterhead above the signature of Rabbi Margulies, I believe you have wrought upon yourself disgrace and shame. As our chazal have told us, "Oy la'rasha v'oy lishchayno."

e-mail:dbpesq@gmail.com