BY KIRSTEN DANIS
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Tuesday, March 25th 2008, 4:00 AM
A battle has erupted in the Orthodox Jewish community over a Brooklyn teenager sent by his prominent family to a behavior boot camp accused of terrifying abuse.
Isaac Hersh, 16, has been trapped since last summer at Tranquility Bay, a reform school on the island of Jamaica with a soothing name - and harsh discipline, according to the lawyer hired to try to get him out.
"It's a modern-day concentration camp," said Maryland lawyer Joshua Ambush.
Isaac's estranged parents sent him to the boot camp last year after luring him back to Brooklyn from his new home in Texas, court papers claim.
Isaac's twin brother, Sol, is panicked he's next to go.
"He's very worried about his brother. He's very worried about himself, too," said a friend of the family who asked to remain anonymous.
Tranquility Bay offers the promise of turning bad boys into focused achievers, but the walled-off camp with barred windows has been called a nightmare.
Children have been beaten, forced to eat their vomit and made to stand in painful contortions for hours, according to a separate suit filed in Utah by former students against private boot camps, including Tranquility Bay.
The case has so riled up members of the normally insular Orthodox community that several are taking the rare step of publicizing Isaac's situation.
One one side is Isaac's informal Texas foster family, who are also Orthodox, and their supporters, who prompted a nonprofit to file suit in Washington last week on Isaac's behalf.
They claim he was lured to Brooklyn with the promise of a job, handcuffed and thrown into a van that took him to the boot camp as he cried and begged to be released, the suit says.
On the other side are the teen's father, Michael Hersh - CEO of Brooklyn's huge Orthodox volunteer ambulance service, Hatzalah - and his wife, Miriam.
"Hatzalah will carefully monitor these proceedings, taking into account the seriousness of the allegations," the organization said in a statement.
The couple has a prominent supporter in Rabbi Aaron Schecter, head of Brooklyn's tight-knit Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, according to the suit.
It is unclear what prompted the parents to send Isaac to another country. Michael Hersh did not return a call for comment.
They had a troubled relationship for years, according to the suit.
Isaac, one of eight children, was sent to schools in Virginia and Long Island before the family moved to Israel in 2002, where the parents were accused of abusing Isaac, the suit says.
From there, the boys went to live with families in Texas, although the parents never lost custody.
"They're healthy, good, normal teenage boys," said the family friend.
It is now undeniable. All along it is the parents that are the biggest contributors to creating children who are alienated from what Hashem really wants. Parents have no clue. The criminals are not the rebbeim, although they may be complicit. The parents of this child should be sent to this camp and should take advantage of all the amenities and counselling services it offers. Any reputable therapist, if one was engaged, who didn't vehemently protest this abomination should join them. It is not clear that the venom spewed against Rebbeim is unjustified. Parents are the cause of these crises and they will be held accountable.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO_W4VsWQ6w Part 1 of 6 by an independent French film maker about WWASP camps.
ReplyDeleteWhile supporting the sending of one Jewish boy from a Chaim Berlin family to prison in Jamaica for over a year now, at the same time, Arone Shachtar joins with Yisrael Belsky of TV to take out ads for "pidyon shevuyim" and send letters people to raise money for the legal bills to get a Jewish boy (Sobol family) *out* of his father's grip in the midwest because the father became not religious and resfuses to give his wife a get.
ReplyDeleteSo how crazy is that, to wage a legal fight to get a kid *out* of prison in his father's house in the US midwest at the same time as now fighting a legal fight to *keep* another kid *in* prison far away from his parents. Is the job a normal "rabbi" should be doing??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Arone Shachter's wife has alzheimers and she does not know who he is anymore. He is depressed and sick. He should quit his job and let the next generation run his office. This Hersh saga is the final straw that shows how recently he is off the wall.
He banned an innocent sheitel store since they had some photos of women head's wearing shietels (making it sound like they were posing almost "nude"/"pritzus"), sending letters to everyone in CB to boycott the store, then when the poor sheitel store took down the pics, Shachter wastes the yeshiva's money and sends out another letter saying that the sheitel store owner is not that bad and he did teshuva. Is that ajob for a rabbi and rosh yeshiva????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Then Shchecter, who it is known pulls all the strings of Avrom Schorr, pushes to get Lipa banned and the concert dumped causing a massive outcry, even going against Rebbetzin Jungreis's son who learns in CB who begged him not to sign and to take it back, but no, Shachter hates all music and song and thinks that ruling like Stalin and Mussolini is the way to go. Is that normal are are people nuts for letting this go on?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
These are advanced signs of paranoia and megalomania and now he will back the nut job Hersh who is a drop Baal teshuva from public school who smiles like heck when he sees Shachter walk down. This is all so so sick and sad and the victims are not Isaac Hersh but all the kids in the CB system.
Start a petition and send him messages to get Schachter to quit, for the sake of Klal Yisrael!
Michael and Miriam,
ReplyDeleteYour child was in your eyes a problem child, going off the derech you chose to project, and certainly at risk for failure. You sent him to yeshivos in Richmond, and on Long Island. These yeshivos are for good kids who aren’t interested in the false lifestyle of their parents, NOT at-risk programs. It stands to reason that you failed to adequately check out the many outstanding frum programs that could have helped your child. Instead you chose to send YOUR SON, no matter how much you hate him, to a place devoid of any vestiges of religion or human decency.
You can rationalize that “this is called tough love”, “this is the structure he needs”, “I asked Daas Torah”. Tranquility Bay is not called tough love, needed struture, or approved by anyone with the slightest Jewish upbringing, any more than Birkenau was. To deny these facts will make you one of Judaism’s strongest supporters of the Final Solution.
Michael, you have what to boast about being CEO of Hatzolah saving peoples lives. However, a man is judged based on his weakest link. Isaac is your weakest link, and he needs to be saved immediately. No one is asking you to take him back into your home, all people expect is for you to do Pidyon Shevuyim of your own son.
Go ask Reb Ahron about the pasuk in the Aseres Hadibros, “LO TIGNOV” this means DO NOT KIDNAP. Arranging the kidnapping of your own flesh and blood is not something for Jews to be involved in. Release your son from captivity NOW.
Your Friend,
MP
Moshep613@aol.com
OHR ZARUAH LATZADDIKIM!!!
ReplyDeleteThe following information is public knowledge:
R’ Aron Schechter is not the first Rosh Yeshiva to condone kidnapping your own child. In 1994 right before his serious heart trouble, R’ Zelik Epstein was involved in a case where the married sister-in-law of a “prominent” Rosh Yeshiva was kidnapped on orders from her parents, who were upset with who she married and demanded a divorce. When she stood by her husband, the mother-in-law arranged her kidnapping in Israel. As a result, they moved back to America, but the victim’s brother-in-law the “prominent” rosh yeshiva arranged that no kollel should accept her husband. R’ Zelik went ballistic at the “prominent” Rosh Yeshiva who was forced to cut out his thuggery.
The “prominent” Rosh Yeshiva is none other than RAV MALKIEL KOTLER, whose mother-in-law Tikotski is the aunt of another “prominent” Gadol, HARAV HAGAON MOISH “SHEVACH” FINKEL.
does anyone know if herschel schachter is related to aron schechter? herschel schachter is also a hippocrit liar!
ReplyDeleteGive me ole' Herschel any day, bozo!!
ReplyDeleteAfter speaking with numerous Hatzoloh members it has been made clear that the people primarily responsible for the hiring of Michael Hersh and seeing Hatzoloh dragged into the public eye are:
ReplyDeleteZelig Gitelis (F-19) who lives at 1319 East 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11210 [Cell no. 1-917-612-3519 – Home no. 1-718-434-5359]
and,
Yitzi Stern (B-30) who lives at 1405 48th Street, Brooklyn NY 11204 [Cell no. 1-917-559-8880 – Home no. 718-633-3905].
They were the active members of the Hatzoloh search committee and offered the most vocal support for his hire. They failed us and their executive responsibilities by hiring someone with no previous employment history and a record of child abuse. In addition, the fact that we’re paying him an annual salary $250,000 is an outrage.
All this on the say of Rabbi Aaron Schechter.
Their responsibilities are to Hatzoloh and the Jewish community who support Hatzoloh, not to any individual or other group. We hold them personally responsible for this embarrassment of Hatzoloh, Klal Yisroel’s proudest organization, and demand they take immediate action to see that Hatzoloh is kept out of the news and can return to their incredible mission of saving, not assisting in the destruction of, Jewish lives.
We are going to research and post the names of all the guilty members of the Hatzoloh board that caused this travesty and hold them personally responsible for their actions.
you probably hear this everyday, but i gotta tell you. there is a new revolution. it started forming on the day you posted your first blog. it is getting larger by the day, but alas not remotely close to being complete. im proud to announce i am a dedicated soldier in this war. long live truth, long live the jews.
ReplyDeleteOUJ,
ReplyDeleteyou rule! but when do you sleep?
According to my reports the boot camp in Jamaica that condones torture, rape, sodomy of young boys is directly affiliated with Ohel Children's Home. The Flatbush womanizer, Rabbi Dovid Cohen (Challal ben gerusha) of Gvul Yaavetz is the Spiritual witch doctor that supervises and gives approval of all the horrific conduct.
ReplyDeleteOh is the Adolf Yisroel Belsky bastard Yemach Shemoi Vzichro having a good laugh today.
ReplyDeleteI came to Chaim Berlin as a really raw new baal teshuva from public school about 25 years ago. I was so weird. I used to smile at everyone and talk at the top of my voice. My brother came along too, but he was quieter than me and soon got lost.
ReplyDeleteI was in Rabbi Shmuel Brog's shiur. He was my "Rebbe" and was the first one to really brainwash me so much that I started to forget that I was just a public school dropout and now I was becoming a "real ben Torah" & I was so happy that I just wanted to learn anything they would teach me in Chaim Berlin, where noone thought I was anything special, but I just stuck around so long & got rid of my funny colored wrinkled yamulka and put on a white shirt dark pants and jacket and grew a little beard, wow was I chushuv now, I could feel the kedusha coming down and making me into one big talmid chochem. Hey this must have been what Moshe Rabbeinu felt when he felt the ruach hakoidesh coming onto him, man was I one holy dude wow. I was "on the derech" for sure!
When did I fall in love with reb AronShechter? Hmm hard to tell but everytime he'd walk by me and smile and wisk his long beard I would get thrills down my legs and melt, this was my new hero and when he started to say hello a few times and keep me going on with my open gemoras wow that sold me & I was his slave for life I would never think again cause daas Toireh was my new drug of choice I would never have to be alone & just go wait for hours to hear what reb Aron would tell me to do.
Then they discovered that I had a good IQ, that I was marketable for shidduchim, so they got me a nice girl from BJJ to marry me. Hehehe, she was naive. Sweet gal from Silver Spring from a frum home with nice hard working humble parents, her name was Miriam Greher. Yeah I found out that she had a downs syndrome brother, but hey, her parents were great, they took care of that little kid, they NEVER sent him to an institution, they made the Hebrew Academy of Silver Spring let him come to regular classes and the kids there were so nice to him (why I could not do this for my own kids who are not downsyndrome I don't know) but you see I don't believe in therapy or mental health (it's only for crazy people) because I am a disciple of Rav Brog and Rav Brog is Rav Avigdor Miller's son-in-law and he said that all psychiatrists and psychologists and social workers are crazy and evil, I had to believe this to be accepted as Rav Brog's talmid, otherwise I would not be able to call him "Rebbe". Good thing they never asked me about my real views about this when they hired me at Hatzolo, but that is another story, when you have gedoilim like R. Shechter pull the strings get me the job so you wing it, I am smooth talker and a VERY S M I L E R you know, like super :) :) :) when inside I am more like grrrrrrrrr like a dog all the time, good thing I hate shrinks, I will never be discovered for who I am!
So Haha, I fooled the Hatzala people too, and hey, when I needed to get my own son dragged off I didn't even call my own Hatzola vans, I just hired goons from a fancy "WWASP" sounding place that are gangsters from Utah who make money of this...well Hatzoloa pays me $250,000- a year now so I have lots to spare when it comes to spending a mere $30,000 to imprison my own kid and frighten the heck out of the rest of em...but hey, Reb Aron says this is da'aas Toooiiirraaaah to come in the middle of the night with handcuffs and terrorize not just my kids but my entire neighborhood & reb aron has been doing that lately, he frightened the heck out of a sheitel macher store to take down a couple of innocent photos of a frum young lady's face (she was wearing a sheitel and I could see lots more chicks dressed a lot worse all the weay to the floor at yeshivish weddings, but hey, who cares about the truth here, only daas toireeeeh counts), he frightened the heck out of L>I>P>A to get the heck out of making other yidden happy so this is great stuff here I am helping him practice what he does best, frighten and intimidate people and, isn't that what Hatzolo does when it comes it frightens a lot of people, I guess I must have gotten something mixed up here.
This is becoming like all those things I used to watch on TV and at the movies that are sitting in my subconscious which I am not supposed to have according to Rabbis brog, Miller and Shechter (they are just jealous that Freud was a bigger rebbe and chochom than they will ever be) and maybe I might get called a socio-path if I went to a shrink to sort out my own deep problems. I have never told people what happened to me at my own home or in public school and I might have even tried going to college but nothing ever worked, till I became a "ben Toooooiraaaaah" at CB and hey that made me feel oh so goooood when the ruach hakoidesh cam down upon me and I knew what the right derech is and what the bad derech looks like.
Anyhow, back to my wife's family. They are naive people, but they had no clue about who I really was. They thought I was this great tzadik and Toirah scholar from Chaim Berlin and in Silver Spring they have pint-size bat-looking Rabbi Merkin who has told everyone that CB and Reb Aron Shechter are the closest thing to the messiah (outside of Lubavitch who we all hate of course) so those folks in Silver Spring really thought I was some great young luminary when all I was was just a twisted NYC street smart public school bum who landed up in the beginners program in CB and from there (like I saw in the movies that I loved, yup us public school kids go to movies but I would never admit it now that I learn so much Toooooiiiiraaaaah) I just changed my Clarke Kent do and put on the CB superman outfit and I was a made man, but those folks in Silver Spring are naive country bumpkins who just don't get that stuff about the CB trick acts (the main trick is that we SMILE a lot) and I got myself a nice sweet smart and bright Miriam Greher to marry me and off we went.
The rest of the story you know from all the court papers etc, I am still trying to figure how I couldn't read my own kids' signals, but I was never smart in that way. All my thinking is done by daas Toireh outside of my brain, my great Rebbes, Brog and Shechter (I do not respect or talk to any other real humans) who have totally brainwashed me into thinking that I am doing the will of Hashem and that what happens to my own kids in a "WWASP" concentration camp doesn't matter.
Of course I won't learn from my in-laws who never put my wife's brother into an institution because he was not off the derech (he was born with downs nebech) and besides they are the naive people I fooled into giving me their daughter so why should I think that I should learn from them and not from the gedoileeem Brog and Schechter who guide my life.
Sometimes I think back to my great public school days when life was so much fun and happy. No rabbis to hassle me. Who was it that sent me to Chaim Berlin in the first place, hmmm, can anyone remind me please....
If only someone would handcuff both those reshaim Dovid Cohen and Israel Belsky and send them off to a boot camp. What a fantastic world it would be without those two bastard perverts to continue destroying our families and businesses.
ReplyDeletewe need a mother's group to protect children I submit we call it MASA-Mothers against Sexual Abuse please print this and I hope someone responds There are still many issues plaguing Torah Temimah and its staff and their own families who are dealing with sexual abuse in secret and it is affecting innocent lives
ReplyDelete