Arguments heard in case of New Hempstead rabbi accused of seducing woman
By Jay Gallagher • Albany Bureau •
ALBANY - The state's highest court heard arguments yesterday about whether a claim of emotional distress and breach of fiduciary duty should be reinstated against a New Hempstead rabbi on behalf of a woman who says he seduced her.
The case involves Adina Marmelstein, a Manhattan woman, and Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, founder and spiritual leader of Kehillat New Hempstead.
Marmelstein claims the two had a sexual relationship from November 2001 to May 2005 after he induced her into having intercourse "as part of a course of sexual therapy which he represented would lead to her achieving her goals of marriage and children."
"Should the predator be allowed to cloak himself in clerical garb to prey on his clients?" Marmelstein's lawyer, Lenore Kramer, asked the seven-member Court of Appeals panel.
But Tendler's lawyer, Richard Bliss, said: "What we have here is consensual conduct. I don't think we should criminalize it."
Bliss pointed to a statute passed by the state Legislature in 1935 that abolished the right to seek monetary damages for seduction.
But Kramer argued that because Tendler was a rabbi, it put him in a position of power over Marmelstein and that this position separated their relationship from a mere affair.
"This man is a predator," she said.
Could he have seduced her and not faced criminal sanctions if he was not a rabbi? Judge Robert Smith asked Kramer.
"It is an indispensable element" of the action that he was a rabbi, Kramer said. "This is not some man she met in a bar."
The trial-level court, the Court of Appeals, upheld Marmelstein's right to seek damages, but the mid-level appeals court reversed that decision in a 3-2 vote.
A decision from the Court of Appeals is expected by early next month.
Reach Jay Gallagher at jgallagh@gannett.com.
23 comments:
Sao Paulo, Brazil - Interpol suspects that the Jewish community in Sao Paulo hid an an ultra-Orthodox rabbi suspected of seriously abusing Jerusalem children, one of whom is in a vegetative state.
Local police arrested Rabbi Elior Chen Wednesday on a street corner in the Bom Retiro neighborhood after conducting an extensive search through the Jewish neighborhood.
“Apparently he was being protected by the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Sao Paulo, who supposedly didn’t know about the accusations against him in Israel,” said Menoti Barros de Oliveira, the Interpol sheriff in Sao Paulo. “He was found alone, in the street of Julio Conceicao, so we think he was already separated from his peers.”
Chen is considered the spiritual leader of a Jerusalem sect that was found to have abused young children, two of whom, aged 3 and 4, were hospitalized in March in critical condition.
On Wednesday, Chen was reported to have turned himself over to the Brazilian police. Later in the day, however, Sao Paulo police informed their counterparts in Israel that he had not turned himself in, but was arrested.
Chen’s lawyer Ariel Atari denied reports on Wednesday that Chen had been arrested and insisted he had turned himself in. “When Elior Chen arrived at the Sao Paulo police department in the morning, he threw police into great confusion. None of them expected him to turn himself in,” Atari said.
“Israeli police did not ask the Brazilian police to carry out an extensive search for him,” said Moti Edri, a police official in Jerusalem. “It was the Brazilian police’s own initiative, undertaken due to a similar case of child abuse there recently.”
Police sources say Chen’s extradition is currently awaiting approval by the Brazilian Supreme Court. They expect him to be extradited to Israel within a few weeks.
Brazilian Federal Police released a communique Wednesday to the Jewish community in Sao Paulo informing them of the serious offenses Chen allegedly committed. “Elior Noam Chen, also known as Eliyahu Abuhatzeira, frequented a synagogue in Bom Retiro and we’re sure that Sao Paulo’s Israeli community, upon learning of the torture cases, alerted the religious representatives of the city and prohibited the community to cover for the fugitive,” the statement said
Rabbi Heine-Mini-Mann has left a new comment on your post "Dear Arthur --- and all Jews of whatever color clo...":
http://matzav.com/clients/matzav/Oven.pdf
OK wiseguy UOJ, was it you who put up the Mechon Lehoyruah & R' Chatzkel Roth to join R' Shloyma Miller in publicly attacking me?
Could UOJ kindly explain the cryptic comment about expiry dates on airline meals?
Gumshoe:
After having a near death experience after eating a "kosher" airline meal, I contacted the three major American "kosher" airline suppliers and urged them to start dating the day of the preparation of the meal.
They said they would look into it.
"I looked into it myself"....I urged the major American airlines over a two year period, to start dating the food or I'll go to the media.
Now you have expiration/preparation dates on kosher airline food. I personally would NEVER touch the drek! I'm a bring your own sandwich guy!
The olam should say thank you!
This still does not prevent you from getting sick for lack of proper refrigeration; and the worst drek in the world, leftover chara, goes into that aluminum garbage can.
Eli Weisel Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 10 December 1986
“There has been enough killing in the world.”
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, Founding Dean of New York’s Mesivta Torah VoDaath, on why he became a vegetarian after the Holocaust.
Please go to UOJGROUP.BLOGSPOT.COM - for a brilliant post by Ahavah!
The Economic Future of Our Communities, Part I
Beautiful letter on Rabbi Horowitz blog:
My dear Rabbinic colleagues,
1] We as a society are unable to come to terms with the state of our religion. As a result these special people are marginalized or expelled from leadership positions in order to maintain the status quo. However, the responsibility of leadership demands one to stand up for what’s right regardless of the repercussions.
2] Too many families are torn apart as a result of abuse. Once abuse has been sown into the fabric of a family it takes tremendous effort to eradicate it. Otherwise this behavior will become a part of family lore and tradition. Abuse is sadly a fact of life in all societies. The US court system has numerous laws and statutes in place to minimize the spread of this terminal illness. Abuse happens in the Orthodox community as well. Despite the outer trappings of a religious family, hideous abuse is happening behind closed doors. When we witness child abuse we must rise up to defend the innocent victim. If a child is abused in public, one can only imagine what happens at home. We have to open our hearts to the abused to enable healing to take place.
3] The rabbinic leadership must figure out which battles to fight. It’s impossible to wage war on all fronts. We must create a hierarchal structure of concerns to be addressed, a triage if you will:
· Fabric of society: molestation, abuse, extortion, etc. destroy the norms of society and create an unsafe environment. These behaviors must be dealt with honestly, forcefully and urgently.
· Laws unique to Jews: Shabos, Kashrus, Taharas Hamishpacha make us unique as a nation. Basic morality should come before what makes us outstanding.
· General laws: lashon hara, etc. enhance our daily lives. Yet this has been used as a reason by us to shirk our responsibilities to our constituents. Shame on us.
We have all read and were saddened and stunned by reading stories of serios abuse in our communities. It is time to rally to the side of and support these unfortunate victims. We must demonstrate through our actions that this is not the way a Jew is supposed to act. What was done to these victims is an abomination.
This week we read the birchas cohanim. “Hashem should bless you and watch over you. He should light the way for you and guide you. He should turn his face to you and give you peace.”
Let the healing begin!
Sick and getting sicker:
Israel - A 14-year-old girl from Beitar Illite was taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem after an unknown person spilled acid on her face, legs and stomach, causing light burn wounds.
The act has been attributed to a representative of the so-called ‘modesty guard’ in this town where religious and secular residents are increasingly at bitter odds.
MDA received the call just before midnight on Wednesday and paramedic Dror Eini who arrived on the scene to treat the girl also managed to calm her down enough so she could explain what had happened.
Eini told Ynet that “the modesty guards have been threatening her for quite some time.” According to the paramedic the focus of the threats has largely been the victim’s 18-year-old sister and some suspect the attacker mistook the younger girl’s identity for that of her older sister’s.
Eini said the teenager was in a difficult emotional state: “She cried the whole way to the hospital, partly because she was in pain but mostly because she was terrified.” According to Eini at the time of her attack the girl had been wearing loose-fitting long pants and a short-sleeved shirt.
“If she would have been wearing the same thing in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv, she would not have stuck out in any way,” he added.
An ultra-Orthodox teen from Beitar Illite who is in contact with the girl’s family spoke with her sister who described the incident. According to the boy, the attacker stopped the girl and first asked her for directions. Then, after confirming her surname, he spilled a bottle of acid on her.
The girl was released from the hospital on Thursday and the police sent samples of the liquid she was attacked with for analysis.
A priest and a rabbi were travelling on a plane. After a while the priest turned to the rabbi and asked, "Is it still a requirement of your faith that you not eat pork?" The rabbi responded, "Yes, that is still one of our beliefs". The priest then asked, "Have you ever eaten pork?" To which the rabbi replied, "Yes, on one occasion I did succumb and tasted pork." The priest nodded in understanding and went back to his reading. After a while the rabbi asked the priest, "Father, is it still a requirement of your faith that you remain celibate?" The priest replied, "Yes that is still very much a part of our faith." The rabbi then asked him, "Father, have you ever fallen to the temptation of the flesh?" The priest replied, "Yes, rabbi, on one occasion I was weak and broke with my faith." The rabbi nodded understandingly for an moment and then said, "A lot better than pork isn't it?"
Every year before Easter, the Chief Rabbi in Rome goes to the Vatican and presents an ancient--- and by now quite tattered--envelope to the Pope. The Pope inspects the envelope, shakes his head, and hands it back to the Chief Rabbi who then departs. This has been going on for nearly 2,000 years. One year recently, it happened that there was a new Pope and a new Chief Rabbi. When the Chief Rabbi presented the ancient envelope to the Pope, as he had been instructed to do by his predecessor, the Pope looked it over and handed it back--as he had been told by his predecessor. But then the Pope said, "This is an unusual ritual. I don't understand it. What is in this envelope?"
"Darned if I know," answered the Chief Rabbi. "I'm new here myself. Hey, let's open it and find out." "Good idea," said the Pope. So together they slowly and carefully opened the envelope. And do you know what they found?
The Caterer's bill for the Last Supper!
Don't let worry kill you. Let your synagogue help.
Join us for our Oneg Shabbat after Prayer and medication to follow.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our congregation.
For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
We are pleased to announce the birth of David Weiss, the sin of Rabbi and Mrs. Abe Weiss.
Thursday at 5:00PM, there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All women wishing to become Little Mothers, please see the rabbi in his private study.
The ladies of Haddassah have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the basement on Tuesdays.
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the JCC. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.
The Men's Club is warmly invited to the Oneg hosted by Hadassah. Refreshments will be served for a nominal feel.
If you enjoy sinning, the choir is looking for you!
The Associate Rabbi unveiled the synagogue's new fundraising campaign slogan this week: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours"
To IVF:
Im not as "farshlufen" as you would like to think...Im aware of the junk (the word i would like to use is probably not allowed on line) going on in the frum community.. I do keep up with the news,ALL of it, good and bad..But to make it sound like we are all going to hell because there isnt one decent person among us, is total meshugaas!!! and a good excuse for bitul Torah as well.Yes there are sickos amongst us, but must we constantly focus on the negative? Trust me, Mr. UOJ does not have very clean hands as well...Id love to see his tax returns. Hey man, nobody is a complete tzaddik in this world (well, except for a very few..) and there are so many teire jews out there, quietly and modestly doing good deeds, without publicizing their actions and wanting acclaim, or claiming they are saving klall yisroel..get over yourselves!! You people sure are not R. Levi Yitzchok Berditchever, looking for the good in every yid, no matter how low he has fallen..As R. Meir said-or was it his wife Beruria? Hate the sin, not the sinner..and to be more specific -get a life, stop blogging and remember: Hayom Katzair V"Hamelacha Meruba, etc, and do your good deeds without fanfare and expecting accolades from all..Be a yirei shomayim b'saiser..
To IVF:
Mr. UOJ does not have very clean hands as well...Id love to see his tax returns.
----------------------
IVF said he is not a fertility clinic.
Take a number and get on line for my tax returns, PUTZ!!
South L.A. band teacher accused in child porn case
Lief Albaugh, an instructor at Foshay Learning Center, was arrested after pornographic images were allegedly found on his laptop. A former Foshay administrator was earlier accused of molestation.
By Andrew Blankstein and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
June 6, 2008
A band teacher at Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles was charged today with possessing child pornography on his personal laptop computer, authorities said.
Lief Arnesen Albaugh was arrested Wednesday evening by detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department's juvenile division. The 27-year-old Los Angeles man posted $20,000 bail and was released at 5:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department inmate website.
Investigators found pornographic images of young girls and boys on his laptop, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney. She would not elaborate.
Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David Brewer said he was told of the arrest today.
"We are cooperating with the district attorney on this matter," Brewer said. "We suspect that as a result of the Rooney case, there's heightened awareness on the Foshay campus."
Foshay, a middle school in South Los Angeles, already has been buffeted by accusations that its dean of students covered up a case in which a former assistant principal had a sexual relationship with a student there.
That administrator, Steven Thomas Rooney, faces more than a dozen felony child molestation-related counts involving three students, two of whom attended Markham Middle School in Watts and the third of whom attended Foshay.
The school district has come under intense criticism for its handling of the cases.
In February 2007, the LAPD told district officials that Rooney was suspected of having sexual contact with a Foshay student.
After initially putting Rooney in a desk job, school officials transferred him to Markham Middle School, and he has been charged with molesting two students there.
That transfer appears to have violated district policy, which requires officials to conduct an independent investigation of abuse allegations before allowing a teacher or an administrator who has been accused of sexual misconduct to return to a school.
Adding to that, the Foshay dean, who was identified by authorities in court as "Mr. Hubbard," kept photos, notes and a scrapbook that documented the relationship between Rooney and a former Foshay student. Among the materials, presented by prosecutors in court last month, were photos showing Rooney and the underage girl kissing.
andrew.blankstein@latimes.com
My name is LVF not IVF, So please stop calling me names.
Leizerowitz Victim Forever
A powerful essay and insightful comments. Take a look, at what UOJ has accomplished in about 3 years.
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2008/06/dear-arthur-and-all-jews-of-whatever.html
Plenty of interesting material put up today at the previous post.
I do not accept the Postville Jewish community's management of the Pinchas Lew (Rubashkin relative driving the getaway car) and Pinchas Stillman Sept. 1991 incident when clerk Maion Bakken was shot by Stillman in an attempted robbery at the Decorah Petro "N Provision store. The 357 Magnum bullet went through her kidney, liver, lodged near her spine. She was left with chronic pain and as of 2002 had never been paid any of the 1.4 million dollars awarded to her. they had robbed an elderly popcorn vendor of $70 in Ossian before travelling to Decorah. How much money is a popcorn vendor going to have with him? I was frustrated in that Pinchas Lew could not possibly stay in an Iowa jail as they could not provide kosher food. Yet one of the two men had bought a meal in a Gentile Postville restaurant and one was buying a sandwich at Petro "N Provision at the time of the shooting. The Lubabavitch community put up $200,000 to post bail for Pinchas Lew yet no one offered any type of compensation for the Bakken family (that I knew of) for expenses not covered by insurance. I do understand that Stillman and Lew are not representative of your conservative Jewish community but the situation was frustrating when an older woman was left with chronic pain.
I wish to thank those in the Jewish community who have sent donations to Saint Bridgets or elsewhere for the families of those detained May 12th.
It is sad that Rubashkin ever opened in the city of Postville for the reason that in NE Iowa the bedrock is very close to the surface, and with karst topography some water in a stream can end up going underground. Kosher meatpacking uses more salt than non-kosher meatpacking. Hector Creek which some wastewater was discharged into flowed into the Yellow River, but I think it was Hector Creek that was called a "dissapearing stream" as water could go underground. Groundwater was tested to be more saline due to this.
All these "pidyon shvuyim" cases from Pinny Lew to Mutterperl to Frankel's Shul felons are a big farce.
The Oylem Goylem and phony Ra-bonim are not listening to the gedolim and do whatever they see fit. R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and lehavdil bein chaim lechaim R' Zelik Epstein have poskened that the United States seldom incarcerates innocent people. R' Zelik adds that both Klal Yisroel and the criminals themselves are better off if the offender remains in jail.
I don't know how anyone can stomach this.
And very soon...there is going to be another tragedy - a massive pidyon shvuyim campaign for another criminal psycho now in jail!
Could it be that the Rov is endorsing a UOJ approach? I believe it is very fair to say (while there may be other criticisms of him) that he represents the antithesis of falling into the trap of "Ericism". He speaks out about our problems, ignores the kannaim and the wirebrushing, exposes the people who should be afraid for their lives, and opens one of the only forums (until now, right here), for people to express their deepest feelings and most creative and daring ideas for addressing the enormous overwhelming problems facing Judaism.
I feel like this latest post is a watershed moment and will go down in Jewish history as such.
Can you imagine, if what you have just written, dear Rabbi Horowitz, VERBATIM became the keynote address at the Agudah Convention this year. Instead of the good old attack UOJ? If you could pull that off, you have my vote for Mashiach.
Seriously, in order to even dream of something like that happening, maybe you could respond to the following questions in all seriousness:
Which part of what you wrote CANNOT be publicly agreed upon by our Gedolim?
Why is it?
Is it because:
A) Our Gedolim, while wonderful people, just don't get it???
B) They understand, but are too afraid that all hell will break loose if they make any calls for change? Do they think for example that admitting that Torah Tmima is not the safest place for a Jewish child to learn Torah would somehow bring a massive exodus to Christianity or Buddhism?
C) Is it the "kannaisha baal habatim" or "askanim" or spokesmen and lawyers of Agudas Yisroel (not mentioning names) that somehow use their sophisticated manipulations of our leaders to lead them astray because some of these "professionals" are actually cruel and evil megalomaniacs?
D) It doesn't make sense to say that it all comes down to money. Firstly, none of these gedolim are personally wealthy, or at least not the majority of them. Second, the money is going down the drain with the current system, anyway, so why not fix it? How many multi million dollar lawsuits against yeshivas will it take until someone in position of power says "Oops"?
E)Could it be that the gedolim doubt their own power? Don't they realize that wagging of their fingers and a flourish of signing their names, they were able to wreak havoc on people's lives and livelihoods by "banning" a music concert at MSG?
I've read books on the Catholic Church crisis and how it developed and got so out of hand. But I am still completely baffled at how our system got so broke and how nobody is willing to do the bare minimum to change it.
Let me explain just by way of one example. Sice UOJ decided to try to stop Rabbi Yuddi Kolko from molesting Jewish children, these are the different approaches that have been tried:
1. Internet exposure 2. Mass mailing in Brooklyn 3. News media publicity in New York magazine 4. Multi-million dollar lawsuits 5. Criminal prosecution leading to a guilty plea for "endangering the welfare of children"
And it continues. We can hope for Kolko to be eventually convicted and jailed. We can hope for the Yeshivah to be held accountable and to be "forced" to admit and change. But still at the end of the day, Yudi Kolko (after his jail sentence) will still pose a horrible threat to Jewish children as long as our communities leaders continue to keep silent and to deny. "One slipped through our fingers".
However, without all of these years of pain and suffering and heroic efforts on the part of the survivors and their advocates, fighting an uphill battle, all it would take, and all it ever would have taken, and of course its not to late...
is for even a few of the 30+ rabbis who signed the Lipa-gate ban to sign a similar one saying simply "Jewish parents should not allow their children to be anywhere near Yuddi Kolko". No more. No more. No explanation of the danger necessary, so you don't have to offend any laws of tznius or worry that the children will "be exposed to sex education, chas v'shalom, rachmana litzlan". You don't have to "destroy Kolko's family" (which have still been doing nice shidduchim as they should since they are not criminals)the way the ban threatened to destroy the lives of Lipa Shmeltzer and anyone who participated in his Satanic concert.
Just say "Better keep the kids away." No questions would need to be asked or answered. The gedolim till this day have never needed to explain the Lipa ban. Totally unnecessary. They just did what they thought was right and "Tzadik goyzer V'Hakadosh Baruch Hu Mekayem". So the same would be true for the dangers (not as bad possibly as the Lipa concert) but definitely a danger that any Gadol could see, of Kolko, Mondrowitz, Eiseman, Layzerovitz, Mattis Weinberg, Aron Tendler, etc. The "kala dlo passik" in all these cases is there. Where is the "koyl koreh?"
"All it takes for evil to be victorious, is for good men to do nothing."
Why didn't a school in the Far Rockaway area warn its students' parents of a recent kidnapping attempt near the school? Read of the lame excuse of the principal in the Five Towns Jewish Star and you be the judge whether schools should notify parents of near kidnappings or just tell the "older" students without saying anything to the parents.
What are these administrators afraid of? Do they want to risk the lives of another frum girl?
Why weren't notices posted throughout the area? Why wasn't anything posted in the email list for the community?
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/tv-radio-reviews/last-nights-tv-a-revolution-in-childhood-bbc4-841252.html
According to an American child psychologist called Jay Belsky, having a television in a child's room is as inappropriate as having sex in public.
Post a Comment