***************** STEVE MOSTOFSKY ESQ. (Updated Photo) AARON SCHECHTER'S PUTZ ENFORCER**************
This isn’t the first time Mostofsky has tried thuggish tactics to suppress the truth about child abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community.
*****WARNING: THE POST BELOW IS IN DANGER OF REMOVAL! IS FOUL PLAY AT WORK? HAVE I TOUCHED A NERVE?*****
I have received a notice from Google that someone is claiming that the post below infringes a copyright (they haven't told me whose copyright, or how it's being infringed), and are "asking" me to remove this post by Sunday, April 13, or else they'll take action themselves.
DO YOU SMELL A RAT?
I have consulted legal advice and I cannot understand how any copyright is infringed by the post below... in fact, I can't help wondering whether the holders of any copyrighted material that may be referred to (news accounts, magazine articles) are actually complaining about it at all.
I AM FIGHTING THIS!
I've had my lawyer write to Google demanding to know who is claiming an infringement, on what grounds, and why whoever made the complaint is authorized to make the claim on behalf of a genuine copyright holder. I will continue to fight for my rights -- and your rights -- to freedom of speech and the telling of truth!
Read the post, if you haven't, and tell me if I'm nuts -- could anyone honestly claim a violation of copyright law here? Whose? I've already learned that Susan Rosenbluth of the Jewish Voice and Opinion (whose May 2005 article is referred to several times in the post) is not complaining, hasn't authorized anyone to complain, and is in fact reportedly furious that the post is being threatened.
I can't say much more until I have solid evidence of who is behind this . . . but this much I will say. IF it turns out that someone falsely claimed a copyright infringement as a way of suppressing some inconvenient truths -- or if I learn that the person making the complaint was not authorized to do so by a valid copyright holder -- then someone may have broken the law, and I intend to hold whoever it is fully accountable! I have rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as the Constitution, and I will defend them!
I invite anyone who finds a factual error on my site to let me know... I'm not too proud to correct myself if I do make a mistake. The same goes for an actual copyright infringement: if anyone finds one on my site, tell me and I'll remove it. But let me say, for the record, that I detest liars, cowards, bullies and hypocrites who work secretly, using bogus claims and illegal or dishonest tactics, to suppress an honest discussion of outrageous behavior we all must know about, as Jews and as human beings... and that's just as true even if the malefactors should turn out to be associated with, let's say, a major Orthodox Jewish organization . . . Not that anyone might suspect one in this case . . . Anyway, I'm not saying that this is what happened -- too many facts haven't been made available to me -- but I promise to let you know what I learn as I learn it!
By the way, it is obvious that whoever made the "copyright infringement" claim against the post below is conversant with the detailed and technical provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now, it just so happens that the lawyer for Young Israel -- whose lay president is one Steve Mostofsky -- over a considerable period has been Martin Samson. Samson (as described in the May 2005 JVAO article mentioned already) reportedly tried a legal hatchet job 3 years ago on Rosenbluth and the book written by Amy Neustein and Michael Lesher about how family courts have failed abused children -- after Mostofsky himself (who played a prominent role in Neustein's own abuse/custody case) threatened Rosenbluth to no avail because of her writing about the book. Martin Samson is also an expert on Internet law. Just a fact, my friends... Just a fact... I say no more... yet.
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It seems that Steve Mostofsky, Young Israel’s lay president, is Agudath Israel's legal fix-it man for the burgeoning Hersh scandal. But this isn’t the first time Mostofsky has tried thuggish tactics to suppress the truth about child abuse in the Orthodox community.
In the late 1980s, Mostofsky was law clerk to the notorious Brooklyn Family Court Judge Leon Deutsch. One of Deutsch’s cases was that of Dr. Amy Neustein, whose 8-year-old daughter was switched to the custody of her divorced father by Judge Deutsch, despite strong evidence that the father had sexually abused her. (An eyewitness, a leading child sex abuse expert and the girl’s own statements provided some of the evidence in support.) When an astonished State Senator (now Governor) David Paterson held legislative hearings into that case and others like it in 1989, Mostofsky – as Paterson later told the Village Voice – appeared at Paterson’s hearing, notebook in hand, “with the intention of intimidating mothers whose cases were before Judge Deutsch from testifying to the committee.” Paterson filed a formal ethics grievance as a result.
When Dr. Neustein was slated to appear on Geraldo to discuss her case in December 1987, Mostofsky reportedly called the program’s producers that morning claiming, falsely, that Dr. Neustein was “a paranoid schizophrenic” (there was never such a diagnosis) and that the program would be greatly embarrassed if it persisted in having her as a guest. Rivera was not impressed, and the Neustein case went on to become, in the words of New York magazine, “the best-known cause celebre of its kind,” in which evidence of child sex abuse was allegedly hushed up through the efforts of influential members of the Brooklyn Orthodox community.
But Mostofsky wasn’t finished. Years later (2005), when Dr. Neustein and Michael Lesher published a book on child sexual abuse and family court reform, Mostofsky (by this time the lay president of Young Israel) again tried bullying tactics to suppress the truth. When he learned of the book’s impending publication from an article in The Jewish Voice and Opinion, he personally called the magazine’s publisher and – according to her – “screamed” at her that he would sue her, Lesher, Neustein and even David Paterson for daring to make any statements about the Neustein case or any criticism of Judge Deutsch. At the same time, Young Israel’s lawyer, Martin Samson, wrote threatening letters to the magazine and to the publisher of Neustein and Lesher’s book (though he denied having been asked to do so by Young Israel’s boss Mostofsky). Lesher also took a threatening phone call from David Pollock, assistant director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, who did not deny working in cooperation with Mostofsky. Mostofsky, asked repeatedly to comment, did not deny his role in threatening Lesher – in fact, he would not comment at all.
In the end, no lawsuits were filed. It is worth remembering that Mostofsky had had no official connection with Deutsch or the Neustein case for nearly 15 years, and could not point to a single inaccuracy in any statement Lesher or Neustein had made about the case (or others like it that Judge Deutsch had handled). Yet Mostofsky was prepared to use his prestige – and his lungs – to try to suppress discussion of a case involving allegations of child abuse by an Orthodox Jewish father.
Jeremiah McKenna, former chief counsel to the New York State Senate’s Committee on Crime and Correction (who investigated the Neustein case in the 1980s), was publicly quoted in May 2005 as calling Mostofsky’s actions part of “a continuing conspiracy to conceal the truth of what happened in this case.” And Lesher publicly challenged Mostofsky to explain why the lay president of Young Israel should be trying to suppress a book on child abuse -- (From Madness To Mutiny) -- and the family courts by two Orthodox Jews. Mostofsky did not respond.
And now Mostofsky has reportedly helped orchestrate the arrest (or at least detention) of three concerned professionals whose crime was caring enough about young Isaac Hersh to visit him and obtain his account of his allegedly abusive treatment at Tranquility Bay (for which the boy’s father, Mostofsky’s client, reportedly shelled out some $40,000). The point is that Mostofsky isn’t just another matrimonial lawyer taking another custody case. He’s not even just a lawyer who, with his partner Harvey Jacobs, has on a number of occasions represented Ohel Children’s Home (a bulwark of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn), and therefore might be expected to help abused Jewish children, not to contribute to their abuse…
No, the Agudah – which he says picked him for this job – knows his history better than that. And so should we. If someone is looking to cover up a nasty story of possible child abuse within the Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn community, well, Mostofsky is a natural. And judging from his record, he doesn’t seem to have many scruples about his tactics.
Maybe it’s time Mostofsky was required to answer some questions – publicly – about his behavior, past and present. Certainly - The Agudath Israel Of America - that bastion of fraud and deceit - also known as Cover-Up Central for child rapists and their enablers - has created yet another link to their infamous and criminal behavior - under the guise of daas Torah.
Incidentally, anyone who wants to read the (very) full article from the May 2005 issue of The Jewish Voice and Opinion can find it on the “Press and Presentations” page of Michael Lesher’s web site, www.MichaelLesher.com. Some people have issues with that magazine and its reporting, but Michael Lesher vouches for the accuracy of everything stated there.
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