by Phil Jacobs - Baltimore Jewish Times
Ner Israel President Sheftel Neuberger left a voice mail to our managing editor Alan Feiler telling him that he would not talk to the Jewish Times anymore since we wrote articles about the dead child molester Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro.
Times like these make me miss his late father, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, even more.
The reason Neuberger won’t talk is because he sees it is a violation of Jewish law for us to write the truth about a dead person. In this case, the truth is that Ephraim Shapiro molested on occasions too numerous to count, both boys and girls. It wasn’t until years after his death that the truth started emerging like ooze from a waste dump that this man had ruined the lives of many innocent people.
Alan Feiler was calling Neuberger to learn if the yeshiva had done any internal counseling with its student population over the apparent suicide of one of its own students.
What Neuberger and those who think like him don’t get is that Ephraim Shapiro (I hesitate to use the word rabbi, a term of respect here) was more alive than some of the people whose spirits he so arrogantly killed. Think about it, he molested people in a matter of moments leaving them with an imprint that could for some last forever. And what is so interesting, we have reason to believe that there is at least one former Shapiro student who allegedly committed suicide because of possible molestation from his teacher.
So don’t comment Sheftel Neuberger. Your silence says it all.
The overuse of the concept of 'loshon hora' has caused enormous harm to our children and the many many naive people among us, including many ba'alei teshuva. Anyone with sone degree of common sense and integrity would realize that where there is a toeles, a positive purpose to be served, telling negative things even about a dead person is not necessarily forbidden gossip (loshon hora). In this case, the circumstantial evidence is enormous. many people were harmed, and part of their healing is having the story exposed. This may also prevent others from further self injury, psychopathological guilt, etc.
ReplyDeleteSheftel Neuberger is himself guilty;not of this crime of Lashon Hora. He ran around seeing other women when his wife Judy(Judith) was in NY quite a few yrs ago taking care of her mother who had Alzheimer's. He is a particular aficiando of sex-talk chat lines.
ReplyDeleteI kid you NOT!- I have proof!
ReplyDelete