The Brooklyn DA arrested an astounding 89 Orthodox men on charges of child sex abuse — forcing open a community that sometimes covers up such crimes.
By MICHAEL LESHER
Last Updated: November 27, 2011
The numbers are startling — in the past two years, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office says it has arrested and charged 89 Orthodox Jewish men with child sex abuse.
It’s horrific and shocking, though in terms of effective law enforcement and honest dealings with the public, finally a good thing.
Some background: The Brooklyn DA has been accused for years by child advocates of handling the insular, image-conscious Orthodox Jewish community with kid gloves over sex-abuse scandals. Those familiar with abuse survivors from within that community — myself included — have complained that Hynes is too fearful of retaliation from a politically powerful religious bloc to hold its sex abuse perpetrators to the same standard applied elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Hynes, who denies this, claimed in 2009 to have arrested 26 Orthodox Jewish men for sex abuse over a two-year period — a claim that drew some praise at the time, but also some skepticism for being just too good to be true. But now the DA is double-daring (or triple-daring) his doubters, claiming that since October 2009, the rate of sex-abuse arrests within that community has more than tripled, all the way up to 89.
Still, from the quiet way Hynes broke the news, one senses some reticence behind the bravado. There was no fanfare, no typical press release; Hynes’ spokesperson Jerry Schmetterer offered the numbers in an unheralded exchange with the Jewish newspaper Forward over two weeks ago, and left it at that.
But the unprecedented claim can’t possibly remain a whisper. With the child-abuse cover-up at Penn State on everyone’s lips, any report of such a whopping crackdown in a community notorious for resisting public reports of the crime is bound to have significant results.
True, the lack of detail about the arrests — the Brooklyn DA has declined to give names, charging information or current case status for any of the suspects, or even how far back these cases date — is cause for legitimate concern. I’m not surprised that child advocates within Orthodox Brooklyn have publicly cast doubt on the DA’s numbers. No one knows better than I how hard it can be to pry the facts about such cases out of Hynes’ office. To name just one instance: my four-year effort to obtain records of the abortive attempt to extradite Avrohom Mondrowitz, indicted on 13 child sex-abuse counts in 1985 and still at large in Israel, has led all the way to New York’s highest court, where I will be arguing the Freedom of Information Law case against the DA’s Office this winter.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/breaking_the_si_ence_fowlLEBaFdRumDAfT2gc0J?mid=53
12 comments:
Breaking News: Syracuse University associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired Sunday in the wake of an investigation of child molestation allegations against him.
http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=5768479
What a disgrace. This fugitive con artist Feuerwerker is the son of one of the gedolei rabbonim in France before the churban who was close to the Chazon Ish. His wife's name does not sound Jewish either.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/15/toronto-doctor-who-pleaded-guilty-to-improper-billing-facing-disciplinary-charges/
Another scam. Police raid Chabad Montreal over money laundering.
Nov. 29, 2011
The New York State health commissioner should be given sweeping new powers to replace the executives and board members of private hospitals, a group appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended Monday in a report on how to restructure Brooklyn’s failing hospitals and health system.
The report calls for legislation to provide such authority “not just in Brooklyn and not just for troubled hospitals, but across the state and along the continuum of care.”
If UOJ wants a good laugh, he should take a good look at Feuerwerker's picture and consider that the guy's grandfather was born in Marmarosh. I'm not joking.
Takeh a typical Marmarosher chaya! :-)
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_city_our_bad_now_pay_0Bvj6Wsf9FnlbhTUBIqVjI
The Post reported in September that the Finance Department failed to check on the tax-exempt status of any organization claiming it since 2007 — potentially costing the Big Apple millions of tax bucks.
Since then, the department sent out questionnaires to nearly 12,000 real-estate owners on the exemption rolls — and 3,000 of them have ignored the mailings.
Property owners who have not filed by Dec. 5 will lose their exemptions starting July 1.
“The strategy of ignoring us is not a good one,” Frankel said. “We’re trying to be as flexible as we possibly can . . . We’re trying to get compliance.”
The current effort applies only to future bills. It does not include efforts to collect money owed from the past, although that could eventually happen sources said.
Questions about the city’s property-tax exemption rolls arose after the arrests of former city Correction Department chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz and his brother Menashe on charges of stealing more than $200,000 in federal rent subsidies earmarked for low-income tenants.
A Williamsburg, Brooklyn, building at the center of that fraud case has for years been claimed as tax-exempt by the landlord, United Talmudical Academies, which previously employed both Glanzes.
http://youtu.be/KeOomOnUQ94
Trailer for the movie about Baltimore's haymishe molesters
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/151000-doc-nyc-2011-girl-with-black-balloons-greater-good-standing-silent/
If the first link doesn't work, try the 2nd video on this page
Reform Rabbi Scott Corngold is originally from NY and headed temples in Manhattan, Long Beach and Lynbrook.
He moved to San Luis Obispo in 2009 to head the Beth David temple which defaulted in April on a $3.3 million mortgage.
Corngold resigned from the temple 9 days ago for "personal reasons". (Come on, even Tort Putz Twersky can come up with a better sounding excuse than that)
http://www.slosheriff.org/_Press/PRView.aspx?guid=52a499ae-06fa-48ee-8890-8be6e06eefcf
He was found dead in his car on Shabbos morning, slumped over his steering wheel.
http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4637&Itemid=53
This old age home in Winnepeg which is run by corrupt tyrants who cause the death of residents is under the supervision of Western Kosher which is a subsidiary of the OU.
The OU runs a tight ship in Winnepeg. First a mashgiach sleeping on the job at the world's largest producer of gefilte fish that also processes non-kosher species. Now senior citizens in their 90s going into septic shock because an OU supervised nursing home lets them wallow in severe bedsores. If the family members complain they are banned from the property in retaliation by the criminal management.
We knew this since August. Now an update:
http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5086&Itemid=53
Criminal charges are now being laid against the home for the patients who were abused to death including an elterra rov who passed away 2 years ago at 95. The niftar, Rabbi Berkal who grew up in Uzpaliai, Lita, was a musmach of R' Yisroel Yitzchok Kahanovich, alter Grodner & Slabodker who had semicha from the Aruch Hashulchan.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_In1T-FZEreI/TDP2Z8D42DI/AAAAAAAADCg/evzgZEXi3dE/s1600/Kahanovitch.jpg
He was rov of Scranton in 1905 and later in Winnepeg.
Hasn't Rabbi Genack said repeatedly that the OU will remove hashgocho from companies that are criminally charged? Or at least that was his empty promise for Rubashkin.
Not only do the Feuerwerkers originate in Marmarosh but this ganiv's sister married a guy named Marmor.
Watch out for anyone claiming to be from Sighet. That place is the same hole as Marmarosh.
The comment about R. Corngold is lashon hara. His contract had just been renewed. (by a synagogue which he had helped pull itself out of the financial difficulties earlier in the year) He then resigned, stating personal reasons. Because of these circumstances, there was an autopsy and coroner investigation. The cause of death was determined to be a pulmonary embolism. Based on their findings this medical complication had started in his home and he was attempting to drive somewhere for medical help. He was found in his car, near his home, on the side of the road. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/11/29/1853237/rabbi-scott-corngold-death.html
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