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| Nechemya Weberman AKA The Animal |
The trial of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor accused of repeatedly molesting a girl was disrupted on Thursday afternoon when four spectators in a Brooklyn courtroom were accused of taking pictures with their cellphones of the accuser on the witness stand.
The four men, identified by prosecutors as Joseph Fried, Yona Weisman, Abraham Zupnick and Lemon Juice, were arrested and charged with criminal contempt in the second degree, a misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to one year in jail.
The accuser, who is now 17, has testified that she and her family had faced a pattern of intimidation from the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, since she alleged last year that Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed therapist her parents had sent her to for counseling, repeatedly forced her to have oral sex during their sessions together from the time she was 12 until she turned 15.
In June, prosecutors charged four Williamsburg men with attempting to silence her by offering her a $500,000 bribe through her boyfriend to drop her participation in the case. Intimidation of sexual abuse victims in the ultra-Orthodox community is common, prosecutors say, because going to secular authorities with charges against another Jew is considered treasonous. But arrests for intimidation are rare.
Mr. Weberman’s accuser had already been provided with increased security after onlookers said they spotted Mr. Weberman staring at her threateningly through the window of a conference room as she rested during a break in the court session on Wednesday, said Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. The defense denies that Mr. Weberman did this.
Then at about 2 p.m. Thursday, court officers spotted a man taking a picture of the teenager as she testified, Mr. Schmetterer said. The judge, Justice John G. Ingram, ordered the jury cleared from the 20th-floor courtroom in State Supreme Court, and the cellphones of all onlookers in the courtroom were confiscated.
The phones of the four men arrested had photos of the teenager that had been taken in the courtroom, and one photo appeared to have already been posted to Twitter, Mr. Schmetterer said. David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the court, said that Judge Ingram also admonished the men before allowing the trial to continue.
While the district attorney’s office did not comment on motive, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, an advocate for abuse victims who was in the courtroom, said that the men arrested were Satmar Hasidim, some of whom supported Mr. Weberman. “This is intimidation,” he said. “The government should not let this slide away, because this is not an accident. It is done deliberately in an effort to keep the law system from functioning.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/nyregion/in-ultra-orthodox-sexual-abuse-trial-4-arrests-for-photos-of-witness.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0
On top of all that his shul is davening for him and raising money for for legal fees. Did they by chance also collect the $500.000? because I had a gerus done in Williamsburg with Satmar headed by an alter Lubavitch Rabbi with the last name of Weberman.I was 3/4 Jewish at the time and now I'm upset and wondering if it is even valid. May I ask the advice of Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg?
ReplyDeleteNot to mention working in Ohel, JCC and part time in Women's league for years afterwards. And then you find out years later what was happening right under your nose and it's like the world is never the same. Sorry for the drama, lol, it's all very shocking and hard to absorb.
ReplyDeleteHang in there Eugene!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul, and also for making this site and making it so local, unfortunately we still live in Midwood way too close to all this.
ReplyDeleteI also want to share some info about a local shiur I heard about from my friend's younger brother I met on the street, who is also a recent graduate from the Mir Yeshiva.
ReplyDeleteSo there is some Rabbi giving a special shiur using Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's teachings to clarify the apparent connection between the metzitzah b’peh, hurricane Sandy, gay marriages, Yishmael, Amalek the Erev Rav and the war in Israel.
Apparently in an attempt to revive the Haskala movement, Mayor Bloomberg and his friends the erev rav have brought hurricane Sandy upon us all as a punishment for legalizing gay marriages and not allowing yiddishkeit to perform the the bris and MBP the proper way, allowing Amalek and Ishmael to triumph over the Jews and Israel. The Arabs have control over the world's oil, gas and money because they are circumcised properly in accordance with their ancestor Yismael who represents the sitra achra of the Sefirot of Chesed, corresponding to Avraham who also performed the bris mila properly with MBP which enabled him to overcome Yishmael his spiritual opposite. This is all of course a conspiracy for Bloomberg, the erev rav to make money from the gas shortage on the east coast.
It was a funny incidental chat on the street with my friend's twenty year old, super enthusiac younger brother. I had no idea about this sucking ritual back then so now it all makes sense, lol.
I'm just sorry that Agudath and co. are bringing Rabbi Nachman into this to brainwash the kids looking for actual spirituality and emes.
http://ahavtemeshager.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteEugene, if you had pure intentions you receive a neshama even without a beis din.
Depending on the type of matter before a beis din when a beis din is corrupt, it is enough to have one kosher dayan of the three for an act of beis din to be valid. I do not know if that applies in gerus or not.
Otherwise, I would stop using your name to publicly criticize Satmar & the Webermans. These people are vicious & have come after others in the past to physically harm them. Stay anonymous if you want to criticize them.
A real Mirrer would not be going to shiurim at Breslov. And if the yeshiva knows they will stop him
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, First time I see this blog, please forgive me if I'm jumping in the middle of the conversation, but I'd rather ask it here.
ReplyDeleteWhat if she is lying all about it, isn't he entitled to get support from his friends?
How many times have we seen in the last decade alone people sent away to prison for a long time, being set free, as holds true for people we all believe are guilty and set free? I'm in the community and I think, after doing some research she is holding water.
Lemon Juice? Is he a Satmar rapper?
ReplyDeleteThey changed his real name so no-one should be able to look up his tweeter or other social media account and see the pics.
ReplyDelete@ Gerus blogger. That's nice to know, I'm sure all is good with the bais din. I'm not trashing Satmar or any mishpucha, just wondering because I had lived in Boro Park, Kensington and Midwood for a while now. Actually I had a very good experience with Satmar and know them to be very good and kind people. I appreciate the advice though.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous- I was told the shiurim was given in a local Litvishe Yeshiva on OP
Eugene:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:09 has given you great advice - take it please!
Apple:
First time here? Living in a cave?
I'm thoroughly familiar with the Weberman case - and all his "friends" as well as I know he's a filthy pig - That does not guarantee necessarily a "Guilty" verdict!
We have a very imperfect system, but would not trade ours with China or Russia.
LOL, I'm from Russia, it's better here!!
ReplyDeleteIt is good advice, my bad.
Apple, get real. The cases where someone innocent was jailed are largely because of corrupt cops / prosecutors or faulty lab tests.
ReplyDeleteBut there is virtually no case of false molestation charges being made against someone to begin with and the few that are do not make it past the police investigation. After the detectives go over it, so do many others including DA's office, judge, jury.
Gothamist reporter Ben Yakas is saying from Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz that the Satmar goons have threatened him for supporting the girl and that there are undercover cops protecting the girl outside of court.
ReplyDeleteR' Joe DiAngelo shlita has been telling people that Webberman swings both ways. He was known to pull a Kolko-Eisemann by putting kleine yingelach on lap and going full throttle Anthony Weiner on them.
ReplyDeleteEr iz geven in gantzen errrrect.
I filed a lawsuit against Sholom Eichler, a first cousin who sexually abused me for 4 years starting when I was 6. From the day the abuse began until last year, I hadn’t felt confident to pursue justice & hold Eichler accountable for what he did to me. I was afraid. The people I counted on to protect me when I was young only fed that fear. I confided in my principal, Rabbi Lustig of Oholei Torah when I was 14. The years of secret pain were too much to bear alone. Rabbi Lustig advised my parents not to create “a family fight” by confronting Eichler or his parents & strongly urged them not to say anything. Consequently, Eichler remained welcome in my home for the rest of my youth. My family celebrated his wedding despite knowing he brutally molested me for years — years I’ll never get back, years I live with everyday of my life.
ReplyDeleteIt’s difficult. And, forgiving my family who betrayed me is no easy thing. Yet, I am grateful to most of my immediate family for support that, although it came late, did still come.
Before filing suit against Eichler, I attempted to envision different scenarios that might result, but I was not prepared. Many sympathized with Eichler & cast the traumatic abuse as just “2 kids fooling around,” others called the lawsuit a ploy for attention, and some even had the audacity simply to feed into the denial all too commonly surrounding abuse, dismissing what happened to me that Eichler is “family man” incapable of the horrific crimes he committed against me, my body & my mind. It had taken years for me to regain some sort of wholeness with which I could try to move forward, and the negative reactions to the lawsuit challenged that.
I lost hope. I was disappointed & angry with people; it was truly horrifying for me to hear anyone defending Eichler despite what was known. So many people were focused on “Jewish gay activist sues cousin for sexual abuse” that the story was lost.
Eichler may have been a minor at the time of the abuse, but I was a child. Eichler exploited my vulnerability in feeling different and inferior, which made me a perfect target for a predator. He once told me that he had to be mean to me in public so that no one caught on to “our” secret. Eichler sexually, physically & mentally abused me. He devised elaborate strategies to intimidate & lure me away to commit unspeakable acts. Even after Eichler sodomized me with a pen when he became frustrated with my small, unaccommodating, fragile, 8 year old anatomy, like many survivors, I was afraid & ashamed. That was why I kept it secret for as long as I did, but when I was able to understand what happened I reached out for help.
My principal, family & community’s reaction are what continues to feed the environment conducive to abuse. I reached out again to my principal upon retaining lawyers, but he refused to cooperate, claiming it was against Jewish law. Given Rabbi Lustig’s history running Oholei Torah for which he has not been held accountable, I'm not shocked by the way he continues to handle matters.
Eichler & his family refuse to face the limelight. Neither he or his family have publicly commented. Eichler did not even file a response to the complaint against him. And, it appears his response to the default judgement against him will be immigrating to Israel.
Now Eichler is exposed, other children may be safer & other survivors find it easier to come forward.
Dankner was detained for questioning on Thurs on suspicion of fraud
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/business/mystery-figure-in-nochi-dankner-probe-is-financial-adviser-to-the-rich.premium-1.481262
Nochi Dankner, middle left, with his friend the "X-Ray rabbi," Yaakov Ifergan.
http://www.shabooty.com/2011/06/06/breaking-video-benjy-bronk-of-howard-stern-show-at-weiner-press-conference-were-you-fully-erect.php
ReplyDeleteWilly B can make fun of me all he wants because I plan on making a re-entry to politics. That's why I was writing op-eds about the response to Hurricane Sandy. I have a lot of supporters out there. Even Chaim Schwartz from the Queens Vaad came to shake my hand when I campaigned in Kew Gardens.
http://pearlriver.patch.com/articles/police-monsey-man-failed-to-register-as-sex-offender
ReplyDeleteA 64-year-old Monsey man has been arrested on a felony charge that he failed to register as a sex offender, according to the Rockland County Sheriff's Department.
Robert Sternberg was arrested on Tuesday by Ramapo Police and turned over to the Sheriff's Department based on a Rockland County Court warrant.
Sternberg was held in the Rockland County Correctional Facility in New City pending a County Court hearing.
Is Charlie Hynes covering for Satmar again?
ReplyDeleteThe 4 putzes with the cellphone cameras at the Weberman trial were only charged with misdemeanor contempt of court. What about more serious charges like witness tampering, etc?
http://www.timesofisrael.com/london-rabbis-will-call-on-colleague-to-resign-following-sex-scandal/
ReplyDelete30 London rabbis are preparing a statement calling on a colleague accused of sexual misconduct to step down from his synagogue.
The declaration will say that Chaim Halpern is not fit to serve as a rabbi “due to his violation of Jewish law & laws of modesty,” and that he should be removed from his shul, according to Yisroel Lichtenstein, head of the rabbinical court of the Federation of Synagogues.
Two weeks ago, Halpern, who is one of the top Haredi rabbis in London, resigned as a religious judge in Kedassia, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. He also ended his relationship with Beis Yaacov School, Hatzolah emergency medical service & Chana, an infertility charity where he was religious advisor.
He's been accused by 30 women of inappropriate contact. Earlier this month, 6 rabbis & religious judges gave him a choice between withdrawing or facing a public statement against him. They could not remove him, however, from his synagogue, Beis Hamedrash Divrei Chaim in Golders Green, run from a building he owns.
The exact nature of the accusations has not been publicly revealed.
According to Lichtenstein, the rabbis assumed Halpern’s community would abandon him once it was clear he'd lost his colleagues’ support. But last Shabbat, his synagogue was full.
The level of community support for Halpern “took them by surprise,” he said.
30 rabbis attended a post-Shabbat meeting on Nov. 24 in which those familiar with evidence against Halpern revealed what they knew.
“For the first time, most rabbonim heard the details & were shocked,” said Lichtenstein. “There was unanimous approval of a condemnation.”
Although those in attendance planned to issue a statement immediately, about 10 were members of Kedassia, and said they needed authorization. According to Lichtenstein, permission was not forthcoming, and this is the reason the statement has not yet been issued. He hoped it would be released within days, although other rabbis involved said they are unclear on when.
Other signatories will include London Beth Din judges, the Sephardic religious court & a number of rabbis from London.
“The rabbis feel betrayed by Halpern,” he said.
Two other rabbis who said they were going to sign the statement spoke on condition of anonymity.
One said that “there were rumors Halpern was only resigning temporarily & will bring himself back to his positions in a few months. We need to consolidate our position.”
The other rabbi said while Halpern had resigned from Kedassia & other organizations where he was a rabbinic advisor, “his main position in the community is rabbi of his shul. The fact that he’s not rabbi of Beis Yaacov anymore is trivial. No one sought his advice as the rabbi of Hatzolah. Because he's still rabbi of his community, he's still operating at full speed. Nothing’s changed - it’s business as usual.”
The community “relies on their rabbis to do the right thing,” he said. “If we fail to do the right thing, we fail our congregants.”
Those questioning why the rabbis have not already spoken out are “not wrong,” he said.
Originally, when accusations against Halpern started, “everyone, including myself, found it too incredible to be taken seriously,” he said.
Now he believes the allegations.
“This is a very sad story. No one's willing to talk about it because it's such a difficult issue. In all my life I never had to be involved in anything like this. It's completely unprecedented in the UK rabbinical world.”
@Chaim Levin I'm so sorry that happened to you. I cant even imagine what it must have been like. Stay strong but looks like you're already there. May I ask, Is Shalom Eichler also related to the Eichlers book store chain owners?
ReplyDelete@Sulzberger resign!
Unfortunately the NY times, Daily News and Mayor Bllomberg are the best friends that ultra orthodox Jewish children have but they are being taught to hate them and to avoid them at all costs because they are Edom, Amalek and the Erev Rav (mixed multitude of egyptians that came along with the Jews during the exodus from Egypt and mixed into the nation)coming to destroy their soul. It is true because I have heard a very prominent Rabbi make this a focus of his weekly Sabbath lecture in Boro Park.
There is such a thing as Erev Rav. But right now some misguided Chassidish rabbis are going beserk and attacking anyone who opposes a dangerous practice they add to bris milah. There are Litvish rabbis who point out the practice is not required in halacha & should be dropped if there is a chance it's dangerous. Even these rabbis are being attacked. The Agudah must have been paid a lot of money to side with the Chassidim.
ReplyDeleteRav Lazer Ginzburg The Rosh Kolel Of The Mirrer Yeshiva In Flatbush Gets Up In Public And Calls Rabbi Dovid Cohen From Congregation Gvul Yavetz on Coney Island Avenue A Rasha Mrusha and He Tells Everyone Not To Listen To any Of Dave Cohens "Piskei Halacha"
ReplyDeletehttp://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/06/stefan-colmer-arrested-in-israel-on-sex.html
ReplyDeleteYes, my protector Lazer Ginzburg hates that other rabbi so much that when I was a fugitive hiding in Israel, I adopted the alias Dovid Cohen. At least I thought it would make tougher for UOJ to track me down.
Can UOJ check out what really happened by the Aroni melaveh malkah last night? I don't trust Shmarya or his source quoting the Ruv R' Aron cursing out Weberman's victim as a zoyna, sitra achara, yada yada
ReplyDeleteWhat's takka doing with Colmo the Homo?
ReplyDeleteOne blogger said he spoke to Colmer's parole officer in Feb. and was told he had moved back into his mother's house on the Jersey Shore, at 83 Gimbel Place in Ocean Township.
http://www.bustedoffenders.com/new-jersey/asbury-park/sex-offenders/stefan-colmer/36837
At least as lately as July Colmer was still registered with the State as living there
Did his mother recently kick him out of the house?
http://www.sexoffenderin.com/reg616780/stefan_colmermugshot.htm
Because he is now registered at the Bellvue men's shelter, 400 East 30th St in Midtown Manhattan.
Colmer incidentally registered himself on Classmates.com as a Hillel Deal graduate in 1994, which means there is a good chance he was himself molested by former principal Baruch Lanner
http://www.rickross.com/reference/ultra-orthodox/ultra292.html
According to this report, Charlie Hynes even covers up for unconnected Charedim like Colmer who are BTs. Hynes only pressed 8 2nd degree charges against Colmer out of a total of 37.
Alan Dershowitz was hired by molester Burich Lebovits and is currently sitting through the Weberman trial to pick up queues. He's doing what slimy putz lawyers do which is being a slimy putz and arguing the cellphone camera crew should not be prosecuted. Don't forget that mechutzef Dershowitz, a Boro Parker who went off the derech, can get really disgusting sometimes like when he used the phony anti-Semitism defense in the Leona Helmsley trial.
ReplyDeletehttp://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2011/03/case-of-simcha-adler-counselor-ohel.html
ReplyDeletePicture of Simcha Adler who molested yesomim at the Ohel orphan camp. Retired NYPD Detective Sal Catafumo said that Ohel stonewalled the police investigation. Not surprisingly, Ohel CEO David Mandel denies there was any cover up
I worked in the Ohel adult psychiatric residence for two years while finishing college in 2002-2004. I was just a new baal teshuvah back then who didn't know much Torah or anything about sexual abuse in the frum/ hareidi community or the Agudath Isroel organization.
ReplyDeleteNow, thinking back I can say that all the senior staff and directors were affiliated with Agudath Isroel, their Rabbis, Shuls and Hatzolah because most of them are or have been volunteers and showed it off by wearing Hatzolah gear, walky-talkies car sirens. Naturally the entire organization uses Hatzolah for medical emergencies and transport and Agudath Israel shuls and Rabbis to pasken for theoentire organization. This all shouldn't be surprising.
Rabbi Dovid Cohen Refuses to sit on any Din Torah with Rav Yisroel Belsky.Rab Belsky Makes Mince Meat out of Dave Cohen and all his Tzedreita Heterim on Messira and allowing woman To Have Thier Husbands Arrested on Bogus Charges So That They Can Get Full Custody of Thier Children
ReplyDelete