Friday, August 30, 2013

He was offered $100,000 to keep quiet about the situation, which he refused.

 TV News 12
Sex abuse victim from New Square speaks exclusively to News 12



 
In an exclusive TV News 12 by Tara Rosenblum, Yossi tells how he was sexually abused by Rabbi Herschel Taubenfeld, a teacher in New York's Rockland County Hasidic community of New Square (home of the Skver sect).
 
Yossi asked for help from the head rabbis of New Square who maintain their own communal sex crimes unit called the VAAD. The agency told him to see a therapist. Two months later, Yossi reported the abuse to the Ramapo police. Yossi recounts how he was offered  $100,000 to keep quiet about the situation, which he refused. Taubenfeld admitted to the crimes, but religious leaders in the community sent Taubenfeld to Israel to obtain an honorary rabbinical ordination. 
 
Taubenfeld was charged with 30 counts of forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sex abuse yet avoided jail time in exchange for six years probation. 
 
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In the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis "Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman." 
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Established halacha (Jewish Law) places a child molester in the category of rodef (an imminent threat), in part due to a recidivism rate well in excess of 50-percent. In his 2004 psak (ruling) on this issue, the late Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv writes that one should report those who sexually abuse children directly to the police and that doing so is of benefit to society.
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