Have Beard, Will Pounce!

Brooklyn DA exposes hidden Orthodox sex cases

By Susan Edelman

August 10, 2014 | 5:18am

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Alexander Rogalsky and Prof. David Seff (right) were among the cases whose sexual offenses were kept secret.

David Seff, a math professor at Brooklyn College, asked a female student to meet him in a classroom one late afternoon in August 2011 to help with a “listening experiment.” Alone with the young woman, Seff pounced on her, authorities charged.

Seff, now 68, allegedly grabbed her breasts and crotch. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment last September and was ordered to stay away from her for a year.

But his case never made the news — his name was kept under wraps by then-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

That secrecy is over, says DA Kenneth Thompson, who succeeded Hynes in January.

At The Post’s request, Thompson’s staff last week released 20 names of defendants in cases Hynes had refused to divulge because they involved Orthodox Jewish suspects and/or victims.

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David Zimmer

Hynes, who would issue press releases on non-Orthodox sex offenders, insisted he was shielding Orthodox victims or their families from Mafia-like intimidation in their insular community.

“We will treat all defendants and victims equally,” said Thompson’s chief-of-staff, Leroy Frazer. “We don’t have a policy for this particular group.”

Seff, an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College from 2003 to 2011, is now a part-time professor at Lehman College in The Bronx. CUNY officials had no comment. Seff did not return a call.

Other previously unpublicized suspects include:

•  Israel Moshe, 47, accused in 2010 of raping a 22-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who answered a Craigslist ad. He’s a fugitive with a warrant for arrest.
•  Alexander Rogalsky, 30, a camp counselor accused in 2011 of first-degree sodomy with a 13-year-old boy in 2003. Under a plea deal with Thompson in February, he copped to second-degree sodomy and got 10 years’ probation.
•  David Zimmer, 43, a locksmith convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in 1999 and arrested again in 2012 for taking photos of a 9-year-old girl in Borough Park. He pleaded guilty to failure to register in June and faces sentencing Sept. 13.
•  Naftolis Schwartz, 57, a Hebrew teacher accused in 2012 of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student. He pleaded guilty in February to endangering the welfare of a child and received no jail time.
• Yosef Ederi, 42, a repeat pedophile accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at their synagogue in 2011. He pleaded guilty to child endangerment in July 2013, was set free, and struck again. In May, he was convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy and sentenced to a year in Rikers. He’s already out.

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Yosef Ederi

Criticized for going easy on rampant sex crimes in the Orthodox Jewish community, Hynes had launched an initiative in 2009 called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for “voice of justice,” to encourage victims to come forward.

Kol Tzedek “no longer exists,” Frazer said.

Thompson has replaced Hynes’ Jewish-community liaison, Henna White, with Wolf Sender, a close ally of Democratic state Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Chana Widawski, a social worker, is still on staff as a general victim advocate. An Orthodox hot line set up by Hynes remains, although calls are infrequent.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/10/brooklyn-da-exposes-hidden-orthodox-sex-cases-kept-secret/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Monsey principal arrested, charges remain sealed

READ ARTICLE:

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2014/08/11/rockland-rabbi-principal-arrested/13906653/

Police: Gavriel Bodenheimer, rabbi and principal, arrested for sexual abuse

Published: August 11, 2014 10:23 PM

MONSEY - A Monsey rabbi, who is also a principal at a local yeshiva, was arrested Monday for alleged sexual abuse.

Gavriel Bodenheimer, 71, was arrested for alleged criminal sex acts and sex abuse, but prosecutors have been tight-lipped about who the rabbi allegedly abused and when. He is principal of Yeshiva Bais Mikroh, a boys' yeshiva.

Bodenheimer's lawyers say they have not seen the charges yet and won't see them until the indictment is unsealed in court. They say Bodenheimer has been active in many charities in his community for decades.

READ MORE: Westchester Crime Stories

Bodenheimer has been principal of the Monsey yeshiva for more than 25 years. He is a father of 14 and grandfather of 100.

WATCH VIDEO:

http://westchester.news12.com/news/police-gavriel-bodenheimer-rabbi-and-principal-arrested-for-sexual-abuse-1.9033511

Demilitarize Gaza, by force

This week, 69 years ago, U.S. leaders decided they had no other choice but to end the war against Japan in one fell swoop: the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, the U.S. confirmed the kill, destroying Nagasaki with another atomic bomb. No, the U.S. did not call the residents of these cities beforehand to warn them. There were no "knocks on the roof" to tell them to leave their cities, which were about to be wiped off the face of the earth. This is how a superpower acts when it has lost tens of thousands of its soldiers far from its shores. Hamas is not the Imperial Japanese Army and Israel is not the U.S. Yet still, something can be learned from the processes the U.S. and Japan went through during World War II. Japan then, like Hamas now, knew its fate was sealed. Japan deployed a secret weapon -- kamikaze pilots, who took thousands of American lives. But in the end, Japan paid a terrible price and was defeated. Hamas has dragged Gazans into the same abyss that millions of Japanese were dragged into. Unlike the U.S., which fought far away from home, the Israel Defense Forces' fight against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists can be viewed from the windows of homes in Netiv Haasara, Nahal Oz and Nirim. Our soldiers are fighting for their homes as their families watch on. There is no war more just than the one we are currently fighting against Hamas in Gaza. Thus, in addition to quiet, a cease-fire must lead to the demilitarization of Gaza, which was included in past agreements signed by the Palestinians in Washington and Cairo. It would be delusional to think Hamas would voluntarily disarm itself. Hamas must be demilitarized by force! Egypt, the country which currently has the most effective leverage on Hamas in Gaza, has a key to play in promoting Israel's demand that the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza be dismantled. Israel must insist that future diplomatic negotiations be conducted with a single Palestinian authoritative body, which governs both in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza. No more peace talks with only with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. Listening to the U.N. drumbeat, it appears Richard Goldstone will soon be summoned for reserve duty. If, God forbid, this does happen, we must avoid the mistakes we made during the investigation that followed Operation Cast Lead. This time, we must take an active and aggressive role in providing data and facts to the investigators. Let's remove the masks from the faces of U.N. Relief and Works Agency employees, who today are mostly Hamas members. On top of every sack of flour in UNRWA warehouses in Gaza, there are now sacks of explosives and rockets. Let's show the mosques, hospitals and health clinics that have been turned into terrorist command centers and weapons storage sites. Let's expose the chemistry labs at higher education institutions that have been used to produce propellant for rockets and mortar shells. Let's reveal the cement that was supposed to be used to build homes for refugees, but was instead poured to reinforce the terror tunnels. Let's help investigators see Gaza through a catheter and understand that Hamas has become a monstrous cancerous tumor. Israel has tried to reduce the size of this tumor with three radiation treatments (Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense and Operation Protective Edge). But the malignant tumor now must be removed -- either by an Egyptian diplomatic surgeon or an Israeli military one. http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9529