Sexual Abuse Questions Swirl Around Yeshiva Leader in Kiryas Joel
KIRYAS
JOEL, N.Y. — In a place where young boys spend their days hunched over
volumes of Torah and Talmud, delving into timeless stories and precepts
in an ancient singsong, the scene was incongruous.
Dozens
of agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and county law
enforcement officers — more than 50 by the count of officials in this Hasidic village
about 50 miles northwest of Manhattan — converged on a four-story brick
yeshiva here on Thursday, some armed with guns, others carrying
crowbars, as helicopters whirred overhead. According to parents of
children at the school, the authorities took away boxes filled with
computers, office files and security-camera videos.
“They
scared all the kids,” said Yoel Weiss, whose three sons, Moishe, 12,
Shloime, 8, and Pinchas, 7, attend the yeshiva that was targeted, United
Talmudical Academy of Kiryas Joel. “They made a big commotion.”
The
motivation for the operation, according to parents who learned of the
questions being asked of yeshiva officials by the law enforcement
authorities, was a suspicion that a longtime principal had sexually
abused students. At least one episode of possible abuse was captured on
video, portions of which have been shared on social media.
The
parents did not want to be identified because they were wary of being
drawn into the investigation. The video was filmed from overhead in the
office of the principal, Rabbi Moshe Hersh Klein. One snippet shows
Rabbi Klein, the gray-bearded principal of the yeshiva’s third, fourth
and fifth grades, his legs around a pupil who appears to be about 8,
patting the boy and kissing his cheeks, and rocking him for several
seconds.
Kelly
Langmesser, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I.’s New York office, declined to
comment except to say “it wasn’t a raid, it was a law enforcement
operation.”
But in a statement issued in response
to news reports about the video two days before the authorities visited
the yeshiva, the yeshiva board said the footage was more than seven
months old and had been investigated by the Orange County district
attorney. No charges have been filed.
Christopher
Borek, chief assistant district attorney in Orange County, said his
office’s policy was not to comment until a court filing took place, but
he noted that his agency was part of the task force that conducted the
operation. Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for Preet Bharara, the United
States attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to
comment.
The yeshiva board said in its statement that the videos “have been mischaracterized” as evidence of child abuse.
“While
this type of restraint may be unacceptable to some viewers,” the
statement said, referring to the way Rabbi Klein can be seen holding the
boy, “it in no way rises to the level of a criminal assault.”
Over
the past decade, there have been a spate of sexual-abuse cases within
Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn and in Hasidic communities like this
one — a square mile collection of large boxy houses with a population of
more than 23,000, half of whom under age 13.
While
there is no evidence that abuse is any more prevalent among Hasidim
than other religious or ethnic groups, the episodes have attracted
attention for at least two reasons.
By
their very name, Hasidim declare themselves “pious ones,” so such
incidents smack of individual hypocrisy. And the insular Hasidim have
long chosen to handle accusations of child sexual abuse themselves.
Families that make such allegations have traditionally been pressured
to consult a rabbi before contacting law enforcement authorities. Those
who have gone to the authorities on their own have often been
stigmatized as informers.
That
unwritten code has begun break down, with many Hasidim complaining to
the authorities about sexual crimes. As of 2012, more than 100 men —
rabbis, teachers and camp counselors, among them — had been arrested by
the authorities in Brooklyn. Perhaps the best-known case centered on
Nehemya Weberman, an unlicensed 54-year-old therapist, who was convicted in
state court in December 2012 of repeatedly abusing a young girl who
sought his counseling starting when she was 12, groping her and forcing
her to perform oral sex.
In
Kiryas Joel — which was founded in the late 1970s by Rabbi Joel
Teitelbaum, the grand rabbi who revived the Satmar Hasidic dynasty after
World War II, settling first in Brooklyn — a half-dozen parents
interviewed on Monday all defended Rabbi Klein, who has been a principal
at the yeshiva for over 30 years.
“Never
has there been a complaint,” said Joel Gluck, an office worker. “He has
a loving way of dealing with the kids, a fatherly love. I was a student
of his and my kids are learning by him too. If he was a danger to kids,
every one would pull their kids out.”
Mr.
Gluck and others said the video could be interpreted as an effort to
calm an unruly, upset young boy with hugs and kisses in a way that might
be seen as invading the child’s personal space but did not qualify as
sexual abuse.
“He’s
a very warm, warm person,” said Melech Gluck, a marriage counselor.
“He’s an emotional person. When he prays he cries. When he goes to a
grave, he cries. That’s his nature. He would make sure every kid felt
welcome, felt good in class, should have friends or get friends.”
While
the video’s origins are a mystery, several of those interviewed blamed
crusaders for abuse victims for drawing attention to it. Specifically,
they mentioned Nuchem Rosenberg,
a Brooklyn Hasid who runs an abuse hotline. Mr. Rosenberg, who did not
respond to a message left on his hotline, has posted a video on YouTube
in which he calls the episode at the yeshiva a “heinous crime” that is
being abetted by those who play down the rabbi’s actions as merely being
overly affectionate.
“When
you look at it you see the student was shivering and shaking and didn’t
want that kind of love,” Mr. Rosenberg says on the YouTube video.
“Every normal person considers this sex. It’s a way he gives out his
ugly sexual desire on a child.”
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ReplyDeletea rebbi in Zweig's yeshiva arrested in an early morning FBI raid
What about that ex-rebbi in Miami who became a tutor protected by Torah Umesorah after he was molesting in the Poconos but only got off the hook because of an obscure legal exception in Pennsylvania?
ReplyDelete