"Don't Judge Judaism By The Jews!"

The UOJ Archives - 4/28/2008

THE MASSES ARE ASSES!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

CHEVRAH ALZHEIMERS!
Which street-corner, soapbox preacher did you hear this ignorant blather from? Berel Wein, Yissocher Frand, Noah Weinberg, Mattisyahu Salomon, Paysach Krohn? Did they stand there playing the accordion with a monkey and a tin cup - when they told you this garbage? Did you ever hear it from an honest Jew - who does not make a living off this nonsense? A person with integrity and depth? A person who truly understands - that is exactly how you are suppose to judge Judaism?

How else do you judge anything - if not by what the results are! It either works - or it does not! And if it does not - you need to fix it by throwing out the idiots that are responsible for the deranged state of Orthodox Judaism --- calling themselves Jewish leaders!

ORTHODOX JUDAISM IS BROKEN! DOES ANYBODY HEAR ME? YOU CAN'T HAVE CHILD RAPISTS AND ALL THEIR RABBI ENABLERS --- GETTING A FREE PASS TO RAPE OUR KIDS, PHYSICALLY, SPIRITUALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, AND SCAR THEM FOR LIFE ---- FROM THE RABBIS - WHO PROTECT THEM AND COVER FOR THEM - AND CLAIM JUDAISM --- AS PRACTICED TODAY - IS THE REAL McCOY!

The "virus" of fraud, deceit and outlandish corruption that has so infected the world at large, has crept in -- and malignantly spread to every facet of the Jewish world . It is a virus that can't be cured by traditional doses of tefillah, tehillim, tzeddaka or learning more Torah.

Torah Temimah --- the "school" (not a yeshiva) that permitted and sanctioned Kolko's behavior, has began a fund-raising campaign --- claiming their broke! Any idiot that gives a dime to these menuvalim should be ridiculed publicly! Any parent that sends their child back to this concentration camp called Torah Temimah, where child-rape is no big deal, should be stoned! It's time for the community to shout out in no uncertain terms - WE'VE HAD IT - THIS SCHOOL CAN NOT BE PERMITTED TO REMAIN OPEN!

Welcome home to all the idiots from the hotels - rabbis - shysters in residence - free-loaders - included,--- who probably ate their way to illness! Welcome back to the real world - where you must deal with the ugliness that you stare in the face! Is this the Yiddishkeit you want to pass along to the next generations? We're now auctioning off brachas from the chevrah Alzheimers? Is that believable how low we've sunk?

For three years now I've been "screaming" at the top of my lungs --- we're sick --- we're in serious trouble! --- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Ate some sushi in Arizona? Did you book next year already? Z'man Cheiruteinu??? We've never been more enslaved to our desires and indifference since "Chet Ha'Egel Hazahav! Who are we? ----- What do we stand for?----- What meaning do our lives have? When children and morality are sacrificed in the name of daat Torah -- IT'S THE END OF CIVILIZATION!

How else are we to judge Judaism --- by the Catholics? Of course - you judge Judaism by the Jews, their actions and their "leaders" --- and it's rotten to the core, at it's core....and you put on ten pounds over Pesach eating yourselves sick! Pathetic!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

PRESS RELEASE FROM JBAC

Jewish Board of Advocates for Children commends the NY Daily News and journalist Reuven Blau for today's article reporting that Moshe Pinter, who has a serious criminal history for child endangerment and grand larceny, is working in a Brooklyn yeshiva.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/man-accused-raping-a-teen-working-a-brooklyn-yeshiva-article-1.1108718?fb_ref=s%3DshowShareBarUI%3Ap%3Dfacebook-like&fb_source=timeline

A bill, A. 09287, sponsored by Assembly Member Dov Hikind, and cosponsored by Assembly Members Harvey Weisenberg and Helene Weinstein, would require the nonpublic schools to fingerprint and conduct criminal history background checks on their employees. http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09287&term=2011

Attached are letters of support from seven nonprofit groups that support this bill, including our own:

1. Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Inc.;

2. Ohel Children's and Family Services;

3. Rabbinical Council of America;

4. CHILD - Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty;

5. Prevent Child Abuse NY;

6. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children;

7. American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children - New York.

Currently, all NYS public schools are required to background check their employees; but, for nonpublic schools, it is optional. Our own organization was, in 2006, successful in advocating for the law, Education Law 3001-d, that at least permits nonpublic schools to fingerprint their employees.

In 2007, working with Senator Dean Skelos, we were successful in advocating for the first mandated fingerprint bill for nonpublic schools - that bill passed the Senate, but was never voted upon by the Assembly.

The bill was re-introduced in subsequent years, but has still not passed.

Our Freedom of Information Law request upon the State Education Department reveals that only one per cent, 19 out of 1,900 nonpublic schools, are fingerprinting their employees.

The State Education Department also informed us that from 2001 through 2011, there were 1,653 public school job applicants, outside New York City, who were rejected for employment because of their serious criminal histories. (The New York City Department of Education declined our FOIL demand.)

There are over 700,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, including 30,000 in New York. These people, and others with serious criminal histories such as Moshe Pinter, should not work near children where they can inflict harm.

Our February 2009 Position Paper to the State Legislature, available on our web site, elaborates as to all of the many reasons why employee fingerprinting and criminal history background checks are essential for child safety.

The recent ongoing media attention about child abuse in religious and private schools, including yeshivas, Horace Mann, and Brooklyn Poly Prep, makes it so imperative that New York joins the 13 other states that require fingerprinting and background checks for nonpublic schools.

There are approximately 450,000 children who attend New York's nonpublic schools, about 15 percent of the total.

Child sex abuse is a horrific crime that often inflicts significant, long term damage. Alcohol and drug abuse, impaired cognitive functioning, actual brain damage, serious clinical depression, and suicide are among the consequences.

There is also an economic impact to society which is staggering. The NYS Senate Democratic Conference recently reported, in an April 30, 2012 report, that the immediate economic impact of child sex abuse is $211 million; the long term economic impact is $2.1 billion.

Most recently, on June 28, 2012, orthodox New York City Council Member David Greenfield, representing Borough Park, introduced a Resolution, 1393-2012, which, if passed, will urge the State Legislature to pass a mandated fingerprint law for nonpublic schools.

The Council Resolution has 20 sponsors, including Speaker Christine Quinn. It was referred to the Council Education Committee.

http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1143517&GUID=5674B3D8-2C63-4B65-A054-1322EA719B1A&Options=ID

We are deeply concerned that there may be other persons with serious criminal histories working or volunteering in the nonpublic schools. Last year, the media reported about convicted sex offender Joseph Denice volunteering at Catholic schools in Queens.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-05-18/news/29572547_1_church-scam-queens-prosecutors-body-scan

In today's Jewish Press, an op-ed by David Mandel, CEO of Ohel Children's and Family Services, a large New York City nonprofit organization, calls for mandatory fingerprinting of nonpublic school employees.

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-call-to-action/2012/07/04/

We once again respectfully urge the State Legislature to immediately pass the mandated fingerprint, background check bill for nonpublic school employees.

The longer we wait, the more likely it is that more disasters will happen.

Elliot Pasik, Esq.

President, Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Inc.

52 East Olive Street

Long Beach, NY 11561

Telephone: (516) 371-2800; (516) 578-0250

California: Acquittal in Beating of Retired Priest!

"This is a major victory," said Paul Mones, one of Lynch's two attorneys. He said it was remarkable because Lynch told the jury he punched the priest several times. Prosecutors called Lynch a vigilante and implored the jury not to be swayed by his dramatic testimony. Jurors told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper that none wanted to convict Lynch after hearing his testimony about the alleged abuse. The jurors asked to remain anonymous.

San Jose, California (CNN) -- A California jury Thursday acquitted a man charged with assaulting a retired Catholic priest, in a case that prosecutors had described as a vigilante attack.

William Lynch, 44, was accused of confronting the Rev. Jerold Lindner, 68, during a visit at Sacred Heart Retirement home for Jesuit priests in Los Gatos, California, where Lindner had been living since retirement in 2001.

Prosecutors claimed that Lynch walked into the retirement center on May 10, 2010, under the pretense of delivering news about a relative, and attacked his former pastor.

Lynch and his younger brother had claimed more than a decade earlier that Lindner sexually molested them during church-led camping trips in northern California when they were 7 and 5 years old.

During Lynch's assault trial, Lindner denied abusing the boys and maintained his innocence from the witness stand.

But two days into Lindner's testimony, his attorney notified the court that his client was invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and would not testify further for fear of a perjury prosecution.

 Lynch also took the witness stand and testified that he only had wanted the priest to sign a confession, and he said he had punched him after experiencing an irrational fear triggered by memories of the alleged abuse.

Lynch's defense attorney, Pat Harris, claimed Lindner was responsible for his client's actions.

"Society is the victim in all this ... because there's a man sitting up there at Los Gatos who is a rapist, who molests children, and he's allow to go free," Harris said.

The statute of limitations on criminal molestation allegations had expired when Lynch and his brother went public with their allegations in 1997.

But in a civil lawsuit that was settled in 1998, Lynch and his brother asserted that Lindner sodomized them and forced them to have sex with each other while Lindner watched. In that suit, Lynch and his brother received a $625,000 settlement with the Jesuits of the California Province.

In the assault case against Lynch, he faced four counts stemming from the 2010 incident. The jury Thursday acquitted him on three counts and was unable to reach a decision on the fourth charge. The judge declared a mistrial on that count, and dismissed the charge.

Dozens of Lynch supporters, including his parents, gathered with demonstration signs outside the Santa Clara County Courthouse proclaiming the defendant's innocence.

Before the trial, prosecutors offered Lynch a plea deal offer that would have required a year in jail.

In closing arguments, prosecutors urged the jury to refrain from being swayed by Lynch's emotional testimony describing the alleged childhood trauma he claimed to have endured at the hands of Lindner.

After the verdict, Jim Muyo, a spokesman for the California Province of the Society of Jesus, released a statement saying they respect "the legal process and the findings of the judge and jury in the case of William Lynch."


A jury acquitted a man Thursday of assaulting a retired priest he says molested him more than three decades ago, causing him trauma that led to alcohol abuse, depression and suicide attempts. The defendant, William Lynch, took the witness stand and acknowledged punching the Rev. Jerold Lindner several times on May 10, 2010, at a Jesuit retirement home. Mr. Lynch said he hoped to use the case to publicly shame Father Lindner and bring further attention to the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal. Prosecutors called Mr. Lynch a vigilante. Priest abuse victims and their supporters contributed to a defense fund and packed the courtroom every day for a trial. The retired priest also testified and denied abusing Mr. Lynch, who received $625,000 in a 1998 confidential settlement with the Jesuits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/us/california-acquittal-in-beating-of-retired-priest.html?_r=1

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-07-05/priest-assault-verdict/56045368/1

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/justice/california-priest-assault/index.html

Those who cover up child abuse must be charged along with those who committed the abuse.



Nat Lewin just called - he promised to get Justice Roberts to call child-rape a kiddie tax!

It's time for the chief rabbis, the cardinals, the prominent university officials — and the institutions themselves — to be tried and convicted in criminal courts, too.

Covering up child abuse as reprehensible as pedophilia itself.

There's been a great deal of sensational news lately concerning pedophiles in the United States. The common denominator is these individuals preyed upon children while religious and educational institutions established upon foundations of trust and morality ignored or covered-up such disgusting and illegal behavior.

The most sensational: the trial of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach,. He was convicted last week on 45 of 48 counts for sexually abusing several young boys over a number of years while they attended camps sponsored by Sandusky's Second Mile charitable organization at Penn State.

The riveting testimony at his trial from several victims not only showed that Sandusky, who had worked most of his career under legendary Coach Joe Paterno, and one of the nation's most lucrative and revered football programs in the county, abused these boys on the Penn State campus, but that university officials failed to act on them when sexual abuse reports were made.....

In New York, a growing scandal concerning both child and spousal abuse is now being played out in the ultra-orthodox Jewish Hasidic community of New York City.

There, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is being taken to task for adhering to an arrangement with very politically powerful rabbis. The rabbis control massive blocs of voters. The rabbis called for Hasidic victims to first report allegations to their rabbis rather than police. And they also demanded that Hynes not publish the names of those arrested and convicted in that community.

Investigative reports by the New York Times, and subsequent reports by CNN and other news outlets, have raised other issues. The reports stated that instead of encouraging victims to press charges, the influential rabbis in the 250,000-person community protected child abusers and actually punished and ostracized victims who spoke out or called the police.

So far, out of 51 molesting cases involving Hasidic defendants in Brooklyn since 2009, nine were outright dismissed and others plead out to other charges because the victim's and their families feared reprisal from those Rabbis and members of their communities for testifying at trial.

The enormous scale of abuse that has been revealed about cover-ups in the U.S. Catholic Church — involving 6,100 priests and 16,000 victims — has resulted in civil court settlements paid to victims amounting to $2.5 billion. These cases have been the most prominent example of the massive scale of forbearance for sexual abuse by a politically and socially powerful U.S. religious institution.

Yet, after years of such news, investigations, and convictions, there's a glaring lack of criminal prosecution and conviction of prominent officials, or the institutions themselves by prosecutors like Hynes. Prosecutors and public officials seem fearful of taking on these power institutions, perhaps to facilitate their re-elections, rather than protecting the community.

Putting the sensational aspects of the Sandusky trial aside, the true significance of that trial, as well as the Lynnhim conviction and the mess in the shtetels of Brooklyn, is that it highlights how powerful religious and educational institutions are also culpable accomplices in these crimes. And that their immoral leaders deserve to be punished as well.

It's easy for these religious and educational bodies to pay out millions in civil settlements from their endowments.

It's not that easy to change the mentality of those in ultimate power. It is they who condone, and thus encourage, the continued abuse of children under their watch in order to save their powerful institutions from bad publicity and warranted investigation.

Those who cover up child abuse must be charged along with those who committed the abuse. It's time for the chief rabbis, the cardinals, the prominent university officials — and the institutions themselves — to be tried and convicted in criminal courts, too.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-skcol-sex--abuse-scandals-kurlander-0628-20120628,0,7271794.story

Fatally Flawed People In Leadership Positions is Not Only A Jewish Tragedy....

Two Criminal Indictments, One Locked Away for the Rest of His Life, and One Dead!

"In 2001 there was zero excuse to not stop Sandusky. Zero. Penn State's decision was pathetic.

It's a chief reason why Curley and Schultz are facing prison time for failure to report a crime. It's also why Spanier remains a candidate for similar indictment from the attorney general.

Did Spanier realize the stakes of his decision? You bet he did. His email back to Curley concerning not going to child welfare says as much. "I am supportive," Spanier wrote, according to CNN. "The only downside for us [is] if the message isn't heard and acted upon, and then we become vulnerable for not having reported it."

Graham Spanier is a bad person. That wasn't the "only downside" or even the primary downside of Sandusky not hearing "the message."  The fact that additional children would be abused was the downside. Spanier, ever the self-obsessed top administrator, cared only about his own liability, not some terrified 10-year-old in an empty shower room. At no point, apparently, did anyone write an email about finding the boy McQueary said was being molested.

What remains is the question of why otherwise "reasonable" people would make such an ethically bankrupt and criminal decision. These are highly educated, high-functioning men. The answer may never be determined."

MORE:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--joe-paterno-role-jerry-sandusky-coverup-grows.html

E-Mails Suggest Paterno Role in Silence on Sandusky

Joe Paterno appears to have played a greater role than previously known in Penn State’s handling of a 2001 report that Jerry Sandusky had sexually assaulted a boy in a university shower, according to a person with knowledge of aspects of an independent investigation of the Sandusky scandal.

According to e-mails uncovered by investigators, Joe Paterno may have influenced Penn State's decision not to report Jerry Sandusky to authorities.

E-mail correspondence among senior Penn State officials suggests that Paterno influenced the university’s decision not to formally report the accusation against Sandusky to the child welfare authorities, the person said. The university’s failure to alert the police or child welfare authorities in 2001 has been an issue at the center of the explosive scandal — having led to criminal charges against two senior administrators and the firing of Paterno last fall.

The university’s much maligned handling of the 2001 assault began when Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant in Paterno’s football program, told Paterno that he had seen Sandusky assaulting a boy of about 10 in the football building showers. McQueary has testified several times that he made clear to Paterno, and later to university officials, that what he had seen Sandusky doing to the child was terrible and explicitly sexual in nature.

To date, the public understanding of Paterno’s subsequent actions has been that he relayed McQueary’s account to the university’s athletic director and then had no further involvement in the matter.

But the e-mails uncovered by investigators working for Louis J. Freeh, the former F.B.I. director leading an independent investigation ordered by the university’s board of trustees, suggest that the question of what to do about McQueary’s report was extensively debated by university officials. Those officials, the e-mails show, included the university’s president, Graham B. Spanier; the athletic director, Tim Curley; the official in charge of the campus police, Gary Schultz; and Paterno.

The existence of the e-mail correspondence was first reported by CNN. The person familiar with aspects of the Freeh investigation would not be identified because the investigation is continuing and no one is authorized to speak about it.

The Penn State e-mails, according to the person with knowledge of the Freeh investigation, indicate that Spanier, Curley and Schultz seemed at one point to favor reporting the assault to the state child welfare authorities, recognizing that if they did not, they could later be vulnerable to charges that they had failed to act.

But in one e-mail, Curley wrote that after talking to Paterno, he no longer wanted to go forward with that plan. In the end, the university told no one other than officials with Second Mile, the charity for disadvantaged youngsters founded by Sandusky.

The e-mails suggest that the officials decided that Sandusky could be dealt with by barring him from taking children onto the campus and encouraging him to seek professional help.  Not reporting the accusation to the authorities, the men determined, was the more “humane” way to deal with Sandusky, according to the e-mails.

Curley and Schultz were indicted last fall on charges of failing to report the assault to the police and child welfare authorities, and then lying about their conduct under oath before a grand jury. Curley and Schultz, through their lawyers, have insisted that they were never told of the graphic nature of the assault in the showers, saying they were under the impression that it had amounted to little more than “horsing around.”

Lawyers for Curley and Schultz, contacted about the e-mails, issued a statement saying in part: “For Curley, Schultz, Spanier and Paterno, the responsible and ‘humane’ thing to do” in 2001 “was to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague but troubling allegations. Faced with tough situations, good people try to do their best to make the right decisions.”

Spanier, who resigned as Penn State’s president in November, declined to comment when reached by phone on Saturday.

If accurate, the recently uncovered e-mail correspondence could further damage Paterno’s reputation and legacy. When he was fired, the university’s board of trustees said that his failure to act more aggressively after learning of the attack amounted to a failure of leadership. But if Paterno played a role in the decision not to report the attack to the child welfare authorities, his failure of leadership would seem more grave.

When they testified before the grand jury, none of the four men — Spanier, Curley, Schultz and Paterno — detailed internal discussions about what to do with Sandusky. Certainly, none of the men spoke of any involvement by Paterno beyond his initial report to Curley.

Freeh’s investigation, begun last fall, is expected to be the most thorough examination of the university’s dealings with Sandusky, including the question of whether there was a cover-up involving the 2001 accusations.

To that end, Freeh’s investigation has identified previously undisclosed billing records showing that officials of the university, when deciding what to do in 2001, consulted with the law firm that served as its outside counsel on their legal obligation to report the assault, the person familiar with the inquiry said. It is unclear from the billing records whether the officials disclosed the nature of the accusations against Sandusky or simply made a general inquiry. Several hours were billed, beginning on a Sunday night, the person said. The lawyer who represented the university at the time did not return a phone call requesting comment.

Freeh’s investigators are also exploring the circumstances surrounding Paterno’s decision to eventually hire McQueary as an assistant, the person familiar with the investigation said. McQueary, a former quarterback for Paterno at Penn State, has testified under oath that when he first contacted Paterno to inform him of what he had seen in the showers, Paterno assumed he was calling to ask for a job, and that Paterno brusquely told him he would not be hired.

McQueary was ultimately hired over another, more experienced candidate, and investigators are curious about whether that development came as a consequence of what he told Paterno that morning in 2001.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/sports/ncaafootball/paterno-may-have-influenced-decision-not-to-report-sandusky-e-mails-indicate.html?_r=1&hp

Pick The Tendler!

Annie Gowen at the Washington Post has written a lucid and troubling article about a lawsuit filed in Arlington this week against Human Life International. The lawsuit alleges that Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, a Catholic priest and former president of HLI, sexually abused a woman who had turned to him for counseling—and that he did so under the guise of performing an exorcism. (According to diocesan officials, Euteneuer was not authorized to perform exorcisms.) The lawsuit does not name Euteneuer as a defendant, but instead seeks damages from HLI which, according to the woman’s attorneys, knew about and permitted the exorcism. Euteneuer stepped down from his position as president of HLI in 2010....

A point of comparison might be the now-infamous Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia physician who allegedly performed abortions under fraudulent and negligently unsafe conditions, prescribed painkillers illegally, restrained patients against their will, and is now charged with 8 counts of murder based on accusations that he killed babies delivered alive. Not that it’s worthwhile to compare the men’s actions—for how does one tally up and weigh reports which, if true, reveal such deep cruelty?—but rather the reactions. When is an ethical position undermined by abominable behavior of those who espouse it?


http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahmoricebrubaker/6134/pro-life_org_sued_for_sexual_abuse_during_exorcism/

The Earthly Power of a Philadelphia Jury

After months of testimony and deliberations the Philadelphia jurors who found Msgr. William Lynn guilty of child endangerment did more than any Vatican official has ever done to address the problem of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. This was made possible by the simple fact that the men and women of the jury confronted him as a peer, in a system that confers equal rights and responsibilities upon all.

Those who wonder why the Church has been unable to halt the rolling catastrophe of sexual abuse claims need only consider the difference between the American system of law and Catholic justice. Within the Church, ordained men are regarded a special creatures with extra-human powers. They alone conduct the sacraments, such as communion and reconciliation (confession) and they alone can ascend through the clerical ranks to become bishops, cardinals and popes. Their superior status culminates in the pope's claim of infallibility, which places certain of his statements on a par with the voice of God.

Inside the institutional Church, ordination opens the doors to a brotherhood of men who have officially forsworn sex, marriage and children, and embrace the Church as their main source of emotional, spiritual and even financial support. This sacrifice makes many feel entitled to special treatment, and while they may not always get it from laypeople they generally receive it from each other. To put it crudely: priests give priests a lot of breaks. This is why complaints about sexual abuse were so often covered-up and resolved by sending "father" to another post. None of the men in charge wanted to discipline a brother.

Beyond this brotherly privilege, the clerical culture is also a setting for a kind of mutual blackmail that has made the idea that the Church could police itself almost ridiculous on its face.

 As many insiders report, the number of priests who actually keep to their vows of celibacy is very small. The rest break their vows -- by having all different kinds of sex -- and typically confess and seek absolution from another member of the clergy. Under these conditions, everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and crimes are ignored or hidden by superiors who don't want to be exposed themselves.

Self preservation can impose a powerful influence on a bishop who has broken his own vows and must deal with complaints against a brother priest. Bishops are also affected by their duty to protect the Church from harm. Many actually swear a formal oath that requires them to keep secret anything that might dishonor the institution. They also pledge their loyalty, not to the people they are supposed to serve or to God, but to the pope. If all this reminds you of the loyalty pledges taken by army recruits, it may be because the Church is not just a religion but a state. The pope is the monarch who governs this state, and he is guided by a system of rules -- called canon law -- that is ill equipped to punish abusing priests. Indeed, the most severe punishment the Church can impose on an abusing cleric is to take away his priestly status, and this is rarely done.

In Monsignor Lynn's case, prosecutors presented evidence that he helped to move priests who had abused minors from parish to parish without informing the public of the danger these men posed to young people. His defense lawyer called Lynn "a yes man at the bottom of the totem pole ... holding the bag for the collective sins of an organization that allowed dozens of pedophiles to harm hundreds of children." Considering the evidence that Lynn's superiors set the policy he followed, this argument was probably factually correct. But it did not absolve him.

The jury's historic verdict marks the first time a higher Church official has been convicted a child endangerment for following procedures that were employed by dioceses across the country as they protected thousands of priest abusers. In exercising their early powers, 12 men and women have put ordained men on notice. They must now known that they are burdened by a duty, higher than any loyalty they feel for brother priests and more powerful than any pledge they make to the pope.

They bear a basic human obligation to protect and not endanger children. And if they fail, at least in America, they may be held accountable by laypeople who, while sitting in a jury box, are most definitely their peers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-dantonio/the-earthly-power-of-a-philadelphia-jury_b_1619904.html

Do Pedophile Clergy And Their Enablers Get What They Deserve?

Will the punishment ever fit the crime?

PHILADELPHIA -- Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal's aide, was found guilty Friday of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

In other parts of the American religious landscape:

 - A former Crawford County youth pastor was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree sexual assault in Crawford County Circuit Court.

- NEW YORK -- Four men have been indicted for trying to bribe and threaten a victim into dropping a case against a rabbi accused of sexually molesting her in a close-knit Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

- "Southern Baptists should heed this lesson from the Penn State scandal. Effective accountability systems require the involvement of outsiders for the sake of objectivity."

Sexual child abuse among the religious is now considered a pandemic: no longer can the term "pedophile priests" be used to quite the degree it has been. Studies have shown that the percentage of child molesters is just as high in Protestant denominations and Jewish Synagogues/Yeshivas.

 In the last five years, there have been more than 3000 reported cases of child abuse. Insurers to Protestant churches report at least 3-400 cases per year . And as far as pedophilia is concerned, a vow of celibacy has little to do with it. We have come to an age of finger-pointing and counter finger-pointing, with few answers as to the cause, and even fewer answers as to how it should be dealt with.

And the cover-ups ruined lives and muddled affairs for over four decades, with whistle blowers being portrayed as psychologically disturbed malcontents. Victims described years of continued abuse, horrific pressure to "forgive" their abusers and guilt. But as the abuse cases, the arrests, the trials, the settlements pile up, one question is still unanswered: is justice being served? The above-mentioned Monsignor Lynn will get a maximum of six years in prison for enabling pedophile priests under orders from an even higher-ranking prelate (now deceased). What will the four Hasidim get for threatening a victim?

Recently, prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar received a hand-slap and a paltry $5000 bail for allegedly choking his own daughter. "Bishop" Eddie Long's congregation forgave four lawsuits of sexual coercion, and two real estate/ponzi schemes.

The "REV/(RABBI)  Syndrome" and "Abuse of Forgiveness"

Amidst all the scandals and arrests, there lies the faint feeling that the the perpetrators and their enablers are treated with a lighter form of justice than others. Yes, there are the occasional strong penalties, but non-clerical pedophiles as a whole receive harsher sentences: the automatic respect given a member of the clergy extends to the clergy's personal life. What can be called the "REV Syndrome" (blind respect for any member of the clergy simply because they are clergy) takes affect immediately and the community at large tend to take a more lenient attitude. The "He's just human" meme seldom means that the offending cleric be chastised in the same manner as lay ("secular") person or non-congregant.

Another mitigating factor in leniency is what noted author Janet Heimlich* calls " The Abuse of Forgiveness " in which she describes the act of forcing child abuse victims to forgive their abuses. This abuse, however, also radiates out into the religious community. For example, Jimmy Swaggart's congregation seemed to forgive him, and while his direct congregation has decreased in number, he continues to broadcast to over 104 countries.

Coming To Terms With Justice

Monsignor Lynn's own lawyer told the jury that "in this trial, you have seen the dark side of the church."

But the "dark side" caused by blind respect, abuse of forgiveness and the righteous arrogance leading even whole denominations to refuse investigation, needs to be addressed along with pedophilia and enabling child abuse.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Monday-Sermon-Do-Pedo-by-Rev-Dan-Vojir-120625-849.html?show=votes

Men In Black

רדוף (2012) טריילר - A new self-exposing documentary on sexual abuse in a Hassidic Yeshiva



http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/2012-documentary-on-sexual-abuse-in.html

AND IN LOS ANGELES:

William Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home.

LOS ANGELES — Opening statements were scheduled to begin Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of beating an aging Jesuit priest who he says molested him and his younger brother more than 35 years ago.

William Lynch has said the priest abused him and his brother during a camping trip in Northern California's Santa Cruz Mountains. Now 44, Lynch will get his longtime wish to face the Rev. Jerold Lindner in court for the first time.

Lynch faces felony charges of assault and elder abuse after prosecutors say he beat Lindner in 2010 in front of startled witnesses at a retirement home for priests.

In the months since his arrest, Lynch has refused to discuss a plea deal and has grown intent on using his own legal trouble to try Lindner in the court of public opinion in a potentially explosive proceeding likely to include testimony from Lynch, the priest and several more of his alleged victims.

The trial will take place in Santa Clara County Superior Court, where several other victims are expected to attend. Lynch faces up to four years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The judge overseeing the case recently ruled that Lynch's lawyer can ask the priest about Lynch's allegations during cross-examination. If Lindner denies the accusations, attorney Pat Harris can call up to three other witnesses who claim they were also molested by Lindner as children, including Lynch's younger brother.

The Lynches, who were 7 and 4 at the time, were raped in the woods and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, according to a civil lawsuit. Lindner has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his own sister and nieces and nephews, but was never criminally charged because the allegations were too old.

Lindner hung up Monday when The Associated Press called him for comment. He has previously denied abusing the Lynch boys and said in a deposition from the late 1990s that he didn't recall the siblings. The brothers settled with the Jesuits of the California Province for $625,000 in 1998.

'I'm prepared to take responsibility'

Getting Lindner into court — even as a victim — has helped Lynch find the peace of mind he's been searching for his whole life, he said.

"I don't want to go to jail but I've come to realize that this whole thing is really bigger than me and the way that I've chosen to handle this is to make a statement," Lynch told the AP. "I'm prepared to take responsibility for anything I've been involved in. I'm willing to do it. I think it's a small sacrifice to get Father Jerry into court."

Even if the molestation allegations are true, the judge's order only allows the defense to ask general questions about sexual abuse for the purpose of challenging Lindner's credibility as a witness. Other defense witnesses who allege abuse by the priest can't be questioned about specific details that could inflame the jury.

"What the jury needs to be deciding is did an assault take place? There might be sympathetic reasons for an assault, but yes, it's an assault," Gemetti said. "The victim is not squeaky clean but that doesn't change the fact that you can't take the law into your own hands."

It's unlikely testimony about Lynch's abuse allegations could tip the case in his favor — but not impossible, said Jody Armour, a professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law who specializes in criminal law and social justice issues.

Jurors will have to be reminded not to be swayed by their prejudices or by any sympathy they may feel for Lynch.

"These are some of the toughest cases in criminal law," Armour said. "Even though that jury will be told, 'Don't think about this, this is not evidence, it just goes to credibility,' how are people going to keep those two things separate in their mind?"

There have been several other instances of violence, sometimes fatal, against priests accused of abuse since the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandal unfolded in 2002.

In Baltimore, a man who claimed he was sodomized and fondled by a priest a decade earlier shot the clergyman three times in 2002 after the priest told him to go away when he demanded an apology. The defendant was acquitted of attempted murder but served 18 months of home detention on a gun conviction.

The following year, priest John Geoghan was strangled in his cell by a fellow inmate who claimed he was chosen by God to kill pedophiles. Geoghan was serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for groping a boy and was at the center of the Boston clergy abuse scandal. He had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.

Police said they connected Lynch to the May 2010 attack using phone records. A half hour before the beating, a man identifying himself as "Eric" called the retirement home and said someone would arrive shortly to inform Lindner of a family member's death.

When Lindner showed up in the lobby, Lynch asked the 65-year-old priest if he recognized him. After the priest said he did not, Lynch began punching him, according to a police account. On a 911 tape, the assailant can be heard yelling, "Turn yourself in or I'll (expletive) come back and kill you," as a receptionist speaks to a dispatcher.

Lindner was able to drive himself to the hospital and has since recovered.

Lindner was removed from ministry and placed at the Los Gatos retirement home in 2001. He was named in two additional lawsuits for abuse between 1973 and 1985, according to the Archdiocese of  LosAngeles.

Those cases were included in the record $660 million settlement between the church and more than 550 plaintiffs in 2007.

Even if he is convicted, Lynch hopes that facing the priest in court will help him deal with the demons that he said have held him hostage for years. He has battled depression and alcoholism, attempted suicide and his marriage failed. "He still comes into my dreams now. He just took ownership of me in a way that's hard to get rid of and I have to learn how to live with him," Lynch said of the priest.

"My expectations are realistic, but I'm also coming into this for the first time sort of in control of my life."

SOURCE:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47888456/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Talk To Your Kids NOW! Always Call The Police!

ALWAYS CALL THE POLICE!

 RADIO PLEAS FROM ADVOCATES TO CALL THE POLICE - CLICK: http://www.sfjny.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=67

Sandusky trial nightmares -- how to keep your kids safe from the abuse I experienced

by Michael Reagan

The trial of Jerry Sandusky evokes nightmares for millions of people—including me. The details of Sandusky's manipulation, intimidation, and vile acts are sickening and familiar. My own "Jerry Sandusky" was a day camp counselor who abused and terrorized me when I was in the third grade.

My parents were divorced, and I lived with my mom, actress Jane Wyman. After school, I attended a day camp program run by a man named Don Havlik. Like most molesters, Don had a natural rapport with kids and parents. He used his charm to steal what he wanted—the innocence of children.

Years later, I learned that he had raped many other children, and was even arrested and imprisoned for molestation. Once released, he moved to another state and opened another day camp for kids!

I tell the story in my book 'Twice Adopted' (B&H, 2004), so I won't go into detail here. But I want you to know there are people around you, closer than you realize, reliving nightmares as they listen to the Sandusky trial. If something this horrible can happen to the son of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, it can happen to anybody.

If you're a victim, I know the hell you're going through. For years, I blamed myself—(Don taught me to accept the blame for his crimes). It's not your fault. You can be healed—and the healing begins when you tell someone. It doesn't matter if you were abused 20 minutes ago or 20 years ago, stop that molester now. Don't let him hurt other kids.

My mother first learned about the molestation when I told her 35 years later. She blamed herself, but I told her not to. She had tried to put me in a safe place. Don Havlik seemed like a caring man—and Mom didn't know the warning signs. But you don't have to be in the dark, because I'm going to tell you, step-by-step, how to protect your child:

1. Be aware. Know who your kids are with at all times. Don't take anyone on trust. Most victims are molested by someone known to the child's parents. Abusers build trust and learn a child's vulnerabilities before initiating sexual contact. The abuser often calls the molestation a "game."

2. Be watchful. Look out for adults or teens who are overly attentive to your child. Make sure you know all you can about anyone who spends time with your children, including babysitters, neighbors, relatives, youth leaders, teachers, and coaches.

3. Talk to your children. Make sure they recognize inappropriate touching. Discuss these matters calmly but frankly, and repeat the discussion several times a year. Teach your kids not only to beware of strangers, but to run from relatives or neighbors who try to touch them the wrong way. (The molester often turns out to be "kindly old Uncle Charlie.")

4. No secrets! Teach your kids to never keep secrets from parents (molesters invariably swear kids to secrecy). Teach kids to say "No!" and to run and tell.

5. Play "What if—?" with your kids. Help them practice what you've taught them. Ask, "What if a grownup offers you money or presents if do something wrong?" Or, "What if a stranger says, 'Will you help me find my puppy?'" Make sure kids have an escape route for every scenario.

6. Have a family code word ready. Make sure kids know the code word. If a stranger says, "Your parents are hurt—get in my car, I'll take you to them," your kids should demand the code word. If the stranger doesn't know the code, kids should run to a safe place and call 911.

7. If you think your child was sexually abused, don't panic. Make sure your child feels loved and protected. Say, "You were right to tell me. I'm going to make sure this person won't hurt you again." Let the child talk about feelings in his or her own way, but don't interrogate. Remember that kids often lack vocabulary to express what happened.

8. Say, "I believe you." It takes courage for a child to speak up, because kids fear being disbelieved. Your child will more likely tell the truth if there is strong support from you.

9. Keep the offender away from the child. Help the child to feel everything will be okay.

10. Call the authorities. Law enforcement agencies have investigators trained to handle these situations. Don't call Child Protective Services—investigating crimes is not a CPS function. If the molester is a pastor or youth worker, don't call the church; if a teacher or coach, don't call school officials. Always call the police.

After you call the police, call the ChildHelp Hotline at 1-800-4ACHILD (1-800-422-4453). The ChildHelp counselor will listen, answer your questions, and direct you to support services. Even if your child has been abused, you can begin the healing process if you act now.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is a political consultant, founder and chairman of The Reagan Group, and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. He is the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Visit his website at www.reagan.com

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/20/sandusky-trial-nightmares-how-to-keep-your-kids-safe-from-abuse-experienced/?cmpid=NL_BestofOpinion

Scum of the Earth!

PHILADELPHIA — A jury convicted Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment Friday, finding that as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia secretary for clergy, he ignored credible warning signs about a priest who later sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy. The verdict, after a three-month trial, marked the first time since the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted a decade ago that a Catholic Church supervisor has been found criminally liable for child-sex crimes by a priest. Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina immediately revoked Lynn’s bail, and deputy sheriffs escorted the white-haired monsignor to a holding cell. Lynn faces up to seven years in prison, and prosecutors vowed to seek a term near the maximum.

(AIG) Agudath Israel Gangsters - (AIG) American International Group - Wal*Mart

THE UOJ CLASSICS - DECEMBER 2008

Black Friday - November 28, 2008

(AP) NEW YORK – Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal*Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.
*
AIG spent US$440,000 on spa, resort after bailout, lawmakers say

Bloomberg News - Tuesday, October 07, 2008

American International Group Inc. spent US$440,000 on a conference at a California resort less than a week after an US$85-billion government takeover, lawmakers said.

The bill from the St. Regis resort in Monarch Beach included US$23,380 for spa services, according to Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Mr. Waxman led questioning Tuesday of former AIG chief executives Martin Sullivan and Robert Willumstad as Congress probes events that led to federal intervention.

"Average Americans are suffering economically," Mr. Waxman, a California Democrat, said in his opening statement. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

The St. Regis, located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, is "devoted to the pursuit of service and elegance," according to its Web site. A "health and wellness" package costs US$600 a night, with a two-night minimum.

The St. Regis expense "seems very inappropriate," Mr. Willumstad told the committee. "I was totally unaware that there was any plan for any conference. Had I been aware of it I would have prevented it from happening."

AIG, once the world's largest insurer, disputed Mr. Waxman's characterization of the conference. Spokesman Nicholas Ashooh said the event had been scheduled a year earlier by AIG's American General life insurance subsidiary as a way to reward independent agents who sell the company's products.
*
Changing Of The Guard at Agudath Israel Keynote Session
November 24, 2008 - Sheraton Hotel - Stamford, Connecticut

A historic transition is planned for this coming Motzoei Shabbos, at Agudath Israel of America’s 86th national convention. The mantle of the organization’s lay leadership will then pass from one rightly celebrated and accomplished askan to another. It will be passing as well from dear friend to dear friend and from one confidant of Gedolei Yisroel to another.

Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president for the past decade – and faithful Agudah worker and executive for many decades prior – will be retiring from that post in January, and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel will be assuming it.

Shreaton Hotel - Stamford Connecticut

After "trampling to death" the values of Torah Judaism - for the values of a new flat-screen TV at Wal*Mart (because they could) --- After bankrupting the morals of the Torah, everything that is right, and the way the world sees the Jews, The AIG from 42 Broadway - New York --- GO PARTY!...while masses of Orthodox Jews are left without honest leadership, hope, jobs or food.

The House That Sherer Built - never fails to hit a home-run, "behind" home-plate!

For decades --- this pitiful corrupt group of rabbi-gedolim wannabees - have plundered and trashed every Torah and moral value that defines the Jewish nation. Rachmonim, baishonim, people of the Book, highly ethical, people with an innate sense of caring, family oriented --- a God fearing, children loving, and moral people.

They "criminally" prevented and obstructed any and every piece of legislation that came to the floor of the New York State Assembly, to protect all children in religious schools. They cavorted with the Catholic scum-of-the earth hierarchy to protect child-rapists --- because it was not in their interests to provide transparency to the goings-on in any religious school; whether it be child-rape or massive financial fraud.

The cover-up of child-rape in our community is not new. From what I believe - the cover-up began some 45 years ago in Camp Agudah - under an ignorant bunch, rabbis Teitelbaum and Borchardt. These Agudists never stopped for a fresh breath of ethical air since!

If this were not enough --- Just a few months ago, they sent to Postville, Iowa - nicknamed the Rubashkin/OU junket, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel, Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, (along with 24 other criminal whiskered imbeciles) --- the protege of Sherer --- to negate and dispel any of the "rumors" of criminal activity and kashruth violations by Agriprocessors. Of course, this was sanctioned by the rabbis at the top (of the garbage heap)... the Moetzes Gedolei Torah!

CRIMINALS THAT FORGE SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS - CRIMINALS THAT FORGE ID CARDS - ARE CRIMINALS THAT FORGE KASHRUTH LABELS!

So party on guys --- as the victims of kollel fever grows ever larger and creates more hungry children - as more Jews are left impoverished and homeless, and the number of rabbi-child-rapists - continue to crawl out from under Mattisyahu Salomon's rug --- PARTY ON! PARTY ON!

You criminals managed to survive thus far - only because your pathetic lies traveled throughout the Jewish communities by the speed of horse and buggy and camel caravan, 5 -10 miles per hour; the true Torah message of integrity and morality can now be transmitted by the speed of light --- 186,000 miles per second!

Four Arrested for Offering Teen Girl $500,000 to Drop Molestation Charge!

BROOKLYN — Four men were arrested Thursday morning for allegedly offering a $500,000 bribe to a sexually abused teenager to get her to drop charges against a popular Orthodox community counselor who is presently on trial in Brooklyn.

The four suspects — three of whom are brothers, sons of the Mishkoltz Rebbe — allegedly offered the hush money to the boyfriend of the victim, who accused Nechemya Weberman, 53, an unlicensed therapist, of molesting her.

She claimed Weberman had been abusing her for three years, starting when she was 12 and began receiving counseling from him. She is now 17.

Weberman’s arrest created a firestorm of controvery within the Orthodox community as factions took sides, with one group holding fundraisers for the accused — they raised more than $500,000 for his defense — while others vociferously protested the perceived attempt to protect a possible child abuser rather than his victim.

One of four men arrested for attempting to bribe a woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a community counselor in Brooklyn.

The two groups nearly came to blows during protests following a recent appearance by Weberman in a packed courtroom. His supporters insist he is incapable of a crime and accused the girl of lying. Her supporters stood firmly behind her and said she was being victimized twice.

According to sources, the four suspects reached out to the victim's 22-year-old boyfriend.

“They contacted the boyfriend because they thought they could get to her through him,” a source said.

The men, speaking in Yiddish to the boyfriend, offered to pay $500,000 and insisted that he, his girlfriend, Weberman and the community as a whole would be better off if she took the bribe and the case went away, sources said. They suggested she could even move to Israel and start a new life.

The defendants also allegedly threatened to ruin the boyfriend's business. He owns a Kosher restaurant, and they warned him they would rip down the sign on his store if his girlfriend did not go along with their plan. One afternoon, in fact, they allegedly tore down the sign to show they meant business.

The four suspects were rousted out of their homes around early Thursday morning, handcuffed and taken to the Brooklyn DA’s office on Jay Street shortly after 5 a.m.

They are scheduled to be arraigned later this afternoon, sources said.

Since 2009, DA Charles Hynes' office has arrested more than 100 sex offenders within the ultra-Orthodox community after launching an outreach program called “Voice of Justice,” or Kol Tzedeck in Hebrew, to get victims to come directly to his office with complaints.

The arrests again focus attention on suspected widespread intimidation of victims of pedophilia and sex assaults within the ultra-Orthodox community, which has a historical cultural ban on cooperating with authorities and insists victims bring their complaints only to local rabbis.

In the past, victims who went to police were subjected to harsh harassment, ostracized, kicked out of synagogues, thrown out of schools and even tossed out of their homes.

The DA recently created the joint task force with the NYPD's Special Victims Squad after Hynes was criticized for not doing more to crack down on victim intimidation within the community.

In a recent interview with “On The Inside,” Hynes said he hoped any future arrests for coercion or bribery would send a powerful message that might break the community’s traditional code of silence, known as “Messira,” a Hebrew epithet for "informant."

SOURCE:
DNAinfo.com New York

Domestic and Sex Offense Expert, on Nechemya Weberman and Ultra-Orthodox Jews' Reactions to Sex Abuse Allegations

Nechemia Weberman At His Fundraising Party

If you have been following the story of Nechemya Weberman, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man accused of being a child molester, you might have thought that it sounds all too familiar.

Weberman, 53, had been working as an unlicensed therapist in the uber-insular community. One of his patients, a young girl who attended "sessions intended to promote her religious practice," accused him of sexually assaulting her beginning when she was 12, according to the New York Times. The community has rallied behind him, it seems, with thousands attending a fundraiser for his legal defense Wednesday evening and a mere hundred people protesting in defense of the victim, who has been lambasted as a "liar."

Rewind to May 2011. The Voice detailed a similar saga taking place in El Barrio: Juan Caceres, a prominent leader of the Mexican community, had been convicted of repeatedly raping his own daughter. Instead of rallying behind her, they publicly villified her.

The Voice wanted to get a better understanding of why this shaming takes place. So we reached out to Grace Perez. She has worked as a sex abuse and domestic violence victims advocate in the New York metropolitan area for some 30 years and organizes the annual Brides March. What did she say?

Village Voice: The Hasidic community's reaction seems a lot like other tight-knit communities' reactions to sex abuse allegations. What's the deal?

Grace Perez: Society does not want to accept that this is a reality. That this does happen. Because it's so difficult. We have been indoctrinated to think, to believe, that our leaders, our clergy -- especially members of the cloth especially -- are people who wouldn't do something like this, that a father wouldn't do that to his daughter. It's very difficult to comprehend, to allow ourselves to accept as a fact that this does happen. We've come a long way as a society, but we're still there -- in denial.

VV: Can communities circumvent this pattern?

Perez: There has to be continued education at many many levels from the media, to the community, to schools, to everywhere, to everyone. Not just about victimization, but also about the fact that this does happen. And just because this is a member of a community's church and again, a leader, this does not make this individual immune from these behaviors.

VV: Aside from education, what has to happen in communities for victim-blaming to stop?

Perez: People who are in leadership positions, in this case people such as rabbis, need to take a stand and publicly denounce the behavior. When you start hearing from folks in positions where the community will listen and respect what they're saying, when it's uniform, that's truly when education is happening and is most effective. Someone from this community has to come out publicly. It doesn't have to even be to the media, it could be within the congregation to say 'This is unacceptable, we have a system, we have to let the system go through this process but this is unacceptable clearly and publicly.' And if there is someone who is thinking that but has not publicly said it to his community, then they are condoning this shaming behavior.

VV: In your experience, what does it actually take for someone to step forward?

Perez: People don't take action until it hits home in some form, until it affects someone that they know. People don't want to deal with this. It's too horrible of a thing. They don't want to imagine a father doing this to their daughters, their sons. Rabbis, priests, people who you've been raised to blindly trust and respect -- people whose words are right next to the creators' -- they don't want to deal with the difficulty. It's easy to speak about the total stranger, but it's not easy to talk about it when it has to do with your significant other, with a member of your church, with your father or your mother.

VV: Are there any challenges this young woman will face specific to the Ultra-Orthodox community?

Perez: Yes. Dating and courtship traditions. That's a very big deal in the Hasidic community. She's not going to be a part of that.That's going to be devastating to her because she has been groomed all of her life to prepare for that, and no family, let alone a young man, is going to be interested in her.

VV: Explain.

Perez: It's everything. They'll think that she's tainted. And the controversy, just affiliating yourself with her: They're always going to shun her and her family. They will say: "What did she do for him to have done that? If she said that he did this to her, what will she say in the future about her spouse, about her family's spouse?' and so on and so on. Because, again, and especially in the Hasidic community, they are still a community living within a community that's isolated -- especially the women.

SOURCE:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/05/grace_perez_vic.php

Children in Peril in New York! Jews of all backgrounds will be protesting outside of D.A. Hynes' office, at 350 Jay St. Brooklyn, NY 11201, on June 20th at 4pm!

It is now common knowledge in New York that there is a history of covering up child sex abuse, aiding pedophiles, and avoiding the criminal justice system in a number of private organizations, ranging from the Catholic Church, to the Orthodox Jewish community, to Syracuse University. No District Attorney should be permitted to ignore what is so obviously in his or her own backyard.

Another Infant Dies Due to a Risky Circumcision Practice, and More Needs to Be Done Regarding Child Sex Abuse:

Recently, the New York Daily News reported that another infant had died from herpes, likely contracted from a mohel who had performed oral suction following Orthodox Jewish ritual circumcision. Oral suction is the practice of “sealing” the circumcision by placing the penis in the mouth of the rabbi, who then suctions the blood from the wound, in a centuries-old tradition.

Oral suction is a controversial practice in the Jewish community, and has fallen out of favor with many in that community. In ancient times, the practice was thought to contribute to hygiene, but as it was learned that the practice could spread disease, it was mostly abandoned. Moreover, those Jewish people who do still practice oral suction typically employ a glass tube in the process, to avoid direct contact and disease transmission.

This is not the first death of its kind, but it should be the last. The City of New York has criticized the practice in the past, following other infant deaths that have resulted. (See the New York Times stories here and here.) But neither the city nor the state has yet instituted procedures to ensure that this never happens again.

Now, the Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes, has rightly opened an investigation into the infant’s death. It is up to him to apply the laws of the State of New York to these facts.

Unfortunately, however, Hynes has thus far been ineffective in deterring or halting child sex abuse in the Chasidim community—hardly a good sign when it comes to his likely future effectiveness in investigating and prosecuting the ritual circumcision death. Thus, there are those who are concerned that this death will go unpunished. It should not.

The Fact That the Dangerous Practice of Oral Suction Is Traditional, Provides No Legal Defense

Importantly, religious belief is no defense when one follows a ritual that is known to cause infants’ death. The practice of exposing an infant’s fresh surgical wound to the risk of herpes (or any other potentially lethal disease that is capable of being spread through contact with saliva) should be outlawed, if it is not adequately covered by the State of New York’s criminal and tort law. At a bare minimum, the New York state legislature must institute its own independent investigation into the practice, the related risks, and possible solutions—including the solution of outlawing the practice of oral suction if it cannot be performed safely.

There is also a role here for the Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman. The mohels who persist in this practice need to be subjected to the full extent of the criminal law. And this is the time to bring the law to bear, before more infants die an easily preventable death. Infants are not expendable resources that religious groups have a right to sacrifice to ancient or contemporary practices. They are persons who have a right to life.

As a Letter to the Editor in the Jewish Week noted, more than one adult is responsible for the death of the infant who recently passed away. The parents, too, may be culpable, if they knew the risks. The mohels only get their power through the willingness of parents to hand off their infant sons to the mohels’ care during the circumcision. This couple is in mourning, no doubt, but if they were aware of the risks and went forward anyway, they are also the authors of their own tragedy.

The city, the state, the religious organization, the mohel, and possibly the child’s parents as well, are responsible for this latest death. Right now, it is the District Attorney who has the power to wring some justice out of this latest outrage, by prosecuting the death on the infant’s behalf. However, he will do no good if he operates under the cloak of secrecy on this issue.

There are those who fear that if the mohel and parents are criminally prosecuted in this case, then the practice of oral suction will go underground, and no one outside the religious organization will know what is happening. However, if law enforcement is doing its job, that is an empty threat. The Mafia was underground, too, but that did not tie the hands of law enforcement. Let them go underground if they choose, knowing full well that what they are doing is criminal. Good luck to them, if the authorities do their jobs properly.

Meanwhile, the Upstate New York DAs Enter Into a Deal With the Albany Diocese Regarding the Reporting of Clergy Child Sex Abuse

Also in New York State, another serious threat to children—clergy child sex abuse—is under debate. And once again the DAs can and should be forging the path to child safety.

Recently, it was announced that a number of District Attorneys had entered into an agreement with the Albany Diocese to improve the reporting of child sex abuse to the authorities. (The D.A.s were P. David Soares, Albany; Paul Czajka, Columbia; Richard D. Northrup Jr., Delaware; Louisa K. Sirea, Fulton; Terry J. Wilhelm, Greene; John H. Crandall, Herkimer; James E. Conboy, Montgomery; John M. Muehl, Otsego; Richard J. McNally, Rensselaer; James A. Murphy, Saratoga; Robert M. Carney, Schenectady; James Sacket, Schoharie; Kathleen B. Hogan, Warren; and Kevin C. Kortright, Washington.)

Apparently, the Diocese had been following the long-established practice of determining for itself what allegations were “credible” before making a report to the authorities. As usual, the Albany Diocese was—like all religious organizations—ill-equipped to make such determinations . Thus, its approach resulted in underreporting, from the perspective of the prosecutors. Kudos to the DAs for taking a proactive approach in examining the Diocese’s reporting practices.

Philadelphia’s Model Should Be Instructive for New York

However, while the DAs’ actions represent progress, they are obviously not enough to ensure that New York’s children are safe. Fortunately, there is a model for deterring and reducing abuse within the Catholic Church: Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia, it was the District Attorney, Lynne Abraham, who began to build the road to justice via a Grand Jury investigation of the cover-up of abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. The investigation then resulted in the 2005 Grand Jury Report.

Laudably, Abraham convened the grand jury even knowing that charges might or might not arise out of its proceedings. She was motivated to get to the bottom of the situation, which involved widespread child sex abuse within one private Philadelphia organization. Abraham’s example ought to be followed. How can any DA fail to follow the trail of such abuse and still claim to be serving the purposes for which he or she was elected?

The 2005 Report did not result in criminal charges, because the statutes of limitations had passed, and other laws in the state were not adequate. But the next District Attorney, Seth Williams, convened another grand jury and issued his own Report last spring.

This time, there were crimes to charge, for there was conduct that fell within the statutes of limitations. In addition, that investigation led to the first criminal trial against a higher-up, Monsignor William Lynn, for his role in the cover-up of abuse. That trial, which is taking place this month, would not have been possible without the groundwork set forth in the 2005 Report.

New York Urgently Needs to Address Its Child Sex Abuse Situation

It is now common knowledge in New York that there is a history of covering up child sex abuse, aiding pedophiles, and avoiding the criminal justice system in a number of private organizations, ranging from the Catholic Church, to the Orthodox Jewish community, to Syracuse University. No District Attorney should be permitted to ignore what is so obviously in his or her own backyard.

That point was brought home forcefully in Pennsylvania with the grand jury investigation and report that turned a spotlight on the multiple victims of Jerry Sandusky and Penn State’s actions to cover up his crimes. Federal prosecutors are now involved, and apparently are investigating whether there were payoffs to victims, through Penn State and/or Second Mile.

So where is the District Attorney’s investigation into the abuse in the New York Archdiocese headed up by Cardinal Timothy Dolan? The letter of agreement with the Albany Diocese is simply not enough. Those DAs need to step up, too.

There is no current investigation by the Syracuse DA, because the statute of limitations has expired, which is a mistake in my view.

A number in the prosecutors’ community also have now stated publicly that they back the Child Victims Act, which I discussed in this previous column. The Act will go far to protect New York’s children by increasing the statutes of limitations on child sex abuse, and creating a civil-suit window for all those survivors whose claims have expired. The DAs supporting the Act include: National District Attorneys Association; District Attorneys Association of the State of New York; Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares; Genesee County District Attorney Lawrence Friedman; Greene County District Attorney Terry J. Wilhelm; Oswego County District Attorney Donald H. Dodd; Otsego County District Attorney John M. Muehl; Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown; Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe; Schuyler County District Attorney Joseph G. Fazzary; Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota; Ulster County District Attorney D. Holley Carnright; Denis Dillon, former Nassau County District Attorney; Michael C. Green, former Monroe County District Attorney; Robert M. Morgenthau , former New York County District Attorney; Mathew J. Murphy, former Niagara County District Attorney; and Michael A. Acuri, former Oneida County District Attorney.

DAs are elected officials, so the grassroots movement to obtain statute of limitation reform also is important.

Prosecutors can protect children effectively if they pursue the initial, deep investigation into the problem—and then follow through, as Philadelphia has. They are the front lines of child protection, and they—along with every DA everywhere—should be the heroes that our children need and deserve.

Marci A. Hamilton is a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law, and the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, which was just published in paperback with a new Preface. Her email address is Hamilton02@aol.com.


“DA HYNES: PROTECT VICTIMS, NOT PERPETRATORS”

Jews of all backgrounds will be protesting outside of Hynes' office, at 350 Jay St. Brooklyn, NY 11201, on June 20th at 4pm, to DEMAND that the DA immediately and publicly object to the Rabbinical policy that abuse allegations are vetted by a Rabbi before being brought to the police, and that he apply the same standards of transparency and justice to Jewish abuse cases as are afforded to any other case in his district.

The District Attorney of Brooklyn, NY is the highest local government authority tasked with ensuring justice. Yet evidence is mounting regarding his alleged long history of cooperating with Rabbinical authorities to enable the cover up of child abuse in the Ultra Orthodox community.

As a result, molesters have remained free to victimize children at will. The protest is being organized by Zaakah (Zaakah.com), a grassroots organization that arose from the protest, "The Internet Is NOT The Problem", an event that drew over 300 protesters and was covered by the New York Times, NBC News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the BBC and others.

Zaakah believes that press and communal attention is required to make changes within the ultra-Orthodox community with regard to child abuse. To that end they stage lawful and peaceful protests, as well as support victims when their cases come to court.

They seek tangible reform in the following areas: Rabbinical authorities unequivocally assert that ALL abuse allegations are brought directly to appropriate authorities; children and families are educated on abuse prevention and how to properly handle abuse incidents; all school, camp, and mikva employees and volunteers are fingerprinted and subjected to background checks.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.facebook.com/events/142981299158849/