MONDROWITZ DAY OF RECKONING MAY BE NEAR -- DON'T FORGET TO DO YOUR PART!

With whatever else is happening, PLEASE don't forget: The last effort of Avrohom Mondrowitz -- Mondro the Monster, the Brooklyn Bugger, Rabbi Retro, Doctor Petzel, Sodomy on Two Legs, whatever you want to call the animal -- to escape extradition from Israel for his long-awaited trial in Brooklyn was heard by the Israeli Supreme Court in December. A final decision is likely in the near future!

By my calculations, Mondrowitz's is probably the worst serial child sex abuse case ever against Orthodox Jewish victims, and if it had been up the rabbis -- and the "justice" system in Brooklyn and Israel -- he'd still be laughing at us from his cozy apartment in Jerusalem.

Let's keep up the effort at this crucial moment!

Please! Everyone! Take a few minutes, whenever you can, as often as you can, to call or write Israel's Supreme Court regularly to check on the status of the Mondrowitz case. This will remind court officials, and other politicians, that plenty of people in the U.S. are watching this case closely and care very much about justice being done.

Make no mistake. It's do-or-die time. If Israel's Supremes rule in favor of extradition, Mondrowitz will be sent to New York for trial. If they cave to Mondrowitz and his friends, we'll never see the monster face his victims in a Brooklyn courtroom.

I must tell you that rumors are floating -- maybe more than rumors -- about some sort of deal between various politicians and Ger to protect Mondrowitz from a New York trial: a trial that would blow the lid off the extent of the cover up that went on for years in his case. With a new government forming in Israel, I'm afraid this is even more likely. We've got to do our part to fight back. Let the politicians know they're under scrutiny. That some Jews do care about other Jews. That some Jews know about al sa'amod al dam rei'echa.

You can reach Israel's High Court, Public Affairs Department at 011-972-2-675-9612 and 011-972-2-675-9613. I believe their email address is: tlunotrasham@court.gov.il and the fax number is 011-972-2-651-3191.

No bad behavior, please -- nothing Mondro's lawyers can use to claim "intimidation." But PLEASE, call, email, fax, and repeat! -- with queries about the status of the case. Let them know how many people care, and care enough to keep checking. The word will surely get around.

You are asked to show support to our fellow brothers and sisters who have been affected by abuse.

Updated February 26, 2009



Dear Friends:

On Sunday March 1, 11:00 A.M. at the Borough Park Y, 4912 14th Avenue, our office will be hosting a solidarity rally for individuals affected by abuse in our community. The rally has no agenda other than this; for our community to show support to our fellow brothers and sisters who have been affected by abuse.

There will be distinguished rabbis and professionals speaking to give chizuk to those in attendance, and Tehilim will be recited for victims and their families. By joining this event we will be giving tremendous chizuk to those who have been victimized, and we will be making an enormous kiddush Hashem by showing our public support for them.

As Jews, we have a responsibility to empathize and show support to our fellow Jews in distress. Please join us on Sunday so we can fulfill this responsibility.

Thank you,

Dov Hikind - Member of Assembly - State of New York

*

This day of chizuk and saying Tehillim publicly for the victims and families that have been devastated by clergy sex-abuse, and all forms of child-abuse, was unfathomable a mere two years ago. I proposed it to various people -- they said the community was not ready!

It is incumbent upon every Jewish parent, victim of abuse, and all Jews of good will to attend this Yom Chizuk. This abominable crime of child sex-abuse must be eradicated from our communities.

UOJ

So don’t comment Sheftel Neuberger. Your silence says it all!

Sheftel Neuberger - Member UOJ Hall Of Shame!


by Phil Jacobs - Baltimore Jewish Times

Ner Israel President Sheftel Neuberger left a voice mail to our managing editor Alan Feiler telling him that he would not talk to the Jewish Times anymore since we wrote articles about the dead child molester Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro.

Times like these make me miss his late father, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, even more.

The reason Neuberger won’t talk is because he sees it is a violation of Jewish law for us to write the truth about a dead person. In this case, the truth is that Ephraim Shapiro molested on occasions too numerous to count, both boys and girls. It wasn’t until years after his death that the truth started emerging like ooze from a waste dump that this man had ruined the lives of many innocent people.

Alan Feiler was calling Neuberger to learn if the yeshiva had done any internal counseling with its student population over the apparent suicide of one of its own students.

What Neuberger and those who think like him don’t get is that Ephraim Shapiro (I hesitate to use the word rabbi, a term of respect here) was more alive than some of the people whose spirits he so arrogantly killed. Think about it, he molested people in a matter of moments leaving them with an imprint that could for some last forever. And what is so interesting, we have reason to believe that there is at least one former Shapiro student who allegedly committed suicide because of possible molestation from his teacher.

So don’t comment Sheftel Neuberger. Your silence says it all.

A Frum Therapist Reports!

......."Hardly a day goes by in which I do not learn of another victim of abuse in our community that could have been avoided if our leaders would start leading.

- A woman taken advantage of by a rabbi who everyone has heard does this but nobody has stood up to him.

- A man molested as a boy by a rebbe who is also known in this small chassidic community but is being protected by a powerful Rebbe.

- Another boy who learned in Ner Yisroel, who suddenly became clinically depressed after reports that he had a "close" relationship with Rabbi Eiseman, that he refuses to discuss.

- A mother of a boy who is now a severe drug addict with suicidal tendencies, who was molested by an older boy from a "chashuv" family. A "Gadol" told her not to confront the boy's family but to tell her rov. Her rov told the mother that it is now "mashiach tzeitin, and these things are to be expected." I told the mother to confront the family, which she did, and they were very thankful to be informed that their son had this problem.

- A known incest-rapist has children in a yeshivah and the Torah Umesorah psychologists refuse to get involved with helping his children, even though they are presented with psychological symptoms.

- A frum play-group is found to have several little toddlers who were sexually traumatized in some way. Parents and grandparents ask me if children that young should be kept home.

- Some rabbis are telling some parents that it is best NOT to send their kids to overnight camp.

And this is the tip of the iceberg. Over the last few months, especially once Dov Hikind has started shining light publicly on this problem, stories are coming out that make all of this look like kids play, no pun intended.

In some cases, the level of abuse has become almost institutionalized and ritualized among groups of molesters. Among some teens at risk in Monsey, being molested is seen as a kind of rite of passage so that a boy might ask his friend "where did you learn? Who molested you?"..........

My Friend Steve Adds With Great Passion:

Wake up you morons in RBS (and other charedi communities) before your rabbis destroy our future.

We have our own share of child molesters in our yeshivos in the U.S. We are bigger morons than those in RBS because we haven't learned from the mistakes of the past. How do we allow a serial child molester named Avrohom Reichman, free access to young children on a daily basis at UTA Satmar? How can we be silent after Dov Hikind boldly promised last summer that he will not be back in a classroom in September? How do we allow Hikind to be conned by that filthy, lying, conniving enabler, David Niederman?

"To me, it does not make sense," says Niederman, of the United Jewish Organizations, "that so many people have been violated and for so many years they have been quiet. Something does not add up. It's being blown out of proportion — big time."

They have been quiet for so many years because of people like Neiderman who continue to muzzle the victims while enabling the molesters to continue molesting our children. He says he conducted an investigation. What kind of "investigation"? The perv failed every polygraph test! Let the police do the investigating, you chamor! Then they asked one of the victim's mother, "On a scale of 1-10, how bad was the molestation"? If it was through clothing, they claim, it's not so bad. Sure, let him molest another hundred kids through clothing. It's not so bad! If those heroic children, mentioned in Maseches Gittin, that jumped off the boat, were told that they would only be molested "through clothing", do you think they would have submitted to their captors and not jumped off? This contention that "it's not so bad" is as ridiculous as the "no penetration, no molestation" argument. Ask any professional psychologist and he will tell you that the results of such molestation are just as devastating. Go speak to the victims of Mondrowitz that were sodomized and then go speak to victims of Kolko and Eiseman, and you will see that they are all permanently scarred for life! How many more korbanos do we need? How many more lives need to be destroyed?

This case at UTA in some ways is worse than the YTT case. At YTT, they were in total denial. Here, they were connivers. They first removed the molester, promising the victims' family that he would not return. They then waited for the statute of limitations to expire, and then brazenly brought him back. We cannot give these bastards a free pass. They must be held accountable and Reichman must be removed immediately. Let's hope that the Engelmans succeed in their lawsuit and that Niederman and all the criminals at UTA are exposed. We need to lobby vigorously to suspend the statute of limitations for one year to allow victims a chance to report old cases to the police. We should all attend Hikind's prayer service on March 1 at the Y in Boro Park, show our support for his efforts, but also voice our dissatisfaction in his handling the Reichman case.

We should not underestimate what a group of determined and caring individuals can accomplish. We need to learn the lesson that UOJ taught us three years ago when he singlehandedly defeated the powerful Establishment that was protecting the likes of Kolko, Nussbaum, Leizerowitz, Mondrowitz, Colmer and Eiseman. The disturbing cases at UTA and RBS show that we still have a lot of work to do before this war is finally won. Let's all do what we can and beezras hashem, we shall succeed. We have no choice but to win this war, for our children's sake!

If Only The Jewish Press Would Have Called Elliot Pasik Esq. - The Founder Of JBAC

The UOJ Archives - February 28, 2006

Dear Rabbi Klass and the Jewish Press editorial board,

I am truly sorry about mailing out thousands of letters to the New York Jewish community. You see Rabbi Klass, what I'm sorry about has nothing to do with your editorial. I'm sorry that our community has let all of us down, including you and your paper. There was no need to do a mass mailing, in fact I pleaded with Lipa Margulies to "consider" putting Yudi Kolko on paid leave, pending the outcome of a hearing at a mutually agreed upon bais din.

I sent emissaries to him weeks before the mailing asking him to "consider" putting Kolko on leave. He denied ever hearing about Kolko being a problem around children and therefore was not only not going to put him on leave, but that he was going to defend him if it ever came to bais din, which he said would never happen. He is a pathetic liar and a very evil man.

I e-mailed you the letter that I intended to mail out to the community two weeks before the mailing took place asking you to investigate. What happened R' Yaakov, why did you not call Lipa Margulies and ask him what's going on? Were you also of the belief that one day I woke up with nothing really important to do, so I just picked up the phone book and picked out a name and started ranting about the danger Yudi Kolko poses around children?

R' Yaakov, you could have been a contender!

Your paper could have investigated and seen that an esteemed frum attorney, Elliot B. Pasik put his name on this campaign. No, not necessarily endorsing any or all of my opinions, but endorsing my efforts to get rid of Yudi Kolko from the classroom!

Instead you busied yourself with the "eat until you die" Pesach ads. I ask you why have you ignored this issue? Is there no more important issue to Klal Yisroel than the safety of our children? Do you really think any reputable attorney would "impose" on Klal Yisroel such a "mundane" issue as safety from sexual predators without a thorough investigation?

Why did you not call Elliot Pasik Esq? Why did you not call Jeffrey Herman Esq? Do you think that these respected attorneys would take a case of this magnitude if they thought for a brief second that these were false claims? Or is it easier to just ramble on about the issue of an anonymous mailing? I challenged you to investigate these claims; I challenged you to call Lipa Margulies and demand that he sign a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury that he was not aware of any of these accusations.

I'm going to say it again...really clear for the entire frum world to hear, to digest, and to help you rise up out of your slumber...Lipa Margulies is harboring a pedophile knowingly and willingly for thirty plus years, he was informed and knew without a shadow of a doubt for thirty very long years and countless victims later that Kolko is a dangerous predator; and Yudi Kolko is seriously ill, he needs help immediately and must be removed from any environment that children find themselves in.

*

February 16, 2006

Dear Chaverim,

Because I am an attorney who has long been involved in advocating a program for protecting our children from sex abuse, I feel the need to publicly comment in the forum of this blog on the allegations being made against a rebbe at Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

Over the past several weeks, I have read various posts of alleged victim accounts which have given dates, places, type of sex abuse, and other factual detail.

In addition, the blog administrator ("UOJ"), a frum Jew and a musmach, has mailed thousands of letters to frum Jews in Flatbush and Borough Park. He has demanded that this rebbe's employment at the yeshiva be terminated.

I have also spoken to several adult individuals who confided in me their stories of childhood sex abuse committed against them by this man.

The allegations are serious, but there are solutions, and I will present them in this letter. In addition, concerned community members have been in contact with the yeshiva, and I hope and pray, b'ezras Hashem, that a resolution will be reached, along the lines to be outlined here.

For a fair amount of time, I have been advocating a two-part approach for eradicating the problem of child sex abuse in our yeshivas, day schools, camps, and other youth settings.

First, we need to perform fingerprint-based criminal background checks on all of our employees and volunteers, and in this way, we will avoid hiring convicted sex offenders, drug offenders, violent criminals, and other dangerous predators.

I have previously written in my letters to Torah U'Mesorah, Agudath Israel, the Rabbinic Council of America, the Orthodox Union, and the National Council of Young Israel that 42 out of 50 states now require their public schools to perform fingerprint based criminal background checks on their employees (including New York State); 10 states require their nonpublic schools to perform such checks (not New York). In addition, after too-numerous child sex abuse incidents, every major youth group in the U.S. is performing background checks: the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Little League of America, the American Youth Soccer Organization, Pop Warner Football, the Civil Air Patrol.

In the wake of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has required employee and volunteer background checks for all Catholic schools and youth groups since April 2003, whether required by law or not.

Even private corporations whose employees do not have regular access to children are voluntarily performing criminal background checks. An August 26, 2004 Wall Street Journal article reported that 80% of America's 400 largest corporations are performing background checks on their employees. Wal Mart, the nation's largest employer, joined this group after two convicted sex offenders working in their South Carolina stores were alleged to have molested children on store premises.

All of these background checks have weeded out thousands of convicted sex offenders and other dangerous criminals who would otherwise constitute a grave danger to children.

How great is the danger? The U.S. Congress and the U.S. Department of Education most recently addressed the school sexual abuse problem in a lengthy June 2004 report entitled, "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature", authored by Hofstra University Prof. Charole Shakeshaft, a leading expert. This report informs us that nearly 10% of U.S. students are targets of contact and noncontact sexual misconduct during their K-12 years. Among the security recommendations are that all public and private schools perform fingerprint based criminal background checks. This report is available on the U.S. Department of Education website.

Another good resource for people who want to educate themselves about the problem is a book called, "Predators" (2004), authored by Dr. Anna Salter, a Harvard College, Harvard Medical School-educated psychiatrist, who presents a mountain of evidence that establishes the great danger that child sex abuse presents. Dr. Salter has also written the two leading textbooks in use in our country on the treatment of sex offenders. Dr. Salter proves through her evidence that sex offenders should never work near children. Pedophiles are actually never cured, and they are in need of lifetime therapy.

In addition, there is also a mounting body of medical evidence which proves what we already intuitively know: that childhood sex abuse has long-term consequences. Medical studies have established that people who have suffered childhood sex abuse are at a greater risk for depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

Our own community has not ignored the child sex abuse problem. In May 2003, for example, both Torah U'Mesorah and the RCA, at their respective conventions, addressed the issue. I have listened to the audiotapes. A psychologist prominent in our community for specializing in this problem spoke at each convention, and described an incident in a yeshiva where a janitor with a criminal record for sex abuse attacked our children. In addition, the psychologist stated that we have suffered an unconscionable number of suicides of children who have been sex abuse victims.

Hashem yerachim.

I have made some progress on achieving my goal of having every yeshiva and Hebrew day school in New York State perform fingerprint-based employee background checks. The New York State Senate is drafting a bill, which I hope to have in my hands shortly. State Assembly sponsors will then be needed, and hopefully the Governor will support the bill, and it will pass.

But background checks are only one part of the overall solution. What do we do about the vast majority of sex offenders who never see the inside of a courtroom? Most child sex abuse victims never report the crimes done to their bodies, and unfortunately, even when they do, they are often not believed. More unfortunate, even when they are believed, successful criminal prosecutions are difficult, particularly where there is an absence of physical evidence.

Clearly, our yeshivas and day schools need to unite to form our own internal disciplinary system and registry, which will record the names of those individuals, who after a hearing conducted under careful rabbinic auspices, are found guilty of either violence or sex abuse, and will then be forever barred from employment in our mosdos.

Such a disciplinary system and registry would be neither novel, nor difficult to establish. Every public educational system in our country has such a program in place, as does the Catholic Church. We Jews therefore have numerous models to follow, and we should quickly establish our own disciplinary system and registry. In fact, the registry concept was specifically discussed and spoken of very approvingly at the May 2003 Torah U'Mesorah Convention.

In addition, I approached the Rabbinical Council of America, an organization of approximately 1,000 rabbis, and proposed and drafted for them a Resolution endorsing background checks, and a disciplinary system and registry for all of our 700 yeshivas and Hebrew day schools that teach 200,00 Jewish children in the United States, including 100,000 in New York State. The Resolution passed at their May 2005 Convention, you can read it on rabbis.org, and I credit this Resolution for the great progress I am making in the New York State Senate for achieving a law that will allow fingerprint based criminal background checks to be conducted in our schools.

Our yeshivas and day schools do need to be concerned about laws that protect our children, and performing background checks, and having an internal disciplinary system and registry, will accomplish that goal.

Some New York laws that come into play are: Education Law section 3204, which provides that a nonpublic school teacher must be "competent". It is highly questionable, to say the least, as to whether a teacher who is a child sex abuser is "competent".

New York State Education Law section 549(1) provides that "the state has a primary responsibility to ensure the health, welfare and safety of children attending both public and nonpublic schools."

New York State Penal Law section 2601.10 is entitled, "Endangering the Welfare of a Child", and provides that it is a misdemeanor for a person legally charged with the custody of a child to fail to exercise reasonable diligence in preventing such child from becoming "abused". Statutes like these have been used in prosecutions of cases against the Catholic Church.

New York State Social Service Law section 413 makes it a misdemeanor for a school official not to report sex abuse to the New York central registry of childhood sex abuse.

In addition, New York courts have, on multiple occasions, declared the duty that a school owes to a child, sometimes referred to by the ancient Latin phrase, "in loco parentis", in place of the parent. When a parent transfers physical custody of his child to a school, the school stands in place of the parent, and assumes the same duty. Thus, just as parent would never hire a sex offender as a babysitter, so too should a school never employ a sex offender as teacher. See, e.g., Pratt v. Robinson, 39 NY2d 554 (1976).

The Torah has much to say about this situation, which time and space do not allow here, but suffice it to say that the Torah commands, Lo sa'amod al dam ra'echa, Do not stand upon the blood of your brother. This is a positive mitzvah that requires one Jew to save the life of another. In addition, the Torah tells us, V'shmartem nafshosachem me'od, You will guard your lives exceedingly. The Torah also tells us, Tsedek, tsedek tirdof, l'maan tichyeh. Justice justice shall you pursue, in order that you may live.

Certainly, if the individual accused of sex abuse at Torah Temima declines to resign, or if the yeshiva declines to terminate his employment, an evidentiary-type hearing, in my opinion, should be held. The alleged victims should testify, the accused abuser can also testify, and a decision should then be rendered by the professional panel of judges - unbiased rabbis and lawyers from our community.

Barring resignation or termination, the hearing may be the solution to our current problem. This hearing can be the first step taken towards establishing our own internal disciplinary system and registry. Gam zu l'tovah.

This process and verdict can also be a refuah for the alleged victims who have suffered in silence for so long, at cost to their physical and mental health. They are entitled to some small measure of justice.

The establishment of our own disciplinary system and registry can also be a first step in teshuvah and recovery for the accused individual.

In the future, cases like these need not be addressed through anonymous mass mailings, blogs, and public letters from a lawyer such as myself. Our own genuine justice system, which will itself act as a deterrent, can properly handle such problems.

Together with our own hishtadlus, may the Ribono Shel Olam endow all of us with the kochus and chochma that we will need to resolve our current situation.

Very truly yours,

Elliot B. Pasik
Attorney at Law
145 West Olive Street
Long Beach, New York 11561
efpasik@aol.com

Call Me Crazy!

1- Working on Sunday - I kept the CC muted TV in my office on Bloomberg News not on the Superbowl channel. I hate "Steelers" and "Cardinals"!

2- I do not care what kind of car my neighbor drives.

3 - Fun for me is speed-reading 10-20 books on religion, history, science, philosophy.... at Barnes & Noble on a given Sunday with a cup of Starbucks!

4 - I told my sister that I don't care if she thinks me crazy because I put a picture up on UOJ. (She did say I'm better looking in person - I agree -- but she'd say anything to get me to take it down - she lives in Lakewood, whaddya expect?)

5 - I don't care what anyone thinks about me and never did!

6 - Blessed with a 170 IQ - I still say hello happily, and converse freely with immigrants that came across the Mexican border legally, that are in my employ, mow my lawn and clean my house -- on issues that are important to them! I always praise them warmly on a job well done and never fail to ask how their family is. Why? Because I genuinely care about their welfare!

7 - The more hate mail I get - the better I feel!

8 - I don't give a hoot about how many square feet of living space my neighbor has. The more dumpsters in front of his house for home expansion and renovations every year - the more pity I have for him!

9 - I never go to parties other than dropping my head in to my accountant's New Years party as a courtesy!

10 - I own 14 suits - I wear one a day (yeah - one at a time wise guys) and send them to the cleaners - 7 per week. I am very passionate in all my endeavors during the day and the suit I wear is generally soaked through with sweat and looks like I slept in it.

11 - Whenever I ask a question to someone I know - I know their answer before they respond!

15 - I never wear the same tie twice in a given month!

16 - I am extremely shy!

17 - Once I enter a shul - I never speak divrei chol!

18 - I completed Shas three times with all Rashi and most Tosefos (and some rishonim) without ArtScroll or Soncino (once before ArtScroll was born). I said a daf yomi for 3 years. I received a maggid shiur daf yomi plaque from Moshe Sherer, and threw it in the garbage upon receipt.

19 - In general, conversations with most people never last more than a few minutes. I find most people possessed with themselves and very boring! There are exceptions - not many!

20 - I hate the telephone! Cell phone conversations, at the max, (barring emergencies) last one minute!

21 - My S'micha, one of the signatories happens to be R' Arthur's uncle -- says I'm a baki b'kama v'kama sugyas b'Shas (gimmee a break I'm only 20), with b'kius and charifus in Gemora, Poskim, Pilpul and Halacha and another 300 words of praise and accomplishments in Torah and middos (embarrassing). {If they only knew what became of me}

22 - Attending weddings is an uncomfortable chore that I try to avoid. With the statistics of divorce (and misery) in the Jewish community increasing rapidly - chances are high that the poor parents throwing the wedding party will be paying for marriage counselling and ultimately and sadly in many cases, a rabbi that writes gittin. {This is what goes through my mind at the chupah - will this couple make it? - spoils everything - I don't care who the chazzan is}

23 - I remember over 1000 telephone numbers.

24 - I type with one finger! I play the piano with ten fingers - on Purim, I throw in a couple of toes!

25 - I sleep no more than 4 hours per night!

26 - I remember every license plate on every car I owned.

27 - I used to live in Brooklyn 11, New York - with an Evergreen phone number EV 7 - 7818. Then we moved to Brooklyn 13, New York - with a President phone number - PR 4- 4142 - private line 467-4336.

28 - I am very happy with my lot in life.

29 - I tell people "try to be happy 70% of your day."

30 - After my kids got married I told them "if you need money, lose my phone number." {Truth be told, they have been disrespectful to this request}

31 - Everything to me is black & white - no gray area.

32 - I'm either loved or hated - no pareve feelings towards me. (No kidding Margo)

That's all for now...folks!

JBAC - Jewish Board of Advocates for Children

Overheard in cyberspace:

...."Our job is to inform and to motivate people to do the right thing. We are civilized human beings that have to work together to find a way to escort these uncivilized animals to their proper cages where they can do no more harm to anyone. WE are not the judge and jury so we can only be the advocates and the facilitators up to that point. We can support people who write new legislation or change old legislation that will support the safety and security of our children. WE follow the Torah and the Torah’s laws and values and keep that as our guiding light in the forefront of everything we do. WE don’t deviate from the emes of the Torah.

Going after the gannovim and the sheker that other frum Jews dirty themselves with, that is not the reason the JBAC was formed. There are many reasons frum and honest Jews have to be ashamed and embarrassed about. But we have to choose the battles we are willing to take on and what OUR priorities are. At the JBAC we chose our priorities to be saving yiddishe neshomas and the first issue we are tackling is the issue of child abuse and molestation --- because by far that is the worst crime against K’lal Yisroel. Too many respectable and responsible Jewish adults have hidden and guarded themselves from this issue but are willing to touch upon all the other issues such as tznius, loshon horah, tzedakah, gezeila, richilus, shalom bayis, etc. but when it comes to the issue of child sex-abuse, NO ONE’S HOME!"

U.S. Investigates Los Angeles Archdiocese Officials

JANUARY 29, 2009

By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER

LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities are investigating the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to see whether top church officials tried to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by priests, said a person familiar with the matter.

A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas and begun calling witnesses in the probe, which began late last year, said this person. The investigation is still in its early, fact-gathering stage, and it isn't known whether any criminal charges will result.

Thomas O'Brien, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, declined to comment on the investigation.

J. Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the archdiocese, said in an email on behalf of church officials: "The Archdiocese has received requests from the U.S. Attorney's office for information about a number of individual priests, two of whom are deceased; none of whom remain in ministry. We have been and will continue to be fully cooperative with the investigation."

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who heads the archdiocese, the largest in the U.S., has been criticized by victims' groups for his past handling of sexual-abuse allegations against priests. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has been investigating allegations of such abuses for several years.

District Attorney Steve Cooley criticized the archdiocese in 2007 for its "institutional moral failure" to "supervise predatory priests." A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said their investigation is still open.

Catholic Church leaders said they have done much to address the priest sexual-abuse problem. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, set up a national review board in 2002 aimed at "preventing the sexual abuse of minors in the United States by persons in the service of the Church," according to the organization's Web site. Individual dioceses "have made significant strides to instill practices that will ensure the safety of children in the church," said the organization's Web site.

The district attorney's investigation began in 2002, around the same time that internal archdiocese emails about priests accused of abuse surfaced in the media.

Over the following two years, dozens of alleged victims stepped forward, with many filing lawsuits. They claimed the archdiocese shielded priests accused of molestation by keeping the allegations secret and allowing them to keep working, sometimes moving them from one parish to another.

In 2004, the archdiocese, which covers three Southern California counties containing more than four million Catholics, issued a report on the priest sex-abuse scandal. Cardinal Mahony apologized to victims and acknowledged "my own mistakes during my 18 years" as the archdiocese's leader.

In 2007, the Los Angeles archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to 508 alleged victims, among the largest settlements in the U.S. priest scandal.

No senior Catholic Church officials have been criminally charged in the national scandal. But representatives of abuse victims alleged that senior officials helped perpetuate the crimes by ignoring or covering up evidence of misdeeds. They have argued that prosecuting senior church officials would help stop future abuse.

"Everything else has been tried with minimal impact except charging an individual bishop. That would have to an impact," says David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit victims-advocacy group based in Chicago.

A spokeswoman for the Catholic bishops conference said her organization has seen no evidence that senior church officials were involved in criminal acts. "Enormous strides have been made" in recent years by the Catholic church in dealing with the priest-abuse problem, she said. More than 1.8 million clergy and other church personnel have been trained to create a safe environment for children and to prevent abuse, she said, and a similar number of background checks also have been done on clerics and other church workers.

The federal investigation in Los Angeles is the latest chapter in government's efforts to grapple with the priest-abuse scandals in the Catholic Church that have struck in waves over the past three decades.

{"OY! Such a headache - much bigger than the first one!"}


Numerous individual priests have been criminally charged and convicted in abuse cases, and Catholic dioceses around the U.S. have agreed to settle civil lawsuits.

While most of the investigations have been done by state and local officials, federal investigators also have gotten involved at times. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Boston resolved a federal criminal investigation into whether the church officials had withheld information about an allegedly abusive priest. The archdiocese, which denied any criminal wrongdoing, agreed to new disclosure requirements and audits regarding its child-protection practices.

Write to John R. Emshwiller at john.emshwiller@wsj.com

"Molestation is rampant, It’s not a one-in-a-million case. There’s at least one in every school!"

New York Magazine - May 15, 2006

........“I too was molested by Rabbi Kolko,” he wrote, “both while a student in 7th and 8th grades and during those same summers whilst a camper in Camp Agudah. . . . He would insert his hands down the front of my pants and would begin to ‘search around,’ to say the least. At the same time he would pull me closer to himself, or would push himself forward against myself, sometimes even pushing me into the steering wheel, to the point that it hurt. Unfortunately I didn’t react or complain. I of course told my parents and tried on several times to explain to them what I was going through, but they didn’t want to believe me and my ‘stories,’ etc. So I just shut up and let the molestation and perversion continue. . . . I feel that it is about time that the wall of silence be torn down.”

A few months later, after getting dozens of similar comments and e-mails, UOJ listed Jeffrey Herman’s name and phone number. He says he hadn’t spoken with Herman—he’d just noticed him as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, talking about a clergy sex-abuse case, and thought that anyone reading his site who wanted confidentiality might consider calling him. “The key for me,” UOJ says, “was that on his Website, Herman said that he had strategies for getting around the statute of limitations.”

UOJ posted Herman’s name and number. When Herman, in turn, sent an e-mail saying he’d be happy to speak with alleged victims confidentially, Framowitz saw the posting and called him. Herman, an observant Jew from Miami, has handled millions of dollars in sex-abuse claims against clergy and school systems, mainly against the Catholic Church. He says he was interested in working on Jewish cases for the same reasons he works on Catholic ones. “People say, ‘Oh, are you gonna go after a rabbi?’ ” he says. “That’s kind of a funny question to me. I see the kind of work I’m doing as protecting kids. Jewish kids are certainly as worth protecting as Catholic kids.”

On February 2, UOJ paid for a bulk mailing to Orthodox homes in Borough Park, Flatbush, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights that might be too observant to have access to the Internet. The mailing accused Kolko of molestation and Margulies of a cover-up and even included their phone numbers. That’s when UOJ says he started receiving threats—“We’re gonna get your family” and “We know who you are.” (Many of these e-mails have been forwarded to Herman.) People accused him of betraying his community and having an ax to grind against Kolko and Margulies. The Jewish Press ran an editorial blasting the mailing. A rival blog called End UOJ was created. But the most shocking responses came from those who believed that accusing Kolko of abuse—true or not—was worse than the abuse itself. “Certainly speaking evil of somebody, truth or otherwise, establishes the most severe of all wrongdoings,” one pseudonymous comment on UOJ reads—“far, far worse then [sic] ‘child sexual abuse,’ and the punishment far more severe.” The post goes on to claim that having sex with a child is punishable by 39 lashings “at the most,” whereas lashon hara is punishable by leprosy—“a far worse penalty.”

Now that there’s a lawsuit, UOJ feels vindicated. “Molestation is rampant,” he says. “It’s not a one-in-a-million case. There’s at least one in every school. And I’m going to go after them one at a time."..........

http://nymag.com/news/features/17010

*



Teen sex rap for principal of Bensonhurst private school
BY SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU

Monday, January 26th 2009, 12:46 AM

Two teenage boys told cops they endured years of sexual abuse at the hands of a Brooklyn high school principal who was arrested over the weekend, police said.

Emanuel Yegutkin, 30, was suspended Sunday from Elite High School, a private Jewish school in Bensonhurst with mainly Russian-American students.

Yegutkin forced a 17-year-old into lewd sex acts from the age of 7 to 14, cops said.

He subjected a 19-year-old to five years of fondling, beginning when the teen was 12, police said.

Neither child attended Elite, school officials said.

"This has nothing to do with the school," said Elite High School Headmaster Tzvi Koff. "But we have to protect our students. He no longer has access to the school building and he is not part of our institution anymore."

The disgraced educator - who also worked in upstate Gilboa as a lifeguard at Oorah summer camp last year - was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and sexually abusing children for more than a four-month period, according to a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

A message left at Yegutkin's Ocean Parkway home was not returned.

Oorah Camp Director Elisha Lewenstein said Yegutkin came highly recommended.

"We investigated him before we hired him and never had a complaint," Lewenstein said.

Yegutkin, a one-time rising star within the Orthodox Jewish community, lost a second prominent job yesterday: volunteer medic for the Flatbush Hatzoloh ambulance service.

"If anybody in Hatzoloh is accused of any criminal issue, we suspend them until the issue is cleared up," Hatzoloh spokesman Heshey Jacob said.

Yegutkin "suspended himself" when he was contacted yesterday, Jacob said.

Yegutkin's arrest is the latest blow to Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. Since October, at least four Orthodox Jewish men in the borough have been charged with sexually abusing children.

simonew@nydailynews.com


*


Emanuel Yegutkin was also employed at Oorah's summer camp as a lifeguard!


Via E-Mail From Eliyohu Mintz Of Oorah.

We are shocked and saddened by the unfortunate news about Emanuel Yegutkin, who was an employee of Oorah’s Boy Zone for the past two summers. During the time that Mr. Yegutkin worked at Boy Zone we received no reports of improper behavior or anything that would have raised even the slightest concern. We have not been informed by law enforcement officers of specific details or heard of allegations of any incidents in Boy Zone.

However, we take this matter extremely seriously and have offered our full cooperation to the authorities in their investigation of this matter. We wish to reiterate our zero tolerance policy with respect to behavior that may endanger children. Our first concern is, and always be, the safety of the children entrusted to our care.

UPDATED STATEMENT

Statement Issued by Elisha Lewenstein, Camp Director of Oorah

Lakewood, NJ, January 26, 2009-- Following is a statement issued by Elisha Lewenstein, camp director of Oorah, Inc., regarding news about one of its former volunteers:

"We are shocked and saddened to hear about the allegations involving Mr.Emanuel Yegutkin, who was one of 400 volunteer staffers at our Upstate New York camp. Our primary concern has always been, and remains, the safety and well being of the children entrusted to our care.

"Oorah has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to any improper or illegal behavior by staff. That is the way we have run our camp since it opened and that is the policy we will continue to abide by in the future.

"None of our children ever complained about the conduct of Mr. Yegutkin and we have no reason to believe that Mr. Yegutkin did anything improper while at our camp. Obviously, we hope that this remains to be the case through the course of the police investigation. "We will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials in their investigation.

"Since this is an ongoing investigation, we will reserve further comment until more facts about this case become available from law enforcement officials.

Way To Go China!

The court has tried 21 suspects on a range of charges related to the tainted milk scandal [Reuters]

Chinese milk scam pair face death

Two men have been sentenced to death by a Chinese court after being convicted of playing a key role in a tainted milk scandal that led to six children dying and 300,000 falling ill.

The two men facing execution include Zhang Yujun, who was convicted of making and selling more than 600 tonnes of "protein powder" laced with melamine, the industrial chemical responsible for the health crisis.

He was found guilty of endangering public safety. The second convict was not named by court officials on Thursday.

The former boss of bankrupt dairy giant Sanlu, one of the main firms at the centre of last year's scandal, was jailed for life in a series of verdicts handed down by a court in Shijiazhuang, the capital of the central Hebei province.

Tian Wenhua was convicted of producing and selling fake or substandard products, charges to which she had pleaded guilty.

China's toxic milk scandal

Melamine is a toxic industrial chemical normally used in plastics and fertilisers.

Investigations showed melamine was added in the supply chain to make diluted milk's protein levels appear higher.

Nearly 10 per cent of milk samples from China's top three dairies were found to be tainted with melamine.

The contamination was blamed for the deaths of six infants and for making some 300,000 more ill.

Products from more than 22 Chinese companies were affected, with recalls issued across China and for Chinese-made products around the world.

The convictions follow the trial of 21 suspects accused of involvement in the scandal.

Three other former Sanlu executives were given sentences of between five and 15 years, while another man, Zhang Yanzhang, was given a life sentence, also for endangering public safety.

Tian, 66, pleaded guilty late last month to charges of producing and selling "fake or substandard" products after infant formula was found to be contaminated with the toxic chemical.

She had admitted that she knew of problems with her company's products for months before informing authorities. The scandal was exposed in September.

State media reported that Tian could face the death penalty, but her lawyer Liu Xinwei was quoted earlier this week in the Beijing News as saying that capital punishment was not applicable in the case.

"According to the criminal law, there is no capital punishment for the crime of manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products," Liu said.

"Therefore, the most severe penalty for her would be life imprisonment."

Aside from the four former Sanlu executives, 17 others had faced prosecution, charged with producing, adding or selling melamine-tainted milk to dairy companies, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Our Guest Ariel...

January 11, 2009. Day 16 of the War in the South
Bet Shemesh, Israel.

Our Guest Ariel...

Today I met with Ariel Yered. He's nine years old this week. He was sitting in a class of enthusiastic kids from Shomria, now relocated to the Ramat Bet Shemesh Community Center. He's a small blonde kid, frail looking, with glasses. There's a teacher at the front of the class, and another teacher with Ariel, sitting by his side.

The international media barely mentions that Hamas has been firing mortars, rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians for "eight years". That eight year barrage started with Ariel.

On April 3rd, 2001: Ariel - then a 15-month-old baby boy - was severely wounded in his head and spinal column from the shrapnel of a 3 inch mortar shell that, without warning, landed and exploded at his side outside his home in Atzmona. By a miracle, that shell missed a pile of inflammable gas-containers by just 5 meters (Ariel was half a meter from the gas!)

Ariel lay in critical condition for weeks, while thousands prayed for his life. Innovative operations were performed, including removing a portion of his skull and replacing it with a special helmet; the doctors returned the bone two and half years later. Ariel's condition improved with time, dramatically.

On August 15th 2005, Ariel was forcibly evacuated with his family from his home, along with 600 neighbors in Atzmona, and 8000 other residents of Gush Katif, as part of the Israeli Government's disengagement plan. He spent half a year in "City of Faith", a makeshift refugee camp, near Netivot, until they moved to temporary prefabricated homes "Caravillas" in Shomreia.

Lema'an Achai was there for the Yered family and helped them to establish a kindergarten in the "City of Faith" - they are grateful to this day.

This week, Ariel Yered was again within range of "Grad" missiles from Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Ironically, many of the missiles are being launched from the ruins of Gush Katif, including his old home village of Atzmona. Like most ex-Gush Katif residents, Ariel Yered's temporary flimsy house has no protected room, and no bomb shelter within sprinting distance. His school was closed down by the Home Front Command; the school therefore accepted Bet Shemesh's offer to host them - the whole school.

Ariel's school is just one of many schools and yeshivot which have relocated from the rockets and missiles in the south, to Bet Shemesh. (located 45km from Gaza - just beyond the 40km range of Hamas missiles!)

When I saw him today, courageous, young Ariel, who has experienced more horror than any human should, was all smiles, and asked me to thank everyone who has helped bring him and his classmates out of the line-of-fire, to take refuge with us here in Bet Shemesh, with Lema'an Achai.

"Many many thanks" - from Ariel.

(Thanks also to Ariel's father Yossi Yered for explaining the details of this story to me.)

WHAT LEMA'AN ACHAI IS DOING FOR THE SOUTH

Lema'an Achai is spearheading the Bet Shemesh War Relief Program, in alliance with the Municipality, the community centers, schools, many charities and an 'army' of amazing volunteers.

KIDS: As it is during the school year, and all schools and yeshivas have now been closed down in the south by law, there is a big demand for school groups to relocate in Bet Shemesh. Groups have arrived from Ashdod, Kireat Gat, Sderot, Shomreiya, Netivot, and others...

Around a thousand kids!

These groups have come by organized buses, complete with teaching staff, and are being housed in various Bet Shemesh community centers and schools. They arrive each morning, and go home after school hours. More are due to come.

When I compare it with the the refugee-camp environment of our relief programs for the Northerners in 2006, the overwhelming feeling is that everything here is 'under control' with these kids. They are good kids, well cared for by their regular teachers and staff.

Their needs today are for catered food (they bring sandwiches from home, but need this supplemented for a long day), for activities/games during the breaks, and for recreational outings.

FAMILIES: At this point, families are moving from the South to Bet Shemesh in a sporadic fashion (this contrasts with the organized groups of families who came down from the North to Bet Shemesh in the last war).

These families are being matched up with host families by the Bet Shemesh Municipality and by Ezrat Achim. As of today, the supply and demand is balanced (actually more willing hosts than families).

Some hosts would find it helpful to have extra food - so we are looking to establish cooked food collection points for host families (we did this last time very effectively). We are also looking at setting up family-to-family hostings for shabbat/weekend - a major community wide project - if there is enough demand for this.

STUFF FOR THE SOUTH: Bet Shemesh Community Centers are continuing to collect useful items to deliver to the South. Toys, books, heaters, blankets, are all welcome.

FUTURE: Nobody knows how long this war will last, nor the nature of the imminent needs of our brothers and sisters just a few minutes drive south of us. Or even if we, ourselves, may require help; as just an extra half-liter of rocket fuel would put Bet Shemesh in range.

We are prepared and preparing for all contingencies.

Please donate today www.IsraelWar.org , and encourage your relatives, friends and communities to do the same - because we are able to keep 9 year old hero, Ariel Yered, and another thousand school children, safely out of missile range, ONLY because of our generous donors.

We ask that you also spare a moment, to pray for the successful mission, and the safe return, of all our brave soldiers.

Besorot tovot - we should hear only good news!

More Ways to Donate:

USA Tax Deductible: "US Friends of Lema'an Achai", PO Box 532, Oceanside, NY 11572-0532, USA.

UK Tax Deductible: "British Friends of Lema'an Achai", c/o Nava Kestenbaum, 96 Rigby Street, Salford, Manchester, M7 4BQ, ENGLAND.

Canadian Tax Deductible: "Shaarei Tefilla Charity Fund", C/O Murray Shore, 31 Marwill Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 3L2, CANADA.

Israel Tax Deductible: "Lema'an Achai", The Lema'an Achai Center, 40/7 Nahal Lachish, Ramat Bet Shemesh, 99093, Israel.

By Phone 24/6 Donations Hotline (Hebrew): 02 99.999.33

To Volunteer Locally: Hotline Ezrat Achim: 02 9999822
Bet Shemesh Municipal Hotline: (Ms Shula Erev): 02 9909845

In the happy event that the war finishes, and any funds remain, they will solely be used for helping families in desperate need.


David Morris, Chairman
Rabbi Avrohom Leventhal, Executive Director

Lema'an Achai - It's All About Caring
www.lemaanachai.org

david@lemaanachai.org
Direct Tel: +972 2 9997107
Office: +972 2 9991553
Fax: +972 2 9992398

40/7 Nahal Lachish
Ramat Beit Shemesh,
99093 Israel.

Please pray for the injured soldiers!

YAAKOV YISRAEL BEN YARDENA - Shrapnel from bomb went through his neck.

HOSHEA BEN MIRIAM - serious

DVIR BEN LEAH - serious

RAFI BEN DINA - serious

NOAM BEN ALIZA - one leg amputated, doctors fighting to save the second

LI'EL HOSHEA BEN MIRIAM - serious head injury

NERIYA BEN RIVKA - serious head injury

YITZCHAK BEN NAVA - moderate shoulder injury

NETANEL BEN NAVA - moderate shrapnel wounds

"Ma'ayin yavo ezri - Ezri ma'im Hashem"

MONDROWITZ EXTRADITION AT STAKE: TOO MUCH QUIET!

Posted Friday - December 19, 2008 - 3:46 PM EST
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE:




*Crook-lyn DA Charles Hynes*






As Israel's Supreme Court approaches a final decision on whether or not to extradite Mondrowitz to stand trial in Brooklyn -- we're talking about the man police believe sodomized or sexually abused hundreds of boys, nearly all Jewish -- the silence around the process is deafening! All the more so because things may not be going smoothly.

We know Mondrowitz has powerful supporters in Israel. And the shameful record of Brooklyn D.A. Charles J. Hynes in this case shows he'd be only too happy never to have to prosecute Mondrowitz... never to have to expose his enablers and accomplices in the community... never shine a light on a case his office has avoided ever since he took office. Well, IF WE STAY QUIET -- HE MAY NOT HAVE TO!!!

The Jewish Week is already reporting that Israel's top court may be considering a "compromise" by which Mondrowitz isn't sent back -- and gets tried, IF AT ALL, in Israel... probably meaning a much lighter sentence, and certainly keeping other guilty parties -- the D.A., Ohel, the rabbis who covered for Mondrowitz for years, and anybody he may have traded victims or kid porn with (who knows?) -- conveniently out of the picture.

I've learned more. And it's not comforting!

Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the State's attorneys (who have been pushing for extradition) to file additional papers by TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23. The judges -- who apparently didn't manage to read the record or the lower court's 40-page decision that explained in detail why Mondrowitz should be sent back for trial -- are suddenly worried that the alleged child rapist's "rights" may be jeopardized if he gets sent back so many years after his crimes were allegedly committed. Never mind that his prosecution is certainly timely under New York law -- because he was a fugitive since 1984, New York's "speedy trial" time limit didn't run. But maybe, asked the judges, it's all America's fault, not the alleged rapist's? Maybe America caused all the trouble by not renewing the extradition request until 2007?

Now, remember: NOBODY wanted Mondrowitz put on trial until WE got active and started demanding it -- with information in our hands provided by committed people like attorney Michael Lesher and Mark Weiss, and Michael's other (anonymous) clients. Israel refused Elizabeth Holtzman's extradition request in 1985; the Shas Party's Yitzchak Peretz refused to deport Mondrowitz after that; Roni Milo, the next Interior Minister, refused to deport Mondrowitz in 1987 after promising he would; then Charles Hynes got elected D.A. in 1989 and pulled the plug on the case.

Remember how the documents Michael Lesher finally extracted from the State Department showed that Hynes closed the Mondrowitz case, saying he wouldn't seek Mondrowitz as long as he stayed in Israel? Because he knew damn well that Israel didn't want him brought to justice any more than Hynes did!

Well, they still don't want it -- and now the dodge they seem to be trying is claiming that since America dropped the ball on the extradition request, it's not fair to Mondrowitz to send him back to Brooklyn after all... now that a wised-up community is not just listening to the Herbert Bomzers and other "rabbis" who said (you saw it on TV!) "Leave him alone." We want justice! -- and they know it -- and that's exactly what they DON'T want.

Okay: the facts. Michael has given me permission to post two things here. One is a copy of a document that proves the "America dropped the ball" argument is false. Oh yes, Hynes, dropped the ball (if he ever carried it in the first place); it was criminal of him to drop the case, it was unpardonable of him not to use all his efforts to try to get this animal returned to face his accusers. BUT, this embassy cable from September 9, 1988 shows that even back then, after Israel's criminal law expanded to include sodomy, leading Israeli officials were not interested in extraditing Mondrowitz UNTIL A NEW EXTRADITION TREATY WAS SIGNED... which didn't happen until 2007.

CLICK ON DOCUMENT TO ENLARGE!

Read it and weep -- with anger! Mondrowitz's lawyer is lying, and if he gets away with it, Israel's Supreme Court will be lying too!! I'm also posting (with Michael's permission) an urgent letter he faxed to the Attorney General. The letter outlines the legal reasons why there should be NO question about sending this wanted, indicted multiple felon back to Brooklyn for the trial he deserves -- finally!

The amazing this is, with so much in the balance, NO ONE IS SPEAKING. Not the State Department (which ought to want to see its own extradition request carried out); not our Justice Department; not Israel's Ministry of Justice; and certainly not D.A. Charles Hynes!! Not a word from any of them!

Why not? Well, actually, we don't have to ask that... do we? What DO we have to do? Obviously, DO THE TALKING!! Our voices helped push the D.A. into finally asking for extradition in the fall of 2007; the publicity we generated got Mondrowitz arrested in Israel in November 2007; now we need to go public again! Let's let the people in charge know that we're watching this case, and if there is any dodge, any deal, any mealymouth about Mondrowitz's "rights," ANYTHING that keeps him from being sent back for trial -- we're going to have to know the reason why! And someone may pay for it!! No justice -- no peace!

Here's some contact information for people who ought to hear from the public: At the Brooklyn D.A.'s office, there's the sex crimes unit head:

JausR@BrooklynDA.org. You can let her know we'd appreciate hearing her voice, and her boss's, loud and clear, saying that Mondrowitz's extradition to Brooklyn is very important to the justice system and the entire community. She and Hynes have said they want to prosecute Mondrowitz: this is the right time to say that again, strongly. You might also ask her if she's sitting on the Mondrowitz file to frustrate a Freedom of Information Law request made over a year ago, in order to shed light on Hynes' recent actions in the case -- and still not responded to! You can also contact the D.A.'s Orthodox community liaison: WhiteH@BrooklynDA.org.

At the U.S. State Department, the public communication division phone: 202-647-6575. The main switchboard is 202-647-4000.

Israel's Ministry of Justice, public inquiries fax: 011-972-2-646-6357.

The message for these characters is that we're watching this case closely, we believe the law and facts clearly favor extradition and we hope their efforts toward achieving that result are completely successful.

Finally, there's Israel's High Court, Public Affairs Department. Phone is 011-972-2-675-9612 and 011-972-2-675-9613. I believe their email address is: tlunotrasham@court.gov.il and the fax number is 011-972-2-651-3191.

Bear in mind it's not proper to try to influence judges, so the message there is more or less: we are very interested in this case and its status; we know its history; we intend to continue to follow its progress. If they get enough calls, the word is sure to filter through. Remember: final briefs are being filed on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23. A decision from the court will follow. If we wait until a dirty deal is announced -- God forbid! -- it will be too late.

THIS IS THE TIME TO MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD. Let's show that there are still responsible citizens out there, and Jews who care more for the victim than the criminal!

RAISE HELL!

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

{Via e-mail} We can’t allow HIS rav to keep covering for him and not force him to face his psak. I don’t understand why there are no organized demonstrations outside the Gerer Rebbe’s home and Yeshiva here and in E”Y, why there are no organized demonstration outside Mondrowitz’s home and the homes of his family both here and in E”Y. If this does not take place immediately and we wait for the OFFICIALS to do what they should do and not listen to the askanim backing him, justice will never take place.

Demonstrations should be legal and organized but they should take place immediately both here and in E”Y, round the clock. I know that he has at least one brother in Boro Park and maybe others. Some of you might know more. His family is protecting him and his friends are protecting him, NO ONE protected his victims. NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND UP FOR HIS VICTIMS. And honestly, I don’t want to hear about chilul hashem and being in the media, this would be the biggest Kidush Hashem to put this monster behind bars and make him the biggest example of what will happen to any molester who DARES to touch a yiddishe neshoma.

*

At the Brooklyn D.A.'s office, the best contact is Rhonnie Jaus, head of the sex crimes unit. Her email: JausR@BrooklynDA.org. You might also want to write to the D.A.'s liaison to the Orthodox community, Henna White, at WhiteH@BrooklynDA.org. These people should be speaking publicly about the importance of retrieving this wanted criminal for trial in New York's worst child sex abuse case. So should their boss, D.A. Charles Hynes. The U.S. State Department has the most direct responsibility for pursuing Mondrowitz's extradition: you can call its public communication division at: 202-647-6575. The main switchboard is 202-647-4000. Just let them know you care very much about the successful completion of the State Dept.'s efforts to extradite Mondrowitz. In Israel, the case for Mondrowitz's extradition is being argued by the Ministry of Justice. You can fax to the "Public Inquiries" number, which is: 011-972-2-6466357. Again, you can let them know how much the case means to us and our community. Of course, the actual decision is being made by Israel's High Court. It's improper to try to influence judges, so there's no way to contact them directly. However, you can call the Public Affairs Department at the court to express your strong interest in the Mondrowitz case and to ask how to follow its progress. The two numbers are: 011-972-2-675-9612 and 011-972-2-675-9613.

You can also email the Israel Supreme Court at:

pniot@supreme.court.gov.il

It's case: 2144/08 Avraham Mondrowitz versus State of Israel

All support, actions and tefillos will be deeply appreciated by all Mondrowitz victims. Let's hope we can see justice done.

Michael Lesher, Esq.
Attorney for 6 Mondrowitz victims, author and activist

*

Archived Post --- Colmer is in prison awaiting trial!

Recently (June 14, 2007) Stefan Colmer was arrested in Israel at the request of U.S. authorities, who are seeking his extradition to stand trial in Brooklyn on charges of severe child sexual abuse involving at least two victims (ages 13-14), both Orthodox Jewish boys.

Sadly, it will come as no surprise to those familiar with these issues that Colmer is far from being the only party responsible for these crimes. Colmer's history of child abuse goes back more than ten years, and it was no secret to several rabbis, none of whom ever reported Colmer's crimes to authorities. Instead, Colmer was shuffled from community to community -- without so much as a warning to each new neighborhood -- while rabbis falsely claimed to victims that Colmer was "under control" or "being watched," and in some cases actively discouraged them from contacting police.

This is bad enough. But if we don't act quickly, another inexcusable injustice along the same lines will be committed. Even as Stefan Colmer's extradition is being sought from Israel for his crimes against our children in Brooklyn -- and despite pleas from victims and their advocates -- the Brooklyn District Attorney has so far refused to add an extradition request for Avrohom Mondrowitz, who has already been indicted for child sex abuse even worse and more extensive than the charges against Colmer. Under the current extradition treaty, Mondrowitz is subject to extradition just as Colmer is, and legally the case against him is ready for trial. Unfortunately, D.A. Charles Hynes continues to believe that the Orthodox community is unwilling to see Mondrowitz prosecuted for his heinous crimes against children, and is therefore -- amazingly -- ignoring this outrageous case.

WE MUST CHANGE THIS. NOW -- while the extradition of one child molester is being formally sought from Israel to Brooklyn -- now is the time to show the D.A. that WE WANT MONDROWITZ BROUGHT BACK FOR TRIAL TOO. This is a man believed to have abused or sodomized as many as hundreds of our children, and who has been living openly in Jerusalem for years, thumbing his nose at his victims.

WE MUST DEMAND JUSTICE NOW. With the recent improvement in the U.S.-Israel extradition, nothing is lacking to have Mondrowitz brought to trial but the will of the Brooklyn D.A. to stand up against the rabbis' wall of silence and demand the prosecution that is his legal obligation. It would be an insult to Mondrowitz's many victims if justice is selectively pursued for one hareidi child abuser who took refuge in Israel -- but not Mondrowitz.

PLEASE CALL THE D.A.'S OFFICE (718-250-2000) TO LET OFFICIALS KNOW THAT WE WANT JUSTICE FOR MONDROWITZ'S VICTIMS, AND THAT OUR COMMUNITY WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE COVERUPS OR THE POLITICAL OFFICIALS WHO PARTICIPATE IN THEM. THE HEAD OF THE SEX CRIMES UNIT IS MS. RHONNIE JAUS, ESQ. LET HER KNOW THAT SHE AND HER BOSS WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF THEY DO NOT PRESS FOR THE EXTRADITION OF THE INDICTED CRIMINAL AVROHOM MONDROWITZ.

URGE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO THE SAME; URGE RABBIS TO SPEAK OUT PUBLICLY FOR THE NEED TO SEEK JUSTICE IN THIS CASE AND TO ENCOURAGE THE D.A. TO DO HIS JOB. (REMEMBER, IF THEY WILL NOT DO THIS, THEY CANNOT SERIOUSLY CLAIM TO CARE ABOUT THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN.)

IF YOU PREFER TO COMMUNICATE IN WRITING, WRITE TO: KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SEX ABUSE AND SPECIAL VICTIMS BUREAU, 350 JAY STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11201. REFER TO THE CASE AS STATE V. MONDROWITZ, INDICTMENT NO. 7693/84. AND YOU SHOULD SEND A COPY TO MICHAEL LESHER, ESQ., 22 LEITCH PLACE, PASSAIC, NJ 07055, WHO REPRESENTS SIX OF MONDROWITZ'S VICTIMS AND IS CLOSELY INVOLVED IN THE COLMER INVESTIGATION AS WELL.

DO IT TODAY, TOMORROW CAN'T WAIT. YOUR CHILD'S LIFE IS HANGING IN THE BALANCE!

Lack of Ethics

Oldie but goodie -- Appropriate in light of the Madoff scandal!

Lack of Ethics
Rabbi Gregory Marx

"I have a confession to make. I read the newspaper Jewish-style. I look for those articles that are about Jews and things that affect Jews. All events can be interpreted by the question, 'Is it good for the Jews?' 'Economy falters.' Is it good for the Jews? Middle East flare up…Is it good for the Jews? All heroes and criminals are subject to that probing question: are they Jewish and will their behavior influence public opinion about the Jews? ...

Tonight, I want to talk about other types of Jews who are in the news. And it doesn’t make me proud. I read recently that Jews from Israel are the leading importers of Ecstasy into this country. That’s right, the drug lords of New York speak Hebrew. Last summer, New York police seized over one million Ecstasy pills from Israelis David Roash and Israel Ahkenzi. They had a street value of forty million dollars.

Those of us who travel on El Al, are not only with Yeshiva students and Zionists, we are traveling with drug dealers as well. And who are the carriers?

According to the Jerusalem Report, Bobover Chassidim are paid $1500 and a free trip to Europe for carrying up to $500,000 in cash to Amsterdam and returning with a load of Ecstasy.

They travel back to Israel with 30,000 to 40,000 aspirin-sized pills, which are then sent to America, Australia and New Zealand for sale.

Colleagues that I work with have deeply disappointed me. In Florida, an Orthodox colleague of mine is currently in prison, serving a multi-year term for soliciting minors on the Internet. He solicited a 14-year-old boy and was caught establishing a liaison with the youth. In his depravity he decided not to prey on his Bar/Bat Mitzvah students, but went instead to outside youths that he met in Internet chat rooms and subsequently dark parking lots.

We still await the beginning of the retrial for a south Jersey rabbi who is accused of hiring a troubled man in his congregation to bludgeon his wife to death. Then there are the cantors from New York and Harrisburg who are accused of molesting young boys in their own family and beyond.

And of course, a neighboring synagogue suffered for the past year, having discovered that its trusted employee allegedly embezzled over $1.2 million. While the staff was taking pay cuts in order to stem the financial hemorrhage, two employees were allegedly cutting checks to themselves for thousands of dollars a week.

More often than I care to admit, Jews in the news are not making us proud ... Four Chassidim ripped off the government to the tune of millions and millions of dollars by getting federal grants for schools that didn't even exist! And that didn't stop their fellow Chassidim from coming to the defense of their cohorts by claiming they didn't keep any of the money for themselves.

The chief rabbis of the community defended their actions, because it was strengthening the religious efforts of the community against the evils of secularization. What is happening to our community?

Rabbi Elimelech Naiman was given a prison sentence for mail fraud and misappropriation of government funds. He was the deputy director of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park.

Rabbi Jacob Lustig got 3 years’ probation and a million-dollar fine for skimming more than 2 million dollars from his synagogue's bingo proceeds.

Rabbi Hertz Frankel got nabbed for cheating the government out of six million dollars.

Recently, Rabbi Yizchok Fried was arrested for dealing in drugs. Two Chassidim were jailed for rigging an election in England!

And headlines in the New York Post and Daily News told the world of the arrest of 14 Satmar Chassidim of running a multi-million dollars 'full service fraud factory,' which bilked banks, credit card companies, individuals and the IRS of millions of dollars.

These are just a few from within the Orthodox community!

Not only have Jews in the news sunk to moral lows, but worse still, they have failed to accept responsibility for their moral wrongdoings.

I will never forget officiating at the funeral of a mother of two infants who was stabbed to death by her husband from Monsey, New York. Her two children are too young to remember the events that changed their lives, but when they mature, they will sadly come to understand their loss of innocence, the intrusion of violence and the betrayal of trust that turned their lives upside down. One parent gone, another in jail for the murder. I know that it goes on all around us.

It’s part of the daily news that makes up the larger world. But I’m not talking to the larger world. I’m talking to our community. You’re the only ones who will listen.

We Jews are supposed to be a light unto the nations. We are supposed to define our characters by our behavior. And judging from the past years, we are in terrible shape ...

We are here to remind the world, that deeds not faith redeem the world. If we lose sight of this teaching, if we forget to live like decent people, then we lose the essence of our faith.

We have become irrelevant. The world won’t need Jews anymore.

With all these recent revelations and scandals, it's not so much my concern what God thinks about it, and it is not even my concern what non-Jews think and say about it.

My deepest concern is how our own Jewish children feel about it!

A congregant told me that she swelled with pride when she discovered her elementary school-aged children avidly reading a front-page story in the newspaper. But then she was horrified to learn what article they were reading.

It was the headline about jury selection for a rabbi accused of murdering his wife. Who would have dreamed that a Jewish standard bearer would gain national prominence before children’s eyes in this way? ... So yes, 'Why be Jewish?' is being asked by many. And 'Why marry Jewish?' is being asked by many more. Can I still say because of our moral passion?

Can I still say, that it’s because we Jews have historically taken the ethical high road?

What do I say when our children are bombarded every day with stories of Jews who are corrupt and have sunk to the lowest levels of inhumanity ???

It's Not Just Individuals - It's The Community!

A telling post from Daas Hedyot sent in by Malach Hamovies!

It's Not Just Individuals - It's The Community!

Oftentimes in my life, when people discover that I used to be religious, they inquire as to why I chose to leave that lifestyle behind me. When I first encountered people asking me this, I would try to explain that the choice I made was a very personal one, based on what I concluded was right for me specifically, and that my decision wasn't intended to make a statement about the objective truth of Judaism in general. It's not that theological and ideological arguments didn't play a contributing part - they most definitely did, in that they significantly loosened the grip which my fundamentalist upbringing had held me in. And it's not that I was oblivious to all the scholarship (from science, history, biblical scholarship, and other fields) which challenged the veracity of Orthodox Judaism.

While I never did get too involved in those discussions, I was well aware of how powerfully they undermined many of the foundations of Orthodoxy. But more importantly, I knew myself, and I knew that what was really motivating me was the particular social and psychological needs which I was facing in my life. Orthodoxy was doing nothing for me (intellectually, spiritually, socially, emotionally, and in other ways) and even worse, I felt it was actively crippling me, by forcing me to subscribe to a lifestyle and value system which I didn't believe in at all.

So when someone would assume from my decision that it was an indictment of Orthodoxy as a whole, I would go out of my way to correct the mistaken impression. I would try to make it clear that while I was most definitely critical of aspects of that world, the community as a whole was not deserving of condemnation and that there were still many Orthodox people who I wholeheartedly respected (well, maybe "a few" is more accurate). But to presume that I was critical of Orthodoxy as a whole was an assumption that was not justified.

However, these days, when faced with this question of "Why am I not religious?" I find myself frequently questioning this approach I had previously settled upon. While it's obvious that the motivations for my choice couldn't have retroactively changed, the simple fact is that I am finding myself less and less able to look at the chareidi community that I came from and be able to describe it as anything other than a corrupt, dysfunctional, and totally unhealthy environment to be a part of.

The many recent indiscretions, dysfunctions, and outright misdeeds of individuals within the Orthodox community have been well documented in the media: Hundreds of sexual abuse cases being reported, including many by rabbis and principals (Kolko, Mondrowitz, Weingarten, Beis Yakov Principal, Satmar Principal in Williamsburg, West Bank Rabbi, Baltimore Rabbi), acid and bleach thrown at those not dressing modestly enough, beatings by modesty squads, attacking women who sit in the front of the bus, tax fraud by Hassidic Rebbes, infants killed by abusive fathers, indictments at glatt kosher slaughterhouses, eviction threats because of not being frum enough, etc., etc. I can keep on going, but I think the picture is clear. There's a lot of ugliness to be found within the chareidi community. A hell of a lot. This is way more than just a few isolated incidents.

However, despite the fact that these stories are appearing with ever increasing frequency, I don't think that these incidents are truly representative of the entire community. They are unfortunately more than just a few people, but I don't think that these sorts of extremely awful behaviors are actually widespread in the frum community. And I honestly don't think it's fair to tar the whole community with the transgressions of a small minority who make the rest of the community look bad.

The thing is though, that small minority of deviants aren't the reason that I think so negatively of the community as a whole. If it was only these incidents, I probably wouldn't be as critical as I am of the frum world. Rather, what fills me with such a repugnance is the behavior of the entire community itself, specifically in how it reacts to the many truly awful crimes happening in their midst.

For example, let's look at the child molestation issue: It's not just that there are child molesters in the community. Yes, that's awful, but as bad as it is, I'd concede that it's not more than a tiny percentage of the community, and I wouldn't judge the whole community based on just that. But what isn't a tiny percentage is the number of people who willfully and knowingly hamper efforts to bring these molesters to justice. What isn't a small number is the amount of people who would prefer to let these criminals remain free rather than risk sullying the reputation of their venerated institutions.

When a community as a whole allows such crimes to go unpunished and penalizes those who are trying to help innocent children, they can no longer hide behind the defense of "it's just a few lone individuals". At that point the community is also guilty. When the leadership (both rabbinic and lay) which the community looks up to is continuously silent on such a grave matter, it is a clear indication of where the community's priorities are.

When a community leader publicly admits that he has knowledge of hundreds of abuse cases, and yet his constituents prefer him to keep it all away from the police, the community has then become complicit in the crimes. When everyone cares more about what their neighbor is going to say about them, or their children's shidduch chances, or what yeshiva their kids will get into, or about being shunned by their friends (all commonly heard excuses for why no one wants to step up to the plate on any of these issues) - when they care more about all that than they do actually solving the problem, they're saying that they care more about maintaining the community's standards than doing what is right and just. That it's better to keep these things quiet.

This is why I can no longer look at the chareidi world with even a modicum of respect. The community as a whole has clearly expressed that they place the reputation of their society, and their place in that society, above the well being of their own children. How can anyone not be disgusted by such a society?

If the community truly cared, then it wouldn't ostracize people who try to bring the criminals to justice. If the community cared, a chassidish family wouldn't be afraid to tell the police who raped their 14 year old daughter. If the community cared it wouldn't stand behind and support a man convicted of killing his own baby (UTJ Knesset member Meir Porush called him a "good, quiet and disciplined" young man). If the community really cared, people wouldn't have to continuously be ashamed to report abuse to the police.

When last year, a chassidish man was found to be selling the Monsey community non-kosher chicken, the community showed how much they cared. The man and his family were run out of the community, in shame and in fear for his life. The community showed what they cared about then. And when the community allows accused child molesters to peaceably remain a part of their community, but those who try to help victims are harassed and attacked, they make it even clearer to the world what they care about. When a frum politician is able to back down on a promise to stop a molester from teaching kids, and no one demands that he keep his word, it shows where the community's concerns lie. When the rabbonim get more worked up about "illicit" music and "heretical" books than they do about yeshivas harboring molesters they reveal to us just what matters most to them.

This is why I have become so absolutely and utterly disgusted with the frum community as a whole. It is no longer just individuals committing these crimes. It is also the general public, and the leadership, which is responsible for allowing these horrible injustices to be perpetrated. It is the community and rabbis which turn a blind eye (or worse) towards these indiscretions. Their inaction, and relative silence (aside from a few vocal and brave activists), is a shocking admission of where their priorities truly lie. Their unwillingness to step up, and yes - risk condemnation and possible political fallout - is a clear indication of what the community values. If your community is going to condemn you for bringing a criminal to justice, isn't the community unambiguously saying that they prefer to protect criminals? Aren't they also then complicit in their crimes?

Admittedly, I know that there are many individuals in the community who are as horrified and sickened by all this as much as I am. Probably more so. But then why don't you speak up? I know the answer to that - because it's too costly for you. You will be shunned, ostracized, maybe even worse. I understand that. But how can you not be ashamed of yourself? With your silence, you are making a choice, a choice to be part of a society that prefers to let some of the very worst crimes of humanity - rape, violence, murder, abuse - go unpunished.

How can any self-respecting person - let alone one who considers themselves spiritual and religiously principled --- stand to be a part of this world?