11 new cases of measles reported in Orthodox enclave, bringing to 17 the number of children infected; 3 caught the virus in Israel where a baby died this week .....

NYC warns about measles outbreak among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn

11 new cases of measles reported in Orthodox enclave, bringing to 17 the number of children infected; 3 caught the virus in Israel where a baby died this week

 Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 

 

New York City’s Health Department is warning of an outbreak of measles in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community and calling on parents to have their children vaccinated.

The department said Friday that there are 11 new cases of measles in the Orthodox enclave, bringing to 17 the number of children who have been recently diagnosed with measles in Williamsburg and Borough Park.

Three infections, including the initial case of measles, were acquired by children on a visit to Israel, the department said, where a large outbreak of the disease is occurring.

On Thursday an 18-month-old toddler died of measles in Jerusalem, the first recorded death from measles in Israel in the past 15 years. According to officials at the capital’s Shaare Zedek Hospital, the infant was not vaccinated against the virulently contagious disease.

“There has also been transmission in schools with children who are unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated,” the New York department said in a release.

Health officials and community groups have reported relatively low vaccination rates in Orthodox neighborhoods. Some blame a faulty perception that fervently religious Jews are protected from infection by the relatively insulated nature of their communities, on top of rumors, unfounded according to public health officials, about dangers from vaccinations.

To counter this, the city Health Department enlisted community figures to encourage vaccination against  measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), including Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, and Rabbi Avi Greenstein, executive director of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council.

“It says in the Torah ‘V’nishmartem Meod L’nafshoseichem,’ that a person must guard their health,” Niederman said in the Health Department news release. “It is abundantly clear on the necessity for parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated, especially from Measles.”

The Health Department  is working with local health care providers, religious schools and Orthodox newspapers to spread the word about vaccines.

Read more:

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nyc-warns-about-measles-outbreak-among-orthodox-jews-in-brooklyn/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2018-11-03&utm_medium=email

 

• measles
• vaccination
• Ultra-Orthodox

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Two more cases of measles have been confirmed in Ocean County, and the state Department of Health is now labeling it an outbreak.

SHMUEL KAMINETZKY - MALKIEL KOTLER - MATTISYAHU SALOMON

2 More Measles Cases In Ocean County 'Outbreak', State Says 

A pizza place and another restaurant are among the sites where others may have been exposed, the state health department said.

By Karen Wall, Patch Staff | Nov 2, 2018 9:48 am ET | Updated Nov 2, 2018 9:49 am ET

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Two more cases of measles have been confirmed in Ocean County, and the state Department of Health is now labeling it an outbreak.

Health Department Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said the two new cases are people who developed symptoms after being exposed to a man who was exposed to the measles while traveling internationally.

The two new cases could have exposed others to infection between Oct. 25 and Oct. 30, a statement from the Health Department said. The first case of measles was reported Oct. 24, but that man had exposed others before the case was confirmed.

"The Department of Health is considering this an outbreak of measles in the community," the statement said.

Measles can take up to 21 days to appear; those exposed to the first man, if infected, could develop symptoms as late as Nov. 11. Anyone exposed to either of the two new cases could develop symptoms as late as Nov. 20, the health department said.

Anyone who was at any of the following locations on the specified dates who has not been vaccinated or who has not had measles is considered exposed and at risk:

• Schul Satmar, 405 Forest Avenue, Lakewood; Oct. 13-Oct. from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day
• Eat a Pita, 116 Clifton Ave, Lakewood; Oct. 15 between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
• CHEMED Health Center, 1771 Madison Ave, Lakewood; Oct. 17 between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Oct. 18 between 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
• NPGS, 231 Main St, Lakewood; Oct. 25 between 9 a.m. and noon, and Oct. 29 between 2:15 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.
• Pizza Plus, 241 4th St, Lakewood; Oct. 28 between 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Measles is a highly contagious disease and the state health department is working in collaboration with the Ocean County Health Department to identify and notify people who might have been exposed during the time the individuals were infectious.

The Department urges residents to remain vigilant for any symptoms of measles, including rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. It can cause serious complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain).

Measles infection in a pregnant woman can lead to miscarriage, premature birth or a low-birth-weight baby.

Measles is easily spread through the air when someone coughs or sneezes. People can also get sick when they come in contact with mucus or saliva from an infected person.

What to do if you think you may have been exposed:

• DO NOT go to the emergency room or your health provider — CALL FIRST. Special arrangements can be made for evaluation while also protecting other patients and medical staff from possible infection. Anyone who has not been vaccinated or has not had measles is at risk if they are exposed.
• MAKE SURE your immunizations and your family's immunizations are up to date. Two doses of measles vaccine are about 97 percent effective in preventing measles, state epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan said.

"We urge everyone to check to make sure they and their family members are up-to-date on measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine and all other age-appropriate immunizations. Getting vaccinated not only protects you, it protects others around you who are too young to get the vaccine or can't receive it for medical reasons," Tan said.

If you are planning an international trip, the World Health Organization recommends that adults or adolescents unsure of their immune status get a dose of measles vaccine before traveling.
Before international travel:

• Infants 6 through 11 months of age should receive one dose of MMR vaccine. Infants who get one dose of MMR vaccine before their first birthday should get two more doses (one dose at 12 through 15 months of age and another dose separated by at least 28 days).
• Children 1 year and older should receive two doses of MMR vaccine, separated by at least 28 days.
• Teenagers and adults who do not have evidence of immunity against measles should get two doses of MMR vaccine separated by at least 28 days.

Common complications are ear infections and diarrhea. More severe complications include pneumonia and encephalitis; as many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. One in every 1,000 children who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability.

For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/lakewood-nj/2-more-measles-cases-confirmed-lakewood?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=weather&utm_campaign=alert

Pittsburgh paper prints Mourner’s Kaddish prayer on front page The city’s largest news paper hailed for its moving tribute to the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre

Say What You Want About Kahane, He Understood anti-Semitism!....."For centuries, we upset a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through inquisitions, and we upset the arch-enemy of the church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.... "

Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Open Letter to the World

Rabbi Meir Kahane, OBM, was a strong Jew who believed in a Jewish State that apologized neither for its Jewishness nor its willingness to fight to survive. He was vilified by the Left, especially the Israeli government as he gained popularity dramatically among the Likud voters, threatening the status quo. The Israeli Supreme Court outlawed his party as racist when it used quotes from the Five Books of Moses. He was assassinated by an Arab named Nosair on the streets of New York -- the same Arab who later stood trial as a co-conspirator of Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman and received a life sentence plus fifteen years imprisonment for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, conspiracy to use explosives against New York landmarks, and a plot to assassinate U.S. politicians.

The following is a letter Rabbi Kahane, OBM, wrote to the world. It is a strong letter based on an unpleasant history, but a true one nonetheless. What rings out, however, is the clarifying distinction between the call by Muslims and Arabs around the world claiming victimhood and hatred and calling for murder and indeed terrorizing the world with actual murder, and this one Jew's proclamation that his desire is not to conquer or convert but to be left alone. With all of the Left-wing and Arab-based conspiracy theories of Jews manipulating the US government into war expeditions in Iraq and elsewhere, the simple truth is that Jews around the world would be happy to be just left alone in one little piece of real estate surrounded by more than 21 Islamic states with a collective land mass 649 fold greater than Israel's and a total population 49 fold greater. When Muslims can blame the Jew, the American, the European, and even the Pope for their misery and wretchedness, one might conclude that the condition they find themselves in is a product of their own making and constitution.

The text of the letter follows:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLD

Dear World,

I understand that you are upset by us, here in Israel.

Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry.

Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset by us. Today, it is the "brutal repression of the Palestinians"; yesterday it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War and the Sinai campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily.

Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we - the Jewish people - upset you.

We upset a German people who elected Hitler and upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians and Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset.

We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us.

For centuries, we upset a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through inquisitions, and we upset the arch-enemy of the church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit. 

And it is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish state. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you and disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you (and thus love you)- and have you love us and so, we decided to come home - home to the same land we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset.

Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please.

Having left you and your pogroms and inquisitions and crusades and holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state, we continue to upset you. You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The "radical" Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset.

Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel.

In 1920 and 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered tens of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron in 1929. 

Dear world, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots between 1936-39? Was it because Arabs were upset over 1967?

And when you, dear world, proposed a UN Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a "Palestinian State" alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried "no" and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that "upset" caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of "upset" then?

The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who when they had all the territories they now demand be given to them for their state -attempted to drive the Jewish state into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "itbach-al-yahud" (Massacre the Jew!) that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today, but we should not "repress" them.

Dear world, you stood by during the holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres.

You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians dream daily of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well think of how many times in the past you bothered us.

In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.

“Measles Outbreak in New York City in the Orthodox Jewish Community”

By Rabbi Aaron E. Glatt, MD

There is a small, yet very vocal and influential group of “anti-vaxxers” living in our heimishe communities. They should stop reading now, as they will not like what I have to say, will not listen to what I have to say, and will write personal non-scientific scathing diatribes against me. However, I hope the rest of Klal Yisroel keeps on reading this critically important pikuah nefashos article, which the Yerushalmi essentially states is a primary chiyuv of a rav to darshen.

“Measles Outbreak in New York City in the Orthodox Jewish Community” was the title of a letter sent last week by the Department of Health to physicians across the state. Unfortunately, this is only the latest such tragic headline among numerous similar and preventable outbreaks in recent months and years, in our communities, in the U.S., Eretz Yisroel and Europe. I was truly saddened, embarrassed and pained.

Almost all the cases of measles are directly related to someone (or many people) being unvaccinated and spreading their illness and ignorance to others. I am very sorry if that offends anyone, but my vaccinated, 2-year-old granddaughter just had to get an urgent premature second dose of MMR vaccine after being exposed in “gan” in Israel; her 5-month old brother, too young to be vaccinated, had to get a painful gamma globulin shot, because of such incorrect and dangerous medical views. Hashem yeracheim.

There is absolutely no one who disagrees with the psak that a parent is required to remove one’s child to safety when a danger is present. Indeed, this is part of the basis for the halachic ruling of HaRav Elyashiv zt”l, who viewed normal childhood vaccinations as being an obligatory part of parental obligations.

HaRav Asher Weiss, shlita, poseik for Shaare Zedek Hospital, says it is a mitzvah and chiyuv to get vaccinated, bringing a proof from the story of Sodom from this week’s Parsha. He further states that yeshivas have the right and even obligation to protect other students, and should not allow unvaccinated children into school. This is also the written psak of HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein, shlita as well as the psak of HaRav Elyashiv, who ruled that parents have the right to have unvaccinated children excluded from class so as not to cause unnecessary risks for their children.

Many other gedolei Yisroel, including HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, HaRav Yehoshua Newirth, zt”l, and yibadeil bein chayim lechayim, HaRav J. David Bleich, HaRav Reuven Feinstein, HaRav Hershel Schachter and HaRav Mordechai Willig, shlita, have all ruled that there is no basis in halacha to suggest that vaccinations should be avoided. All strongly urge and support appropriate universal vaccination against the major childhood potentially fatal illness that are preventable.

Indeed, it is sheker (dishonest) to officially avow that Jewish law forbids vaccination, which is the only way in some states to avoid mandatory state vaccination laws by providing such a false attestation about our religion.

Signatories: Shmuel Kaminetzky, Malkiel Kotler, Mattisyahu Salomon

So why all the headlines, anguish and outbreaks among the “People of the Book?” Why did 180 children, 80 percent of whom were unvaccinated, die in the United States during 2017/2018 from flu, along with 80,000 adults? Why do yeshivas and camps have to close  and stop learning because of mumps outbreaks? Why were six babies hospitalized with measles in the past month at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv? Are we living in the 1950s?

In my humble opinion, as a community rav and board certified infectious diseases physician expert, it is because we somehow have forgotten to read the word of Hashem. Halacha states that if there is a dispute regarding whether a patient should eat on Yom Kippur, or if Shabbos desecration is necessary to save a life, the most competent and/or the majority of experts make the determination.

Regarding vaccination against the major vaccine preventable illnesses, both determinants (expertise and majority) are the same. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, all 50 state Departments of Health in the United States, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the American College of Physicians, and every other major professional infection control organization in the world, clearly opine unanimously. Bar none – “leis man depalig” – there is no mumcheh (expert) organization that disagrees. The evidence is overwhelming that vaccination is the only way to control these preventable fatal diseases. Chasdei Hashem – no one dies anymore of smallpox; polio is almost wiped out – solely, and only because of very successful vaccination programs. Rachmana leztlan, why should anyone in 5779 die from measles???

Why are people not following these medical experts as halacha requires? Why are my (and your) precious children and grandchildren unnecessarily exposed to lethal illnesses, forced to take painful and additional medications and shots, because non-experts “believe” otherwise.

Imagine if parents were to insist their child come to school armed with a revolver. Would even the most ardent gun rights activist insist this is right? So why are we letting children come to our shuls, schools and camps spreading serious potentially life threatening illness that could have been prevented by vaccination?

All the major rabbinic organizations have rightly and strongly spoken out against physician assisted death; I myself also recently published on this subject. Therefore, I feel compelled to publicly speak out (again) against “non-vaccination assisted death”, a cause which unfortunately does not get enough similar support. Please ask your Rav to speak about this on Shabbos – it is a matter of pikuach nefashos.

Rabbi Aaron Glatt, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, is Chairman of Department of Medicine, Chief Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiologist at South Nassau Communities Hospital; Clinical Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Assistant Rabbi, Young Israel of Woodmere. 

***

DOHMH Alert #38: Measles Outbreak in New York City in the Orthodox Jewish Community

This month, DOHMH issued an advisory about an international traveler with measles who potentially exposed people in various New York and New Jersey venues during the October 4-11, 2018, time period. DOHMH now reports that there has been an outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish Community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with six cases confirmed.

https://www.gnyha.org/news/important-infectious-disease-updates-continued-spread-of-measles-ebola-outbreak/

LAKEWOOD, NJ — A suspected case of measles has been reported in Ocean County, a medical group in Lakewood announced.

CHEMED — the Center for Health Education, Medicine and Dentistry — posted the notice on its website Wednesday. The notice additionally said there are confirmed cases of pertussis — also known as whooping cough — and varicella (chicken pox), but did not say where......

https://patch.com/new-jersey/lakewood-nj/suspected-measles-case-reported-ocean-county?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=weather&utm_campaign=alert

Moetzes Resign! " YOU CAUSED THE FIRE"!

WATCH THE ENTIRE SEGMENT: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whistleblower-says-buffalo-bishop-knew-of-sexual-abuse-allegations-but-did-nothing-60-minutes/

For my Jewish friends who think I'm exaggerating, here's a message for you. You're worse for our people than the non-Jews who don't know anything about Jewish history. Every time you blame violence against Jews on something other than Judaism being their identity, you're hurting us....

  ( UOJ NOTE: I personally despise Donald Trump, and believe he is a vile and despicable imitation of a human being. PM)

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man,” meaning “a mentsch.” 

https://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2017/01/in-place-where-there-are-no-men-strive.html

 by Jeff Schimmel

Today, I heard so many people from all walks of life remark that they don't understand how someone can walk into a synagogue and kill Jewish people for no reason.

Really? Let me clear it up for you. People hate Jews. That's the default setting on Earth. Before you tell me that I'm generalizing or that you love Jews or that there is no proof of anything so clearly wrong and ridiculous, I would ask that you do one thing.

Do a Google search and read some history. Then, after you have learned a little bit, wake the f*ck up.
Do you think Hitler was the only leader to ever hate Jews? He was one of the biggies, no doubt. My family members were murdered by the Nazis in the most horrible ways. But that was a blip in the existence of the Jewish people.

From the time of Abraham, Jews have been favorite targets. How many times was Israel conquered? How many different civilizations tried to wipe us out? How many of them took us to their country as slaves? Do you know that the word "Diaspora" was specifically invented to describe how Jews were always forced out of where they lived?

Why is this the case? My father, a concentration camp survivor, and the only one from his entire family, always said it seemed like jealousy. Jews have achieved a lot. For some reason, uneducated people think everything Jews have was given to them. Really? By whom?

If anything, everything they had was taken from them, by force, generation after generation. But they persevered. When they were prohibited from receiving an education because of their faith, do you know what they did? They educated themselves. Rabbis gathered children in basements and taught them. My father was kicked out of school in Hungary as a young teenager for no reason other than he was a Jew. When he came to this country, penniless, with no rich relatives waiting for him, he busted his ass to make it - and he did. Jews have been doing that for thousands of years, but not because they volunteered to do so. They were forced to because the world has always hated them.

This is reality. If you're a non-Jew and you don't believe it, do one more thing for me. Pretend you're Jewish for a few days. Wear a "Chai" necklace and tell people you're a Jew. See if you are suddenly treated differently. Tell people who already know you that you are actually a Jew and see if it makes a difference to them. Pay attention to the way they talk to you after that. My wife never believed me, until she became a Jew. After that, she never stopped encountering the phenomenon I speak of.

For my Jewish friends who think I'm exaggerating, here's a message for you. You're worse for our people than the non-Jews who don't know anything about Jewish history. Every time you blame violence against Jews on something other than Judaism being their identity, you're hurting us.

Check some FBI statistics. Do you know who the biggest target of hate crimes is in the United States? Jews. Look into it and you will see that Jews are victims of hate crimes more than all of the other targets added together. It's thousands of times a year in this country - that is supposedly run by Jews.

Jews make up just less than 2% of the U.S. population. African-Americans make up 12.6%, and every time something happens to them or their community, I can empathize. Latinos make up 16.3% of the American population. Christians, in aggregate, make up 71% of those in the U.S. Are you beginning to see a trend here? Look at the numbers and tell me who the minority is. Very few people can claim that they get it more than we do and more often and for as long.

It was downright silly today, hearing some people in the media say that Donald Trump is responsible for what happened in a Pittsburgh synagogue. That's brilliant. Was he also responsible for what happened to Jews when the Roman Empire ruled Israel? How about when Solomon's Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem thousands of years ago?

 How about when Solomon's Second Temple was destroyed too? Is Donald Trump responsible for the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Jews in Israel? Did Donald Trump write the charter for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority or Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad or ISIS? You know, the readily available documents that say their mission is to annihilate the Jews of the entire world? Did Donald Trump convince the government of Iran to say they want to wipe Israel off the planet? Does anyone with a brain in their head actually believe that Donald Trump is to blame (for this massacre)?

 Well, I didn't vote for him, but I think it's ludicrous. Was Bernie Sanders responsible for the actions of his former volunteer who shot Republican Congressmen on a baseball field? Of course not.

There are Jew-haters everywhere. Some of them own guns. But the gun didn't stroll into a synagogue today. A lunatic did. A virulent antisemite. And it was far from the first time. The folks out there who want to blame the gun, here's a message for you. Go to Sderot in Southern Israel and watch the rockets rain down on civilians by the thousands. Those aren't guns purchased at Big 5. Go to Jerusalem and see innocent people standing at a train station stabbed to death by a Palestinian woman with scissors. Also not a gun purchased at Wal-Mart. No background check in the world is going to stop a terrorist with a suicide vest.

 Those heroes to the Arab world don't need an AR-15 bought from Bass Pro Shops. The gun didn't kill the people in the synagogue. A man who shouted "All Jews must die!" did. Get that straight in your head. For thousands of years, hundreds of generations, a murderer of Jews never needed a gun to do it.

Let's face facts. Let's not deny history or sweep it under the rug. The Jews have been hunted since forever. That isn't going to change anytime soon. In my opinion, never. I have, unfortunately, had to teach my daughter to accept it and expect it. Sadly, she sees for herself, time and time again, that it is true. A lot of things would have to change in the world for me to be proven wrong. Sorry, but if it hasn't happened in several thousand years, it probably won't change now.

In the meantime, I'm a Jew and I'm not taking shit from anyone. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not walking into a gas chamber like my grandmother did. If I have to go, I can guarantee you the person on the other end of the transaction is going with me.

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.schimmel.7/posts/10216972453242621

It Is A Fitting Tribute to Post This Article On The Yahrzeits of Carlebach and Kahane , Which Coincides With the Pittsburgh Shabbat Massacre, --- They have been accused of many things, but NEVER for the lack of love for their fellow Jews!

Kahane and Carlebach: Counterculture and its rabbis

How two very different Orthodox rabbis defied the establishment to promote true religiosity, for better and for worse...

Shlomo Carlebach performs in Jerusalem on March 8, 1994

Though I only came of age towards the end of the 1970s, many of the radical leaders of the ’60s and early ’70s were still around. Hence, I remember going to hear socialist Michael Harrington and black activist Angela Davis, when they came to campus. But there was another type of counterculture that also intrigued me, and that was the Jewish counterculture. That meant going to listen to its icons as well. And arguably the most prominent were two whose imminent yahrzeits fall only two days apart – on the 16^th and 18th of Heshvan (October 24 and October 26, respectively) – namely Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Rabbi Meir Kahane.

On the face of it, the two were so different that some will be taken aback at seeing them appear together at all (and I understand – but disagree with – those who cannot get past some of R. Kahane’s distasteful statements, to see anything positive in his career). But I was far from the only one interested by both at the time. It is likely that there were very few engaged young Jews that had not listened to each of these unconventional rabbis at one time or another. In fact, it was not at all uncommon for the same young people that followed Kahane during the week to come and listen to Carlebach on Shabbat. This is no secret to those who lived through it, nor am I the first to write about it.

What is less well understood is how men of such different temperaments and outlooks could draw the same crowds. By way of introduction, it helps to remember that the militancy of Kahane on the one hand and the love of Carlebach were actually just two sides of the more general countercultural rejection of middle-class American values. Boiled down, the two rabbis provided avenues for Jews to join the counterculture, while simultaneously connecting to their own heritage.

In fact, their core messages were remarkably similar to each other; and they were not so different from the messages of the counterculture at large. Like other ’60s radicals, they told their followers to think more deeply and not to accept the establishment’s conventional wisdom and values. For many – and, obviously, for these rabbis – thinking deeply implied a search for deeper meaning and spirituality. What made their approaches particularly Jewish is that they urged Jews to look to their own legacy for the answers. With ethnicity a rising value in the counterculture, it was a relatively easy sell. And so they brought back many Jews who were very far from Judaism and – in some cases – from any sense of healthy living at all.

While their unconventional approaches isolated them, Kahane’s Jewish pride and assertiveness on the one hand, and Carlebach’s warmth and music on the other, were eventually co-opted by more conventional outreach venues that also saw the opportunity created by the counterculture. With the vapidity and emptiness of contemporary culture that the counterculture so obviously exposed, Jewish tradition could be presented as a more spiritual and authentic alternative. Eventually, this trickled down to mainstream synagogues and youth groups as well. So much so that I remember hearing the service offerings for a recent Friday night on a college campus as Carlebach-Orthodox, Carlebach-Conservative and Carlebach-Reform.

Yet even when they were alive, most of us who were not part of their inner circles were not completely comfortable with all the messages and methods of either. And while they have vastly different legacies, such that R. Shlomo positively touched many more people than did R. Meir, both legacies remain mixed.

Rabbi Meir Kahane

Some will say that in one or both cases, the negative fallout was too high a price to pay for their accomplishments. It is not for me or you to judge. But it seems clear that it was almost impossible for the latter to have happened without the former. For it was ultimately their lack of convention and disaffection with the Jewish establishment that allowed them to be so successful. Both were outstanding Torah scholars who decided to follow their own ways, ignoring the course set forth by the community’s religious and political leadership. 

Though both stayed Orthodox, they equally ignored the consensus of acceptable practice and behavior in that community and – instead – followed their own instincts. Consciously or not, this proved to be a path of spiritual and physical self-destruction: a life on the road, using the modalities and even the mores of the American counter-culture. By taking such a path, they found both life and death. And perhaps it was ultimately the willingness to take such a path that was so tragically admirable.

Could this not be seen as the legacy of the ’60s and ’70s more generally? There were many problems with that time’s counterculture and its excesses. But there was also a freshness and honesty that allowed for true religiosity. I don’t know if this is the only path to it – and hope and pray that it is not – but I do know that this type of religiosity is what life is really all about.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/kahane-and-carlebach-counterculture-and-its-rabbis/?fbclid=IwAR1fyiAuZV8Z-JRnJBGK8iWVh05sEonhr9TBmsUXAFVYJaOF5CQZ6_qoBjg

Taking Family Time - Back Soon!

....And the next predator in our midst is likely also someone of good standing, who also seeks to groom his victims by engaging in exemplary behavior. Had the report sought to understand the totality of Rosenfeld’s behavior, readers of the report could have developed a more refined sense of how such predators work, and sharpen awareness for the future.

What the SAR sex abuse report didn’t say 

 

Stanley Rosenfeld was a pedophile. He was also inspirational, and that's no minor detail, it's a key lesson for today 

I will never forget the Shabbat I spent at the home of convicted pedophile Stanley Rosenfeld while he was an administrator at the SAR Academy in Riverdale, NY and I was a fifth grader in the school, in the mid-1970’s. SAR has just released its report outlining in graphic detail how these Shabbat invites became the staging grounds for horrific episodes of molestation. I was one of twelve students who provided accounts of these events to T&M Protection Resources, whose investigators penned the report the school sent out. The report, I’m sorry to say, omits valuable parts of my testimony. 

It was the first time I ever experienced a full, orthodox Shabbat experience. I remember the savory chicken fricassee that Rosenfeld prepared for the four of us for Friday night dinner. I remember singing zemirot at the Shabbat table for the first time, especially the spirited tune for zur mi-shelo.

Rosenfeld had a terrific tenor voice, and served as a cantor. I remember playing scrabble Shabbat afternoon and how taken I was that you could keep score by using a fat dictionary, and inserting a page-marker as the score progressed. I also remember the pillow fights and play wrestling that went on, which included Rosenfeld grabbing me in an area of the thigh that seemed a bit too high up. But I thought nothing of it at the time. All in all I had a beautiful Shabbat experience, and would tell many people thereafter that it was a catalyst toward my taking on Shabbat observance.

You can find reference to the pillow fights and thigh-grabbing on p. 10 of the T&M report, but no mention of any of these other details. Why are they important? Why remotely suggest anything positive about a monster?

If we are to prevent these events from recurring, we need to understand how they were allowed to happen in the first place. The literature of sexual abuse teaches us that predators go to great lengths to groom victims and that one of the central pillars of this activity is to engage in activity that builds trust and reverence in the eyes of the community. The moral of Little Red Riding Hood is not to trust strangers. The moral of Rosenfeld’s shabbat invites is how to not to fall victim to precisely those in whom we trust. Could it be that my Shabbat was a “decoy” designed to lull the school and community into a sense of trust, so that on another Shabbat he could attack his favored prey?

The school’s mandate to T&M was to investigate allegations of misconduct and to determine whether anyone within the SAR community had knowledge of such misconduct. Thus formulated, the mandate focused on past guilt. The picture it paints of Rosenfeld is that of the monster that he truly is.

But Rosenfeld was not perceived by the community as such, and the next predator in our midst is likely also someone of good standing, who also seeks to groom his victims by engaging in exemplary behavior. Had the report sought to understand the totality of Rosenfeld’s behavior, readers of the report could have developed a more refined sense of how such predators work, and sharpen awareness for the future.

The SAR report follows on the heels of a similar report from the Ramaz School just a few weeks earlier. Taken together, the two reports reveal a remarkable phenomenon: the circle of people who knew or had heard of sexual abuse was incredibly wide. In both schools it included administrators, teachers, parents, and students. And yet in neither school (nor in similar episodes elsewhere in the orthodox community) did anyone report the allegations of misconduct to law enforcement, nor to the press, nor to the wider Jewish community alerting to the presence of predators in our midst.

These reports copiously document what seem in hindsight a series of missed signals and opportunities to prevent further damage. How could all of these people – administrators, teachers, parents and even students once they got older – have failed to act to protect others? It is so easy to stand in self-righteous judgment of an entire generation of our community – but foolhardy to do so.

How apt that this question of judgment comes to the fore of our community, in this week that we read Rashi’s famous comment at the beginning of the story of Noah and the flood. Noah, the Torah says, was “a righteous man in his generation.” Rashi brings two interpretations that correspond to two views of moral agency. One view says that at all times all individuals have the same moral faculties and the same potential for moral greatness. By this view, had Noah lived in the generation of the great Abraham, his own “righteousness” would have appeared entirely unremarkable. But another view says that had Noah lived in the time of Abraham, surrounded by people of that stature, he would have been ever more righteous. By this view, we live in splendid delusion when we think we are really thinking and acting as free, autonomous individuals. Rather, all of our habits and attitudes are socially influenced. The generation makes the man.

And, likewise, the generation makes the administrator, the teacher, the parent and the student. Were all of those who failed to act in the 1970’s to face those same issues today, I suspect they would act differently. And conversely, let us not fool ourselves; had we been the ones to face these issues forty years ago, we likely would have taken – or failed to have taken – the same steps they did. There is no exoneration here. Those that knew had a responsibility to act. But let us learn from those mistakes in humility rather than in self-righteousness. Perhaps most of all let us try to understand how an entire generation got this wrong. If we do that, then maybe – just maybe – we will be able to train a critical eye on our own behavior, so that a generation from now, no one asks us how we got it all wrong ourselves.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-the-sar-sex-abuse-report-didnt-say/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2018-10-10&utm_medium=email

Finally, scholars have determined that people don’t use rational, instrumental reasoning when they deal with religious beliefs....

Faith vs. Facts

JERUSALEM — MOST of us find it mind-boggling that some people seem willing to ignore the facts — on climate change, on vaccines, on health care — if the facts conflict with their sense of what someone like them believes. “But those are the facts,” you want to say. “It seems weird to deny them.”

And yet a broad group of scholars is beginning to demonstrate that religious belief and factual belief are indeed different kinds of mental creatures. People process evidence differently when they think with a factual mind-set rather than with a religious mind-set. Even what they count as evidence is different. And they are motivated differently, based on what they conclude. On what grounds do scholars make such claims?

First of all, they have noticed that the very language people use changes when they talk about religious beings, and the changes mean that they think about their realness differently. You do not say, “I believe that my dog is alive.” The fact is so obvious it is not worth stating. You simply talk in ways that presume the dog’s aliveness — you say she’s adorable or hungry or in need of a walk. But to say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is alive” signals that you know that other people might not think so. It also asserts reverence and piety. We seem to regard religious beliefs and factual beliefs with what the philosopher Neil Van Leeuwen calls different “cognitive attitudes.”

Second, these scholars have remarked that when people consider the truth of a religious belief, what the belief does for their lives matters more than, well, the facts. We evaluate factual beliefs often with perceptual evidence. If I believe that the dog is in the study but I find her in the kitchen, I change my belief. We evaluate religious beliefs more with our sense of destiny, purpose and the way we think the world should be. One study found that over 70 percent of people who left a religious cult did so because of a conflict of values. 

They did not complain that the leader’s views were mistaken. They believed that he was a bad person.

Third, these scholars have found that religious and factual beliefs play different roles in interpreting the same events. Religious beliefs explain why, rather than how. People who understand readily that diseases are caused by natural processes might still attribute sickness at a particular time to demons, or healing to an act of God. 

The psychologist Cristine H. Legare and her colleagues recently demonstrated that people use both natural and supernatural explanations in this interdependent way across many cultures. They tell a story, as recounted by Tracy Kidder’s book on the anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, about a woman who had taken her tuberculosis medication and been cured — and who then told Dr. Farmer that she was going to get back at the person who had used sorcery to make her ill. “But if you believe that,” he cried, “why did you take your medicines?” In response to the great doctor she replied, in essence, “Honey, are you incapable of complexity?”

Moreover, people’s reliance on supernatural explanations increases as they age. It may be tempting to think that children are more likely than adults to reach out to magic to explain something, and that they increasingly put that mind-set to the side as they grow up, but the reverse is true. It’s the young kids who seem skeptical when researchers ask them about gods and ancestors, and the adults who seem clear and firm. It seems that supernatural ideas do things for adults they do not yet do for children.

Finally, scholars have determined that people don’t use rational, instrumental reasoning when they deal with religious beliefs. The anthropologist Scott Atran and his colleagues have shown that sacred values are immune to the normal cost-benefit trade-offs that govern other dimensions of our lives. Sacred values are insensitive to quantity (one cartoon can be a profound insult). They don’t respond to material incentives (if you offer people money to give up something that represents their sacred value, and they often become more intractable in their refusal). 

Sacred values may even have different neural signatures in the brain.

The danger point seems to be when people feel themselves to be completely fused with a group defined by its sacred value.

 When Mr. Atran and his colleagues surveyed young men in two Moroccan neighborhoods associated with militant jihad (one of them home to five men who helped plot the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and then blew themselves up), they found that those who described themselves as closest to their friends and who upheld Shariah law were also more likely to say that they would suffer grievous harm to defend Shariah law. These people become what Mr. Atran calls “devoted actors” who are unconditionally committed to their sacred value, and they are willing to die for it.

One of the interesting things about sacred values, however, is that they are both general (“I am a true Christian”) and particular (“I believe that abortion is murder”). It is possible that this is the key to effective negotiation, because the ambiguity allows the sacred value to be reframed without losing its essential truth. 

Mr. Atran and his colleague Jeremy Ginges argued in a 2012 essay in Science that Jerusalem could be reimagined not as a place but as a portal to heaven. If it were, they suggested, just getting access to the portal, rather than owning it, might suffice.

Or then again, it might not. The recent elections in Israel are a daunting reminder of how tough the challenge is. Still, these new ideas about religious belief should shape the way people negotiate about ownership of the land, just as they should shape the way we think about climate change deniers and vaccine avoiders. People aren’t dumb in not recognizing the facts. They are using a reasoning process that responds to moral arguments more than scientific ones, and we should understand that when we engage.

T. M. Luhrmann is a contributing opinion writer and a professor of anthropology at Stanford.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/opinion/sunday/t-m-luhrmann-faith-vs-facts.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150418&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y

גם אני --- #מיר אויך# “The story wouldn’t go away and I wanted to put it behind me. I didn’t complain because I was in a closed Haredi community and thought it was wrong, but I had to do something. So I confronted my grandfather and told him I thought he should stop working with children. He told me I had dreamt it.

 My grandfather the Rosh Yeshiva molested me

#מיר אויך

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eli Hirschman was sexually abused by his grandfather, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Matmidim Yeshiva and leader of the Eidas Yerushalayim community while studying at his grandfather’s Yeshiva. He kept quiet for years, but when he finally went public, he was excommunicated, along with anyone who believed him. This is his story as shared in Hebrew on his Facebook page:

“My grandfather, Laibel Mintzberg, is the leader of a large community and a greatly respected Torah scholar. He has many followers, and will sometimes hint that he is Meshiach. I used to idolize him as a boy. When the time came for me to begin studying at a Yeshiva Gdola, he asked me to study at his Yeshiva, instead of the one I had already signed up for. He told me that I should receive “our” education. Shortly after beginning my studies at his Yeshiva, I moved in with him.

“One night while I was in bed, I heard footsteps, and then heavy breathing in my room. It was my grandfather, arched over me and touching me. He pulled off my blanket and pulled down my pants and underwear, did as he pleased, and then dressed me again and covered me in the blanket. This routine was repeated night after night, dozens of times. I would freeze, not moving a muscle, waiting for him to leave.

“He abused me when my cousins stayed at his house and I slept in the living room. One time, someone called for him while he was in my room. He hurriedly dressed me and left. Once, I spent Shabbat with him in the community in Beit Shemesh. I remember in his Drasha after dinner how he spoke about “feeling the holiness of Shabbat.” Later that night, he felt me.

“In the mornings, I felt distressed and agitated. I decided to tell my close friend, and swore him to secrecy. He told. Everyone knew about it, including my family members, who were shocked by what they heard. I denied everything and continued to be active in the community. I published some pamphlets, including ones with my grandfather’s teachings.

“The story wouldn’t go away and I wanted to put it behind me. I didn’t complain because I was in a closed Haredi community and thought it was wrong, but I had to do something. So I confronted my grandfather and told him I thought he should stop working with children. He told me I had dreamt it.


“He hadn’t taken me seriously, so I wrote him a letter and sent him the results of a polygraph test I had taken. I hoped he would take responsibility for his actions and apologize to me. But instead, he attacked me, called me evil and corrupt, and told me to mind my own business. That was the last time I saw him.

“A few days later, one of his students called me and asked me to apologize to my grandfather. “What do I need to apologize for?” I asked. “I don’t know,” he said, “but your grandfather is very hurt and you should apologize immediately,” I said if he wanted me to apologize, he would have to explain what for.

“My grandfather distributed flyers in the community pressuring me to apologize, but I didn’t give in. So I was excommunicated, along with my immediate family and anyone else in the community who believed me. Some Rabbis from the community resigned their positions in the organization, including the head of the Yeshiva. My grandfather hired new Rabbis and changed the name of the Yeshiva. He completely isolated us from the community, and some found signs posted on their doors at night reading “Here lives a traitor”. Some of his students threw eggs at my father’s Kolel.

“Things have been like this for several years now. My family is torn apart. My cousins didn’t attend my siblings’ weddings, out of fear of my grandfather. He banned them from doing so. My immediate family is very supportive of me, though they don’t like to bring up what happened. It’s embarrassing for them and hard to talk about. I understand them and love them very much.

“Last year, I finally mustered the courage to go to the Police. After my grandfather was questioned, I was told that the case had been closed due to a lack of evidence. But he and I both know exactly what happened, and as he taught me, the truth is more important than anything.

“So dear grandfather, Meshiach you are not. You are a subpar grandfather with serious problems. You hurt me. I want to believe that you didn’t abuse anyone else, but you probably did. I saw you brush your hand over a waiter’s back at a wedding when he bent over and his shirt came untucked. And everyone in the community knows the story of how decades back you appeared before a Beit Din because a student of yours “tried to frame you.” Somehow, that story went away.


“It’s a shame you haven’t sought treatment. You are a great scholar, full of wonderful insights about the Torah, and full of flaws as well. I’m at peace with who I am. It’s a shame that you have chosen to wage a cruel, childish, and stupid war against hundreds of your students, including your own children and grandchildren. As if it will change what you did. I dream that you might one day take responsibility for what you did, apologize, and work to fix yourself.

“And to the community, be alert and don’t turn a blind eye to abuse. There’s no reason why anyone would fabricate a story about being abused. Would you? No, certainly not about a close family member. If someone comes forward with a story like this, the only reason is because it happened.

“It’s important to clarify that not all Rabbis are abusers, and many members of Haredi communities are good people. There are good and bad ones, like any other place. But this can’t keep getting swept under the rug. It’s time to fix this problem.”

http://www.jewishcommunitywatch.org/when-my-grandfather-the-rosh-yeshiva-molested-me/

Stanley Rosenfeld, a convicted sex offender, has admitted to molesting hundreds of boys throughout his life, including at SAR, according to the report.

NY Jewish school officials knew of abuse by teacher who molested 12 students

Outside investigation finds that administrators at SAR Academy were warned about Stanley Rosenfeld’s sexual assault of young boys, but re-hired him a decade later anyway!

A view of SAR Academy in the Bronx, NY, June 2018

NEW YORK (JTA) — Officials at a New York Jewish day school knew of allegations against an administrator who abused at least a dozen of the school’s students, according to an investigation.

The report, which was published Friday, found that Stanley Rosenfeld sexually abused at least a dozen students at SAR Academy, a Modern Orthodox school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

Another teacher, Rabbi Sheldon Schwartz, was found to have acted inappropriately with at least four students.

Rosenfeld, a convicted sex offender, has admitted to molesting hundreds of boys throughout his life, including at SAR, according to the report.

JTA has reached out to Schwartz through his attorney seeking comment on the accusations against him.

T&M Protection Resources, an external firm with experience investigating sexual assault allegations, conducted the probe that examined allegations of child sex abuse by Rosenfeld, an assistant principal at SAR in the 1970s who also taught English there a decade later. The school commissioned the investigation in January, soon after learning of the allegations.

The firm interviewed nearly 40 witnesses, as well as both Schwartz and Rosenfeld. T&M was able to interview Schwartz, however, only before hearing allegations of his inappropriate behavior.

“We want to extend our most sincere gratitude to the individuals who came forward to report instances of inappropriate behavior and abuse,” SAR’s leadership wrote in an email sent Friday linking to the report. “We remain heartbroken that our alumni suffered abuse while in SAR’s care, but we also are deeply inspired by their bravery.”

SAR’s announcement of the inquiry in January prompted two other Jewish day schools that had employed Rosenfeld to launch their own investigations: the Ramaz School, an elite Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in Manhattan, and Westchester Day School, in New York City’s northern suburbs.

Ramaz published its external investigation in August, which found that administrators learned of Rosenfeld’s abuse after he had left the school but failed to act on the information.

Rosenfeld, now 84, was convicted of child molestation in 2001 for abusing a boy while employed at a Rhode Island synagogue. The Forward, which has investigated Rosenfeld’s abuse in a series of articles, discovered that he is living in a nursing home and is a registered sex offender.

The T&M report found that Rosenfeld would abuse young boys by inviting them to his home for Shabbat, where they would sleep over for one or two nights. At night, he would hover over their beds and fondle their genitals or other parts of their bodies. Some former students said Rosenfeld would stop the abuse after boys made it clear that it made them uncomfortable. Others reported laying motionless until the ordeal ended. Former students said the abuse caused them emotional suffering.

“One former student explained that during the night, he awoke to Rosenfeld’s hands on the former student’s penis inside the former student’s pajama bottoms, that Rosenfeld quickly removed them and then justified his presence in the twinbedded room where the boys were sleeping by saying that he heard the former student make a noise and wanted to check on him,” the report said.

The report also says that former students remember feeling as if Rosenfeld had drugged them while sleeping at his house. During those sleepovers, the report says, former students remember Rosenfeld urging them to wrestle with him while both he and the student were in their underwear. Rosenfeld would use the wrestling as a way to molest the boys. He also molested boys on the weekend retreat he would hold after they graduated from the eighth grade.

Rosenfeld, according to the report, also would abuse boys while at school, in addition to molesting at least one girl there. He asked a student to sit on his lap, where he fondled him, and also drew close to students or would corner them in public spaces before molesting them. In addition, the report says he physically abused students, slamming them against the wall and, in one case, grabbing a student’s face and putting it in the snow.

“Some of these students also reported that they heard their classmates talk about Rosenfeld and comment that they had also been touched or fondled by him and heard others more generally joke with one another about Rosenfeld’s fondling of boys,” the report says.

T&M found that at least one faculty member alerted the principal at the time, Rabbi Sheldon Chwat, that she had seen Rosenfeld touch a boy’s groin in a school office. In addition, the investigation found that two parents of former students may have told SAR administrators about Rosenfeld’s misconduct, though no parents reported that directly to T&M. Chwat left the school in 1983 and died in 2014.

It is unclear whether Rosenfeld left the school in 1977 due to these reports. But someone the report identified as a “senior member” of SAR recalls Chwat saying that Rosenfeld was leaving because he was “the kind of person that has a proclivity or interest in students” and “not the person who should be with kids full time.”

Regardless, Rosenfeld was rehired to teach sixth-grade language arts part time in 1986 for one year. SAR’s assistant principal at the time, Rabbi Joel Cohn, asked the principal at the time, Rabbi Yonah Fuld, if there were any concerns regarding Rosenfeld. Cohn recalled that Fuld, who had been an associate principal while Rosenfeld was employed at SAR, eventually said “for a short amount of time, I think it’s OK.”

Fuld does not recall that exchange, nor does he recall Rosenfeld returning to teach at the school, the report says. It is unclear whether the administrators who hired Rosenfeld in 1986 knew of the abuse allegations. Fuld no longer works at the school and now lives in Israel.

In addition to its findings on Rosenfeld, the report found that Schwartz, a Judaics teacher, acted inappropriately with at least four students during the 1970s. The report said Schwartz would wrestle with boys and also draw uncomfortably close with students and have them sit on his lap.

Rabbi Yonah Fuld, the former principal of the SAR Academy in New York, in 2018

Schwartz, according to the report, also would act as an enabler for Rosenfeld’s abuse, urging students to stay with Rosenfeld for Shabbat while frequently staying there himself as well. Two former students said they separately told Schwartz that Rosenfeld had abused them — one following a Shabbat and the other immediately after the abuse occurred.

In both cases, the former students recall Schwartz telling them that the experience was a dream. In the latter case, Schwartz played board games with the student to calm him down.

Schwartz’s attorney told JTA that he fully denies having known about Rosenfeld’s abuse.

Schwartz taught at SAR until January, when he was suspended pending the investigation. He was later fired and is now suing SAR for wrongful termination.

http://www.paroleboard.ri.gov/sexoffender/olist/listing.php?id=92&level=III

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-jewish-school-officials-knew-of-sex-abuse-by-teacher-who-molested-12-students/

REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SAR:
https://www.saracademy.org/uploaded/2015_Redesign/Academy/Report_to_the_Board_of_Trustees_of_SAR_10.5.18.pdf

“He stole my innocence, and my childhood. I was 10-years-old at the time he started to sexually abuse me. He groomed me to the point where I didn’t know it was wrong or, at 10-years-old, how sick it was,” she stated.

Man who sexually assaulted young family member sentenced to 8 years

Samuel Mendy Israel

A Brooklyn man who admitted to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old family member was sentenced to 8 years in prison Wednesday, but not before the woman he preyed on confronted him over the years of abuse.

“He has absolutely no morals,” Samuel Israel’s now-grown victim told the packed courtroom, as her abuser hung his head at the defense table, avoiding eye contact.

“He stole my innocence, and my childhood. I was 10-years-old at the time he started to sexually abuse me. He groomed me to the point where I didn’t know it was wrong or, at 10-years-old, how sick it was,” she stated.

The woman, who is now married with two children, said Israel molested her until she was 16, taking her on trips with his family and buying her silence with lavish gifts. She told Judge Matthew D’Emic she felt alienated from her peers, because while they were talking about school or their weekend plans, Israel “was having oral sex with me.”

“I felt like it was my fault,” she said “I felt dirty.”

Israel, who declined to speak before sentencing, pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sex act and witness tampering in July in exchange for the lesser sentence.

He also confessed to hiring onetime reality TV gumshoe Vincent Parco to try to scare his victim out of taking the stand.

Israel was led out in handcuffs Wednesday after D’Emic sentenced him to 8 years behind bars. He’d faced up to 25 years in prison prior to cutting the deal.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles declined to comment on Israel’s behalf as she left court.

Prosecutors say Israel paid Parco $17,000, and in turn the P.I. set up video cameras in hotel rooms, and plied the victim’s relatives with hookers in order to record them in compromising situations.

Israel was originally scheduled to head to trial on the sex assault case in June 2017, but two days before jury selection, a stranger approached a member of the victim’s family to show him footage of another relative having sex with a prostitute, and warned him against cooperating.

But the relative went to authorities, and videos of the blackmail tryst were found on Parco’s computer, prosecutors said.

Parco, who starred on two seasons of the reality show Parco P.I., remains charged with various counts of unlawful surveillance and promoting prostitution.

Filed under brooklyn ,  pedophiles ,  plea deals ,  sex crimes ,  sexual assaults ,  sexual predators ,  trials

 

https://nypost.com/2018/10/03/man-who-sexually-assaulted-young-family-member-sentenced-to-8-years/

 

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