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Thursday, March 11, 2021

Accused child molester extradited to NYC after fleeing to Israel in 2010

 

A Brooklyn man who fled to Israel in 2010 amid accusations of child molestation was extradited back to the Big Apple on Thursday, officials said.


 

Gershon Kranczer, 65, was arraigned at Brooklyn Supreme Court for the alleged sexual assault of two minor female relatives, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

The suspected predator is accused of molesting one relative several times from August 1996 — when she was 6-years-old — to February 2003, prosecutors said.

Kranczer, of Midwood, is also alleged to have sexually abused an 11-year-old child between March 2001 and September 2002.

In 2010, as Kranczer was under investigation, he fled to Israel in an alleged bid to escape the law, prosecutors and sources said.

The NYPD alerted Interpol of Kranczer’s departure. The department’s Intel Bureau International Liaison Unit then got involved, coordinating with Israel police in an attempt to track down the suspect, sources said.

After spending over a decade overseas under the disguise of an alias, Kranczer was caught by authorities in February 2020, sources said.

Brook1

The US Marshals, the Brooklyn DA’s office, and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs were also involved in catching Kranczer.

Kranczer fought extradition back to the states for over a year, sources said. After he lost his final appeal, he was extradited.

He is charged with sexual conduct against a child, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse, authorities said.

At his Thursday arraignment, he was ordered held without bail.

 

WATCH VIDEO:

https://nypost.com/2021/03/11/accused-child-molester-extradited-to-nyc-after-fleeing-to-israel/

Haaretz report cites six allegations against Yehuda Meshi-Zahav over nearly 40-year period, some made by minors....

 

ZAKA emergency group co-founder accused of multiple cases of rape, sexual abuse


Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, co-founder of ZAKA, speaks at a conference in Jerusalem, March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, co-founder of ZAKA, speaks at a conference in Jerusalem, March 7, 2021. 
 

The co-founder and chairman of the ZAKA volunteer emergency response group was accused Thursday of sexual assault, rape, and abuse by six people in a report by the Haaretz daily, which said there are likely many more cases.

The allegations against Yehuda Meshi-Zahav were made by both men and women, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged events.

Meshi-Zahav is a prominent figure in the ultra-Orthodox community who earlier this month was awarded the Israel Prize’s lifetime achievement award. ZAKA is a major part of Israel’s emergency response services at home and abroad.

Meshi-Zahav took advantage of his status, power, money, and even the organization he heads to commit sexual assault, the Haaretz report said.

One alleged victim said he forcibly undressed her and raped her after offering financial aid. The woman said that while Meshi-Zahav forced himself on her, he threatened, “If you talk, a ZAKA jeep will run you over.”

Another said Meshi-Zahav repeatedly abused him when he was a teen, only realizing years later he was his “escort, a prostitute in the full sense of the word,” he told Haaretz.

The report said several other women have testified that he masturbated in front of them and touched them sexually.

Meshi-Zahav denied the allegations, telling the paper the claims “are baseless” and will cause “irrevocable damage” to his good name.

Of the six allegations reported, the earliest is from 1983, and the latest from 2011. The report added that many residents of several ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem knew of Meshi-Zahav’s actions but did not say anything or report him to authorities.

At least one case reached police, but was closed in 2014 due to a lack of evidence.

The case also involved Meshi-Zahav’s brothers, Moshe and Rami. Rami was eventually convicted of raping a relative and imprisoned, the report said.

Moshe and Yehuda were suspected of assaulting 16-year-old girls, and Yehuda was suspected of rape, which he denied. Moshe fled the country after the case was opened, returned a few months ago, and died shortly after.

The investigators turned up one alleged rape victim, a woman in her 20s, but she refused to file a complaint against Meshi-Zahav, as did the other women he was suspected of assaulting in the case. The investigation was closed and its existence was not made public.

Magen for Jewish Communities, a non-profit that works to support survivors of sexual abuse, said the alleged assaults were especially shocking due to Meshi-Zahav’s community standing.

“It’s always incredibly painful to hear terrible stories of sexual abuse by a trusted figure in a victim’s life,” the group’s director, Shana Aaronson, told The Times of Israel. “In the case of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, many in the community find it incomprehensible to imagine that a man who is so well-known and beloved could be capable of such horrific acts against innocent and vulnerable children and adults.”

“As difficult as it is to hear these allegations, it is far more painful to have experienced them. As a community, we need to rally around the victims whose lives have been devastated by not only the abuse, but the secondary trauma of knowing that their abuser is known and heralded by many as a hero,” Aaronson said.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav. (courtesy of ZAKA)

Earlier this month, Meshi-Zahav was declared a winner of the Israel Prize’s lifetime achievement award for his contributions to Israeli society.

Education Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the prize would go to Meshi-Zahav for his decades of work in ZAKA.

The prize selection committee said in a statement that Meshi-Zahav has made an “outstanding” contribution to advancing assistance at disaster events and creating unity in Israeli society while having “a sense of purpose and a true belief in the need to build bridges and hold dialogue.”

For three decades now Meshi-Zahav has led Zaka, which has become an essential element of Israeli’s emergency response operations at home as well as abroad, the statement said, and he “is an example and role model for the spirit of volunteering in Israeli society in all its forms.”

Meshi-Zahav also made headlines in January when his parents both died of COVID-19 within days of each other and less than a month after his younger brother died of a different cause.

He was a vocal critic of some of the ultra-Orthodox leadership during the pandemic, as some prominent community figures downplayed the virus, including in an October interview with The Times of Israel.

Founded in 1989, ZAKA is one of Israel’s most recognizable emergency response groups and has responded to various disasters in other countries.

In addition to providing emergency response services and assisting in search and rescue operations, ZAKA also helps in the grim task of finding and identifying body parts following terror attacks, air crashes and other disasters.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/zaka-emergency-group-co-founder-accused-of-multiple-cases-of-rape-sexual-abuse/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-03-12&utm_medium=email

What Hershel Schachter Has Wrought To The "Orthodox" Conversion Process! Kabbalat Ol Mitzvos - Optional!

 

Shlepping The Kids To Church On Saturday With Jew/Dunce in Tow!

Trump At Church Services on another Saturday

Orthodox Rabbis  Standing  in  Solidarity 
​with  Reform  and  Conservative  Jews


We the undersigned are Orthodox Rabbis and educators committed to fostering a more inclusive and pluralistic Orthodoxy that can attract Jews and strengthen Jewish identity of the widest spectrum of Jewry in Diaspora as in Israel. 
 
 We are individuals, members of a rabbinical association called Torat Chayim which brings together around 350 men and women in Israel and Diaspora to advance these values. However, this letter is written and signed by us as individuals and does not represent an official statement of the organization.

We want to express our support for the High Court of Justice decision that Reform and Conservative conversions done in the state of Israel must be recognized by the Interior Ministry for citizenship purposes and full rights to make aliyah to Israel under the law of return. We support this decision because we share the broad Zionist commitment to Israel as both a Jewish and a democratic state. This decision strengthens the democratic character of the state by treating all Jewish denominations as equal in this particular matter.

This decision does not require the established Rabbinate to accept the conversions. These conversions may not be acceptable halachically. But in a democracy, there should be freedom of religion and the right of all citizens to join a denomination or religion that they choose without suffering discrimination. 

We are deeply disappointed that some community, rabbinic and political leaders have reacted hostilely to the Supreme Court decision. We thank the court for upholding Israel’s democratic values, especially after the Knesset failed to act on this matter for almost 15 years. We condemn the words spoken vituperatively and degradingly about liberal Judaism and Reform and Conservative Jews. These words are a violation of the Torah’s commandment to love all Jews (“love your neighbor as yourself”) - especially since liberal Jews overwhelmingly participate in the covenant of fate of the Jewish people (sharing history, suffering, feeling responsibility and taking action to help all Jews ). These attacks are also a chillul Hashem. They bring disgrace to God and Torah.

Strengthening democracy - providing equality and justice for all its citizens - strengthens Israel as a Jewish state with which Jews of the whole world identify and are inspired. The democratic character of the Jewish state is the single strongest bond between all Americans and the state of Israel and undergirds America’s remarkable support for Israel.

We urge everyone to turn from the way of religious coercion and suppression to accepting the spirit of democracy, extending equality and dignity for all. This will bring greater respect for God, Torah and the Jewish tradition - a cause to which we all give our love and commitment.

Signed,

Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham 
Rabbi Dr. Jehoschua Ahrens 
Rabbi Yitzhak Ajzner 
Rabbi Marc Angel
Rabbi Shraga Bar-On
Rabbi Benjamin Berger
Rabbi Shimon Brand 
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopez Cardozo
Rabbi Michael Chernick 
Rabbi Barry Dolinger 
Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman 
Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber 
Rabbi Dr. Reb Mimi Feigelson 
Rabbanit Dr. Esther Fisher 
Rabbi Avidan Freedman 
Rabbi Daniel Geretz 
Rabbi David Glicksman 
Rabbi Mel Gottlieb 
Rabbi Steve Greenberg 
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg 
Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy
Rabbi Avram Herzog 
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld 
Rabba Batya Jacobs 
Rabbi David Jaffe 
Rabbi David Kalb
Rabbanit Rachel Keren
Rabbi Frederick Klein 
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn
Rabbi Daniel Landes  
Rabbi Isaac Landes
Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz 
Rabbi Hayim Leiter 
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Rabbi Avram Mlotek 
Rabbi Jack Nahmod 
Rabbi Dina Najman 
Rabbi Marianne Novak 
Rabbi Micha Odenheimer
Rabbi Avi Poupko
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger 
Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed 
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller  
Rabbi Aaron Shub 
Rabbi Yair Silverman  
Rabbi Raphael Silverstein 
Rabbi Michael Stein 
Rabbi Alana Suskin 
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz 
Rabbi Alan Yuter