TEAM UOJ - AT WORK - MONDROWITZ PHOTOS!

I Urge all readers of the blog to take the time, immediately, and whenever possible, to contact Sol Werdiger and let him know the message we want him to convey to the Gerer Rebbe: that we are not going to tolerate any more coverups and whitewashings for Mondrowitz; that this man must face justice for abominable crimes; that anyone who aids or protects a criminal is morally as culpable as the criminal himself; and that we will be sure to expose anyone guilty of coverup just as we are succeeding in exposing the story of Mondrowitz. They might mention Pirkei Avoth, 4:5: "Whoever is mi'chalel Hashem in secret will be chastised publicly."

DO IT NOW. Time is of the essence. We may never have such a good chance to ensure that this worst of cases may finally see some justice.

Contact info for Sol Werdiger:

SWERDIGER@OUTERSTUFF.COM

Outer Stuff Ltd.
1370 Broadway 15th Fl
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-594-9700
Fax: 212-695-6396


I think this man should hear as much as possible from as many people as possible who are tired of the coverup of Mondrowitz.

Mondrowitz is being held until NOVEMBER 27 (which is his 60th birthday, by the way) when there will be another hearing to determine whether he is to remain incarcerated or released with an electronic tracking device. His lawyer, David Ofek, argued today that the court will have to determine whether he can be held because of the "statute of limitations."

We have to be disciplined and focused in our response. So, for right now... let's hit Werdiger. Hard, and repeatedly. I want him to be so stunned in the next few days he'll be asking the rebbe to do something, anything to get him out of trouble.

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TRANSLATION OF JUSTICE SHIMON FEINBERG’S DECISION


CASE No. 011944/07



HONORABLE JUSTICE SHIMON FEINBERG





THE STATE OF ISRAEL,

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GOVERNMENT



VS.



AVROHOM MONDROWITZ,



RESPONDENT





APPEARING BEFORE THE COURT:



For the Plaintiff: Nili Gesser, Esq. and Marilyn Mazal-Hershkovitz Esq.



For the Defendant: David Ofek, Esq. and Tzivia Golovik Esq.





DECISION



1. In the matter of the request to extend the detention of the Respondents pursuant to Article 7 of the Extradition Law of 1954 (“Extradition Law”).



2. In 1985 the Respondent was issued an indictment in New York, United States on the charges of sodomy and other sexual assaults against five minors between the ages of nine through fifteen. The authorities of the United States issues an arrest warrant against him. However, before they were able to execute the warrant the Respondent fled to Israel. That year, the American authorities requested that the Israeli Government extradite the Respondent back to the United States. At that time the treaty between the two countries did not allow extradition for the crimes the Respondent was accused of. The State of Israel decided to remove him from the country. During that process, the Respondent appealed to the Israeli Supreme Justice Court and the State of Israel decided to abandon the proceedings of his removal. From that time on, the Respondent has been living with his family in Israel.



3. During the course of the past year the protocols of the extradition treaty were modified in a manner in which the crimes that the Respondent stands accused of by the courts of New York became extraditable crimes. In September 2007, the United States authorities requested the extradition of the Respondent from the State of Israel.



4. The Respondent was arrested on November 11, 2007 pursuant to Article 6 of the Extradition Treaty. The Requester now asks for an extension of the Respondent’s incarceration for an additional 12 days for the purpose of obtaining an updated extradition request to amend the request filed many years ago.



5. A hearing of the allegations was held before this Court on November 16, 2007. The Representative today introduced the following additional facts. In May of 2007, a search was conducted of the Respondent’s home where four films containing child pornography were discovered. The Requester also argued that the likelihood of the Respondents fleeing is high if he is not detained, because of his recent knowledge of the change in the Extradition Treaty which now allows his return to United States. The Requester further argues that the Respondent is a threat to the public as evidenced by the above material discovered in his home.



6. The Respondent argued that there are issues of statute of limitations and extensive period of time that has passed since the initial extradition request was made and denied. The Respondent requests that he be released in a manner which assures that the Respondent will reappear once the extradition proceedings commence, even suggesting that the Respondent be released to house arrest and monitored via an electronic monitoring bracelet.



7. The first question to consider is if the Respondent is a candidate for extradition based upon the revised extradition treaty? (See paragraph 6 of the extradition treaty.) We need to answer this request in a positive manner. The treaty between the two countries today states that these offenses are extraditable crimes. The Requester holds affidavits given on behalf of the victims/complainers against the Respondent about the crimes that the Respondent committed. All this evidence is the basis for the indictment against the Respondent, by the Unites States government.



8. Regarding the Respondents claim as to the statute of limitations and the large amount of time that has elapsed, Paragraph 2B (a) 6 of the extradition law, the upholding of the law is conditioned upon the time of the crime or its punishment not exceeding the statute of limitations according to Israeli law. According to paragraph 9 (a) 2 of the Israeli criminal code of 1982, a person cannot be prosecuted for a crime (except in death penalty or life in prison cases) if a period of ten years has past since the day the crime was committed. According to paragraph 9 (3) the statute of limitations commences either from the time of the last day of the investigation, or the day of the indictment or the last day of the proceeding in a court of law, whichever comes last. In our case, all of the proceedings as stated in paragraph 9 (3) above, occurred over ten years ago. The Representative of the government expressed that the statute of limitations might be an issue, however the courts in previous verdicts have recognized other cases where the statute of limitations was frozen where the accused has escaped before prosecution. Based upon paragraph 94-1 (3) of the criminal code, we can come to reject the claim against the statute of limitations.

(See criminal appeal 739-07 (supreme) Yonatan Efrat vs. Attorney General)

I have reviewed this case and concluded that there is a solid basis for the Requesters request regarding the statute of limitations; however this issue has some effect on my decision as to keeping the Respondent incarcerated as I will explain.



9. Another question that paragraph 6 of the extradition law raises is if there is a probable cause that an extradition request shall be filed? To that we answer in the affirmative, and the United States government has declared specifically that it will do so.



10. According to the previous decisions, in a hearing where the subject is in accordance with paragraph 7 to the extradition law, the court shall consider the regular arguments for keeping a person in custody, among them being the safety of the public, the concern of interfering with the investigation and primarily the fear of the accused fleeing, which is a permanent concern in a case of an extradition proceeding. In addition, the court shall consider the commitment that Israel has towards the requesting country – a commitment that is established in an international treaty that is the basis of the extradition law- to extradite the suspect and allow his extradition to the requesting country. This last consideration is a crucial one in a sense that at times it is justified to keep a person in custody even though general custody considerations state that he is to be released, because of the extra dimension that is as a result of Israel’s duty towards the requesting country. [Hon. Justice D. Banish (aka) see case #4422/03 Yitzchak Cohen vs. Attorney General.] These considerations are brought into account also during a proceeding of a requesting of incarceration prior to declaring a person extraditable [See case Jerusalem 11287/04 attorney General vs. Zev Rosenshtien.]



11. In our case, consideration for continued incarceration evolved from danger to the public and fear of the accused fleeing from justice. As to the consideration of danger to the public, findings of the investigation against the Respondent by the Israeli Police Department create a probable cause that the accused is still an active or potential pedophile. The fact that against the accused no criminal offenses have been brought does not negate the known danger of these offenses, especially in the ultra orthodox sector that the accused belongs to, because the victims and their families very often do not complain to the police because of the will of that sector to attempt to solve those problems internally without police involvement, to avoid humiliation to the family. I am not establishing that the accused has commenced any crimes in Israel, but I am not ruling that out either. The fear of fleeing from justice evolves from the revised treaty that allows the extradition of the accused to the United States, a situation that did not exist during the entire period of the accused’s stay in Israel. Additionally, one must bring into account the commitment of the State of Israel towards the requesting country that was established in an international treaty that is the basis of extradition law.



12. All of the above leads me to the conclusion to grant the Representatives request and to hereby order the continued incarceration of the accused. Nevertheless, due to the legality of the statute of limitation as I stated above, there is no room to rule out a potential alternative to incarceration as suggestion by the accused council.



13. Therefore, I hereby extend the incarceration of the accused as requested until November 27, 2007 at 12:00 PM. I am ordering a recommendation report of the Probational Service Office for consideration of a substitute for incarceration including house arrest with an electronic monitoring device. The report shall additionally consider the danger that the accused possesses. The report shall be submitted before the end of the term of incarceration. The report may be used by this court if an additional request for incarceration is filed according to paragraph 7A of the extradition law or if there is a request to declare the accused as extraditable.

14. The secretarial office shall send a copy of this decision to the probation service office.



Given today November 18, 2007 in the presence of all parties.



Shimon Feinberg, Judge

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Opinion Polls & Market Research

I came across this a while ago and finally found it again. This applies to all of us. May we all be blessed for it with continued success health and happiness. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.Indeed it's the only thing that ever has.
Mark Weiss - Survivor - Activist




Ex-Brooklyn rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz faces extradition to U.S. on kid-sex rap!

BY MATTHEW KALMAN
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Monday, November 19th 2007, 4:00 AM

Avrohom Mondrowitz (this summer - left ---- In court - right )

JERUSALEM - A Jerusalem magistrate Sunday ordered a former Brooklyn rabbi accused of raping several boys 20 years ago to jail while American and Israeli officials finalize a U.S. request for his extradition.

Avrohom Mondrowitz, a father of seven, faces extradition to stand trial in New York to answer a 1985 indictment on four counts of sodomy and eight counts of sexual abuse in the first degree.

Mondrowitz, 60, once a popular child psychologist and youth counselor in Borough Park, allegedly sodomized the boys after befriending them or after taking them on trips to the movies and amusement parks.

The U.S. extradition request, resubmitted in September after a change in the treaty between the U.S. and Israel, was delayed after one of the five complainants withdrew from the case.

The U.S. Justice Department is expected to file an amended request this week.

Mondrowitz was arrested early Friday morning at his Jerusalem home and arraigned the same day.

Judge Shimon Feinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court, found that Mondrowitz was a possible candidate for extradition and rejected defense arguments that the statute of limitations applied to the offenses, even though they were allegedly committed more than 20 years ago.

Feinberg granted a prosecution request to extend Mondrowitz's imprisonment until Nov. 27 after the prosecution told the court that an Israeli police raid on Mondrowitz's home in May had netted four pedophile movies.

Mondrowitz is due to appear in court again Nov. 27, when Feinberg will decide whether to extend his jailing until the end of the extradition proceedings, which could take several months.

Mondrowitz's wife, Raizel, declared his innocence.

"People can come up 25 years later and say all kinds of things about anybody. No one's had any complaints about him for the last 25 years. This is all old stuff," she said.

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Rabbi Yosef Blau Comments!

The debate about whether the Haredi or modern Orthodox leadership has been more negligent in dealing with sexual abuse and which abuser is worse is at best a side show. Thr Mondrowitz case has raised serious questions about how the Orthodox rabbinate responded to the many accusations that emerged twenty plus years ago in Brooklyn.

Since almost no one has denied his guilt, minimally a public statement should be made expressing sympathy for his apparently many victims (my sources say that he sexually abused essentially all the boys that were sent to him)and support for his being extradited. It is also neccesary that there be a thorough investigation of the reports that various rabbis discouraged Jewish children from cooperating with the police and were complicit in his fleeing to Israel after being indicted. If these allegations are false then no one should be afraid of the facts being uncovered.
Yosef Blau

Steve....Kicks Shafran Where It Should Hurt If He Had Any.....

That is part of why the Torah-observant population is greatly underrepresented in the realms of societal ills like rape, AIDS, prostitution and marital infidelity that affect their less repressed neighbors.

WOW!! Don't we all feel so much better now!! Thank you Avi! UOJ, there is no need for this blog anymore. Tell Elliot Pasik that there is no need for all the fuss about background checks, fingerprinting, registry and mandatory reporting. After all, we are "underrepresented" when it comes to such things as child molestation! Tell all the victims of clergy sexual abuse that they really don't matter, you are "underrepresented".

How this moron continues to write such gibberish and gets away with it is beyond me. It's been a year and a half since that article he's referring to, and forty years since Kolko started his molestation career. Do we have anything in place from the Agudah or Torah Umesorah that will give our children one iota of protection? Why is it that public school children have this protection and our children have nothing? Will Avi L. Shafran or the Agudah ever address these questions head on, or will we continue to hear how wonderful the Orthodox world is, and that we are "underrepresented"? It's like the false prophets before the first Temple destruction, telling the people how wonderful they are.

Until there is a tremendous outcry from the community and a demand for change, we will continue hearing from these false prophets. If you care about your children and grandchildren, start putting pressure on the Agudah, Torah Umesorah and your local politicians. Mandatory background checks, fingerprinting, sex offender registry and mandatory reporting MUST BE ENACTED IN THE YESHIVA SYSTEM AT ONCE!!! I am sorry to say that we are underrepresented when it comes to people crying out for the children. Avi, you are wrong, we have more than our fill of perverts!!




Opinion - In child pornography, fight harder By Ernie Allen

Mon Nov 26, 3:00 AM ET

Alexandria, Va. - Millions of children around the world are being sexually abused and molested. Billions of dollars are changing hands as part of a growing crime wave of child pornography. This is anything but a victimless crime. Children – some as young as infants – are being barbarically assaulted for the sexual gratification of their abusers and those who view their photos.

While inroads have been made in the fight against child pornography, the problem remains severe. We have much more to do.

The Internet has become a child pornography superhighway, turning children into a commodity for sale or trade. Analysts at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have reviewed 9.6 million images and videos of child pornography on the Internet just since 2002. There are millions more such images in cyberspace that we have yet to find.

Law enforcement agencies are cracking down on this crime wave. In November, the chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum in Washington was arrested and charged with distributing child pornography over the Internet. Also this month, police across Europe announced they had arrested nearly 100 people linked to a network that allegedly produced and sold child pornography videos to 2,500 customers worldwide.

In 1998 Congress asked NCMEC to create a "9-1-1 for the Internet." We established CyberTipline (www.cybertipline.com), which has received more than 500,000 reports from the public and Internet service providers regarding child sexual exploitation. More than 460,000 of those reports involved child pornography.

What is child pornography? It goes far beyond nude pictures of children. It is the visual depiction – whether in still photos or video – of children being sexually assaulted. In some instances, rapes of children have been shown live over the Internet to paying customers. In 1982, the US Supreme Court held that child pornography is not protected speech but child abuse.

Some suggest that many people who view child pornography just "look at the pictures." But our work on these cases has led us to conclude that for most of those who view these images, sex with children becomes a compulsion and evolves into physical acts with real children.

When NCMEC analysts scour the Internet for child pornography, they determine whether website content is illegal, use search tools and techniques to identify and track down the distributors of child pornography, and then provide the information to the appropriate local, state, federal, or international law enforcement agency.

Law enforcement agencies and NCMEC have managed to identify almost 1,200 of the many children who appear in child pornography. We have found that 35 percent of the photos were taken by a parent, 15 percent by another family member, and 20 percent by someone close to the child or the family. We have provided more than 12,000 evidence reports to prosecutors and law enforcement officers to assist in prosecutions of those accused of these crimes.

Sadly, NCMEC has found that the children being used in these images are getting younger and younger, and the images are becoming more graphic and more violent. Of the children in pornographic photos and videos who have been identified, 58 percent had not yet reached puberty.

To stop the use of credit cards that fuel the child pornography industry, NCMEC created the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography. Today this coalition includes 90 percent of the US payments industry, with growing international involvement. The 30 companies in the coalition include MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, Microsoft, America Online, Yahoo, Google, and many others.

Thanks to the participating companies and extraordinary leadership from federal, state, and local law enforcement, we have virtually eliminated the use of credit cards in child pornography transactions. Although credit card logos still appear on some sites, now when consumers attempt to use credit cards, they either become victims of identity theft or are redirected to another method of payment.

In too many places around the world, the possession of child pornography is handled as a relatively minor offense. In fact, in 136 countries it is not even a crime.

Children depend on adults to keep them safe. We need to do more to protect them from dangerous, cold-hearted predators who want to harm them for pleasure and profit. We need to recognize child pornography as a crime against humanity that must be attacked more forcefully and that deserves harsh punishment.

Ernie Allen is president and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a nonprofit charitable organization based in Alexandria, Va.

In The Basement, Behind A Closed Door - The Ger Hassid Avrohom Mondrowitz - The Pedophile From Brooklyn!

NEWER POSTINGS WILL BE AT THE END OF THIS ONE!******************************************
AVROHOM MONDROWITZ - ARRESTED!!!!!!
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Last update - 14:43 16/11/2007

Israel Police arrest alleged child molester wanted in the U.S.

By Aviva Lori, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

tags: pedophilia, Israel, Gur Hasid

Avrohom Mondrowitz, a Gur Hasid suspected of sexually abusing Haredi children in the United States, was arrested Friday morning pending extradition orders to the U.S.

Mondrowitz fled the U.S. over 20 years and has been hiding in Israel ever since. The U.S. Justice Department two months ago submitted a request to Israel to extradite the suspect.

The spokesman of the Justice Ministry confirmed the arrest.

Mondrowitz, a member of the Gur Hasidic sect who styles himself a rabbi and a psychologist, was a highly influential figure in the Gur community of Brooklyn in the early 1980s.

Police suspect Mondrowitz sexually abused children brought to him as patients, including with acts of sodomy. In many cases, the parents were waiting in the next room for the treatment to end, so they could take the children home. Those are the facts as collected by the Brooklyn police and told by the children.

An arrest warrant was issued for Mondrowitz in 1984, but when police arrived at his Brooklyn home to arrest him, they found it empty. An indictment was drawn in 1985, but Mondrowitz was able to evade arrest due to the complications of extradition.
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For the full feature on Avrohom Mondrowitz, read this weekend's Haaretz's Magazine: In the basement, behind a closed door

In the basement, behind a closed door

By Aviva Lori

tags: Judaism, Israel

A few years ago, A. came to Israel with one mission: "To find him and kill him." He didn't think twice, he says; he really intended to do it. "My wife understood. She knew what I felt and she called friends in Israel, who never left me alone for a minute. They saved me from myself. If not for them, it would have ended in murder for sure."

A. is not the only one to have harbored thoughts of cold-blooded murder for more than 20 years. There are several hundred others, he says: men now in their thirties and forties who two or three decades earlier were students at yeshivas in Brooklyn. They say they were victims of Avrohom Mondrowitz, who lives in Jerusalem's colorful Nahlaot neighborhood.

Mondrowitz, a member of the Gur Hasidic sect who styles himself a rabbi and a psychologist, was a highly influential figure in the Gur community of Brooklyn in the early 1980s. He had a yeshiva and a private clinic in which he treated mostly children in distress. But the Brooklyn police suspect that instead of educating and helping, he sexually abused his pupils, his patients, children in the neighborhood and friends of his own children. The venues were varied: his office, his home, the yeshiva, his car, the family's summer cottage in the Catskills, amusement parks and public parks. In short, everywhere. Day and night. The respected rabbis of the community modestly averted their gaze. They knew, they saw, they were silent.

A., now about 40, was born and raised in an Orthodox family in Brooklyn. At the age of seven he was sexually assaulted in the street by an unknown assailant. "That already marked me," he relates, "and it was like a prelude to what came after." What came after was fomented by two respected figures. The first was a revered teacher in Brooklyn. The second respected figure was Mondrowitz. He kept the horror to himself and turned inward. "I became a troublemaker," he says. "I was thrown out of one yeshiva and then out of another. I became a nomad. I lost my self-esteem and didn't care about anything. The hardest part was when I told the rabbis in the yeshiva what the teacher did to me. They just ignored me and did nothing."

When A. was 15, the rabbis persuaded his parents, who did not know how to deal with their wayward son, to send him to the man who presented himself as a psychologist, a certain Avrohom Mondrowitz, who lived on 60th Street in Brooklyn's Borough Park section. "I was forced to see him three or four times a week, because I was a very special case," A. says. "From the very first, something about him bothered me. I didn't like the way he looked at me. After the first time, I came home and told my mother than I didn't want to go to him anymore, but he came to our place and spoke to my parents, and they persuaded me to go back."

A. went to Mondrowitz for two months. But the treatment immediately assumed a peculiar form. "It didn't take more than two visits, and he stopped taking an interest in my problems and started to mess with me."

A. recalls that at first he was very moved and opened up to Mondrowitz, telling him what the teacher had done to him, but instead of being supportive, Mondrowitz began to touch him. "I was in a state of shock. I didn't know what to do. The place you are meant to trust and where you go for help, attacks you. I froze and bottled up completely. I was drained of feelings. I called him 'Herr Doktor,' like Mengele, who also did experiments on Jewish children."

Did you understand what was going on?

"I understood immediately. It was like a game. It's hard to explain - only someone who has gone through an experience like that can understand. The assailant knows that you are easy prey, that he can play with your feelings because you are at your weakest point. He will not mess with the tough kids, only with the weak and the miserable. And that's how it went on, every time I went to him. He didn't even try to pretend that he was treating me. He got down to business right away. He took me to movies, for walks, and he kept touching me all the time."

Why didn't you run away?

"I have asked myself that question hundreds of times. I feel suffocated when I think about it. It drives me crazy. I didn't run because I thought there was something wrong with me. That I was a whore. I believed that that was my fate. That that is what I deserved - the fact is that it happened more than once. Deep inside I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't control it. I tried to fight with my parents, told them I didn't want to go to him, but they made me, so the yeshiva would agree to take me back - that was the rabbis' condition, for him to say I was cured. And in fact, two months later the yeshiva took me back and I stopped going to him. I told my parents I wasn't going there anymore and that was the end of it."

But two weeks later, he was expelled from the yeshiva again. That summer his parents sent him to a camp, but there he got into trouble again. Desperate, his parents called Mondrowitz and asked him to help. "I was an angry, rebellious adolescent," A. says. "I was angry at the religion, at the system, at the establishment and at everyone who represented the establishment. I hated the whole world and I fought everyone. Mondrowitz came to the camp, and when I saw him from a distance, I ran. My father didn't understand what was going on. 'He just wants to help you,' he said, and I remember telling him, 'He is a faggot, get him away from me.'"

In his senior year, A. fell apart completely. He did not attend school and lived in the streets. Most of the time, he saw the world through a haze of alcohol and drugs. His parents could not communicate with him. And then he was thrown a lifebelt: "Someone took me in, looked after me and saved my life. I told him everything, and he believed me. He asked what he could do to lessen my pain. I told him, 'That won't happen until I drive the last nail into the coffin of all the people who hurt me. I want justice to be done.'"

A. says he had clear, graphic, highly detailed dreams about killing them. The dreams recurred every night and turned into an obsession. "They absolutely took my life from me."

You wanted revenge?

"It's not a matter of revenge. Those people are sick, and there is only one way to deal with them - to eradicate them, like stray dogs. Otherwise they will go on doing what they did. They took from me something that will never be returned, and I can never forget, and maybe should not forget. People like me have to spread the word that these monsters are still walking the streets. I have been given the task of warning people about them."

With the help of the young man who befriended him, A. went to the police and filed a complaint against Mondrowitz. "I didn't know then that there were also other children he had hurt. I thought it was just me. Today I know at least 20 people who were his victims, but I know there were hundreds."

It was only then that A. told his parents about what Mondrowitz had done to him. "They felt terribly sorry and guilty for having sent me to him. But a few days later I learned that he had fled to Israel and was living the comfortable life of a respected Jew in Jerusalem." A. is now married and has children of his own. He leads a religious life, though when he was in the lower depths, wandering the streets, he removed his yarmulke and spurned religion. Even though his wife and children know about the sexual abuse he endured, he insists on remaining anonymous. He still has doubts, he says: he feels afraid and threatened by the religious society in which he grew up and was educated. He is not the only one who feels persecuted. Most of Mondrowitz's alleged victims live a secret life, fearing exposure.

A community psychologist

Avrohom Mondrowitz, 60, was probably born in Poland and settled in Israel with his family after World War II. He grew up in Tel Aviv, but in the 1950s the family immigrated to Chicago. He attended the Telshe Yeshiva, in Wickliffe, Ohio, run by the Lithuanian branch of Orthodox Jewry. In the 1970s, he came to Brooklyn, saying he held a master's degree in the sciences, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia, and another Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Florida, in addition to being an ordained rabbi. The Jews of Brooklyn were impressed, and Mondrowitz began to acquire social status. He wrote articles on education for the Haredi press, had a radio program on which he gave listeners advice on how to treat children, established a yeshiva for children in distress and was active in Ohel, a large New York organization for orphans and children from broken homes. Finally, he hung a "psychologist" sign on his door and started to receive patients.

"He made a name for himself and was very respected in the community," says a Brooklyn Hasid. "Children were referred to him, hard cases from Ohel, and he treated them. Rabbis also referred children to him for treatment. His expertise was treating children who had been sexually molested."

Children who visited his office, which was located in the basement of his home, remember him boasting about the "bragging wall," on which hung his diplomas and certificates, all finely framed, which attested to his qualifications as a therapist. But according to Patricia Kehoe, a retired New York Police Department detective, "his diplomas turned out to be fakes, including his rabbinical ordination."

The police suspect that in that office, behind a closed door and drawn curtains, he sexually abused children, including with acts of sodomy. In many cases, the parents were waiting in the next room for the treatment to end, so they could take the children home. Those are the facts as collected by the Brooklyn police and told by the children.

I understood what happened

Mark Weiss, 40, from Chicago, grew up in a strictly Orthodox family, but in adolescence began to feel constricted by the rigid religious lifestyle. When he was 12, the family spent a sabbatical in Israel, and at 13 he was sent to a less strict yeshiva in San Francisco. He did not do well in his studies and felt out of place. A year later, the yeshiva informed him that he would not be able to continue his studies there, and his worried parents sent him to New York for instant counseling by a renowned psychologist.

"I was 14, and my parents sent me by plane," he said in a telephone interview. "They knew Mondrowitz's parents from Chicago - sometimes I went with my father to his father's synagogue. Mondrowitz himself attended the yeshiva in which his father was a rabbi. He was well-known. I was sent to him for a week, a week and a half, to get my head straight."

Mondrowitz went out of his way to make Weiss' stay a pleasant one. He picked him up at the airport, took him out to eat, then to an amusement park and finally to his place on 60th Street. "His family was away in a cottage in the Catskills and I slept with him in the house. At first it was terrific fun. He took me to all kinds of places and I took in every new thing: it was a perfect trap. At night he asked me where I wanted to sleep, in his son's bed or with him. I remember that he created this queasy atmosphere about his son's bedroom, so I said I wanted to sleep with him. During the night he suddenly touched me. From start to finish, including sodomy. I was naive, I didn't understand what was happening, I thought it was part of his niceness, that this is how he wanted to make me feel good."

What happened in the counseling sessions?

"Almost nothing. It was all one big fraud. In the morning, he was downstairs in the basement, receiving patients, and when he didn't have patients he went with me to all kinds of places, and at night he would come on to me, and on the weekend we drove up to the family's cottage."

When he was 16, Weiss was sent to a boarding school in Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa, where he spent two years, before returning to Chicago. He repressed the Mondrowitz experience successfully. He told no one, and it was as though it had never happened. But one day, during the Sukkot festival, he saw Mondrowitz in the synagogue. He was about to go over to him, when he suddenly understood what had happened to him a few years earlier.

"I froze, turned around and ran home," he relates. "On the way I started to cry, and my mother asked me what was wrong. I told her, but she found it hard to accept. Then my father came home and my mother told him, and he couldn't believe it, either. He tried to find out if maybe I was mistaken. Afterward I went to a friend and told him, but he couldn't believe it, and then I started to ask myself if maybe I was wrong. But a week later I got a call from a rabbi who asked me to see him at his home. I entered his office and he asked me, 'Would you send your children to Mondrowitz?' It was like a bomb went off in my head. I was in a state of shock. It took me a few minutes to reply, 'No, I wouldn't.' He asked why, and I told him, but again, nothing happened."

Weiss, who is married and has three children, lives in New Jersey, where he installs home movie systems. In 2001 he saw an ad in a religious paper about a conference of rabbis in New York on the subject of sexual molestation. "I went there," he says, "but it was disgraceful. I realized within a few minutes that they had no idea about what really goes on. They think that with them it's not like with the goyim or secular people, and they think they know how to help children. The truth is that they don't have a clue, because they sweep everything under the rug. It's all because of the matchmaking, because if it ever gets out what these people went through, no one wants them."

Are you angry at the rabbis?

"They silenced a whole generation. When one of them destroys other people, they do nothing. These are far more important matters than the shmita year [the land lying fallow every seven years] or worms in lettuce."

A public beating

G., 44, from New York, married with children, a rabbi's son, knew Mondrowitz as the head of a yeshiva he attended for five years, from the age of 11. "He molested me for many years," G. says. "He collected vulnerable children from broken homes who didn't get along with their parents, and abused them. He took me to the mountains, where he had a cottage. He would bring rifles and play with us, we would have contests shooting air guns, and he would win so that he could later do what he wanted with us as his prize. There was a dirty film playing in Manhattan at the time, called 'Caligula,' and he took me to see it. I was 14, and during the movie he pawed me."

Did you know that was bad?

"I'm not sure I knew. He was an adult, the head of a yeshiva. He gave me a lot of money and bought me things. After I understood, I came to the school one day and went up to each kid and told them to keep their distance from him. Then he entered the classroom and in front of everyone he pounded me really hard with both hands, on my face and back. That was already the end of high school; I was 18 at the time. And the whole time he kept telling me that I was weird and would never marry."

Did you tell your parents?

"Never. I was afraid he would beat me."

How do you live with a story like this?

"It's very hard. I now have terrible guilt feelings that maybe I did something bad and deserved everything that happened to me. I get very aggressive toward people when they seem to be approaching my children. I overprotect them and I have become very suspicious. All these years I repressed everything, and only recently did I begin professional therapy."

245 years in prison

At the beginning of the 1980s, when Mondrowitz was at the height of his glory, married and the father of seven children, rumors started to spread in the Orthodox community about the type of treatment he was giving, and his yeshiva closed down. On November 21, 1984, Detective Patricia Kehoe received an anonymous phone call about Mondrowitz's many victims.

"I will never forget it, because it was my birthday," Kehoe says in a phone conversation. "I was working in the sex crimes unit. It was a horrific conversation, but even more horrific were the stories of the victims we found that night. My partner and I went there immediately, and on his block we met children, but not Jews. His street was mixed - Jews and Italians lived there. It turned out that he was the friend of all of them, and all the parents thought he was this great guy. They told us that he took the children for weekends and bought them bikes. That shook me, and I asked the parents to let me talk with the children alone.

"The first boy I talked to broke down and said straight off what happened, and so did all the other children on the block. That night we found five victims. From them we received the names of other children and went on investigating. Then we received another anonymous call from someone who said he was a rabbi, and he told me about Jewish children he had molested. I went to the yeshiva to question more children, but they wouldn't let me in."

Kehoe's investigation eventually yielded four complaints by children of Italian origin aged 11 to 16, which led to an indictment of 13 counts: five counts of sodomy in the first degree and eight of sexual abuse in the first degree. The maximum punishment for these offenses in New York State is 25 years for each count of sodomy and 15 years for each count of sexual abuse, a total of 245 years. Two weeks later, the District Attorney's office issued a warrant for his arrest. When Kehoe and her partner, Detective Sal Catalfulmo, arrived at Mondrowitz's home with the warrant, they found it empty.

"We got the warrant from the judge in the middle of the night, but when we got there he was already gone," Kehoe says. "In his study we found lists with the names of hundreds of children and a great deal of pedophilic material. It then turned out that his wife and children hid with relatives and he went to his parents in Chicago, from there apparently to Canada and then to Israel. If you ask me, the whole thing worked too slowly. The DA's office delayed and he was able to escape."

Was there nothing you could do to speed up the process?

"I was only a policewoman, not a politician like the DA. If it had been up to me, I would have issued an arrest warrant immediately after the children complained. I am very happy that these people have now decided to talk, because at the time, when we tried to reach them to question them, we did not get cooperation, but now, when they are parents themselves, they understand how important it is. That man should have been in prison for the past 23 years. It's very frustrating, especially after I heard all the stories about him from the children."

Kehoe learned that Mondrowitz continued to teach and was around children in Israel. "That is awful. Everyone has to be warned about him. I only hope that God will give me a point in my favor after all the efforts I made, even though, at the end of the day, I didn't succeed."

Fake degrees

Avrohom Mondrowitz doesn't leave his home much these days. The last place that employed him, the Jerusalem College of Engineering, has dispensed with his services. "He taught here until the end of last year," says the college spokesman, Daniel Berman.

Why is he no longer working there?

"Because of what you know. What you heard, we also heard."

Searching for a job, Mondrowitz offered himself to the Herzliya Municipality as director of the education, welfare, culture, youth and sports department. When that didn't pan out, he tried for a less prestigious position, as director of a home for the aged, also in Herzliya. He claimed to have considerable experience in treating the elderly.

Mondrowitz's CV is flexible, changing with the circumstances. With every job application he attaches a CV to fit the requirements, or as he himself put it on one occasion, he possesses "a rare talent for flexibility and adaptation."

So rapid is his adaptability that it's hard to follow. According to one resume, he obtained a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 1977, but elsewhere he wrote that in that year he completed a master's degree in educational administration at Long Island University and proceeded immediately to an MBA at Harvard. According to this version, he did not obtain his Ph.D. in psychology until 1984, though still at Columbia. But in yet another place he states that the 1984 degree is in developmental, not clinical, psychology, and is from Columbia University in Florida. And that is not the end. According to another CV, his doctoral degree in clinical psychology is actually from Heed University in Florida.

As far as the Israel Police know, Mondrowitz is currently devoting most of his energy, in the many leisure hours at his disposal, to the Internet. There he gratifies his deviant inclinations by watching clips of sadistic activity and pedophilic material. In his remaining time he makes a living by issuing bogus academic degrees to all comers, particularly to students from the Third World. He has emblems and logos from various universities, as well as seals, examples of signatures and registration forms. He refers most of the students to Thornhill University, in London, which grants degrees by correspondence and has a branch in Brooklyn. The letters that are sent out are signed by a Dr. George Coleman, who probably does not exist. A student who sought a Ph.D. in nuclear physics received a reply from Dr. Coleman to the effect that he was overdoing it, and that on the basis of his academic achievements the most that could be done for him was a degree in a less prestigious field such as education or psychology. In return for issuing a doctoral degree in theology and evangelism, for example, Dr. Coleman gets $2,000.

The Israel Police are taking an interest in Mondrowitz's various Internet occupations, and a month ago, on October 18, he was called in for questioning and released under restrictive conditions, says attorney Adian Daniels, from the law firm of Yigal Arnon, who is in contact with the police. "I am doing this pro bono, because I believe it is in the public interest," he says.

Avi Aviv, head of the computer crimes unit in the Israel Police, confirmed that Mondrowitz had been questioned, but declined to provide further details.

Extraditable

The indictment against Mondrowitz was drawn up in February 1985, and a court order was sent to his empty home in Brooklyn. However, it was not until September of that year that the Brooklyn District Attorney, Elizabeth Holtzman, sought his extradition from Israel. But that was impossible at the time. To begin with, it was not until 1988 that sodomy was recognized in Israel as full-fledged rape, including the sodomizing of males. In addition, at that time the extradition treaty with the United States included rape of a woman, but not sodomy against the will of a male.

"We were ready then to stretch a point and construe sodomy as an extraditable offense, on condition the Americans would also change it in their treaty, but they declined, so we decided not to extradite Mondrowitz," says attorney Irit Kahan, who headed the Justice Ministry's international department. "Recently the extradition treaty with the United States was changed, and now extradition is possible for any offense for which the punishment is more than one year in prison."

Despite this development, the Americans still did not rush to request Mondrowitz's extradition. The victims accuse the present Brooklyn DA, Charles Hynes. In the opinion of attorney Michael Lesher, who represents six of Mondrowitz's alleged victims, "This is an elected position. The Haredi community in Brooklyn has a great deal of electoral clout. Hynes was elected in 1989 with the support of the Orthodox, and no one wants to commit suicide because of some criminal who is sitting quietly in Israel."

In the past year, the community in Brooklyn has begun to seethe. The children of that period, those who see themselves as Mondrowitz's victims, organized and, through Lesher, put pressure on the DA's office to issue a new request for Mondrowitz's extradition. They all declared that if it proves necessary, they will testify in court. As a result, in February of this year the Brooklyn DA's office transferred all the material to the U.S. Justice Department.

"On September 6, the Justice Department issued an official extradition request to the State of Israel," a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said in response. "The statute of limitations does not apply here," Lesher says. "In the case of sodomy, you only have to be charged within five years of the perpetration of the offense, and he was charged but was not brought to court because he fled. There is also a time limitation from the time you are indicted until you are tried, but if the accused leaves his area of jurisdiction, that regulation is suspended. So there is no problem in extraditing Mondrowitz and bringing him to trial."

What stage have the extradition proceedings reached? The Justice Ministry says that the State Prosecutor's Office does not comment on extradition requests, "whether they have been filed or not."

Like poison

Dr. Amy Neustein, a sociologist from Brooklyn, has devoted the past 25 years to getting Mondrowitz arrested. She and other Orthodox Jews established a group with the goal of locating Mondrowitz and bringing him to justice. She also set up a research center in New York called Help Us Regain the Children (HURT), within the framework of which she is investigating the phenomenon of pedophilia within the closed Jewish society. The author of two books, she works with victims of sexual assault to help them cope.

"My aspiration to see justice done and get Mondrowitz tried became an obsession, because of all the molesters, he is the worst, according to the charges. He abused children in the light of day, perpetrated these crimes in front of his colleagues. I was told this by people who witnessed it in the yeshiva he worked in. Everyone knew, and they all covered up for him. As a sociologist I ask, if this is what happens when everything is in the open, what happens when things are less open?

It is perfectly clear that Mondrowitz is not alone. He is a microcosm of the Orthodox society, in which pedophilia is rampant, in which the use of pornography is thriving and known to everyone - but it is all hidden under the rug. In the 1980s, everyone was afraid that if he started to talk he would take down others with him."

Neustein and others in Brooklyn tell about three cases of young people committing suicide and one case, last year, of suicide by an adult. "All three went to Mondrowitz for treatment and afterward became deeply depressed, and the families believe that this was the reason for the suicides."

A. says that he can fully understand a boy who would want to commit suicide after undergoing abuse by Mondrowitz. "It is very hard to live with so much pain and guilt. I also have no doubt that some of these victims will do the same things to others. I am certain that it works like poison that was injected into you as a child and then you pass it on."

Mark Weiss has never considered suicide, but he too can understand those who contemplate the act. "I am still alive, and that is not to be taken for granted. There are some who killed themselves, and others who are wandering around like crazy people."

Reached by telephone, Avrohom Mondrowitz refused to comment. He hung up even before he heard the allegations against him.**************


Twenty Two Years Later, a Child Abuse Suspect’s Extradition Is Sought!

By TINA KELLEY- The New York Times

Published: November 16, 2007

Prosecutors in Brooklyn said yesterday they were pursuing the extradition of a man who fled to Israel more than 20 years ago after being accused of molesting young boys.

The man, Avrohom Mondrowitz, 59, was indicted in 1985 on eight counts of child abuse and five counts of sodomy involving four boys ages 9 to 15. He left for Israel before he could be arrested.

Michael Lesher, a lawyer for six other men who said they had been molested by Mr. Mondrowitz, said that Mr. Mondrowitz was believed to have sexually assaulted boys while posing as an educator or psychological counselor in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, said that Mr. Hynes’s office had asked the State Department to extradite Mr. Mondrowitz.

Mr. Hynes’s predecessor, Elizabeth Holtzman, requested Mr. Mondrowitz’s extradition in 1985, but at the time the offenses did not qualify as grounds for extradition under Israeli law, according to a memo written by federal officials and obtained by Mr. Lesher. Mr. Schmetterer said that in January a new extradition treaty went into effect that allowed the request.

A State Department spokeswoman referred questions about the status of the request to the Justice Department. A spokeswoman there, Jaclyn Lesch, said the department did not comment on extradition matters.

Messages left for Mr. Mondrowitz on his cellphone and at his home in Israel were not immediately returned.

Amy Neustein, an author who is editing a book on rabbis and pedophilia, who has researched Mr. Mondrowitz’s case, said that Mr. Mondrowitz claimed to have a degree in psychology from a New York university but that the university stated in writing that he had never been a student there. She said that he also posed as a rabbi, but that his credentials were from a nonexistent rabbinical school.

Mr. Lesher said that the case was particularly troubling because Mr. Mondrowitz belonged to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect whose members were reluctant to report his offenses to secular authorities.

Rabbi Mark Dratch, who operates the Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment, a nonprofit organization in New York, said, “Social pressure in the community had a real stifling effect, a silencing effect, not to cooperate with the investigation.” He said that such pressure allowed Mr. Mondrowitz “to continue his activities for a while and escape the jurisdiction.”

In a statement provided by Mr. Lesher, a man who said he had been one of Mr. Mondrowitz’s victims said: “It’s now over 20 years and nothing has been done! I know the pain and torture that I go through on a daily basis.”

The man, whose name Mr. Lesher did not release to protect his privacy, added, “Knowing that this monster is still out there among children just adds insult to injury.”

Mr. Lesher said he hoped that the case against Mr. Mondrowitz, if resolved, could help prevent future molestations.

“I want it to be an example of what it looks like when you do try to sweep something under the rug, and 23 years later it comes back from the dead,” he said. He added, “Had we looked at this kind of case differently to begin with, and said, ‘Let’s go to the police and stop this man as soon as we can,’ how many of these men wouldn’t be victims at all?”
********************************************


FUGITIVE 'PERVERT' RABBI HELD

By PHILIP MESSING

Jailed in Israel after 22 yrs.November 17, 2007

A disgraced self-proclaimed rabbi who police suspect molested hundreds of children in Brooklyn is finally behind bars after evading justice for more than 20 years, authorities said.

Avrohom Mondrowitz, 60, fled the United States for Israel in 1985 after he was indicted for sexually abusing four children in his Borough Park community, where he reportedly worked as a counselor with bogus credentials.

"My reaction was, 'Finally!' " said one of Mondrowitz's alleged victims, Mark Weiss, 40. "We have a monster that has been taken off the streets."

Mondrowitz, who once hosted a radio show in the city, was arrested in Jerusalem yesterday.

He will go to court tomorrow to be remanded until his extradition hearing, said a spokesman for the Israeli Justice Ministry, Moshe Cohen.

The case against Mondrowitz represented one of the most shocking allegations of sexual abuse by a respected Orthodox Jewish religious and community leader in the late '70s and early '80s.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Mondrowitz has worked odd jobs as an educator and fund-raiser while in Israel.

Ex-Brooklyn rabbi likely to be dragged back to Brooklyn to face kid-sex charges

BY MATTHEW KALMAN in Jerusalem, JOE GOULD and DAVE GOLDINER in New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, November 17th 2007, 4:00 AM


An Ex-Brooklyn rabbi accused of raping several boys more than 20 years ago has been arrested in Israel and could finally face justice.

Avrohom Mondrowitz, 60, a married father of seven, could be headed back to Brooklyn because a new agreement with the U.S. allows extradition for the sodomy and sex abuse counts he faces from a 1985 indictment.

"I don't see it as a moment for celebration," said Michael Lesher, who represents six adult men who claim to have been abused by Mondrowitz.

"This is a moment of gratitude to victims who came forward, who were willing to expose their pain."

Mondrowitz has a hearing in an Israeli court Sunday that could clear the way for him to be returned to Brooklyn for trial.

The case was jump-started a few weeks ago after the U.S. and Israel agreed to extradite suspects who face at least a year in prison.

Mondrowitz was once a popular child psychologist and youth counselor in Borough Park, where he was especially well-known among ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews.

He fled to Israel after several boys filed horrific complaints claiming he sodomized them after befriending them or taking them to amusement parks and movies.

Sometimes, he would rape them in his counseling office even as their parents waited outside, the boys claimed.

"Finally, justice will prevail," said Rabbi Mark Dratch of J-SAFE, a child-abuse prevention group.

Mondrowitz's wife insisted he would fight extradition.

"He's absolutely innocent," she said at their Jerusalem apartment.

Mondrowitz's case attracted controversy because critics claimed District Attorney Joe Hynes put the explosive case on the back burner under pressure from Hasidic community leaders. His office has emphatically denied that charge and insisted it was pushing for a legal way to try Mondrowitz.

dgoldiner@nydailynews.com

Who'll Rid Us of the Pedophile Rabbis & Their Enablers?

Last update - 17:25 14/11/2007

U.S. asks Israel to extradite ultra-Orthodox Jew accused of child abuse

By Aviva Lori, Haaretz Correspondent

tags: extradition, U.S., Gur Hassid

The U.S. Justice Department has asked Israel to facilitate the extradition of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man suspected of raping and sexually abusing dozens of boys.

Avrohom Mondrowitz was investigated by the New York Police Department in the 1980s and was indicted for sex crimes against four boys in Brooklyn, N.Y., but fled to Israel before he could be arrested.

According to witness reports, 60-year-old Mondrowitz, a married father of seven, would pose as a psychologist specializing in the treatment of children that suffered sexual abuse.

One of Mondrowitz's victims, 40-year-old Chicago resident Mark Weiss, who, as a child, was sent by his parents to New York for therapy with Mondrowitz after he had dropped out of several educational frameworks, recounted his ordeal. "[Mondrowitz's] family was at a cottage in the Catskills and I was sleeping at his house. at night he suddenly touched me. I was naive. I thought he was being nice, that he was trying to make me feel better," said Weiss. "It was all a big Fraud," he concluded.

Regarding the way the affair was handled by rabbis within the community, Weiss said: "[The rabbis] paralyzed an entire generation. When one of them destroys another person, they do nothing."

Mondrowitz currently resides in Jerusalem. Over the years he has worked in several educational institutions, but he is now unemployed, and allegedly supports himself by selling forged academic degrees.

A month ago, police summoned him for an interrogation over Web sites that he had visited, and then released him on conditions.

Mondrowitz refused to answer questions regarding the allegations against him.

The full story will appear in the weekend edition of Haaretz newspaper.****
**********************************

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE THAT WANT TO HAVE THEIR VOICES HEARD ON THE AVROHOM MONDROWITZ EXTRADITION REQUEST FROM THE U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE!


*******Department Of Justice In Israel...Be Polite********

Ministry of Justice
Main telephone: 011-972-2-646-6666

Department of Public Inquiries telephone: 011-972-2-646-6340/6321
Fax: 011-972-2-646-6357

Mailing Address:

Ministry of Justice
Salah-a-Din 29
P.O. Box 49029
Jerusalem 91490
Israel Fax: 011-972-2-628-543

E-Mail:YaelK@justice.gov.il
(Furnished by my dear chaver LVF)

The Minister's name is Daniel Friedman.

Steve sent the following e-mail to the Israeli Justice Department:(LVF, thanks for the info): UOJ endorsed!

Subject: Avrohom Mondrowitz' Extradition
To: YaelK@justice.gov.il

I am writing today to ask that the Israeli government comply with the U.S. Department of Justice request to have Avrohom Mondrowitz extradited to face charges of rape and sodomy. I am asking that this request be fulfilled at once and that justice should not be delayed any further. The scores of Mondrowitz victims have been waiting unjustly for 23 years now and it would be highly unethical for your government to delay this matter. Please note, the American public and the Jewish community will not rest or stand still if justice is delayed any further in this case. I hope that you appreciate the urgency of this matter and work diligently to expedite the extradition

Hatzlachah!






Who'll Rid Us of the Pedophile Priests?
By Joan Smith

Same Story - Less Colorful Yarmulke:

I recently attended a seminar at which an eminent philosopher described how he would react if he died and found himself, against his expectations, ushered into the presence of God. He would simply explain, he said, that autocratic forms of government are outmoded and demand a timetable for democratic elections. He has a point: churches are far from being democratic institutions and they do not even, judging by the extraordinary behaviour of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, consider themselves subject to the laws that other citizens are expected to uphold. So the imminent arrival in Rome of all the American cardinals for a crisis meeting with the Pope reminds me of a Hollywood movie, the kind where the heads of mafia families are summoned for a dressing-down by the capo di tutti capi.

What is on the agenda when they meet in the Vatican on Tuesday is nothing less than a conspiracy to protect US priests who have molested children, and in some cases raped them, over a period of two decades. Priests like William Effinger, for instance, who confessed to sexually abusing an altar boy in 1979 and was shielded by Rembert Weakland, Archbishop of Milwaukee, for 13 years. Or John Geoghan, a Boston priest who was the subject of dozens of allegations of sexual abuse. Cardinal Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston, knew about the allegations but transferred him from parish to parish.

Effinger and Geoghan are just two of 3,000 Catholic priests facing allegations of sexual abuse in the US. Nor is the scandal confined to one side of the Atlantic; a French bishop was given a three-month suspended sentence last year for failing to report a paedophile priest, who was eventually jailed for rape, to the police. I have never been a fan of the vow of celibacy. But I don't think allowing priests to marry would address the problem of paedophilia, which is as much about power and secrecy as it is about sexuality.

This scandal arises from the church's assumption that its own moral authority was sufficient to deter serial sex offenders. Even now, when the scale of the abuse is being exposed in hundreds of criminal investigations, senior churchmen are having to be dragged kicking and screaming to co-operate.

Senior clerics have effectively been operating a parallel and clandestine system of justice, so used to regulating the sex lives of their congregations that they apparently believed it would also work with parish priests.

But priests are part of the power structure. Priests with paedophile tendencies seem to have judged correctly that their calling would protect them against allegations of sexually abusing minors. There is a kind of erotic excitement attached to the exercise of power and there is no reason to believe that priests are untouched by it. Rather, they enjoy not just status in the community, but unparalleled opportunities to be alone with vulnerable young people. Add the lure of the forbidden and you have a blueprint for trouble.

The meeting between the Pope and the American cardinals is scheduled to last three days....Agudah Convention-like. But I doubt whether John Paul II is the man to deal with a scandal that has come near to destroying the authority of his church in the US. Like a mafia boss, he can issue rebukes and insist on changes. But secular habits of democracy and openness are unlikely to come easily to an organisation built on secrecy, repression and a tragically mistaken assumption of its superior moral values.* * *
******************************

Israel OKs extradition of Brooklyn pedophile suspect

BY MATTHEW KALMAN
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Monday, November 12th 2007, 4:00 AM

JERUSALEM - A suspected Brooklyn pedophile hiding from sex abuse charges in Israel will become the first American extradited to the U.S. under a revamped treaty, a Jerusalem court ruled Sunday.

Stefan Colmer, 30, was indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on charges he sexually abused two 13-year-old boys from the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn where he lived.

Hoping to avoid arrest, Colmer, a computer technician and salesman, fled to Israel and changed his name to David Cohen.

Jerusalem police arrested Colmer in June and have held him pending Sunday's extradition hearing, at which an Israeli judge ruled he must be returned to face the charges in Brooklyn.

Before a January change to the treaty, Israel and the U.S. had agreed to extradite suspected sex criminals only if they had been charged with rape.

Colmer is suspected of performing oral sex on the two boys over several months last year after luring them to his home from a nearby yeshiva high school, according to the U.S. Justice Department's extradition request.

The Brooklyn grand jury indicted Colmer on eight counts of criminal sexual acts. If found guilty, he could face up to seven years in prison.

The Justice Department also has requested the extradition of another alleged Brooklyn child molester, Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz, who fled to Jerusalem 23 years ago amid allegations the former counselor and principal molested four boys.

Mondrowitz was arrested last month by Israeli police but was released.

The Israeli Justice Ministry has refused to comment on the case. Attorney Michael Lesher, who represents six men who have accused Mondrowitz of molesting them as children, said Mondrowitz must be returned to face charges.

"I am certainly delighted to see that Colmer will be extradited to face justice in Brooklyn," Lesher said. "But we certainly will not rest until the same is done with Avrohom Mondrowitz."

BATTLING CORRUPTION IN THE RABBINATE! - THE TRUTH IS THE RABBIS DO NOT WANT TO FIX THE BROKEN SYSTEM! PART ONE..

There's been some mumbling about what to do about our dire situation. This rabbi says this chachma, that rabbi says another. But the truth is they don't give a damn. They profit off the status-quo.

So I'm going to tell you what needs to be done to save us from ourselves and from the Establishment, and their disdain for anyone who actually can think for themselves.

Firstly--- anything that does not add up to truth and is illogical and damaging, is just that! Don't pay any attention to the falsehoods they're feeding you. If your kids are uneducated, starving in kollel, stealing your retirement money, causing you to get ill over your three mortgages on your house, see it for what it is ---SCANDALOUS!

Here are some ideas that everyone needs to look at carefully to save us from the rabbis who would much prefer keeping you and your kids desperate and dependent on them for advice, and helpless on your own - to fight the corrupt ideas, dogma, and fraudulent concept of mesiras nefesh for Torah - that they've been feeding you.

1-Demand that your yeshivas have a full-fledged, coherent, cogent, secular studies department - on par with the best private schools in the country.

2-These departments are not to be run by rabbis--hire the best Orthodox educators that money can buy to create a real secular studies department.If necessary, create separate entities to educate your children in the afternoons and transport them there at 3 p.m.

3-ALL children would be required to frequent these schools, boys and girls in separate facilities, without exemptions. These entities would be subject to oversight by professional Orthodox educators....independent of the rabbonim.

4-All children would be expected to continue after high school to a school of higher education. Any person that wants to continue learning full time, would have to pass a rigorous examination and demonstrate his capacity to excel in learning.

To be continued.............

****************

A Reader Writes.........

Dear Readers,

I have been asked by Rabbi Yosef Wikler of Kashrus Magazine & Yeshiva Birkas Reuven to solicit information.

He has been investigating the rumors flying around the internet about Rubashkin.

He contacted Rav Weissmandel who basically said:

- the Internet is filled with lies and is assur.

- he only backs what he certifies at the store level if there is repacking.

- he certifies only a few stores -- not Rubashkin in Boro Park (he says they have KAJ hashgacha in BP.) [Goldberg's is under Babad.]

- he claims the man with the stickers is the mashgiach

Rabbi Wikler is asking that anyone with >>> serious information only <<< about possible fraud by anyone connected to Rubashkin or otherwise mishandling Rubashkin products - email:

info@kashrusmagazine.com

letters@kashrusmagazine.com

Office phone: 718-336-8544

Tizku lemitzvos.

The Analysis -- In UOJ-Speak!

This is an abbreviated version of The Jewish Week article, to see the article in it's entirety, go to: thejewishweek.com My comments are at the end.



No Religious Haven From Abuse

New study finds Orthodox women are sexually victimized as much as other American women are.

by Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Staff Writer

Despite the widespread impression in the Orthodox world that sexual abuse doesn’t happen within its precincts, or happens less than in the “outside world,” a report in the November issue of the journal of the American Psychiatric Association says that Orthodox Jewish women suffer as much of it as other American women do.

Twenty-six percent of respondents in a study about the sexual lives and attitudes of married Orthodox Jewish women — 55 percent identifying as Modern Orthodox and about 45 percent as fervently Orthodox — indicated that they had at some point suffered sexual abuse.

That figure is on par with the 25 percent to 27 percent of American women in general, without regard to their marital status or religion,
who have reported in numerous studies that they had been sexually abused.

The new article also says that fervently Orthodox women are more likely than Modern Orthodox women to have experienced sexual abuse, to have experienced it multiple times and to have experienced it the first time before age 13.

Fifty-eight percent of fervently Orthodox women who participated in the study reported experiencing sexual abuse multiple times, according to the article, compared to 39 percent of Modern Orthodox women.

Among the ultra-Orthodox respondents, 20 percent said they had experienced abuse by the age of 13, while among the modern Orthodox respondents it was 12 percent.

“It’s very important to note that this is just a slice,” said Rachel Yehuda, a professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, and one of the paper’s lead authors. “We only studied married women who agreed to be studied, and we have no idea of how representative these women are. More importantly, we didn’t study single women or women who decided not to be Orthodox anymore.

“Nonetheless, the observation that this is not less of a problem here is important. ... One can’t walk away saying Orthodox Judaism is protecting women against abuse,” said Rachel Yehuda.

“We’re not the first to show that heightened religiosity may be a response to trauma,” says Dr. Michelle Friedman, a psychiatrist in Manhattan who is the article’s other lead author. Living an Orthodox life is viewed as “a whole lifestyle of perceived protection and meaning, of clarity and order.”

The article, which focuses just on sexual abuse, is based on information drawn from a broader study of Orthodox married women’s sexual lives and attitudes that Friedman and Yehuda conducted about four years ago. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 58, and were required to report regular use of a mikveh, or ritual bath, in order to be included in the findings.

The researchers advertised the study in synagogue bulletins, Jewish organizations, newspapers, Jewish listservs and Web sites, and through medical offices, like pediatricians and obstetricians/gynecologists, whose practices include many Orthodox women.

They did not count as abused respondents those who said that their adult experiences had been consensual even if uncomfortable, or said that they had abuse threatened but not carried out, or who experienced something that might not be strictly considered abuse, for example, someone who reported that a stranger fondled her rear end on the street.

Of the 380 respondents, 208 of them defined themselves as Modern Orthodox and 172 described themselves as ultra-Orthodox. The study found that the ultra-Orthodox women were more likely to report that their husbands had forced them to have sex — 5 percent compared to 1 percent of the Modern Orthodox women.

The article hopes to illuminate the need for greater sensitivity to sexual abuse among those who might treat its victims, and also to the reality of its existence in Orthodox Jewish communities.

“Religious life is not necessarily protective of the human condition,” said Friedman. “In theory, it’s clearly forbidden. But in practice it happens, and people suffer.”*****

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"Religious life is not necessarily protective of the human condition!"

Why not? What is there to protect if human life is not sacred? And that's why we're here in crazy-land today, the Charedi Orthodox Establishment exposed....butt-naked!

A recent phone call marked as urgent on my e-mail went something like this from a horrified Yiddishe mama.

"Boruch Hashem my daughter got away (divorced) from this very sick kollel man...he forced himself on her - whenever, he anally raped her - whenever, he anally raped a baby girl in his family...the bruises were all over her buttocks.....the police were called finally...to find out after months, that the police report disappeared, not a trace of it!

This kollel man denied all of this to a local bais din and was "believed", although he had a violent sexual abuse history as well as other members of his family!

I called a member of the Moetzes (Agudath Israel leadership)...I spoke to the rebbetzin, the rabbi refused to come to the telephone; I heard him saying in the background" he was exonerated!"

UOJ...I have no further axe to grind with this sick and evil man, my daughter is free and safe....I just wanted to protect his next victim from being condemned to death and worse"! He sodomized a baby... and my daughter....and the rabbi would not come to the phone?"

The numbers and the facts are trickling out....and my self-educated guess on this subject is - that by the time we see the entire picture, there will not be any true believer left, not one! There's a reason Jewish kids are running away from traditional Orthodox Judaism, and that reason is you bogus rabbis!

Thank you Agudath Israel and the rest of you criminals...I hope this sick bastard marries one of your daughters or granddaughters!


Steep rise in child sexual assault complaints among Haredis

By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent - Oct. 29, 2007

The National Council for the Child reports a steep rise in recent weeks in the number of requests for help from child sexual assault victims and their parents. Council head Yitzhak Kadman found that 30 percent of the new requests came from the ultra-Orthodox community, which had previously almost never contacted the organization about sexual assault.

The council provides volunteers, usually law students, who accompany sexual assault victims through the process of filing a police complaint, the investigation and criminal proceeding. More than 1,500 children have been helped in the seven years since this project began.

Kadman said that over the past few weeks, the council had fielded dozens of requests per week. Callers are referred to the council by police, juvenile investigators from the Social Affairs Ministry, welfare offices, doctors, schools and other community facilities.

Kadman sees the awakening of the Haredi sector as a real "breach of barriers." Contrary to expectation, the Haredim who apply for help do not want a Haredi volunteer to assist them, nor do they care whether the volunteer is a man or woman, Kadman said.

HARRY MARYLES - YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE IDIOTS!

Hey Yutz!:

Before you "speak" as an authority on anything, make an attempt to do a little reading! You are clueless...and have way too much time on your hands. Get a job for God's sake and for the sake of the naive people that read your stupidity on your blog. You may actually cause some people to believe some of the nonsense you espouse and start beating the crap out of Haredim - because Harry said so. What a collection of misguided, boorish, unadulterated horse manure-laden, uneducated, unitelligible - pile of dog-dung - words without meaning! Certainly..you had help Einstein, I can't possibly imagine one person able to collect all this genius without assistance! Thanks to Steve, I actually took a look at your pitiful writings and laughed my mechila aka tukhess - off...! Now I gotta go find it!

From the Dallas Charter:

..."Number of priests who are currently serving: 44,000

Number of cases of abuse per priest:

Most priests were accused of a single event!

1,112 priests (25.0%) had two or three allegations
578 priests (13%) had four to nine allegations.
133 priests (2.9%) had ten or more allegations.

Factors contributing to the abuse problem, as stated by the report:

Failure by the hierarchy to grasp the seriousness of the problem.
Overemphasis on the need to avoid a scandal.
Use of unqualified treatment centers.
Misguided willingness to forgive.
Insufficient accountability.

According to Paul McHugh, a member of the National Review Board, the epidemic of child abuse cases sprang up "...early in the 1960s and reached tidal-wave proportions in the 1970s and early 1980s." The report suffers from what public-health workers call "reporting bias." Some details of the 11,000 cases of alleged abuse are known.

But there exists another "pool of victims of unknown size...outside of their accounting..." They might never come to light.

By reaching back to the year 1950, the John Jay study showed that the 1950s were comparatively free of predators. It went relatively unrecognized during the 1970s and 1980s".
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One of my favorite commenters, Steve, rages on:

This was my response to Harry Maryles who called Avi Shafran one of his "favorite people" and who villified UOJ and this blog:

Harry,

This was the response of one of your "favorite people", Avi Shafran, after Kolko's arrest last December:

"Why would we have comment about the arrest of an individual? Because he was an employee, more than 30 years ago, of one of the camps we run (that have had thousands of employees over the years)? I don't think that requires comment on our part.

We are not even a party anymore to any lawsuit filed against the accused, as I understand it. The suit of the accuser who included Camp Agudah in his action (John Doe #1) has been dismissed (without prejudice, I believe, so it can still be refiled, but hasn't been)."

How about showing some sensitivity to the countless victims, many of which were from Camp Agudah? And don't tell me that Shafran wasn't aware of the allegations that stemmed from the camp. The bais din that was convened in the 80's was brought about by victims of the camp. Also, look at his response to the NY Magazine article of June '06- (On The Rabbi's Knee - nymag.com). In a nutshell, his response to the reports of sexual abuse in the community was that we are not as bad as the Catholic Church.

Now before you call UOJ a villain, I challenge you to name one individual that he wrongfully accused. As for the way he runs his blog, at least he has a noble goal and mission, which is to rid klal yisrael of molesters and corrupt leaders. I cannot say the same for your blog whose purpose seems to be simply to foment sinas chinam amongst klal yisrael.

All you do is take a news item and try to twist it into another anti-chareidi rant in which you stereotype and label groups of people. At least UOJ backs up his words with action, as evidenced by the fact that six molesters that last year were in chinuch are now either in prison, awaiting extradition, under indictment, or have been fired.

The man was matzil nefashos and as you know if one saves one Jewish soul, it's as if he saved the world. How many nefashos has your pathetic blog saved? All you've accomplished is to stir up old arguments between chareidim and MO's, thereby promoting sinas chinam, and delaying the coming of Mashiach.

So Harry you and all your corrupt "favorite people" can continue to villify UOJ, just like they did last year at their convention. Your words are empty and meaningless because we can see right through your transparent hypocrisy.

Amen!

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Hi, I'm the filmmaker behind "Without A Voice". It's currently still in development. We're still looking for more survivors who are willing to go on camera and tell their story. So please contact me ASAP if you're someone who will tell their story. Whatever age and whatever gender please come forward (teens, parents of survivors etc.) Please also forward this note to as many groups and blogs as possible.

Thank You
Michael Schulman
Contact me at: film2write@yahoo.com

How's The Torah Umesorah Sex - Offender Registry Going Shea Fishman? Climate Right Yet? What Will It Take?

Dear UOJ readers:

UOJ has kindly permitted me to post here in order to seek corroborating testimony on a rebbe I had in grade school. He taught my fourth and sixth grade classes in 1972-73 and 1974-75, respectively. He taught at a Modern Orthodox yeshiva in Monsey, NY from at least the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. Although the school was (and is) Modern Orthodox and pro-Israel, the teacher in question was (and is) chassidish. He was in his early 30s when he taught me; he is now 67 or 68. I don't know if he has continued to teach, or to have contact with children, since leaving the yeshiva.

As a child, I was repeatedly sexually abused, but denied it even to myself. (This is called "dissociation.") After years of difficulty, I finally entered therapy, and within two weeks, the grief, anger, and pain of that time came flooding back. Memories, at first fragmentary and confused, came back, too. I know that relying on "recovered memories" is controversial. I don't like the phrase, myself. Nevertheless, in the words of an experienced researcher and therapist who teaches at Harvard Medical School, "Amnesia for childhood sexual abuse is a condition. The existence of this condition is beyond dispute.... At least 10% of people sexually abused in childhood will have periods of complete amnesia for their abuse, followed by experiences of delayed recall." This is a conservative estimate based on published research (see http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/).

After more than two years of therapy, I am 90% sure that this rebbe is responsible for repeated, deliberately humiliating, sadistic sexual abuse. This belief is not based on scenarios of abuse suggested to me, nor leading questions asked of me, by anyone. The memories are mine alone. But as long as that 10% doubt remains, I will not act without corroborating testimony. UOJ told me that he is "aware" of this man, and that "his name has come up in confidential inquiries." He further told me that "When there are three people willing to put their name (confidentially) on an accusation, I investigate the matter fully... If I were to receive two more people on [this man] with names (never to be divulged by me), I would contact [him] and [the then-principal of the school] directly."

I believe I have given enough information for any former student of this man to recognize him. If you know of any specific incidents of sexual abuse he committed, I urge you to contact me at: sarasminion@yahoo.com. I trust UOJ's promise never to divulge your name, and I add my promise to his. If even a fraction of the things I remember are true, this man needs to be stopped! I also have evidence that the then-principal of the school (now principal emeritus) knows of allegations against this rebbe, and is covering them up. If this is true, then for the sake of children's safety, he needs to be told that the cat is already out of the bag, and that he must act accordingly.

Thank you so much,

A Survivor