Learn about the
Global Day of Tefillah Initiative –“Tu New postB’Av Together” – where Jews
across the world (that includes you) will daven together on Tu B’Av –
Monday, Aug. 7th @10am EST– be a part of it! Visit www.TUBAVTOGETHER.com
How senior White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared
Kushner got into Harvard is an instructive one.
Of course few will be surprised that Kushner’s father,
Charles Kushner, a wealthy and connected developer and political donor,
helped him get in. But the details of just how that happened, described
in Daniel Golden’s thoroughly reported 2007 book The Price of Admission, remain remarkable to this day.
What Golden found, essentially, was that Jared’s father
handed Harvard (a school he did not attend) a big pile of money just as
Jared was starting to apply to colleges. Around the same time, Jared’s
dad got his US senator to contact another US senator to arrange a chat
with Harvard’s dean of admissions.
Happily for the Kushner family, Jared was then admitted.
But several officials at Jared’s high school outright told Golden that
they found the choice puzzling, since his grades and academic record
really didn’t seem to merit it:
In 1998, according to sources familiar with the gift, the
New York University alumnus [Charles Kushner] pledged $2.5 million to
Harvard, to be paid in annual installments of $250,000. ... At the time
of the pledge, Kushner’s older son, Jared, was starting the college
admissions process at the Frisch School, a Jewish high school in
Paramus, New Jersey. A senior in 1998-99, Jared was not in the school’s
highest academic track in all courses, and his test scores were below
Ivy League standards. Frisch officials were surprised when he applied to
Harvard — and dismayed when he was admitted.
“There was no way anybody in the administrative office of
the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former
school official told me. “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did
not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to
happen.Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit
disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought
should really get in on the merits, and they did not” ...
... Margot Krebs, who was director of Frisch’s college
preparatory program at the time, said, “Jared was certainly not anywhere
near the top of his class. He had some very strong personal qualities.
He’s a very charming young man with a great deal of poise, the sort of
kid you would look at him and say, ‘This is a future politician.’ It was
an unusual choice for Harvard to make.”
Golden goes on to describe the role of the two senators —
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts — in
getting Charles Kushner in touch with Harvard’s dean of admissions:
A source close to the family told me that New
Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg, to whom Kushner and his family gave
nearly $100,000 from 1992 to 2002, turned to Massachusetts senator
Edward Kennedy to boost Jared’s Harvard prospects. Senator Kennedy, a
Harvard alumnus whose family has been associated with the university for
three generations, is said to have contacted admissions dean William
Fitzsimmons, who then spoke with Kushner.
You can read more detail in Golden’s book,
but overall the saga is a rather remarkable peek behind the curtain at
just how the admissions process can be twisted to the benefit of the
wealthy.
..."This is besides placing in jeopardy the Jewish status of
Reform and Conservative converts who wish to register as Jews with the
Interior Ministry." (NO KABALLAT MITZVOS REQUIRED)
Words count!
If there is anything clear in the history of the Jewish People during this season on the Jewish calendar, it is that words count!
We are entering the period of the Three Weeks of semi-mourning, leading
up to the Ninth of Av, which marks the anniversary of the destruction
of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE (and its predecessor, in 576
BCE). According to the Talmud, this tragedy occurred because of
unnecessary, internecine hatred among the Jews of 1st century Judea.
Jewish religious and political groups hated each other and expressed
that hatred in evil words which ultimately proved to be destructive.
Something
like this seems to be happening today in pronouncements by the
Government of Israel and the responses to them by voices in Israel and
in America. The Cabinet of Israel recently announced two decisions that
have an impact far beyond the shores of Israel. The first freezes a
carefully negotiated agreement to establish an area of the Kotel, known
as Robinson’s Arch – out of sight and sound of the Kotel Plaza – to
accommodate non-Orthodox prayer services. The agreement had been
negotiated by a broad coalition of groups under the chairmanship of
Natan Sharansky and was accepted by the Government in January, 2016.
It isn’t entirely clear exactly what the
“freeze” entails but the Haredi Minister of Health, who leads Israel’s
United Torah Party, expressed very clearly what he – and, presumably,
his colleagues – believe it to mean: “The Government’s decision to
freeze the Western Wall arrangement,” he said, “sends a clear message to
the entire world. The Reform do not and will not have access or
recognition at the Western Wall.”
Words count!
Words count especially when they are
spoken by one of the leaders of the government coalition, which includes
seventeen members of the Haredi parties and which forced the hand of
the Prime Minister to create this freeze or risk the fall of his
government. These are hurtful – I dare say, hateful – words spoken by a
representative of the Government of Israel against fellow Jews. This is sinat chinam
– unwarranted hatred – for those with whom one disagrees. It is this
kind of talk that led to the destruction of the Second Temple as taught
by the Talmud and confirmed in the writings of academic historians.
Simultaneously, the government introduced a
bill into the Knesset to designate the Chief Rabbinate as the sole
authority to approve conversions to Judaism in Israel. This would
nullify recognition of conversions by independent Orthodox courts and
prevent the conversions of tens of thousands of Israelis from the former
Soviet Union who want to be Jewish, are ready to accept Jewish
practice, speak Hebrew, serve in the IDF, send their children to Israeli
schools and will inevitably marry other Jewish Israelis. Nullifying or
preventing their conversions will forever divide the Jewish people in
their own land.
This is besides placing in jeopardy the Jewish status of
Reform and Conservative converts who wish to register as Jews with the
Interior Ministry.
(NO KABALLAT MITZVOS REQUIRED)
So much for all the protests – and the agreements – of last summer. Oh how words count!
But words count also in the reactions
and responses to these troubling actions and words by the government of
Israel and its leaders. The first response that is troubling is the
response of silence. I am referring to the silence of Modern Orthodox
leaders and organizations. Where is the outrage over these hurtful
actions and hateful words? Why has the Minister of Health not been
called to task by Modern Orthodox rabbinic and lay organizations? How
can we let him get away with saying that the State of Israel will assure
that “Reform” – and, presumably, Conservative and egalitarian or
women’s prayer groups – “do not and will not have access or recognition
at the Western Wall?” Whose Wall does he think this is?
Some years ago, when a women’s group brought a
Torah to the women’s section of the Kotel, and terrible epithets were
hurled at them by intolerant men, Rabbi Yehuda Getz, then Rabbi of the
Kotel, rushed out to the Kotel Plaza and proclaimed: This wall belongs
to everyone; to men and women, to Ashkenazim and Sephardim, to Hassidim
and to Misnagdim, to religious and to irreligious,… as it is written
“For my House will be called a House for all nations (Isaiah).”
Where is the Rabbi Getz of today, in the
Haredi world, in the Modern Orthodox world? We are not living in
pre-emancipation times. Not every Jew will live according to Halacha.
Not every Jew will pray as I do; so therefore he/she has no right to
pray at the Kotel? Where is the fairness, the tolerance for other points
of view, the ahavat Yisrael, love of Israel? Unless one
doesn’t consider other Jews who practice their Judaism differently from
“us,” Jewish. Then we are back in the days of 70 CE, God forbid. The
Talmud says that the rabbinic leaders of that day saw what was happening
and stood by silently, without protesting. Sometimes, silence speaks
volumes.
Edmund Burke wrote in 1795 “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Words count!
But, there is a proper way to respond. Words count here too!
The outcry from many Jewish groups has been
very strong, indeed, powerful. Justifiably so. The government’s actions
have been divisive for the entire Jewish people and some of the words
have been very hurtful. Some of the reactions, however, have been more
than strident; they have been dangerous. In one’s passion to criticize
and correct bad behavior and words, one should not punish the entire
Jewish people and the citizenry of Israel. One should be careful, when
trying to ensure the survival of Clal Yisrael not to hurt Clal
Yisrael. One should not urge American Jews to boycott all government
officials and to shun the Prime Minister on our visits — or theirs. One
should not discourage philanthropic giving to Israeli hospitals and urge
American Jews to fly to Israel on the friendly skies of United and
Delta, and boycott EL AL. That excessive response to outrageous
governmental behavior is understandable, but not practical. It could
mean hurting UJA and the Federation movement. It could result in serious
losses to AIPAC. In the effort to ensure that Israel does not divide
the Jewish people, one could, God forbid, turn Jew against Jew and
greatly weaken all of our efforts on behalf of Israel and the
America-Israel relationship. The anger may be justified; but the damage
must be controlled.
Words count! And can have a lasting, destructive effect.
The most constructive words regarding this controversy, have been expressed,
by the leadership of the Conference of Presidents: Stephen M.
Greenberg, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman. In
their statement they announced that they had said in a letter to the
Prime Minister that “it is imperative that the government move
expeditiously to address this matter and come up with a resolution that
is equitable to all, as you sought to do in the agreement that was
reached before.”
The letter noted that “given all the challenges facing
Israel and American Jewry, this is a time when achdut, unity,
is more important than ever.” Acknowledging that “there are different
points of view,” the Conference leaders wrote that those differences
“can and must be brought into harmony to enable a way forward without
intimidation, threats or feelings of exclusion…. Delay will only
exacerbate tensions and make an equitable outcome more difficult.”
Hopefully, with courageous and sensible leadership in Israel, these words will count!
—
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and Principal Emeritus of the Ramaz School.
The following poem is a
contemporary kinah, lamentation, written in commemoration of Tisha b’Av,
the fast which commemorates the destruction of the Temple. The quoted
Hebrew text comes from Eicha, a text which is read on the night of Tisha
b’Av.
She weeps, yea, she weeps in the night, and
her tears are on her cheek; she has no comforter among all her lovers;
all her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
How do you see the pain of an adult still hurt
from the pain inflicted upon them as a child, and turn the other cheek
‘because it happened years ago?’
How do you see the pain of a parent begging on
behalf of their betrayed child, and say, well, we can’t believe the
testimony of a child, and there is no one else who witnessed the act?
אֵיכָה?
How?
How do you teach that we must protect children
from technology, from footballs, from images of women, yet you can’t
protect from abuse, from rape, from shame, from PTSD?
How do you pray for the third temple, when you cannot acknowledge the evil you perpetuate?
How do you wrap yourself in a tallis, bind
your tefillin, fooling yourself that your outward show of piety is worth
anything, when survivors cannot bear the pain anymore and are killing
themselves in unprecedented numbers?
How do you listen but take no action?
You are a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. You show
local authorities, the media, and critics that you care, but survivors
know who you really care about.
Like the Sicarii who wanted to maintain
absolute control over ancient Jerusalem, you stab and starve your own
people of education, help, and justice.
A blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!
Every edict that is released about the kashrus
of strawberries, when your own kashrus is riddled with child abuse and
supporters of abusers....
Every time you allow a rapist to lead tefilos in your shul,
Every time you do not protest when a convicted sex offender gives a shiur.....
You sully the pure words of Torah and Prayer with their foul mouths.
Every time you allow a sex offender to take
executive positions in a shul or community, to be mesader kidushin, to
sit on the dais at a public event, you dash us against the rocks.
Yehudis Fletcher is a survivor and activist. She lives in Manchester, UK, with her family.
If
you find the churban beis hamikdash too far in the past, too abstract
to mourn, and the Holocaust seems to unrelatable to actually cry about,
or you're one of those Jews who's sick of hearing about it, maybe
consider the fact that children are being sexually abused wholesale in
Jewish communities, and nothing meaningful is being done about it.
Reflect on the fact that there are prominent rabbis and community
leaders who are actively blocking legislation that would help get the survivors justice, and bring their abusers to justice.
Reflect on the fact that while the charedi world covers up for these
crimes, the modern orthodox world enables it by smugly pretending that
it's not their problem.
Reflect upon the fact that hundreds of
Jews die yearly due to suicide or overdose because of sexual abuse, and
that the ones who don't live with PTSD, depression, eating disorders,
and self harm, among other things.
I don't want to hear anything
about how we all need to get along, about how these issues are divisive
and inappropriate for the day. Silence is what perpetuates the problem.
Silence and inaction are what's killing victims of child sexual abuse
in our community.
If you're looking for a churban to mourn to give today meaning, start there, and consider what you can do to help.
‘Culture of Silence’ Abetted Abuse of at Least 547 Choir Boys, Inquiry Finds
The Regensburg Cathedral in
Germany last year. Over the past two years, an independent lawyer
conducted interviews with victims of abuse that took place at the
cathedral’s music school for decades.Credit
Gordon Welters for The New York Times
BERLIN
— For decades, a “culture of silence” pervaded a Catholic music school
where the brother of a future pope directed a renowned boys’ choir,
contributing to an environment in which at least 547 children were
abused, a lawyer who carried out an investigation of the mistreatment said on Tuesday.
The estimate of the number of children abused was far greater than a previous figure, 231, that the lawyer gave last year.
The choir — the Regensburg Domspatzen,
literally the Cathedral Sparrows — dates to the 10th century and
continues to perform at Sunday Mass in Regensburg’s 16th-century Gothic
cathedral. The choir’s music director from 1964 to 1994 was the Rev.
Georg Ratzinger, whose younger brother, Joseph Ratzinger, reigned as Pope Benedict XVI from 2005 to 2013.
Father Ratzinger, now 93, has apologized for slapping boys
during his tenure, and said he stopped administering corporal
punishment when the church banned it in 1980. He has denied awareness of
sexual abuse taking place, and the new investigation does not implicate
him in the abuse.
The
abuse came to light in 2010, but only after intense pressure from the
victims did the diocese call upon an outside lawyer, Ulrich Weber, to
conduct an independent inquiry.
Over the past two years, Mr. Weber and a team of colleagues conducted interviews with victims, other former pupils and scanned archives from the years 1945 to 1992.
Over
all, Mr. Weber evaluated 616 reports of abuse; he deemed fewer than a
dozen not at all plausible; others he determined to be questionable,
meaning that the abuse could not be ruled out.
In
the remaining cases, 547 in total, the reports of abuse were deemed
plausible, based on interviews or other corroborating evidence. Of those
cases, 67 are believed to have involved sexual abuse. The others
involved various forms of corporal punishment, including ear-twisting
and beatings with a cane.
As
in other institutions in which longstanding patterns of abuse have come
to light, a combination of shame, secrecy and impunity contributed to
the abuses at the music school in Regensburg, which is about 70 miles
northeast of Munich, in southeastern Germany.
The abuse remained taboo, discussed only among some of the victims, who felt ostracized by their fellow alumni.
The
most severe abuse took place among primary-school students in the 1960s
and ’70s, mostly boys 9 to 11, living away from home.
“In
the three areas of school, choir, musical education and boarding
school, many people actively took part in the abuse,” Mr. Weber said.
In
the report, dozens of former students described their primary-school
years as a “prison,” “hell” or “concentration camp,” he said.
“Many described this time as the darkest period of their lives, dominated by violence, fear and helplessness,” Mr. Weber said.
Ulrich Weber, the lawyer who
investigated allegations of abuse at the Regensburg school, and his team
scanned archives from the years 1945 to 1992.Credit
Gordon Welters for The New York Times
Survivors
expressed relief at the release of the report, but one of them, Udo
Kaiser, said it could not restore their stolen childhoods.
“It
has been documented,” Mr. Kaiser said in a telephone interview from his
home in Munich.
“Everything I have been saying for the past 30 years,
when no one believed me, everything I have been fighting for the past
seven years is now public.”
The
440-page report did not focus on Father Ratzinger or the question of
whether the priest might have turned a blind eye to the abuse, though it
does contain a section focused on victims’ recollections of the choir
director.
For
some, he embodied a musical perfectionist who sought success above all
else, while others recalled him as being quick with a slap, and having
no compunction against throwing a chair or music stand into the choir.
Many
recalled him picking favorites, which meant the best singers had no
problems with him, while others were beaten or slapped for singing a
wrong note.
When
Mr. Weber started his investigation, Father Ratzinger was critical,
calling it “insanity” to try to investigate how many slaps had been
“doled out” in the institution associated with the choir. He did not
have any immediate comment on the latest findings.
The
sexual abuse took the form of “leering looks or verbal abuse, to the
forced consummation of pornography, unwanted sexual touching to forced
sex,” the report said.
Along
with the physical and sexual abuse, many victims suffered psychological
abuse and bullying from classmates who mirrored the hierarchy and from
the school’s strict educational style.
“There
was a feeling of permanent control, ranging from regular checks of
their clothes closets, to making sure that underpants were being worn
beneath their pajamas,” the report said. “The children were under
pressure, regarding their academic as well as their musical
achievements, in addition to fearing punishment.”
Nevertheless,
some victims said that not every former student had been abused, and
others had fond memories of their time at the school and their
participation in the choir.
This
was, the report found, in line with the culture of keeping the abuse
behind closed doors, which meant that anyone who was not a victim had a
hard time conceiving how it could have been carried out.
Over
the years, the report found, this “split reality” led to
misunderstandings and rifts among the alumni, some of whom could not
fathom what had happened when the revelations began to emerge.
The
Regensburg diocese has paid 450,000 euros to victims through a fund
established after the attention surrounding the abuse came to light.
The
school has also moved to change its culture and instituted steps to
prevent and report abuse in recent years, as well as expanding the
emphasis to include not only music, but also the children’s well-being,
said Roland Büchner, who now directs the choir.
“I sharply condemn this,” Mr. Büchner said on Tuesday. “It must never happen again.”
Ponvert added that the arrest sends an important message about childhood
sexual abuse. “My client and I hope that the $20 million judgment in
the civil case and now this arrest will send a loud message to other
victims that they can safely come forward and will be believed and a
louder message to would-be child molestors that, if they touch a child,
they will be pursued relentlessly, will be publicly humiliated, will
lose everything they have, and will spend many years with their fellow
rapists behind bars in a maximum-security prison,” he said.
(REPRINTED GRAPHIC ACTS AS REPORTED IN THE MEDIA...HARD TO READ, HARDER FOR ME TO POST)
Affidavit: Scar Gave Rabbi Greer Away
Daniel Greer leaves police headquarters Wednesday with bail bondsman Anthony Constantinople
A one-to-three-inch scar, and the way he pulled his pants over his
shoes, helped seal Rabbi Daniel Greer’s fate with police investigating
whether he repeatedly sexually assaulted yeshiva students over a period
of years.
That point emerged in an arrest warrant affidavit made
public Thursday, one day after the prominent Edgewood rabbi turned
himself in to police on charges of second-degree sexual assault and
risk of injury to a minor. Greer, who is 77 years old, is free on a
$100,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 11, after his
lawyer, prominent criminal defense attorney Willie Dow, returns from
vacation. In an interview, Dow denied the charges on Greer’s behalf.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Stacey Miranda is handling the case
for the government.
The arrest warrant affidavit, written by lead
police investigator Detective Kristine Cuddy, details the information
she gathered from an alleged victim of the rabbi as well as information
she relied on to buttress the allegations.
Her investigation
stemmed from a complaint police received last August from a former
student at the yeshiva Greer started in the Edgewood neighborhood.
Though the affidavit doesn’t name the student, a lawyer for the victim,
Eliyahu Mirlis, confirmed that he is the one who came forward to police.
Mirlis also brought a federal civil lawsuit against Greer that wrapped
up in May, when Greer lost a $20 million verdict in federal court.
That trial, which was decided on a lower standard of a “preponderance
of the evidence,” or who’s case was more likely, included testimony
about years-long abuse of at least one other victim at the school. Greer
invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to decline
responding to the allegations. (The rabbi is seeking a new trial.)
According
to the arrest warrant affidavit, during an interview at police
headquarters on Aug. 25, 2016, Detectives Cuddy and Shayna Kendall
sought to shore up details about Mirlis’s alleged abuse, which he said
had occurred in the “early to middle 2000s.” The detectives questioned
him about dates and locations, as well as a description of Greer’s naked
body.
Mirlis, now 29 years old, told the officers that the rabbi
had orange public hair (that might have changed with age), a circumcised
penis, no tattoos, a hairy back and chest, a mole on his upper back and
a scar between one and four inches long between his thigh and his
testicle. Mirlis said the scar could be seen only if Greer was naked. He
couldn’t remember which leg the scar was on.
Mirlis also stated
that, at the time he was allegedly assaulted, Greer had an unusual habit
of putting his shoes on before his pants when redressing — a fact that
wasn’t disclosed in the civil trial.
To verify, Cuddy applied for a
warrant last month to view Greer’s naked body. Judge Brian Fischer
approved it. On June 20, Sgt. David Zannelli and three detectives met
Greer at his lawyer’s offices on Orange Street. In a private room, two
detectives videotaped and photographed Greer with and without his
clothes on. (Cuddy wasn’t present.) Greer’s lawyer said the rabbi would
give no statement to the cops.
After reviewing the images on a
DVD, Cuddy wrote, they “corroborated” all of Mirlis’s statements. In the
affidavit, she wrote, “The images clearly showed that Greer did in fact
have a lot of pubic hair, orange in color, an extremely hairy chest,
white in color, an extremely hairy back, black in color. Also, small
mole on the upper right side of his back, a small circumcised penis and a
scar on Greer’s body one to three inches in length between the right
thigh and right testicle.”
At the federal civil trial, defense
attorneys sought to establish that most students at the tight-knit
yeshiva would have known Greer had a hernia surgery and thus a scar.
The
police video also supported, but did not confirm, Mirlis’s description
of how Greer dressed, according to Cuddy’s affidavit. “I also noted
while watching the video of Greer undressing that he removed his pants
while wearing his shoes,” Cuddy wrote. “The victim had stated that Greer
would put his pants on while wearing his shoes, although today he did
the opposite, it is an odd behavior.”
Cuddy, a 14-year veteran of
the force in the Special Victims Unit, noted that law enforcement’s case
was also supported by the rest of Mirlis’s detailed, sometimes lurid,
testimony and a videotaped deposition from the civil trial by a separate
former student who became the yeshiva’s principal of his own sexual
relations with Greer. That student, Aviad Hack, spoke of years worth of
alleged sexual abuse. (Click here for a story detailing that.)
Criminal Allegations
A GREER STUDENT IN YESHIVA WINDOW - KNOWN AS "THE FINGER"
In his interview with law enforcement last year, Mirlis described his
alleged abuse in graphic detail that wasn’t brought up at trial. Here’s
how the arrest warrant affidavit reports the allegations:Mirlis
said that the abuse began during his sophomore year, when he was about
14 years old. Greer told him to meet on the first floor of 777 Elm St.,
one of the dormitories next to the yeshiva. The rabbi allegedly served
him alcohol (usually a bloody mary, single-malt scotch or wine) and sat
him down on a couch, engaged in an emotional conversation, then leaned
in and kissed him on the mouth. Mirlis “freaked out,” he told the cops,
and left.
A week or two later, Greer told him to come to the same
spot. Again, he served him alcohol and sat him down on the couch, Mirlis
claimed. Greer then allegedly told Mirlis to stand, undid the boy’s
belt, pulled his pants down to his ankles and had oral sex.
Mirlis
told the detectives that the sexual assaults became a “regular thing”
after that. On a weekly basis, usually on a weekday evening or a Sunday
afternoon, he was sexually assaulted at the dorms and at rental
properties on Norton Street, Edgewood Avenue, Maple Street and Park
Street, Mirlis stated in the interview.
Mirlis said his grades
suffered when he refused to meet with Greer. (At the civil trial, the
defense attorneys pointed out that his final report cards had all A’s
and B’s.) Mirlis also said that Greer, who then acted as the school’s
dean, would yell at him in the yeshiva’s hallways and threaten him with
expulsion. From the teenager’s perspective, the sexual abuse seemed like
“a game” to the rabbi.
Mirlis was sexually assaulted so often
that the encounters started to blur together, he added. Mirlis
remembered, once, Greer lay naked on top of him in the “69” position; on
another occasion, he added, Greer would “get in the doggy position,”
hand the teen KY Jelly lube and be penetrated anally. Mirlis told Greer
he “didn’t like it” when he was penetrated, but that also allegedly
continued anyway.
They didn’t wear condoms, Mirlis told cops. He
maintained that, on various encounters, he ejaculated inside Greer’s
anus and mouth and on his stomach; after oral sex, Greer would ejaculate
on his chest.
The final sexual assault was in June 2005, shortly after he graduated from the Yeshiva, Mirlis told the detectives.
Rabbi Posts Bond
Daniel Greer leaves NHPD with attorney Grudberg and bondsman Constantinople.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford signed off on Greer’s arrest warrant on Tuesday.Greer
showed up at 1 Union Ave. at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday along with attorney
David Grudberg (who was accompanying him while Dow, his lawyer in the
criminal case, is on vacation) to surrender. Bond was set at $100,000.
Greer posted it shortly after noon. As he left the police station, he
declined comment to a reporter.
Greer denies the charges against
him and plans to enter a plea of not guilty, Willie Dow, of Jacobs &
Dow, said by phone. “Rabbi Greer has a long history of positive
contributions to the New Haven community,” Dow said. “These charges are
unfounded. He looks forward to addressing this case in court.”
Mirlis’s
attorney, Antonio Ponvert III of Bridgeport’s Koskoff, Koskoff &
Bieder, confirmed Wednesday that Mirlis also made the complaint to the
New Haven police on which the investigation was based.
“Mirlis is
relieved and gratified that the New Haven Police pursued this matter,
and that Greer has been arrested and will now face criminal penalties
for his sexual abuse of children. One of my client’s goals in bringing
Greer’s abuse to light was to get this pedophile off the streets and far
away from other people’s children,” Ponvert wrote in an email
Wednesday. “Sexual predators — especially this so-called ‘rabbi’ and
others who twist spiritual beliefs for their own sick pleasure — deserve
to suffer all available civil and criminal penalties.”
Ponvert
added that the arrest sends an important message about childhood sexual
abuse. “My client and I hope that the $20 million judgment in the civil
case and now this arrest will send a loud message to other victims that
they can safely come forward and will be believed and a louder message
to would-be child molestors that, if they touch a child, they will be
pursued relentlessly, will be publicly humiliated, will lose everything
they have, and will spend many years with their fellow rapists behind
bars in a maximum-security prison,” he said.
In seeking to begin
collecting on the $20 million federal civil verdict, Ponvert has
obtained judgment liens on the yeshiva’s Elm Street building, property
it owns in Bethany, and Greer’s personal residence in the Edgewood
neighborhood.
The Greer case has destroyed a close-knit religious
community that centered around the yeshiva. However, even though the
school lost all its students, it has been reconstituted, and attracted new attention from state authorities.
The Yeshiva of New Haven remains open, under new management, despite
lacking the proper licenses to operate a boarding school. The Department
of Children and Families and the State Department of Education are
still scheduling a meeting with the school administration, a DCF
spokesperson said last week.
Beginning in the 1980s, Rabbi Greer
oversaw the revival of the neighborhood around his yeshiva at the corner
of Norton and Elm streets, renovating neglected historic homes.
Over
the years, Greer has also crusaded against gay rights in Connecticut,
at times played an active role in politics and government, and advocated
for keeping nuisance businesses out of the Whalley Avenue commercial
corridor. He and his family earned national attention for exposing johns
who patronized street prostitutes in the neighborhood, for filing suit
against Yale University over a requirement that students live in coed
dorms, and then in 2007 for launching an armed neighborhood “defense” patrol and then calling in the Guardian Angels for assistance to combat crime. In the 1970s, Greer also led a successful campaign to force the United States to pressure the Soviet Union into allowing Jewish “refuseniks” to emigrate here and start new, freer lives.
Every
time I hear about another victim coming forward another perpetrator
charged and convicted , rather than a sense of relief, I feel anger .
Not anger so much as it should be directed to the perpetrator let my
anger is to those who let it happen . Those who stood by and didn't
save these children didn't help them when they were drowning and
reaching out for an adults to save them , because it would make a
discomfort for them to go against a personal friend. I am angry because
all of these ignorant people who didn't want to hear the stories
blocked their ears and close their eyes , many of these people have
deleted my friendship in the past few years because I post this very
uncomfortable subject on Facebook.
Sometimes people have sent me
personal messages begging me to take it down , because that person is
their personal friend and it would be impossible that they did this
atrocity .... only to find out later that others came forward with
similar accusations against the perpetrators. These people who take the
Sol , the neshama, of these little children, and destroy them
eternally, have NO REASON TO BE ALIVE TODAY!!!!!!!
The Torah is
very clear about a man lying with a man, how it is so perverse that
they should not be allowed to live, and yet all these people who abide
by the Torah will close their eyes when their "friend" or colleague is
busy raping children, feeling a sense of compassion for the evil savage,
making it in their heads that he needs rachmanus, that he has a
"problem."
What if it wasn't sexual ? What if your friend was
putting on a mask at night kidnapping little children and murdering them
? Would you stand up against him then? Would you condemn him? Get out
of your ignorant boxes and SAVE THE WORLD, that you claim to do when you
invite a stranger for Shabbos, when you stand in the street and teach
someone to put on Tefillin, when you speak of Torah along the way, in
that same Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:16 "Do not stand by idly while
your neighbor's blood is shed." Remember what the neighbours in Germany
did when the nazi's came to collect us, they stood there, the majority
of them, went back inside to finish their dinner and piano practice, and
felt good about themselves that they didn't partake in any bloodshed.
This is exactly the same. A drowning child has only adults to turn to,
and you all let them down, you are just as responsible for his bloodshed
when you close the curtains, how much more so when you show up in court
to praise Satan.
Gd bless those who came forward, who saved my
children the despair of a horror I could never imagine having to
survive, as a parent. It's in your neighbours home, and rather than save
yourself the discomfort of having to bring up this negative "untznius"
subject at the Shabbos table, and be judgemental toward those who DO
bring it up, WAKE UP!!!! And be that saviour, bring moshiach!
Ahavas
Yisrael is not for the dog who shed our childrens' blood, and believe
me, they are destroyed, ahavas yisrael is meant for the children!!! Give
love and acceptance to these grown up children, open the door and let
them speak.
Whenever I think of my friend Joey, I die a little inside. Soon to be his Yarzheit....... 💔
Last
week on Thursday (20 July), the Jerusalem District Court sentenced
(Rabbi) Aharon Shlomo Lisson to a minimum of seven years for sexually
abusing three brothers. Later that day, one of the courageous
victims/survivors, Yaakov (Yankie) Rainitz, wrote a powerful public post in Hebrew about
what transpired. The post quickly went viral in Israel where it was
shared 750 times, received almost 4,000 “Likes” and was republished in
major Israeli media outlets. I
don’t know where to start, from the beginning or maybe from the end.
You have heard a lot about me. You have seen me flickering across your
TV screen on news sites where they refer to me as ‘Y’! I have decided to
reveal my identity. I am Yankie Rainitz and I am 21 years old. I
studied for many years with a respected teacher who will go to jail next
month for a very long time! My
life story has been paraded during the past two years numerous times on
national television and on different internet sites. But today, I have
decided for the first time to remove the cloak of secrecy and to reveal
my identity through my Facebook page, to reveal a little of the stormy
ocean in my life. I am doing this to encourage, strengthen, uplift and
give hope to all those children and young people who are going through
the abuse behind closed doors which I experienced. I
was 12 years old when I started Year 8, where the respected, righteous
and revered Rabbi Aharon Shlomo Lisson was teaching. This man, known as
‘Rav Lisson’, would consistently praise me in front of my class mates
and the Talmud Torah staff. He would give me presents and send notes of
satisfaction home with me to my parents. In the community and at home,
this man was known as something rare and special, a real angel. As
a child in the Charedi community, I had never heard the words ‘sexual
abuse’ before. My parents always warned me about ‘sick dangerous people’
that touch children, and if someone were to approach me in the public
park to touch me, I should scream and flee, run straight home and tell
them what happened. If a strange, sick person tried the same stunt at
the mikveh, I should know that it is dangerous and I should shout out
and run away. But even in my worst nightmares, I never dreamed that they
could be referring to this special man, Rav Lisson, whom I adored. He
was my most revered rabbi and teacher, he was my whole world, I trusted
him through difficult times, he was the most lofty character for me as a
small child. And this man exploited me dozens of times for his own
sexual satisfaction!!! And when, over time, my little body wasn’t enough
to satisfy him sexually, there were always my three younger brothers. He asked me to take upon myself the words from the verse in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) ‘acquire for yourself a teacher’ and so he became my own personal mashpia (mentor). A mashpia in
my community is someone who you turn to in a spiritual crisis. He
provides you with a wide range of solutions for all kinds of problems
and you stay in touch with him always! A kind of godly figure. And
this godly figure took advantage of me and hurt me dozens of times and
more. My two brothers directly beneath me also experienced the same kind
of abuse, but none of us knew what was happening to the others. And as
for the question “why”, it has long shrivelled up and disappeared within
the shear despair of ever finding an answer. Why did we deserve this? A
question that has reverberated for many years, one with no answer. Not
only did he abuse my body for his own sexual pleasure whenever he
wanted, but he also strangled the life out of me. He squeezed every drop
of air containing natural oxygen out from me and after every incident,
left me ruminating about the fact that he had just done the most
wonderful thing in the world, especially for me. And all because he
loved me and cared about me. Because I was the best in the world, the
most exceptional, righteous and beautiful person in the world, the only
one deserving of such a privilege … just me, all because of me. During
the years that Lisson abused me, I was a small and delicious piece of
meat in his eyes and I served his purpose loyally. There was no desire
on my part, but he completely controlled me. I did not understand what
was happening; red blood just never burst forth from me. Like a corpse
that you can kick and even tear the skin and tendons, but the dead
person doesn’t feel it. And even if he did, he would never be able to
sound those alarm bells. This is how I experienced those years of abuse,
from a living being I turned into a dead person. So much blood left my
body, but it was never red, so I could never yell out. The
second period of abuse occurred after I made a complaint to the police.
Many voices were heard, of rabbis and people in the public arena, of
friends, neighbours and acquaintances, from the neighbourhood and from
school. There was a lot of anger and fury, ironically directed at us,
the ones who complained. How can I describe the sorrow and
disappointment, the sense of anger and betrayal I felt when teachers and
rabbis who taught me for years, day after day, people I trusted and
relied upon, appeared in front of me in the witness stand in court
glorifying and praising this popular rabbi? My
life changed completely, from a place on high, a place of safety
surrounded by friends in a loving environment, the centre of attraction
and oozing self-confidence – to a low point that was unfamiliar to me.
To the depths of hell scorched by a burning fire that completely
destroyed everything. Everything I had … everything I dreamed of! In my
dreams, the future was beautiful and bright, secure and promising. I
didn’t even think how my life changed at that moment. It happened so
quickly that I couldn’t tell, think about or express this cruel and
dramatic change. The
only ones that were there, that saw and knew about the terrible things I
was going through were him and G-d. And G-d surely froze on the spot.
How could he not?! The truth is, I also froze. Only he didn’t freeze. He
worked energetically, heatedly and with endless cruelty. He peeled away
layer after layer of innocence and childhood laughter, happiness and
youth. Light. Normality. Humanity. Regular lifestyle. He made a monster
out of me. I couldn’t understand what was happening. The only one who
could explain it to me was him. And he did so willingly. In
hindsight, what he explained was a double whammy and a painful slap,
the intensity of which continues to reverberate in my soul until today. I
can’t let it go. But then, I had to accept it because that’s how it
was. He told me that he loved me, that I was the best in the world. That
I have a special heart. And just because of that I was ‘privileged’ to
have him do these things to me. Enough!! I can’t continue because my
brain is about to burst. From pain, anger and helplessness. When
I was 18, my younger brother started Year 8. At this point, I decided
to approach the principal of the school and tell him what had happened,
so that he would get rid of the teacher. We met late at night; he
surprised me and was absolutely amazing. He promised me that I was doing
the right thing and that I even deserve a gold medal for my courage. He
gave me strength and supported and encouraged me (something which has
continued till today). We went to the police and filed a complaint … and
from that day on, my life became a cruel and black nightmare that
gained momentum like a powerful and painful ball with no inhibitions. Giving
evidence in court was one of the most difficult events throughout this
process. A small, innocent boy up against a top lawyer, a shrewd and
experienced lawyer whose single aim was to break my spirit -and he
succeeded. And when I burst out crying on the witness stand, he did not
get confused but shouted at me that everyone knew that I’d practised my
tears at home. The accused, who had once been my whole world, sat and
vigorously wrote little questions and facts to pass over to his counsel
so that he could use them to fire questions at me … it was terrible.
There are no words to describe it. I have described here about one
percent of the agony I experienced during the trial. One
of the most difficult stages of the trial was when they did ‘character
witnesses and defence witnesses’. This is the part where the accused
gets to bring forth witnesses who will testify in his favour – which
meant against us. He brought tens of witnesses, all of whom I knew. The
vast majority were teachers and rabbis who had taught me at the yeshivah
throughout the years, many of whom I loved, respected and valued. And
they all appeared there on one day. At first I was shocked. And then
came another deliberation and another well-respected rabbi, and then
another deliberation and another well-known mashpia…
and I got used to it. Or rather, I switched off. I switched off
emotionally from thoughts of the past, from my innocence and from my
respect towards these people. It’s hard for me, but I didn’t cause this.
I pray that this storm will pass, or at least that the ship will hold
out and not fracture, G-d forbid. Because right now, my life is
happening in a fragile boat in the middle of a furious and stormy sea, a
boat that can break any minute and get lost at the bottom of the sea. Perhaps
in a few years, it will be possible to describe this period in my life
as over, but not done. Because this story does not have an ending. The
wounds will bleed forever because no tweezers in the world will ever be
able to reach the deep psychological levels that Lisson touched., hurt,
burnt. And the parts of me that this despicable human being succeeded in
touching, groping and feeling will never be the same again. I
am using this opportunity to reach out to all the other children who
were abused by the man who hurt me, and by others. Please, help
yourselves. I won’t lie to you, the road to reaching the point I am at
today is hard to navigate. No words in the world are enough to describe
the real difficulties that this road is fraught with. But it’s worth it!
In the end, truth reigns supreme. First
and foremost, I want to thank the Creator of the world who knows what
is best for me, even if it is difficult to understand and sometimes
seems not to work out. To
my dear amazing parents. Mom and Dad! I know that this saga has robbed
you of many years of life. But we won! Because of the fortified wall you
became for us, even when the earth shook beneath us and threatened to
destroy our lives, you never gave up. And thanks to you, justice has
prevailed. Perhaps there is no way back from the havoc wreaked – both
financially and in terms of health (physical and mental) – but we won! To
our wonderful and special lawyer/prosecutor Yifat Pinchasi, you were an
angel from heaven. It’s not just a slogan, we saw those who came before
you … and you, with sensitivity, great wisdom and endless love, managed
to bring forward this victory for us. To
Yifat Sasha-Biton, Member of Knesset, who has been by my side
throughout this journey. At any time of the day no matter what, you
always have time to put in a kind, loving word and strong encouragement
for the future. You are a special person. Thank you for blazing the
trail with wonderful laws that will protect our children. There are no
words! To
lawyer Limor Etziyoni, really something special. Life became easier
when you entered the picture. You are one of a kind. Thank you for your
advice and guidance which came from genuine and sincere concern. We
still have a lot to talk about in the future. To
the amazing Ori Tal and Tal Nissim! Thank you for the hours and hours
you spent with me. You always listened, allowing me to offload, to
complain about what was going on and to be updated. Yours is the warmest
home I have ever been in. You are legends! There
are too many names to mention here of all the many people who have
helped, encouraged, supported and held me. It is because of you that I
was able to reach this day. I love you! In conclusion, it is no secret that I am a LubavitcherHassid. And it is no secret that some of the pillars of the Chabadcommunity have caused me and my family terrible injustice. Injustice that will never be forgotten. Many
people have asked me how I managed to remain who I am despite the foul
mouths I have witnessed from people who call themselves mashpi’im (spiritual
mentors), rabbis and educators? I must tell the truth, there is one
person who stopped me from deviating from my path. He is the Lubavicher Rebbe whom
I love dearly. Lisson, you took everything away from me. The emotions
of my childhood and the joys of my youth. You put inside of me a sense
of obscenity and evil and you cut me off from the path of Judaism. But
if you thought for a moment that you could take the Rebbe away from me –
you made a big mistake! Today I am a Chabad shaliach (emissary)
in Hong Kong. I try to breathe deeply, to help and assist, to learn
with whomever necessary … and mostly, to take time out when I need. And
as for you, Mr Lisson, I have no idea what will enable you to heal all
of those septic wounds that you created in so many children that never
even knew what a sin was before you came along. So off you go to jail,
you miscreant, but for G-d’s sake, enough holding your head up high – it
won’t help. Today is not a happy day for me. It is a day of introspection, a day of sorrow, a day of closure.
