Wolves Among the Sheep > Haredi Teacher molested students; Malka Leifer's Rabbi stepdad arrested; Religious pervs in Indonesia

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Education director in Haredi city named as suspect

in child sex abuse case

Mordechai Be’eri accused of molesting several boys when he was a teacher

in Modiin Illit settlement some 13 years ago; court extends his detention

By TOI STAFF

23 January 2022, 6:26 pm  

Illustrative: A man suspected of sexual abuse at a court hearing in Jerusalem. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

Mordechai Be’eri, director of the education department in the municipality of the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad, was arrested last week over child sex abuse he allegedly committed against his students some 13 years ago, officials said Sunday.

The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court permitted the publication of Beeri’s identity, amid suspicions that he abused boys aged under 14 in an institute in the settlement of Modiin Illit, where he was a teacher.

A young ultra-Orthodox man recently filed a police complaint, saying he was 12 when Be’eri, now 70, molested him. Since police opened the investigation, they have uncovered several more allegations of abuse, the Ynet news site reported.

Police on Sunday called on other people who may have been abused to come forward and press charges.

Be’eri, originally ordered held by the court last Wednesday, had his remand extended by several more days.

“We are pleased that the police have apprehended the suspect. Every abuser should know that they can face justice, even many years later,” said a statement from Magen, an organization that aids victims of sexual abuse and is assisting the alleged victim.

Former Melbourne school headmaster Malka Leifer's stepfather

Rabbi Baruch Pinchas Leifer arrested in Israel over

child sex abuse allegations

NEWSDESK Tittle Press

JANUARY 22, 2022

 

Malka Leifer’s rabbi stepfather has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child and teenager in Israel.

Baruch Pinchas Leifer, an influential and highly regarded rabbi who led the small Hasidic sect Chust, was arrested this week on historical sexual assault allegations, which he denies.

One of the rabbis’ alleged victims, a family member, claims the rabbi repeatedly sexually assaulted her when she was 12, while a man alleges the rabbi committed sexual offenses against him when he was 18.

Two victims’ advocates close to the case verified Ms. Leifers’ relationship with the rabbi: Magen for Jewish Communities Shana Aaronson, executive director of the Israel-based sex abuse advocacy organization; and, VoiCSAs Manny Waks, the executive director of this organization, which fights child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.

 

We hope some semblance of justice will prevail, Waks said.

Local media are reporting that the rabbi, who is in his 60s, vehemently denies the allegations against him and says it is a plot over a family dispute.

 

His daughter-in-law, Ms Leifer, a former principal of the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, south-east Melbourne, is due to stand trial this year over allegations that she abused three of her students between 2004 and 2008.

Ms Leifer has pleaded not guilty to at least 70 charges, including rape.

If the truth were to come out, I wonder if we would find that the stepfather was responsible for Malka's perversion?

Push for tougher sentences in Indonesia sex assault cases

A slew of cases involving young girls and boys at Indonesian religiously-linked

schools has horrified parents

A group of parents hold a protest outside the Galilea Hosana School in Medan after a priest was accused of sexually assaulting some of the young girls attending the institution [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera]

By Aisyah Llewellyn

Published On 22 Jan 2022

Medan, Indonesia – It is every parent’s worst nightmare.

As six distraught families looked on, the man accused of sexually assaulting their daughters was handed a 10-year prison sentence by the District Court in the city of Medan, Indonesia.

“Our children,” gasped one mother as she slumped in her chair, prompting fears she had fainted.

Benyamin Sitepu, a 37-year-old Christian priest who was also the principal of the Galilea Hosana School in Medan, had received five years less than the maximum 15-year sentence the prosecution had requested.

The presiding judge said he gave Sitepu a shorter sentence because the priest had apologised for his crimes and had previously signed a settlement agreement with two of the victims’ families.

Both the prosecution and Sitepu are appealing the sentence.

Reacting to the verdict, Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch Indonesia, told Al Jazeera the sentence was too short, particularly given Sitepu’s age and Indonesia’s remission system under which most prisoners serve about two-thirds of their sentences.

If Sitepu is granted remission, he could end up serving only about seven years behind bars and be free well before he turns 50.

“If he gets remission, he will be a relatively young man when he is released and will still be a danger to children,” said Harsono, who added that the short prison sentence would only add to the victims’ trauma.

Ranto Sibarani, a human rights lawyer in Medan who represented the families, said they were disappointed that Sitepu had not received the maximum possible sentence and called for religious organisations to take more responsibility for crimes that happen in the institutions that they operate.

“If people commit crimes under the banner of the church, for example, then the church needs to apologise,” Sibarani told Al Jazeera.

“Religious leaders need to make public statements to say that they support the legal process in all sexual assault cases and that they support the victims’ rights to take legal action.”

The exterior of the Galilea Hosana school is a mix of pinks, blues, yellows and greens. The allegations against Sitepu came to light last year after a young girl told her grandmother she had been abused [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera]

The junior school in Medan became the centre of a sexual assault scandal in March 2021 when six female students came forward after one told her grandparents she had been abused by the priest.

The girls, who were 13 at the time of the assaults, said Sitepu had locked them in his office under the guise of administering “special lessons”, such as ballet, and touched them inappropriately.

One of the students alleges that Sitepu took her to a local hotel, telling school staff that he was taking her to off-site karate lessons, where he sexually assaulted her and forced her to give him oral sex.

After the student came forward, she was made to take local police to the hotel and identify the room in which she was regularly assaulted – something which both Harsono and Sibarani criticised as further adding to her trauma.

Sibarani added that, in his opinion, judges in Indonesia are hesitant to convict religious leaders or hand them lengthy prison sentences because of historical ideas about respect for those in positions of perceived religious authority.

New punishment

It had been a difficult time in Indonesia in recent months with a number of disturbing child sex abuse cases making headlines across the country, many of which have involved religious institutions.

In the city of Bandung in West Java, the principal of a Muslim boarding school, 36-year-old Herry Wirawan, was arrested and accused of raping 13 of his female students and impregnating at least eight of them from 2016 onwards.

On January 11, the prosecutor in the case asked for the death penalty if Wirawan is found guilty.

Under Indonesian law, the maximum sentence in child sexual assault cases is usually 15 years, although judges may use their discretion when it comes to sentencing if a case is deemed to be particularly nefarious.

The prosecution also asked that Wirawan be chemically castrated under a new law signed by President Joko Widodo a year ago following the brutal gang rape of a female 14-year-old student in Bengkulu in 2016. The punishment has yet to be used.

On January 20, Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, known as “Brother Angelo”, a Catholic priest who ran an orphanage on the outskirts of Jakarta that was home to more than 40 children, was jailed for 14 years for sexually abusing the children under his care.

When handing down his judgement, the presiding judge, Ahmad Fadil, referenced the 47-year-old priest’s “despicable acts” and said his behaviour had been particularly shocking for “a clergyman who should have set a good example and who should have known that his actions were contrary to religious teachings”.

As the judge passed his sentence via video link due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ngalngola held his hands up in prayer.

“They feel like they are invincible, hiding behind their religion,” said Sibarani. “Who will stand up for the victims when the perpetrators are seen as respected members of the community?”

Ustadz Martono, a Muslim scholar and chairman of the United In Diversity Forum, told Al Jazeera that sexual assault cases that involve religious organisations or religious leaders in Indonesia are often handled internally for fear of bringing shame on the organisations the leaders represent.

“My wish is that these kinds of cases are processed in a much more open way,” he said. “They need to be transparently handled according to the law.”

Indonesian president Joko Widodo, dressed in a brown batik shirt, explains a point during a conversationLast year, President Widodo signed a new law allowing for the chemical castration of those convicted of sexually assaulting children. The courts have not yet used the sentence [File: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters]

Members of the Christian community also agree that more needs to be done, and that religious organisations speaking out publicly may help the authorities to be less reticent about making arrests and sending cases to trial.

“We support and appreciate the steps taken by the police and prosecutors in handling the Benyamin Sitepu case in Medan and punishing the perpetrator,” Alex Ramandey, deputy general secretary of the central leadership council of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement (GAMKI), told Al Jazeera.

“Especially when the perpetrator is also a church figure who has embarrassed Christians.”

Ramandey adds that religious organisations should provide education to the parents of children under their care about how to recognise and report such cases and support those going through the legal process.

It is unclear how many cases of assault involving minors happen every year in Indonesia, as many cases are not reported to the authorities. According to the Indonesian Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), 288 child victims applied for protection in 2021. Of that number, more than 65 percent were victims of sexual violence.

The Deputy Chairperson of LPSK, Edwin Partogi Pasaribu, said 25 victims experienced sexual violence in educational institutions. “We should respect people in line and their religious beliefs, but they also need to be judged by their actions,” said Martono.

“If people are going to break the law, then they shouldn’t be religious leaders. We shouldn’t be embarrassed into silence. Morally, we all have a responsibility and we need to acknowledge when these crimes happen and not cover them up.

“If we say nothing, we are complicit.”

Wolves Among the Sheep > NYC Pastor Brutally Murders Ex-Wife; MegaChurch Pastor Monster in Disguise; Baha'i Youth Volunteer; Haredi Children's Author

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NYC pastor who ran over, used machete to hack estranged wife

to death, pleads guilty

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Pastor Victor Mateo, 63, (L and C) of Christian Congregation The Redemptor in Bronx, New York, and his late wife, Noelia Mateo, 58. | NYPD; family; Screenshot: YouTube

A New York pastor who ran over his estranged wife with her car and then repeatedly attacked her with a machete in front of neighbors and her grandchildren has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, according to prosecutors.

The pastor, 65-year-old Victor Mateo, who led Christian Congregation The Redemptor, Inc. in the Bronx, pleaded guilty before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy on Wednesday to one count of first-degree manslaughter for killing his estranged wife, Noelia, 58, who was found unconscious with multiple lacerations to her body on Oct. 3, 2019, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

“He is due to be sentenced on January 5, 2022, to 23 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision, with final orders of protection for the victim’s two grandchildren who witnessed the killing,” the statement reads.

Noelia’s grandchildren were 11 and 9 years old at the time.

According to the investigation, on the morning of Oct. 3, Mateo parked his vehicle near Noelia’s home, and as she left her house to drive her grandchildren to school, he struck her with his vehicle, it said. The victim hid beneath her car, and Mateo got into her vehicle and ran her over with it. He then hacked her with a machete.

A neighbor, Victor DiChristina, 78, said at the time, “I was screaming at him to distract him from beating on her. And then after he took off with the car, I called 911 and I screamed at the operator, asking them, ‘Where the hell is that ambulance? Where’s the police?’”

Another neighbor, Dave Colon, said he ran out onto the street to find Noelia covered in blood. He said she had crawled from the street to a small patch of grass on the curb, while her grandson and granddaughter stood across the street in shock.

“It was a terrible sight,” he said.

Kathy Bellwood, whose husband owned the white van the pastor crashed into during the attack, said at the time that Noelia was crying or praying as she died. “She was suffering because she was crying or praying in Spanish,” she said, noting how the pastor’s wife was bleeding profusely.

Noelia was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

At the time of the murder, Christian Congregation The Redemptor, Inc., was described on Facebook as a “close-knit, Spirit-filled, bilingual congregation of worshipers of Jesus Christ located in The Bronx, NY. We welcome everyone to our church.”

One day after Noelia was killed, the church released a statement that is no longer available, saying: “With Great sadness we report the passing into eternal life of our beloved Noelia. We shall miss you sister, and hope that we shall see you again.”

Megachurch pastor coerced girls, women to have sex with him

under threat of ‘eternal damnation': DOJ

By Leonardo Blair, 

Christian Post Reporter FacebookTwitter| 

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy | Facebook

Claiming that sex with him was a “privilege” and “God’s will,” controversial megachurch pastor and founder of the Philippines-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, Apollo Quiboloy, and two of his top administrators have been charged with trafficking young women and girls in the U.S. who were coerced into having sex with him under threats of “eternal damnation.”

“Defendant Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators coerced pastorals into performing ‘night duty’ — that is, sex — with defendant Quiboloy under the threat of physical and verbal abuse and eternal damnation by defendant Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators,” the indictment from the Department of Justice released Thursday alleges. “Defendant Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators told pastorals that performing ‘night duty’ was ‘God’s will’ and a privilege, as well as a necessary demonstration of the pastoral’s commitment to give her body to defendant Quiboloy as ‘The Appointed Son of God.’”

The recent charges expand on allegations made early last year against three Los Angeles-based administrators of the church and names nine defendants, including the 71-year-old Quiboloy, and his two administrators, Teresita Tolibas Dandan, also known as “Tessie,” and “Sis Ting,” 59, of Davao City. The “international administrator” was one of the top overseers of KOJC and the Glendale-based Children’s Joy Foundation in the United States.

The other top administrator, Felina Salinas, also known as “Sis Eng Eng,” 50, of Kapolei, Hawaii, allegedly collected and secured passports and other documents from KOJC workers in Hawaii. She also allegedly directed funds solicited from church members to church officials in the Philippines.

Quiboloy, Dandan and Salinas are charged in count one of a superseding indictment, which alleges the sex trafficking conspiracy. Each of them is charged in at least three of five substantive counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.

They are accused of bringing church members to the U.S. with fraudulently obtained visas, then forcing them to solicit donations for the Children’s Joy Foundation which is identified as a “bogus charity” as the donations were used for church operations and supporting the lavish lifestyles of church leaders.

Quiboloy, Dandan and Salinas allegedly recruited girls ranging in age from 12 to 25, to work as personal assistants or “pastorals,” for Quiboloy, the indictment adds. The victims prepared Quiboloy’s meals, cleaned his residences, gave him massages and were required to have sex with him. Five female victims, three of whom were minors when the alleged sex trafficking began, are named in the indictment which alleges the sex trafficking began no later than 2002 and continued until at least 2018.

The victims were allegedly ordered by Quiboloy and his top administrators to have sex with the megachurch pastor on a schedule. They were expected to be obedient and rewarded for good behavior “good food, luxurious hotel rooms, trips to tourist spots, and yearly cash payments that were based on performance.”

Victims who didn’t readily embrace their night duties were told “that they had the devil in them and risked eternal damnation.”

When victims managed to escape from their duties they would suffer threats and harassment.

“Defendant Quiboloy would give sermons, broadcasted to KOJC members around the world, in which he would allege that victims who escaped had engaged in criminal conduct and sexually promiscuous activity, and therefore faced eternal damnation, in order to discourage other victims from leaving, retaliate against and discredit the victims, and conceal the sexual activity between defendant Quiboloy and the victims,” the indictment continues.

Quiboloy, who is a former member of the United Pentecostal Church, founded the Restorationism church in 1985 after he said he received a calling from God. According to Asia Times, God came to his mother in the form of a cloud after he was born, and declared, "That's my son."

"When the Father called me, He isolated me in two mountains. He let me go through some spiritual experiences that I never had before. He said, 'I'll give to you the spirits of these ministries: the mosaic, solomonic and the prophetic ministries.' And in those visions, I (and many others) saw myself standing, as three, big, spirit-like men entered my body. The interpretation was of the three ministries – the mosaic, the solomonic, and the prophetic ministry – entrusted to me by the Father," Quiboloy notes on the church's website where he calls himself the appointed son of God.

Since his calling, Quiboloy has grown wealthy and is a longtime friend of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

He claims to have 4 million tithing followers in the Philippines, 2 million more overseas, and reaches 600 million viewers worldwide through his TV station, Asia Times said.

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Saskatoon police charge member of Baha'i faith group

with sexual exploitation

By Nathaniel Dove  Global News

Posted November 19, 2021 4:36 pm

Saskatoon police have arrested and charged a 35-year-old man with two counts sexual exploitation while in a position of trust or authority.

In a statement, police said the victim and accused knew each other through their affiliation with a faith-based organization.

The man, Ardeshir Zehtab-Jadid, is a member of the Saskatoon Baha’i community.

A police statement outlined the charges while a spokesperson for the Baha’i Community of Canada confirmed Zehtab-Jadid is a member of the Saskatoon branch of the group.

Saskatoon Baha’i Community of Canada public affairs director Geoff Cameron, in a phone interview, said the Community, a national body, is aware of the charges against Zehtab-Jadid but had no comment on the actual charges. He did tell Global News Zehtab-Jadid volunteered as a youth group facilitator. In an email, Cameron said Zehtab-Jadid’s “volunteer service terminated in February 2016” and that his rights of membership in the group had also been suspended prior to his arrest.

Zehtab-Jadid’s lawyer did not comment.

The police statement says they received a report of historic sexual assault in December 2019 and that one of the complaints involved a woman who was 16 years old at the time of the assault.

Zehtab-Jadid appeared in court on Nov. 17 and again on Nov. 19, via phone from Saskatchewan Provincial Correctional Centre.

Sexual abuse and exploitation, the SPS statement said, occurs when a child has been or is likely to be exposed to a harmful interaction for a sexual purpose by a parent, caretaker or any person in a position of trust or authority over the young person.

The court released Zehtab-Jadid with conditions. His next appearance is scheduled for December.

After sex abuse accusations, Haredi author Chaim Walder

steps away from public life

Celebrated kids’ author says he intends to spend time clearing his name; announcement reportedly came after newspaper where he works told him to take a break or he would be fired

By TOI STAFF

18 November 2021, 12:46 pm  

Chaim Walder in 2011. (CC BY-SA Yoninah/Wikimedia Commons)

Well-known ultra-Orthodox children’s author Chaim Walder announced Wednesday that he was taking a break from public life to clear his name, after he was accused of taking sexual advantage of teenage girls.

Walder, known as an educator and therapist in the Haredi community, allegedly used his popularity and status to commit the acts.

His announcement came after the ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne’eman newspaper, where Walder is employed as a writer, warned him that if he didn’t take a leave of absence he would be fired, according to the Haaretz daily.

The Yated Ne’eman management had held a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss his further employment, according to the report.

“He decided to take a break from all his public pursuits in order to devote himself to the struggle to clear his name and devote his time to his family at this time,” a statement on behalf of the author said.

The development came as a number of ultra-Orthodox entities severed their ties with Walder, a resident of Bnei Brak.

Earlier Thursday, Walder was removed from his work at the ultra-Orthodox radio station Radio Kol Chai, according to the Haaretz report.

The Otiyot children’s magazine said it would stop publishing his stories. Walder’s books were also removed from the shelves of the Osher Ad supermarket chain. On Tuesday, Jewish bookstore Eichler’s Judaica of Borough Park  said it would stop selling Walder’s works.

The development came several days after Haaretz published an investigation into alleged sexual abuse by Walder, the author of the “Kids Speak” series.

The books, which have been published since the 1990s, tell stories about Orthodox Jewish children and emphasize a child’s perspective on the problems they face in their lives. The books are popular among school-age children in Israel and the US.

In addition to his writing, Walder also works as a therapist and was honored in 2003 with the Israeli prime minister’s “protector of the child” award.

According to an investigation by Haaretz, several women accused Walder of initiating sexual relationships with them when they approached him for counseling.

One girl told Haaretz that the alleged abuse began when she was 13, eventually progressing to weekly sexual encounters in a rented hotel room. Walder told another woman, who was 20 when he began a sexual relationship with her, that their sexual encounters “gave him the power to write to the children of Israel,” according to Haaretz.

Child Advocates Blast Systemic Failures in Israel’s Handling of Sex Abuse Cases

As a modern country and a democracy, one would think Israel's attitude toward child sex abuse would not be so backward. Serious changes are needed! Ultra-Orthodox sects are the biggest obstacle in modernizing attitudes. Children, of course, are always the ones who pay the price for

adult's madness.

Sam Sokol 

Malka Leifer, center, a former Australian teacher accused of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of girls at a Melbourne school, is escorted by police as she arrives for a hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 2018. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In April, Israeli police announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man in Beit Shemesh accused of multiple counts of child sexual assault.

Short of celebrating the arrest of an abuser, local victims’ rights advocates took the authorities to task.

Shana Aaronson, head of the Israeli branch of the New York-based Jewish Community Watch organization, took to social media, describing in a Facebook post how authorities and the Beit Shemesh community ignored a disturbing pattern of behavior by the predator in question, who had previously served time for abuse.

“Shortly after he was released” — three years ago, after his first detention — “I started getting The Phone Calls,” she wrote.

“Numerous community members calling to share that he’s hanging out with kids, a lot, and they are very concerned. I encouraged them strongly to warn the parents. But, you know, it’s awkward. No one ever wants to be the killjoy calling up a neighbor to share the lashon hara [prohibited gossip] that the kindly young man who’s taken their kid under his wing is a convicted child molester. Then the next wave of phone calls started. He’s volunteering at local organizations, and using his status there to pick up kids.”

According to Aaronson’s telling, the young man even called her to volunteer at Jewish Community Watch, asking to “mentor children who had been sexually abused.”

The police, she explained to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, knew he was dangerous but were restrained from acting because nobody with firsthand knowledge of the abuse had been willing to come forward. Israel, unlike the United States, does not keep a registry of sex offenders.

As a result, Aaronson wrote, for two years “it seems a community’s worth of people has been watching while a child molester strategically groom[ed] and prey[ed] on his victims.”

“But after all, nobody likes to be a killjoy.”

Israel has see an overall increase in reporting of incidents dating back to the beginning of the decade. But several recent incidents here have highlighted what advocates like Aaronson describe as a systemic failure of both the government and civil society to adequately deal with the issue of child sexual abuse.

In May, the state comptroller’s annual report revealed that 60 percent of Israelis jailed for sexual crimes ended up being released without undergoing any sort of therapeutic treatment to prevent recidivism.

The report also found that there was increased monitoring by police of offenders after their release. And while there were more investigations into incidents of pedophilia than in previous years, seven out of 10 cases ended up being shut down without an indictment.

Some advocates believe that part of the problem may be ingrained in Israel’s political culture. Tough slander laws here make it hard for victims to accuse their abusers publicly. Meanwhile, advocates have said that sentencing guidelines are inadequate. There has also been a strong taboo against reporting abuse among members of haredi Orthodox communities.

According to a recent investigation by Israel’s Channel 13, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was alleged to have improperly intervened to aid at least 10 sex offenders from Israel’s haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community. This comes after earlier reports that Litzman, who himself is haredi, had been questioned by police over suspicions that he had attempted to prevent the extradition of accused child molester Malka Leifer to Australia.

The extradition battle over Leifer, who fled Melbourne in 2008 with the help of figures in the local haredi community after the allegations against her surfaced, has dragged on for several years, frustrating her accusers.

It’s worrying when such behavior is “coming from the top,” said Manny Waks, founder of the victims’ rights organization Kol v’Oz. “To have Litzman setting such an example, that is the core of the issue here because that shows that there is a systemic failure in the leadership.”

While he felt that he could not comment on specific allegations against Litzman, American activist Rabbi Yakov Horowitz said there was definitely a pattern in how such cases are handled in Israel, especially when it comes to extraditing accused abusers such as Leifer and Avrohom Mondrowitz, who has been living openly in Israel for years. Mondrowitz is a Gur Hasid and accused serial molester who fled Brooklyn for Israel in the 1980s. Tablet reported that some believe that local authorities in New York declined to have him extradited because of haredi political pressure.

Horowitz is being sued for defamation in an Israeli court for warning people against convicted sex offender Yona Weinberg, whom he has asserted publicly constitutes a danger to the community. Weinberg also disputes Horowitz’s statement that he is wanted on further charges in the United States.

Horowitz recalled an op-ed from a decade ago in which the victims’ advocate wrote that “word on the street is that there are powerful people backing Mondrowitz. Having him successfully avoid extradition will confirm that suspicion in the minds of many. It will also reinforce a horrible message to the public at large and more specifically to abuse victims — unfortunately the one that is prevalent — that the blood of innocent children can be washed away if the molester knows the right people.”

Ten years later, little has changed, he said.

“It seems to be a really large thumb pushing down on the side of the scale where the abusers are,” Horowitz said.

As Haaretz reported in April, some advocates have gone so far as to describe Israel  as “a haven” for Jews accused of crimes of a sexual nature.

“The larger failure is how it’s treated on every level,” Waks said. “Experts have repeatedly said that to address [the issue] in an institution, the leadership must show they are leading the charge, and here the head of the Ministry of Health is seemingly doing the wrong thing at every level.”

Aaronson agreed, saying “There are systemic holes in pretty much every part of the system. This is a country run on proteksia [patronage], and there is a very fine line between proteksia and illegality.”

She cited several issues that need to be resolved. One of the biggest, Aaronson said, is the length of time between the reporting of an incident and the filing of charges.

“It gets reported to the police and months, if not years, go by and literally nothing happens,” she said.

After police send a case to prosecutors, it can be extremely difficult for victims to learn anything about its status. In the interim, the alleged abuser often will remain free, living in the same community as his or her victim, who often has a tough time accessing the psychological treatments to which he or she is legally entitled.

For activists like Aaronson, the wait can be frustrating, too.

“Our hands are tied at this point,” she said. “We know there is someone potentially dangerous in the community, and if we don’t want to mess with an ongoing investigation, we can’t blast that information out there. And that means that victims have to continue to deal with the abuser if they are still around in the community.”

107 Low-Level Rabbis Teach Haredi Leaders Moral and Just Law

More Than 100 Haredi Rabbis Say Report Suspected Child Sex Abuse To Police, But Top Haredi Rabbis Won't Sign On

FailedMessiah.com

A group of 107 haredi rabbis in the US, none of them (except one) top tier, none of them representatives of any haredi umbrella organizations, have issued a kol koreh (Torah proclamation) telling everyone with a reasonable suspicion of child sex abuse to report that alleged abuse to police.

The Kol Koreh reads (please click to enlarge):

Other than Shmuel Feurst (who held this position previously), none of the other rabbis are (in terms of political importance in the haredi community) top tier.

Missing are members of the Aguath Israel of America's Council of Torah Sages, and prominent rabbis and rebbes of Satmar and other hasidic groups. Also missing is Yisroel Belsky of Torah Vodaas, who is OU Kosher's co-posek (rabbinic decisior, in this case on kashrut issues) and any of Lakewood's top rabbis.

Those signatures are missing because those missing rabbis believe child sex abuse committed by a haredi Jew against a child, even a haredi child, should almost never be reported to police (the position of Satmar, Munkatch, and many other hasidic groups) or that only top tier haredi rabbis can hear the evidence and decide whether the halakhic standard for reporting, reasonable suspicion, has been met (Agudath Israel of America).

But what is good about this new kol koreh is that it was issued anyway, that known haredi rabbis were willing to put their names on a statement their leaders disagree with.

You can see all the signatures on the kol koreh, which was posted by the Jewish Press, here.

A Child Sex Abuse Panic In Jerusalem?

 Haredi kids eyes covered

What appears to be another child sex abuse panic is now ongoing in the haredi neighborhood of Sanhedria Murchevet.

The following article breaks down what sometimes happens in insular heredi communities when child sex abuse emerges. 


Failed Messiah
Menachem Kaiser has a piece in Tablet about what appears to be a child sex abuse mass hysteria in another haredi neighborhood of Jerusalem, similar to the one in Nachlaot several years ago.

Several weeks ago, I offered to help one of the rabbis involved in investigating this latest case in Sanhedria Murchevet. He didn't respond, and I left the matter.

But since Kaiser wrote his Tablet piece, I'll add a few points to it that may help that rabbi – points I would have made if he had responded:

• Some of the same therapists and community members who fueled the Nachlaot hysteria appear to be involved in the Sanhedria Murchevet hysteria, as well.

• Little children hear many things adults don't realize they've heard and often understand unspoken desires of adults. So when an adult appears to want "Effie" or "Rivky" to be the child who did wrong, the playmates of "Effie" or "Rivky" will frequently tell those adults what the adults appear to want to hear, even if it isn't true. Little kids also talk among themselves and share stories – stories adults don't hear them share and which may not be true.

• That process is at play in any mass hysteria, and what that means, I think, is this: a child who was actually abused – perhaps by a rabbi or a teacher or even an older sibling or other family member – told a parent about the abuse. But because the parent so clearly would be mad at and disapprove of the abuser – who could be her husband or a powerful (in the child's eyes) teacher – the little child does not name his abuser. He only speaks in vague terms about the abuse and only after much coaxing.

Seeking help, the parent goes to a therapist or community leader – people who, in the haredi community, often do not want to see insiders as abusers. The child is interviewed; the unspoken (or even sometimes spoken) desires to name an outsider or a specific person or type of person as the abuser is understood by the little child, who then does what the powerful adults want and names that type of person.

• For a panic to start, all that is needed is a relatively closed community, one or two cases of actual child sex abuse, and the type of mishandling of child victims I just described. All of these factors appear to present in Sanhedria Murchevet.

• Word quickly gets out that "secret Christians" or some other shadowy figures (almost always outsiders in ideology or religion, even if that is hidden) are sexually abusing children. Parents warn their children and children hear and share horror stories among themselves. And suddenly, the two or three actual cases of child sex abuse that took place last week become dozens or even hundreds of cases.

• The key points here are not to say that no child sex abuse took place or that the actual abusers, if the exist, are definitely not outsiders.

• Instead, the key points are that some abuse likely did take place, that abuse is likely ongoing, and the perpetrator is (or, perpetrators are) far more likely to be a child's (children's) teacher, father, uncle or neighbor than a secret Christian running a large secret blood cult and ritually abusing little children in secret tunnels and rooms hidden deep under Jerusalem and reached by an elevator in a special blue building. In other words, there may be a small number of children who are being currently (or were recently) victimized, but there are almost certainly not several dozens or even hundreds of current child victims.

I know some of the haredi leaders involved here did go to police and did try to handle this sad affair correctly. But not all did. And as I noted above (and as Kaiser notes in his piece) there were other bad actors (or mistaken actors) involved, as well.

But at least this time, some haredi rabbis – in particular, one haredi rabbi – did try to do it right. Unfortunately, the tools and professionals at his disposal appear not have been up to the task, or the panic spread too quickly and widely before he was involved to be able to deal with it.