Another Chabad Rabbi Arrested on Child Sex Abuse Charges

This one is in California

Chabad Rabbi Sholom Doyber Levitansky Arrested On Child Sex Abuse Charges

Rabbi Sholom Doyber
Levitansky

The Santa Monica Daily Press reports:

Santa Monica police detectives are seeking information or additional victims in connection with the arrest of Rabbi Sholom Doyber [i.e., DovBer] Levitansky, who was booked into the Santa Monica jail Wednesday on a felony warrant for sexual abuse of a child.

Levitansky allegedly met his victims while working at Chabad’s Living Torah Center in Santa Monica, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue and education facility that is now located on Wilshire Boulevard near 12th Street.

The abuse allegedly took place between 1998 and 2002, when the victims were 15 and 16 years old. Levitansky was in his mid-20s, police said.

Levitansky, a Sherman Oaks resident, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office with five counts of oral copulation of a person under 18 years of age, five counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, and one count of lewd act upon a child.

The Santa Monica Police Department urges anyone with additional information to contact Detective Roy Brown at 310-458-8960, Sgt. William Heric at 310-458-8453 or the Watch Commander at 310-458-8427.

Top Chabad Leader Refuses To Answer Questions About Child Sex Abuse

“[Top] Chabad leaders say nothing about abuse, do nothing about abuse and just let things continue the way they always have,” one victim said.

Rabbi Abraham Shemtom

The Herald-Sun reports:

ONE of the world’s senior ­orthodox rabbis has shunned Australia’s royal commission into child sexual abuse, saying he’s too busy to talk about it.

In a snub to sex assault ­victims, New York-based rabbi Abraham Shemtov refused to discuss evidence given during a two-week probe into ­Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre.

It included calls by one of his rabbis for leniency for paedophiles and admissions that senior Yeshivah leaders had covered up child sex crimes.

There have been renewed calls for Australia’s top rabbi, Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, to be sacked from his many posts after he admitted sending a vile text about the father of three sexual assault victims.

Zephaniah Waks, father of high-profile victim Manny, was giving evidence to the royal commission when Rabbi Kluwgant sent an associate a text saying he was a “lunatic” who was “killing” Chabad — the orthodox Jewish movement which oversees the ­Yeshivah Centre.

Rabbi Kluwgant is the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, a Victoria Police chaplain and holds a string of other senior posts.

Victoria Police yesterday confirmed it would be meeting Rabbi Kluwgant to discuss concerns and his role as a member of the Victoria Police multi-faith council.

When first contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun, Rabbi Shemtov, No. 2 in the Chabad hierarchy, said he was in a meeting and could not talk. He ignored further correspondence and did not return calls.

The New York headquarters appoints and delists emissaries to Australia, and is responsible for the worldwide movement. Rabbi Shemtov regularly leads delegations to the White House and has formed close relationships with the past eight presidents.

But local victims have accused him of failing to do anything to prevent child sexual abuse here.

Last week Rabbi Yosef Feldman sparked widespread outrage when he called for leniency for paedophiles who had not offended in decades.

He also claimed to know little about child abuse laws while director of a school, and said he didn’t know it was ­illegal for an adult to touch the genitals of a child.

There were calls for his sacking as director of Sydney’s Yeshivah Centre that prompted his resignation.

Victims say it hasn’t gone far enough and want Chabad headquarters to make an example of him and Rabbi Kluwgant to prove they are serious about sexual abuse.

“Chabad leaders say nothing about abuse, do nothing about abuse and just let things continue the way they always have,” one victim said.

Shemtov is no stranger to failing to report child sex abuse or to being unconcerned about it taking place. He ignored persistent child sex abuse allegations against Rabbi Stanley Z. "Schneur Zalman" Levitt and told the media later the allegations were only "rumor."

"Lots of rumor that flew back and forth" about Levitt, Shemtov said, noting that he (Shemtov) never got involved with the issue even though Levitt regularly attended Shemtov's synagogue and had complete unfettered access to children there.

Perhaps the reason why top Chabad leaders seem so disinterested in stopping child sex abuse is that the third rebbe (top rabbinic leader) of thier movement, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (d. 1866; the ancestor of last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who was named after him), commonly known as the Tzemach Tzedek, allowed a child molester to go unpunished and to retain free and unfettered access to children.

A rabbi was playing with a boy/youth on Purim and put his hands in the boy's pants and groped the boys genitals and then was caught.

The rabbi claimed that he groped the boy/youth's genitals because he (the rabbi) was impotent. The rabbi said he thought his own impotence and lack of sexual function could be due to the size of his own testicles, which the rabbi believed to be abnormally small. So he groped the boy/youth to see if they boy's testicles were similarly sized.

Right! So he compared his testicles to that of a boy - that should tell him a lot! What a joke. These men need some prison time to consider their priorities and sins. They don't seem to have any idea how difficult Judgment Day will be for them.

The Tzemach Tzedek accepted the rabbi's explanation and allowed him to keep his teaching position.

Yeshiva Rabbi Receives Award then Resigns After Child Sex Abuse Comments

A RABBI condemned by Jewish leaders for his comments regarding child sex abuse “hype” and the need for pedophiles to receive greater leniency has resigned from the board of Sydney, Australia’s Yeshiva Centre.

This happened just days after controversially receiving an award from Chabad.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, a rabbinical director at the Yeshiva Centre in Bondi and son of the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals when he had to deal with an abuse complaint in 2002.

Nor did he seem to know that it was immoral - something he has yet to admit.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman

His evidence to the royal commission provoked a firestorm in the Jewish community, with the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia yesterday adding its voice to those calling for Rabbi Feldman to end his pastoral and community involvement.

Call to strip rabbi of all powers

Today the Yeshiva Centre said Rabbi Feldman had resigned his position as a director on its Board of Management, including his administrative responsibilities.

“The Yeshiva Centre thanks Rabbi Yosef Feldman for his years of selfless dedication to the Centre,” it said in a statement. “The Yeshiva Centre reiterates its staunch commitment to protect victims of abuse including full compliance with authorities and legal procedures.”

Yeshiva spokesman Rabbi Eli Feldman, the brother of Rabbi Yosef Feldman, told The Australian that the resignation did not preclude Rabbi Yosef Feldman from any future paid or unpaid role with the Yeshiva Centre and its associated entities, paid or unpaid.

Of course not! The last position he resigned from in controversy, rehired him as soon as the controversy died down. Smoke and mirrors. No genuine acknowledgement of guilt.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman previously resigned a position as president of the NSW Rabbinical Council amid controversy about some of his email comments relating to child sexual abuse.

He resumed the position a short time later.

In a statement released today, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he apologised to anyone “who may have been embarrassed or ashamed by my views, words, understandings, recordings or emails about child sexual abuse or any other matter.”

“I have dedicated my life to doing whatever I can to protect and assist all people in need including those who have suffered from any form of abuse, especially children, and it pains me greatly that words that I have expressed have upset victims and their families,” he said.

“In the future I will be more careful with my words, so that they are only a source of pride to the Jewish and General community.

In other words, he will stop speaking the truth and start lying right from the start.

“I commit to undertake formal training and education on how to identify, handle and report abuse allegations.”

Chabad Gave Torah Honors Last Shabbat To Rabbis Accused Of Child Sex Abuse Coverups

Chabad in Melbourne gave Rabbi Avrohom Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman aliyot this past Shabbat, even though both have been exposed at the Australian Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse as people who allegedly covered up child sex abuse, enabled it and harassed alleged victims.

Rabbi Yossef Feldman

Rabbi Avrohom Glick

Feldman, in fact, told the commission that he wasn't sure if an adult male touching a child's genitals was criminal and if it needed to be reported to police. (He later clarified this by saying there are different types of touch.)

Feldman also admitted that he had never familiarized himself with Australian law on mandatory reporters and child sex abuse, even though he was a mandatory reporter who was in charge of a yeshiva in which children were molested under his watch. But he got an aliyah after that testimony nonetheless.

The Herald Sun reports:

A JEWISH victim of child sexual abuse was forced to sit and watch at the weekend as Rabbis accused of a widespread cover-up were granted religious honours.

The victim, known only as AVB, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse today that the honours were granted during a shul service at Yeshivah Synagogue.

He said both Rabbi Abraham Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman were given the honours in front of the congregation.

Rabbi Glick is yet to give evidence to the commission but has been blamed for failing to handle complaints of child abuse appropriately.

The former Yeshivah College principal still holds one of the most senior positions at the school despite reports he didn’t pass on numerous alleged incidents of sexual abuse to authorities while in charge between 1986 and 2007.

He was in charge of the school when convicted paedophile Rabbi David Kramer was hurriedly shipped to the US after complaints were made by parents alleging serious sexual misconduct in the early 1990s.

This is what happens when your 'religion' becomes your idol and takes your eyes off God. It's true of the Catholic church more-so than any other institution.

Rabbi Feldman sparked widespread criticism yesterday when he made a shocking defence of paedophiles, saying some should be left alone if they have not offended for several decades.

Rabbi Feldman said he didn’t agree that paedophiles who had repented and not reoffended risked jail time if they were prosecuted.

While the men were granted the honours at the weekend victims of abuse have complained that they have been shunned from receiving them since going public with their stories.

AVB said he and his family had been bullied, harrased and vilified for trying to rid the ultra-orthodox Chabad commuity of the sexual abuse scourge.

He said one Rabbi had even referred to him as a ‘moser’, the most offensive term for Jews, referring to one who breaks the rule of Mesirah, informing on Jews to secular authorities.

“We are being victimised. We’re being judged,” he said.

“The foundation is rotten to its core."

“I often wonder whether I made the right decision coming forward.

“I know I need to do what I need to do if we’re going to change things.”

Comparing the child sexual abuse crisis to the Holocaust AVB said Jews needed to learn from the wrongs of the past.

“We will never forget (the Holocaust). That is always etched in our history so it shall never happen again,” he said. “The holocaust was the murder of Jews."

“We’ve heard evidence from multiple rabbis that the perpetration of abuse is a kin to murder."

“We need to accept and hold up that the murdering of children through sexual abuse by our own is also a crime."

“Those individuals need to be, I’m not sure if the word is banished, but they need to be held in that regard as having perpetrated that murder.”

AVB, who was molested by Yeshivah employees Daniel Hayman and David Cyrprys in Melbourne and Sydney, said abuse perpetrated on him was wholly avoidable.

And he said the Yeshivah community continued to rally around his abusers.

Yesterday, Rabbi Feldman, a close friend of Daniel Hayman, admitted being angry when he was charged fearing he would end up in jail.

“Is it just a situation where we punish someone for what they did 40 years ago even though they’ve changed totally? They’re not a threat to society and everything else,” he said.

“Of course according to law you’re supposed to, I never said it shouldn’t be done according to law.

“But I’m certainly not happy about it. I’ve said this again and again. I don't know why this is an issue.”…

Astonishing!

Jewish Leader Says It's Okay to Kill Jewish Police Informers

Prominent Chabad Community Member, Under police Investigation For Alleged Child Sex Abuse, Tells Community 

It's Okay To Kill Fellow Jews Who Cooperate With Police

This reads more like Islamic Law than anything else. This is what happens in legalistic societies where laws are interpreted for the benefit of the interpreter.

 Yeshivah College (Chabad) Melbourne Australia, "It is practical halocho [Jewish law] that a mosser [informer] may be killed, here and now in 21st century Australia, by anyone who is able to get away with it."

"Chabad" a Hebrew acronym for "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge". Organizationally, it is the largest Jewish religious organization in the world. It's too bad that 'truth and compassion' are not part of the Chabad mantra.

St Kilda's Yeshivah centre

A Melbourne man wanted by police for questioning over an alleged sex offence at [Chabad's] St Kilda's Yeshivah centre wrote on an internet blog that it is acceptable to kill a Jew who reports another to secular authorities.

The man, who Fairfax Media has chosen to not to name, made his comments on an internet blog allegedly associated with prominent figures from Melbourne's Orthodox Jewish community.

Fairfax Media has confirmed the man, who is a member of one of the St Kilda Yeshivah centre's leading families and is presently overseas, is wanted for questioning by police in connection to an alleged sexual assault in the 1990s.

The man's extreme views were posted in 2011 and were made as part of a discussion on an ancient Jewish rule known as Mesirah, under which a Jew is forbidden from informing on a fellow Jew.

The case highlights the tension in some parts of the Jewish community, in which some people hold conflicting views about the appropriateness of reporting another Jewish person to authorities.  

In some cases, those who do assist police can be ostracised and given the derogatory label of "moser", which means an informer.

The issue is likely to be examined by the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse next week, with public hearings in Melbourne to examine how Orthodox Jewish communities handled reported cases of abuse.

"Some dangerous nonsense has been posted in comments, and it appears that at least one commenter imagines that mesiroh is some sort of peccadillo that can be winked at," the man posted in 2011.

"It is practical halocho [Jewish law] that a mosser may be killed, here and now in 21st century Australia, by anyone who is able to get away with it."

Fairfax Media earlier this week revealed tape recording and emails demonstrating the pressure placed on some Jewish sex abuse victims not to assist police.

Outspoken Melbourne victims' rights campaigner Manny Waks said on Thursday that the Royal Commission hearings would expose the extent of intimidation of several victims. He also hoped they would be a catalyst for a change in attitudes within the Orthodox Jewish community.

"It's critical that the public and the Jewish community are fully informed of the victim intimidation that has gone on in recent years. Sadly it seems to be the norm within the Orthodox segment of our community, both in Australia and globally. I believe that a combination of pressure from both external and internal forces will be the catalyst for change," Mr Waks said.

"The reality is, there are many other victims out there, and no doubt some of them have been intimidated into silence by virtue of what they have observed is happening within our community. Rabbis and other leaders are sending mixed messages. In some cases it is due to ignorance and in others it's to protect Jewish institutions and the reputation of our community."

Since 2010, the Rabbinical Council of Victoria has repeatedly and publicly encouraged members of the Jewish community to report sex offences to police and has ruled that such actions will not breach Jewish law.

However, in 2008, the council chose to conduct an in-house inquiry into alleged inappropriate touching and financial transgressions committed by a prominent member of Melbourne's Orthodox community.

Despite having up to 20 people come forward with allegations against the man, as reported by the Australian Jewish News newspaper in 2008, the council stated at the time that police would be contacted only if its inquiry determined crimes had been committed.

Honorary Victoria Police chaplain and head of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant led the Victorian rabbinical council at the time of the 2008 inquiry.

Rabbi Kluwgant said this week that "there were rumours circulating within our community with regard to inappropriate behaviour by a trusted official in our community".

Rabbi Kluwgant said the extent of the rumoured inappropriate behaviour was not known and, as such, the inquiry was set up and people were encouraged to make confidential disclosures.

Asked why the council did not immediately alert police to the alleged inappropriate behaviour, Rabbi Kluwgant said he personally advised police of information brought to the council at the conclusion of its inquiry.



Secret Recording, Emails Show Victim Of Sex Abuse At Chabad Threatened, Intentionally Smeared, Over Cooperation With Police

Fairfax Media has also obtained a series of emails which show how three influential members of [Chabad's] St Kilda's Yeshivah community asserted that the victim's assistance to police in the Cyprys case had "crossed red lines" and had the "potential to undermine the [Yeshivah] centre." They warned that if the victim continued "to stick his nose where it doesn't belong", a new article about the victim would be posted on an "anonymous blog."

"I am not exactly delighted that another Yid [Jew] would assist police against an accused no matter whatever he is accused of and that is the reason why I was very disappointed," Mr Lewenberg, who was defending Cyprys at the time of the conversation, told the victim.

"Because there is a tradition, if not a religious requirement that you do not assist against Abraham and I was concerned about that…moser principle. Moser is well known."

Abraham must be horrified that his name is being used to enable pedophiles to go unreported and to continue with their perversion.

Mr Lewenberg was referring to the Jewish tradition of mesirah under which a Jew does not inform secular authorities about another Jew. Members of ultra-orthodox communities who assist police are often ostracised and given the derogatory label of "moser" or informer.

They warned that if the victim continued "to stick his nose where it doesn't belong", a new article about the victim would be posted on an "anonymous blog".

In comments posted online in 2013, the same victim was described by Yeshivah members as a "sick man" and a "coward" who should be "thrown out" of the community.

The victim's employer was also contacted by prominent members of Melbourne's Orthodox Jewish community and told about the assistance he had given to police.

Two men previously employed by the St Kilda Yeshivah school, security guard Cyprus and teacher David Kramer, are serving custodial sentences after last year being found guilty of serious child sex offences dating back to the early 1990s.

In Kramer's case, the school offered to pay for him to go to Israel after it received complaints about him from parents. He then went to the United States, where he raped a 12-year-old boy and served a lengthy jail sentence.

A third man,  Aron Kestecher, was last year to face court on child sex abuse charges allegedly committed at St Kilda's Yeshivah centre in the 2000s. But he took his own life before he went to trial.

Leading figures associated with the St Kilda Yeshivah are expected to face allegations in the royal commission hearings that they failed to report suspected abusers to police and sought to cover up crimes.

In Cyprys' committal in 2012, Victorian magistrate Luisa Bazzani said it was "unfathomable" that the former principal of the Yeshivah College in St Kilda, Rabbi Abraham Glick, did not know of the sexual abuse that was occurring there during the 1980s.