Milchemes Dor Hamabul
Grand Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg Shlit"a
מלחמה לה' נגד אנשי דור המבול
מרביה"ק רבי נחום ראזנבערג שליט"א
דף ע - PAGE 70
גליון "קול השופר
2009"
- #
70
אדר - ניסן תשס"ט לפ"ק
klafkosher.coA Jewish Response to Child Sexual Abuse.pdf
klafkosher.comRabbinic Rulings on Abuse.pdf
klafkosher.comSchool Safety Guidelines.pdf
Little woman, or big threat?
By Tamar Rotem
Haaretz - January 2, 2009
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052023.html
This case will soon be up at: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Dahari_Sylvia.html
Also see: Female Sex Offenders:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/femalesexoffenders.html
"I cried for days. I couldn't get out of bed. My body shivered, my head ached and I was nauseous - it was a real psychotic fit. I was struck by the realization that I let a woman humiliate me, that I was dependent on her, that my life was nothing without her. A couple of times she shouted at me in class in front of everybody, and I told myself I was being brave. I was an abused woman" - a quote from a woman who belonged to the Megirot group for religious women
It was late at night when I dared to knock on the door of the apartment in an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood. Inside the apartment I heard women chatting. A few long minutes later, someone came up the stairs and walked in self-assuredly, and we snuck in behind her. I thought we would be welcome there because of the black headscarf worn by my friend, an ultra-Orthodox woman from Mea Shearim.
We were the only strangers among the apparently well-acquainted members of Megirot (Drawers), a spiritual group that has attracted hundreds of ultra-Orthodox women from various locales. They were all waiting for Sylvia Dahari, sitting at the head of the table, to speak.
Last summer, after several of Dahari's followers quit Megirot, claiming it was a cult and accusing her of exploiting her followers, the remaining women became more hostile. For some reason, however, Dahari did not tell us to leave.
The hostility intensified about a month ago, after Dahari was sharply admonished by Takana, a forum of religious-Zionist rabbis and public figures, including Ofra's Rabbi Avi Gisser, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow and others.
"We are warning of the inherent dangers and serious psychological effects that Sylvia's activities may cause," the group stated on its Web site. Takana's members gathered testimony from members of Megirot concerning unhealthy dependencies that developed within the group, and alleged abuse and exploitation of authority.
Dahari refused to meet with the forum, and had not agreed to an interview since the scandalous allegations emerged. She spoke with Haaretz last week in her first public response.
"Megirot is no longer," she declared. "I don't teach anymore, there's no cult. We were doing God's work. We wanted to help the people of Israel. But enough, I quit, I give up."
Did you not harm the group's members? If not, then why did they complain about you?
Dahari: "It's all lies. Where are the facts, the data? Show me these women you say were harmed. All the complaints stem from one woman with mental problems."
Despite her claims, however, she is continuing to hold Megirot meetings.
'Our sole authority'
The class I attended in the summer was an associative sequence of Torah studies punctuated by ubiquitous self-awareness statements (who-am-I-what-am-I.) It was not impressive. But a short-statured woman at that meeting thought otherwise. She stood up and slavishly said: "My husband was so impressed by your Torah study innovations, Sylvia."
The women in the group who later complained of being used by Dahari seem to have drawn support and empowerment here. They were educated women with stable family lives and loving husbands. In hindsight, they now realize they were members of a cult, that they surrendered to Dahari's charm and were willing to sacrifice themselves for her.
Megirot uses a spiritual method that combines elements of Judaism with self-improvement principles. To start, the students must bring actual drawers from their house and lay them on the floor with a facilitator. Then they are taught the basic and unique language of the system, which includes stating mantras like: "I am a Jewish woman." At a more advanced stage, they are taught morality.
Hundreds of religious women from Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and the Jewish settlements have been seduced by Dahari's method in the past decade. Some had become devout messengers, bringing in new recruits, while others started teaching the method themselves. The money was good: Every woman paid NIS 30 per class. Dahari herself lectured every day and facilitated small groups that cost NIS 200 a person. The money apparently went straight to her pocket; she gave no receipts and made no reports to the tax authorities.
Dahari is a mother of six who once sold clothes from her home in Gush Katif, the Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza that was evacuated in 2005. Dahari, who has no formal education in Judaism or in any other field in which she has offered guidance, was pushed to prominence after her husband Avshalom Dahari was killed in a terror attack during the first intifada. Shortly afterward, she and a group of other women in Gush Katif began teaching women how to organize their houses according to the Torah. The magic of the lessons, and Dahari's charm, soon began to make waves among the settlements in the area.
"We waited three hours for her," said N., one of the key complainants against Dahari. "There was tension in the air, and when she walked in, everyone exhaled. I remember her headscarf, like a black tower. She was all in black, she looked a little ultra-Orthodox. But her face was pretty and radiant. I remember her first words, 'I am going to change how you think. Your thoughts are the products of fear and your conclusions wrong. Slowly you will disconnect from all your friends and family.' We were shocked."
Megirot was an organization in every respect. Two or three women like N. or L., another woman who claims to have been exploited, climbed the ranks and behaved like little generals. Beneath them were the regular teacher-facilitators, and below them the students. Dahari likened herself to Moses. She spoke on behalf of God.
"We worshiped her," N. said. "She was our sole authority. One by one her words demolished the institutions we were familiar with: Rabbis, medicine and psychology - they knew nothing."
"Slowly she entered our hearts and homes," said L., who worked for Dahari and was part of her inner circle for seven years. "She created a complete symbiosis between the women within her inner circle. They slept at her house. She meddled in our family matters. Once I took all the kids in the car with me to consult with her. In the middle of our conversation [with Dahari] my daughter asked for water. She shouted at her, 'How long will you keep nagging your mother? Go to the cooler.' My daughter and I were frightened. I did not get up and protect her. I was paralyzed. Now I am disgusted: Where was my responsibility as a mother? My kids said they didn't like her. That's the part I can't forgive myself for."
N. said Dahari instructed mothers to abuse their children by implementing a strict educational method that included removing rebellious children from the home and ignoring them until they repented. One woman said she locked her 12-year-old outside the house until 4 A.M. He cried the whole time. She would occasionally utter the mantras she was taught: "A Jewish boy does not cry. A Jewish boy does not talk."
Megirot peaked the year before the pullout from Gaza and the evacuation of the Gush Katif settlements.
"There was a feeling of 'us against the world,'" L. said. Before the pullout, L. and other students came to Gush Katif to help Dahari and lived in her house.
"We tried to provide a voice of realism," L. explained. "We tried to convince the Katif settlers to come to terms with what awaited them and pack. Sylvia behaved differently from the rest. She said nothing would happen, but she also was in contact with the authorities and ordered a moving van. It seemed weird to me. But I figured, she's only a human being after all."
After the Gaza pullout, Dahari spent part of her time living with her daughter in the West Bank settlement block of Gush Etzion. She tends to spend weeks on end at the homes of her close associates.
"Her moral corruption began after the pullout from Gaza," one woman, who quit the group relatively early, said. "After what had happened, she lost all restraint. Everything became permitted. Then she began to dominate the other women and lust after money and respect."
L. said she became Dahari's assistant only a year after the pullout, during the Second Lebanon War, when her husband was in the army. "For three weeks I was alone with the kids, and I had just given birth. I was worried about my husband and had a panic attack, only I didn't know what to call it. Sylvia recognized my weakness. She was the only one speaking to me then. Without noticing, I became dependent on her. But she's capricious and her mood swings made me anxious. One moment she's hugging you, a very strong hug, the next she's ignoring you like you don't exist. It makes you feel dead."
"I don't understand how I functioned. I lived a double life. I lost interest in my children and husband. I was on autopilot to keep up with her. We would hang out until dawn. My children grew up with a nanny. I wasn't there. I just wanted to be with her, and I missed her. I lost my self-respect. I would call her 20 times a day. I would get ecstatic just talking to her. She preached that the more you expose yourself, the more you advance. And I really shed my skin."
Dahari asked for - and received - for $10,000 from L. After L. quit Megirot, she sued Dahari and threatened to turn to the media, so Sylvia returned the money. Dahari began to charge more for her classes - NIS 300 up front for ten meetings. L. was charged NIS 200 per class. R., who was the group's treasurer and also left Megirot a year ago, said: "Donations to Sylvia after the Gaza pullout became crazy."
A sexual twist
But none of this upset L. or N. as much as Dahari's affair with the husband of one of her students. She told everyone he was her spiritual husband, and no one protested. She had changed. Classes began to evolve around relationships and sex. The language became permissive, with many sexual references. Dahari invited a sex therapist to a seminar held in the north. That weekend, the women were invited to visit a bed and breakfast decorated with erotic symbols.
"All the women laughed with embarrassment," N. said.
During one lecture, Dahari brought a whole chicken to show how to carve it. She said some women were afraid to touch moist objects, and that this stemmed from relationship problems.
"As she spoke, she touched the chicken in a very sexual way," N. said. "She always knew how to walk the line between the permitted and the prohibited. It was all implicit."
When Dahari felt one of her associates knew too much about her, she would cut the woman off. N., who knew everything about the money and the organization, and L., who criticized Dahari for her affair, were cut off.
"One day in class, she listed the people close to her, and did not mention me," N. said. "That moment I felt lost. Facing a blank wall. No explanation. Like a drone, I got up and walked to a side room and cried."
N. knew she had been blacklisted by the group, but was surprised when Dahari began making passes at her husband.
"It was sheer cruelty," N. said. "She would call him and flatter him. She asked him to talk about relationships in the Torah in one of her classes. I saw how she used her feminine guiles to seduce him and how he fell for it. I began going with him to classes so that I wouldn't lose him, while I sobered up even more quickly, because I realized what I had become."
N. managed to pull her husband away from Dahari's influence, and they left Megirot. Others followed them. N. and her husband went from rabbi to rabbi to warn them of Megirot, but no one wanted to take responsibility.
Eventually, the Takana forum on sexual harassment took up the issue. The story was publicized this past May in the newspaper Makor Rishon, causing an uproar among the national-religious community.
Dahari defends herself: "I don't know what they want from me. All the facts are wrong. They come and denounce me without checking. These are respectable people? Check before you talk. It's boring. The allegations against me are two years old. Megirot has not existed for the past year and a half. If I have hurt anyone recently, bring her to me and I will personally apologize. I do only good and I'm here to help, not harm. If I harmed anyone, I quit, I'm leaving. And the people of Israel will be saved from the little woman from Gush Katif."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Vicki Polin <vickipolin@aol.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Subject: YouTube Video of the Hearing on
SB 238 (Annapolis, MD)
To: * TheAwarenessCenter- Yahoo <TheAwarenessCenter@yahoogroups.com>
Below is the link to some of the
testimony we provided last week on SB
238 in Annapolis. I've been told more
testimony will be posted over the next
several days. Please bear in mind that
prior to my testimony the MD Catholic
Conference had carted out an entourage
of witnesses decrying how the sky would
fall if this legislation was passed. It
pulls at the heart strings when there is
no substance to back it up. It is very
effective. Unfortunately for them,
Child Victims Voice provided the facts.
-- Bob Russell, Founder
Child Victims Voice Maryland
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Vicki Polin <VICKIPOLIN@aol.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Subject: (Israel) Parents ignore child
abuse at rabbi's advice
To: * TheAwarenessCenter- Yahoo <TheAwarenessCenter@yahoogroups.com>
Parents ignore child abuse at rabbi's
advice
Police investigators stunned to find
ultra-Orthodox parents ignored sexual
abuse of their two children after their
rabbi warned filing charges may invoke
halachic rule equal to 'din moser'
By Efrat Weiss
YNET News - February 5, 2009
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3667308,00.html
The Jerusalem Police recently revealed a stunning conspiracy of silence involving the sexual abuse of two children, ages four and nine, by a male relative. The investigation also revealed that the children's parents, their rabbi and their neighbors were all aware of the abuse, but chose to keep quiet.
Senior police NCO Aliza Aroch, who is the lead investigator in the case, told Ynet that police were contacted by a social worker, who reported getting a call from a woman who claimed to have witnessed the man molest the nine-year-old while they were at a doctor's waiting room.
|
|
The woman informed the doctor of what she saw and the two immediately contacted the social worker and the police. Both were deposed and the police promptly arrested the suspect.
The man, said Aroch, admitted the incident and assured the court it was a one-time digression. The Jerusalem District Court, however, ordered his arrest remanded for three days.
With the suspect in custody, the police began questioning the boy's parents and discovered that their nine-year-old son was suffering from autism and that they had two other children – a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old toddler.
After ascertaining that the suspect was a relative, investigators were amazed to learn that not only did the mother know the man was abusing both her sons, she had witnessed the acts on several occasions and did nothing.
She also told the police that her nine-year-old son had been subjected to the suspect's abuse since the age of two. The police suspect all three children also suffered physical abuse.
When asked why she did nothing, the mother reportedly told the investigators that she was "powerless."
During the course of the investigation, the police also found that several neighbors witnessed the suspect molesting the children in public, but failed to report him.
|
|
The children's father claimed that he consulted his rabbi, who told him that unless he witnesses the acts himself, reporting it would be like rendering a "Din Moser."
"Din Moser" is an ancient halachic law pertaining to informants, which according to the austere interpretation of Jewish tradition, equals a death sentence.
Once the gravity of the situation became apparent, the court ordered all three children be removed from home. The Jerusalem District Court also remanded both parents for five days.
Coburn Dukehart/NPR
The corner of Rodney and Lee streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is near the heart of the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in New York.
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From:
Facebook <groupmaster+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Subject: Nypd Idol Jam invited you
to join the group "LIFE SUPPORT -
NYPD Idol "Jam" "...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Nypd Idol invited you to join the
Facebook group "LIFE SUPPORT - NYPD
Idol "Jam" ".
To see more details and confirm this
group invitation, follow the link
below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=53673619059&mid=309b6eG5bdf451aG34001bG6
Thanks,
LIFE SUPPORT - NYPD Idol "Jam"
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---------- Forwarded message
----------
From:
Facebook <notification+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 12:23
AM
Subject: "The Awareness Center -
Jewish Coalition Against Sexual
Abuse/Assault" sent you a
message on Faceboo...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Vicki Polin sent a message to
the members of The Awareness
Center - Jewish Coalition
Against Sexual Abuse/Assault.
--------------------
Subject: URGENT - Help Children
in NY
The Awareness Center, Inc.
(the international Jewish
Coalition Against Sexual
Abuse/Assault)
P.O. Box 65273, Baltimore, MD
21209
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.theawarenesscenter.org
443-857-5560
Survivors and Advocates of all
faiths advocating for the Child
Victims Act of New York (March,
2009)
PLEASE FORWARD
March 22, 2009
Dear Friends,
According to statistics, one out
of every 4 children will be
abused by the time they reach
the age of 18. Considering
there is just under 20,000,000
people living in the state of
New York, means there is roughly
500,000 survivors of child
sexual abuse living in the
state.
Both adult survivors and
children who have not yet been
abused -- living in the state of
New York need your immediate
help to insure the passage of
The Child Victims Act of New
York.
Attached are 2 links the first
with all NY state Assembly
e-mail address the other is a
listing of the NY Senate.
Please make as many phone calls
as you can to the New York
senators and Assembly members.
If you don't have the time to
call -- it's important to send
each of them e-mails, letting
them know how important it is
they support the bill
Directions:
1. When you call tell them you
want the Senator or Assembly
member to support the 2009 -
Child Victims Act, WITHOUT ANY
CHANGES!!!
2. The Legislative Aide will
ask for your name and address.
If you do not live in New York
-- yet were abused there make
sure to state that fact.
Support the Child Victims Act
NYS Assembly Bill # A2596
Senate Bill # S2568
PLEASE Make the phone calls
first them Monday morning. If
you can call start sending the
e-mails NOW!!!!
The groups that opposing the
bill are also making calls,
which includes those associated
with the New York Catholic
Conference/Church, Small group
of Sephardic rabbis, the
insurance industry and the ACLU.
Your voice one voice can and
will make. This is why it's
vitally important for everyone
to call (or e-mail) so that your
support of the bill will be
recorded.
New York State Senate
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.senate.state.ny.us%2FSenatorbio.nsf%2FPublic_MemberEmail%3Fopenform
New York Assembly
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://assembly.state.ny.us%2Fmem%2F%3Fsh%3Demail
For more information on these
bills go to:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.protectchildrenny.org%2F
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow
the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1047980318401&mid=2fba85G5bdf451aG33aa4eG0
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---------- Forwarded message
----------
From:
Facebook <notification+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 5:57
PM
Subject: "JOIN THE MUSIC FANPAGE
:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/789-Crew/7200317899"
is now "JOIN THE MUSIC ...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Khalid Khan changed the name of
the group "JOIN THE MUSIC
FANPAGE :
http://www.facebook.com/pages/789-Crew/7200317899"
to "JOIN THE MUSIC FANPAGE :
http://www.facebook.com/pages/789-Crew/7200317899"
To see the group, follow the
link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=17803100657&mid=2f5fdfG5bdf451aG339514G40
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
---------- Forwarded message
----------
From:
Facebook <confirm+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 1:14
PM
Subject: Chesky Lowy added you
as a friend on Facebook...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Chesky added you as a friend on
Facebook. We need to confirm
that you know Chesky in order
for you to be friends on
Facebook.
To confirm this friend request,
follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?reqs.php&mid=234023G5bdf451aG2ee7e3G2
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
---------- Forwarded message
----------
From:
Facebook <notification+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Subject: "The Awareness Center,
Inc." sent you a message on
Facebook...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Vicki Polin sent a message to the
members of The Awareness Center,
Inc.
--------------------
Subject: URGENT: Help Pass the
Child Victims Act of New York
Dear Friends,
The Child Victims Act of New York
will be voted on within the next few
days. The New York Coalition to
Protect Children needs your help.
If you live in the state of New
York and or if you were sexually
abused in the state, call each of
the legislators in New York (see the
links below for a listing of the New
York Senate and Assembly).
The Child Victims Act offers a one
year window in which adult survivors
of child sexual abuse will be able
to file a civil suit against their
offenders. What is most important
is that by doing this survivors will
be able to name their offenders,
which may lead to protecting one
more child from being harmed. On
average a sex offender will molest
at least 118 children in his/her
lifetime. There have been cases in
which eighty-year-old sex offenders
continued to molest.
Tying up the phone lines with phone
calls is often very effective in
swaying the legislators who are on
the fence. It's a tactic used often
by the Catholic Church. When you
call tell the legislative aide that
you want the senator or
assemblyman/woman to support the
"Child Victims Act of New York".
The aide will ask you for your name
and address and make note to tell
the legislator. When the
telephone lines get tied up by phone
calls it gets the attention of the
legislator right away.
Here's a list of the contact
information for both houses
Assembly
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://assembly.state.ny.us%2Fmem%2F
Senate
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.senate.state.ny.us%2Fsenatehomepage.nsf%2Fsenators%3FOpenForm
For more information about this bill
go to:
The New York Coalition to Protect
Children
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.protectchildrenny.org%2F
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the
link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1095316031779&mid=245a6dG5bdf451aG2f5552G0
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Those victims deserve a day in court. The New York Legislature should grant it to them, by passing a bill that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of children.
The bill would open a one-year window during which accusers would be allowed to sue in civil court, no matter how old the case. After a year, the statute of limitations would be restored, but an accuser would have up to 10 years after turning 18 to make a claim, instead of five. The statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions would not be changed.
Like similar measures in Delaware and California, the Child Victims Act seeks to balance the need for reasonable time limits for lawsuits against the unusual challenges in uncovering sexual crimes against children.
It can take decades before victims are ready to make the wrenching decision to tell their stories.
Add to that problem the particulars of the priest abuse scandal. It had its roots in the 1960s and 70s, but did not engulf the Catholic Church — which systematically covered up for the criminals in its clergy — until 2002, when its many victims were in their 30s or older.
The bill does not explicitly target any institution. Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials are lobbying against it, arguing that it is unfair to allow decades-old accusations against old men who are ill equipped to defend themselves when evidence is lost or forgotten and witnesses are dead. They also, naturally, fear a wave of expensive settlements and damage awards like the one that struck the Los Angeles Archdiocese when the statute of limitations was lifted under a 2003 law.
Those fairness concerns are vastly outweighed by the need to dispense fairness to those who were powerless to seek it. Exposing abuse is also a matter of public safety. It is wrong to allow the institutional shame of the Catholic Church to remain hidden in church files and in the anguished hearts of victims. Their continued suffering and the prevention of future abuses are the strongest arguments for passage of the Child Victims Act.
Yes, the dioceses need some kind of protection because needed programs might have to be cut.
Yes, but the dioceses should just face the music for what their clergy may have done.
No, the dioceses are exaggerating the financial damages the lawsuits could cause them.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: child protector <safeguardingjewishchildren@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 10:27 PM
Subject: corrected copy
To: hellawinston@nyc.rr.com
Why the Orthodox Jewish community desperately needs this bill to be passed
The plight of the many children that have been abused, or molested, in our communities has finally come to light, due to the courageous individuals who have come forward and spoken openly about a past trauma that they wish would never have happened.
Their intention is to help the community to name these pedophiles, so people can be aware and watch and safeguard our children.
This will educate people to report on any kind of abuse.
Some executives in power of some private institutions such as schools, synagogues, mikvahs, (ritual baths, where many sexual abuses have been reported) have done everything in their power to keep these stories quiet, out of fear of financial and social damages.
By doing so, they have simply turned their eyes away from holiness and spirituality of the human soul. They have ignored the G-dly will to show sympathy and do justice in the most unorthodox Torah and halachik (basic law) manner.
By doing so, they simply enabled these pedophiles to continue with their vicious crimes entirely without any interference. Let’s not forget these are the ones who are supposed to teach and educate our children about morals and ethical behavior. This explains why our community is failing terribly in graduating professionals let alone teaching basic simple education.
And all the while, these same people control the yeshivas and schools and threaten to dismiss and throw out anyone from the Jewish schools, who will go to the authorities. An entire family of children can be expelled. The intimidation works and chances of stopping this cycle are almost 0 to none.
Only by maintaining the full extent of the law, one gives a chance to those victims. When increasing the statute of limitations, a person can have a chance to name these pedophiles and to hold the institutions harboring them accountable. We shall slowly but ultimately have a safer society that would be able to help children to be educated properly. True justice will help the entire humanity.
We ask the Honorable legislators and Senators to please consider the sacrifice these brave victims have endured. It should not be in vain. Please vote and persuade others to pass this bill now! We cannot wait any longer!
Committee for Safeguarding Orthodox Jewish Children
Israel's first all-encompassing center for child and teen victims of sexual and physical abuse will open Tuesday as a separate department at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
Based on the successful US model, where currently 600 such centers are in operation, Beit Lynn will provide abuse victims between the ages of three and 18 with a wide range of services and therapy, including social welfare and legal services.
Its creation is based on a law passed last year, which calls for six more such centers to be set up.
"This is the first center of its kind to be established in Israel, and bringing together medical staff with other responders will provide the capacity to give treatment quickly and effectively in the most traumatic of cases," said Prof. Ze'ev Rotstein, Sheba Medical Center's director-general.
Funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, together with the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, Sheba Medical Center, NGO Ashalim, the Israel Police Force and contributions from the ministries of health, justice and education, the new center aims to streamline the initial process rape victims must undergo, whether their attacker is a family member or a stranger.
In the past, victims were forced to visit each office independently, usually being carted around by their parents from the hospital to the police station and on to social workers and lawyers.
The new center will bring all these elements together under one roof, with all first responders sharing information and easing the trauma for the victim.
A pilot center run along similar lines has been operating in Jerusalem for the past several years and was also established by the Schusterman Foundation. It is not based in a hospital, however.
According to the latest information from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, there are some 40,000 cases of child abuse reported each year, with child welfare officers following up on roughly one-fourth of those reports.
Last year, child welfare officers investigated 8,716 cases of child abuse, a rise of 12 percent over the previous year.
"This is a very welcomed and essential initiative," Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog said in a statement. "It will provide Israel with a breakthrough in the treatment of children and youth who have been abused physically, sexually or emotionally."
"The new center will allow thousands of children who have gone through a terrible trauma to receive the necessary treatment in an appropriate and holistic manner, all under one roof," he added.
Beit Lynn is expected to treat more than 700 children and teens a year from the area surrounding the hospital.
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------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Facebook
<groupmaster+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:31 AM
Subject: Moshe Fessel invited you to join the
group " To the victims of abuse in our
community: We stand with...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Moshe invited you to join the Facebook group "
To the victims of abuse in our community: We
stand with you".
To see more details and confirm this group
invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=57862407113&mid=2924cdG5bdf451aG31280cG6
Thanks,
To the victims of abuse in our community: We
stand with you
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End the injustice
Times Union - Sunday, March 15, 2009
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=780037&category=OPINION
New York has an opportunity on Tuesday to allow victims of child sexual abuse another chance to seek justice. Too many of them may not have been able to resolve their cases because of what must seem like the cruel rigidity of the law.
In New York, accusers have five years after turning 18 to sue their alleged abusers. The problem, as experts on childhood sexual abuse will attest, is that all too often it takes much longer for victims to come forth.
Marci Hamilton of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University likens their situation to the way the law treats pollution.
"The consequences of toxic pollution may not be known or felt for years after the fact. The same is often true for children who are sexually abused," she says.
The law has to change, then. The state Assembly Codes Committee should once again support a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, D-Queens, that would give accusers a one-year exemption from the statute of limitations.
Any case of alleged abuse, no matter when it occurred, could be pursued as a civil lawsuit or even criminal prosecution. In addition, the bill would change the time limits that would be in effect after that one-year period expires. Victims would have 10 years, rather than five years, after turning 18 to file claims.
The Assembly, long controlled by Mrs. Markey's fellow Democrats, has passed such a bill in each of its past three sessions. It's the Senate, where the Democrats now have a majority for the first time in four decades, that has stopped this pursuit of justice.
There are other political obstacles as well. Both Catholic and Orthodox Jewish leaders oppose what's known as the Child Victims Act. They argue that it's biased against religious institutions.
It's their contention that an existing law requiring civil action against pubic institutions or their employees to begin within 90 days sets an unfair double-standard.
So goes a perhaps self-serving argument that could be addressed with additional legislation. If the playing field must be leveled, it should be done so in the favor of the victims.
It's also true, remember, that the Child Victims Act could revive hundreds, if not more, claims against Catholic priests and dioceses that were dismissed under state law.
The accused have ample protection already. New York needs to think of the people, sexually assaulted as children, who lack such protection. The quest for justice goes on.
The issue:
New York law imposes unfair obstacles upon victims of child sex abuse.
The Stakes:
Changes in the statute of limitations would give them their day in court.
To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Facebook
<notification+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 7:17 PM
Subject: Vicki Polin commented on a photo of you
on Facebook...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Vicki commented on a photo of you:
"I sure wish you were there. if you send me a
picture of you I'll figure out how to use
photoshop and put you in there where you belong.
:-)"
To see the comment thread, follow the link
below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?photo.php&pid=2034068&id=523300683&mid=2789d0G5bdf451aG308f0dG11
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
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|
As you may have
heard, I traveled to
Albany on Wednesday
as part of a SFJ
sponsored trip to
meet with our
representatives and
express support for
a bill pending in
the Assembly and
Senate that, if
passed, will open a
one year window in
the current
statute of
limitations
and allow victims of
sexual abuse to file
civil suits and
expose their
abusers. The
Catholic Church is
aggressively
opposing the bill
and trying to
intimidate our
legislators into
withdrawing their
support for the
bill. The
Legislators we met
with were very
impressed with the
presence of Orthodox
and secular Jews
pushing for the
passage of the
bills. Please
combat the Church’s
campaign by taking a
minute to copy the
message below, add
the specific name of
the representative
you are addressing
the letter to, and
e-mailing it to as
many members of the
Assembly and
Senators as you are
able. I’ve included
a link below which
will give you the
e-mail and mailing
information for your
representatives.
Please make our
voice heard. Every
letter and e-mail
will make a
difference. The
Church sent 700, I
hope we can surpass
that. Thank you for
your help.
Joel Engelman
P.S. If you are able to call these legislators, please do. Just a couple of calls make a huge difference.
Dear (Assembly Member), Hon. (name), Assemblyman/woman, State of New York Dear Assemblyman/woman: I am a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. As a constituent, I strongly urge you to support, without amendment, the Child Victims Act of New York, recently re-introduced in the Assembly as Bill #A2596 by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey. There is a virulent but silent epidemic of child sexual abuse in our society. FBI studies show that one in five children will be sexually abused by the age of 18! Measures such as safety zones, offender registries, safe environments, and background checks help with known abusers, but we need to do much more to discover the unknown predators, those who are often shielded by New York's archaic and inadequate Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse. Since predators are known to abuse multiple victims—as many as 100—we can not continue to let New York's children be at risk! Studies reveal that children who are victims of this heinous crime require many years into adulthood to gain the strength and courage to name their abuser. And only 10% of these crimes are ever reported! I hope you agree we must change this appalling situation. The Child Victims Act would accomplish the following:
1. Extend the
deadline for a
victim to file a
claim in court—from
age 23 to age 28.
When California
enacted such a
suspension, more
than 300 previously
undetected predators
were discovered. We
must do the same for
the children of New
York! Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter. Thanks, too, for all that you do for the people of New York. Sincerely yours,
|
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Facebook
<notification+yqqykeba@facebookmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 5:30 PM
Subject: Vicki Polin commented on a photo of you
on Facebook...
To: Nochem Rosenberg <nr5155@gmail.com>
Vicki commented on a photo of you:
"This is part of the group of adult survivors of
child sexual abuse (and those who care about
them) who went Albany, NY in hopes of helping to
pass the 2009 Child Victims Act of New York.
The group was made up of Jewish, Catholic and
Buddhist Survivors."
To see the comment thread, follow the link
below:
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
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MzMwMDY4MztwaWQ9MjAzNDA2ODt0bz0xNTQxMzU4ODc0&mid=24cdc0G5bdf451aG2f92ceG11
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dani
Hausknecht
<danihaus@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Subject: Press Advisory Sent by Cardozo Earlier
This Week
To:
SOLreform-individuals@googlegroups.com
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are
subscribed to the Google Groups "Statute of
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To post to this group, send email to
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For more options, visit this group at
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|
|
"Civil Liberties" and Uncivil Lies: What the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights Have in Common – An Agenda to Keep Child Predator Identities Secret |
|
By MARCI A. HAMILTON |
|
| Thursday, March 19, 2009 |
Yesterday, March 18, the New York Assembly Rules Committee passed the Child Victims Act (Assembly Bill A02596/Senate Bill S02568), which will extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse by five years. It will also open a one-year window of opportunity for child sex abuse victims to go to court even if their statute of limitations already had expired. The next stop is the full Assembly and then on to the Senate.
The Child Victims Act was first introduced by Assemblywoman Marge Markey, who has doggedly stood by the bill. For three years, she shepherded it through the Assembly, only to be blocked by Sen. Joseph Bruno, now under federal indictment. Now that Democrats are a majority in the Senate and many support this bill, there is real hope that victims have a shot at justice in New York this time around.
The Urgent Need for States to Extend their Statutes of Limitations and Create "Windows" During Which Past Victims Can Sue
As I have discussed in previous columns such as this oneand my book Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, we do not know the identity of the vast majority of child sex predators, because we have crafted a legal system that prefers the adult perpetrators over the child victims. Hundreds of studies have shown that child sex abuse victims face enormous barriers to pursuing their perpetrators and those who aided the perpetrators. The same mismatch in power that permitted the abuse to happen in the first place severely undermines the ability of victims to pursue those who sexually abused them, not to mention those in positions of power in organizations that also permitted them to be abused. In the nature of things, adults are in an extremely powerful position vis-à-vis children, but when an adult can also exploit a position of trust as a parent, teacher, rabbi, priest, or Boy Scout leader, the scale tips so strikingly that the victim can be seriously disabled and disempowered for life.
Until relatively recently, most states had statutes of limitations that closed the courthouse doors before the victim was psychologically capable of coming forward. The result has been that perpetrators have continued to teach, advise, and guide our children in churches, synagogues, schools, and extracurricular activities – and to do so under legal cover. The fix is obvious: Eliminate, or at least lengthen, the statutes of limitations.
The New York bill has taken a moderate route. On one hand, it only extends the age by which victims must sue, going forward, to 28 for civil and criminal claims. But it also permits those who were unfairly shut out of the courthouse in the past by uninformed, arbitrary statutes of limitations, for one year from the bill's passage, to come forward. In other words, even if their statute of limitations expired years earlier, they have one year from the bill's passage to bring a civil claim.
If this bill is passed, as it looks like it will be, the result will be that parents in New York will know many more names of perpetrators at the end of next year than they do today. When California enacted such a window in 2003, by comparison, 300 new perpetrators were publicly named.
In the best of all possible worlds, such a window would have been able to be opened in the criminal context, as well, so these perpetrators could not only be named but also sent to jail. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, inStogner v. California, held unconstitutional the criminal window that California had enacted (on the ground that the window violated the Ex Post Facto Clause, banning retroactive criminal laws). So today, the only tool we have in our legal arsenal to name perpetrators that escaped criminal punishment is to get victims into civil court, where they can publicly name perpetrators and teach the rest of us about the risks lurking next door.
There are two primary groups that do not want to have these perpetrators publicly named, and they have been working hard against the Child Victims Act. Their ridiculous positions have not gained a foothold, but it is still worthwhile to expose their positions for what they are. New York will not be the last state to pass such legislation and the truth needs to be inserted into the debate early and often.
The Proponents of New York's Statute-of-Limitations Legislation: Fighters for Children's Rights Who Should Be Honored
Before we turn to the two organizations fighting the uphill battle against the Child Victims Act, its proponents should be named, because a new coalition of fighters has emerged. Last fall, there was a historic press conference at Cardozo Law School, where I am a law professor. There, victims from within the Catholic Church met publicly for the first time with victims from within the Orthodox Jewish community. It was a moving meeting and mutually empowering to the two groups.
Since then, the public has been introduced to a new organization, Survivors for Justice, comprised of Orthodox victims and their supporters; and Orthodox rabbis have joined them on the sidelines. While a handful of rabbis joined the Catholic Conference to lobby members last week, the powerful Orthodox Union has issued a public statement that it will not be opposing the Child Victims Act. This is the largest Orthodox Jewish group in the country and a highly respected one. In a statement, the Orthodox Union said that it "generally supports the expansion of the statute of limitations to enable victims of sexual abuse to pursue legal claims" and is "not opposed to this legislation." In addition, according to a news story by Hella Winston for The Jewish Week, Uri L'Tzedek, another Orthodox Jewish organization, organized outreach to legislators as did the Committee for Safeguarding Orthodox Children and Am Echad. In addition, a new student group at Cardozo -- Cardozo Advocates for Kids -- has set up a website that will monitor statute of limitations developments nationally, www.sol-reform.com; held a conference on abuse in religious communities; and organized a student phone-a-thon in favor of the bill.
Meanwhile, Survivors for Justice has combined with Voice of the Faithful and New York SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) to organize support for the bill. The groups individually and together have been to Albany, sent postcards to every member of New York's Assembly, and worked tirelessly to get the bill passed. These are survivors (and their families and friends) with their own issues and jobs and families, who have chosen to make this their single priority.
Legislators should take note that these are the people fighting for this bill. No one knows better than the survivors and their families how necessary the bill is, or how much they need it to find some peace in their lives. Right now, from where they sit, they live in a society that chose to keep them out of court -- and therefore to let their perpetrators go to the next victim. They are demanding that the cycle of abuse end.
The Catholic League's Shameful Position
on the New York Bill
On the other side of the debate is the
ultra-conservative Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights, which has
been called the pit bull for the
conservative aims of the Roman Catholic
Church. It is led by one Bill Donohue,
whose first-ever email to me accused me
of being a Catholic-hater. We have not
corresponded much since I responded that
what I hate is child abuse and that I
actually love my Catholic husband and
children very much!
In any event, it would appear that Mr. Donohue must not be getting a lot of sleep lately, as the Catholic League has carpet-bombed Catholics with one lie after another in order to try to keep the Child Victims Act from passing. There is little question that the hierarchy his organization serves desperately seeks to keep its secrets about childhood sexual abuse, -- including the identity of the perpetrators. Also, and more importantly, it seeks to continue to cloak the identities of the bishops who knew about earlier abuse and who created the opportunities for further abuse. As I discussed in a previous column, the opening of a statute-of-limitations window in California led the Los Angeles Archdiocese to agree to settle with 550 victims, in order to avoid trials. The Archdiocese paid the amount it had promised quickly, but it is now trying to block the release of the files it promised to make public as part of the settlement, with day-by-day, seemingly endless court challenges being mounted.
In New York, the hierarchy's fears of the release of new secrets are likely heightened. There, the courts have shut down out-of-time clergy abuse lawsuits, with the Court of Appeals most recently pointedly stating that this is an issue best left to the legislature. Thus, their secrets have been fairly secure. During the John Jay College's original survey of dioceses on abuse, which involved self-reporting by the bishops, the New York Archdiocese reported one of the lowest percentages of abusers in the country – a report that invites skepticism.
The Catholic League and the Catholic Conference (the lobbyists for the bishops in each state) have pushed two primary arguments: (1) They say the bill is not fair because it does not treat public and private entities precisely the same (and we are supposed to draw from this that it is "targeted" at the Catholic Church); and (2) they say that it will bankrupt New York dioceses. The first is mere obfuscation, and the second is intentionally misleading.
Why the Catholic League's Objections to the New York Statute-of-Limitations Window Bill Are Completely Unpersuasive: The Bill Reaches Abuse in Secular, as Well as Religious, Contexts
First, let's consider the objection that public entities are not equally targeted. As noted above, New York's Child Victims Act eliminates for one year the statute of limitations for all childhood sexual-abuse victims. Those suing public entities, though, face an additional, separate hurdle, which is that they must file claims within 90 days. This is an administrative limitation placed on all citizens suing any public employee. This separate issue needs to be taken up in successor New York legislation and eliminated for childhood sexual abuse victims, for the same reasons that the statute of limitations needs to be removed. But to say that the bill is unfair because it does not close every loophole at once is sad. This bill is a huge step forward for victims and all citizens, even if more still needs to be done.
Moreover, this argument of targeting the Catholic Church is just a silly attempt to paint the Church as a victim more deserving than the victims its clergy and hierarchy helped to create. Obviously, the bill will apply to religious and secular entities outside the RCC – for example, Jewish or other religious organizations, and private schools and organizations.
Note to the Catholic League and the hierarchy: If you want to meet a group that actually has been persecuted by our society, spend some time with the victims of incest who have been called liars and expelled by their parents and families. The Catholic League apparently hopes that no one knows the facts of abuse, which document that the largest group of survivors have nothing to do with the Church. The bill redresses their suffering as well. The most numerous beneficiaries of the bill are the least organized group of victims in our society – those abused by family or family acquaintances, who constitute between 70 and 80 percent of all victims. The incest victims have a very small voice in our society; their truths are nearly unspeakable and when they do speak, they risk losing everything – family, home, and support.
The second argument – that the bill, if passed, will "bankrupt" New York dioceses -- lies so far outside the truth, it is stunning that the Catholic League expects parishioners to fall for it. There has been no diocese that has yet gone bankrupt as a result of having to provide fair compensation to those it harmed. Granted, there have been a handful of federal bankruptcies filed, but not because the dioceses lacked assets. Rather, they were filed to exploit the benefits of federal bankruptcy law to protect assets against those with valid claims. All of the so-called bankruptcies led to a settlement of claims, with the victims receiving less than they would have from trials, and with roughly 50% of the monies paid from insurance proceeds and 50% from non-religiously-devoted property.
More on point, the only bankruptcy ever filed in response to window legislation was that filed by the San Diego Diocese, which was thrown out of federal bankruptcy court. Why? Because it was not straight from the beginning about its massive assets and it misled the court about its assets. None of the other dioceses in California came close to declaring bankruptcy in response to the 2003 window.
The New York dioceses, like the San Diego diocese, own scads of land utterly unrelated to religious mission – consisting, for example, of office buildings, hotels, and other valuable property. (The public should also know that the vast majority of funds for Catholic Charities come from the federal, state, and local governments, not the Church.) The Catholic League and the hierarchy have tried this financial scare tactic, thinking that their believers will never investigate these truths. Here it is.
In sum, the Catholic League and
hierarchy do not want their perpetrators
and cooperating bishops publicly named.
Rather, they seek to keep the public in
the dark about predator identities, and
face no financial dangers.
The New York Civil Liberties Union's
Disappointing Anti-Child Victim Position
– and Why It Is So Unpersuasive
Meanwhile, the New York Civil Liberties Union apparently does not want New York citizens to learn the identities of perpetrators, because they are the defendants the NYCLU would represent. They are taking the side of the perpetrators, making the patently ridiculous argument that it is not "fair" for those who preyed on children to be named decades after their abuse occurred, because memories are faulty. Once again, the truth has taken a hit from a group intent on misinforming the public for its own ends.
The NYCLU appears to be ignorant of the vast literature on child sex abuse over the last couple of decades, and has not accurately informed legislators or anyone else about how the burdens of proof are apportioned in such cases. In fact, when the statute of limitations window is opened, and the statute's term is extended, the plaintiff still bears the initial burden of proof and if the plaintiff has no corroborating evidence, then the case is over. It is rare that a defendant has to defend himself or herself against claims that are solely the result of the victim's story, or the result of "faulty memories."
In the overwhelming majority of cases, instead, there are markers of abuse that can corroborate a victim's story. While the crime itself occurs usually with no one else there, child sex abuse victims display common characteristics that can be traced to the abuse, such as falling grades, depression, sexual confusion, and substance abuse. There is also evidence to be adduced about the availability of the victim to the perpetrator. For example, did the perpetrator call the child out of class on a regular basis for private "counseling" sessions? With respect to organizations, there are also employee files that often prove that the organization knew about the perpetrator's dangerous predisposition toward children, but did nothing. That is true of the Catholic Church, with its "secret archives," which so often provide all the information anyone would need to know the hierarchy's role in crafting the unsafe conditions that led to the abuse.
Some of the most important corroborating evidence, though, comes from the fact that most abusers have multiple -- and even, in some cases, hundreds -- of victims. When one brave survivor can find it within himself or herself to go to court, more victims stand up publicly. That has happened over and over, regardless of the circumstances of the abuse. When it happened in the home, sisters or brothers or cousins or grandchildren have raised their hands once the first went public. When it happened within an institution, the other victims (who are sometimes siblings and other family members of the first) also have stood up. In contrast, when the statute of limitations bars most suits, co-victims never identify each other and the perpetrator goes on to the next batch. Since perpetrators do not "age out" of abusing, they can go on for decades. Just one victim, though, can put a wrench in the cycle of abuse and make the state and the country safer for all victims and potential victims. That is what the Child Victims Act would do.
It is also now well-documented that it is rare that people concoct stories of child sex abuse. In California, there were less than a handful of false claims among the over-1000 claims filed. This is just not one of those kinds of claims (such as, for instance, a fraudulent claim that insurance is due) that are attractive to those who want to game the system. Branding oneself as having been sexually violated at a young age is hardly attractive. Moreover, significant studies now show that children rarely make up such stories. They are far more likely to be persuaded to falsely recant, than to make them up in the first place. The bill pending in the Assembly will extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse by five years. It will also open a one-year window of opportunity for child sex abuse victims to go to court even if their statute of limitations already had expired.
The NYCLU, like the ACLU, is an institution that makes the world a worse place for children. The NYCLU and ACLU rarely, if ever, take the position of the child, unless the issue is free speech in public schools. Whether the issue is the medical neglect of children in faith-healing homes, or the abuse of children in polygamous families, or the failure to educate children in Amish or Mennonite communities, they choose the religious parents to the detriment of the helpless children. It is a record that all those in the emerging civil rights movement for children have come to know well, and to be deeply disappointed by. The truth is that the NYCLU and ACLU seem incapable of factoring the rights of children into the mix. The ACLU might as well be called the Adult Civil Liberties Union. These organizations' knee-jerk reaction to the Child Victims Act is not only dangerous to children and families, but also based on outdated, inaccurate information about the reality of childhood sexual abuse.
Child sex abuse is a zero-sum game: Either we choose to let the victims tell their stories when they can, or we choose to continue to cover up the abuse and empower the predators. It is really as simple as that. The lies and misinformation coming from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union are toxic to civil liberties, despite their names.
The conviction was secured after members of the ultra-Orthodox community filed a police complaint against the man – a rare move by itself in a community which usually deals with such acts within itself.
The indictment against Katz details three cases, which took place in mid 2006, December of 2007 and May of 2008. According to all three accounts, he would approach teenaged boys, lure them to accompany him and once they were alone he would touch them in various ways for his own gratification, sodomizing at least one of his victims as well.
Katz pleaded not guilty on all counts, telling the court that the allegations were libelous and no more than rumors spread by his estranged wife, who he refused to give a divorce.
The court, however, found him guilty on all counts: "The defendant failed to substantiate his claim of libelous allegations. The court finds his explanation of the events implausible." Katz is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
You can view this article online at VosIzNeias.com/28681
As you may have heard, I traveled to Albany on Wednesday as part of a SFJ sponsored trip to meet with our representatives and express support for a bill pending in the Assembly and Senate that, if passed, will open a one year window in the current statute of limitations and allow victims of sexual abuse to file civil suits and expose their abusers. The Catholic Church is aggressively opposing the bill and trying to intimidate our legislators into withdrawing their support for the bill. The Legislators we met with were very impressed with the presence of Orthodox and secular Jews pushing for the passage of the bills. Please combat the Church’s campaign by taking a minute to copy the message below, add the specific name of the representative you are addressing the letter to, and e-mailing it to as many members of the Assembly and Senators as you are able. I’ve included a link below which will give you the e-mail and mailing information for your representatives. Please make our voice heard. Every letter and e-mail will make a difference. The Church sent 700 letters, I hope we can surpass that. Thank you for your help.
Joel Engelman
To find your Senator's name and address, click here and enter your zip code.
Hon. (name), Senator, State of New York
Dear Senator (name):
I am a member of the Jewish community. As a constituent, I strongly urge you to support, without amendment, the Child Victims Act of New York, recently introduced in the Senate as Bill #S2568 by Senator Thomas Duane.
There is a virulent but silent epidemic of child sexual abuse in our society. FBI studies show that one in five children will be sexually abused by the age of 18! Measures such as safety zones, offender registries, safe environments, and background checks help with known abusers, but we need to do much more to discover the unknown predators, those who are often shielded by New York's archaic and inadequate Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse. Since predators are known to abuse multiple victims—as many as 100—we can not continue to let New York's children be at risk!
Studies reveal that children who are victims of this heinous crime require many years into adulthood to gain the strength and courage to name their abuser. And only 10% of these crimes are ever reported! I hope you agree we must change this appalling situation.
The Child Victims Act would accomplish the following:
1. Extend the deadline for a victim to file a claim in court—from age 23 to age 28.
2. Suspend the Limitations for just one year, so those who have been denied justice in the past when little was known of this silent epidemic, and victims could be more readily intimated into silence, can now have their day in court.
When California enacted such a suspension, more than 300 previously undetected predators were discovered. We must do the same for the children of New York!
Please don't let NY state law be used against our children! I will call your office next week for your position on this bill, and to answer any questions.
Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter. Thanks, too, for all that you do for the people of New York.
Sincerely yours,
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NEW YORK, NY February 03, 2009 —Allegations of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn's insular Hasidic Jewish community have prompted the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to open 10 investigations. And some say that may be just the tip of the iceberg. NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty joins us now.
Listen to Hagerty's feature story here.
Listen Now [10 min 14 sec] add to playlist
רבינו נחום שואל שאלה, הלא בוויליאמבורג מקרבים כל הגרים וכל צרוע וכל זב וכל טמא לנפש, ורק הפיגעים שהמלמדים שלנו והיהודים החרדים שהלכים למקוה לטבול לכבוד שבת קודש ש"י טבילות ובנתיים פועים בש"י ילדים
Joe Diangelo, 28, photographed near his old neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Diangelo, who no longer has contact with his family, says he was sexually abused at a mikvah when he was 7.
“Diangelo says he never saw the man who abused him. ... He told no one but began refusing to go to the mikvah. He left Orthodox Judaism when he was 17. He changed his name from Joel Deutsch and cut almost all ties with his family and friends.”
The corner of Rodney and Lee streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is near the heart of the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in New York.
Joel Engelman, about age 7. Courtesy of Joel Engelman
כאן תוכל לראות מופת חותך מה שקורא בילד שנפגע, חוץ ממה שמשחקים עם איסורי כריתות גם כן משחקים בדמו ודם זרעותיו עד סוף כל הדורות.
כתב ברמב"ם שמשיח יהיה יליד אשה, מי יודע איזה ילד אתה הורג כאן, אולי הוא האבא או הסבא של משיח, ובזה תבין מה שבכה רבינו הקדוש בעל דברי יואל שמשיח יראה באצבעותיו אחר הגאולה שזה קירב הגאולה וזה ריחק הגאולה
All Things Considered, February 2, 2009 · Joel Engelman and Joe Diangelo are driving through their old Brooklyn neighborhood. Williamsburg is a place from another time and country. The shop signs are in Hebrew. The men scurry by in long black coats; their hair hangs in corkscrew curls. Married women wear wigs to cover their heads.
Engelman and Diangelo haven't been here in years. They just met a few weeks ago, but as they begin swapping stories and the names of family members, they realize they have a lot in common. Both men are in their 20s, both were raised as strict Hasidic Jews, and both fled their upbringing for the same reason.
"Are you ready for this?" Engelman asks Diangelo, glancing at his friend in the back seat.
"Yeah," Diangelo says, his breath quickening. "Yeah, I'll do it, just a quick pass by."
Diangelo grows quiet as we approach a nondescript brownstone building: a synagogue.
"See the Hebrew sign?" he says, pointing. "You go downstairs, and that's where the mikvah is."
The mikvah is a bathhouse usually used by women for ritual cleansing. But in some Hasidic communities, like this one, fathers bring their young sons on Friday afternoons before Shabbat begins. Twenty-one years ago, when he was 7, Diangelo recalls going to the mikvah with his father to find the place packed with naked men and boys.
"And I was in the tub, and I had my back turned, and somebody raped me while I was in the water," he says. He takes a shaky breath. "And I didn't know what happened. I couldn't make sense of it, really."
Diangelo says he never saw the man who abused him. These days, monitors are posted by the bath to stop any sexual activity. But back then, the boy was on his own. He told no one but began refusing to go to the mikvah. He left Orthodox Judaism when he was 17. He changed his name from Joel Deutsch and cut almost all ties with his family and friends.
Now, Diangelo wears black leather and mascara. He plays in a rock band and takes refuge in the heavy-metal lyrics of Metallica.
"There are so many songs, you know. They have a latest song, which is called 'Broken, Beaten & Scarred,' and one of the verses is: 'They scratched me, they scraped me, they cut and raped me.' " He laughs wearily. "And that's my life right there. When I listen to it, it gives me strength."
Allegations Of Abuse
For these two men, this is a tour through aching secrets and violent memories. Diangelo and Engelman are unusual because they let their names be used. But they believe that sexual abuse is woven throughout this Hasidic community.
For Engelman, the loss of innocence came at school.
"This is it, right here," he says.
Engelman parks his car across from the United Talmudical Academy, a hulking building on a desolate street. This was the yeshiva, or Jewish boys' school, that Engelman attended. Engelman says he was 8 years old, sitting in Hebrew class one day, when he was called to the principal's office. When he arrived, he says, Rabbi Avrohom Reichman told him to close the door.
"He motioned for me to get on his lap, and as soon as I got on the chair, he would swivel the chair from right to left, continuously," Engelman says. "Then he would start touching me while talking to me. He would start at my shoulders and work his way down to my genitals."
Engelman says this occurred twice a week for two months. He told no one for more than a decade. Reichman was, after all, a revered rabbi. Four years ago, he told his parents. And a year ago, when he heard that Reichman had allegedly abused several other boys, they confronted Reichman. When the school heard about it, they gave the rabbi a polygraph.
"He failed miserably," Engelman says. "So they told me, 'This guy is gone. This guy has to go.' "
But a few weeks later, a religious leader from the school approached Engelman's mother, Pearl. He posed an astonishing question: On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad was the molestation?
She was speechless. Then she says, the man continued, " 'We found out there was no skin-to-skin contact, that it was through clothing.' So he's telling me, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, this was maybe a 2 or a 3, so what's the big fuss?' "
The school hired Reichman back. That was in July 2008 — one week after Joel Engelmen turned 23 and could no longer bring a criminal or civil case against the rabbi.
An Open Secret
Reichman and school officials declined to be interviewed for this story. But Rabbi David Niederman, who heads the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, says the school did its due diligence. He says the allegation was thoroughly investigated by an independent committee of lay people and rabbis.
"I'm convinced that they made a serious investigation," he says. "They felt that it's not credible."
Now Engelman has filed a long-shot civil suit against Reichman and the school, claiming they broke an oral contract.
Reichman's attorney, Jacob Laufer, says the lawsuit is baseless and that the community is fully behind the rabbi.
"Even after these accusations were publicly made," he says, "the parents continue to compete among themselves for the opportunity to have their children be educated by Rabbi Reichman."
The Reichman case is not isolated. Four ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn have been sued or arrested for abusing boys in the past three years. That's a tiny fraction of the actual abuse, says Hella Winston, author of Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels. She says that in researching her book, she encountered dozens of alleged victims who told her sexual abuse is an open secret in the Hasidic community. But the community is so insulated and the rabbis are so powerful that few dare to come forward.
"If I become known as an informer, then people also won't want to have anything to do with my family," she explains. "They won't want to marry my children, won't want to give me a job. This is the fear."
But more and more accusations against rabbis have begun to circulate. Last August, politician and radio talk show host Dov Hikind devoted an hourlong program to sexual abuse. He interviewed Pearl Engelman, who spoke under an alias, about her son's case.
The calls flooded in. Hikind, who is an Orthodox Jew himself, represents this area in the New York Assembly. He says after the show, people started showing up at his office with their stories.
"Fifty, 60, 70 people," he says, "but you got to remember for each person who comes forward, God only knows how many people are not coming forward."
Ongoing Investigations
Hikind refuses to release the names of alleged perpetrators, although he is working with the district attorney's office. He says the people who confided in him are afraid to go public, which creates a perfect situation for abusers.
"If you're a pedophile, the best place for you to come to are some of the Jewish communities," he says. "Why? Because you can be a pedophile and no one's going to do anything. Even if they catch you, you'll get away with it."
"To me, it does not make sense," says Niederman, of the United Jewish Organizations, "that so many people have been violated and for so many years they have been quiet. Something does not add up. It's being blown out of proportion — big time."
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says he has 10 active sexual abuse cases involving Orthodox Jews — including a school principal who was recently arrested on a lead from Hikind. And Hynes says there could be many more. Yeshivas are private schools, which means they don't have to report accusations of sexual abuse to civil authorities.
"I've got no way to know if there's a pattern of concealing the conduct," he says.
Hynes says the Jewish leaders — like Catholic bishops — try to handle these affairs internally, through a rabbinical court. It's a practice that infuriates him.
"You have no business taking these cases to religious tribunals," Hynes says. "They are either civil or criminal in nature. Or both. Your obligation is to bring these allegations to us and let us conduct the investigation."
Hynes says he's trying to work out a memorandum of understanding with the rabbis, in which they promise to bring the prosecutor every allegation of abuse.
Pearl Engelman is skeptical: The rabbis have hardly been forthcoming in her son's case. Still, she loves her community and worries these allegations have tarnished it.
"This is a community of the most wonderful people, hardworking people who lead righteous lives," she says. "And it's just a few corrupt people who give us a bad taint."
Her son Joel isn't so sure it's that few. Anyway, for him, any remedies come too late.
"Pretty much, I left my childhood here," he says. "After I left here, I had a totally different picture of school, religion and life."
But Engelman hopes that his story will shine a light on the secret and, perhaps, protect the next generation of children in this community.
Hasidic Judaism found its roots in Eastern Europe in the mid-18th century, at a time when Jewish people were experiencing persecution in the Polish kingdom. Seen as a radical movement, a challenge to the tradition of scholarship and the rejection of worldly pleasures of the Jewish elite, early Hasidism emphasized mysticism, emotion, faith and joy. Prayer, song and dance were parts of worship.
The movement was initially led by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known more commonly as the Baal Shem Tov, or Besht. The Baal Shem Tov, which in Hebrew means "Master of the Good Name," won widespread support among all levels of Jewish society for his ideas of inclusion through invocation of stories, folklore, sermons and fables.
"The Hasidic movement was initially a populist movement," says Sylvia Barack Fishman, professor of contemporary Jewish life at Brandeis University. "It realized that the vast majority of Jewish men and women did not have the financial means or the leisure to perform text study. But Hasidic Judaism said there were other equally valid ways of drawing closer to God besides text study. One way was through the joyous worship of God."
The practice of Hasidism today looks different from when it was founded, though many of the principles of community, deep spiritualization, music and lifestyle remain the same.
"The idea of joyous prayer, singing, dancing and spiritual feelings became, within Hasidic Judaism, an alternate route to Jewish excellence," Fishman says.
Modern Hasidic Judaism has broken up into dozens of movements, each led by a central figure, or rebbe, who serves as both a spiritual and political leader. Hasidic movements are located around the world, with the Lubavitchers, in Crown Heights, N.Y., among the most prominent.
The tenets of Orthodox Judaism play a strong role in Hasidism, as religious observance, rituals and the Torah, or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, are centerpieces of Hasidic culture. Hasidic Jews believe in following the literal word of God and the 613 commandments as found in the Torah as closely as possible.
Hasidic life focuses on cultural institutions, including the school, prayer house, ritual bathhouse and the study house, and dress is traditional, with men wearing long black coats and beards while women wear scarves and modest clothing.
Everyday life is deeply religious, and Hasidic Jews engage in ongoing study and regular prayer. Hasidic Jews believe in the presence of God in all things, so almost every action throughout the day is accompanied by a prayer, including such actions as washing one's hands and eating.
Hasidism places emphasis on the intent of the prayer, as mood and feeling are central to the religious experience. As such, Hasidic worship frequently involves music and dance in a celebratory and joyous mood.
תלחץ כאן ואז תבין בדיוק מה שהמקובלים מדברים מצער וגלות השכינה, ואם החילול השם לא כואב לך אז דע לך שאינך מזרע יהודי.
זכור! לא העיתון והראדיא והטעלעוויזשען עושים את החילול השם כי אם המלמדים והמנהלים והרבנים ואנשי הציבור המשתוללים עם הילדים במקוה!
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/122752
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בארצינו הקדושה יש כבר 2 מיליון 235 אלפים ילדים וילדות נפגעים' לפי העיתונים ורופאים
מזל טוב לד' דרשות חדשות - בכל העולם כולו
[יום ג' פרשת צו]
- ניסן תשס"ט
מאת רבינו הקדוש והטהור רשכבה"ג שליט"א
New Speech In Yiddish vaykruh 5769
Grand Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg Shlit"a
פצצת אטום - כן אנחנו
כאן!
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פצצת אטום!!! על החזירים - תפסיקו!!! - המשחק נגמר
מזל טוב מיוחד להרב ב. גרינבוים ששלח לנו את כל המכתבים, של גדולי ישראל שמתירין ומחייבים לילך להמשטרה ולבית משפט אם יש השתוללות בקטינים, ובזה מקיימים מצות עשה מן התורה של ובערת הרעה מקרביך, ולא כמו שהחזירים והנואפים והרבנים שעוזרים להמנאפים טוענים שזה מסירה,
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הגרי"ש אלישיב שליט"א:
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וכו'.
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Thanks to Mendel Schijveschuurder for helping for this page.
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