Case of Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks
This page is dedicated in the memory of Daniel
Levin
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged has a 30-year history of sexually assaulting adult women and children |
Denver, CO
Winnipeg, Canada
New York, NY
Lakewood, NJ
Vaad Harabonim of Queens - Queens, NY
Principal, Yeshiva Berachel
David Torah High School - Queens, NY
Past Member of Rabbinical Council of America
(RCA)
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks is an alleged sexual predator, who used cult like practices to lure in unsuspecting victims. According to reports he's been sexually assaulting adult women and children (both boys and girls) for over thirty years.
___________________________________________________________________________________
WARNING: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks and Marriage Counseling
Ephraim Bryks has become a rabbinic marriage
counselor. The term marriage counselor or life coach can be used by anyone.
He is not the only "rabbi" suspected of sexual abuse using one of these titles
to access vulnerable individuals or couples both here and in Israel. Consulting
actual professionals is expensive and unless the community publicly warns
against going to these charlatans (often worse) many innocents will continue
to be hurt.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Yosef Blau
___________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks principal Yeshiva Berachel
David Torah High School in Queens, currently serves time as a member of the
Vaad Harabonim of Queens (Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions
within the community). As of today, there has been no public statement made
concerning his decade long membership on the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. On
May 27, 2003, he resigned his membership in the Rabbinical Council of America
(RCA), after being involved for a quarter of a century.
Anyone with relevant information regarding the open
case in Canada is encouraged to contact the Winnipeg Police at their
main phone number: (204) 986-6037.
Anyone with relevant information in the United States
is encouraged to contact their local police department and their local District
Attorney's office, NYPD Switchboard: 646-610-5000 Queens District Attorney's
office: 718-286-6000.
Rabbi LejzorBryks |
Over the years Rabbi Ephraim Bryks has left a trail
of alleged victims from such far-away places as Winnipeg, Canada. He is currently
located in New York City. There are no documented cases or public information
regarding any victims in New York, yet he has been let go by schools (one
characterized as firing), but the schools will not discuss the matter.
For years alleged victims have been going to rabbinic
leaders in their communities looking for guidance. For years rabbinic leaders
have found it more important to protect an alleged sexual predator over
protecting our children.
49 year-old Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks will continue
to run Yeshiva Berachel David in Queens until the end of the 2003 school
year. No public statement has been made concerning his decade- long membership
on the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. Rabbi Bryks was a member of the Rabbinical
Council of America (RCA) for over a quarter of a century before his May 27,
2003 resignation. Ads in The Jewish Press indicate that Rabbi Bryks is currently
working as a mortgage broker for a company he runs out of his home called
REB International LLC.).
___________________________________________________________________________________
The Awareness Center is providing the
documentary "Unorthodox Conduct" in the memory of Daniel
Levin.
Our hopes is that it will be used as a way to educate
the public on the devistating ramifications a case can have on an individual,
family and in Jewish communities around the world. It's important to
know what happens when a case of "alleged" childhood sexual abuse in the
Jewish community is not dealt with properly from the beginning (bringing
the case to law enforcement who is trained and educated in dealing with these
cases).
Our hopes is that after you view this documentary that
you will go to your rabbis and other community leaders and demand that there
be changes made when a child makes allegations they were sexually
abused/assaulted. We cannot afford for there to be anymore cover-ups when
there are allegations that a child has been molested. We cannot afford to
let one more child die. Our hopes is that not one more child will feel so
desperate that they will take their own lives, as Daniel Levin did.
Please note: The Investigative documentary:
"Unorthodox Conduct"contains graphic information regarding the case against
Rabbi Ephriam Bryks. It was produced in 1994 by Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW BROADCAST:
http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2007/11/rabbi-ephraim-bryks-unorthodox-conduct.html
http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2007/11/rabbi-ephraim-bryks-unorthodox-conduct.html
___________________________________________________________________________________
CALL
TO ACTION: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks Lecture Series
February 27, 2008
The Awareness Center is asking that everyone contacts
Kol Yaakov and demand they remove the lecture series they have provided by
alleged sex offender, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. Please let Rubin Kaylyakov, owner
of the site know if anyone ends up getting harmed by Bryks after making their
initial contact with him by listening to one of the tapes on his web page,
he could be held liable in a civil suit -- especially after being warned
about this allegedly dangerous man.
Contact:
Kol Yakov.orgRubin Kaylyakov10820 62nd DR, Apt. 2BForest Hills, NY 11375Phone: 9176624957http://kolyakov.org/contact.htmlTorahAnytime.comRubin Kay71-28A Main StreetFlushing, New York 11367917-662-4957Computer DoctorAttn. TorahAnytime71-28a Main Street, Flushing, NY 11367
___________________________________________________________________________________
CALL TO ACTION: The Awareness Center is asking you Contact: Rabbi Paysach Krohn and Demand he stop promoting alleged child molester, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. Remind him if another child is harmed that he could be held liable in a civil suit.
November 13, 2007
Rabbi PaysachKrohn, Certified Mohel
E-mail:
pkrohn@brisquest.com
Toll Free: 866-846-6900
NY: 718-846-6900
___________________________________________________________________________________
CALL TO ACTION: Asking Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun Synagogue to have the plaque removed honoring Rabbi Ephraim Bryks.
October 10, 2004
Contact Information:
Rabbi Tzvi Muller at
Herzlia - Adas YeshurunSynagogue
620 Brock St., Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3N 0Z4
Phone: (204) 489-6262 Fax: (204)
489-5899
This past Yom Kippur marked the 13th anniversary
of the suicide of Daniel Levin an alleged victim of Rabbi Ephraim Boruch
Bryks. It is a difficult
time in particular for his family and friends as Daniel's alleged abuser
has never been brought to real justice (if such a thing is even possible
at this point) and continues to thrive and work with women and children,
not in some small Jewish community but in the New York Orthodox Jewish
community.
The Winnipeg Jewish community and Bryks' former Orthodox
Union affiliated synagogue, Herzlia Adas Yeshurun (the site of Daniel's abuse),
continue to refuse any acknowledgment or responsibility. No apology, no
compassion. A plaque honoring Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks remains on the
synagogue's "Tree of Life." All Daniel has is a tombstone in a cemetery.
The Awareness Center Has A Call to Action asking everyone
to contact Herzlia Adas Yeshurun and ask them to remove the plaque, and perhaps
replace it with a plaque honoring the memory of Daniel Levin (see contact
information above).
Sincerely,
Vicki Polin, MA, ATR, LCPC
Executive Director - The Awareness Center
___________________________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents:
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not
constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for
themselves whether the resources meet their own personal needs.
General
-
Summary of Case (02/20/2003)
-
Primrose Path
-
Resume of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
-
The New York State Administrators Listing for Public and Non-Public Schools and School Districts
-
Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Rabbi Lipa Brenner and Alleged Sex Offender, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (11/13/2007)
-
Around The Magid's Table, by Paysach Krohn
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Around The Magid's Table, by Paysach Krohn
Timeline
1981
-
Herzlia Dinner To Honor Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (12/06/1981)
1984
-
Bryks Bio from Rabbi J.J. Khanovitch Memorial Journal on occasion of the 67th Anniversary of the Vaad Ha'ir (5744/1984)
1985
- When Parents Mourn (02/26/1985)
- Credentials (05/16/1985)
1987
-
Jewish World Mourns Loss of Rosh Yeshiva (08/13/1987)
1988
-
Child and Family Service Report (03/23/1988)
-
Synagogue backs rabbi in tickling dispute - Rabbi's supporters, detractors clash at information meeting (03/29/1988)
-
Torah Academy (03/31/1988)
-
After Reviewing Parent Complaints against Principal . . . Department Recommends Sex Education at Torah Academy (08/06/1988)
-
Open letter to parents of Torah Academy By Cheryl Greenberg (12/1988)
-
Torah Academy Tours Israel (12/1988)
1990
-
Ephraim Bryks Letter (01/16/1990)
-
Mark Schulman letter (01/16/1990)
1994
-
Investigative documentary:
"Unorthodox Conduct"
(02/28/1994)
-
CBC report re-opens Bryks controversy (03/09/1994)
-
Shame! CBC Alleges Rabbi is Child Molester (03/1994)
-
CBC threatened with lawsuit for report on Winnipeg rabbi (05/04/1994)
-
More Allegations of Sexual Abuse Involving Rabbi: Police Probe Resumes At School - "Jews need to know that this can happen to us" (08/04/1994)
1995
- Bryks launches lawsuit in U.S. court against CBC, CNN (03/08/1995)
- CBC scores bronze medal for "Unorthodox Conduct" - CBC strikes it rich at N.Y. awards (01/30/1995)
- Civil Procedure: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Immune (03/15/1995)
- A former Winnipeg rabbi accused of sexual misconduct with students is suing C-B-C and C-N-N (03/21/1995)
- Bryks v. CBC (12/12/1995)
- Libel chill leaves children's author feeling censored OPINIONS / Carol Matas's novel about a Jewish school and a child-abusing rabbi touched a nerve in Winnipeg. A synagogue cancelled her appearance amid threats of litigation (12/19/1995)
1996
-
Editorial comment - A Second look at "Unorthodox Conduct" (01/06/1996)
-
Torts: CNN Did Not Defame Rabbi by Rebroadcasting Report (07/02/1996)
-
Jurisdiction in defamation action against Canadian Broadcasting Corp (08/1996)
1997
-
Entertainment Law Reporter Bryks v. CNN (07/1997)
-
Shearis Israel Academy - About Us
-
Shearis Israel Academy- Programs
-
Shearis Israel Academy - Support Us!
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Shearis Israel Academy - Board of Directors
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Shearis Israel Academy - Contact US
-
2001
-
Queens Yeshiva Boss is a Molester: Boy's Mom (03/31/2001)
-
Canadian legal filings - Legal Documentation
2003
-
Battling a 'Ghost' From Past (05/26/2003)
-
Dogged By Allegations, Rabbi Quits - Rabbi Maintains Denial Of Any Wrongdoing (05/28/2003)
-
Rabbi quits under cloud - Dogged by sex-abuse allegations (05/30/2003)
-
Rabbi Resigns Amid Sex Abuse AllegationsRabbi Resigns Amid Sex Abuse Allegations (05/30/2003)
-
Orthodox Rabbis To Report Abuse (06/06/2003)
-
Clarification to letter in Jewish Post and News Winnipeg
-
Rabbi's visit canceled amid abuse allegations - The Jewish community in D.M. received e-mails accusing the man of a history of child abuse (11/14/2003)
-
Accused rabbi dropped (11/17/2003)
-
Iowa Synagogue Nixes Queens Rabbi's Speech (11/19/2003)
-
Ragsdale: More faith communities struggle with alleged child sexual abuse (11/22/2003)
2004
-
Call to Action: Asking Herzlia - Adas Yeshurun Synagogue to have the plaque removed honoring Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (10/10/2004)
-
Letter from Mordechai Bobrowsky
to Rabbi Muller (10/16/2004)
-
Letter from Zev Zlotnick to Rabbi
Muller (10/18/2004)
-
Letter from Mordechai Bobrowsky
to Rabbi Muller (10/16/2004)
2007
-
9th Annual Shabbaton Getaway! Hudson Valley Resort
(06/22-24/2007)
-
CALL TO ACTION: Rabbi Paysach Krohn Promoting Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks
(11/13/2007)
2008
-
CALL TO ACTION: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks Lecture Series (02/27/2008)
2011
- The story that continues to haunt our community: Rabbi Bryks to be subject matter of episode of new documentary series for vision TV (01/05/2011)
- Rabbi Charles Grysman in T.O Goes on the Record RE: Rabbi Bryks (05/12/2011)
Other Cases Involving Past Students From Ner Israel Yeshiva (Baltimore, MD):
-
The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950's
-
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
-
Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum
-
___________________________________________________________________________________
Summary of the Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
Keefler:
That was just the first time lawyers would jump to Bryks' defence.
Within weeks, the rabbi again faced serious accusations, his reputation on
the line; spiritual leader, school principal, suspected of questionable behaviour
with students.
(© 2003) The Awareness Center
Rabbi
Ephraim Boruch Bryks is a native of Denver, Colorado. In 1971, following
the suicide of his father, Lejzor (also an Orthodox rabbi) amid financial
scandal, Rabbi Bryks was sent away to study at yeshiva. In 1978, at age 24
he came to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where he was hired by the Herzlia-Adas
Yeshurun synagogue. A charismatic personality he enlarged the synagogue's
membership base and established many new programs, an NCSY chapter called
Ohr Hagolah, Herzlia Academy night school, a pre-school, a nursery, a
kindergarten, a Girl Guide troop, a Brownie troop and his own rabbinical
court. He worked as a teacher at the community-run Jewish high-school, Joseph
Wolinsky Collegiate and applied for the position of Vice-Principal. After
the position went to another rabbi, he left the school and started his most
ambitious project, an independently run Orthodox Jewish school. This school
synagogue started with a few dozen elementary students and quickly expanded
to over 150 students and a small junior high-school program.
Rabbi Bryks criticized other rabbis in Winnipeg's Jewish
community over the validity of the city's eruv (a structure which allows
Orthodox jews to carry items on the Sabbath) and its kosher food. Questions
began to surface regarding Rabbi Bryks' credentials.
Keefler: In a community journal, Bryks boasted a degree
there of law from the state of Israel, that he sat as a member of a religious
court in Israel, and had a court room. The truth is, he was a rabbinical
student, not a judge. And the state doesn't give out law degrees.
<1>
In 1987, the Winnipeg Council of Rabbis wrote a letter
to the editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News alleging that Rabbi
Bryks plagiarized several articles in his Weekly Torah commentaries from
a book by Ottawa Rabbi Bulka's called Torah Therapy. Rabbi Bryks' lawyer
threatened the newspaper with a lawsuit if the letter were published. It
was never printed.
Diane Keefler: What people didn't see, many didn't
believe. Bryks counseled women, studied with teenage girls, all behind his
closed office door. Orthodox Jewish law forbids men from touching or even
being alone with a female over the age of three who isn't family. A 14-year-old
complained the rabbi often sat on her lap, touched her, tickled her, and
talked about sex. Once, she says, he even licked her face.
<1>
Additional women came forward, accusing Rabbi Bryks
of making unwanted sexual advances. These women and the mother of the young
girl took their allegations to Rabbi Avraham Altein, the leader of the local
Lubavich community and a supporter of the positions Rabbi Bryks had taken
in the past against the city's eruv and kosher food. After hearing their
allegations, he counseled them not to go to the police or child family services.
He told them to deal with the allegations internally with the synagogue
board.
Keefler: The board didn't go to the police. Didn't contact child welfare agencies. Instead, board members set up their own private inquiry.Judy Silver: We were trying to try him without it going public. We were trying to protect the synagogue.Keefler: That December 1987, the board, Bryks and his lawyer heard the evidence. The teenager repeated her story. Two women also came forward, accused Bryks of making unwanted sexual advances. They weren't believed.Nathan Kobrinsky: The people who brought forth these concerns against the rabbi were publicly humiliated and insulted and called liars. It was at this point that I felt that the whole process that I was participating in was a sham. <1>During the board's deliberations about Rabbi Bryks, those not seen as loyal to Bryks suffered abuse from other congregants, shunning and were even spat at in the shul. Rabbi Bryks continued to teach at the school and run religious services.Keefler: For three nights, accusations, legal threats, personal attacks.Kobrinsky: We were being threatened collectively for taking a position against the rabbi, that would result in a legal suit. And second of all, we were being threatened individually, because of information that the rabbi had about us and our personal lives, that would be used against us.Silver: He said quite clearly, I have secrets on all of you.Keefler: On New Years Day 1988, a final board meeting. Word got out, more than a hundred people rushed to the synagogue. They feared Bryks would be fired. <1>
Over a hundred of Rabbi Bryks' supporters swarmed outside
the boardroom, screaming threats against those who opposed Bryks. Ten board
members voted to keep Rabbi Bryks, nine voted to fire him. The nine members
who voted to fire him immediately quit in protest. The vacancies were filled
with supporters and the new board voted unanimously to support Rabbi
Bryks.
Wishing to put the controversy to rest, the new Board
contacted Jewish Child and Family Services (JCFS), an organization Rabbi
Bryks had sat on as a member of the Board of Directors, to investigate the
allegations. JCFS could not investigate Rabbi Bryks due to a conflict of
interest. The allegations were forwarded by JCFS to Winnipeg Child and Family
Services (WCFS) to investigate. For two months, social workers interviewed
45 students, teachers and parents. One of Bryks' lawyers sat in open sight
outside their offices presumably keeping track of who went in to their offices.
The WCFS issued a report in March 1988:
With respect to the behaviour of Rabbi Bryks regarding the teenage girls in the school, the findings of the investigation, on review by the Winnipeg City Police, indicated that there was no evidence which would support charges of criminal wrongdoing. Further, there is insufficient evidence to pursue any proceeding under The Child and Family Services Act against Rabbi Bryks.Nothwithstanding the above findings, on review of the report, this writer is in agreement with the investigative team that the acknowledged interactions of Rabbi Bryks with his female students involving tickling at the waist, kissing on the head, hugging, and students sitting on his lap were neither appropriate nor professional behaviour.
At the time, there was no compulsory reporting of alleged
child abuse by teachers in Manitoba:
Immediate reporting of alleged child abuse by teachers and other caregivers became compulsory in Manitoba following a 1989 amendment to the province's Child and Family Services Act. But Keith Cooper, the executive Director of Winnipeg South Child and Family Services, says that this amendment was passed because "at that time a lot of organizations handled these issues in the same kind of way." However Cooper still had concerns about the way the synagogues's board responded to the allegations."The process the synagogue took, rightly or wrongly--and they thought they were doing things in everyone's best interest--created circumstances within the synagogue community and school staff to choose sides and to let kids know that parents were on one side or another. And that kind of thing is not helpful to pursuing that sort of investigation because all sorts of other factors intrude."
Cooper added that when his office investigates child abuse complaints, investigators talk to children without subjecting them to any kind of outside pressure from anyone else to get a first sense of the allegations. When questioned about the impact of his office's finding that a poisoned environment against disclosing child abuse was inadvertently in effect at the school as a result of the board's initial response, Cooper thought it was possible that during a professional investigation at the outset, "other children might have come forward if there was something to come forward about."
Barney Yellen, Winnipeg's Jewish Child and Family Service's
Executive Director, is also quite critical of the board's decision to conduct
its own investigation and the board's subsequent decision to support Rabbi
Bryks. "Regardless of the child abuse issue, there was a questionable
professional conduct in his role as a teacher. It surprised me that he wasn't
terminated." <2>
After the 1988 findings of the Winnipeg South Child
Family Services, a new allegation in 1989 was brought to the police and Winnipeg
Child and Family Services.
Keefler: She wasn 't the only student who kept a secret.
We found another child who claimed he was victimized. In 1989, a year after
the Child and Family Services investigation, a seven-year-old boy went to
the Winnipeg police. His parents watched from the next room, listened, as
the boy, using a doll, alleged Rabbi Bryks molested him in grade I. The couple
is disguised to protect their son's identity.
Disguised mother: He showed on the doll ... that he
had been basically, I guess, fondled, masturbated ... rubbed ... he used
the word "tickled".
Disguised father: The Rabbi would come and get him
out of the classroom during a session in class, take him up to the office.
And he threatened him that if he were to say this to anyone the big boys
would come and beat him up. <1>
Winnipeg Child and Family Services refused to
investigate.
"The case was sent to the Crown," Inspector Lou Spado
of the Winnipeg police said, "but no charge was laid because there was no
corroboration. You have to be very careful in an investigation like that.
It becomes the word of an 8 year old against that of an adult. We brought
the rabbi in for questioning, but he refused comment." Asked why Winnipeg
Child and Family Services didn't investigate that boy's allegations, Ken
Cooper, the agency's chief executive officer, claimed the atmosphere in the
school and shul at the time was so "emotionally charged" that any investigation
would necessarily be "contaminated".
<3>
Over the months both enrollment and membership fell.
In 1990, after being offered a position as principal of a Montreal Jewish
day school, Rabbi Bryks announced he would be leaving Winnipeg. The Torah
Academy school closed down. However, the allegations followed him to Montreal.
A group of irate parents informed the school of the investigations of Rabbi
Bryks by Winnipeg Police and Family and Child Services. The job offer was
withdrawn. Rabbi Bryks showed up in Montreal demanded the offer be reinstated
and was given a hearing before a rabbinical court in Montreal. After the
rabbinical court made some inquiries, the offer was to be reinstated. However,
parents made it clear that if Rabbi Bryks were hired, there would be no students
at the school. Rabbi Bryks was not hired.
Rabbi Bryks moved to New York. In Queens, he built
another Torah Academy from scratch into a 400-student grade 7 to 12 Orthodox
school. This was a new school for immigrant youth from the former Soviet
Union. Irving Laub, a board member of the New York Torah Academy, said "He
has singlehandedly built our school and held it together". "His rapport with
the students and staff is everything we hoped for. I know how difficult his
task was in integrating newly-arrived Russian teenagers into the Hebrew day
school system. I'm a fan of his." <3>
The allegations against Rabbi Bryks were brought to
the fore again in September 1993 after the suicide of 17-year-old Daniel
Levin and a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) documentary in 1994.
Daniel, a former Torah Academy student had gone to the Toronto police with
charges of sexual abuse against Bryks which had been tormenting him.
Keefler: Daniel went to the school from kindergarten to Grade 2. Then the Levins moved away to Montreal, later to Toronto. As a teenager, Daniel's smile masked his pain. His parents had separated. The boy was in distress, unable to concentrate in school, prone to explosive fits of rage. At 14, he started therapy. Three years later, he stunned his mother and father.Sara Levin: Last May, he started having -- May '93, he started having memories of being sexually abused by the rabbi and principal at Torah Academy. He was sitting on his lap, and the rabbi -- in his office in the rabbi's office, and the rabbi was -- it's so hard for me to say this --Martin Levin: He was fondling.Sara: He was fondling his genitals first over his clothes, and then he opened his pants. And afterwards, he gave him a candy. It was a peppermint one, with the blue wrapper, I think it says "Elite" on it. He even remembered the candy.Martin: The internal mechanism for a flash second said, "It's got to be a mistake here, I'm not hearing this." But instantly, I knew that he was telling me the truth.Sara: And then he said he had a memory, and he started coughing and spitting out mucous, and he sat up, and we got tissues for him. And he was coughing and spitting up and spitting up, and he started crying. And he said that he was in the office, and Rabbi Bryks put his penis in Daniel's mouth. And he kept coughing, and I encouraged him to spit it up, spit everything up. That was another memory.Martin: He did say that Bryks said things. I wondered why he kept quiet. And then he said, "Well, Bryks said to me, God will punish you if you speak." <1>Daniel Levin committed suicide on Yom Kippur after Metro Police asked the Oakwood Collegiate Grade 12 student to re-record a statement he had made in June 1993. The police tape machine had been faulty at the first recording. With the complainant dead and his testimony erroneously not recorded, Toronto Police were forced to drop the case.
The CBC documentary report, titled "Unorthodox Conduct",
aired on local CBC TV's "24 Hours" and the national "Prime Time News", and
dealt with the allegations of sexual abuse against Bryks. It also raised
new allegations:
Keefler: [The March 1988 report] warned "if there is
a child in the school that is currently being abused, the dynamics of the
reaction of staff, fellow students and other adults over the past couple
of months might prevent any child from coming forth with disclosure." That
is exactly what happened to one girl., who didn't want to be interviewed
on camera. A former student told us what she didn't tell Child and Family
Services. ... that Rabbi Bryks fondled her breasts, once lay completely on
top of her, touched her and tickled her all the time. When the social worker
asked questions, the girl kept quiet.
Keefler: [We] found another student, who can't close that chapter of her life. A fourth student, this couple's daughter, claims she was molested.Disguised mother: It's horrifying, and its unbelievable.Unbelievably numb.Keefler: Last November, this couple's daughter told them she was molested by Rabbi Bryks in grade 2. They are disguised to protect the girl's identity.Disguised father: Rabbi Bryks would take her out of class and would take her into his office during school time, and he would make her take off her underwear and stockings and then he would fondle her, her genitalia. She remembers it happening many times. She told me that he told her that if she ever told anybody that God would punish her.Disguised father: The most painful recent event since her disclosure for me was going up to see how she was, in her bedroom, it 's just quiet and I just wanted to see how she was, going into her bedroom, she was sitting in her closet, curled up in a fetal ball, listening to Barney tapes with a little Barney book in her hand. I couldn't deal with that.Keefler: The fourteen, year-old is in counseling to the police. Her parents say she isn't ready to go in the police.Disguised mother: She is so fragile that this has to be in her own time.Disguised father: She also knows about another boy who did go to the Police and nothing happened. Rabbi Bryks is still out there, still teaching school. <1>
When the broadcast was seen by school officials at
the Queens Torah Academy in 1994 and the allegations were passed on to the
New Russian World, the city's Russian daily newspaper, parents went "berserk,"
said a Brooklyn rabbi. <4>
"School-board members knew about his past and, regardless, gave him the position," said the rabbi, who didn't want his name published. <4>
Rabbi Bryks was "fired" according to Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov,
a teacher at Bryks' current school Yeshiva Berachel David in Queens.
<4>
Unable to find employment in the education field, Rabbi
Bryks found work with his in-laws at Astor Brokerage Limited. During this
time he filed lawsuits against CBC and CNN (rebroadcast parts of CBC documentary
on its Headline News Network) claiming defamation and damages. He abandoned
the lawsuit in Canada and his lawsuit in the U.S. was dismissed. Within 2
years, Rabbi Bryks once again found employment as principal of a Russian
elementary boys Yeshiva in Brooklyn called She'aris Israel. During this time
Rabbi Bryks started his own rabbinical court in Queens and became active
in the Agunah movement (movement to help women get religious divorces). Around
1999 Rabbi Bryks left She'aris Israel for reasons which are not known. He
then started his own yeshiva for boys in Queens called Berachel David with
the help of Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, Vice-President of the Queens Vaad Harabonim.
The yeshiva is run out of Nisanov's synagogue Kehilat Sephardim.
In the summer of 2001, a group of Queens rabbis took
the allegations against Rabbi Bryks to the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. There
were several meetings, including a screening of the 1994 CBC documentary
feature.
Rabbi Simcha Krauss of Young Israel of Hillcrest
congregation led that effort. And he said he remains distressed that Bryks
is still in Jewish education.
"To make a long story short, any pressure brought that
he should resign would be welcome," Krauss said.
<5>
"Unfortunately, there wasn't a tremendous reaction
- it was hard for them to believe that he could do it," said a Queens rabbi
who didn't want his name published. <4>
On March 31, 2002 The New York Post published an article
entitled Queens Yeshiva Boss is a Molester: Boy's Mom by Douglas Montero
about allegations concerning Rabbi Bryks. The story was re-broadcast on WCBS
radio in New York. Once again, there wasn't a tremendous reaction within
the Rabbinical or Jewish community.
On May 26, 2003 Stephanie Saul, journalist at Newsday
(NY) began a series
on sexual abuse in the Jewish community. An article published along with
that series dealt with allegations concerning Rabbi Bryks. Rabbi Bryks was
quoted:
"How do you battle a ghost?" says Bryks, sitting in
the cramped office of the small yeshiva he runs in Kew Gardens Hills. He
has done nothing wrong, he says. "I would love to have that case fully
investigated." <6>
It should be noted that despite this claim Rabbi Bryks
continues to exercise his legal rights and refuses to allow the Winnipeg
police to question him or cooperate in their investigation.
"We brought the rabbi in for questioning, but he refused
comment." <3>
Two days after the initial Newsday article was published,
a follow up article was printed:
A Queens rabbi who had been dogged by old sexual abuse
allegations from Canada this week resigned his membership in a prestigious
rabbinical organization and agreed to leave Jewish education, officials of
the group said Wednesday night.
The Rabbinical Council of America, an organization
of Orthodox rabbis, was believed to be considering ousting Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks of Kew Gardens Hills as a result of the lingering abuse allegations,
which arose when he was the pulpit rabbi and yeshiva administrator in a Winnipeg
congregation during the 1980s.
Bryks has always denied those claims and continued
the denial in submitting his resignation.
<6>
Efforts to reach Rabbi Bryks were unsuccessful. But
Rabbi Heshie Billet, immediate past president of the RCA, spoke with him
at the convention and told The Jewish Week that Rabbi Bryks "is leaving Jewish
education. The school is closing and since he no longer will have a formal
rabbinic position he feels it's not necessary to belong to a professional
rabbinic body.
"He told me his resignation should in no way be construed
as an admission of guilt. He denies all the allegations against him," said
Rabbi Billet. "I don't know what he'll be doing next. I just accepted his
resignation at face value." <7>
By resigning Rabbi Bryks has avoided his case potentially
being brought to the Rabbinical Council of America disciplinary committee.
He avoids being subject as well to any enhancements in the Rabbinical Council
of America code of conduct (any related discipline), any investigation of
complaints and any process involving potential complaints. He also avoids
the public scrutiny he was attracting as a member of the Rabbinical Council
of America with his particular history of allegations.
Billet also said Bryks plans to leave his post as principal
at Yeshiva Berachel David on 78th Road at the end of the school year.
"He's just going to be a private citizen," said Billet,
the leader of Young Israel of Woodmere congregation.
<6>
This marks the third time in Rabbi Bryks' close to
three decades in Jewish education that he has taken a public break from his
profession as a Jewish educator. In 1990, there was a very short break resulting
from an offer of principalship at a Montreal Jewish school being withdrawn.
There was also a break in 1995 after he left Queens Torah Academy. Other
than current adverse publicity, there is no impediment to Rabbi Bryks re-entering
the private Jewish educational field at some future time. Adverse publicity
has not kept Rabbi Bryks out of the Jewish educational field for long in
the past.
There have been several inaccurate statements in the
press concerning the status of the Winnipeg criminal investigations, in
particular:
- Canadian civil authorities investigated charges there and found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing. <7>
- and authorities declined to charge another because there was no evidence to do so. <8>
There in fact has been no final disposition to these
charges or the investigation.
The case in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in fact remains
open. To date Rabbi Bryks has not cooperated with the Winnipeg police or
made himself available to answer the charges against him. There is no Statute
of Limitations in Canada on criminal charges regarding the sexual assault
of children.
In 1994, after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) aired a documentary regarding further serious allegations against Rabbi
Bryks a second police investigation was opened. Again the police sent the
case to the Crown. Almost 2 years later, the Manitoba Crown (equivalent of
the DA in the U.S.), announced in December of 1995 that it would not be pressing
charges against Rabbi Ephraim Bryks at the time. It did not issue its reasons
for doing so. There may have been numerous reason for doing so.
<9>
The Crown prosecutors have not issued a closing document
and the file on Bryks remains open. The Winnipeg police have also not closed
their file on this matter and the file is currently assigned to a member
of the police force.
Anyone with relevant information is encouraged to contact
the Winnipeg Police at their main phone number 204-986-6037
(their website is located at:
http://www.city.winnipeg.mb.ca/police/).
The following officers have worked on the file in the past and should be
able to help refer you to those currently handling the files: Inspector Lou
Spado (may be retired) and Sgt. Robin Parker.
Anyone with relevant information in the U.S.
is encouraged to contact their local police department and their local District
Attorney's office.
The numbers in Queens are:
- New York Police Department: NYPD Switchboard: 646-610-5000 website: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/home.html Queens Precinct Addresses and Direct phone numbers can be found at: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/html/phone.html#Queens
- Queens District Attorney's office at: (718) 286-6000 website: http://www.queensda.org/
49 year-old Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks will continue
to run Yeshiva Berachel David in Queens until the end of the 2003 school
year. No public statement has been made concerning his membership on the
Vaad Harabonim of Queens. Rabbi Bryks was a member of the Rabbinical Council
of America (RCA) for over a quarter of a century before his May 27, 2003
resignation. Ads in The Jewish Press indicate that Rabbi Bryks is currently
working as a mortgage broker for a company he runs out of his home called
REB International LLC.
Notes:
<1> Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Program Prime Time News, February 28 1994, Time 21:00:00 ET<2> Jewish Tribune – B'nai Brith Canada, August 4, 1994, More Allegations of Sexual Abuse Involving Rabbi: Police Probe Resumes At School "Jews need to know that this can happen to us" by Marc Huber<3> The Jewish Post & News (Winnipeg), March 9, 1994, CBC report re-opens Bryks controversy by Myron Love<4> The New York Post, March 31, 2002, Queens Yeshiva Boss is a Molester: Boy's Mom by Douglas Montero<5> Newsday (NY), May 26, 2003, Battling a 'Ghost' From Past by Stephanie Saul<6> Newsday (NY), May 28, 2003, Dogged By Allegations, Rabbi Quits - Rabbi Maintains Denial Of Any Wrongdoing by Stephanie Saul<7> The Jewish Week (NY), June 6, 2003 Orthodox Rabbis To Report Abuse by Debra Nussbaum<8> The Jewish Press (NY), June 4, 2003 Newsday And Abuse In The Jewish Community by Editorial Board<9> The Jewish Post and News (Winnipeg), Wednesday, January 10, 1996 Editorial comment - A Second look at "Unorthodox Conduct"
___________________________________________________________________________________
Herzlia Dinner To Honor Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
The Jewish Press - December 6, 1981
___________________________________________________________________________________
When Parents Mourn A Joyous Occasion
By Susan Yellen
Philadelphia Inquirer (Associated Press) - Feb. 26, 1985; pg. D9
The Yaffes had disowned their daughter.
About all most North American Jews have heard of "disownment" -
whereby parents consider their child dead and observe the traditional
seven days of mourning - probably comes from the popular stage and film
musical Fiddler on the Roof. In it, an anguished Tevye acts as if his
youngest daughter has died when she marries a non-Jew.
"But even in Fiddler on the Roof, when they were leaving, he turned
around and said something to her before they left," said Shawna, whose
real name appeared in the obituary but who asked that it be kept
confidential.
She said her parents' action was
not unexpected, that she felt it coming five years ago when she started
to date the man who is now her husband.
She
said she had known from childhood that, should she marry out of the
faith, some members of her family - especially her father - would
disassociate themselves from her.
The
religious background of the now-rare action rests in the Old Testament,
in Deuteronomy 7:3, in which God instructs the Jews, before they cross
the Jordan River, not to marry non-Jewish inhabitants to avoid being
swayed to serve other gods.
"I think the
philosophy behind it (disowning) is a way of . . . impressing upon our
young adults the importance of keeping the Jewish faith alive and
furthering the Jewish faith in its cause," said Orthodox Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of Winnipeg.
Rabbi Bryks,
who acted as mediator between Shawna and her parents before she was
married, pointed out that the case was unusual - that "it may happen
only once" in every 100, or even 1,000, cases of intermarriage.
"But it does happen in the rare case where the family is very, very
committed to the furtherance of their Jewish values and where they feel
they've been betrayed by one of their own children," he said in an
interview.
Two other Winnipeg rabbis, who
said that they had no knowledge of Shawna's case, commented that the
obituary was inexcusable.
"They shamed
themselves," said Rabbi Eugene Wernick of a Conservative synagogue, "and
they shamed the Jewish faith, because that's not what Judaism is all
about."
Wernick suggested that the parents
should adhere to the religious precept that Jews "be lovers of peace and
pursuers of peace" and, "though they may not condone what their child
has done, they should offer their unconditional love. What happens if
she really did die - would they really want to see her dead and throw
the dirt on her casket?"
Rabbi Tracy Klirs of a
Reform congregation said she opposed intermarriage and would refuse to
marry a Jew to a non-Jew, but she strongly disapproved of the parents'
action: "Nothing in the world can justify that kind of behavior on the
part of parents, any more than children who denounce their own parents.
There's so much in Judaism that we have to elevate and preserve . . .
but this is nothing but destructiveness."
All
three rabbis said they felt that more than a stringent belief in the
Jewish faith was behind the parents' rationale in disowning Shawna, and
that much depended on the relationship between daughter and parents.
Shawna herself agreed that might be true. "My father and I haven't
had a good relationship for a long time," she said on a visit to
Winnipeg from Toronto, where she now lives.
"I think if my father and I had had a better relationship for the last
10 years, I might not have been able to go through with it," she said.
Her father refused to discuss the matter with a reporter.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Bryks Bio from Rabbi J.J. Khanovitch Memorial Journal on occasion of the 67th Anniversary of the Vaad Ha'ir
(5744/1984)
Alleged Sexual Predator - Rabbi Ephraim Bryks' Bio |
___________________________________________________________________________________
Credentials
Thursday, May 16, 1985
To: Mr. David Stitz
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Dear Dave;
I wish to thank you for meeting with members of my
synagogue over the past few weeks with the hope to resolve many of the issues
outstanding. I would like to share with you the enclosed documents since
I feel my credibility has been questioned concerning my smicha's.
Document #1 was my first smicha granted to me in Nisan
1973. It is from Rabbi Israel Grossman who is a member of the Agudath Yisroel
Beth Din in Jerusalem. I went to the Beth Din since I wanted my smicha's
to come from a recognized organization.
Document #2 is my smicha from the head of the yeshiva
where I studied for five years in Jerusalem. It is from Rabbi Schwartzman
and it was an honour receiving it since very few people in the world have
a smicha from him.
Document #3 is from Rabbi M. Zioni head of the Beth
Din in Tel Aviv where I was trained and worked for close to a year in marital
law ang 'gittin'. Rabbi Zioni is a very honoured and revered man, now in
his 70's and it was a great honour receiving smicha from him.
Document #4 is a letter of recomendation from the Beth
Din in Tel Aviv where I worked. The individual now in charge of all
communications with the communities outside of Israel is Rabbi Dovid
Einhorn.
Document #5 is a smicha from Rabbi J. Frank, Chief
Rabbi and head of the Beth Din of Haifa. I went to him in order to receive
smicha from the head / member of the Beth Din's of Israel's three major
centre's.
Document #6 is my fifth smicha from Rabbi Milevsky.
Rabbi Milevsky who was living in Jerusalem was recommended to me as an expert
in the laws of Gittin. He was retired and very well respected. It was a pleasure
studying with the man for close to two years three times a week. The wording
of the different smicha's are very beautiful and I hope you will have them
read to you and translated. All can be verified and I welcome you to.
My closest ties are with my Rosh Yeshiva and the Beth Din of Tel Aviv.
I would like to say that I am proud of my service to
the Va'ad over the last few years. I have always believed that I was reasonable
and at least a mentch. I also acknowledge with sincere gratitude the time
and effort you have put in. Even when we differed I was pleased to work with
you. I look forward to a positive resolution to the current issues so we
can return to the task at hand and the challenges of tomorrow.
Wishing you and your family a Shabbat Shalom.
Respectfully,
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
___________________________________________________________________________________
Jewish World Mourns Loss of Rosh Yeshiva
Article by Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Noting he spent
8 years at Ner Israel, in Baltimore, MD.
The Jewish Post and News - Thursday, August 13,
1987
By Ephraim Bryks
Article marking the passing of Rabbi Bryks' Rosh Yeshiva
(Rabbi Yaakov Rudderman who is
Rabbi Matis
Weinberg's grandfather). He notes he spent 8 years at Ner Israel
Baltimore.
If you look closely, only the 1st paragraph is by Bryks,
the rest is reproduced from the Jewish Press.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Resume of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
___________________________________________________________________________________
The New York State Administrators Listing for Public and Non-Public Schools and School Districts
District: NYC COMM SD #28
SCHOOL: YESHIVA BERACHEL DAVID-TORAH HS-QUEE
Code: 342800229718
Record Type:
Non-Public Grade Organization:
Senior High
Chief School Officer: PRINCIPAL-RABBI EPHRAIM
BRYKS
Mailing Address: 150-62 78TH RD
FLUSHING, NY 11367
Phone: (718) 849-4140
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - click on image to enlarge |
___________________________________________________________________________________
Child and Family Service Report - March 23,
1988
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
(204) 945-6964
March 23, 1988
Re: Allegations Regarding Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks
This letter is to advise you of the findings of the
investigation by Winnipeg South Child and Family Services into complaints
received by the Department of Community Services regarding Rabbi E.
Bryks.
The investigative process undertaken by Winnipeg South
Child and Family Services involved contact by phone and in person with 45
individuals including students, former students, parents of students attending
Torah Academy, the vice-principal of the school, current Board members, past
Board members, Rabbi Bryks, and several of his rabbinical colleagues.
With respect to the behaviour of Rabbi Bryks regarding
the teenage girls in the school, the findings of the investigation, on review
by the Winnipeg City Police, indicated that there was no evidence which would
support charges of criminal wrongdoing. Further, there is insufficient evidence
to pursue any proceeding under The Child and Family Services Act against
Rabbi Bryks.
Nothwithstanding the above findings, on review of the
report, this writer is in agreement with the investigative team that the
acknowledged interactions of Rabbi Bryks with his female students involving
tickling at the waist, kissing on the head, hugging, and students sitting
on his lap were neither appropriate nor professional behaviour.
The report also makes reference to a number of concerns
related to the process of investigation undertaken by the Board of Herzlia
Synagogue. I have requested that Mr. Barney Yellen, Executive Director of
Jewish Child and Family Service, review the following recommendations with
the Board of Torah Academy and Herzlia Synagogue.
-
1. Torah Academy and Herzlia Synagogue to date have
not developed protocols around the dealing of abuse within the school whether
an alleged offender be a student, parent, relative, staff of the school or
total stranger. Consistent with the expectations of the Department of Education,
it is felt that it is essential that such protocols be developed immediately
so that the painful process resulting from the Board trying to do its own
investigation does not occur for any student ever again.
-
-
In consulting with Jewish Child and Family Service,
it would appear that Torah Academy has never made any referral to them for
an investigation of abuse. It was found that the staff and the parents were
very lacking in any awareness of the predominance of abuse within our society
and the staff very unaware of behavioural indicators of physical, sexual
or emotional abuse. Extensive inservicing for the staff on this issue
is recommended.
-
-
It was noted in interviewing the students, an extreme
naivety to issues of sexual abuse and lack of awareness of basic street proofing
concepts. Again, inservicing for the students and for the parents is
recommended as being necessary within this area.
-
- It is recommended that a program that addresses the issue of what are acceptable and unacceptable touches such as the "Feeling Yes, Feeling No" program would be appropriate for the Board to consider. This is not only because of the naivety issue raised in the previous paragraph but because of our concern of the lack of clarity around this caused by the reactions to allegations by all the families within the Academy. Additionally, it is our concern that if there is a child in the school that is currently being abused, the dynamics of the reactions of staff, fellow students and other adults over the past couple of months might prevent any child from coming forth with the disclosure. We feel some clear action is necessary to undo the potential damage in this area.
The full report of Winnipeg South Child and Family
Services will not be shared with the Board of Directors, Rabbi Bryks or the
complaintants as it is necessary to protect the confidentiality of those
children and parents named in the report.
Please call me direct should you wish to discuss this
letter further.
Your truly,
Jim Bakken, Director - Child and Family Services
c: Honourable Maureen Hemphill, Minister of Community
Services
Barney Yellen, Jewish Child and Family Service
George Penwarden, Winnipeg South Child and Family
Services
___________________________________________________________________________________
Synagogue backs rabbi in tickling dispute - Rabbi's
supporters, detractors clash at information meeting
by: Janet McFarland
Winnipeg Free Press - March 29, 1988
Front Page (continued page 4)
A Community Services review has recommended establishing
extensive sex education programs at the Torah Academy after girls at the
private school complained about its principal.
More than 20 children have been pulled from the Jewish
elementary school and as many families have stopped attending the synagogue
that runs the Brock Avenue school, parents said in interviews last
night.
A Community Services letter obtained by the Free Press
says Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of the Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun Synagogue tickled
and kissed female students, but it said there was no evidence to support
criminal charges or charges under the Child and Family Services Act.
Bryks said in an interview yesterday his style of teaching
is warm and personal, but not inappropriate.
"This school welcomes that kind of conduct because
that's what this school is. It's a warm, affectionate place for children,"
he said.
"I feel that I have performed in my capacity of rabbi
of the synagogue and principal of the school with the full support of the
(synagogue) board of directors."
The letter to the synagogue's board, signed by Jim
Bakken, director of Child and Family Services, called Bryks' actions
inappropriate and recommended extensive training for staff, parents and children
at the school.
It also recomended immediately establishing a school
policy to deal with abuse to avoid having the synagogue's board try to review
any further allegations itself.
The board looked at the matter for several months before
turning to Community Services, and only did so because it could not reach
a consensus on what to do.
The letter also said the school needs a program such
as the Feeling Yes, Feeling No campaign to teach what types of touching is
appropriate.
"The acknowledged interactions of Rabbi Bryks with
his female students involving tickling at the waist, kissing on the head,
hugging, and students sitting on his lap were neither appropriate nor
professional behavior," it said.
The letter said students at the school were extremely
naive about issues of sexual abuse and lacked basic street proofing concepts,
while staff and parents needed extensive training of the predominance of
abuse within society and on how to recognize the behavioral indicators of
physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
The letter said the full report on the review would
not be given to the board, the rabbi or the complainants to protect the
confidentiality of the children and parents involved.
At an information meeting held yesterday at the synagogue
to discuss the Community Services review of the situation, the synagogue's
board told about 150 people in attendance it supports Bryks as the synagogue's
rabbi and as the synagogue's rabbi and as the school's principal.
About 15 parents left the meeting after they were shouted
down when they attempted to ask questions.
Later, one parent said she has taken her children from
the school and wants to see the rabbi fired.
"He doesn't have the right to tickle them or to have
them sit in his lap," she said.
"I don't think it's appropriate for a 14-year-old girl
to sit in a rabbi's lap."
She said teachers in public schools are told to be
warm and supportive without making physical contact with the students.
"People think because he's a rabbi, he's special, he's
beyond reproach. When he does it, it's some kind of blessing." she said.
"I can tell you when it happened to my daughter, she
was very embarrassed by it and very disturbed by it.".
She said her daughter didn't anything until other girls
began to complain, because she thought she couldn't go to the school anymore
if she did.
Supporters of the rabbi clashed yesterday with those
parents who questioned his actions, telling the meeting he has the right
to be affectionate and they welcome it.
"I would rather see him kiss a child than strap her
hand," one grandmother told the almost universally supportive crowd.
The Community Services Department letter said it is
concerned by the reaction of the families and said it caused their investigation
to lack clarity.
"It is our concern that if there is a child in the
school that is currently being abused, the dynamics of the reactions of staff,
fellow students and other adults over the past couple of months might prevent
any child from coming forth with the disclosure," the letter said.Parents
said 20 of the school's 140 students have left since December and others
will leave after the school year ends in June. They said many families have
stopped attending the synagogue.
Board chairman Joel Mosolvsky said he could not confirm
how many families or children have left.
Bryks said he hoped the community will pull together
again and resolve its problems.
"I believe it's going to require from all involved
a certain mending of bridges.".
___________________________________________________________________________________
Torah Academy
Canadian Press - March 31, 1988
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Sexual Predator |
WINNIPEG
(CP) -- A private Jewish school will implement a program to teach students
about sexual abuse following complaints from several female students about
the school's principal.
Joel Maslovsky, chairman of the Torah Academy's board,
said theboard fully accepts a recommendation by the province's Community
Services Department in favor of the program.
Community Services conducted a review of the school
and its principal, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, following complaints by female students
that Bryks had tickled and hugged them.
The department said although Bryks did tickle female
students, kiss them on the head, hug them and have them sit on his lap, there
was no evidence to support criminal charges against the principal.
The board did recommend, however, the implementation
of a sexual abuse prevention program and training for teachers so they could
identify signs of physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
___________________________________________________________________________________
After Reviewing Parent Complaints against Principal ...Department Recommends Sex Education at Torah Academy
The Jewish Post & News - Wednesday, April 6,
1988
Page 1 (continued page 19)
The provincial Department of Community Services has
recommended Torah Academy establish sex education programs after one parent
complained about the conduct of the principal, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, with
several female students.
A story in the March 29 Winnipeg Free Press, headlined
"Synagogue backs rabbi in tickling dispute", said the provincial Department
of Community Services "has recommended establishing sex education programs
at the Torah Academy."
A community services letter obtained by the Free Press
says Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of the Herzalia- Adas Yeshurun Synagogue tickled
and kissed female students, but it said there was no evidence to support
criminal charges or changes under the Child and Family Services Act.
Bryks, principal of the Torah Academy for about a decade,
defended his teaching style as warm and personal, but not inappropriate.
The story added that Bryks' "acknowledged" actions
with several students involved tickling them at the waist, kissing them on
the head, hugging and having students sit on his lap. Jim Bakken, director
of Child and Family Services for the Department of Community Services, considered
such actions on Bryks' part "neither appropriate nor professional
behavior."
Joel Maslovsky, president of the board of Herzilia-Adas
Yeshurun Synagogue, which runs the pre-Kindergarten to grade 8 school, has
pledged that the board will implement all sex education programs recommended
in the community services department's review of complaints against Bryks,
carried out for the past few months.
Maslovsky added that his board would work with Jewish
Child and family Service in putting the programs in place.
Among other things, the programs will include a system
for dealing with "abuse" within the school, whether an alleged offender is
a student, parent, relative, staff member or total stranger.
"...It is felt that such protocols be developed
immediately, so that the painful process resulting from the board trying
to do its own investigation does not occur for any student ever again," Bakker
said in the community services in the community services department
letter.
The synagogue's current 19-member board gave Bryks
unanimous support as Torah Academy's principal, and as spiritual leader of
Herzlia Synagogue. But an informed source told the Jewish Post & News
eight or nine former board members resigned last January, most of them in
dissent over the majority's refusal to dismiss Bryks.
The Free Press published a story at the top of page
1 March 29 about the community service department's review of Bryks' behavior
after a reporter from that newspaper snuck into an information meeting the
Herzalia Synagogue board held the night before to brief Torah Academy parents
and synagogue members about the department's findings.
The Jewish Post & News has asked for permission
to attend the meeting, but a member of Herzlia's board advised that this
newspaper would not be welcome, as the proceedings were an internal
matter.
Board Failed to Reach Agreement
The synagogue board called the community services
department in to review complaints a parent made about Bryks' behavior with
female students after the board looked into the matter last year, and failed
to reach agreement on what to do.
In its review, community services found that students
at the school were extremely naive about issues of sexual abuse. It concluded
that the students, parents and staff needed training in recognizing signs
of such abuse toward children.
In an interview on CBC's Information Radio the day
the Free Press story appeared, Bryks again defended his actions.
"Torah Academy has always tried to encourage a warm,
caring atmosphere," he told interviewer Lesley Hughes. Hughes asked him whether
holding students on his lap was part of the school's educational
philosophy.
"I realize contemporary social attitudes require a
certain physical distancing between teachers and students," Bryks replied.
"I may have been naive. I will keep these attitudes in mind and preserve
the school's warm and caring approach.
An angry parent at the information meeting, however,
could not excuse Bryks' behavior toward his female students.
"He doesn't have the right to tickle them or have them
sit in his lap," the Free Press quoted her as saying. "I don't think it's
appropriate for a 14-year-old girl to sit in a rabbi's lap."
In an interview with The Jewish Post & News this
week, Bryks adamantly denied the girl the woman was referring to was as old
as 14.
Parents the Free Press reporter interviewed at the
March 28 information meeting said 20 students left the 165-student school
since December, when the Herzlia Synagogue started looking into the allegations
against Bryks. Herzlia President Maslovsky estimated last Sunday, however,
that "probably no more than 15 or 16 students from about five or six families"
left since December, as well as one student from one more family that was
moving out of town.
Nearly Half The Board Resigned
Although Bryks received unanimous support from the
current synagogue board at a March 24 meeting, an informed source who was
on the board until last January told The Jewish Post & News that show
of unanimity was misleading.
He said nearly half the 19-member board resigned at
the beginning of January, most of them in protest over the refusal of a majority
of board members to dismiss Bryks over his physical actions with female
students.
Those who resigned included a past president of Herzlia
Synagogue.
A longstanding Herzlia Synagogue member familiar with
the board acknowledged last Monday that nearly half the board resigned last
January, but denied it was because those resigning wanted Bryks fired.
The positions left vacant by the resignations were
filled by people who unanimously voted at a March 24 meeting of the Herzlia
Synagogue board to retain Bryks and endorse the recommendations of the community
services department report, including its call for sex education programs
at Torah Academy.
Asked what the board's reasoning was behind its unanimous
support for Bryks March 24, Herzlia President Maslovsky said in an interview
last Sunday that the government report didn't make any specific recommendations
about Bryks' behavior, other than to call some of his actions with several
female students inappropriate and unprofessional.
"The board endorsed the rabbi on that. We're carrying
on, and using the report's recommendations as a basis for actions."
"Context Important" Asked by The Jewish Post &
News this week how he could justify hugging, tickling or kissing female students
from an Orthodox Jewish point of view, Bryks said it was important to understand
the context.
"In general, conduct between males and females within
halacha (Orthodox Jewish tradition) is prohibited when conduct is done in
a suggestive manner.
"My contact with students was done in a classroom setting,
in an open, above-board fashion, often in the presence of parents."
Sometimes, for example, he would kiss a child on the
head and the contact usually involved children as young as five or six.
"This school is an elementary school...where this kind
of conduct is not unusual in dealing with younger children...I've tickled
little boys as well as little girls." Bryks acknowledged rumors had
surfaced during the investigation that his behavior included more than just
tickling, hugging, or kissing students on the head.
But a synagogue member familiar with the investigation
by Child & Family Services told The Jewish Post & News it included
contact by phone and in person with 45 individuals, including students, parents
of students, the vice-principal of the school, current board members, Rabbi
Bryks and several of his rabbinical colleagues," and nothing could be
substantiated beyond the fact that Bryks had hugged, kissed on the head,
tickled at the waist or held on his lap some female students.
"My feeling was that you could sit till the cows come
home listening to every rumor that comes up," Bryks said. "But the report
tried to deal with the rumors and to substantiate them, and didn't come up
with anything further."
Made Sure He Stayed Visible Asked how he coped once
the Herzlia board started looking into his conduct last fall, Bryks said
the atmosphere in the school"had the potential for being very tense."
But he made sure he stayed visible, and that he acted
no differently than before.
"Unless you were privy (to the investigation), no child
or parent would have sensed anything different."
Bryks admitted that at times he retreated to be by
himself, but his "confidence in the truth" and concern for the school kept
him going.
"I feel what we have here is special and must be
preserved," he concluded.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Open letter to parents of Torah
Academy By Cheryl Greenberg
From the Heart
An open letter to parents of Torah Academy
By Cheryl Greenberg
Most of you know that this has been a very difficult
year at Torah Academy. But to me the staff of Torah Academy has made such
a positive impression on me that I want to share my feelings with you. This
year the staff at Torah Academy has provided our children with the greatest
lesson in life. They have fostered within the attitudes of perseverance,
determination and belief in oneself.
There is so much we have taken for granted at Torah
Academy but who can adequately measure the dedication and determination of
Rabbi Bryks, Mrs. Louise Kennedy and the entire staff? Who can measure their
incredible courage that has been quietly shown day in day out to our children,
the ability to rebound from adversity, to bend, to adapt, to strive to meet
the needs of our children. My respect for this remarkable group of individuals
who under most difficult circumstances has never neglected their responsibilities
is enormous.
But they cannot do it alone. I know Torah Academy has
the strength to do whatever is necessary to continue to give our children
the excellent education they always have. But, it needs the support of each
and every one of us. Now more so than ever is the time for us to stay and
work together and show our commitment to the goals and ideals of Torah Academy.
I want my children to continue their early years of education at Torah Academy.
I sincerely hope that you do too.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Torah Academy Tours Israel
The Jewish Post & News - Wednesday, December ?,
1988
On December 14th, students from Grade 7 and 8 at Torah
Academy left for a two-week tour of Israel with their teacher and principal,
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. Based in Jerusalem the group will tour the major cities,
taking in the most recently excavated archaeological sites as well as visiting
with the I.D.F., the Chief Rabbinate and the Torah Academy grove in the J.N.F.
forest in Galil Canada.
On the return trip they will spend Shabbat in New York
attending a Melave Malka hosted by Rabbi Yaakov Lomner and Chaim Richmond,
former teachers at Torah Academy. Rabbi Bryks and the students will arrive
back in Winnipeg on January 1, 1989.
At this crucial point in the history of the State of
Israel and the Jewish people, the students will show they affirmation of
their heritage and their commitment to their Jewish future by "going up"
to the Land. The students, parents and staff of Torah Academy wish the students
and Rabbi Bryks a "N'seeah Tovah".
Photo with story - caption: Israel-bound Torah Academy
students: seated (left to right): Gideon Garland, Sharon Cohen; standing
(left to right): Yizi Stern, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, Sarah Federsel.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Ephraim Bryks Letter
January 16, 1990
Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun Congregation
620 Brock Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3N 0Z4
Telephone (204) 489-6262 - 489-6668
January 16, 1990
To all members and friends of the Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun
and the parents and students of the Torah Academy and the Herzlia Academy
Night School;
For the past twelve years I have had the pleasure of
serving as your Spiritual leader, Principal, teacher and friend. Together
we have grown and blossomed succeeding in creating community institutions
of importance and value. We, as a Synagogue and a school, have protected
the Jewish "Mesorah" (Traditions) with pride and dignity standing as role
models for all to learn from and follow. We have also transmitted those high
ideals to our children to insure ours and their future.
Now, together with my wife and family, we feel the
time has come to move on at the end of the school term. Our years in Winnipeg
have brought us great joy and satisfaction. We will always cherish our memories
and maintain our close friendships. We pray that all our achievements will
continue to grow and prosper, reaching new levels and heights. We are confident
in the committment each and every one of you have displayed over the years
towards these high ideals and look with anticipation to hearing about their
continued growth and success.
May Almighty G-d bestow on each and every one of you
His Divine blessings of peace, health and prosperity. We look forward over
the next six months to continue to serve you and all your needs and help
guide you in preparing for the future.
With best wishes,
Ephraim and Yocheved Bryks
___________________________________________________________________________________
Mark Schulman letter
January 16, 1990
Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun Congregation
620 Brock Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3N 0Z4
Telephone (204) 489-6262 - 489-6668
January 16, 1990
To the Members of Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun and the school
parents of Torah Academy;
It is with great regret that I must inform you of the
decision of Rabbi and Mrs. Bryks to leave our community at the end of this
years school term. We have been fortunate to have Rabbi Bryks with us for
so many years and the successes and growth to our shul and school that he
has brought. We will miss his warmth, friendship and guidance and we wish
him and his family every success in the future.
In the interim, the Board has begun to form a search
committee to be chaired by Joel Maslovsky to begin the search for a suitable
replacement. Already appropriate contacts have been made and the process
begun. We are committed to maintaining the Synagogue and school and all its
varied programs. It is our hope that the hard work and tireless devotion
of Rabbi Bryks will bring further growth and prosperity in the years ahead.
With your confidence and support this will be a reality.
If anyone wishes to play a role in the search process
please contact Joel Maslovsky at 489- 5228. It is our desire to form a search
committee that reflects all the needs and attitudes of the organization.
Thank you for your confidence and support.
Sincerely,
Mark M. Schulman - President
___________________________________________________________________________________
Investigative documentary: "Unorthodox
Conduct"
Documentary Transcript - CBC (Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation) documentary
Program Prime Time News, Network CBC
Date February 28 1994 - Time 21:00:00 ET - End 22:00:00
ET
Unorthodox Conduct - Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks |
Guest Sara and Mortin Leven, parents; Kristen Balmer,
Pychotherapist; Dr.Adrian Fein, friend of Bryks; Judy Silver, fmr. synagogue
board member; Ephraim Bryks, rabbi; Kovi Smolak, fmr.student; Patti Cohen,
teacher; Nathan Kabrinski, synagogue board member; Keith Cooper, director,
Child and Family Services; 5 unidentified persons.
Host Peter Mansbridge and Pamela Wallin
Mansbridge:
This is the story of a powerful man, and the shocking accusations that he
abused that power with children he was supposed to protect. For more than
10 years, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks was the spiritual leader of a small synagogue
in Winnipeg and principal of its school.
But now, in a joint investigation, Prime Time News
and CBC Winnipeg have uncovered some disturbing stories.
Four former students who accuse Rabbi Bryks of sexual
abuse. A warning now, this documentary contains graphic language and its
content may offend some viewers. You will also see some home video of school
concerts, we want to stress that none of the children in those videos is
the subject of our documentary.
Here's Danielle Keefler.
Judy Silver: We could not believe, it was hard
to believe that this man would do anything wrong.
Mortin Leven: I think he's not just a fraud and --
not a charlatan, but really wicked. And I know how many people he's
hurt.
Sara Leven: I was tremendously angry and so deeply
hurt that someone should do that to a small child.
Danielle Keefler: The sounds of innocence that
once filled the Torah Academy in Winnipeg are no more. The Orthodox Jewish
day school closed its doors in 1991, more than 10 years after it was built
from scratch by Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. But some former students say what happened
to them at his hands has left haunting memories, and scarred lives.
Sara: He was a kid who always had a smile on his
face.
Mortin: He was also very vivid and fun-loving.
Keefler: Innocent and trusting. Daniel Leven grew up
in a close-kit Jewish Orthodox family; two brothers, two sister, parents
Sara and Mortin, who wanted tradition, values instilled in their children.They
enroled five-year-old Daniel in the Torah Academy.
Sara: Education is almost everything. It -- Jewish
education teaches a person how to live for the rest of their life.
Keefler: Daniel went to the school from kindergarten
to Grade 2. Then the Levens moved away to Montreal, later to Toronto. As
a teenager, Daniel's smile masked his pain. His parents had separated. The
boy was in distress, unable to concentrate in school, prone to explosive
fits of rage. At 14, he started therapy. Three years later, he stunned his
mother and father.
Sara: Last May, he started having -- May '93,
he started having memories of being sexually abused by the rabbi and principal
at Torah Academy. He was sitting on his lap, and the rabbi -- in his office
in the rabbi's office, and the rabbi was -- it's so hard for me to say this
--
Mortin: He was fondling.
Sara: He was fondling his genitals first over
his clothes, and then he opened his pants. And afterwards, he gave him a
candy. It was a peppermint one, with the blue wrapper, I think it says "Elite"
on it. He even remembered the candy.
Mortin: The internal mechanism for a flash second
said, "It's got to be a mistake here, I'm not hearing this." But instantly,
I knew that he was telling me the truth.
Sara: And then he said he had a memory, and he
started coughing and spitting out mucous, and he sat up, and we got tissues
for him. And he was coughing and spitting up and spitting up, and he started
crying. And he said that he was in the office, and Rabbi Bryks put
his penis in Daniel's mouth. And he kept coughing, and I encouraged him to
spit it up, spit everything up. That was another memory.
Mortin: He did say that Bryks said things. I
wondered why he kept quiet. And then he said, "Well, Bryks said to me, God
will punish you if you speak."
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged sexual predator |
Keefler: After 10 years, Daniel's silence was
broken. His childhood torment revealed. Last June, he went to the Toronto
Police. He gave a statement on tape. His psychotherapist, Kristen Balmer
was there.
Kristen Balmer: He said, "I don't want this to continue
any more." He said, "I don't want any other person to have to go through
what I went through," and I watched him cry, and there's no question he was
telling the truth.
Keefler: Daniel tucked away his trauma, spoke of it
rarely. But with paint, he let memories, images flow on to paper. In
mid-September, Daniel's mother got an unexpected phone call, it was the Toronto
Police, their tape machine was faulty, it hadn't recorded Daniel's statement.They
wanted him to do it all over again.
Sara: The interview was supposed to take place,
I guess, about a week later. A week -- I'm sorry, I can't say it. He
never lived to make another interview.
Mortin:
He took his own life on Yom Kippur in the afternoon.
Keefler: On the day of atonement, the holiest
day of the Jewish year, Daniel hanged himself. Toronto Police had to drop
the case, the complainant was dead. A month after Daniel's suicide, a memorial
service in Winnipeg. A family friend delivered a message from Daniel's father,
a message that hinted at what may have caused Daniel to take his own
life.
Rabbi: Most of you here today didn't really know our
son and brother Daniel, or at least not since he was very young. You're here
to show concern for his family. Some of you may even be here because his
death is a grim reminder of a bleakly sinister stain on the Jewish
community.
Keefler: Ephraim Bryks grew up in Denver, Colorado.
His father, Lejzor, was a respected Orthodox rabbi, a renowned scholar. In
1971, Lejzor Bryks hanged himself amid rumours of financial scandal. That
same year, Ephraim began rabbinical studies. In 1978, he looked for work.
The Herzalia Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Winnipeg needed a rabbi --24-year-old
Bryks got the job.
Dr. Adrian Fein: He's one of the most exceptional
human beings I known.
Keefler: Dr. Adrian Fein became a close friend
of the rabbi in Winnipeg.
Fein: An unbelievably hard worker, a person with
tremendous interpersonal skills, and an ability to be quite exceptional with
either young children or 90-year-old congregants.
Keefler: Bryks injected new life to the small
orthodox congregation, new members flocked to synagogue, drawn in by his
aura. Judy Silver was a synagogue board member.
Silver: I'd almost call it a cult, a cultish
personality, where he was very charismatic.
Home videotape of Ephraim Bryks: and now for
the final moment to see who graduates and goes on to Grade 1.
Keefler: Within two years, Bryks started a Jewish
say school. To many, he became a hero.
Home videotape of child: Without further delay,
our very own Rabbi Bryks.
Home videotape of Bryks: I would like to express my
thanks.
Keefler: Bryks had more than charisma. He had
his own rules. Local orthodox practice wasn't good enough. He alone set the
standard for his own followers -- what was kosher, what wasn't. He even set
up his own religious court.
Fein: He made a stance on issues that he felt
there was no compromise that could be allowed. So his critics, of course,
could say he was a megalomania, or this is him wanting to set himself up.
I don't think that was his agenda.
Keefler: To some, a visionary, to others, a man
obsessed with power. The clash polarized the community. Bryks questioned
other rabbi's Jewishness. The questioned his credibility.
Keefler: In a community journal, Bryks boasted
a degree there of law from the state of Israel, that he sat as a member of
a religious court in Israel, and had a court room. The truth is, he was a
rabbinical student, not a judge. And the state doesn't give out law degrees.
In "The Jewish Post and News," Bryks plagiarized newspaper columns copied
word for word from another rabbi's book. No permission, no credit. In November
1987, Winnipeg's council of Rabbis wrote a scathing letter to the editor.
They accused Bryks of simple "plagiarism," "theft." Bryks' lawyer threatened
the newspaper with a lawsuit if the letter were published. It was never
printed.
videotape of Bryks: You should all have a program
in front of you.
Kovi Smolak: He would be sitting on the bench,
and he'd be saying hello to kids, saying good morning, and he'd pick one
kid out of the group coming in, and he would say hello and put them on his
lap, and tickle them, and you know -- and he's laugh, and be very extra friendly
towards them, including me sometimes. And he would tickle them along the
whole-- along their bodies.
Keefler: Former student Kovi Smolak says Bryks
also played games with boys in their bathing suits at the swimming pool.
Smolak: He would kind of like make a cracking noise,
and then he would run his fingers like that, like along here, or shoulders
or here, down -- sometimes he would stop here, or sometimes he would just
continue going on just down the legs, like that. Like moving his fingers
around.
Keefler: For the eight years Smolak was a Torah
Academy student. He saw nothing wrong with Bryks' incessant touching. And
many teachers and parents welcomed his warm, demonstrative style. When teacher
Patti Cohen saw Bryks with a girl on his lap in the school hallway, she didn't
like it.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Sex Offender |
Patti Cohen: I felt uncomfortable with it. I mentioned
it to one or two people at the time. And they thought I was being too uptight
about it.
Keefler: What people didn't see, many didn't
believe. Bryks counselled women, studied with teenage girls, all behind his
closed office door. Orthodox Jewish law forbids men from touching or
even being alone with a female over the age of three who isn't family. A
14-year-old complained the rabbi often sat on her lap, touch her, tickled
her, and talked about sex. Once, she says, he even licked her face. Synagogue
board member Nathan Kabrinski heard the girl's story.
Nathan Kabrinski: This struck me as very inappropriate,
and I felt that it should be dealt with.
Keefler: The board didn't go to the police. Didn't
contact child welfare agencies. Instead, board members set up their own private
inquiry.
Judy Silver.
Silver: We were trying to try him without it
going public. We were trying to protect the synagogue.
Keefler: That December 1987, the board, Bryks
and his lawyer heard the evidence. The teenager repeated her story. Two women
also came forward, accused Bryks of making unwanted sexual advances. They
weren't believed.
Kabrinski: The people who brought forth these
concerns against the rabbi were publicly humiliated and insulted and called
liars. It was at this point that I felt that the whole process that I was
participating in was a sham.
Keefler: For three nights, accusations, legal
threats, personal attacks.
Kabrinski: We were being threatened collectively
for taking a position against the rabbi, that would result in a legal suit.
And second of all, we were being threatened individually, because of information
that the rabbi had about us and our personal lives, that would be used against
us.
Silver: He said quite clearly, I have secrets
on all of you.
Keefler: On New Years Day 1988, a final board
meeting. Word got out, more than a hundred people rushed to the synagogue.
They feared Bryks would be fired.
Kabrinski: The whole auditorium of the synagogue was
filled with people shouting and screaming.
Keefler: Board members cast their ballots. The rabbi
wasn't fired. Judy Silver and eight other members quit in protest. They paid
a price.
Silver: The community at large was incensed. His supporters
were even more incensed, and I and my children were shunned. My child was
spat on in the synagogue.
Keefler: Dr. Adrian Fein says Bryks' opponents were
on a witch hunt.
Fein: Rational, sane, friendly, good people,
"God-fearing people" became rabid seekers of the destruction of the rabbi,
thinking that he had done these terrible things.
Keefler: The board backed Bryks, but finally asked
Winnipeg child and family services to investigate. For two months, social
workers talked to 45 people, students, teachers and parents. When the agency
issued its report in March 1988, the rabbi supporters called it an exoneration.
The board considered the case closed. Bryks kept his job.
Kabrinski: He created the community and he could
do no wrong. And so calling him into question was really calling the
community into question. It was just not acceptable to do that.
Keefler:
The report found Bryks hadn't broken any criminal law. But it did find his
tickling and touching "neither appropriate nor professional." And it warned,
"If there is a child in the school that is currently being abused, the dynamics
of the reaction of staff, fellow students and other adults over the past
couple of months might prevent any child from coming forth with disclosure."
That's exactly what happened to one girl, who didn't want to be interviewed
on camera. A former student told us what she didn't tell Child and Family
Services, that Rabbi Bryks fondled her breasts, once laid completely on top
of her, touched her, tickled her all the time. When a social worker asked
questions, the girl kept quiet. She wasn't the only student who kept a secret.
We found another child who claimed he was victimized. In 1989, a year after
the Child and Family Services investigation, a seven-year-old boy went to
the Winnipeg Police. His parents watched from the next room, listened, as
the boy using a doll, alleged Rabbi Bryks molested him in Grade 1. The couple
is disguised to protect their son's identity.
Unidentified Parent 1: He showed on the dolls that
he had been basically -- I guess, fondled, masturbated --
Unidentified Parent 2: Rubbed.
Unidentified Parent 1: Rubbed, rubbed would be the
word. He used the word "tickled."
Unidentified Parent 2: The rabbi would comment -- get
him out of the classroom during a session of class, take him up to the
office.
Unidentified Parent 1: And he threatened him.
Unidentified Parent 2: He threatened him that if he
were to say this to anyone, the big boys would come and beat him up.
Keefler: Bryks was brought in for questioning
by the police. Then let go. Police asked Manitoba's senior crown attorney
for an opinion. The word came back, no charges.
Unidentified Parent 1: We were called one day
and told that the crown wasn't going to
prosecute.
Father: Because they felt that it would be a
child's word against the rabbi's word.
Keefler: We asked Child and Family Services why it
didn't reopen its investigation into the Torah Academy after the boy went
to the police.
CFS director Keith Cooper.
Keith Cooper: It was decided that it would not be
productive to try and go in and talk to all the children in the school because
of the highly charged atmosphere. That just sort of blocked off children's
ability to respond and so on.
Keefler: That atmosphere took its toll on the school,
children were pulled out. Bryks stayed on until 1990. Then left Winnipeg.
The Torah Academy closed. But we found another child who can't close that
chapter of her life. A fourth student, this couple's daughter claims she
was molested.
Unidentified Parent 3: It's horrifying, and it's
unbelievable.
Keefler: When we come back, we'll have that girl's
story, and where Rabbi Bryksis today.
(Commercial Break)
Keefler: The name of the school has been wiped from
the building, but memories are etched in the mind of a 14-year-old girl.
Unidentified Parent 3: I felt unbelievably numb.
Keefler: Last November, this couple's daughter told
them she was molested by
Rabbi Bryks in Grade 2. They're disguised to protect
the girl's identity.
Unidentified Parent 3: Rabbi Bryks would take her out
of class and would take her into his office during school time, and he would
make her take off her underwear and -- her stockings, and then he would fondle,
her genitalia. She remembers it happening many times. She told me that he
told her that if she ever told anybody, that God would punish her.
Unidentified Parent 4: The most painful recent event
since her disclosure for me was going up to see how she was in her bedroom.
It was just quiet, and I just wanted to see how she was. Going into her bedroom,
she was sitting in her closet curled up in a fetal ball listening to Barney
tapes with a little Barney book in her hand. I couldn't deal with that.
Keefler: The 14-year-old is in counselling. Her parents
say she isn't ready to go to the police.
Unidentified Parent 3: I mean, she's so fragile that
this has to be on her own time.
Unidentified Parent 4: She also knows about another
boy who did go to the police and nothing happened. Rabbi Bryks is still out
there, still teaching school.
Keefler: After Bryks left Winnipeg, an Orthodox Jewish
day school in Montreal planned to hire him as principal. A group of parents
protested. They'd learned of the investigations by police and Child and Family
Services in Winnipeg. The Rabbi wasn't hired. Rabbi Bryks' job search took
him across the border to New York City. In 1990, a new Jewish high school
also called the Torah Academy opened in Queens. It offers Grade 7 to 12 for
both young men and women, most of whom are recent immigrants. In spite of
the controversy that followed Bryks from Winnipeg to Montreal, he was hired
as the high school's principal. Today, Rabbi Bryks is a success story in
Queens' Orthodox community. The school was desperate for a principal, desperate
to give young Russian Jews a place to study. Bryks started with an empty
building. He now has 400 students, a familiar story, a story we wanted to
talk to him about. Over the phone, he said that "Winnipeg is a part of my
life that's behind me" and refused to be interviewed. We went to see him
in person. Rabbi Bryks, I'm Danielle Keefler with CBC Television. I just
wanted to have a moment of your time, Sir, to give you some information on
some very serious allegations that have come to our attention.
Bryks: Thank you, but as I mentioned to you yesterday,
I really prefer not to discuss this.
Keefler: Daniel Levin, a boy who was at your school,
Torah Academy --
Bryks: Thank you very much. I wish you a lot of
success.
Keefler: He alleges that you sexually abused him, sir.
Did you sexually abuse Daniel Levin?
Bryks: I do not wish to discuss this. Thank you.
Keefler: Did you sexually abuse any children at the
Torah Academy?
Bryks: I really have no comment, thank you.
Keefler: Sir, we've spoken to a number of families.
A number of their children have come forward and, in great detail, have alleged
that you sexually abused them. How do you explain that?
Bryks: I really have no comment.
Keefler: These are very serious allegations, and they're
coming forward in great detail. Are you saying these children are lying?
Bryks: I have no comment.
Keefler: Is there anything you'd like to say also?
Bryks: No. Thank you.
Keefler: Bryks' employers in New York say they checked
out his past, and all they dug up was unsubstantiated rumour, but they knew
Child and Family Services investigated the man in Winnipeg, knew he wasn't
hired in Montreal. The national body that services all Jewish day schools
in North America has no authority over who is hired. The schools are on their
own. In Winnipeg, the school's ward, the community, stood by Rabbi Bryks.
Many people still do. Joel Mislovski, the board's president at the time,
and other board members refused to be interviewed. In a letter, the board
defended its decision to keep Bryks on, saying "There were no further
occurrences." Many in the Jewish community want the door on the Bryks' affair
kept shut, but not the victims' parents.
Unidentified Parent 1: It's time for the community
to stop covering it up. I think there's a -- great fear in the Jewish community
because of anti-Semitism that we can't air our dirty laundry, and it's time
--and the Jewish community really has a lot to answer for here.
Keefler: Former board member Judy Silver has many
regrets.
Silver: We thought we could keep it among ourselves,
keep it a secret, that no one ever has to know that this happened in our
synagogue. Yes, we were ashamed. We were ashamed that we hired this man and
let this happen.
Mortin: The irony is you send your child to a school
where you think, this of all places, he will be safe.
Sara: We have lost a child through this and nothing,
nothing that is ever done to Rabbi Bryks could ever bring him back. Daniel
can never come back. His life was destroyed by this.
Keefler: Mortin Levin reaches out to his son every
day, a prayer to help guide Daniel's departed soul. Sara Levin mourns through
paint therapy.
After a year of mourning, a headstone will replace
a simple marker in a Toronto cemetery, Daniel Levin's final resting place.
For Prime Time News, I'm Danielle Keefler.
Copyright Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1994.
All rights reserved. For duplication, distribution or exhibition rights to
any material contained herein, copyright release must be received from the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks principal Yeshiva
Berachel David Torah High School Queens
By Myron Love
The Jewish Post & News (Front Page) - Wednesday,
March 9, 1994
Photo caption: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks as he appeared
on "24 Hours" and "Prime Time News", when reporter Danielle Keefler approached
him outside Torah Academy in Queen's, New York.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Sexual Predator |
When Rabbi Ephraim Bryks moved away from Winnipeg in
1990, he left behind unanswered questions, according to a CBC report aired
February 28.
The report, titled "Unorthodox Conduct", aired on local
CBC TV's "24 Hours" and the national "Prime Time News", and dealt with
allegations of sexual abuse against Bryks by children who attended the school
he built up. The report also dealt with now the Herzlia Synagogue board and
other parties handled investigations in 1987 and 1988 about Bryks' alleged
misconduct with students at the school.
"Unorthodox Conduct" has met with a mixed response
in the Jewish community. While some believe further investigation is warranted,
others, particularly at the Herzlia Synagogue where he was rabbi, want to
put this matter behind them and get on with healing the divisions in the
synagogue.
Rabbi
Bryks was hired by the Herzlia in 1978. A charismatic man, he built up the
congregation and the school he started - the Torah Academy - but left under
a cloud of accusations in 1990. The allegations followed him to Montreal
where he was unsuccessful in applying for a teaching position in another
Jewish school. He is currently principal of another Torah Academy he helped
start in Queen's, New York - a Grade 7 to 12 school for Russian Jewish immigrant
teenagers.
The allegations against the rabbi were brought to the
fore again last September, highlighted by the suicide of 17-year-old Daniel
Levin, it was reported in "Unorthodox Conduct". A former Torah Academy student
and son of Martin Levin, a past editor of The Jewish Post, Daniel had gone
to the Toronto police with charges of sexual abuse against Bryks which had
been tormenting him.
Noah Erenberg, who produced the CBC investigative piece,
would not say whether that incident sparked the report, although the 20-minute
episode began with coverage of the memorial service for Levin that was held
in Winnipeg in October. "I hope the story speaks for itself," he said. "We
consider all sorts of story ideas." (See related story on page 3 headlined
"Lawsuit threat nothing unusual".).
Herzlia Synagogue last week issued a statement in response
to the CBC story signed by Jack Craven, the synagogue's current president.
He said, in part:
"We are deeply troubled about the new allegations against
the former rabbi of our institution. We are extremely sorry at the pain and
suffering people are feeling at this time. The Herzlia Synagogue can make
no further public statements about the allegations until a complete investigation
is conducted by the proper authorities."
On February 16, the synagogue's board of directors
sent a letter to the CBC protesting the station's filming the synagogue's
premises without explanation or permission. The letter, signed by Joel Maslovsky,
a past president of the shul, also outlined Rabbi Bryks' association with
the synagogue. It referred to the investigation of allegations of improper
conduct against him by Winnipeg South Child and Family Services, than a branch
of then government-funded Winnipeg Child and Family Services agency, and
the branch's subsequent March, 1988 report which concluded his behavior was
unprofessional, but not illegal.
"All known complaints and complainants were given the
opportunity at that time to voice their concerns and influence the result
through an objective and competent agency," Craven's letter added. The report
made recommendations "for improvements to the school program and for more
accountability. All the recommendations were promptly implemented. There
were no further occurrences within our school to suggest that the then board
made the wrong decision" (in continuing to employ Rabbi Bryks).
But Inspector Lou Spado of the police department's
Youth Division reported last week that an allegation was brought against
Rabbi Bryks after Winnipeg South Child and Family Services filed its report.
The allegation came from the parents of an 8-year-old boy who claimed the
rabbi had molested him, and from the boy.
"The case was sent to the Crown," Spado said, "but
no charge was laid because there was no corroboration. You have to be very
careful in an investigation like that. It becomes the word of an 8 year old
against that of an adult. We brought the rabbi in for questioning, but he
refused comment."
The case is still open, Spado reported. If more people
come forward with similar disclosures, the police are prepared to investigate
and, if there is a case, refer it back to the Crown. "We realize this can
be very traumatic for young children," Spado said. "They can be made to feel
guilty. We are prepared to sit and listen to their stories."
Asked why Winnipeg Child and Family Services didn't
investigate that boy's allegations in 1989 when his parents approached that
agency after going to police, Ken Cooper, the agency's chief executive officer,
last week claimed the atmosphere in the school and shul at the time was so
"emotionally charged" that any investigation would necessarily be
"contaminated".
Rabbi Henry Balser of the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue said
he counselled a family that alleged Bryks had molested their son.
"I passed my information on to Montreal. I and the
Shaarey Zedek were both threatened with law suits."
Balser feels it is important to investigate this matter.
"A TV show, however, is not a court of law."
Sherman Greenberg agreed that it is time "now that
the allegations are out, that things come to a head."
A past president of the Herzlia, Greenberg was one
of those who left the shul to form the short- lived Haminyan as a result
of the bitter feelings engendered during the controversy over Rabbi Bryks.
"If the allegations are true, then he shouldn't be in a classroom," he
added.
In its letter to the CBC, the synagogue board concludes
that since Rabbi Bryks left, it has worked to reintegrate members who left
because of their opposition to the rabbi. To some degree, they have succeeded.
Greenberg and some other former Haminyan members have rejoined the Herzlia
and seem to be reasonably comfortable. The board wants to distance itself
"from the old confrontations".
That seems to be the feeling of families who have joined
the synagogue since Rabbi Bryks left as well. "It was certainly an unfortunate
set of circumstances," said Marshall Braunstein. "I don't know much about
it other than what I have seen in the media. My impression is that the
congregation is undergoing a healing process. We want to put this behind
us and give our new rabbi the greatest possible chance to succeed."
The Small family's involvement with the Herzlia began
near the end of Rabbi Bryks' tenure. "The people we have met seem to be nice,"
says Lily Small. "We haven't noticed any negative effects. We like the new
rabbi. He is honest and straightforward."
Meanwhile, the man at the centre of the allegations
has built another Torah Academy from scratch in New York and seems to be
making a strong, positive impression on the people around him, as he did
on many of those around him in Winnipeg. Irving Laub, a board member of the
New York Torah Academy, said last week he would highly recommend Rabbi Bryks
to anybody.
"He has singlehandedly built our school and held it
together," Laub said. "His rapport with the students and staff is everything
we hoped for. I know how difficult his task was in integrating newly-arrived
Russian teenagers into the Hebrew day school system. I'm a fan of his."
Laub and his fellow board members had not seen the
CBC report nor were they aware of it beforehand. They were trying to get
a copy of the tape to see it for themselves and evaluate the information
in it.
While Rabbi Bryks refused comment when the I-Team
approached him with its allegations, he may bring a lawsuit against the
corporation, according to Harvey Pollock Q.C. Pollock has represented Bryks
in the past, although he says he is not currently the rabbi's lawyer.
"There are no legal proceedings as yet," Pollock said,
"but he (Bryks) thinks the broadcast was defamatory. His position remains
that the allegations are false."
Erenberg: Lawsuit Threat Nothing Unusual
A spokesperson for CBC's "24 Hours I-Team" says it
filled a gap with "Unorthodox Conduct", the documentary about Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks broadcast on 24 Hours and CBC "Prime Time News" February 28.
"What we did was what the police, Child and Family
Services and the board at Herzlia Synagogue didn't do," I-Team Producer Noah
Erenberg said last week: "We investigated it more thoroughly, and we said
what we found."
Although, Erenberg, researcher Heidi Graham and reporter
Danielle Keefler worked on the piece for about three months; no one working
on the documentary knew Martin Levin, whose son, Daniel's suicide last September
prompted the I-Team to do the story.
Erenberg said Winnipeg lawyer Harvey Pollock's threat,
aired on the documentary, that Bryks might sue CBC for defamation was nothing
unusual for I-Team staff.
"Keep in mind that before any of our stories goes to
air, we're often threatened with a lawsuit. It happens frequently. In this
case, anything we put into the story is something you have to be able to
prove is true."
Marvin Terhoch, Manitoba CBC director, said the network
hasn't had any further word from Pollock or Bryks since the show aired.
In researching the story, the I-Team's crew and CBC
lawyers looked at a number of things to ensure what children and parents
testifying against Bryks were saying was true.
Among other things, the team gathered a series of
testimonies from individual children. "You accumulate a number of expressions
on the subject..."
"You're also looking at different kinds of consistencies,"
Terhoch said. These include checking consistency of time and place, in the
children's reporting about what happened.
Terhoch sharply refuted any suggestion that the I-Team
chose to investigate Bryks because Terhoch, Erenberg, and 24 Producer Carl
Karp are Jewish.
He also admitted the CBC fielded several complaints
last week from Winnipeg Jews, suggesting that as a motive for the show.
"I don't think it was a factor at all ... I was familiar
with the story when the issue first came up in the community," he said. The
"ultimate test" for any journalist is his ability to compare the story to
his own experience, but not to be "driven" by that experience.
"I wish that people in this community who have an interest
in this story would stop circling around the issues and diverting from them
by suggesting a Jewish conspiracy at the CBC."
Asked whether the New York media have picked up the
CBC story about Bryks, Terhoch said two television stations there are "very
interested". ""One, for sure, has requested a tape of the story, and a tape
has been forwarded to them. I'm really surprised, though, that one of the
dailies in Winnipeg hasn't picked up the story, and the other daily has done
everything to diminish the story."
-----------------------------------------------------
Editorial
Disturbing questions
Last week, Winnipeg Jews joined other Canadians to
watch "Unorthodox Conduct", a rivetting CBC documentary about Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks.
Among other things, the documentary included detailed
testimony from parents of several children who claimed Bryks seriously sexually
molested them as students at Torah Academy, the South End Winnipeg elementary
school he built up and served as principal for more than a decade, until
June, 1990.
Despite what was assumed to be an in-depth investigation
of Bryks' conduct by Winnipeg South Child and Family Services in 1988, these
allegations came after the investigation closed.
In its report at that time, that agency noted that
Bryks had tickled and kissed some students, and that such conduct was neither
"appropriate" nor "professional".
Parents and one teenager a reporter quoted in the CBC
documentary, however, made far more serious allegations.
Among other things, "Unorthodox Conduct" raises disturbing
questions about how Winnipeg South Child and Family Services and a provincial
government employee responded to complaints made by some parents against
the rabbi in the late 1980s.
A Crown attorney with the Justice Department decided
charges shouldn't be laid against Bryks when a "seven-year-old boy" and his
parents went to police in 1989 with an extremely serious allegation against
Bryks, the CBC report says. The stated reason: It would be a child's word
against a rabbi's.
When the same parents approached Winnipeg South Child
and Family Services a short time later to report the alleged incident, workers
at that government-funded agency also decided against investigating the case,
on the grounds that the atmosphere at Torah Academy was "too highly
charged".
What curious unconvincing excuses those are for agencies
entrusted at least partly with the welfare of children.
In the face of numerous obstacles, the CBC courageously
and carefully researched and telecast an important piece of investigative
journalism. But in the Canadian legal tradition people are presumed innocent
until proven guilty in a courtroom. So far, that hasn't happened to Rabbi
Bryks.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Shame!
CBC Alleges Rabbi is Child
Molester
By Gil Kezwer
Jewish Life (March 1994), Cover page
(continued page 14)
A shame and a disgrace. An embarrassment for the Jewish
people. A desecration of God's holy name. Those were among the reactions
in the Toronto Jewish community to the broadcast February 28 and March 1
on CBC Prime Time News of shocking allegations that Rabbi Ephraim Bryks,
39, formerly the principal of Winnipeg's Torah Academy, molested students
in his charge.
Equally appalling was the report that Daniel Levin
of Glengrove Avenue, one of the four children who have accused Rabbi Bryks
of sexual abuse, committed suicide this past Yom Kippur after Metro Police
asked the Oakwood Collegiete Grade 12 student to re-record a statement he
had made in June 1993. The police tape machine had been faulty at the first
recording. With the complainant dead and his testimony erroneously not recorded,
Toronto Police were forced to drop the case.
Levin, 17 at the time of his tragic death, studied
at the Orthodox Jewish school in the Manitoba capital from kindergarten through
Grade Two, when his family moved to Montreal and later Toronto. For seven
years the boy was in denial about the traumatic abuse he had suffered , CBC
alleges, but then his life began to unravel. After his parents, Sara and
Mortin Levin, separated, the tormented youth, then 14, became unable to
concentrate at school. Prone to explosive fits of rage, he started treatment
with psychotherapist Kristen Balmer.
In May 1993, after three years of counseling, Levin
was able to recall long-suppressed memories. His mother told CBC: "He [Rabbi
Bryks] was fondling his [Levin's] genitals first over his clothes, and then
he opened his pants." The boy told his mother that afterwards the rabbi gave
him an Elite peppermint and warned him God would punish hi
His mother added: "And then he [her son] had a memory
and started coughing and spitting out mucous...and crying.
And he said that he was in the office, and Rabbi Bryks
put his penis in Daniel's mouth.
Psychotherapist Balmer said "I watched him cry, and
there's no question he was telling the truth." Levin had told her, "I don't
want this to continue any more. I don't want any other person to have to
go through what I went through."
One former student, who did not wish to be interviewed
on camera told CBC that Rabbi Bryks fondled her breasts. Another girl, today
14 told her parents that when she was in Grade Two the rabbi would frequently
remove her from her classroom and take her to his office where he would take
off her underwear and fondle her genitalia. She also said that he cautioned
her God would punish her if she told anyone.
The unidentified parent said: "The most painful recent
event since her disclosure for me was going up to see how she was in her
bedroom. It was just quiet, and I just wanted to see how she was. Going into
her bedroom, she was sitting in her closet curled up in a fetal ball listening
to Barney tapes with a little Barney book in her hand. I couldn't deal with
that."
The girl is now in counselling, and her parents say
she isn't ready to go to the police.
Rabbi Bryks is a native of Denver, Colorado. His father,
Lejzor, also an Orthodox rabbi, hanged himself in 1971 amid rumours of financial
scandal. That same year Ephraim began yeshiva studies leading to rabbinic
smicha. Graduating in 1978, he came to Winnipeg where he transformed the
small Herzlia Adas Yeshurun Synagogue into a major congregation.
A highly ambitious and charismatic personality, within
two years he had set up a day school as well as his own kosher hasgacha
(supervision) and beit din (rabbinical court). His critics accused him of
megalomania and said he was obsessed with power. But his supporters said
he was an idealist and a visionary unwilling to compromise on issues of halacha
(Jewish law).
Questions about Rabbi Bryks began surfacing. CBC's
Danielle Keefler stated that he boasted in a Winnipeg journal of a law degree
from the State of Israel, and that he was a dayan (religious judge). In fact
he was a mere Yeshiva student, and Israel doesn't give out law degrees.
CBC alleged Rabbi Bryks plagiarized his column in The
Jewish Post and News from another rabbi's book. In November 1987, Winnipeg's
Va'ad Rabbanim (Rabbinic Council wrote a scathing letter to the editor accusing
Rabbi Bryks of "plagiarism" and "theft". But libel chill set in after Bryks'
lawyer threatened a lawsuit. The letter was never published.
In December 1987 the synagogue board heard allegations
of sexual improprieties from a 14-year- old student. Her story, as well as
accounts of unwanted sexual advances by two women congregants, simply were
not believed. Nine members of the congregation quit in protest. They were
ridiculed and humiliated by Rabbi Bryks' supporters.
Though the synagogue board backed the rabbi, they asked
Winnipeg Child and Family Services to investigate. For two months, social
workers interviewed 45 students, teachers and parents. The CFS issued a report
in March 1988 noting that while Rabbi Bryks hadn't broken any criminal law,
his incessant tickling and touching of students was "neither appropriate
nor professional".
The Jewish community tried to hush up the controversy,
fearing it would either lead to anti- semitism or personal repercussions
within the community. Specifically Rabbi Bryks.
The troubling questions of whether Rabbi Bryks was
a child molester wouldn't go away. He finally left Winnipeg in 1990, and
the Torah Academy closed down. The rabbi was offered a position as principal
of an Orthodox Jewish day school in Montreal. But a group of irate parents
informed the academy of the investigations of Bryks by Winnipeg Police and
Family and Child Services. The job was withdrawn. He then was hired as principal
of the Torah Academy in Queens, N.Y., a new school for immigrant youth from
the former Soviet Union that was desperate to attract a qualified
administrator.
CBC's Danielle Keefler went to New York to interview
the rabbi there. Stopped on the street, he would only say "no comment" and
that "Winnipeg is a part of my life that is behind me" when asked about the
allegations against him.
"People that are ill should not be put into positions
where they can hurt others with illness," observed a psychologist and prominent
member of the Lubavitch community here, his voice tinged with sorrow.
"There is sexual abuse within the community," said
Gordon Wolfe, executive director of Toronto's Jewish Family and Child Service.
In 1993, the JF&CS investigated 70 cases of alleged sexual abuse involving
minors, of which 34 were intra-familial. Ten of the cases led to criminal
charges. Wolfe was unaware of the number of convictions.
As well, Wolfe reported 120 incidents of physical abuse
involving children, of which eight led to charges. "What you saw there [in
the allegations against Bryks] is part of the pattern that often exists in
this kind of behaviour. It doesn't surprise me that the children didn't say
anything for a long time before coming forth. It doesn't surprise me that
many people did not believe them. And it doesn't surprise me that enormous
pressure was brought on the Winnipeg Child and Family Service to not pursue
their investigation, particularly because he was a rabbi."
In an interview with Jewish Life after the broadcast,
Sara Levin said that she remains optimistic that at least one of the students
Rabbi Bryks is alleged to have abused — some of whom are in counselling
and drug treatment today -- will one day be able to be strong enough to come
forward and testify.
"I would like to see him brought to justice, to stand
trial for the things he's done."
And with terrible sadness in her eyes, she added, "So
many people knew little things but we never put them together. We never
suspected."
__________________________________________________________________________________
CBC threatened with lawsuit for report on
Winnipeg rabbi
CJN Staff
The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, May 5, 1994
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Sex Offender |
Toronto
- The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has been threatened with a
lawsuit for defamation as a result of a report it aired which made a number
of allegations against a former Winnipeg rabbi and educator.
A "Notice of Action" delivered to the CBC claims that
the broadcast contained false and defamatory statements about Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks, said Daniel Henry, senior legal counsel for the CBC.
The CBC has not made any formal response to the notice,
he said. Instead, it has written to Rabbi Bryks' lawyer, Harvey Pollack,
requesting further information. "I've asked for more precision in the notice
as to which assertions in the program they are claiming as false and defamatory,"
Henry said. "It was a long broadcast and a lot of information was contained
in it."
The notice stems from a CBC report titled "Unorthodox
Conduct" broadcast in Winnipeg and later nationally three times in late February
and early March.
The CBC report interviewed parents of three children
who had been students of Rabbi Bryks during his tenure as head of the Torah
Academy, which ended in 1990. Among those were Martin Levin and Kaye (Sara)
Levin, the parents of Daniel Levin, who committed suicide on Yom Kippur last
year, when he was 17. The other parents in the documentary were
unidentified.
Both Levins were named in the legal notice. Henry
said.
Under Manitoba's Defamation Act, the notice is intended
to give an opportunity for a r
__________________________________________________________________________________
By: Marc Huber
Jewish Tribune – B'nai Brith Canada, Page 16
August 4, 1994
Toronto – Four years after leaving Winnipeg, Rabbi
Ephraim Bryks remains haunted by students' child abuse allegations while
he was principal of the Torah Academy, a school operated by Herzlia-Adas
Yeshrun, an Orthodox congregation lead by Rabbi Bryks.
On a February 28, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) documentary Toronto's Martin and Sara Levin said their 17-year-old
son Daniel, committed suicide last Yom Kippur after police asked their son
to re-record a June, 1993, statement alleging sexual abuse in 1993 Rabbi
Bryks.
Another girl's parents alleged on the documentary that
their daughter, who is now in therapy and isn't ready to contact police,
was also molested by Rabbi Bryks, currently principal of the Torah Academy,
a 400-student Orthodox school in Queens (The Tribune has learned that Rabbi
Bryks' contract for the coming school year has not been renewed. No reason
for the decision was given by a spokesman at Torah Academy).
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Sex Offender |
No charges have ever been laid against Rabbi Bryks
but Sgt. Robin Parker of the Child Abuse Unit of the Winnipeg Police Service,
Youth Division told The Tribune last week that "The case was never closed.
The CBC documentary brought other people to come forward to members of the
community and to us. Due to the new complainants, the case has been reassigned
to a different team in the Child Abuse Unit and the investigation has resumed.
We are now re-interviewing people. That's all I can say."
This
is not the first time that Rabbi Bryks faced such accusations. A 1988 report
by Winnipeg South Child and Family Services originating from a 14-year-old
girl's allegations indicated that there was no evidence to support criminal
wrongdoing; however, the report also characterized Rabbi Bryks' interactions
with female students as inappropriate and unprofessional. The report also
found that "if there is a child in the school that is currently being abused,
the dynamics of the reaction of the staff, fellow students and other adults
over the past couple of months might prevent any child from coming forth
with the new disclosure."
And a year later, Winnipeg police investigated a complaint
from a young boy alleging sex abuse, but the Crown Attorney's office did
not believe that there was sufficient evidence against Bryks to lay criminal
charges. Despite the passage of time, Herzlia-Adas Yeshrun continues to suffer
the fallout surrounding their former spiritual leader's departure. Today,
many people in the community question the process undertaken by the synagogue's
leadership when these allegations originally surfaced in 1987. Instead of
immediately contracting Child and Family Services, the synagogue conducted
its own investigation by holding a series of vituperative board of directors
meetings where the teenage girl's allegations about Rabbi Bryk's impropriety
was first questioned.
"A pall hangs over the place. The issue of guilt is
secondary. It's not what he did or didn't do - but what was said to each
other," says Sherman Greenberg, the congregation's president between 1982
and 1986. "People who were formerly friends wouldn't talk to each other,
or they would do things to each other. One person tried to get someone else
fired. Some of these people now feel embarassed, ashamed, and kind of stupid."
Greenberg and almost half of the board left the synagogue with approximately
30 other families and formed their own synagogue after the board voted to
support Rabbi Bryks following Child and Family Service's finding of
unprofessional conduct, in addition to the agency's observation of the creation
of an environment preventing child abuse victims from coming forward, if
child abuse was in fact occurring at the school. "Knowing what I know now,
if I was ever in a similar situation, I would have a police investigation
first."
Like the remainder of the congregants who supported
and believed in Rabbi Bryks and wanted the shul to continue, Abe Borzykowski,
the synagogue's vice president in 1987, remained as a member but now regrets
not delegating the responsibility of investigating the allegations
earlier.
"We should have let someone else handle it. We were
people in good conscience wanting to solve problems, but we were in over
our heads. The mistake we made destroyed friendships. The atmosphere was
very uneasy and emotions ran very high. If we delegated it earlier, maybe
this wouldn't have happened."
Board member Mel Craven was not one of Rabbi Bryks
supporters after the Child and Family Services' report's release. "I was
in shock that people would interpret it as completely exculpatory." During
the board's deliberations about Rabbi Bryks, Craven suffered abuse from other
congregants and was spat at in the shul. "We were shunned. If I was called
up for an aliyah, some people walked out."
Craven acknowledges that some of the synagogue's problems
might have been avoided if information hadn't been percolating among the
synagogue's members following the board's meetings. "In hindsight, we should
have reported to Child and Family Services first." After Rabbi Bryks left
Herzlia-Adas Yeshrun in 1990, Craven, like most of the new synagogue's members,
returned to the shul.
Immediate reporting of alleged child abuse by teachers
and other caregivers became compulsory in Manitoba following a 1989 amendment
to the province's Child and Family Services Act. But Keith Cooper, the executive
Director of Winnipeg South Child and Family Services, says that this amendment
was passed because "at that time a lot of organizations handled these issues
in the same kind of way." However Cooper still had concerns about the way
the synagogues's board responded to the allegations.
"The process the synagogue took, rightly or wrongly--and
they thought they were doing things in everyone's best interest--created
circumstances within the synagogue community and school staff to choose sides
and to let kids know that parents were on one side or another. And that kind
of thing is not helpful to pursuing that sort of investigation because all
sorts of other factors intrude."
Cooper added that when his office investigates child
abuse complaints, investigators talk to children without subjecting them
to any kind of outside pressure from anyone else to get a first sense of
the allegations. When questioned about the impact of his office's finding
that a poisoned environment against disclosing child abuse was inadvertently
in effect at the school as a result of the board's initial response, Cooper
thought it was possible that during a professional investigation at the outset,
"other children might have come forward if there was something to come forward
about."
Barney Yellen, Winnipeg's Jewish Child and Family Service's
Executive Director, is also quite critical of the board's decision to conduct
its own investigation and the board's subsequent decision to support Rabbi
Bryks. "Regardless of the child abuse issue, there was a questionable
professional conduct in his role as a teacher. It surprised me that he wasn't
terminated."
Yellen agreed with Cooper's observations about the
school's poisoned atmosphere. "The supercharged environment keeping kids
from coming forward (if there was something to come forward about) might
have been avoided. When the synagogue's boards finally decided to contact
an outside agency, Yellen's agency could not investigate the allegations
because Rabbi Bryks was on the agency's board of directors.
Still grieving the loss of his son, Martin Levin believes
that the synagogue's board "has a lot to answer-- there was vast communal
denial. Jews need to know that this can happen to us too and the notion of
keeping things quiet stems from the paranoia of anti-Semites crawling out
of the woodwork."
Composed of approximately 15,000 people, Winnipeg has
a vibrant, small and insular Jewish community with a small-town feeling where
everyone knows everybody. In fact, this correspondent is distantly related
by marriage to Levin and Borzykowski.
Like her former spouse, Sara Levin thinks that the
synagogue's board made an error in judgement by conducting its own initial
inquiry. "I think it's horrific. It was a grave mistake not to have an outside
agency handle it from the onset. It was a blunder."
One of the ways Levin plans to honour her son's memory
is through Daniel's Hope, an organization she is forming to put child abuse
survivors in touch with each other. Both Mr. and Mrs. Levin are upset that
the Toronto police botched their investigation because the recording equipment
used during their son's statement was broken. Daniel Levin didn't live long
enough to record another statement.
Rabbi Bryks started at Herzlia-Adas Yeshrun in 1978
at age 24 after graduating from rabbinical college. Many of his opponents
even characterize Rabbi Bryks as a charismatic personality who built up the
shul's membership started the school (operated independently of the city's
Jewish Board of Education) and ran his own Beit Din.
Rabbi Bryks later became embroiled in disputes with
other leaders in Winnipeg's Jewish community over the validity of the city's
eruv and its kosher food. In 1987 the Winnipeg Council of Rabbis wrote a
letter to the editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News alleging that
Rabbi Bryks twice plagiarized from a book by an Ottawa Rabbi in his (Bryks'
weekly Torah commentaries for the paper).
The bitter fights about Rabbi Bryks devastated the
shul, according to Craven. Membership fell from 300 families to its present
125 families. The Torah Academy closed a year after Rabbi Bryks left
Winnipeg.
Greenberg doesn't see much of a legacy from Rabbi Bryks'
tenure. "By any measure of organizational success the whole thing imploding
onto itself".
Rabbi Bryks refused to be interviewed for this
article.
__________________________________________________________________________________
CBC scores bronze medal for "Unorthodox
Conduct"
CBC strikes it
rich at N.Y. awards
by Janice Lee
Brunico Communications Inc.- January 30, 1995 - page
8
Playback - About Production, Broadcasting & Interactive
Media in Canada
The winners of The New York Festivals' 1994 International
TV Programming and Promotion Awards were announced in New York City on Jan.
20. Here is the rundown of how Canadians fared.
The cbc claimed six gold medals for Newswatch "You
Can't Take It With You" (human interest), CBC Prime Time News "E. Annie Proulx"
(arts), Dieppe (miniseries), Street Cents (teen programs), aidScare aidsCare
(teen special) and The Diary of Evelyn Lau(performance).
Other gold medal recipients were the Variety Club of
British Columbia for To Help Them All (information/magazine id), cjoh-tv
for Nowhere to Hide (special report), tvontario for Blood and Belonging "Road
To Nowhere" (national and international affairs), Telemagik Productions for
Cirque du Soleil (performing arts) and Portfolio Film and Television/J.A.
Delmage Productions in association with ytv for Groundling Marsh "Night and
Day" (art direction).
cbc struck silver in New York as well with the 5th
estate "Too Good For its Own Good" (best news reporter/corespondent), CBC
Alberta News "Suspended Drivers at the Wheel" (investigative reporting) and
the cbc Witness documentary, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter (human
relations).
Also picking up silver were Alma Productions for The
Body Parts Business (investigative report - long-form), Morag Production
for When Women Kill (social issues/ current events), Sullivan Entertainment
for Road To Avonlea (family programs), Skyvision Entertainment for Robocop:
The Series "The Future of Law Enforcement" (art direction) and Sleeping Giant
Productions for Meeting The Crisis "Hivies" (lighting).
cbc scored bronze medals for 24 Hours "Unorthodox Conduct"
(news documentary/special), the 5th estate "Crossing the Line" (investigative
report - long- form), Venture (news magazine program) and Adrienne Clarkson
Presents "Skin, Flesh and Bone" (direction).
Other bronze winners were Insight Production Company's
Ready or Not "Dear Troy/Monkey See, Monkey Do" (youth programs), Forefront
Productions' Madison "On The Curb/The Firefighter" (teen special) and the
Variety Club of British Columbia's To Help Them All (copy writing).
__________________________________________________________________________________
Bryks launches lawsuit in U.S. court against
CBC, CNN
By Myron Love
Jewish Post and News, Wednesday, March 8, 1995
Rabbi
Ephraim Bryks has struck back against allegations of sexual misconduct with
lawsuits against both the CBC and CNN, seeking punitive damages of $10 million
U.S. from each of the news organizations.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks |
The civil suit, which was filed on February 21 in United
States District Court, Southern District of New York, is in response to an
I-Team documentary which was broadcast locally and nationally last winter
- and later rebroadcast on CNN - which, according to the Statement of Claim,
paint the former Herzlia Adas-Yeshurun rabbi as a "child molester, sexual
deviate, pedophile, blackmailer, liar and hypocrite who is
untrustworthy."
In the Statement of Claim, Bryks contends that "the
program was libelous and contained statements (by several former synagogue
members) that were false and defamatory" and demanded a full retraction and
apology which was not forthcoming. The legal document charges that CBC Noah
Erenberg and reporters Danielle Keefler and Heidi Graham (all three of whom
were also named in the lawsuit along with CBC) knowingly broadcast the
"defamatory and libelous matter in grossly irresponsible manner without
consideration for the standards of information gathering and discrimination
followed by responsible parties."
After leaving Winnipeg in 1990, Bryks found employment
as a teacher and principal at a school for Russian Jewish immigrants called
the Torah Academy - the same name as the Herzlia school he formed in Winnipeg
- which is located in the Queens section of New York. As a result of the
I- Team documentary, the Statement of Claim notes, he was dismissed from
his job at the New York school at the end of June and has been unable to
find another job as a rabbi and educator.
CBC Winnipeg producer Carl Karp is unfazed by the Bryks
lawsuit. "We were informed of his intention to sue several months ago," he
reports.
Karp says the I-Team stands by its story and the accuracy
of the story. He notes that the I- Team, while no stranger to lawsuits, has
never been successfully sued.
The defendants had 60 days to respond. Bryks' lawyer
is Gary Jacobson of the firm Jacobson & Triggs. The presiding judge will
be Judge Michael Mukasey who is currently handling the conspiracy trial of
Sheik Omar Abel Rahman and his militant Muslim followers charged with conspiring
to blow up New York landmarks last year. Bryks has chosen trial by jury.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Civil Procedure: Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation Immune
From Defamation Suit, Summary Added December 15,
1995
Bryks v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp.906 F.Supp. 204,
24 Media L. Rep. 1236
24 Media L. Rep. 1236
WESTLAW STATE BULLETIN
New York
December 15, 1995
Civil Procedure: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Immune From Defamation Suit
Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA),
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was immune from a defamation
action regarding broadcasts of an investigative news report on the plaintiff.
The CBC was a "foreign state" for purposes of the FSIA, and the FSIA's provision
precluding actions for defamation applied to the "commercial activity" exception
to immunity. CBC employees sued in their official capacities were also
immune.
Bryks v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
(S.D.N.Y.)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Libel chill leaves children's author feeling censored OPINIONS / Carol Matas's novel about a Jewish school and a child-abusing rabbi touched a nerve in Winnipeg. A synagogue cancelled her appearance amid threats of litigation.
By Marc Hubert
The Globe and Mall (Toronto) - December 19, 1995
Carol Matas - Author |
Carol Matas had been invited to speak in February at an interfaith
luncheon sponsored by the Sisterhood of Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek
synagogue. But her appearance was cancelled after the congregation
received a legal opinion suggesting the synagogue could be sued for
publication of a libel if it permitted Matas to speak.
"This is paranoia of the worst sort and censorship in the worst way.
Libel chill isn't a strong enough term. Basically, they're censoring me
and not the book. Somehow, I am no longer acceptable," Matas said
recently.
What's prompting the controversy is
Matas's latest novel, The Primrose Path. Published by Winnipeg's
Blizzard Publishing, it's the story of a Jewish school enduring a
child-abusing rabbi. The case bears some similarities to a Winnipeg
police investigation of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks,
former principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg. Now closed, Torah
Academy was a school operated by Herzlia-Adas Yeshrun, an Orthodox
congregation formerly led by Bryks, now living in New York.
Book about Rabbi Ephraim Bryks |
After a 1994 CBC documentary outlining other child-abuse allegations involving Bryks
(which was broadcast before the police resumed their second
investigation), the rabbi launched a defamation lawsuit against his
accusers and the CBC. But beyond a preliminary notice, these cases have
not progressed. Two years after the 1988 report by the city department,
Bryks left Winnipeg for New York.
While Matas says she was only asked to deliver a speech, the synagogue
maintains that she was going to speak about her new book. By
acquiescing to the threat of litigation, the synagogue's decision, to
some, appears to be a highly unusual instance of the suppression of an
author's freedom of expression, especially since no defamation lawsuits
have been commenced against the book, which was published last
September.
Matas, who is emphatic that her book isn't based on Bryks,
describes The Primrose Path as "a universal story which I based on
research across North America. And in two other communities where I've
spoken besides Winnipeg, people in the audience believe that the book
is about a specific case in their community. It says to me that I'm
doing my job as a writer because it is a universal story."
Matas also says she is very upset about the synagogue's cancellation,
initiated, it said, because of a "scheduling conflict." "I think it's
shameful and outrageous. . . . And being unable to have me as a speaker
because they're afraid that someone might sue them is scary business."
Matas says she learned from Shaarey Zedek's president, Samuel Wilder,
that her invitation had been cancelled because the synagogue's lawyers
said that since "the story in The Primrose Path so closely parallels
what happened in Winnipeg, the synagogue would be subject to a
defamation action if they let me speak."
Contacted earlier this month, Wilder refused to answer any questions
for The Globe and Mail, saying "this isn't an issue for the press."
Denise Waldman, president of the synagogue's Sisterhood, was equally
reticent about answering questions and, she said, "if there is any
Sisterhood board member who speaks to you, they will have to answer to
me. I'm a young president of a flourishing sisterhood and we don't need
any garbage."
The Sisterhood's move is,
however, attracting negative attention from both inside and outside
Winnipeg. Penny Dickens, executive director of the Writers Union of
Canada, for one, condemned the decision. "They took the easy way out.
It certainly wasn't a heroic decision - they've silenced a writer. . . .
This isn't chill, it's a major freeze."
While
characterizing libel chill as a term usually involving state action,
Toronto criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby had "grave doubts" regarding the
legal opinion. "Unless they knew in advance that she's going to be
defaming someone, they wouldn't be responsible for giving her a
platform."
Ruby also deplored the Sisterhood's
cancellation of Matas's address. "They don't understand literature and
its role in a free society. It's a message from the community that we
don't want to talk about that subject matter. And then authors won't
write books like that. It's unhealthy and shortsighted."
David Matas, a Winnipeg immigration lawyer and cousin of the author,
agreed with Ruby. "Her work is a work of fiction. It doesn't identify a
specific person. It's most unusual for a libel suit to come out of a
fictional account," Matas said.
However, Julian
Porter, a Toronto lawyer noted for his expertise in libel and
defamation, said that it is possible that the author of a fictional
book could be sued for libel and that the synagogue could be sued, in
turn, by allowing Carol Matas to speak. Generally speaking, he said,
the test is if the work of fiction refers, or is capable of referring,
to a real person. Although there are no Canadian precedents, civil
liability for such cases has been found in the United States, England
and Australia.
Porter qualified his comments by
noting that these types of cases are very rare. Yet, about 15 years
ago, he successfully settled a libel case involving Toronto author Ian
Adams, who wrote a novel suggesting that a government representative
was part of a Communist spy ring.
Porter
predicted that to win such a case at trial a lawyer would have to put a
number of people in the witness box, each of whom believed that the
book was about the allegedly defamed person. To safely write a roman a
clef, Porter recommended that writers should change a host of personal
details. "Changing a couple of little things isn't enough."
But Matas's Winnipeg-based publisher, Anna Synenko, dismisses the
possibility of libel action involving The Primrose Path. "We haven't
received any libel suits yet and I don't think we will. I really don't
understand what the Sisterhood's problem is. The book is based on a
large amount of research and not on one incident."
Matas is the author of 15 books, most aimed at readers aged 10 to 17.
Her novels include Daniel's Story, commissioned by the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in 1993, and Sworn Enemies, which won the National
Association of Jewish Libraries' Sydney Taylor award in 1993.
__________________________________________________________________________________
A former Winnipeg rabbi accused
of sexual misconduct with students is suing C-B-C and
C-N-N
Business Information Wire - March 21, 1995 Canadian
Press
CROSS-CANADA DIGEST: Manitoba
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks has filed a lawsuit against the
networks for airing an I-Team investigation into the sex allegations against
him.
The documentary entitled "Unorthodox Conduct" was broadcast
in March of last year by C-B-C and later on C-N-N.
Bryks refused to comment on the case, but his lawyer,
Gary Jacobson, says the broadcast has cost Bryks his reputation. (Wpg
Sun)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Bryks v. CBC
Communications Daily - Tuesday, December 12, 1995,
SECTION: Vol. 15, No. 238; Pg. 7
Warren Publishing, Inc.
FCC late Mon. released 2nd annual report on status
of cable competition. Commission concluded: "Although some progress has begun
toward a competitive marketplace for the distribution of video programming
. . . cable television systems continue to enjoy market power in local
markets."
Report's key findings cover industry growth, horizontal
concentration, competitive entry, vertical integration and technological
advances.
Commission said. Federal judge has dismissed defamation
suit against Canadian Bcstg. Corp. (CBC) on ground that foreign-owned network
was "immune" from jurisdiction of U.S. courts. However, U.S. Dist. Judge
Michael Mukasey, N.Y., upheld portion of suit by Rabbi Ephraim Bryks against
CNN, which carried Feb. 28, 1994, CBC report on sexual misconduct charges
at Herzalia-Adas-Yeshurun Torah Academy in Winnipeg, where Bryks was principal
and teacher 1978-1990. Bryks's attorney Gary Jacobson said his client was
"clearly disappointed" that he wouldn't be able to pursue suit against CBC
in U.S. but now may file separate action in Canada. Canadian govt. last week
cleared Bryks of wrongdoing, Jacobson said. Robert Sack, attorney for CBC
and CNN, said he was "pleased" by decision involving defendants and said
CNN was "marginal" defendant, but if Bryks pursued case, "proceedings in
New York make sense both for the plaintiff and CNN."
U.S. Supreme Court Mon. without comment rejected appeal
of NFL rule that permits home games to be blacked out if they aren't sold
out 72 hours in advance. Suit had been filed by Self-Help for Hearing Impaired
Persons. High court ruling upheld decisions of 2 lower courts.
McMullen Group (MG) signed "binding agreement" to acquire
several Liberty Sports assets in deal latter's Pres. Ed Frasier said is designed
to unleash "entrepreneurial type of guidance" on several young ventures.
McMullen will buy broadcast network America One TV as well as Prime Sports
Interactive, Prime Sports Radio and Women's Basketball Assn. (WBA) for
undisclosed amount. Frasier said money from sale will go to general Liberty
coffers and aren't earmarked for any projects: "It wasn't an issue of needing
the funds. It was an issue of having too much on our plate at one time."
Liberty doesn't plan to sell more properties, he said, "but I wouldn't
rule it out." MG Exec. Vp David Lynch said MG will use purchase as "vehicle
. . . to make other acquisitions." He said growth of interactivity and Internet
use is expected to add value in long term. Parties said each operation will
"continue to operate as they have in the past," with eventual relocation
to Irving, Tex. hq.
Hearst and Cap/ABC have purchased 20% of Brazilian
pay-TV company TVA from Brazil-based Abril Group. TVA owns 8 pay channels
in major Brazilian cities, plus network of 42 affiliated systems. Hearst
and Cap/ABC are partners in U.S. cable channels ESPN, Lifetime,
A&E.
FCC is seeking comment on whether it should grant waiver
of IVDS license rule that prohibits assignment or transfer of license not
acquired through competitive bidding until 5-year construction benchmark
(50% coverage) is met. Commission received request from licensee Alberto
Garza. Comments are due Dec. 26, replies Jan. 4.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Turner Non-Theatrical
Services (TNTS) announced deal with USAir to provide new in-flight channel
by Jan. Channel will carry TCM programming in seat systems of first and business
classes.
Program Notes: BET International announced it would
launch BET On Jazz channel in S. Africa by April 1. Channel will appear on
country's MultiChoice package, which includes several international channels
. . . ESPN 2 said it has reached 26.7 million homes . . .Golf Channel said
it has passed 1995 goal of 600,000 subscribers, expects to reach 700,000
by Jan.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Editorial comment - A Second look at
"Unorthodox Conduct"
Jewish Post and News, Wednesday, January 10, 1996
The Crown's announcement last month that it will not
be pressing charges against Rabbi Ephraim Bryks raises serious questions
about "Unorthodox Conduct", the documentary CBC television made about him
nearly two years ago.
Produced by an investigative reporting team from CBC
Winnipeg's "24 Hour" news show, "Unorthodox Conduct" painted a demonic portrait
of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, former principal of Herzlia Synagogue's now-defunct
Torah Academy.
The city's Child and Family Service concluded in a
heavily publicized report in 1988 that his kissing and holding of students
in his lap was "inappropriate and unprofessional", but not criminal.
"Unorthodox Conduct", however quoted a serious of parents
as testifying that Bryks committed far more serious sexual molestation of
their children in the privacy of his office.
The documentary took on an especially urgent, almost
crusading tone, with the reporter disclosing that Bryks was now principal
of a Jewish high school in Queens, New York.
Broadcast across Canada by CBC, "Unorthodox Conduct"
was later telecast continent- wide on CNN and shortly afterwards, Bryks was
dismissed from his job at the New York day school.
Now that the Crown has announced it will not press
charges, the obvious question arises: How could it come to such a conclusion,
after CBC produced such a damaging and detailed report about Bryks' sexual
molestation of students at Torah Academy? And what does that say about the
validity of the allegations made in "Unorthodox Conduct"?
The Crown Attorney won't answer those questions. But
a Jewish Winnipegger who knows the families who provided key testimony for
the documentary claims the Crown isn't pressing charges because only one
of several former students alleging sexual molestation by the rabbi is willing
to come forward, and "the Crown doesn't feel that's enough".
How credible was the testimony of that former student,
if the Crown doesn't feel that alone is enough to warrant pressing criminal
charges against Bryks? And why aren't two other former students willing to
come forward and testify?
The answer, this Winnipegger continues, is that their
parents fear the psychological trauma they might have to undergo, if
cross-examined in court.
A case in Martinsville, Saskatchewan, two years ago
showed accusations of sexual molestation of young children often doesn't
stand up, when accusers and accused come under the scrutiny of lawyers in
a courtroom.Two of the former students whose parents were interviewed anonymously
in "Unorthodox Conduct" are in their mid-teens. If they're so emotionally
fragile now that they are afraid of being subjected to such courtroom
cross-examination, how reliable was their testimony, presented by CBC two
years ago in "Unorthodox Conduct"?
Bryks began a lawsuit for defamation against the CBC
and CNN in a New York court in the fall of 1994. By last December, according
to The Globe and Mail, the suit hadn't progressed beyond his opening statement
of claim.
If Bryks doesn't continue the lawsuit, the public will
draw its own conclusions, despite the Crown's decision not to press charges.
If he does proceed further and wins, "Unorthodox Conduct" is destined to
become a case study for journalism students - an example of the weaknesses
of this kind of journalistic "expose".
__________________________________________________________________________________
May 22, 1996
ROBERT L. TAPPER, Q.C.
WOLCH, PINX, TAPPER, SCURFIELD
Barristers and Solicitors
10th Fl. - 330 St. Mary Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba,, R3C 3Z5
Telephone No.: 949-1700
Solicitors for the Defendants
TO:
Pollock & Company
Barristers and Solicitors
1610 - 155 Carlton Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 3H8
Per: Harvey Pollock, Q.C.
Solicitors for the Plaintiff
__________________________________________________________________________________
Torts: CNN Did Not Defame Rabbi by Rebroadcasting
Report
Summary Added July 02, 1996
Bryks v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 928 F.Supp. 381,
24 Media L.
24 Media L. Rep. 2109
WESTLAW STATE BULLETIN
New York - July 02, 1996
Evidence was insufficient as a matter of law under
New York law to establish gross irresponsibility on the part of CNN in
rebroadcasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) report regarding
an investigation of a rabbi for child molestation. In seeking to hold CNN
liable, the rabbi relied on prior suits against the CBC as establishing the
general unreliability of its reporting. However, a federal district court
in New York noted that the rabbi's evidence demonstrated only that CBC had
lost a single libel suit in the 12 years before its broadcast of story in
question.
Bryks v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
(S.D.N.Y.)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Entertainment Law Reporter Bryks
v. CNN
Entertainment Law Reporter - February, 1997
SECTION: RECENT CASES; Vol. 18, No. 9
CNN wins dismissal of defamation case arising
out of its rebroadcast of investigative report produced by Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, because CNN had no reason to doubt reliability of CBC or specific
report, federal District Court rules.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks is an American citizen who now
lives in Queens, New York; but during the 1980s he was the principal and
a teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school in Winnipeg, Canada. Something happened
while Bryks was at that school; exactly what isn't clear from the case reports.
What is clear, however, is that in 1994, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
produced and broadcast an investigative report that "examined allegations
that [Bryks] had engaged in sexual misconduct with students" while he was
at the Jewish school.
CBC offers its reports to other broadcasters through
a syndicated news service, and CNN is a subscriber. As a result, CNN Headline
News rebroadcast the CBC report about Bryks, virtually unedited.
In response to the CNN broadcast, Bryks sued CBC and
CNN for libel in federal District Court in New York City. Early in the case,
the court dismissed Bryks' suit against CBC, ruling that it was immune from
suit in federal courts because it was an organ of the Canadian government.
(ELR 18:3:14) The case proceeded, against CNN which enjoys no similar
immunity.
Now, however, the court has dismissed the case against
CNN as well, for another reason. Judge Michael Mukasey has granted CNN's
motion for summary judgment, because although Bryks himself is a private
figure, "allegations of sexual assault by a community religious leader on
school-children surely are of legitimate public interest and concern." This
meant that under New York law, Bryks had to show that CNN had rebroadcast
the CBC report in a "grossly irresponsible manner." But as a "republisher"
of material from CBC, New York law permitted CNN to rely on CBC's research
unless CNN "had, or should have had, substantial reasons to question the
accuracy" of CBC's report.
Bryks attempted to show that CNN had reasons to question
CBC's accuracy; but Judge Mukasey was not persuaded. The judge reviewed Bryks'
arguments that CNN had reason to doubt CBC's accuracy in general, and the
accuracy of the offending report in particular. But the judge did not agree
with either argument. Even if the evidence Bryks offered was credited, Judge
Mukasey concluded, it was "insufficient to prove gross irresponsibility'
on the part of CNN."
Bryks v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 928 F.Supp. 381,
1996 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 8300
(S.D.N.Y. 1996) [ELR 18:9:21]
LOAD-DATE: May 21, 1997
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jurisdiction in defamation action
against Canadian Broadcasting Corp
Aug.1996 - Entertainment Law Reporter-Bryks v. CBC
Entertainment Law Reporter, August, 1996
SECTION: RECENT CASES; Briefly Noted; Vol. 18, No.
3
In a defamation case filed by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi
as a result of a report aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC),
an excerpt from which was then rebroadcast in the United States by CNN, a
federal District Court in New York City has held that federal courts do not
have subject matter jurisdiction over the CBC or its employees. Judge Mariam
Cedarbaum noted that the exclusive basis for federal jurisdiction over "foreign
sovereigns" is the Federal Sovereign Immunities Act; and that Act makes "foreign
states . . . immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States."
The Act defines "foreign state" to include a corporation which is an "organ
of a foreign state." The CBC is a "crown corporation" that is "wholly owned
by the Canadian government," and thus, Judge Cedarbaum concluded, it is immune
from suit in federal courts in the United States. The judge also ruled that
CBC's immunity extends to its employees acting within the scope of their
employment, because a suit against such individuals "is the practical equivalent
of a suit against the sovereign directly."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Shearis Israel: providing Judaic background to our Russian brethen
March 1, 2001
March 1, 2001
http://www.www.shearis.org
Shearis Israel - About Us
http://www.www.shearis.org
Shearis Israel is a labor of love, an undertaking to
provide Judaic background to our Russian brethren. Over a decade ago, our
Rabbinic leadership and lay leaders rose to the challenge of the return of
our Russian Jewish cousins to freedom. As they made their exodus from slavery
in the former Soviet Union to freedom in the United States, they arrived
with very little. Shearis has provided a yeshiva in which a Torah education
and an advanced secular curriculum could be attained. Now in its eleventh
year, Shearis touches children and their families alike, bringing the warmth
of Torah and its hertiage to three generations at once. Grandparents who
still remember prewar Europe and their roots in Judaism help influence their
grandchildren, while the students' parents, members of the lost generation,
are in turn influenced by the young Shearis student body.
The spiritual in gathering of the exiles, is a leading
cause of our time, as proclaimed by this generation's Gedolai Yisroel. They
have appealed continuously for all to join Shearis in forging the furture
of Klal Yisroel.
Dor L'Dor, the latest project at Shearis Israel, promises
to be one of its most rewarding. It is a program that provides for the vast,
silent majority of the Russian Jewish children, many of whom are lost in
the public school system.
Dor L'Dor provides a Sunday school program that enriches
the lives of these children, and whets their intellectual appetites for Torah.
It also hopes to institute adult-education programs to further the bond between
mainstream Judaism and the Russian Jewish community, in essence helping to
create that community.
Join us...Shearis needs your help both financially,
as well as proactively...join and help provide adult classes or act as a
mentor for public school attendees.
Whatever the level of involvement,
Shearis wants you!
-------------------------
Programs
- Elementary School: Grades 1-8
- New High School: Grades 9 and growing...
- Dor L'Dor: a Sunday morning,special project educating public school attendees
- Adult Education: various evening classes foradults
- Mishmar/Athletics Program: biweekly program that combines basketball/swimming withdinner and learning with chavrusas
- Congregation Zichron Aharon Tzvi: an ongoing Russian minyan led by Yaakov Lomner
- Congregation Shaarei Emunah: a new and exciting, innovative shul spearheaded by Shearis rebbi, Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky
- A Shearis Israel Purim
- A Shearis Israel Pesach
- Summer Camp
- Mishmar Program
- Adult Education
- The Great Debate
-------------------------
The Board
The Shearis Israel Family
|
|
Board of Directors | ||
Shimon Lefkowitz,
Chairman Joseph Berliner, Esq. Sruly Bollag Shmuel Calko MosheCohen Shlomo Cohen, Esq. Jack Freidman Ron Hersh Baruch Hertz David Horowitz Heshy Kaszirer Rabbi Mutty Katz |
Israel Lefkowitz Hershel Leier Nosson M. Munk Mordechai Neustadt Moshe Plaut David Reiter Chaim Rosenwasser Heshy Rubin Avi Schick, Esq. David Seidemann, Esq. B.Z. Weiss, Esq. Hirsch Wolf |
-------------------------
Contact Us:
ADDRESS: | 3574 Nostrand Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11229 |
PHONE: | 1-888-4-SHARIS (1-888-474-2747) or in New York City, (718) 891-4333 |
FAX: | (718) 624-4983 |
EMAIL: | info@ShearisIsrael.org |
__________________________________________________________________________________
Queens Yeshiva Boss is a Molester: Boy's
Mom
by Douglas Montero
New York Post - March 31, 2001
TRAGEDY: Photo caption: Sara Leven says son Daniel,
who committed suicide, was molested by a rabbi.- Greig Reekie
March 31, 2002 -- SARA LEVEN found her 17-year-old
son Daniel blue-faced, hanging from the shower curtain rod - a tie pinched
around his neck.
The vision gnaws at Leven's heart because the rabbi
she claims molested her boy when he was 5 - which she believes drove her
son to suicide - is free and teaching kids at a Queens yeshiva.
The 57-year-old Canadian has pursued Rabbi Ephraim
B. Bryks, 49, since her son's death in 1993. Winnipeg. Montreal. Queens.
"It never goes away," said Leven in a shaken voice.
"It's unfinished business. He's never been brought to justice and I live
with it every day.
"He's alive. He's thriving. I have to reveal who he
really is."
Bryks, a respected scholar, a Queens religious-court
judge and a Renaissance man in the city's Orthodox community, was never charged
after investigations by police, a social-service agency and Orthodox Jewish
leaders here and in Canada.
"She's chasing him," said Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov,
administrator at the Yeshiva Berachel David-Torah HS in Flushing, which Bryks
created and operates. "The accusations are baseless, they keep coming up.
He is not an animal."
Yet there have been at least three other known
child-molestation allegations against Bryks, in Winnipeg, Canada, dating
to 1988 when he ran a yeshiva attended by Daniel Leven.
A claim by a 14-year-old girl spurred a 1988 investigation
by Winnipeg Child and Family Services, which cleared Bryks of any criminal
wrongdoing but criticized the rabbi for tickling, hugging and letting students
sit on his lap.
The report also noted that accusers faced a backlash
so intense in the close-knit Jewish community, it "might prevent any child
from coming forth with the disclosure."
After the allegations, Bryks hopscotched to Montreal
and later to the former Torah Academy for Girls in Forest Hills, where he
served as principal from 1992 to 1995.
Daniel Leven first spoke of the alleged attacks in
1993 when he described how the rabbi gave him candy and warned him "God"
would punish him if he talked, according to his mother. Sara Leven said she
called the cops and they took a statement from her son.
Daniel committed suicide on Yom Kippur - the day after
cops called to say their tape machine had failed to record the
statement.
A 1994 Canadian Broadcasting Corp. investigative report,
which Bryks complained defamed him, detailed an alleged 1989 molestation
of a 7-year-old boy. No charges were filed because investigators said it
was a child's word against a rabbi's.
When the broadcast was seen by school officials at
the Forest Hills Torah Academy in 1995 - and the allegations passed on to
New Russian World, the city's Russian daily newspaper - parents, mostly Russian
Jews, went "berserk," said a Brooklyn rabbi.
"School-board members knew about his past and, regardless,
gave him the position," said the rabbi, who didn't want his name
published.
Bryks was "fired," said Rabbi Nisanov, a teacher at
the Academy. Nisanov, who doesn't believe the allegations, said he helped
Bryks open his own yeshiva on 78th Road in Queens. He said 45 boys were enrolled
there.
Leven tracked down Bryks and pounced 18 months ago.
A group of Queens rabbis took the case to the Rabbinical Association
there.
"Unfortunately, there wasn't a tremendous reaction
- it was hard for them to believe that he could do it," said a Queens rabbi
who didn't want his name published.
Bryks did not respond to repeated phone calls and visits
to his house and yeshiva. His wife, however, said, "This is ancient history.
It's total nonsense."
Undeterred, Leven vows to continue pursuing Bryks.
"It makes me feel horrible knowing that he is still involved with children,"
she said.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Canadian legal filings
(FYI: Rabbi Bryks (statement of claim and defense)
abandoned this lawsuit)
The Queen's Bench - Winnipeg Centre
Between: Ephraim Bryks, plaintiff -and- Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, Noah Erenberg, Danielle Keefler, and Heidi Graham,
defendants.
STATEMENT OF CLAIM
TO THE DEFENDANT:
A LEGAL PROCEEDING HAS BEEN COMMENCED AGAINST YOU by
the plaintiff. The claim made against you is set out in the following
pages.
IF YOU WISH TO DEFEND THIS PROCEEDING, you or a Manitoba
lawyer acting for you must prepare a Statement of Defence in Form 18A prescribed
by the Queen's Bench Rules, serve it on the plaintiff, and file it in this
court office, WITHIN TWENTY DAYS after this Statement of Claim is served
on you, if you are in Manitoba.
If you are served in another province or territory
of Canada or in the United States of America, the period for serving and
filing your Statement of Defence is forty days. If you are served outside
Canada and the United States of America, the period is sixty days.
IF YOU FAIL TO DEFEND THIS PROCEEDING, JUDGMENT MAY
BE GIVEN AGAINST YOU IN YOUR ABSENCE AND WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE TO YOU.
DATE: February 15, 1996.
Issued by: L. Blue, Deputy Registrar - Court of Queen's
Bench
Law Courts Building
204-408 York Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0P9
TO: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
541 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G1
AND TO: Noah Erenberg c/o Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
541 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G1
AND TO: Danielle Keefler
c/o Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
541 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G1
AND TO: Heidi Graham
c/o Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
541 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G1
CLAIM
1. The plaintiff seeks an Order from this Honourable
Court restraining and enjoining the defendants from re-publishing,
re-broadcasting and disseminating any portion or portions thereof of the
defamatory Program, hereinafter set forth, to anyone.
2. In addition, the plaintiff claims against the
defendants, jointly and severally:
- a) General Damages in an amount to be determined by this Honourable Court;
- b) Special Damages in an amount to be proved at the Trial of this action;
- c) Punitive, aggravated and/or exemplary damages in an amount to be determined by this Honourable Court;
- d) Pre-judgment interest from the date notice was provided to the defendants until Judgment;
- e) Post-judgment interest;
- f) Costs on a solicitor and client basis;
- g) Such further and other relief as to this Honourable Court may seem just.
3. The plaintiff is a rabbi ordained in the Orthodox
Jewish faith and at all times material hereto was the rabbi of the
Herzlia-Adas-Yeshurun Synagogue (hereinafter referred to as the "Synagogue"),
the acting school principal and a teacher of the affiliated school, Torah
Academy, and resided in the City of Winnipeg in the Province of Manitoba.
At present, the plaintiff works part-time for a financial investment firm
and resides in the County of Queens in the State of New York, United States
of America.
4. The defendant Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(hereinafter referred to as "CBC") is a government corporation created by
Part III of The Broadcasting Act, R.S.C. 1985 c. B-11, as amended, (hereinafter
referred to as the "Act"), maintains business offices in Winnipeg, aforesaid
and produces news programs for broadcast on television to be viewed by the
public at large. CBC's statutory mandate is governed by s.30 of the Act.
At all times material hereto CBC employed its co-defendants in positions
hereinafter set forth.
5. The defendant Noah Erenberg (hereinafter referred
to as "Erenberg") resides in Winnipeg, aforesaid and at all times material
hereto was employed by CBC as a producer of television news.
6. The defendant Danielle Keefler (hereinafter referred
to as "Keefler") resides in Winnipeg, aforesaid and at all times material
hereto was employed by CBC as a reporter for television news.
7. The defendant Heidi Graham (hereinafter referred
to as "Graham") resides in Winnipeg, aforesaid and at all times material
hereto was employed by CBC as a researcher for television
8. On or about February 28, 1994, CBC produced and
broadcast to a local and national viewing audience a television program entitled
"Unorthodox Conduct" (hereinafter referred to as the "Program") which was
the product of a joint venture between "CBC Prime Time News", a national
nightly news program and, "CBC Winnipeg". The Program's content asserted
that the plaintiff had engaged in gross conduct of a criminal nature which
included acts of homosexual pediophilism and sexual assault against children
who attended the Synagogue and Torah Academy and, acts of sexual assault
against congregants of the Synagogue. On or about February 28, March 1 and
March 5, 1994, CBC re-broadcast the entire Program, portions thereof and,
additional reports relating to the Program, in Canada and elsewhere which
too were viewed by a national and international audience. Furthermore, CBC
made the Program available to its affiliate stations and other television
networks within and outside Canada and to other broadcasters for the purposes
that it be aired on other occasions and, be viewed by a wider audience which
the plaintiff alleges occurred.
9. On or about February 28, 1994 the Cable News Network,
Inc., "CNN", a company duly incorporated pursuant to the laws of the State
of Georgia with offices in the County and State of New York, engaged in the
business of broadcasting and distributing television programing, broadcast
the Program to a massive, worldwide viewing audience across its global
network.
10. The Program contained false, defamatory, slanderous,
malicious, reckless, willful, libelous statements and representations concerning
the plaintiff, particulars of which are set forth in the following
segments:
a) Concerning the plaintiff's role as Rabbi, principal
and teacher, the Program broadcast the following: Pamela Wallin: Coming up
next, shame and scandal at an Orthodox School in Winnipeg.
CBC Narrator: Did this Rabbi abuse his position and
pupils under his control? (Stated with a picture of the plaintiff on the
screen with "Unorthodox Conduct" beneath his picture.) CBC Narrator:
Unorthodox Conduct, an investigative documentary about trust and betrayal.
(Stated while the plaintiff is shown walking down the street very near a
camera person with the title "Unorthodox Conduct" below the picture of the
plaintiff as he walks down the street.)
Peter Mansbridge: This is the story of a powerful man
and the shocking accusations that he abused that power with children that
he was supposed to protect ... Prime Time News and CBC Winnipeg have uncovered
some disturbing stories. Four former students who accuse Rabbi Bryks of sexual
abuse ... a warning now ...
b) Concerning Daniel Levin, a former student at the
Torah Academy, the Program broadcast the following:
Martin Levin: He is not just a fraud and a charlatan,
but really wicked ... and I don 't know how many people he's hurt.
Kaye Levin: I am so tremendously angry and so deeply
hurt that someone could do that to a small child.
Kaye Levin: In May of 1993 he started having memories
of being sexually abused by the Rabbi and principal at Torah Academy. He
was sitting on his lap in the Rabbi 's office and the Rabbi was ... it's
so hard for me to say ...
Martin Levin: ... he was fondling ...
Kaye Levin: ... he was fondling his genitals, first
over his clothes, and then he opened his pants and ... afterwards he gave
him a candy. It was a peppermint one with a blue wrapper, I think it says
"Elite " on it ... he even remembered the candy.
Martin Levin: This internal mechanism ... it's got
to be a mistake... but instantly I knew he was telling the truth.
Kaye Levin: And then he said he had a memory and he
started coughing and spitting up mucous ... and he started crying and he
said he was in the office and Rabbi Bryks put his penis in Daniel 's mouth
and he kept coughing and I encouraged him to spit everything up. That was
another memory.
Martin Levin: He did say that Bryks said things ...
I wondered why he kept quiet ... and Daniel said Bryks said to me "God will
punish you if you speak ".
Keefler: At a memorial service one month after Daniel's
suicide, a family friend delivered a message from Daniel's father, a message
that hinted at what may have caused Daniel Levin to take his own life.
Unidentified man: No doubt most of you here today didn't
really know our son and brother Daniel, or at least not since he was very
young. You're here to show concern for his family. Some of you may
even be here because his death is a grim reminder of a bleak and sinister
stain on the Jewish community.
c) Concerning a fourteen-year-old girl identified only
as a former student at Torah Academy, the Program broadcast the
following:
Keefler: A fourteen-year-old complained that the Rabbi
often sat on her lap, touched her and tickled her and talked about sex. Once,
she says he even licked her face.
d) Concerning a 1987 Synagogue Board of Inquiry
investigating allegations of plaintiff misconduct which heard and considered
statements from the fourteen-year-old girl, aforesaid, and from two unidentified
women who voiced complaints and which Synagogue Board, having considered
the evidence before it and dismissing all allegations and determining not
to take any disciplinary action against the plaintiff, the Program broadcast
the following:
Keefler: That December, 1987, the Board, Bryks and
his lawyer heard the evidence. The teenager repeated her story. Two women
also came forward, accused Bryks of making making unwanted sexual advances.
They weren't believed.
Nathan Kobrinsky: The people who brought forth these
concerns against the Rabbi were publicly humiliated and insulted and called
liars. It was at this point that I felt that the whole process that I was
participating in was a sham.
Keefler: For three nights, accusations, legal threats,
personal attacks.
Kobrinsky: We were being threatened collectively for
taking a position against the Rabbi that would result in a legal suit, and
second of all that we were being threatened individually because of information
that the Rabbi had about us in our personal lives that would be used against
us.
Judith Silver: Well, he said quite clearly "I have
secrets on all of you."
e) Concerning a March 1988 written report issued by
the Winnipeg Child and Family Services Agency following its two-month
investigation into allegations of plaintiff misconduct, which said report
concluded that no criminal laws had been violated, the Program broadcast
the following:
Keefler: [The March 1988 report] warned "if there is
a child in the school that is currently being abused, the dynamics of the
reaction of staff, fellow students and other adults over the past couple
of months might prevent any child from coming forth with disclosure." That
is exactly what happened to one girl., who didn't want to be interviewed
on camera. A former student told us what she didn 't tell Child and Family
Services. ... that Rabbi Bryks fondled her breasts, once lay completely on
top of her, touched her and tickled her all the time. When the social worker
asked questions, the girl kept quiet.
She wasn 't the only student who kept a secret. We
found another child who claimed he was victimized. In 1989, a year after
the Child and Family Services investigation, a seven-year-old boy went to
the Winnipeg police. His parents watched from the next room, listened, as
the boy, using a doll, alleged Rabbi Bryks molested him in grade I. The couple
is disguised to protect their son's identity.
Disguised mother: He showed on the doll ... that he
had been basically, I guess, fondled, masturbated ... rubbed ... he used
the word "tickled".
Disguised father: The Rabbi would come and get him
out of the classroom during a session in class, take him up to the office.
And he threatened him that if he were to say this to anyone the big boys
would come and beat him up.
f) Concerning another former student at Torah Academy,
the Program broadcast the following:
Keefler: [We] found another student, who can't close
that chapter of her life. A fourth student, this couple's daughter, claims
she was molested.
Disguised mother: It's horrifying, and its
unbelievable.Unbelievably numb.
Keefler: Last November, this couple's daughter told
them she was molested by Rabbi Bryks in grade 2. They are disguised to protect
the girl's identity.
Disguised father: Rabbi Bryks would take her out of
class and would take her into his office during school time, and he would
make her take off her underwear and stockings and then he would fondle her,
her genitalia. She remembers it happening many times. She told me that he
told her that if she ever told anybody that God would punish her.
Disguised father: The most painful recent event since
her disclosure for me was going up to see how she was, in her bedroom, it
's just quiet and I just wanted to see how she was, going into her bedroom,
she was sitting in her closet, curled up in a fetal ball, listening to Barney
tapes with a little Barney book in her hand. I couldn't deal with that.
Keefler: The fourteen, year-old is in counselling to
the police.Her parents say she isn't ready to go in the police. Disguised
mother: She is so fragile that this has to be in her own time.
Disguised father: She also knows about another boy
who did go to the Police and nothing happened. Rabbi Bryks is still out there,
still teaching school.
g) Concerning the plaintiff's activities since leaving
Winnipeg in 1990, the Program broadcast the following:
Keefler: Today Rabbi Bryks is a success story in the
Queens [New York] Orthodox community. The school was desperate for a principal,
desperate to give young Russian Jews a place to study.
Keefler: Joel Maslovsky, the board s president at the
time, and other board members, refused to be interviewed. In a letter, the
board defended its decision to keep Bryks on, saying that there were no further
occurrences.
h) In addition, the Program broadcast the
following:
Keefler: Many in the Jewish community want the door
on the Bryks affair kept shut. But not the victims parents.
Disguised mother: It's time for the community to stop
covering it up. I think there's a great fear in the Jewish community, because
of anti-Semitism, that we can't air our dirty laundry, and it's time, and
the Jewish community really has a lot to answer for here.
Keefler: Former board member Judy Silver still has
many regrets.
Silver: We thought we could keep it among ourselves,
keep it a secret. That no one ever has to know that this happened in our
synagogue. Yes, we were ashamed. We were ashamed that we hired this man and
let this happen.
Martin Levin: The irony is that you send your child
to a school where you think, this of all places, he will be safe.
Kaye Levin: We've lost a child through this. And nothing,
nothing that is ever done to Rabbi Bryks could ever bring it back ... Daniel
can never come back. His life was destroyed by this.
11. The plaintiff says and alleges that the statements
and representations broadcast in the Program aforesaid, in their plain and
ordinary meaning were understood to mean, did mean, and were intended by
the defendants to mean that:
a) In 1983 Bryks engaged in an act of fellatio with
Daniel Levin, a former student at the Torah Academy, resulting in such trauma
and emotional disturbance to Daniel Levin as to cause him to take his own
life in or about October 1993;
b) The plaintiff sexually fondled an unidentified female
Torah Academy student;
c) The plaintiff sexually fondled an unidentified
seven-year-old boy while the boy was in the first grade at the Torah
Academy;
d) The plaintiff sexually fondled an unidentified female
student in his office in the Torah Academy, and admonished her that "God
will punish you" if she told anyone;
e) During a 1987 inquiry by the Synagogue Board into
charges against the plaintiff wherein an unidentified female student and
two unidentified women from the Synagogue charged that the plaintiff had
sexually fondled them, the plaintiff threatened Board members with exposure
of personal information about them; and,
f) The plaintiff abused his position of authority and
trust as a rabbi and breached his fudiciary duties.
12. Furthermore, the plaintiff says and alleges that
the statements and representations broadcast, aforesaid, in their plain and
ordinary meaning were understood to mean, did mean, and were intended by
the defendants to mean that the plaintiff is a criminal, a child molester,
a sexual deviate, a pedophile, a blackmailer, untrustworthy, a liar, a hypocrite,
a person who should be incarcerated in a jailing institution, a person who
is unfit to be a rabbi, who is unfit to be a spiritual leader of a Synagogue,
who is unfit to be a principal of a school, who is unfit to be a teacher,
and a person hired in New York state as a school principal out of
desperation.
13. Further and in the alternative, by way of innuendo,
the plaintiff says and alleges that the statements and representations broadcast,
aforesaid, in their plain and ordinary meaning were understood to mean, did
mean, and were intended by the defendants to mean that the plaintiff is a
criminal, a child molester, a sexual deviate, a pedophile, a blackmailer,
untrustworthy, a liar; a hypocrite, a person who should be incarcerated in
a jailing institution, a person who is unfit to be a rabbi, who is unfit
to be a spiritual leader of a Synagogue, who is unfit to be a principal of
a school, who is unfit to be a teacher, and a person hired in New York state
as a school principal out of desperation.
14. The plaintiff says that at no time has he ever
engaged in any acts of homosexual pediophilism nor has he ever breached his
fiduciary duties or trust owed to any student or congregant of the Torah
Academy or Synagogue. At all times material hereto he suffers no anti-social
personality disorder, no pedophilic tendencies, no sexual paraphilic nor
any mental disorder of any kind whatsoever.
15. At no time has the plaintiff ever threatened anyone
with exposure of personal information as alleged.
16. At no time has the plaintiff ever been charged
with, or convicted of, any offense prescribed by the Criminal Code of Canada,
and more specifically, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, sexual interference,
sexual touching (invitation to), fraud, criminal breach of trust or uttering
threats.
17. As a result of the defendants' false, defamatory,
slanderous, malicious, reckless, willful and libelous broadcasts, publications,
and dissemination to local, national and international audiences, the plaintiff
suffered the following grievous injuries, for which he claims damages:
a) Irreversible destruction of reputation and, loss
of standing in the community at large and specifically, in the world Jewish
community and in particular the New York Jewish community;
b) Loss of professional standing in the business community
of New York and elsewhere;
c) Loss of employability in his learned occupations
of choice:
d) Humiliation and shunning;
e) Stress, anxiety and depression;
f) Sleep disturbance.
18. Furthermore, CBC is subject to the Canadian Charter
of Rights Freedoms (hereinafter referred to as the "Charter"). In addition
to being false, defamatory, slanderous, malicious, reckless, willful, and
libelous, the statements and representations contained in the Program which
were broadcast and re-broadcast to said viewing audiences by CBC violated
the plaintiff's right to reputation, privacy security of the person guaranteed
by Section 7 of the Charter. Consequently, the plaintiff relies on Section
32 of the Charter and claims damages, all to be proved at the trial of this
action.
19. At all times material hereto the defendants exercised
bad faith and were determined to, and did author, produce, publish and broadcast
the Program in a malicious manner intending to defame and constitutionally
violate the plaintiff and to subject him to public contempt, disgrace, scorn,
prejudice and ridicule both personally, professionally and in business, with
the ultimate intent of destroying his reputation in the community at large
and, specifically in the worldwide Jewish community. By reason of the
publications, broadcasts and re-broadcasts the plaintiff has sustained grievous
personal injuries, professionally and in business, has been held up to public
contempt, disgrace, scorn, prejudice and ridicule, has suffered grave impairment
of his good name, business and professional reputation and social standing,
has lost the esteem and respect of the worldwide Jewish community, his friends,
acquaintances and business associates, and suffered great pain and mental
anguish, all of which he will continue to suffer for the rest of his life.
For defamation, slander, libel, invasion of privacy, and violation of his
constitutional rights and liberties regarding security of the person the
plaintiff claims against each defendant punitive, aggravated and/or exemplary
damages.
20. Further and in the alternative, at the time CBC,
Erenberg, Keefler and Graham authored, produced, published and broadcast
the Program, each said defendant was reckless, careless and negligent, giving
rise to damages for which the plaintiff claims, particulars of which
are:
a) In failing to take reasonable and appropriate measures
to verify the truthfulness and accuracy of the statements and
representations;
b) In failing to make any or any adequate inquiry of
the plaintiff prior to the Program's broadcast permitting him the opportunity
to furnish explanation and thereby avert any such falsehoods from being
disseminated;
c) In broadcasting the Program causing grievous injury
to the plaintiff when the defendants knew or ought to have known that the
said content was untrue and defamatory.
21. On or about February 17, 1994 the plaintiff notified
the defendants in writing that he had learned, through television and other
advertising, that the Program would air on CBC and advised them that such
characterizations and allegations aforesaid were untrue. Furthermore, the
plaintiff expressly put the defendants on notice that he would hold them
accountable and legally liable if the Program would be broadcast as scheduled
and advertised. In spite of such notice, the defendants broadcast the Program
to the public viewing audience. Furthermore, on or about March 10, 1994,
the plaintiff notified the defendants in writing that the Program was libelous
and contained statements which were false and defamatory and demanded a full
retraction and immediate apology. Upon receipt of the said notice, the defendants
refused to provide any retraction or apology and on or about August 25, 1994
intentionally, and with malice, in a high-handed and arrogant manner re-published
and re-broadcast the Program, unaltered, to a massive viewing audience thereby
causing further injury and insult to the plaintiff. As such, the plaintiff
claims punitive, aggravated and/or exemplary damages.
22. In or about 1990 the plaintiff and his family
re-located to Queens, New York, in response to his acceptance of a principalship
and teaching position at a Torah Academy. In or about June 1994, and by reason
of the Program being broadcast to a New York audience, the plaintiff was
dismissed from his employment. Since then the plaintiff has been unable to
procure gainful, long- standing full-time employment in his occupations of
choice and claims, as against each defendant, his past, present and future
loss of income, all to be proved at the trial of this action.
23. Additionally. the plaintiff says and alleges that
at no time did he consent to his name and personality being used for public
broadcast or for commercial profit by CBC. The plaintiff claims that CBC
for gain and profit wrongfully invaded his privacy and is liable to him in
damages for all monetary enrichment resulting thereof.
24. The plaintiff says that CBC is vicariously liable
for the recklessness, carelessness and negligence of its co-defendants and
pleads and relies upon the principle of respondeat superior.
25. The plaintiff pleads and relies on The Defamation
Act R.S.M. 1987, C.D.
20, The Broadcasting Act, R.S.C. 1985, C.B-11, each
as amended, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
__________________________________________________________________________________
DATE: February 15, 1996
POLLOCK & COMPANY
1610-155 Carlton Street
Winnipeg, MB R3C 3H8
HARVEY I. POLLOCK, Q.C.
Telephone: 956-0450
Facsimile: 947-0109
Solicitor for the plaintiff
File No. Cl 96-01-95742
THE QUEEN'S BENCH
Winnipeg centre
BETWEEN:
EPHRAIM BRYKS, Plaintiff,
- and -
CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, NOAH ERENBERG, DANIELLE
KEEFLER, and
HEIDI GRAHAM,
Defendants.
STATEMENT OF DEFENCE
WOLCH, PINX, TAPPER, SCURFIELD
Barristers and Solicitors
10th Floor - 330 St. Mary Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 3Z5
Solicitors for the Defendants
(ROBERT L. TAPPER, Q.C.)
Telephone No. 949-1700
Fax: 947-2593
File No.961041
THE QUEEN'S BENCH
Winnipeg Centre
BETWEEN :
EPHRAIM BRYKS,
Plaintiff,
- and -
CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, NOAH ERENBERG, DANIELLE
KEEFLER, and
HEIDI GRAHAM,
Defendants.
STATEMENT OF DEFENCE
1.The defendants admit the allegations made in paragraphs
3 (with the exception of the last sentence thereof), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (with
the exception of the last sentence thereof), 11 (with the exception of
subparagraph (e) thereof), and 16.
2. The defendants deny the allegations in paragraphs
1, 2, 9, 10, l1(e), 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24.
3. The defendants have no knowledge of the allegations
in paragraph 3 (in so far as the last sentence thereof is concerned), the
last sentence of paragraph 8, and 22.
4. As relates to paragraph 9 of the Statement Claim,
the defendants state that CNN ran a two minute segment on March 1st, 1994,
summarizing the program. This was run at approximately 3:00 a.m. and the
defendants put the plaintiff to the proof of whom the audience was.
5. With respect to paragraph 24, the defendants admit
that CBC is vicariously liable for the conduct of the personal
defendants.
6. With respect to paragraph 25 of the Statement of
Claim, the defendants admit that the Defamation Act applies, but state that
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has no application.
7. With respect to paragraphs 18 and 19 of the Statement
of Claim, the defendants state that this paragraph is misdirected and irrelevant.
They state further that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has no application
herein, that the actions of the defendant CBC in broadcasting any subjects
are not governmental actions subject to the aforesaid Charter, and that this
is private litigation not subject to the aforesaid Charter. They state further
that the aforesaid Charter does not, and was never intended to convey rights
of damages in defamation cases.
8. The defendants deny paragraph 10 of the Statement
of Claim. They deny that the statements referenced thereunder are false,
slanderous, malicious, reckless wilful or libelous. On the contrary, they
state the statements are true in substance and in fact, and thus are not
defamatory. Particulars of this statement follow.
9. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
in paragraph 10 (a) of the Statement of Claim; the defendants state that
the allegations referenced thereunder are true in substance and in fact.
To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions of opinion,
the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated upon herein
and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues of public
interest made honestly and without malice.
10. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (b) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that the allegations referenced thereunder
are true in substance and in fact. To the extent any of these comments consisted
of expressions of opinion, the defendants repeat the allegations of fact
as are elaborated upon herein and state that the broadcast constituted fair
comment upon issues of public interest made honestly and without malice.
11. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (c) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that these comments are true in substance
and in fact.
12. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (d) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that these comments are true in substance
and in fact. To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions
of opinion, the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated
upon herein and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues
of public interest made honestly and without malice.
13. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (e) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that these comments are true in substance
and in fact. To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions
of opinion, the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated
upon herein and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues
of public interest made honestly and without malice.
14. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (f) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that these comments are true in substance
and in fact. To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions
of opinion, the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated
herein and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues
of public interest made honestly and without malice.
15. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (g) of the Statement
of Claim.
16. The defendants admit that CBC broadcast the comments
attributed to its broadcast as alleged in paragraph 10 (h) of the Statement
of Claim. The defendants state that these comments are true in substance
and in fact. To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions
of opinion, the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated
upon herein and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues
of publicinterest made honestly and without malice.
17. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast referenced in paragraph 11 (a) of the Statement of Claim. The
defendants state that these comments are true in substance and in fact.
18. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast referenced in paragraph 11 (b) of the Statement of Claim. The
defendants state that these comments are true in substance and in fact.
19. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast referenced in paragraph 11 (c) of the Statement of Claim. The
defendants state that these comments are true in substance and in fact.
20. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast referenced in paragraph 11 (d) of the Statement of Claim. The
defendants state that these comments are true in substance and in fact.
21. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast referenced in paragraph 11 (e) of the Statement of Claim with
the exception of the words "sexually fondled". The defendants state that
the broadcast that the women received unwanted sexual advances. The defendants
state that these comments are true in substance and in fact.
22. The defendants admit the meaning attributed to
its broadcast as referenced in paragraph 11 (f) of the Statement of Claim.
To the extent any of these comments consisted of expressions of opinion,
the defendants repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated upon herein
and state that the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues of public
interest made honestly and without malice.
23. Contrary to paragraph 12 of the Statement of Claim,
the defendants state that the broadcast did not label the conduct of the
plaintiff as criminal. Nor did they suggest the plaintiff ought to be
incarcerated in a "jailing institution" (sic). Nor did the defendants make
the suggestion that the plaintiff was hired in New York as an act of desperation.
Nor did the defendants make the suggestion that the plaintiff was a
"blackmailer". The defendants accept the remaining suggestions referenced
in paragraph 12 of the Statement of Claim as being made by them. The defendants
state that these comments are true in substance and in fact. To the extent
any of these comments consisted of expressions of opinion, the defendants
repeat the allegations of fact as are elaborated upon herein and state that
the broadcast constituted fair comment upon issues of public interest made
honestly and without malice.
24. As relates to paragraph 13 of the Statement of
Claim, the defendants repeat their allegations as stated in paragraph 22
above.
25. The defendants deny the first sentence of paragraph
14 of the Statement of Claim. As expressed in paragraphs above herein, the
defendants state these allegations are true in substance and in fact. The
defendants have no knowledge of the matters referred to in the second sentence
of paragraph 14 and put the plaintiff to the strict proof thereof.
26. The defendants admit, as alleged in paragraph 16
of the Statement of Claim, that no criminal charges have been preferred to
date, but state that a criminal investigation was commenced and concluded,
with its conclusions being referenced to the standard of proof in criminal
cases.
27. The defendants deny that the plaintiff suffered
the losses complained of in paragraph 17 of the Statement of Claim and put
the plaintiff to the strict proof thereof.
28. The defendants deny as alleged in paragraph 19
of the Statement of Claim, that they exercised bad faith or malice. They
intended, rather, in good faith, and based upon information which they had
researched thoroughly, and believed to be true, that they were acting on
a public duty to convey information of importance to the community at
large.
29. The defendants further deny the damages and losses
alleged by the plaintiff in paragraph 20 of the Statement of Claim, and put
the plaintiff to the strict proof thereof.
30. The defendants specifically deny paragraph 20 of
the Statement of Claim. At all times material hereto, the defendants believed
that each component of the broadcast was true in substance and in fact. They
took all reasonable and appropriate steps to insure the accuracy of their
information.
31. Contrary to paragraph 21 of the Statement of Claim,
whilst the defendants admit the plaintiff forwarded a notice to them, they
deny their refusal to apologize, or their decision to broadcast was motivated
by high-handedness or arrogance, but state rather that they believed at all
times they were acting in good faith and in the public interest.
32. The defendants have no knowledge of the matters
referred to in paragraph 22 of the Statement of Claim and put the plaintiff
to the strict proof thereof.
33. The defendants deny that the plaintiff had any
privacy rights as alleged in paragraph 23 of the Statement of Claim.
34. The defendants submit that the action be dismissed
with costs on a solicitor and client basis.
__________________________________________________________________________________
By Stephanie Saul - Staff Writer
Newsday - May 26, 2003, 7:08 PM EDT
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks compares the complaints against
him to a ghost that trails him from city to city, school to school.
"How do you battle a ghost?" says Bryks, sitting in
the cramped office of the small yeshiva he runs in Kew Gardens Hills. He
has done nothing wrong, he says. "I would love to have that case fully
investigated."
A thousand miles away in Canada, where "that case"
began, Sarah Levin says she is haunted, too. Her son, Daniel Levin, depressed
and struggling with rage, hanged himself on Yom Kippur, 1993. He was 16.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged Cult Leader |
Several
months earlier, Daniel Levin's parents say, the teenager told them that Bryks
had sexually molested him when he was a small child in the rabbi's Winnipeg,
Manitoba, congregation. They say Daniel reported the abuse to police in Toronto,
where they lived at the time. Toronto police said confidentiality rules prevented
them from confirming or denying that.
"This man is toxic," Sarah Levin said. "He shouldn't
be around children. He should be in jail."
Levin's claim is the starkest of several such complaints
that have followed Bryks from Canada to Queens. Another woman, a former member
of Bryks' congregation in Winnipeg, recently told Newsday that her daughter
has been in psychiatric therapy for the past 10 years since she first alleged
that Bryks repeatedly removed her underpants and molested her. The girl,
then 12, said the alleged abuse occurred when she was between four and six
years old.
"We always teach our kids to be wary of strangers,"
the woman said. "It's almost never a stranger. It's almost always someone
who you know."
The woman said she reported the allegations to Winnipeg
police, but decided not to pursue the matter to spare her daughter further
emotional trauma.
No criminal charges were ever brought against Bryks,
and he has denied the allegations over and over. But the complaints against
Bryks have hobbled his career, blocking his hiring by at least one congregation
and forcing his ouster from at least one other. And the claims continue to
concern some local rabbis.
Members of the Rabbinical Council of America have said
privately they would like to review Bryks' membership in the group, which
represents about 1,100 Orthodox rabbis.
And there have been efforts to have Bryks removed from
the Queens Va'ad Harabonim, a council of rabbis that makes important decisions
in the borough. Rabbi Simcha Krauss of Young Israel of Hillcrest congregation
led that effort. And he said he remains distressed that Bryks is still in
Jewish education.
"To make a long story short, any pressure brought that
he should resign would be welcome," Krauss said.
Rabbi Manny Behar, executive director of the Queens
Jewish Community Council, said he hopes the allegations against Bryks are
resolved, one way or another.
"A person shouldn't have something like this hanging
over his head," Behar said. "If it's true, it should be verified true and
then he probably shouldn't be teaching in a school. If it's not true, he
deserves to have his good name restored and go on with his life."
Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov said he and Bryks co-founded Bryks'
current school, Yeshiva Berachel David, on 78th Road in Kew Gardens Hills.
"He's a great individual," said Nisanov, who said he had known Bryks for
13 years. "All the allegations are baseless, useless, never proven."
The school has about 15, students, mostly Bukharian
Sephardic Jews from the former Soviet Union. Nisanov said no one there has
complained about Bryks. "We are not quiet people," he said. "They would kill
him, in the literal sense, if anything like that happened."
The complaints against Bryks, 49, come from Winnipeg,
where he ran a Jewish day school and a congregation that flourished under
his leadership. starting in 1978.
But by the late 1980s, the congregation had started
a review of alleged improprieties by Bryks. Winnipeg child welfare authorities,
conducting their own investigation, found in March 1988 that there was nothing
to support criminal or even administrative charges against Bryks.
But the authorities concluded that some of Bryks'
interactions with female students -- tickling, kissing, hugging and having
students sit on his lap -- "were neither appropriate nor professional behavior,"
according to their report. Bryks at the time described his behavior as warm
and caring, but not inappropriate, according to an article in the Winnipeg
Free Press.
Bryks was allowed to keep his job in the fractured
congregation -- several board members had quit -- but he left Winnipeg two
years later and eventually made his way to Torah Academy, a yeshiva in Kew
Gardens.
While board members at the Queens high school found
him a good administrator, they removed him following a 1994 Canadian Broadcasting
Company news report.
In addition to the Levins, it quoted a former student
and two couples who said their children were victimized. Except for the Levins,
their identities were obscured, but they all told basically the same story
-- that Bryks had fondled students in his private office.
Manitoba authorities reopened their investigation and
announced in 1995 that they would not bring charges. Bryks then sued the
Canadian Broadcasting Co., as well as Cable News Network, which rebroadcast
the CBC documentary. The cases were thrown out on technical grounds.
Bryks appears incredulous that allegations keep resurfacing
after so many years, saying that he has devoted his life to helping
others.
"It's the type of allegation that implies you're guilty
by accusation," said Bryks. "It pains me that I am lumped together with people
who are guilty when I know I am totally innocent."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Dogged By Allegations, Rabbi Quits - Rabbi Maintains
Denial Of Any Wrongdoing
By Stephanie Saul - Staff Writer
Newsday - May 28, 2003
A Queens rabbi who had been dogged by old sexual abuse
allegations from Canada this week resigned his membership in a prestigious
rabbinical organization and agreed to leave Jewish education, officials of
the group said Wednesday night.
The Rabbinical Council of America, an organization
of Orthodox rabbis, was believed to be considering ousting Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks of Kew Gardens Hills as a result of the lingering abuse allegations,
which arose when he was the pulpit rabbi and yeshiva administrator in a Winnipeg
congregation during the 1980s.
Bryks has always denied those claims and continued
the denial in submitting his resignation.
"He wanted to make very clear that his resignation
should not be seen as an admission of guilt," said Rabbi Hershel Billet,
outgoing president of the rabbinical council.
Billet also said Bryks plans to leave his post as principal
at Yeshiva Berachel David on 78th Road at the end of the school year.
"He's just going to be a private citizen," said Billet,
the leader of Young Israel of Woodmere congregation.
Bryks' resignation from the council came as the
1,100-member organization, meeting in Rye, was considering a resolution on
sexual abuse.
The resolution, which was adopted last night, urged
Orthodox Jews to report allegations of sexual abuse to police as well as
to establish systems for sexual abuse prevention and education.
"We're fully committed to it," said Rabbi Kenneth Auman
of Young Israel of Flatbush congregation in Brooklyn. Auman was installed
Wednesday night as the organization's new president.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi quits under cloud - Dogged by sex-abuse
allegations
By TAMMY MARLOWE, STAFF REPORTER
The Winnipeg Sun - Friday, May 30, 2003
A New York rabbi, who's been dogged by allegations
of sexual abuse against at least one Winnipeg child for more than 15 years,
has resigned from the Rabbinical Council of America.
Council officials confirmed Rabbi Ephraim Bryks resigned
his membership from the prestigious Orthodox Rabbi association earlier in
the week, according to a report on Newsday's Internet site.
The report said the council planned to remove Bryks
due to long-standing allegations of sexual abuse against children in Winnipeg
dating back to the 1980s.
SON COMMITTED SUICIDE
"Perhaps, finally, people are recognizing him for who
he is," said Toronto journalist Martin Levin, whose 16-year-old son, Daniel,
committed suicide on Yom Kippur in 1993 -- just a few months after he told
his parents he'd been molested by Rabbi Bryks as a child, back when the family
still lived in Winnipeg.
"This man is toxic," the teen's mother, Sarah Levin,
told Newsday.
"He shouldn't be around children. He should be in
jail."
Another Winnipeg woman told Newsday her daughter had
also been fondled by Bryks when the girl was five or six years old.
Bryks ran a popular Jewish day school and congregation
in Winnipeg in the late 1970s, said the Newsday report. About a decade later,
members investigated allegations Bryks was interacting inappropriately with
some females in the group -- allegedly tickling, kissing, hugging and having
them sit in his lap.
Bryks left Winnipeg a couple of years later and moved
to Queens, N.Y., where he has worked as a rabbi ever since.
Manitoba law enforcement officials looked into the
Bryks case but concluded in 1995 there wasn't enough evidence to bring criminal
charges.
Bryks himself has always denied the allegations.
"It's the type of allegation that implies you're guilty
by accusation," Bryks told Newsday reporter Stephanie Saul. "It pains me
that I am lumped together with people who are guilty when I know I am totally
innocent."
Bryks was unavailable for comment when The Winnipeg
Sun contacted his home yesterday.
"Oh please. You people are unreal," said a woman who
answered the phone at Bryks' Richmond Hill, N.Y., home, before hanging
up.
Levin said he tries not to corrupt his mind with thoughts
of Bryks -- unless it means further exposing the rabbi's alleged wrongs.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The author in this article uses the phrase "planned to remove" which is
not accurate. The accurate phrase is the one used in the original Newsday
article (which this article was based on): "believed to be considering
ousting". -- Bryks webpage editor
Dear Vicki,
This report is not correct. Rabbi Bryks was not about
to be removed from the RCA.There was a call by some members to bring his
case to our disciplinary committee. However ,Rabbi Bryks was very clear in
stating that he maintains his innocence.His resignation should not be seen
as an admission of guilt.Rather , since he was leaving Jewish Education with
the closing of his school, he no longer saw a necessity to belong to a
professional Rabbinic Organization. He ,therefore was resigning from the
RCA. I think that it is very important to maintain integrity in pursuit of
your goals. The Newsday report is more in line with the truth. I do not think
that the Winnipeg article should be disseminated.
Respectfully yours
Heshie Billet
------------------------------------------
Rabbi Resigns Amid Sex Abuse
Allegations (see note above)
Queens Courier - May 28, 2003
A rabbi from Kew Gardens Hills has resigned from the
rabbinical organization that was reportedly on the brink of casting him out
because of long-standing sexual abuse allegations.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who was first accused of abusing
a Canadian boy in the 1980's, resigned last week as a member of the Rabbinical
Council of America. He also agreed to leave Jewish teaching. Bryks co-founded
the Yeshiva Berachel David in Kew Gardens Hills where he is presently an
administrator.
"He wanted to make it very clear that his resignation
should not be seen as an admission of guilt," Rabbi Hershel Billet, council
president, told Newsday.
Bryks, 49, still denies allegations regarding Daniel
Levin, a 16-year-old Canadian boy whom he is accused of abusing as a small
child. Daniel was a congregant at the Winnipeg, Manitoba, synagogue where
Bryks was rabbi and ran a Jewish day school beginning in 1978. The boy, who
had been struggling with depression, committed suicide on Yom Kippur in 1993.
Months earlier he had told his parents about being sexually molested by the
rabbi.
Accusations by the Levin family are only some of several
involving other children that have haunted Bryks since he left Winnipeg for
the Torah Academy, a Kew Gardens yeshiva. The academy–a high school
where he was administrator–fired him in 1994 after hearing a Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news report that quoted a former student and
two families who said their children had also been abused. Bryks would later
sue CBC for the report, as well as Cable News Network, which ran the CBC
report, but the cases were dismissed on technicalities.
After an extensive investigation, Manitoba authorities
announced in 1995 that they would not prosecute Bryks. The child welfare
authorities in Winnipeg did their own investigation at that time and found
that there was no significant evidence.
No criminal charges have ever been filed against Bryks,
who plans to continue life as a private citizen. But accusations made his
career an arduous one, preventing his hiring by one congregation and drawing
concern from colleagues. The Queens Va'ad Harabonim, an important council
of Queens rabbis, has talked of removing him.
"A person shouldn't have something like this hanging
over his head," Manny Behar, executive director of the Queens Jewish Community
Council, told Newsday."If it's true, it should be verified true and then
he probably shouldn't be teaching in a school. If it's not true, he deserves
to have his good name restored."
Bryks was not reachable for comment by press time.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The author in this article uses the phrase "on the brink of casting him
" which is not accurate. The accurate phrase is the one used in the original
Newsday article (which this article was based on): "believed to be considering
ousting". -- Bryks webpage editor
-----------------------------------------------
Centrist group tells members to inform police
of suspicions of misconduct; controversial member resigns.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen - Staff Writer
The Jewish Week - June 6, 2003
Orthodox rabbis are pledging to take action in confronting
the reality of sexual abuse in their midst.
The nation's main association of centrist Orthodox
clergy, the 1,200-member Rabbinical Council of America, has passed a strongly
worded resolution committing the organization and its members to report acts
or suspicions of child abuse to the police — a watershed break with
longstanding practice in the Torah-observant community of protecting errant
rabbis rather than reporting them to civil authorities.
At the same time, the fervently Orthodox Agudath Israel
of America is fighting behind the scenes in Albany to defeat a bill that
would require clergy and religious institutions in New York to review old
files and report past allegations against a religious leader.
The centrist Orthodox rabbis' group will be reconsidering
"the role and function" of its Ethics Committee, which has never before dealt
with issues related to sexual misconduct. It will adopt policies and procedures
for reprimanding, censuring, suspending and revoking memberships of those
found guilty of such acts.
Their resolution was unanimously approved by nearly
300 attendees at the group's annual convention, held May 27-29 at the Rye
Town Hilton, after less than an hour of discussion.
"A whole confluence of events inspired us to take a
step back and re-evaluate our leadership and responsibility in this area,"
said Rabbi Mark Dratch, a vice president of the RCA and author of the
resolution.
"As rabbis our job is to be the servants of the community.
Their welfare and well-being, not only spiritually but physically, is our
prime concern," he said. "Otherwise we have no right being rabbis."
He is heading the committee that will re-draft an ethics
policy by the organization's next annual meeting. He hopes to involve mental
health professionals and survivors of clergy sexual misconduct in the
deliberations, he said.
Events pushing this to the top of the RCA's agenda
at its conference include the fact that rabbinic sexual misconduct in all
of Judaism's major denominations has lately been much in the news, and has
been plaguing the RCA's sister organization, the synagogue body the Orthodox
Union, with the conviction of long-time youth leader Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
What's more, one of the RCA's members has been facing
such allegations. Rabbi Ephraim Bryks has for the last few years run Yeshiva
Berachel David, a small Orthodox high school in the Kew Gardens Hills section
of Queens. Allegations of child molestation have followed him for years,
going back to his leadership of a yeshiva and a congregation in Winnipeg,
Canada, two decades ago. Canadian civil authorities investigated charges
there and found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing.
Rabbi Bryks has repeatedly denied the allegations,
but because they have continued to circulate, RCA sources say, he is leaving
the Queens yeshiva and at the conference, he resigned his RCA
membership.
Efforts to reach Rabbi Bryks were unsuccessful. But
Rabbi Heshie Billet, immediate past president of the RCA, spoke with him
at the convention and told The Jewish Week that Rabbi Bryks "is leaving Jewish
education. The school is closing and since he no longer will have a formal
rabbinic position he feels it's not necessary to belong to a professional
rabbinic body.
"He told me his resignation should in no way be construed
as an admission of guilt. He denies all the allegations against him," said
Rabbi Billet. "I don't know what he'll be doing next. I just accepted his
resignation at face value."
There are no charges or allegations outstanding against
any other member of the RCA, Rabbi Dratch said.
Sexual impropriety and related issues were the convention's
focus. Leading rabbis from Chicago and Los Angeles presented case studies
of how the Orthodox rabbis in their communities have handled abuse issues.
Other sessions addressed rabbinic stress, rabbis and the media, and rabbis
and legal issues as they relate to pastoral counseling, said Rabbi Basil
Herring, the RCA's incoming executive vice president. He succeeds Rabbi Steven
Dworken, the popular professional who died suddenly earlier this year and
was memorialized at a tribute dinner at the convention.
Confronting sexual misconduct and the weave of related
issues "is part of an ongoing maturation process for the community in general
to have the courage and determination to act aggressively against problems
which have always been with us," said Rabbi Dratch.
"A lot of factors are forcing us to deal with it, to
assert leadership, and not just to look for cover. We need to do what is
necessary for the welfare of the community and the integrity of the
Torah."
One of the central elements of the "Resolution Regarding
Members Accused of Improprieties" is the exploration of why reporting rabbis
suspected of child abuse does not constitute mesirah, which can be translated
as one Jew "informing" on another. The principle has long shaped a culture
of suspicion toward civil authorities in much of the Orthodox world.
Mesirah is also one of the reasons supplied by Agudath
Israel for its opposition to a bill that has passed the state Senate and
is currently working its way through the Assembly. The bill would add clergy
to other categories of professionals, like educators and health care workers,
who are required to report suspected child abuse. A similar bill was killed
last year.
The law, if passed, would also require clergy and religious
institutions to review records from the preceding 20 years and turn over
old allegations to civil authorities.
This would be an "unconstitutional" law, said David
Zwiebel, the Agudah's executive vice president for government and public
affairs. The group is working behind the scenes in Albany to defeat it.
"It is a sensitive issue now especially with some of
the attention that's been focused on allegations within our own community,"
he said. "The last thing we want to be seen as is obstructing whatever legitimate
inquiries may be made among our own rabbinate.
"At the same time," said Zwiebel, "it would be unfortunate
if the stories that have made their way into the papers and TV programs were
to cause the kind of overreaction that this represents by perpetuating the
notion that clergy, of all people, are more suspect than any other profession
or group in society."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Clarification to letter in Jewish Post and
News Winnipeg:
The letter indicates: that the head (now former head)
of the RCA has indicated that Bryks has left both the Rabbanute and Jewish
chinuch.
More accurately, according to the Jewish Week, Rabbi
Heshie Billet, immediate past president of the RCA, said that:
Rabbi Bryks "is leaving Jewish education. The school
is closing and since he no longer will have a formal rabbinic position he
feels it's not necessary to belong to a professional rabbinic body. -- Name withheld upon request
**********************************************************************************
LETTERS
Story about 'eruv' should have mentioned Bryks'
past
The Jewish Post & News (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
- Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - page 5
It's unfortunate that your article ("Hydro Towers,
connecting hydro lines a kosher 'eruv', expert tells Winnipeg 'Eruv Committee',
October 15 Jewish Post & News) represents Rabbi Ephraim Bryks as a halachic
authority/Orthodox rabbi without any qualification. I believe it is insulting
to his victims, particularly as this is the 10th anniversary of the death
of one of his victims, Daniel Levin. It was the continuing silence of the
Winnipeg Jewish community and its leadership which created the environment
that kept victims fearful and silent and led to Daniel's needless death at
age 17.
Please note:
1) that recently Bryks publicly resigned from the
Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) under a public cloud.
2) that the head (now former head) of the RCA has indicated
that Bryks has left both the Rabbanute and Jewish chinuch.
See articles at following website:
1) Main Website:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org
2) List of cases (Bryks is #4 on list, his father-in-law
is #2)
3) Ephraim Bryks information
-- ANONYMOUS --
**********************************************************************************
Community news
The Jewish Post and News (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
– page 13
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Hydro towers, connecting hydro lines a kosher `eruv',
expert tells Winnipeg `Eruv Committee' - Council of Rabbis calls for
community-wide acceptance of symbolic enclosure allowing observant to carry
outside homes on Shabbat
A rabbi cited as an internationally-respected expert
has reviewed and reconfirmed the kashrut of the city-wide "eruv" he set up
for Winnipeg nearly two decades ago.
Rabbi Gavriel Zinner of Brooklyn, New York visited
here last August and "spent an entire day reviewing the eruv that he had
set up in 1984," the Winnipeg Council of Rabbis (WCOR) said in a statement
e-mailed to The Jewish Post & News October 7.
Zinner, author of a "30-volume halachic encyclopedia,
Nitei Gavriel," examined Winnipeg's eruv, a symbolic enclosure that allows
Shabbat-observant Jews to perform certain physical tasks outside their homes
on the Sabbath.
An "eruv committee" including Michael Eskin, Eli Boroditsky
and others has been monitoring the eruv, checking to see that it remains
intact, Rabbi Ari Enkin, an Orthodox rabbi, member of WCOR and Rady Jewish
Community Centre staff member, said last week. The committee extended the
invitation to
Zinner to re-examine this city's eruv, which consists
of hydro towers encircling Winnipeg and the hydro lines between them.
"He reviewed it and said it was kosher," Rabbi Henry
Balser, chair of WCOR, said in an interview October 7.
WCOR seeks to get a "community-wide hechsher going,"
in terms of Shabbat-observant Winnipeg Jews' acceptance of the eruv, Balser
added.
In their statement, Balser and fellow WCOR rabbis Enkin,
Alan Green and Neal Rose quoted a passage from the writings of the 18th-century
rabbi and scholar, Chatam Sofer, saying" "All rabbis and community leaders
must do their utmost to establish an eruv in their community."
In Jewish religious tradition, an eruv can make even
a large public area into a "private domain", Balser explained. It allows
Jews to carry and move objects outside their homes on Shabbat just as they're
allowed to do in their own homes.
"For women with children in baby carriages, it would
allow them out."
The issue first arose here in the mid-1980s when two
North End Orthodox rabbis and Zinner, a "world-renowed halachic authority",
declared the hydro towers and their hydro lines an eruv.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, then spiritual leader of the South
End Herzlia Synagogue, rejected the idea, as did dome other Orthodox rabbis.
Contacted last week, Joseph ("Yossi") Cohen, Herzlia's current president,
said he disputes Zinner's claim that the hydro towers and lines are a legal
eruv.
"I don't personally accept the eruv in Winnipeg," Cohen
said, adding that Rabbi Avrom Altein, executive director of the Lubavitch
Centre, gave a workshop several weeks ago, challenging Zinner's
arguments.
"The existing eruv doesn't even surround the city,"
Cohen claimed, adding that that's one of the requirements of such an
"enclosure".
Cohen added that Herzlia officials have shared their
views and Altein's about the eruv with the 200-family Herzlia congregation,
the biggest Orthodox one in the city. But they're not interested in stirring
up opposition to the eruv.
"People have to trust their rabbis. If a rabbi believes
it's kosher, they use the eruv."
Cohen knows of local Orthodox Jews that accept Winnipeg's
eruv, but he doesn't. "My wife can't come to shule on Shabbat because she
can't push a stroller. I've got small kids at home, and I can't get them
to shule. But it's something we've lived with for many years."
Altein said he's studied and photographed Winnipeg's
eruv extensively, and disputes its kashrut for a variety of reasons grounded
in Jewish religious tradition.
He echoed Cohen, however, in emphasizing he's not out
to create conflict in the community over the issue.
"The question of the eruv is not of any concern to
anybody who doesn't keep Shabbas literally," Altein added. "To the Conservative
movement, I don't think it's of high importance."
Enkin insisted, however, that the Winnipeg eruv completely
encircles the city.
Telephone poles with telephone wires strung between
them and circling a city are "generally the mode" for eruvin (plural of "eruv")
in North American Jewish communities, Enkin added. But Zinner was able to
declare the Winnipeg hydro towers and lines an eruv because in contrast to
many other cities, Winnipeg hasn't buried its hydro lines.
"It's like one huge house with a lot of doors. That's
what the eruv turns the city into."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi's visit canceled amid abuse
allegations - The Jewish community in D.M. received e-mails
accusing the man of a history of child abuse.
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
Des Moines Register - November 14, 2003
(** Please note that there are some misquotes in
this article. The quote "Pedophilia has no religion," is a statement I quoted
from Na'ama Yehuda, one of The Awareness Center's advisory board
members.)
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Accused of clergy sexual abuse and cult like practices |
A Des Moines orthodox synagogue has canceled the appearance
of a prominent New York rabbi scheduled to speak this weekend, after the
Des Moines Jewish community was barraged with e-mails suggesting the guest
speaker had a history of child abuse.
Rabbi Ari Sytner of Beth El Jacob Synagogue had invited
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of Richmond Hill, N.Y., to speak at an event today. Bryks
had spoken twice before in Des Moines at Sytner's invitation.
Members
of a victims advocacy network found the announcement on DesMoinesRegister.com
and sent messages to the newspaper and members of the Iowa Jewish community,
said a member of that network.
Bryks would not speak to a Register reporter Thursday,
but in a May article in a New York newspaper denied the allegations, which
are more than 20 years old. Despite the fact that he's never been charged
with child abuse, Bryks said in the article that the allegations are like
a ghost trailing him from city to city, school to school. And to Des
Moines.
"Rabbi and Mrs. Bryks have visited our community twice
before in the last few years (before we knew of the allegations), and they
were welcomed, loved and respected by all that met them," Sytner said Wednesday
in a written statement.
"Nonetheless, I still have absolutely no basis for
determining this man's guilt or innocence, and unfortunately with the program
scheduled for this weekend, time is not on our side to further investigate.
As a result, I have decided to cancel Rabbi Bryks' trip to Des Moines until
we can further clarify the matter."
When approached about the e-mail messages earlier this
week, Sytner said he believed it was a case of mistaken identity, noting
that Ephraim Bryks is a common Jewish name. After Sytner received forwarded
e-mails from "all over the country," he decided to cancel Bryks' trip.
One of the early e-mails came from the executive director
and founder of The Awareness Center, an international organization dedicated
to advocacy and education on sexual abuse in Jewish communities. Founder
Victoria Polin said Bryks is one of about 100 alleged abusers whose names
are posted on the center's Web site.
"Pedophilia has no religion," Polin said. "Some Jewish
communities are 30 years behind the times in terms of addressing sexual abuse.
In some Orthodox communities, they do not watch TV or read the newspapers.
All they know is what the rabbi tells them. Someone has to speak out because
nobody listens to the victims."
The allegations stem from a period in the late 1980s
when Bryks was the leader at a Winnipeg, Canada, Jewish day school and
congregation, according to The Jewish Tribune, a publication of B'nai Brith
Canada.
According to various media reports, Bryks was accused
of abusing five Winnipeg students, including a 17-year-old boy who committed
suicide in 1994 after talking about the alleged abuse with his parents and
police.
A 1988 report by the government agency, Winnipeg South
Child and Family Services on a 14-year-old girl's allegations, said there
was no evidence to support a finding of criminal wrongdoing, but said Bryks'
interaction with female students was inappropriate. A year later, parents
of a young boy took a sex abuse complaint to Winnipeg police. The allegations
were investigated, but there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal
charges, according to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary.
Bryks left Canada in 1990, relocating in New York,
where the allegations blocked his hiring by at least one congregation and
forced his ouster from at least one other, according to the New York
newspaper.
Attempts have been made to remove Bryks from the Queens,
N.Y., Va'ad Harabonim, a council of rabbis that makes important decisions
in the borough.
Earlier this year, Bryks resigned from the Rabbinical
Council of America under criticism. In June, the 1,200-member Rabbinical
Council voted to report acts or suspicions of child abuse to the police,
a break from a longstanding practice of protecting errant rabbis rather than
reporting them to civil authorities, according to reports in The Jewish Week
newspaper.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Breaking News Brief
Accused rabbi
dropped
JTA - November 17, 2003
Please note: The statement "No one lodged any
formal charges" is inaccurate.
A rabbi shadowed by charges of child sex abuse was
dropped from a speaking engagement. Beth El Jacob Synagogue in Des Moines
canceled a talk last week by Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of Richmond Hill, N.Y.,
after members of the Iowa Jewish community received e-mails detailing the
allegations. Rabbi Ari Sytner, who heads the Orthodox congregation, said
the synagogue did not know about the charges but intended to look into them.
Bryks first said in an interview that he couldn't care less about the reversal,
but he later wrote to JTA maintaining his innocence. "Those who have been
falsely accused are also victims," he said. In the 1980s, several former
students of the now-defunct Winnipeg Torah Academy accused Bryks of fondling
them in his office. No one lodged any formal charges, and while local child
welfare officials found evidence of inappropriate behavior with children,
they found no proof of criminal wrongdoing.
Earlier this year the Rabbinical Council of American
accepted Bryks' resignation, which means he cannot use the group's job placement
services. "We felt that, on the one hand, everyone has the presumption of
innocence, but on the other hand, we recognize that one should not wait until
things are proven in a court of law in order to remove potentially abusive
situations," the RCA's executive vice president, Rabbi Basil Herring,
said.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Iowa Synagogue Nixes Queens Rabbi's
Speech
Jewish Week - November 19, 2003
(JTA) A Queens rabbi shadowed by charges of child sex
abuse was dropped from a speaking engagement in Iowa. Beth El Jacob Synagogue
in Des Moines canceled a talk last week by Rabbi Ephraim Bryks of Richmond
Hill after members of the Iowa Jewish community received e-mails detailing
the allegations.
Rabbi Bryks first said in an interview that he couldn't
care less about the reversal, but he later wrote to JTA maintaining his
innocence. In the 1980s, several former students of the now-defunct Winnipeg
Torah Academy in Canada accused Bryks of fondling them, but none lodged formal
charges.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Ragsdale: More faith communities struggle with
alleged child sexual abuse
By Shirley Ragsdale - Register Religion Editor
Des Moines Register - November 22, 2003
American Jews have joined Catholics and United Methodists
on the list of U.S. denominations that are wrestling with how to deal with
allegations of child sexual abuse.
This year, the Rabbinical Council of America joined
the other three Jewish denominations in voting to report allegations of child
abuse to the police.
Prompted in part by the case of a rabbi, whose appearance
in Des Moines was cancelled earlier this month, the rabbinical council reversed
a long-standing Orthodox practice of protecting accused rabbis or trying
to take care of scandal internally. The organization's ethics policy is being
rewritten with the help of mental health professionals and survivors of clergy
sexual misconduct.
It's a huge step forward for a faith tradition with
a history of persecution. That history undoubtedly contributed to an ancient
Jewish prohibition called a Mesirah, a mandate that no Jew should betray
another Jew to civil authorities.
The urge to stifle scandal and preserve the status
quo has been a common reaction for congregations that are confronted by
allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy. But it's a bad choice
that ill-serves everyone involved - the victims, the accused, the congregation
and the community.
Resorting to secrecy got the Boston Catholic Archdiocese
in trouble, because when 50 years of accumulated accusations of sexual misconduct
poured out over six months, it exaggerated the scope of the problem.
A similar reaction by a Winnipeg, Canada, Jewish
congregation to allegations of child sexual abuse has permanently scarred
the synagogue, the victims, their families and the alleged abuser.
Beth El Jacob Synagogue on Nov. 13 cancelled the appearance
of New York Rabbi Ephraim Bryks because of an e-mail campaign to alert Iowans
that Bryks was accused of molesting children nearly 20 years ago when he
was the leader of a Canadian synagogue and Jewish day school.
Like the Boston Catholic cases, the charges are decades
old.
Like the Catholic cases, synagogue leaders did their
best to hush things up.
Instead of immediately asking police or child and family
services to investigate, they held an internal "investigation." A number
of meetings were held which reportedly disintegrated into yelling matches
between the families of the victims and the rabbi's supporters.
Winnipeg social services agencies didn't get the case
until later, after the congregation had taken sides and possibly victims
had been intimidated. No criminal charges were filed. But investigators said
Bryks' actions were inappropriate and unprofessional.
Bryks has always denied he did anything wrong. He left
Canada in 1990 and settled in New York where he worked as a principal and
a teacher. This year he resigned from the Rabbinical Council of America after
some members sought his ouster.
Victoria Polin, founder, and Na'ama Yehuda, advisory
board member of The Awareness Center, an international organization dedicated
to addressing sexual abuse in Jewish communities, have said that Jews carry
an extra burden when it comes to going public with a sex scandal.
"Over the years there have been many reasons why the
Jewish community kept silent about sexual crimes committed by individuals
in our community," Polin wrote on her Web site www.theawarenesscenter.org.
"There is a large number of hate groups that would love to promote their
propaganda on their Web pages and in publications by posting information
about Jews who molest. Their eagerness is a reminder that anti-Semitism is
alive and thriving."
Additionally, some fervently Orthodox congregations
feel bound by the Mesirah, that no Jew should betray another Jew to civil
authorities.
The prohibition arose because Jews have lived under
autocratic governments and biased judicial systems for much of their history.
Informing could lead to dangerous persecution of the entire Jewish
community.
Congregations relied on the judgment of special Jewish
courts to settle disputes and deal out punishment. While those courts still
exist, their power is limited, according to Rabbi David Jay Kaufman of Temple
B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines.
"These special courts operated with authorities from
civil authorities," Kaufman said. "They dealt with Jewish law, which many
times was more stringent than secular law. It was useful for keeping community
social structures intact."
While the local Jewish community is still mindful of
anti-Semitism and avoiding scandal, it would be unconscionable for anyone
in the Jewish faith tradition to hesitate to report a child abuse situation
today, Kaufman said.
"In some states, clergy are required to report suspicions
of child abuse," Kaufman said. "As far as I'm concerned, it is a good thing.
My primary concern is for the children. The people who do this kind of thing
usually don't have just one victim, so if you don't do something to stop
them, you are endangering other children. I can't think of a reason that
would morally or ethically make it allowable not to report."
The work of Jewish leaders who share Kaufman's attitude
toward reporting child abuse and the Orthodox community's decision to embrace
a reporting policy show an "ongoing maturation process for the community
in general to have the courage and determination to act aggressively against
problems which have always been with us," said Rabbi Mark Dratch, who authored
the Rabbinical Council resolution.
"A lot of factors are forcing us to deal with (child
abuse) to assert leadership and not just to look for cover," Dratch told
The Jewish Week. "We need to do what is necessary for the welfare of the
community and the integrity of the Torah."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Call to Action: In Honor of the Memory of Daniel
Levin
Asking Herzlia - Adas Yeshurun
Synagogue to have the plaque removed honoring Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks
Contact Information:
Rabbi Tzvi Muller at
Herzlia - Adas Yeshurun
Synagogue
620 Brock St., Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3N 0Z4
Phone: (204) 489-6262 Fax: (204)
489-5899
email:
herzlia2000@yahoo.ca
The Awareness Center - October 10, 2004
This Yom Kippur marked the 11th anniversary of the
suicide of Daniel Levin an alleged victim of Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks
(http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/bryks_ephraim.html). It is a difficult
time in particular for his family and friends as Daniel's alleged abuser
has never been brought to real justice (if such a thing is even possible
at this point) and continues to thrive and work with women and children,
not in some small Jewish community but in the New York Orthodox Jewish
community.
The Winnipeg Jewish community and Bryks' former Orthodox
Union affiliated synagogue, Herzlia Adas Yeshurun (the site of Daniel's abuse),
continue to refuse any acknowledgment or responsibility. No apology, no
compassion. A plaque honoring Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks remains on the
synagogue's "Tree of Life." All Daniel has is a tombstone in a cemetery.
The Awareness Center Has A Call to Action asking everyone
to contact Herzlia Adas Yeshurun and ask them to remove the plaque, and perhaps
replace it with a plaque honoring the memory of Daniel Levin (see contact
information above). For more information regarding the Bryks case.
Sincerely,
Vicki Polin, MA, ATR, LCPC
Executive Director - The Awareness Center
__________________________________________________________________________________
Letter from
Mordechai Bobrowsky to Rabbi
Muller
October 16, 2004
Dear Rabbi Muller,
I am a former friend and schoolmate of Daniel Levin,
and as such it was quite the rude awakening to read about your synagogue's
decision to honor Ephraim Bryks, Daniel's alleged abuser, with a plaque on
your Tree of Life.
Although the allegations have never been proven in
a court of law, the awful truth is that a young teenager committed suicide
and his alleged abuser has never been taken to task by his own (former)
community. Certainly not just anybody gets on your Tree of Life. Were you
really that deep into your list that the next reasonable person you had to
award a plaque to was a man who has faced numerous sexual abuse claims and
who has been running from those claims ever since (did you know that just
last year he resigned [in the face of being removed] from the Rabbinical
Council of America)?
The history of our attitude towards abuse is shameful
enough. Surely there are more constructive things to be done for your
congregation and the Jewish community at large. Surely Daniel's family and
friends deserve even the slightest consideration for their tremendous
loss.
What are your synagogue's plans for honoring Daniel's
memory?
Yours truly,
Mordechai Bobrowsky
__________________________________________________________________________________
Letter from Zev Zlotnick, LL.B., MBA,
BAS
October 18, 2004
Dear Rabbi Muller.
As a former classmate and friend of Daniel Levin for
many years I was appalled to hear that your congregation has erected a plaque
honouring the perpetrator of the abominable acts that arguably led to Daniel's
horrific suicide 11 years ago, namely Ephraim Bryks. Although the myopic
view of our Jewish community prefers not to bring such perpetrators to justice
through the secular legal system, and as a result, they often remain within
the confines of our own communal and educational environment, there is absolutely
no reason for justifying their actions by awarding these individuals honourary
plaques on Trees of "Life", while the physical memory of their victims dwell
in graves of death.
For the sake of Dan and his bereaving family and friends,
remove the plaque, and replace it with one commemorating the person we all
grew to love and truly appreciate for his warm, kind and impartial attitude
towards everyone - Dan Levin.
Sincerely yours,
Zev Zlotnick, LL.B., M.B.A., B.A.S.
__________________________________________________________________________________
WARNING: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks and Marriage
Counseling
By Rabbi Yosef Blau
Unorthodox Jew Blog - October 9, 2007
Ephrayim Bryks has become a rabbinic marriage counselor.
The term marriage counselor or life coach can be used by anyone. He is not
the only "rabbi" suspected of sexual abuse using one of these titles to access
vulnerable individuals or couples both here and in Israel. Consulting actual
professionals is expensive and unless the community publicly warns against
going to these charlatans (often worse) many innocents will continue to be
hurt.
Yosef Blau
__________________________________________________________________________________
9th Annual Shabbaton Getaway!
Hudson Valley Resort
June 22-24, 2007
http://www.forums.boojle.com/showthread.php?p=58414
You and your family and friends are cordially invited
to our 9th Annual Weekend Retreat!!
This wonderful weekend will be filled with
inspiration,Torah education, rejuvenation, wonderful speakers, excellent
food, and many fun & great activities for everyone!!
Our special weekend together will include separate
pool & fitness hours for men & women, Day Camp services for children,
inspirational lectures & discussions, Saturday Night Live with music
& comedy, Sunday afternoon BBQ, dance class for mothers & daughters,
and much, much more!!!
Guest Speaker at the Shabbaton, Rabbi Ephraim
Bryks!
Guest Speaker at the Shabbaton, Rabbi Paysach
Krohn!
Children's Day Camp Services under the leadership of
Yair Yakubov!
Glatt Kosher catering by Meal Mart!
Don't delay,
REGISTER TODAY!
$ Shabbaton Pricelist $
$650 per couple with 2 children
$600 per couple without children
$225 per additional room
$150 per single individual
$75 per each additional child (ages 3-16)
Children under 3 years old are complimentary!!
email: ahavatachim@hotmail.com
phone: (718) 591-9574
___________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Rabbi Lipa Brenner and Alleged Sex Offender Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
The Awareness Center - November 12, 2007
The following article was written by Rabbi Paysach
Krohn, and is about convicted sex offender, Rabbi (Lewis) Lipa Brenner. While
reading the article remember that Rabbi Ephraim Bryks's wife is Rabbi Lipa
Brenner's daughter; and Rabbi Paysach Krohn is married to Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
sister.
It's a known fact that Rabbi Paysach Krohn has a long
history of protecting those who allegedly, perpetrate crimes against children.
An example of this is the fact that to this day he still helps his
brother-in-law, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks get speaking engagements.
In the book "Around The Magid's Table", Rabbi Paysach
Krohn portrays Rabbi Brenner as a righteous man even though he was being
accused as being a child molester at the time. When Artscroll learned that
Rabbi Brenner was barred from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas because of his sex crimes,
they removed the story from later editions of the book. Back in the 1990's
rumors circulated that Krohn new about the allegations when he published
his book, yet decided to ignore them.
The original charges against Rabbi Brenner included,
14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
Brenner agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third
degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years'
probation.
Prosecutors said Brenner had sexual contact with a
youth he met in the bathroom of the synagogue they both attended. The
molestation's allegedly took place over a three-year period that ended in
1995 when the victim was 15 years old.
On June 24, 2007, both Rabbi Paysach Krohn and Rabbi
Ephraim Bryks
presented at
a Shabbaton (weekend retreat)
CALL TO ACTION:
Contact Rabbi Paysach Krohn and ask him to stop
promoting alleged child molester, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. Remind him if another
child is harmed that he could be held liable in a civil suit.
Rabbi PaysachKrohn, Certified Mohel
E-mail:
pkrohn@brisquest.com
Toll Free: 866-846-6900
NY: 718-846-6900
___________________________________________________________________________________
Around The Magid's
Table
By Rabbi Paysach Krohn
Published by Art Scroll (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992)
718-921-9000
Children's Children.
Family Life, Page 97 - 101
Being a rav in a small town, far from any city with
a large Jewish population, is often a lonely and thankless job. True, there
is much to accomplish, but the challenges which need to be overcome on the
way to building a day school, solidifying a minyan of shomrei Shabbos (Sabbath
observers), or convincing people to uphold and maintain standards of kashrus
and family purity always seem to be uphill struggles. More often than not,
a rav in an area with a limited number of Jewish inhabitants gets the feeling
that the Jews he is dealing with are simply not on the same wave length as
he is.
One such rav was R' Lipa Brenner, who had been inspired
to enter the rabbinate by his mentor in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, R' Shraga
Feivel Mendlowitz (1886-1948). After a few years of serving as a rabbi and
principal in a small town in New Jersey, R' Lipa was becoming exasperated.
The local baalei battim (laymen) were not cooperating with him in his endeavors,
and R' Lipa's accomplishments seemed to dim with every passing year. Meanwhile
to add to his dilemma, business opportunities beckoned from New York. Aside
from the potential financial security that was so alluring, Lipa might finally
have the opportunity to provide his children with the chinuch (education)
that he felt was proper and essential.
In a quandary as to whether or not to leave the rabbinate,
he decided to travel to Eretz Yisrael (Israel) and seek the advice of Vizhnitzer
Rebbe, R' Chaim Mayer Hager (1898-1972). R' Lipa obtained his tickets and
passport, and made the trip. However upon his arrival he was informed that
the Rebbe was preparing to leave for Lugano, Switzerland, and would receive
no more visitors before his departure. And so R' Lipa followed him to
Switzerland.
In Lugano, R'Lipa made his way to where the Rebbe was
staying. He waited his turn to see the Rebbe and, when he was finally ushered
in, the Rebbe asked R'Lipa to sit beside him at his table. Seated across
the table was another rav from Tel Avivi. After a few moments the rebbetzin
came in with a glass of hot tea for her husband. Before she could even put
the tea on the table, the Rebbe gently admonished her and said, :Please bring
two more glasses of tea. We are three rabbanim here about to have a
discussion."
R' Lipa was astounded. The Rebbe had referred to him
as a rav, and talked of him as though he were a peer. R' Lipa trembled as
he realized the significance of the title the Vizhnitzer Rebbe had inadvertently
bestowed on him. But perhaps it wasn't inadvertent? Did the Rebbe know that
he was thinking of leaving the rabbinate? R' Lipa never bothered to find
out. Then and there he resolved his own conflict. He would retain his position
as rav.
***
That winder, back in New Jersey, R' Lipa received a
call from the head of a nearby children's s foster home. This woman told
him that five Jewish boys had been placed in her care. "School registration
is coming up soon, and I feel that the boys should be given some background
in Jewish culture," she said. "I am Jewish, although not religious, " she
continued, somewhat apologetically, " and I just can't see sending these
five children to a regular public school." She asked R' Lipa if he could
find places for the boys in his day school. At least in a Jewish environment
they would get to know something about their heritage." She went on to explain
that the foster home could not pay any tuition because its budget covered
only room and board. The children in the home were supposed to attend public
school, which was free. As if to reinforce her point, she then added, "And
don't think for a moment that any of these children's parents left us any
money for parochial schools!"
R' Lipa realized that this was an opportunity to perform
spiritual hatzalas nefasho (saving of lives). Tuition at the time was one
thousand dollars per child, but maybe if he spoke to the members of the Board
of Directors they would be willing to foot the bill for these children. He
tried, but had no luck. As a matter of fact, the Board members were totally
opposed to his idea. "Our school is not a charity organization," on of them
said. "If neither the parents of the children nor the foster home will contribute
at all towards their tuition, then we won't accept them. Finished."
The young rav was incensed. True, it wouldn't be easy
for the school to absorb the cost of education additional boys, but it was
the attitude of the Board members that enraged him. "They shouldn't be pushing
away problems," he thought, "They should tackling them head on!"
R'Lipa thought about the situation for a day and then
came back to the Board with his mind made up. "I won't allow these boys to
fall by the wayside," he declared. "if the director of the foster home was
considerate enough to contact us, it would be a chillul Hashem (disgrace
of Hashem's Name) not to respond affirmatively to her suggestions. I will
consider these children as my own and assume responsibility for paying their
tuition." The Board members were stunned but silent, and the next day the
five boys were enrolled in the town's Hebrew Day School
R'Lipa had no idea from where he would get the money.
Already he was raising funds for the shul, the school, the mikveh and the
chevra kaddisha. But he persisted in his search, all the while taking a special
interest in these children.
One day he made an appointment with a wealthy woman
who headed a prestigious store downtown. She hadn't been known for her charity
in the past, but he felt that perhaps of the plight of these five boys would
awaken within her a sense of sympathy. Miraculously it did, and by the time
"R'Lipa walked out of her office he had with him a check for five thousand
dollars -- the amount to necessary to cover the entire year's tuition bill
for the boys.
****
The school year progressed as the boys advanced, each
at his own pace. At year's end one of the five was reunited with his family,
two remained in the day school, and two brothers, having made significant
strides in their studies, were encouraged by R'Lipa and another teacher to
enter fine yeshivos in New York.
The next year R'Lipa left New Jersey and eventually
lost contact with the people there
****
More than two decades later, R' Lipa was visiting in
the Matterdorf section of Jerusalem. It was Shabbos afternoon and dozens
of children were playing in the streets. , which are cordoned off until
nightfall. Suddenly a bearded young man came running over to R' Lipa, yelling,
"Rebbe!!" R'Lipa turned around, but did not recognize anyone. "Rebbe,", the
young man said, smiling, "you are R' Brenner, aren't you? You probably don't
recognize me anymore. I went to your school back in New Jersey more than
twenty years ago. come with me," the young man said warmly. "I want to introduce
you to your grandchildren."
The young man took R' Lipa by the hand and brought
him to where his wife was watching their children playing. (something in
hebrew) -- Anyone who teaches Torah to a child of at his friend, it's as
though he gave birth to him," said the young man, citing the Talmudic text
(Sanhedrin 19b). "Thus, if I am your child, these are your
grandchildren."
The young man was indeed one of the five from the foster
home in New Jersey. R' Lipa had seen to it that he attend the Mirrer Yeshiva
in New York, and from there the young man went on to become an outstanding
talmid chacham. R'Lipa had all but forgotten him, but the young man had
remembered him. The face of his mentor had been etched in the child's memory
forever.
___________________________________________________________________________________
CALL TO ACTION: Rabbi Ephraim Bryks Lecture
Series
February 27, 2008
The Awareness Center is asking that everyone contacts Kol Yaakov
and demand they remove the lecture series they have provided by alleged sex
offender, Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. Please let Rubin Kaylyakov, owner of the site
know if anyone ends up getting harmed by Bryks after making their initial
contact with him by listening to one of the tapes on his web page, he could
be held liable in a civil suit -- especially after being warned about this
allegedly dangerous man.
WATCH NewsCast:
Contact:
Kol Yakov.org
Rubin Kaylyakov
10820 62nd DR, Apt. 2B
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Phone: 9176624957
http://kolyakov.org/contact.html
TorahAnytime.com
Rubin Kay
71-28A Main Street
Flushing, New York 11367
917-662-4957
Computer Doctor
Attn. Torah Anytime
71-28a Main Street
Flushing, NY 11367
__________________________________________________________________________________
The story that continues to haunt our community: Rabbi Bryks to be subject matter of episode of new documentary series for vision TV
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER RABBI HENRY BALSER GOES ON THE RECORD RE: HIS ROLE IN THIS SAGA- READ IT HERE
The
case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks who has been dogged by allegations of
sexual abuse against children, but never charged with a crime will be
the subject matter of part of an episode in a documentary series
currently being produced by Apocryphal Productions for Vision
Television.
According to the Jewish Week,
[New York] June 29, 2010, "Rabbi Bryks, who was investigated by police
in Winnipeg, on suspicion of inappropriate contact with children at
Winnipeg’s Torah Academy where he was principal, resigned from the
Orthodox Union’s Rabbinical Council of America in 2003 without admitting
any wrongdoing. Bryks, "reached a negotiated agreement to leave the
Rabbinical Board of Queens in the fall of 2009," as indicated in the Jewish Week.
"Rabbi Bryks, as principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg was found
in 1988 to have tickled and hugged some students, but denied more
serious charges of sexual molestation, according to press reports. While
the more serious charges were not substantiated by an investigation by
Winnipeg social workers, the substantiated contact was deemed
inappropriate and the Winnipeg Child and Family Services agency
recommended that the school adopt guidelines against such
behavior,"according th the Jewish Week.
The school closed in 1991, about a year after Rabbi Bryks left Winnipeg.
Allan Levine in his recent book “Coming of Age,” on p.420, refers to "the agency issuing a report that concluded that Bryks' behavior of having children sit on his lap while he tickled them was "neither appropriate nor professional", but not illegal."
The school closed in 1991, about a year after Rabbi Bryks left Winnipeg.
Allan Levine in his recent book “Coming of Age,” on p.420, refers to "the agency issuing a report that concluded that Bryks' behavior of having children sit on his lap while he tickled them was "neither appropriate nor professional", but not illegal."
Tanya Fleet of Apocryphal Productions, who is researching visual material for the documentary series, told the Winnipeg Jewish Review
that the series will consider “the issue of sexual abuse or allegations
thereof pertaining to children in religious communities… The themes to
be examined are why it is prevalent, why is it kept quiet, and what is
now being done to try and stop potential abuse. We will talk to experts
in the fields, activists, survivors and their families.”
According to Fleet,
the series which is being produced by Christopher Sumpton and Robin
Benger, will deal with these issues in the Catholic community, the
Evangelical Christian community, as well as in Judaism and Islam.
The painful saga
relating to Rabbi Bryks in Winnipeg will be part of an episode that will
focus on orthodoxy in Judaism, and will also deal with the orthodox
Jewish community in Brooklyn.
In 1993, after Rabbi Bryks moved to New York, a former student in
Winnipeg accused him of having fondled him at the school when the
student was 8, but prosecutors reportedly declined to file criminal
charges, citing lack of corroboration. When the boy, Daniel Leven. at
age 17, was asked to re-record a statement he had given earlier, he
committed suicide.
Martin Levin [Daniel’s father] has been interviewed for the upcoming documentary series.
Levin, currently lives in Toronto and is the book editor of the Globe and Mail.
Former Winnipegger
Alan Mendelsohn is the producer of the episode of the series relating to
the Jewish community. Mendelsohn has previously worked at the CBC as a
producer at The Journal.
Herzlia Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Winnipeg, where Rabbi Bryks
served, took down the plaques in his honour on the Tree of Life in the
lobby of the synagogue in September, 2010. Herzlia's actions, close to
17 years after Levin's suicide, occurred less than two months after members of the
Jewish community in Winnipeg had a full opportunity to read the article
by Adam Dickter, Assistant Managing Editor of the Jewish Week (New
York), June 29, 2010 , which was posted in the latter part of July, 2010
on this website and elsewhere.
In the email sent to Herzlia membership days before Yom Kippur this past year, Dr. Earl Hershfield, President of the Board of Herzlia wrote:
“In response to repeated requests, and after much deliberation, the Board of Directors of Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun has decided to remove all plaques on the Tree of Life in the Shul lobby dedicated in honour of [Rabbi] Ephraim Bryks”[emphasis added].
In the email sent to Herzlia membership days before Yom Kippur this past year, Dr. Earl Hershfield, President of the Board of Herzlia wrote:
“In response to repeated requests, and after much deliberation, the Board of Directors of Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun has decided to remove all plaques on the Tree of Life in the Shul lobby dedicated in honour of [Rabbi] Ephraim Bryks”[emphasis added].
He also wrote “As a Shul, we have a responsibility to provide moral and ethical leadership for our community.”
In the same email,
he wrote “In accordance with a recent resolution taken by the Rabbinical
Council of America, Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun condemns all forms of abuse
in the strongest terms. Policies and procedures are being developed by
your Board to direct future action. Reporting suspected abuse to the
appropriate authorities does not violate the Torah’s prohibition of
mesirah (turning a fellow Jew over to a non-Jewish authority) or arka’ot
(adjudicating cases in a secular court). We are obligated by Jewish law
to do so as the concern for saving a life and respecting the law of
land are paramount.”
Levine in his
recent book “ Coming of Age,” on p.420 writes that “Daniel Levin alleged
that Bryks molested him." He further wrote "According to Sarah Levin,
[Daniel’s mother] Bryks had given Daniel candy to keep him quiet and
told him that God would punish him if he ever told anyone what had
transpired. This threat of retribution was echoed by other children who
came forward.”
A previous
documentary was made on the case of Rabbi Bryks by CBC Television and
produced by Noah Erenberg, a member of our Jewish community and a
graduate of the Joseph Wolinsky class of 1982. The documentary was
hosted by the late Danielle Keefler and aired nationally in February
1994.
Levine’s book says on page 421, “Attempts by Rabby Bryks to sue CBC
and CNN, which also broadcast the documentary, were discontinued for
lack of funds.”
Noah Erenberg's name is not mentioned in Levine's book on pages 419-421.
Noah Erenberg's name is not mentioned in Levine's book on pages 419-421.
The Winnipeg Jewish Review has spoken to Rabbi Henry Balser who is now living in Florida.
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review “I almost broke into tears when I read [in the Winnipeg Jewish Review] that Herzlia Synagogue finally took down the plaques in honour of Rabbi Bryks.”
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review “I almost broke into tears when I read [in the Winnipeg Jewish Review] that Herzlia Synagogue finally took down the plaques in honour of Rabbi Bryks.”
In his book, Levine writes on page 420 “Bryks was nearly hired to
head a Jewish school in Montreal until parents there learned of the
allegations in Winnipeg.”
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he was giving spiritual advice and comfort to a family who came to him, alleging their child had been molested by Rabbi Bryks.
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he was giving spiritual advice and comfort to a family who came to him, alleging their child had been molested by Rabbi Bryks.
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that “the vice principal from the Montreal [school] contacted me on the advice of an orthodox Rabbi.”
Rabbi Balser said,
“I relied not just on the word of the family that I spoke with. I also
did some investigation of my own, and decided then that I was on solid
ground in telling the Rabbi in Montreal that I would not recommend
Bryks.”
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he told the Montreal Rabbi this even though he feared potentially being sued by Bryks.
Balser also told the Winnipeg Jewish Review
that he was thankful that Shaarey Zedek Synagogue backed him up and was
willing to pay any related legal fees he may have had to incur in so
doing.
The Winnipeg Jewish Review will report on further details of the upcoming documentary series to be aired on Vision Television in due course.
In his book on page 419, Levine writes that the "biggest controversy in the Herzlia's history-in fact, arguably the most controverisal matter in the annals of the Winnipeg Jewish community-involved Rabbi Bryk's..." [emphasis added].
In his book on page 420 Levine refers to the Winnipeg-produced CBC television documentary about Bryks as "controversial."
Below is the article by Adam Dickter in the Jewish Week.
RABBI EPHRAIM BRYKS LEAVES RABINICAL BOARD OF QUEENS UNDER A CLOUD
[Reprinted with Permission] A Queens rabbi who has been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against children, but never charged with a crime, has reached a negotiated agreement to leave the Rabbinical Board of Queens in the fall, The Jewish Week has learned.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who was investigated by police in Winnipeg, Canada, on suspicion of inappropriate contact with children at a yeshiva where he was principal, resigned from the Orthodox Union’s Rabbinical Council of America in 2003 without admitting any wrongdoing.
Sources told The Jewish Week that the Queens board, known as the Vaad Harabonim, had long sought to have Rabbi Bryks removed as allegations against him persisted but was advised by lawyers that doing so was complicated because there has been no formal legal or halachic proceeding against him. Rabbi Bryks has been a member of the Vaad since the early ‘90s. Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, co-president of the Vaad, would tell The Jewish Week only that “we reached an agreement with an individual that will take full effect in October.”
The October date, coming at the start of the new Jewish year, appears to coincide with the time when membership renewals are considered.
The board’s other president, Rabbi Richard Weiss, declined to comment and would not confirm or deny that the person involved in the agreement was Rabbi Bryks.
Last June, the same Vaad ordered Queens Pita, a bakery that it certifies kosher, to terminate the ownership interest of a man, Isaac Ebstein, who had pled guilty to abuse charges involving a 10-year-old boy. The bakery’s co-owner reportedly complied in order to maintain the kosher certification.
Rabbi Bryks has held leadership positions at two Queens yeshivas, but left for unspecified reasons. He now makes his living as a mortgage broker, has a blog seeking to field questions on halachic issues and is said to involve himself in marriage counseling, advocacy for women seeking religious divorces and in a rabbinical court, the Queens Beth Din, which he convenes with other rabbis.
Asher Lipner, a clinical psychologist who counsels sex abuse victims and, in a Jewish Week op-ed last week accused the Vaad of Queens of “protecting one of their own,” without mentioning Rabbi Bryks by name, said the Vaad had a responsibility to publicize the circumstances of Rabbi Bryks’ departure from the Vaad if it has to do with the past allegations.
“If the agreement was due to some other reason that is personal and does not affect the community and they are not telling anyone, that is fine with me,” said Lipner. “But if the reason the agreement was reached is because they suspect him of being a danger to the community, it’s their responsibility to let people know why they reached that agreement in order that he doesn’t join another organization.
“They gave a heksher and made this rabbi kosher,” Lipner continued. “If they are removing their heksher, they have to tell people he is not kosher. If they don’t, it leads to more people getting hurt.”
Religious organizations generally have a free hand in expelling members as they see fit, but must be careful how they do it, said Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress, an expert on matters of religion and law.
“The internal workings of clergy organizations are beyond the scrutiny of the court,” said Stern. But he added that leveling a specific charge of illegal conduct against an individual in the process of severing ties to him could open the organization to legal action.
“Clergy are not exempt from slander suits or defamation,” said Stern. “In general, one of the reasons for throwing people out or taking action against a member of the clergy is to alert members of the faith that X’s conduct is not acceptable and they need to be aware.”
Rabbi Bryks did not respond to two messages left at his home or to e-mails sent via his blog and Facebook.
Rabbi Schonfeld said Rabbi Bryks was never involved in any kashrut certification work, a key function of the Vaad, and never held any leadership positions in the organization. In 2008, he was reported in the Jewish Star of Long Island to be acting as an advocate on behalf of a woman trying to obtain a religious divorce, with a notation that he was a Vaad member.
Rabbi Bryks’ resignation from the RCA after 25 years of membership came at the same time the group, at its annual convention, adopted policies and procedures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct, The Jewish Week reported at the time. But the rabbi told the council’s leadership then that the resignation should in no way be taken as admission of wrongdoing. Since he was no longer working in Jewish education, he did not need to belong to a national rabbinical council, Rabbi Hershel Billet, then the council’s immediate past president, quoted Rabbi Bryks as saying then.
A Denver native, Rabbi Bryks, as principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg was found in 1988 to have tickled and hugged some students but denied more serious charges of sexual molestation, according to press reports. While the more serious charges were not substantiated by an investigation by Winnipeg social workers, the substantiated contact was deemed inappropriate and the Winnipeg Child and Family Services agency recommended that the school adopt guidelines against such behavior. The school has since closed.
In 1993, after Rabbi Bryks had moved to New York, a former student in Winnipeg accused him of having fondled him at the school when the student was 8, but prosecutors reportedly declined to press charges, citing lack of corroboration. When the boy, Daniel Leven, at age 17, was asked to re-record a statement he had given earlier, he committed suicide.
In his book on page 419, Levine writes that the "biggest controversy in the Herzlia's history-in fact, arguably the most controverisal matter in the annals of the Winnipeg Jewish community-involved Rabbi Bryk's..." [emphasis added].
In his book on page 420 Levine refers to the Winnipeg-produced CBC television documentary about Bryks as "controversial."
Below is the article by Adam Dickter in the Jewish Week.
RABBI EPHRAIM BRYKS LEAVES RABINICAL BOARD OF QUEENS UNDER A CLOUD
[Reprinted with Permission] A Queens rabbi who has been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against children, but never charged with a crime, has reached a negotiated agreement to leave the Rabbinical Board of Queens in the fall, The Jewish Week has learned.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who was investigated by police in Winnipeg, Canada, on suspicion of inappropriate contact with children at a yeshiva where he was principal, resigned from the Orthodox Union’s Rabbinical Council of America in 2003 without admitting any wrongdoing.
Sources told The Jewish Week that the Queens board, known as the Vaad Harabonim, had long sought to have Rabbi Bryks removed as allegations against him persisted but was advised by lawyers that doing so was complicated because there has been no formal legal or halachic proceeding against him. Rabbi Bryks has been a member of the Vaad since the early ‘90s. Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, co-president of the Vaad, would tell The Jewish Week only that “we reached an agreement with an individual that will take full effect in October.”
The October date, coming at the start of the new Jewish year, appears to coincide with the time when membership renewals are considered.
The board’s other president, Rabbi Richard Weiss, declined to comment and would not confirm or deny that the person involved in the agreement was Rabbi Bryks.
Last June, the same Vaad ordered Queens Pita, a bakery that it certifies kosher, to terminate the ownership interest of a man, Isaac Ebstein, who had pled guilty to abuse charges involving a 10-year-old boy. The bakery’s co-owner reportedly complied in order to maintain the kosher certification.
Rabbi Bryks has held leadership positions at two Queens yeshivas, but left for unspecified reasons. He now makes his living as a mortgage broker, has a blog seeking to field questions on halachic issues and is said to involve himself in marriage counseling, advocacy for women seeking religious divorces and in a rabbinical court, the Queens Beth Din, which he convenes with other rabbis.
Asher Lipner, a clinical psychologist who counsels sex abuse victims and, in a Jewish Week op-ed last week accused the Vaad of Queens of “protecting one of their own,” without mentioning Rabbi Bryks by name, said the Vaad had a responsibility to publicize the circumstances of Rabbi Bryks’ departure from the Vaad if it has to do with the past allegations.
“If the agreement was due to some other reason that is personal and does not affect the community and they are not telling anyone, that is fine with me,” said Lipner. “But if the reason the agreement was reached is because they suspect him of being a danger to the community, it’s their responsibility to let people know why they reached that agreement in order that he doesn’t join another organization.
“They gave a heksher and made this rabbi kosher,” Lipner continued. “If they are removing their heksher, they have to tell people he is not kosher. If they don’t, it leads to more people getting hurt.”
Religious organizations generally have a free hand in expelling members as they see fit, but must be careful how they do it, said Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress, an expert on matters of religion and law.
“The internal workings of clergy organizations are beyond the scrutiny of the court,” said Stern. But he added that leveling a specific charge of illegal conduct against an individual in the process of severing ties to him could open the organization to legal action.
“Clergy are not exempt from slander suits or defamation,” said Stern. “In general, one of the reasons for throwing people out or taking action against a member of the clergy is to alert members of the faith that X’s conduct is not acceptable and they need to be aware.”
Rabbi Bryks did not respond to two messages left at his home or to e-mails sent via his blog and Facebook.
Rabbi Schonfeld said Rabbi Bryks was never involved in any kashrut certification work, a key function of the Vaad, and never held any leadership positions in the organization. In 2008, he was reported in the Jewish Star of Long Island to be acting as an advocate on behalf of a woman trying to obtain a religious divorce, with a notation that he was a Vaad member.
Rabbi Bryks’ resignation from the RCA after 25 years of membership came at the same time the group, at its annual convention, adopted policies and procedures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct, The Jewish Week reported at the time. But the rabbi told the council’s leadership then that the resignation should in no way be taken as admission of wrongdoing. Since he was no longer working in Jewish education, he did not need to belong to a national rabbinical council, Rabbi Hershel Billet, then the council’s immediate past president, quoted Rabbi Bryks as saying then.
A Denver native, Rabbi Bryks, as principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg was found in 1988 to have tickled and hugged some students but denied more serious charges of sexual molestation, according to press reports. While the more serious charges were not substantiated by an investigation by Winnipeg social workers, the substantiated contact was deemed inappropriate and the Winnipeg Child and Family Services agency recommended that the school adopt guidelines against such behavior. The school has since closed.
In 1993, after Rabbi Bryks had moved to New York, a former student in Winnipeg accused him of having fondled him at the school when the student was 8, but prosecutors reportedly declined to press charges, citing lack of corroboration. When the boy, Daniel Leven, at age 17, was asked to re-record a statement he had given earlier, he committed suicide.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Charles Grysman in T.O Goes on the Record RE: Rabbi Bryks
The
case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks who has been dogged by allegations of
sexual abuse against children, but never charged with a crime was the
subject matter of part of an episode in a documentary series entitled
“Sex Scandals in Religion”
produced by Apocryphal Productions for Vision Television.
The episode in which the Bryk’s case wass dealt with was aired on Monday May 16, at 10: 30 p.m.
According to the Jewish Week,
[New York] June 29, 2010, "Rabbi Bryks, who was investigated by police
in Winnipeg, on suspicion of inappropriate contact with children at
Winnipeg’s Torah Academy where he was principal, resigned from the
Orthodox Union’s Rabbinical Council of America in 2003 without admitting
any wrongdoing. Bryks, "reached a negotiated agreement to leave the
Rabbinical Board of Queens in the fall of 2009," as indicated in the Jewish Week
Notwithstanding the
allegations of sexual abuse, Rabbi Bryk’s currently has a blog which was
updated several days ago on May 4, 2011 where he posts torah commentary
on the weekly parsha. http://rebtorah.com/blog/category/uncategorized/.
On his blog Rabbi Bryks
describes himself as lecturing on “Shalom Bais” (sanctity and peace in
the home) and helping “couples resolve their marital issues.”
Here is how Rabbi Bryks describes himself on his blog:
“Rabbi Ephraim Bryks is a
graduate of Ner Yisroel and Yeshiva Beis Hatalmud of Jerusalem. He has
smicha (Rabbinic Ordination) in Yoreh Yoreh/Yodin Yodin from numerous
Rabbonim and Gedolai Yisroel. He currently heads the Beis Din of Queens
and is an active member in numerous Rabbinic organizations. He lectures
on a weekly basis and is often consulted on matters of halacha
especially hilchos Gitten and Chosen Mishpat.
“As a Rov with many
years of experience he also lectures on Sholom Bayis and helps couples
resolve their marital issues. In cases of divorce Rabbi Bryks often acts
as a mediator to resolve all the issues peacefully and amicably.
Working with the legal system and the Batei Dinim he is also available
to represent you on a Beis din or din Torah and bemesader the “Get” when
the time comes.”
[Needless to say, there
is no mention on his blog of any of the allegations of sexual abuse that
have dogged Rabbi Bryks.] The blog has a contact section, but it does
not leave any contact information {ie phone number, address) to contact
Bryks. However, readers of the blog can give their contact info and
submit it to him and ask questions or leave comments. [This editor has
way too many questions to ask Rabbi Bryks for the allotted space].
"Rabbi
Bryks, as principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg was found in 1988
to have tickled and hugged some students, but denied more serious
charges of sexual molestation, according to press reports. While the
more serious charges were not substantiated by an investigation by
Winnipeg social workers, the substantiated contact was deemed
inappropriate and the Winnipeg Child and Family Services agency
recommended that the school adopt guidelines against such behavior,"
according the Jewish Week. The school closed in 1991, about a year after Rabbi Bryks left Winnipeg.
Allan Levine
in his recent book “Coming of Age,” on p.420, refers to "the agency
issuing a report that concluded that Bryks' behavior of having children
sit on his lap while he tickled them was "neither appropriate nor
professional", but not illegal."
In
1993, after Rabbi Bryks moved to New York, a former student in Winnipeg
accused him of having fondled him at the school when the student was 8,
but prosecutors reportedly declined to file criminal charges, citing
lack of corroboration. When the boy, Daniel Leven. at age 17, was asked
to re-record a statement he had given earlier, he committed suicide.
Martin Levin [Daniel’s father] will be on the upcoming episode of the documentary series on May 16. Levin, currently lives in Toronto and is the book editor of the Globe and Mail.
Levine
in his recent book “Coming of Age,” on p.420 writes that “Daniel Levin
alleged that Bryks molested him." He further wrote "According to Sarah
Levin, [Daniel’s mother] Bryks had given Daniel candy to keep him quiet
and told him that God would punish him if he ever told anyone what had
transpired. This threat of retribution was echoed by other children who
came forward.”
RABBI CHARLES GRYSMAN
Rabbi Charles Grysman |
This week the Winnipeg
Jewish Review spoke with Rabbi Charles Grysman, a Winnipegger now living
in Toronto. Rabbi Grysman is the Rabbi of Zichron Israel Congregation
of Associated Hebrew Schools [and a reader of the Winnipeg Jewish
Review].
Rabbi Grysman, who is an
orthodox Rabbi received his smicha from the Ner Yisroel Yeshiva by
Rabbi Gedalia Felder, z”l, the AV Bet Din of Toronto. He was the
Director of Jewish Studies and later Vice Principal of Joseph Wolinsky
Collegiate during the time when the allegations of sexual abuse by Rabbi
Bryks became public.
When asked about the
allegations against Rabbi Bryks, Rabbi Grysman, who also holds a
Doctorate in Jewish Education and an MSW degree from Yeshiva University,
says for the record, “I was never a supporter of Rabbi Bryks.”
A
previous documentary was made on the case of Rabbi Bryks by CBC
Television and produced by Noah Erenberg, a member of our Jewish
community and a graduate of the Joseph Wolinsky class of 1982. The
documentary was hosted by the late Danielle Keefler and aired nationally
in February 1994.
Noah Erenberg's name is not mentioned in Levine's book on pages 419-421.
When asked to comment on the CBC documentary made by Noah Erenberg about the allegations against Bryks, Rabbi Grysman applauded Erenberg’s efforts, “I am proud to have been Noah Erenberg’s teacher. I think he was courageous in making this documentary and I have always been proud to see his commitment to the protection and welfare of children.”
When asked to comment on the CBC documentary made by Noah Erenberg about the allegations against Bryks, Rabbi Grysman applauded Erenberg’s efforts, “I am proud to have been Noah Erenberg’s teacher. I think he was courageous in making this documentary and I have always been proud to see his commitment to the protection and welfare of children.”
When asked if he was
ever contacted by Alan Levine for his book which deals with the Bryks
saga on pages 419-421, Rabbi Gryman says he never spoke to Levine. Rabbi
Grysman says that to the best of his knowledge Levine never tried to
contact him. Grysman’s name is not mentioned in regard to the Bryks
episode in Levine’s book.
Herzlia
Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Winnipeg, where Rabbi Bryks served, took
down the plaques in his honour on the Tree of Life in the lobby of the
synagogue in September, 2010. Herzlia's actions, close to 17 years
after Levin's suicide, occurred less than two months after members of the
Jewish community in Winnipeg had a full opportunity to read the article
by Adam Dickter, Assistant Managing Editor of the Jewish Week (New
York), June 29, 2010 , which was posted in the latter part of July, 2010
on this website and elsewhere. To read this article click on Rabbi Ephraim Bryks Leaves Rabbinical Board of Queens Under A Cloud.
When asked to comment
on the fact that Herzlia synagogue took down the plaques in honour of
Rabbi Bryks this past September, Rabbi Grysman responded “I think
that Herzlia’s taking down the plaques was a very good thing...I think
it’s wonderful that Rabbi Ellis [the current Rabbi at Herzlia] did something to begin a process whereby that community could heal.”
In the email sent to
Herzlia membership days before Yom Kippur this past year, Dr. Earl
Hershfield, President of the Board of Herzlia wrote:
“In response to repeated requests, and after much deliberation, the Board of Directors of Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun has decided to remove all plaques on the Tree of Life in the Shul lobby dedicated in honour of [Rabbi] Ephraim Bryks”[emphasis added].
“In response to repeated requests, and after much deliberation, the Board of Directors of Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun has decided to remove all plaques on the Tree of Life in the Shul lobby dedicated in honour of [Rabbi] Ephraim Bryks”[emphasis added].
He also wrote “As a Shul, we have a responsibility to provide moral and ethical leadership for our community.”
In
the same email, he wrote “In accordance with a recent resolution taken
by the Rabbinical Council of America, Herzlia – Adas Yeshurun condemns
all forms of abuse in the strongest terms. Policies and procedures are
being developed by your Board to direct future action. Reporting
suspected abuse to the appropriate authorities does not violate the
Torah’s prohibition of mesirah (turning a fellow Jew over to a
non-Jewish authority) or arka’ot (adjudicating cases in a secular
court). We are obligated by Jewish law to do so as the concern for
saving a life and respecting the law of land are paramount.”
The documentary new series
will deal with the issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic community, the
Evangelical Christian community, as well as in Judaism and Islam. The
painful saga relating to Rabbi Bryks in Winnipeg will be part of an
episode that will focus on orthodoxy in Judaism, and will also deal with
the orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Former Winnipegger Alan
Mendelsohn is the producer of the episode of the series relating to the
Jewish community. Mendelsohn has previously worked at the CBC as a
producer at The Journal
In January 2011, The Winnipeg Jewish Review has spoken to Rabbi Henry Balser who is now living in Florida.
In January 2011, The Winnipeg Jewish Review has spoken to Rabbi Henry Balser who is now living in Florida.
In his book, Levine writes
on page 420 “Bryks was nearly hired to head a Jewish school in Montreal
until parents there learned of the allegations in Winnipeg.”
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he was giving spiritual advice and comfort to a family who came to him, alleging their child had been molested by Rabbi Bryks.
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he was giving spiritual advice and comfort to a family who came to him, alleging their child had been molested by Rabbi Bryks.
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that “the vice principal from the Montreal [school] contacted me on the advice of an orthodox Rabbi.”
Rabbi
Balser said, “I relied not just on the word of the family that I spoke
with. I also did some investigation of my own, and decided then that I
was on solid ground in telling the Rabbi in Montreal that I would
not recommend Bryks.”
Rabbi Balser told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he told the Montreal Rabbi this even though he feared potentially being sued by Bryks.
Balser also told the Winnipeg Jewish Review
that he was thankful that Shaarey Zedek Synagogue backed him up and was
willing to pay any related legal fees he may have had to incur in so
doing.
When asked if he had
ever spoken to the school in Montreal where Rabbi Bryks was nearly
hired, Rabbi Grysman said he had not as “by that time I had left
Winnipeg.”
Rabbi Grysman said that he did not realize that Rabbi Balser had been treating a family whose child had alleged that their son was sexually abused by Rabbi Bryks, until he read this in the Winnipeg Jewish Review.
In his book on page 420 Levine refers to the Winnipeg-produced CBC television documentary about Bryks as "controversial."
__________________________________________________________________________________
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