Yona Weinberg, MSW, LCSW
Licensed Social Worker / Bar Mitzvah Tutor
Khal Beth Abraham Synagogue - (Flatbush) Brooklyn, NY
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.- (Flatbush) Brooklyn, NY
Licensed Social Worker / Bar Mitzvah Tutor
Khal Beth Abraham Synagogue - (Flatbush) Brooklyn, NY
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.- (Flatbush) Brooklyn, NY
Convicted of sexually abusing several boys, aged 12 and 14. Weinberg was sentenced to serve 13 months in prison. Two of the boys stated they were abused while Weinberg was assisting them with their religious studies at Khal Beth Abraham Congregation. Other victims include clients from Weinberg's work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.
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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.
Table of Contents:
2008
2009
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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.
Table of Contents:
2008
- Synagogue employee charged with molesting boys (05/05/2008)
- Jewish School Teacher Assistant Charged with Sex Abuse (05/05/2008)
- Teacher arrested for sex abuse (05/05/2008)
- Perv rap for temple tutor (05/06/2008)
- Tutor faces sex rap in abuse of 2 teens (05/06/2008)
- Charged with Sexually Abusing Four Boys (05/19/2008)
- Religious tutor charged with abusing four boys (05/19/2008)
- More Alleged Victims Of Sexual Abuse By Hebrew Tutor Come Forward (05/19/2008)
- Bar Mitzvah Tutor Indicted for Sex Abuse (05/20/2008)
- Perv Torah Tutor Faces Time (05/22/2008)
2009
- Teen accuses tutor of abuse (06/23/2009)
- Kid came on to me - Tutor in Molest Rap (06/24/2009)
- Bar mitzvah tutor convicted of sexual abuse (06/25/2009)
- Bar mitzvah tutor guilty in molests (06/25/2009)
- Brooklyn, NY - Bar Mitzvah Tutor Sentenced to 13 Months In Jail (06/29/2009)
- NY Minute (09/30/2009)
- Bar mitzvah perv jailed (09/30/2009)
- BREAKING: Judge Lashes Out At Orthodox Community In Sex-Abuse Case; Says It Protects Abusers, Not Victims (10/02/2009)
- Judge: Orthodox Protect Abusers, Not Victims (10/09/2009)
- People v Weinberg (07/20/2010)
2012
- Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sex Abuse (05/10/2012)
- ORTHODOX 'PERV' FILES Holy hell in B'klyN DA unveils 96 molest cases (05/20/2012)
- National Sex Offender's Registry (12/09/2012)
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Synagogue employee charged with molesting boysBy Joseph Mallia
Newsday - May 5, 2008
A Brooklyn synagogue employee was arrested Sunday night and charged with sexually molesting two boys, 13 and 14, during their religious studies at a synagogue school, city police said.After his 11 p.m. Sunday arrest Yona Weinberg, 29, of 1551-A East 17th St., Brooklyn, was charged with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor, the police said.
The police were responding to allegations of past sexual abuse, with the victims saying that "the suspect [a nonreligious employee] had touched their private parts on more than one occasion while assisting them with their religious studies," a Monday police report said.
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Jewish School Teacher Assistant Charged with Sex AbuseBy Al Jones
1010 WINS - May 5, 2008
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A teacher's assistant at a Flatbush Jewish school has been arrested on sex abuse charges.
Yona Weinberg, 29, is accused of touching the private parts of two boys, ages 13 and 14, on more than one occasion while working with them at the school.
Weinberg, who is not a Rabbi, was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
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Teacher arrested for sex abuse
JTA - May 5, 2008
A 29-year-old man was arrested on charges of molesting two teenage brothers at a Brooklyn synagogue.
Yona Weinberg was arrested Sunday night at his Brooklyn home. He is accused of improperly touching the boys, aged 13 and 14, while assisting them with their religious studies.
Weinberg was charged with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor, according to police. Due to the nature of the charges, little further information was released.
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Perv rap for temple tutor
By Jamie Schram
New York Post - May 6, 2008
A tutor molested two brothers while giving them bar mitzvah lessons in a Brooklyn synagogue, authorities said yesterday.
Yona Weinberg, 29, abused the brothers, ages 13 and 14, in the synagogue on East 17th Street near Avenue O in Midwood between June 1, 2006, and Feb. 27, 2008, law-enforcement sources said.
On one occasion, Weinberg, who is not a rabbi, allegedly spoke to the 14-year-old about masturbation and asked to see his genitalia. On another occasion, he asked if the younger brother had pubic hair and touched his crotch area, sources said. Weinberg was arrested yesterday.
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Tutor faces sex rap in abuse of 2 teensBy Oren Yaniv and Alison Gendar
New York Daily News - Tuesday, May 6th 2008, 4:00 AM
A respected Hasidic counselor has been accused of sexually molesting two teenage boys he was tutoring, police said.
Yona Weinberg, 29, of Brooklyn was arrested Sunday evening on charges of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, authorities said.
The father of four is accused of molesting two brothers, ages 14 and 13, while tutoring them at the Khal Beth Abraham temple on E. 17th St. in Flatbush. Weinberg is not affiliated with the temple.
The events allegedly occurred Feb. 20, but the teens' father reported them to police Sunday.
Weinberg's neighbors said they did not believe the charges.
"He's a plain guy, so straight. He's loved by everybody," said a friend, who declined to give his name.
Weinberg was facing arraignment on the charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court last night.
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Charged with Sexually Abusing Four Boys
Kings County DA - May 19, 2008
http://www.brooklynda.org/press_releases/pr_may_08.htm#06
KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHARLES J. HYNES ANNOUNCES INDICTMENT OF BAR MITZVAH TUTOR AND LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER
CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ABUSING FOUR BOYS
Kings County District Attorney's Office - May 19, 2008
Brooklyn, May 19, 2008 – Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the indictment of Yona Weinberg, 29, a Flatbush Bar Mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker charged with sexual abusing four male students, one of which was a client.
The indictment charges Weinberg with Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, nine counts of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, Attempted Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, and six counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
The victims range in age from 12 to 14 and some were Weinberg's students, from the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. Other victims include clients from Weinberg's work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.
Initially only two victims reported abuse, but the investigation revealed two additional victims.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant's guilt.
The case is being prosecuted by Sex Crimes Bureau Unit Chief Kevin O'Donnell. Rhonnie Jaus is Chief of the Sex Crimes Bureau.
Contact: Jonah Bruno
718-250-2300
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Religious tutor charged with abusing four boys
Empire State News - May 19, 2008
BROOKLYN – The Kings County District Attorney's office announced the indictment of Yona Weinberg, 29, a Flatbush Bar Mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker charged with sexual abusing four male students, one of which was a client.
The indictment charges Weinberg with Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, nine counts of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, Attempted Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, and six counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
The victims range in age from 12 to 14 and some were Weinberg's students, from the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. Other victims include clients from Weinberg's work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.
Initially only two victims reported abuse, but the investigation revealed two additional victims
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More Alleged Victims Of Sexual Abuse By Hebrew Tutor Come ForwardNew York News 1 - May 19, 2008
More victims of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a Hebrew tutor have come forward.
The Kings County District Attorney says 29-year-old Yona Weinberg inappropriately touched four adolescent boys.
Weinberg, a Bar Mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker, was arrested earlier this month after two boys said he touched them while helping them with religious studies.
Further investigation into the matter has turned up two more alleged victims.
The Kings County District Attorney says all the boys were between the ages of 12 and 14, and one of them was a client of Weinberg's.
Weinberg faces several charges, including sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
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Bar Mitzvah Tutor Indicted for Sex AbuseBy Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Eagle - May 20, 2008
JAY STREET — A 29-year-old Bar Mitzvah tutor from Flatbush was indicted for numerous crimes against children yesterday, the Brooklyn district attorney announced.
Yona Weinberg, a licensed social worker, is charged with sexually abusing four male students. The indictment charges Weinberg with Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, nine counts of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, Attempted Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, and six counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
The young victims, who were 12, 13 and 14 years old, were Weinberg's students at the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. At least one other victim was Weinberg's client at the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, where Weinberg was a social worker.
If convicted, Weinberg faces up to seven years in prison.
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Perv Torah Tutor Faces Time
By Jeffrey Harmatz
Queen Ledger - May 22, 2008
A Bar Mitzvah is the time when Jewish boys become Jewish men in the eyes of the synagogue, but one twisted tutor in Flatbush didn't seem to realize that a 13-year-old student is still a minor in the eyes of the law.
Yona Weinberg, 29, is a Bar Mitzvah tutor and a licensed social worker from Flatbush who is charged with sexually abusing four male students who were between the ages of 12 and 14 years old.
Weinberg is employed as a tutor at the Khal Beth Abraham Synagogue in Flabush, where he prepared young teenagers for their Bar Mitzvah ceremony. He was also employed as a social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.
The young boys were all students of Weinberg, though some knew him through the temple and others through his social work. Initially, only two victims reported abuse, but the investigation revealed two additional victims.
On Monday, Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes announced that Weinberg was charged with sexual conduct against a child, nine counts of sexual abuse, attempted sexual abuse, and six counts of endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
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Teen accuses tutor of abuse
By Scott Shifrel
New York Daily News - June 23, 2009
A FRIGHTENED Brooklyn teenager shakily took the stand yesterday to accuse a bar mitzvah tutor of repeatedly molesting him.
The boy, who wore dark glasses and a yarmulke, avoided looking at social worker Yona Weinberg as he recounted how the man allegedly took advantage of him in a car, a bathroom and private sessions beginning in November 2007.
"I remember him touching me," said the 14-year-old boy. "He touched my private area."
The boy spoke just above a whisper and nervously played with his fingers. He is one of Weinberg's four alleged victims in the nonjury trial.
Weinberg, a former social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, may testify in his own defense today. He faces as much as seven years behind bars on sex abuse and other charges.
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Kid came on to me - Tutor in Molest Rap
By Scott Shifrel
New York Daily News - June 24, 2009
A BAR MITZVAH tutor and social worker charged with molesting four teens took the stand yesterday to deny it - and even said one of the youngsters came on to him.
Yona Weinberg, 31, of Flatbush, said one teen asked him about Viagra and sex toys while he was praying and teaching Talmud, and another tried to grab his crotch.
He denied abusing the teens.
"It never happened," the married father of four said of one boy's account of a sexual proposition.
He said another boy put his hand on his right leg in a van.
Later, the boy said, "He had feelings for me. I explained to him that they were not mutual. I told him he would eventually outgrow them."
Weinberg, a licensed social worker who is now in real estate, lost his composure only when defense lawyer Marvin Schecter asked if he had called any of the families since his May 2008 arrest.
"I called at least two other patients to inform them I was no longer allowed to work with children," he said, lowering his voice, taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes.
Cross-examination is slated for today.
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Bar mitzvah tutor convicted of sexual abuse
Empire State News - June 25, 2009
BROOKLYN - Yona Weinberg, 31, was convicted of seven counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, for sexually abusing two boys.
Weinberg, a Flatbush Bar Mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker, will be sentenced September 9. He faces up to a two years in jail.
The victims were ages 12 and 13 at the time. One was one of Weinberg’s students, from the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. The other was a client from Weinberg’s work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
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Bar mitzvah tutor guilty in molests
Scott Shifrel
New York Daily News - June 25 2009
A BAR MITZVAH tutor took the stand to deny molesting teens - but he didn't convince a Brooklyn judge, who convicted him of sexually abusing two victims.
Yona Weinberg, 31, was acquitted of eight other counts, including a felony, but still faces up to two years in prison for the misdemeanors.
Weinberg, a social worker, was found guilty of molesting one boy in his home and a synagogue's ritual bath and the other in a van and a yeshiva stairwell.
"His reaction is that of anybody found guilty - it's one of sadness," defense lawyer Marvin Schechter said.
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Brooklyn, NY - Bar Mitzvah Tutor Sentenced to 13 Months In Jail
Voz Iz Neiz - June 29, 2009
Brooklyn, NY - A Bar Mitzvah tutor convicted of sexually abusing two boys was sentenced Tuesday to 13 months in prison.
Yona Weinberg, a 31-year-old social worker from Flatbush, was convicted last June of Seven Counts of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree and Two Counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child
The victims were ages 12 and 13 at the time. One was one of Weinberg’s students, from the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where Weinberg gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. The other was a client from Weinberg’s work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
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NY MINUTEBy Ryan McLendon, Scott Shifrel and Nancy Dillon.
New York Daily News - Sep 2009
THOUSANDS OF ANGRY union members descended on MTA headquarters yesterday to protest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's bid to void a three-year contract that would raise their pay 11%.
"No contract, no peace," members of the Transport Workers Union chanted as they shut down E. 44th St. between Madison and Fifth Aves.
A jointly formed arbitration panel drafted the contract after transit and union leaders failed to negotiate an agreement last year. The award was considered final, but the MTA blasted it as too costly when terms were released last month.
Union leaders also plan a systemwide "day of outrage" Oct. 14. Ryan McLendon
Judge slams orthodox Jews
A BROOKLYN JUDGE slammed parts of the orthodox Jewish community yesterday for what he called their blind support of a social worker and tutor he sentenced to more than a year in jail yesterday for sexually abusing two young teens.
Judge Gustin Reichbach noted the dozens of letters supporting 31-year-old Yona Weinberg, even after he was convicted of taking advantage of the victims' trust.
"Not a single letter in these 90-plus letters display any concern for these young victims," Reichbach said. "I find that shameful."
"There seems to be a circle-the-wagons attitude," he added.
Weinberg was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
A letter from the mom of one of his victims said her son's "scars run so deep and . . . will affect him for the rest of his life." Scott Shifrel
Marine's murder charge out
THE GOVERNMENT has dropped its murder charge against a New York-raised Marine who admitted shooting an unarmed Iraqi during chaotic house-to-house fighting in Fallujah.
Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, 28, yesterday pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty in exchange for no jail time and an honorable discharge, his lawyer Joseph Low said.
"He's a great kid who was in some horrific combat and forced to make a split-second decision based on what a Marine in charge told him to do," Low said.
Prosecutors failed twice before to convict two of Nelson's squad mates from Camp Pendleton, Calif., who also were charged with the killings inside a Fallujah home in November 2004. Nancy Dillon
Controller wants SUNY hike
BUFFALO - New York should make it more expensive for out-of-state residents to attend its public universities and use some of the added revenue to help hold down expenses for in-state students, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli proposed yesterday. SUNY tuition is $12,870 a year for students from outside New York and $4,970 for in-state students.
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BAR MITZVAH PERV JAILED
By Alex Ginsberg
New York Post - September 30, 2009
A Brooklyn judge yesterday slapped a bar mitzvah tutor with 13 months behind bars for groping two boys - while ripping the close-knit Orthodox community for what he called a "circle the wagons" mentality that protects such abusers. "What is . . . troubling . . . is a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than on the perpetrators," said Judge Gustin Reichbach. The Midwood tutor, Yona Weinberg, 31, is a licensed social worker and the married father of triplets. His victims were 12 and 13.
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BREAKING: Judge Lashes Out At Orthodox Community In Sex-Abuse Case; Says It Protects Abusers, Not Victims
by Hella Winston
Jewish Week - October 2, 2009
At the sentencing Tuesday of a bar mitzvah tutor and social worker convicted of sexually molesting two boys in Brooklyn, a New York State Supreme Court Judge lashed out at the offender's Orthodox community for "a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator."
With his stinging critique, Judge Guston Reichbach placed himself at the center of a fierce debate in the Orthodox community over how best to police the problem of pedophilia.
Speaking from the bench the day after Yom Kippur at the sentencing of Yona Weinberg, who received a 13-month jail term, Judge Reichbach said he found it "troubling" that the community "seeks to blame, indeed punish victims who seek justice from the … civil society," according to a
court transcript. He went on to add that the Orthodox community's religious courts are "inappropriate" and "incapable" of dealing with criminal matters.
Making his comments before a courtroom packed with supporters of the 31-year-old Weinberg - among them, according to his defense attorney, school principals, two rabbis and civic leaders - the judge spoke of receiving more than 90 letters attesting to Weinberg's character and innocence. None of the letters, the judge noted, "displays any concern or any sympathy or even any acknowledgement for these young victims which, frankly, I find shameful."
Indeed, Judge Reichbach referred to one letter in particular, written by a Mrs. Mandel and expressing sadness "that Weinberg's love of humankind has turned against him," to be "the height of chutzpah."
Judge Reichbach's comments come as the Orthodox community struggles to come to grips with the problem of child sexual abuse. Just last week, in what was described as a groundbreaking occurrence, an Orthodox synagogue in Passaic, N.J., drew more than 300 people to an event where several victims of sexual abuse, including a 16-year-old girl who said she had been raped, told their vivid and shocking stories. Other events about the pedophilia problem have taken place in the Orthodox world, but this one was unique for having attracted such a large audience to a synagogue in Passaic, known for its strong, fervent religious community.
And in the spring the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, partnering with various agencies, including Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, launched a hotline designed to get alleged victims of sexual abuse to come forward and press their cases in the courts.
Indeed, in his statements at Weinberg's sentencing, Judge Reichbach praised the victims and their families for the having the courage to come forward despite communal pressures. And he made a point of indicating that precisely because of the community's "'circle the wagon attitude' there is going to be a jail sentence in this case because anything less, I believe, would offend not only the appropriate sense of justice but would also further, in some way, if not penalize [and] … indicate to the victims here who have … suffered the opprobrium of the community that somehow what happened to them was not important, was not significant."
Weinberg was convicted of nine separate crimes - seven counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and two of endangering the welfare of a child. Judge Reichbach made the point that had Weinberg expressed any remorse at the sentencing - he remained "mute," according to the judge - Weinberg might have been entitled to some consideration with respect to the duration of his sentence. In fact, throughout the proceedings Judge Reichbach seemed dismayed by Weinberg's failure to express contrition.
Kevin O'Donnell, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, also argued for jail time as opposed to therapy, which the defense was seeking, emphasizing that the absence of jail time would send "just a very bad message ... [not only] to the community but to the family that is in court and the two young victims in the case."
Both Judge Reichbach's and O'Donnell's words were greeted with strong praise from survivors of sexual abuse and their advocates in the Orthodox community, many of whom have, in the past, expressed concerns about the Brooklyn District Attorney's handling of such cases. One highly publicized example was the plea bargain the DA struck with alleged child molester Yehuda Kolko last year, which allowed Kolko to avoid jail time, sex offender registration and counseling by copping to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, told The Jewish Week on Friday that "Reichbach's compassion and admiration for the courage of these victims have resonated through our community, as has his rebuke to those within our community who would protect pedophiles.
"Not only will his just sentencing save children from this predator," Hirsch continued, "it also sends a message that these crimes will not go unpunished, which will go a long way towards reducing the prevalence of abuse in our community."
Hirsch went on "to commend DA Hynes and his staff for their effective prosecution of this case. We hope this will encourage members of the Orthodox community to bring all cases of abuse directly to the sex crimes division of their police departments so that the justice system can do its job."
Judge: Orthodox Protect Abusers, Not Victims
Judge Gustin Reichbach: Stinging words at sentencing of sex offenders
By Hella Winston
Jewish Week - October 9, 2009
At the sentencing last week of a bar mitzvah tutor and social worker convicted of sexually molesting two boys in Brooklyn, a New York State Supreme Court judge lashed out at the offender’s Orthodox community for “a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator.”
With his stinging critique, Judge Gustin Reichbach placed himself at the center of a fierce debate in the Orthodox community over how best to police the problem of pedophilia.
Speaking from the bench the day after Yom Kippur at the sentencing of Yona Weinberg, who received a 13-month jail term, Reichbach said he found it “troubling” that the community “seeks to blame, indeed punish victims who seek justice from the ... civil
society,” according to a court transcript. He went on to add that the Orthodox community’s religious courts are “inappropriate” and “incapable” of dealing with criminal matters.
Making his comments before a courtroom packed with supporters of the 31-year-old Weinberg — among them, according to his defense attorney, school principals, two rabbis and civic leaders — the judge spoke of receiving more than 90 letters attesting to Weinberg’s character and innocence. None of the letters, the judge noted, “displays any concern or any sympathy or even any acknowledgement for these young victims which, frankly, I find shameful.”
Reichbach referred to one letter in particular, written by a Mrs. Mandel and expressing sadness “that Weinberg’s love of humankind has turned against him,” as being “the height of chutzpah.”
Judge Reichbach’s comments come as the Orthodox community struggles to come to grips with the problem of child sexual abuse. Two days before the judge’s statements, in what was described as a groundbreaking occurrence, an Orthodox synagogue in Passaic, N.J., drew more than 300 people to an event where several victims of sexual abuse, including a 16-year-old girl who said she had been raped, told their vivid and shocking stories. Other events about the pedophilia problem have taken place in the Orthodox world, but this one was unique for having attracted such a large audience to a synagogue in Passaic, known for its strong, fervently religious community.
And in the spring the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, partnering with various agencies, including Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, launched a hotline designed to get victims of sexual abuse to come forward and press their cases in the courts. Pressure has been mounting in recent years to combat rabbis’ and community leaders’ tendencies to handle such cases inside the community rather than going to law enforcement.
Indeed, in his statements at Weinberg’s sentencing, Reichbach praised the victims and their families for the having the courage to come forward despite communal pressures. And he made a point of indicating that precisely because of the community’s “’circle the wagons attitude’ there is going to be a jail sentence in this case because anything less, I believe, would offend not only the appropriate sense of justice but would also further, in some way, if not penalize [and] ... indicate to the victims here who have ... suffered the opprobrium of the community that somehow what happened to them was not important, was not significant.”
Weinberg was convicted of nine separate crimes — seven counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and two of endangering the welfare of a child. Reichbach made the point that had Weinberg expressed any remorse at the sentencing — he remained “mute,” according to the judge — Weinberg might have been entitled to some consideration with respect to the duration of his sentence. In fact, throughout the proceedings Reichbach seemed dismayed by Weinberg’s failure to express contrition.
Kevin O’Donnell, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, also argued for jail time as opposed to therapy, which the defense was seeking, emphasizing that the absence of jail time would send “just a very bad message ... [not only] to the community but to the family that is in court and the two young victims in the case.”
Reichbach declined a request for an interview, saying he couldn’t speak because Weinberg is planning an appeal of the conviction.
Both Reichbach’s and O’Donnell’s words were greeted with strong praise from survivors of sexual abuse and their advocates in the Orthodox community, many of whom have, in the past, expressed concerns about the Brooklyn District Attorney’s handling of such cases. One highly publicized example was the plea bargain the DA struck with alleged child molester Yehuda Kolko last year, which allowed Kolko to avoid jail time, sex offender registration and counseling by copping to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, told The Jewish Week that “Reichbach’s compassion and admiration for the courage of these victims have resonated through our community, as has his rebuke to those within our community who would protect pedophiles.
“Not only will his just sentencing save children from this predator,” Hirsch continued, “it also sends a message that these crimes will not go unpunished, which will go a long way towards reducing the prevalence of abuse in our community.”
Hirsch went on to commend Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and his staff “for their effective prosecution of this case. We hope this will encourage members of the Orthodox community to bring all cases of abuse directly to the sex crimes division of their police departments so that the justice system can do its job.”
According to Marci Hamilton, professor of public law at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do To Protect Its Children,” there is a need for “more judges like Judge Reichbach who have the courage and moral compass to protect child victims from their perpetrators and the communities that increase the likelihood that abuse will persist.
“His comments were most valuable at a time when two other communities have taken sides against the victims of childhood sexual abuse — the Hollywood community defending the rapist Roman Polanski and the Catholic Church hierarchy litigating up to the Supreme Court its desire to keep the secrets of clergy abuse.
“The law,” Hamilton continued, “is the only means of stemming the tide of abuse.”
Hirsch’s and Hamilton’s sentiments about the judge’s statements were echoed by Daniel Sosnowik, a member of the Flatbush Orthodox community and a captain in the New York Police Department.
“The judge made a kiddush Hashem [sanctification of God’s name] where a chilul Hashem [desecration of God’s name] was being made again, by over 90 people in the community, as well as a packed courtroom [with rabbis] and other leaders,” Sosnowik told The Jewish Week.
“People don’t realize the enormity of the chilul Hashem,” he continued. “[If someone] is convicted in a court of law, this is a system that we all abide by in this country. [Weinberg] was convicted and [people are] still out there in support of him rather than [the] victims.”
Sosnowik acknowledged the possibility that people might be publicly supporting Weinberg in a misguided attempt to protect the image of the community, but strongly condemned that practice.
“I think of the Torah’s admonitions on many occasions to dispose of the evil in your midst. And maybe it’s [repeated so often] because it’s absolutely critical to deal with it, rather than [say] ‘well, we know there’s evil, and privately I support [the victims] but publicly I can’t possibly. ... No. Dispose of the evil in your midst. My hope is that words like the judge’s, especially coming after Yom Kippur, will [make a light] go off in people’s heads that you need to be on the side of victims and not on the side of people who are doing the victimizing.”
While the reaction to Judge Reichbach’s statements, along with the event in Passaic, strike some observers as evidence of a shift in the community’s thinking about and approach to this issue, many feel that there is still much work to be done, particularly on the part of the leadership, to effect meaningful and lasting change.
“[The] Passaic event [organized by Passaic Rabbi Ron Eisenman] marked a historic change in the haredi community,” said Asher Lipner, a Flatbush psychologist who has dealt widely with the sexual abuse problem in the Orthodox community. “Unfortunately, Rabbi Eisenman’s courage,” Lipner continued, “is in sharp contradistinction to the more mainstream Orthodox rabbinic leadership who have never reached out to survivors of abuse, to give them a forum to publicly tell their stories. All efforts of victims to meet face to face as a group with the gedolim [rabbinic leadership] have been rejected. For survivors of abuse this is the ultimate betrayal, more painful in some ways than the actual sexual abuse they experienced as children.”
Even the DA’s efforts to encourage reporting of abuse are “useless as a source of change,” Lipner noted, “as long as leading rabbis refuse to do the right thing and publicly encourage victims who suffer in silence to report their abuse to the authorities.”
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People v Weinberg
2010 NY Slip Op 06180 [75 AD3d 612]
July 20, 2010
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, September 1, 2010The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Yona Weinberg, Appellant.
—[*1] Andrew Citron, New York, N.Y., for appellant.
Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Ruth E. Ross, and Jill Oziemblewski of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Reichbach, J.), rendered September 29, 2009, convicting him of sexual abuse in the second degree (seven counts) and endangering the welfare of a child (two counts), after a nonjury trial, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Kings County, for further proceedings pursuant to CPL 460.50 (5).
The Supreme Court did not deprive the defendant of his constitutional right of confrontation by prohibiting him from cross-examining one of the complainants or eliciting testimony about that complainant's prior sexual conduct. Contrary to the defendant's contention, such evidence was not relevant to support his defense that this complainant's testimony was fabricated (see People v Scott, 67 AD3d 1052, 1054 [2009]; People v Vankenie, 52 AD3d 849 [2008]; People v Perryman, 178 AD2d 916, 917 [1991]; see generally People v Williams, 81 NY2d 303, 312 [1993]). The defendant was given ample opportunity to develop evidence to support his position that this complainant had a motive to fabricate his testimony (see People v Russillo, 27 AD3d 493 [2006]). Accordingly, evidence of this complainant's prior sexual conduct was irrelevant and properly excluded by the Supreme Court under the rape shield law (see CPL 60.42; People v Russillo, 27 AD3d 493 [2006]; cf. People v Jovanovic, 263 AD2d 182 [1999]).
The defendant contends that the prosecutor committed misconduct when, before opening statements at a nonjury trial, he referred to alleged prior uncharged crimes, under the auspices of a Molineux application (see People v Molineux, 168 NY 264 [1901]). This contention is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05 [2]), and in any event, is without merit.
The defendant's contention that it was error for the prosecutor to question him during cross-examination regarding his religious beliefs is not preserved for appellate review, as the defendant failed to object to the alleged error at trial (see CPL 470.05 [2]; People v Pinto, 56 AD3d 494, 495 [2008]). In any event, this contention is without merit. [*2]
The defendant contends that the prosecutor, during summation, improperly related the defendant's religious beliefs to his credibility. This issue is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05 [2]; People v Romero, 7 NY3d 911, 912 [2006]; People v Dien, 77 NY2d 885 [1991]). In any event, even if it were error to allow the prosecutor's comment, such error, if any, was harmless in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt and in recognition of the presumption that the trial court, as factfinder, will consider only competent evidence in reaching its verdict (see People v Kozlow, 46 AD3d 913, 915 [2007]) and is uniquely capable of distinguishing those issues properly before it from those which are not (see People v Kozlow, 46 AD3d 913 [2007]; People v Marino, 21 AD3d 430, 432 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 883 [2005], cert denied 548 US 908 [2006]; see also People v Dixon, 50 AD3d 1519, 1520 [2008]).
The sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80 [1982]).
The defendant's remaining contention is without merit. Dillon, J.P., Dickerson, Lott and Austin, JJ., concur.
Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sex Abuse
New York Times - May 10, 2012
The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested.
Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted Mr. Jungreis's mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she "did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?"
By cooperating with the police, and speaking out about his son's abuse, Mr. Jungreis, 38, found himself at the painful forefront of an issue roiling his insular Hasidic community. There have been glimmers of change as a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, taking on longstanding religious and cultural norms, have begun to report child sexual abuse accusations against members of their own communities. But those who come forward often encounter intense intimidation from their neighbors and from rabbinical authorities, aimed at pressuring them to drop their cases.
Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims' families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims' advocates said.
"Try living for one day with all the pain I am living with," Mr. Jungreis, spent and distraught, said recently outside his new apartment on Williamsburg's outskirts. "Did anybody in the Hasidic community in these two years, in Borough Park, in Flatbush, ever come up and look my son in the eye and tell him a good word? Did anybody take the courage to show him mercy in the street?"
A few blocks away, Pearl Engelman, a 64-year-old great-grandmother, said her community had failed her too. In 2008, her son, Joel, told rabbinical authorities that he had been repeatedly groped as a child by a school official at the United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg. The school briefly removed the official but denied the accusation. And when Joel turned 23, too old to file charges under the state's statute of limitations, they returned the man to teaching.
"There is no nice way of saying it," Mrs. Engelman said. "Our community protects molesters. Other than that, we are wonderful."
Keeping to Themselves
The New York City area is home to an estimated 250,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews -- the largest such community outside of Israel, and one that is growing rapidly because of its high birthrate. The community is concentrated in Brooklyn, where many of the ultra-Orthodox are Hasidim, followers of a fervent spiritual movement that began in 18th-century Europe and applies Jewish law to every aspect of life.
Their communities, headed by dynastic leaders called rebbes, strive to preserve their centuries-old customs by resisting the contaminating influences of the outside world. While some ultra-Orthodox rabbis now argue that a child molester should be reported to the police, others strictly adhere to an ancient prohibition against mesirah, the turning in of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities, and consider publicly airing allegations against fellow Jews to be chillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name.
There are more mundane factors, too. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews want to keep abuse allegations quiet to protect the reputation of the community, and the family of the accused. And rabbinical authorities, eager to maintain control, worry that inviting outside scrutiny could erode their power, said Samuel Heilman, a professor of Jewish studies at Queens College.
"They are more afraid of the outside world than the deviants within their own community," Dr. Heilman said. "The deviants threaten individuals here or there, but the outside world threatens everyone and the entire structure of their world."
Scholars believe that abuse rates in the ultra-Orthodox world are roughly the same as those in the general population, but for generations, most ultra-Orthodox abuse victims kept silent, fearful of being stigmatized in a culture where the genders are strictly separated and discussion of sex is taboo. When a victim did come forward, it was generally to rabbis and rabbinical courts, which would sometimes investigate the allegations, pledge to monitor the accused, or order payment to a victim, but not refer the matter to the police.
"You can destroy a person's life with a false report," said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, a powerful ultra-Orthodox organization, which last year said that observant Jews should not report allegations to the police unless permitted to do so by a rabbi.
Rabbinic authorities "recommend you speak it over with a rabbi before coming to any definitive conclusion in your own mind," Rabbi Zweibel said.
When ultra-Orthodox Jews do bring abuse accusations to the police, the same cultural forces that have long kept victims silent often become an obstacle to prosecutions.
In Brooklyn, of the 51 molesting cases involving the ultra-Orthodox community that the district attorney's office says it has closed since 2009, nine were dismissed because the victims backed out. Others ended with plea deals because the victims' families were fearful.
"People aren't recanting, but they don't want to go forward," said Rhonnie Jaus, a sex crimes prosecutor in Brooklyn. "We've heard some of our victims have been thrown out of schools, that the person is shunned from the synagogue. There's a lot of pressure."
The degree of intimidation can vary by neighborhood, by sect and by the prominence of the person accused.
In August 2009, the rows in a courtroom at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn were packed with rabbis, religious school principals and community leaders. Almost all were there in solidarity with Yona Weinberg, a bar mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker from Flatbush who had been convicted of molesting two boys under age 14.
Justice Guston L. Reichbach looked out with disapproval. He recalled testimony about how the boys had been kicked out of their schools or summer camps after bringing their cases, suggesting a "communal attitude that seeks to blame, indeed punish, victims." And he noted that, of the 90 letters he had received praising Mr. Weinberg, not one displayed "any concern or any sympathy or even any acknowledgment for these young victims, which, frankly, I find shameful."
"While the crimes the defendant stands convicted of are bad enough," the judge said before sentencing Mr. Weinberg to 13 months in prison, "what is even more troubling to the court is a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator."
Silenced by Fear
Intimidation is rarely documented, but just two weeks ago, a Hasidic woman from Kiryas Joel, N.Y., in Orange County, filed a startling statement in a criminal court, detailing the pressure she faced after telling the police that a Hasidic man had molested her son.
"I feel 100 percent threatened and very scared," she said in her statement. "I feel intimidated and worried about what the consequences are going to be. But I have to protect my son and do what is right."
Last year, her son, then 14, told the police that he had been offered $20 by a stranger to help move some boxes, but instead, the man brought him to a motel in Woodbury, removed the boy's pants and masturbated him.
The police, aided by the motel's security camera, identified the man as Joseph Gelbman, then 52, of Kiamesha Lake, a cook who worked at a boys' school run by the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect. He was arrested, and the intimidation ensued. Rabbi Israel Hager, a powerful Vizhnitz rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., began calling the mother, asking her to cease her cooperation with the criminal case and, instead, to bring the matter to a rabbinical court under his jurisdiction, according to the mother's statement to the court. Rabbi Hager did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
"I said: 'Why? He might do this again to other children,' " the mother said in the statement. The mother, who asked that The New York Times not use her name to avoid identifying her son, told the police that the rabbi asked, "What will you gain from this if he goes to jail?" and said that, in a later call, he offered her $20,000 to pay for therapy for her son if the charges were dropped.
On April 24, three days before the case was set for trial, the boy was expelled from his school. When the mother protested, she said, the principal threatened to report her for child abuse.
Prosecutors, against the wishes of the boy's parents, settled the case on April 27. Mr. Gelbman was given three years' probation after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.
Mr. Jungreis, the Williamsburg father, had a similar experience. He first suspected that his son was being molested after he came home with blood in his underwear at age 12, and later was caught touching another child on the bus. But, Mr. Jungreis said, the school principal warned him to stay silent. Two years later, the boy revealed that he had been molested for years by a man he saw at a mikvah, a ritual bath that observant Jews visit for purification.
Mr. Jungreis, knowing the prohibition on calling secular authorities, asked several rabbis to help him report the abuse, but, he said, they told him they did not want to get involved. Ultimately, he found a rabbi who told him to take his son to a psychologist, who would be obligated to notify law enforcement. "That way you are not the moser," he said the rabbi told him, using the Hebrew word for informer. The police arrested Meir Dascalowitz, then 27, who is now awaiting trial.
Prosecution of intimidation is rare. Victims and their supporters say that is because rabbinical authorities are politically powerful; prosecutors say it is because there is rarely enough evidence to build a criminal case. "The intimidation often works, at least in the short run," said Laura Pierro, the head of the special victims unit at the Ocean County prosecutor's office in New Jersey.
In 2010, Ms. Pierro's agency indicted Shaul Luban for witness tampering: he had sent a threatening text message to multiple recipients, urging the Orthodox Jewish community of Lakewood, N.J., to pressure the family of an 11-year-old abuse victim not to cooperate with prosecutors. In exchange for having his record cleared, Mr. Luban agreed to spend about a year in a program for first-time offenders.
Mr. Luban and others "wanted the phone to ring off the hook to withdraw the complaint from our office," the Ocean County prosecutor, Marlene Lynch Ford, said.
Threats to Advocates
The small cadre of ultra-Orthodox Jews who have tried to call attention to the community's lack of support for sexual abuse victims have often been targeted with the same forms of intimidation as the victims themselves.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg of Williamsburg, for example, has been shunned by communal authorities because he maintains a telephone number that features his impassioned lectures in Yiddish, Hebrew and English imploring victims to call 911 and accusing rabbis of silencing cases. He also shows up at court hearings and provides victims' families with advice. His call-in line gets nearly 3,000 listeners a day.
In 2008, fliers were posted around Williamsburg denouncing him. One depicted a coiled snake, with Mr. Rosenberg's face superimposed on its head. "Nuchem Snake Rosenberg: Leave Tainted One!" it said in Hebrew. The local Satmar Hasidic authorities banned him from their synagogues, and a wider group of 32 prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis and religious judges signed an order, published in a community newspaper, formally ostracizing him.
"The public must beware, and stay away from him, and push him out of our camp, not speak to him, and even more, not to honor him or support him, and not allow him to set foot in any synagogue until he returns from his evil ways," the order said in Hebrew.
"They had small children coming to my house and spitting on me and on my children and wife," Rabbi Rosenberg, 61, said in an interview.
Rabbi Tzvi Gluck, 31, of Queens, the son of a prominent rabbi and an informal liaison to secular law enforcement, began helping victims after he met troubled teenagers at Our Place, a help center in Brooklyn, and realized that sexual abuse was often the root of their problems. It was when he began helping the teenagers report cases to the police that he also received threats.
In February, for example, he received a call asking him to urge an abuse victim to abandon a case. "A guy called me up and said: 'Listen, I want you to know that people on the street are talking about what they can do to hurt you financially. And maybe speak to your children's schools, to get your kids thrown out of school.' "
Rabbi Gluck said he had helped at least a dozen ultra-Orthodox abuse victims bring cases to the Brooklyn district attorney in recent years, and each time, he said, the victim came under heavy pressure to back down. In a case late last year that did not get to the police, a 30-year-old molested a 14-year-old boy in a Jewish ritual bath in Brooklyn, and a rabbi "made the boy apologize to the molester for seducing him," he said.
"If a guy in our community gets diagnosed with cancer, the whole community will come running to help them," he said. "But if someone comes out and says they were a victim of abuse, as a whole, the community looks at them and says, 'Go jump in a lake.' "
Traces of Change
Awareness of child sexual abuse is increasing in the ultra-Orthodox community. Since 2008, hundreds of adult abuse survivors have told their stories, mostly anonymously, on blogs and radio call-in shows, and to victims' advocates. Rabbi-vetted books like "Let's Stay Safe," aimed at teaching children what to do if they are inappropriately touched, are selling well.
The response by communal authorities, however, has been uneven.
In March, for example, Satmar Hasidic authorities in Williamsburg took what advocates said was an unprecedented step: They posted a Yiddish sign in synagogues warning adults and children to stay away from a community member who they said was molesting young men. But the sign did not urge victims to call the police: "With great pain we must, according to the request of the brilliant rabbis (may they live long and good lives), inform you that the young man," who was named, "is, unfortunately, an injurious person and he is a great danger to our community."
In Crown Heights, where the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement has its headquarters, there has been more significant change. In July 2011, a religious court declared that the traditional prohibition against mesirah did not apply in cases with evidence of abuse. "One is forbidden to remain silent in such situations," said the ruling, signed by two of the court's three judges.
Since then, five molesting cases have been brought from the neighborhood -- "as many sexual abuse-related arrests and reports as there had been in the past 20 years," said Eliyahu Federman, a lawyer who helps victims in Crown Heights, citing public information.
Mordechai Feinstein, 19, helped prompt the ruling by telling the Crown Heights religious court that he had been touched inappropriately at age 15 by Rabbi Moshe F. Keller, a Lubavitcher who ran a foundation for at-risk youth and whom Mr. Feinstein had considered his spiritual mentor.
Last week, Rabbi Keller was sentenced in Criminal Court to three years' probation for endangering the welfare of a child. And Mr. Feinstein, who is no longer religious, is starting a campaign to encourage more abuse victims to come forward. He is working with two prominent civil rights attorneys, Norman Siegel and Herbert Teitelbaum, who are asking lawyers to provide free assistance to abuse victims frustrated by their dealings with prosecutors.
"The community is a garden; there are a lot of beautiful things about it," Mr. Feinstein said. "We just have to help them weed out the garden and take out the things that don't belong there."
Friday: The Brooklyn district attorney is criticized for his handling of ultra-Orthodox Jewish child sex-abuse cases.
ORTHODOX 'PERV' FILES Holy hell in B'klyN DA unveils 96 molest cases
By Susan Edelman and Brad Hamilton
New York Post - May 20, 2012
After months of prodding, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes finally released an expanded accounting of the nearly 100 perverts he says he has prosecuted in the borough's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
He showed The Post summaries of 96 cases, that reveal a shocking pattern of rape, sodomy, incest, kidnapping and sex attacks on children.
Hynes says that he has pursued scores of predators through a program called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for "voice of justice," launched in 2009, and has put some despicable offenders in prison for years.
But many avoided stiff jail sentences with wrist-slap plea deals, several got no punishment, and others had charges dropped or reduced after victims backed out under community pressure.
Hynes still refused to name the defendants, insisting his unusual policy protects victims and their families from intimidation by supporters of the creeps who "don't give a damn about victims."
"The Mafia breaks legs or kills people, but [there's] not the constant vilification that these people have to suffer," he said.
The Post identified many of the cases after reviewing the summaries, which did not reveal sentences.
One involved social worker Yona Weinberg, a bar mitzvah tutor sentenced to a year in jail after he molested four boys, one in a synagogue's ritual bath.
Another defendant repeatedly raped his own 8-year-old daughter and was convicted of a Class B felony, which carries up to 25 years in jail.
A third pervert, Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, fled to Israel after charges that he and his three sons repeatedly molested four young girls at the children's home in Midwood. One whom told of being attacked for 15 years.
A serial groper grabbed the buttocks of five strangers on the street in 2009, leading to his guilty plea to forcible touching, a misdemeanor.
The jury is out on Hynes' scorecard: 43 of the cases are still pending.
His records say 13 cases were dismissed and five defendants went to trial, with four convictions and one acquittal. Another 35 took plea deals.
The cases involved 123 victims, including 91 underage boys and girls, with seven allegations of rape, 21 of sodomy and 67 of sexual abuse.
The "vast majority" of the suspects are Orthodox Jewish; the others molested members of that community, Hynes' office said.
In response to sharp criticism from former Mayor Ed Koch, Hynes agreed to form a task force with investigators from his office and the NYPD to find ways to bust those who threaten victims if they come forward.
But Hynes says victims too afraid to allege sex abuse are unlikely to cooperate. Sources said the DA's rackets bureau has asked two complainants to wear hidden recorders. Neither went through with it - including a father who told of pressure to drop charges that his son was molested by Meir Descalowitz, whose case is pending until he is declared mentally fit for trial.
Another dad, whose son was abused for five years by family friend Michael Sabo, praised the DA's "very aggressive" response.
"Based on what I told them, they got a search warrant and arrested him in three days." Sabo's computers were loaded with child porn, and "he didn't have time to get rid of it."
The father also supports Hynes' withholding of suspects' names until the family is ready, saying it shields them from gossip and questions.
The case ended with one of Hynes' biggest convictions.
Sabo, a 38-year-old nurse nurse in Marine Park, pleaded guilty on May 7 to assaulting the son and a girl from another family also willing to testify. He faces 20 years to life.
Critics still claim Hynes hasn't done enough. "He is now scrambling to respond to criticism," said activist Ben Hirsch, a co-founder of Survivors for Justice.
"Advocates and victims have been begging Hynes to take these cases since 2006. "We've had to pressure him to prosecute almost every one."
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Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says he's prosecuted 96 sex-assault suspects in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community since 2009. Of 53 closed cases, 13 were dismissed, 35 ended in plea deals and five went to trial, resulting in four convictions and one acquittal. High-profile cases include:
CASE 1
Emanuel Yegutkin, 53, the principal of a top private high school and a volunteer summer lifeguard from Ocean Parkway, is charged with repeatedly molesting three young sons of his closest friend, starting when they were as young as 7. The defendant, a politically connected figure, is pressing Hynes to drop the case, claiming a "false confession."
CASE 4
Another rabbi, Baruch Lebovits, 61, allegedly sodomized two teen boys and sexually abused a third. He was convicted of molesting one victim in 2010. He was serving 10 to 32 years in jail when an appeals panel overturned the verdict-which had been one of Hynes' biggest achievements - in March. Hynes vows to retry him.
CASE 6
Brooklyn Rabbi Joel Kolko, 65, who struck a no-jail plea in 2006 for abusing three kids, now faces charges he violated a court order of protection from one his accusers. Cops say the creep moved in near the boy's family, snapped his photo and leered at him. The boy's father said he got a call warning to "back off or you'll suffer the consequences." The trial has been repeatedly delayed.
CASE 3
Nechemya Weberman, 53, an unlicensed therapist, has been charged with forcing a 16-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him during counseling sessions. The victim claims the abuse began when she was 12. Supporters of Weberman clashed with protesters at a demonstration in Williamsburg last week. Hynes said the case illustrates the way that many in the community vilify victims.
CASE 2
Joseph "Uncle Joe" Passof, a retired city schoolteacher and camp counselor, was charged in March with sneaking up on a 5-year-old boy and assaulting him in a day-camp bathroom in Flatbush Park in front of another boy last summer. The top count, for a criminal sexual act with a child under 11, is a felony that carries five to 25 years in jail
CASE 5
Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer ducked justice. He fled to Israel after he and his three sons were charged with molesting four young girls at the kids' home in Midwood. One girl told of abuse over 15 years. Hynes' office unsuccessfully sought extradition.
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Judge: Orthodox Protect Abusers, Not Victims
Judge Gustin Reichbach: Stinging words at sentencing of sex offenders
By Hella Winston
Jewish Week - October 9, 2009
At the sentencing last week of a bar mitzvah tutor and social worker convicted of sexually molesting two boys in Brooklyn, a New York State Supreme Court judge lashed out at the offender’s Orthodox community for “a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator.”
With his stinging critique, Judge Gustin Reichbach placed himself at the center of a fierce debate in the Orthodox community over how best to police the problem of pedophilia.
Speaking from the bench the day after Yom Kippur at the sentencing of Yona Weinberg, who received a 13-month jail term, Reichbach said he found it “troubling” that the community “seeks to blame, indeed punish victims who seek justice from the ... civil
society,” according to a court transcript. He went on to add that the Orthodox community’s religious courts are “inappropriate” and “incapable” of dealing with criminal matters.
Making his comments before a courtroom packed with supporters of the 31-year-old Weinberg — among them, according to his defense attorney, school principals, two rabbis and civic leaders — the judge spoke of receiving more than 90 letters attesting to Weinberg’s character and innocence. None of the letters, the judge noted, “displays any concern or any sympathy or even any acknowledgement for these young victims which, frankly, I find shameful.”
Reichbach referred to one letter in particular, written by a Mrs. Mandel and expressing sadness “that Weinberg’s love of humankind has turned against him,” as being “the height of chutzpah.”
Judge Reichbach’s comments come as the Orthodox community struggles to come to grips with the problem of child sexual abuse. Two days before the judge’s statements, in what was described as a groundbreaking occurrence, an Orthodox synagogue in Passaic, N.J., drew more than 300 people to an event where several victims of sexual abuse, including a 16-year-old girl who said she had been raped, told their vivid and shocking stories. Other events about the pedophilia problem have taken place in the Orthodox world, but this one was unique for having attracted such a large audience to a synagogue in Passaic, known for its strong, fervently religious community.
And in the spring the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, partnering with various agencies, including Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, launched a hotline designed to get victims of sexual abuse to come forward and press their cases in the courts. Pressure has been mounting in recent years to combat rabbis’ and community leaders’ tendencies to handle such cases inside the community rather than going to law enforcement.
Indeed, in his statements at Weinberg’s sentencing, Reichbach praised the victims and their families for the having the courage to come forward despite communal pressures. And he made a point of indicating that precisely because of the community’s “’circle the wagons attitude’ there is going to be a jail sentence in this case because anything less, I believe, would offend not only the appropriate sense of justice but would also further, in some way, if not penalize [and] ... indicate to the victims here who have ... suffered the opprobrium of the community that somehow what happened to them was not important, was not significant.”
Weinberg was convicted of nine separate crimes — seven counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and two of endangering the welfare of a child. Reichbach made the point that had Weinberg expressed any remorse at the sentencing — he remained “mute,” according to the judge — Weinberg might have been entitled to some consideration with respect to the duration of his sentence. In fact, throughout the proceedings Reichbach seemed dismayed by Weinberg’s failure to express contrition.
Kevin O’Donnell, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, also argued for jail time as opposed to therapy, which the defense was seeking, emphasizing that the absence of jail time would send “just a very bad message ... [not only] to the community but to the family that is in court and the two young victims in the case.”
Reichbach declined a request for an interview, saying he couldn’t speak because Weinberg is planning an appeal of the conviction.
Both Reichbach’s and O’Donnell’s words were greeted with strong praise from survivors of sexual abuse and their advocates in the Orthodox community, many of whom have, in the past, expressed concerns about the Brooklyn District Attorney’s handling of such cases. One highly publicized example was the plea bargain the DA struck with alleged child molester Yehuda Kolko last year, which allowed Kolko to avoid jail time, sex offender registration and counseling by copping to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, told The Jewish Week that “Reichbach’s compassion and admiration for the courage of these victims have resonated through our community, as has his rebuke to those within our community who would protect pedophiles.
“Not only will his just sentencing save children from this predator,” Hirsch continued, “it also sends a message that these crimes will not go unpunished, which will go a long way towards reducing the prevalence of abuse in our community.”
Hirsch went on to commend Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and his staff “for their effective prosecution of this case. We hope this will encourage members of the Orthodox community to bring all cases of abuse directly to the sex crimes division of their police departments so that the justice system can do its job.”
According to Marci Hamilton, professor of public law at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do To Protect Its Children,” there is a need for “more judges like Judge Reichbach who have the courage and moral compass to protect child victims from their perpetrators and the communities that increase the likelihood that abuse will persist.
“His comments were most valuable at a time when two other communities have taken sides against the victims of childhood sexual abuse — the Hollywood community defending the rapist Roman Polanski and the Catholic Church hierarchy litigating up to the Supreme Court its desire to keep the secrets of clergy abuse.
“The law,” Hamilton continued, “is the only means of stemming the tide of abuse.”
Hirsch’s and Hamilton’s sentiments about the judge’s statements were echoed by Daniel Sosnowik, a member of the Flatbush Orthodox community and a captain in the New York Police Department.
“The judge made a kiddush Hashem [sanctification of God’s name] where a chilul Hashem [desecration of God’s name] was being made again, by over 90 people in the community, as well as a packed courtroom [with rabbis] and other leaders,” Sosnowik told The Jewish Week.
“People don’t realize the enormity of the chilul Hashem,” he continued. “[If someone] is convicted in a court of law, this is a system that we all abide by in this country. [Weinberg] was convicted and [people are] still out there in support of him rather than [the] victims.”
Sosnowik acknowledged the possibility that people might be publicly supporting Weinberg in a misguided attempt to protect the image of the community, but strongly condemned that practice.
“I think of the Torah’s admonitions on many occasions to dispose of the evil in your midst. And maybe it’s [repeated so often] because it’s absolutely critical to deal with it, rather than [say] ‘well, we know there’s evil, and privately I support [the victims] but publicly I can’t possibly. ... No. Dispose of the evil in your midst. My hope is that words like the judge’s, especially coming after Yom Kippur, will [make a light] go off in people’s heads that you need to be on the side of victims and not on the side of people who are doing the victimizing.”
While the reaction to Judge Reichbach’s statements, along with the event in Passaic, strike some observers as evidence of a shift in the community’s thinking about and approach to this issue, many feel that there is still much work to be done, particularly on the part of the leadership, to effect meaningful and lasting change.
“[The] Passaic event [organized by Passaic Rabbi Ron Eisenman] marked a historic change in the haredi community,” said Asher Lipner, a Flatbush psychologist who has dealt widely with the sexual abuse problem in the Orthodox community. “Unfortunately, Rabbi Eisenman’s courage,” Lipner continued, “is in sharp contradistinction to the more mainstream Orthodox rabbinic leadership who have never reached out to survivors of abuse, to give them a forum to publicly tell their stories. All efforts of victims to meet face to face as a group with the gedolim [rabbinic leadership] have been rejected. For survivors of abuse this is the ultimate betrayal, more painful in some ways than the actual sexual abuse they experienced as children.”
Even the DA’s efforts to encourage reporting of abuse are “useless as a source of change,” Lipner noted, “as long as leading rabbis refuse to do the right thing and publicly encourage victims who suffer in silence to report their abuse to the authorities.”
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People v Weinberg
2010 NY Slip Op 06180 [75 AD3d 612]
July 20, 2010
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, September 1, 2010The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Yona Weinberg, Appellant.
—[*1] Andrew Citron, New York, N.Y., for appellant.
Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Ruth E. Ross, and Jill Oziemblewski of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Reichbach, J.), rendered September 29, 2009, convicting him of sexual abuse in the second degree (seven counts) and endangering the welfare of a child (two counts), after a nonjury trial, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Kings County, for further proceedings pursuant to CPL 460.50 (5).
The Supreme Court did not deprive the defendant of his constitutional right of confrontation by prohibiting him from cross-examining one of the complainants or eliciting testimony about that complainant's prior sexual conduct. Contrary to the defendant's contention, such evidence was not relevant to support his defense that this complainant's testimony was fabricated (see People v Scott, 67 AD3d 1052, 1054 [2009]; People v Vankenie, 52 AD3d 849 [2008]; People v Perryman, 178 AD2d 916, 917 [1991]; see generally People v Williams, 81 NY2d 303, 312 [1993]). The defendant was given ample opportunity to develop evidence to support his position that this complainant had a motive to fabricate his testimony (see People v Russillo, 27 AD3d 493 [2006]). Accordingly, evidence of this complainant's prior sexual conduct was irrelevant and properly excluded by the Supreme Court under the rape shield law (see CPL 60.42; People v Russillo, 27 AD3d 493 [2006]; cf. People v Jovanovic, 263 AD2d 182 [1999]).
The defendant contends that the prosecutor committed misconduct when, before opening statements at a nonjury trial, he referred to alleged prior uncharged crimes, under the auspices of a Molineux application (see People v Molineux, 168 NY 264 [1901]). This contention is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05 [2]), and in any event, is without merit.
The defendant's contention that it was error for the prosecutor to question him during cross-examination regarding his religious beliefs is not preserved for appellate review, as the defendant failed to object to the alleged error at trial (see CPL 470.05 [2]; People v Pinto, 56 AD3d 494, 495 [2008]). In any event, this contention is without merit. [*2]
The defendant contends that the prosecutor, during summation, improperly related the defendant's religious beliefs to his credibility. This issue is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05 [2]; People v Romero, 7 NY3d 911, 912 [2006]; People v Dien, 77 NY2d 885 [1991]). In any event, even if it were error to allow the prosecutor's comment, such error, if any, was harmless in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt and in recognition of the presumption that the trial court, as factfinder, will consider only competent evidence in reaching its verdict (see People v Kozlow, 46 AD3d 913, 915 [2007]) and is uniquely capable of distinguishing those issues properly before it from those which are not (see People v Kozlow, 46 AD3d 913 [2007]; People v Marino, 21 AD3d 430, 432 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 883 [2005], cert denied 548 US 908 [2006]; see also People v Dixon, 50 AD3d 1519, 1520 [2008]).
The sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80 [1982]).
The defendant's remaining contention is without merit. Dillon, J.P., Dickerson, Lott and Austin, JJ., concur.
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Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sex Abuse
New York Times - May 10, 2012
The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested.
Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted Mr. Jungreis's mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she "did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?"
By cooperating with the police, and speaking out about his son's abuse, Mr. Jungreis, 38, found himself at the painful forefront of an issue roiling his insular Hasidic community. There have been glimmers of change as a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, taking on longstanding religious and cultural norms, have begun to report child sexual abuse accusations against members of their own communities. But those who come forward often encounter intense intimidation from their neighbors and from rabbinical authorities, aimed at pressuring them to drop their cases.
Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims' families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims' advocates said.
"Try living for one day with all the pain I am living with," Mr. Jungreis, spent and distraught, said recently outside his new apartment on Williamsburg's outskirts. "Did anybody in the Hasidic community in these two years, in Borough Park, in Flatbush, ever come up and look my son in the eye and tell him a good word? Did anybody take the courage to show him mercy in the street?"
A few blocks away, Pearl Engelman, a 64-year-old great-grandmother, said her community had failed her too. In 2008, her son, Joel, told rabbinical authorities that he had been repeatedly groped as a child by a school official at the United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg. The school briefly removed the official but denied the accusation. And when Joel turned 23, too old to file charges under the state's statute of limitations, they returned the man to teaching.
"There is no nice way of saying it," Mrs. Engelman said. "Our community protects molesters. Other than that, we are wonderful."
Keeping to Themselves
The New York City area is home to an estimated 250,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews -- the largest such community outside of Israel, and one that is growing rapidly because of its high birthrate. The community is concentrated in Brooklyn, where many of the ultra-Orthodox are Hasidim, followers of a fervent spiritual movement that began in 18th-century Europe and applies Jewish law to every aspect of life.
Their communities, headed by dynastic leaders called rebbes, strive to preserve their centuries-old customs by resisting the contaminating influences of the outside world. While some ultra-Orthodox rabbis now argue that a child molester should be reported to the police, others strictly adhere to an ancient prohibition against mesirah, the turning in of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities, and consider publicly airing allegations against fellow Jews to be chillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name.
There are more mundane factors, too. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews want to keep abuse allegations quiet to protect the reputation of the community, and the family of the accused. And rabbinical authorities, eager to maintain control, worry that inviting outside scrutiny could erode their power, said Samuel Heilman, a professor of Jewish studies at Queens College.
"They are more afraid of the outside world than the deviants within their own community," Dr. Heilman said. "The deviants threaten individuals here or there, but the outside world threatens everyone and the entire structure of their world."
Scholars believe that abuse rates in the ultra-Orthodox world are roughly the same as those in the general population, but for generations, most ultra-Orthodox abuse victims kept silent, fearful of being stigmatized in a culture where the genders are strictly separated and discussion of sex is taboo. When a victim did come forward, it was generally to rabbis and rabbinical courts, which would sometimes investigate the allegations, pledge to monitor the accused, or order payment to a victim, but not refer the matter to the police.
"You can destroy a person's life with a false report," said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, a powerful ultra-Orthodox organization, which last year said that observant Jews should not report allegations to the police unless permitted to do so by a rabbi.
Rabbinic authorities "recommend you speak it over with a rabbi before coming to any definitive conclusion in your own mind," Rabbi Zweibel said.
When ultra-Orthodox Jews do bring abuse accusations to the police, the same cultural forces that have long kept victims silent often become an obstacle to prosecutions.
In Brooklyn, of the 51 molesting cases involving the ultra-Orthodox community that the district attorney's office says it has closed since 2009, nine were dismissed because the victims backed out. Others ended with plea deals because the victims' families were fearful.
"People aren't recanting, but they don't want to go forward," said Rhonnie Jaus, a sex crimes prosecutor in Brooklyn. "We've heard some of our victims have been thrown out of schools, that the person is shunned from the synagogue. There's a lot of pressure."
The degree of intimidation can vary by neighborhood, by sect and by the prominence of the person accused.
In August 2009, the rows in a courtroom at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn were packed with rabbis, religious school principals and community leaders. Almost all were there in solidarity with Yona Weinberg, a bar mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker from Flatbush who had been convicted of molesting two boys under age 14.
Justice Guston L. Reichbach looked out with disapproval. He recalled testimony about how the boys had been kicked out of their schools or summer camps after bringing their cases, suggesting a "communal attitude that seeks to blame, indeed punish, victims." And he noted that, of the 90 letters he had received praising Mr. Weinberg, not one displayed "any concern or any sympathy or even any acknowledgment for these young victims, which, frankly, I find shameful."
"While the crimes the defendant stands convicted of are bad enough," the judge said before sentencing Mr. Weinberg to 13 months in prison, "what is even more troubling to the court is a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator."
Silenced by Fear
Intimidation is rarely documented, but just two weeks ago, a Hasidic woman from Kiryas Joel, N.Y., in Orange County, filed a startling statement in a criminal court, detailing the pressure she faced after telling the police that a Hasidic man had molested her son.
"I feel 100 percent threatened and very scared," she said in her statement. "I feel intimidated and worried about what the consequences are going to be. But I have to protect my son and do what is right."
Last year, her son, then 14, told the police that he had been offered $20 by a stranger to help move some boxes, but instead, the man brought him to a motel in Woodbury, removed the boy's pants and masturbated him.
The police, aided by the motel's security camera, identified the man as Joseph Gelbman, then 52, of Kiamesha Lake, a cook who worked at a boys' school run by the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect. He was arrested, and the intimidation ensued. Rabbi Israel Hager, a powerful Vizhnitz rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., began calling the mother, asking her to cease her cooperation with the criminal case and, instead, to bring the matter to a rabbinical court under his jurisdiction, according to the mother's statement to the court. Rabbi Hager did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
"I said: 'Why? He might do this again to other children,' " the mother said in the statement. The mother, who asked that The New York Times not use her name to avoid identifying her son, told the police that the rabbi asked, "What will you gain from this if he goes to jail?" and said that, in a later call, he offered her $20,000 to pay for therapy for her son if the charges were dropped.
On April 24, three days before the case was set for trial, the boy was expelled from his school. When the mother protested, she said, the principal threatened to report her for child abuse.
Prosecutors, against the wishes of the boy's parents, settled the case on April 27. Mr. Gelbman was given three years' probation after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.
Mr. Jungreis, the Williamsburg father, had a similar experience. He first suspected that his son was being molested after he came home with blood in his underwear at age 12, and later was caught touching another child on the bus. But, Mr. Jungreis said, the school principal warned him to stay silent. Two years later, the boy revealed that he had been molested for years by a man he saw at a mikvah, a ritual bath that observant Jews visit for purification.
Mr. Jungreis, knowing the prohibition on calling secular authorities, asked several rabbis to help him report the abuse, but, he said, they told him they did not want to get involved. Ultimately, he found a rabbi who told him to take his son to a psychologist, who would be obligated to notify law enforcement. "That way you are not the moser," he said the rabbi told him, using the Hebrew word for informer. The police arrested Meir Dascalowitz, then 27, who is now awaiting trial.
Prosecution of intimidation is rare. Victims and their supporters say that is because rabbinical authorities are politically powerful; prosecutors say it is because there is rarely enough evidence to build a criminal case. "The intimidation often works, at least in the short run," said Laura Pierro, the head of the special victims unit at the Ocean County prosecutor's office in New Jersey.
In 2010, Ms. Pierro's agency indicted Shaul Luban for witness tampering: he had sent a threatening text message to multiple recipients, urging the Orthodox Jewish community of Lakewood, N.J., to pressure the family of an 11-year-old abuse victim not to cooperate with prosecutors. In exchange for having his record cleared, Mr. Luban agreed to spend about a year in a program for first-time offenders.
Mr. Luban and others "wanted the phone to ring off the hook to withdraw the complaint from our office," the Ocean County prosecutor, Marlene Lynch Ford, said.
Threats to Advocates
The small cadre of ultra-Orthodox Jews who have tried to call attention to the community's lack of support for sexual abuse victims have often been targeted with the same forms of intimidation as the victims themselves.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg of Williamsburg, for example, has been shunned by communal authorities because he maintains a telephone number that features his impassioned lectures in Yiddish, Hebrew and English imploring victims to call 911 and accusing rabbis of silencing cases. He also shows up at court hearings and provides victims' families with advice. His call-in line gets nearly 3,000 listeners a day.
In 2008, fliers were posted around Williamsburg denouncing him. One depicted a coiled snake, with Mr. Rosenberg's face superimposed on its head. "Nuchem Snake Rosenberg: Leave Tainted One!" it said in Hebrew. The local Satmar Hasidic authorities banned him from their synagogues, and a wider group of 32 prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis and religious judges signed an order, published in a community newspaper, formally ostracizing him.
"The public must beware, and stay away from him, and push him out of our camp, not speak to him, and even more, not to honor him or support him, and not allow him to set foot in any synagogue until he returns from his evil ways," the order said in Hebrew.
"They had small children coming to my house and spitting on me and on my children and wife," Rabbi Rosenberg, 61, said in an interview.
Rabbi Tzvi Gluck, 31, of Queens, the son of a prominent rabbi and an informal liaison to secular law enforcement, began helping victims after he met troubled teenagers at Our Place, a help center in Brooklyn, and realized that sexual abuse was often the root of their problems. It was when he began helping the teenagers report cases to the police that he also received threats.
In February, for example, he received a call asking him to urge an abuse victim to abandon a case. "A guy called me up and said: 'Listen, I want you to know that people on the street are talking about what they can do to hurt you financially. And maybe speak to your children's schools, to get your kids thrown out of school.' "
Rabbi Gluck said he had helped at least a dozen ultra-Orthodox abuse victims bring cases to the Brooklyn district attorney in recent years, and each time, he said, the victim came under heavy pressure to back down. In a case late last year that did not get to the police, a 30-year-old molested a 14-year-old boy in a Jewish ritual bath in Brooklyn, and a rabbi "made the boy apologize to the molester for seducing him," he said.
"If a guy in our community gets diagnosed with cancer, the whole community will come running to help them," he said. "But if someone comes out and says they were a victim of abuse, as a whole, the community looks at them and says, 'Go jump in a lake.' "
Traces of Change
Awareness of child sexual abuse is increasing in the ultra-Orthodox community. Since 2008, hundreds of adult abuse survivors have told their stories, mostly anonymously, on blogs and radio call-in shows, and to victims' advocates. Rabbi-vetted books like "Let's Stay Safe," aimed at teaching children what to do if they are inappropriately touched, are selling well.
The response by communal authorities, however, has been uneven.
In March, for example, Satmar Hasidic authorities in Williamsburg took what advocates said was an unprecedented step: They posted a Yiddish sign in synagogues warning adults and children to stay away from a community member who they said was molesting young men. But the sign did not urge victims to call the police: "With great pain we must, according to the request of the brilliant rabbis (may they live long and good lives), inform you that the young man," who was named, "is, unfortunately, an injurious person and he is a great danger to our community."
In Crown Heights, where the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement has its headquarters, there has been more significant change. In July 2011, a religious court declared that the traditional prohibition against mesirah did not apply in cases with evidence of abuse. "One is forbidden to remain silent in such situations," said the ruling, signed by two of the court's three judges.
Since then, five molesting cases have been brought from the neighborhood -- "as many sexual abuse-related arrests and reports as there had been in the past 20 years," said Eliyahu Federman, a lawyer who helps victims in Crown Heights, citing public information.
Mordechai Feinstein, 19, helped prompt the ruling by telling the Crown Heights religious court that he had been touched inappropriately at age 15 by Rabbi Moshe F. Keller, a Lubavitcher who ran a foundation for at-risk youth and whom Mr. Feinstein had considered his spiritual mentor.
Last week, Rabbi Keller was sentenced in Criminal Court to three years' probation for endangering the welfare of a child. And Mr. Feinstein, who is no longer religious, is starting a campaign to encourage more abuse victims to come forward. He is working with two prominent civil rights attorneys, Norman Siegel and Herbert Teitelbaum, who are asking lawyers to provide free assistance to abuse victims frustrated by their dealings with prosecutors.
"The community is a garden; there are a lot of beautiful things about it," Mr. Feinstein said. "We just have to help them weed out the garden and take out the things that don't belong there."
Friday: The Brooklyn district attorney is criticized for his handling of ultra-Orthodox Jewish child sex-abuse cases.
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ORTHODOX 'PERV' FILES Holy hell in B'klyN DA unveils 96 molest cases
By Susan Edelman and Brad Hamilton
New York Post - May 20, 2012
After months of prodding, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes finally released an expanded accounting of the nearly 100 perverts he says he has prosecuted in the borough's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
He showed The Post summaries of 96 cases, that reveal a shocking pattern of rape, sodomy, incest, kidnapping and sex attacks on children.
Hynes says that he has pursued scores of predators through a program called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for "voice of justice," launched in 2009, and has put some despicable offenders in prison for years.
But many avoided stiff jail sentences with wrist-slap plea deals, several got no punishment, and others had charges dropped or reduced after victims backed out under community pressure.
Hynes still refused to name the defendants, insisting his unusual policy protects victims and their families from intimidation by supporters of the creeps who "don't give a damn about victims."
"The Mafia breaks legs or kills people, but [there's] not the constant vilification that these people have to suffer," he said.
The Post identified many of the cases after reviewing the summaries, which did not reveal sentences.
One involved social worker Yona Weinberg, a bar mitzvah tutor sentenced to a year in jail after he molested four boys, one in a synagogue's ritual bath.
Another defendant repeatedly raped his own 8-year-old daughter and was convicted of a Class B felony, which carries up to 25 years in jail.
A third pervert, Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, fled to Israel after charges that he and his three sons repeatedly molested four young girls at the children's home in Midwood. One whom told of being attacked for 15 years.
A serial groper grabbed the buttocks of five strangers on the street in 2009, leading to his guilty plea to forcible touching, a misdemeanor.
The jury is out on Hynes' scorecard: 43 of the cases are still pending.
His records say 13 cases were dismissed and five defendants went to trial, with four convictions and one acquittal. Another 35 took plea deals.
The cases involved 123 victims, including 91 underage boys and girls, with seven allegations of rape, 21 of sodomy and 67 of sexual abuse.
The "vast majority" of the suspects are Orthodox Jewish; the others molested members of that community, Hynes' office said.
In response to sharp criticism from former Mayor Ed Koch, Hynes agreed to form a task force with investigators from his office and the NYPD to find ways to bust those who threaten victims if they come forward.
But Hynes says victims too afraid to allege sex abuse are unlikely to cooperate. Sources said the DA's rackets bureau has asked two complainants to wear hidden recorders. Neither went through with it - including a father who told of pressure to drop charges that his son was molested by Meir Descalowitz, whose case is pending until he is declared mentally fit for trial.
Another dad, whose son was abused for five years by family friend Michael Sabo, praised the DA's "very aggressive" response.
"Based on what I told them, they got a search warrant and arrested him in three days." Sabo's computers were loaded with child porn, and "he didn't have time to get rid of it."
The father also supports Hynes' withholding of suspects' names until the family is ready, saying it shields them from gossip and questions.
The case ended with one of Hynes' biggest convictions.
Sabo, a 38-year-old nurse nurse in Marine Park, pleaded guilty on May 7 to assaulting the son and a girl from another family also willing to testify. He faces 20 years to life.
Critics still claim Hynes hasn't done enough. "He is now scrambling to respond to criticism," said activist Ben Hirsch, a co-founder of Survivors for Justice.
"Advocates and victims have been begging Hynes to take these cases since 2006. "We've had to pressure him to prosecute almost every one."
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Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says he's prosecuted 96 sex-assault suspects in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community since 2009. Of 53 closed cases, 13 were dismissed, 35 ended in plea deals and five went to trial, resulting in four convictions and one acquittal. High-profile cases include:
CASE 1
Emanuel Yegutkin, 53, the principal of a top private high school and a volunteer summer lifeguard from Ocean Parkway, is charged with repeatedly molesting three young sons of his closest friend, starting when they were as young as 7. The defendant, a politically connected figure, is pressing Hynes to drop the case, claiming a "false confession."
CASE 4
Another rabbi, Baruch Lebovits, 61, allegedly sodomized two teen boys and sexually abused a third. He was convicted of molesting one victim in 2010. He was serving 10 to 32 years in jail when an appeals panel overturned the verdict-which had been one of Hynes' biggest achievements - in March. Hynes vows to retry him.
CASE 6
Brooklyn Rabbi Joel Kolko, 65, who struck a no-jail plea in 2006 for abusing three kids, now faces charges he violated a court order of protection from one his accusers. Cops say the creep moved in near the boy's family, snapped his photo and leered at him. The boy's father said he got a call warning to "back off or you'll suffer the consequences." The trial has been repeatedly delayed.
CASE 3
Nechemya Weberman, 53, an unlicensed therapist, has been charged with forcing a 16-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him during counseling sessions. The victim claims the abuse began when she was 12. Supporters of Weberman clashed with protesters at a demonstration in Williamsburg last week. Hynes said the case illustrates the way that many in the community vilify victims.
CASE 2
Joseph "Uncle Joe" Passof, a retired city schoolteacher and camp counselor, was charged in March with sneaking up on a 5-year-old boy and assaulting him in a day-camp bathroom in Flatbush Park in front of another boy last summer. The top count, for a criminal sexual act with a child under 11, is a felony that carries five to 25 years in jail
CASE 5
Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer ducked justice. He fled to Israel after he and his three sons were charged with molesting four young girls at the kids' home in Midwood. One girl told of abuse over 15 years. Hynes' office unsuccessfully sought extradition.
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National Sex Offender's Registry
December 9, 2012
National Sex Offender's Registry
December 9, 2012
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FAIR USE NOTICE
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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