Case of Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Grunwald
(AKA: Israel Grunwald, Yisrael M. Grunwald, Israel M. Grunwald)
This page is currently being update
This page is currently being update
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| Rabbi Israel Greenwald |
The Puppa Rebbe - Borough Park (Brooklyn), NY
Congregation Tuldos Yakov Yosef - Boro Park, NY
Camp - Swan Lake, NY
Camp - Swan Lake, NY
In a plea bargain agreement Rabbi Israel Grunwald agreed to 500 hours of community service and counseling after being accused of fondling a 15-year-old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia. The charges against him were then dropped.
"The girl and her father accepted $50,000 in exchange for her agreement that she would not testify," in court. According to reports "she didn't want to come to court and testify. She said she would state she was emotionally unable to do so."
According to a Los Angeles Times article "Sex Charge Against Rabbi to Be Dropped", authorities said representatives of Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Grunwald initiated the payoff talks. Grunwald's attorneys insist that the girl's mother first raised the possibility of resolving the matter outside of court in 1995 and that the girl's father this year demanded $800,000 to $1.3 million to buy the girl's silence.
In court documents, Medvene says the girl's father described the $50,000 exchanged in Burbank as "a good faith gesture."
The question remains, if Rabbi Grunwald was able to pay off one victim for her silence, was there others throughout the years, that he was able to do the same?
"The girl and her father accepted $50,000 in exchange for her agreement that she would not testify," in court. According to reports "she didn't want to come to court and testify. She said she would state she was emotionally unable to do so."
According to a Los Angeles Times article "Sex Charge Against Rabbi to Be Dropped", authorities said representatives of Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Grunwald initiated the payoff talks. Grunwald's attorneys insist that the girl's mother first raised the possibility of resolving the matter outside of court in 1995 and that the girl's father this year demanded $800,000 to $1.3 million to buy the girl's silence.
In court documents, Medvene says the girl's father described the $50,000 exchanged in Burbank as "a good faith gesture."
The question remains, if Rabbi Grunwald was able to pay off one victim for her silence, was there others throughout the years, that he was able to do the same?
Israel Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Puppa Hasidim.
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Table of Contents:
1995
- Puppa (Hasidic dynasty)
- Hasidic Rabbis Accused of Sexually Abusing Girl (06/02/1995)
- 2 Hasidic Rabbis Accused of Fondling Girl (06/02/1995)
- Two Rabbis Are Charged In Sexual Abuse on a Plane (06/02/1995)
- 2 Rabbis Are Accused of Molesting Girl on Plane (06/02/1995)
- Rabbi, assistant face sex-abuse charges (06/02/1995)
- Rabbis charged with sexual abuse of minor on plane (06/02/1995)
- Rabbi, Associate charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia (06/02/1995)
- 2 Rabbis Accused of Molesting Girl, 15 Crime: U.S. authorities say the attack occurred on Australia-to-L.A. flight. The ultra-orthodox leaders deny the charges (06/02/1995)
- Rabbi, Associate Charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia (06/02/1995)
- Rabbis deny claim in sex abuse case (06/02/1995)
- Rabbi Accused of Molesting Is Denied Bail (06/03/1995)
- Brooklyn Rabbi Is Freed on Bail In Sex Case, but Assistant Is Held (06/03/1995)
- 1 Accused Rabbi Will Stay Jailed for Weekend Courts: Judge terms him `a danger' pending bail hearing. He and a colleague, who has returned to New York, are accused of molesting girl on airliner (06/03/1995)
- Hassidic rabbi and assistant charged with molestation (06/06/1995)
- Rabbi's Assistant Kept in Jail on Sex Charge Crime: U.S. judge cites `very, very strong' allegations. The Brooklyn man and a Hasidic leader are accused of molesting 15-year-old girl on a flight to Los Angeles (06/07/1995)
- Bail Set for Rabbi In Sex Abuse Case (06/08/1995)
- Grand jury to hear sexual misconduct case involving rabbi (06/09/1995)
- Grand jury issues indictment of Chasid accused of sex abuse (06/14/1995)
- Federal child sex charge has local tie (06/16/1995)
- Rabbi's aide indicted in sex attack of girl (06/16/1995)
- Focus on crimes involving religious Jews sparks debate (06/16/1995)
- Charges Against Rabbi Dropped (07/07/1995)
1996
- Molestation Charge Refiled Against Rabbi (10/09/1996)
- Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty in Molestation Case (10/16/1996)
- RABBI: NO FONDLER (10/16/1996)
1997
- Lawyer: Sex abuse charge is plot against NY rabbi (09/08/1997)
- Rabbi Cleared, Lawyer Says (09/11/1997)
- Feds: Rabbi May Have Tried To Pay to Stop Sex Charges (09/12/1997)
- Deal to Drop Sex Charge Against Rabbi Unravels; Courts: Defense assails U.S. prosecutors, who say they were responding to inaccurate statements (09/13/1997)
- Rabbi charged with molesting teen to do community service (09/22/1997)
- Rabbi escapes teen fondling charges (09/23/1997)
- Sex Charge Against Rabbi to Be Dropped; Courts: Allegations that Hasidic leader fondled girl on flight will be dismissed if he completes community service (09/23/1997)
- Deal in Rabbi's Fondling Case / Charges dropped if he gets counseling, does community service (09/23/1997)
- Sex Charges Against Rabbi Dropped (09/23/1997)
- Rabbi gets Community service and counseling (09/25/1997)
2008
- (08/16/2008)
2009
Also see:
____________________________________________________________________________________- (07/23/2009)
Also see:
Puppa (Hasidic dynasty)
Wikipedia - July 26, 2006
Puppa is the name of a Hasidic group within Judaism. The group originated in Hungary in a town called "Pápa". Before World War II, Pápa had an important yeshivah which produced many well-known Orthodox rabbis in Hungary. The whole community was deported to Auschwitz and only a very few individuals came back. Currently there are no Jews in Pápa.
The group is based in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, with branches in Boro Park section of Brooklyn, Ossining, New York, London, and Israel. It is headed by the Pupa Rebbe who has several thousand followers. In their Williamsburg location in Brooklyn, they are second in size to the Satmar Hasidim with whom they share many communal facilities.
Lineage of Puppa Dynasty
- Grand Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov - founder of Hasidism.
- Grand Rabbi R' Ber - the Magid (Preacher) of Mezritch - disciple of the Baal Shem Tov.
- Grand Rabbi Shlomo of Lutzk - disciple of the Magid of Mezritch.
- Grand Rabbi Shalom Rokeach of Belz - disciple of Rebbe Shlomo of Lutzk.
- Grand Rabbi Yusha Rokeach of Belz - son of Rebbe Shalom.
- Grand Rabbi Moshe Greenwald of Chust - author of Arugas HaBosem - disciple of Rebbe Yusha of Belz.
- Grand Rabbi Yaakov Chizkiah Greenwald of Puppa - author of Vayaged Yaakov - son of the Arugas HaBosem.
- Grand Rabbi Yosef Greenwald of Puppa - author of Vayechi Yosef - son of the Vayaged Yaakov.
- Grand Rabbi Yaakov Chizkiah Greenwald of Puppa - present Rebbe of Puppa - son of the Vayechi Yosef.
- Grand Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Greenwald of Puppa - present Rebbe of Puppa Boro Park - son of the Vayechi Yosef.
Hasidic Rabbis Accused of Sexually Abusing Girl
Orlando Setinel - June 2, 1995
Two Hasidic rabbis from New York were due to appear in U.S.
District Court on Thursday after being accused of sexually abusing a young girl during a long flight from Australia to the United States. An FBI spokesman said the two were arrested when the plane, which originated in Melbourne, Australia, landed at Los Angeles.
The rabbis were identified as Israel Grunwald and Yehudah Friedlander, both 44.
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2 Hasidic Rabbis Accused of Fondling Girl
By Pete Bowles and Joseph A. Gambardello
Los Angeles Times - June 2, 1995
Two Brooklyn rabbis, described by associates as strict followers of the Orthodox practice of avoiding any contact with women, have been charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl during a flight from Australia.
Israel Grunwald, the leader of the Borough Park branch of the Pupa Hasidim, and Yehudah Friedlander, his secretary, were arrested by FBI agents when they arrived Wednesday morning at Los Angeles International Airport and were charged with the sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact on an international flight.
"The accusations are completely, absolutely, without any basis in fact. It's ridiculous," said Mitchell Egers, an attorney for the rabbis.
Rabbi Beryl Freilich of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park called the charges "ridiculous, bizarre, absurd, humiliating," and added: "This is a man who wouldn't talk to a woman, and on a flight with 300 people, all of a sudden they decided to fondle a girl?"
According to the FBI affidavit, the two rabbis, both 44, fondled the girl several times while on a United Airlines flight from Melbourne, Australia. The girl told FBI agents that she repeatedly told the men not to bother her but that she kept her voice low because she was embarrassed. One passenger told agents she was "horrified" when she saw one of the men put his hand under the girl's blanket and "grope" her for five to eight minutes, according to the affidavit.
FBI Agent Mark Van Steenburg said Friedlander, after being advised of his constitutional right to remain silent, said the girl had encouraged him to touch her. "I did it. I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," the agent quoted Friedlander as saying.
U.S. magistrate judge Carolyn Turchin set bail at $10,000 for Grunwald. Friedlander's bail hearing was adjourned until today after confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in the Town of Monticello in which he was charged with sexual abuse.
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Two Rabbis Are Charged In Sexual Abuse on a Plane
2 Hasidic Rabbis Accused of Fondling Girl
By Pete Bowles and Joseph A. Gambardello
Los Angeles Times - June 2, 1995
Two Brooklyn rabbis, described by associates as strict followers of the Orthodox practice of avoiding any contact with women, have been charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl during a flight from Australia.
Israel Grunwald, the leader of the Borough Park branch of the Pupa Hasidim, and Yehudah Friedlander, his secretary, were arrested by FBI agents when they arrived Wednesday morning at Los Angeles International Airport and were charged with the sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact on an international flight.
"The accusations are completely, absolutely, without any basis in fact. It's ridiculous," said Mitchell Egers, an attorney for the rabbis.
Rabbi Beryl Freilich of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park called the charges "ridiculous, bizarre, absurd, humiliating," and added: "This is a man who wouldn't talk to a woman, and on a flight with 300 people, all of a sudden they decided to fondle a girl?"
According to the FBI affidavit, the two rabbis, both 44, fondled the girl several times while on a United Airlines flight from Melbourne, Australia. The girl told FBI agents that she repeatedly told the men not to bother her but that she kept her voice low because she was embarrassed. One passenger told agents she was "horrified" when she saw one of the men put his hand under the girl's blanket and "grope" her for five to eight minutes, according to the affidavit.
FBI Agent Mark Van Steenburg said Friedlander, after being advised of his constitutional right to remain silent, said the girl had encouraged him to touch her. "I did it. I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," the agent quoted Friedlander as saying.
U.S. magistrate judge Carolyn Turchin set bail at $10,000 for Grunwald. Friedlander's bail hearing was adjourned until today after confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in the Town of Monticello in which he was charged with sexual abuse.
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Two Rabbis Are Charged In Sexual Abuse on a Plane
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN
New York Times - June 2, 1995
The chief rabbi of a Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and his assistant rabbi were charged in Los Angeles yesterday with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Melbourne, Australia, where the men had been on a lecture tour. The rabbis denied the allegations.
The suspects, Rabbi Israel Grunwald, 44, the head of Congregation Tuldos Yakov Yosef, and his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, 44, were arrested as they stepped off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday on the basis of a complaint made during the flight by a sobbing girl and radioed ahead, Federal officials said.
Arraigned in Los Angeles yesterday before a United States magistrate, Carolyn Turchin, Rabbi Grunwald was released on $10,000 bail for a June 21 preliminary hearing on a Federal charge of sexually touching a minor, an offense with maximum penalties of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Rabbi Friedlander, who was charged with more extensive sexual abuse, was held for further investigation after the court was told he had admitted some of the acts to Federal agents, though contending that the girl had encouraged him, and that Rabbi Friedlander had pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree sexual abuse in Monticello, N.Y., in 1991. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years and a $250,000 fine.
Neither suspect entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues. But outside the court, Mitchell Egers, a lawyer representing both men, said his clients vehemently denied the charges.
"These are fine, decent, moral men, highly respected and looked up to by thousands of people in their community," Mr. Egers said. He said neither rabbi knew the girl, who is American, and he called the case "a mixup" and said he was "confident that the truth will emerge and that we'll all be happy."
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| Rabbi Bernard Freilich |
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Rabbi Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in Monsey, N.Y., Montreal, London and Jerusalem, as well as in Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. Yakov Grunwald, the founder's eldest son, is the Grand Rabbi and head of the Williamsburg community, and Israel Grunwald leads several hundred families in Borough Park.
The acts were said to have occurred on United Air Lines Flight 842 over the Pacific. Federal prosecutors, who assumed jurisdiction under laws governing United States aircraft in flight, said the girl, whose name was withheld because of her age -- she turned 15 during the flight -- had accused Rabbi Grunwald, after first engaging her in conversation, of reaching across an empty seat, placing his hand under her shirt and touching her breast.
The girl's detailed complaint said Rabbi Friedlander, who had been sitting on the far side of his colleague, exchanged seats with Rabbi Grunwald, and made a series of unwanted approaches while the cabin lights were dimmed for movies and rest periods during the long overnight flight.
She said he forced his hand under her clothing and touched her breast repeatedly and her vagina, despite her pleas for him to stop and her efforts to push his hand away. The girl said she finally began sobbing and retreated to the lavatory.
An affidavit by Mark Van Steenburg, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's senior agent at the Los Angeles Airport, said that another passenger, Sheila Myers, seated across an aisle just forward of the girl, told him she saw Rabbi Friedlander grope the girl for five to eight minutes under a blanket and alerted the flight crew.
Mr. Van Steenburg said Rabbi Friedlander told him the girl had put his hand on her breast twice, and on her pelvic area. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," the agent quoted the rabbi as saying.
The allegations stunned the rabbis' colleagues, neighbors and members of their community in Borough Park, many of whom called the actions unthinkable and the charges unbelievable, possibly trumped up by the teen-aged girl. They also complained that the rabbis, who were dressed in their traditional black garb and wore beards and sidecurls, had been humiliated by Federal agents who handcuffed them as they stepped off the plane.
"It's the most shocking thing I could ever think of," said a neighbor of Rabbi Grunwald, who lives with his family above his synagogue at 1137 53d Street.
Rabbi Freilich spoke of "tremendous anger in the Jewish community" over the charges, and said: "It is impossible that an Orthodox Hasidic person would even speak to a female, much less touch her. Our information is that she was trying to get into a conversation with them. To us, it looks like she drummed up a charge."
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2 Rabbis Are Accused of Molesting Girl on Plane
By Bettina Boxall and J. Michael
Los Angeles Times - June 2, 1997
A prominent New York rabbi and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate Thursday on charges that they sexually molested a teen-age girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
In a detailed affidavit accompanying the complaint filed in Los Angeles, federal authorities allege that the ultra-orthodox rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the minor and that his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
Through their attorney, the two, who were arrested when they got off the plane Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing.
"It did not happen," attorney Mitchell W. Egers said. "There's no question whatsoever about their innocence."
He dismissed as inaccurate passages from the affidavit in which Friedlander is quoted as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she initiated the episode.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin set $10,000 bail for Grunwald, a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and the head of a large congregation in Brooklyn.
The bail hearing for Friedlander was continued until this morning after some confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in which he was charged with a sexual offense.
There is no apparent dispute about Friedlander's arrest in Montecello Township, N.Y., on Oct. 4, 1991, but one entry in the court records apparently stated that the case was dismissed, while another said that he was convicted and sentenced.
"I am aware there was some mix-up of some kind," Egers said. "We'll clarify it by tomorrow."
Egers, a Los Angeles attorney, said he was not familiar enough with New York law to know what the charge, sexual offense third degree, means.
"It may be something that really didn't amount to anything," he said. "I'll put the whole picture together by tomorrow."
About 15 supporters from New York and Los Angeles attended the court hearing, chanting from prayer books as they waited for the proceeding to begin.
In New York, the Orthodox community said Grunwald's incredulous followers were calling from around the world.
"He's a well respected person and very well liked," said Rabbi Bernard Freilich of the Council of Jewish Organizations in New York. "It's an impossible story. It's unbelievable. We're in total shock," Freilich said. "He's an ultra-orthodox rabbi. He wouldn't even speak to a girl, much less touch her."
The nine-page affidavit submitted by an FBI agent quotes Friedlander, the teen-ager-a U.S. citizen who was traveling alone-and a passenger who says she witnessed the incident.
According to the complaint, Grunwald, 44, leaned over an empty seat toward the girl, commented on her jewelry, touched her necklace and fondled her breast.
At some point, Friedlander, 44, exchanged seats with Grunwald. Then, the affidavit alleges that despite the girl's persistent protests, Friedlander fondled and molested her while she was covered with a blanket, trying to sleep.
The affidavit quotes a passenger from Michigan who, in a telephone interview with the FBI, said she saw a man she described as a rabbi lean over an empty seat and grope the teen-ager under her blanket for five to eight minutes.
After later talking to the teen-ager, the passenger alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities in Los Angeles. The two men were arrested by airport police Wednesday morning as they left the plane.
Friedlander is charged with sexual abuse of a minor, and Grunwald, scheduled to return to court June 21 for a preliminary hearing, is charged with abusive sexual contact. The affidavit states that in comments to the FBI agent, Friedlander said the girl had guided his hand into her shirt and pants and "seemed" to want him to touch her.
"I did it, I shouldn't have done it. But it happened," Friedlander is quoted as saying.
Among the supporters who filled three rows of the courtroom during Thursday's hearing was Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin of Chabad of Los Angeles.
"Not only is he internationally known, but (Grunwald) and his assistant are married and reputable," Cunin said later. "The rabbi is a leader of thousands of thousands of thousands of followers both in America and Israel and Australia-all over the world. . . . I believe they'll be totally exonerated."
Grunwald, who had gone to Australia to lecture on the Talmud at the invitation of that country's Jewish community, comes from a long line of rabbinical scholars. Freilich said Grunwald's father was the grand rabbi of the Pupa sect in Hungary. Grunwald and his brother now lead the group.
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Rabbi, assistant face sex-abuse charges
Washington Times - June 2, 1995
LOS ANGELES - A New York rabbi and his assistant were charged yesterday with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl aboard a flight from Australia.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald was charged with abusive sexual contact, and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, was charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
They were arrested Wednesday after the girl accused them of fondling her during a flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles.
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Rabbis charged with sexual abuse of minor on plane
The Gazette (Montreal) - June 2, 1995
LOS ANGELES - The rabbi of a New York Hungarian Hasidic congregation and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate yesterday on charges that they sexually molested a teenage girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
In a detailed affidavit accompanying the complaint, federal authorities allege that the rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the minor and that his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
Through their attorney, the two, who were arrested when they got off the plane Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing. "It did not happen," said attorney Mitchell Egers. "There's no question whatsoever about their innocence." He dismissed as inaccurate passages from the affidavit in which Friedlander is quoted as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she initiated the episode.
U.S. magistrate judge Carolyn Turchin set a $10,000 bail for Grunwald, a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and the head of a large congregation in Brooklyn.
1991 arrest
The bail hearing for Friedlander was continued until today after some confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in which he was charged with sexual abuse.
There is no dispute about Friedlander's arrest in Montecello Township, N.Y., on Oct. 4 of that year, but one entry in the court records apparently stated the case was dismissed, while another said he was convicted and a sentence imposed.
In New York, Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Rabbi Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late grand rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in Monsey, N.Y., Montreal, London and Jerusalem, as well as in Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn.
The nine-page affidavit submitted by an FBI agent quotes Friedlander, the teenager - a U.S. citizen who was travelling alone - and a passenger who says she witnessed the incident.
Changed seats
According to the complaint, Grunwald, 44, leaned over an empty seat to the girl, commented on her jewelry, touched her necklace and then fondled her breast.
At some point Friedlander, 44, exchanged seats with Grunwald. Then, the affidavit alleges that despite the girl's persistent protestations, Friedlander fondled and molested her while she was covered with a blanket, trying to sleep.
The affidavit also quotes a passenger from Michigan who, in a telephone interview with the FBI, said she saw a man she described as a rabbi lean over an empty seat and grope the teenager under her blanket for five to eight minutes.
After later talking to the teenager, the passenger alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities in Los Angeles. The two men were arrested by airport police Wednesday morning as they disembarked from the plane.
Friedlander is charged with sexual abuse of a minor and Grunwald, scheduled to return to court June 21 for a preliminary hearing, is charged with abusive sexual contact.
The affidavit states that in comments to the FBI agent, Friedlander said the girl had guided his hand into her shirt and pants and "seemed" to want him to touch her.
"I did it, I shouldn't have done it. But it happened," Friedlander is quoted as saying.
WITH REPORTING BY NEW YORK TIMES
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Rabbi, Associate charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia
By Jaxon Van Debeken
Los Angeles Daily News - June 2, 1995
The chief rabbi of a Hungarian Hasidic congregation in New York and his assistant were charged Thursday in Los Angeles with groping a 15-year-old girl aboard an airplane flight from Australia.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald and Yehudah Friedlander, both 44, were taken into custody by FBI agents when the plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon Wednesday.
Friedlander faces a charge of sexual abuse of a minor and was being held until a bail hearing that was delayed till today. Grunwald was charged with a lesser offense of sexual contact with a minor and was released on $10,000 bond.
"There is no question about the innocence of these people," said Mitchell Egers, the attorney for both men. "They are absolutely innocent."
Grunwald, who heads a Hasidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and Friedlander, his assistant, were in Australia for conferences in Sydney and Melbourne.
Egers called Grunwald a "very important leader of a religious movement." Whenever the rabbi speaks, Egers said he deals with issues of morality.
"He is a very moral man and he deals with moral issues," he said.
Neither man entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in New York, Montreal, London and Jerusalem.
According to the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Mark Van Steenburg in support of the charges, both men are accused of making advances to the girl while aboard United Airlines Flight 842 over the Pacific.
The 15-year-old American girl told Van Steenburg that she was traveling alone on the plane and was seated one empty seat away from Grunwald, who she said rubbed her arm and asked if she was cold.
The girl claimed he groped her breast and then got up and was replaced by Friedlander, who the girl said then groped her repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
The girl said she repeatedly resisted and attempted to fend off the advances. At one point, a woman who said she witnessed the conduct reported the trouble to the flight crew and later gave a statement to the FBI.
The passenger, identified as Sheila Myers of Michigan, said she was "horrified" as she watched a man grope the girl for "over 5 to 8 minutes," according to the affidavit.
Myers told Van Steenburg she saw the "jolt" when the man "shoved more of his arm under the blanket," according to the affidavit.
Friedlander, who gave a statement to the FBI, said the 15-year-old had rubbed his hand and invited him to make sexual advances to her. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," he told the agent.
Rabbi Peter Friedman, who is a friend and colleague of Grunwald, said he was stunned about the allegations. "I live two streets away from him. I am sure and positive the whole story is a false story."
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2 Rabbis Accused of Molesting Girl, 15 Crime: U.S. authorities say the attack occurred on Australia-to-L.A. flight. The ultra-orthodox leaders deny the charges
By Bettina Boxall and Michael J. Kennedy
Los Angeles Times - June 2, 1995
A prominent New York rabbi and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate Thursday on charges that they sexually molested a teen-age girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
In a detailed affidavit accompanying the complaint filed in Los Angeles, federal authorities allege that the ultra-orthodox rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the minor and that his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
Through their attorney, the two, who were arrested when they got off the plane Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing.
"It did not happen," attorney Mitchell W. Egers said. "There's no question whatsoever about their innocence."
He dismissed as inaccurate passages from the affidavit in which Friedlander is quoted as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she initiated the episode.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin set $10,000 bail for Grunwald, a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and the head of a large congregation in Brooklyn.
The bail hearing for Friedlander was continued until this morning after some confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in which he was charged with a sexual offense.
There is no apparent dispute about Friedlander's arrest in Montecello Township, N.Y., on Oct. 4, 1991, but one entry in the court records apparently stated that the case was dismissed, while another said that he was convicted and sentenced.
"I am aware there was some mix-up of some kind," Egers said. "We'll clarify it by tomorrow."
Egers, a Los Angeles attorney, said he was not familiar enough with New York law to know what the charge, sexual offense third degree, means.
"It may be something that really didn't amount to anything," he said. "I'll put the whole picture together by tomorrow."
About 15 supporters from New York and Los Angeles attended the court hearing, chanting from prayer books as they waited for the proceeding to begin.
In New York, the Orthodox community said Grunwald's incredulous followers were calling from around the world.
"He's a well respected person and very well liked," said Rabbi Bernard Freilich of the Council of Jewish Organizations in New York.
"It's an impossible story. It's unbelievable. We're in total shock," Freilich said. "He's an ultra-orthodox rabbi. He wouldn't even speak to a girl, much less touch her."
The nine-page affidavit submitted by an FBI agent quotes Friedlander, the teen-ager-a U.S. citizen who was traveling alone-and a passenger who says she witnessed the incident.
According to the complaint, Grunwald, 44, leaned over an empty seat toward the girl, commented on her jewelry, touched her necklace and fondled her breast.
At some point, Friedlander, 44, exchanged seats with Grunwald. Then, the affidavit alleges that despite the girl's persistent protests, Friedlander fondled and molested her while she was covered with a blanket, trying to sleep.
The affidavit quotes a passenger from Michigan who, in a telephone interview with the FBI, said she saw a man she described as a rabbi lean over an empty seat and grope the teen-ager under her blanket for five to eight minutes.
After later talking to the teen-ager, the passenger alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities in Los Angeles. The two men were arrested by airport police Wednesday morning as they left the plane.
Friedlander is charged with sexual abuse of a minor, and Grunwald, scheduled to return to court June 21 for a preliminary hearing, is charged with abusive sexual contact.
The affidavit states that in comments to the FBI agent, Friedlander said the girl had guided his hand into her shirt and pants and "seemed" to want him to touch her.
"I did it, I shouldn't have done it. But it happened," Friedlander is quoted as saying.
Among the supporters who filled three rows of the courtroom during Thursday's hearing was Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin of Chabad of Los Angeles.
"Not only is he internationally known, but (Grunwald) and his assistant are married and reputable," Cunin said later. "The rabbi is a leader of thousands of thousands of thousands of followers both in America and Israel and Australia-all over the world. . . . I believe they'll be totally exonerated."
Grunwald, who had gone to Australia to lecture on the Talmud at the invitation of that country's Jewish community, comes from a long line of rabbinical scholars. Freilich said Grunwald's father was the grand rabbi of the Pupa sect in Hungary. Grunwald and his brother now lead the group, and Grunwald also heads a synagogue, a yeshiva and a girl's school.
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Rabbi, Associate Charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia
By Jaxon Ban Debeken
Los Angeles Daily News - June 2, 1995
The chief rabbi of a Hungarian Hasidic congregation in New York and his assistant were charged Thursday in Los Angeles with groping a 15-year-old girl aboard an airplane flight from Australia.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald and Yehudah Friedlander, both 44, were taken into custody by FBI agents when the plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon Wednesday.
Friedlander faces a charge of sexual abuse of a minor and was being held until a bail hearing that was delayed till today. Grunwald was charged with a lesser offense of sexual contact with a minor and was released on $10,000 bond.
"There is no question about the innocence of these people," said Mitchell Egers, the attorney for both men. "They are absolutely innocent."
Grunwald, who heads a Hasidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and Friedlander, his assistant, were in Australia for conferences in Sydney and Melbourne.
Egers called Grunwald a "very important leader of a religious movement." Whenever the rabbi speaks, Egers said he deals with issues of morality.
"He is a very moral man and he deals with moral issues," he said.
Neither man entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in New York, Montreal, London and Jerusalem.
According to the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Mark Van Steenburg in support of the charges, both men are accused of making advances to the girl while aboard United Airlines Flight 842 over the Pacific.
The 15-year-old American girl told Van Steenburg that she was traveling alone on the plane and was seated one empty seat away from Grunwald, who she said rubbed her arm and asked if she was cold.
The girl claimed he groped her breast and then got up and was replaced by Friedlander, who the girl said then groped her repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
The girl said she repeatedly resisted and attempted to fend off the advances. At one point, a woman who said she witnessed the conduct reported the trouble to the flight crew and later gave a statement to the FBI.
The passenger, identified as Sheila Myers of Michigan, said she was "horrified" as she watched a man grope the girl for "over 5 to 8 minutes," according to the affidavit.
Myers told Van Steenburg she saw the "jolt" when the man "shoved more of his arm under the blanket," according to the affidavit.
Friedlander, who gave a statement to the FBI, said the 15-year-old had rubbed his hand and invited him to make sexual advances to her. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," he told the agent.
Rabbi Peter Friedman, who is a friend and colleague of Grunwald, said he was stunned about the allegations. "I live two streets away from him. I am sure and positive the whole story is a false story."
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Rabbis deny claim in sex abuse case
By Mary Jane Pardue
Washington Post - June 2, 1995
LOS ANGELES - A prominent New York rabbi and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate judge Thursday on charges that they sexually molested a teenage girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
Federal authorities allege that the ultra-orthodox rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the girl and his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
The two denied any wrongdoing. They had been to Australia to lecture on morality.
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Rabbi Accused of Molesting Is Denied Bail
San Franscisco Chronicle - June 3, 1995
A Hasidic Jewish rabbi from New York accused of fondling a teenage girl on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles was denied bail yesterday by a judge who deemed him "a danger to the community."
U.S. Magistrate Carolyn Turchin ordered Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, charged with sexual abuse over the incident aboard the flight from Melbourne on Wednesday, held in federal prison until a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Friedlander, 44, who had accompanied his sect leader, Rabbi Israel Grunwald, on a trip to Australia to lecture Jews on sexual morality, was arrested along with Grunwald by airport police at Los Angeles and handed over to the FBI.
Friedlander allegedly put his hands down the 15-year-old's panties during an incident in which both Jewish religious leaders were said to have fondled the American teenager, who was traveling on her own.
Grunwald, also 44, has been charged with the lesser offense of abusive sexual conduct for allegedly cupping the girl's breasts in his hand and was freed Thursday on $10,000 bail.
Grunwald, an Orthodox Hasidic Jew, is a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and heads the Kehilas Joseph congregation in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
Friedlander was denied bail because of a previous sexual abuse charge leveled against him in Monticello, a Catskill Mountains resort town in upstate New York. Turchin, in denying him bail, said she wanted more details on the New York case.
Los Angeles attorney Mitchell Egers, hired by the rabbis to defend them, called the girl's allegations "ridiculous."
A criminal complaint filed in court by FBI agent Mark Van Steenburg said Friedlander claimed the teenager initiated the incident.
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METROPOLITAN DESK
Rabbis charged with sexual abuse of minor on plane
The Gazette (Montreal) - June 2, 1995
LOS ANGELES - The rabbi of a New York Hungarian Hasidic congregation and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate yesterday on charges that they sexually molested a teenage girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
In a detailed affidavit accompanying the complaint, federal authorities allege that the rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the minor and that his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
Through their attorney, the two, who were arrested when they got off the plane Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing. "It did not happen," said attorney Mitchell Egers. "There's no question whatsoever about their innocence." He dismissed as inaccurate passages from the affidavit in which Friedlander is quoted as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she initiated the episode.
U.S. magistrate judge Carolyn Turchin set a $10,000 bail for Grunwald, a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and the head of a large congregation in Brooklyn.
1991 arrest
The bail hearing for Friedlander was continued until today after some confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in which he was charged with sexual abuse.
There is no dispute about Friedlander's arrest in Montecello Township, N.Y., on Oct. 4 of that year, but one entry in the court records apparently stated the case was dismissed, while another said he was convicted and a sentence imposed.
In New York, Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Rabbi Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late grand rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in Monsey, N.Y., Montreal, London and Jerusalem, as well as in Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn.
The nine-page affidavit submitted by an FBI agent quotes Friedlander, the teenager - a U.S. citizen who was travelling alone - and a passenger who says she witnessed the incident.
Changed seats
According to the complaint, Grunwald, 44, leaned over an empty seat to the girl, commented on her jewelry, touched her necklace and then fondled her breast.
At some point Friedlander, 44, exchanged seats with Grunwald. Then, the affidavit alleges that despite the girl's persistent protestations, Friedlander fondled and molested her while she was covered with a blanket, trying to sleep.
The affidavit also quotes a passenger from Michigan who, in a telephone interview with the FBI, said she saw a man she described as a rabbi lean over an empty seat and grope the teenager under her blanket for five to eight minutes.
After later talking to the teenager, the passenger alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities in Los Angeles. The two men were arrested by airport police Wednesday morning as they disembarked from the plane.
Friedlander is charged with sexual abuse of a minor and Grunwald, scheduled to return to court June 21 for a preliminary hearing, is charged with abusive sexual contact.
The affidavit states that in comments to the FBI agent, Friedlander said the girl had guided his hand into her shirt and pants and "seemed" to want him to touch her.
"I did it, I shouldn't have done it. But it happened," Friedlander is quoted as saying.
WITH REPORTING BY NEW YORK TIMES
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Rabbi, Associate charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia
By Jaxon Van Debeken
Los Angeles Daily News - June 2, 1995
The chief rabbi of a Hungarian Hasidic congregation in New York and his assistant were charged Thursday in Los Angeles with groping a 15-year-old girl aboard an airplane flight from Australia.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald and Yehudah Friedlander, both 44, were taken into custody by FBI agents when the plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon Wednesday.
Friedlander faces a charge of sexual abuse of a minor and was being held until a bail hearing that was delayed till today. Grunwald was charged with a lesser offense of sexual contact with a minor and was released on $10,000 bond.
"There is no question about the innocence of these people," said Mitchell Egers, the attorney for both men. "They are absolutely innocent."
Grunwald, who heads a Hasidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and Friedlander, his assistant, were in Australia for conferences in Sydney and Melbourne.
Egers called Grunwald a "very important leader of a religious movement." Whenever the rabbi speaks, Egers said he deals with issues of morality.
"He is a very moral man and he deals with moral issues," he said.
Neither man entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in New York, Montreal, London and Jerusalem.
According to the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Mark Van Steenburg in support of the charges, both men are accused of making advances to the girl while aboard United Airlines Flight 842 over the Pacific.
The 15-year-old American girl told Van Steenburg that she was traveling alone on the plane and was seated one empty seat away from Grunwald, who she said rubbed her arm and asked if she was cold.
The girl claimed he groped her breast and then got up and was replaced by Friedlander, who the girl said then groped her repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
The girl said she repeatedly resisted and attempted to fend off the advances. At one point, a woman who said she witnessed the conduct reported the trouble to the flight crew and later gave a statement to the FBI.
The passenger, identified as Sheila Myers of Michigan, said she was "horrified" as she watched a man grope the girl for "over 5 to 8 minutes," according to the affidavit.
Myers told Van Steenburg she saw the "jolt" when the man "shoved more of his arm under the blanket," according to the affidavit.
Friedlander, who gave a statement to the FBI, said the 15-year-old had rubbed his hand and invited him to make sexual advances to her. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," he told the agent.
Rabbi Peter Friedman, who is a friend and colleague of Grunwald, said he was stunned about the allegations. "I live two streets away from him. I am sure and positive the whole story is a false story."
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2 Rabbis Accused of Molesting Girl, 15 Crime: U.S. authorities say the attack occurred on Australia-to-L.A. flight. The ultra-orthodox leaders deny the charges
By Bettina Boxall and Michael J. Kennedy
Los Angeles Times - June 2, 1995
A prominent New York rabbi and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate Thursday on charges that they sexually molested a teen-age girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
In a detailed affidavit accompanying the complaint filed in Los Angeles, federal authorities allege that the ultra-orthodox rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the minor and that his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
Through their attorney, the two, who were arrested when they got off the plane Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing.
"It did not happen," attorney Mitchell W. Egers said. "There's no question whatsoever about their innocence."
He dismissed as inaccurate passages from the affidavit in which Friedlander is quoted as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she initiated the episode.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin set $10,000 bail for Grunwald, a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and the head of a large congregation in Brooklyn.
The bail hearing for Friedlander was continued until this morning after some confusion arose over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in which he was charged with a sexual offense.
There is no apparent dispute about Friedlander's arrest in Montecello Township, N.Y., on Oct. 4, 1991, but one entry in the court records apparently stated that the case was dismissed, while another said that he was convicted and sentenced.
"I am aware there was some mix-up of some kind," Egers said. "We'll clarify it by tomorrow."
Egers, a Los Angeles attorney, said he was not familiar enough with New York law to know what the charge, sexual offense third degree, means.
"It may be something that really didn't amount to anything," he said. "I'll put the whole picture together by tomorrow."
About 15 supporters from New York and Los Angeles attended the court hearing, chanting from prayer books as they waited for the proceeding to begin.
In New York, the Orthodox community said Grunwald's incredulous followers were calling from around the world.
"He's a well respected person and very well liked," said Rabbi Bernard Freilich of the Council of Jewish Organizations in New York.
"It's an impossible story. It's unbelievable. We're in total shock," Freilich said. "He's an ultra-orthodox rabbi. He wouldn't even speak to a girl, much less touch her."
The nine-page affidavit submitted by an FBI agent quotes Friedlander, the teen-ager-a U.S. citizen who was traveling alone-and a passenger who says she witnessed the incident.
According to the complaint, Grunwald, 44, leaned over an empty seat toward the girl, commented on her jewelry, touched her necklace and fondled her breast.
At some point, Friedlander, 44, exchanged seats with Grunwald. Then, the affidavit alleges that despite the girl's persistent protests, Friedlander fondled and molested her while she was covered with a blanket, trying to sleep.
The affidavit quotes a passenger from Michigan who, in a telephone interview with the FBI, said she saw a man she described as a rabbi lean over an empty seat and grope the teen-ager under her blanket for five to eight minutes.
After later talking to the teen-ager, the passenger alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities in Los Angeles. The two men were arrested by airport police Wednesday morning as they left the plane.
Friedlander is charged with sexual abuse of a minor, and Grunwald, scheduled to return to court June 21 for a preliminary hearing, is charged with abusive sexual contact.
The affidavit states that in comments to the FBI agent, Friedlander said the girl had guided his hand into her shirt and pants and "seemed" to want him to touch her.
"I did it, I shouldn't have done it. But it happened," Friedlander is quoted as saying.
Among the supporters who filled three rows of the courtroom during Thursday's hearing was Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin of Chabad of Los Angeles.
"Not only is he internationally known, but (Grunwald) and his assistant are married and reputable," Cunin said later. "The rabbi is a leader of thousands of thousands of thousands of followers both in America and Israel and Australia-all over the world. . . . I believe they'll be totally exonerated."
Grunwald, who had gone to Australia to lecture on the Talmud at the invitation of that country's Jewish community, comes from a long line of rabbinical scholars. Freilich said Grunwald's father was the grand rabbi of the Pupa sect in Hungary. Grunwald and his brother now lead the group, and Grunwald also heads a synagogue, a yeshiva and a girl's school.
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Rabbi, Associate Charged in sex case men accused of groping teen-age girl on flight from Australia
By Jaxon Ban Debeken
Los Angeles Daily News - June 2, 1995
The chief rabbi of a Hungarian Hasidic congregation in New York and his assistant were charged Thursday in Los Angeles with groping a 15-year-old girl aboard an airplane flight from Australia.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald and Yehudah Friedlander, both 44, were taken into custody by FBI agents when the plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon Wednesday.
Friedlander faces a charge of sexual abuse of a minor and was being held until a bail hearing that was delayed till today. Grunwald was charged with a lesser offense of sexual contact with a minor and was released on $10,000 bond.
"There is no question about the innocence of these people," said Mitchell Egers, the attorney for both men. "They are absolutely innocent."
Grunwald, who heads a Hasidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and Friedlander, his assistant, were in Australia for conferences in Sydney and Melbourne.
Egers called Grunwald a "very important leader of a religious movement." Whenever the rabbi speaks, Egers said he deals with issues of morality.
"He is a very moral man and he deals with moral issues," he said.
Neither man entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, which represents 250 Jewish congregations, said Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in New York, Montreal, London and Jerusalem.
According to the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Mark Van Steenburg in support of the charges, both men are accused of making advances to the girl while aboard United Airlines Flight 842 over the Pacific.
The 15-year-old American girl told Van Steenburg that she was traveling alone on the plane and was seated one empty seat away from Grunwald, who she said rubbed her arm and asked if she was cold.
The girl claimed he groped her breast and then got up and was replaced by Friedlander, who the girl said then groped her repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
The girl said she repeatedly resisted and attempted to fend off the advances. At one point, a woman who said she witnessed the conduct reported the trouble to the flight crew and later gave a statement to the FBI.
The passenger, identified as Sheila Myers of Michigan, said she was "horrified" as she watched a man grope the girl for "over 5 to 8 minutes," according to the affidavit.
Myers told Van Steenburg she saw the "jolt" when the man "shoved more of his arm under the blanket," according to the affidavit.
Friedlander, who gave a statement to the FBI, said the 15-year-old had rubbed his hand and invited him to make sexual advances to her. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," he told the agent.
Rabbi Peter Friedman, who is a friend and colleague of Grunwald, said he was stunned about the allegations. "I live two streets away from him. I am sure and positive the whole story is a false story."
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Rabbis deny claim in sex abuse case
By Mary Jane Pardue
Washington Post - June 2, 1995
LOS ANGELES - A prominent New York rabbi and his assistant appeared before a federal magistrate judge Thursday on charges that they sexually molested a teenage girl on a flight between Australia and Los Angeles this week.
Federal authorities allege that the ultra-orthodox rabbi, Israel Grunwald, fondled the girl and his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, sexually abused the 15-year-old.
The two denied any wrongdoing. They had been to Australia to lecture on morality.
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Rabbi Accused of Molesting Is Denied Bail
San Franscisco Chronicle - June 3, 1995
A Hasidic Jewish rabbi from New York accused of fondling a teenage girl on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles was denied bail yesterday by a judge who deemed him "a danger to the community."
U.S. Magistrate Carolyn Turchin ordered Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, charged with sexual abuse over the incident aboard the flight from Melbourne on Wednesday, held in federal prison until a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Friedlander, 44, who had accompanied his sect leader, Rabbi Israel Grunwald, on a trip to Australia to lecture Jews on sexual morality, was arrested along with Grunwald by airport police at Los Angeles and handed over to the FBI.
Friedlander allegedly put his hands down the 15-year-old's panties during an incident in which both Jewish religious leaders were said to have fondled the American teenager, who was traveling on her own.
Grunwald, also 44, has been charged with the lesser offense of abusive sexual conduct for allegedly cupping the girl's breasts in his hand and was freed Thursday on $10,000 bail.
Grunwald, an Orthodox Hasidic Jew, is a leader of the Pupa Hasidic sect and heads the Kehilas Joseph congregation in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
Friedlander was denied bail because of a previous sexual abuse charge leveled against him in Monticello, a Catskill Mountains resort town in upstate New York. Turchin, in denying him bail, said she wanted more details on the New York case.
Los Angeles attorney Mitchell Egers, hired by the rabbis to defend them, called the girl's allegations "ridiculous."
A criminal complaint filed in court by FBI agent Mark Van Steenburg said Friedlander claimed the teenager initiated the incident.
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METROPOLITAN DESK
Brooklyn Rabbi Is Freed on Bail In Sex Case, but Assistant Is Held
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN
New York Times - June 3, 1995
A Brooklyn rabbi charged in Los Angeles with touching the breast of a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Australia returned home yesterday, but his assistant, facing a more serious sex-abuse charge, was ordered held pending an inquiry into his involvement in a 1991 sexual-abuse case in upstate New York.
The two rabbis were returning on a United Air Lines flight to Los Angeles on Wednesday when an American girl traveling alone ran sobbing to the crew and accused the men of molesting her. The rabbis were arrested on arrival in Los Angeles.
Rabbi Grunwald, the leader of Congregation Tuldos Yakov Yosef, was charged with sexually touching a minor and was released on a $10,000 signature bond at a hearing on Thursday. He flew to New York yesterday and went into seclusion at his home at 1137 53d Street.
But Rabbi Friedlander, who was charged with more extensive sexual abuse, was held without bail after prosecutors said he had admitted some of the acts, although contending that the girl had encouraged him.
Prosecutors also told the court on Thursday that Rabbi Friedlander had been involved in a 1991 sexual-abuse case in Monticello, N.Y. The prosecutors erroneously told the court then that he had pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree sexual abuse, the records of which had been sealed. The magistrate ordered the defendant held pending the unsealing of those records.
Returning to court yesterday, prosecutors said they had not yet received permission from a New York judge to obtain the sealed records. Federal Magistrate Carolyn Turchin ordered the hearing continued and Rabbi Friedlander held until Tuesday.
In New York yesterday, Justice Robert C. Williams of State Supreme Court in Monticello, acting on a request relayed by the Sullivan County District Attorney, Stephen Lungen, ordered the case record sent to Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors refused to disclose the contents of the record. But officials close to the inquiry said that Rabbi Friedlander, while working at a yeshiva, had been accused of sexual abuse by a dismissed employee.
In an appearance in Monticello Village Court in October, 1991, he did not plead guilty, officials said. Instead, a judge ordered a six-month adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, on condition of good behavior. After six months, the charge was dismissed and the case record was sealed.
Rabbi Friedlander's lawyer, Mitchell Egers, said yesterday that the charges against his client were false.
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1 Accused Rabbi Will Stay Jailed for Weekend Courts:
Judge terms him `a danger' pending bail hearing. He and a colleague, who
has returned to New York, are accused of molesting girl on airliner
By Bettina Boxall
Los Angeles Times - June 3, 1995
With questions still hovering around the prior arrest of one of two New York rabbis charged in a sexual molestation case, Yehudah Friedlander will remain in jail this weekend.
Rejecting a request to release Friedlander for a Jewish holiday, a federal magistrate ordered Friday that he be held pending a bail hearing Tuesday.
"I believe your client is a danger to the community," U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin told attorney Mitchell W. Egers, who had argued that Friedlander was neither a danger nor a flight risk and therefore should be let out of jail to observe the Sabbath and Shavuot, a holiday that begins this evening.
In a case that has stunned the Orthodox Jewish community, Rabbi Israel Grunwald, a leader of a New-York based Hasidic sect, and Friedlander, his assistant, are accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles this week.
Grunwald, charged with abusive sexual contact, was released on $10,000 bail Thursday night and returned to New York. The bail hearing for Friedlander, charged with sexual abuse of a minor, has twice been continued to give authorities time to determine the final outcome of his 1991 arrest in Monticello Township, N.Y.
According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Joel Thvedt, Friedlander was charged four years ago with having sexual contact with someone without consent. He apparently was given a conditional disposition: If he successfully completed probation, the case would not be prosecuted.
The court records were sealed, however, delaying the files' release to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
Thvedt said that his office received the records Friday afternoon but that the contents would be open only to court officials. The matter will be taken up again Tuesday morning, when Turchin is expected to set bail for Friedlander, 44.
Judging from the magistrate's comments Friday, the figure will be considerably higher than it was for Grunwald, who is charged with a less serious offense. Turchin said that on Tuesday, Friedlander should be prepared to say if he has property to post a "significant" bond. She also indicated that she may require him to wear an electronic monitoring device to track his whereabouts.
In an affidavit accompanying a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles, authorities allege that Grunwald, 44, fondled the teen-ager's breast and that Friedlander fondled and molested her while she tried to sleep under a blanket during the transpacific flight.
The teen-ager told authorities that she persistently attempted to fend off the advances but did so quietly because she was embarrassed by the situation and did not want to attract attention.
The complaint states that another passenger, a woman from Michigan, told the FBI that she saw one of the men groping the girl under the blanket. After talking to the girl later, the woman alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities, and the men were arrested as they got off the plane Wednesday.
The affidavit further quotes Friedlander, in an interview with the FBI, as admitting sexual contact with the girl. But he says that she initiated it. Egers, maintaining his clients' innocence, said the affidavit is inaccurate.
The allegations have ricocheted through the Orthodox community, which did not seem aware of Friedlander's previous arrest and now finds it impossible to believe that two well-respected figures in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect could do what they are accused of.
"Hasidic leaders are charismatic persons who are role models of an extraordinary nature," said Rabbi Eli Schochet of Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills. That, he said, "makes accusations of this sort striking-almost blasphemous-particularly when they believe that a man is prohibited from being in the same room with a woman to whom he is not married or related."
"No physical contact whatsoever would be permitted," according to Jewish law, said Schochet, a rabbi in the Conservative branch of Judaism.
In New York, "This news is being greeted with a combination of shock, horror and a very healthy dosage of skepticism," said Rabbi Yehuda Levin, host of a weekly radio show for the Hasidic community in Rockland County, outside New York City.
When he was shopping in preparation for the Sabbath Friday, Levin said, the talk on the streets was all about the arrests.
"People are saying they feel this girl saw these two Orthodox rabbis and didn't like the way they were either segregating themselves from her or treating her, so she decided they had done something to her," he said. "There's a very strong feeling that this is absolutely fictitious-that it is a canard."
At the same time, Levin said, people are seeing it as a message that "Americana, as it is, has crept into even the most Hasidic of households. . . . This is telling us to be on our guard."
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, a spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of California, an Orthodox group, described the Pupa Hasidic sect, which Grunwald leads with his brother, as "small but certainly not insignificant."
Named after a Hungarian town, the sect was brought to America by Grunwald's father, a survivor of the Holocaust, who built up the Pupa community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Adlerstein, who is Orthodox but not Hasidic, said the Pupa sect served as an alternative to the larger Satmar sect for people who thought parts of Satmar were "strong or overstated."
"They (the Pupa) were sort of a mild-mannered group of Hasidim," he said.
The Grunwald family, he added, is a "respected and known name in Hasidim." After the death of Rebbe Grunwald, the community broke up and Israel Grunwald and his brother each "carved out a different piece of the turf," Adlerstein said.
While he said he found the charges ludicrous, Rabbi Abraham Hecht of New York added that if they turn out to be true, Grunwald will get no sympathy.
"Rabbis will bring the wrath of heaven down on him," he said.
Times staff writers John Dart, Bob Pool and Larry B. Stammer contributed to this story.
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Hassidic rabbi and assistant charged with molestation
By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - June 6, 1995
A RESPECTED hassidic rabbi and his assistant have been charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl last week during an overnight flight here from Australia. The accused are Rabbi Israel Grunwald of Brooklyn, a leader of the Hungarian Pupa hassidim, and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, both 44.
Following a hearing last Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin released Grunwald on $10,000 bail, and he immediately flew to New York. He is scheduled to return for a preliminary hearing on June 21.
Friedlander remained in detention over Shabbat and Shavuot, despite Egers' protests. He is being held pending clarification over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in New York state, in which he was charged with a sexual offense. He is to appear today for a bail hearing.
A nine-page affidavit submitted to the court by an FBI agent alleges a number of occurrences during the United Air Lines overnight flight.
The girl, an American traveling alone, accused Grunwald of leaning across an empty seat and, following some conversation, touching her necklace and fondling her breasts.
At some point, Friedlander exchanged seats with Grunwald, and while the cabin lights were dimmed, Friedlander allegedly groped and fondled the girl's private parts and breast for some five to eight minutes, the complaint charged.
The teenager told authorities that she tried to fend off the advances but was too embarrassed to call for help. However, a woman passenger observed the alleged incident, talked to the girl and then notified the fight crew, which radioed a report to authorities.
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Rabbi's Assistant Kept in Jail on Sex Charge Crime: U.S. judge cites `very, very strong' allegations. The Brooklyn man and a Hasidic leader are accused of molesting 15-year-old girl on a flight to Los Angeles
By Bettina Boxwell
Los Angeles Times - June 7, 1995
Citing the seriousness of the allegations as well as the suspect's record, a federal magistrate refused Tuesday to release a rabbi's assistant jailed on charges that he sexually molested a teen-age girl on a transpacific flight.
"The corroborated allegations in the affidavit are very, very strong at this time," U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin said at a Los Angeles bail hearing, referring to the complaint filed against Yehudah Friedlander, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
"I believe your client is a serious danger to the community," she told defense attorney Mitchell W. Egers.
Turchin said she would consider setting bail for Friedlander if someone who has known him for at least five years is willing to post a $100,000 personal property bond.
In remarks to reporters, Egers later said he would make every effort to get his client out of jail, which he described as a particularly unpleasant place for a religious person such as Friedlander.
Both Friedlander and Rabbi Israel Grunwald, with whom he was traveling on an Australia-to-Los Angeles flight last week, are accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old who sat in their row.
Grunwald, a leader of a New York-based Hasidic sect, was released on $10,000 bail last week and returned home. He is charged with abusive sexual contact. Friedlander, who Egers said is Grunwald's assistant but is not an ordained rabbi, is charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
Proclaiming the innocence of both men, Egers has criticized the accuracy of a detailed affidavit filed with the complaint. In addition to quoting the teen-ager, the document quotes another passenger as saying that she saw one of the men groping the girl and quotes Friedlander as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she encouraged him to do so.
Egers had requested $25,000 bail for Friedlander, who is married and has five children.
Government prosecutors asked that Friedlander be held or that Turchin require a $100,000 bond before releasing him.
"Essentially," Assistant U.S. Atty. Debra Yang argued, Friedlander "reached into the pants of a 15-year-old minor who was a stranger."
Yang added that the circumstances underlying Friedlander's 1991 arrest in Sullivan County, N.Y., were troubling. Turchin seemed to agree, telling Egers, "I construe the documents as essentially unfavorable to your client."
The files of the prior arrest were made available to Turchin and the attorneys, but they otherwise remain sealed by court order and details of the case were not publicly disclosed.
Prosecutors say the charge, a misdemeanor alleging sexual contact without consent, was dismissed after Friedlander completed a six-month probation. Egers indicated in court that the complaint had been filed by an adult.
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Bail Set for Rabbi In Sex Abuse Case
Grand jury to hear sexual misconduct case involving rabbis
By Bettina Boxall
Los Angeles Times - June 3, 1995
With questions still hovering around the prior arrest of one of two New York rabbis charged in a sexual molestation case, Yehudah Friedlander will remain in jail this weekend.
Rejecting a request to release Friedlander for a Jewish holiday, a federal magistrate ordered Friday that he be held pending a bail hearing Tuesday.
"I believe your client is a danger to the community," U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin told attorney Mitchell W. Egers, who had argued that Friedlander was neither a danger nor a flight risk and therefore should be let out of jail to observe the Sabbath and Shavuot, a holiday that begins this evening.
In a case that has stunned the Orthodox Jewish community, Rabbi Israel Grunwald, a leader of a New-York based Hasidic sect, and Friedlander, his assistant, are accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles this week.
Grunwald, charged with abusive sexual contact, was released on $10,000 bail Thursday night and returned to New York. The bail hearing for Friedlander, charged with sexual abuse of a minor, has twice been continued to give authorities time to determine the final outcome of his 1991 arrest in Monticello Township, N.Y.
According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Joel Thvedt, Friedlander was charged four years ago with having sexual contact with someone without consent. He apparently was given a conditional disposition: If he successfully completed probation, the case would not be prosecuted.
The court records were sealed, however, delaying the files' release to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
Thvedt said that his office received the records Friday afternoon but that the contents would be open only to court officials. The matter will be taken up again Tuesday morning, when Turchin is expected to set bail for Friedlander, 44.
Judging from the magistrate's comments Friday, the figure will be considerably higher than it was for Grunwald, who is charged with a less serious offense. Turchin said that on Tuesday, Friedlander should be prepared to say if he has property to post a "significant" bond. She also indicated that she may require him to wear an electronic monitoring device to track his whereabouts.
In an affidavit accompanying a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles, authorities allege that Grunwald, 44, fondled the teen-ager's breast and that Friedlander fondled and molested her while she tried to sleep under a blanket during the transpacific flight.
The teen-ager told authorities that she persistently attempted to fend off the advances but did so quietly because she was embarrassed by the situation and did not want to attract attention.
The complaint states that another passenger, a woman from Michigan, told the FBI that she saw one of the men groping the girl under the blanket. After talking to the girl later, the woman alerted the flight crew, which contacted authorities, and the men were arrested as they got off the plane Wednesday.
The affidavit further quotes Friedlander, in an interview with the FBI, as admitting sexual contact with the girl. But he says that she initiated it. Egers, maintaining his clients' innocence, said the affidavit is inaccurate.
The allegations have ricocheted through the Orthodox community, which did not seem aware of Friedlander's previous arrest and now finds it impossible to believe that two well-respected figures in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect could do what they are accused of.
"Hasidic leaders are charismatic persons who are role models of an extraordinary nature," said Rabbi Eli Schochet of Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills. That, he said, "makes accusations of this sort striking-almost blasphemous-particularly when they believe that a man is prohibited from being in the same room with a woman to whom he is not married or related."
"No physical contact whatsoever would be permitted," according to Jewish law, said Schochet, a rabbi in the Conservative branch of Judaism.
In New York, "This news is being greeted with a combination of shock, horror and a very healthy dosage of skepticism," said Rabbi Yehuda Levin, host of a weekly radio show for the Hasidic community in Rockland County, outside New York City.
When he was shopping in preparation for the Sabbath Friday, Levin said, the talk on the streets was all about the arrests.
"People are saying they feel this girl saw these two Orthodox rabbis and didn't like the way they were either segregating themselves from her or treating her, so she decided they had done something to her," he said. "There's a very strong feeling that this is absolutely fictitious-that it is a canard."
At the same time, Levin said, people are seeing it as a message that "Americana, as it is, has crept into even the most Hasidic of households. . . . This is telling us to be on our guard."
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, a spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of California, an Orthodox group, described the Pupa Hasidic sect, which Grunwald leads with his brother, as "small but certainly not insignificant."
Named after a Hungarian town, the sect was brought to America by Grunwald's father, a survivor of the Holocaust, who built up the Pupa community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Adlerstein, who is Orthodox but not Hasidic, said the Pupa sect served as an alternative to the larger Satmar sect for people who thought parts of Satmar were "strong or overstated."
"They (the Pupa) were sort of a mild-mannered group of Hasidim," he said.
The Grunwald family, he added, is a "respected and known name in Hasidim." After the death of Rebbe Grunwald, the community broke up and Israel Grunwald and his brother each "carved out a different piece of the turf," Adlerstein said.
While he said he found the charges ludicrous, Rabbi Abraham Hecht of New York added that if they turn out to be true, Grunwald will get no sympathy.
"Rabbis will bring the wrath of heaven down on him," he said.
Times staff writers John Dart, Bob Pool and Larry B. Stammer contributed to this story.
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Hassidic rabbi and assistant charged with molestation
By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - June 6, 1995
A RESPECTED hassidic rabbi and his assistant have been charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl last week during an overnight flight here from Australia. The accused are Rabbi Israel Grunwald of Brooklyn, a leader of the Hungarian Pupa hassidim, and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, both 44.
Following a hearing last Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin released Grunwald on $10,000 bail, and he immediately flew to New York. He is scheduled to return for a preliminary hearing on June 21.
Friedlander remained in detention over Shabbat and Shavuot, despite Egers' protests. He is being held pending clarification over the disposition of a 1991 arrest in New York state, in which he was charged with a sexual offense. He is to appear today for a bail hearing.
A nine-page affidavit submitted to the court by an FBI agent alleges a number of occurrences during the United Air Lines overnight flight.
The girl, an American traveling alone, accused Grunwald of leaning across an empty seat and, following some conversation, touching her necklace and fondling her breasts.
At some point, Friedlander exchanged seats with Grunwald, and while the cabin lights were dimmed, Friedlander allegedly groped and fondled the girl's private parts and breast for some five to eight minutes, the complaint charged.
The teenager told authorities that she tried to fend off the advances but was too embarrassed to call for help. However, a woman passenger observed the alleged incident, talked to the girl and then notified the fight crew, which radioed a report to authorities.
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Rabbi's Assistant Kept in Jail on Sex Charge Crime: U.S. judge cites `very, very strong' allegations. The Brooklyn man and a Hasidic leader are accused of molesting 15-year-old girl on a flight to Los Angeles
By Bettina Boxwell
Los Angeles Times - June 7, 1995
Citing the seriousness of the allegations as well as the suspect's record, a federal magistrate refused Tuesday to release a rabbi's assistant jailed on charges that he sexually molested a teen-age girl on a transpacific flight.
"The corroborated allegations in the affidavit are very, very strong at this time," U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin said at a Los Angeles bail hearing, referring to the complaint filed against Yehudah Friedlander, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
"I believe your client is a serious danger to the community," she told defense attorney Mitchell W. Egers.
Turchin said she would consider setting bail for Friedlander if someone who has known him for at least five years is willing to post a $100,000 personal property bond.
In remarks to reporters, Egers later said he would make every effort to get his client out of jail, which he described as a particularly unpleasant place for a religious person such as Friedlander.
Both Friedlander and Rabbi Israel Grunwald, with whom he was traveling on an Australia-to-Los Angeles flight last week, are accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old who sat in their row.
Grunwald, a leader of a New York-based Hasidic sect, was released on $10,000 bail last week and returned home. He is charged with abusive sexual contact. Friedlander, who Egers said is Grunwald's assistant but is not an ordained rabbi, is charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
Proclaiming the innocence of both men, Egers has criticized the accuracy of a detailed affidavit filed with the complaint. In addition to quoting the teen-ager, the document quotes another passenger as saying that she saw one of the men groping the girl and quotes Friedlander as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she encouraged him to do so.
Egers had requested $25,000 bail for Friedlander, who is married and has five children.
Government prosecutors asked that Friedlander be held or that Turchin require a $100,000 bond before releasing him.
"Essentially," Assistant U.S. Atty. Debra Yang argued, Friedlander "reached into the pants of a 15-year-old minor who was a stranger."
Yang added that the circumstances underlying Friedlander's 1991 arrest in Sullivan County, N.Y., were troubling. Turchin seemed to agree, telling Egers, "I construe the documents as essentially unfavorable to your client."
The files of the prior arrest were made available to Turchin and the attorneys, but they otherwise remain sealed by court order and details of the case were not publicly disclosed.
Prosecutors say the charge, a misdemeanor alleging sexual contact without consent, was dismissed after Friedlander completed a six-month probation. Egers indicated in court that the complaint had been filed by an adult.
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Bail Set for Rabbi In Sex Abuse Case
New York Times - June 8, 1995
A Federal magistrate set bail at $200,000 today for a Brooklyn rabbi accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl during an airplane flight.
Magistrate Carolyn Turchin set bail for the rabbi, Yehudah Friedlander, after his sister and his daughter's father-in-law posted bonds to insure the bail.
Rabbi Friedlander, 44, an assistant to Rabbi Israel Grunwald, was expected to leave the Metropolitan Detention Center here by Thursday, his lawyer, Mitchell Egers, said.
When he returns to Brooklyn, he will be under house arrest and be required to stay away from juveniles except his own children. He must also be supervised during flights to Los Angeles for court appearances, Ms. Turchin said.
Rabbi Friedlander and Rabbi Grunwald, 44, were arrested on May 29 at Los Angeles Airport on charges that they fondled the girl during a flight from Australia to Los Angeles. Both men were charged with abusive sexual conduct.
Rabbi Grunwald was released earlier on $10,000 bail. Ms. Turchin rejected Rabbi Friedlander's request for bail on Tuesday.
____________________________________________________________________________________A Federal magistrate set bail at $200,000 today for a Brooklyn rabbi accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl during an airplane flight.
Magistrate Carolyn Turchin set bail for the rabbi, Yehudah Friedlander, after his sister and his daughter's father-in-law posted bonds to insure the bail.
Rabbi Friedlander, 44, an assistant to Rabbi Israel Grunwald, was expected to leave the Metropolitan Detention Center here by Thursday, his lawyer, Mitchell Egers, said.
When he returns to Brooklyn, he will be under house arrest and be required to stay away from juveniles except his own children. He must also be supervised during flights to Los Angeles for court appearances, Ms. Turchin said.
Rabbi Friedlander and Rabbi Grunwald, 44, were arrested on May 29 at Los Angeles Airport on charges that they fondled the girl during a flight from Australia to Los Angeles. Both men were charged with abusive sexual conduct.
Rabbi Grunwald was released earlier on $10,000 bail. Ms. Turchin rejected Rabbi Friedlander's request for bail on Tuesday.
Grand jury to hear sexual misconduct case involving rabbis
by TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 9, 1995
LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities will decide next week whether to seek indictments of a respected Chassidic rabbi and his assistant, both of whom have been charged with sexually abusing a 15-year old girl on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles.
The assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Joel Thvedt, said he intended to present the case to a grand jury, which would decide whether to prosecute.
The accused are Rabbi Israel Grunwald of Brooklyn, a leader of the Hungarian Pupa Chassidim, and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, both 44 years old.
Their arrests have sparked outrage in the Chassidic and Orthodox communities of New York, while Los Angeles rabbis moved quickly to aid their colleagues.
Both of the accused have vehemently denied the charges, according to their attorney, Mitchell W. Egers.
After a hearing here June 2, U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin released Grunwald on $10,000 bail. He immediately flew back to New York.
Grunwald, charged with sexually touching a minor, faces a maximum of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.
Friedlander remained in detention over the Sabbath and the Shavuot holiday, despite Egers' protests. He was being held pending clarification of the disposition of a 1991 arrest in New York state, in which he was charged with a sexual offense.
On Tuesday, Turchin denied a cash bail to Friedlander, calling him "a danger to society."
The judge said Friedlander only would be released if someone put up his or her house with equity valued at least at $100,000.
If convicted, Friedlander, who was charged with more extensive sexual abuse, faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Friedlander has been identified in the media as a rabbi or "assistant rabbi," but according to Egers and New York sources, he is actually a non-rabbinical assistant.
A nine-page affidavit submitted to the court by an FBI agent, which cites statements by the young girl, a witness on the plane and Friedlander, alleges a number of occurrences during the long United Air Lines overnight flight.
The girl, an American traveling alone, accused Grunwald of leaning across an empty seat and, following some conversation, touching her necklace and fondling her breasts.
At some point, Friedlander allegedly exchanged seats with Grunwald, and while the cabin lights were dimmed, Friedlander allegedly groped and fondled the girl's private parts and breast for some five to eight minutes, the complaint charged.
The teenager told authorities that she tried to fend off the advances but was too embarrassed to call for help. However, a woman passenger observed the alleged incident, talked to the girl and then notified the flight crew, which radioed a report to authorities.
When the plane landed in Los Angeles, FBI agents, who assumed jurisdiction under the laws governing American aircraft in flight, arrested the two men.
One agent quoted Friedlander as telling him that it was the girl who initiated the advances, adding that "I shouldn't have done it, but it happened."
Egers said Friedlander was "in a state of shock and deeply upset that the whole Jewish world" knows about the accusations.
Egers, a veteran trial lawyer with close ties to the Orthodox community, said when he and his two clients appeared in court last week, he was "besieged by armies of reporters, with just about all the media from New York and Los Angeles on hand." For a day, "we were bigger than the O.J. Simpson case."
Reaction to the arrests was sharpest in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, where Grunwald serves as rabbi of Congregation Tuldos Yacov Yosef.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Boro Park, told The New York Times that "people are outraged at these charges. They are unbelievable, impossible nonsense. It is impossible that an Orthodox Chassidic person would even speak to a female, much less touch her."
Rabbi Abner Weiss of the Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills took a less categorical view. He was being installed as the new president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California when he received word of the arrests.
In his first act in office, Weiss conferred with Aaron Kriegel, a Conservative rabbi who serves as prison chaplain, to assure that the two Chasidim would receive kosher food. Weiss said he personally bought loaves of challah for Grunwald and Friedlander.
Without passing judgment on the case, Weiss, who holds a graduate degree in psychology, noted that, in general, "Jews are not immune to any kind of illness, physical or mental."
Grand jury issues indictment of Chasid accused of sex abuse
By Tom Tugend
JTA - June 14, 1995
A federal grand joy has returned a one-count indictment of sexual abuse of a minor against Yehudah Friedlander, one of two Chasidic men arrested earlier this month after an overnight flight from Australia to Los Angeles.
Friedlander is an assistant to Rabbi Israel Grunwald, who leads a small faction of Pupa Chasidim in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.
Friedlander and Grunwald were arrested together, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said it has not been determined whether an indictment would be sought against the rabbi.
Friedlander is free on $200,000 bail and has been ordered to appear in court here on Monday.
At that time, he will hear the formal charges and enter a plea of innocence, according to his attorney, Michael Abzug.
If convicted, Friedlander could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The charges against the two men, contained in a nine-page FBI affidavit, allege that during a plane ride from Australia to Los Angeles, Grunwald and Friedlander fondled and groped a 15-year-old American girl, sitting one seat away.
After complaints from the girl and a woman who said she witnessed the incident, the two men were arrested as they stepped off the plane in Los Angeles.
Grunwald, who would face the less serious charge of sexually touching a minor, was released on $10,000 bail and returned to New York.
He was originally scheduled to appear in court on June 26, but his attorney, Mitchell Egers, said there would be a delay.
According to the FBI affidavit, Friedlander told one agent that it was the girl who initiated the advances. But he also admitted, "I shouldn't have done it, but it happened."
Abzug denied that Friedlander, the father of five children, had made such a confession, adding that there was a question whether other statements had been lawfully obtained.
The accusations have been met with shock and disbelief in the Chasidic community of Borough Park, where Grunwald leads some 100 followers in a breakaway faction of the Pupa sect.
He is the son of the late Josef Grunwald, the Hungarian-born founder and grand rabbi of the 12,000-member Pupa movement. On the founder's death, the title developed on his older son, Yakov Grunwald, who heads the main Pupa community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
According to the New York Jewish Week, there has been a longstanding feud between the two brothers, with Israel Grunwald in Borough Park refusing to recognize the authority of his older brother in Williamsburg.
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Federal child sex charge has local tie
By TOM RUE
The River Reporter, June 15, 1995
MONTICELLO - An ultra-orthodox rebbe arrested in Los Angeles for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl on a jetliner had a prior similar charge dismissed in Village of Monticello Justice Court, according to The New York Times and Cable News Network.
Yehuda Friedlander, now 44, was charged in 1991 with sexual abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor. The charge was reportedly adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, and ultimately dismissed and sealed. It allegedly involved an offense against an adult woman.
At the time of the accusation, Friedlander reportedly managed a children's summer camp in Sullivan County.
Former village justice Mark Schulman was the judge who dismissed the charge against the rebbe, according to two sources familiar with the case. Local authorities declined to release any information, claiming the case was sealed by the justice court.
Friedlander was arrested on June 1 with Israel Grunwald, the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas, on May 29 after arriving on a flight from Australia. Friedlander is assistant rabbi of the same congregation. Both pled not guilty.
The girl, whose name was not reported, told authorities one rabbi reached inside her shirt and fondled her breasts during the flight, and the other pushed his hands into her underpants.
Federal magistrate Carolyn Turchin is Los Angeles denied Friedlander bail, stating she wanted to know more about the Monticello case first. Grunwald was released on a $10,000 bond, pending a June 21 appearance.
Rabbi's aide indicted in sex attack of girl
JTA - June 16, 1995
LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- A federal grand jury on Tuesday returned a one-count indictment of sexual abuse of a minor against Yehudah Friedlander, an assistant to Rabbi Israel Grunwald, who leads a small faction of Pupa Chassidim in Boro Park, Brooklyn.
Friedlander and Grunwald were arrested together, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said it has not been determined whether an indictment of the rabbi will be sought.
Friedlander is currently free on $200,000 bail and has been ordered to appear in L.A. court June 19 to hear the charges and enter a plea, which will be "not guilty," said his attorney, Michael Abzug.
If convicted, Friedlander could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The charges against the two men, contained in a nine-page FBI affidavit, allege that during a plane ride from Australia to Los Angeles, Grunwald and Friedlander fondled and groped a 15-year old American girl, sitting one seat away.
A woman who said she witnessed the alleged attack convinced the girl to tell the flight crew, and the two men were arrested as they disembarked in Los Angeles.
Grunwald, who would face the lesser charge of sexually touching a minor, was released on $10,000 bail and returned to New York. He was to appear in court June 26, but his attorney, Mitchell Egers, said there will be a delay.
The FBI affidavit said Friedlander told one agent that it was the girl who initiated the advances. "I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," he reportedly said.
Abzug denied that Friedlander, the father of five children, had made the confession, and questioned whether other statements were obtained lawfully.
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Focus on crimes involving religious Jews sparks debate
by DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 16, 1995
NEW YORK -- Is it right to expect more moral behavior from those who present themselves as religious Jews than from those who do not?
The answer depends on which rabbi you ask.
The question arises in the wake of the indictment on sex crime charges of an aide to a prominent Chassidic rabbi and several instances of alleged breaches of ethical behavior by Jews who call themselves religious.
Among those whose morality has been called into question is a Reform rabbi, who has been the focus of community suspicion in the murder of his wife, though he has neither been arrested nor formally ruled out as a suspect.
On the other end of the religious spectrum are two leaders of a Chassidic community, who were arrested on charges of sexually molesting a teenage girl, and an Orthodox district attorney, whose financial abuses of his office and marital infidelities were recently exposed.
Such crimes are not limited to members of the rabbinate and Orthodox world, of course, but there is much greater interest in such cases when these individuals are involved.
Recognizing that even rabbis need explicit guidance about behaving ethically in financial and sexual matters in complicated times, the Reform movement updated its rabbinic ethics policy in 1991.
And a few months ago, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly adopted its own rabbinic ethics policy on similar matters.
The Conservative movement has no formal policy, though its rules for filing and dealing with a complaint against a rabbi are in the process of being clarified, said Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the movement's Rabbinical Assembly.
For the mainstream Orthodox rabbinical group, the Rabbinical Council of America, the ethics policy is "the laws of the Torah," said Rabbi Steven Dworken, the group's executive vice president.
"We presuppose that an Orthodox rabbi doesn't need more of a policy than that," he said.
But the current case involving allegations that a rabbi of the Pupa Chassidic sect and his assistant sexually abused a teenage girl while flying from Australia to Los Angeles suggests that not every Orthodox Jew follows the Torah closely.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of Congregation Toldos Yakov Yosef in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, was charged with the federal crime of sexually touching a minor, while his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, was indicted for sexual abuse.
The court was told the rabbi had admitted to federal agents that he had committed some of the acts, which the girl said included forcing his hand under her clothing and repeatedly touching her breast and her vagina despite her pleas not to, according to news reports.
Friedlander reportedly pleaded guilty in 1991 to the charge of third-degree sexual abuse in a Monticello, N.Y., case.
A federal magistrate, in initially denying bail, called Friedlander "a danger to the entire community." The rabbis' attorney told reporters that both denied the charges.
The case is clearly getting more attention in the media than it would have had the alleged assailants been non-religious.
Rabbis of several denominations interviewed said the attention is justified.
According to one Orthodox rabbi, Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, "It is legitimate to expect more" moral behavior from the observant. Still, "no system, no matter how good, will not have individual failures."
That Friedlander had allegedly pleaded guilty to sexual abuse several years earlier, yet retained a position of importance within his community, was also cause for concern, said Greenberg.
"Was that behavior treated with the seriousness it deserves, or did the `oldboys' close ranks behind him? It raises that question," said Greenberg, president of CLAL -- the Jewish Institute for Learning and Leadership.
"In the Orthodox community there is too much closing ranks and a `no one rock the boat' mentality. There is authoritarian leadership, and dissent is not tolerated. Criticism is seen as disloyalty," he said.
The spokesman for an ultra-reglious group, Agudath Israel of America, said he was not so certain that the focus on religious Jews' failings is legitimate.
"The attention paid to them because they're Chassidim is understandable but lamentable," said Rabbi Avi Shafran.
"What results from it is the reinforcement of the stereotype that Chassidim are hypocrites. The overwhelming majority of the observant world is people determined to keep to the stringencies of their faith," he added.
"For people to think Chassidim are this way, hiding a darker self, is embarrassing to all of us who wear beards and yarmulkes."
In another high-profile New York case, Rockland County District Attorney Kenneth Gribetz, an Orthodox Jew, quit his post last month shortly before pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of defrauding the government in a deal he worked out with the U.S. Attorney.
Although married, a father and grandfather, Gribetz was partly done in by his former mistress, who went to the media with information about him. Gribetz aspired to being a congressman and was admired by many of his area's religious Jews.
Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Gribetz's longtime rabbi, said in an interview that he had often cited Gribetz in his speeches to illustrate how a devout Jew can remain faithful to the laws of kashrut and Shabbat while pursuing any career --even in law and politics.
But evidence police collected from Gribetz's ex-lover's home included whips, a dog collar, sex toys and pictures of Gribetz modeling women's clothing. Their three-year affair apparently included trips they took together funded by taxpayers' dollars.
Tendler, who organized a meeting of community rabbis to levy social sanctions against Gribetz just before his breaches became public, described the former politician's behavior as a "chilul haShem," or a desecration of God's name.
His behavior "emasculated our Torah. It reduces or minimizes the claim of Torah, that this is the divine law fit for the human experience. If someone who has been exposed to Torah does these things, what will people say?" said Tendler.
It is the reverse of what a religious Jew is supposed to do, that "the name of God shall be loved by your actions in Kiddush HaShem," said the rabbi,who is also a professor at Yeshiva University and a respected expert on medical ethics.
When a pulpit rabbi is implicated in a breach of ethics, as was the case with Rabbi Fred Neulander, the spiritual leader of Congregation M'kor Shalom, a Reform temple in Cherry Hill, N.J., it can shed light on the congregants' expectations of rabbinic behavior.
Neulander resigned from his position in March, four months after his wife Carol was bludgeoned to death. He has not been arrested, but the police have not ruled him out as a suspect in the ongoing investigation.
In addition, the widespread coverage it has received in the local media "has brought to light Neulander's involvement in marital infidelities," according to the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
His congregation is reportedly still reeling in shock from the brutal murder and subsequent upheaval.
Should people be more profoundly disappointed by rabbis' failings than those of lay people?
According to Reform Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, "all Jews are expected to behave to a high standard of human conduct."
But "if that's true of all Jews, it's certainly true of clei kodesh," or holy vessels, said Borowitz, meaning that religious Jews have a responsibility for representing the highest ethical standards.
Borowitz is a professor of Jewish religious thought at Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement's seminary in New York City. He also authored a booktitled, "Reform Jewish Ethics and the Halacha."
Leila Gal Berner, a Reconstructionist rabbi and expert on Jewish ethics, said all religious Jews, and especially rabbis, have to guard against "the hubris that comes with the moral authority that people give them."
"When we allow ourselves to fall into a sense of self-importance, moral lapses can happen. In this situation, those involved could have thought that `no one would believe I would do such a thing,'" said Berner, director of the Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa.
"Part of the baggage that comes with being a rabbi or religious Jew is the kavod [honor] people give you," she added. "It's very nice, but also aburden. With that sense of hubris, then anything goes."
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METROPOLITAN DESK
Charges Against Rabbi Dropped
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
New York Times - July 7, 1995
Federal prosecutors have dismissed charges against one of two rabbis from Borough Park, Brooklyn, who were accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl during a trans-Pacific flight in May, officials said yesterday.
The United States Attorney's office in Los Angeles dropped the complaint of abusive sexual misconduct against Rabbi Israel Grunwald, 44, "without prejudice" -- meaning that the investigation will continue and the charge can be refiled, according to a statement from Assistant United States Attorney Debra W. Yang.
Donald Etra, the rabbi's lawyer, said yesterday, "My client realizes that the charge can be refiled, but the important point is that he is without fault and completely innocent of these charges."
Under Federal law, the Government had until June 29 to indict Rabbi Grunwald or drop the charges.
Rabbi Grunwald, the head of Congregation Tuldos Yakov Yosef, a Hungarian Hasidic congregation, and his assistant, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander, 44, were returning to Los Angeles from a lecture tour in Australia on May 31 when the incident occurred aboard a United Air Lines plane.
A 15-year-old girl, seated in the same row as the two men, told authorities that Rabbi Grunwald first reached under her shirt and touched her breast. She said Rabbi Friedlander later exchanged seats with his colleague and repeatedly touched her breast and her vagina while the cabin lights were dimmed during movies and rest periods.
Rabbi Friedlander, who was indicted last month on the more serious charge of sexual abuse of a minor, was placed under house arrest in New York. Federal agents who interviewed Rabbi Friedlander said that he admitted some of the acts, but contended that the girl had encouraged him.
His trial has been set for Aug. 8, Mr. Etra said.
Rabbi Friedlander's lawyer, Michael Abzug, could not be reached for comment.
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Rabbi's aide gets 22 months for molestation
By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - Janurary 22, 1996
YEHUDAH Friedlander, a New York rabbi's assistant, has been sentenced to 22 months in a federal prison, after having pleaded guilty to sexually molesting a teenage girl during a flight from Australia to Los Angeles last May.
US District Judge J. Spencer Letts pronounced the sentence after hearing a remorseful statement from Friedlander, the father of five children, and a sobbing plea for mercy from his wife.
"My reputation and my life as I knew it is gone," said the 44-year-old Friedlander. "What I did to this victim and all the other victims in this case, such as my family, is inexcusable."
In a nine-page FBI affidavit, Friedlander was accused, in graphic detail, of fondling and groping a 15-year-old American girl during the flight.
Both he and Rabbi Israel Grunwald were arrested and handcuffed as they stepped off the plane in Los Angeles. Charges against Grunwald, who leads a faction of the Pupa hassidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, were later dropped.
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Rabbi Again Faces Sex Charge
Los Angeles Times - October 8, 1996
Los Angeles - Federal prosecutors have revived their case against a New York rabbi accused of fondling a teen-age girl on an international airline flight.
The U.S. Attorney's Office yesterday filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect.
Grunwald faced the same charge last year, but it was dismissed by prosecutors, who retained the option of refiling. "We've just continued our investigation and deemed that it's appropriate to go forward," Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said.
Rex Beaber, Grunwald's attorney, said his client continues to maintain his innocence. "I believe the refiling is the product of a political decision or some pressure rather than a response to some new or different evidence," Beaber said.
Grunwald and an assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested in May, 1995, at Los Angeles International Airport after the 15-year-old girl told authorities the men had molested her on a flight from Australia. Friedlander pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to 22 months in prison earlier this year.
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Molestation Charge Refiled Against Rabbi
Los Angeles Times - October 9, 1996
Federal prosecutors have revived their case against a New York rabbi accused of fondling a teenage girl on an international airline flight last year.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect.
Grunwald faced the same charge last year but it was dismissed by prosecutors, who retained the option of refiling.
Grunwald and an assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested in May 1995 at Los Angeles International Airport after the 15-year-old girl told authorities the men molested her on a flight from Australia.
Friedlander pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to 22 months in prison this year. The charge against Grunwald carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
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Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty in Molestation Case
Los Angeles Times - October 16, 1996
Rabbi Israel Grunwald pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a federal charge that he fondled a teenage girl on a Los Angeles-bound flight from Australia last year.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Grunwald last week.
The leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect, Grunwald appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and will remain free on $10,000 bond. The trial date has not been set.
In a statement, Rex Beaber, Grunwald attorney's, protested the prosecution's decision to proceed with the case. He said his client has provided the government with results of a polygraph test "that indicates his complete innocence with a 99% certainty," as well as sworn declarations from passengers saying that they did not witness any improper acts.
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Rabbi's aide gets 22 months for molestation
By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - Janurary 22, 1996
YEHUDAH Friedlander, a New York rabbi's assistant, has been sentenced to 22 months in a federal prison, after having pleaded guilty to sexually molesting a teenage girl during a flight from Australia to Los Angeles last May.
US District Judge J. Spencer Letts pronounced the sentence after hearing a remorseful statement from Friedlander, the father of five children, and a sobbing plea for mercy from his wife.
"My reputation and my life as I knew it is gone," said the 44-year-old Friedlander. "What I did to this victim and all the other victims in this case, such as my family, is inexcusable."
In a nine-page FBI affidavit, Friedlander was accused, in graphic detail, of fondling and groping a 15-year-old American girl during the flight.
Both he and Rabbi Israel Grunwald were arrested and handcuffed as they stepped off the plane in Los Angeles. Charges against Grunwald, who leads a faction of the Pupa hassidic movement in Borough Park, Brooklyn, were later dropped.
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Rabbi Again Faces Sex Charge
Los Angeles Times - October 8, 1996
Los Angeles - Federal prosecutors have revived their case against a New York rabbi accused of fondling a teen-age girl on an international airline flight.
The U.S. Attorney's Office yesterday filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect.
Grunwald faced the same charge last year, but it was dismissed by prosecutors, who retained the option of refiling. "We've just continued our investigation and deemed that it's appropriate to go forward," Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said.
Rex Beaber, Grunwald's attorney, said his client continues to maintain his innocence. "I believe the refiling is the product of a political decision or some pressure rather than a response to some new or different evidence," Beaber said.
Grunwald and an assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested in May, 1995, at Los Angeles International Airport after the 15-year-old girl told authorities the men had molested her on a flight from Australia. Friedlander pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to 22 months in prison earlier this year.
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Molestation Charge Refiled Against Rabbi
Los Angeles Times - October 9, 1996
Federal prosecutors have revived their case against a New York rabbi accused of fondling a teenage girl on an international airline flight last year.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect.
Grunwald faced the same charge last year but it was dismissed by prosecutors, who retained the option of refiling.
Grunwald and an assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested in May 1995 at Los Angeles International Airport after the 15-year-old girl told authorities the men molested her on a flight from Australia.
Friedlander pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to 22 months in prison this year. The charge against Grunwald carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
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Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty in Molestation Case
Los Angeles Times - October 16, 1996
Rabbi Israel Grunwald pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a federal charge that he fondled a teenage girl on a Los Angeles-bound flight from Australia last year.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact against Grunwald last week.
The leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect, Grunwald appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and will remain free on $10,000 bond. The trial date has not been set.
In a statement, Rex Beaber, Grunwald attorney's, protested the prosecution's decision to proceed with the case. He said his client has provided the government with results of a polygraph test "that indicates his complete innocence with a 99% certainty," as well as sworn declarations from passengers saying that they did not witness any improper acts.
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RABBI: NO FONDLER
Los Angeles Times - October 16, 1996
Los Angeles - Rabbi Israel Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect, pleaded not guilty yesterday to a federal charge that he fondled a teenage girl on a flight from Australia last year.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a misdemeanor count of abusive sexual contact. Grunwald appeared in U.S. District Court yesterday and will remain free on a $10,000 bond. The trial date has not been set.
Grunwald's attorney, Rex Beaber, said his client has provided the government with results of a lie detector test "that indicates his complete innocence with a 99 percent certainty," as well as sworn declarations from passengers saying they witnessed nothing improper.
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Lawyer: Sex abuse charge is plot against NY rabbi
By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - September 8, 1997
LOS ANGELES - Charges that a Brooklyn hassidic rabbi sexually abused a 15-year old girl during a trans-Pacific flight are part of an extortion plot and will be dismissed by federal prosecutors, the man's lawyer claimed over the weekend.
Washington attorney Nathan Lewin, representing Rabbi Israel Grunwald, who leads a faction of some 100 Pupa Hassidim in Brooklyn's Borough Park, claimed the government had agreed to dismiss the misdemeanor charge of abusive sexual contact with a minor against Grunwald.
The government, however, insists the trial is on. "The charges are still pending and trial is still set for September 22," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
Lewin said he has a written agreement with the US attorney to drop all charges. Mrozek said he could neither confirm or deny this.
Grunwald and his assistant Yehuda Friedlander, both 44 at the time, were arrested on May 31, 1995 as they stepped off their plane in Los Angeles after an overnight flight from Melbourne, Australia.
The arrests were based on allegations by a 15-year old girl, with residences in Australia and the US, that during the darkened flight Grunwald had fondled her breasts, followed by Friedlander, who touched her private parts.
Friedlander, facing a felony charge, subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment. He is due for release in November.
According to Lewin and a source familiar with the case, the father of the girl contacted a Jewish community leader in Australia last month and said she would retract her court testimony in return for a $1.2 million payment from the hassidic communities in Australia and Brooklyn.
This information ultimately reached Lewin, who notified federal authorities. On August 24, two days before a previously scheduled trial date, an FBI undercover agent, posing as a friend of Grunwald, turned over a "down payment" of $50,000 to the girl's father in Burbank, California.
Lewis said he hopes the US Attorney's Office would "vigorously prosecute all parties involved in the attempted extortion of the Jewish communities in Melbourne and Brooklyn." The New York Post has reported "real anger" in the Brooklyn hassidic community over the government's failure to arrest the father.
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Newsday - September 11, 1997
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed to drop sex-abuse charges against a Brooklyn Hasidic rabbi after his alleged victim and her father were caught in an FBI extortion sting, the rabbi's attorney said yesterday.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald, leader of a 100-member offshoot of the Hasidic Pupa movement, was accused in 1995 in Los Angeles federal court of molesting the 15-year-old on a United Airlines flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Los Angeles.
Yesterday, Grunwald's lawyer, calling the charges a sham, said the rabbi had been the victim of an extortion attempt that the FBI foiled in August.
Defense attorney Nathan Lewin said the alleged shakedown included "not only the father, but the daughter, who I think was involved in it, who I know was involved in it, and who I think actively participated in it." Lewin said prosecutors have signed an agreement to drop the sex-abuse charges against Grunwald.
Federal authorities refused to comment and said no arrest had been made in the alleged extortion.
The young woman's father denied the extortion charges.
In an FBI sting conducted in the early morning hours of Aug. 24 in a Burbank, Calif. parking lot, the girl's father allegedly took $50,000 from Rabbi Ephraim Stein of Borough Park, a friend of Grunwald's, as a downpayment on the alleged victim's silence, sources close to the case said. The father was asking for $1.3 million, sources said.
But, unbeknownst to the father, Stein was accompanied by a bearded FBI agent dressed as a Hasidic Jew, the sources said. Stein declined to comment.
According to a source close to the case, the daughter, now an 18-year-old actress, assured Stein she would not testify. "I happen to be emotionally unfit to go through with it," she told Stein, the source said.
"She was there during the handover" {of the money}, the source said.
The girl's father, reached at his Oregon home last week, denied the allegations on behalf of himself and his daughter. "This is not true," he said, "and the Australian and Los Angeles police have been alerted."
The father, whose name Newsday is withholding to preserve the teenager's anonymity, denied defense claims that he contacted Grunwald and demanded hush money. "We were contacted," he said. The father also declined to provide information about his daughter's whereabouts.
The 53-year-old declined further comment. "I think it's premature to make a statement," he said. "The truth will come out."
No charges have been filed against the father. "No one has been arrested," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney in the Central District of California.
Mrozek would not discuss the charges against Grunwald. "I have no comment on that right now," he said. John Hoos, a spokesman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, declined comment.
Grunwald and an adviser, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested May 29, 1995, at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly fondling the 15-year-old on the flight from Melbourne. Sources said she was returning from a visit to her mother.
Friedlander, 46, pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 of that year to abusive sexual contact, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 22 months in prison. At his sentencing, the victim said, "He violated me in the deepest possible way."
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Feds: Rabbi May Have Tried To Pay to Stop Sex Charges
By Dan Morrison
Newsday - September 12, 1997
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said yesterday that a Brooklyn Hasidic rabbi accused of molesting a teen-age girl on a trans-Pacific flight in 1995 may have tried to pay the girl not to testify.
In a one-page statement, Nora Manella, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said representatives of Rabbi Israel Grunwald "approached the victim's family over a year and a half ago and attempted to dispose of the matter through a monetary payment."
The U.S. attorney added: "There is additional evidence that a private investigator acting on behalf of the rabbi subsequently spoke to the victim's father in an attempt to resolve both civil and criminal liability through a monetary payment."
Grunwald and an aide were charged in 1995 with misdemeanor sex charges for allegedly molesting the then-15-year-old girl on a flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Los Angeles. The aide pleaded guilty that year.
Newsday reported yesterday that Grunwald's attorney, Nathan Lewin, said federal prosecutors had agreed to drop the sex-abuse charges against Grunwald and that the alleged victim and her father had been caught in an FBI "sting" trying to extort money from the rabbi.
Lewin was not available for comment yesterday.
Ed Medvene, also an attorney for Grunwald, maintained yesterday that prosecutors had signed an agreement to drop the sex charges.
Manella's statement said that even though "the government believes the rabbi committed the crime with which he was charged," her office "has agreed to defer prosecution."
The U.S. attorney's statement said that the rabbi had signed a statement that prosecutors had "sufficient evidence from which a jury could find him guilty" of the sex offense. Grunwald had agreed to do 500 hours of community service and receive counseling, the prosecutor said.
Medvene said Grunwald admitted no wrongdoing in the agreement.
"The rabbi had no knowledge of any of the details of the attempted extortion," Medvene said. "For the U.S. Attorney's office to imply anything to the contrary is irresponsible, particularly in light of . . . an FBI report in their possession and in our possession."
According to what Medvene said was an FBI report recounting an agent's interview with the alleged victim, she "promised not to testify in exchange for the money. She said that she feels it was wrong to accept the $50,000. She said that she understood it was a criminal act to obstruct justice."
No charges have been brought in connection with the alleged extortion attempt.
The father denied the extortion claim last week. His name is being withheld to protect the identity of the alleged victim.
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By Douglas Shuit
Los Angeles Times - September 13, 1997
A deal that would have led to the dropping of a sexual misconduct charge against a New York rabbi who was accused of fondling a 15-year-old girl during an international airline flight turned into a tangle of claims and counterclaims Friday.
In blistering public statements, attorneys for Rabbi Israel Grunwald attacked U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella of Los Angeles for "false, unethical and outrageous" statements that they said broke the spirit of an agreement to drop a misdemeanor charge against the religious leader.
While rebutting Manella, they released details of what they said was an FBI sting involving a $50,000 payoff by members of the Jewish community to the victim and her father. Both sides accuse the other of initiating the idea for a payoff.
Under the proposed settlement with the rabbi, Grunwald reportedly agreed to perform 500 hours of community service unrelated to his congregation and undergo psychological counseling.
Manella, in outlining the deal Thursday, set off the lawyers for Grunwald by saying that "the United States believes the rabbi committed the crime." Manella added that Grunwald had "signed a statement acknowledging that the government possesses sufficient evidence from which a jury could find him guilty of that crime."
The comments, said West Los Angeles attorney Edward M. Medvene, violated the spirit of the deal and distorted Grunwald's position that "he specifically denied responsibility."
"Why the government saw fit to escalate this matter I don't know," Medvene said.
Nathan Lewin, one of Grunwald's attorneys, said in a statement from his Washington office that Grunwald had "refused to sign any statement that admitted the allegation."
Calling the conduct of the U.S. attorney's office a "shameful" effort to "smear Rabbi Grunwald's reputation," Lewin said Manella's office should take the unusual step of withdrawing from the case and turning it over to an independent federal prosecutor.
"It's not going to happen," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for Manella. "We have no intention of withdrawing from this case because we didn't do anything that was unethical."
Mrozek said the U.S. attorney's statement was issued because "we thought we had to make some response to what we thought were inaccurate statements" by the defense attorneys.
Grunwald's attorneys, meanwhile, pressed their contention that the victim and her father were involved in "an extortion attempt" that consisted of demands of cash in return for the young woman's agreement not to testify.
According to the defense attorneys, payoffs of $800,000 and $1.3 million were discussed.
Medvene said he was present in Burbank on Aug. 24 when government agents met with the young woman and her father and an initial payment of $50,000 was made.
The $50,000 was to be a down payment on a much larger amount, the defense attorneys said. The money was handed over to the young woman on a parking lot outside a Starbucks by Rabbi Ephraim Stein of Brooklyn, a friend of Grunwald's, Medvene said.
Government agents seized the money once the exchange was made, but no charges were filed. One of the FBI agents wore a yarmulke to enhance the deception, Medvene said.
The FBI and U.S. attorney's office refused to discuss the alleged sting.
A criminal investigation is continuing into the actions of the young woman and her father, a source close to the case said.
Grunwald was accused of molesting the then-15-year-old girl during a flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Los Angeles in 1995. The girl contended in interviews with authorities that she persistently tried to fend off the advances of the rabbi, a leader of a branch of a New York-based Hasidic sect.
Yehuda Friedlander, an assistant of Grunwald's who was on the same flight, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact with a minor and received a 22-month prison sentence.
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By Tom Tugend
Jerusalem Post - September 22, 1997
LOS ANGELES - The trial of Brooklyn Rabbi Israel Grunwald, on a charge that he groped a teenage girl, is off.
Grunwald's trial was to begin yesterday, but if he satisfactorily completes 500 hours of community service and submits to psychological counseling, the charge will be permanently dismissed after one year.
Grunwald, who leads a group of Pupa Hassidim, and his assistant, Yehuda Friedlander, were arrested on May 31, 1995, as they stepped off their plane at Los Angeles International Airport, following an overnight flight from Melbourne.
The arrests were based on allegations by a then 15- year-old girl that during the flight, Grunwald had fondled her breasts, while Friedlander touched her private parts.
Friedlander subsequently pleaded guilty to a felony charge and is serving a 22-month prison term.
In an acrimonious exchange of faxes on September 12, the two sides exchanged accusations of attempted extortion and pay-offs, as well as broken commitments, and cited an FBI sting operation during which an undercover agent allegedly "disguised" himself by wearing a kippa. The exchange of heated statements was initiated by Grunwald's attorney, Nathan Lewin of Washington, D.C. Lewin said that the government had dismissed the charge against his client, adding that the father of the girl had attempted to extort $800,000 to $2 million from the hassidic communities in Melbourne and Brooklyn, and promised in return that his daughter would not testify against Grunwald.
Lewin went into details about a meeting in Burbank, California, on August 24, two days before Grunwald's original trial date, in which $50,000 in cash was turned over to the father and daughter as "down payment."
US Attorney Nora M. Manella in Los Angeles responded with a statement that the charges against Grunwald remained in place and that he had acknowledged that "the government possesses sufficient evidence from which a jury could find him guilty." (Lewin categorically denied that Grunwald had signed such an acknowledgment.) Manella added, however, that the government would defer prosecution if the rabbi met the conditions of 500 hours of community service unrelated to his congregation, and psychological counseling. Manella also claimed that on two occasions, representatives of Grunwald contacted the girl's father offering an undisclosed amount of money to settle the case.
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Associated Press - September 23, 1997
Amid claims that its key witness took a bribe, federal prosecutors agreed Monday to drop charges against a morality-lecturing rabbi accused of fondling a 15-year-old girl on a Melbourne-to-Los Angeles flight.
However, Rabbi Israel Grunwald will have to serve a year's "diversion" and do 500 hours of community service unrelated to his congregation and undergo psychological counseling.
Grunwald was accused of fondling the teen-ager during a May 31, 1995, flight. He had gone to Australia to deliver lectures on morality. If convicted, the rabbi faced up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
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Sex Charge Against Rabbi to Be Dropped; Courts: Allegations that Hasidic leader fondled girl on flight will be dismissed if he completes community service
By Bettina Boxall
Los Angeles Times - September 23, 1997
Federal prosecutors have agreed to drop sex abuse charges against a New York Hasidic leader if he performs 500 hours of community service and undergoes counseling.
During a brief court hearing Monday in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge James M. Ideman placed Rabbi Israel Grunwald in a pretrial diversion program that will, if he successfully completes it, result in the dismissal of charges that he fondled a teenage girl on an airline flight between Australia and Los Angeles.
"In light of all the circumstances, it seems to be a fair resolution of a misdemeanor case," Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia Donahue said after the court session.
Those circumstances include an alleged shakedown attempt by the teenager, who authorities say last month agreed not to testify against the rabbi in exchange for payoffs from the Jewish community.
On Monday, Grunwald's attorney, Edward Medvene, reiterated that his client had admitted no wrongdoing. "He denies any guilt," Medvene said. "He didn't do anything wrong. . . . There's nobody that observed Rabbi Grunwald do anything improper."
But Donahue noted that in the diversion agreement, Grunwald acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to conclude that the alleged offenses took place.
"The fact that {the teenager is} willing to accept money not to testify doesn't change the fact that she's been saying since May 31, 1995, that this sexual misconduct took place," Donahue said.
Grunwald and an assistant were arrested that day at Los Angeles International Airport at the end of a flight from Australia during which, the teenager said, the two men fondled her as she sat near them.
Although the assistant eventually pleaded guilty to felony sex abuse charges and was sentenced to 22 months in prison, Grunwald, the leader of a branch of a small Hasidic sect in Brooklyn, maintained his innocence.
His case has taken several twists and turns over the last two years. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Grunwald not long after filing them, but revived them a year later.
Then, just before the case was scheduled to go to trial last month, the girl and her father met in a Burbank parking lot with a friend of Grunwald and--unbeknown to them--an undercover FBI agent.
"The girl and her father accepted {$50,000} in exchange for her agreement that she would not testify," Donahue said. "She didn't want to come to court and testify. She said she would state she was emotionally unable to do so."
Authorities say representatives of Grunwald initiated the payoff talks. Grunwald's attorneys insist that the girl's mother first raised the possibility of resolving the matter outside of court in 1995 and that the girl's father this year demanded $800,000 to $1.3 million to buy the girl's silence.
In court documents, Medvene says the girl's father described the $50,000 exchanged in Burbank as "a good faith gesture."
No charges have been filed in the alleged payoff, but Donahue said there is an investigation into "what appears to be the obstruction of justice" by the girl and her father.
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Post Dispatch (St. Louis) - September 23, 1997
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles agreed Monday to drop charges against a rabbi accused of fondling a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Australia.
In the deal worked out in the chambers of U.S. District Court Judge James Ideman, Rabbi Israel Grunwald must perform 500 hours of community service and undergo counseling.
Grunwald had been accused of fondling the girl during a May 31, 1995, flight from Melbourne, Australia. In January 1996, his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for molesting the same girl on the plane.
In the deal, revealed by both the defense attorney and the federal prosecutor, the government agreed to drop the charges against Grunwald once he successfully completes the community service and counseling.
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Rabbi gets community service and counseling
Associated Press - September 25, 1997
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Part 1
Part 2
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