Case of Meilech Schnitzler

Case of Meilech Schnitzler

Schnitzler’s Famous Fish - (Williamsburg) Brooklyn, NY
Monroe, NY

Meilech Schnitzler allegedly threw bleach into the face of Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in an attempt to silence him from advocating for the civil rights of survivors of sex crimes living within the Satmar community in Brooklyn, NY and globally.   

Meliech Schnitzler father, Rabbi Shalom Schnitzler, is one of  Rabbi Boruch Mordechai Lebovitz's first cousins.  Lebovitz is awaiting retrial in February of sexually molesting a teen aged boy.

36-year-old Meilech Schnitzler was charged with felony assault, misdemeanor assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon.

Mr. Schnitzler, identified in state corporate filings as the chairman of the company that owns Schnitzler’s Famous Fish.

NOTE: If anyone has a photograph of Meilech Schnitzler please forward it to The Awareness Center.

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Table of Contents

• Message from Vicki Polin

2008

1. Rabbi Nuchum Rosenberg claims that threats against him culminated in his being shot in the forehead last month by unknown assailants. (11/19/2008)
    

2012

1. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg assaulted after Nechemya Weberman’s conviction (12/11/2012)
2. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg Discharged from Hospital After Attack (12/11/2012)
3. Satmar crusader against molestation says bleach was splashed in his face, following
4. Nechemya Weberman’s landmark sex abuse conviction (12/11/2012)
5. Supporter of Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim attacked in Brooklyn (12/11/2012)
6. Orthodox Rabbi Attacked in Brooklyn (12/11/2012)
7. Bleach thrown in face of rabbi who writes about sex abuse in Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish community  (12/11/2012)
8. Chemical Thrown at Rabbi Who Aided Victims of Abuse (12/11/2012)  
9. Nuchem Rosenberg Shares His Story on Youtube (12/11/2012)
10. Justice in Williamsburg (12/11/2012)
11. Chemical thrown on rabbi who advocated for abuse victims, lawyer says (VIDEO) (12/12/2012) 
12. New York rabbi who has helped expose child sex abuse in Orthodox community doused with BLEACH after accusing fish store owner of molesting boys (12/12/2012)
13. Suspect surrenders in Brooklyn rabbi bleach attack - VIDEO (12/12/2012)
14. Abe George's Letter to Charles Hynes Regarding Attack (12/12/2012)
15. Advocate for sex abuse victims attacked in Brooklyn (12/12/2012)
    
16. Man Is Charged in Bleach Attack on a Rabbi (12/12/2012)
17. Man Is Charged in Bleach Attack (12/12/2012) 
18. Rabbi Had Accused Alleged Bleach-Thrower's Father of Sexual Abuse (12/12/2012)
19. Fishmonger Charged in Bleach Attack on a Rabbi (12/12/2012) 
20. Rabbi who fought against child sex abuse is attacked with bleach (12/12/2012) 
21. Arrest made in bleach attack on New York rabbi (12/13/2012)  
22. Attacker hurls liquid at sex-activist rabbi (12/13/2012) 
23. Police charge man with throwing chemical at rabbi (12/13/2012)
24. Man accused in bleach assault on activist surrenders to police (12/13/2012)

Also see:

• Case of Nechemya Weberman 
• Case of Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz
  

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Message from Vicki Polin
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - December 11, 2012
 

Those of us connected to The Awareness Center, want to send our thoughts and prayers to our dear friend Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg.   

After being shot, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was named Advocate of the year. Pictured is Vicki Polin, Maryland Senator Jim Brochin and Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg

Back In 2008 thugs from the Satmar community attempted to stop Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg's Godly work of protecting chasidic children.  It was a day like any other day that he was walking to shul, when there was an attempt on his life.  Rosenberg was shot in the head by a man in a moving car as he walked down a street in Brooklyn.  Four years later they it appears that they are still going after him.  Don't they realize that the more they attack him the guiltier they look?  

Instead of acting out with violence against those who are trying to protect children, how about coming up with a game plan in how to stop the sexual predators within your community.  -- Vicki Polin

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Rabbi Nuchum Rosenberg claims that threats against him culminated in his being shot in the forehead last month by unknown assailants.
Jewish Week - November 19, 2008

by Hella Winston And Larry Cohler-Esses
 
A Williamsburg community activist who has spoken out frequently against child sexual abuse in the Brooklyn Orthodox community claimed Monday that his life had been threatened multiple times as a result.

Rabbi Nuchum Rosenberg claimed that the threats culminated last month when he was “shot” on Berry Street, near the Williamsburg Bridge by unknown assailants.

Speaking at a press conference outside the 90th Precinct Police Headquarters in Williamsburg, Rabbi Rosenberg complained that police were unable to protect him. He pointed to a scarlet wound seared in the middle of his forehead to indicate the spot where he was hit.

But in interviews he gave before and after the press conference, Rabbi Rosenberg said he was actually uncertain just what hit him on the forehead, saying it could have been a pellet gun or even a rock.

“A car flew by as I was walking, and I felt something hit me,” he told The Jewish Week. “I didn’t see what it was.”

Police sources confirmed Rabbi Rosenberg had filed at least three complaints about being harassed or threatened over the last several months. But he acknowledged that he filed a complaint about the attack on him last month several days after it had occurred. Rabbi Rosenberg said the assault took place on Oct. 16, the fourth day of Sukkot, but that he went to the police only after the eight-day Jewish holiday.

Rabbi Rosenberg, 58, said that prior to this incident he was threatened twice at gunpoint by an unknown person speaking Hebrew who warned him to close down a telephone hotline he operated. The Yiddish language hotline featured recorded messages on which Rabbi Rosenberg addressed a host of sensitive community issues, including child sex abuse, and on which he made often incendiary charges.

On one recorded message obtained by The Jewish Week, Rabbi Rosenberg denounced various individuals by name as an “extortionist,” and a “mafia thug.”

The hotline messages also offered educational warnings to children and their families about what to do if confronted by molesting teachers or other adults and advice on how to protect against it.
On both the recorded messages and at his press conference, Rabbi Rosenberg claimed that a group in the Williamsburg community known as the Meshmeris Ha’Tznius, or Guardians of Modesty, protected pedophiles and other sexual offenders in exchange for money.

“It’s a gang,” he said at the press conference. “They’re getting white envelopes with green leaves inside.”

Law enforcement officials and community leaders have long reported that victims of sex crimes in insular, ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn communities frequently will not go to the authorities, severely limiting their ability to investigate and prosecute such crimes. Most attribute this to social strictures and community and rabbinic pressures against turning to outside, secular authorities that would expose the community to external scrutiny on matters considered shameful.

State Assembly Member Dov Hikind says he has compiled dossiers of at least 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn Orthodox communities, based on first-hand accounts of victims and their families who have come to him. Many involve molestation of children at the hands of yeshiva teachers and rabbis, he says. But “99 percent” will not go to the authorities, he told The New York Times. 

Benzion Twerski, an Orthodox psychologist who agreed to serve on a community panel formed by Hikind to address the issue, resigned last September after one week, citing communal pressure on him and his family.

But at his press conference, Rabbi Rosenberg said that in exchange for extortion payoffs by perpetrators, Meshmeris Ha’Tznius in Williamsburg protected sexual predators from exposure and pressured the families of any victims that might think of going to the authorities not to do so.

On his hotline, “I said who they are and what they are,” he said. “I told the stories that they tried to extort $10,000 from this one and $10,000 from that one.

“I even told them stories that when a girl was raped, they went to the rapist and they took out the money from him, and they never gave help to the girl that was raped. They tell the father don’t you dare have anything to do with the people that are trying to investigate. It’s against the Jewish law.”

Rabbi Rosenberg’s claims could not be independently confirmed. But there is no doubt the hotline provoked a fierce firestorm of denunciation against Rabbi Rosenberg.

Last July, 33 rabbis signed a public condemnation of Rabbi Rosenberg published in Der Blatt, a Yiddish language weekly paper based in Williamsburg.

“He speaks all kinds of dirt that the mind can’t tolerate, that come from places that are impure and makes other people impure,” the ad said, warning readers not to call his hotline. “He should stop from his bad ways and shut his dirty mouth.

“This destroyer is like a stone that is thrown at the Jewish people, and his position is like a transgressor who makes the public transgress,” the ad said.

The rabbis stated that Rabbi Rosenberg should not be allowed to pray with any congregation and that no one should hire him as a consultant on the building of ritual baths, which is his profession.

Yitzchak Glick, a member of the Central Rabbinical Congress, a body that represents many of the rabbis who signed onto the ban, declined to comment about the decree or Rosenberg’s allegations.

Another tract, distributed anonymously throughout Williamsburg, depicted a twisting snake with Rabbi Rosenberg’s head superimposed over the serpent’s, his forked tongue sticking out.

“Cursed are you from every wild animal,” the leaflet decried, citing him by name. “The name of this evil person should be obliterated. Get out unholy one. Obliterate the snake (Nuchem Satan) from all corners of the world.”

The ad by the 33 rabbis and others signed by the “Meshmeris Ha’Tznius” denounced Rabbi Rosenberg as a moser, one who endangers a Jewish community by informing on it to secular authorities.

Historically, in the shtetls of Europe, when Jews were persecuted, someone found to be a moser could be put to death. But “there is a general consensus today that this doesn’t apply,” said Rabbi Mark Dratch of JSafe, a group dedicated to preventing child abuse and domestic violence in the Jewish community. “I would [assume] that none of these rabbis were literally calling for his assassination. That said, I am not saying that they did not mean to intimidate him. He was being intimidated.” 

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Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg assaulted after Nechemya Weberman’s conviction

By Vicki Polin

Examiner - December 11, 2012

Threats made against Rabbi Rosenberg back in 2008 after being shot.

Long time chasidic activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was physically assaulted earlier today by a relative of convicted sex offender Baruch Lebovits, who’s conviction was overturned back in April. 

According to a reliable source, Rabbi Rosenberg is currently being treated at a hospital emergency room in Brooklyn, after Lebovits’s relative allegedly threw bleach in Rosenberg’s face. Several high ranking chasidic leaders are blaming Rabbi Rosenberg for numerous arrests and convictions of sexual predators living within the Satmar community, including the conviction of Nechemya Weberman earlier this week. Weberman was an unlicensed counselor who sexually assaulted a teenage girl under his care.

This was not the first time that Rabbi Rosenberg was assaulted. Back in 2008 he was stopped on the street several times at knife point while being warned to shut down his hotline in which he provides information in Yiddish regarding how to protect children from sexual predators. It was around this same time he was shot in the head after not obeying the warnings. 

Watch Video:

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg advocating for legislative change

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Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg Discharged from Hospital After Attack  

By Vicki Polin

Examiner - December 11, 2012

Rabbi Nuchem Roseberg rushed to the hospital after being attacked

Brooklyn, NY -- Early today Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was attaked on the street by the son of an alleged sex offender. According to reports the alleged assailant threw bleach into his face. Rabbi Rosenberg was immediately rushed to a local emergency room where he was treated and released. 

The police took Rosenberg's clothes as evidence and according to a reliable source, the police will be arresting the assailant shortly.

According to reports, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg has continuously been threatened for many years due to his advocacy work, helping chasidic survivors of child sexual abuse. This newest attempt on his life is believed to be connected to the conviction earlier this week of Nechemya Weberman, who was an unlicensed counselor who molested a young teenage girl living within the Satmar community.

 

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Satmar crusader against molestation says bleach was splashed in his face, following Nechemya Weberman’s landmark sex abuse conviction 

Nathan (Nuchem) Rosenberg says he was walking down Williamsburg street when approached by man with cup of bleach

By Oren Yaniv — With Amanda Mikelberg
New York Daily News - December 11, 2012
 

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg after assault

A Hasidic activist who has crusaded against perverts in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community said he was splashed with bleach by an enemy in a violent act of street retribution Tuesday.

Nathan (Nuchem) Rosenberg, 62, said the vicious attack was linked the the bombshell sex abuse conviction Monday of prominent Satmar sect counselor Nechemya Weberman.
Rosenberg attended every day of the trial to support the victim.

"Because of the Weberman case, everything is upside down," he said. "Everybody is crazy."

Rosenberg, who suffered an internal eye burn that limited his vision, runs an information phone line that often names alleged molesters. He said he was walking down Roebling St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn around noon when he was approached by another man.

"He taps on my shoulder, he says 'whoops' and throws it in my face," Rosenberg recounted after spending three hours at Woodhull Medical Center.

Rosenberg identified the alleged assailant as the son of a man he has accused of abusing boys. Cops were looking for the man Tuesday afternoon, sources said.

The victim's account was confirmed by Primo Santiago, 65, a liquor store owner who witnessed the attack from outside his store.

Santiago told the Daily News he saw someone run across the street with a cup, splash its contents and run away.

Rosenberg insisted the Weberman verdict led to the violence. The guilty verdict has spooked Hasidic community members who "thought for sure (Weberman was) going to walk away, said the outspoken activist, who also blogs against molestation.

A Brooklyn jury found Weberman, 54, guilty of 59 counts of sex abuse against a child, ruling that he violated a teenage girl for three years, starting when she was 12.

The conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of 117 years, sent shockwaves through the insular Williamsburg-based Satmar sect of Judaism.

Rosenberg said he started advocating for sex abuse victims seven years ago and has been booted multiple synagogues since then.

"There is no peaceful day in my life," he told The News on Tuesday. "I'm very much afraid."

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Supporter of Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim attacked in Brooklyn
By LORENA MONGELLI, AMY STRETTON and JEANE MacINTOSH
New York Post - December 11, 2012 

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg after attack by Meilech Schnitzler

A staunch supporter of an Orthodox Jewish sex abuse victim was attacked on a Brooklyn street today by the bleach-throwing son of a man he’d accused of being a pedophile.

Anti-sex abuse activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, 62, was ambushed as he walked down Roebling Street across from Schnitzler’s Famous Fish market around noon, he and witnesses told The Post.
“He comes up to me and he taps me on the shoulder,” the still-shaken Rosenberg recounted after being treated for ocular burns at Woodhull Medical Center.

“It is Mr. Schnitzler, who owns the fish store,” Rosenberg said.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg attacked In Williamsburg this morning.

“He walk up hard to me. He looks me in the face. I saw him holding a glass. I thought it was coffee or something and he throws it in my face.”

Rosenberg runs an information hotline and blog for sex abuse victims and was a nearly daily presence at the trial of powerful Hasidic leader Nechemya Weberman.

The attack was in retaliation for his support of Weberman’s now 18-year-old victim, as well as for his claims that his alleged attacker’s father, Monsey rabbi Shalom Schniztler, “is a pedophile,” Rosenberg said.

On Monday — as Weberman was convicted Monday on 59 counts of abusing of a Brooklyn schoolgirl — Rosenberg posted on his blog, accusing rabbi Schnitzler of abusing young boys.

“I said Mr. Shalom Schnitzler should pack up his bags and join Mr. Weberman in jail,” Rosenberg recalled.

The activist also posted on Twitter after Weberman’s conviction.

“Burech hashem!! (Praise God!!),” he tweeted. “Chazer (Pig) Weberman Is Arrested After All 60 Charges Was Totally True! Rabunim & Chazerim (Rabbis & Pigs) Are All The Same Garbage.”

“Two days later, this is what happens,” Rosenberg said, referring to the attack.

According to Rosenberg, his attacker is a relative of Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz, whose 2010 child sex abuse conviction was reversed and is slated to be retried in February.

Police had not charged anyone late yesterday in the alleged assault.

Rosenberg — who left the medical center in a hospital gown after police took his bleach-stained clothes as evidence — was enroute to the 90th Precinct to try and identify his attacker in a lineup.

Witnesses said the bleach-tossing thug fled the street after dousing Rosenberg.

Primo Santiago, who manages a liquor store on the same block as the fish market, was just opening up shop when the attack occured.

“It happened so fast,” he said. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw [Rosenberg] walking down the street, and the other guy ran from the fish store and threw the bleach.”

“He didn’t say anything,” Santiago said of the attacker. “He just ran toward the guy.”

After the attack, Primo saw Rosenberg staggering and making a phone call, and told the wounded man to rinse out his eyes in a nearby phone store.

“He said I think I got bleach on my face, that’s all he said,” Primo recalled.

Sources said Hatzolah, the Jewish ambulance corps, refused to pick Rosenberg up, so he waited for EMS to take him to the hospital.

Rosenberg said he’d been on his way to pay bills at a corner store when he was accosted.

He said it wasn’t his first encounter with the fish store owner, who has spit at him before.

Rosenberg said his outspokeness has made him the target of threats for years.

“I am the activist in the community that opened up the can of worms,” he noted. “In our community we have so much molesting going on — from teachers, from ordained rabbis, from any kind of religious people.

“And we have ritual baths called the mikvah and there is so much molestation going on. Children who are three- and four-year-old, they go there with naked old people and I kept on saying, ‘this has to stop.’”

“So they ostracized me,” Rosenberg said. “they threw me out, and since then there is not a peaceful day in my life.”

The latest attack has him fearing for his life.

“I am very much afraid,” Rosenberg said. I’m thinking of going out of town for a week or two.” 

Additional reporting by Josh Saul and Kirstan Conley 

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Orthodox Rabbi Attacked in Brooklyn
ABC News New York - December 11, 2012

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Bleach thrown in face of rabbi who writes about sex abuse in Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish community
By Mary Murphy

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg leaving he hospital after assault

(Brooklyn, New York) – A Brooklyn rabbi who writes a blog about sex abuse within the insular, Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg told PIX 11 he had bleach thrown in his face by another Hasidic man Tuesday.

Rabbi Nachum Rosenberg told PIX11 he was walking down Roebling Street, when a man with a beard and black coat ran across from a fish store and confronted him.

“He takes a full cup of bleach and he spilled it onto me. Half of my face is burned, and my left eye, I can’t see right out of it. I see everything very faded.”

The attack happened one day after a jury convicted a prominent Satmar Hasidic man, Nechemya Weberman, of repeatedly molesting a student in the community, starting when she was just 12 years old. Weberman, an unlicensed counselor, faces up to 117 years in prison, when he’s sentenced next month.  Many Hasidic men in the community raised money for his defense.

The trial exposed secrets about the alleged Satmar Hasidic “modesty squads” that allegedly raid the homes of girls and families that don’t follow the strict rules of the Hasidic community. Rosenberg may have “named some names” on his blog.

Rosenberg told PIX he was being treated for his injuries and hoping to regain sight in his left eye.


 
 

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Williamsburg rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the neighborhood's Satmar Hasidic community was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

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Chemical Thrown at Rabbi Who Aided Victims of Abuse 
By Sharon Otterman
New York Times - December 11, 2012

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg

An outspoken advocate for child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community was injured by a chemical he believed to be bleach that was thrown in his face as he walked down the street in his Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood on Tuesday. 

The advocate, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, who runs a Web site and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community, said in an interview at the hospital where he was treated that he was walking on Roebling Street just after noon when a man came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. 

“He has a cup of bleach,” Rabbi Rosenberg said, adding that he recognized the man. “And then he says ‘whoops’ and throws it in my face and walks off.” 

A Police Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday evening that there had been an “ongoing dispute” between Rabbi Rosenberg and the man who threw the unidentified substance, but that no arrest had yet been made. Rabbi Rosenberg was taken to Woodhull Medical Center with burns to his face. According to a relative who was at the hospital, he had a corneal abrasion to his left eye and chemical burns around his eye. He was released after treatment and is expected to fully recover, his relative said. 

Tensions are high in the tightly knit Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg after the conviction on Monday of Nechemya Weberman, a prominent community member who was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl who came to him for counseling. Since his arrest on those charges last year, Mr. Weberman has had the backing of the community’s rabbinical leaders, and many in the neighborhood continue to believe he is innocent. 

Rabbi Rosenberg said he believed the attack against him was related to Mr. Weberman’s conviction, as well as to a claim that he made on his telephone call-in line last week claiming that another ultra-Orthodox man was also a molester. “Everyone is so crazy right now,” Rabbi Rosenberg said. 

A Police Department spokesman said there appeared to be no connection to the verdict. 

A law enforcement official said that the police were still determining what substance had been thrown at Rabbi Rosenberg, but confirmed that he had been burned. Detectives interviewed Rabbi Rosenberg at the hospital and said they would take his clothing for chemical analysis. 

Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, has vowed in recent months to crack down against intimidation of sexual abuse victims and their supporters in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where he has said people trying to cover up cases use tactics similar to those employed by organized crime. On Monday, the district attorney warned that people acting like “thugs”  in the community would be punished. 

Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for Mr. Hynes, said on Tuesday that his office was investigating the attack on Rabbi Rosenberg. 

Primo Santiago, the manager of Roebling Liquors, at 311 Roebling Street, said that he saw the attack take place. He said he was unlocking his store when he saw a man rushing across the street with a cup of liquid. 

 “I saw the one guy throw something at the other guy’s face,” he said. Rabbi Rosenberg, 62, has been confronted before. In 2008, after he began talking publicly about ultra-Orthodox Jews who he believed were molesters, he was formally ostracized by a group of rabbis and religious judges, and barred from local synagogues. 

“The public must beware, and stay away from him, and push him out of our camp,” that ban, printed in local newspapers, said in Hebrew. Rabbi Rosenberg also said he was grazed in the forehead by a bullet from a pellet gun shortly afterward. 

Through it all, Rabbi Rosenberg has refused to tone down his advocacy. He has accused some top rabbis within the Satmar community of covering up abuse or being molesters themselves.

On Monday, he attended the Weberman trial and gave interviews to the news media praising the guilty verdict. 

“Eventually, we are going to be a normal community, that everyone who is molested can come forward,” he said. 

Joseph Goldstein contributed reporting. 

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Nuchem Rosenberg Shares His Story on Youtube
Youtube - December 12, 2012 

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Justice in Williamsburg  
New York Times - December 11, 2012

The sexual abuse conviction in a State Supreme Court in Brooklyn of a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community sends a strong and overdue message to Williamsburg’s tightly knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, which has shielded such abusers from legal scrutiny. 

In a case brought by Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, the court convicted Nechemya Weberman, a 54-year-old unlicensed therapist, of repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl who had been sent to him for help. Mr. Hynes said the verdict had lifted the “veil of secrecy” and had served notice that henceforth the prospects for justice are “only going to get better for people who are victimized in these various communities.” 

Prosecutors have long had trouble finding witnesses in the community because speaking out, especially to non-Jewish legal authorities, could bring retaliation. In this particular case, Mr. Hynes charged four men with allegedly trying to interfere with bribery and threats. Four others face criminal contempt of court charges for taking pictures in the courtroom in an apparent attempt to intimidate the victim. On Tuesday, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, an advocate for child sex abuse victims, was taken to a hospital after what appeared to be bleach was thrown in his face as he walked down the street in Williamsburg. 

The Weberman case is Mr. Hynes’s first conviction involving sexual abuse by a prominent member of Williamsburg’s Satmar community. He and his prosecutors owe much of that success to the bravery of the victim, who was 12 when she was sent to Mr. Weberman for what school officials considered rebelliousness. Now 18, she testified that she was forced to endure the abuse for three years. Mr. Weberman denied her charges, and his lawyer said he plans to appeal. 

After receiving some criticism for not aggressively pursuing such crimes in the politically active ultra-Orthodox community, Mr. Hynes’s office has stepped up prosecution of abusers. Groups supporting the rights of victims have also been winning ground: a religious court for another Jewish community ruled last year that in cases of child abuse, “one is forbidden to remain silent” and must report the charge to civil authorities. The Satmar community should do the same. No religious institution has the right to shield its child abusers from civil prosecution.

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Chemical thrown on rabbi who advocated for abuse victims, lawyer says
By Rande Laboni
CNN - December 12, 2012

New York (CNN) – An outspoken advocate for child sexual abuse victims in a tightknit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was assaulted this week when a chemical he believes to be bleach was thrown in his face, according to his attorney.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was walking the streets of his Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg on Tuesday when a man threw the chemical on his face, causing his eyes and face to burn, said Abe George, the rabbi's attorney.

The assault happened a day after the conviction of Nechemya Weberman, a prominent community member in the conservative Satmar Hasidic community, was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl over a period of three years.

Rosenberg runs a website and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of sexual abuse in the Hasidic community, and he believes this attack was an attempt to “silence” him, according to George.

Rosenberg said he knew who doused him, describing him as the son of a man he had reported on in the past as being allegedly involved in sexual abuse in the community, the lawyer said.

Weberman's conviction has put the spotlight on the insular Satmar Hasidic community, many of whom live in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Williamsburg.

Joel Engelman, another advocate against sexual abuse among Orthodox Jews, describes himself as a survivor of such abuse. It is rare for respected members of the community to face such allegations in court, he said.

In the past, members of the community have intimidated and pressured those who have accused their leaders of sexual abuse, he said.

Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, is investigating what happened to the rabbi, according to his spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer. It would be speculative to say the incident is connected to Weberman’s conviction, Schmetterer said, "because the rabbi is a well-known activist for certain causes in the community."

No arrests have been made, according to the New York Police Department.
Rosenberg’s vision is still blurry, but his attorney said he believes the rabbi will fully recover.
CNN’s Nina Melendez contributed to this report.

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New York rabbi who has helped expose child sex abuse in Orthodox community doused with BLEACH after accusing fish store owner of molesting boys
By Snejana Farberov
(UK) Mail Online - December 12, 2012

Polarizing: Rosenberg has been an outspoken advocate for victims of child sex abuse in the Orthodox community of Williamsburg through his blog and hotline

A New York City rabbi who has been advocating for victims of child sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was hospitalized after someone threw what is believed to be bleach in his face. 

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg said an assailant he recognized as the son of a man he has accused of molesting boys tossed a glass filled with the chemical at him as he walked in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section Tuesday.

Police say the two were involved in an ‘ongoing dispute.’ No arrest has been made so far, but the suspected attacker is expected to turn himself in shortly. 

Rosenberg runs a hotline and blog that publicizes child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community.

The chemical attack comes one day after a prominent member of the Orthodox community, Nechemya Weberman, was convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl that had come to him for counseling.

Rosenberg said he believes the attack was connected to the verdict. Police say there didn't appear to be any link.

Speaking from Woodhull Medical Center to the New York Daily News Tuesday, the 62-year-old rabbi said he was walking down Roebling Street at around noon when his attacker walked up to him with a cup in his hand. 

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Suspect surrenders in Brooklyn rabbi bleach attack

ABC NEWS New York7 - December 12, 2012

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Abe George's Letter to Charles Hynes Regarding Attack
December 12, 2012 

 

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Advocate for sex abuse victims attacked in Brooklyn
JTA - December 12, 2012

(JTA) -- A Chasidic rabbi who advocates for victims of sexual abuse in the haredi Orthodox community was injured when a chemical was thrown in his face.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg on Tuesday was walking down the street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he lives, when a man approached him from behind, tapped him on his shoulder and then threw a chemical believed to be bleach in his face, according to reports.

Rosenberg, 62, was treated for burns on his face, around his eyes and in his left eye. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The rabbi runs a website and blog for sex-abuse victims, as well as a telephone hot line.

Rosenberg told New York media that he believes the attack was in retaliation for his support of the now 18-year-old female victim of Nechemya Weberman, a prominent member of the local Satmar Chasidic community who was convicted on Monday of 59 counts of sexual abuse. The woman said that she was abused when she was between the ages of 12 and 15 and went to Weberman for counseling.

Police have not yet caught Rosenberg's attacker, though they reportedly have identified a suspect.
On Monday, Rosenberg had accused another rabbi of abusing young boys in a blog post on his website, according to the New York Post.
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Man Is Charged in Bleach Attack on a Rabbi 
By Sharon Otterman
New York Times - December 12, 2012

Meilech Schnitzler

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Williamsburg rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the neighborhood's Satmar Hasidic community was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

 A Brooklyn fishmonger was charged by the police on Wednesday with throwing bleach in the face of a rabbi who is an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. 

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Williamsburg rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the neighborhood's Satmar Hasidic community was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The fishmonger, Meilech Schnitzler, 36, of Williamsburg, turned himself in to the 90th Precinct station house around 1 p.m., the police said. 

Mr. Schnitzler, identified in state corporate filings as the chairman of the company that owns Schnitzler’s Famous Fish, is accused of tossing a cup of bleach at Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg while he was walking near Mr. Schnitzler’s store Tuesday. The bleach caused burns to Rabbi Rosenberg’s eyes and face and discoloration to his clothing, the police said. 

Mr. Schnitzler was charged with felony assault, misdemeanor assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon, Officer James Duffy said. 

Rabbi Rosenberg told the police that he recognized his assailant as Mr. Schnitzler, the son of a man he had accused on his blog and call-in line of being a molester. Mr. Schnitzler’s father has not been arrested in or charged with a crime. The rabbi and the Schnitzler family are part of the Satmar Hasidic community. 

Rabbi Rosenberg said Mr. Schnitzler spit on the street in front of him about a year ago. He said of the bleach-throwing: “What exactly triggered him to do that, I have no idea.” 

Calls to Mr. Schnitzler’s home and business were not answered on Wednesday afternoon. 

Rabbi Rosenberg has been an outspoken critic of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, accusing him of ignoring crime in the ultra-Orthodox community for financial and political benefit. He has also said that, in the past, acts of intimidation against him were not taken seriously by the prosecutor’s office. 

The rabbi has asked Abe George, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who announced his intention to run against Mr. Hynes for district attorney, to act as his lawyer. On Wednesday, Mr. George filed a request for a special prosecutor, arguing that Mr. Hynes’s history of being criticized by Rabbi Rosenberg constituted “a potential conflict of interest in this case.” 

But Mr. Hynes said in a statement, “I will vigorously prosecute the defendant in this case, and nothing supports any compelling legal need for another venue or prosecutor.”

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Man Is Charged in Bleach Attack
By Pervaiz Shallwani
Wall Street Journal - December 12, 2012

Meilech Schnitzler

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Williamsburg rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the neighborhood's Satmar Hasidic community was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Escorted by his lawyer, Meilech Schnitzler, 36 years old, turned himself in to police at the 90th precinct stationhouse in Williamsburg a day after Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was doused with a cup of Clorox, Mr. Kelly said. He was charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. Rosenberg, 62, runs a website and hotline that encourages victims of sex abuse in the Hasidic community to come forward and report the crimes to the police, and he has been ostracized by the Jewish community as a result.

The attack against Mr. Rosenberg comes as tensions remain high in the Satmar community after Nechemya Weberman, a prominent counselor in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl under his care over a three-year period starting when she was 12.

Police received a 911 call just after noon on Wednesday to 311 Roebling St. in Williamsburg reporting an assault. They arrived to find Mr. Rosenberg with chemical burns to his face, including his left eye, a law-enforcement official said. He was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Mr. Rosenberg told detectives that Mr. Schnitzler came up to him and splashed his face with a cup of liquid.

The suspect's attorney, Stanford Bardelli, didn't return a call for comment. 

Prosecutors have complained about intimidation in the Satmar community, with some of the tactics at issue during Mr. Weberman's trial. Authorities have kept in close contact with Mr. Weberman's victim and her family since the trial, providing her with higher level of protection than most victims because of the community backlash in the case, a law-enforcement official said.

Before the trial began, four men were charged after they allegedly tried to buy the silence of the girl and her now-husband by offering them $500,000 to drop the case. 

During the trial, three men were charged with criminal contempt after they allegedly took a courtroom photo of the victim and posted it online.

The victim, now 18, testified about the difficult decision to press charges against Mr. Weberman, telling the jury that since she reported the abuse to police she and her family have faced intimidation, business loss and even a niece being kicked out of school. She said her parents suggested she drop the case as recently as six months ago, taking her to a rabbi who tried to convince her.

The lead prosecutor on the case, Kevin O'Donnell, said on Monday that several of the victim's supporters told the district attorney's office that they received phone calls and messages from friends asking whose side they were on in the trial. "Anybody stepping forward out of their community to come to our office runs the risk of being ostracized and pretty much being removed from the community," he said.

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Rabbi Had Accused Alleged Bleach-Thrower's Father of Sexual Abuse
By Adam Martin
New York Magazine - December 12, 2012

The man charged with throwing a cup of bleach in the face of ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg is the son of a man Rosenberg accused of sexual abuse on his blog and call-in line, The New York Times reports. Rosenberg had said he thought the attack was related to the recent conviction of another high-profile member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Nechemya Weberman, but on Wednesday he told The Times, "What exactly triggered him to do that, I have no idea." Meilech Schnitzler, who turned himself in on Wednesday, owns the fish market Rosenberg was walking by when he was attacked. His father has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

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Fishmonger Charged in Bleach Attack on a Rabbi
By Sharon Otterman
New York Times - December 12, 2012

A Brooklyn fishmonger was charged by the police on Wednesday with throwing bleach in the face of a rabbi who is an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. 

The fishmonger, Meilech Schnitzler, 36, of Williamsburg, turned himself in to the 90th Precinct station house around 1 p.m., the police said. 

Mr. Schnitzler, identified in state corporate filings as the chairman of the company that owns Schnitzler’s Famous Fish, is accused of tossing a cup of bleach at Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg while he was walking near Mr. Schnitzler’s store Tuesday. The bleach caused burns to Rabbi Rosenberg’s eyes and face and discoloration to his clothing, the police said. 

Mr. Schnitzler was charged with felony assault, misdemeanor assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon, Officer James Duffy said. 

Rabbi Rosenberg told the police that he recognized his assailant as Mr. Schnitzler, the son of a man he had accused on his blog and call-in line of being a molester. Mr. Schnitzler’s father has not been arrested in or charged with a crime. The rabbi and the Schnitzler family are part of the Satmar Hasidic community. 

Rabbi Rosenberg said Mr. Schnitzler spit on the street in front of him about a year ago. He said of the bleach-throwing: “What exactly triggered him to do that, I have no idea.” 

Calls to Mr. Schnitzler’s home and business were not answered on Wednesday afternoon. 

Rabbi Rosenberg has been an outspoken critic of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, accusing him of ignoring crime in the ultra-Orthodox community for financial and political benefit. He has also said that, in the past, acts of intimidation against him were not taken seriously by the prosecutor’s office. 

The rabbi has asked Abe George, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who announced his intention to run against Mr. Hynes for district attorney, to act as his lawyer. On Wednesday, Mr. George filed a request for a special prosecutor, arguing that Mr. Hynes’s history of being criticized by Rabbi Rosenberg constituted “a potential conflict of interest in this case.” 

But Mr. Hynes said in a statement, “I will vigorously prosecute the defendant in this case, and nothing supports any compelling legal need for another venue or prosecutor.”

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Rabbi who fought against child sex abuse is attacked with bleach
'Revenge' street assault comes one day after the conviction of prominent offender  
by Nikhil Kumar
The Independent - December 12, 2012

A rabbi known for his efforts to expose sexual abuse within New York's ultra-orthodox Satmar Hasidic community was attacked by a man who splashed what appeared to be bleach in his face.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, who maintains an online blog and an information hotline for abuse victims, was assaulted a day after a prominent member of the community was found guilty of repeatedly abusing a young girl who went to him for help.

The rabbi was a regular presence and staunch supporter of the victim at the trial of Nechemya Weberman, from the ultra-orthodox community in the Williamsburg quarter of Brooklyn. Weberman, an unlicensed therapist, was convicted by a jury at the New York State Supreme Court of abusing a girl who was sent to him for counselling. The abuse, which the girl said continued for three years, began when she was 12.

Weberman was convicted on Monday on 59 counts of abusing the girl. On Tuesday, Rabbi Rosenberg, who in the past has been ostracised for talking publicly about Satmar Jews whom he believed were sex abusers, was ambushed at around noon by an unidentified man as he walked down Roebling Street in Williamsburg.

"He comes up to me and he taps me on the shoulder," the 62-year-old activist told the New York Post after being treated in hospital for burns to his eyes. "He walked up hard to me. He looks me in the face. I saw him holding a glass. I thought it was coffee or something and he throws it in my face." He said he believed the attack was in retaliation for his support of Weberman's victim. Soon after the trial, the rabbi welcomed the verdict on Twitter, saying: "Burech hashem!! [Praise God!!]... Chazer [Pig] Weberman is arrested..."

No one has yet been arrested over the attack. Police told The New York Times that there had been an "ongoing dispute" between the rabbi and the man who attacked him this week. A police spokesman also told the paper that there appeared to be no connection between the attack and the conviction of Weberman.

The conclusion of the Weberman case on Monday was seen as a victory for prosecutors probing a community that has long faced accusations of intimidating victims.

Weberman, 54, was accused of exploiting his status to access victims who were seen as problematic for falling foul of the Satmar's strict norms on personal modesty. In the end, with no physical evidence to go on, the trial was a battle of testimonies, with the now 18-year-old victim's word pitted against Weberman. Sentencing is set for early next month, with Weberman facing the possibility of decades behind bars.

"The veil of secrecy has been lifted," the Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes said after the conviction, according to The New York Times.

"The wall that has existed in parts of these communities has now been broken through. And as far as I'm concerned, it is very clear to me that it is only going to get better for people who are victimised in these various communities."

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Arrest made in bleach attack on New York rabbi

Nuchem Rosenberg targeted after he publicized details of Satmar sex-abuse scandal on his website

Associated Press - December 13, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — A man has been arrested on charges he threw bleach into the face of a New York City rabbi who publicized claims of child sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
 

Police say Meilech Schnitzler turned himself in on Wednesday and was arrested on charges of felony assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon. A woman who answered the phone at his home says he’s not going to speak to anyone.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg told The New York Times a man he recognized tossed the liquid in his face as he walked in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section on Tuesday.

Police say the two were involved in an “ongoing dispute.”

Rosenberg runs a website that publicized child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community.

Attacker hurls liquid at sex-activist rabbi
Vancouver Sun - December 13, 2012

A New York City rabbi who publicizes claims of child sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community has been hospitalized after someone threw an unknown chemical at him. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg told The New York Times that a man he recognized tossed the liquid in his face as he walked in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighbourhood Tuesday. Police say the two were involved in an "ongoing dispute." No arrest has been made. Rosenberg runs a website that publicizes child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community. On Monday, a prominent member of the community, Nechemya Weberman, was convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl who had come to him for counselling. Rosenberg says he believed the attack was connected to the verdict. Police say there didn't appear to be any connection.

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Police charge man with throwing chemical at rabbi

By Rande Iaboni and Marina Carver 

CNN - December 13, 2012

NEW YORK (CNN) - New York police have arrested a man for throwing a chemical, believed to be bleach, on a rabbi who advocates for sexual abuse victims.

Meilech Schnitzler, 36, turned himself in to police Wednesday and was charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon. 

He is accused of attacking Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in Brooklyn's tightknit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg on Tuesday. 

Schnitzler allegedly threw a chemical on Rosenberg's face, causing his eyes and face to burn.

Rosenberg runs a website and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of sexual abuse in the Hasidic community, and he believes this attack was an attempt to "silence" him, according to Abe George, the rabbi's attorney.

Police would not comment on Schnitzler's motive. 

But Rosenberg said earlier he knew who doused him, describing him as the son of a man he had reported on in the past as being allegedly involved in sexual abuse in the community, the lawyer said.

The assault happened a day after the conviction of Nechemya Weberman, a prominent community member in the conservative Satmar Hasidic community, was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl over a period of three years.

Weberman's conviction has put the spotlight on the insular Satmar Hasidic community, many of whom live in Williamsburg.

Joel Engelman, another advocate against sexual abuse among Orthodox Jews, describes himself as a survivor of such abuse. It is rare for respected members of the community to face such allegations in court, he said.

In the past, members of the community have intimidated and pressured those who have accused their leaders of sexual abuse, he said.

Rosenberg's vision is still blurry, but his attorney said he believes the rabbi will fully recover.

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Man accused in bleach assault on activist surrenders to police 

Meilech Schnitzler, 36, was charged with assault for allegedly splashing a cup of Clorox in the face of Nathan Rosenberg.

By Oren Yani

New York Daily News - December 12, 2012

A Satmar Hasidic man accused of slinging bleach into the face of an anti-sex abuse crusader surrendered to cops Wednesday.

Meilech Schnitzler, 36, was charged with assault for allegedly splashing a cup of Clorox in Nathan (Nuchem) Rosenberg’s eye Tuesday as the outspoken activist walked down a South Williamsburg street, prosecutors said.

Rosenberg, 62, has accused Schnitzler’s father, Shalom, of being a pedophile on his blog and sex-abuse hotline.

Rosenberg said he suffered an inner eye burn, severely blurring his vision.

He claimed the attack came amid fury within the insular Satmar sect over a prominent counselor’s conviction on 59 counts of sex abuse against a child.

Nechemya Weberman, 54, faces 117 years in prison for subjecting a teen to three years of sick assaults since the time she was 12.

In another twist, Rosenberg hired lawyer Abe George — a candidate in next year’s district attorney race — to represent him.

George said he requested Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to appoint a special prosecutor to this case because Rosenberg has been a vocal critic of Hynes’ handling of sex abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community.

“I’m sure they’re going to deny it,” the lawyer said.

Schnitzler’s defense attorney could not be reached.

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