Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov
(AKA: Mordecai
Yomtov)
Chabad Chedar Menachem School - Los Angeles,
CA
Yeshivah College - Melbourne, Australia
This convicted sex offender has been in
violation of registration requirements since March 21, 2003.
WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai
Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California
for nearly 10 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California
authorities at: (916) 227-4974.
Mordecai Yomtov was convicted of sexual abuse and
committing lewd acts against three boys). Yomtov was born in Australia.
He taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school
with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the
Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation
or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet
their own personal needs.
Table of
Contents:
2001
- PRESS RELEASE: "Child Molester Arrested" (12/05/2001)
- A Rabbi Is Accused Of Molesting A Student - More Possible Victims (12/06/2001)
- Los Angeles; Rabbi Accused of Molesting Young Male Students (12/07/2001)
- Rabbi Jailed: Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys. (12/14/2001)
- Rabbi sentenced to year in prison for lewd acts (12/21/2001)
- Rabbi arrested on 10 counts of molestation (12/21/2001)
- Rabbi Accused of Molesting Young Male Students (12/07/2001)
- Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys (12/14/2001)
- Rabbi Jailed (12/31/2001)
2002
- Yomtov Pleads Guilty (02/02/2002)
- Hebrew Teacher Pleads Guilty to Lewd Acts (02/05/2002)
2003
2005
2007
2008
- Schools Adopt Guide to Block Sex Abuse (06/20/2003)
2005
- WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov Missing (10/11/2005)
2007
- Dealing With Schmutz (08/17/2007)
- LAUSD settles suit from 2 teens (12/13/2007)
2008
- California Department of Justice (10/11/2005)
2012
- Child Sex-Abuse Scandal in Australia's Jewish Community Spills Into U.S. -Allegations Surface That Child Molesters Were Protected (02/17/2012)
____________________________________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
"Child Molester
Arrested"
Los Angeles Police Department - December 5, 2001
____________________________________________________________________________________
A Rabbi Is Accused Of Molesting A Student - More Possible Victims
ABC News - Dec 6, 2001
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said. The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police. Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Accused of Molesting Young Male
Students
By KENNETH REICH, TIMES STAFF WRITER
December 7, 2001 - LOS ANGELES TIMES
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood was in jail Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of committing lewd acts with three of his male students, ages 8 to 10.
Los Angeles police said Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on 10 felony counts, one for each alleged act. They appealed to the public to come forward to identify other incidents that may have occurred during the last seven years.
Yomtov has taught during that time at the Chedar Menachem School, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school serving about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school, at 5120 Melrose Ave., was in session behind locked gates as usual Thursday and officials declined to discuss the case beyond issuing a written statement.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," the statement said. "We request that our privacy be respected.
"The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities," it said.
Yomtov was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17 in Judge Michael Sauer's court. Detectives said the investigation began last month after three students each reported to the LAPD that Yomtov had molested them in a classroom while other students were at recess.
Det. Dale Darraclough said police experience in such cases has been that other students may have been molested too, and so the police are asking anyone with further knowledge to call investigators at a 24-hour toll-free number, (877) 529-3855.
By KENNETH REICH, TIMES STAFF WRITER
December 7, 2001 - LOS ANGELES TIMES
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood was in jail Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of committing lewd acts with three of his male students, ages 8 to 10.
Los Angeles police said Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on 10 felony counts, one for each alleged act. They appealed to the public to come forward to identify other incidents that may have occurred during the last seven years.
Yomtov has taught during that time at the Chedar Menachem School, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school serving about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school, at 5120 Melrose Ave., was in session behind locked gates as usual Thursday and officials declined to discuss the case beyond issuing a written statement.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," the statement said. "We request that our privacy be respected.
"The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities," it said.
Yomtov was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17 in Judge Michael Sauer's court. Detectives said the investigation began last month after three students each reported to the LAPD that Yomtov had molested them in a classroom while other students were at recess.
Det. Dale Darraclough said police experience in such cases has been that other students may have been molested too, and so the police are asking anyone with further knowledge to call investigators at a 24-hour toll-free number, (877) 529-3855.
____________________________________________________________________________________
A Rabbi Is Accused Of Molesting A Student - More Possible
Victims
December 6, 2001
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said.
The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police.
Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
December 6, 2001
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said.
The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police.
Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
____________________________________________________________________________________
KABC News - December 7, 2002
LOS ANGELES — There could be more victims. That is the word from Los Angeles police as they probe the case of a Hollywood-area Rabbi arrested on suspicion of child molestation.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said.
The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police.
Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with children younger than 14, said Los Angeles police Officer Grace Brady.
Last month, three of his students at Hollywood's Chedar Menachem School, 5120 Melrose Ave., reported that the Yomtov kept them in class during recess and molested them during the current school year, she said.
The victims are between 8 and 10 years old, according to police.
Yomtov was charged with 10 felonies in connection with the alleged molestations, police said.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Accused of Molesting Young Male Students
By Kenneth Reich
Los Angeles Times - December 7, 2001
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood was in jail Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of committing lewd acts with three of his male students, ages 8 to 10.
Los Angeles police said Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on 10 felony counts, one for each alleged act. They appealed to the public to come forward to identify other incidents that may have occurred during the last seven years.
Yomtov has taught during that time at the Chedar Menachem School, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school serving about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school, at 5120 Melrose Ave., was in session behind locked gates as usual Thursday and officials declined to discuss the case beyond issuing a written statement.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," the statement said. "We request that our privacy be respected.
"The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities," it said.
Yomtov was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17 in Judge Michael Sauer's court.
Detectives said the investigation began last month after three students each reported to the LAPD that Yomtov had molested them in a classroom while other students were at recess.
Det. Dale Darraclough said police experience in such cases has been that other students may have been molested too, and so the police are asking anyone with further knowledge to call investigators at a 24-hour toll-free number, (877) 529-3855.
Rabbi Jailed: Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi sentenced to year in prison for lewd
acts
By Kenneth Reich
Los Angeles Times - December 7, 2001
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood was in jail Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of committing lewd acts with three of his male students, ages 8 to 10.
Los Angeles police said Mordechai Yomtov, 36, was arrested Monday on 10 felony counts, one for each alleged act. They appealed to the public to come forward to identify other incidents that may have occurred during the last seven years.
Yomtov has taught during that time at the Chedar Menachem School, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school serving about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school, at 5120 Melrose Ave., was in session behind locked gates as usual Thursday and officials declined to discuss the case beyond issuing a written statement.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment," the statement said. "We request that our privacy be respected.
"The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities," it said.
Yomtov was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17 in Judge Michael Sauer's court.
Detectives said the investigation began last month after three students each reported to the LAPD that Yomtov had molested them in a classroom while other students were at recess.
Det. Dale Darraclough said police experience in such cases has been that other students may have been molested too, and so the police are asking anyone with further knowledge to call investigators at a 24-hour toll-free number, (877) 529-3855.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Jailed: Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused of molesting boys.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles - December
14, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad
elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central
Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts
of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by
the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov
was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while
the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and
four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior
Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years
at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade,
on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the
arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the
privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be
making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy
be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable
authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad,
expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything
possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that
are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal
with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to
even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and
psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children
the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we
can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and
we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this
should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school
or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation
said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help
students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox
rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations
of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave
disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general
standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant
Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare
and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last
seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these
issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is
making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training
in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International
Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction
with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in
September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary
agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox
Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular
cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number
of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in
conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train
them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an
overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail
from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house,
and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is
not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish
Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse
prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been
presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that
this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain
resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals
to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the
script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers,
parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of
abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS
also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be
handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children
will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body
privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews
what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations,
and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work
should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children
as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say
no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy
or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and
Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are
not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction
in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it
is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude
in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those
in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said.
"Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that
these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin,
some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction
in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps
to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish
Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information
relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit,
Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the
Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi arrested on 10 counts of
molestation
By JULIE GRUENBAUM FAX
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 21, 2001
LOS ANGELES -- A rabbi accused of molesting three boys
at a Chabad elementary school remained at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles
this week in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov was arrested last Monday on
10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children.
The arrest came after a Los Angeles Police Department
investigation into claims last month by three boys, ages eight to 10, that
Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them
while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and
four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior
Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught eight- to 10-year-olds for six years
at Cheder Menachem, a kindergarten- through eighth-grade school with 220
boys.
Cheder Menachem issued a written statement following
the arrest.
"Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and
to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the
school will be making no public comment," it read. "We request that our privacy
be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, said
the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that
are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal
with anything remotely similar to this," Cunin said. "It is very painful
to even be having this conversation."
Cunin says Chabad has arranged for therapists and
psychiatrists to come into the school.
"We are all of us doing everything we can do to be
there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing
anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should G-d
forbid ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any
community," Cunin said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation
said that the school seems to be taking all the right restorative steps to
help students, parents and staff cope with the situation.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox
rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, says situations
of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave
disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general
standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system," Fox said. "We expect
observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's
welfare and for our own moral welfare."
In the past, such attitudes have made Orthodox clergy
and leaders reluctant to deal with these issues, but in recent years he has
seen a growing willingness to address issues of domestic and child abuse
and sexual deviance, Fox said.
"There has been a lot more openness in discussing these
issues in discreet forums, and more and more the rabbinic community is making
use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training
in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims," he said.
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, The International
Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which put together a
think tank in September, 2000 in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella
organizations to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service in Los Angeles has an Orthodox
counseling division staffed by Orthodox professionals, sensitive to the
community's particular cultural and religious milieu.
Fox also says he has seen a rise in the number of articles
in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and at conferences
targeted at youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them
to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, Fox acknowledges that the educational efforts
have not reached every corner of the community.
"There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous
receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the
problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity,"
Fox said.
But even those communities are increasingly turning
toward the growing pool of Orthodox mental health professionals.
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is
not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish
Community Programs for LA's Jewish Family Service.
JFS has developed Steps to Safety, a three-pronged
abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has
been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
"Preschools have been enormously responsive to the
program, but it's been difficult to get into day schools in general," she
said.
"Part of it is there are still a lot of barriers to
realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools.
There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it."
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals
to review the program to see what changes would be necessary to make the
script more appropriate for the observant community.
One Orthodox mental health professional said the work
should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children
as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say
no, they need to be taught that their privates are their own, they need to
be taught that any time an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that
you have to tell, even if they say Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are
not adopting an "I told you so" attitude, there is a certain satisfaction
in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem can only increase
awareness.
"There's always been a 'kill the messenger' attitude
in religious circles, when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those
in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," he said.
"Everyone used to hush these things up and no one likes to be reminded that
these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin,
some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction
in mental health community that now maybe we will take appropriate steps
to offer some prevention.''
____________________________________________________________________________________
Hebrew Teacher Pleads Guilty to Lewd
Acts
Los Angeles Times - February 5, 2002
LOS ANGELES - A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private
school in Hollywood pleaded guilty Monday to sexual abuse and committing
lewd acts against three boys.
Mordecai Yomtov, 36, a teacher at Chedar Menachem School,
was charged in December with committing 10 lewd acts against three boys,
ages 8 to 10. Conviction on all counts could have sent him to prison for
40 years, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Irene Wakabayashi.
In the plea arrangement, he was allowed to plead guilty
to two acts of continuous sexual abuse of minors and one count of lewd conduct,
Wakabayashi said.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer ordered that he not associate with minors
or seek any jobs teaching minors.
The all-male Orthodox Jewish school on Melrose Avenue
serves about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade
school accused of molesting boys
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles - December 14, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles - December 14, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Jailed -
Instructor at Cheder Menachem grade school accused
of molesting boys.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Jewish Journal - December 13, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Jewish Journal - December 13, 2001
A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press.
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess.
Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17.
Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood.
The school issued a written statement following the arrest: "Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment." The statement went on, "We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities."
Rabbi Chaim Cunin, spokesman for West Coast Chabad, expressed deep pain at the incident and said the school is doing everything possible to cooperate with the authorities.
"In over 36 years and in well over 30 schools that are under the Chabad umbrella on the West Coast, we have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this," he said. "It is very painful to even be having this conversation."
Cunin said Chabad has arranged for therapists and psychiatrists to come to the school and give the parents, teachers and children the tools they need to deal with the incident. "We are doing everything we can do to be there for the community and the school and the parents, and we are doing anything and everything we can to make sure nothing like this should, God forbid, ever happen again, not in our school or in any school or in any community," he said.
Mental health professionals familiar with the situation said the school seems to be taking all the correct restorative steps to help students, parents and staff cope.
Dr. David Fox, a clinical psychologist and Orthodox rabbi who is not involved with the Cheder Menachem case, said situations of abuse in the Orthodox community arouse feelings of "shock and grave disappointment."
"We expect our people to conform not just to the general standards of moral decency, but to the Torah system. We expect observant Jewish people to function at the highest level of regard for people's welfare and for own moral welfare," he said, adding that nonetheless, in the last seven years or so, "there has been a lot more openness in discussing these issues in discreet forums, and, more and more, the rabbinic community is making use of Orthodox mental health professionals who have specialized training in both prevention and treatment of perpetrators and their victims."
Fox himself is a leader in Nefesh, the International Association of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which, in conjunction with several Orthodox umbrella organizations, put together a think tank in September 2000 to develop prevention models for the Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has an Orthodox Counseling Division staffed by Orthodox professionals sensitive to the particular cultural and religious milieu of the community.
And, Fox said, he has seen a rise both in the number of articles in rabbinic journals dealing with maladaptive behavior, and in conferences targeting youth leaders, mikvah personnel and educators, to train them how to spot abuse or potentially abusive situations.
Still, he acknowledged, "There has not been an overwhelmingly unanimous receptiveness, because many of these groups hail from a tradition where the problems are dealt with very discreetly and in-house, and they shun publicity."
Resistance to preventive and educational programs is not exclusive to the Orthodox community, said Sally Weber, director of Jewish Community Programs for JFS, which has developed Steps to Safety, an abuse prevention program involving children, parents and educators that has been presented at some Los Angeles preschools and day schools.
There are still a lot of barriers to realizing that this happens in the Jewish community and in Jewish schools. There is a certain resistance to the urgency of it," she said.
Weber is meeting this week with several Orthodox principals to review the program and see what changes would be necessary to make the script more appropriate for the observant community.
The program involves one session each for teachers, parents and children. It begins with training educators to spot signs of abuse and reviewing the legal issues around reporting suspected abuse. JFS also works with schools to have a system in place so that any abuse can be handled appropriately and efficiently.
JFS professionals let parents know what their children will be learning and teach them how to talk to their children about body privacy and abuse. The program for children, tailored to age levels, reviews what is inappropriate behavior, how to get out of uncomfortable situations, and how to tell a trusted adult.
One Orthodox mental health professional says the work should not be left just to schools, but should begin at home with children as young as preschool age.
"The children need to be taught how and when to say no; they need to be taught that anytime an adult says 'don't tell your Mommy or Daddy,' that you have to tell, even if they [the adult] says Mommy and Daddy won't love you," she said.
Fox said that while he and other professionals are not adopting an attitude of "I told you so," there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that cases like the one at Cheder Menachem, devastating as it is, can only help increase awareness.
"There's always been a kill-the-messenger attitude in religious circles when someone blows the whistle or tries to alert those in charge to the presence of a deviant or a molester or an abuser," Fox said. "Everyone used to hush these things up, and no one likes to be reminded that these pathologies can seep into religious circles. But when, to our chagrin, some of these situations do attract publicity, there is some satisfaction in the mental health community that now, maybe we will take appropriate steps to offer some prevention."
For more information on Steps to Safety, contact Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles at (323) 761-8800. Anyone with information relating to this case should call the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Monday thru Friday at (213) 485-2883. On weekends and evenings, call the Detective Information Desk at (877) 529-3855.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yomtov Pleads Guilty
By Wendy J. Madnick
Jewish Journal - February 7, 2002
Teacher Mordechai Yomtov stood sobbing in his orange prison jumpsuit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court as he pleaded guilty to two counts of committing continuous sexual abuse on a minor and one count of lewd act on a minor.
The Feb. 4 plea follows an agreement worked out between the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and defense counsel. Yomtov was sentenced to one year in County Jail, followed by five years' probation.
Yomtov, 36, was arrested Dec. 3 and charged with 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with three of his students, ages 8 to 10, at Cheder Menachem, an all-boys Orthodox yeshiva located in Hollywood and run under the auspices of West Coast Chabad.
Four family members of the three victims in the case were present; one mother even moved closer to force Yomtov to face her as he admitted to the crimes.
Yomtov's attorney, Mitchell W. Egers, said he told his client it was possible to fight the charges but Yomtov declined.
"He told me he did not want to subject the children or their families to a trial or to cross-examination," Egers said, adding that his client is not a rabbi as previously reported (students traditionally call teachers there "rebbe").
The court ordered Yomtov to have no contact with the victims, their families or with any minors without an adult present, with the exception of his own three children. He must also undergo psychiatric treatment through USC for the length of his term (including probation) and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Following his jail term, he is prohibited from seeking employment in any position where he would be teaching minors.
The parents said they were satisfied with the agreement.
"Under the circumstances I think he is extremely lucky," said the father of one victim. "If we didn't work with the district attorney, this guy would have got 25 years to life. But we understand that he is ill. He has an addiction that is not treatable."
The man said his son, one in a family of seven children, was undergoing therapy as a result of the incident.
"Only time will tell. Sometimes he acts like nothing is wrong and other times you can see it is affecting him," he said.
The boy, like the other victims, is still attending Cheder Menachem. Attorneys for two of the families say they have not ruled out a civil suit against the school.
"I'm pleased that the process of holding those accountable for the terrible crimes against these children has begun," said Gary Wittenberg, a civil litigator, adding that any further actions "depend on what develops over the next few days and weeks."
The father of the one victim said he hoped the case brought cloure not only for his son, but also for the rest of Yomtov's victims.
"We know there were other victims who have not come forward and my prayer is for their parents to get these kids help," he said. "I also hope this clears up the rumors that the boys were making this up. there were people even last night telling me that. I hope [the plea agreement] will put those rumors to rest for good."
In response to the resolution of the case, Rabbi Chaim Cunin, director of West Coast Chabad, issued the following statement: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families that make up the Cheder Menachem community. We are very thankful to the various organizations, including Jewish Family Service and Ohel, that continue to support and guide Cheder Menachem through the healing process."
Hebrew Teacher Pleads Guilty to Lewd Acts
Los Angeles Times - February 5, 2002
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood pleaded guilty Monday to sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys.
Mordecai Yomtov, 36, a teacher at Chedar Menachem School, was charged in December with committing 10 lewd acts against three boys, ages 8 to 10.
Conviction on all counts could have sent him to prison for 40 years, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Irene Wakabayashi.
In the plea arrangement, he was allowed to plead guilty to two acts of continuous sexual abuse of minors and one count of lewd conduct, Wakabayashi said.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer ordered that he not associate with minors or seek any jobs teaching minors.
The all-male Orthodox Jewish school on Melrose Avenue serves about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Schools Adopt Guide to Block Sex Abuse
by Julie Gruenbaum
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, June 20, 2003
A national group representing more than 700 Orthodox day schools recently adopted sexual abuse prevention guidelines that were developed by a department of the Jewish Family Service (JFS) in Los Angeles.
Nearly all of the two dozen Orthodox schools in Los Angeles had signed on to a similar policy last year aimed at preventing and reporting verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Torah U'mesorah, The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, adapted its new policy from the one implemented in Los Angeles.
"We need to develop a culture of creating safety," said Debbie Fox, director of Aleinu Family Resource Center of JFS, which wrote the guidelines. "It's not only, 'don't abuse the child,' but watch the way you talk with them, watch the way you correct them or encourage them to change, watch the teasing that goes on."
A version of the policy will be discussed at a training session for camp directors next week, and Fox encourages parents to ask camps whether their counselors have signed on to the guidelines.
Last summer, when the abuse policy was in its final draft form, David Schwartz was accused of molesting 4-year-old boys at an Orthodox day camp in Culver City. He is currently serving one year in a residential facility, after which he will be on probation for five years.
The Schwartz case was one in a string of abuse incidents that has rocked the Orthodox community over the last few years. Locally, Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov is currently on probation after serving a year in prison for molesting boys at Cheder Menachem school in the La Brea area.
Nationally, an Orthodox Union report found Rabbi Baruch Lanner guilty of widespread and long-term sexual, physical and psychological abuse of teens in three decades of work at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. Lanner is free pending an appeal after being sentenced last June to seven years in prison for sexually abusing two girls when he was principal of a New Jersey yeshiva in the 1990s.
The Lanner case, in particular, opened up Orthodox channels of communication regarding the abuse issue and led to an increased vigilance among institutions.
The high-profile cases went along with what Fox was seeing through the lens of Aleinu's caseload. When Fox came three years ago, the Orthodox Counseling Program, which recently changed its name to Aleinu, had 11 cases. Today it has about 50 clients and a program of placing social workers in schools, through which it serves about 150 children a week.
In addition, Aleinu runs Nishma, a hotline that was initially conceived as a spousal abuse line, but, like Aleinu, has broadened its mandate after receiving a wider range of calls.
"What we deal with every day are the problems, but that is not an indication that the Orthodox community has significantly more problems than anyone else," Fox said. "It is an indication that we are creating an environment where we can face these issues and invite them to come forward, so we can deal with them as well as we can."
One of the issues she saw was sexual abuse. Early last summer, Fox convened a meeting with the Halachic Advisory Board of Jewish Family Service and the Rabbinic Council of California's (RCC) Family Commission, two groups that work closely together.
With input from parents, educators, mental health professionals and the scrutinizing panel of rabbis, plus endorsement from leading halachic authorities, Aleinu developed the Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards for Orthodox Schools.
The policy goes further than forbidding sexual contact or even the use of explicit language, materials or sexual innuendo. It warns teachers and staff never to be secluded with a child. There is strong wording against the use of physical force and any unwelcome physical contact, as well as against making any comments about a student's body or clothing.
Teachers and staff are warned against denigrating students or attempting to manipulate students through psychological means, and they are forbidden from instructing students to keep secrets from parents or administration.
All teachers, staff, administrators and clerical and custodial staff are required to sign the guidelines.
When abuse is suspected, either at home or in school, Aleinu guides the family through the legal system and makes sure all their needs are met -- from finding a Jewish foster home, if necessary, to making sure a carpool is arranged to going into the school to talk with teachers, principals and other students.
Rabbi Berish Goldenberg, principal of Yeshiva Rav Isaacsohn-Toras Emes and chair of the RCC's Family Commission, noted how far the Orthodox community has come in tackling difficult issues openly.
The embrace of an Aleinu social worker and the adoption of the abuse guidelines at Toras Emes -- where much progress has been made in the last few years away from an old-school style of education -- are indicative of the community's newfound willingness to combine modern psychological sensibilities with a strictly observant mindset.
Goldenberg attributes the leap to the growing roster of problems today's families face and an awareness that professional help is neither treif (non-kosher) nor a shandah (humiliation).
"And there are many Orthodox people in the mental health professional world today, so there is more trust," Goldenberg added.
The advisory board rabbis, who themselves go through psychological training, are available around the clock to answer halachic questions and counsel clients. In one instance, a rabbi sat in on a counseling session to answer a 16-year-old girl's question about whether testifying against her father violated the mitzvah of honoring your parents. Another time, a rabbi and social worker together counseled an abused wife who wanted to know whether she was required to go to the mikvah to perform the ritual bathing that would make sex with her husband permissible.
When Schwartz was sentenced, both Goldenberg and Rabbi Gershon Bess, one of the most respected rabbis in the city, spoke in court to offer support to the victims. When Schwartz is released in February, he will be -- willingly or not -- in the jurisdiction of the RCC's beit din (rabbinical court), which might impose limits on where he may go to shul, which simcha (celebration) he may attend and whether he may enter public restrooms alone.
Like all of Aleinu's programs, even the beit din's monitoring will most likely have a restorative angle, guiding Schwartz through therapy, for example.
"The beauty is that the rabbis are so sensitive to mental health issues and to understanding what we do so clearly, that their response is very sensitive to the issues of the person," Fox said. "It's a beautiful thing."
WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov Missing
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - October 11, 2005
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California for past 2 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California authorities.
----------------------------------------
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Phone number (916) 227-4974
E-mail address - MegansLaw@doj.ca.gov
Mailing address:
California Department of Justice
Sex Offender Tracking Program
P. O. Box 903387
Sacramento, CA 94203-3870
---------------------
http://meganslaw.ca.gov
Last Name: YOMTOV
First Name: MORDECHAI
Middle Name:
THIS SEX OFFENDER HAS BEEN IN VIOLATION OF REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS SINCE 03/21/2003.
1) Description
Last Known Address:
County:
Zip Code
Date of Birth: 03-10-1965
Sex: MALE
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 170
Eye Color: BROWN
Hair Color: BLACK
Ethnicity: WHITE
2) Offenses
Offense Code
Description
288(a) LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
288.5(a) CONTINUOUS SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD
3) Scars/Marks/Tattoos
GLASSSES
4) Known Aliases
None
Dealing With Schmutz
By David Suissa
Jewish Journal - August 17, 2007
It is believed the convicted Rabbi discussed at the end of this article is Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov formerly of Chabad Chedar Menachem School.
The other day, a remarkable neighbor named Dennis Brown was telling me about a Chasidic kid who had rebelled against his parents and his religious lifestyle and gotten into drugs. After a couple of rough years, he got professional help, sobered up and started reconnecting with his observant upbringing. He was even enjoying going to shul on Shabbat. But there was a little detail that drove his parents nuts.
The kid wore pleated pants.
For the parents, it wasn't very "chassidishe" to wear pleated plants. They saw it as a sign of secular fashion. Not a good omen. So when they met with Dennis to discuss the boy's progress, they brought up the pleated pants.
Dennis went ballistic.
When Dennis goes ballistic, he has to tell you he's going ballistic, because you can't tell from his body language. Nothing changes on this man's face. It's sculpted in granite.
Still, when he told me the story of the pleated pants, you could see the emotion smoldering beneath the surface. He had spent many long hours working with the kid. He had helped turn his life around. He was counting his blessings. Meanwhile, the parents were sitting there kvetching about pleated pants. How could they be so blind?
This notion of blindness is a common theme in the life of Dennis, a Chasidic Jew and professional counselor in his early 60s who runs the state-certified Ness Counseling Center in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. Dennis deals with what he calls "the schmutz of life" on a daily basis -- physical and sexual abuse, drugs, marital and family problems, wife beating, pleated pants.
As I sat with him in his office right off La Cienega Boulevard, with the famous gaze of the Lubavitcher Rebbe hovering above us from a picture on the wall, he kept going back to the theme of blindness.
"People see what they want to see", he said. "The parents [of the Chasidic kid] were blind to the pain that got him into drugs in the first place, and when he started to get out of it, they were blind to his progress. They could only see the pleated pants."
Although the Ness Center caters to everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, the majority of their cases are with Orthodox Jews -- perhaps, as he says, because the Orthodox prefer to deal with one of their own, especially when highly sensitive subjects are involved.
Dennis is not naive. He understands his insular Orthodox community. There's always a good reason to sweep the schmutz under the carpet: It's a desecration of God's name for a Jew wearing a yarmulke to do something immoral or criminal; it puts an indelible stain on the community; it can ostracize a family and make it hard for their children to find a good mate. He's heard it all.
And what happens when all hell breaks loose? When a woman has taken one too many blows? Or when a kid is about to overdose?
Well, that's usually when they call Dennis -- when much of the damage has already been done.
That's why Dennis rails against blindness. He sees a greater shame in hiding the schmutz than in confronting it early and honestly. He tells victims of abuse not to wait until it gets unbearable. He wants to see people before the pain gets too deep.
Strangely, as I listened to Dennis talk about the vile stuff he's seen in his 30 years of working in the field, I didn't sense in him any feeling of Jewish or communal shame. For this ultra-Orthodox Jew with a long white beard, when it comes to human behavior, there is no Jew or non-Jew, no Orthodox or non-Orthodox. There are only humans. He doesn't see a black hat or a yarmulke or a wig. He sees a kid who's misunderstood. A wife who's overwhelmed. Parents who don't get it. A man with a sickness. A woman who needs immediate protection.
He sees pain and sickness, before he sees religion and shame.
His forthrightness hasn't always endeared him to the Orthodox community. A few years ago, when an Orthodox rabbi was convicted of child abuse and had spent time in jail, a group of Orthodox rabbis and leaders got together to raise funds to help the convicted rabbi leave town. When they contacted Dennis for help, he told them what they didn't want to hear: They should use the money to get the convicted rabbi professional help, not to help him take his sickness somewhere else.
In other words, he wanted them to open their eyes and see the real problem: a Jewish man with a sickness and potential future victims, rather than a community with a black eye.
The man ended up leaving town.
The notion of sickness as applied to human behavior is not a popular one in Torah-observant circles. Abusive and aberrant behavior is usually seen as a failure of character. If you follow the Torah, you should never have to use drugs or abuse anyone. When someone cracks -- when human reality trumps Torah observance -- the instinct is not to deal with the problem, but to circle the wagons and defend the honor of the community.
Dennis is encouraged that emerging groups like Aleinu and Aish Tamid, with the support of many Orthodox rabbis, are trying to deal honestly with the "dark side of life," which no part of the Jewish world is immune to, even the Torah observant.
When I ask him if it's better for the image of the Orthodox community, in the long run, to deal honestly and openly with their troubled elements, I see a hint of impatience in his granite face. Clearly, this man has little time to ponder notions like "long term" and "image."
There's a woman on the phone waiting to speak to him and, apparently, she's quite agitated.
Let's hope she's not calling about pleated pants.
David Suissa, an advertising executive, is founder of OLAM magazine and Meals4Israel.com. He can be reached at dsuissa@olam.org.
LAUSD settles suit from 2 teens
Los Angeles Daily News - December 14, 2007
Los Angeles Unified settled a civil lawsuit brought by two teenagers who were molested as adolescents by a teacher at a Jewish private school near Hollywood, court papers obtained Thursday show.
The settlement was filed Monday.
The terms were not divulged in court records.
Mordechai Yomtov, 42, pleaded guilty in February 2002 to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct involving a total of three boys, then ages 8 to 10, in 2001-02. Yomtov taught Hebrew at Cheder Menachem and kept boys alone in a classroom during recess, police said.
Although the school is private, LAUSD administered the school's Title 1 program for disadvantaged youth and it employed a school psychologist there.
By Wendy J. Madnick
Jewish Journal - February 7, 2002
Teacher Mordechai Yomtov stood sobbing in his orange prison jumpsuit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court as he pleaded guilty to two counts of committing continuous sexual abuse on a minor and one count of lewd act on a minor.
The Feb. 4 plea follows an agreement worked out between the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and defense counsel. Yomtov was sentenced to one year in County Jail, followed by five years' probation.
Yomtov, 36, was arrested Dec. 3 and charged with 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with three of his students, ages 8 to 10, at Cheder Menachem, an all-boys Orthodox yeshiva located in Hollywood and run under the auspices of West Coast Chabad.
Four family members of the three victims in the case were present; one mother even moved closer to force Yomtov to face her as he admitted to the crimes.
Yomtov's attorney, Mitchell W. Egers, said he told his client it was possible to fight the charges but Yomtov declined.
"He told me he did not want to subject the children or their families to a trial or to cross-examination," Egers said, adding that his client is not a rabbi as previously reported (students traditionally call teachers there "rebbe").
The court ordered Yomtov to have no contact with the victims, their families or with any minors without an adult present, with the exception of his own three children. He must also undergo psychiatric treatment through USC for the length of his term (including probation) and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Following his jail term, he is prohibited from seeking employment in any position where he would be teaching minors.
The parents said they were satisfied with the agreement.
"Under the circumstances I think he is extremely lucky," said the father of one victim. "If we didn't work with the district attorney, this guy would have got 25 years to life. But we understand that he is ill. He has an addiction that is not treatable."
The man said his son, one in a family of seven children, was undergoing therapy as a result of the incident.
"Only time will tell. Sometimes he acts like nothing is wrong and other times you can see it is affecting him," he said.
The boy, like the other victims, is still attending Cheder Menachem. Attorneys for two of the families say they have not ruled out a civil suit against the school.
"I'm pleased that the process of holding those accountable for the terrible crimes against these children has begun," said Gary Wittenberg, a civil litigator, adding that any further actions "depend on what develops over the next few days and weeks."
The father of the one victim said he hoped the case brought cloure not only for his son, but also for the rest of Yomtov's victims.
"We know there were other victims who have not come forward and my prayer is for their parents to get these kids help," he said. "I also hope this clears up the rumors that the boys were making this up. there were people even last night telling me that. I hope [the plea agreement] will put those rumors to rest for good."
In response to the resolution of the case, Rabbi Chaim Cunin, director of West Coast Chabad, issued the following statement: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families that make up the Cheder Menachem community. We are very thankful to the various organizations, including Jewish Family Service and Ohel, that continue to support and guide Cheder Menachem through the healing process."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Los Angeles Times - February 5, 2002
A rabbi who taught Hebrew at a private school in Hollywood pleaded guilty Monday to sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys.
Mordecai Yomtov, 36, a teacher at Chedar Menachem School, was charged in December with committing 10 lewd acts against three boys, ages 8 to 10.
Conviction on all counts could have sent him to prison for 40 years, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Irene Wakabayashi.
In the plea arrangement, he was allowed to plead guilty to two acts of continuous sexual abuse of minors and one count of lewd conduct, Wakabayashi said.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer ordered that he not associate with minors or seek any jobs teaching minors.
The all-male Orthodox Jewish school on Melrose Avenue serves about 185 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
____________________________________________________________________________________
by Julie Gruenbaum
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, June 20, 2003
A national group representing more than 700 Orthodox day schools recently adopted sexual abuse prevention guidelines that were developed by a department of the Jewish Family Service (JFS) in Los Angeles.
Nearly all of the two dozen Orthodox schools in Los Angeles had signed on to a similar policy last year aimed at preventing and reporting verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Torah U'mesorah, The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, adapted its new policy from the one implemented in Los Angeles.
"We need to develop a culture of creating safety," said Debbie Fox, director of Aleinu Family Resource Center of JFS, which wrote the guidelines. "It's not only, 'don't abuse the child,' but watch the way you talk with them, watch the way you correct them or encourage them to change, watch the teasing that goes on."
A version of the policy will be discussed at a training session for camp directors next week, and Fox encourages parents to ask camps whether their counselors have signed on to the guidelines.
Last summer, when the abuse policy was in its final draft form, David Schwartz was accused of molesting 4-year-old boys at an Orthodox day camp in Culver City. He is currently serving one year in a residential facility, after which he will be on probation for five years.
The Schwartz case was one in a string of abuse incidents that has rocked the Orthodox community over the last few years. Locally, Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov is currently on probation after serving a year in prison for molesting boys at Cheder Menachem school in the La Brea area.
Nationally, an Orthodox Union report found Rabbi Baruch Lanner guilty of widespread and long-term sexual, physical and psychological abuse of teens in three decades of work at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. Lanner is free pending an appeal after being sentenced last June to seven years in prison for sexually abusing two girls when he was principal of a New Jersey yeshiva in the 1990s.
The Lanner case, in particular, opened up Orthodox channels of communication regarding the abuse issue and led to an increased vigilance among institutions.
The high-profile cases went along with what Fox was seeing through the lens of Aleinu's caseload. When Fox came three years ago, the Orthodox Counseling Program, which recently changed its name to Aleinu, had 11 cases. Today it has about 50 clients and a program of placing social workers in schools, through which it serves about 150 children a week.
In addition, Aleinu runs Nishma, a hotline that was initially conceived as a spousal abuse line, but, like Aleinu, has broadened its mandate after receiving a wider range of calls.
"What we deal with every day are the problems, but that is not an indication that the Orthodox community has significantly more problems than anyone else," Fox said. "It is an indication that we are creating an environment where we can face these issues and invite them to come forward, so we can deal with them as well as we can."
One of the issues she saw was sexual abuse. Early last summer, Fox convened a meeting with the Halachic Advisory Board of Jewish Family Service and the Rabbinic Council of California's (RCC) Family Commission, two groups that work closely together.
With input from parents, educators, mental health professionals and the scrutinizing panel of rabbis, plus endorsement from leading halachic authorities, Aleinu developed the Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards for Orthodox Schools.
The policy goes further than forbidding sexual contact or even the use of explicit language, materials or sexual innuendo. It warns teachers and staff never to be secluded with a child. There is strong wording against the use of physical force and any unwelcome physical contact, as well as against making any comments about a student's body or clothing.
Teachers and staff are warned against denigrating students or attempting to manipulate students through psychological means, and they are forbidden from instructing students to keep secrets from parents or administration.
All teachers, staff, administrators and clerical and custodial staff are required to sign the guidelines.
When abuse is suspected, either at home or in school, Aleinu guides the family through the legal system and makes sure all their needs are met -- from finding a Jewish foster home, if necessary, to making sure a carpool is arranged to going into the school to talk with teachers, principals and other students.
Rabbi Berish Goldenberg, principal of Yeshiva Rav Isaacsohn-Toras Emes and chair of the RCC's Family Commission, noted how far the Orthodox community has come in tackling difficult issues openly.
The embrace of an Aleinu social worker and the adoption of the abuse guidelines at Toras Emes -- where much progress has been made in the last few years away from an old-school style of education -- are indicative of the community's newfound willingness to combine modern psychological sensibilities with a strictly observant mindset.
Goldenberg attributes the leap to the growing roster of problems today's families face and an awareness that professional help is neither treif (non-kosher) nor a shandah (humiliation).
"And there are many Orthodox people in the mental health professional world today, so there is more trust," Goldenberg added.
The advisory board rabbis, who themselves go through psychological training, are available around the clock to answer halachic questions and counsel clients. In one instance, a rabbi sat in on a counseling session to answer a 16-year-old girl's question about whether testifying against her father violated the mitzvah of honoring your parents. Another time, a rabbi and social worker together counseled an abused wife who wanted to know whether she was required to go to the mikvah to perform the ritual bathing that would make sex with her husband permissible.
When Schwartz was sentenced, both Goldenberg and Rabbi Gershon Bess, one of the most respected rabbis in the city, spoke in court to offer support to the victims. When Schwartz is released in February, he will be -- willingly or not -- in the jurisdiction of the RCC's beit din (rabbinical court), which might impose limits on where he may go to shul, which simcha (celebration) he may attend and whether he may enter public restrooms alone.
Like all of Aleinu's programs, even the beit din's monitoring will most likely have a restorative angle, guiding Schwartz through therapy, for example.
"The beauty is that the rabbis are so sensitive to mental health issues and to understanding what we do so clearly, that their response is very sensitive to the issues of the person," Fox said. "It's a beautiful thing."
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - October 11, 2005
Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California for past 2 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California authorities.
----------------------------------------
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Phone number (916) 227-4974
E-mail address - MegansLaw@doj.ca.gov
Mailing address:
California Department of Justice
Sex Offender Tracking Program
P. O. Box 903387
Sacramento, CA 94203-3870
---------------------
http://meganslaw.ca.gov
Last Name: YOMTOV
First Name: MORDECHAI
Middle Name:
THIS SEX OFFENDER HAS BEEN IN VIOLATION OF REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS SINCE 03/21/2003.
1) Description
Last Known Address:
County:
Zip Code
Date of Birth: 03-10-1965
Sex: MALE
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 170
Eye Color: BROWN
Hair Color: BLACK
Ethnicity: WHITE
2) Offenses
Offense Code
Description
288(a) LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
288.5(a) CONTINUOUS SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD
3) Scars/Marks/Tattoos
GLASSSES
4) Known Aliases
None
____________________________________________________________________________________
By David Suissa
Jewish Journal - August 17, 2007
It is believed the convicted Rabbi discussed at the end of this article is Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov formerly of Chabad Chedar Menachem School.
The other day, a remarkable neighbor named Dennis Brown was telling me about a Chasidic kid who had rebelled against his parents and his religious lifestyle and gotten into drugs. After a couple of rough years, he got professional help, sobered up and started reconnecting with his observant upbringing. He was even enjoying going to shul on Shabbat. But there was a little detail that drove his parents nuts.
The kid wore pleated pants.
For the parents, it wasn't very "chassidishe" to wear pleated plants. They saw it as a sign of secular fashion. Not a good omen. So when they met with Dennis to discuss the boy's progress, they brought up the pleated pants.
Dennis went ballistic.
When Dennis goes ballistic, he has to tell you he's going ballistic, because you can't tell from his body language. Nothing changes on this man's face. It's sculpted in granite.
Still, when he told me the story of the pleated pants, you could see the emotion smoldering beneath the surface. He had spent many long hours working with the kid. He had helped turn his life around. He was counting his blessings. Meanwhile, the parents were sitting there kvetching about pleated pants. How could they be so blind?
This notion of blindness is a common theme in the life of Dennis, a Chasidic Jew and professional counselor in his early 60s who runs the state-certified Ness Counseling Center in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. Dennis deals with what he calls "the schmutz of life" on a daily basis -- physical and sexual abuse, drugs, marital and family problems, wife beating, pleated pants.
As I sat with him in his office right off La Cienega Boulevard, with the famous gaze of the Lubavitcher Rebbe hovering above us from a picture on the wall, he kept going back to the theme of blindness.
"People see what they want to see", he said. "The parents [of the Chasidic kid] were blind to the pain that got him into drugs in the first place, and when he started to get out of it, they were blind to his progress. They could only see the pleated pants."
Although the Ness Center caters to everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, the majority of their cases are with Orthodox Jews -- perhaps, as he says, because the Orthodox prefer to deal with one of their own, especially when highly sensitive subjects are involved.
Dennis is not naive. He understands his insular Orthodox community. There's always a good reason to sweep the schmutz under the carpet: It's a desecration of God's name for a Jew wearing a yarmulke to do something immoral or criminal; it puts an indelible stain on the community; it can ostracize a family and make it hard for their children to find a good mate. He's heard it all.
And what happens when all hell breaks loose? When a woman has taken one too many blows? Or when a kid is about to overdose?
Well, that's usually when they call Dennis -- when much of the damage has already been done.
That's why Dennis rails against blindness. He sees a greater shame in hiding the schmutz than in confronting it early and honestly. He tells victims of abuse not to wait until it gets unbearable. He wants to see people before the pain gets too deep.
Strangely, as I listened to Dennis talk about the vile stuff he's seen in his 30 years of working in the field, I didn't sense in him any feeling of Jewish or communal shame. For this ultra-Orthodox Jew with a long white beard, when it comes to human behavior, there is no Jew or non-Jew, no Orthodox or non-Orthodox. There are only humans. He doesn't see a black hat or a yarmulke or a wig. He sees a kid who's misunderstood. A wife who's overwhelmed. Parents who don't get it. A man with a sickness. A woman who needs immediate protection.
He sees pain and sickness, before he sees religion and shame.
His forthrightness hasn't always endeared him to the Orthodox community. A few years ago, when an Orthodox rabbi was convicted of child abuse and had spent time in jail, a group of Orthodox rabbis and leaders got together to raise funds to help the convicted rabbi leave town. When they contacted Dennis for help, he told them what they didn't want to hear: They should use the money to get the convicted rabbi professional help, not to help him take his sickness somewhere else.
In other words, he wanted them to open their eyes and see the real problem: a Jewish man with a sickness and potential future victims, rather than a community with a black eye.
The man ended up leaving town.
The notion of sickness as applied to human behavior is not a popular one in Torah-observant circles. Abusive and aberrant behavior is usually seen as a failure of character. If you follow the Torah, you should never have to use drugs or abuse anyone. When someone cracks -- when human reality trumps Torah observance -- the instinct is not to deal with the problem, but to circle the wagons and defend the honor of the community.
Dennis is encouraged that emerging groups like Aleinu and Aish Tamid, with the support of many Orthodox rabbis, are trying to deal honestly with the "dark side of life," which no part of the Jewish world is immune to, even the Torah observant.
When I ask him if it's better for the image of the Orthodox community, in the long run, to deal honestly and openly with their troubled elements, I see a hint of impatience in his granite face. Clearly, this man has little time to ponder notions like "long term" and "image."
There's a woman on the phone waiting to speak to him and, apparently, she's quite agitated.
Let's hope she's not calling about pleated pants.
David Suissa, an advertising executive, is founder of OLAM magazine and Meals4Israel.com. He can be reached at dsuissa@olam.org.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Los Angeles Daily News - December 14, 2007
Los Angeles Unified settled a civil lawsuit brought by two teenagers who were molested as adolescents by a teacher at a Jewish private school near Hollywood, court papers obtained Thursday show.
The settlement was filed Monday.
The terms were not divulged in court records.
Mordechai Yomtov, 42, pleaded guilty in February 2002 to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct involving a total of three boys, then ages 8 to 10, in 2001-02. Yomtov taught Hebrew at Cheder Menachem and kept boys alone in a classroom during recess, police said.
Although the school is private, LAUSD administered the school's Title 1 program for disadvantaged youth and it employed a school psychologist there.
____________________________________________________________________________________
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF
JUSTICE
California Sex Offender Registry - October 10, 2005
http://meganslaw.ca.gov
Phone number (916) 227-4974 E-mail address - MegansLaw@doj.ca.gov
Last Name: YOMTOV First Name: MORDECHAI Middle Name: None
THIS SEX OFFENDER HAS BEEN IN VIOLATION OF REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS SINCE 03/21/2003.
Date of Birth: 03-10-1965 Sex: MALE Height: 6'0" Weight: 170
Eye Color: BROWN Hair Color: BLACK Ethnicity: WHITE
Offenses:
California Sex Offender Registry - October 10, 2005
http://meganslaw.ca.gov
Phone number (916) 227-4974 E-mail address - MegansLaw@doj.ca.gov
Last Name: YOMTOV First Name: MORDECHAI Middle Name: None
THIS SEX OFFENDER HAS BEEN IN VIOLATION OF REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS SINCE 03/21/2003.
Date of Birth: 03-10-1965 Sex: MALE Height: 6'0" Weight: 170
Eye Color: BROWN Hair Color: BLACK Ethnicity: WHITE
Offenses:
- LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
- CONTINUOUS SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
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Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
____________________________________________________________________________________
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has."
--Margaret Mead
____________________________________________________________________________________
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