Cases of sex crimes connected to New Square, NY

Cases of sex crimes connected to New Square, NY

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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents:

Cases

1. Case of Rabbi Chaim Ciment
2. Case of Kenneth Gribetz - Former Rockland County District Attorney
3. Case of Kal Holczer
4. Case of Rabbi Yisucher Kohn
5. Case of Rabbi Yakov Kramer
6. Cases Involving Modesty Patrols
7. Case of Rabbi Herschel Taubenfeld

Articles and other information

2005

1. Hasidic Village Keeps Women Out of the Driver's Seat (10/14/2005)

2006

1. So Many Rules, Protection, Sex Among Ultra (2006)

2008

1. Is David Mandel a Mandated Reporter? (09/21/2008)

2009

1. 5 arrested at New Square protest (12/29/2009)
2. New Square Protest (12/31/2009)
3. Slaughterhouse Protest at New Square (11/01/2009)
4. Birkas hachama with Skverer rebbe in New Square (04/22/2009)
5. Obama In Skver (Purim Play at Skvere rabbis tish) (03/25/2009)
6. Square (Skver) rabbi The holy one ל''ג בעומר ס''ט The real one (05/20/2009)

2010

1. New tactic in war on sexual abuse - Voices of dignity (03/12/2010)
2. Welcome to New Square (03/22/2010)
3. New Square appoints Vaad to deal with sexual abuse  (04/22/2010)
4. Hasidic Jews Fighting in New Square (09/13/2010)
5. Skver Rabbi puts on tefillin for the grandson of Skver Rabbi (10/29/2010)
6. New Square gets road ready for Hillcrest in East Ramapo (10/30/2010)
7. Skver wedding (11/11/2010)

2011

1. New Square NY: Shaul Spitzer Arrested Again  (10/27/2011)
2. New Square: When Cultures Clash (08/25/2011)
3. Wedding in New Square of granddaughter of Skvirer rebbe (08/17/2011)
4. New Square: Shaul Spitzer Indigted Arsonist Faces Judge (06/24/2011)
5. NEW SQUARE: DA not prosecuting Grand Rabbi in arson attack due to politics (06/17/2011)
6. New Square arson victim Aron Rottenberg to sue "Grand Rabbi" Dovid Twersky (06/13/2011)
7. New Square arson-attack suspect Shaul Spitzer back in Yeshiva (06/20/2011)
8. Ger Chasidim Try to Burn Down House Like in New Square (06/02/2011)
9. Former Hassids Organize Bike Ride For New Square Arson Victim (05/30/2011)
10. New Square Grand Rabbi Condemns Religious Dispute at Synagogue (05/28/2011)
11. Skver Rabbi follower Clashes with New Square Burn victim Family (05/26/1011)
12. Family of New Square Victim Speaks Out (05/25/2011)
13. New Square Ramapo Police Looking To Speak With Grand Rabbi of New Square (05/25/2011)
14. Police Say They Will Investigate New Square Rabbi David Twersky (05/24/2011)
15. Suspect in New Square Arson Attack Now Facing Murder Charges (05/23/2011)
16. Man Badly Burned in Religious Dispute (05/22/2011)
17. Purim in Skver (03/22/2011)

2012

1. New Square: Shaul Spitzer will go to state prison for attacking Aron Rottenberg (04/17/2012)
2. New Square Burn Victim Aron Rottenberg Car Set On Fire Another Arson Attack (03/09/2012)

2013

1. Jewish Sex Abuse Victim From New Square Speaks Out (08/30/2013)
2. Skver Visnitz Wedding (10/26/2013)
3. Protestors March Against New Square Boy's Elementary School in Residential Ramapo Neighborhood (07/25/2013)
4. Deb Tambor and the Quasi-Chasidic Town of New Square (10/01/2013)
5. Touring the Village of New Square, NY (11/17/2013)

2014

1. Sex-abuse victims' fear stymies police (01/04/2014)

Also see: 

1. Policies For inclusion on The Awareness Center's Sex Offender's Registry
2. Listing Alleged and Convicted Sex Offenders

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Sex-abuse victims' fear stymies police

Sex crimes, abusers known, yet unreported, Ramapo detective says

By Shawn Cohen and Steve Lieberman

LoHud - January 4, 2014

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

Ramapo police Detective Sgt. John Lynch said he’s heard “whisperings” of several unreported sex crimes in New Square, but is continually frustrated because the victims fear being shunned by the community.

“It’s well known in that community; it’s well known who the perpetrators are,” Lynch said. “But we have not had people who come forward, sign complaints and are willing to testify in court.”

He blames this largely on New Square’s leadership, which established a community group, the Vaad, to handle sex-abuse allegations in-house.

“Why do they stand for it? We can’t understand,” Lynch said. “We try to apply our logic and theories of right and wrong. They have a totally different reaction and a different way of looking at it.”

Ramapo detectives, for instance, suspect that one man who was once part of Grand Rabbi David Twersky’s inner circle has preyed on numerous boys over at least a decade, Lynch said. They’ve spoken to some of the alleged victims, but none is willing to press charges.

“There doesn’t appear to be a sense of outrage in the community,” Lynch said. “We sit here in knots thinking how we can never allow this to happen to our kids, yet it happens in the community.”

The problem isn’t confined to New Square. Ben Hirsch, co-founder of Survivors for Justice, a Manhattan-based group that helps sex-abuse victims overcome intimidation, said there is a widespread cover-up of abuse in several other ultra-Orthodox communities including Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Kiryas Joel in Orange County and Lakewood, N.J.

In New Square, the Vaad sends alleged victims and abusers to therapists, without reporting crimes to outside authorities.

It was formed with direction from several psychologists with OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services, a Jewish social-service agency based in Borough Park, Brooklyn, that critics say has shielded child molesters brought there for treatment by rabbis.

In a 2011 exposé, the New York Jewish Week documented a case in which the agency failed to call police about a patient who’d been sexually abusing her young son, and reported that the agency is known for doing “more to protect the reputation of the community than the safety of its children.”

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said some community leaders and rabbis lean on families and victims to stay away from authorities and not press charges.

Many people who defy the edicts of community leaders see their children kicked out of religious schools. The families also are ostracized — with the men denied a place in synagogue — and become targets of protests to force them out of New Square.

“We’ve told the community if they fail to take action (against sex offenders) they are creating another generation of victims,” Zugibe said.

“In many cases, the victims become offenders. That’s a big reason they can’t let these guys go and not prosecute,” he said.

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