Sexual abuse cases in Brooklyn's Haredi community

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The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse.

Contents

Prevalence and under-reporting

The greater New York City area is home to the largest Haredi community outside Israel. About a quarter million Haredim—who are often called ultra-Orthodox, though they themselves do not like that label—live in New York City, most of them in Brooklyn. [1] According to scholars, the rate of sex abuse within Haredi communities is roughly the same as anywhere else. [1] However, for generations, most victims have not come forward with accusations because of stigmatization from the community, and when they did come forward, the matter generally stayed within the community, rather than being reported to the police and forming part of crime statistics. [1]

Sexual abuse within the community is often not reported to police. Many feel that to report a Jew to non-Jewish authorities constitutes the religious crime of mesirah : [1] [2] Samuel Heilman, a professor of Jewish studies at Queens College, writes that one reason why cases or patterns of sexual abuse are rarely reported to law enforcement is because "they think that anyone who turns over anyone to the outside authorities is committing a transgression to the community at large". [3] The accuser is then considered a Moser, literally translating to "one who hands over" in the sense of the informant who turns over a Jew to secular authorities. Agudath Israel of America, a leading Haredi organization, has stated that observant Jews should not report allegations to law enforcement without first consulting with a rabbi. [1] [2] Heilman adds that some wish to protect the community's reputation and the accused's family, and that the rabbis worry that outside scrutiny could weaken their authority: "They are more afraid of the outside world than the deviants within their own community", since "the deviants threaten individuals here or there, but the outside world threatens everyone and the entire structure of their world". [1] However, other rabbis, including a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinic court in Crown Heights and Yosef Blau, disagree, and encourage reporting abusers to police, stating that the ban on mesirah does not apply. [1] [4] Rather than reporting to police, Haredim may take a case of sexual abuse to the shomrim, a local Jewish street patrol. The shomrim keep the names of suspected child molesters on file, but do not share them with law enforcement or take other measures to end abuse, and sometimes try to discourage people from taking a case to the police. [2]

Reports of abuse to religious authorities rarely result in punishment for the offender; as in the Catholic sex abuse cases—where child molesters were re-assigned to other dioceses—rabbis, teachers, and youth leaders found to be abusing children are usually re-assigned to another yeshiva, perhaps after seeing a board of rabbis. [2]

Many of the people accused and/or convicted of sexual abuse and related charges in Brooklyn's Haredi community are rabbis. [5] [6] [7] Among other accused are a school principal, [8] a spiritual adviser, [9] and a social worker. [1]

Reprisal

Witness tampering sometimes occurs after someone is accused of sexual abuse. Victims, their families, and advocates have been threatened with violence, [10] false police reports of child abuse, [1] loss of kosher licenses or other harm to business, and/or eviction. [7] They are pressured or offered bribes not to co-operate with prosecutors, [1] [7] [9] and physical harassment, [5] [1] distribution of flyers attacking victims and advocates, [7] [9] [10] and coercion occur. [9]

Establishment reprisal against sexually abused children and their parents can be severe: Parents have been shunned by the community, with rabbis forbidding congregants to speak to them, abused children have been barred from schools and considered undesirable marriage candidates by matchmakers, which negatively impacts the marriage prospects for other siblings and family members. [11] [1]

Even when cases are reported to police, they often cannot be prosecuted because victims refuse to cooperate, or agree to a plea deal (usually a cash payment) with the accuser, out of fear of reprisal. [1] District Attorney Charles Hynes has stated: "As soon as we would give the name of a defendant ... (rabbis and others) would engage this community in a relentless search for the victims... And they're very, very good at identifying the victims. And then the victims would be intimidated and threatened, and the case would fall apart." Hynes has described the intimidation that occurs in these cases as worse than anything else he has ever seen in his career, including mob cases and police corruption cases. [12]

Prosecution

Former Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes, has had a mixed record on prosecution of these sexual abuse cases. He was praised for starting a program in 2009 called Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice), which is geared toward Haredi Jews and encourages them to co-operate with law enforcement; according to Hynes, it reduced the amount of victim intimidation. [12] Since 2009, roughly 100 out of 5389 cases of sexual abuse in the district have come from the Haredi community. [13] The first high-profile child sex abuse case that Hynes brought against the Hasidic community after his election in 1989, was that of Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed youth counselor and prominent member of the Satmar community, who was convicted on December 10, 2012, [14] of repeatedly sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl he was supposed to be counseling, [15] and sentenced to 103 years in prison. [14]

Some victims' rights activists have still criticized Hynes, accusing him of pandering to rabbis and those in power for political reasons, and not prosecuting cases aggressively enough. [4] [16] Described as "a velvet glove wrapped around a velvet fist", his approach did not publicize the names of defendants, even those who were convicted of abuse, and took other steps to remain in the good graces of religious leaders who took the side of accused molesters. In one complex series of cases, for example, after a prominent cantor was convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy, the boy's father was indicted by prosecutor Hynes for extortion based in part on testimony from a supporter of the cantor. And, as of 2013, the cantor's conviction was overturned based on the parent's "indictment and other technicalities". [11]

At trials for these cases, expert witnesses inform the jury that Hasidic victims often do not come forward because the community is so insular. [17]

When Rabbi Yoel Malik, 33, a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, was given a 60-day jail sentence for the abuse of students at Ohr HaMeir, a now closed Satmar yeshiva in Borough Park, the punishment was criticized by Ben Hirsch, a spokesman for Survivors for Justice, who stated that, "What DA (Kenneth) Thompson has done is inexplicable", and claimed that, "Through unexplained plea deals such as this, he has effectively quashed any willingness on the part of victims to come forward". It was claimed that the victims were "extremely reluctant to testify publicly", according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case, as quoted in the NY Daily News. [18]

Victim advocacy

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, a Hasidic Rabbi from the Satmar community in Williamsburg, created a hotline featuring weekly, impassioned lectures in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English - imploring victims to report sexual abuse to the authorities, while accusing community leaders of silencing the reporting of child abuse. Rosenberg also uses his social media presence to share his opinions on the state of child sexual abuse in the Jewish community, and chronicle his efforts and struggles as an activist.

In March 2016, Rosenberg discouraged his followers from participating in a protest against the alleged cover-up of child abuse in Yeshiva Oholei Torah of Crown Heights because it was to be attended by members of the gay community. "We will not stand in rank together with the faggots", Rosenberg wrote on his blog, "no matter how just the cause". [19]

Rosenberg is often shunned by communal authorities, and there have been instances in which he was physically attacked. [6] [10] In 2008, flyers were posted around Williamsburg depicting a coiled snake around Rosenberg's head with the words "Nuchem Snake Rosenberg: Leave Tainted One!". Rosenberg has also been banned from Satmar synagogues by its authorities, and he alleges that he has been formally ostracized by several Rabbinic entities. [1] Despite his decades of activism, Rosenberg has yet to be involved in the investigation, arrest, or prosecution of any member of any Jewish community for child sexual abuse.

Anti-abuse community activist Rabbi Tzvi Gluck has said that in 2011, a 30-year-old man molested a 14-year-old boy in a ritual bath; this case never made it to the police due to community pressure on the victim. A rabbi made the boy apologize to the molester for seducing him. [1]

Monsey rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson has lectured on this topic, which disturbed some people, but also has brought awareness to the problem. [20]

In 2019, responding to the increased publicity of sexual harassment and rape charges with the Me Too movement and the increased exposure of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases, the state of New York passed the Child Victims Act which allowed victims to sue their attackers within a one-year period. Other states have passed similar "lookback window" laws. Orthodox victims who had unsuccessfully brought civil action against their molesters in the past used the Child Victims Act to sue the individuals and institutions responsible. [21] [22]

Notable cases

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Otterman, Sharon; Rivera, Ray (May 9, 2012). "Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse". The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Pinto, Nick (September 7, 2011). "The Shomrim: Gotham's Crusaders". The Village Voice.
  3. ↑ Long, Colleen (June 11, 2012). "Orthodox NYC counselor on trial in sex abuse case". AP.
  4. 1 2 "Panel Assembles To Discuss Sex Abuse Cases In Brooklyn". 10 June 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Orthodox Jewish counselor on trial in sex abuse case". USA Today .
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  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews rally behind accused in child abuse case". TheGuardian.com . 16 May 2012. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Otterman, Sharon (2012-12-03). "Ex-Principal in Brooklyn Convicted of Abusing Boys". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Otterman, Sharon (21 June 2012). "Ultra-Orthodox Men Charged With Trying to Silence Accuser". The New York Times.
  10. 1 2 3 Ketcham, Christopher (November 12, 2013). "The Child-Rape Assembly Line". Vice.
  11. 1 2 Powell, Michael, "After Sexual Abuse Case, a Hasidic Accuser Is Shunned, Then Indicted", New York Times, June 17, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  12. 1 2 "Brooklyn DA: Intimidation in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Sex Abuse Cases Worse Than Mob Cases".
  13. ↑ "Orthodox Jews slam Hynes' sex-abuse policy". New York Post. 2012-06-11. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  14. 1 2 Otterman, Sharon (January 22, 2013). "Hasidic Therapist Sentenced to 103 Years in Sexual Abuse Case". New York Times. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  15. ↑ Otterman, Sharon (December 10, 2012). "Nechemya Weberman Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing Girl He Counseled". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Rivera, Ray; Otterman, Sharon (May 10, 2012). "For Ultra-Orthodox in Abuse Cases, Prosecutor Has Different Rules". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Juror's bombshell claim: Hasidic suspects can't get a fair trial in Brooklyn". Daily News. New York. July 22, 2013.
  18. ↑ Blau, Reuven, "EXCLUSIVE: Brooklyn rabbi charged with teen sex assault gets 60 days in jail; DA ripped for offering light plea deal", New York Daily News, February 26, 2016.
  19. ↑ Rosenberg, Nochem (20 March 2016). "The Cause Does Not Justify Means". nochemrosenberg.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-31. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  20. ↑ פרל, נתן (July 13, 2016). "איך להתייחס לפגיעות בקהילה? הרצאה שטלטלה את העולם החרדי" [How to Deal with Abuse in the Community: The Lecture that Disturbed the Haredi World] (in Hebrew). Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  21. ↑ Hella Winston, "The Ultra-Orthodox Community's Sex Abuse Crisis Has Finally Reached a Tipping Point'. Vice, September 24, 2019.
  22. ↑ "A Tidal Wave of Sex Abuse Lawsuits Is About to Hit New York's Catholic Churches and Boy Scouts". www.vice.com.
  23. ↑ "YECHIEL BRAUNER | Jewish Community Watch".
  24. ↑ Khan, Daryl (December 9, 2006). "Brooklyn Rabbi Is Arraigned on Charges of Sexual Abuse". The New York Times. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  25. ↑ "NECHEMYA WEBERMAN | Jewish Community Watch". www.jewishcommunitywatch.org.
  26. 1 2 "Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Man Sentenced For Intimidating Sex Abuse Victim". 13 January 2014.
  27. ↑ Saul, Josh (22 January 2013). "Hasidic counselor Nechemya Weberman gets 103 years in child sex-abuse case". New York Post.
  28. ↑ Yaniv, Oren (6 June 2013). "Three Brooklyn brothers who admitted trying to bully sex abuse victim's boyfriend receive no jail time". nydailynews.com.
  29. 1 2 3 "Sex abuse victim driven out of shul". Ynetnews. 9 November 2013.
  30. ↑ "N.Y. Sex Abuse Victim Driven Out of High Holy Days Services". Haaretz. 10 September 2013.
  31. ↑ Saul, Josh (9 September 2013). "Sex abuse victim shamed during synagogue prayers". New York Post.
  32. ↑ Saul, Josh (1 May 2013). "Orthodox Jewish man gets five years for raping Brooklyn boy". New York Post.
  33. ↑ Yaniv, Oren. "Man who molested boy in Jewish bath house gets five years — and an earful from the victim whose life he "ruined"". nydailynews.com.
  34. ↑ "MEIR DASCOLOWITZ | Jewish Community Watch". www.jewishcommunitywatch.org.
  35. ↑ "Ex-Yeshiva Leader Gets 55-Year Term". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2013-02-08. ISSN   0362-4331.

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