Brooklyn DA Honors Jewish Community Watch

by Eliyahu Federman – Huffington Post

At a recent Chanukah party hosted by the district attorney of Brooklyn Charles Hynes, he presented an award to Meyer Seewald, the director of a Crown Heights-based Jewish community watchdog group that investigates and exposes claimed predators in Hasidic communities.

Seewald’s award of excellence acknowledged Jewish Community Watch’s (JCW) “tireless service and dedication to the community.”

JCW is a grassroots organization dedicated to exposing child predators and educating the public on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse.

The organization’s website includes a registry of alleged child sex offenders from various Hasidic communities. The list includes convicted sex offenders, those with pending charges and others that have not been arrested but are alleged to have committed sex crimes against children.

During the ceremony, Hynes remarked that the organization’s work exposing child predators and assisting survivors in recovery “has been instrumental” in creating change in the tight-knit Hasidic community of Brooklyn.

The organization’s website highlights a 2011 rabbinical court ruling mandating that suspicion of sexual abuse be reported directly to the police.

27 Comments

  • what everyone knows

    this website is doing important work, but the wrong way.

    a. they have no rabbinical figure who is ready to publicly back them.

    b. they use mafia warfare. threats, traps, blackmail etc.

    c. they uncover stories long forgotten. the people have seen medical help, left their positions in chinuch, and been responsible. still, if you don’t toe THEIR line, they will ruin your life.

  • Fantastic!!!

    God bless Meir Seewald…he does more for the community than anyone I know. His tireless efforts has helped expose sinister predators who seek to harm our families. All of the Rabbonim should be swarming to support his actions.

  • just saying

    “The organization’s website includes a registry of alleged child sex offenders from various Hasidic communities”

    and of the non hasidic communities

  • Chaim

    Meyer Seewald is the most important person in our Community bar non!

    in the past year or so his website has exposed 30 Abusers.

    If not for him how many children would have been abused this year? how many more lives destroyed? how many kids would have been driven to drugs, anti-social behavior, non- religious lifestyle and even suicide?

    Is there anybody else in the Lubavitcher community that you can say saved dozens of Jewish lives last year!?!

    Meyer I stand in Awe of you and I really hope the community supports his organization financially so that he can save so many more..

  • wow

    Great job Mr. Seewald, I am in awe of what you have been able to do to. As life goes by and we get older we think that we are limited in what we can do. When I look at you I realize that life’s boundaries our in our own mind and that we can overcome any obstacle we desire. My issues are minuscule compered to what you deal with.
    Keep up the great work

  • JewishCmmunityWatch.com

    I am very in favor of this type of site HOWEVER it must be controlled in the hands or respectable individuals of the Jewish community

  • Good Job

    As they say in life, it is not the talkers who get things done but the doers.

    Your results speak for themselves.

  • do it the right way

    I have to agree with comment #1. Although his intentions may be good, he is going about it in the wrong way and is slowly losing credibility because of his “tactics”. so I want to reiterate what comment #1 says.

    a. they have no rabbinical figure who is ready to publicly back them, though they claim on their website that the case of anyone they “expose” goes through a rabbinical overview and there is a unanimous agreement that the person should be posted- this is simply untrue.

    b. they use mafia warfare. threats, traps, blackmail etc.

    c. they uncover stories long resloved. the people have seen medical help, professional help, left their positions in chinuch, and been responsible. still, if you don’t toe THEIR line, they will ruin your life.

    i would like to add that their professional that they seek counsel from was practicing for a few years UNLICENSED!

    so again, though his intention may be good, his way of going about it is just wrong.

  • To number 1

    “but the wrong way.”
    Do you know a better way?
    Have you done anything yourself to stop abuse?

    “they have no rabbinical figure who is ready to publicly back them.”

    They do not need one. This is not the job of any Rabbi. Had it been, or if it is… None have done enough to stop the abuse from happening.
    “they use mafia warfare. threats, traps, blackmail etc.”

    I wish this were true..
    Its like the argument of water boarding… Give me a break we are talking about sick people here…

    Besides if this were true he would not be awarded by the DA.
    And or he would be sued.
    “they uncover stories long forgotten.”

    Forgotten by who? Not forgotten by the victims I can tell you that

    “the people have seen medical help, left their positions in chinuch, and been responsible.”

    Explain what this means in detail please…
    Molesting a child is worse then murder…
    On what bases can you justify this act? and tell me with time it goes away…

  • No Leadership

    Who are the leaders of our frum communities? Since the psak din
    of only two of our Rabbonim I haven’t heard of anything done to
    prosecute the people that Meir has uncovered. For instance explain to me why a certain pedophile who is on Crown Heights
    watch is given the honor to hold the Rebbe’s sefer torah on
    Simchas Torah. Ironically he is the individual who is in charge of our children’s Hakofos on Simchas Torah. Isn’t it ironic that
    someone who has ruined the lives of Talmidim of ULY is given this kovod Where are our leaders? Ad Mosai!!!

  • to number 8

    I agree…. and Meir due to his hard work has gained mine and many others respect… So I am glad its run with a good set of hands

    Thank you Meir…

  • Proud to have you in our community. .

    Meyer, the same old story is told and retold. You have no rabbinical figure behind you, you are not a professorial, you don’t have smicha, no PHD etc… Oh you want to do something to help save our children. “I am very sorry to say that you are not qualified”. If you tell them that the Dean of YU thinks very highly of you or that you have Charles Hynes personal cell phone number or better yet he has your cell number and lets not forget the head of the sex crime unit (that you are on first name bases with) that wish’s they had a dozen more like you. I think we can go on and on. Gent’s when you kids are walking across the street and a car is racing at them and somebody is trying to save them, now is not the time to ask for credentials. If you so desire to ask, please make sure it is your child that going to be in front of the car not mine.
    Meyer G-D should bless you with only good and happy things. Have a great Chanuka

  • think with sechel, not emotions

    To number 11- if meir claims as do you that no rabbinical backing is necessary- why then does his criteria state that the alleged perpetrator’s case goes through a rabbincal review? if its not necessary, it’s not necessary….

    using mafia warfare etc… you say you wish it were true.. they are sick people…
    you do not know that for a fact, any person accused is treated this way whether they have followed professional guidance or not and have been through therapy.

    no one is justifying the act of molesting a child- but if meir wants to retain his credibility and really help the children of our community, he needs to go about it in a respectable fashion. if a person has done all that professionals have guided him to do and left his position of chinuch etc.. and is not deemed to be a danger to children, he does not need to have his life ruined by meir and his team. act like mentchen if you are trying to get the job done. otherwise you lose people’s respect and their support for what may be a good cause.

  • blablabalblaa

    to 1,8, 10,15

    You sound like you are all the same person.
    You sound like someone who himself is a predator, or the son of one, of whom you believe is now “cured”.

    There is never going to be the “right way” to handle abuse… which is the very reason why so many in the past have hid the problem, covered it up, or simple ignored and ran away from it.

    Meir… he is doing something about it!!!! right or wrong… he is getting something done… and he is getting others to do as well.

    Due to the sensitivity of what he does no one will ever know how he does it and whom he speaks too… Unless you are guilty of this crime.

    If you have a better way of doing it… DO IT… STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.

  • Nachshon of our time

    We need more Nachshon Ben Aminadav’s ! You should be blessed from the wellsprings on high for the self sacrifice that you do for the Jewish community. Don’t pay attentions to the haters, even Moses had to contend with them !

  • such and such

    Parents have to stop passing the buck and stand up for their children. If someone’s child is molested, simply go to the police and state your case.

  • From a District Attorney

    To those who are critical that JCW doesn’t have “rabbinical” authority: You are absolutely wrong. None of the “rabbonim” have any training or experience in dealing with sexual predators. Moreover, our “rabbonim” have been involved in coverups, providing financial assistance, or blind ignorance when it comes to this subject. Stop the ridiculous blind faith in our so called rabbonim – You sound like the Catholic church.

  • Right Idea, Wrong People

    I used to participate on Seewald’s site until I realized it was getting nothing done.

    Sure, he made public some arrest records – but anyone can do that, and the monsters who were arrested and convicted, got slapped on the wrist anyway or are still in the shechuna awaiting a hearing. One even ran away after posting a joke bail amount – what was achieved there?

    On the other hand, he has a half-dozen or more supposed offenders about whom nothing has been formally done. Either they are not offenders, or the people behind the site don’t know how to get them dealt with.

    Therefore, I added the site to my schmutz site filter.

    Someone mature, responsible and yes, Chassidish, has to take over. Every oisvorf who went off somehow comes up with a molestation story, and someone needs to sort the real offenders from the innocent victims of oisvorfen who got nowhere in life and blame others for their shortcomings.

    The real offenders need to be taken care of by Rav Shtarkman’s Beis Din, because all they get is probation anyway. If Seewald has named any innocent person, I hope that person gets an attorney and makes sure Seewald is dealt with very severely. If Seewald has named people about whom real information is available, someone more mature and competent has to follow up to make sure those people are off our streets for good.

    And I guess Seewald will vote for Hynes.

  • std

    #20, there is truth in what you say. Somehow we have to figure out how to deal with this, but rabbonim are not the full answer.
    there was a story a long time ago in Flatbush of a woman who kept calling up the rabbonim that her neighbor was being abused, that she was hearing alot of violence. the rabbonim kept putting her off and nothing happened until one day the woman was removed, not alive.
    the woman who was hearing the violence was very bitter and angry. What can we learn from this?

  • To # 21 .

    TO # 21,

    I think he is a bit to busy to answer you at the moment, when he has all the scum off the street (or sent to your house) he will give you a call.

  • To # 21 .

    to # 21, who is Rav Shtarkman’s Beis Din?
    I tried google’ing him, I checked in the CH tzach list and nothing came up. please let me know as he must be somebody who helps out the kids in CH.

  • 21

    it looks like seewald has been doing this for the last year and a half and nobody put together a better system. It must mean that he is doing something right. e.g. in the cell phone industry or anything to do with electronics or life, whoever has the best system that what everybody buys/goes to.

  • Fruma

    Meyer, I am in great awe if you; I think you display outstanding courage. Standing up for the forgotten, giving a voice to victims; fighting the insanity and pervertedness called sexual abuse. Now all predators will be bloody scared to do their crimes thanks to your work. Others should take heed because our children and youth should never be a community sacrifice.

    Thank you for making the lives of so many safer.