Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes claims to have arrested an unprecedented 89 men on child abuse charges in the ultra-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn over the past two years — but declines to provide any details backing up the numbers or to give the status of any of the cases.
Child Abuse Arrests Spike in Brooklyn. Or Do They?
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes claims to have arrested an unprecedented 89 men on child abuse charges in the ultra-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn over the past two years — but declines to provide any details backing up the numbers or to give the status of any of the cases.
Just why the D.A.’s office would be unwilling to respond is unclear, particularly because the staggering figure appears to bolster the D.A.’s claim that he is getting tough on Orthodox abuse.
Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, said the D.A.’s figures raised a “very troubling question.”
“At least some of these 100-plus cases [over the past four years] must have been resolved by now,” Hirsch said.
Hirsch, who said he regularly monitored new registrations of convicted abusers for heavily Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods asked, “Why haven’t we seen a marked increase in Orthodox perpetrators registered as offenders? Without public notice identifying dangerous predators, parents are unable to protect their children.”
He added, “We deserve public notice of the arrest and conviction of Orthodox offenders, not culturally sensitive policies that keep these cases from the public, thereby placing children in danger.”
If the latest figure of 89 arrests during the past two years is correct, it would appear to suggest that the ultra-Orthodox community’s wall of silence has been breached once and for all.
Survivors and their advocates cautiously welcomed the figure. But they suggested that an increase in arrests may have as much — if not more — to do with grassroots pressure from within the community than from the D.A.’s work.
Luzer Twersky, who claims he was abused by a rabbi from the age of 9 until he was 12, said the D.A. has little influence within the Orthodox world.
“Everything is done in a Hasidic way,” Twersky said, referring to what he described as the community’s preference to handle matters internally and, occasionally, to pay victims for their silence.
In Twersky’s case, he said a threatening telephone call to his father from a prominent rabbi was enough to keep him quiet.
Today, claims abound that communities close ranks and that rabbis stifle abuse allegations.
Agudath Israel of America, the ultra-Orthodox umbrella organization, advised Jews in a recent statement to consult a rabbi before taking their allegations to police.
But in the predominantly Chabad-Lubavitch community of Crown Heights, attitudes appear to be changing.
In July, a Lubavitch religious court issued a ruling that stated unequivocally that families who suspect abuse should inform the police.
“The Beis Din [religious court] has become increasingly aware of severe incidents of child abuse that have occurred recently,” stated the ruling, which was reposted on Crown Heights Watch, an advocacy website.
The Crown Heights religious court said that because many victims had remained silent out of a “fear of stigma” or a fear of violating Jewish law, they had perpetuated “an environment of abuse.” The rabbis insisted that the prohibitions against Jews using secular courts “do not apply in cases where there is evidence of abuse.”
Eli Cohen, executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, said the rabbis issued their ruling after they were “consulted by victims in a small number of incidents.”
Cohen said the rabbis “saw the need to go public with their ruling in case there were other victims that they did not know about who were still unsure about reporting abuse to authorities.”
Troublemaker
no more petch, I guess.
no more discipline
yeah it says that before the times of moshiach there will be a lot of chutszpa
who decides how to discipline children, shulchan aruch or Charles Hynes?
Never forget..
“executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, said the rabbis issued their ruling after they were “consulted by victims in a small number of incidents.””
It makes it sound like the CHJCC has supported this “Change in attitude” Lets not forget the letter that came out from the Vaad.
http://www.crownheights.inf…
wondering
The Chjcc/Vad was the one that put out the letter that scared victims from coming forward after Keller was arrested, why is eli Cohen even talking? they are a bunch of clowns
But kol hakovod this is a big kiddush hashem for chabbad, at least we are doing something to stop this.
problem
I have a problem with certain websites that expose these people. Don’t get me wrong, the website is an essential tool to expose molestors. But just because someone is arrested does not mean he committed the crime. They should have concrete evidence before putting someones picture up and ruining both their lives and their families lives.
oy
refua shelema
To #1
What are you referring to? This is not about disciplining children. This is about seeing to it that sexual predators do not continue to abuse children, regardless of who the predators are. They are sick, they ruin young lives, and they need to be stopped. It is enough. ENOUGH.
thank g-d
abbout time….
Lost World..Lost Hope..Lost?????
NONE OF YOU GET IT……
You fight about who says what, when they said it, how they said it..and what exactly did they mean.
Get over yourselves.
WAKE UP..If you have never been sexually abused..do not insult the intelligence of the ones who have…just do something about it.
You have no idea what it is like and you cannot possibly understand how your entire life is destroyed…taken from you FOREVER
Please the ISSUE is not politics…it is SAVE the CHILDREN
Hashem Protect Us
This is unprecedented. Jews are mind controlled by FBI and NYPD to become sexual predators.
thank you
Thank you Rabbi Broin and http://www.crownheightswatc… for scaring predators into remission and ending this horrible wave of hundreds of young lives getting destroyed in our community.
this tremndous kiddush Lubavitch is in your zchus!
To 3 and 10
Kiddush lubavitch? which part, that lubavitch has a lot of pedaphile abusers? or that they follow the laws of the land with disregard to their ancient ways?
stop tuches lekking what other poeple think about you
the only person with seichel here is 9, the FBI chucks rubashkin in the trash but to save face and distract us they present Mrs Halberstam with an award and take pictures and feed it to the press. and we buy it. Yay for the FBI. Go NYPD. Bravo Charls Hynes. You are our heroes.
Get it through your heads that Rishaiim are not our friends.
To # 11
To # 11
Sorry to say, the whole world had this issue, we (the younger generation) of Chabad, determined that we want to rid ourselves of this disease. And we will cut this cancer out, one by one. If you want to keep it around, please let us know and we will be happy to send them to your house to babysit your kids or grandkids. We don’t want our little brothers to go through what happened to us.
agree with 11
It is not kidush Lubavich, but chilul Lubavich. Claiming
child abuse became convenient and cost-effective way to
punish husband, son-in-law, brother-in-law etc that he
dears to have different opinion
FALLSBURGER
I know of a family that recently went through a terrible ordeal when a 21 YO young man was FALSLEY accused of molesting a young boy.
He:
1) Was Arrested, and sat with the lowest of society for 24 hours
2) Had to post $100,000 bail
3) Retained a lawyer which cost him $75,000
After 8 months of hell, the DA office finally had to concede that it was proven without doubt that this was a blood libel ,(MONEY…..) and the DA dismissed the charges.
This young man is ruined for life!! He was arrested without a shred of evidence,
PLEASE PLEASE don’t be quick on the trigger to shoot an alleged molester, there is such an hysteria at the DA office that we (Orthodox Jews ) are all a bunch of pedophiles, that they were actually excited & made every effort to prosecute this case ,and with great reluctance dismissed the case
Footnote: at the bail hearing for this young man where the DA requested a $100,000 bail and the judge agreed, there was a case of a person accused of stabbing a person and shooting a person during a burglary attempt, his bail was set at only $25,000 !!!!!
The worst part is that the accuser has no consequences for making false accusations.
Yes I do acknowledge that there is molestation going on, but there are some crazed sick people who have a vendetta against chareidi Jews and constantly portray us all as a bunch of pedophiles
Weed out the Molestors
Even though there is a website, the mindset of the predators is that they still can get away with it. They play with childrens’ minds – buy their trust, convince them of their own guilt. This is only the tip of the ice berg and whatever upheaval the community will go through to weed out the predators – then so be it. No one should care who they are or what they teach. SO WHAT! If they touch a child then they should be punished to the fullest extent. Because that instant he molests a child – he molests the child for life. Over and over and over again. Don’t let it happen. Be aware and Be Educated and Do not be deceived by outward appearances. Talk to your children. Talk to them and let they talk to you. Being a victim has no shame!
Mom who will never forget or forgive
The Yeshivas are also to blame. My son was molested by a non Jew. The Yeshiva threw my son out- he was a danger to our students because of the trauma. Took back their reference to next Yeshiva and then blackmailed us for more money. My son did not want to hurt the Yeshiva and kept quiet. Shame. Schools have to stop covering up and principals afraid to make a stand. Yeshiva, you know who you are.