Posted to Op-Ed on
by Anonymous

Op-Ed: The Other Victims of Child Abuse

I was not molested as a child, yet a number of close friends were. Boruch Hashem, the perpetrators are locked up. The tide has turned, and molestation is no longer tolerated, nor swept under the rug. Yet, there are some real questions that no one seems willing to address in a meaningful way.

Thanks to these animals who prey on weak and often defenseless victims to satisfy their horrid desires, there is another whole category of innocent victims whose families are destroyed and who have their lives snuffed out.

I speak of the people falsely accused of molesting. It is so easy nowadays to accuse a person – who will doubt the child’s story? Who will dare come out on the side of the accused?

Each life ruined by molestation is of infinite value, and so are the lives of the falsely accused, whose lives are ruined together with the lives of their entire family. False accusations take on a life of their own, outside the legal parameters of “innocent until proven guilty.” Even when vindicated, the suspicion hangs around for the rest of their and their family’s lives.

There have been many known stories in communities around the world where, by great siyata dishmaya, the accuser was found out to be lying, and another innocent victim was saved.

We must do whatever we can to protect our children, and to bring molesters to justice. That’s why it is so painful and dangerous when people with ulterior motives promote false accusations.

Make no mistake about it – the taste of sweet revenge against a resented figure of authority, the intoxicating rush of fame and limelight, and the scent of money down the road are very powerful motivators, and are also perverted needs, and people are more than willing to make false accusations to maintain their status – think Al Sharpton.

This is not an issue, as some would like to portray it, of intimidating the victims, or protecting the perpetrators. When people who are begrudged by a community and sling mud at the institutions that tolerated and carried them for years, it hurts the poor children who are really victims – whose stories are cast in a shadow of doubt.

How do we stop people from ruining more lives and creating more innocent victims?

Where is the outrage from the righteous voices that care so much about “innocent victims”?

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168 Comments

  • agree

    While mollestation is a horrible thing the way crown heights watch deals with it is wrong the victim should not have to mention his name but the supposed board which is said to decide what be allowed tout up on the website should all be named and all should be respected people so they won’t put up an accusation until they are 100 percent sue and then the false accusation hopefully will cease

  • Report abuse directly to the cops

    Before you go defending the people who were falsely accused, you must consider all those “rabbis” and “leaders” who refused to defend the truly innocent victims in the first place. Case in point, JCW founder Meyer Seewald recently posted an excellent article about one such victim in Chicago whose allegations went unreported for nearly seven years! Why didn’t anash “leaders” report these horrible allegations when they initially surfaced? These cowards are just as culpable as the perp because THEY KNOW BETTER AND STILL DID NOTHING. If you want to cry about injustice, learn to pick your battles — most of those “falsely” accused on JCW and other sites had good reason to be accused. The unfortunate bottom line is that reporting any abuse, real or imagined, to rabbinic leaders is often a fruitless endeavor as they will almost always protect their image by covering it up. If you suspect abuse, go directly to the police since they don’t mess around. And if they find you’re lying, you’ll be the one in prison.

    • Madness

      The so called leaders will only stand up for one of their own. If you want real leaders, have the fake ones prosecuted. File a petition with the state to have them indicted.

    • Dov

      I’m sick to see this Chicago story again mentioned on a frum no less Lubavitch web site. Lots of great chasidim in the Windy City but also some roshoim protecters who should be exposed on the Wall of Shame. The dnainfo article is difficult to read. I agree with the author here that innocents should not be revealed until proven guilty but the protecters are just as evil.

    • To #3

      Chicago has no ”anash leaders”.
      The Rav is more involved in his Chabad House than his kehillah.
      Who else should be taking responsibility?

    • dont fool yourself

      ” If you suspect abuse, go directly to the police since they don’t mess around.” You dream, and dont fool yourself, the police in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens are not doing what they are supposed to do against the molesters o the frum community. They are many molesters and criminals in the community part of so called “prominent families” in Crown Heights and all over NY who are fully protected by the NYPD. There is a massive corruption and cover up coming from the top ranks of the NYPD.

  • Chaim

    Well-written and right on target. Standing up for the falsely accused does equal protecting molesters.

    • Another teacher

      Are you as nervous as I am of being accused of something? I look at my students every day and ask myself…what are they thinking? Will they tell their parents I did something because they didn’t make 100 on a test? Who will protect ME?

  • Sad but very true.

    I think that a lot more needs to be written about this issue of false accusations. We should be smart enough to know that an accusation can just as easily be false as it may be true. Its time that together as a community we tie up loose ends and begin asking for serious representation for ourselves in the community council and in web sites that are out there.

    We live in a time where leaders are followers. and those that should be followers are leaders. Where people with personal agendas and personal businesses are members of the community council and use the community council resources to better themselves and their businesses.

    I would like everyone to ask one question. When was the last time that the CHJCC gave a full account of the amount of money which came in to the CHJCC and how much was spent on administration and how much was used for helping the community which they are meant to represent.

    In simple words if the CHJCC uses 90% of the money coming in for admin and staff we have serious problem on our hands. Then the question becomes do we need the CHJCC at all?

    I may be wrong. but if there is no accountability and transparency then everything is possible.

  • Ian C.

    By following ‘best practices’ in our mosdos and by having these policies publicized we will go a long way in protecting adults from being falsely accused and children from being hurt by predators. In fact the very policies which protect children protect adults by limiting situations where abuse can happen and where they can be falsely accused.

    By allowing the proper authorities to handle investigations and by being forthright and compliant in those investigations we will greatly increase the safety of children while protecting the rights of people accused of crimes be they guilty or not.

    As R’ Daniel Eidensohn writes ‘Child & Domestic Abuse’ in the name of R’ Sterburch “halacha only secondarily is concerned with the collateral damage to individuals, family, schools and community by the reporting of abuse. Innocent victims are not to be left to be abused to preserve the reputation and well being of others” p2.

    Since professionals are those best suited to determine the validity of the claim we report the abuse to those professionals best qualified to determine the claim and how to proceed. When faced with the possibility that children are being hurt or the possibility that the accusation is false we favor the child and proceed to protect the child as the child has no recourse.

    • YMSP

      Ian, Daniel Eidensohn is a nut who lives in yerushalayim and who posts scandalous stuff on a whim. He’s caused a bad problem to be much worse. He’s one of the posters who runs with false accusations and then sometimes has regret.

      His brother, R’ Dovid Eidensohn, is a gaon olam who spends his whole life fighting for people and who 20 years ago wrote a book about how this generation’s idea of Torah is generally warped (something like “The Torah That Was and the Torah That Will Be”). He’s a good influence on his brother who’s slowly been changing.

      In general this is a very important topic. There’s a shliach and others who’ve been falsely accused, adults who’ve been gone after over nonsense allegations that allegedly took place when they (the accused) were kids and worse. It’s sad.

      To give you an example of how insane this has become, when the Mendel Epstein case broke (he’d been under FBI investigation for 15 years and previous tapes had been lost/destroyed) and one of his co-conspirators happened to be named Jay Goldstein, The Awareness Center posted a picture of Chaplain Yankel Goldstein and announced his “arrest” in the matter, Hashem Yishmor.

      That’s like accusing Al Gore of doing everything that Al Sharpton did, because they share a name.

      The internet freaks who act as judge, jury and executioner should, and need to be, ignored. They make the real problems much worse, the real issues into a laughable joke as they hurt and try to destroy many innocent people.

      Halacha considers them near rotzchim, the convoluted contortions of Daniel Eidensohn, the Awareness Center, JCW and others notwithstanding.

  • justice

    tzedek tzedek tirdof! It is clear that the rule of law is needed- proper investigation is crucial, and the police and justice system is required. The problem is with laws of statues of limitations- and WE should educate ourselves about those problems and lobby for change.

    • Justice

      You cant have it more than one way.
      if justice is what you want go with that but you cant pick and choose.
      if you by the law and the law has statues of limitations and that is the law .

  • the house is burning!

    In the Jewish communities, much of what you call siyata dishmaya of accused predators being cleared of guilt is actually the complementary epidemic of witness intimidation, prevention of justice, and mafia-like corruption. Nothing that G-d would be proud of at all. Few would risk the shame and intimidation of accusing for the reasons you state. And remember, when hundreds of Jewish children are being harmed in such horrific ways, with each predator attacking a large number of victims, the first and utmost priority of any Jew except a corrupt or perverted community figure (of which our communities seem to have plenty) is to save the children by breaking the taboo on reporting these crimes and denouncing the criminals and their supporters throughout the community. Until our leaders and powerful families stop intimidating victims and obstructing justice, thereby turning horrific abuse into so-called false accusations, every honest and G-d fearing Jew must continue to wage the war against abuse with zeal.

  • Where there is smoke

    Where there is smoke, there is a molester. How many were falsely accused?!

    • Not the author

      I know first hand of 3 cases that are/were up on the horrible and detrimental website jewish commuint watch, that are innocent. The “victims” confessed to have lied.

    • Dovid

      The whole story against [name removed] was only based on a well known meshuginer that got into a fight with him and hung up signs on Kingston avenue accusing him of horrible things. I think they felt that he was an easy target. The whole accusation is false. Just because someone is strange and rides his bike up and down Kingston doesn’t mean that he is a child molestor.

  • Anonymous also

    When my son was molested by his rebbi twenty four years ago, the police would not pursue the case without other families coming forward, even though the rebbi confessed to touching him inappropriately. None of the parents we contacted would come forward, even those who knew their sons were abused by this teacher, for fear of the retaliation which we experienced, which included our other children thrown out of school after being told directly that they didn’t belong there. The Rebbi still teaches there and from what we have heard is still molesting. I don’t know that the DA is so quick to prosecute if there is no corroborating evidence.

    • Another Anonymous

      I can’t imagine the pain your family & your son go through every day. My heart goes out to you. But this is the point: blogs & vigilante groups like JCW post names and photos of people who the police & DA do not prosecute….because therte’s no evidence! Things have changed a lot in 24 years. B”H molestation is now an issue we all are aware of, but if there is no case, why is JCW ruining these men’s lives? And their families? Who wants to be meshaddach with these men’s kids? JCW is dangerous & so are the people who work on it.

  • The truth can be frightening

    plenty the problem is that many are very quick to falsely accuse & even when that is proven false many don’t want to believe it & some will still shove it in someone’s face & lie even many ears later to spit e the person & yet want to claim hear no evil see no evil speak no evil!

  • facts

    You say, “The tide has turned, and molestation is no longer tolerated, nor swept under the rug.” I wish that were so. It is not, unfortunately, and therefore we must indeed “care so much for the innocent victims” (as you sarcastically put it).

  • what

    every perosn thats falsely accused is ruined who cares how many? one is enough. would you also say how many kids were abused?

  • Shimon Shak

    I’ve been thinking a lot about this direct topic quite a lot lately. There are a lot of dimensions to this problem the most obvious of which is there are no witnesses to the crime except the accused perp and the victim. Secondly in the cases of accusations at least with JCW the victim is always (unless the accusations are brought to court) annonymous. While I understand and support this procedure it leaves a lot of people wondering whether a person that is being accused is actually guilty because so much is left in ambiguity and to the discretion of an annonymous individual and or board. Therefore I think to make it fair for the accused and the victim I believe both should take a polygraph related to the accusations which should be administered by an independent third party and the results should be published on the JCW website along with the accusations. If the victim and/or the accused perp refuse to take one that should be published too. I’ve made this view public before and I feel this will give more validity to the cause and will leave less doubt in the eyes of critics.

    Sincerely,

    Shimon Shak

    P.S.: keep up the good work Meyer!! G-d Bless!!

    • Another Anonymous

      Anoymous? REALLY? Have you seen their wall of shame? Was [name removed] anonymous? He even went public after his “victim”: admitted she lied & wrote a heartwrenching account of how his life was ruined. Of course, that was before something/someone “changed his mind” & he was praising JCW, who had publicized the whole sorry tale. The Wall of Shame contains the names & pictures of people who were NEVER “brought to court.” Get your facts straight & stop saying things that you know just aren’t true.

  • who?

    “Who will dare come out on the side of the accused?” Sad to say, the answer is: Most rabbis and askanim, every molester and their families. In other words, the vocal majority that wields power.

  • Ben

    It’s not over – not by far. I am amazed at the author’s paradigm. It’s no wonder he/she posted this piece anonymously!

    Statically speaking, the number of false accusations is a virtual drop in a bucket.

    When one comes out as a victim, one is then doomed to being marked by our community as ‘damaged goods’ and we are despised, ruined even further, for the rest of our lives.

    Believe me, no one wants to be known as a victim of childhood sexual abuse!

    The problem is exactly the opposite: very few victims come out, knowing just how horrible the community response will be.

    Take me. I used to be a highly respected mesivta teacher. Pillar of the community type of fellow. One day, I walked in on a man molesting a six year old girl; it was her brother. When I spoke to their parents, they said they weren’t surprised, because their son had already violated other family members.

    Guess what I got for saving that little girl? Physical inquiries, emotional injuries, spiritual injuries … And now I no longer teach at all. My whole life has been changed, I can barely stand to be alive.

    It’s not over. Not even close!

    Our rabbonim need to get their collective act together. No more protecting perpetrators. No more humiliation of victims and advocates. No more bleach throwing. No more burning down of victim’s homes.

    And, if I ever catch another rabbi telling a child victim that the molestation was his fault, if I ever catch a rabbi forcing the child victim to ask his rapist for forgiveness … !!

    • Anonymous

      Wow! I’m hurt for you just reading your post.
      A different type of victim.
      I pray you find peace, and the mashpia/ therapist to help you get there.

  • sotrue

    Your so right thanks for speaking up is about time someone stands up to these false accusations

  • there is fire

    that is just the issue at hand we do not hear or remember those who were falsey accused and taken down because once to blasphemize you can never take it back…

  • one q

    Every person needs to ask what of it qas their father who someone accused of being a molester what if it was their son or brother who were accused would they run to hang them for all? Did tgey here the other aide of the story? Yes I know you will tell me what if it qas my son who were molested I would go to the police and let them do the reaserch I woukd never use violence or take matters into my own hands

  • where there is smoke

    There have been many accused falsely. Stopping csa is important. So is using csa as a front to damage people just because you don’t like them.

  • not anymore

    Today anyone can say anything and ruin lives, no fire necessary, an angry person will create the smoke and destroy lives.

  • finally

    A good article. It cheapens the pain of the victims of child molestation, when you blackmail those who did no harm, to admit to a crime they never did. To use this as a way to take revenge on your former teachers, will only hurt those who have trully been molested, and who will no longer be believed. But you dont care as long as you can get revenge.

  • How True

    There are unfortunately many accused falsely and when one has a personal agenda it blinds him from seeing the truth. Not always where there is smoke is there actually smoke. Look at the news these days and if you believe it all your are naive. The same applies with accusations.

    • Quick question...

      Hi. Sorry to interrupt here, but CAN YOU POINT OUT WHO’S BEEN FALSELY ACCUSED?

      I’m gonna go make a sandwich, maybe they’ll be an answer posted when I get back. If not, I’ll check after my shower.

      Then… maybe tomorrow?

    • my father has been falsely accused

      Was never charged never convicted only rumored about. And he is up there. Should I write his name here for an idiot like you? That would be killing him on this forum

  • ALWAYS? ??? TO NUMBER 1

    Don’t you think that it is possible for an individual to be falsely accused?

    That is all the article is addressing.

    READ THE ARTICLE!!!

    It is intelligent & reflects another concern our community must consider.

    The article in no way diminishes the war against child molestation.

  • Yossi A

    There is also the issue of sites like JCW that puts only certain people on its site. Latley there,was a man from our shechuna that was convicted in the courts of molesting yet his picture isnt on the site. There are and were people that were falsely accused that were drraged thru the mud by haveing there pictures on the site. If we are going to do it let us do it correctly.
    People in the shechuna will start questioning the motive of the site and true molesters will get a free ride for one reason or other, which is the real tragedy here.

    • your sickly insensitive

      Everything has a reason, if you know about the story then your know who his victims are, and yet you will pick on the site for NOT publishing his name.

      This means that you dont care about victims, nor the sites mission, but care for the abusers and are using this as a motive to attack.

      How low.

  • to #1.

    You ask:
    Where there is smoke, there is a molester.
    Answer
    Answer: Think conceptional smoke bombs.

    You Ask: How many were falsely accused?
    Answer: No one really knows. Because in most cases there is ONE word against the other & people tent to believe “victims”, especially when the “victims” were children. It almost becomes HOLY to believe. In general dirty stories stick easy.

    • where there is smoke

      Idiot. Why have they nothing to worry about. Their reputations are ruined, families shamed and lives destroyed.

  • concerned

    Unless there was a proper court case, sharing the information is called SLANDER or LASHON HARA and that is very very harsh and probably impossible to ever undo the damage.

  • Dina

    So what’s the answer? Who does one turn to when being falsely accused? The rabbonim are quick to believe the children, as are the professionals. The police will even cause them to believe they commited the crime through lie detector tests and manipulation. It makes one lose trust in authority, as well as those in community they live in. People love to feed off of gossip, and are quick to judge. Those who are falsely accused are left to fend for themselves, with no support, whose families suffer for the rest of their lives.

  • elki

    I find the op-ed and the comments that back it up shocking.
    You are talking about a tragic situation and tragic it is, when lives are destroyed because of false accusation.
    However, it has been proven that this occurs a fraction of the numbers of r”l authentic accusations.
    All these years, when it was swept under the rug, why did people who could have done something, protect the accused and intimated or ignored the child’s accusations?
    It is a very tough situation to calibrate the truth of the accusation against the possibility of its falsehood.
    There has to be a way to find the facts more professionally, though this is a formidable task.
    But please err on the side of caution and listen to a child who accuses someone of molestation, follow up on the story, if people would cooperate. But I am a child advocate, and children need more protection than any adult. “Tinokos Shel Beis Rabban” are the purest souls, and just pay attention, follow up, and deal with the problem in whatever way it needs to be dealt.

    • protect the children

      Did you read the article?
      The point was that it is not erring on the side of caution to always believe the accuser, because by doing so you are potentially ruining more lives!

      (and BTW, many accusations are not made by children, but rather by adults who claim things to have happened many years ago.)

    • YMSP

      Generally, false accusations are less than 10% of the time – still a shocking amount.

      On frum yenta sites (b/c kol hagodol mechaveiro yitzro godol heimeno??), I’d venture to guess that number to be 25-60%.

      Very sad.

    • Proven?!

      Elki, exactly who is it who “proved” that “this occurs a fraction of the numbers of r”l authentic accusations”, and how did they prove it?

      YSMP, how do you know it’s less than 10%, and not 20%, 30%, or even 80%?

      These numbers are pulled out of the air, by people whose basic approach is that unless the accused absolutely proves his innocence they assume he’s guilty.

      Remember the witch hunts of the 1980s, when children were accusing day care teachers and parents of all kinds of bizarre things, satanic rituals and clowns and other ridiculous fantasies, and the “professionals” told us that “children never lie”? Of course ALL those accusations were proven lies, after people sat in prison for years

      And of course the original witch hunts in Salem were exactly the same thing, children making up fantasies about adults, and then getting caught up in their lies.

      The same people who tell you it’s rare for children to make false accusations also claim that it’s rare for women to lie about being raped, and yet the truth is probably that most accusations are false, because even when they’re caught women who lie about rape are hardly ever punished.

    • YMSP

      Proven?! – Good point even if it’s too scary for many people to want to consider. These internet groups that act as judge, jury and executioner need to be stopped and that this is inappropriate for a frum community. That said, there’s got to be a lot more self-defense teaching and educating kids to protect Yiddishe Tahara.

  • Israel

    @ the house is burning!

    Your arguments do not help the victims.

    “Few would risk the shame and intimidation of accusing for the reasons you state”? The proof is in the pudding. It has happened many times.

    Dismissing the acquittal of innocent victims of defamation as “witness intimidation” and “mafia-like corruption” because the alleged victims cant be lying is the exact equivalent of dismissing the victims of CSA as making things up because the Rabbi couldnt have done it. The two dismissals are mirror images, and unfortunately both have been proven to be wrong.

    Not holding all claims up to scrutiny reduces the credibility of the claims that are indeed true, and limits the amount that the innocent victims of CSA will be helped by speaking up. A very undesirable outcome.

  • to #1.

    Help Fire!! So who do you call?
    1) A qualified fire fighter
    2) An passionate angry neighbor who hated fires, because he was once burnt
    Very possibly the passionate guy will make thing worse.

    Why is molestation different? That’s the point of the article.

  • Meyer

    Elki,

    Did the Op-Ed say that we should not “listen to a child who accuses someone of molestation” and “follow up on the story”?

    On the contrary. By maintaining a standard of thorough investigation before publicizing claims that will ruin a persons life even if they are eventually found to be innocent, children that were abused R”L will be more motivated to report their abuse knowing that it will be taken seriously and not considered as just another accusation.

    Not to mention that while children are more vulnerable than adults, adults are no less important than children, and ruining the life of an adult and their entire family without good reason is also a travesty of justice.

    • Anonymous

      I agree with this point! Resorting to hurting ppl whaen other options work better is unjustified and plain cruel

      Meyer ironically is an abuser and molester figuratively, by choosing less effective solutions, when there are more reliable ones available.

      I’m also against the belief that such disorders can be cured by threats and family shaming!

      If someone really has this sickness in his brain, do u think it suddenly gets cured by jailing? Registry or threats?
      Mental disease are mental disease they are not coming from a rational calculated healthy mind! Can u fix any addict via threats and punishments?
      Or must things be handled in accordance with fact? The fact is that some of the accused May very well have the good fortune of being born with some very nasty compulsive urges! For their sake and the sake of everyone, we must campaign to get them help well before they ever strike!

      That should be the main strategy for prevention!!!

  • victim

    as a victim of abuse, i feel further violated and abused by false accusations that discredit us all

  • Agree with every point in this article

    “he taste of sweet revenge against a resented figure of authority”
    “the intoxicating rush of fame and limelight”
    “the scent of money down the road”
    are very powerful drives…
    and are themselves “perverted needs”

    all true, so what do you propose?

    i say, let JCW get ABUSE PREVENTION EXPERTS from any secular organization to put their name and credibility on the line, so that JCW does not forever remain tainted by the stench of being run by ANTI-FRUM drugies who seek to call each perp a “Rabbi” just to twist the anti-frum knife one more time!

    i happen to know Meir very well, and know his motivation is not to prevent suffering of all types of victims!
    he really couldn’t care less a bout the children of a molester who is virtually no longer a threat, and has mended his ways decades ago!

    Meir, does not evaluate the MOLESTATION of entire families who’s accused relative is in treatment and under the threat of exposure,
    even though these relatives pleaded with meir for him to trust their tenacity and vigilance,

    His refusal to work quietly with cooperative families tells me that HIS MOTIVATION is not to prevent suffering, rather its his perverse appetite to self righteously smear and vilify the guilty with the innocent as long as he looks like a martyr.

  • QUESTION

    Does anybody know names put on the JCW that are false? If yes, please let us know. They shouldn’t be up there if that’s the case!!

    • Thank you

      Of course we know them. But whos there to hear us out with Tzedek Veyashor?! You?! The website that hung them by the neck without a fair trial in the first place?! The crowd outside in the streets of CH that have become a lynch mob incapable of seeing straight and clear anymore? And my dear friend, those of us who Iintimately know those innocently accused know too that they dont have the money for the lawyers it would taketo fight this case right. They are also so shattered they didon’t have the strength to deal with something so dauntingly tthreatening to fail any attempts at clearing their name. Like trying ti clear a mountain away with a fork. So pray tell who should we turn to now that his name has been so horribky bismearched? Only the Aibershter. Only the Dayan HaEmes.

  • 45 is correct

    The Rebbeh dealt much more effectively with molestation cases,

    the criminal justice and registry system has repeatedly proven itself wowfully inadequet at preventing the (root cause of the) problem

    the Rebbe required
    1. Reparations be paid
    2. Chemical/Pschiatric treatment of the brain of the molester, (to treat it as a brain disorder which it is)
    3. The Rebbe did not order any of the cases to be solved by the (typical ineffective methods of) Jailing and destroying a family

  • If you care about victims = you do what works! not whats popular in society

    since molestation is a disease of the brain, its ignorant and (proven) ineffective to treat it as merely a evil free choice fixable by punishment.

    The Rebbe instructed that all Sexual abnormalities (perverse orientations) be treated as DISORDERS!

    as mental sicknesses! requiring severe psychiatric (chemical) intervention.

    Discrete Chemical castration pill is far more reliable at prevention (and humane to the families of molesters) than public shaming of the whole family!

    Caring for victims is to say YES to what works (at prevention) an NO to what doesn’t work, (and destroys many more).

  • Anonymous

    THANK YOU for sharing what many people think but do not want to write, or do not know how to write. False accusations are worse than molestations, as they destroy lives and also undermine the pain of past victims who now think their story is only as exciting as a false and made up one. people must be careful not to support a person who is obviously reporting someone for sexual abuse to get at him because he dislikes him.

  • Anonymous

    people love to hear dirty stories about religious men molesting children. some are true, some are not. either way, people say they are against child abuse, but they enjoy the grousome stories, the more ludicrous and disgusting the better. its exciting gossip to some. it is a life sentence of misery pain and suffering for others. people need to stop enjoying gossip so much and start focusing on protecting children from sick pigs.

  • molesters applaud

    There are three problems:
    1) There is a plague of child molestation.
    2) There is a plague of cover ups.
    3) There is a plague of intimidation and mistreatment of victims and their families.
    It takes a miracle for a victim to come forwards, and another miracle to survive the onslaught and intimidation without recanting due to threat or pressure. This is hardly an atmosphere for false accusations. Rather, it is the perfect situation to force victims to recant and back down, artificially creating a “false accusation” out of what is an actual case of abuse. This article and many of the comments simply hands ammo to the threatening predators that swamp our community. They see from these comments that they have the communities blessing to twist their victims’ arms until they “admit” that their accusations were false. This goes hand in hand with protecting predators. Everyone related to a molester that has been exposed will be applauding this article, hoping to cast doubt on the monsters in their own families closets.

    • Thank you

      Hardly an atmosphere for false accusations? I don’t know but one of our mekuravim is a criminal psychiatrist specializing in sex offense. He says that it is the easiest thing to accuse someone of and considered the worst – worse than murder! Yet it’s the easiest ti accuse because it is so hard to prove wrong. Being in the field he says how its so sad because there are people he deals with that he knows are innocent yet its almost impossibke to ever completely clear their name. Ciming from an expert.

  • Anonymous

    being a teacher is a scary profession these days. Kids hear so much being tossed around about molesters and child abuse, it devalues the severity of the real issue. children will shortly (or already are!) telling teachers, if you don’t do this for me give me this mark let me do that, i will report you. i will say you molested me. and parents too, can use this ploy. if you do not accept my son i will report you. i will say he told us that you molested him. it is sick! it is using a very sad and serious issue for a persons own benifit and for revenge. i would never want to be a teacher in today’s world! kol hakavod to all the brave teachers out there.

  • Sue the guy

    If anyone on that site is innocent, why don’t they sue for defamation.

    How come non did?

    Because truth is not defamatory.

    • defamation

      To sue for defamation in this country it’s not enough that the defendant can’t prove it is true, you have to prove that it’s false. So how do you prove something DIDN’T happen? Especially if it’s supposed to have happened years ago, on no specific date, so you can’t prove you were somewhere else on that date?

  • If you were accused?

    If I were falsely accused of molestation, I would shatter heaven and earth to clear my name and to bring the false “victim” to justice.

    So far, for all the names published on JCW, only one victim has attempted to make any type of public denial. That one victim will indeed be tried in a court of law, and, if proven innocent, will have his name cleared.

    The question is, what about the other 99%? Why have they not issued any type of public statement denying the charges?

    The “Chazakah” of “Ein Odom Me-iz Ponov” applies in any type of case. Tawana Bradley and Crystal Magnum both broke under cross-examination. If the victims are lying, they will break.

    So again, I want to know why 99% of the perps listed on the JCW site have not come forward with any type of denial?

    • defamation

      Even the chazokoh of “Ein Odom Me-iz Ponov” no longer applies, and even bizman hashas that was only “bifnei baal choivoi”, in front of someone who lent him money, not in front of stam people. And even that was only when he had to confront him in beis din, face to face, not when he can just make an accusation to a third person or a web site.

  • Thank you

    Thank you for this article. No other words.
    Daughter of someone who was falsely accused.

  • Larry

    I dont understand if their are Innocent people on the crown height watch why cant or why dont they sue.

    • Mafia

      Do YOU want your house burned down, your adult child’s legs broken etc? This is our own mafia family.

    • defamation

      Suing gives the accuser the right to pry into your entire life, and at the end of the day he doesn’t have to prove anything, you have to prove that it DIDN’T happen. Meanwhile he can drag out every bit of shmutz, every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done, and at the end of the day even if you win he probably has no money. And if he can get you declared a “public figure” within the community, then it doesn’t matter if you prove it isn’t true, you STILL can’t win unless you prove that he KNEW it wasn’t true.

  • Moshe

    The ones who were falsely accused why dont they come out hard to show they are innocent.

  • other places

    Jcw isn’t the only one publishing names of “predators”. There is a certain someone in Australia who had a method. He claims to be for the victims, but as soon as he doesn’t like someone he accuses then (or had others accuse for him) off csa. He is a disgrace and hurts the many r real victims who really need support. He undermines the pain of real victims and destroys lives with his vindictive agenda of vitriol.

  • Potential victims of false accusation?

    I think the people most at risk for false accusation fall into 2 groups. People who are “different”, a little “off”, and people in Chinuch. I would never encourage my children to go into chinuch today & i have been involved in Chinuch my whole life. will I be next? Who knows which kid I told off one too many times or which angry parent will decide to accuse me? It’s something I think about. This article says it all, thank you.

  • CHW is not the only thing in the world!

    This article is not an attack on CHW!
    its just stating hard truths.
    there are many more communities in the world than just CH.

    • Being touched by a creep VS having your families reputation raped in public?? Which causes more suffering and pain?

      What hurts more?
      Being abused by a hormonal over-friendly counselor? Or having your father, brother, grandfather, Spouse, Vilified on the wall of shame?

      Most normal people consider the public shamming of their close relative far more traumatizing than being fondled by a sick or mixed up counselor.

      There must be better options out there! Than shaming and destroying a whole family even if the accusation was for sure true.

      Most cases accused by jcw are of low level one or two time inappropriate touch with no history of abuse since for decades

  • truth

    You ask who was accused falsely whenever someone tried to fight for their name jcw just put more and more stories about he’s prepared to use whatever methods he wants to keep up every person he puts up

  • Yeah right!!

    Not sure what inspired the author of this article but some points to be aware of. Children almost never lie about CSA. The number of people accused who are innocent is extremely rare. If anyone who has been falsely accused had his name put up publicly on any web site can sue, and it wouldn’t be difficult to shut the site down.

    • how do you know?

      How do you know it’s rare? Children often lie about all kinds of things, why not about this? ALL the cases from the 1980s turned out to be lies.

    • Chaim

      CHILDREN most often don’t lie about csa because they simply wouldn’t have that kind of knowledge unless it really happened. Not so with adults. Anyone with a grudge can easily make up a good story. And most of the accusers on the site are adults, claiming to have been molested as children.

    • Salem

      It’s not true that children don’t have that kind of knowledge. They hear things from each other, they repeat words they may not even fully understand, and then the adults who are questioning them fill in the blanks. It happened HUNDREDS of times in the 1980s and 90s, and innocent people went to prison because “children don’t lie”, and all the time it was just a modern version of what happened in Salem.

  • I know him

    The story about [name removed] I just don’t believe I have very hard time believing it.
    There is collateral damage when putty on people up their families did nothing wrong. Seewalds agenda is not 100% pure.

  • The false names

    a while back the name [name removed] was put on CHW. As it happened he WAS innocent. They slammed him ruined his name. Not even an apology on the site the just took his picture and name off.
    Seewald is doing a good job for the real pedophiles but he is ruining the names of the innocent.
    Either way 1 name is 1 to many.

    • Stop with this BS

      He was arrested… CHW had full right to publish his name for this reason alone.

      Charges were dropped due to the witness not being able to stand trial.

      Call the guy yourself and ask him why he was arrested, and why the charges were taken seriously by detectives.

  • Read this before you talk

    To all of crown heights, it seems from most commenters that r”l we are not Torah minded Jews the outside world has totaly taken over our outlook and the shulchan oruch and Torah law is a middle age burka caveman religion, in order to accuse someone of molestation or any other crime you need Eidus and hasroho, and the hasroho has to be toch cedai dibuur
    if you dont like this then find yourself another religion,i am not saying dont deal with this problem what i am saying is lets take stealing for example we can make the theft rate in the US drop by 90% if you institute a law that if you get caught stealing both your hands will be chopped off, but we wont do that because we just dont do things that way, The websight jewish community watch is run by a mechalel shabbos oiver al kala vechamuros a menuval umuka schin who resorts to blackmail to force false admissions etc. rabbi osdabo was threatened with messira if he dosent wright a letter for them B’H he didn’t give in to the reshoim not like the other SO CALLED rabbanim here who wrote a letter of support and then claim that they have nothing to do with it and don’t support it, if they don’t why is their letter posted on the site. someone who is mevayesh pnei chaveiro berabim Vechulu posting a person on the web is the worst sort of embarrassing pnei chaveiro, we learnt recently about tamar and the din of bas cohen you can say look the torah says embaress the parents berabim like the gemoro says orur cursed are the parents who brought someone like this into the world and it was done berabim to embaress them THATS ALL TRUE BUT ONLY WHEN THERE WAS EIDUS AND HASRAHA AND THE HASRAHA WAS TIOCH CEDEI DIBBUR, HOW OFTEN DID THIS HAPPEN THE GEMORAH SAYS A BEIS DIN WHO KILLED ONCE IN 70 YEARS WAS CONSIDERED A BAIS DIN KATLONIS A MURDEROUS BAIS DIN BASICLY IN PRACTICAL TERMS IT ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED and here is a community seeing, all the commentaters who don’t give two hoots what the shulchan aruch says modern orthodox lubavitch is what this is hashem hatov yechaper.

  • to #69 larry

    big talker why dont you put youself on the site and then sue maybe you will make easy millions? the answer is no you need alot of money to go to court,2) a jury is never favorable to a bearded Jewish rabbi, 3) internet bashing laws are very complicated this is not the place to discuss this.

    • Wrong

      Any attorney who you hire for a civil suit in such a case makes a commission on the win, and do not charge anything.

      and if you needed money, collect… how many guilty ppl have collected millions for court fees, let alone a “innocent” one.

    • how do you know?

      Good luck finding a lawyer who will take such a defamation case on contingency.

  • if falsely accused

    If a person is falsely accuses. I would expect him to Stand up in his self defense. Send letters out to each and every member of his community stating his innocence and his outcry for these false accusations. I would expect him to sue the people who are spreading these “lies”. But to this day not one of the accused have done so.

  • even the youth

    When a bus monitor of one of our local yeshivahs told a frequent misbehaver that if his problematic behaviors continued he would be banned from the bus, he looked her sweetie in the face and said “that’s OK, I will tell my parents you touched me inappropriately.” he was TEN years old. Yes, this story really happened and is troubling on so many accounts.

  • Mendy

    If There’s one poor guy up there that is innocencent
    It’s the same think as killing him cutting his throat
    So is mayer s a murderer but then again there are a few people up there that I heard first hand from the victims so they belong up there and who else would want to run a organization like jcw the rabbonim don’t want anything to do with it do you think it’s easy for the seewald family they have lost good family friends from this etc etc but I have one more question is mayer seewald credible to run this site !

  • That's the problem

    To all those who ask why no defamation cases. Firstly, they are expensive and unfortunately out of reach for some. Secondly, the media doesn’t love sticking up for those wrongly accused and the defamation cases often don’t make media waves like the false accusations do.

  • Yaacov Weiss

    He published a letter stating his innocents on Erev Yom Kipper…

    He then plead guilty, and then lost a civil defamation suit due to his telling ppl he was forced to take a plea.

  • read the article properly!!!!

    the article talks about the human cost of false accusation, filed with selfish motivation. someone who lodges false claims is as sick as a molester, a murderer just the same. some of you missed the point of the article

  • to #89 wrong wrote

    No i am not wrong, you are wrong it dosent go on a commission basis you have to pay and pay alot to lawyers, to all others saying if i was innocent i would do anything to clear my name, wrong the pressure that this causes most people is more then they can handle, and they cant stomach fighting it in court because it makes the story go much more public and makes it a real horror.

  • Dear members of the wall of shame

    It is sad that your craving for exploiting children sexually is bigger than the name you built up for yourself.

    It is further sad that you have no care for their beautiful families you brought into this world and have made countless bad choices including the denial of the claims made against you publicly.

    The first step of remorse and taking responsibility for your actions is by sitting your family together in a room and apologizing to them for what you did and begging for their help and support into getting you into an appropriate environment where you have no access to children.

    You should also beg them to reach out to your countless victims families and apologize to them.

    Hashem forgives, and so do people, but not when you deny and prompt your own family to write a Oped such as the one listed here.

    Shame on you once, now Shame on you twice.

    Yes we know you never thought of the courage that your victims would have to take a stand, nor did you think their would be a website stating your name for doing so.

    For all those NOT YET added to this wonderful group of people, you know your days are numbered.

    GET HELP
    STAY AWAY FROM KIDS
    TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT YOU DID

    Maybe then you stand a slight chance of saving face.

  • classic chabad

    you never miss an opportunity to reveal your true nature. How many times have we heard you say “I am against child abuse, However…”
    And here you go doing it again, none of you can point to a case of falsy accused, yet you all jump on the bandwagon of screaming how horrible this is. You should prasing Meyer Seewald for protecting your kids, but instead you treat him as the villian. You people are pathic.

    • Really?!

      Of course MANY people can point to MANY falsely accused, but to publish their names would just be killing them all over again!

    • say what?

      “You people are pathic.”

      Would that be empathic? Sympathetic? Telepathic? Passive? Pacificist? Pathetic?

      Dear me. How do you expect us to take you seriously when you rant & rave in an incoherent & grammatically-incorrect fashion?

  • BCH

    This is so outrageous! On jewishcommunitywatch.org any anonymous accusation is deemed sufficient to assume guilt and is hailed by hordes of moronic commenters as an act of “bravery”! Makes one think of USSR circa 1937!

    There is, however, a very good reason the writer of this great article chose to remain anonymous. No doubt, he or she are afraid of becoming a victim of a false accusation in retaliation for speaking out.

    Perhaps the greater outrage is that we, as a community, allow this travesty to continue without taking all appropriate legal action, including boycotting any Sewald family business interests. Just imagine it was you who was falsely accused! How would you like for the community to simply sit and do nothing!

  • the Rebbe's approach to prevention

    people need to start following the Rebbe’s far more effective and compassionate approach to abuse prevention

    it treats the source of the disorder, it prevents more victims, (families shame & future molestation)

    The Rebbeh dealt much more effectively with molestation cases,

    the criminal justice and registry system has repeatedly proven itself wowfully inadequet at preventing the (root cause of the) problem

    the Rebbe required
    1. Reparations be paid
    2. Chemical/Pschiatric treatment of the brain of the molester, (to treat it as a brain disorder which it is)
    3. The Rebbe did not order any of the cases to be solved by the (typical ineffective methods of) Jailing and destroying a family
    4. Healthy involved parents goes a long way towards making a child less vulnerable (psychologically to be targeted or keep quiet)

    DOING WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS = COMPASSION
    DOING A SENSATIONALIST DESTRUCTION OF FAMILIES = OPPOSITE OF COMPASSION

    • YMSP

      Best post.

      Hope a vaad is started to implement that.

      It would actually solve the problem (or reduce it significantly greater than anything else).

    • very intelligent rebuttal

      i guess the Rebbe’s approach is invalid bec you gave nothing to say other than blush and laugh

    • actually "the Rebbe's approach" bares out in the most recent studies of recidivism!

      just lookup the ACLU’s actions against the chemical castration pill,

      they argued against it bec its too effective at completely preventing any sexual urges -perverse or normal-

      watch out before you mock and attack the Rebbe’s compassionate approach

      compassionate bec it works to prevent the problem at its root and doesn’t destroy 50 large families with 100s of relatives each!

      abuse must be treated in a method which stops recidivism

      Jailing and Shamming doesn’t work bec it doesn’t treat the mental disorder (yes gross mental disease) at its source!

  • The Rebbe's approach makes sense

    i just did a little research online
    its true! all recent studies prove the Rebbe’s approach to be far more effective at prevention!

    the problem is though that self appointed activists who collect large sums of money officially for “Prevention” refuse to follow the evidence and studies indicating how recidivism cant be stopped by the dysfunctional justice system nor via registry.

    look up the latest numbers, the chem-castr. approach the Rebbe advocated (treating it as a brain disorder) is the responsible way to prevent future abuse.

    just google why “ACLU is against the chem.castration pill”

    i agree with the previouse coments that, compassion is to follow the evidence and do what works, not what stirs up the most suffering for the greatest number of ppl.

  • Being Principle centered is a must.

    Think
    America originally trained and supported bin Laden..
    (Some of) CH is supported JCW a group that is already and will contiue to hurt the community.

    All real decision can not be based on FEELINGS they MUST be based on Torah.

    JCW has an open letter agains a Rov that our Rebbe put in position.

    Even IF they are doing good by preventing abuse… It is still not something we should support unless an authentic Rov approves.

    This is the way Judaisim survived the toughest challenges for 4000 years.

    Let me be clear everything has good and bad in it. However, Torah/Rov must determine if it is justified.

    • YMSP

      Um, they trained the Taliban as part of the Muja Hadin. No time to look up and is if Bin Laden Y”SH was part of that 35 years ago (20 or so years before 9-11).

      They were fighting a greater evil but didn’t take safeguards.

      As to the issue at hand, the Rebbe’s approach works. The other approachs are destructive feel good hype that ch”v could make things worse. The Rebbe’s approach needs to be implemented.

    • not true

      The Taliban were not part of the Mujahedin. The Mujahedin whom the US funded (but did not train and had no direct contact with) became the Northern Alliance which the Taliban rose up against and almost defeated, and which the US put back in power in 2001.

      Bin Laden ran his own outfit in Afghanistan in those days; he may have indirectly received some US money (there’s no way to know that) but he definitely got no US training.

    • YMSP

      Look, to side tract on the history of the Taliban is a disservice to this thread, but just FYI, Mullah Omar Y”SH, their founder, was Mujahedin and they became a splinter group. Agree that Bin Laden himself is another issue.

      Back to the point, appointing some 24 year old brat with an axe to grind as the community’s one man tribunal of justice is Taliban on a level that even most mujahedin wouldn’t respecr.

  • Yossel

    There is someone on Mr. Seewald’s website who did something inappropriate once many years ago. That boy asked forgiveness from his victim, never did anything like that ever again, yet this man was sued in court and despite the family’s pleas to remove him from the “Wall of Shame,” Mr. Seewald refused to do so, causing an otherwise yiras shomayim family tremendous grief and putting them into poverty because of lawsuits and legal fees.

    I do not justify any type of inappropriate behavior, but there is a difference between a mixed-up teenager (who was a victim of molestation over and over by another boy) who did something bad once and never again, and an older man who repeatedly molests children. On Mr. Seewald’s website, they are one and the same.

    • Anonymous

      Agree with you.
      So why doesn’t anyone come out with the names of the more innocent?

  • no. 102 BCH i agree with you.....

    I think that a lot more needs to be written about this issue of false accusations. We should be smart enough to know that an accusation can just as easily be false as it may be true. Its time that together as a community we tie up loose ends and begin asking for serious representation for ourselves in the community council and in web sites that are out there.

    We live in a time where leaders are followers. and those that should be followers are leaders. Where people with personal agendas and personal businesses are members of the community council and use the community council resources to better themselves and their businesses.

    I would like everyone to ask one question. When was the last time that the CHJCC gave a full account of the amount of money which came in to the CHJCC and how much was spent on administration and how much was used for helping the community which they are meant to represent.

    In simple words if the CHJCC uses 90% of the money coming in for admin and staff we have serious problem on our hands. Then the question becomes do we need the CHJCC at all?

    I may be wrong. but if there is no accountability and transparency then everything is possible

    • apples and oranges

      Nobody despises the CHJCC more than I do, but unless they are actively involved in JCW (funding them, protecting the Seewalds etc) this isn’t their fault. Of course, I could be way off base & CHJCC is in cahoots with Seewald to bring down everyone in any position of authority. You never know!

  • Levi

    I personally agree with what Meyer Seewald is doing, for a very simply reason – my kids are safer in school, camp, shul, friend house, bus, mikva, and any other place because of him.
    I didn’t agree with everything Mayor Rudy Giuliani did but the streets, trains and New York is safer because of him.
    Bottom line: if you don’t agree with JCW then do something about it.
    A. Open up an office with whoever you think is qualified and put JCW out of business.
    B. If you think pedophiles don’t exist, contact JCW and pick any of the friendly/sweet faces from his “wall of shame” to babysit your kids.
    C. Let him know that you will watch your own kids and that he does not need to monitor the schools, camps and adults that might harm your child.

    If you agree with JCW and firmly believe that pedophiles should not be around children:
    Try to help and make a difference in YOUR community.
    A. Pedophiles (You know who they are) should be thrown out of the mikvah –I don’t think I need to explain further.
    B. Should not be allowed to be called up for an aliya in shul – if you touched a child sexually you forfeited any right to touch something holy.
    C. Should not be able to make a Kiddush in shul – he should get the message that what he did will not be tolerated.
    D. Do what needs to be done.

  • NYPD BULL/ DA curruption

    if you report a crime to the police they investigate it very little, make a report and if the crime is of an arrestable offence, make an arrest based on the accusations of the complaining witness and what ever little evidence is required, oh “my scratched arm ” + “my husband did it,”= arrest. what really happened doesn’t matter, cops careers improve my acquiring a stack of collars (arrests) so they are incentivised to not delve too deeply in to the patent credibility of the complaining witness statements or scrutinize the evidence the much.

    furthermore even when it comes out that a complaining witness is found to be lying they are never prosecuted (at least in brooklyn) therefore there is no risk in making any such complaints. which leads to an abundance of these complaints and leads to a mentality of where a vindictive persons first line of action is not to do violence directly to their intended target but by proxy via the police.

  • Just Me!

    OK enough with the baloney!

    This comment is addressed to the many lamenting that having the name of the perp on the wall of shame (which it truly is, shame on you!!) is hurting the family and extended families and the uncles pet rabbit.

    Well guess what? You guys are all nuts. Often a family member goes off or does something stupid, or commits a crime (gasp) and so on.

    So that’s all OK but this is not? Child molestation – horrific to our dear kindelach!

    How dare you minimize that pain? Guilty is guilty period. These deviants are guilty as sin. Yup, be it your brother or father or uncle. get with it.

    It is THEM on the wall of shame not you. Stop crying – some of you should have done something long ago!

    Kudos to this site for staying above the fray.

    • looking forward

      I hope to see your relatives names posted on the wall of shame with no proof, no indictment, no conviction, on the word of a vindictive liar (who may or may not be a Seewald)

      Your problem is, you believe everything the Saintly Seewalds post. You need to ask questions, starting with how do they get their proof? Who backs them? Why won’t their “Board” (which I don’t believe exists) admit to who they are?

    • To "Just Me"

      “Just me” sounds like you are truly very “Buttle”… Well you certainly have what to be “buttle” about.

      Your statements are empty of substance.

      Unfortunately the comments were apparently above your intellectual grasp.

      Neither the article nor the vast majority of comments defends a pedophile.

      Do you think you have the ability to comprehend the possibility that a person innocent of a crime can be accused of a crime?

      If yes, then do you think he/she should be helped?

      I would love to hear your answer to these 2 very simple, not complicated questions.

  • vindictiviness

    it is the most horrid thing to do, falsely accuse someone of molestation. its a stain you can never get rid of.
    some people get so vindictive, they cannot seem to display any self control when they get angry. there seems to be no line they won’t cross. there is no de-compartmentalizing. Even if you are justified in your anger there are somethings you should never ever do. However, is a G-d and things do come back around to bite you. its the total viciousness and devoid of any type of conscience that allows these type of people to do such things. Hashem should save us from encountering such people.

  • Moshe

    What i don’t understand is the people on the wall of shame and the ones not on it who get (got) arrested are still walking around and everyone is giving them the time of day.

  • a common sense idea

    here is the difference with two cases
    one in queens and one in miami

    two teachers accused one in queens
    1 rav gave a psak to go to the police and the community is paying for a panel of three independent consultants to conduct an independent investigation and report back to rabbis in the community. meanwhile teacher suspended with pay

    miami teacher at yeshiva elementry accused judge says not guilty because it was difficult to prove what occured ten years ago . rabbis ( no lubavitch ones TG ) sign a kol koreh defending this teacher . 3 other victims come forward and rabbi then threatens to sue the bloggers who outed this roshe . There is no doubt teacher must be removed from chinuch but now the whole world knows the story and the teachers life will never be the same

    If the rabbis were smart in miami they would have hired independant people to investigate. instead they all look like idiots for not investigating and defending a freind

  • To 135; HOW MUCH $ & TIME DO YOU HAVE ?

    If G-d forbid YOU were suddenly to appear on JCW– knowing that you were innocent…how much $ and how much time do you think it would require to clear your name???

    If you think that hundreds of thousands of dollars, and several years of courtroom litigation is an exaggeration, speak to a criminal attorney.

    Can you do it? Most cannot. And that, my friend, is why people have not brought litigation against JCW.

    • heart ache

      Not to mention the emotional strengths such a battle would cause. They’re so broken already

    • Absolute malarkey

      There was recently a man in CH who was had his face plastered all over town with a letter about how people will be going to jail because of him. This was a lie.

      The man in question sent out letters to every household in CH stating that the information was fraudulent.

      I would expect these people on the wall of shame to do AT LEAST that, but no, they have done nothing to actively tell the community that the allegations are false.

  • why hasent JCW been sued? good question - heres the answer...

    They are protected by defamation law because they wrote a disclaimer THE WORD ALLEGED!

    if they were really 1000% sure they would not be forced to use that legalese MANEUVER!

    even the most innocent guy is stuck now because JCW knivingly hides behind the word “ALLEGED”

  • To those advocating the "Rebbe's approach"

    JCW is not run by people who follow the Rebbe,
    very little about Meirs conduct and life stle resembles chasidus or the Rebbe,

    the Rebbe would have very strong words for those pointing fingers on others as abusers, when they themselves refuse to employ methods which preveny much pain and abuse (to future victims, and to families of real abusers).

    furthermore, meir was approached to launch a program by Rabbi Hurwitz (Monsey) training parents how to parent children better so that they are much less vulnerable to keeping secrets or even being easy prey in the first place,
    molesters seek out children who are love starved and whose parents dont tune in and TLC enough@
    why WHY WHY has meir refused to implement these meaningful and effective preventive methods??
    if he’s sincere about preventing abuse,
    why does he insist on obsessing on the punitive option? and why does he refuse to take some of the many thousands of dollars he received (from “friends” of the fruma) and allocate it to organized training programs offered to him by Rabbi Horowitz??

    re the Pill, yes its more discrete and effective, but i think it should only be offered to the worst offenders, not to a hormonal bachur who one time and never again touched his mushapa at a all night farbrengen with lchayim, vdal

  • Was on the fence

    I don’t trust seewild
    But we do need such a site promoting prevention
    Too bad no one credible has stepped forth
    Too bad this much needed cause got high jacked by someone with vendetta and hate,
    Too bad that this anti-frum lost soul, is falaciousy taking all the credit for a movement which has already begun 2yrs prior to this website!
    I remember as far back as 1998 Gan Israel of Montreal and Staff week training, we’re alerting and training educators re abuse prevention, same with the Neshei Chabad journal and a number of other forums which were steadily becoming increasingly more vocal and organized to fight this incideouse disease!

    Yet now ever since prevention has been associated with this vindictive website, people don’t want to be associated with anything resembling that transparent ploy to destroy a community in the name of preventing suffering.

    There was plenty of awareness and momentum growing in the frum community especially after klerzky, educating parents, young bachurim who may need help before they become would be molesters, etc etc education and other responsible remedies mentioned above in the name of the Rebbe would have dealt more effectively with the goal of prevention, for the benefit of all potential victims, victims from molestation and victims from families being destroyed RL

    Why there are soo many lemmings who assume that being Anti JCW means you are Not anti abuse is disturbing.

    I hope those with influence on seewald see the wisdom in the Rebbe’s approach to stop abuse, once the Rebbe’s approach is used + the threat of exposure for uncooperative molesters, I think our community will be a shining example of success, well above the statistics from secular society

    Bottom line:
    Chasidim trust and follow th Rebbe

  • To teacher #21

    As a educator myself I don’t know what you are afraid about. You need to check your practices to make sure that you are above board and beyond suspicion. For example you should avoid being alone with a single child at anytime. Also face the facts the old day’s of giving a child a friendly tap on the shoulder is over. you don’t have to like it but you must accept it.

    • I am #21

      You clearly don’t get it. It doesn’t mean a thing if a teacher does everything right….open doors, never taking a child to the bathroom, never comforting a crying child…IT DOESN’T MATTER!! If someone wants to say you molested hi/her, that’s all that is needed to make it onj the Wall of Shame & for your name to be on everyone’s lips. It has NOTHING to do with “checking practices.” You are so naive if you think it has. Wake up & smell the coffee!

  • immediate concern

    Our immediate concern must be to stop child abuse. An article designed to cast doubt on all cases of child abuse is not at all helpful. At best, it should be more carefully worded, because the way it is written suggests that the author’s intention is to protect predators by casting sweeping doubt on victims.

    • Learn to read

      You are as stupid as the other commentators who miss the point. But then again, it’s easy for some people to get hung up on semantics & totally lose the thread.

  • Re: the "Rebbe's approach"

    You don’t need to be a follower of the Rebbe to see the studies online (proving the Rebbe right).
    you just need to be a follower of all the latest news re Recidivism rates,
    clearly the Registry and Criminal Justice Punitive system is failing,

    Im not shocked at all, that our Rebbe 30+ years ago, knew the correct approach to stop Recidivism, way before the studies were even done.

    Its time for those claiming to care about prevention to use their collected money on (evidence based) real proven methods of preventing recidivism.

    Its True the ACLU would lve this site, bec it allowed the underlying problem to continue, just as they like it.

    ACLU fought tooth and nail against the Chemical castration Pill, (like seewald) bec it works! (to prevent) and their motives are not to really solve the problem, rather its to have a problem to “officially” be solving so they can stay in business and have a Anti-Haredi-Bashing platform, where they lable every predator a “Rabbi” just to love frum ppl.

    Why is seewald so against the proven proactive-educational options?
    Why is he refusing to use all the more effective (more discrete) routs to solving this problem in a humane way to all the NEW victims (the perps family)?

  • concerned

    If the goal of the JCW and other such groups was sincere, and they were only out to protect our loved ones, why the need to publicize the names of those who according to professional opinion pose no risk, an act that causes them and their families unnecessary pain and harm.

    What we need for children is protection, not a Wall of Shame.

    #143 is right on.

  • Salem

    Today we hear about a new story in Australia that proves the point. One of the most respected chassidim in the country has been accused of the most bizarre things, satanic rituals in front of a sefer torah, just like the crazy accusations against the day care centers in the 80s and 90s. No normal person can believe such a wild story, surely the police don’t believe it either, and yet they felt they had to subject him to questioning, and now his name is in the mud. The yeshivah had to suspend him, he’s not allowed to contact any students, and who knows whether some meshugenner policeman might decide it would be good for his career to take it even further?

    And in the end, what do you think will happen to the person who made the accusation? NOTHING. That is what. He will not be charged, let alone convicted, and his name will never even be known. So what does he lose by lying?

  • the Rebbe's way should be followed!

    Those who care! Really care, should follow the research and the Rebbe on such a crucial matter!

  • Seewald is not against the Rebbe's approach

    Jcw is not against focussing on Rabbi Horowitz’s program (to psychologically boost children’s resilience to advances by predators, and to help kids report openly secrets requested or threatened)

    I’m sure Jcw believes these (Horowitz) methods go along way towards protecting a child from being a silent target,

    I’m sure jcw doesn’t either negate the fact that “punitive methods hardly treat the neurological causes of this vile disorder”.

    Sure Meir doesn’t think he is smarter than the Rebbe re what works best for abuse prevention.

    You all are giving Meir and his opportunistic (self promoting) secular supporters much to much credit, not one secular agency, firm or proven (and specifically trained prevention) expert (secular or religious, trust jcw’s management enough to categorically support the veracity and credibility of the allegations all being accurate.

    These armatures who come out and write positive statements are usually prompted to do so by a method similar to political blackmail, just ask Daniel who was on the wall of shame the offer they made him. Same with Siliciting Rabbi YY, it goes something like this “if you do not come out categorically in support of our site (methods and tactics) we will do what we did to Rabbi Osdoba and Shia Hecht and imply that your against prevention and for cover ups. “We’ll let the public know that you (suspiciously) declined to publicly come out against abuse”

  • Bais Din

    How much does it cost to take JCW to Beis Din? $0.00???
    To the best of my knowledge nobody took him – WHY NOT…Because you are Guilty
    Everybody is stating that it cost too much to take him to court so take him to Beis Din instead – however, it was NOT DONE.

    So to all the above complaints in reference to a lawsuit and why it can’t be done – you point is annulled, a better word would be castrated.

    • Salem

      What makes you think he would go to a beis din? And which one? (Beis din is also not free, but that’s not the issue)

    • Anonymous

      Sadly, Meyer won’t have kabolas oil to any Rav who thinks his ways are wrong

      May Hashem help each the way they need to be helped! Without sayaata dshmaya, and leahmah, sooner or later the true colors and motives get exposed

      Yisbareru viyialabnu

  • Knowing Meyer

    I was never convinced that this was really about promoting prevention

    The fact he is soo reluctant to adopt the (non sensational non punitive methods) which actually help prevent more abuse, that prove my intuition all along.

  • Being Anti seewalds (vindictive) tactics, does NOT make me Pro-Abuse!!!!!! ...however that is a nice attempt to intimidate and silence VALID voices of critique

    To be truly anti Abuse is to persue sensible proven systems that target and address the underlying brain disorders,

    Killing a predator is actually a sensible option! if that were necisary, however now days it is possible to KILL THE PART OF THE BRAIN inside a would be perv-addict.

    Why kill the entire sick man and his/her family and little children, if killing the part of the brain responsible for such urges is now a viable option, and actually has much better preventive results than the secular system of Jail and Registry.

    The first step in eradicating a MACHALEH is by correctly identifying the root cause, then you target that root cause, if your serious about uprooting it reliably.

  • impressed by crownheights.info's journalistic policy

    Its refreshing to see a website allowing harsh but necissary critisism of jcw, especially since such critisism is nuonced and not easily digestable to those with over simplistic politically correct lazy minds.

    Free and unsupressed echage of ideas is crucial for the truth to shine through all the knee jerk political correctness by the anti frum types.

  • boruch

    Reading about this topic and about this site jcw,im just shocked that anybody is paying attention to this guy seewald,growing up with him he was always looking for attention and recognition,i luv the idea of catching these guys,but we need to know who were dealing with,my freinds out of town not chabad, laugh at this whole thing,lets hope we all find the right solution to a serious issue which people ignored for years ,and everyone is now waking up at the same time