An "Admor", around 70 years old, was recently arrested in Bet Shemesh (just announced in the news) for child abuse and sexual molestation of minors. Details of his identity are not yet available to the public as there is currently a gag order on it. 

Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky wrote a fabulous article in Mishpacha about the Chaim Walder case. It is actually less about Chaim Walder and more about what we as a community must do to improve our response to such situations and to support the victims.

As far as Halacha [Jewish traditional law] goes, any [sexual] abuser falls under the category of ‘rodef’. If we wouldn’t have a government and laws, we would have to shoot him at point blank range. [But] every city has courts which deal aggressively with the issue.

Just to remind everyone, Chaim Walder is not the victim.

Chaim Walder, accused of rape and molestation of young girls, is a difficult situation. Walder is super-mainstream in the Haredi community, in addition to being a celebrity and a leader and very "out there" with his books and articles, and he runs organizations and helps children... These situations are difficult. As in almost all similar cases, he has those supporters who say they don't believe it, he could not have done it, he helped me and I never saw anything suspicious, etc. Then he has those saying we can't operate a field court and decide he is guilty, we cant hurt his parnassa, he passed a polygraph, innocent until proven guilty, someone must be trying to take him down, we cant trust a newspaper report - let alone Haaretz, this is against halacha. Then there are those that say there are too many accusers for there not to be something there, the newspapers, especially a serious one like Haaretz, investigate thoroughly to the last detail before publishing so they wont get sued, we have to support the victims, if true every moment he remains in public leadership with his support of the community is hurtful to the victims, etc.

The Yehuda Meshi Zahav situation, which went from bad to worse, from horrific to tragic, was one that I did not really have anything to say about. What he was accused of was horrible, the supposed cover up, for years, was horrible, and if true everyone involved should be punished harshly.

Rav Baruch Dov Povarski, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevez, made an interesting comment that made me wonder.

With the airports being shut down today for at least the coming week, Malka Leifer made it onto one of the last flights out of Israel.

Ynet is reporting that Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn has just signed the extradition order to send Malka Leifer back to Australia to stand trial there in the abuse cases filed against her.

As they say, it ain't over till it's over. Or until the fat lady sings. Whichever comes first.

The District Court just ruled the Malka Leifer has been faking her mental illness and is fit to stand trial. The court will now push forward the extradition process so that Leifer can stand trial in Australia for the heinous crimes she is accused of against minors who were her students..

as mentioned above though, it ain't over till it's over. the expectation is that her defense lawyers will now appeal to the Supreme Court and any extradition process in place will be halted until the Supreme Court decides the matter.

In the meantime, if Litzman had to leave the Health Ministry just for this to happen - dayeinu!

Kikar has a story of a father who was arrested for breaking his 15 year old son's cellular phone. The mother, his wife, called the police on him and they came to the home in Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem to arrest him.

While this fellow has no prior criminal record, he was accused of violence against electronic devices in the home before, and was accused of violence against the children in the past but at the time denied the accusation and nothing came of it.

The courts denied the police request to extend his detention but released him to house arrest to be located in a local yeshiva. He will not be allowed to leave the yeshiva without permission form the court. He is also not allowed to be in contact with his wife or children. The purpose of this is so that he will not impede the ongoing investigation in any way.

It sounds to me like this fellow is abusive to his family. While he has found ways to avoid getting in trouble for it until now, it looks like the mother has had enough. For her to call the police over a broken telephone? Looks like this is far bigger than that.

Rabbi Greer Headed to Prison

That is the headline of an article in the New Haven Independent, and was big news yesterday in the Jewish media and community.

According to the article, Greer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for repeatedly raping a teenage student in the yeshiva he headed.

Such a difficult and horrible story. What is particularly interesting about it is what the judge reportedly said in the sentencing.

Greer stood as Judge Alander read off the sentence for each of the four felony counts of risk of injury to a minor. As soon as Alander said it would involve prison time, a court marshal immediately grabbed Greer’s right hand, pulled it behind his back and put it in cuffs. Greer’s face reddened, and he began shaking.
Alander ordered that Greer go straight to jail rather than remain free on bond. He said that’s because he considers Greer a substantial flight risk, as he faces the “cold realization” that he will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. Alander added that, last time he’d raised the bond to $750,000, his wife, Sarah Greer, had somehow come up with tens of thousands of dollars in cash within just a few hours.
Greer will have to serve only 12 years in prison. After that, the rest of the full 20-year sentence will be hanging over his head as a consequence for violating his probation, which he will be on for up to 20 more years.
Greer will also have to register as a sex offender for 10 years, with a description that says he repeatedly had oral and anal sex with a teenager. He will have to pay a $151 fine, and he will have to give a DNA sample.
“Why does society view these crimes as particularly deplorable? Why have they garnered such significant media and public attention? Because they involve a colossal violation of trust,” Alander said.
“When, as parents, we send our children to school and take them to houses of worship, we entrust the leaders of those with the care of our children. We share an unspoken promise in understanding that our children will grow and prosper under their tutelage. When a teacher or religious leader breaks that promise, they betray that trust. It is both unexpected and deeply disturbing.”
“It is important that a statement be made, to be heard by others in positions of authority who might be tempted; to be heard by the victims of sexual abuse who may find some solace in it,” Alander continued. “The Talmud [a primary source of Jewish rabbinic law] teaches that there is hope for a man who is capable of being ashamed. It is my hope that someday you will truly feel ashamed for your actions and thereby embark on the road to redemption.”

Let the lesson be heard by others in positions of authority who might be tempted, and let victims find solace in this statement. Quoting the Talmud. Betraying trust. It is about time someone made such a statement. Hopefully this is the shot heard around the world and others will take note and act appropriately.

Kikar has an article about a couple of Haredi women from Beitar Ilit who are in prison (Neve Tirza)  for child abuse in their work as nursery school teachers. The article is about a claim made by their lawyer saying that the women were treated poorly in jail and made to remove their hair covering and to wear "training" pants - against their religious beliefs and lifestyle.

The lawyer, Tali Gottleib, says that despite she herself being secular there is nothing more shocking than such a serious breach to the honor of a woman or to a person and her right to her faith.

I think it is horrible that their human rights were trampled. Even prisoners deserve to be treated fairly and are deserving of having their faith and religious sensibilities considered and protected. That being said, I do know something more shocking than the trampling of these women's basic rights of faith and religious beliefs - that is, beating up on little kids in their care is far more shocking than the fact that the prison guard made them uncover their hair.

long summer days with kids playing outside a lot without supervision...

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz does tremendous work in the realm of child safety. He recently launched a child safety book "Let's Stay Safe", and more recently has been launching versions of this book in other languages, including one in Hebrew for the Dati Leumi community and another in Hebrew for the Haredi community (I do not know what the differences are in the book).



Personally, both for my kids and to support Rabbi Horowitz's efforts, I just picked up the Hebrew version of the book:



this is the Haredi version of the book, whatever that means..

you can get these books at any decent Jewish bookstore. In RBS I got it at the Judaica Center bookstore (under Yesh).

Rabbi Grossman, Chief Rabbi of Migdal Emek and founder and driving force behind a major organization in which he works to care for abused, abandoned and forgotten children, among other things, was recently involved in the Malka Leifer case in which he went to court to vouch for her, in some capacity, and offered to house her in his home with the conditions of house arrest while she would await trial.

There was a large outcry online calling him out for his support of Leifer, even if unintentional, thus increasing the pain of her victims in the process.

Initially Rabbi Grossman made statements expressing his lack of understanding as to the problem, as he says he was just trying to have compassion and help her but she would have jail terms in his house. He did not see how his helping her was hurting others.

Rabbi Grossman has now seen the light, and I don't care if it was because of pressure even if he still does not understand or if now he understands. Rabbi Grossman released a statement to the press last night in which he says that he revokes his support for Leifer and withdraws his involvement in the case.

The full statement, from Kol V'Oz:

​Statement from Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Grossman: Last night, I notified the courts that I am completely withdrawing my involvement in the case of Malka Leifer, and my recommendation that she be placed under house arrest with my supervision. For more than fifty years I have devoted myself to helping thousands of children who have been abandoned, orphaned or abused as well as those living in the forgotten margins of Israeli society. In addition, I have gone into the prisons to help those who need to be reached out to. My focus and the focus of Migdal Ohr will always be to help and heal Israeli society. At times, I have been called upon by the courts and the Government to act as impartial mediator when no other alternative exists. This was the case with this last request. In these difficult and highly charged situations, I have had to find a balance between my life's goals for Migdal Ohr and the needs of Israeli society. I am very sensitive to the pain and plight of children and adults who are abused, as I see it every day in my work at Migdal Ohr.  It is regretful that the current turmoil has in any way called into question that mission and dedication.

I called him out for his supporting Leifer, the monster, and now I commend him for doing the right thing, for seeing how harmful that would have been, both to her victims and to his life work of protecting and helping children who are victims themselves and for doing the right thing and not putting himself in a position where she can use him and show him as supporting her.