Mazel tov!

Last week when President Biden was in town for his visit, President Herzog hosted an event in his honor. At the event, Ran Danker and Yuval Dayan sang a rendition of Naomi Shemer's song Lu Yehi, which is also some sort of mashup with the Beatles song Let It Be.

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.

There is an investigative committee working to uncover what happened at the Gilboa Prison that allowed six Arab prisoners to escape recently. 

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.

This seeming willingness to overlook and ignore what Elazar Stern said the other day is somewhat outrageous. Stern said that while in the army he ignored anonymous complaints of sexual harassment and put them in the shredder. He has since somewhat qualified that statement trying to explain what he meant. The political leadership in the center and left, has expressed at most support for him, and at least not said anything against him. This is especially egregious from the leadership of his own party, Yesh Atid, as Yair Lapid has said in the past that Yesh Atid has a zero tolerance policy on these matters. 

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.

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!

Big news. Malka Leifer has been declared fit to stand trial regarding the possibility of extradition to Australia. A panel of 3 psychiatrists evaluated her over a period of two months and determined that she is fit.

The end of the saga is far from nigh, but it can at least now proceed. No longer can she hide behind her claims of being mentally ill and unfit for trial.

She should also be charged with obstruction of justice and lying about her mental state, if possible. If the allegations are true, she is a walking danger and every day she is walking around freely is a day of danger to all the neighborhood children in the area. Her hiding behind false claims does not make her look innocent, but she at least deserves a trial to determine innocence or guilt, and now she might actually get it.

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.

For such a small nation, Israelis, even outside of Israel, really tend to take up a disproportionate percentage of the news...

An Israeli woman in Cambridge Massachusetts was out for a jog. A man indecently exposed himself to her. Twice. She turned around and chased him down and tackled him and threatened him.

good for her! Hopefully he'll think twice before doing that to anyone else...

the news has been reporting this afternoon about a 35 year old man in Bet Shemesh who has been arrested for attacking a 10 year old girl, with possibly other victims as well.

Kikar has added that the fellow arrested is haredi.

Of course the story and incident are troubling and difficult and I wish her the best and if this guy is guilty he should get a nice long prison sentence. Besides for that, what is promising, and relieving, about this report is that it shows that parents are no longer sitting back and not report incidents because the rabbi said not to or because it is a child who cannot be believed or because it will hurt the alleged perpetrators family and/or parnassa. Parents are showing more concern for the children (than for the communal concerns pushed by the rabbis who dissuade people from reporting) and are now reporting to the police, and the Haredi news sites are reporting on these incidents as well, though I do not expect the printed newspapers to report anything about it. Change takes time, but it happens.

It is possible that this is just one isolated case and reporting is not really on the rise, but it seems that this is accepted and acceptable now. I dont see any criticisms of how it should not have been reported, and I think the feeling is since the incident a couple weeks ago in Modiin Ilit with the 7 year old girl that this cannot be covered up any longer.

Then again, it might just be wishful thinking

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