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A Biblical Response to Crime UNITED CHRISTIAN ACTION
There was a time when few of us were touched by crime. Then we all began to know somebody who had been affected by crime. Now each of us have our own stories of how we were stolen from, directly threatened by crime, or worse.
At a recent meeting, the 80-odd people in attendance were asked to name some of the crimes they had personally experienced. In short order, those present related house breaking, car theft, cell phone theft, fraud, assault, hijacking, armed robbery and murder - all experienced either by themselves or their immediate family, recently.
At almost any social occasion, you can find South Africans swapping stories about a brush with death or the long-hand of crime having stolen from them and their loved ones.
Crime is a reality that affects each one of us. The situation in South Africa got so bad that the government even placed a moratorium on crime statistics, forbidding the police to release statistics of incidents of crime in South Africa to the voters and tax payers they are meant to represent and serve.
THE COST OF CRIME
According to a study by the American Management Association, US businesses annually lose over $10billion to employee theft, over $4billion to embezzlement, over $2,5billion to burglary, over $2billion to shoplifting, over $1,3billion to arson and over half a million dollars per incident of computer fraud.
According to the US Department of Commerce, approximately one-third of all business failures each year can be traced to employee theft. US law enforcement officials estimate that almost half of all employees are guilty of stealing.
Retailers in South Africa lose billions of Rands each year to shoplifting and even more to theft by employees.
Now, obviously somebody has to pay for the costs of all this theft. You and I and all the other customers have to share the burden of the billions of Rands shoplifted or stolen by employees. In addition, we have to pay for the increased insurance premiums, for the additional security personnel and equipment necessitated by this shoplifting spree. It all gets added to the price tag of everything we buy.
Of course we also pay for the cost of crime through our taxes and in supporting the police force, legal and judicial system and the prison service, which is all meant to be designed to protect us from the criminal elements of society. But far more seriously, a vast number of South Africans are directly suffering the effects of crime, personally.
WHAT CAUSES CRIME?
What causes crime? I have heard University professors and other experts speaking about how very complicated it is to analyse the sociological and economic factors that lead to the phenomenon of crime . etc. etc! Yet, if we turn to the Bible, we will find a very straightforward answer: "Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough." Ecclesiastes 8:11
Surely that is the common sense answer. It is so obvious. Crime is increasing in our society because our courts seem to be more obsessed with the "rights" of the criminal, but not as concerned about the rights of the victim, or the policemen for that matter. Murderers have been released while policemen have been prosecuted. Rapists have been set free on amnesties, and presidential pardons, while victims have been imprisoned for defending themselves. Right has become wrong and wrong has become right!
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, . who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent." Isaiah 5:20-23
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
The Bible is very clear that God has instituted civil government as "an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Romans 13:4. The civil government is called to be a minister of God's justice: "to punish those who do wrong" 1 Peter 2: 14.
The primary duties and responsibilities of civil government are the protection of the law-abiding citizens and punishment of law-breaking criminals. Psalm 101 reminds us that the duty of God-honouring rulers is to destroy the wicked, to root out evil and to protect the law-abiding - all to the glory of God.
"Every authority instituted among men . who are sent by Him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right." 1 Peter 2:13-14
"For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong . for He is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for He does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Romans 13:3-4
For those who hold the Word of God as authoritative, capital punishment is not a matter of choice or opinion poll, or even of court or parliamentary decree. It is God's clear command: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Genesis 9:6
God instituted Capital Punishment long before the enactment of the Mosaic Law. In fact, Capital punishment was declared not only for Noah's time, but "for all generations to come." Genesis 9:12
"Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death . if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from My altar and put him to death . anyone who kidnaps . must be put to death." Exodus 21: 12-16
"If anyone takes a life of a human being, he must be put to death . whoever kills a man must be put to death . I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 24:17-22
"Bloodshed pollutes the land and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it." Numbers 35:33
God's Law remains in force after Calvary (Acts 25:22). As our Lord Jesus taught: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law." Matthew 5:17-18
The government "does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." (Romans 13:4) Governors "are sent by Him to punish those who do wrong." (1 Peter 2:14).
"Anyone who kills with a sword, must himself be killed by the sword." Revelation 13:10
By obeying God's Law and punishing murderers with the death penalty, a nation can cleanse itself from the guilt of innocent blood. On the other hand, a nation that refuses to avenge the taking of innocent human life, must share the guilt of the murderer (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)
The opposition of certain "human rights" groups to the death penalty is selective. As capital punishment is only inflicted upon murderers, one is given to wonder why these groups are so concerned for the "rights" of murderers? Should we not provide compassion and justice for the many thousands of victims and families of victims of violent crimes?
Since the state unilaterally suspended the death penalty for murder in South Africa (in 1989), criminals have inflicted the death penalty on well over 200 000 innocent victims in South Africa. Who is campaigning for their rights? And what about the 200000 who could be murdered in the coming decade? Surely any civilised society has the moral right and the duty to protect itself from those who have no respect for human life?
The taking of a murderer's life is akin to the amputation of a diseased limb in order to save the rest of the body. All murder is serious and demands capital punishment. Capital punishment is necessary for justice, for the rule of law and for the protection of the innocent.
In cases of theft, arson or malicious damage to property, the Bible decrees restitution. Restitution is the restoration of a thing to its proper place or owner. It is reparation for injury or damage to property. The Bible requires that the restitution goes entirely to the victim of the crime. Restitution is also required for culpable negligence.
God's Law is clear: the criminal is held accountable and is responsible to pay for his crime. He is to work and earn, in money or kind, that which is required for the reparation of what he stole, damaged or destroyed.
". he should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or a donkey or sheep, he shall restore double. If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacked grain, standing grain or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." Exodus 22: 3-6
The punishment is to fit the crime. The more serious the crime, the more severe the punishment (Deuteronomy 19:15-21).
Under God's Law, there would be fewer criminals, fewer victims and much less burden on the tax payer. Under our present humanistic system, our prisons have become a higher institute of learning for criminals, where they cross-train one another and work out how not to get caught next time. Instead of the victim and his relatives receiving restitution, under our present system, the victims are forced to pay taxes which provide food, accommodation and entertainment for the criminals, while they languish in prison. The solution to this intolerable situation includes a return to the Biblical pattern of restitution.
MAKING SURE CRIME DOESN'T PAY
There are also some practical, common sense measures which could ensure that crime does not continue to pay in South Africa.
1. Repeat offenders should be made to complete the rest of their sentence before beginning their second sentence.
2. No bail should be available for repeat offenders.
3. All violent criminals should bear the full responsibility for their actions, whether or not they were deemed mentally competent, drunk or of diminished capacity, or under the influence of drugs (Numbers 35:16-21).
4. Penalties for violent youths should be the same as for adults. Those who commit adult crimes such as rape and murder should suffer adult consequences (Ezekiel 18:10-13).
5. A return to the Biblical principles of execution for all first degree murder, rape and kidnapping; and restitution for all theft of, or damage to, property. (Exodus 21 and 22).
6. As it is impossible for any police force to guarantee the safety of every citizen, no hindrance should be placed upon the right of law-abiding citizens to obtain and use firearms for self-defence. As the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by criminals by unlicensed weapons, it is clear that restricting the rights of citizens to own, carry and use licensed firearms, cannot prevent violent crime. Disarming the potential victims of crime can only serve the purposes of the criminal. We therefore must reaffirm the Biblical rights and responsibilities of citizens to obtain, own, carry and use firearms for personal or family defence. (Exodus 22:2; Nehemiah 4:14; 1 Timothy 5:8).
It is time for the civil authorities to take consistent, strong and resolute action to protect law-abiding citizens and to punish law-breaking criminals.
"Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or My wrath will break out and burn like fire because the evil you have done - burn with no-one to quench it." Jeremiah 21:12
Are Firearms To Blame?
Combating Crime - 03 October 2003
Criminals Prefer Unarmed Victims
FAITH And FIREARMS
FirePower And Faith
FRONTLINE MISSIONARIES ATTACKED
Getting Away With Murder
HOW TO BE A GOOD VICTIM
In The Lion's Den For The World's Greatest Revolutionary
The Criminalization Of South Africa
The Elim Massacre Revisited
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.." Matthew 28: 18-20
P.O.Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Email: admin@frontline.org.za


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Toby Skinner
EDITOR//STORYTELLER
The amazing true story of the DeLorean
ntskinner June 11, 2017 0 Comments
The story of the DeLorean DMC-12 is as fantastical as the Back to the Future films that made it a cult classic. We head to Los Angeles to hear about an unlikely renaissance
(First published in N by Norwegian magazine, June 2014. With research by James Bartlett)
At the Endless Summer Classic Car show on Los Angeles's Hermosa Beach, there's little doubt what the stars of the show are. Four DeLorean DMC-12s, their gull-wing doors up, are lined up in the car park, and the smartphone cameras are out in force – it's as if Brad and Angelina have turned up. "Dude, where's your flux capacitor!" shouts a passer-by.
"I always get that one," says Ron Ferguson, the president of the DeLorean Owners Association and the Southern California DeLorean Club, and one of the men at the centre of California's vibrant and very passionate DeLorean scene. "They also ask me where Doc Brown and Marty McFly are, where I get my plutonium from, and what happens if I go 88 miles per hour."
Ron, an engineer himself, has answers to all of these questions, as he has to just about anything you could ask about DeLorean cars (and yes, he does have a flux capacitor). There are around 6,500 DeLoreans in the world today, and of the nearly 1,000 in California, Ron's DMC-12 is one of the most pimped. He has a full Back to the Future time machine set-up, with a time travel display, the flux capacitor in the boot, and a registration plate that reads "TIME MCH". Ron's even got a hoverboard, though it only makes sounds – he laments that a recent news story about a startup that had invented a working version turned out to be a hoax.
"One time," he says, "I got pulled over by a policeman on a motorbike. He strolled over very slowly, took two very slow laps around the car, inspecting it carefully. I had my documents ready and was wondering what was wrong. All he said was 'Nice car', and then he walked off." Most days he drives his DeLorean, though, there's a near-endless stream of people pointing, taking photos and high-fiving. "It can be quite hard getting gas – it often takes 20 minutes to leave."
The reason DeLoreans are still so much part of the popular imagination has a lot to do with the Back to the Future film trilogy, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year – 2015 is also the year in the future that Doc Brown and Marty McFly travelled to. "The DeLorean is more popular than ever," says Ron. "It's partly because of the Back to the Future factor, which still has this hold on people, but it's also because the true story of the DeLorean is something even Hollywood couldn't have written."
It all began in Detroit with John Z DeLorean, the son of a Romanian immigrant born in 1925, who worked his way up the ladder at Chrysler and then General Motors. DeLorean morphed into a tall, tanned jet-setter, who sported sideburns and open-buttoned shirts, and had a succession of model wives and a talent for self-promotion. He had been the youngest division head at General Motors, and was credited with the success of the Pontiac GTO, the world's first muscle car, in 1964. He was prolific, immensely successful, and not afraid to tell the world about it: interviewed in 1996 he said, "I was a pretty talented engineer, and still am. Today I don't think there's a car running anywhere in the world that doesn't have something that I created on it."
But just as he seemed destined to become president of General Motors, he left (some say he was fired) in 1973, with the dream of a sports car for the masses that would see his DeLorean Motor Company usurp the General Motor Company. In a typical move, his DMC logo was cheekily similar to the GMC logo of his old employers.
At first, DeLorean had little more than a sketch on an envelope, but he moved fast. He had a prototype by 1976, which he then handed over to Lotus engineer Colin Chapman and legendary car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who made the DMC-12 strikingly similar to his design for the Lotus Esprit. The plan for the DMC-12 was to create a rust-proof, stainless steel, eco-friendly "ethical sports car" that would be extremely safe and would sell for a reasonable £12,000. It was as revolutionary an idea as a car design gets.
But DeLorean needed to get it built, quickly and as cheaply as possible. Ever the opportunist, he had been toying with Puerto Rico but eventually decided to establish his factory in Belfast, in Northern Ireland, which in the late 1970s had been ravaged by a decade of sectarian violence and was an investment-free zone. The British government put up £53 million of taxpayers' money for DeLorean to build a high-tech factory in the desperate Belfast suburb of Dunmurry, smack between Catholic and Protestant communities, creating up to 2,000 jobs.
Construction began on the factory in late 1978, with car production supposed to start the next year, though engineering problems meant the first DeLorean didn't roll out until 1981. Even with delays, it was a mad rush to production. The first 379 cars to be shipped to Long Beach, California – some for celebrity investors such as Sammy Davis Jr and Johnny Carson – simply weren't up to scratch, even as prices were more than double what they were supposed to be and adverts billed the car as "the most awaited automobile in history".
"Those first cars, they were dogs," factory worker Dave Winnington told 2004 BBC documentary Car Crash: The DeLorean Story. "A lot of people around the company were secretly hoping the boat would sink."
For a car that was meant to take 50 hours on the production line, mechanics and engineers in America spent up to 500 hours retro-fitting the flawed vehicles. But while slowly improving cars continued to be shipped to the States, DeLorean kept getting hit with setbacks: first he was accused of misusing taxpayers' money by his office manager in 1981, something of which he was cleared. But, more importantly, as the company was shedding money, sales in the States took a nosedive due to an unusually harsh winter.
With the UK's new Thatcher government refusing to prop up the ailing company, DMC was in receivership by early 1982, with an increasingly desperate DeLorean flying round the world begging for funding. The nail in the coffin came at the end of that year, when DeLorean was charged with drug trafficking, caught on video referring to a suitcase of cocaine as "good as gold" in a classic FBI sting. Though he was later cleared in a high-profile trial, the dream was over.
No cars were made after 1982 – having promised to churn out 30,000 cars a year, the final tally stood at around 9,000, even if thousands of parts had been shipped to the US in anticipation of the influx. DeLorean, who died in 2005, later became a born-again Christian, patented a monorail system that was never built and filed for bankruptcy in 1999, selling his 434-acre New Jersey estate to Donald Trump.
A first sign that the DeLorean car wouldn't slip into the annals as just another failed idea came during the production of Back to the Future. The time machine was originally going to be a laser device, and then a refrigerator, an idea director Robert Zemeckis scrapped because he didn't want children to climb into fridges and get trapped. The DeLorean was chosen because they wanted something that looked like an "alien spaceship", but also – with an ironic nod to the DeLorean's patchy production – "didn't look too perfect". The idea was that Doc Brown had thrown the car together with parts found in a hardware and electronics store.
Just as art imitates life, so life imitates art. If Back to the Future became the catalyst for the DeLorean's cult status, it's second coming has been the result of real-life Doc Browns. The prime among them is Stephen Wynne, a Texas-based Liverpudlian who bought the company in 1995, acquiring the trademark to the iconic DMC logo and all the remaining inventory parts, bringing them to a warehouse in Humble, Texas, on 80 trucks at a cost of US$250,000.
At the California branch of DMC in Huntington Beach, which is run by Wynne's son Cameron, he stands surrounded by three or four DeLoreans in various stages of repair, and huge piles of spare parts.
"It was always my dream to do something with this car," says Wynne, who owned a DeLorean long before he bought the company. "I'd always thought that John DeLorean was a visionary who wanted to break away from the mainstream, and I dreamed of improving on his car. But I didn't want to be seen as a crank, so I waited until people started asking me."
People did start asking, and since 2008, Wynne has been slowly churning out around a dozen new generation DeLoreans a year, using old parts to assemble completely new vehicles at a cost of around US$57,000 (NOK337,655). Wynne is passionate about all things DeLorean – he has
a mini-museum and a Back to the Future pinball machine back in the Texas warehouse, and doesn't miss a beat when asked how many parts it takes to build a DeLorean from scratch: 2,650.
But the plan is to do something altogether more ambitious: he not only wants to up annual production to 50 a year, but is working on a prototype for a new electric DeLorean, which he hopes will be ready for the anniversary year next year. "It really is the way to bring the DeLorean back to the future – it will look the same, but it will have tomorrow's technology."
The new electric DeLorean will cost up to US$100,000, with a host of luxury upgrades, like the '80s tape deck being replaced with a state-of-the-art entertainment system. "We have an advantage because the brand is so strong – we think it can be as big as Minis, Volkswagens or even Harley Davidson bikes. Part of it is just the wow factor. I've been at car shows and seen bored kids see a DeLorean – their eyes just light up."
There are 200 or so people on the waiting list for the new electric DeLorean, including Ron Ferguson, who has driven a prototype. "It felt great, very responsive and smooth," he says. Having had his own DeLorean since 2000 (he originally bought it for his father, who then insisted they share the vehicle), Ron should know. He knows that DeLoreans have stiff steering, a wide turning circle and underpowered engines (most modern DeLoreans feature powered-up engines); he knows that they perform better at speed, because he's had his up to 110mph (177kph) on controlled roads; that you can fry an egg on the stainless steel shell; and that the famous gull-wing doors only require 11 inches (28cm) of clearance.
For all their fancy design and quirks, DeLoreans were built to last. "I know of DeLoreans that have more than 500,000 miles on the clock," says Ron. "Of the 9,000 or so that were made, 6,500 are on the road today – that's almost unheard-of for a 33-year-old car."
A big part of that, though, is the reaction. As Ron knows from a thousand high-fives and comments about flux capacitors, it's a car people respond to. "It's the movie, it's the story, it's everything," he says. "But most of all… just look at it." The DeLorean seems to be going nowhere except into the future.
N by Norwegian

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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SAR is committed to our students- past and present. Beyond the reported incident, we encourage anyone who has information regarding any abuse, past or current, to report to either of us or to T&M through the contact channels listed below.
Important Message from SAR
SAR is more than a school - we are a community. We pride ourselves on the combination of excellence in education, love of Israel and commitment to mitzvot which have been transmitted to generations of students. We strive to instill in our students the midah of kol yisrael arevim ze laze, and take seriously this commitment to watch out for each other.
It is our commitment to these principles that makes this letter so difficult. There has been significant media attention recently highlighting sexual abuse at private schools. Much of the abuse that has been brought to the forefront by the press took place many years ago and has only been uncovered recently. Sadly, it has come to our attention that SAR students may have been subject to sexual abuse at the hands of a former teacher/administrator in the 1970s.
A recent email from a former student reported abuse that was perpetrated by Stanley Rosenfeld, a former SAR Academy teacher and administrator. Rosenfeld was the Assistant Principal for General Studies at SAR Academy in the 1970s. In 2001, many years after Rosenfeld left SAR Academy, he pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree child molestation with no known connection to SAR.
As painful as this is for our school community, the pain for any of the victims of abuse is far greater. We are committed to being supportive to any victims of abuse, to understanding the abuse they suffered and the harm it has caused them, and to learning from our past experiences and using them to inform our present practices to protect our community.
In order to ensure that we can properly understand the scope of abuse and support the victims of abuse, SAR has hired T&M Protection Resources to conduct an external investigation of claims of sexual abuse. T&M is an investigative firm, comprised of former prosecutors with extensive experience investigating allegations of sexual misconduct. In order for T&M to conduct this investigation, we are encouraging all members of our community to please report any information regarding abuse that may have been perpetrated by Stanley Rosenfeld. Reports may be made directly to either of us or to T&M. Contact information is listed below.
We expect that the investigation by T&M will take at least several months and we want you to know that while the privacy of survivors is central to this process, we do intend to communicate our findings at the conclusion of the investigation.
We are fully committed to the safety of our students and to continuing to implement best practices in these areas. As our students, parents and staff are aware, in recent years, SAR has implemented policies and training regarding sexual abuse and sexual harassment. Our commitment to our current students and the protections we have implemented does not minimize the commitment to understanding and addressing a painful past.
We thank you for your assistance in this effort and in being responsible for the well-being of all of those in our community.
Rabbi Binyamin Krauss
Principal, SAR Academy
Rabbi Tully Harcsztark
Principal, SAR High School
T&M Protection Resources
email: SAR@tmprotection.com
email: kraussb@saracademy.org
phone: (718)-548-1717 ext. 1207
email: harcsn@sarhighschool.org
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Wednesday, January 31, 2018 No comments:
Grooming. Such a chilling word. Such an apt one. Abusers introduce themselves as instructors and allies. They can lift your score. They can improve your grades. They can provide the guidance that you lack or the fun that you're missing. Bit by bit, they ask for bigger chunks of your time and suggest increasingly private encounters. The pace of the journey varies, but not its arc or its destination.
Larry Nassar Is a Familiar Monster
When Judge Rosemarie Aquilina handed down her sentence on Larry Nassar last week, she spoke to and of him as a kind of monster we rarely see. She was wrong.
I know this because I remember Penn State, where an assistant football coach named Jerry Sandusky worked his way through boy after boy across year after year.
I know this because I haven't forgotten what happened in the Boy Scouts of America decades ago.
And I know this from the extensive time that I once spent studying and even interviewing men who, like Nassar, were serial child molesters, except that none of them had the lofty title — "Dr." — that he did.
No, they had loftier ones.
The honorific "Rev." came before their written names. People addressed them as "Father." They were Roman Catholic priests.
In researching and publishing a book about them, I learned a great deal about child sexual abuse — enough to recognize that as horrifying as Nassar's violation of young female athletes was, he and his crime spree weren't anomalous. They snugly fit a pattern. And taking full and proper note of that is the best way — the only way — to protect children from the other Nassars out there.
In Nassar's case there were two primary institutions, U.S.A. Gymnastics and Michigan State University. Both behaved unconscionably. In the cases of the scores of priests whom I investigated, it was the Roman Catholic Church: its individual congregations, its dioceses, all the way up to the Vatican. The Boy Scouts organization was deemed so irresponsible that in 2010, a jury ordered it to pay $18.5 million to a former scout who had been abused in the 1980s. Athletic officials at Penn State, including the legendary head football coach Joe Paterno, disregarded warnings about Sandusky. In the short term, taking action is infinitely more uncomfortable and harder than simply wishing it all away.
It's interesting that Sandusky's name wasn't more prevalent over the past week, as the attention to Nassar's story and the efforts to wring some meaning from it intensified. The parallels are striking and instructive. Although Sandusky's victims were boys, he, like Nassar, constructed his professional life so that he had steady access to children and appeared to be an altruist in their midst. He started a foster home, which evolved into a nonprofit group for troubled youth so large and well regarded that it received one of President George H. W. Bush's "Points of Light" awards.
"Children constantly surrounded Sandusky, so much so that they became part of his persona," Joe Posnanski wrote in his book "Paterno." That same description applies to Nassar. It also applies to many of the abusive priests who went undetected and unpunished before the Catholic Church finally owned up to its failures and instituted necessary reforms.
Nassar had girls stretched out and pliant on his examining table. Sandusky roughhoused, wrestled and showered with boys in the name of sports. Nassar's victims and their parents were awestruck by his ties to Olympic athletes, his floor passes to elite competitions, the mementos on his office walls. Sandusky's victims were dazzled by his position smack in the middle of all of those football stars and all of that football glory.
In an article about Sandusky in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell observed that he "built a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar, fully integrated grooming operation, outsourcing to child-care professionals the task of locating vulnerable children." Change "child-care professionals" to gymnastics coaches and Gladwell could have been analyzing Nassar.
And they concoct justifications for what they're doing, trying to persuade their victims of its righteousness as they simultaneously persuade themselves. Nassar's so-called medical treatments exemplified this, as did the actions of many priests. I recall one who told a boy that the touching was part of his confession and his purification. I recall another who told a girl that she'd been assigned the task of helping him, a professed celibate, to better understand human sexuality so that he could minister more effectively to his flock.
Many abusive priests invoked the permission of God. Nassar cited the demands of science.
An overwhelming majority of adults who treat, teach, coach and counsel children are nothing like these men. To distrust all of them would be a terrible mistake and grievous disservice, both to them and to the kids who stand to benefit mightily from their attention.
But to find easy reassurance in the station that an adult possesses, the privileges that he bestows and the cause that he serves would be a greater mistake still.
The reckoning last week in that Michigan courtroom — where survivors of Nassar's abuse emerged from silence and isolation to confront him and the world with the damage that he had done — wasn't like anything I'd previously witnessed. But Nassar? There were similar monsters before him. And there will be similar monsters after.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/27/opinion/larry-nassar-monster.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
Yeshiva & Mesifta Chaim Berlin
If there is anyone that would care to share their stories with me dating back some 30-35 years to the present time, please contact me: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
Your confidentiality is guaranteed!
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Tuesday, January 30, 2018 12 comments:
A Question of Jewish Law for Moetzes Agudath Israel of America - גאונים יציבים מאוד--- very stable geniuses ---זייער סטאַביל געניוסעס - nagyon stabil géniuszok--- May a Person With a Beard Lie To Save His Own Life, Even if he took this Photo Without a Yarmulke - Pikuach Nefesh? Get Back To Me! Where are Pinchos Scheinberg & Yisroel Belsky When You Need Them?
The World Famous Panel of Experts on Child Sex Abuse & Just About Everything Else
They all made it to the Moetzes on the first try!
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!
Man Charged with Molesting Girls: "I Am a 9-Year-Old Trapped in a Man's Body"
A 38-year-old Chicago man accused of molesting three pre-teen girls told police he is a boy trapped in a man's body, according to court documents.
Joseph Roman was charged with a long list of sexual molestation charges after three girls between the ages of six and eight came forward alleging they were assaulted during a three-year period.
During a January 24 hearing, Roman reportedly admitted to some of the charges and told the court he felt he was "a nine-year-old trapped in an adult's body," according to the Chicago Tribune.
Prosecutors said the attacks began in 2015 after a family moved into a home with the suspect, and they continued until 2017. Roman reportedly began assaulting the first child while the others were asleep. The child was six when the assaults allegedly started.
Roman is also accused of molesting an eight-year-old while her family also stayed with the suspect.
During the ten-week period the family stayed in Roman's home, prosecutors say the suspect repeatedly abused the girl while other members of the family were out of the home. The child's mother worked nights, and Roman was tasked with minding the children, according to investigators.
Finally, prosecutors allege that Roman assaulted a third child while she slept in his home visiting the other children. This six-year-old girl's family confronted Roman about the allegations, and the police were called.
Roman reportedly turned in a video confession to the court and was charged with a Class X felony.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/26/man-charged-molesting-girls-9-year-old-trapped-mans-body/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=daily&utm_content=links&utm_campaign=20180126
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Monday, January 29, 2018 No comments:
Hatikvah, played on restored violins owned by Jews during the Holocaust
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Sunday, January 28, 2018 1 comment:
Krawatsky & Kolko - "Special K" - The Similarities ---- Keep Lying & Lying... Lying & Lying... Lying & Lying... Lying & Lying... Lying & Lying...
"The question reverberates: What did they know and when did they know it? Because protecting children is the responsibility of all of us. That's why communal institutions need governance, clear guidelines, follow-through, transparency and process, not just proclamations. Saying "trust us" is no longer enough, if it ever was. But it's never too late to do the right thing, starting with acknowledging past mistakes, apologizing publicly and being responsible, accountable — no longer complicit. " Gary Rosenblatt
Community Day School Doubles Down, Claiming 'Not Privy' To Investigation Of Former Staff Rabbi
Beth Tfiloh board stands by its handling of abuse allegations, though it fires accused rabbi; second teacher let go.
By Hannah Dreyfus
In the wake of a Jewish Week investigation that raised questions, in part, about how a Modern Orthodox day school in Baltimore handled allegations of child sexual abuse against one of its veteran teachers, the board of the school seemed to double down this week in asserting that it had acted properly.
The board of trustees of the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School stated that it had at all times employed "best practices" in dealing with the teacher, Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky, and had been unaware of key information regarding his case.
Though the board said no misconduct on the part of the rabbi was found related to Beth Tfiloh during his 15 years at the school, he was nonetheless terminated immediately.
Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky. Via rabbishmuelkrawatsky.blogspot.com
In a series of statements issued by the leadership of the school since the article was published last week, Zipora Schorr, the director of education of the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, first appeared to support the rabbi, a Judaic studies teacher in the middle school. She wrote on Jan. 17 that the case — based on allegations of abuse against three boys at Camp Shoresh, a Jewish day camp in western Maryland, in the summer of 2015 — was "resolved" by the authorities in February 2016, after which Rabbi Krawatsky was reinstated in his Beth Tfiloh post. He had been placed on leave in the interim. (In an interview with The Jewish Week several weeks ago, Schorr said she believed in the rabbi's "complete innocence," though she did not explain why.)
Rabbi Krawatsky did not respond to requests for comment, but his attorney said the rabbi continues to proclaim his complete innocence and denies that any misconduct took place.
(The Jewish Week article last week noted that an initial determination by Frederick County Child Protective Services of a preponderance of evidence of abuse against the rabbi in the case of two of the boys was, on legal appeal, downgraded to not a preponderance of evidence of abuse. But the CPS determination remains on record and was not "resolved.")
On Jan. 18, Schorr issued another statement saying that "as a result of the allegations detailed" in The Jewish Week article, Rabbi Krawatsky has been "terminated" and would "not be on the premises and will not have any contact with our students."
On Monday night, the school's board of trustees issued a detailed statement affirming that "this matter has from its inception been handled professionally, sensitively and with the utmost concern for the safety of our children."
It asserted that "there is much in the article that is incorrect and subject to question," though it did not offer details.
The board noted that there have been no indications of misconduct by Rabbi Krawatsky at Beth Tfiloh in his 15 years teaching at the school, but it was decided that "the explosive nature of [The Jewish Week's] allegations and the associated publicity made it impossible for Rabbi Krawatsky to effectively carry out his educational duties at Beth Tfiloh." It authorized his "immediate termination and prohibition from returning" to the school's campus, adding that the decision "should not be viewed as a determination as to the truth of the media account."
Beth Tfiloh school where Rabbi Krawatsky used to be employed.
Beth Tfiloh officials assert the school "was not privy" to a police investigation that took place after the summer of 2015. But the police report of the investigation, a public document, states that on Sept. 2, 2015, the police investigator and Child Protection Protective Services (CPS) caseworker made an "unscheduled visit" to the Beth Tfiloh day school to interview Rabbi Krawatsky. Maj. Tim Clarke, spokesman for the Frederick County Sheriff's office, confirmed to The Jewish Week that the visit took place.
Upon arriving at the school, the report states the investigators were met by middle school principal Rabbi Yehuda Oratz and "welcomed and provided a private room where they could meet with and interview Mr. Krawatsky."
Further, as reported here last week, though Schorr initially denied knowledge that Rabbi Krawatsky was twice "indicated" by CPS for child sexual abuse — the term used for a finding that there was a preponderance of evidence to suggest sexual abuse — when confronted with email documentation that the Board of Education made her aware of the first indication, Schorr subsequently confirmed in an email: "I was informed of the indication via email on Sept. 25, 2015 from Frederick County Child Protective Services unit."
Schorr subsequently confirmed in an email: "I was informed of the indication via email on Sept. 25, 2015 from Frederick County Child Protective Services unit."
She stated that Rabbi Krawatsky was immediately suspended at that time.
He was reinstated after the "indication" was downgraded, following a legal appeal, to "unsubstantiated," a term used for noting there was not a preponderance of evidence of sexual abuse.
In a Jan. 5, 2016 letter from Chris Rolle, the defense attorney who represented Rabbi Krawatsky in the appeal, Rolle called Schorr as a witness for a Jan. 13 appeal hearing. Schorr could not be reached for comment as to whether or not she was subpoenaed. (The case was settled prior to adjudication or appellate review.)
The board letter states that, "In the absence of any credible evidence from an objective source that he engaged in any inappropriate conduct, Beth Tfiloh had no basis to take any employment action against Rabbi Krawatsky."
But the "indications," at least one of which Schorr acknowledged in her email, are from CPS, a state agency.
[According to the Maryland Department of Human Resources, an "indicated" finding is accessible to any agency or institution that wishes to vet employees. A CPS Background Clearance Request form posted on the department's website authorizes CPS to release "indications" of child sexual abuse.]
'In the absence of any credible evidence from an objective source that he engaged in any inappropriate conduct, Beth Tfiloh had no basis to take any employment action against Rabbi Krawatsky.'
-Beth Tfiloh Board
The school's legal and communications representative, Amy Rotenberg, told The Jewish Week that neither the school board nor administration would provide further comment with regard to these claims. The board continues to affirm its full "support" of Schorr's "careful and thoughtful decision-making in the interest of our school community and the children."
Further, the board letter states that Beth Tfiloh is advised by the Baltimore Child Abuse Center regarding procedures and "best practices" to ensure "the safety of our children."
The Jewish Week spoke with Drew Fidler, Beth Tfiloh's primary contact at the Baltimore Child Abuse Center, in December 2017. (Schorr provided Fidler's name when asked for the school's correspondent at the Abuse Center.)
Fidler, who confirmed that she began working with Beth Tfiloh in June 2017, stated to The Jewish Week that an "unsubstantiated" ruling does not indicate an alleged abuser's innocence. She stated she would not recommend a school rehire a person with a CPS "unsubstantiated" determination on his or her record without further investigation.
The board acknowledged receiving a March 22, 2016 letter from state authorities stating sexual abuse was "unsubstantiated" in the case of Rabbi Krawatsky. He was reinstated to his position teaching children with no further investigation.
(In Maryland, the third potential outcome of a CPS investigation is "ruled out," meaning that based on the available information, child maltreatment did not occur. As previously reported, this determination was not reached in the cases involving Rabbi Krawatsky.)
Fidler, who confirmed that she began working with Beth Tfiloh in June 2017, stated to The Jewish Week that an "unsubstantiated" ruling does not indicate an alleged abuser's innocence.
If a school does choose to rehire a person with an "unsubstantiated" claim on his or her record, Fidler recommended that special restrictions and guidelines be enforced to inform and protect students. She said that "best practices" would also include publicizing these restrictions and guidelines.
(Fidler's professional recommendations are corroborated by the several experts consulted for The Jewish Week's original report.)
The board letter states, and Ms. Schorr confirmed to The Jewish Week over the phone in December, that Rabbi Krawatsky was reinstated to his position with no personalized guidelines or restrictions.
Rotenberg, the Beth Tfiloh representative, declined to specify any factual inaccuracies in the Jewish Week's initial report. She stated only that the online headline of The Jewish Week's initial report, "Did Baltimore's Orthodox Community Turn a Blind Eye to Child Sexual Abuse?" was "false and defamatory." She requested that The Jewish Week retract the headline.
In a separate statement from the board on Monday, "in the interest of transparency and full disclosure," Beth Tfiloh reported that Dr. Jonathan Lasson, a psychologist hired as a Judaics and neuroscience teacher in the high school "in the middle of the 2016-17 school year," was no longer working at the school, as of Monday. The board said it was "disappointed to have learned" from a blog post that Lasson was placed on probation by the Maryland Board of Examiners and Psychologists. (Lasson did not respond to request for comment.)
The court order, a public document, details a complaint from a female patient of inappropriate behavior on Lasson's part. It was signed and published on Oct. 3, 2017.
The school said it had employed a "background check per our usual protocol and screening of new hires and Dr. Lasson was clear."
The Beth Tfiloh website welcomed Lasson on the staff Oct. 24, 2017.
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/orthodox-day-school-doubles-down-claiming-not-privy-to-investigation-of-former-staff-rabbi/
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Friday, January 26, 2018 1 comment:
Any doubts that monsters can be real were put to rest by the more than 150 brave women and girls who told a Michigan judge over seven days how Dr. Larry Nassar molested them in the guise of treating them. Some of the abuse, which went on for decades, started when they were as young as 6.
Sentencing Larry Nassar Is Only a Start - Adults who suspect a predator is on the prowl and do nothing are simply monsters in another form.
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Megan Halicek, right, after the sentencing.
Any doubts that monsters can be real were put to rest by the more than 150 brave women and girls who told a Michigan judge over seven days how Dr. Larry Nassar molested them in the guise of treating them. Some of the abuse, which went on for decades, started when they were as young as 6. When Dr. Nassar committed his crimes, he was working as a doctor for the United States Olympic gymnastics team, for Michigan State University, for U.S.A. Gymnastics — the sport's governing body — and elsewhere.
As agonizingly recounted during a sentencing hearing, several girls over the years turned to one authority or another for help, and received none. Adults who suspect a predator is on the prowl and do nothing are simply monsters in another form.
Photos used during victim impact statements in the trial of Larry Nassar. Clockwise from top left: Larissa Boyce, Whitney Mergens, Christine Harrison, Marta Stern, Lindsey Lemke, and Lyndsy Carr.
Dr. Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually molesting seven young athletes. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina guaranteed on Wednesday that he would never again be free, after sentencing him to 40 to 175 years in prison.
But he is not the only one who deserves to be called to account. An investigation commissioned by U.S.A. Gymnastics and released last year found that its board repeatedly turned a blind eye to Dr. Nassar's abuses. An investigative series by The Indianapolis Star found that the organization had covered up accusations of abuses by many coaches, not just Dr. Nassar. Three key board members, including the chairman, Paul Parilla, resigned on Monday.
That's a start, but it's not enough. The United States Olympic Committee said it is considering decertifying U.S.A. Gymnastics, but the Olympic committee was also slow to act in the Nassar case. What changes will it implement to ensure that such widespread harm to American athletes doesn't happen under its watch again?
The resignation on Wednesday of Lou Anna Simon, the president of Michigan State, where Dr. Nassar's medical practice was based, was overdue. Though Michigan State has denied covering up Dr. Nassar's crimes, reporting by The Detroit News found that 14 university officials were told of Dr. Nassar's sexual misconduct in the two decades before he was arrested, and that at least eight women had reported his actions. Michigan State continued to allow Dr. Nassar to see patients for 16 months while he was under criminal investigation after a 2014 allegation of sexual assault by a patient.
The athletic trainers, assistant coaches, university police officers and other school officials who let Dr. Nassar's abuse go on should also step down. The N.C.A.A., which is investigating the matter, should consider sanctions against Michigan State, including banning it from postseason play for some period, as it did Penn State's football program after the former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of molesting children over a period of 15 years.
In all these instances, including cases detailed by Harper's Magazine in an article on competitive swimming, athletic glory, or the glow reflected onto those surrounding and enriching themselves from young athletes, blinded adults to their real responsibilities.
Protecting the image of the Olympic team, a gymnastics program and a university seems to have meant more to these adults than protecting children. In the end they protected nothing and no one and ruined their own reputations as well.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/larry-nassar-gymnastics-sentencing.html?emc=edit_tnt_20180124&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y
Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon Resigns Amid Nassar Fallout JAN. 24, 2018
Larry Nassar Sentencing: 'I Just Signed Your Death Warrant' JAN. 24, 2018
More than 160 women say Larry Nassar sexually abused them. Here are his accusers in their own words. JAN. 24, 2018
Opinion Opinion
U.S.A. Gymnastics Still Values Medals More Than Girls JAN. 23, 2018
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Thursday, January 25, 2018 No comments:
We've gone from a culture that prized hard work, frugality and discretion as the central tenets of the American Dream to a culture that prized celebrity, bling and narcissism."
Sundance film documents 'wealth culture' addiction spiraling out of control
Lauren Greenfield interviewed bankers about desire to get rich
Former investment banker Florian Homm in 'Generation Wealth'
The cost of addiction, whether through substance abuse, consumer spending or gambling fixes, has been well-documented.
But with her new movie "Generation Wealth", which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Emmy-award-winning documentary film-maker and photographer Lauren Greenfield has chronicled a relatively unexplored addiction: "Wealth culture" addiction.
Greenfield is best known for her 2012 documentary, "The Queen of Versailles", which colorfully depicted the doomed quest of billionaire David Siegel and his wife Jackie Siegel to build a 90,000 square-foot home in Orlando.
In "Generation Wealth," Greenfield interviews a range of characters including German investment banker Florian Homm, who faced extradition to the U.S. on charges of investor fraud.
Greenfield also quizzes members of her own family about their attitudes to money and fame. In most cases, the discussion revolves around the great lengths to which people went to make more money and how it left them ultimately feeling unfulfilled.
"Wealth culture" addiction is a phenomenon that is growing and widespread, Greenfield told MarketWatch ahead of the movie's premiere. "During the financial crisis, I was looking at wealth and the American dream and how it had gotten bigger and more supersized and, then when I started to look at all the stories I told about economics, popular culture, gender, the causes of the financial crash and the new rich in China and Russia, they told a bigger story that were connected in our culture."
"They were individual data points that together they documented in a seismic shift about our values. We've gone from a culture that prized hard work, frugality and discretion as the central tenets of the American Dream to a culture that prized celebrity, bling and narcissism."
But the movie, which has been bought for release next July, by Amazon Studios AMZN, +0.10% is no Michael Moore-style polemic on the evils of money, instead preferring to dwell on what causes insatiable demand.
"In a way, it's not about wealth but aspiration to wealth," said. "At every level we want more.
Whether it's the currency of beauty, the currency of fame, the currency of branding. 'Fake it till you make it' can be just as valuable as having money. So what I was looking at was wealth culture."
She contends it's a growing addiction: "Wealth culture is unhealthy and unsustainable for our community, relationships and well-being. The addiction of consumerism functions like other addictions so that can be very unhealthy."
Part of the cure, for Greenfield, lies in switching off your TV set and catching up with the people next door. "A generation ago people used to compare themselves to their neighbors," she said. "Now people spend more time with people they know from TV than their actual neighbors and aspire to this very unrealistic image, whether it's through reality TV or social media, about what life is like."
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sundance-film-documents-wealth-culture-addiction-spiralling-out-of-control-2018-01-20
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Wednesday, January 24, 2018 2 comments:
According to the National Institute of Health, Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that leads to shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with walking, balance, and coordination.
Neil Diamond announces he is canceling tour, retiring after Parkinson's diagnosis
Musician Neil Diamond announced on Monday that he is retiring from touring and canceling his upcoming tour in Australia and New Zealand after learning that he has Parkinson's disease.
Diamond, 76, said he still plans on being an active writer and contributor to music, but added his touring days are over.
"It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring. I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years," said Diamond.
"My thanks goes out to my loyal and devoted audiences around the world," he added. "You will always have my appreciation for your support and encouragement. This ride has been 'so good, so good, so good' thanks to you."
Diamond has produced dozens of albums over his nearly six-decade career. In addition to hits such as "Cherry, Cherry" and "America," Diamond is best known for performing "Sweet Caroline." The song, released in 1969, is still commonly played at stadiums and arenas worldwide.
Diamond has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards throughout his career. His only Grammy win came in 1973 for producing the soundtrack for the film "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."
https://www.wkbw.com/news/national/neil-diamond-announces-he-is-canceling-tour-retiring-after-parkinson-s-diagnosis
https://www.medicinenet.com/parkinsons_disease/article.htm
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Tuesday, January 23, 2018 1 comment:
Renowned Israeli musician and conductor Menahem Nebenhaus was accused last week of sexually harassing, raping and prostituting numerous minors at several educational institutions at which he worked...
Pedophilia, rape and sexual assault at Israeli music schools
By Tamar Ben-Ozer
Over ten students have already spoken out against conductor Menahem Nebenhaus in incidents ranging from sexual harassment to full-on rape.
The Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts symphony orchestra with Menahem Nebenhaus conducting.
Renowned Israeli musician and conductor Menahem Nebenhaus was accused last week of sexually harassing, raping and prostituting numerous minors at several educational institutions at which he worked.
The scandal was revealed by journalist Assaf Harel, who, like most of the victims, studied under Nebenhaus while a student at the elite Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts in central Israel.
On January 16, in his popular television segment, The Monologue, Harel described how he used to frequent Nebenhaus's private studio on Rothschild Boulevard every week for conducting lessons as a teen. At the time Harel also worked in construction, and he recalled arriving at the studio one day with his back muscles aching so badly he could barely move. Nebenhaus offered to massage his back. "I thought it was nice of him," Harel said. "He really did help, and I felt better." But it didn't stop there.
"Then he suggested we not have a lesson today, but instead play all sorts of games," Harel continued. "[He] offered a host of obscene suggestions: Let's play doctor and patient, let's masturbate together, and all sorts of other things that didn't sound like so much fun to me." Harel says the rest of his memory of the incident is foggy and unclear. But the fact that it happened lit a red light, and, riding the #Metoo wave, he decided to investigate.
Harel said that he found it uncanny that throughout the entire #Metoo campaign there were barely any stories about men harassing teens and boys. Recalling his own experience with Nebenhaus, he decided to reach out and discover whether there was perhaps more to the story. And, indeed, a couple of phone calls later, Harel had compiled a list of seven men and one woman who'd also been victimized by Nebenhaus.
The stories Harel heard took place in high schools, the IDF orchestra, the Ra'anana youth orchestra, musical summer camps, at Nebenhaus's studio and on orchestral tours abroad. One man testified that while on a tour abroad with his high school, Nebenhaus invited him to his hotel room and suggested they masturbate together. Another told of a similar story happening at Nebenhaus's studio in Tel Aviv.
Another former student described coming over to Nebenhaus's studio after having broken up with his girlfriend. He was in a fragile emotional state, and was looking forward to confiding in his fatherly, endearing music teacher who'd become a close friend throughout their year of lessons. Nebenhaus apparently recognized the student's fragility and decided to take advantage of it. He explained to the student how important it is to "open up, to connect to your feelings, to expose yourself emotionally and physically." He convinced the student to expose himself physically, and once they were both naked, asked him to touch his penis. When the student refused, Nebenhaus went on to touch the student and perform oral sex on him. After leaving, the student proceeded to "barf his guts out" and never returned to the studio.
The most horrifying testimony tells the tale of a private student of Nebenhaus's who was de facto prostituted by the conductor. After one of the teachers at the Thelma Yellin school committed suicide, Nebenhaus offered himself as a shoulder to lean on for any student who felt they needed one. One such student forged a close relationship with Nebenhaus and came to regard him as a paternal figure. At some point, he began offering the student all sorts of bets involving sex and money: "If you have the courage to do 'this', you'll get 50 shekels...but I bet you're not brave enough," for example. The offers gradually became more and more extreme, until they became outright sex for money. This turned into weekly sex meetings, until eventually the student couldn't take it anymore and cut off the relationship. Nebenhaus made him agree to keep silent about the whole affair.
For decades, Nebenhaus conducted and taught almost exclusively at musical institutions for youth and children.
Five years ago, an anonymous source reported to the then principal of the Thelma Yellin school, Haim Daitchman, that Nebenhaus had raped him as a child. The school took measures to ensure he was removed from his position, but did not turn to the police or make further inquiries into the case.
After Harel broke the story, conductor Yishai Steckler admitted to being the anonymous source mentioned in Harel's story and gave an interview on Channel 2.
After becoming a conductor in his own right, Steckler worked alongside Nebenhaus at Thelma Yellin for years. In the Channel 2 interview he also admitted to being the student on whom Nebenhaus performed oral sex. Steckler said it took him years of psychological care in order to get over the trauma he suffered as a result of the rape. The sentence that scarred him most of all was what Nebenhaus said to him after the rape, right before he left: Steckler sat down on the couch, his knees shaking, incapable of getting up. He asked Nebenhaus to help him stand up. With a repulsed look on his face, Nebenhaus looked at him and said, "You're probably not a real artist if you're not willing to 'go far.'"
The world of classical music, and performing arts in general, is notorious for being rigorous and demanding to such an extent that an emotional toll is taken on the well-being of young artists, who will often pay a high price in order to ensure their success in the field. Educators, especially charismatic and successful ones like Nebenhaus, are regarded as idols and can easily exploit students who hold them in such high esteem. Extra care needs to be taken in demanding artistic institutions in order to ensure that young people are not taken advantage of, and that they have a support network to reach out to if such cases do come to pass.
Thelma Yellin's current principal, Moshe Philosoph, claims that all of the incidents that have been reported occurred over 20 years ago, therefore the statute of limitation on them has passed.
Since the release of the video, four more men have come forth reporting that they, too, had been harassed. Nebenhaus has been suspended from his current teaching post at the Technion University in Haifa. He has declined to make any comment as of yet, but has hired a lawyer.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Pedophilia-rape-and-sexual-assault-at-Israeli-music-schools-539328?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=19-1-2018&utm_content=pedophilia-rape-and-sexual-assault-at-israeli-music-schools-539328
"It's not the abuser (yes, it is) — he's a weed, a sick person who needs treatment. The real problem is the willingness of the whole community — including its leaders — to shelter him."
Did Baltimore's Orthodox Community Turn A Blind Eye To Child Sexual Abuse? UPDATE - HE WAS TERMINATED 2:30 PM EST - THURSDAY JAN. 18.
S***HOLE DOES NOT QUITE DEFINE THIS PARTICULAR JEWISH COMMUNITY!
Amidst a growing conversation about child sexual abuse prevention in the Jewish community, allegations of rape met with community inaction forces reflection.
By Hannah Dreyfus January 17, 2018
For three young boys from Baltimore, Camp Shoresh, an Orthodox day camp tucked into the gently rolling hills of Frederick County in western Maryland, must have seemed a child's paradise.
It had a twisty water slide, a spacious game room packed with pool, ping-pong and foosball tables, a zip line, a climbing wall reaching into the sky and a creek winding through the grounds, perfect for nature hikes.
But in the summer of 2015, dark clouds pierced paradise.
Soon after Zev, then 7, Boaz, then 8, and Adam, then 7 (not their real names), started spending their days at the camp in late June and early July, each boy's parents began to notice disturbing changes in their children's behavior.
Zev, a sensitive, intellectual child, began waking up in the middle of the night screaming. Later that summer he complained of headaches and stomach aches, and he began wetting his bed.
Boaz, an active, "always laughing" kid, began acting out — shouting and becoming violent with his siblings, displaying "explosive" episodes of anger, his parents said. During a family drive, Boaz took off his seat belt, fell to the floor of the moving car and started screaming and crying.
Adam's mother sensed something was wrong when the usually energetic and curious child started complaining of horrible stomach aches and developed a tick. He smeared feces on the walls, and he started to believe that "monsters lived in bathrooms."
The connective tissue tying the boys' similar stories together is Rabbi Steven (Shmuel) Krawatsky, who in the summer of 2015 served as the head of the lower boys' division at Camp Shoresh.
Campers at Camp Shoresh, where Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky
was the head of the lower boys division in the summer of 2015
Rabbi Krawatsky, 40, has worked in Jewish education for more than two decades and is considered to be a highly respected, charismatic leader who creates close personal relationships with his students.
Before moving to Baltimore in 2003, he worked as a Judaic studies teacher at HAFTR, a large Jewish day school in the Five Towns area and as the youth director at the White Shul in Far Rockaway.
Married and the father of four, he lives in Baltimore and teaches middle school Judaic studies at Beth Tfiloh, the local Modern Orthodox day school, and runs youth programming at Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim, a large Orthodox synagogue in Baltimore. He began working at Camp Shoresh, an outreach, or kiruv, camp, in the early 2000s.
The boys' parents describe behavior that experts in the field of child sexual abuse label as "grooming." Rabbi K, as he is known around Baltimore, took a special interest in each child, giving them gifts (a signed basketball in Boaz's case, davening prizes in Adam's). Two of the three sets of parents recalled receiving phone calls from Rabbi K early in the camp season offering to give their sons private, one-on-one "social skills" lessons to improve their behavior. In the phone conversation, he praised each boy, calling them "special."
Adam's mother recalled Rabbi Krawatsky telling her over the phone that he had taken her son into the camp locker room to reprimand him for "inappropriate" behavior. He had gone with him alone into the locker room in order "not to embarrass him," she recalls him explaining.
Toward the end of camp that summer, the boys' stories of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Rabbi Krawatsky began to spill out, first to their parents and then to staff at Child Protective Services (CPS) in Frederick County, Md. Two of the alleged victims underwent forensic interviews.
Rabbi Krawatsky declined to speak directly with The Jewish Week. His attorney said the rabbi continues to proclaim his complete innocence and denies that any misconduct took place.
Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky is fondly called "Rabbi K" by many in the Baltimore Orthodox community. Via rabbishmuelkrawatsky.blogspot.com
The Jewish Week reviewed the transcript of one of the forensic interviews, which provides abundant and disturbing detail of what took place, according to one of the young boys.
According to the transcript, the rabbi, who was naked and alone in the pool changing room with two alleged victims, touched the young boys "inappropriately" before asking them to touch his "private parts" in exchange for $100. The report also states that the rabbi threatened the young boys not to tell their parents what had happened and hit one boy in the stomach because "he was mad because we didn't do what he said; touch his private parts." (The parents of the young boy recalled finding bruises on their son's stomach in July.) Similar incidents took place three times over the course of the summer, according to the report.
The first alleged victim interviewed by CPS later revealed to a private therapist that Rabbi Krawatsky had anally raped him, according to the boy's parents. (The therapist, a mandated reporter, reported the rape to the Frederick County Child Advocacy center on Nov. 9, 2017, according to an email exchange between the boy's parents and the therapist.)
Another disclosed to his parents and to CPS that he had been anally and orally raped by Rabbi Krawatsky. (The alleged victim disclosed details of the abuse to CPS in early 2017. A time lapse between sexual abuse and a victim's disclosure of the abuse is expected, child trauma experts say.)
Frederick County CPS declined to release a transcript of the forensic interview, according to the victims' parents. CPS did not respond to requests for comment.
The third child initially did not disclose abuse when he was interviewed by a CPS caseworker and the Frederick County Police on Dec. 22, 2015.
"I simply cannot stay silent when I know that this man is still working with children."
However, according to his father, he later disclosed to a private therapist that Rabbi Krawatsky had propositioned him to touch his penis in the pool locker room two times over the course of the summer. The child said Rabbi Krawatsky was naked and verbally abusive towards him, threatening to "punish" him if he did not comply with his proposition, according to the young boy's father. (These details are corroborated in the CPS transcript of the first alleged victim's forensic interview.)
In the first two cases, CPS case workers, trained extensively to detect child sexual abuse and trauma, concluded that Rabbi Krawatsky was "indicated" for child sexual abuse. (In the third case, CPS ruled that sexual abuse was "unsubstantiated.") These CPS terms are critical to understanding the case.
According to Sandra Barnes, assistant attorney general at Maryland Attorney General's Office and the point person on cases that involve CPS, an "indication" from Child Protective Services means there was a "preponderance of evidence" that sexual abuse took place.
"To issue an indication, CPS must be convinced that it is more likely sexual abuse occurred than that it did not occur," she said. "Where there is all that smoke, there must be fire."
"I'm fighting for my son's childhood. You only get one. I want my son to have his."
Rabbi Krawatsky appealed both determinations, a move that is not unusual, according to Barnes. In both instances, the cases were settled prior to an appellate ruling. In the end, CPS, in what amounts to a plea bargain, downgraded its determination from "indicated" to "unsubstantiated," which means that there is not a preponderance of evidence that abuse took place.
Much of the Baltimore Orthodox community continues to vocally support and defend the rabbi, citing him as a warm and caring leader.
Rabbi Krawatsky stopped working at the camp after the summer of 2015, according to a letter sent out by the camp director to the "friends and families" of Camp Shoresh in February 2016 addressing the "allegation … about improper conduct."
Joel Avrunin, father of one of the alleged victims: "I'm fighting for my son's childhood. You only get one. I want my son to have his."
The parents of each child are still searching for answers. More than two years after the events of the summer of 2015, the boys are still struggling to deal with the effects of what allegedly took place, according to their parents. The three boys (two of whom are cousins) continue to disclose details about what they went through that summer, under the care of therapists trained in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy.
"I simply cannot stay silent when I know that this man is still working with children," said the mother of one of the alleged victims, who requested to remain anonymous to protect her son's privacy. Though her preference would be to "bury my head in the sand and just move forward," she feels compelled to speak out "to prevent future victims."
"This nearly broke us," said Joel Avrunin, Zev's father, who met with me in mid-November. "I'm fighting for my son's childhood. You only get one. I want my son to have his."
An Anomalous Investigation
An investigation by The Jewish Week into the allegations against Rabbi Krawatsky paints a disturbing picture of how the Camp Shoresh case played out — from the perspectives of law enforcement, organizational "best practices" to guard against abuse, and the Orthodox community's reaction.
The story comes as the Jewish community is in the midst of what many say is a long-overdue conversation about how to prevent child sexual abuse. A number of major philanthropists recently signed on to a pledge saying they would no longer fund schools and camps that do not put into place best practices to combat such abuse. Nonprofits have sprung up in an effort to guide Jewish institutions toward setting up policies to protect children. And the case comes as the Conservative movement is dealing with newly published allegations (and in some cases confirmation, as this newspaper reported) of sexual abuse carried out years ago by leaders in its youth arm, United Synagogue Youth.
"The more victims there are, the less likely it is that the accused is innocent."
"It is extremely rare to have a false allegation of child sexual abuse," said Victor Vieth, founder and senior director of the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center and a nationally recognized expert in child sexual abuse prevention. "The more victims there are, the less likely it is that the accused is innocent." A false allegation is akin to being "struck by lightning," he said.
The likelihood that three separate allegations are false is "equivalent to the same person being struck by lightning three times. It is improbable enough to stagger the imagination."
In the case of the Shoresh allegations, the police opened a criminal investigation in late August 2015, two days after the alleged sexual abuse had been reported to the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, and a day after Zev went to the Child Advocacy Center for his forensic interview. The charges: sex offense in the third degree and sexual abuse of a minor.
Camp Shoresh in Frederick County in western Maryland.
Three boys who attended the camp in the summer of 2015 said they were sexually abused
by Rabbi Krawatsky.
But, experts assert, it may have been a flawed probe from the start.
According to the police report, obtained by The Jewish Week, the investigating detective, Michael P. Davies, brought Zev, his father and the CPS caseworker back to the scene of the alleged abuse — the pool changing room at camp. When they arrived at the camp, Davies met up with the camp's director, Rabbi David Finkelstein. Together, Davies and Rabbi Finkelstein questioned Zev about the alleged incident.
Rabbi Finkelstein declined to comment for this story.
Zev's father, Mr. Avrunin, recalled that the police detective, who was armed at the time, asked him to remain outside the changing room while his son was questioned. The move struck him as strange. Nonetheless, he complied. (A spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office said that requesting a parent not to be present while a child victim is questioned is "standard procedure.")
The investigative detective told The Jewish Week he was unable to provide comment for confidentiality reasons. He directed The Jewish Week to Maj. Tim Clarke, operations commander and spokesman at the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. According to Clarke, taking a child victim back to the scene of the alleged crime is "normally not done." However, in this case, the investigator felt it necessary because "the child may have been unclear of the location where the incident occurred."
Sandra Barnes of the state attorney general's office said bringing a victim back to the scene of an alleged crime just days after it was suspected to have taken place is "very unusual" and a tactic she has "never seen before."
Camp Shoresh director, Rabbi Dave Finkelstein with campers.
The police investigation also does not include any video footage, photographs, sworn statements or witness testimonies, all methods of corroboration criminal investigators generally try to include, said Clarke. In this case, Davies must not have thought them "necessary," said Clarke. Investigative tactics are left up to the police detective's "discretion."
The police report also indicates that Rabbi Finkelstein, the camp director, was involved in the criminal probe of his employee, Rabbi Krawatsky — an unusual circumstance, according to legal experts, given his apparent conflict of interest. The report states that Rabbi Finkelstein "asked several other counselors about changing habits at the pools changing rooms(s)" and that these counselors said that, unlike other counselors, Rabbi Krawatsky used a private pool utility room to change.
"This case has 'all the earmarks typical of an investigation constructed to protect the perpetrator.'"
Maj. Clarke, who reviewed the case prior to an interview with The Jewish Week, said he was not aware that Finkelstein had been involved in the investigation; however, under normal circumstances, any information used by police is received via direct interviews or in-person statements.
According to Marci Hamilton, CEO and academic director of CHILD USA, a think tank dedicated to preventing child abuse, this case has "all the earmarks typical of an investigation constructed to protect the perpetrator." (Hamilton, a distinguished legal scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, did not have access to the police report but was informed of the facts of the case.)
Further, a significant part of the criminal investigation — referenced by community leaders and Rabbi Krawatsky's lawyer as evidence of his innocence — was a polygraph examination. On Sept. 11, 2015, Rabbi Krawatsky submitted to a polygraph examination at the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, according to the police report. After the exam was completed, the officer who conducted the test advised Davies that "deception was NOT detected."
Rabbi Krawatsky's attorney cited the polygraph as evidence of his client's innocence. "He [Krawatsky] immediately offered to take a polygraph test which he passed without question," Rolle wrote to The Jewish Week in an email.
(The polygraph report was not included in the police report. The Frederick County Sheriff's Office denied the victim's father access to the polygraph report, according to a letter from the Frederick County Sheriff's office. The letter did not cite a reason for the denial.)
Experts say the polygraph exam is unreliable, and polygraphs are not admissible as evidence in court.
The manual of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, an arm of the National District Attorneys' Association, writes about the polygraph: "These investigative tools should never be the controlling factor in a decision about whether to proceed with a case."
Camp Shoresh is an Orthodox kiruv, or outreach, day camp
On Dec. 8, 2015, Lindell Angel, assistant state's attorney in Frederick County and the chief of the sex crimes and child abuse unit, decided not to pursue criminal charges against Rabbi Krawatsky "at this time." After reviewing the case with Det. Davies on Dec. 2, the police report states Angel declined to prosecute due to "the lack of evidence and witnesses."
In an email, Angel told The Jewish Week "it was apparent that the allegations of the complaint could not be corroborated, and furthermore were contradicted by other witnesses reported to be present as well as the physicality of the alleged scene of the reported event."
The police report includes no witness testimony contradicting the alleged victims' accounts. When asked for comment on why this seemingly pivotal testimony is absent, Maj. Clarke said, "I have no additional comments to add."
"There is a common and grave misunderstanding out there that failure to prosecute exonerates the perpetrator. It does not."
The threshold to prosecute a case — confidence that a crime can be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" — is much higher than CPS' threshold to "indicate" someone for sexual abuse, experts explain.
"Our threshold is not 'beyond a reasonable doubt,'" said Barnes. Still, "To indicate, we have to be convinced abuse happened."
Hamilton points out that the decision not to prosecute a case does not suggest the alleged abuser's innocence. "There is a common and grave misunderstanding out there that failure to prosecute exonerates the perpetrator. It does not. It just means more evidence is needed," she said. When the accused is a religious figure and beloved community member, gaining enough evidence to prosecute becomes increasingly difficult, she continued.
Hamilton pointed out, though, that "New victims can come forward at any point." (In 2017, Maryland extended the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse to age 38.)
Communal Silence & Cognitive Dissonance
The Orthodox community's reaction to the allegations against Rabbi Krawatsky, which reaches from local leaders in Baltimore to the national umbrella group the Orthodox Union, is an example of what one abuse prevention expert called "cognitive dissonance."
According to Shira M. Berkovits, an expert in abuse prevention, the inclination among community members to defend the accused is typical, even expected. (It was a pattern that was common in the sexual abuse case of National Council of Synagogue Youth Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a story first reported by The Jewish Week in 2000.)
"When a respected religious leader is accused of a morally repugnant crime, the impulse not to believe goes to the core."
"When a respected religious leader is accused of a morally repugnant crime, the impulse not to believe goes to the core," said Berkovits, who holds a doctorate in psychology as well as a law degree.
[Berkovits writes more about the psychological factors that contribute to sexual abuse here.]
Indeed, the Baltimore community has rallied around the popular Rabbi Krawatsky.
Complicating the picture is the rabbi's successful appeals of the Child Protective Services rulings that there was a preponderance of evidence to suggest that he had sexually abused two of the Baltimore boys; the term "unsubstantiated" may have left the impression that Rabbi Krawatsky was cleared when in fact it meant that there was not a preponderance of evidence of abuse.
During the appeal of the first case, which took place during early 2016, Rabbi Krawatsky was placed on leave by the Beth Tfiloh day school, his primary employer.
Speaking to The Jewish Week, Zipora Schorr, Beth Tfiloh's director of education, said she was unaware that the rabbi had been indicated for sexual abuse in September 2015 or in March 2017.
Beth Tfiloh school where Rabbi Krawatsky is still employed.
In a subsequent email exchange, Schorr acknowledged that she "was informed of the indication via email on September 25, 2015 from Frederick County Child Protective Services unit." She said Rabbi Krawatsky was immediately suspended and accompanied out of the building.
Schorr maintains she did not know about Rabbi Krawatsky's second indication or his subsequent appeal.
According to experts, a successful appeal does not exonerate the accused. The case was closed on Feb. 10, 2016, after the parties settled the matter prior to any appellate review. The lawyer representing CPS and Rabbi Krawatsky's attorney, Chris Rolle, reached a settlement to downgrade Rabbi Krawatsky's "indication" to an "unsubstantiated" status.
Rabbi Krawatsky was immediately reinstated at Beth Tfiloh after the first appeal, with no further investigation by the school.
(Drew Fidler, the Baltimore Child Abuse Center representative Beth Tfiloh hired in June of 2017 to audit the school's child sexual abuse prevention policies, affirmed that an "unsubstantiated" ruling does not indicate innocence.)
It is not unusual for CPS legal personnel to settle with an alleged abuser's attorney, legal experts say.
"With limited financial and legal resources, CPS caseworkers will often choose to settle with the alleged abuser's attorney, a preferable outcome to the indication being ruled out and the record destroyed," said Barnes.
"A high-priced attorney can browbeat CPS to downgrade that 'indicated' to 'unsubstantiated.' That's not rare."
Converting a ruling from "indicated" to "unsubstantiated" preserves a paper trail on the alleged abuser. (In Maryland, anyone with an "indicated" or "unsubstantiated" finding of child abuse is entered into a central confidential state database, according to the Maryland Department of Human Resources.)
Victor Veith, the child sex abuse expert, agreed: "A high-priced attorney can browbeat CPS to downgrade that 'indicated' to 'unsubstantiated,'" he said. "That's not rare."
(In Maryland, the third potential outcome of a CPS investigation is "ruled out," meaning that based on the available information, child maltreatment did not occur. This determination was not reached in the cases involving Rabbi Krawatsky.)
Schorr, meanwhile, continues to affirm her belief in Krawatsky's "complete innocence," though she declined to explain why.
As an example of Rabbi Krawatsky's popularity, last November, when Chaim Levin, an activist and advocate for child abuse victims, posted a warning about the rabbi on his Facebook wall, indignant responses poured in. Most of them attested to Rabbi Krawatsky's exceptional character and fastidious care of the children under his watch. (Levin previously worked for The Jewish Week as an editorial intern.)
To date, the Nov. 10 post has received nearly 70 comments, almost exclusively defending the rabbi.
"I can prove to you that Rabbi K is innocent. Stop hurting HIS children by bringing up a case that was thoroughly investigated and thrown out. It is honorable to protect kids. It is awful to slander an innocent person," one mother wrote.
One commenter posted about his "multiple 1 on 1 lunch and learns with the accused as a middle schooler" and recalls going over to the rabbi's house "for sleepovers as an elementary school student" as evidence of his trustworthiness.
The thread also contains vicious verbal attacks against Levin (who said he received multiple threats) and the victims' families.
The OU's Knowledge — And Apparent Inaction
In September of 2016, more than a year after the allegations against Rabbi Krawatsky surfaced, the Orthodox Union's Yachad, a national organization that works to include individuals with disabilities in Jewish life, struck up a collaboration with Suburban Orthodox synagogue in Baltimore to create a Teen Inclusion Minyan, a prayer service catering to children and teens with disabilities.
Rabbi Krawatsky, the synagogue youth director, was appointed to lead the Yachad program in addition to his job at Beth Tfiloh.
Days after the new Yachad minyan began to advertise, several different individuals approached the Orthodox Union with concerns about Rabbi Krawatsky's appointment. David Ohsie, a concerned father of eight living in the Baltimore Orthodox community, communicated his concerns to Deborah Rockoff, Yachad's director of national programs, via email and phone for nearly two months.
(Rockoff, who did not respond to requests for comment, assured Ohsie that the OU was going to remove Rabbi Krawatsky from his position of leadership, according to Ohsie. Rabbi Krawatsky was not removed from the special needs minyan.)
Upon receiving complaints, Jeffrey Lichtman, international director of Yachad, conducted a "preliminary investigation" into the rabbi, according to Lichtman. (The Yachad employee tasked with investigating the matter had no training in cases of child sexual abuse, Lichtman said.)
"Rabbi K" in the classroom. Much of the Baltimore community has rallied behind him. Via rabbishmuelkrawatsky.blogspot.com
The OU reached out to two independent groups for further information: the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center and GRACE, an organization that has in the past helped Christian organizations respond to abuse. Both organizations confirmed to The Jewish Week that Lichtman reached out regarding the matter of Rabbi Krawatsky in November 2016. Both strongly recommended that the OU engage a third party to conduct an independent investigation into what Boz Tchividjian, founder of GRACE, described as the "very serious allegation in Baltimore County."
(The OU has a fund set aside to help member synagogues investigate abuse claims.)
The Gundersen and GRACE organizations said the OU expressed interest in retaining their expert personnel to conduct an investigation into the matter. Both organizations said Lichtman requested proposals for conducting an investigative assessment. Both independently took the time to prepare these proposals for the OU, but said they did not hear back from Lichtman
Lichtman said he did not follow through with these experts because "he [Rabbi Krawatsky] was not an employee so we did not conduct further investigation."
Results of the OU's internal investigation prompted the OU to "immediately disassociate from this person [Rabbi Krawatsky] and not be involved with him in any way, shape or form."
Meanwhile, the results of the OU's internal investigation, which unearthed sexual abuse allegations made against the rabbi, prompted Lichtman to "immediately disassociate from this person [Rabbi Krawatsky] and not be involved with him in any way, shape or form," he told The Jewish Week. Lichtman said he advised his fellow OU staff members not to partner with Rabbi Krawatsky on any OU-sponsored programs.
In December 2016, nearly two months after initial concerns about the rabbi leading the Yachad minyan were brought to the OU's attention, Yachad dropped its name from the special teen service.
But the special needs minyan, under the leadership of Rabbi Krawatsky, continued, according to the synagogue's weekly bulletins. (A phone call to the synagogue last month confirmed that Rabbi Krawatsky is still the youth director and still coordinates programming for special needs children.)
Lichtman said that, at the time, he "informed our [Yachad] participants who would potentially be involved in the program" that the OU had decided not to work with Rabbi Krawatsky.
The OU took no further steps to inform the Baltimore Orthodox community of its concerns about Rabbi Krawatsky. Lichtman said: "The OU has no mechanism to communicate with the community aside from telling the rabbi" of the congregation.
Lichtman said he personally informed Rabbi Shmuel Silber, rabbi of the synagogue hosting the Yachad minyan, about his concerns regarding Rabbi Krawatsky. In a phone interview with The Jewish Week, Lichtman said he "informed" Rabbi Silber over the phone that conducting an independent investigation is the recommended best practice.
Rabbi Silber did not respond to several requests for comment. However, Baltimore community members say that Rabbi Silber remains vocally supportive of Rabbi Krawatsky and convinced of his innocence.
[In August 2016, The Rabbinical Council of America released a proclamation acknowledging that sexual abuse "destroys lives" and recognizing how the community has failed in the past to adequately help victims and "hold perpetrators accountable." Rabbi Silber, a former executive committee member of the RCA, is a signatory on the proclamation.]
Lichtman said he also informed Beth Tfiloh of the OU's decision to remove Rabbi Krawatsky from all their programming. Beth Tfiloh's Zipora Schorr emailed The Jewish Week that the school "never received any notification by the OU of its decision to sever all ties with Rabbi Krawatsky."
Lichtman said he believes the OU followed best practices in responding in this case. He said: "We did everything we needed to do to protect our people."
"We did everything we needed to do to protect our people."
During the summer of 2016, NCSY Camp Sports, an all-boys sleepaway camp sponsored by the Orthodox Union, hosted Rabbi Krawatsky as their special Shabbat guest. He slept on-site and conducted learning workshops with campers.
According to NCSY's Conduct, Policy and Behavioral Standards manual, volunteer hires who interact with teens are hired only after various background checks and an interview.
The Jewish Week reached out to Rabbi Jon Green, NCSY Camp Sports' director, to inquire who conducted the background check into Rabbi Krawatsky. Rabbi Green assured this reporter that he would "100 percent" respond to the question.
"But," he said, "you do know Rabbi K was totally cleared, right?" His source: a "passing conversation" with a "mutual friend" who knows Rabbi Krawatsky. (Rabbi Green did not respond to The Jewish Week's question about who conducted the background check.)
"The potential danger to children should be far greater than any other concern."
Rabbi Yosef Blau, a longtime spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University and advocate for victims of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, said that "not having enough evidence [to convict someone] of child sexual abuse is a ridiculous standard" for the individuals the community chooses to teach its children.
"The potential danger to children should be far greater than any other concern," Rabbi Blau continued. "The notion that if the police don't arrest the guy you should keep him teaching is absurd."
Reflecting on the case in light of the recent national reckoning surrounding sexual abuse and harassment, University of Pennsylvania's Marci Hamilton said, "What is happening with this man is indefensible. This is willing ignorance, and nothing else. In the #MeToo era, the decision to ignore all of these very loud bells could lead to endangering children."
'Where There's Smoke, There's Fire'
The three families whose boys were allegedly abused now plan to sue Rabbi Krawatsky and any organization that "had knowledge that Rabbi K was being inappropriate with children and failed to intervene," said Jon Little, the attorney who will be representing the families.
"From these three kids, we've gleaned the names of five more kids," all of whom were allegedly abused by Rabbi Krawatsky at Camp Shoresh and in his other roles, said Little. "We have the record from the Maryland Child Protective Services — that's a lot in my world. I am pretty confident that where there's smoke, there's fire, and here there's a raging forest fire."
Chris Rolle, Rabbi Krawatsky's attorney, stated by email that the rabbi is "heartbroken and dismayed that the parents of the children are continuing to press these false allegations. There isn't any more that my client can say other than he is innocent." (Aside from citing the fact that his client passed a polygraph exam, Rolle declined to provide further evidence of his client's innocence.)
For the parents of the alleged victims, the last two years have been a nightmare. The father of Rabbi Krawatsky's third alleged victim said the community's inaction is what pains him most deeply.
"It's not the abuser — he's a weed, a sick person who needs treatment. The real problem is the willingness of the whole community — including its leaders — to shelter him."
"It's not the abuser — he's a weed, a sick person who needs treatment. The real problem is the willingness of the whole community — including its leaders — to shelter him," said the father, an Israeli physicist who lives with his wife and three children in a suburb of Washington, D.C.
As for the Avrunins, who have been the most vocal about their son's alleged abuse, they say that over the last two years they have been slandered, defamed and accused by members of the Baltimore Orthodox community of spreading "lashon harah," malicious gossip, about an innocent man. Some have claimed the family is pursuing a "personal vendetta" against Rabbi Krawatsky.
The situation eventually caused the family to leave their Baltimore home of nine years; they now live in another state.
"The constant disbelief was the second wound our family endured, and the one that leaves a deeper scar," said Rachel Avrunin, speaking to The Jewish Week by phone in November.
"It is one thing to wrap our mind around the fact that our son was sexually abused," she said. "It's another to realize that our community — our friends and neighbors, the people who davened next to us in shul and had playdates at our house — chose to turn a blind eye, or worse, betray us."
Read the detailed accounts from Krawatsky's three victim's here, and the Jewish Week editorial on the issue here.
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/did-baltimores-orthodox-community-turn-a-blind-eye-to-child-sexual-abuse/
Posted by Paul Mendlowitz at Thursday, January 18, 2018 1 comment:
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