Resident of Beitar Illit, abused his four daughters for 20 years • Lawyer Shwartz: "There are children among us who have been ‘burnt alive’ in their homes"

Eli Schlesinger
23 March 2015

Once again it happened: a resident of Beitar Illit, abused his four daughters for twenty years, without them being able to protect themselves. This morning, he was indicted for serious crimes.

Serious charges were laid this morning against a 49-year-old Beitar Illit resident. It is alleged that for 20 years he sexually and otherwise abused his four daughters. What is especially appalling is that the defendant, who freely admits to carrying out his horrific deeds, is blaming his daughters.

This is apparently a perfectly run of the mill married man who is respected within his community. But behind the mask there a person who seriously abused helpless children.

Jerusalem District Attorney Office, represented by lawyer Lizu Wolfus, submitted the charge sheet, and filed a request to keep the man in custody until the end of proceedings.

"The accused’s response to the police allegations revealed a highly warped mode of thinking” the prosecution submitted as part of request to keep the man in custody. “That clearly indicate that he presents a serious danger.”

About a month ago, a Haredi man from the centre of the country was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for severely abused three of his daughters, on hundreds of occasions for over two decades since 1988. The abused continued from the time they were six and a half to 11 years old till they got married at age of 18-19.

In a precedent-setting ruling, his wife, the mother of the girls, was sentenced to three years in prison for keeping silent while being aware of the abuse. The girls had told her about it, and in response she told them that it was happening in every second home. She further persuaded them not to contact the police or welfare authorities, asserting that these institutions were “destroying families."

Burnt children alive for 20 years

Lawyer Rebecca Shwartz, who founded Min Hameitzar, an organisation devoted to providing legal aid to victims of crime in the Haredi community, responded to the verdict. She told Behadrey Haredim: "This is a terrible case which cannot even be imagined; how a father would do that to his own children. We were horrified to hear that seven children were burnt [in Brooklyn] and everyone cried over it, while at the same time fathers burn their children every day within the walls of their home. This was a comparison which I discovered while reading the transcript.”

Shwartz says that one reason for the abuse is, "the perpetrator’s ignorance. I keep on encountering this motif in many cases, including this one. The perpetrator tends to rely on the notion that the victims contributed to the abuse".  According to her, they don’t understand that any cooperation by the child is totally meaningless. "Widespread exposure of the cases and the dealing with them to the full extent of the law would cause other potential abusers to know, that the consent of the child does not diminish the severity of the offence, ignorance would be removed and there will be a deterrent."

Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service Melbourne Australia.

*Original Hebrew article is available at http://www.bhol.co.il/article.aspx?id=81508&cat=1&scat=1.

The Australian Jewish News has confirmed today what many people close to Yeshivah and Beth Rivkah Colleges have feared for the last few weeks – their Principal, Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, is on the brink of leaving the schools. There can be no doubt that this would be an absolute tragedy for students, parents, staff, the Chabad community and indeed the broader community.

From my interactions with Rabbi Smukler during and since the Royal Commission public hearing into the Yeshivah Centre, I believe that he is the real deal. He is a warm, articulate and intelligent individual who is untainted by the Yeshivah Centre's scandals and wants to do the right thing. His evidence from the witness stand, which included a sincere apology to Yeshivah's many victims of child sexual abuse, was a shining light amid the horrific failings of the Yeshivah Centre which were exposed for all to see. Indeed, after his testimony he approached me and personally apologised. He subsequently engaged with the victim support and advocacy organisation I founded, Tzedek, to work with them on a number of projects.

While the Yeshivah Centre was copping a much deserved battering at the Royal Commission and some members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and Committee of Management (CoM) were giving unbelievable testimony, it was Rabbi Smukler who parents pointed to as the reason why they would keep sending their children to Yeshivah and Beth-Rivkah Colleges. He has done an amazing job despite the mess he inherited and has the clear support of most people who have had anything to do with him.

And so it is difficult to feel anything other than sorry for Rabbi Smukler at the moment. It is clear that he is caught in the middle of Yeshivah’s self-inflicted mess. How is he supposed to do his job of attracting and retaining the best students and staff while the failed BoT and CoM continue to run the Yeshivah Centre? Who in their right mind would want to work under the BoT or CoM? How can he be expected to motivate students and staff when the BoT and CoM have effectively turned their institution into a communal disgrace? And how is he supposed to teach and instill values of decency and accountability in students when the example they see from the top is one of immorality and a refusal to accept responsibility?

Only two weeks ago, in an Open Letter to the Community, Shlomo Werdiger, Michael Goldhirsch, Shimshon Yurkowitz, Chaim Raitman and Merv Adler proclaimed their roles as the members of the Yeshivah Centre CoM was to 'ensure the Centre has continued success in the future'. They committed to 'making the Centre and school better and stronger'. That could not have been further from the truth. Two weeks later, they find themselves in the middle of another controversy of their own doing, having fallen out with the one person who could actually ensure the success of the schools into the future. And we must not forget the ongoing embarrassment their most senior rabbi is continuing to inflict upon us all - it seems that Rabbi Zvi Telsner is up to his old tricks again.

If Rabbi Smukler has indeed gone to the BoT/CoM and said 'either you guys go or I do', then he is to be commended for taking the principled and moral approach and representing the interests of his students, staff and community. Sadly, it has probably meant the end of his employment at Yeshivah.  

The Royal Commission provided a much needed opportunity for change. Rabbi Smukler is the man to lead that change at the Yeshivah Centre. But so long as the current BoT and CoM remain in place, nothing can ever change at Yeshivah. How much more damage will the Yeshivah Centre BoT and CoM inflict upon their community – and indeed on all of us? When will these people start placing the interests of their victims, students, parents, staff, the Chabad community and the broader community ahead of their own? From what we have seen until now, I'm not holding my breath.

In the meantime, it is our collective responsibility to not remain silent.

Following yesterday’s open letter from 11 Yeshivah victims, which called on the Board of Trustees and Committee of Management to step aside, it seems the Yeshivah Centre has today responded with an open letter of their own. Shamefully, and to the embarrassment of the entire community, they have made it clear that despite their horrific mismanagement and working towards destroying the Centre they purport to represent, they remain of the view that they are fit to lead the organisation out of the mess they have dragged everyone into. Anybody who was expecting that genuine and much needed reform was imminent will be sorely disappointed. You will find no acceptance of responsibility and no commitment to seriously consider adopting the recommendations of the Royal Commission. Instead, just confirmation that the Yeshivah Centre intends to continue operating in the farcical manner which led to this point in the first place. The seemingly self-appointed, unaccountable, men and woman who claim to represent the Yeshivah Centre will continue to do as they wish and treat their members, the parent body and the broader community with contempt.

The following are the key issues that arise from their letter:

1.       Not just victims but many in the Yeshivah and broader community have demanded that they must all resign immediately. A handful of token resignations is insufficient – it falls well short of what amounts to accountability and does not pave the way for sustainable change.

2.       Many victims have clearly stated what their “needs” are with respect to Yeshivah: the resignations of those responsible by virtue of their positions. Many of us are no longer interested in any scheme that is introduced or implemented by board members who have caused us so much ongoing pain and suffering. Including words such as “independent” and “preeminent” does nothing to alter the situation. I, and I’m sure many of my fellow victims, will not recognise or engage with a scheme established by some of the very people who have failed us (in relation to the abuse, cover-ups and/or intimidation). We have already made it abundantly clear that we don’t trust them and we don’t have any confidence in them. Numerous civil cases are in progress – we will obtain our redress in that manner before we consider any scheme they now wish to belatedly present to us.  

3.       Despite repeatedly and publicly calling on those impacted by the abuse to contact them for support, when taken up on this offer in recent weeks and despite the urgency of the request, it took them almost two weeks to issue a completely inadequate response. It is obvious that the Yeshivah leadership remains completely oblivious to the “needs” of victims and frighteningly ill-equipped to deal with these matters.

4.       The Yeshivah leadership seemingly has no genuine mandate to lead or to conduct an independent review of the governance arrangements of the Centre. It is clearly appropriate that a new board be installed and they should be the ones to undertake a review to take Yeshivah forward. And again, incorporating buzzwords words such as “independent,” “governance,” “best practice” and “recommendations” does nothing to alter the situation.

5.       Why is Don Wolf referred to as “the current chair” when only weeks ago he gave evidence at the Royal Commission public hearing into Yeshivah that he had resigned from his post in 2014 due to personal circumstances? Rest assured that this matter will be brought to the attention of the Royal Commission.

6.       Yeshivah parents and other community members should not engage in the leadership’s proposed consultation process regarding the operations and performance of the College. They seem to have no mandate to lead and if they genuinely cared what parents thought, they would present themselves to parents for election, as so many within that community have been demanding for some time. The fact that they won’t suggests they would probably never achieve a mandate from their community.

7.       It is important to emphasise that the position in which the Yeshivah Centre “find[s] itself” is entirely of their own doing. If the leadership truly “regrets” their predicament, they can easily do the right thing and resign.

8.       As Yeshivah’s reputation is at its lowest point, it seems that for some reason these same leaders who have been (mis)handling their affairs in the last few years feel it is appropriate for them to lead the rebuilding phase. Moreover, the leadership’s unconscionable decision to ignore the wishes of so many of their institution’s victims, and indeed the wishes of so many within the community, is a clear reflection on them, and highlights even more why they simply cannot be trusted in their current roles at the Centre.

9.       They need to reflect on why it is that “the good name of the Centre is under threat and confidence has been diminished”. It seems obvious that there is no confidence in Yeshivah due to their ongoing involvement there. And the confidence will not be restored while they remain. Resign, take appropriate action and the situation will change – my commitment is that under such circumstances I will assist in rebuilding confidence in this vital institution that the current leadership is destroying.  

It is clear that the actions of the current leadership are not “the basis for continued success”. Rather, they are the basis for ongoing failure. I reiterate to the “leaders” who are hanging on – you are doing yourselves, the many victims of your institution, and your community no favours. Do the right thing and get out of the way so your community – indeed our entire community – can heal and move forward in a positive and constructive manner.
 

Disclaimer: I am in no way attributing equal or entire blame to the individual members of the Yeshivah leadership – past and present – for the sexual abuse of so many children at their institution, the cover-ups, the intimidation and their appalling response and mismanagement. The reality is that as current leaders, they must all accept responsibility for what has transpired in the past and what is currently transpiring. 

Parents of children attending a Charedi school in Jerusalem have complained lately that their children have suffered 
sexual abuse, but some of them have refused to cooperate with the police even though some Rabbis support cooperation. Is there an awareness of the need for action?

“Suddenly I feel I am not there. I am standing in front of the class being slapped left and right, mainly on my behind. He slaps my behind and shouts “An animal!” and the whole class repeats after him. “A beast!’, slap on the behind, the whole class. The lesson continues, I am facing the cupboard in a niche, looking at the dust. The rebbe [religious teacher] teaches, walking back and forth and slapping my behind when he walks past me. At some point I think ‘why is he touching especially there’”.

This is part of K’s diary, a graduate of a Talmud Torah school in Jerusalem, where a case of suspicion of paedophilia became public knowledge after parents had complained about sexual abuse of their children. Although the police investigation, which some of the parents had refused to cooperate with, had no results, it seems K was the not the only one to go through this traumatic experience.

The parents are concerned about their children’s safety, especially as at some point teachers of the school were suspected of the sexual abuse. A few days ago one of the teachers was suspended due to suspicion he had been involved in the abuse, but after further investigation he resumed teaching.

Charedi children and adolescents are suffering sexual abuse. More than in any other sector? Not for sure, but typical to that sector: lack of sexual education, and especially the unwillingness or inability to complain and the code of silence.

“As a child, I had no sexual awareness”, says N, who studied in that Talmud Torah school. In grades 2 or 3, we had a rebbe who liked kids sitting on his knee. In retrospect, you realise. In grade 5, there was a rebbe who favoured beautiful kids. The cute kids got his special attention.”

N adds: “About one of the rebbes I learned years later that he used to touch one of the kids in our class. I also learned that they knew about this and did nothing. That rebbe abused kids physically as well. There was also an inspector who enjoyed beating kids brutally. As a child my understanding was he was a sadist. Now I realise this brutality has sexual roots. He used to stand kids in a line and break their asses. And he was considered a pedagogue.”

Silencing and Suppression 

Dr Sarah Salzberg, researching violence in the Charedi sector, says: “I have identified a typology very characteristic to sexual violence in the Charedi sector”. According to her, one category of sexual abuse is that perpetrated “by educational religious authorities, rabbis, melameds [teachers], rebbes and Gabayim [managers of synagogue affairs], and every person that the Charedi minor identifies as an authority figure. Those people take advantage of their authority and carry out their plot”.

Salzberg explains that “it is a sector which has tight control especially in sexual matters. As well, sexuality is suppressed and not to be mentioned, especially sexual violence against boys. That is because it is connected to the sin of mishkav zachar [lying with a male], which is considered to be a grave sin. Since the subject is not discussed, youth are often not aware of being sexually abused. And even if they are, they won’t dare to talk. In the general population, more children will talk to their parents about it.”

The researcher mentions another type of sexual abusers, “the older friend” (like ‘big brother’) – youth in Charedi Yeshivas, who turn into the older friends of minors, whose connection gradually becomes of a sexual nature. Salzberg explains that “in the Charedi sector there is a homo-erotic experience. Such an experience takes place sometimes with consent and sometimes without, but even when with consent, this is an abusive act as the gravity of the sin results in guilt feelings. Someone said to me: “I didn’t want it, the Yetzer Ha’ra (evil inclination) made me”.

Salzberg explains that the homosexual experience is the result of the fact that most areas of life in this sector are ruled by total gender separation. This results in a single-sex society and homosexual experience that is reflected in sexual relationships. This is inevitable in the Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) sector.

Salzberg explains that such relations often turn to sexual abuse since they involve minors and because “the moment a man has no women around and he satisfies his needs with anyone close by – there is a more brutal effect”.

A third type of abuse is perpetrated by the non-Charedi. According to Salzberg, there are many incidents of non-Charedi “who realise the potential for sexual abuse existing in the Chardei sector. There is a demographic increase in the number of children and they are not always under supervision or care of an adult. The non religious mother can better supervise, as she has two-three children, not 12. The ‘outside abusers’ know that a Charedi child can walk on the street unsupervised. They pose as Charedi and enter the Mikveh (ritual bath). There are pools and restrooms, but the Mikveh is much more convenient. Children arrive there without supervision”.

Salzberg emphasises: “The lack of sexual education leads to silencing and under-reporting, but I can see some change happening. There is a growing awareness of the subject and in conversation about it, but predominant are silencing and cover-ups. This community does not wish to advertise its felons, is concerned about its reputation. Yes, even if the price is never putting a stop to such brutal behaviour”.

Not Reporting to the Police

A researcher of the Charedi sector, Prof Menachem Friedman, does not blame it on the lack of sexual education. “It hasn’t been proven that sexual education helps in curbing the impulses of perverted individuals”, he says. We know that it exists in both the Charedi and non-Charedi sectors. The big difference is in the availability of children. We know that it often happens in Yehivahs. Abuse has always been there unless there is close supervision and zero tolerance”.

“Children are also available for abuse in church as well. Choir boys are very much around. The priest is a figure of great authority and often uses this power to take advantage and hurt kids. The same happens at the Yeshivahs”.

Friedman adds: “The fact that a person is religious doesn’t make him less or more perverted, as was commonly thought. The problem is that the Charedi community is closed for both sides. It is in the interest of both victim and perpetrator to hide the deed. Consequently, instead of finding them and offering treatment, there is hiding”.

Friedman says that the hiding does not stem only from the probable shame to the abused or to his family but also to the whole community. “The institutions of every Chasidic movement or community have a distinct identity, each such case when publicised hurts not only the child, not only his family, but also the community they are part of”, he explains.

“In my opinion, there is no difference between the Charedi sector and the general public”, says Manny Mandelovichof from “The Guardians”, an organisation that operates in B’nei B’rak to keep Charedi order and propriety. The Charedi communities attract both thieves and paedophiles. Both Charedi and secular persons can enter the Mikveh, blend in and do what they are doing. Children are more accessible as well. A child in Tel Aviv though is exposed to such things earlier and his parents warn him”.

“The Guardians” track suspected paedophiles and also try to convince the victims’ parents to report it to the police. This is usually coordinated with juvenile investigators, who know the Charedi sector.

“There were simple cases, for example a person that only hugged a girl or a boy. The Rabbis said not to go to the police and that they would take care of him. We follow up on such people and haven’t heard complaints about them”, says Mandelovich. “There was a case of parents of a sexual abuser who gave a bond, lots of money, to a certain Rabbi, to ensure there was no complaint. Indeed we haven’t lodged a complaint because he went for treatment”.

“The Guardians” believe that “the police too do not have all the necessary means for dealing with it. During house arrest perpetrators can act, and after arrest too. We do not seek out reporting to the police as much as wishing to prevent another child from being hurt”.

“There’s change”, says Mandelovich. “In the past, we never talked about it, and now parents are more aware. They never complained to the police and now they do. The Rabbis, in some cases, are very supportive of reporting to the police”.  

However, not always are the parents willing to place a complaint. “So we also check security cameras in the streets, to find evidence and do the reporting ourselves”, says Mandelovich. “In the end, in the Charedi sector people are afraid and there are rabbis who forbid reporting to the police, because it is acting as a ‘moser’ [police informer] and this could also harm shiduch [marriage] prospects. We sit for hours and drive the parents mad trying to convince them, but if the person doesn’t want to complain, we’ll look for his rabbi in order to convince him to allow it”.

*Instead of within reach. In Hebrew the expression has the double meaning, loss in translation.
** Original Hebrew article is available at Ma'ariv website.

It has now been almost four weeks since the conclusion of the Royal Commission public hearing into the Yeshivah Centre. While submissions by interested parties are yet to be made and findings are yet to be announced, based on the evidence presented, and indeed the repeated public acknowledgements of significant wrongdoing by some of the Yeshivah leadership and stewardship, it would seem appropriate that swift and appropriate action would have been taken.
 
Many in the community are horrified at the evidence that was given by Yeshivah representatives at the public hearing. It is worth highlighting some of these points:

• the standard responses to difficult questions were “I don’t recall”
  
• former Yeshivah College Principal could not recall his own student (in a relatively small school where out-of-towners were rare)
  
• no documents were ever kept
  
• apparent failure to fully comply with mandatory reporting laws
  
• senior officials had questionable positions regarding our criminal laws
  
• perpetrators were supported and assisted while victims and their families were ignored, intimidated and re-victimised 
  

We would like to note that this short list is only what was revealed at the public hearing. Moreover, there was more devastating material that could have been disclosed but for a range of reasons were not disclosed at the time. Of course there is also the probability that a much larger unknown body of evidence has not come to light at all.

It is astounding and a further indictment on the Yeshivah Centre that no genuine public action has been taken to date by your institution in response to the Royal Commission public hearing. Rather, Yeshivah has merely issued a carefully crafted public statement, which in our firm view is the continuation of a public relations strategy designed to deflect responsibility, and to refuse to confront the significant failures of leadership at Yeshivah.

As those who have suffered most at your institution’s hands, we would like to once again register our shock and pain at the Yeshivah Centre’s continued mishandling of this ongoing scandal. It seems to us that at least some of the Yeshivah leadership continue to place Yeshivah’s reputation well above any other consideration.

We strongly believe that the removal of yourselves, as well as key staff and volunteers from the Yeshivah Centre who have been implicated in any way in this ongoing scandal, is now required. We believe that some of the major failures at Yeshivah seem to have been the result of failures by the leadership, rather than an express policy or process issue (although clearly these too played a role). Accordingly it is essential for you all to step down immediately in recognition of these failures – whether you were in a leadership position at Yeshivah during the period of sexual abuse, the subsequent cover-ups or, more recently, the intimidation directed at victims and their families. We feel that so long as you remain in a position of authority or power at Yeshivah, the institution remains tainted by its association with yourselves (as the current leadership – although not necessarily the ones individually responsible for all that has transpired there in the context of child sexual abuse), and remains susceptible to repetition of these unspeakable acts in the future.

Further, your ongoing presence as Trustees or members of the Committee of Management prolongs the pain and suffering of us as past victims, whose loss, including our ongoing pain and suffering, you are unable to restore. The notion that you might somehow play a role in repairing the institution is deeply troubling. 

We believe implementing new policies and procedures are, in themselves, insufficient to ensure the ongoing protection of children whilst you remain Trustees or members of the Committee of Management, as we feel that the administration, governance and oversight of any such new policies and procedures may be compromised by the presence of the current Trustees and Committee of Management.

We urge you to immediately (and belatedly) do the right thing – for yourselves, for the Yeshivah community, indeed for the entire community, and for us; the innocent and defenceless children whom your institution repeatedly hurt so much and in so many ways, and continues to hurt by your refusal to step down and take responsibility for the significant failures at the Yeshivah Centre.

Sincerely,

1982/83-1987 victim/survivor
1983 victim/survivor
1983 victim/survivor
1984-1988 & 2011-2015 victim/survivor – AVB (Royal Commission public hearing witness)
1986 victim/survivor – AVA (Royal Commission public hearing witness)
1987-1988 victim/survivor
1987-1990 & 2011-2015 victim/survivor – Manny Waks (Royal Commission public hearing witness)
1989-1991 victim/survivor
1989-1991 victim/survivor
1989-1991 victim/survivor
1991 victim/survivor – AVR (Royal Commission public hearing witness)