Jews break taboo by reporting pedophilia cases
Veja
Mariana Zylberkan
20 September 2019
ACCUSED - (From top to bottom) Moises Marcos Aschendorf Ejczis, Ivan Uderman and Isaac Chocron: characters involved in recent years in child abuse cases, and video scene attached to a lawsuit in Argentina (larger photo)
Torah followers have as a rule not to legally accuse someone of the same belief and settle cases in a rabbinical court
One of Israel's holiest places, the Wailing Wall symbolizes God's covenant with the Jewish people. He is the remnant of the so-called Second Temple of Jerusalem, reformed during Herod's reign. There, in the structure formed by limestone stones, the faithful pray every day and visitors usually put written messages in their breaches. An ongoing internet campaign alludes to this milestone, but in a very different context: instead of spiritual reverence, the idea is to symbolize the blemish by acts that can no longer remain in the shadows. Created in 2014 by an NGO in New York, the Wall of Shame page has cataloged 190 Jews accused of pedophilia around the world.
The only Brazilian on the Wall of Shame list, Moises Marcos Aschendorf Ejczis, 34, lives in São Paulo. In 2017, he was arrested for attempting to harass an 11-year-old boy and is free to prosecute a child. Ejczis approached the boy as he played ball in a park and promised him new video game control in exchange for his phone number. In the same conversation, he asked if the boy was masturbating and if he had ever touched anyone. Suspicious, the minor gave his mother's cell phone contact, but it was his stepfather who began exchanging messages with Ejczis, posing as the child. Before scheduling the meeting in a diner, the man told the boy to be "clean and smelly," and asked if he "found it beautiful and tasty." Police were called to the scene to carry out the act.
A month earlier, reports of cases of sexual abuse of minors by religious have become recurring within the Catholic Church, which has been forced to discuss the matter publicly after the flood of victims who have decided to take their stories to court over the past decades. In the smaller, more closed Jewish community, Torah followershave as a rule not to legally accuse someone of the same belief. With a few exceptions, in these cases the conflicts are discussed by a rabbinical court and the issue is usually resolved without court intervention. A Brazilian married to an Argentinian, businessman Avraham Fromer broke the rule of silence after his 8-year-old daughter, who is also Brazilian, was molested by Rabbi Isaac Chocron in Buenos Aires, where the family lives. “He would take her to the back of the synagogue, put her on his lap and touch her,” says Fromer. The case was referred to the Argentine courts, but was not for lack of evidence. Last week, the father gathered what would be new evidence of the rabbi's behavior, including a video in which he pats a minor's body, hoping to reopen the process. Fromer had no better luck seeking help within the Jewish community, even in Brazil. According to him, about fifty contacts were made with religious leaders. “I was told to keep it only within the community,” says Fromer. “The policy to cover up such crimes is institutionalized.”
In addition to the pedophilia case involving Ejczis, it is criminally prosecuting Brazil against Rabbi Ivan Uderman, who is accused of child sexual abuse. The complaint came from his ex-wife and the victim is the couple's son, at the time 4 years old. Uderman currently lives in Jerusalem, where he runs a religious education institution and organizes bar mitzvah (religious initiation of boys) ceremonies at the Western Wall. The rabbi was already living in Israel when the Sao Paulo court sentenced him to fourteen years in prison for sex crime last June. The decision is at first instance, and he appeals in freedom. Uderman denies the accusations and says the lawsuit is the ex's trick to keep him away from the child after the couple's troubled divorce. In another case of the same nature, Interpol issued a warning last year for Brazilian courts to arrest Israeli Rabbi Daniel Berdichevski on charges of rape, assaults on family members and bribery of witnesses in his home country. He lived in a noble street in the Higienópolis neighborhood in central São Paulo, and had married a Brazilian. Berdichevski denies everything. His extradition to Israel was authorized by the Supreme Court about three months ago.
One of Israel's holiest places, the Wailing Wall symbolizes God's covenant with the Jewish people. He is the remnant of the so-called Second Temple of Jerusalem, reformed during Herod's reign. There, in the structure formed by limestone stones, the faithful pray every day and visitors usually put written messages in their breaches. An ongoing internet campaign alludes to this milestone, but in a very different context: instead of spiritual reverence, the idea is to symbolize the blemish by acts that can no longer remain in the shadows. Created in 2014 by an NGO in New York, the Wall of Shame page has cataloged 190 Jews accused of pedophilia around the world.
The only Brazilian on the Wall of Shame list, Moises Marcos Aschendorf Ejczis, 34, lives in São Paulo. In 2017, he was arrested for attempting to harass an 11-year-old boy and is free to prosecute a child. Ejczis approached the boy as he played ball in a park and promised him new video game control in exchange for his phone number. In the same conversation, he asked if the boy was masturbating and if he had ever touched anyone. Suspicious, the minor gave his mother's cell phone contact, but it was his stepfather who began exchanging messages with Ejczis, posing as the child. Before scheduling the meeting in a diner, the man told the boy to be "clean and smelly," and asked if he "found it beautiful and tasty." Police were called to the scene to carry out the act.
A month earlier, reports of cases of sexual abuse of minors by religious have become recurring within the Catholic Church, which has been forced to discuss the matter publicly after the flood of victims who have decided to take their stories to court over the past decades. In the smaller, more closed Jewish community, Torah followershave as a rule not to legally accuse someone of the same belief. With a few exceptions, in these cases the conflicts are discussed by a rabbinical court and the issue is usually resolved without court intervention. A Brazilian married to an Argentinian, businessman Avraham Fromer broke the rule of silence after his 8-year-old daughter, who is also Brazilian, was molested by Rabbi Isaac Chocron in Buenos Aires, where the family lives. “He would take her to the back of the synagogue, put her on his lap and touch her,” says Fromer. The case was referred to the Argentine courts, but was not for lack of evidence. Last week, the father gathered what would be new evidence of the rabbi's behavior, including a video in which he pats a minor's body, hoping to reopen the process. Fromer had no better luck seeking help within the Jewish community, even in Brazil. According to him, about fifty contacts were made with religious leaders. “I was told to keep it only within the community,” says Fromer. “The policy to cover up such crimes is institutionalized.”
In addition to the pedophilia case involving Ejczis, it is criminally prosecuting Brazil against Rabbi Ivan Uderman, who is accused of child sexual abuse. The complaint came from his ex-wife and the victim is the couple's son, at the time 4 years old. Uderman currently lives in Jerusalem, where he runs a religious education institution and organizes bar mitzvah (religious initiation of boys) ceremonies at the Western Wall. The rabbi was already living in Israel when the Sao Paulo court sentenced him to fourteen years in prison for sex crime last June. The decision is at first instance, and he appeals in freedom. Uderman denies the accusations and says the lawsuit is the ex's trick to keep him away from the child after the couple's troubled divorce. In another case of the same nature, Interpol issued a warning last year for Brazilian courts to arrest Israeli Rabbi Daniel Berdichevski on charges of rape, assaults on family members and bribery of witnesses in his home country. He lived in a noble street in the Higienópolis neighborhood in central São Paulo, and had married a Brazilian. Berdichevski denies everything. His extradition to Israel was authorized by the Supreme Court about three months ago.
CAMPAIGN - Fromer: “institutionalized policy of covering up crimes” (Antonio Milena /.)
Around the world, similar scandals begin to surface. In the United States, 38 alumni of a Jewish college in New York recently accused rabbis of abuses committed between the 1960s and 1980s. Abused in childhood by two rabbis, Australian Manny Waks became an activist against pedophilia in surrounding synagogues. of the planet. Recently, he was in São Paulo to visit rabbis and make them aware of the importance of the theme. “Brazil is one of the most backward countries in combating sex crimes in synagogues,” he says.
Religion leaders in the country reject such criticism. In a note sent to VEJA, the president of the Israeli Federation of São Paulo, Luiz Kignel, states that “deplorable facts, when known by the community leadership, are directed towards the search of the competent police authorities. Any suggestion that there is a conduct covering up cases of pedophilia in the Jewish community is totally false and serves to reinforce anti-Jewish feelings. ” Although the number of denounced by the Wall of Shame is small compared to the 15 million Jews around the world,
Originally published at Veja (Portuguese).