Monday, September 24, 2012

Guilt of Yisroel Weingarten - letter of R M Stauber to Beis Din of Rav Wosner

What Was Said Inside Satmar About Yisroel Moshe Weingarten

by Yerachmiel Lopin on 12/07/2010
In 2003 a letter was sent by Rabbi Mordechai Stauber in Antwerp to the Bais Din of R Wosner in Monsey. You can see the Hebrew original here. (Translation by Yerachmiel Lopin- full copyrights reserved for translation) Printed here with permission
BAIS RACHEL
Kleuter, Lagere, Middelbare School en Satmar
Lamorinierestraat 26-28
2019 Antwerpen
Tel 281-3000 – Fax 218 91-23
Friday, Parshas Pinchas, 5763, [July 18, 2003] Antwerp, May Zion be Restored
Respectfully to the renowned great scholar, presiding on justice, righteous leader to his congregation, his glory on the Jewish people, the honorable renowned, Rabbi, Gaon Benzion Yaakov Halevi Wosner, may he be granted long days, and along with him to the rabbis and sages, members of the Beit Din Tzedek (religious court) of the Holy Congregation of Monsey.
After inquiring about your well-being, I am answering your request to write what I know about the painful affair of the Weingarten family.  They lived here in our city Antwerp for many years. Their young girls were educated here in Bais Rachel of Satmar. There was a feeling during all those years that an oppressive atmosphere was controlling the girls and their mother. Though we tried to do everything for the good, it did not help much. In the summer of 5756 [1996] Reb Yisroel Moshe came and pestered us to move his oldest daughter, Frumah Leah, to a higher class; something we don’t do for others. After deliberation we decided to agree. We knew the bitterness of the daughter came from the goings-on at the house. Therefore [we thought] it is worth giving in on a trivial matter; perhaps through this the student will be more satisfied.  But actually we saw, to the contrary, that she came to school with swollen eyes, and at times, with other marks. We did not want to touch this because we knew they were odd people and we wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Reb Wolf Gross, who lives several houses away from them, was a true friend of Yisroel Moshe, and he helped them a lot so there would be something to eat in their house. He told me that Frumah Leah wants to commit suicide, G-d save us, and throw herself out the window. They actually saved her at the last moment. [He told me that] in my role as principal I am obligated to interrogate her in order not [to be guilty of] “standing by on the blood of a fellow Jew” [Leviticus 19:16].
I initiated discussions with her several times until she revealed to me that she endured murderous beatings from him [her father] for reasons she could not reveal to me under any circumstances. Only after much urging and assurances, she wrote on paper that for a long time her father was doing with her [sexually] perverted things, have mercy on us. I do not remember all she wrote. But this I remember exactly as I received it from her. “He takes and he ejaculates (motzi zerah l’vatallah) …(ellipses in original) very close to actual biblically prohibited incestuous intercourse, (ad karov ligiluy arayos mamash), have mercy on us.    She added afterwards, verbally, that she was disgusted with a life like this for a quite a while and that he hit her with frightening sadism. Because of this she wanted to put an end to her life, G-d save us.
It is self understood what a shock this was for us.  Because the one of whom we speak was a girl of 15, we passed the matter over to the rabbonim and the leader of Satmar [in Antwerp], Rabbi Chaim Yosef Dovid Weiss, may he live long, head of our congregation. [Rabbi Weiss] took the testimony and he [the father] did not deny it. As a consequence he [Rabbi Weiss] forbade him [Yisroel Weingarten] to seclude himself with his daughter (asar lo l’hityached im bito). He arranged for her to immediately go to Manchester, [England, to a girls school where she would board].
This happened during Chanukah, 5757 [December 1997]. At the end of the winter she returned from Manchester and the whole family traveled to Israel for Passover. After Passover he [Yisroel Weingarten] returned alone with his aforementioned daughter and he was secluded with her all summer. All we did was write a letter that we have no responsibility (achrayis) for the aforementioned student [Frumah Leah] from here on in. Also, that none of his children have permission to set foot in our institutions. Till the month of Ellul, his disgrace was not [publicly] revealed. On the contrary; he [Yisroel Weingarten] made himself out to be a respectable man and we kept quiet. In the middle of Ellul his true disgrace was revealed through others with more ugly things. The whole city was astonished. Suddenly it came out through a tape that the daughter was involved in sin with a neighbor, Meyerowitz Meierowitz. This was something that the dayan of Satmar did not hear from him [Yisroel Weingarten] all through the course of the previous winter while he judged him.
We surmised that all of his doings were astounding and full of contradictions. My wife, may she live long, told me many times at the end of long discussion that she senses from him an air of impurity (ruach tummah). I still gave him the benefit of the doubt until I heard from his daughter the aforementioned deeds [about which she wrote]. Through this were explained many contradictions.
His wife endured a lot from him. Many times she burst out in gushing tears. He was terribly, unfathomably, sadistic towards her. After some weeks she returned and said that all of her words were nonsense and lies, and so on. It was seen that he manipulates her [manipaleert ) in a terrible way.
The devastation (hachurban) [evoked] in putting forth my words pains me greatly. [Do] what it is in your power to save them from this hypocrite, crook and swindler without equal who does the acts of Zimri and demands the reward of PinchasBT Sotah 22b referring to Numbers 25:6-14].  I would also add, that the Admor Rabbi Leibish of  Phshevorsk, may he live long, said that they investigated the family in 5757 [1997-1998], meaning the woman and daughter, in Jerusalem the holy city, and they [the investigators] uncovered things. [
Signed and sealed in sorrow and wishing you success,
Mordechai Stauber
(HT for Translation to DH and JE)

16 comments:

  1. So, how is it that after "a full investigation" in Antwerp, the guy was nevertheless declared a tzaddik?

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  2. I looked up to one of the rabbis who made the trip to the prison. Is there any way to be melamed zchus? It just makes me so unbelievably upset, it's abhorrent.

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  3. ms,why ask here on this blog.No one here knows exactly.They could have just claimed that he's beenwrongfully accused,that the investigated is intresting.

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  4. Fortnunately, this guy is behind bars now... And he gave some Rabbonim, like R. Green the chance to show that they will stand up for injustice and deny justice to the victims... From which we learn that the hareidim cannot be trusted to be frum... they prefer hypocrisy to truth...

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    1. "From which we learn that the hareidim cannot be trusted to be frum" - some chareidim

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    2. OK, I'll be more precise in my formulation: stories like this one show us that there is no correlation between being hareidi and being frum (or pious, or g-d fearing), since many hareidi institutions and leaders choose hypocrisy over honesty, distortion of justice over justice, perpetrators over victims, their own interests over truth.

      Since there is no correlation between being hareidi and being frum, hareidim cannot be trusted to be frum.

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  5. http://caseofisraelweingarten.blogspot.com
    Read for yourself all court documents and your hair will stand up!

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  6. This letter is horrifying..Her principal, and Stauber had the responsiblity to report this to the authorities! Yes we as Jews live in galus and must stop these criminals who portray to be "frum" and the only way to stop them is to report to the authorities of the country we are living in!

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  7. My daughter was in school here in Manchester with this poor girl. The head of the Sem did what he could to help her but never reported the details to any legal authority and eventually handed her back over to her father. Now the clown who passes himself off as our rabbi here in Satmar has signed a petition supporting the innocence of the father in the face of ALL evidence. Physical abuse is regular here in the local Satmar Chedar and despite police investigation no parent will cooperate to end it. I now hope never to set foot in a Chassidish shul again after a 40 year long life as a Chassidish Yid.

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  8. mother and daughter, victims , STAND UP AND stop the abuse NOT by commiting suicide but by putting this EVIL man behind bars!SOMEHOW IF ONE PERSISTS HASHEM WILL HELP THEM IN THE WAY THEY GO!

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    1. I wish what you suggest would accomplish something. In this case the entire family finally did stand up against this monster and now he is in prison--but what happened to the poor daughter, her wretched mother and the perp's brother? They are continually vilified and mocked and lied about by the Satmar community. They have been shunned and victimized.

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    2. The man IS behind bars for 20 or 30 years.

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  9. Please stop making anonymous comments!

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  10. Unless authorities are notified and victims are under the care of psychologists when these ISSUES are uncovered...nothing will ever change.

    Perhaps it is our responsibility to stand up for them since they can not stand the vilification of their kehillos.

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  11. "But actually we saw, to the contrary, that she came to school with swollen eyes, and at times, with other marks. We did not want to touch this because we knew they were odd people and we wouldn’t accomplish anything."

    This is what is wrong. Has he ever heard of the mitzvah los sa'amod al dam reiecha?"

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  12. Rabbi Weiss of the Eida Haredis went to visit him in prison and referred to him as gaon and tzadik, I guess the eida is more interested in Hip-Hop concert in Machane Yehuda market than young girls in their community being raped by their father.

    There are still Satmar blogs which proclaim his innocence and attack the mother and daughter. Reminds me the BT's defending Tropper (Another Monsey pervert) and attacking his victim when his acts came to light

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