Times of Israel Five senior London rabbis issued a public statement Thursday night declaring that one of their colleagues “is not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity”.
Although the rabbi is not named, it is a reference to Rabbi Chaim Halpern, a leading haredi rabbi who has been accused of sexual misdemeanors with around 30 women who come to him for counseling and rabbinic guidance. Rabbi Halpern resigned as a religious judge and as a rabbinic adviser to several London institutions last month, but has remained in charge of his own synagogue.
Some 30 rabbis originally said they would sign a statement against Halpern after hearing the evidence against Halpern two weeks ago. However, rabbis belonging to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, with which Halpern was affiliated, were forbidden to sign it, delaying its publication and prompting widespread criticism from members of London’s haredi community who bemoaned the lack of rabbinic leadership.
The five rabbis who put their name to the letter Thursday night were the former head of the London Beth Din, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu; London Beth Din dayanim Menachem Gelley and Yonatan Abraham; and two rabbis from Halpern’s neighborhood of Golders Green, Shimon Weingarten and Berel Knopfler. The latter two are widely regarded as having spearheaded the efforts to call Rabbi Halpern to account.
According to the letter, the rabbis conducted “painstaking and extensive investigations, including interviews with alleged victims,” which left them “in no doubt as to the veracity of our own conclusion that the grave allegations warrant the immediate withdrawal of the [rabbi] from all rabbinic and counseling functions.” They warned the public “about the risks involved in allowing the alleged perpetrator to resume his activities.” [...]
Although the rabbi is not named, it is a reference to Rabbi Chaim Halpern, a leading haredi rabbi who has been accused of sexual misdemeanors with around 30 women who come to him for counseling and rabbinic guidance. Rabbi Halpern resigned as a religious judge and as a rabbinic adviser to several London institutions last month, but has remained in charge of his own synagogue.
Some 30 rabbis originally said they would sign a statement against Halpern after hearing the evidence against Halpern two weeks ago. However, rabbis belonging to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, with which Halpern was affiliated, were forbidden to sign it, delaying its publication and prompting widespread criticism from members of London’s haredi community who bemoaned the lack of rabbinic leadership.
The five rabbis who put their name to the letter Thursday night were the former head of the London Beth Din, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu; London Beth Din dayanim Menachem Gelley and Yonatan Abraham; and two rabbis from Halpern’s neighborhood of Golders Green, Shimon Weingarten and Berel Knopfler. The latter two are widely regarded as having spearheaded the efforts to call Rabbi Halpern to account.
According to the letter, the rabbis conducted “painstaking and extensive investigations, including interviews with alleged victims,” which left them “in no doubt as to the veracity of our own conclusion that the grave allegations warrant the immediate withdrawal of the [rabbi] from all rabbinic and counseling functions.” They warned the public “about the risks involved in allowing the alleged perpetrator to resume his activities.” [...]
"the rabbis conducted “painstaking and extensive investigations, including interviews with alleged victims,” which left them “in no doubt as to the veracity of our own conclusion that the grave allegations warrant the immediate withdrawal of the [rabbi] from all rabbinic and counseling functions.” They warned the public “about the risks involved in allowing the alleged perpetrator to resume his activities.”"
ReplyDeleteLook at the difference between the troubled moron BT with a guilt-complex who consulted Rav Fischer with the express purpose of divulging private information in order to explicitly ruin lives even his own, and in this case, this guy Chaim Helpern who has messed with multiple women for decades and presumably had sexual intercourse with many of them (who knows how many mamzerim he fathered?) will fight to the death against any accusations against him, he will never be required to call himself a "baal teshuva" for life because his beard is too bushy, his hat and frak are too black, and naturally he is BIIIIIG TALMID CHOOOOCHEM and so therefore NONE of the women he raped will be required to divorce their husbands because, hey, guess what, for him they will say that the women can't be believed because women are not kosher eidim (witnesses) in halacha, and since there were no actual two real male kosher eidim who warned him (hasra'a) to stop, and who actually saw and witnessed him insert his erect penis into any one of these women, so hey presto, all the ladies are, phew, safe to stay on with their hubbies and raise their kiddies, and will not be required to have nervous breakdowns and jump off roofs and bridges --- unlike the Ubber-holy BT in the Rav Fischer case who is taken seriously just on his own say-so, even though when he committed his sins his mental state and even his religiosity are open to question, maybe he was on drugs? maybe he was just a tinok shenishba? nevertheless this nutty hell-bent BT will get his guilt-drenched shaylo published and the world will have to be tormented for him in print because he is a stupid jerk and couldn't keep his zipper closed as he enjoyed the lady he now wants to kill off (even though she may have been a raw BT herself then and may not have been aware of the serious dinim and halachos she was transgressing -- we don't even know all the details of what happened-- like the tinokes shenishba that she still is) and kill off her family to boot come hell or high water, while the rabbis dealing with Halpern are afraid to take him on even though the guy is totally a rosha, menuval, no'ef, monster, and maybe even a mamzer himself. This is like Leib Tropper, he can ruin lives and do what he wants, as long as he knows how to fiddle with the top honcho gedolim he can even re-write the shaylos eventually (like Tropper does, in the name of his father or something like that) or find a pliable posek like innocent Reb Fischer (busy feeding a BT troll unwittingly) to rule things the BT's perverted way.
actually, he does not seem to be accused of having intercourse, but of sexual acts (fondling, masturbation) with them. Might be that the accusations of actual intercourse (and fathering mamzerim) did not make it to the public...
DeleteActually, this seems to be how the bomb exploded: some wives who went for "counseling" had a doubt whether they were still allowed to their husband and went to ask shaales to other rabbonim. This is how they came to know about it..
DeleteAre these five rabbis chareidi or are they from the modern side of the spectrum?
ReplyDeletethe union of orthodox hebrew congrations (responsable for the kedassia hechsher) refused up to now to publicly condemn Haim halpern. They agreed to make him withdraw from rabbinical functions at kedassia and at the girl's school he was responsable for. (where his name was withdrawn from the letter head). Last week, the UOHC issued a letter that they wanted to investigate and that everybody should shut up till they had duly investigated.
Deletethis is and the perplexity of the congregants is why Rav Ehrentreu and the co-signatories came forward with an unequivocal statement.
In my eyes, casts doubts on the validity of the kedassia hechsher. If this organisation is not able to state clearly that a Rabbi who molested married women misbehaved, I doubt they could tell a kosher chicken from a pork chop.
The plot thickens fast:
ReplyDeletehttp://ifyoutickleus.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-empire-strikes-back.html
"...The five rabbis who put their name to the letter Thursday night were the former head of the London Beth Din, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu;..."
ReplyDeleteCaught at the scenes of not one but two rabbinic career-ending crashes: This same rabbi Chanoch Ehrentrau was also the partner of EJF and Leib Tropper's buddy in Europe. Once the late Rabbi Dunner in England denounced Tropper's sexual misconduct, Ehrentrau looked like a fool still backing Tropper. Does anyone know if Ehrentrau is still getting money from EJF sources to conduct ubber-conversions that are "glatt kosher"? Or has he left that field?
At any rate, Chanoch Ehrentrau has now been found at the scene of two major downfalls by two rabbis who he was close with and knew, and the question comes up, why does he wait till it's obvious that his mega-lomdish ultra charedi gedolim connected learned colleagues with big bushy beards and super black hats with ultra frum hashkofas, namely Leib Tropper and Chaim Helpern, create massive damage and thermonuclear chillul Hashems of the worst order, before he steps in to stop it all when it's over well over before he comes into the picture?
Chanoch Ehrentrau is PART OF THE PROBLEM, he is NOT part of any solution here, of these slow to recant rabbis who were enable by him, and he should be removed from this case ASAP because he has no credibility, nebech.
DT, please delete the above comment from R&P, who clearly cannot
Deleteread or comprehend the story on which he/she is commenting.
What a Shande and Charpe that he should mention the Amshinover Rebbe. As if the Amshinover Rebbe somehow gave approbation to the things he is alleged to have done. This simply statement itself is enough to make me condemn R' Halpern. How dare he bring the widely regarded Tzadik of our generation, the Amshinover, into this sordid mess. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
ReplyDeleteFinally, it's really none of the other Beis Din's business anyway. A Beis Din already investigated him and found him guilty. End of story.
Why are Jews in the Diaspora so concerned with protecting their own Rabbi as if he was a direct connection between them and The BARUCHU?
ReplyDeleteA rabbi is a teacher, a mentor and a learned man....he is not Holy....there is only One Holy.
If it is proven that a rabbi is a pervert beyond any doubt and by his respected and accepted peers - and in the case of them being found in a democratic state, by the police. So be it.Shame on him and his defenders. If he was a civilian without black clothes and bushy beard he would be in prison now being helped to admit his guilt by his fellow non-Jewish cell mates!
Chareidi!!!
ReplyDelete