Open Letter To Jacob Biderman : LAUDER CHABAD IS GUILTY

 info@lauderchabad.at

biderman@lauderchabad.at

Rabbi Biderman,

CHABAD DENY CULPABILITY

I am writing to you, Rabbi Jacob Biderman, because I believe you have a right to know that the linked document is being sent all over the Jewish world and beyond. We are posting it on all relevant social media platforms and websites. To be clear, this is not a hate campaign against you. Rather it is a justice campaign for Sammy and Benji Schlesinger – two young pupils in your school who have suffered a decade of unimaginable heartbreak as their mother has been erased from their lives.

How could you do this to innocent children? You call yourself a Rabbi yet your heart is rock hard. You lied to the courts about their mother. You have no understanding of a mother’s role in the lives of her children. Jewish Law excuses mothers from all the mitzvot that are time constrained. Our great Rabbis and Hashem Himself knows a mother needs to be constantly available to her children. That their mother’s love and guidance is crucial for their wellbeing.

Did you miss this lecture in Yeshiva, Rabbi Biderman? Did you also miss the lesson on the 10 Commandments where it says you shall not tell lies against your neighbour? Ten Yom HaKippurim have gone by since you decided to help Michael Schlesinger destroy his wife and inflict as yet unknowable damage on their children. What were you doing on these holiest of days when you should have been atoning for your sins? Did you give one thought to the evil you were perpetuating year after year?

Yes, we are telling everyone not to enroll in your school because until you even understand what you have done, it is too risky to allow children to be in your care. You had the audacity to reply that this was a private family matter and that the school did not involve itself. Really?!! Now you are SUDDENLY impartial?!! After you took it upon yourself to block Beth Alexander from all contact with her sons? After you give her no information about their welfare or their education?!! After you barred her from attending their birthday parties in school?!! After you ignored the confusion and depression of two little boys in your care and told the courts they were thriving?!! Or maybe you didn’t notice, which is even more alarming from someone in charge of a school.

Call yourself a “Rabbi” if it makes you feel important. You are no Rabbi to us. For now, all we can hope for is that you aim to be a mere mensch. Until you understand what you have done and try to repair some of the damage you have caused, we will continue to fight for justice for Sammy and Benji. Someone has to advocate for them. Sometimes teachers can intervene to help vulnerable children. In this case it was their teacher, Jacob Biderman, who ensured they remain vulnerable.

We are more than 6,000 people dedicated to Beth and her children. We are not duplicitous as you were when you forwarded Beth’s pleading and heartfelt emails to her ex-husband’s lawyers. We only deal with the truth, unlike you when you told UK Chief Rabbis Ephraim Mirvis and Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, that Beth was mentally ill. We will not go away. Until this is resolved satisfactorily, this truth will follow you for the rest of your life, from job to job, and from community to community.

Ask yourself how the name of Rabbi Jacob Biderman will be remembered. What will your legacy be in this world? I can tell you that it will either be the story of how you destroyed the lives of a Jewish family to further your career, or it will be how you repented and ended up on the side of goodness. Your choice. Either way, the Jewish world will know. We all eagerly await your decision for the final chapter of this tragedy that you helped to create. Remember that according to Jewish law, real atonement begins with asking forgiveness from those you have wronged. Although how you can apologise to children for keeping their mother from them for ten years, I cannot imagine.

For full disclosure, I am copying this email to Ronald Lauder, Chabad HQ, and Chabad Rabbis around the world. It is also their right to know what is happening in a school that bears their names. Please don’t waste everyone’s time by crying that this is all lies. Everything is officially documented and recorded. Your only honourable course of action is to look inwards, examine your past behaviour, choose a new path of honesty and righteousness, and pray that God will forgive you for what you have done to his children.

Rachel Selby

Jerusalem