Haredi entertainer convicted of indecent acts

YNET

The Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Tuesday convicted haredi entertainer David Bruckner of indecent acts against a 12-year-old boy. 

Bruckner was arrested in January 2010 over suspicions that he committed indecent acts against a 12-year-old. At the end of the investigation into the case he was indicted for four counts of indecent acts.

Hundreds riot in Mea Shearim after police raid

YNet

Tax Authority operation sees prominent Eda Haredit figures arrested for tax evasion suspicions. Six officers hurt during subsequent riots  

Six police officers were hurt Wednesday during haredi riots in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. A joint Tax Authority-Jerusalem Municipality operation saw inspectors raiding local business whose owners were suspected of tax evasion. Police provided security.

Three business owners were arrested and their assets confiscated. Ultra-Orthodox elements accused the police of unnecessary provocation and claimed their deployment was disproportionate. Dozens of haredim rioted following the arrest and set trash cans on fire.[...] 

Every parent's nightmare: A child z"l abducted & killed by a stranger

NYTimes

| The search for a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy ended early on Wednesday when investigators discovered what they believed to be his dismembered remains in a third-floor attic refrigerator of a Brooklyn man and in a trash bin on a street, the police said. The man, who made incriminating statements, was in custody and being questioned, the police said.

The grim discovery capped two days of intense searching for the boy, Leibby Kletzky, who had disappeared along a short walk between a Borough Park school and a meeting place with his parents on Monday. Police detectives searched around his neighborhood and used helicopters to find the boy, who was part of the Hasidic Jewish community. They recovered video clearly showing the boy alive.[...]

Crown Heights Beis Din says to report abusers to police

Hasidic Sleuth’s Beat: Mean Streets of Brooklyn

NYTimes

JOE LEVIN, a private investigator in Brooklyn, was waiting to meet a new client in the parking lot of a kosher supermarket in Borough Park one recent morning. Glancing in the side-view mirror of his chauffeured sport utility vehicle, Mr. Levin said he liked this particular spot because he knew the manager, the delivery man and the security guard, who lets him borrow footage from the lot's surveillance equipment.

Most of the time, though, Mr. Levin does his own snooping. On his iPad, he scrolled through photographs of people he was being paid about $100 an hour to follow, including a rebellious Hasidic girl in a white miniskirt and a long-bearded rabbi lighting a cigarette on the sidewalk.

"He's a bad guy," Mr. Levin said, enlarging the rabbi's image. "A very bad guy." [...]

Court orders mother to have child's hand amputated to save her life

YNet

A court ruled that a 13-year-old girl suffering from cancer must have her hand amputated – otherwise she will die. The ruling came after the girl's mother refused to authorize the operation, claiming the only treatment her daughter requires is fasting and prayer.

Three months ago, the Ministry of Social Affairs' legal adviser filed an urgent request with the Family Court, requesting permission to perform the urgent surgery.

Majorcan Descendants of Spanish Jews Who Converted Are Recognized as Jews

NYTimes

Centuries after the Spanish Inquisition led to the forced conversion of Jews to Catholicism, an ultra-orthodox rabbinical court in Israel has issued a religious ruling that recognizes descendants from the insular island of Majorca as Jews.

The opinion focused narrowly on the Majorcan community of about 20,000 people known as chuetas and did not apply to descendants of Sephardic Jewish converts in mainland Spain or the broader diaspora of thousands of others who scattered to the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish colonies in South and North America. [...]

Camp Agudah & Ohel: Advice to campers' parents regarding abuse

Jewish community leader tells of sex abuse

Australia The Age

MANNY Waks's behaviour started to change part-way through his schooling at Yeshivah College.

''I wasn't listening to the teachers and was getting into trouble,'' Mr Waks says.

Now, more than 20 years later, he believes his disruptive behaviour, his rebellion against his strict Hasidic upbringing, even the fact he is no longer an observant Jew, can potentially be linked to sexual abuse he says he was subjected to at the Orthodox Jewish school in St Kilda East.

Mr Waks claims he was repeatedly molested by a trusted figure of authority at the school who had unfettered access to the young boys.

"This was a man who was in a position of power and authority, who was trusted by the school and who repeatedly took advantage of his position in preying on young boys who looked up to him." The 35-year-old Canberra public servant says he was also abused by another member of the Chabad community. One of the alleged incidents is said to have occurred inside a synagogue.

''No wonder I feel so uncomfortable being in a synagogue, because it evokes in my subconscious some of these memories,'' Mr Waks says.[...]

Kiruv: Collecting neshamos on Facebook

bchol

"אהיה באינטרנט עד שאחרון הנשמות יעזוב" • 'הרב'ה של הפייסבוק' מדבר

יש לו אלפי 'חברים' בפייסבוק, המוני תלמידים במציאות - ולהט גדול: למגר את הנשירה • הכירו את הרב מוטה פראנק, ממשפיעי ברסלב, המלקט נשמות נושרות בפייסבוק • רגע לפני המראתו השנתית לאומן עם ליפא שמעלצר, מגיש 'בחדרי חרדים' ראיון מרתק עם הדמות שמושכת אלפים • לייק!

Rockland lawmakers debate calling FBI in New Square arson case

cgpage

Arson attack and burn victim Aron Rottenberg stood before the Rockland County Legislature on Tuesday to publicly speak in support of an individual’s right to pray where he or she chooses.

“I’m greatly honored to be here tonight and to bring you a message of peace and good will,” Rottenberg said. “I believe a person should be able to engage in prayer in the privacy of his or her home or in a synagogue, church or mosque of his or her choice.”

Rottenberg was severely burned May 22, when an incendiary device exploded as he wrestled with 18-year-old Shaul Spitzer outside Rottenberg’s New Square home. Bandages were still visible on his arms as he spoke Tuesday.

The 43-year-old plumber and father of four offered the invocation at the start of the Legislature’s meeting after being invited by Legislator Joseph Meyers, D-Airmont. [...]