Schlesinger Twins: Timely lessons to be learned from the Australian abuse scandal

picture not of Schlesinger twins

Guest Post by Beth Alexander

It has taken over 20 years for the victims of child abuse in Australia to finally be vindicated and awarded their day of justice at last. Not that anything could ever undo the pain and horror they suffered at the hands of the perpetrators at the time or remove the stain of guilty memories all those torturous years thereafter but at least now it is no longer they who have to carry the heavy burden of shame and silence.

This week marks the second in a two week government inquiry set up to investigate claims of child sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s and 1990s in Sydney and Melbourne. Commissioners of the Australian Royal Commission are currently hearing the victims and interrogating rabbis who were employed by the Yeshivah Centre at the time.

As details come to light, it is horrifying to discover that many of the highest ranking rabbis were informed about the abuse taking place but conspired to cover it up and instead shunned and silenced the victims. Their responses today make for shocking reading but perhaps these individuals, unfit to hold the title rabbi, are more shocked than anyone. Confident it had all been buried in the past, they never expected the scandal to resurface years later to destroy them and their families.

Austria is just one syllable away

Following these events while desperately fighting for justice for my own little boys here in Vienna is chilling. There are so many parallels. 'A week from hell' is how the past week has felt for the Australian Jewish community. I have spent the past four years in that hell - repeatedly calling on the rabbis in Vienna, on Chabad Vienna and the community leaders of Vienna to listen to our anguished pleas for help to end my own little boys' suffering. Instead of the protection, support and compassion their moral code of conduct obligates them to provide, I have also been met by stony silence, indifference and worse, ostracized and re-victimized over again for speaking out, as were the victims in Australia who naively misplaced their trust and confided in the rabbis about what was happening to them.

It's telling that victims in Australia were threatened not to breathe a word to the non-Jewish authorities because of mesirah yet in my case the rabbis and leaders in Vienna have repeated like a mantra, 'It must go though the courts' when they are fully aware  that the judicial process has been subverted by a member of the Jewish community, a high court judge who happens to be a friend of the father and convert to Judaism. Add to that an orthodox psychiatrist who tried (unsuccessfully) to have me committed to a mental hospital on the orders of my ex husband before admitting he had never met me, a false statement by a Chabad rabbi and a court issued gagging order on me and you have the makings of another giant cover up.

Unlike Australia today, not a single Austrian rabbi will be able to claim they didn't know about Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger in their community.

Recently, one local at the centre of the Viennese community (who has never spoken to me directly) admitted to a trusted friend back home in the UK, 'This is a conspiracy against Beth.' Not only that, he warned portentously, 'The case of the Schlesinger twins will haunt this community. In ten years the rabbis will be shamed, they will have blood on their hands.'

While it is too late to save Manny Waks and the countless other victims who now have to live with their scars and somehow find the strength and courage to rebuild their shattered lives as emotionally and psychologically damaged adults, Sammy and Benji Schlesinger are still young enough to be saved. Will any lessons be learned from Australia?

Open Orthodox Launches Genteel War on Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington

Guest post by Joe Orlow

The Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington (RCW), also known as the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington famously bills itself as, "The only organization of Orthodox Rabbis in the Metropolitan Washington area that is responsible for kashrut supervision. (The Washington Vaad.) Maintains a Beth Din which deals with matters affecting Jewish Family Status, i.e. adoption in accordance with Jewish law, marriage, and divorce as well as with the adjudication and/or arbitration of financial disputes, and provides all services essential to the traditional Jewish community. Maintains the city-wide Chevrah Kadisha (provides services essential for the deceased)."

No more is this the whole story, if it ever was. A group of Rabbis and a Maharat, all closely affiliated with Rabbi Avi Weiss and his so-called Open Orthodox movement, have announced the formation of the Beltway Vaad. (The Beltway is a road that entirely encircles the Washington DC region, as a belt encircles a waist.)

This gang can claim some authority in as much as it includes Rabbi Joel Tessler. Rabbi Tessler was the Rabbi of one of the oldest and largest Orthodox Congregations in the DC region for many years. He was a member of the RCW before any of the current Rabbis joined the RCW. Interestingly, this Congregation, Beth Shalom, is listed as an affiliate of the RCW, although its current Rabbi is not. And there's the rub.

The Rabbis (aside from Rabbi Tessler) and Maharat of the Beltway Vaad are smarting from the fact that they have been excluded from "[t]he only organization of Orthodox Rabbis in the Metropolitan Washington area that is responsible for kashrut supervision...."

With the arrest of Rabbi Freundel, who was the Vice President of the Vaad, and the subsequent weakening of the Vaad from this scandal, the Open Orthodox clergy and lay people have seized the moment and made a push to become de facto leaders of Orthodoxy in the Greater Washington DC area. To become, in their words, the "Orthodox Leadership for the 21st Century."

 The Beltway Vaad is strongly positioned. They control Beth Shalom, the Congregation Rabbi Tessler headed. Shuls and schools closely connected to the RCW routinely have important events like fundraisers at Beth Shalom. Thus, the Beltway Vaad having their inaugural event at Beth Shalom is especially poignant. It should also be noted that Steven Lieberman, a vice-president of Beth Shalom, is chairman of the Yesivat Chovevei Torah, the Yeshiva Rabbi Avi Weiss started.

 This is the link to the press release about the new Vaad https://beltwayvaad.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Press-Release-Beltway-VAAD-Inauguration.pdf

This is a letter sent out by Maharat Ruth. Maharat Ruth is a full member of the Vaad. The reference in the letter to a Beit Din for conversion is critical. In the past, the RCW did not accept the conversions of some of the Rabbis who are now becoming part of the Beltway Vaad.

Dear friends, Rabbi Herzfeld and I wanted to share some exciting news with you. As some of you may know, we have been working with local Orthodox pulpit clergy on the formation of a new Vaad to serve the Greater Washington Orthodox Community. Today we officially launch the new "Beltway Vaad"!

In addition to Rabbi Herzfeld and me, The Beltway Vaad currently has the following members from area shuls:

Rabbi Nissan Antine - Beth Sholom Rabbi Joel Tessler - Beth Sholom Rabbi Uri Topolosky - Beth Joshua

Beltway Vaad Mission

The Beltway Vaad is a council of local, orthodox, pulpit clergy supporting one another as we serve the spiritual needs of our congregants and the larger community.

Guided by a set of shared core values, our Vaad aims to provide our communities with religious education, spiritual leadership, kosher supervision, and a Beit Din for conversion and other relevant matters. You can learn more about the specific goals of The Beltway Vaad on our website - www.beltwayvaad.org

Why do we need another Vaad?

Some people might wonder why is it necessary for our community clergy to have a second Vaad if we already have The Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington (RCGW) http://www.capitolk.org.

The answer to this question is that all of our members (with the exclusion of Rabbi Tessler) have not been granted admission into to the RCGW. We therefore feel that we cannot respond to the needs of our communities without a unified voice and a mechanism for collective action. We hope to have a very productive and collegial relationship with the RCGW and to work together with them for the benefit of the Washington Orthodox Community.

Lay Advisory Council

One very exciting aspect of the Beltway Vaad is that we will work in partnership with a Lay Advisory Council ("LAC"). The LAC will be a voice for communal concerns, its members will serve as ambassadors to the community and it will be a vehicle for accountability, transparency and an address for grievances against members of The Beltway Vaad. More information about the LAC can be found on the Beltway Vaad website.

Our Lay Advisory Council includes the following members:

Behnam Dayanim, Chair David Janus Bruce Wiener Tamar Zakheim Ahuva Orlofsky David Gillers Tovah Koplow Benjamin Neumann

Q and A session this Shabbat (Feb 14) - 15 minutes after Lunch There is obviously so much more information and not all of it can be communicated in an email. We know that some of you will have questions, concerns and suggestions. If you would like to learn more about The Beltway Vaad, please join Rabbi Herzfeld and me 15 minutes after lunch this Shabbat February 14 in the chapel. If you have specific questions, feel free to email them in advance to MaharatRuth@ostns.org 

Beltway Vaad inaugural event on March 8 at Beth Sholom Finally, We would like to invite you to our inaugural event - a Yom Iyun on Sunday Morning March 8 at Beth Sholom. The Yom Iyun will be a chance for community members to study Torah with the members of the Vaad, learn about our goals and mission and have questions answered. Please see the flyer for more details! https://beltwayvaad.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Beltway-Vaad-Yom-Iyun-March-8.pdf 

We look forward to our future work together! Maharat Ruth

-- 
Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman
Ohev Sholom: The National Synagogue
  1600 Jonquil Northwest
  Washington, DC
  20012
MaharatRuth@ostns.org
847-722-8287

New Harvard Policy Bans Teacher-Student Relations

NY Times     Harvard University has adopted a ban on professors’ having sexual or romantic relationships with undergraduate students, joining a small but growing number of universities prohibiting such relationships. The move comes as the Obama administration investigates the handling of accusations of sexual assault at dozens of colleges, including Harvard.

The ban clarifies an earlier policy that labeled sexual and romantic relationships between professors and the students they teach as inappropriate, but did not explicitly prohibit professors from having relationships with students they did not teach.

Harvard said Thursday that the change had been made after a panel reviewing the institution’s policy on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, determined that the university’s existing policy language on “relationships of unequal status did not explicitly reflect the faculty’s expectations of what constituted an appropriate relationship between undergraduate students and faculty members.” It said the policy had been revised “to include a clear prohibition to better accord with these expectations.” [...]

 “Our rule is that if you are supervising, evaluating or grading someone, you should not have a sexual relationship with that person,” said Alison Johnson, a history professor who led the committee. [...]

After the courts found in the 1990s that universities could be financially liable for sexual harassment, many institutions — among them, the University of California and Yale — adopted formal policies forbidding sexual or romantic relationships between faculty and students.

Jesse Friedman: Convicted abuser - is he a victim of 'a vast moral panic?'

NY Times  Early in “Capturing the Friedmans,” the 2003 documentary that tells the harrowing story of a father and son charged in 1987 with the brutal sexual abuse of children on Long Island, one of the detectives on the case recalls her hesitation in the face of intense pressure from parents to prosecute quickly.

“Just charging somebody with this kind of a crime is enough to ruin their lives,” she said. “So you want to make sure that you have enough evidence, and that you’re convinced that you’re making a good charge.”

On Tuesday, the son, Jesse Friedman, who was released in 2001 after serving 13 years in prison, will be back in court, arguing once again for the disclosure of that evidence, which he says will help to prove his innocence. Twenty-seven years after he was first charged, prosecutors still refuse to give it to him.

From the beginning, the case was deeply flawed. The only evidence that Jesse and his father, Arnold, had abused anyone consisted of statements to the police by children and one of Jesse’s friends. Many of the statements were made after repeated or hourslong visits from detectives who would not leave until they heard what they wanted. None of the children had previously complained to anyone of any abuse. [...]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, similar cases were playing out across the country: extreme, often implausible allegations of mass sexual abuse of children by child care workers, leading to dozens of prosecutions and convictions. One federal appeals court has described the mood of the time as a “vast moral panic.”

The problem was that most of the charges weren’t true. Decades later, almost all the convictions of that era have been reversed. [...]

But Mr. Friedman says he pleaded guilty under the threat of an effective life sentence if he were convicted at trial.

In the years since his release, Mr. Friedman has been developing a case to clear his name, with the help of his lawyers and the documentary’s director, Andrew Jarecki. Among other things, the prosecution’s only adult witness has recanted, as have five of the children who said they had been abused. More than two dozen eyewitnesses at the computer classes where the abuse was allegedly committed now say no abuse occurred. Many students told investigators this at the time, but prosecutors did not share that with Mr. Friedman’s lawyer. [....]

In 2010, the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said “the police, prosecutors, and the judge did everything they could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial,” and that there was a “reasonable likelihood” Mr. Friedman had been wrongfully convicted.

That concern was echoed by the only person outside the Nassau County district attorney’s office to have seen the full 17,000-page file in the Friedman case — a state trial judge named F. Dana Winslow. In 2013, after reviewing the file along with new pieces of evidence, Mr. Winslow ordered prosecutors to turn over “every piece of paper” generated in the case against Mr. Friedman, with a handful of names redacted. That has still not happened.

The [D.A. ]office says it re-confirmed Mr. Friedman’s guilt in a three-year, 155-page report it released in 2013, purporting to re-investigate the case. But whether or not Mr. Friedman can establish his innocence is for a court to decide, not for the prosecutors who tried the case in the first place. [...]

There have long been grave questions about the prosecution and guilty plea. And innocent people plead guilty surprisingly often. At the very least, Mr. Friedman — whose life has already been ruined — should be given a real chance to prove his innocence in court. If the Nassau County district attorney’s office is so confident of his guilt, and of the legitimacy of its prosecution, what is it afraid of?

Why is polygamy or incest between consenting adults or bestiality -prohibited if Consitution prohibits banning gay marriage?

Talking Points    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch to explain Wednesday at her confirmation hearing why polygamy wouldn't also become a constitutional right if if the Supreme Court decided that same-sex marriage was protected by the Constitution.

"If the Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional — that it violates the Constitution to try to limit marriage between a man and a woman, that's clearly the law of the land unless there's a constitutional amendment to change it — what legal rationale would be in play that would prohibit polygamy?" Graham asked. "What's the legal difference between a state ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional but a ban on polygamy being constitutional?"

"Could you try to articulate how one could be banned under the Constitution and the other not?" [...]
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 Bestiality - if animal not harmed?

CNS News      (December 20111) Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military

The Senate on Thursday evening voted 93-7 to approve a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, it also repeals the military ban on sex with animals--or bestiality.

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Incest between consenting adults?

USA Today

A state assemblywoman says she'll propose legislation banning adult incest, in the wake of a New York magazine interview with an anonymous Great Lakes-area 18-year-old who says she plans to informally marry her long-estranged biological father and move to New Jersey because there aren't penalties in the state so long as both participants in the sexual relationship are at least 18 years old.

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Additional question - Relationship of halacha of polygamy to ban of polygamy in secular society

If the cherem of Rabbeinu Gershom was based on the ban on polygamy in the Christian world in which Ashkenazi Jews then resided, would that ban no longer be relevant if/when polygamy becomes legal in the United States and the West?

Schlesinger Twins: Another Chabad rabbi supports Beth

Lubavitcher refuses to divorce his wife saying the Rebbe is alive and "paskened"

Psak Din

הבעל, שמאמין כי הרבי חי, התעמר באשתו ובילדיו במשך שנים. בית הדין הרבני שחרר את האישה וקבע: "יחיה הוא בחייו כרצונו אך יעזוב את אשתו לנפשה."

גבר ואישה נישאו ב-1991. לשניהם היו אלה נישואין שניים: האישה הייתה אלמנה עם שני ילדים, ואילו הבעל גרוש עם שני ילדים. לבני הזוג נולדו ארבעה ילדים משותפים, שלושה מהם בגירים ואחת קטינה. הם נישאו בישראל ולאחר מכן עברו לדרום אפריקה. ב-2009 עזבה האישה את הבית ואת דרום אפריקה, ועברה לגור בניו יורק ליד הוריה. מאז ועד היום הבעל ממשיך לגור בדרום אפריקה והאישה בניו יורק.

לשאלות בענייני משפחה:

תחילה פתחה האישה בהליכים נגד הבעל בבית הדין ביוהנסבורג בדרום אפריקה. הבעל סירב לשתף כל פעולה עם בית הדין בדרום אפריקה, שבתגובה הוציא נגדו "כתב סירוב וחרם חמור".

לרגל חתונת בנם המשותף שמתגורר בישראל, הגיעו השניים לארץ. האישה ניצלה את ההזדמנות ופתחה תיק בבית הדין הרבני האזורי בתל-אביב, בו תבעה מבעלה לתת לה גט.

האישה טענה כי לאורך השנים שררה בבית אווירה קבועה של פחד וטרור. לטענתה, הבעל נהג בהתפרצויות זעם, צעקות וכינויי גנאי משפילים, גם כלפי הילדים, שאותם אף נהג להכות. לפני שש שנים עברה לניו יורק כי הרגישה שהיא פשוט לא יכולה יותר להמשיך כך.

לדבריה, הבעל מעולם לא עבד ולא פרנס, ואף לא נתן לה לצאת לעבודה, ובמשך כל השנים המשפחה התקיימה מתרומות שאביה אסף עבורם. אם לא די בזה, המשיכה, הבעל בהתנהגותו הביא לכך שהיא הייתה חייבת לשלוח שניים מילדיהם ללמוד בארה"ב בגלל הסכנה הרוחשת בבית.

הבעל – חסיד חב"ד שחי באמונה כי הרבי מלובביץ עדיין חי – טען כי קיבל מהרבי "איגרת" ובה ההוראה לא להתגרש, וזהו זה. הוא הכחיש את האלימות הפיזית והמילולית, הן כלפי האישה והן כלפי הילדים, וטען כי הילדים נשלחו לארה"ב כדי לקבל חינוך טוב יותר. 

Uziel Frankel - Rivky Stein's mentor - use of beis din to obtain house

I received the following document from Yoel Weiss regarding Uziel Frankel - Rivky Stein's mentor - problematic use of a beis din to obtain a house.

This allegations was referred to in the recent Weiss document to dismiss Rivky's charges.

http://daattorah.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/weiss-files-motion-to-dismiss-rivkys.html

"Mr. Frankel is very familiar with filing frivolous RICO complaints. He has done it unsuccessfully before in previous attempts to intimidate, threaten and harass innocent people. He even stole an innocent person's home and he was convicted when he was sued for that in State RICO complaint. (See Exhibit 4 attached.)"

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   Uziel Frankel - Petition to Confirm Arbitration Award 3-31-04-1 

Beaten wife receives Get by hiring false witnesses to tell the truth.Is this Get valid?

Rav Yizchok Zilberstein (Aleinu L'Shabeach Vayikra page 317) describes a strange case. A woman is being beaten by her husband. She goes and complains to beis din. They simply tell the husband to behave himself - but the beatings go on. There were no witnesses for her claims - which is common in such cases. Her brothers, seeing nothing was being done - hired two people to be false witnesses on her behalf and to testify that they saw the husband beating her. The beis din carefully examined the false witnesses and decided that they are telling the truth. Based on this testimony the beis din orders the husband to give his wife a divorce - which is the law in Shulchan Aruch.

After she received the Get she went to Rav Silberstein to ask whether she can remarry with a Get given because of false witnesses - who were telling the truth about her beating. She said, "It is clear that what the witnesses said was true that the husband beat me. But on the other hand they lied when they said that they witnessed it. Is the Get posul?"

Rav Silberstein felt that the Get was valid because we accept the principle that every Jew wants to do what is right in the eyes of G-d. The reason why we sometimes force the husband to give a Get is because his yetzer harah sometimes prevents him from doing the right thing. In this case the husband is well aware of the truth that he was beating his wife. In his heart he knows that he has an obligation to divorce his wife. Therefore we can consider that he gave the Get willingly - even though he was forced to give it.

However Rav Eliashiv did not agree with this reasoning and stated that it is prohibited to remarry with a  Get obtained through false witnesses. However in this case since the woman already has the Get there is no reason to tell the husband that Rav Eliashiv said the Get is not valid....It is possible to say to him that since the Get already is in the hands of his wife perhaps he will now write a get of his own free will...

Survivor tells Pope Francis to hand priests over to police as new Vatican child abuse commission starts work

Telegraph

Pope Francis should immediately hand over to the police all the Vatican documents on Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children and “cast out the vipers” who are still being protected by the Church, a British survivor of clerical abuse said.

The Catholic Church needs to end decades of obfuscation and cover-ups by fully cooperating with civil authorities around the world instead of protecting abusive priests, moving them from parish to parish or subjecting them only to canon law, said Peter Saunders.

Peter Saunders, who was sexually abused as a child in London by two Catholic priests and the headmaster of his Catholic primary school, was appointed by the Pope to a new Vatican commission on child protection, which will hold its first full meeting on Friday in Rome.

“The Pope should release all the documents the Vatican has on abusive priests,” he said in an interview shortly after arriving in Rome for the meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.[...]

New York Times' "The Orthodox Sex Guru" - furthered an inaccurate stereotype that Orthodox Jews are clueless about reality

Times of Israel     Last week, the paper of record contained a 3,000 word profile piece on Bat Sheva Marcus “Orthodox Sex Guru” who feeds into the hands of the New York Times by furthering the ignorant stereotype of unworldly Orthodox Jews clueless in the bedroom.
See original post

You don’t have to be a guru to recognize that rather than remaining in the dark ages as Marcus describes, in the last few years, Orthodoxy has been advancing in healthy sexual awareness, building on our rich treasure trove of holy traditions surrounding the spousal relationship. 

The Orthodox community in Israel is paving the way for healthy discourse and learning surrounding intimacy and sexuality. Where Dr. Marcus finds it challenging to gather a crowd for sexuality training course, we are seeing the opposite here in Israel.

In my work as an educator and therapist, I have found that the words ‘Orthodoxy’ and ‘Sex’ are not incongruous, but describe a fast growing and important area. There are a number of burgeoning organizations that offer training in the topic of intimacy to a variety of medical professionals, as well as kallah and chatan teachers.

In addition to numerous private practitioners, organizations like the Eden Center, Merkaz Yahel, the Puah Institute, and Nishmat’s Yoatzot Halacha Program, to name a few, are all doing pioneering work in expanding the healthy discussion surrounding intimacy and sexuality within the religious community in Israel.

In America steps are definitely being taken in this direction with pioneers taking the field in the form of religious and community leaders, among them; Drs. Scott and Rivky Chudnoff as well as Chani and Shmuel Maybruch. [...]

Royal Commission: Rabbi Gutnick shakes as he tells of phone call that he thought was a prank, a decision he ‘profoundly regrets’

The Guardian

Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a senior judge of the Sydney Beth Din rabbinical court, now worked with victims of child sexual abuse and encouraged them to go to police without fear, he told the royal commission into institutional responses into child sex abuse on Wednesday.

Gutnick said he received the phone call in 1987, when he was a teacher at the orthodox Yeshivah Centre Bondi, and it was the first time he had heard of sexual abuse there.[...]

“I then subsequently forgot about the phone call because I thought it was nothing more than children playing a prank,” he told the commission.

Gutnick became emotional as he described how in 2011 a man asked to meet him. 

“This proved to be a life-changing experience,” Gutnick said before commissioner Justice Jennifer Coate.

“At my house the man asked me if I remembered receiving a phone call from a young boy in the 1980s, during which the young boy reported Gug for child sexual abuse. He told me that it was him, and that Gug had sexually abused him.

“I was shocked. It was the first time I had come face-to-face with a victim.”

Gutnick began to shake as he told the commission at Melbourne’s county court that after speaking to the victim he resolved to do everything in his power to make sure the voices of sex abuse victims were heard. [...]