Satmar Rabbi in Kiryas Joel – Speaking in Code

Satmar Rabbi Aaron Teitlebaum Speaking in Riddles to His Followers… 

Reporting to Civil Authorities Will Lead to Excommunication 

May 22, 2016

This past Saturday, May 21, 2016, Rabbi Aaron Teitlebaum, the Satmar Rabbi of Kiryas Joel, called an urgent meeting of members of his community (the men) to discuss the events surrounding the death of Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenberg (zl).

During that meeting Rabbi Teitlebaum acknowledged that he had been, and will be again paid a visit by the FBI. He in riddles but in very certain terms stated that these visits are based upon outlandish ‘tales’  told by members of his community and then misconstrued by social media and the press.

Rabbi Teitlebaum held the meeting on Shabbat; but was very cognizant that perhaps there was someone in his own ‘Kehilah’ (community) who might be taping something. This is, as he acknowledged,  despite a religious prohibition against the use of electronics. The tone was one of mistrust; and his comments were tempered and encoded to provide his community, his children, with a clear warning: “I do not trust you.”

Rabbi Teitlebaum commented that everything they say eventually winds up reaching the press; and sent a stern warning to members of his community not to speak with outsiders. He levied threats. He postulated that whomever it is in his Satmar community who might be taping his speech (informants), and who may be speaking to the FBI or otherwise ‘telling tales,’ would no longer be welcomed in the community. 

Rabbi Teitlebaum wanted his community to be clear that any member who chooses to involve the civil authorities in personal Satmar events would be ex-communicated, at best, [and something more nefarious at worst]. 

We have posted a partial translation of his speech from Yiddish to Hebrew, which was posted in a Hebrew Newspaper name, loosely translated, the “Secret Rooms.” bhol.co.il

We will not even begin to try and translate the Hebrew into English because it would be an effort in futility, even for a speaker of all three of the languages. It is clear from the timing of the speech, from the references to certain passages in the bible and from the underlying riddles and tone that this was not a discussion to be taken lightly.

The warning was clear: “anyone who spoke out would not be welcome.”

האחרונה לסרטון שהופץ ברשתות ובו נראה מנהל חיידר סאטמר במונרו הנמצא תחת חקירת ה-FBI כשהוא פוגע בילד, סיפור שסוקר בהרחבה ב’בחדרי חרדים’.

האדמו”ר הודיע ביום חמישי על אסיפה דחופה שתיערך בשבת אחר הצהריים בבית המדרש הגדול בקרית יואל מונרו, בעקבות פטירת ראש הקהל רבי יצחק רוזנברג ז”ל והנגיד רבי חיים פרנס ז”ל שטבעו ביום שלישי במיאמי.

הרבי התחיל את דרשתו והזכיר כי בשנת תשי”ב בפרשת ‘נשא’ עמד האדמו”ר בעל ה’דברי יואל’ ונשא דרשה בנוגע למחלוקת בקהילה, “החזיקו בקושי רגל אחת לאחר המלחמה וכבר רבו”.

“ישנם ראשי קהילה וגבאים וכן הנהלת המוסדות שעושים מה שצריכים לעשות ולהם צריכים לציית, באם יש למישהו לומר משהו שיילכו לדבר אליהם ולא להסית”. האדמו”ר אמר – “היום כל דבר מגיע לכלי התקשורת. גם עכשיו כשאני מדבר בשבת אני לוקח את זה בחשבון, אולי גם בשבת מקליטים אותי ומעבירים לתקשורת. ואפילו עכשיו ישנם מקליטים בביהמ”ד”.

בהמשך התייחס לסרטון שחולל סערה – “כל אחד יודע שהיה פה סיפור. אין ברצוני להאריך בגלל שאיני רוצה שהאף בי איי יבקר מחר אצלי בבית, אבל אספר סיפור אחר – היה מנהל שאיחר סוף זמן קריאת שמע ואחד התחיל להסית נגדו, פיזר בלילה קרח ליד הבית שלו, כל העיתונים כתבו על זה, עד שמלאכי חבלה הגיעו לחיידר, והפחידו את כולם וכן חקרו את כולם, הכול התחיל פה ממסית אחד שרק רצה לפעול דבר אחד שכולם ידברו על זה, באופן כזה צריכים ללכת להנהלה”.

Reporter in Ramapo Doing Her Job, and KJ’s Response

posted from Blaize Gomez FB Page – threats

Remain Quiet All Reporters, You Might Uncover Hard Truths About a Community… and then get Blamed for Them

May 22, 2016

It is about time that local reporters in Rockland and Orange Counties are finally doing their jobs: namely uncovering the truth about their communities, whether committed by Jews or otherwise. Crime is crime and a Jewish criminal should be no less scrutinized because he or she is Jewish.

Blaize Gomez has decided to take the reins, long since overdue, on shedding light on the ultra-Orthodox communities within Rockland and Orange Counties whose members may be guilty of heinous crimes: molesting children and then covering it up, defrauding thousands and then copping a plea and enshrouding secrets for years, creating fake LLC’s for the purpose of defrauding the government, must we even go on?

When reporting on the burial of our dearly departed Itzchak Rosenberg (zl) Ms. Gomez decided to, well, report the truth, not the whitewashed secrets the community and its members have come to believe. After all, he may have been naked, or not. He may have been on vacation, or not, etc. etc. But, he was connected to some pretty shade characters and was nonetheless being hailed the hero.

Blaize Gomez was criticized and, of course, called a bigot. Kiryas Joel Headquarters admonished Gomez because they are afraid of where her investigation and stories will lead. In our view, they should be. We think that the path down which she is walking will lead to some pretty dark places within the communities she is investigating.

We firmly believe that Blaize Gomez should be commended for finally having the chutzpah to shed light  some on the dirty (very dirty) secrets enshrouded by the Kiryas Joel community, for one. We are inspired by her courage.

That Kiryas Joel and its members should be burying Itzchak Rosenberg with a hero’s burial shows the lengths to which its people are brainwashed and its leaders are willing to whitewash truths. Gomez’s reports on Itzchak Rosenberg are not “digging up personal matters.” Rosenberg likely should have gone to jail with his partner Sholam Weiss, though perhaps not for 845 years, just our opinion.  She is not a bigot.

Within that community, “bigotry” is code for “truth sayer” and anti-Semitism defined by the depth and complexity of the truths being uncovered. This is with very rare exception. After all, there are those who are indeed bigots and anti-Semites. The Kiryas Joel leaders, among many, are making it hard, however, to tell the difference.

Consider the videos a senior rabbi molesting children. We see it for what it is and someone had the wherewithal to place that camera where it was. They say it was a loving Rabbi, a mensch, a wonderful person trying to calm an unruly child. We all know what we are seeing. That the parents of this child are willing to accept the explanation of their leaders gives pause to the depths of their brainwashing. We hope that child will not be scarred for life.

The community’s leaders fear information, reporting and strangers within their community. With knowledge comes power. With power comes a loss of the tight controls placed on the citizens within Kiryas Joel. We wish for the people seeking truth to find it and for those finally seeing with their own eyes to spread the word.

Blaise Gomez should be commended, not shamed. Hopefully one day she will be given enough editorial control over her reporting to get to the bottom of a story that in our view even her senior editors fear, the one that unravels the ills of all of Rockland and Orange Counties. That will be the story that wins her a Pulitzer Prize. It will likely take years.

The web of lies and deceit is so complex, buried so deep and encapsulated in so many LLC’s, Ms. Gomez may grow old trying to get there.

In the meantime, keep strong Blaize Gomez.

 

Blaise Gomez to blame for Rock-throwing on a Kiryas Joel Ambulance on the way to the Hospital.

Throughout the world, the Orthodox Jewish community mourns the tragic death of two prominent leaders that died in a drowning incident in Florida.

They left a broken community, friends and family in total shock. Their lives were taken away too early, so sudden and so tragic. In such a trying time any human being knows it’s a time of grief and sensitivity. People show sympathy and express their condolences.
Many news stations covered the incident, in a respectful tone, understanding the sensitivity of the situation. But one reporter ‪#‎BlaiseGomez‬ couldn’t control her desire for attention. Instead of just doing her job as a journalist, she decided to turn this painful situation into a disgusting debate on social media degrading the grieving families on constant lies and twisted updates on how those people ended their lives.

Despite the fact that many Orthodox Jewish leaders and residents proved her wrong in her claims that they might have been swimming at the nude section of the beach which, according to the police it is a mile from where those people went swimming, she decided to keep on manipulating the story as a revenge for being called out on her previous nasty reports.

On Friday she even went so far as digging up old personal stories of the victims, to cause even more pain to the grieving families. Interesting enough a number of non-Jewish people on social media called her out for the nonsense and cheap reports on two deceased individuals.

People warned her that the unnecessary hateful rhetoric and manipulative reports against KJ will fan the flames and result in actual criminal acts against the Kiryas Joel residents.
And the day arrived. All on the hands of Blaise Gomez.

Today, her bigotry resulted in an actual criminal act against Kiryas Joel, this time
When a local Monroe motorist threw a heavy rock on a Kiryas Joel ambulance on the Nininger Rd in Monroe, rushing a critically ill patient to the hospital causing a huge blow to the front windshield. The driver lost control first, but managed to get back in the lane.

All credited to the irresponsible behaviors of Blaise Gomez.

State Police are investigating the horrible criminal act.

The good responsible people of ‪#‎OrangeCounty‬ are pointing fingers on #BlaiseGomez calling her to stop the destruction of this beautiful county.

She’s clearly responsible for this despicable criminal act.

The people in Orange County fear that her attacks against Kiryas Joel will play into the hands of criminals.

She must take responsibility and stop before the situation gets out of control.

Satmar Hasidic Rabbi Drowns?… In Florida

 

Yitzchak Rosenberg and a Beach in Miami – A Tale of Two Cities, the Satmar, former Mob connections, Diamonds and Drowning – Part I

May 19, 2016

The entire report [tale] of the five Satmar men on a nude [or scantily clad] beach exercising together is difficult if not impossible to believe, particularly since one of the men had a long history of financial shenanigans and mob connections going back to the early 1990’s and the other was a diamond dealer, who only months earlier had been beaten and robbed of $35,000 worth of diamonds. The former (described as a “philanthropist”) should likely have been in jail rather than out on beaches and the the latter either had terrible luck, lousy karma or was lucky he lasted this long. That remains to be determined.

The newspapers are reporting that there were 5 men altogether who were sunbathing [or canoodling] on a beach [perhaps a nude beach] in Miami. Of those, three of the men were “pulled to sea by rip currents off of Miami Beach’s Haulover Beach on Tuesday morning, just north of the nude section [or at the nude section and it is being kept quiet].

The reports are stating that two of the men died, Yitzchak (a/k/a Isaac a/k/a Yitzchok) Rosenberg (zl) and Chaim Parnes (zl), both of whom it would appear were taken from the water naked [or barely clad]. One man,  Aaron Wercberger is still recovering in a hospital in Miami. The details regarding the other two men, who were not in the water at the time are a bit cloudy [or are even less shady].

It is reported that the group were in South Florida with their wives for vaction and the “men went to the beach to exercise and chose the spot because it was secluded and they could swim and comply with Orthodox Judaism’s “modesty laws.”” Whether or not their dress complied with those laws is a big question mark.

So where does that leave us?

We know for certain [at least we think so] that the five men were Satmar Hasidim, some from Borough Park and some from Kiryas Joel. The men may or may not have been clothed, may or may not have been sunbathing [fraternizing] on a nude beach supposedly just north of where they were taken out of the water; and they may or may not have been on vacation with their families. We also know that they may or may not have drowned [because of rip currents]. You see where this is going…

Yizchak Rosenberg, z.l.

Rosenberg’s demise in Miami  does not begin and end with the possibility that he drowned unclothed, uncharacteristic of Hasidic Jews, north of a clothing optional beach (also uncharacteristic of Hasidic Jews). He and Miami go way back…

“Yitzchak Rosenberg, 67, was the president of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, the central religious organization in Brooklyn of the followers of the Kiryas Joel, New York-based Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, and a founder of the sect’s yeshiva system in Brooklyn. Rosenberg was also a major Brooklyn real estate developer and the owner of a building supply wholesaler.”

http://forward.com/news/340884/powerful-brooklyn-satmar-hasidic-rabbi-drowns-in-florida/#ixzz498FuE7Lx

“Rosenberg founded Certified Lumber, his building supply business, with his brother, Abraham Rosenberg. According to the real estate website The Real Deal, Rosenberg and his brother owned more than 40 Brooklyn buildings. His development projects included a proposed condo on the East River called Rose Plaza, which was granted a controversial zoning swap in 2011. In 2015, the Real Deal reported that the site was on the market for $250 million.”

http://forward.com/news/340884/powerful-brooklyn-satmar-hasidic-rabbi-drowns-in-florida/#ixzz498GIN16Q

On April 30, 1998 it was reported that:

“A New York investor, two lawyers and six business associates were charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury with $300 million in fraudulent deals that collapsed an Orlando-based insurance company.

A 93-count indictment accused Shalom Weiss [who is currently in jail serving an 845 year term – LM], former owner of the defunct Studio 54 nightclub in Manhattan, and others with swindling National Heritage Life Insurance Co. and parent LifeCo Investment Group before regulators shut down the insurer in 1994.

The charges follow recent guilty pleas by former company general counsel Michael Blutrich, investorLyle Pfeffer and former Chief Operating Officer Patrick Smythe to charges of racketeering, fraud and money-laundering. All are cooperating with prosecutors.

“This is the most recent in a series of criminal charges filed against those responsible for looting NHLIC and bringing about its collapse,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson of Tampa.

Weiss, 44, of Monsey, N.Y., was charged in 76 counts with racketeering, conspiracy and assorted fraud, theft and money-laundering charges. He also was charged with making false statements to federal investigators and obstructing justice by producing false documents to the grand jury.

Also named in racketeering charges were Weiss’ lawyer, Jan Schneiderman, 40, of Flushing, N.Y.; attorney Richard Herman, 41, of White Plains, N.Y.; Keith Pound, 45, of Flossmoor, Ill.; Yaakov Stark, 34, of Miami Beach; Isack Rosenberg, 49, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Nadine Allen, 58, and her husband, Robert Gorski, 62, both of Crystal Lake, Ill.

Richard Langer, 51, of Olive Bridge, N.Y., and several New York and Illinois companies alleged to be controlled by Weiss and other suspects were charged in mail fraud, wire fraud, theft and money-laundering counts.

All will be summoned to appear before a U.S. magistrate in Orlando. Each faces prison terms of up to 34 years.

Weiss and Herman were charged last July with participating in a $47 million fraud with Blutrich, Pfeffer and Smythe. But for strategic reasons, prosecutors dropped charges against the two in December after the others began cooperating.

The New York Post has reported that Blutrich and Pfeffer, New York men affiliated with Scores topless club in Manhattan, are key witnesses involving cash payoffs to mob boss John Gotti Jr. and are entering the federal witness protection program.”

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-04-30/business/9804290889_1_pfeffer-weiss-charged

On October 30, 1999 it was reported that Yitzchak Rosenberg was one of six people (another being his brother Abraham) charged “with stealing millions of dollars from National Heritage Life Insurance Co., in the largest insurance fraud in the nation’s history.”

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1999-10-30/business/9910290630_1_rosenberg-national-heritage-bankruptcy-fraud

On February 9, 2000, it was reported that Yitzchak Rosenberg was then “one of a dozen people who were convicted of stealing $400 million from the insurer through a series of complicated schemes.” “Originally facing 20 years in prison, he was sentenced Monday to two years’ probation and a $10,000 fine.”

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2000-02-08/business/0002080002_1_restitution-rosenberg-national-heritage

“[Abraham] Rosenberg [Yitzchak’s brother] admitted he submitted two false documents, one sworn and one not sworn, to a federal bankruptcy court in New York in 1992, claiming National Heritage was a $4.3 million creditor in his companies, Certified Lumber and Boro Park Inc.”

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1999-10-30/business/9910290630_1_rosenberg-national-heritage-bankruptcy-fraud

“By making those false statements, National Heritage became the largest single unsecured creditor in the case, which placed it in a position to control Rosenberg’s plan of repayment.”

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Egyptians, Worthless People?

Rabbi Teitelbaum Criticizes Loss of ‘Implicit Understanding’…

We find it utterly remarkable that either of the two warring sons of the Satmar Grand Rebbe Teitelbaum has the right to opine on the behavior of anyone else. After all, the two new Satmar sects (one for each brother Teitelbaum) of the Satmar [cult] cannot even agree with one another about how to live their lives [or govern the lives of those within their respective communities]. Either the brothers Teitelbaum are fighting over a financial inheritance under cover of religion; or they are fighting over interpretation of that religion (proving that it may not be all black and all white). Regardless, for either brother Teitelbaum to call the rest of us “”Egyptians” encouraged by “worthless people” who regrettably are awakening a complicit “benevolent government”  is hypocrisy at its finest.”

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel should be looking at the deplorable behavior of members of his own community before he has the audacity to criticize others. He might just want to say a “Meshaberach” (prayer for the sick) for his own community and not cast stones.

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum unlike the Jews in Egypt, you and your people [a cult] are free to go elsewhere. You are not being held anywhere against your will, only being asked to comply with the laws and comport to a socially acceptable set of standards of behavior [like not molesting children in Yeshivas – or elsewhere, and like educating your children in substantially similar subjects as other children in the State in which you reside]. In Israel, you are being asked to serve in the army and in London to teach your children what public school children learn. If you are not happy with the laws of the country in which you live, go somewhere else. No one needs to “Let [your] people go.” They are free to leave without need of 10 plagues.

From Clarkstown What They Don’t Want you to Know on Facebook:

The Number One Problem For Hasidic Communities? – Could it be that Rockland and Orange Counties are populated by “Egyptians” encouraged by “worthless people” who regrettably are awakening a complicit “benevolent government” and thereby creating “bad times” for an extreme sect of Judaism?

How to manage the rapid growth of its Hasidic population coupled with a move of Hasidic populations north into Rockland County and beyond is indeed a topic of intense local interest. Our featured article from Haaretz.com gives some insights on that situation from both Hasidic leaders and Hasidic dissidents.

It begins by noting that the recent scrutiny of the Haredim and their unsustainable mode of living supported by a ‘benevolent government’ is being pushed largely by dissidents, in some cases ex-Hasidim, who say they are acting in the best interests of the community.

“We need to know what kind of danger we’re in,” the Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, said in a widely publicized May 4 speech about the threat of closer state supervision of yeshiva curricula. “These are bad times for us Jews, terrible. We need to pray to God that they should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

For a long time, Teitelbaum said in his speech, there’s been an implicit understanding between state authorities and the leadership of Hasidic communities like Kiryas Joel that the state wouldn’t interfere in communal affairs.

But that implicit agreement may be breaking down as it becomes more difficult for authorities to ignore abuses – sexual, educational or financial – allegedly taking place within these closed communities. The prospect of outside interference threatens one of Kiryas Joel’s raisons d’etre: Hasidic control of the community’s affairs.

“Until now there were also strict laws, but because we live in a kingdom of benevolence [a reference to government authorities] to put it bluntly they simply turned a blind eye to what’s going on by the Jewish children,” Teitelbaum said in his speech, which was delivered in Yiddish and then translated into English for widespread dissemination. “They didn’t want to look, the benevolent kingdom. Now, too, they’d continue doing that, the government would have continued, they’re happy not to look and not to know. But these worthless people are stirring up in various ways and are demanding in court, forcing the government that they should take a stance.”

The “worthless people” are people like Naftuli Moster who is advocating for better education in the ultra insular communities.

“I’ve been to those yeshivas, I know exactly what the effects are,” said Naftuli Moster, executive director of Yaffed, an organization he founded that lobbies lawmakers to force Orthodox yeshivas to offer quality secular studies in addition to Torah studies.

https://youtu.be/KMSSHfHuvzE

“You’re not gaining anything by depriving people of an education. The very Satmar rabbi that made that speech also encourages people to earn a living, to his credit, but at the same time he’s the one who has jurisdiction over the yeshivas that are depriving Hasidim of the very tools necessary to earn that living,” Moster told JTA. “So what do people end up doing? Oftentimes they resort to criminal activity and other shenanigans to earn that living.”

People like Moster who make a charge of ‘resorting to criminal activity’ against the Haredim are referred to as “self-hating Jews” while those not of the Jewish faith are accused of being “anti-Semites”.

But look at the facts ….

FBI investigators were in Kiryas Joel, and in Rockland County and in Brooklyn investigating alleged fraud by Hasidic institutions in the federal government’s E-rate program provided to bring technology into yeshivas and the FBI were in Kiryas Joel a second time investigating child abuse allegations.

https://youtu.be/E91w__3SSvM

Further, the New York Daily News and WNYC public radio published and broadcast a joint investigative story scrutinizing the outsized number of low-income, Section 8 housing vouchers that have gone to the Hasidic community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn – a Satmar neighborhood with close ties to Kiryas Joel.

The WNYC story attributed the voucher aberration to Hasidic “self-dealing that’s impenetrable to outsiders” and cited lawsuits arguing that the Hasidim obtain housing vouchers through unfair or unlawful means. The story also noted that Hasidim are taking the vouchers with them to places outside the city, like Kiryas Joel.

Meanwhile, Teitelbaum expresses fury that fellow Jews are the source of much of the pressure …..

“Due to our many sins, it’s very painful to talk about it, there stood up several “worthless people” from our own who have studied in Hasidic yeshivas, and sadly they arrived I don’t want to say where. They decided to wage war against the whole ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of New York,” the rebbe said. “They went and “snitched” to the governments of New York City and New York State with complaints that the students of the yeshivas, of all yeshivas (elementary and middle school) are not learning enough general studies as required by law.”

In the ‘Jew in Rockland’ video produced by the Rockland Hasidic community, the accusation was made that Rockland was basically a growing throwback to the Nazis in the Germany of the 1930s.

https://youtu.be/7jDpIp3FbWE

Now there is a new moniker being applied to Rockland’s citizens – they are akin to “biblical Egyptians” ……

Joseph Waldman, a longtime Kiryas Joel community leader who heads a local welfare organization, said the “unprecedented assault” on the Hasidic community stems from local non-Jews’ fear of its rapid growth – just as the biblical Egyptians feared the rapid growth of the Israelites in Moses’ time.

“That’s the reason they were trying to make the trouble for the Jews in Egypt: The first thing they were afraid was the Jewish families growing so rapidly,” Waldman told JTA.

“Here, they are fearful that they’re going to be overwhelmed either by the growth of the environment or by political clout through the bloc votes.”

“They want to stop the community from growing,” he said. “That’s the reason for all the problems.”

Read on …….

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.720200

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‘Implicit Understanding’ Between Hasidic N.Y. Community and Authorities Fades

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.720200

Sexual Abuse in KJ – from the NY Times

 

May 18, 2016

Are the Hassidim of Kiryas Joel in Denial or Are they Finally Coming to Terms with the Sexual Abuse within their Community??

We have posted on the video that circulated of what we view as a child being molested by his teacher, Rabbi Moshe Hersh Klein and the denials by the community and by the parents at one least on of the children in the video.

We posted on the FBI raids of the Yeshiva.

We are now presenting to you excerpts from an article from the New York Times from May 17, 2016.

Sexual Abuse Questions Swirl Around Yeshiva Leader in Kiryas Joel

“KIRYAS JOEL, N.Y. — In a place where young boys spend their days hunched over volumes of Torah and Talmud, delving into timeless stories and precepts in an ancient singsong, the scene was incongruous.

Dozens of agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and county law enforcement officers — more than 50 by the count of officials in this Hasidic village about 50 miles northwest of Manhattan — converged on a four-story brick yeshiva here on Thursday, some armed with guns, others carrying crowbars, as helicopters whirred overhead. According to parents of children at the school, the authorities took away boxes filled with computers, office files and security-camera videos.

“They scared all the kids,” said Yoel Weiss, whose three sons, Moishe, 12, Shloime, 8, and Pinchas, 7, attend the yeshiva that was targeted, United Talmudical Academy of Kiryas Joel. “They made a big commotion.””

…

Kiryas Joel – Parents of Child in Video…

Parents Are Satisfied Their Child Was Not Abused

From the Herald-Record:

A Kiryas Joel source said that the parents of the boy seen in the video posted on Facebook on April 30 have met with school officials and were “100 percent satisfied” that the principal didn’t abuse their son. He said that FBI agents reported having three weeks’ worth of videos and planned to interview the UTA Board president, Mayer Hirsch, and other board members, as well as Klein himself.

(http://www.recordonline.com/article/20160512/NEWS/160519808)

Satmar Response to Videos of Rabbi Hirsch and KJ Children

Which PR Firm Covered This Response?

May 11, 2016

Thanks to the courage of Boorey Deutsch, a pair of shockingly unsavory  videos were posted on a FB site, evidencing the sexual abuse of children by Rabbi Moshe Hirsch Klein. The first video is of a very young child, the second of an older child. The videos are apparently being investigated. While we received responses sarcastically commenting that the person who put the camera up in the first place was most likely to get prosecuted (a point with which we concur), few anticipated the response that would be circulated within the Satmar community.  

We can say it no better than Yerachmiel Lopin of Frum Follies:

Satmar Issues Slick PR Statement about the Video of Rabbi Hirsch and the Child

 

The exhibit du jour is a press release issued today (5/10/16), doubtlessly written by a professional PR firm, claiming they of course care about and don’t tolerate sex abuse, and claiming they fully cooperate with the criminal justice system. Naturally they deny anything happened in this case and the principal is a great guy with an unblemished reputation.

But to really know their mentality consider a speech given by the grand rabbi of the village of KJ, Aron Teitelbaum, openly saying that the authorities were willing to look the other way about their failure to fulfill secular schooling requirements, but for some snitches. See Daily News. Sadly that is also true about sex abuse, as long as the offender is a fellow Hasid. This is because the community intimidates witnesses and delivers block votes which help determine who is elected DA.Facedwith difficulty prosecuting cases and mindful of the block votes, DA’s in with large Hasidic block votes, such as Kings (Brooklyn), Rockland, and Orange, they just don’t do their darnedest to protect ultra orthodox children.

And now for your entertainment here is the press release.