Do you know of any other cases with a Ner Israel of Baltimore connection?
Here is a current list of the alleged and convicted sex offenders who have ties to Ner Israel of Baltimore:
- The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950's
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
Case of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau
Case of Rabbi Benyamin Fleischman
Case of Shmuel Jurvael (not verified yet)
Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum
Case of Rabbi Yaakov "Ken" Menken
Case of Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler
Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler
Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg
posted by Jewish Survivors at Friday, March 17, 2006
19 Comments:
I heard Karl Rove spent some zmanim at Ner Israel and reportedly used to hit it with young boys.
You are eroding your credibility by looping Menkin with those other abusers. I don't have any respect for him or his writings, but there has never been any claims of sexual abuse on him.
Ner Israel has some obvious problems, but he is not on of them.
Hillel Tendler is not a sex offender, but he also went to Ner Israel. He's the brother of Mordecai and Aron Tendler.
I think Menken is one of the worst offenders of them all.
You should list Simcha Weinberg too. He's the brother of Matis Weinberg. He didn't molest children, but he did loose a rabbinical post for allegedly having relations with women he provided counseling to.
He also has a Ner Israel connection. His father was a past head of the yeshvia.
Poking fun at this situation by adding names such as Karl Rove only demonstrates the extent of this problem. DENIAL. We have a difficult road ahead, but this Ner connection is necessary and it is obviously striking a chord. Many will never accept this, but not because they don't believe it. Instead they just feel they can't believe it. We must fight on. This is the beginning. We will force Baltimore to confront the problem. The city has become a breeding groung for this pandemic. In order to fight this problem, we must nip it in the bud- at the source-Baltimore and Ner.
I personally hold both Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer and Rabbi Moshe Heinemann responsible for many of the cases of childhood sexual abuse in Baltimore. Instead of doing the right thing and reported suspected cases of child abuse to the authorities, they did everything in their power to protect the offenders and make the survivors look and feel like they were crazy.
Heinemann http://www.star-k.org/cons-abou-support.htm
Hopfer
http://yourmoralleader.blogspot.com/2004/11/rabbi-hopfer-addresses-sex-abuse-in.html
Now I question whether it is such a bad thing for boys to have girlfriends when they are in yeshiva. I would worry less about the kids with girlfriends who at least seem to be straight and probably are not spending their yeshiva days molesting their peers. The same Rabbis that throw out the boys with girlfriends, molest boys.
reluctant Menkin defender said...
You are wrong, there have been allegations made against Menken. You can read up on them at these two sites:
http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/yaakov_menken.htm
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Menken_Yaakov.html
Serious allegations have been made against Rabbi Yaakov Menken which include sexual harassment, rabbinical sexual misconduct and sexual assault. Menken's alleged modus operandi (M.O.) is of becoming a father figure to vulnerable young women and eventually allegedly sexually assaulting them. If you or someone you know has had similar experiences, please contact your local rape crisis center and or The Awareness Center.
When I was a young bochur studying in Yeshiva everyone used to tell a joke that has been around for at least 30 years:
Q: How do you seperate the men from the boys at Ner Yisroel?
A: With a crowbar.
I used to think "Hah hah, that is a funny joke. Well it is not funny anymore.
There's something that's always bothered me about the case against Matis Weinberg and how it was covered up for years. It also bothers me that there is a link between the Tendler's and the Weinbergs that keeps getting ignored..
The first allegations of Matis Weinberg molesting anyone was back when he was a teenager, one of his victims was his own brother. His parents did what they could to hide these facts from the world, and sent him away. They were not unlike most parents who only wanted the best for their son, but I also wonder if their family name was more important to them, then protecting any potential future victims from being harmed?
In the 1980's, his parents helped Matis start his own Yeshiva in Santa Clara, CA. It was called Kerem. There were also sorts of rumors floating around regarding Matis's inappropriate behavior towards his staff and students. When the allegations broke of him being sexually inappropriate with boys and cult like behavior the yeshiva was shut down. An agreement was reached that he would NEVER teach again. But then back in 2003, he was involved with another yeshiva, and new allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/weinberg_matis.html
Back in the 1980's when the allegations started circulating his father, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg got involved with Jews For Judaism (which is an anti-cult/countermissionary organization). For those of you know don't know, Yaakov Weinberg was a past Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel (Ner Israel is the same yeshiva where there was an alleged group of boys going around molesting other boys. It's the yeshiva where both Mordecai and Aron Tendler attended.)
If I remember correctly Tovia Singer and Tsvi "Harlan" Kilstein were both also involved with Jews for Judaism. First Kilstein was, and when he got in trouble with the FBI, he trained Tovia Singer to publicly replace him. Remember Tsvi Kilstein is very connected with the case of Mordecai Tendler. The Tendler's and the Weinbergs are related through a marriage. They are also very closely tied to each other through the administration of Ner Israel of Baltimore.
Around the same time that the case against Matis Weinberg broke, his mother Chana Weinberg got involved with an organization called "Chana" of Baltimore, which is a domestic violence hot line for frum women.
It just seemed very odd to me. Matis Weinberg's parents started volunteering time for organizations that dealt with cults and abuse of women at the same time their son was being accused of being a cult leader and abusing children. Was this for show? And also a way to deflect from the reality that their son was an alleged sex offender?
I know it's very hard to admit publicly that someone they loved and cared about had some serious problems. This is doubly true when your family can be seen as royalty. Unfortunately, I keep asking myself how many people would have been speared being abused by Matis Weinberg if they would have spoken out against his behavior and gotten him the help he needed?
Remember the quote by Vicki Polin "It takes a community to raise a sex offender." I think the case of Matis Weinberg, and also both Aron and Mordecai Tendler could be seen as an example of this. Let's not keep repeating history. Let's learn from it, and warn our communities.
As someone who spent 9 years in Ner Yisroel (Mechina thru Kollel) I find it interesting that not once did I ever hear anonymous' crowbar joke- I think he just applied it now- and I certainly was no prude. Ner Yisroel was never known for this problem, certainly no more than any other Yeshiva. Rabbis Eliezer Eisgrau, Yaakov Menken, and Mordechai Tendler never learned in Ner Yisroel. Interesting that every name mentioned here that has any connection with Ner Yisroel left the Yeshiva before 1980.
oops...correction to my above post...Juravel was in Ner Yisreol until 1992...but he came after being asked to leave another Yeshiva and wasn't in Ner Yisroel very long, to the best of my knowledge.
Rabbi Simcha Weinberg was married to a niece of Rabbi Norman Lamm.
Rabbi Mark Dratch is married to Rabbi Lamm's daughter.
Is this the reason why Rabbi Dratch is so involved with domestic violence?
Rabbi Simcha Weinberg is Matis Weinberg and Aviva Weisbord's younger brother. His father was Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, and his mother is Chana Weinberg.
Here's more information on Simcha Weinberg
http://newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com/2006/02/goods-on-weinberg-author-of-refutation.html
I wish that this stuff was talked about nationally in the media. The only thing I ever hear is Catholic Priests molesting kids. Now I know that Jew Rabbi's do the same thing. But they are protected cause they are Jew's. Truly that just because they are Jewish their crimes are hidden. Truly a shame!!!!
Here is the best of all. Menken, who has ADMITTED that he has had sexual encounters with other woman, has been acepted and works with Hatzalah of Baltimore!!! (Of course, they run to Heinemann when they need to pick their noses). Everyone knows Menken is a sicko. So why should we have to be scared of him running Hatzalah calls? Why should he be on Hatzalah at all?
Had some of the best years of my life in Ner Yisroel and never saw anything of what this blog is talking about. For what's it worth...
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