Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Paul Shechtman, chairman of the NY state ethics commission kept Rabbi off sex offender registry

From The Awareness Center, Inc. Daily Networking Newsletter
"Though a top parole executive determined that the kidnapping of a young boy required that the rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans, be placed on the sex offender registry, Shechtman, according to the testimony, intervened to make sure he wasn't."
For information on Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans see:
http://www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/rabbi-shlomo-erez-elbarnes-aka-rabbi.html
http://www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2005/02/rabbi-shlomo-erez-elbarnesshlomo.html
A Hevesi Heresy - Daring to doubt the governor's wisdom
by Tom Robbins and Wayne Barrett
Village Voice
October 31st, 2006 11:30 AM
http://villagevoice.com/news/0644,barrett,74892,2.html

George Pataki has run a scandal-ridden administration for 12 years, without the slightest punishment—and yet he and his party are calling Alan Hevesi to task about ethics. This week, Tom Robbins and Wayne Barrett unravel the governor's own misdeeds.

Driving Miss Libby
As governor, George Pataki has never skimped on providing help and protection for his own family—regardless of who picks up the tab.

Take the case of Edward Keegan, a retired New York City police officer who first went to work for Pataki in 1993, when the soon-to-be-elected governor was still a state senator from Peekskill. Keegan, who is 6-foot-4 and lives about 10 miles from Pataki's home in Garrison, acknowledged last week that some of his chores back then as a $1,200-a-month part-time senate staff aide included driving Pataki and his wife, Libby. After Pataki was elected, Keegan remained on the state payroll for the next decade, almost all of it as a special assistant to the commissioner of the New York State Office of General Services, the agency responsible for managing state buildings, procuring supplies, and various "support services." The ex-cop did well. His salary in 1995 was $64,415; when he retired in March 2005, his official pay rate was $95,000 annually, although his total earnings including overtime over the last three years averaged $102,000.

Keegan, 68, declined last week to say exactly what he did in his state job. But five separate sources—all of them Republicans with lengthy histories of service to Pataki and the state GOP—told the Voice that Keegan was one of several state and political-party aides who appeared to spend most of their time tending to the needs of the governor's wife and family around their home in upstate Garrison.

Reached at his home in Putnam Valley last week, Keegan initially agreed that his tasks were similar to those of Comptroller Alan Hevesi's aides, whose chores for Hevesi's wife have sparked a pre-election tumult and an unprecedented push by Republicans to boot the comptroller from office for ethics law violations.

"That's somewhat right," Keegan said. "I don't do it anymore. I am retired. I would suggest if you really want to get the poop, go to OGS," he said, referring to his old agency.

Keegan later called back and denied driving Libby Pataki at all. "She was never in any car other than a trooper's car," he said, although he acknowledged that he did accompany the governor's wife to events if so ordered.

Keegan didn't deny what one source said, that he had a state car and a state credit card. That's in contrast to the Hevesi aide, who used the comptroller's family car and credit card to escort Mrs. Hevesi.

A spokeswoman for Keegan's former agency said she could not comment on personnel matters.

According to a lawyer who was in the Pataki inner circle at the time, Keegan started out driving for both Pataki and his wife but was later reassigned to work for only Libby Pataki. "I knew he was the driver," said the source. "Keegan regarded it as a demotion when he was switched to Libby."

A former Pataki aide said Keegan often drove with Libby Pataki and her state trooper bodyguard to events in New York City, and sometimes waited in the car outside.

After driving Libby Pataki for the first couple of years of the administration, however, according to two GOP insiders, Keegan had a dispute with Pataki's friend and top state police aide Daniel Wiese, who was then overseeing security for the governor. As a result, Keegan was shifted again, this time to driving Pataki's mother, Margaret, according to the sources.

"When the mother came to the State of the State speeches in Albany, Keegan would sit in the chamber next to her. Otherwise he was rarely seen in Albany," said one insider.

If Keegan did spend much of his time devoted to helping the governor's family, he wasn't the only one.

Last year, the New York Post revealed that the state's Republican Party was paying $50,000 a year to a woman to serve as Libby Pataki's "maid and personal valet." GOP officials acknowledged that Michelle Stubbs had been detailed to work with the governor's wife since 1999 and that she handled scheduling appointments and political-party affairs for the state's first lady. But local merchants told reporters that Stubbs shopped weekly for groceries for the governor's family, and Republican officials later conceded that Stubbs had "on occasion" driven meals prepared by staff at the Albany governor's mansion to Pataki's Hudson River home 100 miles away.

"We were calling it 'McMansion'—the source of state-funded takeout for the governor," one pol quipped to the Post.

Campaign filings by the state GOP showed that Stubbs received more than $40,000 in expense reimbursements, sometimes as high as $3,800 a month. The payments were listed on the forms as being for "travel, mail, and dinner" or "travel and office," but their purpose has never otherwise been explained. Stubbs also managed to obtain a $47,000-a-year post for her 25-year-old son working with the state Department of State. According to a former agency official and Pataki insider, the son was hired as an athletics activity assistant after it was requested by the "second floor"—a reference to the governor's office in Albany.

Nor was Stubbs the first person assigned by the party to help the governor's wife. A woman named Janine Robinson was plucked out of the state's Office of General Services, where she had been working, and placed on the party's payroll to carry out similar full-time duties for Mrs. Pataki in 1995 and 1996, earning $44,500 over two years, Republican officials acknowledged last year.

The work by Stubbs and Robinson for the governor's wife didn't cost the taxpayers anything, but it raised a different ethics question, one that the governor and his ethics commission managed to sidestep. Since public officials are required under state law to report gifts of more than $1,000, reporters questioned why Pataki had never disclosed the substantial free help he and his wife received on his personal financial disclosure forms.

The governor responded that there was no need to do so, maintaining that the work was primarily "political" in nature. But the state ethics commission, which could have interviewed Stubbs and Robinson under oath to get to the bottom of the affair—just as it did with Hevesi and his aides last month—was never heard from on the matter. Officials of the commission refused to say last week whether any inquiry had been undertaken, but acknowledged that the panel made no finding of possible violations.

It wasn't the first time the commission showed little interest in taking a hard look at the Pataki family's finances. Since Pataki became governor, his wife has become a highly paid business consultant. Over the past decade, she's received more than $650,000 from cosmetics fortune heir Ronald Lauder, a key GOP contributor. Last year, Libby Pataki earned $222,600 in overall consulting fees, including $55,000 from a real estate trust owned by Cendant, a mega-corporation that regularly lobbies state government over regulations and other matters. In 2000, the first lady was paid $30,000 by another entity controlled by Cendant.

The potential ethics questions concerning the overlap between her consultant services and her husband's powerful role became painfully evident when Pataki appointed Cendant CEO Henry Silverman in 2002 as a commissioner of the powerful Port Authority. But there's no indication that the ethics panel has ever examined the matter.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE SHECHTMAN CONNECTION

Joe Gawloski was talking this weekend about his old boss Paul Shechtman, the chairman of the state ethics commission and the man behind the report that has turned state politics upside down. Gawloski is uniquely positioned to describe the glass house from which the 57-year-old Shechtman threw stones last week at State Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

Gawloski retired as executive director of the state's division of parole years ago and shuttles now between his upstate and South Carolina homes. So he was barely aware that Shechtman's commission recently concluded that Hevesi had used his state position "to secure unwarranted privileges for himself and his wife," provoking Governor Pataki to launch what has to be the first-ever impeachment process anywhere to revolve around a driver and state-subsidized trips to the hospital.

In September 1998, Gawloski spent two days before a federal grand jury testifying about Shechtman's role in the fixing of parole board decisions. Prosecutors at the time branded it "the biggest fundraising scandal that this state has seen in a very long time." Shechtman, who refused to comment for this story, was the governor's director of criminal justice, overseeing the parole board and other agencies until he left in 1997 to enter private practice. Pataki immediately named him to take over the ethics commission, a panel he was leading when he appeared before the same grand jury about troubling calls he made to Gawloski and others.

Four Pataki-tied campaign and state officials were convicted in the parole-for-contributions case, but neither Shechtman nor two state officials under his jurisdiction who were targeted by prosecutors were indicted. One of the officials, state parole board chairman Brion Travis, was named an unindicted co-conspirator by U.S. District Judge Frederic Block. The other, state police colonel Daniel Wiese, took the Fifth Amendment in the grand jury.

According to Gawloski's testimony, which was obtained by the Voice, he twice upbraided Shechtman about the ethical propriety of his interventions at the agency, once while Shechtman was his boss and the other when Shechtman was a private attorney and still calling him about possible parole in individual cases. Gawloski testified that attorney Shechtman called him to speak on behalf of two convicts up for parole, one of them a murderer who "blew someone's brains out on 14th Street in a van."

"I asked Mr. Shechtman if his having left state service—probably less than a year before at that point—would be cause for a conflict of interest with his calling me or anyone else in the division about a particular case," Gawloski told the grand jury. He was referring to state laws that bar, for two years, former state officials from doing business with the state agencies they oversaw.

"He said it was not a conflict," adding that he would "run it by the ethics commission," Gawloski continued. Gawloski says now that he did not know that Shechtman had already been installed by Pataki as the unsalaried head of the commission, which might well have examined the question of whether his calls to Gawloski constituted an attempt to secure an "unwarranted privilege" with the state officials he'd supervised. "Subsequent to my question about conflict of interest, Mr. Shechtman did not call back," Gawloski testified. Two sources at the commission say he never sought an opinion on the matter either.

Even more disturbing to Gawloski was that he'd already been importuned about the same murderer by Leon Perlmutter, a leader in the Orthodox Jewish community and major fundraiser for the governor. This was not the first time Perlmutter and Shecht-man had double-teamed him. In fact, it was Shechtman's relationship with Perlmutter, who Gawloski said represented a group of "heavy contributors" to Pataki, that had prompted their first tough exchange, when Shechtman was still Gawloski's boss.

Perlmutter and Shechtman had pestered parole officials about three other cases, leading to early releases of a rabbi convicted of kidnapping a minor, and two Israeli nationals jailed in major drug cases. The two drug dealers were released—over law enforcement objections—under a new Pataki deportation program designed by Shechtman, who personally urged parole board members to increase the number of felons they let go under the program, leading to get-out-of-jail-early tickets for 1,277 convicts. Though a top parole executive determined that the kidnapping of a young boy required that the rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans, be placed on the sex offender registry, Shechtman, according to the testimony, intervened to make sure he wasn't.

Gawloski testified that he believed "the parole board was influenced" in all three of these cases by Perlmutter, who he said was "in regular contact" with Shechtman. "I expressed concern to Mr. Shechtman that his discussions with Perlmutter, perhaps even if there was nothing involved, would convey a poor impression," Gawloski told the jurors. "What did Mr. Shechtman say to you?" asked the prosecutors. "Basically, not a problem," he responded. Gawloski added that Perlmutter had visited Shechtman at his house, delivering hot challah. "I did not feel that this type of access should be available to any group," testified Gawloski. He also said he knew that parole officials had even attended fundraisers for Pataki hosted by Orthodox leaders.

The experience left Gawloski shaken years later. He said Shechtman, in view of his various positions at ethics and criminal justice, "should know what's right and what's wrong more so than I would." Asked if he did, Gawloski replied: "I don't know. I really can't say whether he should be there at the ethics commission or shouldn't be."

Shechtman also came under grand jury scrutiny for his own role in the parole investigation. When the feds targeted Patrick Donohue, the finance director for Pataki's campaign committee, and focused on $40,000 in contributions alleged to be quid pro quos for early release for three Asian convicts, Donohue retained Shechtman as his criminal attorney. Wiese, a top state police official personally close to the governor, who oversaw protection for the family, tried to penetrate the probe, barging in on city police officials who were initially spearheading it. His efforts earned him the enmity of federal prosecutors, who investigated him for obstruction of justice.

Incredibly, Wiese, posing as a law enforcement official aiding the parole probe, called the U.S. Attorney's office and got the phone number of the federal prosecutor handling the case. "Within minutes" of that call, according to the testimony, Shechtman phoned the prosecutor on behalf of Donohue. Donohue's boss, Shechtman, and Wiese then had a three-way conversation, according to grand jury evidence. These events suggest that the attorney for the target of a federal investigation was freely interacting with a top state police official who had troopers assigned ostensibly to aid the probe.

Grand jury records also reveal that parole chair Travis was so close to his neighbor and friend Libby Pataki that he regularly babysat for the kids and even "took them to movies." He and Wiese, another Peekskill neighbor and close friend of the family, prospered despite the taint of their status in the parole case. Travis stayed on as chair for three years after he was declared a criminal co-conspirator by a federal judge. When Travis finally left he was promoted to deputy superintendent of insurance, retiring recently at a salary $40,000 higher than his parole board pay. Wiese left the state police around the same time, getting a waiver to collect his $73,000 pension and new $160,000 salary as inspector general for the New York Power Authority simultaneously.

The state ethics commission has never so much as raised a question about the conduct of either, even though it is the commission's job to examine misconduct that falls short of indictment—and Paul Shechtman had a bird's-eye view of all the wrongdoing. Shechtman could have asked for an inquiry and then—just as Eliot Spitzer did last week with Hevesi—recused himself. State law enforcement officials like Wiese, for example, can be removed if they take the Fifth Amendment.

But the indifference of the commission about the biggest scandal of the Pataki era is par for the course. Asked what the commission's strongest action against the highest-ranking Pataki official has been, officials cited a proceeding against Jim Natoli, the governor's director of operations. Natoli paid $2,000 in March 2000 to settle a probe of meals he took from a lobbyist that exceeded the state's gift limit. He got a $5,000 raise the same month. He technically wasn't even fined—his payment was "in lieu of an assessment" of a fine. Natoli is the biggest fish Shechtman and company could catch in an administration that New York Times and Post editorials have agreed is a "government for sale."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research assistance: Keach Hagey, Damien Weaver, Luke Jerod Kummer, and Marty Rosenblatt

Monday, October 30, 2006

WARNING: Dr. Rabbi Alan Horowitz Believed To Be In Israel

The following warning comes from The Awareness Center, Inc.


Rabbi Alan Horowitz, MD - One of New York's 100 Most Wanted

The goal of this e-mail is to protect any unsuspecting child from harm. Please forward this to all parents you know in Tel Aviv, Israel
WARNING: Rabbi Alan Horowitz is currently missing and in violation of his parole. He is believed to be in or around Tel Aviv, Israel

Current offense involved the sexual abuse of numerous underaged males and females known to him. If you have any information contact New York's 100 Most Wanted tip line: 1-800-262-4321

Do not attempt to apprehend this subject. If you have information about the whereabouts of this fugitive, immediately contact New York's 100 Most Wanted tips line: 1-800-262-4321
Rabbi Alan Jay "Shneur" Horowitz, MD - Child Psychiatrist
(AKA: Shneor Altar, Mike Sonkin, Alan Horowitz, Alan J. Horowitz, Shneur Horowitz, The NAMBLA Rabbi)

Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz, is a convicted sex offender, an ordained Orthodox rabbi and an adolescent psychiatrist. He is married with one child and seven step-children.

Allegations of child abuse have followed Horowitz for decades. In Maryland, he was convicted in 1983 of performing an unnatural sexual act on the 12-year-old boy who was his patient. Allegedly, Horwitz has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is a rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D., a graduate of Duke University, and a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) publications.

In 1990 and 1991, Horowitz was charged with sexually abusing two boys under the age of 11, a boy less than 14 years old and a girl under the age of 17. On July 27, 1992, Horowitz pled guilty to sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient as part of a plea agreement. The charge was but one of the 41 pending sex-related charges involving multiple children that had been pending against him. Horowitz was sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison.

Rabbi Horowitz was released on conditional parole November 1, 2004 from Oneida Prison, NY. His current reported address is: 15 Ashgrove Place, 1st Floor, Albany, NY 12202. According to the New York Sex Offender Registry he is Designation: Sexually Violent Offender and Predicate Sex Offender. It is listed that his victims ranged in age from age 8 to 14.

Piousness May Mask an Emotional Disorder

HealthyPlace.com

The image “http://www.head-concussion.com/images/whiplash.JPG” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

"Our society has been based on tradition for many years," says Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, "We have not changed. But as therapists, we must understand that the rules have changed in the world, and we now need to find new rules."

The renowned professor and physician studies the crowd at length as one who is very much aware of how much a discussion of the need for change grates on ultra-Orthodox ears.

Professor Twerski, M.D., was one of the most prominent guest speakers at the international Nefesh conference held last week in Jerusalem. Nefesh, which holds an annual international conference, is by its own definition "an organization of Orthodox mental health professionals," whose members include both modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox professionals.

The chair of Nefesh in Israel, Dr. Judi Guedalia, who the heads neuropsychology department in Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, says the organization is a professional forum for therapists, many of whom have no connection with academe and lack academic training. The lectures - on topics ranging from Jewish medical ethics, given by Professor Avraham Steinberg, M.D., an international expert on the subject, to sexual abuse of children - were heavily attended, especially by a largely ultra-Orthodox audience.

The conference had a number of speakers from abroad: the United States, England, Australia and Brazil, all countries with active branches of Nefesh. There were lively discussions between men and women, but with the called-for distance.

A young, smiling woman wearing a hat gave an enthusiastic explanation about courses in marriage counseling in the institute that she represents to a young man who did not dare look at her.

At a table selling books outside the lecture halls, a more liberated professional debate was held, and one could find guidance books and posters alongside professional books and journals on drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Today, no one disagrees with the fact that people with obsessive-compulsive disorders can easily hide among the ultra-Orthodox community, which might mistakenly interpret the individual's over-meticulous attention to the observance of the commandments as piousness.

Professor Twerski's lecture on "Dilemmas Facing Mitzvah-Observant Families in the Modern Era," reflects the revolution that has occurred in recent years in ultra-Orthodox society, which today recognizes the fact that alongside conducting a religious lifestyle and the observance of the commandments, religious people also need mental health, satisfaction and meaning in their lives. At the conference, these subjects and others, which are part of the ultra-Orthodox agenda, were discussed at length.

School dropouts and other subjects once considered taboo were also discussed, such as sexual abuse of children and drug addiction. Even seemingly marginal phenomena such as hooliganism in school came up for discussion, and the very discussion of the subject undermines the claim that there is no violence in ultra-Orthodox schools. There was even a session devoted to the question of whether the newly religious have a specific emotional make-up. Subjects still pretty much taboo, such as homosexuality or sexual abuse of males, came up between the lines.

Professor Twerski is the founder and medical director of the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, which treats the general population. He is also a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and rabbi of an ultra-Orthodox congregation. Rabbi Twerski was one of the first to bridge an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle and issues related to mental health treatment. In recent years, he has advanced the awareness of the American ultra-Orthodox community regarding emotional disorders, and is involved in educational activities on the subject of treatment options.

Because the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is more closed than its counterpart in the U.S., but at the same time views its American counterpart as a model in this matter, Twerski is considered an authority on the subject, even by leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. The line of people seeking to speak with Twerski after his lecture last Thursday, including people with a Hasidic appearance, clearly showed he is regarded as a leader and mentor. And Twerski is viewed as a revolutionary.

Among his many books, he published a few years ago, "The Shame Borne in Silence," about violence against women, and roused the fury of the ultra-Orthodox communities in the United States. The thin volume is sold under the counter in ultra-Orthodox bookshops in Jerusalem. Soon, says Twerski, it will be translated into Hebrew.

The psychological jargon, so common in everyday speech, is not familiar to the ultra-Orthodox population, and this may be the principal innovation of the conference. Dr. Twerski spoke about emotional problems in the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox community, for example, of the frustrated mother that strikes her children. He says in his lecture that in her childhood "it was forbidden to talk about anger." He told of a yeshiva student who was disturbed by "foreign thoughts," as they are called in the ultra-Orthodox jargon, thoughts on mundane matters that disrupt one's concentration during prayer or study but who in fact suffered from a compulsive personality disorder. Twerski wants to train rabbis and spiritual guides in yeshivot to be able to spot this type of disorder.

Neuroses spread
Twerski explains that as in general society, in ultra-Orthodox society too the proportion of neuroses and psychiatric problems has risen. When he speaks in general about the emotional problems among the ultra-Orthodox, he counts Holocaust trauma and its effects on the second and third generation as one of the causes. But he also talks a great deal about the fact that the world is changing and that the small and close-knit ultra-Orthodox society that once existed is no more.

While ultra-Orthodox society has grown and become stronger, feelings of alienation and anonymity within it have swelled. Here, he moves over to the language of the preacher and maintains that the younger generation of today is weaker, lacking in satisfaction and does not know how to contend with frustration because its basic needs are satisfied and it does not know what real poverty is. All this has implications for personal and societal completeness. One of the expressions of this phenomenon is the rising rate of divorce, "unlike anything ever seen before," he says.

The conference was notably chaired by two women, Dr. Guedalia and Leah Abramowitz, a social worker and the founder of the Melabev center for the treatment of the elderly in Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, and mother of 13. Both women describe themselves as Orthodox, not ultra-Orthodox. The fact that even representatives of the most closed ultra-Orthodox communities, such as Belz and Gur, are willing to participate in a conference headed by women is a clear indication of a hunger for knowledge, and perhaps also feelings of distress. Notable, too, was the ignoring of a rule that usually is strictly enforced: Although men and women sat separately during the lectures, there was no mehitza (physical partition) separating them as is the practice in the United States.

"There are hardly any subjects that are taboo today in ultra-Orthodox society," says Dr. Guedalia. For example, the conference included a workshop run by the Crisis Center for Religious Women on the prevention of sexual abuse, geared for religious and ultra-Orthodox schools. The hall was filled with women from all movements. On the side sat about 10 men.
Debbie Gross, founder and director of the crisis center, spoke about the sensitivity that must be exercised when talking about sexual abuse in a society in which sexual organs are generally not called by name. She related that in the library of an ultra-Orthodox school for girls, she once saw a nature book from which the pages that described the reproductive organs of birds were ripped out. "How can a girl report on abuse when she doesn't have the words?" she asks.
The solution found in those schools that allow her staff to enter is that the girls are taught to distinguish between a good secret and a bad secret. Initially, four actresses put on a small skit in which two girls are shown riding the bus. When one gets off, a young man that had eavesdropped on their conversation sits down next to the other girls. He introduces himself as a friend of the family and uses the information he gleaned from the conversation to gain the girl's trust. He touches her bag - not her body, heaven forbid - and finally, asks her not to tell anyone about their meeting. The girls shrinks in her seat and the situation clearly embarrasses her. At the end of the play, the students are asked to respond, to analyze what happened to the girls, and to relate a similar experience from their own lives.

At the end of the workshop, the girls are given a pink card with the number of the crisis center. In one of the schools, the workshop was given in the second grade. Two hours after school, recalled Gross, a volunteer got a call from a little girl who said, "I'm in the second grade. My friend told me a bad secret, and I don't know what to do."

While the representatives of a new hotline aimed at ultra-Orthodox boys and men who have been victims of rape and sexual abuse were not permitted to present their hotline at the conference, Gross devoted part of her lecture to abuse of boys. Indirect reference to a no less sensitive subject was made in a lecture on marital intimacy, when lecturer Dr. Gail Bessler-Twerski touched on "the problem of homosexuality in yeshivot," as she put it. Her tone was not judgmental, and she did not mention the biblical prohibition, only speaking briefly of how distressed and miserable the boys are.

"There are still many taboos in ultra-Orthodox society," agrees Professor Twerski. A few years ago, he recalls, when he arrived to give a lecture on violence against women in Monsey, New York, he needed a bodyguard. "Times have changed," he says, "but nevertheless, going to a psychologist or psychiatrist is still not accepted, and education is needed in that direction."
The objection to psychology in the ultra-Orthodox community, he says, is caused mainly by the perception that it involves values and views that conflict with the religious approach. In the past, the objection to psychology among the ultra-Orthodox stemmed from the personal history of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, who was an atheist, says Twerski. However, it is necessary, he says, to explain to both rabbis and those suffering that there are cases in which emotional therapy is needed.

Professor Twerski admits that the agreement of rabbis to support emotional therapy stems from their fear of people dropping out of the community frameworks. "We as therapists have to concern ourselves only with the emotional health of our patients, but that is clearly what worries the rabbis," he says.

A new dictionary
Ultra-Orthodox therapists say that some of the problem in reporting and educating to prevent sexual abuse is that there is "no language" to speak about it in ultra-Orthodox society. A short dictionary distributed at the Nefesh conference to anyone interested illustrates that for ultra-Orthodox society, this is a new language. Some of the terms included are abortion, abuse, acute, addicted, addiction, extra-marital affairs, aggressive, alcoholic.

The list of words that until now have not been in use is long: anger, fury, anorexia and bulimia, anxiety, stimulus, arousal, attempted suicide, self-awareness, compulsive overeating, bipolar disorder, conflict, confrontation, domestic violence, marital therapy, criticism, denial, emotional abuse, empathy, sexual abuse, stress, pressure and suicidal thoughts.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Looking for updated information

Does anyone have any updated information on the following individuals? What are these gentlemen up to today? If you have any information please post it here.
  1. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
  2. Case of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann
  3. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Gafni
  4. Case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko
  5. Case of Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz
  6. Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair
  7. Case of Rabbi Edward Schlaeger
  8. Case of Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler
  9. Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler
  10. Case of Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus
  11. Case of Rabbi Hershy Worch
  12. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov

Police report serial rapists in Karmiel, Israel


By JPost Staff
Jerusalem Post
October 25, 2006

After comparing the stories of three young women who were brutally abducted and raped in Karmiel this past year, local police announced Wednesday that they suspected a gang of serial rapists has been operating in the area.

According to reports on Channels 1 and 10, a 21-year-old security guard who had been working in Israel's central region returned to Karmiel for a visit last week. She told police that a white car pulled up alongside her one evening as she was walking alone. She was then forced inside and, as the car headed out of the city, two of its three Arab occupants assaulted her.

After reaching a forest outside of Karmiel proper, all three proceeded to rape her repeatedly over the course of several hours, she said.

The suspects then drove her back to the city and dropped her off at the same spot where she had been seized.

The woman, who was hospitalized for several days with injuries that necessitated several operations, was unable to provide police with any additional identifying details about her attackers.

The method of the attack matches gang rapes described by two other women, both of whom were forced into cars, driven to a forest near Shfaram and brutalized.

No further details about the rapists were available, and no composite sketch has yet been released. In the meantime, police recommend that women in Karmiel avoid walking alone at night and have asked anyone with information to come forward.

(Israel) Kindergarten teacher suspected of abusing toddlers


By JPost Staff
Jerusalem Post
October 25, 2006


A Kindergarten teacher from a southern community suspected of abusing toddlers is now under investigation by the police.

According to reports, the police started the investigation after parents of a 2 and a half year old noticed signs of abuse on his body. The boy had told his parents that his kindergarten teacher had hit him.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Update: Case of William Ayres, MD

The image “http://transcripts.cnn.com/2000/US/02/07/silicon.valley.jobs/calif.la.san.mateo.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Police look for doctor's patients
Probe surrounding child psychiatrist widens
By Kelly Pakula,
San Mateo Times
October 25, 2006

SAN MATEO — The molestation investigation surrounding prominent child psychiatrist William Ayres has widened, as the San Mateo Police Department, along with the Department of Justice, attempts to contact 1,200 people who may have sought treatment from Ayres in San Mateo County.

A former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ayres, 74, for decades treated county residents referred to him through local school districts and the county's juvenile justice system. He also ran a private practice.

Some of Ayres' former patients and their family members have come forward to file police reports charging that Ayres molested them while they sought counseling from him. However, most of those cases are too old for prosecution under the statute of limitations.

According to San Mateo Police Capt. Mike Callagy, using materials taken from Ayres' home and office during a search of his property in March, a court-appointed "special master" has compiled a list of more than 1,200 possible patients, all meeting the statute of limitations. The special master previously drafted a list containing the names of only 700 former patients, Callagy said.

"We are still going through mounds and mounds of records over here," Callagy said Tuesday. "It's going to take quite some time. It's very time-consuming tracking (the patients) down."

Callagy said the police department hopes to finish the investigation within the next four-to-six months.

Last summer, Ayres settled a lawsuit with a man who claimed the psychiatrist molested him in 1977, when he was 13, according to court documents. Details of that lawsuit have not been released.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Emotionally Abusive Mother Being Promoted by a Jewish women's organization

The image “http://www.mhs.muhsd.k12.ca.us/statesman/images/March%202/stalking.JPG” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
What does one do when an international Jewish women's organization promotes a mother who continues to be emotionally and psychologically abusive to their own child?

Many consider this mother's behavior towards her adult-child as stalking. This mother is also known to manipulate others into stalking her adult-child for her.

What is so concerning about this case is that several people contacted this international Jewish women's organization with the information.

Is this an issue we should discuss on this blog? in the news media? or should we just sweep it under the covers as we have done in the past?

Monday, October 23, 2006

Adelphia Yeshiva - by Anonymous

To the anonymous poster who wrote this, please contact me or call The Awareness Center. There is help out there for you!
Why doesn't someone look into the yeshiva in Adelphia...? Lots of young boys were 'ruined' after having spent time there. They went off the derech when they were subjected to the corruption of their supposed mentors and teachers=Rebbeim.
ADELPHIA YESHIVA
I went there.
I want to commit suicide but can't
I hate what it did to my life
I wish there was a group for us.

Update: Case of Ofer Glazer

The image “http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Glazer_Ofer.jpeg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Gag order lifted: Sexual molestation victim suing Ofer Glazer
By Anat Roeh
Haaretz
October 15, 2006

The nurse who cared for his wife Shari Arison is apparently suing for at least NIS 2.5 million

Tel Aviv District Court registrar David Geldstein today rescinded the gag order over a civil claim against Ofer Glazer by one of the two women he was found guilty of sexually molesting, at the behest of TheMarker.

Glazer, the husband of billionaire heiress Shari Arison, was sentenced to six months prison and to fines of NIS 15,000 per victim.

The civil claim was filed a month and a half ago at the Tel Aviv District Court, but did not cite a figure. The woman is reportedly claiming NIS 2.5 million at least, which is the minimal amount permissible in civil suits at that venue.

The claimant is a nurse who cared for Shari Arison after surgery.

She claims that Glazer exploited her arrival at his home to care for his wife, to repeatedly harass her sexually and force himself upon her, abusing their gap in status. His acts caused her permanent mental disability to a degree of 40%, the nurse claims. She keeps re-enacting the traumatic events in her mind, leading to sleep problems, anxiety, depression, difficulty in concentrating and paying attention, and a loss of confidence.

Since then she has lost her pleasure in life, she claims, and avoids social interaction. She has difficulty trusting anyone and avoids strangers and men in general. Recently she even placed her home on the market, to avoid the rumors and gossip surrounding her in her place of domicile, she adds.

The moment she filed her claim, Glazer's lawyers applied for a gag order, which the court accepted. That order was rescinded today at TheMarker's request.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Former synagogue employee had a past conviction of child sexual abuse



Former synagogue janitor admits downloading child porn
KGW-News Channel 8
Thursday, October 19, 2006
By DREW MIKKELSEN


A Portland man who worked as a janitor at the Beth Israel Synagogue pleaded guilty Thursday to claims he received child pornography on his home computer.
Police photo
Timothy Olander

"I downloaded child pornography," 48-year-old Timothy Olander told Federal Court Judge Ancer Haggerty.

Investigators said he had several thousand illegal images on his home computer, along with several hundred movies of children involved in sexual activities.

Olander worked as a janitor at the northwest Portland Synagogue for 10 years. Part of his duties included cleaning up classrooms used by children at the temple. He was never accused of sexually abusing any of the students, but investigators claim they found enlarged and laminated photos of students in Olander's possession.

Olander will likely be sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was convicted of sexually abusing a relative in Multnomah County in 1988.

************************

Ex-janitor pleads guilty in child pornography case
by Bryan Denson
OregonLive.com, OR
October 20, 2006


A former janitor at Portland's Congregation Beth Israel synagogue pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving child pornography over the Internet, federal authorities reported.

Sentencing for Timothy Lee Olander, 48, was set for Jan. 2. Olander had previously served five years on probation in Oregon for the 1988 sexual abuse of a child, according to a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement searched Olander's room in January. Among items seized were 33 CD-ROMs, three VHS tapes, a manila envelope containing children's underwear and a computer that revealed 1,500 pictures and 300 videos depicting child pornography, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Olander's employment at the synagogue was terminated the day of his arrest, said Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana. Congregation Beth Israel has since instituted a policy of conducting criminal background checks on all its employees, he said.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Tell Vladimir Putin - Condoning Rape Is A Crime!

One has to wonder about someone who says that "they envy" an alleged rapist crimes. Is this part of Russian President past too?
"Greetings to your president. What a powerful man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women,". . . "I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all. We all envy him.'' -- Vladimir Putin

Putin's Israel President Joke Doesn't Condone Rape, Office Says
By Sebastian Alison
Bloomberg - October 20, 2006

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin joked about rape allegations leveled against Israeli President Moshe Katsav, a presidential spokesman said. This in no way means Putin approves such conduct, he said.

Putin joked about the rape allegations on Oct. 18 in a conversation in Moscow with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

``Greetings to your president. What a powerful man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women,'' Putin was reported as saying yesterday by Russian newspaper Kommersant. ``I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all. We all envy him.''

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, confirmed today the newspaper's account was accurate. Peskov said the joke suffers in translation from the original Russian.

``Yes, these remarks were made indeed,'' Peskov said in a telephone interview from Moscow today. ``No one can seriously approve allegations of raping women and sexual assault. It's a joke in Russian that actually does not reflect the automatic translation into English.''

Israeli police said Oct. 16 they have evidence that supports allegations of rape, assault and sexual harassment against President Katsav. The president's attorney, Zion Amir, said the report has no legal standing.

Putin is due in Lahti, Finland today to meet European Union heads of state and government for discussions that will focus on energy cooperation.

Asked if Putin was embarrassed by the remarks about Katsav, Peskov replied, ``Frankly speaking, I don't know.''

Russia's president, the country's most popular politician, increased his standing in 1999 soon after becoming prime minister by threatening to pursue Chechen rebels wherever they may be, ``wasting them in the outhouse'' if necessary.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sebastian Alison in Lahti, Finland through the Moscow bureau at
Salison1@bloomberg.net .

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Tuvya Rokach - Another New Case in Monsey, NY

Monsey Man accused of having sex with boys
By Steve Lieberman

The Journal News

October 19, 2006)


MONSEY - A 21-year-old man has been charged with having oral sex with two 14-year-old boys inside a car, Ramapo police said yesterday.

A Ramapo officer found Tuvya Rokach in a car with the two boys at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

The car was parked at the closed-down Rockland Drive-In on Route 59 in Monsey.

"A Ramapo police officer on patrol observed suspicious activity in the car," Detective Sgt. John Lynch said.

The two boys live in Monsey and Rokach was staying in the community.

Police charged Rokach with second-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Lynch said Rokach gave arresting officers addresses in Ramapo, Brooklyn and Toronto, Canada.

Rokach also is being investigated by police in Toronto, apparently where he had lived before coming to Monsey, police said.

Police don't know when Rokach moved to Rockland.

Lynch said detectives also were working with federal immigration officials to determine Rokach's legal status in the United States.

"We believe he's a citizen of Canada," Lynch said. "We're trying to verify that."

Rokach was arraigned on the charges yesterday afternoon by Ramapo Justice Rhoda Schoenberger.

She ordered Rokach held in the county jail on $150,000 bail. He has not entered a plea to the charges.

Rokach is scheduled to return to Justice Court on Monday, pending an indictment by a grand jury.

He has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Looking for Survivors of Rabbi Tovia Singer

The image “http://alfassa.com/ToviaArchiveLeft2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Rabbi Tovia Singer runs an organization called "Outreach Judaism." He also hosts his own talk radio show. Tovia has been married and divorced at least three times. Over the years there have been rumors floating around regaring Rabbi Tovia Singer's sexually inappropriate behavior with a few of the young adult women he counsels.

I have been told by a few reliable sources that one of the major reasons why the organization Jews For Judaism severed ties with Tovia was because of complaints.

A few individuals who Rabbi Singer counseled, stated that Tovia told them he was qualified to do outreach because he had a masters degree in social work. He also told these indivdiuals that he was the only counter-missionary who had this qualification. As of today I have not been able to verify that he actually has a masters degree in any form of clinical counseling. If someone knows where Rabbi Singer received his masters degree and also where he received his smicha (rabbinic ordination) please post it in the comment section or e-mail it to Jewish Survivors.

Since the case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler broke, many people from the Monsey area all seem to be aware of the accusations made against Rabbi Singer and respond with jokes about his behavior.

One traditon as a people that we must change is keeping these sorts of allegations secret. If we want to keep our communities safe from sexual preditors we must deal with our fears and go on record when there is information you have of an seuxally abusive rabbi.

We all must remember that Rabbi Tovia Singer goes around the country counseling unsuspecting teenage and young adult women. If the allegations are true then we are all guilty of allowing another unsuspecting woman to becoming the next victim of his alleged manipulative sexual advances.

If Rabbi Tovia Singer has been sexually inappropriate with you, please contact Jewish Survivor or Me immediately.

You can also post what you know and your experiences with Tovia Singer here in the comment section.

Wired News identifies 744 sex offenders on MySpace;

Listen to this broadcast!
RealAudio or MP3


Wired News identifies 744 sex offenders on MySpace; police arrest one
Public Radio
October 18, 2006


Police in Long Island, New York recently nabbed a registered sex offender who was trying to use the social networking site
MySpace to arrange meetings with underage boys. The arrest comes after Wired News senior editor Kevin Poulsen identified the man, Andrew Lubrano, and more than 700 other sex offenders on MySpace.

MySpace has come under fire for not doing enough to protect children. The site recently announced a new safety campaign designed to educate children about online predators.

Poulsen wrote a few lines of computer code that scanned MySpace for predators. He used data from the Web site of the National Sex Offender Registry. Poulsen says 497 of the offenders he found are registered for sex crimes against children.

MySpace declined an interview request, but provided the following written statement:
"We are committed to keeping sex offenders off MySpace and are evaluating all functional and scalable solutions. In the meantime, we will delete profiles of any convicted sex offender we find on MySpace. Long term, we are working on tools to identify and report to law enforcement all inappropriate use of MySpace and we support legislation that forces sex offenders to use registered email addresses so we can keep them off social networking sites."