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.
posted by Jewish Survivors at Monday, October 23, 2006
13 Comments:
Bochurim were beaten up by one of the rebbeim, but I have never heard of incidents that were sexual in nature. Adelphia was a sort of reformatory with problem kids anyway.
It saddens me to read what was written above. How dare anyone just brush off children or young adults who have problems. They deserve the best care. Especially if they are in a reformatory situation.
The beating of children or young adults is never ok. It should not matter if there were or were not incidents of sexual abuse.
I just don't understand why anyone would send their child away to school. Children need their parents.
I'm worried about the person who wrote about Adelphia Yeshiva. I never heard of it and know nothing about it. When someone writes about thinking of suicide they are crying out for help. They need help from some one who cares.
I hope who ever wrote the posting makes some calls to get the help they need. There are groups out there, it just takes time to find them.
YOUR FULL OF CRAP. I went to Adelphia and I can tell you that sexual abuse in that place is absolutely unheard of and it would never have been tollerated by any of the outstanding characters who run the Yeshiva.
I went to the yeshiva for just one semester before I was zoche to get into a mainstream yeshiva. I blossomed in the next yeshiva, graduated at the top of my class, learned for many years in EY and eventually became an attorney.
I was inappropriately beaten by Rabbi Trenk once. That was it. I was going through a very rough time at home, and I admit that I was not at my best behavior. Nevertheless, I am until this day appalled with the manner in which Rabbi Shain brushed me off when I advised him that several boys were physically abusing me or taunting me. One boy, a certain Yehuda Adlerstein from Los Angeles, who I realize now suffers very significant problems, was particularly harsh to me, and was never censured appropriately. With time, and renewed confidence, as I built myself up, I gathered the courage to stand up to him. But he did all he can to damage my reputation as I went from Adelphia boy to boy who graduates at the top of his class in a good Yeshiva.
I also have suspicions as to whether Rabbi Shain said something about me to a Rosh Yeshiva of mine when I was learning in Eretz Yisroel. The loshon hara he said about me was without any toeles. In the end, I emerged a victor, but the damage was done.
Rabbi Shain never apologized.
I do not think its appropriate to hold people responsible for lapses of judgment they have made so many years ago. But I lament the apparent fact that entirely ordinary individuals are entrused with a responsibility to care for young boys who are going through trying times in their lives.
rabbi shain is a tzadik and so is rabbi trenk all of these bad stories about them are lies. how can you talk about a rosh yeshiva like that. i went to yeshiva there for two years and never heard or saw a singli physical act of violence.
To the above-commenter:
Rav Trenk quite literally threw me against a wall and choked me because I was considerably late for Shacharis. This happened in the dorm.
Rabbi Shain laughed me off when I advised him that certain bullies in the school were giving me a very hard time. They were never censured for their behavior. And Rabbi Shain never apologized for his callous disregard for my well being. I was not a tzedaka case; my parents paid extremely handsomly for the one semester I was in his yeshiva. He had an obligation to make sure those boys did not hurt me. He did not. And he never apologized for it.
I do not appreciate your impulse to call someone a liar. Suffice it to say, these are facts. You can deny them, but the truth will not go away.
I acknowledge, as I did in my earlier post, that I was not in my best behavior. Indeed, it was this period of darkness which propelled to me to achieve the considerable success I have attained since. And I am not nearly done yet.
I wonder aloud why you refer to Rabbi Shain as a Rosh Yeshiva. I have never met a Rosh Yeshiva who never gives shiur. I am not doubting for a second that Rav Shain is not a highly intelligent, shrewd man, not do I deny the obviously strong probability that he can learn very well. I am stating, however, that you are calling someone a rosh yeshiva even though he does not techinically fulfill the role of one who ordinarily is given such an august title. Furthermore, you are using that tile as a pretext for assuming that what I am saying is false.
Is Rabbi Shain a tzadik? Probably. Is he a better Jew than I am. Once again, I would state that he probably is? Did he act irresponsibly (in my opinion) and never own up to it. Yes. I don't care how much you dislike a student because he is going through a bad time, one can never turn on sopmeone asking for help and protection from bullies he allows into his school.
I once again strongly condemn those who have acted out badly toward me once I did teshuva. And I take particularly strong issue with Rabbi Shain if he said ANYTHING bad about me to ANYONE once it was completely clear that I was no longer the same boy who was in his Yeshiva. No one has a right to do that.
Yitzchock.
I believe you. I saw Rabbi Trenk hit a boy in class one day. I will grant that this kid was a nutjob, but he wasn't being violent, yet Rabbi Trenk hit him.
Once Rabbi Trenk didn't like some books I had (they were choose your own adventure type books, nothing immodest) so he confiscated them for no reason from my dorm. I didn't have the books in class, I had them in my dorm. He just didn't like them, so he threw them away.
After being beaten up once by a nice boy named Paul Stadler, I was visited by rabbi Trenk. He told me a story about how another boy in another yeshiva went after his bullies with an axe, and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to harm anyone.
I went to Rabbi Shein after a kid named Sruly Newman beat the living tar out of me and almost broke my wrist. He didn't do anything. I had to call my dad in as to what was happening, and he came down and threatened my bullies with a baseball bat.
I have had alot of problems with that yeshiva. It has been 18 years now and it is very difficult to get it out of my mind sometimes. I'm frum, but I can't say the bedtime shma because i just don't forgive. I've been posting here anonymously these last few years and I'm thankful that those of us who have been through the abuse have a forum to talk with each other, it has helped me tremendously.
I don't know if what I've been writing is Loshon Hara but I figure that since we're #1 and #2 on google, if just ONE parent sees this and sends her son to a different yeshiva then we have done good in the world. I hear Adelphia has not changed in all these years, and it is very sad. I honestly don't know what Rabbi Trenk and Rabbi Shein will say when they meet Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I'm sad about this whole situation. Parents, if you are thinking about adelphia, please look into the school very, very closely before you decide to send your child there.
I don't understand what it means when people say, "Adelphia changed."
If I were to assume it changed, what does it mean to me? What does it mean to the enormous amont of money Rabbi Shain extorted from my parents to keep me in there? What does it mean when he let others whom he kept in his Yeshiva torment me? What does it mean when he possibly told others about what I did in my past even though it was obvious I changed very dramatically? These, among other facts, never changed for me.
I learned very well in some excellent yeshivos and the whole notion of Adelphia branding itself as though it has some kind of tradition of excellence is complete sheker.
My message to Adelphia is that you can change your image, by all means. But, before you do so, how about asking your alma matter for forgiveness?
One last thing: what happened to any one of us in Adelphia has not even a casual relationship with your connection to Hashem. You have the same obligation to say Shema as every other Jew. But what you do have is a lesson in how to behave with others, how to empathize, how to give, how to strive--because this is all what we sorely lacked at Adelphia. With the exception of loshon horah or motzi shem rah said about me after I did teshuva, I forgive Adelphia yeshiva for everything; but it would be folly to forget the invaluable lessons I learned, albeit in a bittwersweet way.
Was Neuman a drummer? I remember him, though he was probably a senior in my time--at the least.
Hello. my name is Will Hirsch and I went to Adelphia Yeshiva 20 years ago. I was the original poster "I want to commit suicide but I can't"
For what it is worth, I can only speak to what Adelphia was 20 years ago and not today. Baruch Hashem I am Frum, and able to deal with the issues in my life. I was wrong to blame Adelphia for all my troubles HOWEVER, R. Shein and R. Trenk DO have what to answer for. This was not a good yeshiva to go to back then. The boys were extreamly wild and R Shein and R. Trenk did not look into the time I go beaten up (not just "boy's will be boy's" hit, but truly abused." I cannot tell you how sorry I am that my first yeshiva experience was adelphia, and if it has changed for the better, baruch Hashem. However, I still caution parents to do their reseach into this place. I only am posting now because I want to rectify my "I want to commit suicide" post from four years ago. We young (middle aged) jews (and the nexst generation) need to understand what yiddushkite is really all about, Please make sure your children are in a place where they will really be cared for. Adelphia of 20 years ago was not that place. It was a place where a child could be physically abused and when told to the Rabbeim what happened would be ignored. I do not know how things have changed, but please, please, if you are thinking of sending your child there do your research. Thank G-d, Hashem has saved me from my anger, and bitterness. I am only posting now, not out of revenge or pettiness, but as a warning. Look into this place before you send your children here.
I attended Adelphia in the early 90's and I was molested and sodomized by both students and Beis Medrash students over a two year period. No one knew and no one cared to ask why they had been alone with me in a dorm room. The Rabbeim didn't ask or seem to care what my situation was.
I attended Adelphia back in the early 80's there was most defiantly violence amongst students however it usually worked itself out. I was a particularly short kid with very low self esteem came from a troublesome home. The first day I arrived I was assigned a dorm room I packed away my clothes and went to the basket ball court where it took only 2 minutes for a 6foot Russian to begin physically harassing me, I was shocked and very scared as I lay on the floor with this towering monster beating me another boy whom was similar in stature to me but was at that time a grade above me (10th grade) gave barreling over and whacked this guy in the head he then helped me up and gave me a lesson in "Adelphia Survival" He told me to bark louder and use my mouth but when all else fails to fight as dirty as possible. I became close friends with him and we are still in-touch. As for the staff of Adelphia I have nothing but absolute praise for Rabbi Shain and Rabbi Trenk they showed me warmth and understanding when every Yeshivah high school would not even interview me. In all my years at Adelphia I never once heard an inkling of anything close to sexual abuse. I can not deny or disregard anyone who has suffered but all I'm saying is this was never an issue when I attended. Ps i still attend their dinners and contribute annually
Post a Comment
<< Home