Melvin Sinowitz, PhD. - Psychologist accused of professional sexual misconduct
I keep hearing rumors about this case. If someone has more information please get in touch with me. The following was posted on a site which some might find offensive. For that reason I'm posting it here.
Monsey Psychologist Accused of Molestion
Monsey, NY (1/14/2007) Some time ago we received a letter from one of our readers accusing a well known Monsey resident and psychologist, Dr. Melvin Sinowitz, PhD. of inappropriate behavior. It is normally not our policy to republish comments or letters from readers however, after doing our do diligence and researching the past activities of Dr. Sinowitz we have concluded that the allegations put forth by the writer is indeed credible. Not only does the writers’ story deserve to be heard but our community needs to be aware of the type of predators that lurk within our midst. On September 17, 1999, Dr. Sinowitz was disciplined by New York State Education Department Office of the Professions, Summaries of Regents Actions on Professional Misconduct and Discipline for making recommendations in a child custody case that were not supported by sufficient data. Dr. Sinowitz's recommendations in the child custody case were made with bias and a wanton disregard for the welfare of the child(ren) involved. He was fined $5,000, his license to practice Psychology was suspended for 2 years and he received 2 years probation. The supporting data and link to the NYS Education Department site will be shown at the end of this article. Given the recent stomach turning events of child abuse that have gripped our community we feel that it is incumbent upon us to reveal the names and information of any accused predator, but only after doing our do diligence and establishing a documented past of deviant behavior. In the case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, accusation upon accusation arose and in each case they were dismissed for a so called lack of evidence. There are many men, both young and old, that to this day, carry the burden of Yehuda Kolko's reign of deviant terror. Although our site is satirical in nature, in a moment of levity we said "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and decided to use this forum to publicize the story of a young girl who carries around the emotional scars of sexual abuse. It chilled us to the bone to think of a fragile child, from an unstable situation, being taken advantage of by someone she was supposed to trust. The story you are about to read is strictly the authors interpretation of events that took place between her and Dr. Sinowitz. We have no way of knowing whether or not they took place at all. However, given Dr. Sinowitz's documented past history of indifference towards the welfare of children, it is our opinion that he has little or no credibility. We are sure that many of you will ask why someone with such strong accusations would contact our site, which by and large is viewed as a satire on Orthodox Jewish sexuality. Truthfully, even we were suspicious and suspected that this was nothing more than another attempt at bringing down our site with a silly hoax. However, when we asked to speak with our reader by phone she readily contacted us and was candid with us. She told that she had reached out to other frum bloggers and forums and was made to feel as if her allegations where worthless and that she had some "ax to grind". The general feeling she got was that she was nothing more than a rabble rouser causing trouble for another "yid". In our site she felt she would at least get a listen to because of our utter disdain for phonies in the "frum" community and because of the vast amount of traffic that our site gets. Yes, she knew we would "eat this up" and that this would be a front page story should we deem her to be credible. After speaking with her and doing our own research, we feel she is indeed credible and that her story at least deserved to be heard. This post is in no way an indictment of Dr. Sinowitz. Just as we have drawn our own conclusions, we hope you will take the time to do the same. Here is her story, as is, raw, with no corrections and NO editing.:
i am writing this letter/comment to "playchosid" because my most horible memories of my 30 yrs on this earth have recently beeen rekindeled, i am maried with 3 beautiful kinderlach kh,and i dont live in ny any more because of the things that i went through as a child there, but i still keep in touch with my family and friends, and i read on the internet and blogs so i still keep up with all the news and shmooze from n.y. . this year for chanuka we went to ny to visit and we just came back home today on motzi shabbos,but before we left we went to kosher delight in Flatbush with some friends who wanted to treat us, and when we were there my husband ran into an old friend that he went to yeshiva torah temima with, so they shmoozed for a while while i took the children to wash there hands and when my husband came back he said "oh my gosh” i cant believe what is going on there, my old friend just told me that a rebbi from the yeshiva that we went to was in big trouble now because somehow they found out that he was mollesting kids,when i heard those words im telling you my whole body mamesh froze into solid ice, and since i heard it i am so depressd and i have so many bad memories that are coming back and now i cant sleep or eat, because i am so disgusted by it and i feel like i have to say something it would be an averah not to, and that is why i am going to tell you what happend to me,i am from bklyn ny, from a verry frum family. we lived in the heart of the frum comunity, we went to the same schools, and shuls ,bought our food at the same stores and knew the same people, my family was just like all of the other families.exept for one thing,my parents were not together,we did not have a father,we were the broken family.at 17 yrs old i was sent to live with a family in monsey,the picture perfect yidishe heim, the wife a stay home mother,the father a rebbi in a yeshiva,the house always filled with children laughing, shabbos was full of simcha, the table always full of guests,singing nigunim and and giving d'var torah every one of there 11 children b'simcha.i loved them like they were my own family, and they treated me like i was ,sometimes i even wished i was, they were such a good stable yidishe heim,and my own real family was " a broken mishpacha" no matter how alike we were with the other mishpachas in the neighborhood we were still the ones "with no father" the ones from "a divorced family"we also were a family with "only" 3" children a "small" family we were the family who's mother was "that lady who work'd in the store" because she has 3 children to take care of," its such a nebach"and me and my younger sister were the 2girls that no matter how "good" we were how "nice" we were ho "aidel" we were, would not be able to get a "good shiduch" from a "good family "because we were from a broken home ,my mother never gave me a real reason for why i was going to stay with a family in monsey,but i believed it was so maybe i could find a "good" shiduch i was only 17 at the time, i right away became a part of my new family they took me in with open arms and treated me like one of there own, the 12th child,the mother let me use her car and i found a job in a local chasidishe grocery store, but the day after i arrived in my new life my mother called me from brooklyn to see how i was doing, and to also tell me that she didnt want me to feel unwanted , and this was verry good for me and that i should call her if i needed to talk ever,and to let me know that at 4:00 the next day i had an apointmentwith Dr. mel sinowitz a therapist my mother said she thought it would be good for me to go and she had talked to a rov about it and he also said it was a good idea for me, i didnt really want to but i said ok.the next day i was sitting in front of dr sinowitz talking about my family my past my my father marrage and every thing else,i was verry surprised when i left becuse i felt verry relaxed and good about my life and my future, and i actualy looked forward to going to see him again,i saw him for 4 1/2 months and he was so reasuring to me so nice, more like a close friend than a doctor, he would even tell my about things in his life, one day when i went to talk to him i was verry upset,i was crying, my younger sister had been sent to school in connecticut, and she only went home for a shabbos once a month so i didnt see her much, but i spoke to my mother and she told me that my sister was kicked out of school, and she was doing verry bad things and she was friends with a bad crowd, with the "bums"i started crying right away when i started talking about it,and dr sinowtz got up and got a box of tissues and sat next to me and hugged me, i didnt know what to say i was shocked,he was rubbing my back and saying its ok im here for you, then he started to play with my hair, he told me that i was beautifull and he said that it felt good to finally hold me, he was talking about his wife, he said that she was verry heavy and he wasnt attracted to her was telling me that we had a verry special bond and that he was a doctor and he knew what i needed and how to take care of me,i felt verry uncomftorble but i believed him becase he always made me feel good before, when it was time for me to go i got up to leave his office,and he said no dont go you need to stay and get all of this out of your mind, it is not healthy to be so sad so i sat back down and he was hugging me again,and after mabe 10 minutes he was putting his hand up my skirt,i was so embarased, but i was scared to say anything so i just pretended like nothing was happening, he put his hands inside my panties but the whole time my skirt was still covering his hands and for 2 hrs dr. sinowitz talked to me about being happy and having faith and how evrything is "hashgocha protis" and the whole time his hands were inside my panties.when i left i cried so much i felt like i was dirty i wanted to go to the mikva but i couldnt i was not married i was so scared i didnt want to tell anybody because i thought they would not believe me so for 2 yrs i went back twice a week and dr sinowitz would do the same thing to me every time, over the first few weeks he started to do more things to me, he would take out his penis and make it hard but only through his zippe rand he would stand in front of me and play with it and say "do you like this"and he would tell me to give it a kiss, and then he would put his hand in my skirt and he would put his fingers inside me, and also inside my anus. while the whole time he would play with his penis and then when he was almost finished he would say my name and then say turn around now im almost finished and when i would turn around he would pull down my skirt and panties and then he would cum on me and then he would close his pants and tell me how wonderfull i am and he would kiss me with his tounge and then i would go,he never put his penis inside me, but he did everything els to me and every time it was a little bit diffrent exept for when he was finished it was always the same way, on my buttocks , so it got to be a relief when he would say turn around because i new it was almost finished i have never told anyone about this, i am maried with 3 children and my husband dosent even know, i didnt write everything here because it would take forever and it is also to painfull but im writing this because of what rabbi yehuda kolko did when i heard the story it brought back all of these bad memories and i cant make them go away, i feel so bad for the children that he did that to i know how bad they fell to and i also worry about if there are more children that he did it to that nobody knows about because they are scared to tell anyone because then they wont be able to get a "good shiduch"
Perhaps after reading this story you will feel that the writer is a liar with an ax to grind. Perhaps you will cringe because of the “chillul hashem”. Perhaps you will find her story a lie because it was published on our site. Maybe just maybe some of you out there will feel the pain and anguish of this young woman. Maybe some of you will see that child abuse is way more prevalent in our community than we’d care to admit or that the abusers garner way more support than the ones they abuse. We are reasonably sure that will get out fair share of self righteous comments professing their outrage against the accuser. This is in itself is hardly surprising and quite typical of the “frum” community. In the case of Dr. Sinowitz, should these allegations prove to be true, than hopefully this article will trigger an investigation or at the very least make the community aware of a potential threat. If these allegations are not true, than let this post serve as a warning to Dr. Sinowitz and other “child psychologists” who are guilty of unscrupulous behavior, that the life and welfare of a child is not to be toyed with. Manipulating a child’s custody for your own personal gain or because of your personal bias is still a reprehensible act and is still a form of abuse. In closing, let us reiterate that in spite of the satirical nature of this blog and in spite of the adult nature of its content, we will continue to write expose` such as this. We found this article painful to write and took no joy in being privy to such a sordid affair. It is our sincere wish to see the apologists who are allegedly our “Gedolei HaTorah” do a complete about face and acknowledge the fact that there a pedophiles in our midst and that they threaten the lives and welfare of our children. Until then justice will be meted out by the Lord above. The question is….can we wait that long?
Source:
http://www.op.nysed.gov/sep99.htm
Melvin Sinowitz, Hartsdale, NY
Profession: Psychologist;
Lic. No. 004534;
Cal. No. 17982
Regents Action Date: September 17, 1999
Action: Application for consent order granted; Penalty agreed upon: 2 year suspension, execution of suspension stayed, probation 2 years, $5,000 fine.
Summary: Licensee did not contest charge of making a recommendation regarding child custody when said recommendation was not supported by sufficient evidence in the test data or the case history.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source:
http://www.doctor-source.com/listing-10606744/
Sinowitz, Melvin PhD.
111 N Central Ave
Hartsdale, NY 10530-1903
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source:
http://dr.doctorsrealm.com/NewYork/Monsey/SinowitzMelvin.html
Sinowitz, Melvin, CP (Certified Professional)
10 Sophia St
Monsey, NY 10952-2012
Monsey, NY (1/14/2007) Some time ago we received a letter from one of our readers accusing a well known Monsey resident and psychologist, Dr. Melvin Sinowitz, PhD. of inappropriate behavior. It is normally not our policy to republish comments or letters from readers however, after doing our do diligence and researching the past activities of Dr. Sinowitz we have concluded that the allegations put forth by the writer is indeed credible. Not only does the writers’ story deserve to be heard but our community needs to be aware of the type of predators that lurk within our midst. On September 17, 1999, Dr. Sinowitz was disciplined by New York State Education Department Office of the Professions, Summaries of Regents Actions on Professional Misconduct and Discipline for making recommendations in a child custody case that were not supported by sufficient data. Dr. Sinowitz's recommendations in the child custody case were made with bias and a wanton disregard for the welfare of the child(ren) involved. He was fined $5,000, his license to practice Psychology was suspended for 2 years and he received 2 years probation. The supporting data and link to the NYS Education Department site will be shown at the end of this article. Given the recent stomach turning events of child abuse that have gripped our community we feel that it is incumbent upon us to reveal the names and information of any accused predator, but only after doing our do diligence and establishing a documented past of deviant behavior. In the case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, accusation upon accusation arose and in each case they were dismissed for a so called lack of evidence. There are many men, both young and old, that to this day, carry the burden of Yehuda Kolko's reign of deviant terror. Although our site is satirical in nature, in a moment of levity we said "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and decided to use this forum to publicize the story of a young girl who carries around the emotional scars of sexual abuse. It chilled us to the bone to think of a fragile child, from an unstable situation, being taken advantage of by someone she was supposed to trust. The story you are about to read is strictly the authors interpretation of events that took place between her and Dr. Sinowitz. We have no way of knowing whether or not they took place at all. However, given Dr. Sinowitz's documented past history of indifference towards the welfare of children, it is our opinion that he has little or no credibility. We are sure that many of you will ask why someone with such strong accusations would contact our site, which by and large is viewed as a satire on Orthodox Jewish sexuality. Truthfully, even we were suspicious and suspected that this was nothing more than another attempt at bringing down our site with a silly hoax. However, when we asked to speak with our reader by phone she readily contacted us and was candid with us. She told that she had reached out to other frum bloggers and forums and was made to feel as if her allegations where worthless and that she had some "ax to grind". The general feeling she got was that she was nothing more than a rabble rouser causing trouble for another "yid". In our site she felt she would at least get a listen to because of our utter disdain for phonies in the "frum" community and because of the vast amount of traffic that our site gets. Yes, she knew we would "eat this up" and that this would be a front page story should we deem her to be credible. After speaking with her and doing our own research, we feel she is indeed credible and that her story at least deserved to be heard. This post is in no way an indictment of Dr. Sinowitz. Just as we have drawn our own conclusions, we hope you will take the time to do the same. Here is her story, as is, raw, with no corrections and NO editing.:
i am writing this letter/comment to "playchosid" because my most horible memories of my 30 yrs on this earth have recently beeen rekindeled, i am maried with 3 beautiful kinderlach kh,and i dont live in ny any more because of the things that i went through as a child there, but i still keep in touch with my family and friends, and i read on the internet and blogs so i still keep up with all the news and shmooze from n.y. . this year for chanuka we went to ny to visit and we just came back home today on motzi shabbos,but before we left we went to kosher delight in Flatbush with some friends who wanted to treat us, and when we were there my husband ran into an old friend that he went to yeshiva torah temima with, so they shmoozed for a while while i took the children to wash there hands and when my husband came back he said "oh my gosh” i cant believe what is going on there, my old friend just told me that a rebbi from the yeshiva that we went to was in big trouble now because somehow they found out that he was mollesting kids,when i heard those words im telling you my whole body mamesh froze into solid ice, and since i heard it i am so depressd and i have so many bad memories that are coming back and now i cant sleep or eat, because i am so disgusted by it and i feel like i have to say something it would be an averah not to, and that is why i am going to tell you what happend to me,i am from bklyn ny, from a verry frum family. we lived in the heart of the frum comunity, we went to the same schools, and shuls ,bought our food at the same stores and knew the same people, my family was just like all of the other families.exept for one thing,my parents were not together,we did not have a father,we were the broken family.at 17 yrs old i was sent to live with a family in monsey,the picture perfect yidishe heim, the wife a stay home mother,the father a rebbi in a yeshiva,the house always filled with children laughing, shabbos was full of simcha, the table always full of guests,singing nigunim and and giving d'var torah every one of there 11 children b'simcha.i loved them like they were my own family, and they treated me like i was ,sometimes i even wished i was, they were such a good stable yidishe heim,and my own real family was " a broken mishpacha" no matter how alike we were with the other mishpachas in the neighborhood we were still the ones "with no father" the ones from "a divorced family"we also were a family with "only" 3" children a "small" family we were the family who's mother was "that lady who work'd in the store" because she has 3 children to take care of," its such a nebach"and me and my younger sister were the 2girls that no matter how "good" we were how "nice" we were ho "aidel" we were, would not be able to get a "good shiduch" from a "good family "because we were from a broken home ,my mother never gave me a real reason for why i was going to stay with a family in monsey,but i believed it was so maybe i could find a "good" shiduch i was only 17 at the time, i right away became a part of my new family they took me in with open arms and treated me like one of there own, the 12th child,the mother let me use her car and i found a job in a local chasidishe grocery store, but the day after i arrived in my new life my mother called me from brooklyn to see how i was doing, and to also tell me that she didnt want me to feel unwanted , and this was verry good for me and that i should call her if i needed to talk ever,and to let me know that at 4:00 the next day i had an apointmentwith Dr. mel sinowitz a therapist my mother said she thought it would be good for me to go and she had talked to a rov about it and he also said it was a good idea for me, i didnt really want to but i said ok.the next day i was sitting in front of dr sinowitz talking about my family my past my my father marrage and every thing else,i was verry surprised when i left becuse i felt verry relaxed and good about my life and my future, and i actualy looked forward to going to see him again,i saw him for 4 1/2 months and he was so reasuring to me so nice, more like a close friend than a doctor, he would even tell my about things in his life, one day when i went to talk to him i was verry upset,i was crying, my younger sister had been sent to school in connecticut, and she only went home for a shabbos once a month so i didnt see her much, but i spoke to my mother and she told me that my sister was kicked out of school, and she was doing verry bad things and she was friends with a bad crowd, with the "bums"i started crying right away when i started talking about it,and dr sinowtz got up and got a box of tissues and sat next to me and hugged me, i didnt know what to say i was shocked,he was rubbing my back and saying its ok im here for you, then he started to play with my hair, he told me that i was beautifull and he said that it felt good to finally hold me, he was talking about his wife, he said that she was verry heavy and he wasnt attracted to her was telling me that we had a verry special bond and that he was a doctor and he knew what i needed and how to take care of me,i felt verry uncomftorble but i believed him becase he always made me feel good before, when it was time for me to go i got up to leave his office,and he said no dont go you need to stay and get all of this out of your mind, it is not healthy to be so sad so i sat back down and he was hugging me again,and after mabe 10 minutes he was putting his hand up my skirt,i was so embarased, but i was scared to say anything so i just pretended like nothing was happening, he put his hands inside my panties but the whole time my skirt was still covering his hands and for 2 hrs dr. sinowitz talked to me about being happy and having faith and how evrything is "hashgocha protis" and the whole time his hands were inside my panties.when i left i cried so much i felt like i was dirty i wanted to go to the mikva but i couldnt i was not married i was so scared i didnt want to tell anybody because i thought they would not believe me so for 2 yrs i went back twice a week and dr sinowitz would do the same thing to me every time, over the first few weeks he started to do more things to me, he would take out his penis and make it hard but only through his zippe rand he would stand in front of me and play with it and say "do you like this"and he would tell me to give it a kiss, and then he would put his hand in my skirt and he would put his fingers inside me, and also inside my anus. while the whole time he would play with his penis and then when he was almost finished he would say my name and then say turn around now im almost finished and when i would turn around he would pull down my skirt and panties and then he would cum on me and then he would close his pants and tell me how wonderfull i am and he would kiss me with his tounge and then i would go,he never put his penis inside me, but he did everything els to me and every time it was a little bit diffrent exept for when he was finished it was always the same way, on my buttocks , so it got to be a relief when he would say turn around because i new it was almost finished i have never told anyone about this, i am maried with 3 children and my husband dosent even know, i didnt write everything here because it would take forever and it is also to painfull but im writing this because of what rabbi yehuda kolko did when i heard the story it brought back all of these bad memories and i cant make them go away, i feel so bad for the children that he did that to i know how bad they fell to and i also worry about if there are more children that he did it to that nobody knows about because they are scared to tell anyone because then they wont be able to get a "good shiduch"
Perhaps after reading this story you will feel that the writer is a liar with an ax to grind. Perhaps you will cringe because of the “chillul hashem”. Perhaps you will find her story a lie because it was published on our site. Maybe just maybe some of you out there will feel the pain and anguish of this young woman. Maybe some of you will see that child abuse is way more prevalent in our community than we’d care to admit or that the abusers garner way more support than the ones they abuse. We are reasonably sure that will get out fair share of self righteous comments professing their outrage against the accuser. This is in itself is hardly surprising and quite typical of the “frum” community. In the case of Dr. Sinowitz, should these allegations prove to be true, than hopefully this article will trigger an investigation or at the very least make the community aware of a potential threat. If these allegations are not true, than let this post serve as a warning to Dr. Sinowitz and other “child psychologists” who are guilty of unscrupulous behavior, that the life and welfare of a child is not to be toyed with. Manipulating a child’s custody for your own personal gain or because of your personal bias is still a reprehensible act and is still a form of abuse. In closing, let us reiterate that in spite of the satirical nature of this blog and in spite of the adult nature of its content, we will continue to write expose` such as this. We found this article painful to write and took no joy in being privy to such a sordid affair. It is our sincere wish to see the apologists who are allegedly our “Gedolei HaTorah” do a complete about face and acknowledge the fact that there a pedophiles in our midst and that they threaten the lives and welfare of our children. Until then justice will be meted out by the Lord above. The question is….can we wait that long?
Source:
http://www.op.nysed.gov/sep99
Melvin Sinowitz, Hartsdale, NY
Profession: Psychologist;
Lic. No. 004534;
Cal. No. 17982
Regents Action Date: September 17, 1999
Action: Application for consent order granted; Penalty agreed upon: 2 year suspension, execution of suspension stayed, probation 2 years, $5,000 fine.
Summary: Licensee did not contest charge of making a recommendation regarding child custody when said recommendation was not supported by sufficient evidence in the test data or the case history.
------------------------------
Source:
http://www.doctor-source.com
Sinowitz, Melvin PhD.
111 N Central Ave
Hartsdale, NY 10530-1903
------------------------------
Source:
http://dr.doctorsrealm.com
Sinowitz, Melvin, CP (Certified Professional)
10 Sophia St
Monsey, NY 10952-2012
posted by Jewish Survivors at Monday, January 29, 2007
4 Comments:
I don't believe anyone would make up a story like this. The shame and embarassment are too strong. I can hear these feelings throughout the entire story. The women who shared this story has tremendous courage. I hope she gets help from a good therapist although I know it will take here a long time to be able to trust a therapist because of her traumatic and abusive experience with Dr. Sinowitz. I wish her strength and healing.
There's an organization that works specifically with survivors of mental health professionals. If anyone knows who that woman is tell her to go to this web page.
http://www.therapyabuse.org/
this is not the only psycologist in mosey up to no good. I have unfortunte close knowledge of someone molested by a doctor with initials I.S.
I tried posting a comment yesterday that was in good taste and informative. It wasn't posted which leads me to think that you aren't interested in truth, only besmirching people.
Here are my points again:
His suspension has no relevance to the accusation of professional sexual misconduct so I don't see why you included it.
In addition, his ofice in his house, a typical Monsey highranch, not a large house. I don't see how he could sit in the room with a patient for two hours.
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