Denial, Rationalizations and the case of Rabbi Alan Horowitz
There's some days it's difficult to be proud that I'm Jewish. The reasoning has to do with the way our rabbinic leaders have been handling sex crimes through the ages. Their rationalizations, ignorance and denial is enough to make anyone atheist.
Today is one of those dark days. I received an e-mail from a friend which contained part of a letter from a rabbi who some consider being an advocate for survivors. The comments are regarding The Awareness Center's call to action regarding "defrocking" rabbi Alan Horowitz.
Why don’t you just "decide" that he is not really a rabbi – no rabbi will ever admitted to giving him ordination – assume that it is bogus – YOU remove his ordination – and challenge him and whoever supposedly gave him smicha to stand up and “take credit”. This will force his hand to say who his supposed smicha is from.
My friend responds:
Does it really matter what I "decide"? According to the FBI, Interpol and the television show "America's Most Wanted", Alan Horowitz is an ordained orthodox rabbi.
CALL TO ACTION:"Defrock" Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz - Convicted Sex Offender
The Awareness Center, Inc. is demanding that the Orthodox Union (OU), the Rabbinic Council of America (RCA) and Agudath Israel of America make a public statements denouncing the actions and behavior of Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz. By not doing so is condoning this serial child molesters criminal behavior.
The Awareness Center, Inc. is also demanding that rabbis around the world find a way to remove Alan Horowitz's rabbinical ordination and that of other known sexual predators (who are ordained rabbis).
After Rabbi Alan Horwitz's 1983 conviction for child molestation he was placed on probation. Arrangements were made for him to live on the Ohr Somayach campus in Monsey, NY. Ohr Somayach is a Yeshiva serving young male students. Horowitz was treated by Dr. Joseph F. Chambers MD (Maryland) and Dr. Yitzhak Twersky (Monsey, NY).
In the past both the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America), Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America have stated that there is nothing they could do regarding Rabbi Horowitz since was he not a member of their organization.
Rabbi Horowitz is a convicted sex offender. Be aware that it takes a village to raise a sex offender and to enable them to continue molesting children or raping adults. Rabbi Horowitz is everyone's responsibility, including all rabbinical organizations, rabbis and Jewish communities.
It is time for all of us to stop passing the buck. Do the right thing, publicly denounce this man and remove his rabbinic ordination!
Contact Information:
Rabbinical Council of America (RCA)
Rabbi Marc Dratch - Chairman of the RCA's Task Force on Rabbinic Improprieties
Phone: 203-858-9691
Rabbi Basil Herring, Executive Vice President
Phone: 212-807-7888 x 5
_____________________________
Orthodox Union
Rabbi Hershy (Tzvi) Weinreb
execthw@ou.org
_____________________________Agudath Israel of America
Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Executive Vice President
Rabbi Avi Shafran,
(212) 797-9000
posted by Jewish Survivors at Wednesday, June 13, 2007
3 Comments:
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/06/choose-your-house-sitter.html#comment-5340191864453144968
Another Lubavitcher Molester said...
This pervert is currently incarcerated.
http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/cgi/prosoma.dll?searchby=offender&id=18605319K2091
Last Name: STEIN First Name: MOSHE Middle Name: ISAAC
LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
1:21 PM, June 11, 2007
Moishe Isaac Stein said...
Can't a guy get a decent kosher meal in jail?
http://www.geocities.com/three_strikes_legal/Moshe_Stein_Letter.html
Lt. Von Rader
Sir,
Recently I had (just) cause to complain about being offered non-Kosher food.
Subsequently you intimated that the meal in question was, in fact, Kosher.
As everybody knows, only a trained Rabbinical Supervisor can truly attest that the Laws of Kashrus have been followed in the preparation of a meal.
However — — — —
The offending meal was sealed by Saran-Wrap; But part of said Saran-Wrap had been removed before arrival at the “POD” — which meant that; Therefore; the meal was contaminated and could not possibly have been Kosher.
I correspond regularly with Rabbi Shmuel Spritzer of the World Lubavitch Organization of 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11213.
After sending him copies of my Grievance and then of your reply, he wrote to me and said (among other things), Quote:— “Since when is Lt. Von Rader an authority on Kosher Food?”—: unquote; Which causes me to very seriously doubt that you, Lt. Von Rader, are a Rabbinical Supervisor of the preparation of Kosher Food (and, to be a Rabbinical Supervisor, one must first be a Rabbi of course!)
THE REST OF THIS LETTER IS PRETTY REMARKABLE.
I knew Horowitz in Ohr Somayach, Monsey, and for a couple of years afterwards.
He left very angry at the folks at Ohr Somayach, so I doubt they gave him semichah.
He then learned in R. Chaim Friedman's Derech Hatalmud in Brooklyn for a brief while, and I'm quite certain that he didn't get semichah there (I learned there too--I came in before Horowitz left--and we often spoke).
After that, he went on to learn in Mir Kollel in Brooklyn, although at the time he was apparently being denounced by R. Avraham Blumenkrantz of Far Rockaway.
That's when I lost contact with him.
My guess is that he received semichah from Mir.
P.S. After I heard rumors of Horowitz's predilections, I sounded him out. I said, "I've been listening to a therapist call-in show with Dr. Susan Forward, and a lot of people say that they were sexually abused as children and it caused them much suffering."
To this, he replied, "You only hear from those who claim that they had a bad experience. You don't hear from the ones for whom it was a good experience."
With this I realized that Horowitz was indeed perverse.
I spoke with a rabbi who was involved with the affair, who told me that at Ohr Somayach they thought that since he had "done teshuvah," the problem was being dealt with.
He and I were once at a rabbi's house for a Shabbos meal when he began to run his hands up and down the back of the rabbi's 13 year old son in a very sensual way.
Yet although it made me uncomfortable I did not suspect anything sexual, nor apparently did anyone else at the table, where this was going on with no attempt at concealment.
And so it is very important that people be taught how to be alert and aware.
Justice should be that he remains in jail forever and from the prision population as he will hurt them and hurt there lives even more and then they will learn from his abusive behavior then get out and destory others.
He must never be let out and be alone in his self destruction behavior. He is not a human and needs nothing from Jewish law.
yehuda
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