Looking for Survivors of Ben Sherman from Betar, Israel and Long Beach, California

If Enough Come Forth Something Will Be Done

Blog - Seven Fat Cow
June 10, 2007

In 1982 I was an 11 year old camper in Gan Yisroel Montreal. One shabbos afternoon I was walking alone in the woods between the shul and the baseball field and I accidentally saw an older waiter with his pants around his ankles standing behind a tree and masturbating.

I tried to quietly walk away but he noticed me and ran up to me and told me to feel his balls. I said I dont want to feel your balls. Then he pinned my throat against a tree with his arm and said if I don't feel his balls he would kill me.

As an 11 year old I was naive and had no idea what sex was, but I did realize that I was violated. So I naturally did what I thought was the right thing and went back to my bunk and informed my counselor of what happened. I thought he would surely believe me, especially since I had red and purple marks on my neck from being thrown against a tree.

Not only did the counselor not believe me but he made fun of me,and threatened to throw me out of camp if I made up stories or told “loshon horah” about anyone.

Since my counselor who was supposed to protect me was not helping, I decided on a primitive form of street justice. I was going to let everyone in the camp know what this waiter did to me by embarrassing him in public. For the next few days, every time I saw the waiter in the lunchroom I would shout out “hey, do you want me to feel your balls”. He looked at his friends and started laughing nervously. I knew I was getting under his skin so I continued. ”yeah, dont you want me to feel your balls again like you told me to do on shabbos”?

The end result…..I was considered a danger to the camp and I was kicked out.

A few years later I saw this waiter again outside 770 wearing a hat and jacket. He recognized me too and walked the other way. But I was finally able to find out his name. I stored it in the back of my mind.

A few years after that, as an adult I heard his name mentioned in a conversation about child predators. I was told when he lived in Long Beach, California he had raped many little boys. Entire families were destroyed by this pervert. There is a victim who is still institutionalized as an adult due to the trauma he faced by being raped. This victims family was torn apart after not being able to deal with the stress of the incident, and the parents eventually divorced.

In hindsight, I wish that my counselor and the staff of gan israel montreal would have done more to stop this pervert before he victimized others. I was only forced to touch his balls, but unfortunately other kids were forced at knifepoint to have anal sex with him.

Last I heard, this pervert was married with 4 children and living in Betar Israel.

His name is ben sherman, yemach shemoh.