Is Rabbi Avrohom Braun attempting to rewrite history - Case of Rabbi Alan Horowitz

Rabbi Alan Horowitz / Rabbi Avroham Braun

Message from Vicki Polin at The Awareness Center, Inc.
Rabbi Alan Horowitz has been claiming to be an ordained orthodox rabbi since at least 1991. Over the last sixteen years there has never been a public statement made that Alan J. Horowitz was lying about his ordination -- that is until today.

Over the last several months The Awareness Center created a "Call To Action" asking that a public statement be made from the Orthodox Union, Rabbinical Council of America and Agudath Israel of America -- denouncing Rabbi Horowitz's behavior and also finding a way to have his rabbinic ordination removed.

Since The Awareness Center's "Call For Action" was made -- we have received countless e-mails and phone calls from various rabbis in both the United States and Israel stating: "All The Awareness Center needs to do is declare he is no longer a rabbi and his rabbinic ordination will be removed."

The Awareness Center was informed a few years ago that Alan Horowitz received his rabbinic ordination from an orthodox source while either attending Ohr Somayach in Monsey or while studying in Israel.

Towards the end of the following article Rabbi Avrohom Braun (dean of students at Ohr Somayach) is alleging that Rabbi Alan Horowitz never received a rabbinic ordination.

Rabbi Braun has been claiming that Ohr Somayach does not have a record of him being ordained by their institution. What he fails to tell reporters is that his institution is not mandated to keep records of rabbinic ordinations and also that an institution does not necessarily give an ordination. The ordination can come from an individual rabbi.

As part of Alan Horowitz's probation agreement back in 1983, he was court ordered to study Torah (bible) and live on the campus of Ohr Somayach. While on probation and under the supervision of the rabbis, Alan Horowitz illegally left the United States and moved to Israel even though this was a violation of his parole.

One of the many questions we all should be asking is how did Alan Horowitz do this? Did any of the rabbis or other staff members of Ohr Somayach of Monsey assist in Alan Horowitz fleeing the country?
Do you think Rabbi Braun would have records regarding this?

I think it's imperative we get answers to these question.

Many who know the case of Rabbi Alan Horowitz do not believe a convicted sex offender on probation could have illegally left the United States on his own. Alan Horowitz must have had help. Twenty-four years have gone by and no one was ever been held accountable for this happening. Don't you think it's time for us all to know the truth of what happened? Remember Alan Horowitz molested countless more children while he was on the run in the 1980's and also more recently.

Fugitive pedophile returned to region
By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist
(Albany) Times Union
Thursday, July 12, 2007

SCHENECTADY - Tidier than his fugitive mug shot but showing several days stubble, convicted pedophile Alan Horowitz shuffled into the county jail Thursday afternoon in sandals and a bullet-proof vest.

Horowitz, 60, was brought to the Capital Region after 11 months in South Asian and faces six more years in state prison - the time remaining on his initial 10-to 20-year sentence for sodomizing a 9-year-old boy. He jumped parole in June 2006.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney called the Harvard-educated former adolescent psychiatrist, who has said he believes there's nothing wrong with his abuse of children, "the most vile and twisted kind of human being" and a "poster child" for civil confinement.

Authorities escorted Horowitz Thursday from Essex County, N.J., where he had been held since Sunday after being deported from India, back to Schenectady.

His future is now in the hands of an administrative law judge, who could send him back to prison for the five years and 22 days he has left on his sentence plus the 11 months he was on the lam, said George B. Alexander, state Board of Parole chairman. Alexander vowed to seek the full measure.

But federal prosecutors could also charge him with failing to register as a sex offender, said Gary Mattison, a criminal investigator with the U.S. Marshals Service who helped track Horowitz across the globe. That could land him up to 10 years in federal prison as well.

It was a tip to America's Most Wanted that helped lead authorities to Horowitz in Mahabalipuram on India's southeastern coast in May.

Before his 1992 Schenectady conviction, Horowitz was convicted of abusing a boy in Maryland in 1983. He has also been investigated in Israel, where he also has citizenship.

One of the state's most-wanted fugitives, he taunted law enforcement, hopping a plane to Japan the day after meeting with his parole officer in June 2006, then traveling to Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India and elsewhere, Mattison said.

Horowitz even sent a letter to his parole officer, thanking him for his kindness but avoiding further contact, Carney said.

But one place authorities say they have no evidence Horowitz ever went was Tel Aviv, the city where they say he mockingly told the state sex offender registry he'd be moving.

He has also claimed to be an ordained rabbi, but Rabbi Avrohom Braun, an official with a Rockland County Jewish education center that Horowitz attended after his 1983 conviction, said in a statement that he is a "pathological liar" and that his claim is not true.