About Baltimore And The Number Of Cases

During an e-mail exchange with a friend the following topics came up. My friend gave me permission to share this edited version of the exchange. I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with you.

I don't want to target Ner Israel or Baltimore, yet I know the most about them. What is going on in Baltimore can and is going on in many communities around the world. It's not just a Jewish problem. The same things happen in all faiths. I'm just focusing in on Baltimore because it's what I know or have heard.

I want to make it perfectly clear that we all know that the majority of sex offenders were abused as children, yet the vast majority of survivors of child sexual NEVER molest or turn into sex offenders. It's only a very tiny percentage that do.

One has to wonder how the sex abuse scandal in Baltimore got started? I'm not talking about how The Awareness Center started listening to the survivors, piecing the cases together and publishing them. I mean how did this all get started? Who was the first offender? Or could it be there were several offenders coming together in one community? You know the saying -- "birds of a feather flock together"?

How is it that all these families came together? One has to ask what was the outside influence? Did the abuses start when rabbi Ephraim Shapiro moved to Baltimore? We already know he was molesting boys at least 52 years ago? What we don't know is when did it all begin? Who was Ephraim's first victim? How old was Shapiro when he first started offending? Does anyone know if Shapiro was molested and if so, who was his offender? What we do know is that there have been allegations made against Ephraim's son Yisroel Shapiro. What we don't know is who abused Yisroel? Was it his father or someone else?

The sad part of this whole story is that there are rumors going around that one of the boys Yisroel Shaprio molested, has been identifying with his aggressor. He has followed in Yisroel's footsteps and has also become an alleged child molester.

For years there have been rumors going around that there was a cousin of rav Moshe Feinstein who was seen as the black sheep of the family. Some say this cousin molested the Schisgal twins and possibly also one if not both of the Tendler brothers. Other's say that Mordecai molested his younger brother and his twin cousins. Many say that the Schisgal twins and Mordecai are very close friends, yet no one else in the Feinstein/Tendler families speak to them. The rumor is that the Schisgal twins allegedly posed for Penthouse magazine back in the early 1960's. A family member was able to get the images pulled prior to the publication of the magazine. Again this is all hearsay information and rumor. According to statistics it's over 90% of those involved in prostitution and or pornography are survivors of child molestation.

What can I say about the case of rabbi Matis Weinberg besides the fact that the rumors of him of being an alleged sex offender have been floating around for decades. Many say one of his siblings confessed to being raped by Matis during his childhood. The allegations is that Matis was only 16 years old at the time. If all of this is true, one has to ask, who molested Matis Weinberg? Was it a case of incest or someone outside the family?

I heard that Matis spent part of his childhood in Canada. If he was abused, could his offender be Canadian? Or was there someone on the Ner Israel campus that could have been his offender? Could he have been abused by Ephraim Shapiro? There was rumors that back in the day there was a rav on the campus of Ner Israel that was problematic. Could that mysterious rav the culprit?

I also wonder how is it that Moshe Eisemann ended up in Baltimore? I mean the real reason? Again he's another individual who has an alleged history of offending boys and young adult men. Why is it that he is being protected by the administration at Ner Israel? Is it because he is related by marriage to those in power? I also wonder if he helped to bring rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau to Baltimore along with Aron Goldberger. Both Eisgrau's and Goldberger's wives are Eisemann's.

-- and then we have the case of Shmuel Juravel. Rumors are that rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau made Shmuel a special project. What we don't know is if Shmuel could have been molested by Eisgrau or someone else in his family or the community? The first allegations made against Shmuel was when he was around 15 years old. At that time several boys came forward to the rabbinical authorities in Baltimore. Nothing was done, except that Shmuel was sent away. That's the same thing that happened when the allegations first came up against Matis Weinberg.

We all have to ask if Shmuel was abused as a child? If he was did he have more then one offender? It's not that unusual for a child who was sexually victimized to have multiple perpetrators. I also heard rumors that at least one of Shmuel's victims has become an offender. It's so sad to hear this because this is one tradition that needs to end.

I also wonder about Ephraim Bryks? We all know his father committed suicide and that was part of the reason why he went to Ner Israel. What we don't know is if Bryks was an incest survivor, or could he have been abused outside the home? If it was outside the home, was he molested by Matis Weinberg when he was on the campus of Ner Israel? Could it have been that Bryks was part of the alleged gang of boys that were molesting boys on the campus. Rumors are that Matis was the ring leader of this gang. I also am interested in learning the names of the other boys that were apart of Matis's gang? Who were the victims of this alleged criminal behavior?

I also wonder if the boys who were a part of this gang, are now considered part of our rabbinical leadership of today? Could that part of the reason there is such a resistance in some communities to do the right thing?

I'm trying to remember if I'm leaving out any other alleged or convicted offenders connected to Baltimore?