Kellner sought counsel from Rabbi Chaim Flohr, the leader of an institute where rabbinic scholars study how the teachings of the Torah translate to contemporary dilemmas. Shloma Aron Kellner, may his light shine, that how he acted in regards to the government was based on a query before a rabbinic court and was done according to our Holy Torah. It is forbidden to trouble him or humiliate him.
A studious and introspective boy, Yossel explained that Lebovits had offered him a ride home from a school outing late at night, then reached over to the passenger seat and molested him. He said that Lebovits was soon moaning and grunting. But he told Kellner that the crime was a misdemeanor, and that it was unlikely that Lebovits, a first-time offender, would receive jail time. Disappointed, Kellner said that Lebovits had molested other boys, too.
Joshua said that, starting in , when he was twelve, Lebovits sometimes drove alongside him while he was walking to school, honking his horn and encouraging him to get into the car, where Lebovits performed oral sex on him. Joshua said that, on other occasions, Lebovits molested him in the mikvah, a ritual bath that was in the basement of his synagogue. Joshua had gone to a yeshiva for students with developmental disabilities. His family was poor, and he begged for charity outside synagogues and weddings, a common practice in Borough Park, where the poorest members of the Hasidic community live and pray next to the wealthiest.
They patronize the same businesses on Thirteenth Avenue, a commercial strip of kosher restaurants and shops. Although Kellner had never met Joshua, he drove to his house and offered him work helping to plan the wedding of a mutual acquaintance. Kellner gradually steered the conversation toward Baruch Lebovits, and urged Joshua to report his abuse.
Joshua became jittery and hyper. On March 6, , Joshua told Detective Litwin that he had been molested by Lebovits on more than thirty occasions over four years.
- speed dating events Waco USA fl gay.
- gay online dating Chinatown USA.
- arab gay dating Waterbury USA.
- find gay thai escort West Albany USA!
- Crowds of Orthodox Jewish people are filmed gathering in NYC's Borough Park.
Once, he said, Lebovits had picked him up on his way to school and anally raped him in a building near his yeshiva. After each encounter, Lebovits apologized and promised he would never do it again. Five days later, Baruch Lebovits was arrested in front of his house.
Hikind hosts a weekly radio program, and he had recently dedicated three shows to the problem of sex abuse among the ultra-Orthodox. Hikind said that, after the show, more than a hundred victims had called or visited his office to complain about multiple offenders. One of the victims was a twenty-year-old named Aron, who said that Lebovits had repeatedly molested him in his car, beginning when he was sixteen. A year later, he fell in with a clique of teen-agers who were known to be O. Aron had tried to leave the Hasidic community, but he struggled to assimilate into the secular world.
Many of the yeshivas in Brooklyn teach in Yiddish and provide less than two hours of secular education a day. Aron had a heavy Yiddish accent, a rudimentary grasp of written English, and no diploma. In a video filmed by a friend, Aron complained about his limited education and social skills.
He stopped playing with us. He hung out in the corners. Then we started bullying him. I even recall slapping him once in the face. Aron felt that he had little to lose when Kellner urged him to report his abuse. Ian Christner, a mental-health advocate who worked with Aron, said that Kellner adopted a paternal attitude toward Aron, who was often so high that he nodded off in the middle of conversations. In October, , a second indictment was brought against Lebovits, naming Aron as a victim.
It was a Friday afternoon, a few hours before businesses closed for Shabbat. Ashkenazi served Aron food, made polite conversation, and then, Aron said, offered him between five and ten thousand dollars to drop out of the case. Ashkenazi denied this, and said that Aron came to him seeking compensation. Although Aron disliked Ashkenazi, he was tempted by the offer. He told Kellner that he needed the money. He asked a rabbi, Yisroel Makevetzky, if he had permission to report Ashkenazi to the police for tampering with a witness.
Makevetzky held a hearing on the matter in a yeshiva classroom on the edge of Borough Park and concluded that Aron was a moser , an informer.
The Absolute Best Gay Bar in Brooklyn
Aron eventually described the situation to Detective Litwin, who documented the incident in his notes, and forbade Aron to accept money from anyone. Abe told me that the Mishnah, the first major work of rabbinic literature, says that it is the obligation of the community to stop a rodef from making his next attack. Soon, Aron became the object of intimidation and threats. The messages were never specific, but it was pretty obvious that I need to read between the lines: you need to let him relapse.
Top 5 Most Popular Posts
You need to let him crack. On holidays, it used to take Kellner an hour to make his way into the synagogue, because he had so many people to greet. Now only a few people in his prayer group responded when he made conversation. Some yelled that he was a moser. He began saying his daily prayers elsewhere. He also let his interest in his toner business lapse. He was too inflamed. Yossel found the case so embarrassing that he denied his participation to his brothers and sisters. Kellner worried that the psychological dysfunction he saw in Joshua and Aron could eventually afflict his son.
He wondered if it was possible that Lebovits had nothing do with their fragile mental states; maybe it was just a coincidence that, on top of all their problems, they had been molested. But Yossel already seemed more cautious and isolated.
- Excellent Walking Tour of Borough Park! - Timeline Touring - Day Tours?
- top paid gay dating sites Manhattan USA.
- Brutal beating caught on camera in Borough Park, Brooklyn!
- Oh no, there's been an error!
- best Lewisville USA free gay dating site?
He was no longer welcome at his yeshiva in Borough Park. Kellner never contemplated moving, because all the major Hasidic communities—in upstate New York, Jerusalem, London, Montreal, and Antwerp—were connected, and he assumed that everyone already knew his story. The idea of moving to a non-Hasidic neighborhood was too far-fetched to consider. Shloma Aron Kellner, may his light shine, and the Lebovits family in the matter of injury of the son.
Then, Kellner said, the man came back with an offer: Kellner should accept two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to drop the criminal case. He added that Kellner was always looking for money. Kellner was insulted by the offer. According to one official at the meeting, Kellner complained that the only victims who were willing to come forward were already outcasts. He had been charged eighteen hundred dollars, even though the negotiations for the rabbinic court had collapsed.
Standing on the sidewalk in front of his house in Borough Park, he began speaking of the shame that his family was enduring, and he accused Kellner of violating a law in the Torah. Perhaps it was three-quarters right. Perhaps it was only a quarter right. We would have done everything. Many months would see me virtually unable to walk home on Shabbat, stuffed with Ashkenazi usually Polish or Hungarian delicacies. The ideal to which the Hasid holds himself is a reflection of a beautiful multi-century tradition.
He was a rabbinical student, and I figured that he and I, while from two different denominations of Judaism, could find a way to make a relationship work. I was instinctively against going to Pride — after all, I was Hasidic — but he talked me into expressing myself as a whole person and joining the parade. Someone from my sect would also go to Pride that year armed with a digital camera.
This person would see me at the parade — presumably having gone there to protest, or to see if I was there — and take pictures of me marching with the other revelers in an attempt to have me excommunicated, or worse. He would send copies of the pictures to my rabbis, and I would never have the same level of comfort or acceptance again in the Hasidic world.
Brutal beating caught on camera in Borough Park, Brooklyn | News Break
I would sink into a depression coupled with paranoia for years. While the Black me could find acceptance in the Haredi world, the queer me was a persona non grata. I would find out after coming out that many of my fears of homophobia were unfounded with regards to the Orthodox world — thousands of shares of my coming-out story on Facebook would be accompanied by posts with supportive comments from Orthodox people — but the sole death threat I would receive would be from a self-described Hasid in Crown Heights.