Internal reporting doesn't work, and if you need any evidence of that I'll send you the list of CVA cases against Agudah, Camp Agudah, Torah Temimah, Ger Yeshiva, Bobov, Satmar, Mogen Av, Ohel, Ohel, Ohel, Chai Lifeline, Hamaspik, Kranczer, etc. All it does is lead to coverup.
— Asher Lovy (@HareianiBlog) January 5, 2022
For those not on twitter:
In 2013 Yossi Kolko, nephew of prolific child rapist Yiddy Kolko, started raping a child in lakewood. He raped him in camp then came back to Lakewood and raped him for a few more months. The kid finally disclosed to his father who being a good Lakewood man went to beis din.
The beis din found Yossi guilty paskened that he couldn't be a rebbi anymore and had to go to 12 weeks of therapy. He stopped going after 6. The father went back to the beis din to get them to enforce their psak and they told him they had no power to do that.
Having tried the internal system he sent a letter to Rav Shternbuch asking for permission to go to the police. Rav Shternbuch said yes. Yossi was eventually arrested. Meantime, noted gadol Yisroel Belsky wrote a letter calling the accusation a lie.
Yisroel Belsky had written a similar letter decades prior for Yossie's uncle Yiddy after he was accused of raping boys at Torah Temimah (also being sued under the CVA). The father was fired from his job as a rosh bechina at BMG and the son was expelled from yeshiva.
Eventually Yossi pleaded guilty and at his allocution he said that he had done it because he had been molested by his uncle Yiddy Kolko (whom Belsky had written a letter for saying the allegations were false).
A few rabbis in Lakewood wrote an apology to the father for believing Belsky's letter, but it was too late. He couldn't get his job back and his son couldn't get back into yeshiva. That's what internal reporting does, and that's why it's wrong.
Even when the father did what the community wanted him to do he and his son were thrown out and branded as moisrim. The Father a chushiver Rav sold his shul and home and left to another state. This is why Lopiansky's stupid idea for a panel in @themishpacha is so harmful. All it leads to is coverup and harm to victims.
If Lopiansky really cares about victims as he claims to he should work to rectify the reasons why victims are so scared to report in the community instead of throwing his hands up in the air and then suggesting harmful, illegal, stupidity.
Totally agree, once you report an abuser in a kehillah to literally save your own child be prepared to move out to another modern orthodox Jewish community, from personal experience it’s the best thing
ReplyDeleteBelsky instigated the son of another corrupt OU higher up, Rabbi Luban, to start a terrorism campaign against Yossi Kolko's victim. The Ocean County Prosecutor threatened Belsky with arrest if he continued & actually arrested Luban's son. (Another son of Luban was arrested for speeding like a maniac down Ave J, running over & killing the Holocaust survivor Turda Ruv ztl who was in his 90s.)
ReplyDeleteGenack & a majority of the OU Board wanted to terminate Belsky over this but turned a blind eye because Belsky threatened to drag them through years of dinei Torah & goyishe courts.
BMG was initially hammering Yossi Kolko but then corrupt ex-CEO Aaron Kotler had a change of heart with ulterior motives to protect Kolko. Aaron was recently thrown out of BMG.
Why was Aron Kotler thrown out of BMG ? Doesn't he and his brother Malkiel OWN it ?
ReplyDeleteR' Malkiel agreed to throw out his own brother. The rosh yeshiva was historically disgusted by molesters but had a lapse when his brother was around & constantly badgering him in favor of molesters like Yossi Kolko & Elly Kleinman. BMG is currently calling Walder a menuvol by the way.
ReplyDeleteIt was bad enough that Aaron was causing needless problems. It was another thing when he proved himself useless. It's alleged that Louis Scheiner was pretty upset when he heard the BMG kollel had not had a pay raise in 15 years thanks to Aaron's batlonus. So Scheiner went fundraising & scored big bucks in Lakewood alone. This was the final straw for Aaron as far as the Board, the Hanhala & even R' Malkiel. Aaron was allegedly all lawyered up in case his parachute wasn't golden enough.
I never heard of the Chai Lifeline & Hamaspik molestation scandals. What are the details?
ReplyDeleteThe Rabbi in Lakewood didn't own a shul, he was employed.
ReplyDeleteHe never plead guilty, because they advised him not to, had he plead guilty he would have gotten 12 months in county jail. Only when 2 more victims came did he cut a plea 15 years & no trial on the other victims.
ReplyDeleteSomeone is mistaken. Kolko DID plead guilty.
ReplyDeleteYossi Kolko tried to take back his guilty plea at the last minute, whining to the judges that changing the plea is on his brother's advice "to save his life". The judges told him to jump in the lake. The long time pro-molester gangster Mickey Rottenberg who has a shul by 14th St was a bigger chaya in the cover up than CEO Aaron K was. Mickey was even barging into homes in the middle of the night to intimidate if he thought there was any pro-victim stuff going on.
Kolko's mother called a Philly Kaminetzky mechuton who holds sway over the rich dudes in Lawrence to get them to bankroll all the Kolko frivolous legal motions.
Asbury Park Press, Jan. 7, 2016: A two-judge panel on Wednesday refused to allow Yosef Kolko to take back his guilty plea to multiple sexual assault charges in a high-profile case that exposed how Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish community handled molestation allegations.
Street Corner Crazy is UOJ's nickname for Belsky. Belsky initially issued a letter attacking the BMG roshei yeshiva because they wanted to badly punish Kolko, especially after he refused to cooperate with the mental health intervention - BEFORE Aaron K flipped to protecting Kolko for a selfish ulterior motive.