Gershon Kranczer Faces Brooklyn Judge After Being Extradited From Israel to Face Sexual Abuse Charges

 

A Brooklyn rabbi and former Yeshiva school principal appeared in a New York court on Monday on charges of sexually assaulting his minor female relatives - after spending a decade on the run in Israel.

Gershon Kranczer, 67, appeared before Judge Jill Konviser in Brooklyn Supreme Court in handcuffs belted to his waist. He did not speak during the brief hearing [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9353843/Rabbi-fled-Israel-2010-accused-molesting-children-extradited-New-York.html].

A father of 14 who is married to his first cousin, he is accused of molesting one of the girls from when she was eight in August 1996 to February 2003.

A second girl was allegedly sexually abused from March 2001 to September 2002, when she was 11, Reuters reported [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rabbi-abuse/brooklyn-rabbi-sons-charged-with-sexual-abuse-idUKTRE6B26T820101203].

He was accused of sexual abuse along with three of his sons, including one aged 15. The boys are accused of having abused other female relatives.

Kranczer was founder and principal of the Yeshiva Tehila L'Dovid in Brooklyn - but resigned when the allegations emerged in 2010. 

He then fled to Israel with one of his sons, Asher, who is legally blind.

Kranczer changed his name and went on the run, evading capture until January 2020, when Israeli authorities located and arrested him.

He was extradited and appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court in March 2021, charged with sexual conduct against a child, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse.

He has been held in jail since then.

Jewish Community Watch, a watchdog organization that works to combat child sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community, told Forward at the time of his arrest that the group was dismayed at how long it has taken to get justice.

 

'We have been shocked at the horrific, drawn-out process that the victims have been forced to endure, all the while facing denial and ambivalence from so many in their community,' Jewish Community Watch said in a statement.

'The authorities in both the U.S. and Israel have much to answer for, in allowing this case to drag on for so long.'

He spent more than a decade overseas using an alias and fought extradition to the United States in the year since his arrest, sources told the Post.

According to Forward, Israeli Justice Ministry officials said Kranczer never officially immigrated to Israel and did not have a residency visa. 

Kranczer was charged with sexual conduct against a child, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse and was ordered to be held without bail at his arraignment on Thursday.

Three of his sons also allegedly repeatedly attacked other girls, cops told the New York Daily News in 2010. 

Kranczer fled to Israel in 2010 with his son, Asher, who is legally blind, while under investigation in order to escape the law. It was not immediately clear if Asher Kranczer has already been arrested or extradited to the United States.

Investigators at the time believed Kranczer's wife did not know of the allegations or abuse but had given her husband a ride to John F. Kennedy Airport, the outlet reported at the time.

The NYPD alerted Interpol that Kranczer had left the United States and its Intel Bureau International Liaison Unit coordinated with Israel police in an attempt to track him down, sources told the Post.  

His son Yechezkel Kranczer had turned himself in to the NYPD in 2010 the day after another of his sons, whose name was withheld at the time because he was also a minor, had turned himself over to cops thee day before, the Daily News reported.

The then-15-year-old suspect was charged with sexually abusing an 8-year-old relative, it was reported at the time. It was not immediately known if he was convicted for the alleged sexual abuse.

Yechezkel Kranczer later posted $10,000 bail and left Brooklyn Criminal Court after he was arraigned on charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, the Daily News reported.

He was convicted and given probation, according to The Algemeiner - a Jewish newspaper in New York City. 

The alleged abuse was first revealed when one of the victims told a co-worker that she had been sexually assaulted, according to the outlet.

The co-worker told cops of the abuse, and officers discovered that three more of the woman's female relatives, between the ages of 8 and 19, had also allegedly been abused in the rabbi's home. 

Investigators raided the rabbi's 'dilapidated' home he shared with his wife, who is also his first cousin, and their 14 children, cops told the Daily News in 2010.

Jewish Community Watch, a watchdog organization that works to combat child sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community, told Forward last year that the group was 'shocked' at how long it has taken to get justice.

'We have been shocked at the horrific, drawn-out process that the victims have been forced to endure, all the while facing denial and ambivalence from so many in their community,' Jewish Community Watch said in a statement. 

'The authorities in both the U.S. and Israel have much to answer for, in allowing this case to drag on for so long.' 

Read more:

• Accused child molester extradited to NYC after fleeing to Israel:  https://nypost.com/2021/03/11/accused-child-molester-extradited-to-nyc-after-fleeing-to-israel/
• Israel arrests alleged sex abuser Gershon Kranczer – The Forward:  https://forward.com/news/438056/brooklyn-native-and-alleged-sex-abuser-gershon-kranczer-arrested-in-israel/
• How the Brooklyn DA Protects Orthodox Child Molesters (PART TWO) | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com:  https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/08/30/how-the-brooklyn-da-protects-orthodox-child-molesters-part-two/