Bobover parents outraged at Camp Shalva directors! Video!

PIX 11 tried demanding answers Monday from a food company in Spring Valley, about a registered sex offender who was allowed to deliver orders to a “sleepaway” camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in Sullivan County. 31 year old Yoel Oberlander was arrested August 9th, charged with criminal trespassing, after surveillance cameras showed him going in and out of bunk rooms at Camp Shalva at 5 in the morning on August 8th. Some of the boys said they woke up to a man tickling them. Now, one parent is telling PIX 11 that children received strict orders not to speak about the case. “The kids were warned that morning that they should not be talking to each other about the incident,” the father, who wants to remain anonymous, told PIX. The man said he feared reprisals from the Bobover sect in Borough Park, Brooklyn, which runs the upstate camp. Oberlander was on probation for six years, after a 2002 case involving the sexual abuse of an 11 year old girl. Ben Hirsch, leader of the children's advocacy group, Survivors for Justice, said he notified New York State police 40 hours after the incident, after a parent called him with information appearing on a Yiddish chat site. Hirsch claims the camp's first call was to a criminal defense attorney! When we tried to reach one lawyer representing Camp Shalva Monday, we received no call back. We also tried to call the rabbi in charge of the bunkhouse where the 12 and 13 year old boys were sleeping, but got his voicemail. PIX 11 did manage to get inside the Golden Taste foods warehouse in Spring Valley, which produces appetizers and dips, where Yoel Oberlander works. The staff there was not happy to see us. They repeatedly told us to leave the premises, when we asked if they knew Oberlander was a registered sex offender--and whether he should be delivering food to a children’s camp. Outside Golden Taste Inc, in the parking lot, we noticed Oberlander’s 2007 gray Mazda. People who appear on the New York State Sex Offenders Registry are required to list the car they drive and license plate number. A number of Orthodox men went in and out of the warehouse with cell phones, getting into cars and driving around to see where our news truck was parked--and where we were stationed. An aerial photo of Camp Shalva in Sullivan County shows the delivery area for trucks is very far away from the bunkhouse where the 12 and 13 year old boys were sleeping. The lawyer for the camp told one newspaper there was “not enough time for any molestation to take place.” Parents are still outraged, telling PIX 11 “there’s been no addressing of this issue from a mental health perspective.” Copyright © 2012, WPIX-TV

Scandal in Bobover Camp, Children sexually abused! Update!!

Ultra Orthodox Jewish boys, from Brooklyn, New York, were sexually assaulted in an upstate New York sleep away camp, but were told by camp officials to keep quiet and not tell their parents about the incident.

State police are investigating whether a driver for a kosher food distributor, slipped into the sleeping quarters in a summer camp in upstate New York, where seventh and eighth grade children were sleeping at the time, and sexually abused several of them.

The shocking intrusion occurred in the early morning hours at the Camp Shalva in South Fallsburg, New York, according to news media reports.

When the boys complained in the morning, a supervisor reviewed security video, which showed an intruder going in and out of the bedrooms, the news media reported. Officials at the camp instructed the boys not to tell their parents what had happened.

Stephen Lungen, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor in Sullivan County, New York, told the local news media that he was contacted BY frantic camp administrators, who asked what to do about the allegations.

"They were very upset and worried about how to deal with that," Lungen said, adding that he put them in touch with the prosecutor and the State Police.

Ben Hirsch, director of the survivors of Justice, an advocacy group based in Brooklyn New York for victims of sexual abuse, said he was contacted about the allegations and immediately called the State Office for Children Services and Families, which referred the case to the State Police.

Representatives of the camp could not be reached for comment.

Update:

Examination of the image indicates the man is a registered sex offender who works as a deliveryman for a kosher food service, police said.

His name, Young has learned, is Yoel Oberlander of Monsey and camp directors said he had no reason to be near the dormitory or any of the children staying at the sleep-away camp. The school said it is checking for any evidence of inappropriate physical contact.

“It’s certainly something we can’t rule out given the fact that the perpetrator or alleged perpetrator has an alleged history and was in proximity to children. We would hope and expect that that would be fully investigated,” Scharf said.

Sources told Young that Oberlander’s employers at Golden Taste Kosher Foods are discussing his future with the company, although they adamantly refused to talk with Young when he stopped by their Spring Valley offices.

“No comment. I said no comment,” an employee said.

The camp caters almost exclusively to children of Hasidic parents living in Brooklyn.