Shomrim Covering Up for Molesters?

Luzer Twersky still remembers the day he came back from shul to his Borough Park home to find his father waiting for him with an important question.Twersky's father, a Hasidic rabbi, had just received a disturbing report. One of his employees had walked in on another rabbi, Duvid Greenfeld, molesting a young boy in the mikveh, the ritual bath.

Twersky's father knew that his young son had also studied with Greenfeld until the year before, when he moved to a different shul. He wanted to know if Luzer had seen anything similar from Greenfeld.

He had.

The man who caught Greenfeld red-handed in the mikveh was connected to the Shomrim, the community patrol that functions as a sort of auxiliary police force for the Hasidic and conservative Orthodox community in Borough Park.

"Greenfeld abused me from age nine to age 12," Twersky says, smirking bitterly. "My father asked me about it about a year after we ended our 'relationship,' if you want to call it that."

But although the Shomrim are pledged to protect the innocent and work closely with police to catch criminals, that isn't what happened this time. Greenfeld was the son of a close adviser toRabbi Mordechai David Unger, seen by many as the head of the Bobov Hasidic dynasty and one of the most influential men in Borough Park.

Luzer Twersky

So when the Shomrim associate discovered the abuse, he told his rabbi and left the matter at that. The police never learned of the incident, and Greenfeld continued to teach in yeshivas, working with young children for a decade until he was finally arrested for molesting a 15-year-old boy in 2009.

Nine years after he watched the neighborhood protector turn a blind eye to Greenfeld's abuse, Twersky decided he had to leave the Hasidic community altogether. He left Borough Park, divorced his wife, and cut ties with his parents and friends.

Talking about the incident now, he says he doesn't hold any ill will against the man, still a member of the Shomrim today, who learned of Greenfeld's abuse and didn't tell the police.

"He's a good guy, in his way," Twersky says. "He's a baby who likes playing cops—that's a lot of what the Shomrim is. I've got nothing against patrolling a neighborhood, and they do a good job at it mostly: Borough Park is a very safe neighborhood for adults. It's just not very safe for kids."

The question of children's safety in Borough Park came under renewed scrutiny this summer in the aftermath of the grisly murder of Leiby Kletzky, the eight-year-old boy who vanished in Borough Park on his way home from camp.

Kletzky's parents called the Shomrim when he didn't make it home, and the organization flooded the neighborhood with a hundred volunteers searching for the boy. But Kletzky was never found alive, and when his dismembered body was ultimately discovered in the home of a Borough Park resident, the Shomrim found themselves in the center of a contentious debate.

Community leaders and politicians praised the way the Shomrim flooded the streets in search of the young boy, calling the response a source of community pride even in the face of terrible tragedy.

But critics noted that the Shomrim's efforts hadn't saved Kletzky or indeed even caught his killer. It was an unaffiliated concerned citizen, not the Shomrim, who thought to check the surveillance videos from local businesses that showed the boy being lured into the Honda of Levi Aron, a supply clerk who lived nearby.

More pressing was the question of why the Shomrim had waited three hours to notify the police of the missing boy. It wasn't until after Kletzky's parents had called 911 themselves that the Shomrim made contact with the NYPD.

Speaking to the press after Aron had been arrested and made a confession, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the Shomrim's delayed notification of police was a long-standing issue.

"We have no problem with the Shomrim being notified," Kelly said, "but we'd like to be notified as well."

But Kelly was careful not to antagonize the Shomrim, adding that the delay probably wouldn't have made a difference in the Kletzky case.

Read More:Village Voice

Outrage! "Shomrim" has list of sexual child abusers and will not share list with Police!

They call themselves "Shomrim" (protectors), they should call themselves "Mazikim" (harmful)!
In a report in today's Daily News,  Shomrim advocate Jacob Daskel told the reporter, "The community doesn't go to the police with these names because the rabbis don't let you. It's not right," .
Read this disturbing Daily News Article!

A Jewish patrol in Borough Park keeps a list of suspected child predators, but Levi Aron's name wasn't on it, the Daily News has learned.

"No one ever complained to us about him," Borough Park Shomrim member Jacob Daskel said.

The list has about 15 names. It was compiled by Shomrim members and is not shared with the NYPD because some rabbis oppose civilian police involvement.

"The community doesn't go to the police with these names because the rabbis don't let you. It's not right," Daskel said.

He said when a resident tells Shomrim they suspect someone is a molester, the patrol finds a picture and shows it to area kids, trying to substantiate the allegation.

"It's against Halacha [Jewish law] to go the police without speaking to the rabbis," said Rabbi Joseph Hershkowitz, 57, who counsels families in Borough Park and Williamsburg.

"We consider Shomrim and Hatzolah [the Jewish ambulance service] family. So you go to family first," said Hershkowitz.

He stressed that the rules apply only when a life isn't in danger. "Nothing supersedes an emergency," he said.

Leiby Kletzky's family first reported his disappearance to Shomrim. The patrol notified cops three hours later. "We have no problem with Shomrim being notified but we'd like to be notified as well," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. But in Leiby's case, he said, the delay didn't make a difference.

Rabbis said their followers talk to Shomrim because they trust it to get the job done.

"If you call 911 they are not personally involved in your problem. But if you call Shomrim, every job is number one," said Bernard Freilich, a Jewish liaison to the NYPD. "But my position is to always call the cops."


Now read something even more disturbing  from "Vosizneias" reported by Sandy Eller
The report says that 2 yeshiva boys, actually saw Levi Aron's car and instead of reporting it to the Police, they reported it to Shomrim, and inquired about the Honda, and Shomrim couldn't confirm it and Shomrim didn't follow up..... this was during a very critical time .....Police may have been able to save little Leiby Kletzky had they known.. I highlighted in red the problem:
Read:

While Police Commissioner Raymond Kelley publicly credited Shomrim for locating the gold car that was used to lure Leibby Kletzky HY’D to his death, according to Yiddish weekly newspaper ‘Der Yid’, it was a pair of Flatbush yeshiva bochurim who spotted the car and provided Shomrim with the license plate number of the vehicle.  The two young men, who are brothers, joined the search after watching video of the missing boy being lured into a car on Vos Iz Neias. according to their account.

As the pair drove around Flatbush, they noticed a car that fit the description parked on East 3rd Street.  Taking pictures and video of the car, they parked further down the one way street, deciding to watch for any passing cars that might match the appearance of the vehicle they had seen on Vos Iz Neias.  During that time, the gold car they had photographed never passed their vehicle.

The pair drove to East 2nd Street, between Cortelyou Road and Avenue C and the same vehicle they had first seen on East 3rd Street was now parked on East 2nd Street.  Wondering how the car had gotten there without having passed them on East 3rd Street they decided paid closer attention, noticing a man wearing a cap who not only appeared to be nervous but also resembled the man they had seen on the video of Leibby’s disappearance.

As the man entered a house, the brothers debated what to do.  Driving past the house again, they noted that the gold Honda that had first been parked on East 3rd and then on East 2nd was now nowhere to be found.  A call to Shomrim couldn’t confirm that the vehicle in question was a Honda and, discouraged, the two decided to return home.

As they looked for parking on their block, the two saw a member of Shomrim and several reporters from Der Yid.  Approaching the group, the brothers showed them the video of the car on they had taken on East 2nd Street.  The license plate number was called into Shomrim at 1:42 AM and just a short time later, the police arrived at Levi Aron’s house where the gruesome discovery was made.

Dusiznies: Why did they call Shomrim to begin with?