Kolko Victim to other victims: "SPEAK UP"

A New Jersey boy whose family was shunned by their Orthodox Jewish community after he went to authorities to report being sexually abused by a teacher urged other victims of sex abuse to speak out and get help from prosecutors.

Testimony from the 16-year-old boy, who was 12 when the abuse occurred, helped put his abuser in prison. Yosef Kolko, 39, was sentenced late Thursday to nearly 13 years after a judge refused to let him take back a guilty plea to aggravated sexual assault he had made in May.

The Associated Press generally does not identify the victims of sexual abuse. Speaking just before Kolko was sentenced, the boy urged others who are being sexually abused to come forward and speak out.

“I strongly urge you to go to the authorities and share your story,” he said. “I can’t say it will be easy.”

But, he added, “Victims are getting stronger every day.”

Prosecutors said the family of the boy was ostracized by the community for pursuing the case in state court instead of letting religious leaders deal with it. The boy’s father, a prominent rabbi, lost his job and the family moved to Michigan.

The victim’s father had initially wanted the case handled within the Orthodox community, asking a senior rabbi to help ensure Kolko stay away from children and go to therapy. In mid-2009, the father decided to take the case to authorities because he felt it was not being handled appropriately — Kolko was still teaching and planning to work at the summer camp where he had met the boy.

“My message to those monsters out there who are abusing: You will be exposed, you will be put behind bars, and you will go through hell on Earth,” the boy said. “Molesting may seem harmless to you, but the reality is that it kills people with every touch.”

Then he addressed Kolko directly.

“How can you ignore the tears and open wounds when you knew how much you hurt me?” he asked. “It’s ego and stubbornness that got you here, not me.”

Kolko tried to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming in court papers that members of the Lakewood community carried out an unrelenting campaign to get him to plead guilty and avoid bringing negative publicity on the community. He claims they showed him YouTube videos “of how inmates kill people in jail for being molesters in order to pressure me into taking a plea and avoiding trial.”

“If not for the extreme pressure by members of my community, I would not have pled guilty as charged,” he wrote. “I reject plea bargains offered by the state because I am innocent of the crimes alleged.”

Shabsi Kolko testified Thursday that his brother Yosef signed a piece of paper moments before pleading guilty that read, “All that I plead to is under duress, and to save my life.”

But the prosecutor ridiculed the fact that Kolko’s family apparently held onto the letter for months instead of bringing it immediately into court to try to prevent his plea from being accepted.

When he pleaded guilty, Kolko admitted performing oral sex on the boy and attempting to have anal intercourse with him.

Kolko, who had repeatedly called out during the nearly 10-hour court session when he disagreed with something that was said, declined to speak on his own behalf before being sentenced.

Kolko gets 12 years for raping innocent children

A judge has sentenced a New Jersey yeshiva teacher to nearly 13 years in prison after refusing to let him withdraw his guilty plea to sexually abusing a child.

Yosef Kolko appeared in court Thursday. He says he was pressured by members of his Orthodox Jewish community to plead guilty.

The judge sentenced the 39-year-old Kolko to 12 years and nine months after a hearing that lasted hours. Kolko declined to speak in court.

Kolko pleaded guilty in May while he was on trial on several counts including aggravated sexual assault. The crimes allegedly involved an 11-year-old boy Kolko met at a camp in 2007.

 by Taboola

From the Web

R' Belsky keeps torturing Kolko's victim's father, eventhough Kolko himself admitted to molesting the victim?

This is getting very bizzare!
 R' Belsky insists that Kolko's victim was actually abused by the victim's own father!
 It gets crazier,
R' Belsky had previously  issued a psak, that anyone who has direct information about sexual abuse, go directly to authorities.

So if R' Belsky has information that the victim was actually molested by the victim's father,  why doesnt he follow his own psak and call the authorities with his information?

Ironically, Kolko himself admits that he molested the victim. Yes, it was only after two other victims came forward, but he admitted and explained in great detail to what he did to the victim.
The victim's father, was a well known Rav & Posek in Lakewood, and he did the right thing by going to Bais Din.. The Bais Din disbanded and did nothing, while Kolko continued taking sexual liberties with innocent children. The father became agitated and was afraid that Kolko will never be stopped by the Rabbis, so he asked Rav Sternbuch if he can go to authorities, and Rav Sternbuch gave him a heter to go to police and he went to the authorities.
Guess what happened?
The victim's father a well known and respected Rav was humiliated in his own shul in front of his own Kehilah and  had to escape Lakewood, and move with his entire family to the Midwest, while the punk, an English Teacher by the name of Kolko is defended by none other that Rabbi Belsky. How crazy is that?

Read the following article by the Asbury press and cry!
The choice before a deeply religious father was one he never wanted to make.
His son had been molested by a fellow Orthodox Jew, and the local rabbis to whom he reported the abuse did nothing to remove the offender from his positions as camp counselor and schoolteacher.
The father had to choose: He could follow Orthodox tradition and allow the local rabbis to continue to handle the matter, or he could go to the police.
The father went to the police. Now the molester, Yosef Kolko, is headed to state prison.
But some in the community saw the father as the offender for involving the secular authorities in an Orthodox matter. He was ostracized from his community in Lakewood, where he was a respected rabbi, Ocean County prosecutors said. He resigned from his job at Lakewood’s prestigious rabbinical college and moved his family to the Midwest.
Now, debate swirls around the wisdom of the religious taboo that protects suspected abusers from authorities and defies state law.
The ancient taboo, known as “mesirah,” forbids Jews from turning over fellow Jews to secular authorities, but some say the concept is no longer relevant in today’s society.
“The bottom line is there’s no justification for not participating in the process for reporting these crimes,” said Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn, a psychologist in Jerusalem who has written three reference books on child and domestic abuse in the Jewish community.
As New Jersey law stands now, anyone with knowledge of suspected child abuse is mandated to report it to authorities, whether it be to police or child-protective services. But failure to report the suspicions is only a disorderly persons offense, which is why some state legislators want to come down harder on those who hide molester
State Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman, a Republican who represents portions of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties, sponsored a bill that would make it a fourth-degree indictable offense for anyone with knowledge of a child being sexually abused to fail to report the abuse. As a fourth-degree offense, failing to report sexual abuse of a child would result in up to 18 months imprisonment or a fine up to $10,000, or both.
To move the bill forward in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, Bateman relinquished sponsorship to state Sen. Donald Norcross, D-Camden. The measure was approved June 6 by the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee and is heading to the full Senate for a vote.
The impetus for the bill was not the Lakewood case, but that of convicted molester Jerry Sandusky at Pennsylvania State University, as well as cover-ups by the Catholic Church of sexual abuse by priests, Bateman said.
“If you look at Penn State, if a number of individuals had done what they were supposed to do, it would not have gone on,” Bateman said of the molestation at Penn State by Sandusky. “Sometimes the cover-up is as bad as the crime.
“With the Catholic Church, unfortunately, they have a terrible track record of moving these priests (accused of sexual abuse) from one parish to another,” Bateman said. “I’m hoping this (bill) will help.”

'I felt that children were in danger'

Ben Hirsch, co-founder of Survivors for Justice, a New York-based advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse in Orthodox communities, said he knows of similar situations in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, where the organization also does advocacy work. In one case, a man suspected of sexually abusing a boy was sent to a prestigious yeshiva in Israel, Hirsch said
What came to light during the recent Kolko trial, through the testimony of the victim’s father, was that a number of rabbis in the community knew of the allegations of molestation against Kolko and did nothing to remove him from his positions as a counselor at Yachad, a summer camp run by Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School in Lakewood, and as a teacher at Yeshiva Orchos Chaim, also in Lakewood. That is what prompted the father to go to the Prosecutor’s Office five months after he first brought the abuse to the attention of the rabbis.
Testifying at Kolko’s trial, the father explained how difficult the decision was for him.
“Going to law enforcement is not, at this time, common within the Orthodox Jewish community,” he said. “Even when it’s necessary, it’s considered unusual. ... People might believe that the alleged molester is innocent, and they would give the person going to law enforcement a very hard time.”
But the father also explained why he would rather face the repercussions: “I felt that children were in danger.”
The Asbury Park Press is withholding the father’s name to protect the identity of the victim.
Kolko, 39, of Geffen Court, Lakewood, pleaded guilty May 13 to sexually assaulting the boy, who met his abuser while attending Yachad at age 11. Kolko could face 40 years in prison, although Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson said he is not inclined to give him more than 15 years.
The guilty plea came in the midst of Kolko’s trial, after two more young people came forward to authorities and claimed they, too, were victimized by Kolko.
Laura Pierro, a supervising assistant Ocean County prosecutor who handled the Kolko case, said by the time she learned of all the people who had knowledge of the boy’s molestation and failed to report it, she was hamstrung to prosecute them because the one-year statute of limitations to bring a disorderly persons charge already had lapsed.
The pending Senate bill, in addition to enhancing penalties for failing to report suspected child abuse, would extend the statute of limitations to prosecute the crime from one year to five years, Bateman said.

Reports to police are rare

Thomas F. Kelaher, the mayor of Toms River who served as Ocean County prosecutor from 2002 to 2007, said he thinks the bill is a good idea.
“If there’s only a one-year statute of limitations, you can pretty much do a good job of covering something up for a year,” Kelaher said.
In the Kolko case, a Beis Din, which is a rabbinical tribunal, sent Kolko to therapy, but the tribunal disbanded and Kolko quit his counseling sessions.
“The idea that a Beis Din has the right to bypass the police is very problematic,” Eidensohn said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. “They have no authority to force anyone to testify or to even show up. ….If a person doesn’t agree with the Beis Din, they can ignore it.”
Lakewood police chief Robert Lawson acknowledged how rare it is for members of the township’s Orthodox Jewish communities to report crimes to the police.
“It is not the norm,” he said. “It does happen on occasion and usually it is when someone is frustrated, as is what happened in the Kolko case.”
Kelaher said he recalls few prosecutions emanating from Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community during his tenure as prosecutor.
“I don’t remember having any domestic violence or sexual abuse cases,” Kelaher said. “It would be strange for me to think that domestic violence doesn’t occur in communities like Lakewood’s Orthodox community.”
But there was a case involving the abduction and rape of an Orthodox woman in Lakewood that occurred in 2006, while Kelaher was prosecutor.
“Some of the people in that community said, ‘The only reason you people are involved is because we need your help in finding her,’ ” Kelaher recalled of the case.
The woman’s assailant was not Jewish.

Obsolete rule today?

A main obstacle to Orthodox Jews reporting crimes to police is the concept of mesirah, which has been the subject of sharp debate in recent years
The taboo, traced to ancient times, existed because Jews were persecuted by abusive governments throughout the centuries. Turning over a fellow Jew to non-Jewish authorities placed the entire community under scrutiny and at risk, Eidensohn explained.
“The well-being of the community was in such a delicate state that anybody who caused the king to be angry at the Jewish community was a threat to the community of Jews,” he said.
Some say it is obsolete today.
“That premise no longer exists once you enter modern society and you have a justice system that doesn’t discriminate against Jews, which is what we have in America,” said Hirsch of Survivors for Justice.
Eidensohn said the concept of mesirah never applied to violent criminals and sexual predators in the first place because society needs to be protected from them.
“The Jewish Halacha (law) is very clear,” Eidensohn said. “If someone is a threat to you, you are allowed to go to the police. If someone is a threat to other people, you are allowed to go to the police. … Five years ago, the most senior rabbis wrote a letter about the horrible consequences of sexual abuse and gave permission to go to the police.”
Eidensohn said Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, who is deputy to the head of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court, has written that child abuse should be reported to the police — something Eidensohn said he has publicized in his own books.
Michael Salamon, a psychologist on staff at North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center and author of Abuse in the Jewish Community, said Sternbuch is considered brilliant by many, but is not followed by everyone.
“Jewish law is based on the rabbinic tradition of debate,” Salamon explained. “The debate is not whether you can report (sexual abuse), but whether you should go to your local rabbi first for permission to report it. My position is, you need to report it, period. It’s not a rabbi’s job.”
Eidensohn said some rabbis view sexual abuse as a sin, but not something that is damaging to the victim, and they try to conceal the allegations because they are concerned about the perception of the community, he said.
“There are rabbis who think they can control a molester,” Eidensohn said. “That attitude is dying.”
But not for everyone in Lakewood, he asserted.
“They still hold by the original views,” Eidensohn said of the Orthodox leadership in Lakewood. “They are not only ignorant of the psychological consequences (of sexual abuse), they are unaware of the Jewish law published in the last five to 10 years that allows going to the police. They’re basically out of touch.”
Eidensohn followed the Kolko case closely and wrote about it on his blog, Daas Torah.
The Press made attempts to reach representatives of the Vaad, a council of Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish leaders, and Beth Medrash Govaha, its rabbinical college, to obtain comment for this article, but was unsuccessful.
Hirsch said he believes the only way the problem will be addressed is if authorities prosecute those who cover it up.
“Law enforcement in Lakewood should be doing everything possible to encourage reporting (of sexual abuse) and making arrests for obstruction of justice,” Hirsch sa

Rabbi Belsky says that Yosef Kolko is innocent, while Kolko himself says he is guily of child sex abuse!

Read this e-mail exchange from a fellow blogger!  I am writing to you in light of the recent trial of Yosef Kolko, who was found guilty last week of aggravated sexual assault of a minor in Lakewood. One of Kolko's chief defenders was and continues to be Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaas, who wrote a public letter to Lakewood defending the molestor and vilifying the family of the abused child. Following is the text of Rabbi Belsky's letter:  RABBI YISROEL BELSKY'S LETTER TO THE RESIDENTS OF LAKEWOOD      My ears should have been spared hearing the horrific news that one of your fellow residents in town informed upon a fellow Jew to the hands of the secular authorities, may god spare us, for which the [Jewish] law is undisputed that one who commits such an act has no share in the world to come. (see: Choshen Mishpat 388:4)       After conducting a thorough investigation I am absolutely certain that R' Y.K. [Yosef Kolko], may his light shine, is perfectly innocent of any wrongdoing of any nature whatsoever. And not only is he innocent but it is also as clear to me that all these allegations are fabrications made by [REDACTED].       Further, all the reports made to the secular authorities were only for the express purpose of casting blame for their [the victim's family] own shameful and cursed existence on others. And the truth is that the allegations they make against others are crimes they themselves are in fact guilty of and they seek to cleanse their reputation by blaming an innocent man for their own deeds.       Accordingly, as it is a great mitzvah to rescue the pursued from the hands of the pursuer and to make it known that the righteous man is right and the evil man is evil‐to rescue a pure and righteous soul. Therefore, anyone who has the ability to rescue the righteous and does not do so is considered as if he is himself the pursuer. (See: Rambam ‐ laws regarding informing 1: 14)  Thus, all who have the ability to influence the informers that they should retract their terrible deeds should do so.  Despite the fact that Yosef Kolko admitted his guilt of long term sexual assault of a child, Rabbi Belsky has neither retracted his letter or his vilification of the victim and his family. His letter is unfortunately a tragic example of the widespread, grotesque, evil phenomenon of rabbinic coverup of child molesters and persecution of their victims throughout the frum world.   Rabbi Belsky is a Senior Posek at the OU, an organization which prides itself on its educated leadership, its integrity and its protection of children. I am writing to you to join and be a signator in a letter writing campaign to all the administrators of the OU leadership, asking that they require that Rabbi Belsky publicly retract his letter if he is to continue to be affiliated with the OU. If the OU does not do so, it is giving credibility and publicly honoring a senior employee who advocates protecting sexual child molestors and persecuting their victims, even when the molestor admits his guilt. This is hardly a message befitting the OU and its admirable mission in the Jewish world.   Please join an email letter writing campaign to voice your opinion about this matter to the OU administration. Following are their names and email addresses. Please include Rabbi Belsky's letter to Lakewood in your letter to the OU. You may just copy the above letter and email it to the following:   Executive Vice President Rabbi Steven Weil rabbiweil@ou.org  Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb execthw@ou.org Chief Financial Officer Shlomo Schwartz shlomoschwartz@ou.org Chief Communications Officer Mayer Fertig fertig@ou.org Rabbinic Administrator/Chief Executive Officer Rabbi Menachem Genack genackm@ou.org Executive Rabbinic Coordinator/Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Moshe Elefant elefantm@ou.org Executive Rabbinic Coordinator Rabbi Yaakov Luban lubany@ou.org Executive Rabbinic Coordinator / Director of Operations Rabbi Moshe Zywica zywicam@ou.org Senior Rabbinic Coordinator/Vice President, Communications and Marketing Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran safrane@ou.org Senior Rabbinic Coordinator Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz rabinowitzn@ou.org Senior Educational Rabbinic Coordinator / Director of Kashrus Education Rabbi Yosef Grossman grossman@ou.org  Senior Director of Institutional Advancement Paul Glasser pglasser@ou.org Chief Human Resources Officer Lenny Bessler besslerl@ou.org Senior Information Officer Sam Davidovics, Ph.D. davidovics@ou.org Public Relations Director Stephen Steiner steiners@ou.org Alumni Connections Rabbi Yehoshua Marchuck marchuck@ou.org Community Engagement Rabbi Judah Isaacs isaacsj@ou.org Community Services Frank Buchweitz frank@ou.org Heshe & Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Rabbi Ilan Haber college@ou.org Institute for Public Affairs/IPA Nathan Diament ipadc@ou.org  Jewish Action Nechama Carmel carmeln@ou.org Job Board Michael Srulie Rosner rosnerm@ou.org NCSY Rabbi Micha Greenland mgreenland@ou.org NextGen Rabbi David Felsenthal rabbidave@ou.org OU Press Rabbi Simon Posner posners@ou.org Pepa & Rabbi Joseph Karasick Department of Synagogue Services Rabbi Judah Isaacs isaacsj@ou.org Yachad/Our Way/NJCD Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman lichtmanj@ou.org  Dear Tiferes, Thank you for your letter.  I agree that the OU should sever its relationship with Rabbi Belsky as soon as possible.  The question is what is the most effective manner in which to accomplish this. I think that what is needed, rather than writing to the OU staff (other than Rabbis Weil, Genack, and maybe selected others) is to reach out to the volunteer leadership.  So far, the only email address I have been able to track down is for Martin Nachimson, President of the OU: martin.nachimson@macquarie.com.  Here are links to what the OU website shows for their lay leadership, in case you want to try: Officers - http://www.ou.org/contact/C393#listing Board of Governors - http://www.ou.org/contact/C394#listing Board of Directors (appears out of date but that's what is on the website) - http://www.ou.org/contact/C392#listing Please let me know what you think. P.S.  Please let me know if you are using a real name or an assumed name.  I work with a number of people who choose not to use their real names.  That does not bother me, but I need to know when that is the case

Lakewood Bais Din Disbands & Refuses To Deal With Alleged Molester!

Yosef Kolko, Alleged Molester

Our Rabbonim keep telling us not to go to the courts, but rather to go to Bais Din.

Here see a case where a father of a molested boy did the "right thing" and went to Bais Din,  but Bais Din refused to deal with it. When the father realized that the Bais Din would do nothing, he went to the Police. He was then subjected to tremendous Community and Rabbinical pressure to withdraw the complaint and had to move his family from the "Holy" city of Lakewood. This and other similiar stories are causing a tremendous dilemma and an inevitable rift between Torah True Jews and their Rabbonim. The "Baalie Batim" are turning away in droves from their leaders and turning to the blogs for relief. If the Rabbonim do not  act swiftly against molesters, they will lose all respect which will eventually hurt the integrity of all Roshei Yeshivos'.

It may already be too late!

http://www.app.com/article/20110330/NJNEWS14/103300367/Judge-hears-arguments-on-potential-witness-in-camp-counselor-sex-case