The Rabbi known in his community of Petah Tikva was arrested yesterday in front of all his students - following a police complaint filed by his sister-in-law claiming that he raped her from the age of 14 to the age of 20:
The rabbi does not deny the relationship between them, and even admitted that he got her pregnant at the age of 20 - the event that ended their relationship, but claims that everything was in agreement and only when she was there In a gear.
She claimed - everything was rape and all this happened when she was a minor, and he was an adult.
She claims it was a rape that lasted 7 years, but her sister who married the same rabbi-doesn't believe it was rape. Although the complaint was first filed yesterday, there is documentation of a rabbinical court procedure years ago, that did not lead to results and was closed in the middle of the hearings.
The suspect's lawyer expressed anger at the conduct of the police officers
"Why arrest him in front of all the students when it's about a sleeping event".
The court determined that there is a suspicion that links the suspect to the actions and in order to prevent disruption of investigation procedures his arrest was extended for 4 days to allow the investigation to continue
I wonder what my younger self would think - if suddenly transported to the world in which we live today.
My parents were religious Jews who grew up in pre-Holocaust Europe. The religious values they absorbed stayed with them for life. I was raised according to those standards in post-Holocaust America. Although the world of European Jewry and American Jewry could not have been further apart culturally, the primary tenets of observant Judaism did not diminish in the slightest. Shabbos, kashrus, family purity laws (mikvah) were strictly observed, and Torah study was considered paramount.
But for my parents, living in the New World meant adapting to those parts of the culture that did not contradict halacha in particular and Torah values in general. So we owned a TV and occasionally went to a movie as a family. In short, we led a pretty normal American Jewish life without abandoning observance or Jewish values in any way.
It wasn’t only my family that lived that way. The acknowledged head of the Orthodox community in the city where we lived – Toledo - was Rabbi Nechemia Katz, who was also Rav Moshe Feinstein’s brother-in-law. Rabbi Katz was my father’s posek, deciding difficult questions of Jewish law. Our families were good friends, and we would often go to the beach together. (Yes, you read that correctly.) What may be little known is that Rav Moshe used to visit his brother-in-law in Toledo on occasion. That is how I met Rav Moshe. One year when I came home for Shabbos Chanukah (from Telshe) my father and I walked over to meet him on Friday night.
This, in a nutshell, is what life was like for Orthodox Jews in America back then (early 1960s).
The idea of mixed-gender seating in any arena (other than a shul) was not an issue. It was as normal as apple pie. Men and women were often seated together in various forums, such as concerts or banquets. No one gave it a second thought.
Fast forward to today. The following was published in Arutz Sheva:
He also argues that such behavior harms the Haredi community and its efforts to exempt yeshiva students from military conscription.
HORRIBLE: Teffilin and a siddur belonging to a police officer were burned by protesters in Bnei Brak after they set his motorcycle on fire.
Rioters in Bnei Brak have set fire to an Israel Police motorcycle used to keep the community safe from terrorism and crime.
זו תורה וזו שכרה
Two female IDF soldiers are chased by a mob of Haredi men in Bnei Brak before they are extracted by polic
The servciewomen serve with the Education Corps, and were in the ultra-Orthodox city as part of a home visit to one of their soldiers. They are not with the Military Police, contrary to some claims.