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Dear readers: I had in mind to write a lengthy piece as soon as I heard the verdict. I did not feel good about it, not because I was so convinced that he was innocent, but because it didn't seem anything was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and also because of who was on the other side. I'm sharing with you what my initial feeling was at that time. Ultimately it seemed like I could not be excited that he was found guilty when so many of those who really despise frum Jews were out to get him. They have hijacked this cause and now make it seem like they care about our kids more than we do. And we are to blame for this. Once we deal with this in a sane and just manner we will gain back some control of our communities. And the more we close our eyes to this the greater the damage. I realize that for the older generation it may be difficult to believe that stuff like this happens, especially at the hands of "pious" and "good" people, but we've been seeing this over and over again. Then I was privy to new information about Nechemia, and it wasn't good. Not from any self-proclaimed "child advocate," but from a close relative of another alleged victim. Someone who is very part and parcel of the establishment. He has no bones to pick, until now. Now NW is a monster to him too. Upon hearing this I decided that I could not in good faith write any words in his defense, even if it's just that the trial was skewed against him. So what we're left with is Chaim Berlin Tragedy's harsh take on reality. Truth be told I would not write some of the "terms of endearment" that he does, but sometimes I have no choice.
Hi, Tzig; ah freilichen Chanuka.
koidem kol, may all the sonei Yisroel have a mapola bimheira! And may the ohr haTorah and ohr haGeula finally shine all over the world! Ich zog, like that song, "that the times they are a changin'," and that all Charedi communities should wake up and see that the days of getting free passes and pleading for "rachmonus" because they are a "minority" or the "poor victims" are long gone. We are all big boys now and we must take it on the chin like men, and not act like cowards and crybabies. Charedim must start to practice the Torah mamash--- not just rebbisha bobba meises-- but real mitzvos like lo tinaf, lo tignov, lo tachmod, lo tirtzach etc. etc. etc., and like tzedek tzedek tirdof, etc. etc. etc. having rachmonus on the weak and defenseless and stop being money grubbing great greedy guts, worshiping the avoda zora of gelt, gelt, un noch gelt.
I hate to say it but we have a guy like Weberman who will be going to jail for not being careful with gilui arayos, the hoiz bucher of the Skverer Rebbe who is in jail for attempting shefichas damim, and sadly David Schick and many more in jail for geneiva, I would say to all of them sitting in jail "it's in the aseres hadibros stupid!" In the "good old days," when the media did not discover the Charedim yet, when there was no Internet, when no one could care less about children's rights and women's rights, when the Mafia was all powerful, none of this stuff was ever dealt with. If a teacher molested a kid there was nowhere to run to, now the child advocates and the courts make sure that people go to jail and pony up tens of millions, even hundreds of millions like in the Catholic church. It's the same yetzer horas but the world around has changed. You guessed it, it's the Modern world, with gizmos galore. In past time guys like R. Aron Schechter could have gotten away with okaying the expulsion of kid to disappear and even sell him off to the cantonists, but in today's word of instant communications on the web and instant people power, the tables are turned and the weak become the strong.
It's actually a very Yiddishe thing if you think about it, when did Bnai Yisroel become "strong" in Mitzrayim? When they were at their weakest and lowest point, Hashem empowered them and gave them a manhig like Moshe. And when the Yidden were in golus in Persia and were weak and defenseless and about to be killed out, it was the a Yiddishe meidel of all people, Esther HaMalka who was the po'el the geulah. And obviously on Chanukah it was the part of the nes, the weak became strong -- and right now too many Charedim are acting like arrogant bullies with big fat bellies with corrupt leaders who care about donations and not about din vemishpat. So it will be the goy'ishe courts through which HKB"H is teaching us that he still has ways to make those who hurt others pay, and they will now go to jail and sit with gangsters who beat them up, ra-e them and do to them what they did to other innocent people.
Did you hear about Rav Aron Teitelbaum's reaction to the Weberman verdict? He says that all the Satmar off derech kids should be sent to other countries!!! Now how crazy and evil is that??? Maybe he can take lessons from R. Aron Schechter how to send OTD kids to gulags like he helped with his talmid Michael Hersh who sent his kid Isaac to "Tranquility Bay" on far island of Jamaica in the Bahamas. Maybe R. Aron Teitelbaum wants to send his troubled teens to Uganda or Madagascar like the Europeans who were bothered by the "Jewish Problem" wanted to do a 100 years ago? So is there any surprise that a guy like Weberman gets enabled by a
While there are far too many rotten apples that are getting away with gilui arayos geneiva and even shefichas damim, r"l, Charedim still think they are still living in Poland or the Ukraine with the bulvans, or in Rusland with poeren and Cossacks. In short the mind-set is still of people who think they must act like they are in Czarist times or are still living in Stalin's gulags or in Nazi concentration camps, when we are all instead enjoying THE BEST OF TIMES IN ALL WAYS, yes sirree right here in the US of A, the joys and freedoms of an open and free democracy with equal rights for everyone in the best that Western society has ever offered (for how long is an open question ...). Too many Charedim are kofi toiv and are not thinking, they like America's as a malchus shel chesed but they also mock it's laws as hilchos sedom, like too many Muslims who are still on jihad still don't get that, and then just resort to plain old hefkerus ish asher yashar be'einav ya'aseh Just some thoughts. There is lots more to say. It is all very sad that it has come to this.
Have a Freilichen Chanuka and best wishes always,
CBT

