Brooklyn, NY – Finding sexual abusers of children and prosecuting their cases is one of law enforcement’s top priorities.
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But in Brooklyn, District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office has come under fire what not vigorously pursuing cases in the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities, a charge Hynes vehemently denies.
On Friday afternoons in Williamsburg families prepare for the Sabbath. It is a sheltered community known for its devotion to old world values, but some say its a community with a secret made worse by decades of cover-up and law enforcement that looks the other way.
“We have a wonderful community, a beautiful community, but we have some of the same of the problems the rest of the world have,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind recently told CBS 2’s Chris Wragge.
The problem is the sexual abuse of children and the failure to report it to authorities. In the insular world of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, it is the accuser who is believed to bring shame on the community, while the abuser is often pitied.
“It’s an environment that protects offenders,” said Ben Hirsch of advocacy group Survivors For Justice. “There are a lot of known perpetrators in the community and they’re not being reported.”
In 2009, the Brooklyn district attorney set up a special unit to deal with the abuse cases in the Orthodox community. Since then, there have been 85 arrests, but the cases are shrouded in secrecy. Hynes won’t release names of the alleged abusers, saying it could identify victims.
“It’s a civil rights statute that precludes us from identifying the people,” Hynes said.
But not all district attorneys agree with that interpretation of the civil rights law. Assemblyman Hikind said he finds Hynes’ position inexplicable.
“Why he will not release information that other district attorneys release readily to the public because it is in the public interest, I just don’t get that,” Hikind said.
Hirsch said Hynes is bowing to pressure from politically powerful rabbis.
“I do believe that Charles Hynes is playing politics with children’s lives,” Hirsch said.
A charge Hynes dismisses.
“There is no more forceful partner with advocates whether it’s sex abuse or domestic violence than I have been in the 21 years I have been district attorney in this town,” Hynes said.
Of the 85 arrests, 14 have resulted in prison terms and some are critical of Hynes’ commitment to prosecute cases.
“Justice, that’s all we wanted,” said one abuse victim’s father.
“I wanted something to be done about it,” another added.
Those fathers, who didn’t want to be identified by CBS 2, said their sons were abused by Rabbi Joel Kolko. They said both boys were willing to testify against him at trial, but they were stunned when the district attorney let Kolko plead to lesser charges of endangering the welfare of a child, and given three years probation.
“He basically walked free and that’s what they wanted,” one of the fathers said.
“It was just shocking … shocking. It was a shock. We waiting for justice and it’s not being done,” the other added.
But some say cases fall apart because families back out because they are afraid of being ostracized.
“I think they throw the towel in. They might notify the DA after they’ve been to the DA that we’re not pressing the case,” Hikind said.
However, the victims’ fathers and their children were willing to go forward and they said they will never forget the justice denied them by the district attorney.
“They should do what’s right for the families that has been a victim of this guy, and not what’s right for the other side,” one of the fathers said.
Rabbi Kolko was arrested for violating his probation. A spokesman for the district attorney said there will no plea this time. His lawyer said evidence needs to come out at trial before anyone makes conclusions.
i think most of us can agree that it is def true. to many abusers are getting special treatment when they contact their rabbis or their “connections”
Good to see this getting publicity. The only way to get politicians to change their behavior is through increased scrutiny and exposure.
Can someone explain to me why Dov hiknd goes to the media to hang our dirty laundary?? I agree that there is a problem but what is the expected outcome of this besides bad publicity and making jews look like we live the lowest life, which isnt true.
Once again, I have to quote Justice Brandeis:
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant”
The DA is playing fast and loose with the lives of our children in order to stay in the good political graces of those who control the vote. It is politics as usual. If the DA truly wanted to clean up this mess he could and he should start by cleaning his own house (office). He could taken a lesson out of the Guiliani clean up the city and corruption work book. It is high time politicians forget about their own political aspirations and start thinking about what they will say when they meet their maker. G-d is the only score keeper they should worry about.
Wow. We have come a long way. Just a few short years ago, we would not have spoken about this out loud. Today, the DA is condemmed for not doing enough. In the past, such abuse was swept under the rug, today we shout that there is abuse and that abusers must be thrown into jail where they will, G-d willing, rot. It’s not only Dov Hikind, it’s more and more of us in the community that are demanding this – at the top of our voices.
For all of the skeptics, look at how many decades the Orthodox Union, along with the NCSY covered up the physical abuse by a Rabbi, who worked with young people. In spite of many complaints going back many years, nothing was done, until only a few years ago. The perpetrator finally served over five years in jail, for physical abuse.
When hirsch is the one speaking for our community we’ re in big trouble. he will only always blame all the orthodox rabbis and saying terrible things about all our Gedoilim and making terrible chillel H-shem instead of worrying for the children.
There is a famous story of when someone told R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l that he had told his rav of a certain person who was a child molester and the rav said he would “take care of it”, but he wanted to know whether he should go to the police too.
R’ Yaakov’s response was that he didn’t understand the question: “If by ‘taking care of it’ the rav meant that he’ll go to the police then of course you don’t have to, and if he didn’t mean that he was going to the police then of course you must.”
A shame there’s no gedolim like that today