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Lakewood, NJ – A 20-year-old Lakewood man who authorities believe has fled to Israel has been indicted in connection with a robbery at a jewelry store in Howell earlier this year.
The grand jury handed up an indictment this week charging Avraham Rotenberg, of Lakewood, with first-degree armed robbery, a crime carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The indictment alleged that Rotenberg, in the course of committing a theft, inflicted or threatened injury on four individuals.
The robbery occurred on Feb. 17, the indictment said.
Police have alleged that Rotenberg was armed with a shotgun when he went into Reich Jewelers in Grebow Shopping Center on Route 9 South in Howell that day. He told two employees to fill duffel bags with jewelry, police alleged. Two customers were in the store at the time, they said.
The bandit fled in a 2004 Acura TSX with New York license plates. The car was found abandoned in Lakewood the following day.
About 2 1/2 weeks later, an unknown caller telephoned a Lakewood rabbi and told him to look outside. There, outside the rabbi’s home, two bags of jewelry were discovered, police said.
“He’s not in custody, and he’s considered a fugitive,” First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Warshaw said of Rotenberg.
Howell Detective Eileen Dodd said Rotenberg fled to Israel on a new passport after the robbery and never came back.
He committed an armed robbery. He isn’t “troubled.” He is a criminal. There are many troubled youth that do not commit armed robbery. This happened because all of you don’t see the difference between hanging out at the pizza store and threatening people’s lives with a gun. You don’t see the difference between drug abuse and cutting Shiur. Neither do your kids. SHOW THEM THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! Stop making excuses. Teach Dina D’Malchusa Dina. Teach UShmartem Meod es Nafshoseychem. For goodness sakes. It’s obvious that he needed the kind of rachmanus you speak of years ago when he began to go off. Now he crossed the line to threatening others and violating the law. He has to go down so the other kids are less likely to do this.
If he’s guilty let him do the time and if he is innocent let him prove it in a court of law.Why should he be any different than anyone else in this country?
PEOPLE WHO POST COMMENTS NEED TO READ THE ARTICLE AND UNDERSTAND THAT THIS TEEN IS A TROUBLED YOUTH WHO GOT MESSED UO IN SOMENTHING TO BIG FOR HIS IQ TO UNDERSTAND. STUPID KID. NEBACH HE HAS RUINED HIS LIFE AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE. HOPEFULLY HE WILL NOT GET CAUGHT AND WILL TURN OVER HIS LIFE WERE EVER HE IS AS HE CANT SEE HIS FAMILY ANYMORE.
THEY ASSUMED HE WENT TO ISRAEL……
THEY DONT KNOW ISRAEL THEY WILL DEPORT HIM- SO WHY WOULD HE GO THERE.
If he fled to Israel, why does everyone know about it?
comment 8 youre right
yesh machriv olamo beshaah achas
the family has tried their best consulting with top knotch phychiatrists & proffesionals
this kind of rash impulse behavior is unpredictable
poor family, poor bochur – i wish him a refuas hanefesh
where is the communitty? Get him a good lawyer and have him turn himself in, will go a long way with the judge. better then having the US marshalls drag him in to court.
Seriously, this guy is troubled and one has to ask: Where were the parents (or guardians) when he was a minor? Where were the rabbeim who have a captive audience of young men?
When I was in day school, the rabbis called my parents all the time. In hindsight, most of the calls were stupid: “Your son talked too much in gemara shiur.” “Your son and his friends left the building too early for lunch.” “your son and two of his friends were talking during shacharit.” Blah Blah Blah…
I’m not saying I was innocent. I was very wrong. But my parents didn’t tolerate it. My father is from the school you crack bad behavior early before it spirals out of control,. I banged heads with them growing up, but I am grateful they kept me straight.
the whole story is stupind -they robbed and returned it- i guess they realized they made a mistake. nebech
Like #8 , I agree. This is a messed up KID. I know that in our legal system 18 is an adult, but in our community a 20 year old is still living at his parent 217;s home, and is not independant.
I think that VIN should try to change the headline to refelct that (not saying he 217;s noit liable, but I think calling him a man who commited armed robbery is the wrong impression)
so he left the bag for the rabbi to return to its owner did they get everything back?
he did the right thing after all
If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!
Running from the law just makes him even more guilty.
Sad situation.
How’d they get a hold of that picture. Looks like a typical Ehrilche boy…Do they know for sure it was him?
he looks on the picture like a nice litvisher yingerman does not look that he can hold a weapon I cannot believe it.
“ the whole story is stupind -they robbed and returned it- i guess they realized they made a mistake. nebech ”
???? If this were to happen to you r”l you would be talking differently
Firstly, trying to excuse his behavior based on how he looks is absolutely disgraceful. People who do that are naive to the extreme. I thought we had grown up past that after all the “he couldn’t have molested kids because he has a beard and wears a hat.”
Sadly, there are criminal elements in all walks of life and we can not ignore it. B”H you don’t often hear of a Jew committing a violent crime like robbery, but it happens sometimes. Saying the kid is a “nebach” or “didn’t grow up right” is a FACTOR, not an excuse. Those are things that can help us understand why someone did that, but it does not excuse them from the fact that they did it.
The Israel aspect is unfortunate. You can be guaranteed that people will use this as an example when dealing in cases with Jews, such as Rubashkin. This case will be provided as evidence that when in trouble a Jew should be considered a flight risk, and that is truly unfortunate.
I feel bad for this guy’s family for the pain that I’m sure they’re going through, but I feel just as bad for the rest of our community because of the way this will be used against all of us. That’s the real shame in this.
Why does this need tobe posted. Any rachmonus for the family. Let say he is guilty don’t you think they’re eating themselves up alive just from dealing with the situation they need everybody giving their say.
Why do you have his picture up?
#18 , you wrote “Where were the parents (or guardians) when he was a minor? Where were the rabbeim who have a captive audience of young men?”
I can tell you where the parents were. They were crying their eyes out watching their child moving in a direction that they knew was a wrong one. They were talking to psychologists and psychiatrist hoping that their son could be helped. They were holding sifrei tehillim and weeping bitterly, knowing the future did not look promising for this child.
Where were the Rabbeim? I am sure they were speaking to the parents and trying to figure out a plan for this child so he could be put back on track. The rabbeim were worrying along with the parents and trying to give this boy a little extra warmth and attention if they could.
Why do people automatically assume that the parents did not care. What do you think happens in a home when a child begins to act our or become depressed?You don’t think the parents are in tremendous pain and turmoil?
I have a son who became irreligious. Do you think I sat there and just enjoyed it as I saw my yingel deteriorate until eventually he was on drugs and completely irreligious? How many tears did i cry? how much did I suffer? I was in the emergency room with asthma attacks over my precious child. When you see my son with no yarmulka on and you might think “where were his parents?” Now you know where I was.
My question to you is 18, where were you?
This is no comparison to Rubashkin. Rubashkin lawyer agreed to sign any papers automatically agreeing to be exardited and deported if he flees so that excuse is gone. Once indicted and then you flee you sre getting extradited without question.
first that picture is from 5 years before the story happened, seconed he only returned about fifty percent of the jewelery ,and most of it was damaged, he should rot in jail, he ruined a persons parnosah and peoples lives you could have pity on kids who do drugs etc. but such a theif the only way for him to learn is to sit in jail!!
The story is pure Loshon Hora & maybe some motzei shem ra too.
There are many theories out there who may have put him up, or if someone put him up?
Yes he wrong, but we don’t know it all over here, it may have been a dare etc, he may be very naive & stupid or an outright rotzaiach, but we cannot try & convict on VIN blog.
The 3 boys in Japan, however stupid & naive knew that they were smuggeling, but didn’t know what they were smuggeling or how serious a crime it was & what could happen, they learned a very hard way, & we have a chiyuv of pidyoin shevuyim now.
This boy’s story may also be like that.He may have run to save others who have families & couldn’t run so easy.
The FBI just caught a jeweler in NYC if I remember for staging armed robberies, until now he was a tzadik & the robber a murderer.I am not jumping to any conclusions, or judging anyone, I am just alerting that the story may not be as simple as it sounds.
WOW! Who didn’t see That coming?
You aren’t a little child anymore sonny, you are (legally) an adult, so start taking responsibility for your actions. Running away will only further your irresponsible and destructible behavior. For those individuals who helped him “allegedly” flee the country, you are just setting a negative precedence for our children to think they can do what ever they want (including breaking the law), and having no repercussions for their actions.
P.S. For all those who are defending him, even if he is guilty of this crime, should just think about this scenario: Your child, husband, wife, mother, father, or friend, get held up with what LOOKS to be a Shotgun, the fear they are going through, the emotional stress it can potentially cause that can last weeks, months, even years after the robbery. Think about THAT before rooting for this FUGITIVE.
Avraham Rotenberg, if you are indeed innocent, then why not prove your case in the court house? Now that you have run away, you have only further their suspicions of your guiltiness. You are only digging a deeper hole for yourself. If you are caught, they may not even let you out on bail, and if they do, it would be for millions of dollars. You’re 20 years old, think about your future. Do you want to see a family in there somewhere? Because this whole situation you are putting yourself through by becoming a fugitive, is making that future, less and less of ever becoming a reality.
this picture is from when ha was 14 or 15 . I doubt he lokks anything like this now . He is unstable
You’re right all of you who say that he should suffer the consequences of his actions. Isn’t that the Torah way. But the Torah also has another option-Teshuva. Ever heard of that? Maybe he got caught up in the mafia? He is after all a troubled soul. We are all so into and understanding of kiruv rechokim. Why can’t we have the same attitude for kiruv kerovim? And no, a troubled teen is not the same thing as a fifty year old guy. In the interum of 30 years you’d hope to get some more seichal and abandon a bit of the teenage rashness. I’m almost sure he got caught up in something much bigger than him with people way more sinister than him who used his naivity and stupidity to do their dirty work. Let the tzeddaka organizations help the guy who had his stuff stolen and everyon could open a tehillim and daven for a lost and suffering neshama.
Thank you #39 for your kind comment.
I have come to realize lately that it is so easy to place blame when you don’t know the facts. Why can’t we live in a world filled with “daning lekaf zechus” instead of automatically jumping into the “blame game”?
May we all merit to see moshiach soon so that our suffering and the suffering of am yisroel may end and we do not have to hear of such horrific stories any more.
His parents are the most wonderful people in the world. Just imagine the tzaar of these parents – who knows if they will EVER see him again alive.
to those who say let him rot in jail,
please be informed that he has a condition called “tourettes syndrome”, a medically recognized neuro behavioral condition, that causes irrational decision making, low self esteem, high stress and anxiety, therefore even if we will assume that he did the crime, (which is not proven at this time, its very easy to get an indictment ), its true that a medical condition does not excuse him, still, it a medical condition should help people understand that its a rachmanus on him , and jail is not the need, but more important is therapy and profesional help, medicines, etc.
also, please be informed that i know the family, and that his parents did everything possible to help him, doctors, medicines, mental health professionals, all with warmth and compassion, sometimes a person makes one bad move which haunts him, which is the case here allegedly.
another point: lets make a comparison, Bernard madoff robbed 1) 50 billion from many people, 2) over a long period of years, 3) in his mature old age, yet, today they allowed him house arrest, and not jail, as opposed to avraham, 1) a medically troubled boy, 2) in his imature teen age years, 3) and doing a one time crime, 4) they say the heist was returned, so who deserves more to rot in jail?, think about it.
#18 thanks so much for responding to me. I think you might be missing a small point i am trying to make here. This boy’s parents I am sure were there very much for him just as yours were there for you But this poor child did not or could not respond in the positive way that you did. Every child is different and every child is born with inherent traits that affect all of his decisions. Your parents were lucky that you, their precious child reacted in a positive way to their demands and went on to live a wonderful life of torah. If your parents were my childs parents, he would have run away from home at 10 years old and would not have waited till he was fourteen.
We were very tough on him. It didn’t work. We were loving to him, it didn’t work. When he came in from outside high on drugs we made him go right back out of our house and sleep outside in the rain. we had no choice. We had other children to consider and he was a danger to us and himself.
I think that you might be walking around with a mathematical equation in your head that is incorrect.
Your equation is teen in trouble=parents not available. The correct equation is teen in trouble=painful history for the whole family and information that you will never be privy to.
I hope this clarifies things for you. Most importantly, it would be so kind of you to dan these poor parents lekaf zechus and not automatically assume they were not availabe for their child.
He is probably not staying in Israel.
No need to.
From Israel he could be brought back to the US to face the music.
1. He could simply run to Israel, leaving a clear trail.
2. Borrow a passport, and return to the US under a different name.
3. Change levush a little, live in another town, and blend in to a new community.
Let’s see, with a Litvish haavora he can easily blend into Chabad. All he would need to do is change to a Chabad arba kanfos, get a pair of 4 x 4’s, and stop tucking his shirt into his pants.
Of course, he would need to avoid opening up any gemora of seder nezikin, avoid any mussar seforim, and he would need to learn maamars and Tanya. He would also need to call everyone else a “snag.”
Or, he can get a kipa seruga, ditch his black hat, learn to pronounce his Raish like an English R, and go to Young Israel. There he could even drink regular milk! He would also need to call anyone who drinks cholov yisroel a fanatic.
,
Or he could grow dreadlocks, and turn Rasta …. well, that won’t work; will it.
Or, maybe he could move to the South … no that wouldn’t work either… wrong accent and he would give himself away when he told people, “That’s not how we did it up north.”
He could join the Army! He could travel to all corners of the world, meet people of all nationalities and cultures, … and shoot them. ooops… won’t work, they will finger print him.
I guess the Chabad thing is the best.
Yes this is intended to be funny, and not intended to insult anyone. So, hold your attacks, unless they are at least as funny. Not hard to do that.
robroy560
Unfortunately, you just do not get it. Your response to phoenix is way off the mark my friend.
Way off.
Phoenix answers your question “Where were the parents (or guardians) when he was a minor?” with such heart and class that it is amazing that you do not get it.
Phoenix says to you “I can tell you where the parents were. They were crying their eyes out watching their child moving in a direction that they knew was a wrong one. They were talking to psychologists and psychiatrist hoping that their son could be helped. They were holding sifrei tehillim and weeping bitterly, knowing the future did not look promising for this child.”
Phoneix concludes: “Do you think I sat there and just enjoyed it as I saw my yingel deteriorate until eventually he was on drugs and completely irreligious? How many tears did i cry? how much did I suffer? I was in the emergency room with asthma attacks over my precious child. When you see my son with no yarmulka on and you might think “where were his parents?” Now you know where I was.”
robroy560 with all due respect, I think that your subtle attempt at blaming eveything on the parent is not appropriate.
Since you robroy560 do not get it, I will attempt to sum up parenting as follows:
Some children fail BECAUSE of their parents. And some children fail IN SPITE of all the nurturing,shvitsing and davening that their dear parents do on their behalf.
Phoenix, I do not know you, but the little that you wrote on this subject you seem to be the second type of parent.
You did everything for your child.
May Hashem give you the koach to continue and see the nachas you richly deserve.
People, remember in reading the responses here, and in other threads. We are all Yidden. And, sometimes what we write may “appear” insensitive. But sometimes we are joking around a making light of things.
It is called humor.
It is called looking at the lighter side of life.
But NO One means harm.
Many of us have become over sensitive and find insults or hurts in every word.
I know. I am one of those who kids around all the time. I NEVER intend to hurt people’s feelings. But, I notice the same remark which used to be laughed at years ago, is not found “offensive” by so many.
Please let us all learn to enjoy life more, and not be so easily offended.
We may also say things which reflect our own feelings. For instance, we may be very angry any time we read about any Jew who commits any crime. This is for many reasons, including that we are embarrassed by it, and that we know that every bit of negative publicity hurts all Jews.
So, we strike out verbally against the perpretrator.
But that does not mean we FEEL no rachmonus. We may show anger, but we still feel al those feelings we feel for any Jew who is in trouble. We may yes, “He brought on his own trouble.”
But that does not mean we have no pity. That does not mean we wish we could help him or her.
Don’t automatically assume that when one condems the deed, that he is condeming the person.
We have had a few cases this past year of Jews being accused of crimes. It has embarrassed and hurt us all. Many of us, including ME have voiced some strong anger.
But NEVER did I feel hatred towards the person or family. Chas V’Sholom
I am writing this because I remember the words spoken regarding a certain person with intials SMR. I said some strong things, as I was horrified by the bad publicity which hurts us all. But, I never felt any hatred toward him or his family. However, I had numerous people accuse me of hatred. I was called bad names. etc.
So, let us all remember, that strong words may be spoken, but they don’t mean the writer hates anyone, and they need not be attacked for these words.
responding to #47 he did not return everything .stop trying to blame it on a condition like everything else in this world,I know the boy he is very smart,he saw an oppurtunity to make a couple of bucks and he screwed up, now he has to pay for it to learn a lesson!!!!!
The pressure of getting a kallah fancy jewllery: diamonds bracelets, earings, necklace, ring – I tell you, we may be seeing more of this as bochurim are pressured to get their kallahs expensive jewlerry, while their kollel parents cannot pay for it.
Please rachmonim bnei rachmonim.. Stop this already! Don’t you think the parents are crying about this? Think if you would have such a child who would be ggoing through such a situation. Stop condeming and say Tehillim to give the parents chizuk and the Aibishter should help to give this boy a chance to repent and start life anew.
Thats typical stereotyping.
How do they know hes in Israel?
Do black fugitives run to The Congo?
The sad part about all these many coments showing sympathy and generosity to the perp is that if he were not an obstensibly yeshivishe jew – if he were mo or worse a srugi, if he were conservative or non religious, if he were goy or a black or hispanic – none of you naysayers would be as generous or as sympathetic, you owuld be condemning him and throwing the book at him for doing what he di. regardless of upbrining, or “troubled” or whatever at “risk” excuse you can come up with. what are any of them different? because when you identify as one of your own it is not as easy to condemn someone for their actions. he did what he did, he knew what he was doing and he should be looked at no differently than anyone else at face value befor/
If it wouldn’t be tragic, this would be hilarious. Can you imagine a heimishe, Yeshivish or Chassidish armed robber?! It brings to mind a [funny?] story. Times were hard, Jobs were scarce. “Zelig” (fictitious name) name decides to go into a new line of work; Armed Robbery. With the newly purchased .42 (following the motto. “Every Jew a Twenty Two) he stops at the BQE, at one of the entrances to the highway. After waiting for two minutes, one of his acquaintances passes by in a car. Zelig pulls out the gun, tells his friend, in a strict tone of voice “This is a stick-up”. Friend tells him “are you crazy, zelig. NO! This is a stick-up. Hand over the money. Friend starts begging for his life. Zelig lets him go! Same happens with second, third, fourth and fifth customer. At the end of day Zelig comes home empty handed! Wife asks, NU. Did you make any money?…. anyway. enough of this supidity!!!
i heard that he was set up by a group of thugs who threatened his life if he doesnt do it, so its not his fault and thats why he returned everything he was able to return , because the crooks took the diamonds and all the gold he was able to return
“one bad move”
One bad move? Comparison to Madoff? Um…Madoff committed a white-collar crime. Whether you agree or don’t agree with him making bail, he isn’t a threat to society. A person who commits armed robbery (no matter what his Bar Mitzvah picture looks like and no matter how much his parents tried to help him) is a threat to society. He needs to go away for a while so that he has a chance to get clean, we have a chance to be safe, and other kids will be less likely to do drugs. Period. It isn’t about one bad move. It is Achzarius masquerading as Rachmanus to say he shouldn’t have to do any time. For him, for us, for the other kids out there walking this line. Have Rachmanus on all of them.
“yes, that’s what he still is”
We live in a country that has given us great freedom to learn Torah, observe Mitzvos, make a living. We need to respect the laws of the land (as the Torah tells us). The law will determine if he is a “child” or not. The law is there to protect us as a society. Whether a couple of thugs put him up to it or not, he put others in danger and stole from them. Very rarely does a criminal not have a story, a hard-luck path, good kid, altar boy, helped neighbors with the groceries. ..But, if that person becomes a threat to me whether because he masterminds a plot or is used by others to put me in danger, he needs to be stopped. We need to see this for what it is. And we need to make sure that our kids know these stories because most of the kids who walk that line don’t think this could ever be them. Addiction can get you to places like this. Our kids are not safe from it. We need to make sure our entire community knows the difference between at-risk behavior and dangerous behavior. It will help prevent the drug overdoses, the intentional suicides, the drunken car accidents, the armed robberies that have all been happening lately in our community.
BTW, the last time I made a comment like the one I just made, someone referred to me as a Baal Teshuva. I am honored to be called that, but I was born and raised Heimish/Yeshivish and went to Yeshiva my whole life. I live in this world. I am a U.S. citizen and a frum Jew. I care about our community. We have to do our best to help ALL our kids. We have to stop mislabeling things as “not Rachmanus” when in fact they really are.
Its funny that with the Rubashkin story, everyone wrote what a chilul hashem it was, but here where it is a clear case of a major chilul hashem no one said anything.
i grew up with this boy. i have since gotten married and moved away from lakewood.
i would just like to say that as bad as this was and as bad as every crime done by a yid is, this blog and conversation is the lowest of the low. were does the torah give us the heter to just”blog” about another yids misdeeds in a public forum without any information or knowing facts that would lead to a heter of loshen hora. i know everyone will respond with all good answers but these just simply classify them as a minuvel birishus hatorah. i am only on this page becouse a freind showed me there was an article on him, i dont read this becouse of all the discusting things people say.
i just want to say one more thing. there are times when i read about hatzolah or chaverim or chesed that make me proude to be a yid. there are times i read a blog like this that make be discusted to be one. does he deserve jail? maybe. are you the one to decide, no.
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.
Loshon hara to the maximum!!
MI HAISH HACHAFETZ CHAIM OHEV YAMIM LIROS TOV…..NITZOR L”SHONCHA MEIRA!!!!!
i don’t know how the editors take the responsibilty of publishing certain reports which are completely not neccesary for public knowledge.
for all you people judging… why don’t you first judge yourself in all areas of your life.. and once you see that you are completely clean nein adam lchaveiro and bein adam lamakom and everywhere in between … then you can judge..
and if you all know the reasons as to what led this boy to commit such a crime.. why don’t you volunteer to help other struggling biys so that they won’t get to such a point…
p.s. i don’t know the family or this biy..but i’m disgusted at the amount of loshon hara on a public forum… wow! you should all pick up a sefer on the laws of loshon hara today…
this article does not belong in the news section…aside form lashon hara you are also hurting the family.. as i’m sure they are sufferring from all this negative attention.
so if he is in Israel what are we worried about