Manchester, UK – A lecturer has appeared in court charged with supplying cocaine.
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Baruch Chalomish, 54, of Upper Park Road, Salford, was arrested after a police raid at a flat in Shudehill.
It is alleged that officers seized cocaine worth £3,000, as well as £2,000 in cash and several items of drug paraphernalia.
Mr Chalomish has taught at Jewish places of study known as Yeshivas.
He pleaded not guilty and was granted bail with conditions to reappear on February 18 for committal to the crown court.
District judge Wendy Lloyd imposed a 7pm to 7am curfew and ordered him to surrender his passport and report three times a week to police in Salford.
Co-accused Nasir Abbas, also 54 and living in a flat in Shudehill, appeared separately. He was refused bail until the same date.
IF AND IF IF IF this is true this guy should go to jail for a long time. Lets not hear one person defend creeps that kill other people by supplying them with ILLEGAL DRUGS.
wow wow wow
what subjects was he teaching
This is crazy. There are some people who are really addicted. Why should they have to go to prison for a sickness?
If this is the man I know from my Yeshiva days in Manchester, then he was a tzadik of a yid, and this is totally out of character. I would let the smoke clear before drawing conclusions.
Chalomish lemaynoi moyim
“Co-accused Nasir Abbas” …
see what it takes for a yid and an arab to make sholom?
Let’s start all the ‘kaf zechus’ stuff OK ,,,, now
so – no hechsger needed -taken trough the nose is not derech achila
What is with the British Jews and cocaine? After all, what do you expect when you live in the cocaine capital of the world (London)?
Cocaine tihyeh lanu?
To #4 :
Suppling and using are not the same. Many suppliers won’t touch the stuff.
He is not the sick one with an illness, he is the sick one giving everyone else he supplies the drugs to, the illness. That is why drug dealers go to prison. As for being addictive – people do it for the money – that is what he (and everyone else nowadays it seems) is addicted to – money.
hey man really dude whatever it takes 2 keep the bachurim into it maan
I’ve personally been told by a rov that one who supplies drugs to bochrim is a rodaif and should be reported to the police and the rov went so far as to say in front of his own bochrim that he would make the call to report to the police himself b’sha’as maiseh if he knew when and where it was happening.
did he teach in yeshiva shaarei torah? that’s on 40 upper park rd.
I knew this man in yeshiva. Unfortunately when his first wife was niftar about 12 yrs ago he became very depressed. This does not mean he is guilty. The sheygetz could have used him unknowingly. This happens.
he taught in many schools, was a very caring and sweet man and good teacher, something must of happened that he ended up here. i know his wife passed away some years ago.
lets wait to hear the story…it could have been a set up
“Charged with” doesn’t mean he’s guilty of it. Please give the man his “innocent until proven guilty.” Why are you all so quick to condemn?
I knew this man VERY well. I spent numerous hours in his home, I was good friends with one of the kids. I use the past tense because I moved out of England many years ago. I knew him as a fun, spontaneous loving father, and adoring husband. He unfortunately, as already commented went through a traumatic sudden loss of his beloved wife, an exceptional woman. He underwent a dramatic change emotionally almost immediately. I’ve always suspected him of suffering from severe depression. Trust me that Manchester is light years away from acknowledging that emotional health requires professional treatment.
I do not know what he has done and offer no opinion on his behaviour or acquaintances. I do not condone doing or dealing drugs but I will say one thing; He is an unfortunate soul who has suffered immensely and my heart goes out to him, and his children who have suffered enough for almost fifteen years.
My T’fillos will be for his three children that once again they be given the strength to deal with a public blow without any parental love or support. Your mother A”H and her firm Emuna is with you now.
My son is in Yeshiva in Manchester, But WHICH yeshiva did this guy teach in?
As an addiction professional, let me chime in with some info.
Cocaine can be ingested in several ways. It can be used intravenously (IV) by injection. It can be taken as powder and snorted through the nose. It can also be smoked. Crack is the version of it that is combined with a base (alkali), but it can be smoked without the base combination. The reason that some prefer to smoke it is because the “hit” comes sooner because of quicker absorption and it reaches the brain faster.
I had a neighbor a block away who was a known drug dealer. I asked a Dayan whether there was a heter to report him to authorities. The answer – it’s a mitzvah. For that matter, he said that according to halacha, I would be permitted to murder him, which would also be a mitzvah, but that this is only not recommended because the secular law would be more conservative about that.
As for the “sick” aspect, this pertains to the drug use. I actually prefer when the addicts I treat have legal problems and are facing charges in secular court. This provides the leverage needed to keep them in treatment. My effort is to have the treatment mandated by the court, and that this substitutes for the other consequences (jail). One can treat drug addiction. One cannot treat drug dealing. That is a crime, and the dealer is a rodeif in every sense. Let him sit. I pay very little attention to the depression issue, though he deserves whatever treatment for that is available. But this is not a reason to exonerate him from the charges of drug dealing, potentially causing danger and death to countless people.
Idon’t know the fellow concerned,but Ido happen to know that there is a growing drug problem in the Jewish areas of Manchester for some time now,particularly cannabis(pot)
It does not say anywhere in this news item that he is even accused of supplying or notifying any students that he was in the possession of this substance. Please read it again. He is being accused of possession. which is currently illegal. Possession does not make a person a rodef. Supplying, or even encouraging cocaine use, would probably qualify on some level.
One more point. there are bochurim that are addicted to controlled substances, and a sensitive Rabbi may have picked up on it. there is a method of detoxing that uses the idea of de-sensitization. In order to do this, there would have to be some of the substance available.
As a person who suffered terrible depression after an abusive marriage, I can say that there was a point where I understood why people use drugs and alcohol. I had access to excellent therapy, and any antidepressant on the market. They didn’t help. I was in deep, deep emotional pain, and griefstricken over the loss of my dreams,and riddled with self-recrimination and guilt. It took an incredibly strong and emotionally open Rav, and years of supportive counseling for me to re-group enough to get back on my feet.
If, as his friends say here, he is an intellingent, caring man… what he needs now is for those very friends to contact him, and find out what the story is. Give your friend a chance to tell his side… if you want the Ribono Shel Olam to hear your side.
I found out that he didn’t teach in yeshiva,but in the Jewish day school,now known as Yesoiday Hatorah,what you in USA may call a yeshiva,but what we call a school.The have also raided a number of so called “cannabis farms”in the predominantly Jewish area of Prestwich,some were next door Jewish neighbors who were unaware of what was going on next door,the Manchester Jewish Telegraph reported on Friday that a lot of this cannabis is sold to local Jewish youth!Hashem yerachem.
To #48 – yes, the line was a redundancy. I used it to insure that the reader who may not understand the term intravenous had another chance to understand through use of the word injection. At least my double talk was not conveying conflicting thoughts. And my sources credit Yogi Berra.
To #47 , you have expressed my statement in your own words, and you did this well. While halacha has no problem with eliminating the rodeif, secular law has its issues with this. So reporting this is the preferred intervention. In this instance, the Assistant District Attorney who was in charge of drug offenses in the area was someone who was frum. He had been working at trying to get this dealer for years. As things went, the dealer left town, and the word on the street is that he has entered more legitimate business ventures. Frankly, I do not trust that, but he is no longer in town, and I have not spent much time in trying to trace his whereabouts.
I heard someone had a grudge against him so tried to get him into trouble. What evidence is there of any wrongdoing? None!
I have lived in Manchester for years and can vouch that he is an ehrliche guy. His late wife, a true Tzadekes was niftar some years ago after a lengthy illness. It is not for us to jump in and judge him. He is innocent until proven otherwise and cetainly we need to dan lechaf zechus. Finally in terms of the rodeif issue there is absolutely no implication he supplied drugs at all, certainly not to Yidden – in fact this apartment where he was caught is not within or even particularly close to the ‘Jewish neighborhoods of Manchester.
It wasn’t a lengthy illness. It was brief and cruel and killed her in 3 weeks from diagnosis.
I am convinced his problems started after he lost his wife. She was his rock. Until you have gone a mile in his shoes, no one should judge. He needs the family’s support now, not judgment and harsh words.
Iknow him thru and thru. I ahve no doubt he was ‘set up’ by someone with a grudge. Maybe you ‘Ta lmidei Chachomim’ who have spoken about ‘roidef’ etc would like to tal;k a little about ‘malshinim’. To all those who are so quick to talk about him as if already proven guilty, here’s a sobering thought for you: ‘be’midda she’odom moided…’
lets hope this ‘not yet proven’ story, will wake up Manchester to what is really happening to our future generation, and stop askonim burying their heads in the sand!!!
i am thinking about u always….. its so sad wot has happened …. i hope u get ur chin up .. u know where i am ….. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
firstly the codefendant no showed but in a statement to the police Abbas said the flat was in his name and he was the dealer and that Chalomish did not sell the drugs