London – Metropolitan police arrested a London rabbi on Wednesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting women who came to him for marriage counseling and spiritual guidance.
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As part of their investigation into the sexual abuse and into three suspects for perverting the course of justice, four men were arrested in the north London borough of Barnet on Wednesday. Police have not named the men, but they are believed to be part of the Orthodox Jewish community in Golders Green, London.
According to The Jewish Chronicle, one of them is Rabbi Chaim Halpern, 54, of the Beis Hamedrash Divrei Chaim synagogue.
The rabbi has been at the center of an alleged sexual abuse scandal that has shocked London’s haredi community.
In November, Rabbi Ephraim Padaw, head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, received a complaint about inappropriate behavior by Halpern toward about 30 women who had sought marriage guidance from him.
Halpern stood down as a religious judge but continued to serve as rabbi of his own synagogue.
In December, a group of senior London rabbis issued a public statement declaring him “not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity” and called for him to resign his post as rabbi.
In response to the call, Halpern sent a letter his community professing his innocence.
“I proclaim I am innocent of all allegations. Furthermore, all investigations carried up until this point have been carried out in an incorrect manner,” he said.
A special rabbinical court was set up to look at the accusations that Halpern, a member of a prominent London haredi family, had been involved in inappropriate sexual activity in marriage guidance sessions.
Police confirmed that four men were in custody in a north London police station in relation to an investigation of sexual assault. The three other men, aged 62, 64 and 25 – one of who is reportedly Halpern’s brother – were arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in relation to the rabbi’s arrest. Under police powers, the men can be held for questioning for up to 48 hours without being charged.
Ch.-Supt. Adrian Usher, borough commander of the Barnet Police, issued a statement called for those involved in the allegations to come forward.
“In Barnet, we are currently working with members of all our communities to ensure the voices of victims of abuse are heard,” he said. “My message to those victims is simple: come forward and we will listen to, support and believe you.
Content provided by The Jerusalem Post
its about time
Here we go…… Let all commentators, gossipers, chasidem lovers, investigators,……..start writing
The last two words in the article are why going to the police is the last resort. “Believe you”? He’s automatically going to believe anyone who makes a complaint?
“Metropolitan police arrested a London rabbi on on suspicion of sexually assaulting women who came to him for marriage counseling and spiritual guidance.”
It’s getting so that you can’t swing a dead cat around by its tail anymore, without hitting some חרדי sexual abuser! Of course, abusing these women under the pretext of marriage counseling and spiritual guidance, is an especially repugnant level of being a מנובל.
I never thought I’d be one of the people who post & say the family is wonderful, chosheve etc. Well, I am now. I can’t believe this (as in, I’m in a state of shock.) I have no idea if these allegations are true but now I understand how people post as I just did. I truly ask mechila if I ever scoffed at anyone who posted similar comments. Now I understand.
I think it is time for a real reality check!
the jig is up and this is a problem that has to be discussed in the open and the time is now. Enough with the “Its not true” or “Its overblown” this is getting out of hand and something has to be done.
Why is there not one Rabbi that has the guts and does something about it? Come on! every day a new story its unbearable! Nuchem Rosenberg (wether eyou like him or not) comes across like a hero while the rest of the community is paying a terrible price.
Furthermore, our children are not safe! Look how they tried to whitewash this story and he fought with everything he got and now the government stepped in. Why dont we face the facts and tackle it?
Admit that there is a problem and do something about it. And dont do it quietly, do it with fanfare so everyone knows that you are dealing with it. this is very painful.
I have one question to these ex orthodox bloggers who try to besmirch the orthodox community. Non of you oppose gay lifestyles and yet are obsessed with blowing stories out of porportion. The orthodox community is booming and growing all over the world. Yes there are some rotten apples but that’s because the secular society has been corrupted by the liberals. Of course I hate molesters like every orthodox Jew does but lets call a spade a spade. It is only since gay marriage and it’s spread the last few years in america and Europe and unfortunately eretz yisroel that molestations have increased. Stop the gay marriage and molestation of children will be cut drasticly
If there are more molesters in the Frum communtiry than anywhere else (like the recent claims about unmarried priests) – then there may be place to target us.
If we have the same amount of molestation victims (or less – in my opinion) than why are they trageting our communities?
Our Rabbonim and justice systems work much better than theirs –
We have much less than average:
-homocides
-thefts
-drugs
-violent crimes
Why are they targeting our community?
Either target ALL child molestors regarless of religion or leave us alone.
#8 nobody is  220;TARGETING 221; anybody, the police are trying to help genuine victims. This has dragged out for months and the intimidation of victims, violence, bullying, lack of action by top rabbonim 230; all proves that we CANNOT handle these things  220;in house 221;. If someone entered your home with a gun in his hand and a yarmulke on his head I 217;d hope you would call the police. You 217;d probably call the police if someone stole from you. Why is molestation so different?
Reading these comments it is staggering how dumb they are. We clearly need more education in our communities about the nature of molestation, the molester, repeat offending, psychology etc. so people stop trotting out such garbage.
Not one comment mentions the victims by the way. As much as you may hate the  220;anti orthodox 221; bloggers they come across as a lot more compassionate to the victim.
stop the nonsense that we are picked on. Because most of us are decent moral G-D fearing jews who are like me, shocked then horrified. and we live in cliques in our self imposed gettos the news gets out. and we have something to talk about.
my question is where is the empathy and rachmonus for the victims.
i like the example if a guy in a kippa brandishing a gun came to your home wouldnt u call the cops? so whats the difference. The difference is this is a horrifying and repulsive act . usually committed by men (people ) held in high esteem and below the radar which assits deniability . we all think ” No way could he do such a thing ” In the past the rabbonim who meant well …..didnt and now we have too many victims untreated, and the odds that they will become abusers, we have way too many perps still at large, still abusing . For lack of more colourful language…ONE HUGE MESS . its time to change our attitude. if we dont a child or loved chas visholem could be the next victim.
And guaranteed it will be the talk of our community seems to be that way in my shul. in my town and yours isnt any different