CHILD SEX IN THE HOLY CITY
By Harmony Grant
12 Dec 06
You may have been shocked by Ted Pike’s recent expose of
permission-for-pedophilia in the Babylonian Talmud. He quotes passages
directly from the Talmud that sanction sex with boys under the age
of 9 or girls under the age of 3-1/2 (See, Pedophilia:
The Talmud's Dirty Secret). Apparently, rabbis liked to molest small children
a few thousand years ago.
Worse, they still like and excuse it today.
The leftist Jewish blogosphere buzzed recently with an eyewitness
account from Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg of child molestation in gay bathhouses
in Jerusalem. This report has been circulated on popular Jewish blogs,
including jewschool (“Mishegaas,” Nov. 12) and failedmessiah
(“For Marvin Schick: Mikva Man-on-Boy Abuse,” Nov. 10).
Jewish blog Chaptzem was first to post scans of Rosenberg’s
eyewitness reports (in Yiddish and Hebrew). He tells of seeing 7-
and 8-year-old boys sexually abused in the sauna of a mikvah, a bathhouse
where Orthodox Jews undergo ritual purification (http://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2005/08/mikvah-expert-nuchem-rosenberg-blasts.html).
Rabbi Rosenberg, who is a world-traveling mikvah expert, expressed
horror and grief at the sight. He said when he went to the religious
authorities in Jerusalem they refused to act, saying the bathhouse
pedophiles give them money to subsidize mikvahs.
“If this place would be in America,” wrote Rosenberg, “all
the participants would be in jail, and even according to the laws
of the Zionist government, such a place would be closed down. But
here, in the holy city of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), in beis zupnik,
the mikvah remains open and everything is permissible.”
Most Jewish readers who commented on the failedmessiah post accept
the authority of Rosenberg’s account. One wrote, “While
what he writes seems extreme, it matches what many abuse victims
claim.”
While dredging the web to research this topic, I stumbled on dozens
of comments and even entire blogs written by Orthodox Jews about
childhood sexual abuse.
In the eighties, Orthodox Rabbi Ephraim Byrks was accused of sexually
molesting women, boys, and girls in Canada. He was sheltered and
defended by his Orthodox community in Winnipeg, and in 1990 he accepted
a position as principal of a Jewish day school in Montreal and from
there went to New York and started another Torah school.
In 1993, one of Byrks’ victims, 17-year-old Daniel Levin,
killed himself. After a documentary (Unorthodox
Conduct, 2004, Canadian
Broadcasting Corp.) was produced about the suicide, the child-molesting
rabbi was forced out of work in the education field.
But within two years, Byrks was back as principal of a Russian
elementary boys’ yeshiva in Brooklyn, and later started another
Talmud boys’ school in Queens. In 2001, the New
York Post published
an article by Douglas Montero exposing Byrks as a child molester
(“Queens Yeshiva Boss is a Molester: Boy’s Mom,” March
31, 2001). Yet “Once again,” says the Jewish Coalition
Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA), “there wasn’t a
tremendous reaction within the Rabbinical or Jewish community.”
Today, Byrks lives as a private citizen and the cases against him
remain open, according to JCASA. For a quarter of a century, he was
involved in the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) and he currently
serves on the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, a committee responsible for
important decisions for the Jewish community.
Is it possible that Orthodox rabbis like Byrks excuse their abuse
of children with verses from the Talmud? It’s more than possible;
it’s almost a certainty.
One Jewish blogger (http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/11/mail-about-mikvaos.html)
posted an email that attests, “I personally know of many many
boys who were molested in mikva'os.
I am in close contact with an ex-chassidishe young adult who, over
time, was raped by at least 10 men; among them, rebbeim, often in
mikvaos.”
JCASA also reports on another rabbi, Moshe Eiseman, who was first
credibly accused of child molestation 15 years ago yet remains an
authority in the Orthodox community in Philadelphia (“Call
to Action,” Sept. 3, 2006).
The allegations have been confirmed with numerous victims, reports
the Awareness Center. Yet Eiseman remains employed by Ner Israel
(a prominent Talmud school in Baltimore) and lives on their campus
with access to children.
None of the Jewish bloggers express approval or acceptance for
rabbis who rape kids. Most express horror and call for these men
to be reported to the authorities. These writers represent the larger
Jewish community which is led like sheep by evil leaders. Most Jews
don’t even know that their own sacred Talmud sanctions child
abuse.
But it does. Rabbinic Judaism is an evil vine dripping with poisonous
fruit, “full of all uncleanness,” as Jesus said. And
today—in the forms of Zionism, leftist Jewish activism, and
Talmudic Judaism—it entangles the lives of 14 million Jews,
1.3 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians.
Today, evangelical Christians donate millions per year to the state
of Israel—most of which is entrusted to the care of rabbinic
authorities. Would Christians give so generously if they knew how
untrustworthy are the recipients of their gifts? Of course not.
But their ignorance is not easily excused. Both evangelicals and
Jews are notorious for closing their minds to the slightest criticism
of Jewish leadership—a willful blindness that has enabled Jewish
leaders to attain tremendous power. For such partiality, the church
will be held accountable, both here and in the hereafter. We will
have to answer to God if we subsidize Jerusalem mikvahs where small
boys are raped, instead of preaching the sin-reproving gospel that
could save Jewish souls.
