NJ Jewish News on-line | Activists welcome suspect's = extradition

Activists against sex=20 abuse in the Jewish community, from left, sociologist Amy = Neustein,=20 attorney Michael Lesher, and journalist Susan Rosenbluth, said = they=20 welcomed the arrest of alleged pedophile Avrohom Mondrowitz. Photo = by=20 Robert Wiener

The Nov. 16 arrest of a man in Israel on = molestation charges=20 was welcomed by New Jersey Jewish activists and by a Highland Park = man who=20 was one of his alleged victims.

Avrohom Mondrowitz, a member of the Gur hasidic = movement who=20 faces several counts of child sex abuse in the United States, was = arrested=20 in Jerusalem and awaits extradition to Brooklyn.

His extradition had been requested earlier this = year by the=20 Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, according to a=20 spokesperson.

Mondrowitz, who has described himself as a rabbi = and a=20 psychologist, was a youth counselor in Brooklyn's fervently = Orthodox=20 community in the 1980s.

He has been in Israel since New York police issued = a warrant=20 for his arrest in 1984 on charges of abusing underage boys, = including acts=20 of forced sodomy.

Just hours after his arrest, four activists in the = fight=20 against child abuse in the Jewish community met reporters in the = Manhattan=20 office of Michael Wildes, an attorney who also serves as mayor of=20 Englewood.

=E2=80=9CI don't see this as a moment for = celebration,=E2=80=9D said=20 Michael Lesher, a Passaic attorney who said he represents some of = the=20 alleged victims. =E2=80=9CThere is so much more to be done to = ensure that=20 Mondrowitz is in fact brought back and that justice is in fact = served. But=20 it is a moment for gratitude for victims who had the courage to = come=20 forward and expose their pain, despite the fact that many rabbis = from our=20 community who should have been there to support them did = not.=E2=80=9D

According to Lesher, who said he confirmed the = arrest with a=20 spokesperson for Israel's Ministry of Justice, Mondrowitz was = scheduled to=20 have a hearing on the afternoon of Nov. 18.

Amy Neustein, a sociologist who has been outspoken = on the=20 issue of child sex abuse in the Jewish community, said, = =E2=80=9CPedophilia has=20 not been redressed by law enforcement and the systems we have in = place to=20 do it. Instead, rabbis were discouraging victims from coming = forward.=20 Today is a day of sunshine. With Mondrowitz coming back, it is my = hope and=20 my surmise that he is going to point a finger at = others.=E2=80=9D

Rabbi Mark Dratch, a former vice president of the = Rabbinical=20 Council of America and chairman of its Task Force on Rabbinic=20 Improprieties, said there had been a =E2=80=9Ccover-up=E2=80=9D of = child abuse in some=20 parts of the Orthodox Jewish community.

Dratch is founder and director of JSafe, the Jewish Institute = Supporting an=20 Abuse-Free Environment.

Speaking of the principle of lashon hora, = which he=20 defined as =E2=80=9Cderogatory or slanderous speech,=E2=80=9D = Dratch said,=20 =E2=80=9CSometimes it is a tool to silence victims. Victims come = forward with=20 complaints and they are told, =E2=80=98Don't speak lashon hora.' = This kind of=20 approach is inappropriate.=E2=80=9D

Mark Weiss, 40, said he is still haunted by the = week he=20 spent at the Brooklyn home of Mondrowitz a few months after = becoming bar=20 mitzva in 1980.

Weiss, who now lives in Highland Park with his = wife and two=20 sons, told NJ Jewish News that as a boy he = =E2=80=9Cdidn't fit the=20 mold=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Chad trouble fitting in=E2=80=9D with = the religious life in his=20 North Side neighborhood in Chicago, where his father was = =E2=80=9Ca rebbe in a=20 very, very black-hat shul.=E2=80=9D

Meeting with a reporter at a kosher restaurant on=20 Manhattan's Upper West Side last week, Weiss spoke softly of being = placed=20 by his parents in a series of yeshivas in the United States and = Israel=20 before being sent to live with Mondrowitz, a rabbi =E2=80=9Cwith a = reputation=20 for helping out kids who are having trouble fitting = in.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CHe picked me up at the airport, and he = wined and dined=20 me. He took me to an amusement park. It was awesome, like this = total=20 attachment. He knew exactly how to push the right buttons, and I = was this=20 naive little kid. I wouldn't know a predator if he hit me over the = head. I=20 was just soaking up all the love.=E2=80=9D

When they returned to the Mondrowitz home in = Brooklyn, Weiss=20 said, he discovered the rabbi's family was vacationing in the=20 Catskills.

The man and boy were alone. Weiss said the rabbi = proceeded=20 to molest him and continued to engage him in sex acts during the = week they=20 stayed together.

=E2=80=9CThat happened every night,=E2=80=9D said = Weiss. =E2=80=9CI remember=20 thinking that once he started making moves on me that maybe this = was a=20 little strange, or maybe he was just being a little friendly and = making me=20 feel comfortable and affectionate. I didn't think twice about it. = It's=20 like when you have an animal that is out in the wild and has no = natural=20 predators, it will walk right over to something that wants to kill = it and=20 not know any different. You point a gun at a dog and the dog = doesn't run=20 away. It doesn't know any better.

=E2=80=9CThat was what I experienced, this nightly = routine, and it=20 never registered on the radar that this was a problem. It sounds=20 unbelievable now.=E2=80=9D

Weiss said he only revealed the events a few years = later,=20 when as an 18-year-old he discussed them with his parents and the = head of=20 the yeshiva he was attending. Weiss said nothing came of his=20 allegations.

Weiss had not been aware of the original = investigation that=20 led authorities to indict Mondrowitz in 1984 on four counts of = sodomy and=20 eight counts of sexual abuse. Weiss came forward in 2006 to press = the case=20 for Mondrowitz's extradition.

Weiss said he is =E2=80=9Cnot a vindictive person, = but I do have a=20 sense of justice. I'd like to see him go to prison and get a taste = of his=20 own medicine, but I'm sure if he were to go to prison he would not = be=20 alive for long.

=E2=80=9CBut the bigger thing is this sends a = message that the=20 sins of the past cannot be buried by the people in the community = who are=20 all the enablers. They make the system wrong.=E2=80=9D