Jewish Pedophilia

Yeshiva Teacher Accused of Molesting Students. Jerusalem Post, January 12, 2000

"Police three weeks ago launched an investigation into alleged sexual abuse by a teacher at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva 14 years ago ... In mid-December, police were alerted to accusations by three men - now in their late 20s - who studied at the yeshiva in their teenage years and said they were sexually molested by the man. Police then began investigations into other men who reportedly were also sexually abused, but did not come forward ... The head of the yeshiva, former Ashkenazi chief rabbi Avraham Shapira, was alerted to the complaints several months ago in an anonymous letter and soon after in an anonymous phone call ... Senior National Religious Party figures, meanwhile, reacted to reports that Shapira attempted to silence those who made the allegations of sexual misconduct ... This is not the first time that Shapira has been suspected of trying to prevent a police inquiry into the improprieties of yeshiva teachers. Last year, he received a warning letter from Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein after he was said to have tried to cover up the illegal sexual behavior of Ze'ev Kopolevitch, formerly head of Jerusalem's Netiv Meir Yeshiva, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison."

Arrest of Ex-Employee Sparks Concern. compcocity.com [originally from Edmonton Jewish Life], [Undated, 1990s]

"A former employee of Calgary Jewish Community Council has been charged with possession of child pornography, sexual assault and sexual interference with a child under 14 years of age. David Webber, 35, was arrested on February 22. On that date, police executed a search warrant on his apartment. In the search, they seized a large number of Polaroid photographs of nude boys aged 10 to 14 and written materials. Several children have already been interviewed and are alleged to be victims of sexual assault ... Before moving to Calgary, Webber was youth director of the Beth Israel Synagogue in Edmonton. In 1990, he was charged with sexual assault in Edmonton, but the charges were subsequently dismissed."

Synagogue Sexton Guilty of Pedophilia. Haaretz [Israel], June 22, 2001

"A garbage truck driver with a part-time job as a synagogue sexton in a town in the center of the country was convicted yesterday by a Jerusalem District Court for sexually assaulting children who went to synagogue to pray with him ... At least three children were involved, with one, the 13-year-old, being the son of another synagogue official. That boy was so disturbed by the sexual abuse that he took up drugs, and the sexton then exploited that knowledge to blackmail the youth into more sexual intercourse. The other two children were subject to his fondling, often on the back porch of the synagogue during prayers, in exchange for sweets."

Rabbi Jailed. Instructor at Cheder Menachem Grade School Accused of Molesting Boys, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, December 14, 2001

"A rabbi accused of molesting three boys at a Chabad elementary school was arrested Dec. 3 and remained at the L.A. Men's Central Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail as The Journal went to press. Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov's arrest on 10 felony counts of committing lewd acts with children came following an investigation by the LAPD after three boys, ages 8 to 10, reported last month that Yomtov was keeping each of them alone in the classroom and molesting them while the other children were at recess. Yomtov, 36, an Australian-born rabbi with a wife and four children, pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set for Dec. 17. Yomtov has taught 8- to 10-year-olds for six years at Cheder Menachem, a school with 220 boys, kindergarten through eighth grade, on Melrose Avenue in the Beverly Boulevard-La Brea Avenue neighborhood. The school issued a written statement following the arrest: 'Due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and to protect the privacy of our students, parents, teachers and staff, the school will be making no public comment.' The statement went on, 'We request that our privacy be respected. The school is cooperating fully with all applicable authorities.'"

Scout 'Perv' Might Go Free, New York Post, December 19, 2001

"The accused pedophile scoutmaster of the Upper East Side's Boy Scout Troop 666 will seek a no-jail deal today - and the young sodomy victim's anguished family is furious. 'He is a wolf of the worst kind under that sheep's clothing,' the victim's mother said of the since-fired scoutmaster - married Upper East Sider Jerrold Schwartz, 42. 'Anything less than the maximum sentence would be unfair to my son,' the mother - whose name is being kept confidential - said in a Dec. 13 letter to the judge, who will consider a possible plea deal today in Manhattan Supreme Court. Prosecutors say a total of five credible victims have accused Schwartz - who also ran a Colorado-based youth travel company - of turning Troop 666 into Boy Scout hell through a pattern of winning kids' trust, tempting them with overnight ski and camping trips - and then molesting them. 'I say 10 minutes in a room with me - that's a fair sentence,' one of these alleged victims, a now 30-year-old Queens man, angrily responded when informed of the negotiations yesterday. But Schwartz is only charged with sodomizing one boy - a total of 36 times - because the statute of limitations has run out on the other cases. That boy is now 20 years old. He's in in-house rehab for cocaine addiction and alcoholism, his parents wrote the judge. He bathes compulsively 'because he feels so dirty,' they said. He also has nightly nightmares, and self-mutilates."

Synagogue Cantor Arrested on Sexual Abuse Charges, Newsday, February 20, 2002

"The longtime cantor at one of the nation's largest and most prominent Reform synagogues was arrested in New York on Wednesday on charges that he sexually abused a nephew, a prosecutor said. Howard Nevison, 61, of Congregation Emanu-El, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, was arrested at his apartment, said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. Police in Lower Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, charged Nevison with sexually assaulting the boy on three occasions between 1993 and 1997 while the boy was 3 to 7 years old. 'Like anyone else, we in law enforcement tend to believe that religious figures are beyond reproach. You want to make very sure before you go accusing one,' Castor said. Police have known about the allegations since about 1998 but did not pursue charges until the victim, who was undergoing therapy, was ready to confront the uncle, Castor said. 'He had terrorized the child to the point that, in the judgment of his parents, his therapists and our investigators, he was too traumatized to go forward,' Castor said."

In 2 Communities, Concern Over the Arrest of a Cantor, New York Times, February 22, 2002

"The proper, prosperous residents of the Upper East Side of Manhattan and of the Main Line Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion Township stood united yesterday in sheer disbelief over the same sordid tale - a synagogue cantor accused of molesting his prepubescent nephew. The lawyers, investment bankers, politicians and other prominent members of Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan struggled to square their image of the cantor, Howard Nevison, the golden-voiced tenor who led them in prayer for 23 years, with the Lower Merion police's description of him as a violent sexual abuser of a child. The imposing temple at Fifth Avenue and 65th Street, said to be the largest synagogue in the world, is home to one of the nation's most prominent reform congregations. It counts among its members the new mayor of New York, the Manhattan district attorney and familiar names from the media and the arts."

Song of Sorrow, New York, April 15, 2002

"Joel's parents were as baffled as they were horrified. Almost a year would pass before they'd come to understand the source of his demons, a year in which their curly-haired boy was frequently suicidal and obviously terrified. In therapy over the subsequent months, he slowly started revealing the torments he'd endured at the hands of his own family. He'd been sexually abused by his uncle Larry (his father's older brother, who confessed in 1999 and is currently in prison), and also by Larry's adult son Stewart, who pleaded guilty and served a year before being released on parole. Finally, the boy charged, he was sexually abused by his uncle Howie (his father's oldest brother, fourteen years Henry's senior). Uncle Howie is better known to New Yorkers as Cantor Howard Nevison, part of the rabbinical hierarchy at Congregation Emanu-El, the city's most prominent Reform Jewish synagogue, for 23 years.

In the early-morning hours of February 20, police arrested him in his Upper West Side home. On April 17, a preliminary hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. He is contesting the charges. 'Howard Nevison is innocent, and we are confident he will be exonerated,' says his attorney, Ralph Jacobs. These accusations are very different from the suddenly ubiquitous stories of priests molesting parishioners. This is strictly a family affair ... .

But for Nevison, the blow had been coming for years; the cantor first learned he was a suspect not long after Joel's parents initially approached the police in 1998. Linda Fairstein, former longtime chief of the New York district attorney's sex-crimes-prosecution unit, says she's "stunned" that it took so long to file charges against the cantor. "I've never heard of that," she says. "It's quite extraordinary that people who already gained the trust of a child for the prosecution of relatives couldn't then also elicit his consent in prosecuting another one at the time."

Why the delay? Joel, according to the Pennsylvania district attorney bringing the charges, was too afraid to testify against the cantor, allegedly the most terrifying of the three men accused of molesting him. In the affidavit of probable cause that resulted in Howard Nevison's arrest, the boy describes him as 'a big man with a mean, powerful voice and frightening glare,' who threatened to kill him if he spoke up ... Some parents were outraged to learn that the temple leadership had known since 1998 about an investigation of the Nevison family yet continued allowing the cantor to meet with boys and girls preparing for their bar mitzvahs."

A Cry for Help that Went Unheeded. philly.com, April 6, 2000

"Prosecutors say the Kensington man repeatedly raped and sodomized two girls whom his wife was baby-sitting at their rowhouse. He allegedly employed a plastic baseball bat on one occasion. But the ugliness of the details is not all that makes the case stand out. Philadelphia police were called in four years ago, when the attacks allegedly began. One of the girls, then 8, described the assaults in graphic detail. But the sex-crimes unit closed the case after a cursory investigation. Investigators did not interview the man, Samuel Cohen, or inform child-welfare authorities of the allegations against him, The Inquirer has learned. Cohen continued assaulting one of the girls, then 7, for five more months, police now say. One of the assaults was so brutal that the child was taken to a hospital with vaginal injuries, records show."

Man Sentenced to at Least 45 Years in Child Sex Cases. Las Vegas Review-Journal, July 4, 2000

"A 41-year-old man with a prior felony conviction for child molestation was sentenced Monday to a minimum of 45 years in prison. In March, Russell D. Cohen pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual assault with a minor under 14, sexual assault with a minor under 16, and use of a minor in producing pornography. Incidents involving about 10 victims were combined into the three charges. Cohen was arrested in August and accused of forcing two boys into sex acts. Authorities said Cohen met young boys by employing them to distribute fliers throughout the Las Vegas Valley and then took them to his home, where they were sexually abused. Shortly after news of Cohen's arrest was circulated in the Las Vegas media, police received a videotape in the mail that showed a man engaging in sex acts with several male juveniles. In October, additional charges were filed against Cohen in connection with the videotape."

Lanner Indicted on Sex Abuse Charges. Jewish Week, March 16, 2000

"Nine months after The Jewish Week reported on allegations that Rabbi Baruch Lanner had abused teenagers in his charge for three decades, a Monmouth County, N.J., grand jury indicted him Wednesday on six criminal charges. The rabbi faces two counts each of aggravated criminal sexual conduct, criminal sexual conduct and endangering the welfare of a child. The crimes are second-, third- and fourth-degree offenses. A second-degree offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison ... The first woman, now 19, alleged that Rabbi Lanner sexually abused her almost daily in his office at the yeshiva when she was a 14-year-old ninth-grader there in 1995 and 1996."

The Awareness Center, [List of over 30 rabbi and other Jewish clergy child molesters, etc.]
"Mass Molestation Cases Not Including Clergy Case of Ohel Counselor - Simcha Adler, NY Case of School Counselor - Eugene Loub Aronin, TX Case of School Teacher - Lawrence Cohen, NJ Case of School Principal - David B. Harrington, Rockville, MD Case of Jewish Big Brother Volunteer - Eric Hindin, Newton, MA Case of Judge Ronald Kline, CA Case of the Kosher Butcher in Chicago Case of the New York Society for the Deaf's Home Case of the Rogers Park JCC, Chicago Illinois Case of Teacher/Track Coach - Adam Theodore Rubin, MD Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein, Las Vegas, NV Case of Teacher - Georges Schteinberg, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Israeli vice-consul Aryeh Scher - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Case of Camp Counselor - David Schwartz, Culver City, CA Case of Scoutmaster - Jerrold Schwartz, NY Case of Tel Aviv Arts School, Tel Aviv, Israel Case of Mashgiach (Kashrut Supervisor) David Douglas Webber, Canada Clergy Abuse Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach Case of Rabbi Sidney Goldenberg Case of Cantor Joel Gordon Case of Rabbi Israel Grunwald Case of The State of Israel Vs.Sex Offender Case of Rabbi Tzvi Flaum Case of Yehudah Friedlander Case of the Rabbi at Hillel Torah, Chicago, IL Case of Rabbi Steven Jacobs Case of Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement Case of Rabbi Steven Kaplan Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner Case of Rabbi/Rosh Yeshiva Ze'ev Kopolevitch Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner Case of Rabbi Jerrold M. Levy Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew Case of Rabbi Richard Marcovitz Case of Rabbi Juda Mintz Case of Rabbi/Psychologist - Avrohom Mondrowitz Case of Cantor Howard Nevison Case of Rabbi Fred Neulander Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair Case of Rabbi Charles Shalman Case of Rabbi/Yeshiva Teacher Ze'ev Sultanovitch Case of Rabbi David Weinberger Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiner Case of Rabbi Mordechai Willig (Accused of cover-up in the case of Baruch Lanner) Case of Cantor Phillip Wittlin Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman Case of Rabbi Max Zucker"

Father charged with abusing, raping his children and wife, by David Ratner, Haaretz (Israel), February 19, 2003

"A 62-year-old Haifa man was charged yesterday with physically and mentally abusing his children and wife for many years. He is also suspected of raping two of his daughters ... In 1984, the indictment says, he married a woman who had two daughters, aged 12 and 8. He is accused of raping his elder stepdaughter for the first time when she was 17 and then throwing her out of the house naked. He continued raping her until she turned 21, threatening to tell that she was sleeping with him if she resisted. He stopped raping and abusing her only when she married, at the age of 23. He started raping his younger stepdaughter when she was 15, in addition to beating her and screaming at her. He is alleged to have raped her several times more between 1991 and 1993. When she joined the army, he humiliated her and threw her out. She never returned to the family home. The man is also charged with beating his wife in 2000 so badly that she required medical treatment. In addition, he abused his wife for years with humiliating acts and insults at every opportunity. The couple had three more daughters, born in 1986, 1987 and 1990. The man is also charged with abusing the young girls. He used to scream at the older one and insult her until she started getting anxiety attacks. He insisted on watching her dress against her will and stroke her behind against her explicit wishes. He used to masturbate in front of the second daughter and abuse her in similar ways, and is also suspected of brutally beating the youngest child."

Bnei Brak resident gets nine years for sexual abuse, Ha'aretz (Israel), January 22, 2003

"Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 29-year-old Bnei Brak resident to nine years in prison and two years' probation for sexually harassing and assaulting six ultra-Orthodox youths between the ages of 14 and 16 over a period of years. Avraham Asher was also accused of 'offering' one of the youths to two of his friends, who also abused him. The two, Yossi Mozas and Yosef Garus, both 29, from Bnei Brak, were given much lighter sentences ... The court heard that Asher and his friends harassed the youths in bus shelters and at ritual baths in Bnei Brak. Asher also assaulted the youths in showers and once visited a yeshiva in Jerusalem, where one of the teenagers studied."

Prosecutor faces child sex charges, Palm Beach Post, January 22, 2003

"With his Mickey Mouse lapel pin replete with an American flag, prosecutor Ira Karmelin cut a squeaky-clean image in the Palm Beach County Courthouse. But on Tuesday the image was of the top assistant state attorney handcuffed outside the courthouse and carted off to jail to face child sex charges. Karmelin, 38, is accused of soliciting a woman, whom he believed was a 13-year-old girl, on the Internet and performing lewd acts in front of her via a camera attached to his computer. The prosecutor -- who also is a former sheriff's deputy -- is charged with two third-degree felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison. He is the first prosecutor under Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer arrested on a felony charge. He was suspended without pay indefinitely and could lose his law license ... Karmelin talked openly about his wish to become a judge. Many of his colleagues, as well as defense attorneys, described Karmelin as Krischer's favorite bulldog prosecutor. Just last week, Krischer recommended Karmelin to be an assistant attorney general ... Orange County Sheriff's Office Detective Tom Harrison, who came to West Palm Beach to make the arrest, discovered Karmelin was a prosecutor when making background checks on the screen name. 'When I learned that he was in fact an assistant state attorney, after picking my chin off the floor and restarting my heart... I knew he was not above anybody else,' Harrison said."

Critics Charge Rabbinic Court Covered Up Lanner Abuse, [Jewish] Forward, January 31, 2003

"Nineteen critics of convicted sex offender and former Orthodox Union youth leader Rabbi Baruch Lanner have signed a letter excoriating a respected rabbi, saying that he withheld for more than a decade a 1989 rabbinical court ruling that found Lanner guilty of abuse. The January 24 letter accuses Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a highly regarded spiritual leader at Yeshiva University's rabbinical seminary, of sharing the rabbinical court's findings against Lanner only with select individuals who apparently 'did nothing to remove him from children.' It also accuses Willig of pressuring one of Lanner's accusers, Elie Hiller, to write a letter of apology. According to the letter, Willig, who in 1989 led the New Jersey-based rabbinical court, or beit din, fed the public perception that Lanner was innocent while Lanner continued to have contact with children. Signed mostly by alleged Lanner victims and their families, the letter comes after a meeting earlier this month in which attendees say Willig stated, for perhaps the first time in so public a forum, that Lanner was found guilty of some of the charges brought against him in 1989. 'Rabbi Willig prioritized the reputation of a rabbinic colleague a colleague who he knew was abusing kids ahead of the safety of children,' says the letter ...

And in a separate development, famed Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz has been serving as a consultant to Lanner's defense team, according to Dershowitz's brother Nathan. Nathan Dershowitz is one of Lanner's full-time attorneys. Lanner is appealing his July conviction that he sexually abused two teenage girls while he was their principal during the 1990s at Hillel Yeshiva high school in Ocean Township, N.J. ...

A report prepared in 2000 by a special commission appointed to investigate the O.U.'s role in the Lanner affair stated that Lanner sexually abused women and teenage girls and physically abused boys and girls while he was a leader for decades at the O.U.'s National Conference of Synagogue Youth. The report also cited the failure of members of the O.U. and NCSY leadership to take effective action, allowing Lanner's conduct to 'continue unchecked for many years.'"

Rabbi's Odyssey Reflects Struggle on Sexual Abuse. Jews Begin to Confront Silence That Hid Clergy's Misdeeds,
by Alan Cooperman, Washington Post, February 2, 2003; Page A17
"During his 30-year career, Sidney I. Goldenberg taught math in the New York schools, served as cantor at two synagogues on Long Island and became the rabbi of a Jewish congregation in California. He was a respected teacher, a man of learning -- and a child molester. Before he was convicted and sent to prison in 1997 for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl during bat mitzvah lessons, there had been numerous complaints against him. But each time allegations arose, he moved to a new community, leaving a trail of whispers and shattered lives. Prosecutors, alleged victims and their families say Goldenberg was able to move from job to job because of a wall of silence and shame around sexual abuse in the Jewish community -- a wall that some believe is finally coming down, thanks to the scandal over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests. 'In the past it was covered up, just like in the Catholic Church,' said Vicki Polin, an art therapist in Baltimore who is forming an association of Jewish survivors of childhood sexual abuse. 'Survivors' stories were discounted. They were told they were lying. Their parents would go to the proper authorities within the Jewish community and nothing was done' ...'I don't think pedophilia has a religion,' said Na'ama Yehuda, a speech pathologist in New York who is co-founder, with Polin, of the Awareness Center, an organization for Jewish survivors of childhood trauma. The center's Web site (www.theawarenesscenter.org) lists more than 30 Jewish officials who have been accused of child sexual abuse. They include the late Shlomo Carlebach, a renowned Hasidic rabbi; Baruch Lanner, an Orthodox rabbi who was convicted last year of molesting two teenage girls; and Jerrold Levy, a Reform rabbi imprisoned for sex crimes involving teenage boys ... 'In the Catholic Church, the issue was the cover-up by the church hierarchy. Here, it's the community, not the hierarchy. It's the whole community not wanting to admit trouble in our midst,' said Yosef Blau, an Orthodox rabbi at New York's Yeshiva University who counsels victims of sexual abuse."

Child Molester Sent to Treatment Center,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, February 7, 2003
"David Schwartz, a counselor for preschool boys at an Orthodox music and arts camp, was sentenced to one year in residential treatment and five years' probation for molesting a 4-year-old boy in his care at summer camp. A six-year prison sentence was suspended. The Jan. 21 sentencing at the Airport Courthouse came after Schwartz, the 36-year-old father of young children, accepted a plea bargain in which he pleaded no contest to one felony count of committing lewd acts with a child. (A plea of no contest in a criminal court is the equivalent of guilty, but if victims decide to sue Schwartz, they cannot use the criminal plea against him, according to the district attorney's office.) Schwartz will have to register as a sex offender for life, undergo at least two years of sex offender therapy and is prohibited from being alone with minor children, including his own, for the period of probation ... While all the boys in the group told stories that indicated they had been molested and tormented, only two were able to tell their stories coherently and consistently enough to be considered admissible in court. Three parents spoke with The Jewish Journal, telling of the long-lasting pain Schwartz has inflicted on their families. Parents said their children spoke of being touched and hurt, and watching Schwartz make 'white pee-pee.' Testimony and physical evidence on at least one boy indicated that he was sodomized. Schwartz is alleged to have brought a bird into class and cut off its head in front of the children, telling them that if they told anyone about what happened, he would do the same to them and their parents... When Schwartz was first arrested, many in the Orthodox community - those who knew him and those who didn't - asserted the innocence of Schwartz, who was a counselor at Camp Ruach for two years and taught middle school social studies at Yeshivat Yavneh in Hancock Park. Several rabbis who knew him privately expressed disbelief that he could have perpetrated such acts. At a hearing soon after his arrest, at which his bail was reduced from $1 million to $300,000, Schwartz's supporters heckled the parents of the victims, accusing them of harming another Jew. But as details of the boys' stories came out, support waned."

L.A. program offers help after arrest of rabbi for pedophilia, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (from Jewish Week), February 26, 2003

"In the wake of the arrest last week of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum in a police Internet sex sting operation, the director of a Los Angeles-based residential treatment program for Jews with addictive and behavioral disorders believes a similar program is needed here and has offered to assist. 'If we can share what we have learned in our 16 years of existence, we would be glad to help,' said Harriet Rossetto, director of Beit T'Shuvah, believed to be the country's only residential program for Jewish adults. Rossetto said three of the 110 Jews in her program are rabbis there for sexual addiction. She is convinced that their cases, as well as the arrests in recent years of rabbis accused of sex crimes, are 'just the tip of the iceberg' ... The call for a treatment program for rabbis comes after a string of much-publicized cases involving Jewish clergy charged with sexual abuse of minors. They include Rabbi Baruch Lanner, who last June was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing two girls when he was principal of a New Jersey yeshiva in the 1990s. Rabbi Lanner is free pending an appeal. Also, Cantor Howard Nevison of Temple Emanu-el in Manhattan was charged last spring with sexually abusing his young nephew. That trial has not begun. Rabbi Kestenbaum's arrest is not the first involving a rabbi accused of using the Internet to lure minors. In December 2001, Rabbi Jerald Levy, 58, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sentenced to six years in federal prison for downloading child pornography and luring teenage boys to meet him for sex ... In the aftermath of two highly publicized child abuse cases involving a rabbi teaching at a day school and a kosher butcher, the Chicago Rabbinical Council a number of years ago established a special bet din, or rabbinical court, to address allegations of sexual abuse of children."

Runaway teen was sex slave for three years, Haaretz (Israel), March 31, 2003

"A 34-year-old Eilat resident was charged today in a Be'er Sheva court of sexually abusing an underage teenager from Belarus over the past three years. According to the indictment, Sergei Mayatski 'imported' the youth from Minsk, in Belarus, after he met him in a public park during a visit to the city in September 1999. Following a number of meetings with the youngster, who was 13 at the time, Mayatski met his parents and convinced them to allow him to bring their son to Israel. It is unclear whether the parents were aware of Mayatski's intentions.

Two weeks later, the teenager was sent to Israel, where a friend of Mayatski received him at the airport as his own departure was delayed for two weeks because of a problem with his entry visa into Israel. The friend took the teen to his home in Ashdod, and according to the youth's testimony, also sexually abused him.

Upon his arrival to Israel, in November 1999, Mayatski collected the youth from Ashdod, took him to Eilat, and presented him as his son. However, during these years, Mayatski systematically sodomized him. The sexual abuse was revealed nine days ago following a complaint filed by Mayatski at the police that the youth had disappeared. When the teenager was located, he was questioned and said that he left home because he was tired of serving as Mayatski's sex slave."

[Sexual assault statistics from the Jewish homeland: "The Light unto the World."]

Aid centers: Most sexual assault victims in 2002 were minors; one-third were under 12,
by Ruth Sinai, Haaretz (Israel), April 8, 2003

"More than 2,300 girls and boys under the age of 12 were victims of sexual assault in the past year, constituting 30 percent of the new cases reported to the sexual assault aid centers. Almost 26 percent of the victims were 13 to 18 years old ... Forty percent of the sexual assaults were carried out in the victim's home. 'The home, of all places, which should be a safe, protective and supporting place, is where many of the horrors take place,' states the report. About half of the victims refrained from going to the police. The most prevalent attack - 26 percent of the new calls - was rape, including gang rape. About 16 percent of the callers complained about incest by fathers (6.5 percent), brothers (2.6 percent) or other relatives. Some 14 percent complained of indecent acts. About 30 percent of the 110 gang rape victims who called the Tel Aviv aid center were men. Out of 519 calls reporting non-gang rape to this center, 25 percent were men. Some 20 percent of the victims of indecent acts reported in Tel Aviv were men. 'The sexual assault of boys, male youths and men is a hushed-up crime, which is almost completely absent from discourse in Israeli society,' the report states. 'It does not occur to the victims that anyone would listen to their ordeal.' The centers operate a hotline and support groups, and accompany the victims during the criminal procedures ... According to the report, the largest group of victims - constituting 19 percent - were attacked by family relatives, 4.2 percent were attacked by a spouse, and 14 percent by a friend or acquaintance. Only 12 percent of the assaults were perpetrated by a complete stranger."