Archive for Englishman in New York
When is a Rabbi Not a Rabbi?
Posted by: | CommentsDuring the sentencing of Baruch Lebovits last week, an interesting point was raised by his defense attorney Arthur Aidala. Mr Aidala pointed out that Lebovits, who was found guilty of eight counts of sex abuse against a 16-year-old boy earlier this year, was being referred to in the press as a “rabbi” when in actual fact he was nothing of the sort. Lebovits was, in fact, a travel agent.
In the strictly Orthodox community it is not unusual for men to seek a rabbinic degree as well as pursuing another career. But Mr Aidala pointed out that Lebovits didn’t have a rabbinic degree. He was, according to Aidala, just a good man who was generally known as “rabbi” because of his charitable deeds.
Aidala came across as an effective, if smarmy, attorney. At one point he had the gall to refer to Lebovits, who was found to have performed oral sex on the teenage boy, as a “saint”. But although Lebovits deserves little pity for his sentence of between 10 and 32 years, surely he deserve to at least have the facts of his case reported accurately.
Which is why I was surprised and disappointed when I scanned the headlines over the following 24 hours, and came across numerous references to “Rabbi Lebovits.” Here are just a few:
- Rabbi Baruch Lebovits is sentenced to 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison for molesting teen (New York Daily News)
- NY rabbi jailed for sexual abuse of teen (New York Post)
- Brooklyn Rabbi Sentenced to Prison for Sexual Assault of Teenager (Fox)
- Rabbi Sentenced 32 Years For Sexually Abusing Teen (WPIX11)
- Rabbi gets maximum sentence in molestation case (JTA)
Now, perhaps all these reporters and sub editors heard something I didn’t hear. Perhaps Lebovits’ defense attorney was lying. But, surely, if that was the case, someone would have mentioned it somewhere in their copy. No one did. More likely, editors wanted a juicy top line. Perhaps vindicating their decision, the New York Times ran its Lebovits story under the rather dull, if 100% accurate, headline Man Is Sentenced in Sex Abuse Case. At least it was true.
At a time when sexual abuse in the Orthodox community is a huge topic, when the number of arrests and convictions is growing by the month, such inflammatory and inaccurate reporting can only do more harm than good. One of the major obstacles standing in the way of victims coming forward is the perception within the Orthodox community that secular society is against them. By casting Lebovits as a “rabbi,” even when it was plainly spelled out that he is not a rabbi, those reports only strengthened this view.
That WPIX report, by the way, if you discard the inaccurate headline, was actually very good.
Surviving Nazism and Communism
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Russian Speaking Holocaust Survivors in Brooklyn.
Take Ruth and Toni Usherenko for example, two women I met at a synagogue in Brooklyn recently. Ruth and Toni were born in Berlin shortly after the First World War. Their Russian father was a former prisoner-of-war, who had stayed on in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles and married a German.
During the 1930′s, the Usherenkos gradually lost their liberty. On Kristallnacht, in 1938, men broke into their home and beat the girls’ father. A few years later, he was sent to a concentration camp where he died. The women were sent to a succession of work camps.
Towards the end of the Second World War, because of their Russian-sounding surname, the Usherenko women were passed to the Red Army as part of a prisoner exchange. The Soviets were instantly suspicious of their German-Jewish prisoners and promptly sent them to a labor camp in Siberia.
“In Russia they called us ‘Kike’ and ‘Fritz’,” Ruth told me. “They didn’t give us anything. Many people died of hunger. The dead were left in the forest for the wolves.”
The sisters spent ten years in Siberia before finally being freed in the mid 1950′s. They made their way to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where they eventually found work as milliners. They spent the next 20 years in Dnepropetrovsk, unable to practice Judaism freely. In 1981 they immigrated to America, where for the first time they could mark festivals and live openly as Jews.
You can read my recent story about other Russian-speaking Holocaust survivors, in the Forward, here.
Happy Birthday Baruch Lebovits!
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Baruch Lebovits in court
Lebovits’ trial was a strange one. But If only cases like his were rare. As I have found in recent months writing for the Jewish Chronicle, sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community is a major problem, one that has been exacerbated by an unwillingness on the part of community leaders to acknowledge and deal with it.
Instead, victims and their families are dissuaded from going to the police, while community leaders continue to protect abusers. The shame of opening this problem up to the wider community is seen as more damaging than the pain inflicted on the abused. Ben Hirsch, who advocates on behalf of victims, has an excellent piece on this subject in this week’s Jewish Week.
The Last Meal
Posted by: | CommentsBarring a last-minute act of clemency from Florida governor Charlie Crist, Martin Grossman will be executed today at 6 pm EST. (In about three hours.) I just got off the phone from Florida Department of Corrections, who gave me the details of Grossman’s last meal request: a banana cream cookie, a peanut butter cookie, fruit punch and a chicken sandwich.
Update: My story about the execution is here.
Frisbee Freestyling
Posted by: | CommentsIn memory of Walter Fredrick “Fred” Morrison, a short video of Frisbee freestylers in Central Park.
What Makes a Hero? – Rough Cut
Posted by: | CommentsLast summer, I collaborated on a Web video to promote UJC’s Jewish Community Heroes awards (and inadvertently ended up putting on tefillin for the first time in about 15 years).
What Makes A Hero? from William Levin on Vimeo.
UJC used a very short version of the film for their campaign. But lately, our producer William has been screening a longer, rough cut to audiences. Earlier this month, it was presented to about 700 people at Limmud NY where, I am told, it was very well received. I hope to be doing more of these in the year to come.
Produced and directed by Jewish Robot, shot and edited by Simon Weaver, interviews conducted by me.
Flea Fashion in Britain
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Dress Found at the Brooklyn Flea
I can’t stand shopping of any kind, least of all for clothes. So it comes as something of a relief to have a member of the family who, in the space of an afternoon, can kit me out with half a dozen items of clothing.
Better still, I don’t even have to deal with hunting through clothes racks and dealing with salespeople. She takes care of all of that. If I’m lucky, all I have to do is stand in the changing room while she flings shirts and trousers over the door.
Every time Judy visits New York, we take a trip to the Brooklyn Flea and the growing number of vintage fashion stores in the borough.
Last week, Judy styled a vintage fashion photo shoot for the UK’s Big Issue newspaper and one of the dresses she picked up during a previous visit to the Flea, and a pair of earrings she found in a Brooklyn vintage store, made it into the spread. There are more pics on my sister’s blog.
Al Gore As God
Posted by: | CommentsDo I detect a mellower side to the Jewish Robot’s latest educational cartoon?
Related: Previous Todd and God episodes on EiNY.
