Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Case of Margie Shabat and Danny Shabat

Case of Margie Shabat and Danny Shabat
(West Rogers Park) Chicago, IL  

Allegations made of child sexual abuse of a teen student that boarded in their home Over the years there have been mumblings throughout West Rogers Park about the following case. It is believed that the same people in Chicago that have been protecting Yosef Meystel that have been silencing the victims in this case. 

If anyone has any information please forward it to The Awareness Center.

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Disclaimer: 
Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents
2001
  1. Let me tell you what the pedophiles did to me (02/27/2001)

 

2013 

  1. Danny Shabat's Summary  - Linkedin (01/15/2013)

  2. Margie Shabat's Summary  - Linkedin (01/15/2013)

 

Also see:

  1. Case of Yosef Meystel 

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Let me tell you what the pedophiles did to me
Project Truth.org - February 27, 2001


My Inaugural Letter

Welcome! On February 27, 2001, I sent (with my Dad's help and moral support) the following letter - by direct, First Class mail - to the thousands of members of the Chicago Jewish Community listed in the Chicago Acheinu Directory, thereby inaugurating Project Truth .So there will be no misunderstanding, please read my posted "Statement of Goals".
 
February 27, 2001

Dear Chicago Jewish Community Member,

LET ME TELL YOU WHAT THE PEDOPHILES DID TO ME

It’s important to a childhood sexual abuse victim to be heard, even if you’ll never understand how much it hurts. Thank you for reading this letter, and taking it to heart, mind, and action .

I’m trying to be polite, but the truth is, the whole community should be ashamed. The molesters were leaders, and still are. And now your rabbinic and lay leaders are protecting the molesters, and continuing to hurt the victims.

DANNY AND MARGIE SHABAT: PERVERTED SEXUAL ABUSE

I’m over twenty now, but it seems like yesterday that I was a sixteen-year-old, Israeli student at Telshe Yeshiva High School in Chicago. That’s when I fell into the clutches of Margie and Danny Shabat. Margie sexually molested me dozens and dozens of times. I’m sure Danny knew about it the whole time. He had to. When you hear and see the evidence on the website, you will be too.

A month after I came to Telshe to get a solid education, I went home to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) for a week to mourn “shiva” for my five-year-old brother who was hit by a car on Simchas Torah. I came back to Chicago and nobody but Margie knew how I felt. I was re-experiencing the death of my twin-sister when we were three-years-old. Margie made me believe that she was the embodiment of my lost sister. Margie had me call her “Ima”; secretly . At the time, I loved Margie more than anything else in the world - she bought me all kinds of gifts (and promised me the world) and we went on all kinds of adventures together; secretly (except for Danny - he knew about the gifts and excursions).

Then Margie and Danny tricked my parents into authorizing Danny and Margie to be my overseas “extended-parents”, and I moved out of the yeshiva dorm into their house at (Address Removed), Peterson Park, Chicago 60659. Almost every night (for some reason, on Shabbos she didn’t do it to me) Margie would leave her and Danny’s bedroom and come down to my basement bedroom at about 1:00a.m. and spend about four naked hours in bed with me. This happened more than fifty times.

Now when we went on “trips” together, Margie would make me do sexual things to her in the woods and on the beach - even on the plane!

I can’t tell you in this short letter all the things Margie taught and trained me to do to her - four hours every night - but it took a lot of physical stamina. I had become her sex-slave. But soon the whole truth will be told, so other children won’t fall prey to people like the Shabats. My Dad and I, are opening Project Truth, and our website ProjectTruth.org is already up and running (although it needs further development).

I’m sure that a lot of other boys who spent time at the Shabat House (it is a very popular spot) were also victims, but so far, no one wants to admit it. Their denials are very suspicious. With community support, they’ll come forward. Maybe you’ll discover the other pedophiles in your community that are endangering the children. Are you going to continue to pretend they don’t exist? It’s your kids ?! They belong to the Jewish nation. You don’t have the right to be sympathetic to molesters.

MARGIE AND HASHEM: One of the weird things is how Margie talked to me about Hashem. She would always say that “Hashem likes what we’re doing, even though no human could understand”. She also said a lot of other things. She was very manipulative.

MY DAD: One thing she really convinced me of, was that my father was my biggest enemy. Eventually I sort of became ( _______ ) Shabat, instead of ( _______ ) Thomas - (that’s my real name). This really disappointed my Dad. I didn’t speak to him for three years. When I was nineteen, I came back to Israel to fight for my country, and we got back together. That’s when I told my Dad about the molesters (there’s also a Jerusalem perpetrator on the loose; see the web-site), and we started doing something about all this.

Dad has really had his hands full here in Chicago, trying to get the Shabats into the Chicago Rabbinical Council Beit Din. Since they wouldn’t come, the C.R.C. Beit Din gave him permission to sue in Circuit Court. He’s doing the whole thing pro se (do-it-yourself litigation). What makes it so hard for my Dad is that nobody appreciates (people are actually upset at) his insistence on dealing forthrightly with my molesters - which is the only way to deal with molesters. Even worse, the leaders of Chicago have been actually helping the pedophiles, and hurting Dad.

MY SILENCE : This brings us to why I’m writing to you even though Danny Shabat recently started to pay me yearly money in return for my silence. Let me explain why several weeks ago I dared my Dad that he should go ahead and report to the community. And when I saw Dad actually writing his report, I said, “Move aside Dad, I’m takin’ over”.

About a year ago, while my Dad was still wasting his time trying to corral the Shabats into Beit Din (regarding Dad’s claim), my attorney was pursuing my claim in civil court (at this point, I don’t have much faith in Rabbis or Beit Din). It was time for me to start taking depositions and talking in depth about all the molestations - and I was scared. I didn’t want to relive the horrors. (You probably are wondering what “horrors” are there in a boy being coerced into so many naked sexual hours with a good-looking blond. Well, I also didn’t feel sick at first. For now, let it suffice to say that there is huge difference between “sex” and “sex-slaving”. Cancer also doesn’t hurt at the beginning. It just slowly but surely eats you up. Slow burn.)

I also had a desperate need to lessen my financial pressures - I support myself, and go to college, and it’s not easy. The idea of “cashing in” was very enticing. But I really wanted the Shabats to get their “day of reckoning” and be exposed. Seeing Dad’s determination, I knew that “day” would come in any case. I asked Dad if he minded me “bowing out”. Dad understood. I told my attorney to “get me out for whatever you can get - and make sure that whatever confidentiality agreement I have to sign, allows me to testify if subpoenaed in my Dad’s trial”. I refused to sign the Shabats’ first draft, that had me disparaging my father. They deleted that paragraph, and I signed. Problem: I agreed to silence - the manipulators took a lot more. As follows:

PEDOPHILES AND PIGS: It was a good deal for the pedophiles. For a little bit of money, the Shabats neutralized the strongest legal threat. But as it turns out, pedophiles are also pigs. They now distort, exaggerate, and convert my silence, into an acknowledgment that “molester issues” are non-existent; into an acknowledgment that the Shabats have honorably made amends with their exploited victim. This is absolutely false! And I simply agreed to “sit on the sidelines as they engage my Dad in court”.

They are using ME, to ridicule and harass my Dad - which is against the spirit of the contract. The Shabats are saying, “The son has been made honorably whole, but his cruel and crazy father insists on continuing the Civil War.”

Using ME as their hostage and their cover, the pedophile Shabats have mobilized the very people you would expect to be helping Dad, into harassing him. These powerful people are protecting and honoring the pedophile Shabats - as follows.

RABBI SHMUEL FUERST: Even the Rabbis protect my molesters and work against my Dad! Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst - who is the head of Agudath Israel of Illinois - told Dad that this was not a matter that warranted investigation - “it allegedly happened four years ago, and there’s no evidence that it happened to anybody else!” This is the same attitude that was used by the NCSY Board of directors wthey tried to hide a former rabbi/director - Baruch Lanner - that was sexually abusing NCSY children.

But get this! For a year now, Rabbi Fuerst has been harassing my Dad, insisting that the C.R.C. didn’t have the right to permit a civil lawsuit. A couple of months ago, Rabbi Fuerst put together a kangaroo Beit Din, and Excommunicated my Dad for suing the Shabats! See the details of that on the website.

Riddle : What is Rabbi Fuerst’s motive for acting so? Hearsay Answer : Remember the Orthodox Day School teacher that molested his students? Rumor has it, that Rabbi Fuerst knew of his propensity for sexual abuse and nevertheless helped get him his Day School teaching job - withholding information about his past. Rumor further has it that Danny Shabat is blackmailing Rabbi Fuerst with leaking this to the authorities, if Rabbi Fuerst doesn’t get Danny and Margie off the hook.

RABBI MOSHE FRANCIS : Rabbi Francis, the head of the Chicago Community Kollel, has been helping the Shabats with their legal-wiggling-out since the beginning. He filed an affidavit on behalf of the Shabats in Circuit Court, and helped their attorney communicate with (or rather, evade) the C.R.C. Beit Din. Two months ago , for the Chicago Community Kollel annual fund-raising Banquet Dinner, Rabbi Francis appointed Margie the Molester to be one of the “Banquet Co-ordinators”, and put her in charge of “Ad Book Solicitation”; Rabbi Francis appointed Danny Shabat to be one of the “Chairmen” of the banquet dinner.

Originally, when My Dad heard that Rabbi Francis was contacting important people in Israel, to protest his lawsuit in civil-court against the Shabats, I was standing right there when Dad called Rabbi Francis to ask about his connection to this “Situation.” Rabbi Francis said that Danny Shabat had “told him what happened.” Rabbi Francis added that he was appalled that a “ben torah” like Aaron Thomas should pursue a civil claim. Dad asked Rabbi Francis if he was outraged when Danny Shabat told him what had transpired. Rabbi Francis admitted that he would not describe his reaction as outrage. Dad suggested to him that his lack of outrage was as if he thought that child sexual abuse was OK in torah law.

I had a question for Rabbi Francis, so Dad passed me the phone. “Rabbi Francis, is Danny Shabat a significant contributor to your institution?” Rabbi Francis acknowledged that he was. “Now I understand”, I said.

It all has to do with money. It’s because the Shabats give a lot of money to the Rabbis. This makes victims like me feel sick, and it’s why victims are scared to report the crimes.

PROJECT SHIELD AND THE HARTMANS: Oh yeh, let me tell you how Project Shield treated my Dad and our “Situation”. Last year Dad was in Chicago pursuing his lawsuit against the Shabats for the extensive molestations against me, that splintered our family. He was ignoring his Jerusalem construction business and was confronting what he also sees as a crime against me - and against Jewry at Large - and he needed help keeping bread on the Jerusalem table. The people who you might expect to help, felt it would be more Jewish to forget about what happened (to me). I think he was ready to give up.

Then suddenly, the Chicago Jewish community was abuzz. The philanthropists, Robbie and Debbie Hartman, (when I was “Naftali Shabat” - Danny, Margie, and I used to get together with them every Shabbos) and Debbie’s sister, Jo Bruck launched Project Shield with the published exposure of two child sexual abuse perpetrators.

The purpose of Project Shield was to rid the community of pedophilia, of which one of the founding sisters’ family had been a victim. The Hartmans proclaimed that we must get tough with PEDOPHILES and that Project Shield will be “a place for victims and their families to come”. They decried the situation where “the rabbis have failed ...perpetrators lead a double life...the perpetrator gets away with his crime and the victims pay even more...the rabbi (pedophile) is being protected to see that he stays out of jail and his story out of the newspapers...but says Hartman, first and foremost are the victims...”

Dad was excited. He thought his isolation was over. With Project Shield’s declaration of identification, Dad’s potential supporters would understand that Dad’s attitude is the true Jewish response. So Dad called the Hartmans, but they had left town leaving co-founder Jo Bruck in charge. He anonymously told Bruck the entire story leaving out names, and explained his goal - to achieve Project Shield’s identification with his approach to our “Situation”. Persistently, she insisted that Dad give her the names because, per force, these things were still going on, and Project Shield knew how to deal with the “Situation”.

Finally Dad said to Bruck that this would really put the Hartmans to the test, because the name is Danny and Margie Shabat - Robbie and Debbie Hartman’s best friends! Bruck agreed that it would be the test, but that she was positive her sister and brother-in-law would meet their responsibilities in Project Shield (which was seeking public funding, through Shalva). At Bruck’s encouragement, within an hour, Dad delivered fifty pages of documentation detailing the crimes. She read the entire story and was aghast and very sympathetic. “I’ll get in touch with Robbie and Debbie now. Please come back at 8:00 tonight” , she told Dad.

However, when Dad walked back into Bruck’s home that night, he found himself in a lion’s den. In just three-hours, the sympathetic Mrs. Bruck was now hostile. She sternly informed him that she had been in touch with the Hartmans, who have been briefed in this matter by the SHABATS. “They understand that your son has “settled” his matter with the Shabats. You are just the father,” she told him, “Project Shield isn’t designed to help the father. There’s the door. Maybe try Rabbi Fuerst. Get out.” Dad retreated very wounded. You see! Here again, my agreement to “stay out of the litigation” was portrayed as somehow exonerating the perpetrators.

PROJECT SHIELD, SHIELDS MOLESTERS : Project Shield is guilty of violating its own rules! They are now actively protecting child sexual abusers - IN MY NAME. By hiding the sex offenders from the public, they are allowing the sexual abuse to continue. This behavior helps the sex offender to find new victims. Perpetuation of the “secretiveness” of child sexual abuse only fosters further abuse.

(That same night, Danny Shabat - having been warned by their “friends” at Project Shield, the Hartmans - called my grandfather in Memphis. Zaidee interpreted Danny’s phone call to be a possible threat of physical violence against my Dad. Zaidee told Dad to be careful, and “don’t go anywhere by yourself!”)

BE WARNED : Originally when I insisted to Dad that The Shabats have to be exposed for the benefit of the “other children”; Dad would counter that the most effective medium to expose, is through formal “procedures” in a court of law. However, it’s taking too long (and anyway, financial pressures are jeopardizing those legal “procedures”), and I can no longer remain silent as the unguarded pedophiles rally corrupt community and rabbinic support against my Dad. So I’m taking over - I invite you to join me.

Excuse my shouting, but I have to warn this community: IT’S ONLY BECAUSE THERE ARE “MOLESTER PROTECTORS” LIKE RABBI FUERST, RABBI FRANCIS, AND ROBBIE HARTMAN - THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE A SHABAT COUPLE TO MOLEST ME AND OTHER KIDS, SO THAT WE VICTIMS HAVE TO THEN SPEND THE REST OF OUR LIVES TRYING TO SHAKE A FILTHY (you’re not a victim - that’s why you think the expression is too harsh) MARGIE AND DANNY SHABAT OFF OUR BACKS.

Signed: ( ______ ) Thomas

Project Truth
Memphis, Tennessee
www.ProjectTruth.org

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To contact the molesters and their protectors :
Danny and Margie Shabat
Chicago, Illinois 60659
home-Removed
office-Removed

Robbie and Debbie Hartman
Chicago, Illinois 60659
home-Removed

Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst
6100 N. Drake Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60659
773-539-4241
773-463-7738

Rabbi Moshe Francis
6604 N. Richmond St.
Chicago, Illinois 60645
773-262-7151

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Danny Shabat's Summary

A Profile of Business Leader Danny Shabat
Linkedin - January 15, 2013
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dannyshabat
With more than 30 years of experience in business leadership, Daniel Shabat is the consummate entrepreneur. Today, Danny Shabat utilizes his education and skill as owner and manager of a number of local businesses in his Chicago, Illinois, community, all of which continue to thrive under his operation. The Brooklyn College graduate relocated to Chicago with his family after several years in the fast-paced New York business industry and has lived in Illinois since 1977.

Danny Shabat took on his first ownership role when he purchased the Royal Gardens Nursing Home, which he led into becoming The Waterford nursing home, a state-of-the-art facility offering long-term assisted living, short-term respite care, and a wide range of medical and social services for Chicago seniors. Shortly after, he purchased the Diplomat Nursing Home and the Heritage Nursing Home Inc.; the assisted-living industry gave Mr. Shabat the opportunity to branch out into other areas of health care, particularly in pharmaceutical companies.

Among his work with The Waterford and the Heritage Nursing Home, Danny Shabat also owns and operates organizations such as LifeScan Laboratory, Inc.; PharMore Drugs, LLC; Micro Innovations Corp.; and Shabat Investments, LLC. Mr. Shabat also previously owned LifeCare Ambulance, Inc.

In addition to his success in business, Daniel Shabat also commits his time and passion to nonprofit organizations, serving as an example to other leaders in the industry. Danny Shabat regularly contributes to charities such as Project Extreme, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington, and the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY). 
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Margie Shabat's Summary 
Linkedin - January 15, 2013
http://www.linkedin.com/in/margieshabat

An inspirational blogger, Margie Shabat explores themes of surviving life’s challenges. She pursues this work in honor of her parents, Samuel and Tamara Rotter, who endured the Holocaust and moved on to lead joyous and meaningful lives. In memory of her parents, Ms. Shabat contributes to a multitude of charities, including Aneinu, Gesher, Chicago Torah Network, Telshe Yeshiva, Jewish Educational Toys, Inc. (JET), Mikor Chaim, Chai Lifeline, and Shalva, as well as the Israeli-based organizations Hatzolah, Connections Israel, and Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis Charity.
After surviving two breast cancer diagnoses, in 1997 and 2001, Margie Shabat immersed herself in the work of helping other women prevent, address, and overcome the illness. Despite cultural barriers against open discussion of breast cancer, she was determined to break the silence, and has provided a voice for women in her community to increase awareness about the disease. In addition to consulting privately with others afflicted by breast cancer, and speaking publicly about her experience as a survivor, Ms. Shabat advertises locally about the importance of mammography and early screening, and donates to organizations including Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

A mother of two sons, Margie Shabat has four grandchildren. Raised in New York City, she received her education at Brooklyn College and Machon Gold in Jerusalem, Israel, She currently holds employed by Da’as Management. When she is not busy with family, service, prayer, and work, Ms. Shabat enjoys biking, swimming, and writing. 


Specialties
The child of an Auschwitz survivor and herself a repeat breast cancer survivor, Margie Shabat has committed her life to helping people endure life’s greatest challenges.

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Friday, February 23, 2001

Case of the Unnamed Jaffa Teenage Serial Sex Offender

Case of the Unnamed Jaffa Teenage Serial Sex Offender
Jaffa, Israel


Arrested and confessed to molesting 20 children aged eight to 12 over the past half year.  

The alleged offender told investigators he would lure the children to his home or isolated locations, such as bomb shelters, yards, or the beach, by inviting them to play cards or other games and then rape, sodomize, and molest them.
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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.


Table of Contents:  

2001
 
    1.    Jaffa teen confesses to molesting 20 neighborhood children (02/23/2001)

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Jaffa teen confesses to molesting 20 neighborhood children
By Heidi J. Gleit
The Jerusalem Post - Friday, February 23, 2001

A Jaffa resident has confessed to sexually molesting 20 children from his school and neighborhood, Yiftah precinct chief Lt.-Cmdr. Menashe Arbiv said yesterday. The Tel Aviv Juvenile Court yesterday remanded the suspect, 15, for five days.

Police arrested the suspect on Wednesday, following an investigation spurred by a complaint from the mother of a victim.

The suspect confessed to molesting 20 children aged eight to 12 over the past half year, Arbiv said. He told investigators he would lure the children to his home or isolated locations, such as bomb shelters, yards, or the beach, by inviting them to play cards or other games and then rape, sodomize, and molest them.

The suspect provided police with great details of the attacks, including the names of victims and locations of the attacks. However, Arbiv emphasized that the investigation is still in its early stages. A psychological evaluation of the suspect has not yet been completed and police have not yet established whether the suspect himself was a victim of sexual abuse. He attended school regularly and was unknown to police prior to the incident.

Police have located nine of the alleged victims so far and are working to locate the other victims.

One child, aged eight, told investigators that the suspect sexually assaulted him on four different occasions. He said the suspect did not use force during the attack, but threatened him afterward when he ordered him not to tell anyone.

The other victims are to be questioned over the next few days by social services experts working in cooperation with the police, as police are not allowed to directly question young children.

Police are working around the clock to solve the case as quickly as possible, Arbiv said.
A spokeswoman from the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality said that municipal social services intend to provide appropriate assistance to victims and residents of the area as soon as the situation is clarified.

This is the third case police have uncovered over the past year in the center of the country in which a pedophile was preying on a large number of children in his area.

Aryeh Goldman, 22, of Ramle, was convicted by Tel Aviv District Court last week of sexually assaulting seven children from his neighborhood aged seven to 13. Although Goldman confessed to molesting many more children, the families of a number of the alleged victims refused to allow their children to testify in the case.

Last month police arrested a Bnei Brak resident, 14, who confessed to molesting about 10 six and seven year olds from his neighborhood.

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Friday, February 09, 2001

Orthodox Rabbi stands publicly against a sexual predator

Torn up inside
by Tovah Lazaroff, Jonathan Bloom
 The Jerusalem Post Magazine
February 9, 2001

Protecting his daughter was Rabbi Jonathan Blass's first instinct. Blass had privileged information that a man in his small Samaria community of Neveh Tzuf had repeatedly sexually molested a young teen there. She never reported the crime to the police - only to Blass and his wife.

So when this same man asked Blass's own daughter, then 16, to work on a project with him, Blass forbade her to do it.

That was when Blass realized how unfair it was that he could keep his daughter safe, while the other 220 families who live in the community did not even know their children needed protecting.

So much did he fear the man's possible guilt, Blass spoke out against the alleged sexual abuser. By doing so, he opened himself up to attacks in his home town, in the media and in the rabbinical court.

In a country where, according to crisis center experts, 60 percent of convicted sexual offenders do not serve time (and then often less than two years) and only an estimated 5 percent of sexual-abuse cases are ever reported, some communities seek alternative solutions to handling abusers. This is particularly true in religious communities, where the victims fear public exposure in court, says Debbie Gross, director of the Crisis Center for Religious Women.

She says it is particularly hard for a young religious woman to report an instance of sexual abuse. The resulting exposure often impacts more negatively on the life of a religious woman than on thelife of a secular one.

When religious communities attempt to deal with such situations outside the legal system, a local rabbi is often a key figure in negotiating a solution. Yet the rabbi, along with the community, is
in a double bind: On the one hand, the rights of possibly innocent people can be trampled on; on the other, without the threat of imprisonment, efforts to deal with the guilty can prove ineffective.

American-born Blass, who has served as Neveh Tzuf's rabbi for 14 years, had no idea he was stepping into just such a situation when his car broke down in the winter of 2000. Blass hitched a ride with one of his neighbors. During the drive, the man told the rabbi his wife had been raped three years earlier by a member of the community, prior to their marriage.

"I was quite taken aback," Blass says. "My feeling was that if someone wants to tell you something like that, they make an appointment." Blass stored it in the back of his mind, but didn't think too much about it.

The man's wife, who wishes to remain anonymous, had reported the incident to the police three months after it happened. She and the man had been very good friends. "At a certain point, he decided that he wanted me," she said. She let him know she wasn't interested. He started touching her. Eventually, she said, he forced himself on her

sexually. The man, she said, reported to the police that she had wanted a sexual relationship with him.

The police dropped the matter for lack of evidence.

Three months after Blass's conversation with the husband, another Neveh Tzuf woman, in her 20s, told Blass's wife she had been repeatedly sexually abused between the ages of 13 and 15 while baby- sitting for a local family. The man she named was the same man accused by Blass's hitchhiker.

The incidents sometimes occurred in the alleged abuser's home, sometimes outside, and once in her own home when she was alone.

The young woman adamantly refused to go to the legal authorities. She feared the man and did not want the risk of exposure.

After speaking with the woman, Blass consulted with the police, who told him that without the alleged victim's testimony, it would be impossible to make a case.

At the urging of Blass and his wife, the young woman did tell her mother. Blass then referred the former babysitter to a rape-crisis center. Counselors there told the rabbi they believed her story was true because of its level of detail and her response to the experience, which was consistent with sexual-abuse victims. They added that the accused posed a danger to other girls in the community because people who sexually abuse children are often addicted to that behavior.

Hoping the victim could be swayed to report the matter, Blass waited. Then the man approached his daughter. The request might have been innocent. But Blass couldn't take that chance. Neither, he thought, should any other parent. He knew more immediate action was required.

But he didn't want to move forward alone. Along with a social worker from the Binyamin Regional Council, Blass convened a committee of four long-time community members to investigate the matter.

According to one of those four, Nehemia Schneider, no one on the small investigative committee had anything personal against the accused. "All of us had been on good terms with him," Schneider says. Some even considered him a friend.

A second member of the panel, Rachel Loberman, says she was shocked when she heard the story. To the best of her knowledge, there had never been a case like this in the community.

The committee members checked out the details for themselves. Schneider spoke to the staffers of the rape- crisis center; Loberman met with the former babysitter.

"She came and she told me her story. I had the feeling she was telling the truth. We both cried together; it was very emotional," Loberman says. "Two stories about the same person at the same time - it's not likely they are made up."

Loberman spent many sleepless nights wondering what to do. "With a story like that you can never know if it's true. On one hand, if we do something and the story isn't true, we hurt the family [of the accused]. But if we don't do anything and the story is true, then we might be hurting many other girls. We had to weigh both things."

The committee met with the accused man, and his wife, and informed them of the charges. They told him they felt compelled to inform the community, but wouldn't do so if he voluntarily left. He responded by claiming his innocence and offered to take a polygraph test.

He later presented the committee with three polygraph test results which he said proved his innocence. According to Blass, the committee lacked faith in the first two tests because they did not ask appropriate questions, and only one of the two was carried out in a licensed center. The babysitter took a polygraph test as well, which showed she was telling the truth, says Blass.

The man then underwent a third polygraph, with appropriate questions. But he did it in an unlicensed center, according to Blass.

In what seems to indicate the depth of mutual suspicions raised by the case, the man refused to go the same polygraph center as the babysitter, claiming, Blass says, that it was a front for the General Security Service. He also accused Blass of working for the GSS and said Blass was persecuting him for his political beliefs and activities on behalf of the settlers' movement. Blass firmly denies these charges.

The story spread beyond the borders of Neveh Tzuf. The religious daily, Hatzofeh, published an article also claiming that the GSS was using the rabbi to frame an innocent man and the story was picked up by Israel Radio's Reshet Bet.

Realizing that the issue had grown too big for them, the initial four-member committee gathered a group of 15, including many of the community's leaders, and explained the problem to them.

Amy Rosenbluh, Neveh Tzuf's council head, was among those invited to the meeting. She was stunned. "You don't expect it to happen in your backyard, with someone who has a lovely wife and children."

This larger committee agreed that the community should be informed. At a general meeting the following week, they reported everything they knew about the man and the accusations against him.

The incident split the community, with the majority supporting Blass.

Blass and Loberman say that at one point the man agreed to leave Neveh Tzuf. But then he backed out of the agreement and still lives there with his family. Rosenbluh says that a few weeks ago, the man's wife starting yelling at the rabbi outside the synagogue.

"We are still reeling from it," says Rosenbluh. "The dispute has spread to every level of the community, even among the children."

The accused man has tried to press counter-charges against Blass in a hearing before the rabbinical courts.

He first approached the office of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, which began investigating the matter. To help Blass, the former babysitter who claims she was molested spoke with a representative of the chief rabbi's office. She finished the conversation feeling as ifthey thought she was somehow to blame, even though she had been a minor at the time.

In a letter subsequently written to the chief rabbi's office, she writes: "I am a real woman who still suffers today from the pain inflicted upon me by the actions of this man.... I am the one who is suffering because I have to live day by day, hour by hour with the memory of what happened to me."

Blass then refused on principle to take part in a rabbinical court hearing in which he, not the alleged sexual offender, was the defendant. He said he would participate only if the hearing were public and if the press could be present. No such accommodation was made, Blass says.

A spokesman for Lau, Rafi Frank, says the case was then dropped, since in a matter like this the rabbinate has authority only if both parties agree to mediation.

The accused man then took his counter-attack against Blass to the office of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi- Doron. In a letter written to Bakshi-Doron last summer, both the man and his wife asked the chief rabbi to get involved in the matter, saying that the issue had harmed their reputation and their employment possibilities.

Bakshi-Doron referred the matter to the rabbinical courts. Blass was again asked to appear at a hearing and advised not to speak elsewhere about the matter. Bakshi-Doron's spokesman, Rafi Dayan, says the intent of the rabbinical inquiry was to help Blass, not punish him. He adds, though, that a rabbi should not be acting as a judge and jury outside the law. Furthermore, the charges that Blass was acting as a GSS agent are of concern to the court.

Blass again refused to appear at a rabbinical court hearing in which he was to be the one being put on trial.

"It is improper and not halachicly appropriate for a community member to sue a rabbi when he is only acting in performance of his rabbinical duties," says Blass. He adds that he is willing to have the court review his actions to ensure they did not involve personal malice. "But I'm not willing to come as a defendant."

Blass did participate in an informal rabbinical inquiry held by rabbis in the Binyamin region. It cleared him of any wrongdoing and concluded that rabbis should act as Blass did in these instances.

Blass's desire to help other rabbis in similar situations led him to talk about it with The Jerusalem Post.

Blass says he is sure that other rabbis are facing, and will be facing, this same type of dilemma. He is hoping his story will help someone else. But if Blass is feeling hounded by his role in this affair, so too, do the accused man and his wife.

In an initial phone conversation with the Post, the wife of the accused man was eager to talk, to explain in detail how the publication of some of this information in another newspaper had shattered their lives.

Her husband, she insists, is completely innocent.

On numerous occasions, she adds, they attempted to bring Blass to a rabbinical court to settle the matter, and each time he has refused. She and her husband spent $500 of their own money to do the three polygraph tests, and allowed a psychologist to do a criminal profile.
 
Her husband, she says, came out innocent each time.

By accusing her husband of crimes he never committed, she says, Blass has done an awful thing.

"He has turned our lives into something terrible," she says. "There are rabbis who walk with God; he does not. He doesn't have the right to make accusation against my husband without bringing him to a court."

If her husband did anything wrong, she says, "a rabbinical court will decide.

"It's hutzpa," she adds regarding her husband's accusers. "They have spilled the blood of a family. We are talking about people who took the law into their own hands. They acted like gangsters. I never believed that something like this would happen."

In a follow-up phone conversation, the accused man says that after reflecting on the matter, he decided not to talk with the press. Hesays he had consulted with rabbis and decided it was better to not to practice lashon hara (speaking evil of others). His innocence, hesays, will eventually come to light.

Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, head psychologist of the Binyamin Regional Council, says he understands Blass's position. A rabbi in a situation such as Blass's is struggling between two different legal edicts set out in Leviticus.

On one hand, the Bible warns a person not to speak ill of another, "You should not be a gossip monger." At the same time, it says one has a duty to protect people, "You should not stand aside while blood is shed."

To act in this kind of matter, a rabbi must set aside one edict in favor of the other, says Yeres. If a rabbi chooses to speak out and not stand aside when he believes someone is in danger, Yeres advises the rabbi to focus first on the victim and then to seek professional advice. If he moves forward to expose the abuser, he shouldn't do it alone, Yeres says. The role of the rabbinical court here should be to support the rabbi in his actions to protect the community.

"It is commendable for a rabbi to stand up [in this type of situation] and take action," says Yeres.

People in higher authority need to have their awareness raised regarding this topic, Yeres adds. There should be clear policy guidelines established by the rabbinical court that rabbis can follow, since in cases like this, in small communities, the rabbi or his wife is often the first person a sexual-abuse victim turns to.

To focus attention on this issue, Yeres and Michael Strick, director of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel, in December held a conference in Jerusalem on how rabbis should deal with sexual abuse in their communities. The council runs ongoing workshops on "The Rabbi's Role in Crisis Intervention," in which the topic of sexual abuse has been raised , but it does not have a workshop specifically geared toward such cases.

Avraham Giesser, a rabbi in the Samaria community of Ofra, says that the legal position of a rabbi in these matters needs to be strengthened. The rabbi has an obligation to safeguard his community, but he has a hard time doing it without authority.

"A small community is like a family," says Giesser. "It's hard to deal with a family member, and it's hard to get a conviction in court. The victim is often a very weak person, and the abuser is often a strong man who is bolstered by friendships and institutional ties. It's difficult for the victims to stand up in court, for them to deal with the issue at all. So the rabbi has an important role as the victim's advocate."

Gross says the need for anonymity among sexual-abuse victims can be seen in statistics from her center's hot line. Fifty percent of those who call the Crisis Center for Religious Women are haredi; 30% percent are modern Orthodox, 15% are traditional and 5%, secular.  This does not mean there are more problems with sexual abuse in the haredi community, says Gross, it means an anonymous hot line meets the needs of that sector.

"No one is trying to sweep things under the carpet," Gross says, but public disclosure is an issue.

In religious communities, particularly the haredi one, when a woman starts to look for a husband, a background check is done, even before the couple meet. While in the secular world a man might be in the middle of a relationship before he discovers a woman is a rape victim, in the haredi world he would know it even before they met, Gross says.

"If a man could choose between two wonderful women, one who was raped and one who wasn't, any man, religious or secular, is much more likely to chose the woman who wasn't," Gross says.

"The system doesn't make it easy for the victim. She has to prove it. It's her word against his. The laws are excellent, but the judges mete out low sentences," Gross says.

According to Jerusalem criminal-law attorney Noam Lerner, telling the police about a sexual abuser rarely protects the community. Reaching a conviction takes time and punishment doesn't always follow.

He recalls an incident from when he was working as a police detective. He had to interview a man suspected of sexually abusing a woman in the workplace. Eventually the man confessed and was convicted in a well-publicized trial.

Two years later, Lerner saw him in the police station as a volunteer officer. He was allowed to keep that position because he had been granted a pardon after the conviction and the crime was considered erased.

This was particularly upsetting because during his confession two years earlier, the man had told Lerner that when he had lived in New York, he had used his volunteer- policeman uniform to take advantage of women.

Lerner suggests to anyone trying to stand up against an abuser - both inside and outside of the regular system: Get good legal advice. "It's the easiest thing in the world to have a guy turn around and sue you."

What should a rabbi do when he learns about sexual abuse in his own congregation?