A DISTURBING report this week from America’s National Public Radio exposes a shockingly high incidence of child abuse in New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic communities.
The report focused on the experiences of Joe Diangelo, 28, and Joel Engelman who both claim they were abused as children.
Joe Diangelo - Photo: Coburn Dukehart/NPR
Diangelo say that when he was seven he was taken by his father to a mikvah (bath house) to find the place packed with naked men and boys.
I was in the tub, and I had my back turned, and somebody raped me while I was in the water … I didn’t know what happened. I couldn’t make sense of it, really.
Diangelo says he never saw the man who abused him. These days, monitors are posted by the bath to stop any sexual activity. But back then, the boy was on his own.
He told no one but began refusing to go to the mikvah. He left Orthodox Judaism when he was 17. He changed his name from Joel Deutsch and cut almost all ties with his family and friends.
For Engelman, the loss of innocence came at a yeshiva, or Jewish boys’ school He says he was eight when he was called to the principal’s office. When he arrived, he says, Rabbi Avrohom Reichman told him to close the door.
He motioned for me to get on his lap, and as soon as I got on the chair, he would swivel the chair from right to left, continuously. Then he would start touching me while talking to me. He would start at my shoulders and work his way down to my genitals.
Joel Engelman, aged 7
Engelman says this occurred twice a week for two months. He told no one for more than a decade. Reichman was, after all, a revered rabbi. Four years ago, he told his parents. And a year ago, when he heard that Reichman had allegedly abused several other boys, they confronted Reichman.
When the school heard about it, they gave the rabbi a lie-detector test.
He failed miserably. So they told me, ‘This his guy is gone. This guy has to go’.
But a few weeks later, a religious leader from the school approached Engelman’s mother, Pearl. He posed an astonishing question:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad was the molestation?
She was speechless. Then she says, the man continued:
We found out there was no skin-to-skin contact, that it was through clothing’. So he’s telling me, ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, this was maybe a 2 or a 3, so what’s the big fuss?’
The school reinstated Reichman. The rabbi and school officials declined to be interviewed for this story. But Rabbi David Niederman, who heads the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, says the school did its due diligence. He says the allegation was thoroughly investigated by an independent committee of lay people and rabbis.
The Reichman case is not isolated. Four ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn have been sued or arrested for abusing boys in the past three years. That’s a tiny fraction of the actual abuse, says Hella Winston, author of Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels.
She says that in researching her book, she encountered dozens of alleged victims who told her sexual abuse is an open secret in the Hasidic community. But the community is so insulated and the rabbis are so powerful that few dare to come forward.
If I become known as an informer, then people also won’t want to have anything to do with my family. They won’t want to marry my children, won’t want to give me a job. This is the fear.
But more and more accusations against rabbis have begun to circulate. Last August, politician and radio talk show host Dov Hikind devoted an hour-long program to sexual abuse. He interviewed Pearl Engelman, who spoke under an alias, about her son’s case.
The calls flooded in. Hikind said that after the show, people started showing up at his office with their stories.
Fifty, 60, 70 people … but you got to remember for each person who comes forward, God only knows how many people are not coming forward. If you’re a paedophile, the best place for you to come to are some of the Jewish communities. Why? Because you can be a paedophile and no one’s going to do anything. Even if they catch you, you’ll get away with it.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
This is not a new thing when in comes to the Hasidic –there have been cases hear in the UK. They close ranks when it comes to criminal activity as they have a pathological fear of the outside world.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
We found out there was no skin-to-skin contact, that it was through clothing’. So he’s telling me, ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, this was maybe a 2 or a 3, so what’s the big fuss?’
That’s farked up.
Pedophile clergy abuse a position of special power and trust, and truly deserve to be raked over the coals for their behavior.Sadly they often get less scrutiny and penalty than anybody merely because they are clergy. It’s high time people push them off their pedestal and start considering them what they are: men who’s job is to pretend they speak for sky faries.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Some time ago I read, on the anti-circumcision web site, norm-uk.co.uk how, after performing this dreadful act of mutilation, the jewish ‘priest/butcher/pervert, whatever his official title) would suck the blood off the wounded member. The ‘official’ had HIV and was passing it on to all these poor children. OK, it wasn’t ‘child abuse’ in the strict sense, but I wonder how many of the boys lived to be happy, productive adults, in spite of the handicap of their religious indoctrination.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Small correction, Newspaniard, the mohel, or circumcisor, passed on a form of herpes, not HIV, to his victims. In defence of the practice of sucking the blood from an infant’s penis, a Broolyn mohel declared:
“Our teachers taught us to use our mouths. The saliva cleans wounds. God gave us saliva in our mouth to clean things.”
So, with these ultra-orthodox types we get a combination of barbarity and ignorance of basic hygiene. No wonder so many kids born into fundie families are so much at risk.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
In 1991 I was invited to attend the Brit Milah of the son of my then boss Doron Arad at Grofit, in the Arava Valley – Southern Israel. I watched as the Mohel used his clippers to mutilate the poor sod, and looked on in amazement as they all rejoiced and sang.
However, when they passed around a glass of red wine containing the foreskin of the new recruit, which we were all expected to sip from, I made my excuses and left.
Still Doron and I remained friends and he even spoke as a defence witness at my trial in Eilat; for all the fucking good it did!
Yes Doron I’m still pissed off. Give my love to Doodi!
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Oh and another thing Doron. I worked my balls off on that fucking date plantation. Up before dawn and on the F1 at twilight. Climbing those fucking palms with nothing more than a pair of your blue Daisy Dukes and a singlet to protect me from the sharp body-numbing thorns of those trees.
OK I’m sorry we let the donkeys wander into the mine-field on the border between God’s chosen land and Jordan, but nothing happened.
I’m sorry Maurice and I organised a foot race through that same mine-field, but nothing happened!
Did the fucking Israeli Army really need to become involved?
Did Shin Bet really need to hold me in communicado?
Did you really have to bring that twat Doodi to my trial.
I’d have been better off with with Barry Chuckle at my hearing.
Sorry Doron, but the only people that came out of that fiasco with their heads held high are me, my folks and Ross & Elaina Barker!
Fuck you. And if you think I’m going to pay you back that $100 I owe you, then you can fucking well whistle.
Give my best to Debbie and the kids.
Cunt!
February 4th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Remigius, I feel you may have some issues with anger. On a scale of 1 to 10, how big a c*nt would you say he was?
February 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
valdemar
“Remigius, I feel you may have some issues with anger. On a scale of 1 to 10, how big a c*nt would you say he was?”
LOL!!!
February 5th, 2009 at 4:17 am
You have a great story there Remigius, by the sound of it, you have every right to be angry. Ever thought of writing a book? a Blog? sending you my non-existent healing vibes…
February 5th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Thanks for the feedback guys! Had some chums round t’other night and it seems someone put some ginger ale in my pint of Jack Daniels. Got a bit emotional. T’was a long time ago, in a faraway place.
Sorry for my rant.
He’s still a cnut tho’.
On a scale of 1 to 10?
3.5
Ross Barker and his missus Elena, as a top dude and a megababe for coming to visit me in Beersheva nick, after having been warned not to!
10.
And yeah Ross thanks for the soap!
Bloody ha ha.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Does anyone know which hassidic community it was? There are many in Brooklyn.
May 17th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
WTF????????????
March 19th, 2010 at 4:42 am
i am an ex-escort , I reside near Lakewood, NJ and worked in a private hotel room in Lakewood. Over 50% of my clients were hacidic and into very off beat perversions. Most woud try to pay extra to not use protection, which is 100% not a risk i take…so they would thrust their tongue into my bare anus licking fecal matter out!!! girls i worked wit were/are hiv positive and informed the hacidic clients when asked to not use a condom…the males response was to do it anyway, they are protected by god. Some females were forcibly sodimized. The escorts in hacidic areas dread seein hacidic clients. They are ultra paranoid to leave and practice awful hygenics and carry strong body oder that is purposely rubbed on our face and necks usin their underarms. I needed to stop ..$$$$ was NOT worth it anymore and i feared rape as many are physically abusive ans sexually vindictive
September 13th, 2010 at 8:36 am
You’re a terrible liar. There are almost no hasidim living in or near lakewood. It’s people like you who have nothing better to do than make sh*t up, that cause the real cases not to recieve any credibility.
September 17th, 2010 at 3:27 am
i met this guy a while back in williamsburg brooklyn out side of duffs bar he is really a nice guy meaning joe
September 20th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
this man is wonder ful he helped my dear sweet abraham find himself abraham you know who you are if you are out there email me aaliyahlavoie@hotmail.com we meet in williams burg around broadway and taylor and bedford ave contact me