Thursday, November 15, 2007

More on Alleged Sex Offender - Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz



New York Times on Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz
22 Years Later, a Child Abuse Suspect’s Extradition Is Sought
Published: November 16, 2007

Prosecutors in Brooklyn said yesterday they were pursuing the extradition of a man who fled to Israel more than 20 years ago after being accused of molesting young boys.

The man, Avrohom Mondrowitz, 59, was indicted in 1985 on eight counts of child abuse and five counts of sodomy involving four boys ages 9 to 15. He left for Israel before he could be arrested. . . click here to read more.



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The Following Note comes from The Awareness Center:
The Awareness Center wants to thank the survivors for their courage and determination over the years. We also want to thank all of those who have been diligently doing what they can to make sure Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz is held accountable for his actions.

The Awareness Center also hopes that all of the individuals who helped Mondrowitz elude law enforcement over the last twenty years will also be held accountable. If Mondrowitz molested any more children after they first learned of the allegations and especially after they helped him leave the United States -- those individuals should be held responsible for the creation of more survivors of child sexual abuse
In the basement, behind a closed door
By Aviva Lori
Haaretz
November 15, 2007

A community psychologist

. . . Avrohom Mondrowitz, 60, was probably born in Poland and settled in Israel with his family after World War II. He grew up in Tel Aviv, but in the 1950s the family immigrated to Chicago. He attended the Telshe Yeshiva, in Wickliffe, Ohio, run by the Lithuanian branch of Orthodox Jewry. In the 1970s, he came to Brooklyn, saying he held a master's degree in the sciences, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia, and another Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Florida, in addition to being an ordained rabbi. The Jews of Brooklyn were impressed, and Mondrowitz began to acquire social status. He wrote articles on education for the Haredi press, had a radio program on which he gave listeners advice on how to treat children, established a yeshiva for children in distress and was active in Ohel, a large New York organization for orphans and children from broken homes. Finally, he hung a "psychologist" sign on his door and started to receive patients.

"He made a name for himself and was very respected in the community," says a Brooklyn Hasid. "Children were referred to him, hard cases from Ohel, and he treated them. Rabbis also referred children to him for treatment. His expertise was treating children who had been sexually molested."

Children who visited his office, which was located in the basement of his home, remember him boasting about the "bragging wall," on which hung his diplomas and certificates, all finely framed, which attested to his qualifications as a therapist. But according to Patricia Kehoe, a retired New York Police Department detective, "his diplomas turned out to be fakes, including his rabbinical ordination."

The police suspect that in that office, behind a closed door and drawn curtains, he sexually abused children, including with acts of sodomy. In many cases, the parents were waiting in the next room for the treatment to end, so they could take the children home. Those are the facts as collected by the Brooklyn police and told by the children. . . Click Here to read more of this story


Click Here for more information on Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, what a story.

B'H' for the ability for those who were abused to be able to stay alive and stopping the drugs. I'm amazed at their courage. I think if that was me I would have committed suicide.

November 15, 2007 1:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“All the rabbis who knew about Mondrowitz but did nothing should be named here and ostracized.”
------------------------------
Avrohom Pam
Elya Svei
Yaakov Perlow
Chaim Dov Keller
Aharon Schechter
Shia Fishman
Yankel Bender
Moshe Scheinerman

-----------------------------------
Let's not forget the beloved(by Mondrowitz) Herbert "the Momzer" Bomzer:

http://www.forward.com/articles/524/

One member of Hynes’s Jewish council, Rabbi Herbert Bomzer, said he does not remember Mondrowitz’s extradition being discussed by the council. Bomzer did say that he knew Mondrowitz when the younger man was a counselor at Yeshiva University’s high school, and that Mondrowitz had been “loved” by the students.

When asked if he would now support extradition proceedings, Bomzer, president of the rabbinical board of Flatbush, said: “If he has managed to get to Israel and is protected by the law there — then leave it alone.”

November 15, 2007 7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I KNOW AVROHOM MONDROWITZ FOR ALMOST FIFTY YEARS. I HAVE SYMPHATHY FOR ALL HIS ALLEGED VICTIMS HOWEVER ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. HIS LAST TWENTY FIVE YEARS HAVE BEEN HELL ON THIS EARTH WHICH IS MORE THAN ENOUGH OF A PUNISHMENT. I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SINCE HE IS IN ISRAEL HE HAS NOT TOUCHED A SOUL. FURTHERMORE HIS ELDERLY FATHER A VENERABLE SAGE , SHOULD NOT HAVE TP PAY FOR HIS CRIMES BY SEEING HIS SON DRAGGED BACK TO THE USA. THIS ALLEGED STORY WILL HAUNT AVREMIL FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. THIS IN ITSELF IS THE MOST SEVERE PUNISHMENT. THE TORAH FORBIDS REVENGE.

November 16, 2007 12:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To anonymous November 16, 2007 12:35 AM,

I'm so sorry I have to disagree with you. Having an alleged sex offender be held responsible for his acts is not a form of revenge.

You are forgetting that those who survived the alleged criminal sexual acts performed by Avrohom Mondrowitz will live a life time with the memories of his barbaric acts.

I personally do not believe that by Mondrowitz moving to Israel to be the cure that would stop an alleged serial rapist like Mondrowitz from continuing on with his molesting career.

It could be true that Mondrowitz's alleged sexual offending might have gone in and out of remission over the years. Yet with Mondrowitz's alleged past history it's very difficult to believe that he would have stopped altogether.

Avrohom Mondrowitz's father is not unlike many other parents, spouses or children of sex offenders. They too suffer from the actions of the offender. As a community we can offer them support as we would the child, spouse or children of those who commit murder.

I believe sex offenders should also be scene as murderers. They are murderers or attempted murderers of their victims soul.

Those who commit sexual offenses take away a sense of innocent from those who are forced to endure these criminal acts.

November 16, 2007 7:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was wondering if there's a trend that sex offenders say they are a rabbi, yet lack ordination? Or is it that after they are caught,that the rabbi(s) who gave the offender smeicha lie and say they never gave it to them?

I keep seeing this happening in the more ultra orthodox cases.

November 16, 2007 8:34 AM  

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