Satmar Community Divided Over Sex Arrests

An anonymous call to a sexual abuse hotline led to the arrest of Yoel Malik, a 33-year-old member of the Jewish Satmar community in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Jan. 30 on charges of sexually assaulting at least three teenaged boys over 10 months ending in January.

It was a call that some members of the ultra-Orthodox sect, rocked in recent months by a series of sex-abuse prosecutions, say should never have been made.

Only if a Jewish judge deemed that the case couldn’t be handled by the Jewish courts would it be acceptable to turn it over to a non-Jewish judge, said Yoel Ase, a member of the Satmar sect in Brooklyn.

“The ones who reported Malik, they didn’t go to a Jewish court first,” Mr. Ase said. “They should have gone there first.”

Mr. Malik allegedly took two boys to a motel room, where he provided them with cigarettes and engaged in sexual acts, police said. Incidents involving a third boy allegedly took place in Mr. Malik’s car, cops said. Police reports say the boys were between the ages of 14 and 16, though both the police and the Kings County District Attorney’s office wouldn’t disclose their exact ages.

Mr. Malik was charged with 12 counts of sexual abuse, four counts of criminal sexual acts, 11 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of forcible touching for assaults that began last March and continued into January, according to the DA.

His arrest is the latest in a series of sexual abuse scandals that have brought unwanted media attention to the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

Mr. Malik was part of the shul, or synagogue, at the corner of Myrtle and Bedford led by Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum. It is the same synagogue that Nechemya Weberman attended before he was sentenced to 103 years in prison last month for the repeated sexual abuse of a Satmar girl. The abuse began when the girl was 12; she was 18 on the day of the verdict, which was the most severe punishment a member of the community has received for sexual abuse crimes, according to The New York Times.

In December, Emanuel Yegutkin, a former Brooklyn yeshiva principal and Orthodox Jew — though not a Satmar — received a maximum of 25 years in prison for sexually abusing three boys. In the past Charles J. Hynes, the Kings County District Attorney who prosecuted Mr. Weberman, has been accused of being ineffective in prosecuting sexual abuse claims against Orthodox Jews.

Most people in the neighborhood avoid discussing the cases, Mr. Ase said, even within the community.

“We try not to go into it,” Mr. Ase said. “We’re trying the best we can.” He said members of the community generally avoid the topic, as it is unclear who sides with whom.

Mr. Ase, who works at Coffee Break Pizza and Bakery, across from the synagogue down the street from Mr. Malik’s home on Bedford Avenue, said he remembered Mr. Malik attending services at the synagogue and frequently coming to the shop with the children he taught, Mr. Ase said.

“He was a very friendly man,” Mr. Ase said. He refused to speculate on Mr. Malik’s guilt or innocence.

Mr. Weberman was another matter.

“Weberman didn’t do anything,” Mr. Ase said, echoing the sentiments of several other Satmar members. Abe Weiss, another member of the Satmar synagogue on Bedford Avenue, said that the community was outraged by the verdict in Mr. Weberman’s case.

Mr. Weberman was “a very, very good man,” Mr. Weiss said. “Everyone knows him here.” Mr. Weberman’s Satmar supporters hope to get the ruling in his case overturned.

Mr. Weiss cited a community-created website, “A Community Called Weberman,” whose stated aim is to “shed light on the plight of Nechemya Weberman, a kind hearted soul who has been unjustly accused, and sentenced to 103 years of imprisonment for a crime not even remotely within the capabilities of his caring character.”

Mr. Weiss believes public officials punished Mr. Weberman to set an an example within the Hasidic community. He pointed out that Jerry Sandusky, the convicted child molester in the Penn State case last spring, was sentenced to only 30 to 60 years in prison.

“Everyone in our community is now thinking twice before going to the police, because if the person is a Hasidic Jew, he has no chance to win in court,” Mr. Weiss said. “No one has trust in the system.”

Mr. Weiss said the Satmar community is also reluctant to talk to the media in part because members believe reporters distorted and exaggerated much of what the community chose to share with the outside world. He said that in Mr. Malik’s case, many news outlets, including the New York Times and the Daily News, referred to Mr. Malik as a rabbi. Mr. Weiss and several other members of the Satmar community said Mr. Malik is not a rabbi.

“Not everyone is a rabbi, not everyone is a leader, not everyone is a counselor,” Mr. Weiss said.

Meanwhile, one Satmar member who did not want his name used said he didn’t doubt the allegations against Mr. Malik, and had little sympathy for Mr. Weberman. Though he said he didn’t know all the details of Mr. Weberman’s case, he felt that if Mr. Weberman was guilty of such crimes, his punishment was fitting.

“If he is guilty, he should get 103 years,” he said.

Mr. Malik is set to appear in Kings County Supreme Court on Feb. 19. His lawyer did not respond to request for comment.

 

 

 

  BY MAYA RAJAMANI - NY Times