Two weeks ago, Rebecca Pastor, a 46-year-old woman from
Essex County, N.J., found out that the man she alleges raped her in Baltimore
on Christmas Day, 1990, was not in jail, as she had long believed, but was
living in nearby West Orange. And that he was passing himself off as a
righteous rabbi amid concern he may be seeking vulnerable young women.
Since then, with the help of several Orthodox rabbis and a
handful of congregants in West Orange, she has found information that strongly
suggests David (Yeshaya Dovid) Kaye has a long history of complaints against
him. The information portrays him as psychologically and religiously manipulating
naïve and trusting women, seeking to use their deep faith in him to engage in
sexual relations.
While the other women who claim to have been preyed on by
Kaye have requested anonymity, Pastor, who said therapy has given her strength,
plans to travel to Baltimore soon to meet with sex crime officials in hopes of
seeing Kaye prosecuted.
Maryland has no statute of limitations for rape.
“I’m a survivor, not a victim,” she said, “and I believe in
the motto that you can choose courage or comfort, but you can’t have both.”
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old New York woman who says Kaye
convinced her in the past year that he had a nevua (religious prophecy) that
she would suffer a tragic death if she did not “cleanse” her “neshama” [soul]
by submitting to him, which she did for several months, is weighing legal
action. She said she contacted members of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles
Hynes’ office earlier this year but they were unresponsive.
Several rabbis actively seeking to alert people to Kaye’s
background and behavior told The Jewish Week they were particularly repulsed by
allegations that his modus operandi was to convince women that his actions were
based on serving God when it appeared he was focused on serving himself.
The attention on Kaye came about in recent days when Rabbi
Yosef Blau, who has long been an advocate for victims of abuse and knew of
allegations against Kaye for years, notified Rabbis Eliezer Zwickler and Mark
Spivak, who lead two Orthodox congregations in West Orange, that Kaye was believed
to have recently moved back to West Orange, his hometown.
After appointing a
small committee of congregational leaders to look into the allegations, the
rabbis sent out an advisory to their congregants on Sept. 18. It warned of “the
presence of a potential perpetrator in order that” members “may protect
themselves and their families.” It said that due to “serious allegations,” they
had advised Kaye, whom they named, not to attend their shuls “for the
foreseeable future.”
They learned that Kaye, who is 50, married with five
children between the ages of 6 and 18, and claiming to be a rabbi, had a series
of stints in various capacities over the years.
He was, among other posts, an
Air Force chaplain overseas, nursing home chaplain in New Hyde Park, Jewish day
school teacher in Long Island, and most recently pulpit rabbi in upstate
Liberty.
Those appear to have been short-lived and ended abruptly amid
allegations of inappropriate behavior with young women. Kaye is currently
unemployed and believed to be living at his parents’ home.
While emphasizing that no legal proceedings had been
initiated and praising Kaye’s parents as “respected and beloved members of this
community for decades,” the statement noted that allegations concerning Kaye
related to his “allegedly exploiting his title as rabbi to enable him to take
or to attempt to take liberties with various females in past years.” It cites
reports from Israel, Germany, South Africa and the U.S.
The statement added
that “a number of women involved have submitted to very reputable and prominent
rabbis written statements recording the occurrences. If found to be true, the
facts recounted have potential serious implications.”
Read more at:
No comments:
Post a Comment