Interviews With Four Convicted Sexual Predators — Part One

Sources told The Jewish Week that the Queens board, red Head teens nude known as the Vaad Harabonim, had long sought to have Rabbi Bryks removed as allegations against him persisted but was advised by lawyers that doing so was complicated because there has been no formal legal or halachic proceeding against him. He now makes his living as a mortgage broker, has a blog seeking to field questions on halachic issues and is said to involve himself in marriage counseling, advocacy for women seeking religious divorces and in a rabbinical court, the Queens Beth Din, which he convenes with other rabbis. Asher Lipner, a clinical psychologist who counsels sex abuse victims and, in a Jewish Week op-ed last week accused the Vaad of Queens of “protecting one of their own,” without mentioning Rabbi Bryks by name, said the Vaad had a responsibility to publicize the circumstances of Rabbi Bryks’ departure from the Vaad if it has to do with the past allegations.

A Denver native, Rabbi Bryks, as principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg was found in 1988 to have tickled and hugged some students but denied more serious charges of sexual molestation, according to press reports. A minor rape victim was forced to give birth to the child of her rapist after the Madras High Court denied her request for abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971. The victim was first examined by a doctor at 19 weeks, who declined to perform an abortion, even though it was permitted under the law. The board’s other president, Rabbi Richard Weiss, declined to comment and would not confirm or deny that the person involved in the agreement was Rabbi Bryks. In 1993, after Rabbi Bryks had moved to New York, a former student in Winnipeg accused him of having fondled him at the school when the student was 8, but prosecutors reportedly declined to press charges, citing lack of corroboration. Since he was no longer working in Jewish education, he did not need to belong to a national rabbinical council, Rabbi Hershel Billet, then the council’s immediate past president, quoted Rabbi Bryks as saying then. But the rabbi told the council’s leadership then that the resignation should in no way be taken as admission of wrongdoing.

Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who was investigated by police in Winnipeg, Canada, on suspicion of inappropriate contact with children at a yeshiva where he was principal, resigned from the Orthodox Union’s Rabbinical Council of America in 2003 without admitting any wrongdoing. I have had learning disorders and hyperactivity from infancy,” he says. “When I was about 14, the yeshiva counselor told me, ‘Let’s do non-spiritual treatments, let’s start seeing professionals.’ That’s how it started. At the psychiatrists’ symposium, Prof. Bonne said explicitly that yeshiva students are prescribed SSRI-group antidepressants, including Prozac, Lustral, Cipralex and Seroxat, due to their sexual side effects: reducing urges and slowing ejaculation. “If the agreement was due to some other reason that is personal and does not affect the community and they are not telling anyone, that is fine with me,” said Lipner. The Winnipeg Jewish Review will report on further details of the upcoming documentary series to be aired on Vision Television in due course. I have of course had moments where I have freaked out so bad (just from being frightened in my own mind) and almost karate kicked my boyfriend about 3 times.

Rabinovich doesn’t have the sensitivity to understand that I was Haredi,” he continues. “I can’t tell someone to leave. A Queens rabbi who has been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against children, but never charged with a crime, has reached a negotiated agreement to leave the Rabbinical Board of Queens in the fall, The Jewish Week has learned. Wouldn’t it be better to advise the teen to leave the place causing him suffering? Balser also told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that he was thankful that Shaarey Zedek Synagogue backed him up and was willing to pay any related legal fees he may have had to incur in so doing. A friend of mine once told me, “You can’t help who you fall in love with, even if they are married.” Whether or not I agree with her statement is not the question, it’s whether or not it can work.