Man Accused of Throwing Bleach at Brooklyn Rabbi

By Pervaiz Shallwani
Wall Street Journal
December 13, 2012

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/12/12/man-accused-of-throwing-bleach-at-rabbi-advocate-for-abuse-victims/

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Brooklyn rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community was arrested Wednesday afternoon.

Melech Schnitzler, 36 years old, turned himself in to police at the 90th Precinct stationhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,  a day after Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was doused with a cup of Clorox, according to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Schnitzler, who was accompanied by a lawyer, has been charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment on Wednesday afternoon.

Rosenberg, 62, runs a website and hotline that encourages victims of sex abuse in the Hasidic community to come forward and report the crimes to the police and has been ostracized by the Jewish community as a result.

Schnitzler’s father has been accused of being a pedophile on the website, according to Kelly.  The man has not been charged, a law-enforcement official said.

The attack against Rosenberg comes as tensions remain high in the Satmar community after Nechemya Weberman, a prominent counselor in the insular ultra-orthodox Jewish community, was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl under his care over a three-year period beginning when she was 12. Rosenberg was present at the trial almost daily.

Police received a 911 call just after noon on Wednesday to 311 Roebling St. in Williamsburg of an assault.

They arrived to find Rosenberg with chemical burns to his face, including his eye, a law-enforcement official said. He was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Rosenberg told detectives that Schnitzler came up to him and splashed his face with a cup of liquid.

Prosecutors have complained about a history of intimidation in the community, with some of the tactics exposed during the trial.

Authorities have kept in close contact with the victim and her family since the trial, providing her with higher level of protection than most victims because of the community backlash in the case, a law-enforcement official said.

Before the trial began, four men were charged  after they allegedly tried to buy the silence of the girl and her now-husband by offering them $500,000 to drop the case.

During the trial, three men were charged with criminal contempt after they allegedly took courtroom photos of the victim and posted it online.

The victim, now 18, testified about the difficult decision to press charges against Weberman, telling the jury that since  she reported the abuse to police she and her family have faced intimidation, business loss and even a niece who was kicked out of school.

She said her parents suggested she drop the case as recently as six months ago, taking her to a Rabbi, who tried to convince her.

Following the verdict, the lead prosecutor on the case, Kevin O’Donnell, said several supporters reported to the district attorney’s office that they returned home from the courthouse to phone calls and messages from friends asking whose side they were on in the trial.

“Anybody stepping forward out of their community to come to our office runs the risk of being ostracized and pretty much being removed from the community,” he said.