Alleged Chabad Molester Arrested in Beverly Hills

By Shmarya Rosenberg
The Failed Messiah
October 29, 2013

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2013/10/alleged-chabad-molester-arrested-in-beverly-hills-shmarya-rosenberg-failedmessiahcom-345.html

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Tevel

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Tevel (Tewel) was reportedly arrested today at the JEM Center in Beverly Hills. Tevel will be extradited to New York City where he will stand trial for allegedly sexually abusing children in the Chabad community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Tevel (Tewel) was arrested today at the JEM Center in Beverly Hills, The L.A. Jewish Journal reported. Tevel will be extradited to New York City where he will stand trial for allegedly sexually abusing children in the Chabad community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

The arrest was reported to the L.A. Jewish Journal by Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino, a spokesman for the Beverly Hills Police Department. The arrest warrant was reportedly issued in Brooklyn, N.Y. for “Menachem ‘Mendel’ Tewel.”

Hoshino told the Jewish Journal that despite the difference in spelling of Tevel’s name, the right person was arrested.

Tevel works at the JEM center – a Beverly Hills Orthodox Jewish community center run by Chabad rabbis that primarily serves non-Chabad Iranian Jewish teens.

The Jewish Journal exposed Tevel’s history of alleged abuse in August.

In late September, when a Jewish Journal reporter went to the JEM Center to see if Tevel was still employed there, Tevel reportedly came to the front desk but then quickly retreated into an office after the reporter identified himself.

As of Tuesday afternoon, both the NYPD and Brooklyn D.A. were reportedly unable to confirm that an arrest warrant had ever been issued for Tevel, let alone that Tevel had been arrested.

“We wouldn't have it in our system yet. It usually takes a while before it gets through our system,” Sandy Silverstein, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, reportedly said.

Hynes has a policy of not publicly announcing the arrests of haredi pedophiles, haredi child abusers, haredi spousal abusers and other haredi criminals – even though he regularly announces the arrests of similar non-haredi criminals and of select haredi criminals when that announcement is politically advantageous.

An NYPD spokesman reportedly said Tevel’s name would not be in its system, “if he hadn’t been arrested here in New York.”

Hoshino said Tevel will be extradited to New York.