NEW YORK
The Daily Beast
WRITTEN BY
Antonia Marrero
Adam Grannick
Hasidic Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg has faced ostracism and violence to expose child molestation in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
The choice to expose a pedophile is a no-brainer, right? Mostly.
But if your community believes that ‘informing’ on other community members is unthinkable, pedophiles are left free to continue preying on kids. In fact, pedophiles flourish in insular communities.
And there are few communities more insular than Williamsburg’s rapidly-growing population of Hasidim, a branch of Orthodox Judaism whose name signifies piety.
Brooklyn’s neighborhood of Williamsburg is home to approximately 180,000 Hasidim. One of them is Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, and he’s on a mission.
“Boys used to come and tell me that they go the ritual bath—they’re being sodomized,” the rabbi said. “Girls used to tell me that their father sleeps with them.” Faced with mounting reports of child molestation, Rosenberg founded a free hotline to inform his community about sexual predators, as well as how to get the police involved.
Other rabbis denounced the open condemnation of community pedophiles, labeling Rosenberg an “informer” against the Jewish people. The smear has given apparent permission for violence against Rosenberg himself. Fellow Jews have hurled rocks at him. One particularly nasty street ambush included having bleach thrown in his face, disabling one of his eyes for a time. Of all the synagogues in Williamsburg, the rabbi can count on one hand how many will let him enter to pray.
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