Lakewood yeshiva rabbi accused of molesting Brooklyn student 40 years ago

LAKEWOOD (NJ)
Asbury Park Press

September 26, 2019

By Gustavo Martínez Contreras

A rabbi at a Lakewood yeshiva has been named in a civil lawsuit alleging he and another rabbi repeatedly sexually molested a then 13-year-old boy when the youth studied at a Brooklyn yeshiva almost four decades ago.

Rabbi Joel Falk, 74, now principal of Hebrew studies at Cheder Toras Zev, at 1000 Cross St., is named in a claim brought by former Brooklyn Yeshiva Torah Temimah student Barach Sandhaus, 52, a Miami Beach-based businessman.

The lawsuit alleges that over a two-year period, Falk and Rabbi Joel Kolko, also employed at the Brooklyn school, would “inappropriately touch the penis and other parts of the plaintiff’s body.” The alleged abuse occurred between 1978 and 1980.

To see the full lawsuit, scroll to the bottom of this story.

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