Case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko - Yeshiva Torah Temimah
(AKA: Joel Kolko, Yehudah Kolko, Yudi Kolko)
Flatbush (Brooklyn), NY
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Past Events: Watch the film of the Panel Discussion After the Showing of the Film "Narrow Bridge"
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CALL TO ACTION:
If you or anyone you know was sexually violated by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko contact Jeff Herman at: 1-800-686-9921
December 7, 2006 -- Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was arrested in New York City following a long-term investigation, police said.He was charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and endangering the welfare of a child. The alleged victim was in the first grade during the 2002-03 school year. Video
May 5, 2006 Rabbi Yudi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah were hit with a $20 million civil lawsuit accusing him of molesting two students more than 25 years ago.One of the alleged victims said Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, sexually assaulted him when he was a seventh-grade student.
September 12, 2007 -- Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was re-arrested on new charges for allegedly molesting another boy at at Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Rabbi Kolko's wife was able to raise the bail to $50,000 bond, $25,000 cash within the hour and he was released in time to pray at evening Rosh Hashanah services.
April 2, 2008 - Another civil suit is filed against Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah. The latest case involves the alleged sexual abuse of a minor, identified as John Doe No. 6, was enrolled at the school when they were between the ages of 11 and 13.
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation
or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet
their own personal needs.
2006
Request from attorney Jeffrey Herman (02/18/2006)
A Survivor Speaks Out (02/01/2006)
A Survivors Story (02/16/2006)
John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2 V. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc. (05/02/2006)
Rabbi in sex suit - Ex-students seek $20M (05/06/2006)
Suit claims rabbi molested male students (05/06/2006)
Kiddie Sex Scandal Rocks Yeshiva Torah Temimah (05/11/2006)
On the Rabbi's Knee (05/15/2006)
Letters To The Editor (05/31/2006)
Yeshiva In Sex Scandal Pledges More Protection (06/14/2006)
Yeshiva Dustup (07/13/2006)
`He Took My Innocence Away' (08/09/2006)
An open letter to Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, mashgiach, Bais Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey (12/05/2006)
JOHN DOE NO.4, by and through his natural parents and guardians, and by his MOTHER and FATHER individually (12/06/2006)
Police: Brooklyn Rabbi Charged With Sexual Abuse On Child (12/07/2006)
Brooklyn school rabbi accused of molesting boy (12/07/2006)
Brooklyn rabbi charged with sexual abuse (12/07/2006)
Rabbi Charged With Sexually Abusing 9-Year-Old (12/08/2006)
Brooklyn Rabbi Arrested On Sexual Assault Charges (12/08/2006)
Sex-rap rabbi is busted in Brooklyn (12/08/2006)
Brooklyn School Rabbi Accused of Molesting Boy (12/08/2006)
NYC rabbi charged with sex abuse of 9-year-old boy (12/08/2006)
Brooklyn Rabbi In Perv Bust (12/08/2006)
Yeshiva Denies Knowledge Of Alleged Sexual Abuse (12/08/2006)
Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty To Molestation Charges (12/08/2006)
Orthodox Rabbi Arrested for Sex Abuse (12/08/2006)
NYC Rabbi Arrested For "Decades Of Alleged Sexual Abuse" (12/08/2006)
Rabbi Charged With Sexually Abusing 9-Year-Old (12/08/2006)
'Perv' Rabbi In Shul Shocker (12/09/2006)
Tip of iceberg feared in rabbi child sex rap (12/09/2006)
Brooklyn Rabbi Is Arraigned on Charges of Sexual Abuse (12/09/2006)
Bail Set for Brooklyn Rabbi Accused of Sex Abuse (12/09/2006)
We Need To Be Honoring The Survivors of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko As Heros! (12/09/2006)
Rabbi Perv-Bust 'Justice' (12/10/2006)
Brooklyn rabbi charged with molestation (12/12/2006)
Kolko Arrested on Sexual Abuse Charges (12/13/2006)
Midwood Rabbi Faces Kiddie Sex Charges - Cops Say Joel Kolko Sexually Assaulted Yeshiva Students (12/14/2006)
Kolko Scandal Now Criminal (12/15/2006)
2007
4TH Sex-Abuse Suit VS. Yeshiva (01/05/2007)
Clergy sexual misconduct: What´s being done to squelch it? (01/10/2007)
So Many Rules, So Little Protection, Sex & Suppression Among Ultra Orthodox Jews (01/10/2007)
Inside the eruv: Are some Orthodox discreet or closing their eyes? (01/10/2007)
Rabbi faces more charges of sex abuse (01/11/2007)
Is molestation being swept underneath the Eruv? (01/12/2007)
Arrested, charged, sued for $10 million (01/12/2007)
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko accused of molesting boy (09/13/2007)
Rabbi Hit With New Perv Rap (09/13/2007)
Brooklyn Rabbi Faces Sexual Abuse Charges (09/13/2007)
2008
BREAKING: Lawyers Against Kolko Seek Additional Victims; Trial Set For March 31 (03/14/2008)
Letter from Attorney Jeffrey M. Herman (03/14/2008)
NY yeshiva sued over 'sexual abuse' (04/02/2008)
Yeshiva Fired, Then Paid, Rabbi Charged With Abuse (04/02/2008)
Fifth Sex Suit Filed Against N.Y. Yeshiva (04/02/2008)
Rabbi avoids jail on molest rap (04/05/2008)
No Sex Charge For Kolko; Boys' Parents Foiled By DA (04/17/2008)
Also see:
Request from attorney Jeffrey
Herman
Unorthodox Jews Blog - Saturday, February 18, 2006
http://unorthodoxjews.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_unorthodoxjews_archive.html
My name is Jeffrey Herman and I am an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse who were abused by Yudi Kolko. I am currently investigating these claims.
If anyone has information about this case, please contact me via email at jherman@hermanlaw.com or via telephone at (305) 931-2200.
By (Name Removed)
Unorthodox Jew - February 1, 2006
http://unorthodoxjews.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_unorthodoxjews_archive.html
"I too was molested by Rabbi Yidi Kolko, both while a student
in 7th and 8th grades in Yeshiva Torah V'daas and during those same summers
whilst a camper in Camp Agudah.
I used to get rides to school in the mornings with Yidi whether in his old blue car or in his brand new brown car. At that time he lived on 56th Street between 14th & 15th Avenue, whilst I lived on 57th Street, between 15th and 16th Avenues. He was newly married at that time and his first child, a daughter, was also just born then.
Once we got to the Yeshiva on Ocean Parkway, which then was just off of Caton Road, he would park the car (either down the block from the Yeshiva, on the Ocean Parkway service road, or around the corner, I think it was East 5th Street, and ask me to come over and either sit beside him or sit on his lap. Sometimes he would move over to the passenger seat and would then sit me on his lap.
That's when he went fishing. He would insert his hands down the front of my pants and would begin to "search around" to say the least. At the same time he would pull me closer to himself, or would push himself forward againt myself, sometimes even pushing me into the stearing wheel, to the point that it hurt.
Unfortunately I didn't react or complain. The winters were cold and these rides saved on not having to walk all the way to 13th Avenue to wait for the bus (especially on Sunday mornings), you were able to leave your house later since you could always make the ride, and you saved a couple of cents, which was a lot in those days.
During one of those Sunday mornings whilst we were driving on Caton Avenue, whilst I was sitting in the front passenger seat - I almost always sat in the front passenger seat - we were involved in a terrible traffic accident where a car went through a red light and slammed into Yidi's car. B"H we all got out without a scratch.
In Camp Aguda it was the same, whether if he took me into the trees, or into his cabin, or even would take me out for a drive. FYI, during the summer of 1970 I had my bar mitzva in the camp.
I of course told my parents and tried on several times
to explain to them what I was going through, but they didn't want to believe me and my "stories", etc. My father at that time was a very well known and respected person in the Boro Park & Midwood communities and within the Yeshiva world. So I just shut up and let the molestation and perversion continue.
I also think that Yidi Kolko is a danger to the students, past and present in Yeshiva Tora Temimah and I feel that it is about time that the wall of silence be torn down.
Did I suffer as a result, probably. But I have made a life for myself and today am very happily married with 4 wonderful children".
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko's 5th Grade Class of
1970
Note: The faces of children has been removed to protect the identity of any and all survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko's 1st Grade Class of
1973
Note: The faces of children has been removed to protect the identity of any and all survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
By (Name Removed)
Unorthodox Jew - Thursday, February 16, 2006
"It is time for Yidi Kolko to pay the price for what he did to me and to others".
I Am (Name Removed)
I have spent the past few days reading all of the comments that have been posted to this blog and would like to comment.
It was not easy for me to finally open up and put in writing and post on this blog some of the things that Yidi Kolko did to me so many years ago at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas of Flatbush and at camp Agudah.
Yes, I've been carrying it for all of these years and no matter how hard I tried to forget about it, it always seems to be there. Always there. And with every case of child abuse or molestation that gets publicized, it's always there. Even today, even when I'm happily married with 4 wonderful children.
I recommend that each one of you look at your sons, or brothers and ask: can they possibly be a victim of sexual molestation by a rebbe, a teacher, a camp counselor, etc?
And if he/they were, would he be strong enough to tell you about it?
And then the question I ask is: Would you at all believe him?
For you would ask: how could it be that such an outstanding rebbe, teacher, counselor, etc., who everyone loves and raves about, how could he do something like this?
And your immediate response would automatically be: No, my son, for some reason, isn't telling the truth, he must be lying...
As I said before, I've lived with this for a very long time and it is time for Yidi Kolko to pay the price for what he did to me and to others.
What this price is I'll let others decide.
They say that time has a way of healing - from my own experience, it doesn't ever go away.
In order to survive and remain normal, one must be strong... and always and continuously believe in Hashem.
United States District Court Eastern
John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2 V. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc.
John Doe Number 1 and John Doe Number 2 V. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko (PDF)
Page 1
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2,
Plaintiffs,
CASE NO.: 06-2096
v.
COMPLAINT
RABBI YEHUDA KOLKO; YESHIVA &
MESIVTA TORAH TEMIMAH, INC. F/K/A
YESHIVA TORAH VODAATH OF
FLATBUSH, INC.; and CAMP AGUDAH, INC.,
Defendants.
Plaintiffs, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, by and through their
attorneys, HERMAN & MERMELSTEIN, P.A., hereby file this Complaint against
Defendants, RABBI YEHUDA KOLKO, YESHIVA & MESIVTA TORAH TEMIMAH,
INC. F/K/A YESHIVA TORAH VODAATH OF FLATBUSH, INC. and CAMP
AGUDAH, INC., and state as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. Plaintiff, JOHN DOE NO. 1, is an adult male who is a citizen and resident of Israel. He is identified in this lawsuit by the pseudonym JOHN DOE NO. 1 in that this case involves horrific acts of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated on the Plaintiff
by RABBI YEHUDA KOLKO ("RABBI KOLKO").
2. Plaintiff, JOHN DOE NO. 2, is an adult male who is a citizen of the United States, with his permanent residence outside the State of New York. He is identified in this lawsuit by the pseudonym JOHN DOE NO. 2 in that this case involves horrific acts of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated on the Plaintiff by RABBI KOLKO.
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3. Each Plaintiff is seeking in excess of $10,000,000.00 in damages in this lawsuit.
4. At all material times, Defendant, YESHIVA & MESIVTA TORAH TEMIMAH, INC. F/K/A YESHIVA TORAH VODAATH OF FLATBUSH, INC. ("TORAH TEMIMAH") was a New York not-for-profit religious corporation organized and existing pursuant to the Religious Corporation Law of the State of New York. At all material times, TORAH TEMIMAH was a Jewish day school with its principal place of business in Brooklyn, New York. At all material times, Defendant RABBI KOLKO was an agent, employee, or appointee of TORAH TEMIMAH in his capacities as rabbi, teacher, and/or counselor at the school.
5. At all material times, Defendant, CAMP AGUDAH, was a New York not- for-profit corporation based in Kings County, New York. CAMP AGUDAH is a children's summer camp located in Ferndale, New York. At all material times, RABBI KOLKO was an agent, employee, or appointee of CAMP AGUDAH in his capacities as rabbi, teacher, and/or counselor at the camp.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
6. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1332(a)(3) in that the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000, exclusive of interests and costs, and is between citizens of different states and a citizen of a foreign state is an additional party.
7. Venue is proper in this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§1391(b) and (c) because all or a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claims occurred in the State of New York within this District.
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SEXUAL ABUSE BY RABBI KOLKO
8. JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 spent all or part of their childhoods in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. One of the more important and revered institutions within this community is TORAH TEMIMAH. The leader of TORAH TEMIMAH is Rabbi Lipa Margulies, in whom the community has placed its utmost trust and confidence.
9. JOHN DOE NO. 1 enrolled in TORAH TEMIMAH for the seventh grade. RABBI KOLKO was a teacher at TORAH TEMIMAH under the supervision of Rabbi Lipa Margulies. He was also one of JOHN DOE NO. 1's neighbors.
10. RABBI KOLKO frequently drove JOHN DOE NO. 1 to school at TORAH TEMIMAH. On one occasion while JOHN DOE NO. 1 was in the seventh grade, RABBI KOLKO parked his car down the street from TORAH TEMIMAH and instructed JOHN DOE NO. 1 to sit on his lap and hold the steering wheel. JOHN DOE NO. 1 did as instructed as he could not fathom saying no to a Rabbi. RABBI KOLKO began to grind his erect penis against JOHN DOE NO. 1 while placing his hands in JOHN DOE NO. 1's pants and fondling his genitals. JOHN DOE NO. 1 felt frozen and helpless while the abuse occurred.
11. Following this incident, RABBI KOLKO abused JOHN DOE NO. 1 on at least fifteen other occasions at TORAH TEMIMAH or while driving JOHN DOE NO. 1 to or from TORAH TEMIMAH. On multiple occasions, RABBI KOLKO abused JOHN DOE NO. 1 following recess at TORAH TEMIMAH. RABBI KOLKO told JOHN DOE NO. 1 to face a wall while RABBI KOLKO reached his hand around and molested JOHN
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DOE NO. 1 and fondled his genitals. The abuse continued until JOHN DOE NO. 1 graduated from the yeshiva in the eighth grade.
12. RABBI KOLKO also abused JOHN DOE NO. 1 during the summer following seventh and eighth grade at CAMP AGUDAH in Ferndale, New York. At the summer camp, RABBI KOLKO engaged in a similar pattern of abuse. RABBI KOLKO pulled JOHN DOE NO. 1 out of camp to go driving around town. While in the car, RABBI KOLKO would invariably molest JOHN DOE NO. 1 after placing him on his lap so RABBI KOLKO could grind his penis against JOHN DOE NO. 1's buttocks.
13. JOHN DOE NO. 2 also enrolled in TORAH TEMIMAH beginning in the seventh grade. Over the next three years, RABBI KOLKO sexually abused JOHN DOE NO. 2 on repeated occasions. The abuse, which began when JOHN DOE NO. 2 was in the seventh grade, generally occurred in the book room of the basement of TORAH TEMIMAH. RABBI KOLKO would fondle JOHN DOE NO. 2 and rub his own erect penis against him.
14. JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, and their respective families, placed their trust in the Defendants' institutions. In particular, the Plaintiffs reposed trust and confidence in the fidelity and integrity of RABBI KOLKO. With the authorization and knowledge of the Defendants, RABBI KOLKO accepted this trust and confidence and used it gain influence with the Plaintiffs, as well as assume control and responsibility over them.
15. RABBI KOLKO seized this opportunity to sexually abuse JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2. RABBI KOLKO's position of trust and confidence, together
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with his unfettered access to JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, facilitated him in committing the heinous abuse on numerous occasions over a period of years.
16. The Defendants received multiple, credible reports that RABBI KOLKO was sexually abusing other young boys whom he came into contact with as a result of his employment with TORAH TEMIMAH and CAMP AGUDAH. Instead of accepting responsibility or at a minimum conducting a good faith investigation, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, as director and managing agent of TORAH TEMIMAH, and in concert with Rabbi Kolko, willfully engaged in a campaign of intimidation, concealment and misrepresentations designed to prevent victims from filing civil lawsuits and/or obtaining facts necessary to bring civil claims. These tactics included, but were not limited to, the following:
a.Rabbi Margulies directed Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg to contact victims, and tell them they were not actually abused and have no claim to bring;
b.Rabbi Margulies contacted family members of victims and told them that if they pursued claims, or even investigated the allegations of abuse, other children in their families would be expelled from the yeshiva and prevented from attending other yeshivas in the New York area; and
c. Rabbi Margulies threatened RABBI KOLKO's victims with retaliation and ostracism from their Orthodox Jewish community if they pursued their claims.
Page 6
17. Rabbi Lipa Margulies, in concert with Defendants and in his capacity as their agent, willfully made the following material misrepresentations:
a. Rabbi Margulies stated that a Rabbinical Court cleared RABBI KOLKO of allegations of sexual abuse by other victims, knowing that there was credible evidence that RABBI KOLKO had committed acts of child sexual abuse;
b. Rabbi Margulies stated that he was not aware of any other allegations of sexual abuse, when in fact he had knowledge that there were allegations of abuse by RABBI KOLKO;
c. Rabbi Margulies said he had no knowledge of any inappropriate sexual activities or inappropriate sexual predisposition by RABBI KOLKO, when in fact he knew that RABBI KOLKO was acting in a sexually inappropriate manner;
d. Rabbi Margulies informed Rabbi Scheinberg about the nature of the sexual abuse being perpetrated by RABBI KOLKO, with the instruction that Rabbi Scheinberg was to advise the victims of RABBI KOLKO that what occurred did not constitute abuse, and that therefore there was nothing they could do about it.
18. The Defendants actively and fraudulently concealed information pertinent and relevant to claims relating to the sexual abuse in this matter for the purpose of protecting themselves from civil liability and evading same.
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COUNT I – NEGLIGENCE
19.Plaintiffs repeat and re-allege, as if fully set forth herein, each and every allegation contained in the above Paragraphs 1 through 18.
20. At all material times, the Defendants owed a duty to Plaintiffs to use reasonable care to ensure the safety, care, well-being and health of the Plaintiffs while they were under their care, custody or in the presence of their agents or employees. The Defendants' duties encompassed the hiring, appointment, retention and/or supervision of RABBI KOLKO and otherwise providing a safe environment for the Plaintiffs.
21. At all material times, Defendants knew or should have known that RABBI KOLKO sexually abused young male students and/or campers under his supervision or control. Defendants knew or should have known of RABBI KOLKO's dangerous sexual predisposition and/or that he was otherwise unfit, dangerous and a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the minors entrusted to his counsel, care and protection in course of his duties at TORAH TEMIMAH and CAMP AGUDAH.
22. The Defendants breached their duty of care by failing to protect the minor Plaintiffs from sexual assault and lewd and lascivious acts committed by their agent and/or employee, RABBI KOLKO. Despite their knowledge regarding RABBI KOLKO's dangerous propensities, Defendants failed to take any remedial action, conduct a good faith investigation, and/or place restrictions on RABBI KOLKO's duties and interactions with minors.
23.At all relevant times, the Defendants had grossly inadequate policies and procedures to protect children they were entrusted to care for and protect, including JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2.
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24. As a direct and proximate cause of Defendants' failure to remove RABBI KOLKO from his duties and/or otherwise take remedial action upon receiving allegations of sexual abuse by RABBI KOLKO, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 were sexually abused.
25. The sexual abuse has caused JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 to suffer severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries and the inability to lead a normal life, as well as attendant economic losses. Plaintiffs' injuries are persistent, permanent, and debilitating in nature. WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, pray that judgment be entered in their favor and against the Defendants, YESHIVA & MESIVTA TORAH TEMIMAH, INC. F/K/A YESHIVA TORAH VODAATH OF FLATBUSH, INC. and CAMP AGUDAH. COUNT II - BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY
26. Plaintiffs repeat and re-allege, as if fully set forth herein, each and every allegation contained in the above Paragraphs 1-18.
27. At all relevant times, RABBI KOLKO occupied and accepted a position as fiduciary to JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 as their counselor and advisor, in a relationship of trust and confidence.
28.Defendants knew that RABBI KOLKO had a fiduciary relationship with JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, and in fact authorized RABBI KOLKO to act as their agent in counseling and advising JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO.
2. Accordingly, Defendants were also in a fiduciary relationship with Plaintiffs.
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29. Defendants breached their fiduciary duty to Plaintiffs by allowing RABBI KOLKO to serve as Plaintiffs' rabbi, teacher, counselor, and advisor despite knowledge of his dangerous sexual propensities.
30. As a direct and proximate cause of Defendants' failure to remove RABBI KOLKO from his duties and/or otherwise take remedial action upon receiving allegations of sexual abuse by RABBI KOLKO, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 were sexually abused.
31. The sexual abuse has caused JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 to suffer severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries and the inability to lead a normal life, as well as attendant economic losses. Plaintiff's injuries are persistent, permanent, and debilitating in nature. WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, pray that judgment be entered in their favor and against the Defendants, YESHIVA & MESIVTA TORAH TEMIMAH, INC. F/K/A YESHIVA TORAH VODAATH OF FLATBUSH, INC. and CAMP AGUDAH. COUNT III – SEXUAL ASSAULT
32.Plaintiffs repeat and re-allege, as if fully set forth herein, each and every allegation contained in the above Paragraphs 1-18.
33. RABBI KOLKO tortiously assaulted, molested, and otherwise sexually abused JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 on multiple occasions during their childhood.
34. RABBI KOLKO, in concert with Rabbi Marguilies, engaged in, participated in, and/or authorized, active concealment, intimidation, and
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misrepresentations designed to prevent victims from coming forward and pursuing their claims.
35. The sexual abuse has caused JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2 to suffer severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries and the inability to lead a normal life, as well as attendant economic losses. Plaintiffs' injuries are persistent, permanent, and debilitating in nature. WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, JOHN DOE NO. 1 and JOHN DOE NO. 2, respectfully demand judgment in their favor and against Defendant, RABBI YEHUDA KOLKO.
DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL
Plaintiffs hereby demands a trial of their claims by jury.
Dated: May 2, 2006
Respectfully submitted,
HERMAN & MERMELSTEIN, P.A.
JEFFREY M. HERMAN, ESQ.
STUART S. MERMELSTEIN, ESQ.
ADAM D. HOROWITZ, ESQ.
18205 Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2218
Miami, Florida 33160
Telephone: (305) 931-2200
Facsimile: (305) 931-0877
By: /s/ Stuart S. Mermelstein .
Stuart S. Mermelstein (SM1461)
Rabbi in sex suit - Ex-students seek
$20M
BY AUSTIN FENNER
New York Daily News - May 6, 2006
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/415306p-350953c.html
A Brooklyn rabbi and his yeshiva were hit with a $20 million civil lawsuit yesterday, accusing him of molesting two students more than 25 years ago.
One of the alleged victims said Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, sexually assaulted him when he was a seventh-grade student attending Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah, an Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, religious school.
"It happened in his car on the way to school and at recess during summer camp," the 48-year-old man said at a press conference.
The plaintiff, identified by his Miami lawyer, Jeffrey Herman, only as John Doe No. 1, was allegedly molested during the early 1970s over a two-year period, Herman said.
The alleged victim charges that Kolko had instructed him to sit on his lap and hold the steering wheel while they were in Kolko's car on the way to school as the rabbi molested him.
Herman, who claims there are at least 15 victims, charges that school officials waged a campaign of intimidation and concealment against victims and their families to bury the accusations against the rabbi.
School officials could not be reached for comment.
Kolko, who lives in Midwood in a red-brick house on E. 22nd St., could not be reached for comment.
The other plaintiff, who was not present, was identified as a 38-year-old man who was allegedly sexually abused when he was also a seventh-grader in the 1980s.
The alleged offenses exceed New York's three-year statute of limitations.
Suit claims rabbi molested male
students
Political Gateway, FL - May 6, 2006
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/11647
NEW YORK, May 6 (UPI) -- A New York rabbi and his religious school are being sued by two men who claim they were sexually abused as children more than a quarter-century ago.
One man, identified as John Doe No. 1, says Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, molested him when he was in the seventh-grade at Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah in Brooklyn in the 1970s, the Daily News reported. The man, now 48, said at a news conference that Kolko had him sit on his lap while the rabbi was driving him to school and also abused him at a summer camp.
The second man says he was molested 10 years later when he was a seventh grader.
Jeffrey Herman, a Miami lawyer representing John Doe No. 1, accuses the school of protecting the rabbi by intimidating boys who had been abused.
Kolko cannot face criminal charges under New York law because of a three-year statute of limitations.
Kiddie Sex Scandal Rocks Yeshiva Torah
Temimah
By Thomas Tracy
Flatbush Life - May 11, 2006
http://www.flatbushlife.com/site/tab4.cfm?newsid=16623901&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=552850&rfi=6
for more information on this case:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/kolko_yehuda.html
A graduate of Yeshiva Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway said that a rabbi at the school abused him when he was a student there.
Two former students at a Flatbush yeshiva filed a civil lawsuit against their school last week, claiming that the administration had "covered up" allegations that one of their educators was sexually abusing young boys.
According to a federal court papers filed on May 5, both Yeshiva Torah Temimah, 555 Ocean Parkway, and Midwood Rabbi Yidi Kolko were each facing a $10 million lawsuit from two men who claim that they were sexually abused as children.
Both children, only identified as John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 in court papers, allege that they were sexually assaulted by Kolko during the 1980s. When the alleged abuse was reported to the school, yeshiva administrators shot down the complaints, stating that the students "were not actually abused," according to the lawsuit.
Parents were warned that if they continued with their complaints or had the authorities investigate the complaints, "other children in their families would be expelled from the yeshiva and preventing from attending other yeshivas in the New York area," according to the suit filed by Jeffrey Herman of the Miami-based law firm Herman and Mermelstein.
One of the victims, now 48 and living in Israel, joined Herman as he outlined the alleged abuse during a press conference in front of the yeshiva on Friday afternoon.
The complainant, John Doe #1, said that as a child he was his family were happy that he was enrolled in Yeshiva Torah Termimah, which was at the time considered "one of the more important and revered institutions" in his community.
Rabbi Lipa Margulies, the leader of Torah Temimah, was one of his neighbors.
Another neighbor was Rabbi Kolko, who would offer to drive the child to school each morning, according to the complaint.
When John Doe #1 was in the seventh grade, Rabbi Kolko took him to school, but would first park down the block from the school, where he would allegedly instruct the child to sit on his lap and hold the steering wheel as he began to "grind his erect penis" against the plaintiff, who also alleged that, on occasion, Kolko would put his hands in his pants to touch the victim's genitals.
John Doe #1 said that this alleged abuse happened on 15 other occasions, both on the way to the school and after-school recess at Torah Temimah when Kolko told John Doe #1 to face a wall while he allegedly molested him.
The alleged abuse continued until John Doe #1 graduated from the school and continued on to high school, according to the complaint.
The summer between the seventh and eighth grade posed no relief for the child, who Kolko allegedly abused during a stay at Camp Agudah in upstate New York.
The lawsuit claims that Kolko would pull the child out of camp for a "drive around town" where the child was allegedly abused.
John Doe #2 allegedly suffered the same abuse at the hands of Rabbi Kolko, Herman stated.
But, when members at Torah Temimah received word that one of their teachers was allegedly abusing students, they immediately put the kibosh on all complaints, the lawsuit alleges.
"[Yeshiva Torah Temimah] received multiple, credible reports that Rabbi Kolko was sexually abusing other young boys who he came into contact with," Herman states in his suit. "But instead of accepting responsibility or at a minimum conducting a good faith investigation, Rabbi Lipa Margulies with Rabbi Kolko willfully engaged in a campaign of intimidation, concealment and misrepresentations designed to prevent victims from filing civil lawsuits."
The alleged intimidation included warning parents that if they continued with their complaints, their other children would be blackballed from any yeshivas in the borough, as well as "retaliation and ostracism from their Orthodox Jewish community," Herman claimed.
Margulies, according to the suit, allegedly told parents bringing forth their complaints that Rabbi Kolko had already been cleared by a Rabbinical Court, which allegedly encouraged some to drop their charges.
Calls to both the yeshiva and Rabbi Kolko's Midwood home were not returned as this paper went to press.
Herman admitted that both his client's complaints come upwards of a decade after the statute of limitations on sexual abuse charges had expired, so neither Rabbi Kolko nor the school could be charged criminally.
Do the Orthodox Jews have a Catholic-priest problem?
by Robert Kolker
New York Magazine - May 15, 2006
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/features/17010/index.htm
For the full impact of the story and for photos that are not available on-line, it is suggest that you buy the magazine at your local news stand.
'Does it hurt?"
The boy and his teacher were in the front seat of the teacher's blue Plymouth sedan. The boy was 12 years old, pale and shy, and new to Brooklyn—plucked out of another life in Toronto after his mother remarried. He'd lost his father when he was 7, and the promise of a fresh start had appealed to him—a new family, a new world to explore. But a few months had passed, and the boy was lonely. His new stepsisters ignored him; he had trouble making friends at his new school. So when a popular teacher who lived nearby took an interest in him, it seemed like welcome news.
The teacher was in his early twenties—closer in age to
many of his students than to his colleagues—tall and athletic, with
a shock of red hair, and the kids liked him: He wasn't the type who'd shake
his fist at the heavens if he'd heard someone had gone to see a movie. The
teacher taught first grade, and the boy was too old to be in his class, but
they were neighbors. On the way to the bus stop, the boy would spot the teacher
walking from his modest ground-floor newlywed apartment, coffee mug in hand,
to his car. And on many days, the teacher was happy to offer the boy and
a few other neighborhood kids a lift.
The teacher would usually park on the access road alongside Ocean Parkway, and they'd all walk into school together. But on this cold autumn morning, a few months into the school year, the boy would later remember, the teacher didn't leave the car right away. As the boy and his friends began emptying out of the backseat, the boy remembers the teacher turning to him.
"Stay a few minutes. I want to talk to you."
The other kids left.
"Come to the front," the boy remembers the teacher saying. "Come sit beside me."
Was he in trouble? Had he done something wrong? He couldn't think of anything, but he did as he was told.
The Plymouth had a wide bench seat up front, with no split down the middle.
"Come sit on my lap," said the teacher.
Then the teacher picked him up, the boy remembers, and put him on his lap. The teacher's penis was erect.
The boy's mind flooded. Should I scream? Run? He looked toward Ocean Parkway—Isn't somebody watching?
The teacher unfastened the boy's belt, reached around, and slipped his hand into the boy's pants, the boy says.
He couldn't see the teacher's face. But he could hear him.
"Does it hurt?" the boy recalls the teacher saying, over and over. His voice was urgent but also oddly indifferent, as if he were asking about the weather. "Does it hurt?"
The boy was panicked now, desperate to open the car door and run into the school for help. But he was 12 years old, and the teacher was older and stronger, and, after all, he was a teacher.
All the boy wanted was to fit into his new world. The sooner this ended, he thought, the sooner he could forget it ever happened.
The ordeal lasted just minutes, the boy remembers. Then the teacher told him to go. "I don't remember the exact words, but he said something like `Don't tell anyone,' " the boy says.
So into the school the boy went, wondering if he was the only Orthodox Jewish boy who had ever been molested by a rabbi.
For decades, David Framowitz, 48 years old now and living in Israel, tried to forget about Rabbi Yehuda Kolko. But he couldn't put the memories behind him. A few years ago, prompted by a visit to his old neighborhood, Framowitz found himself impulsively Googling the rabbi's name. He had to know what had become of him. What he found was at once comforting and devastating: a link to a blog with the rabbi's name and the words known pedophile. For the first time in 35 years, Framowitz had reason to believe that Kolko was not just his private tormentor.
On May 4, Framowitz filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah of Flatbush, Brooklyn, for what Framowitz says happened on at least fifteen occasions over two years, from 1969 to 1971—in the front seat of the Plymouth, and at the yeshiva at the end of recess, and at Camp Agudah in the Catskills, where Kolko worked for several summers. Framowitz was listed as a John Doe plaintiff in the legal filing, but he now has decided that putting a name and a face on the case will strengthen its credibility.
Framowitz is far from the rabbi's only accuser. A second plaintiff, who wishes to maintain his anonymity, claims to have been fondled and rubbed up against by Kolko in the eighties, most often in the basement book room of the yeshiva. And on Friday, Framowitz's attorney, Jeffrey Herman, was expected to file a separate, $10 million suit on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff who says he was abused by Kolko in the late eighties. All told, Herman says he knows of as many as twenty victims between the ages of 19 and 50 who say they were abused by Kolko. There's the seventh-grader whom Kolko allegedly pulled into a closet in the seventies and held against his erection until that boy broke free. The dozen campers who came forward in the eighties, only to be rebuffed. And one boy who, twenty years later, is said to have punched Kolko at a Bris they were both attending, because of what he said Kolko had done to him years earlier. "It particularly haunted them," Herman says, "that Kolko was still at the school and children were still being exposed to him."
One rabbi molesting twenty students over several decades would be disturbing enough, but Framowitz's lawsuit alleges that there was also a conspiracy among powerful members of the ultra-Orthodox community to cover up Kolko's actions. The suit names not just Kolko but his yeshiva—accusing Kolko's boss, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, of orchestrating "a campaign of intimidation, concealment and misrepresentations designed to prevent victims from filing lawsuits." According to the complaint, Margulies, a pillar of the Borough Park community, took extraordinary measures to derail a rabbinical court action, or beit din, against Kolko in the eighties—telling family members of a dozen alleged victims that if they came forward, they'd be shunned by the ultra-Orthodox world and their other children would be expelled from his respected yeshiva and kept from enrolling elsewhere (Margulies is named in the suit but not as a defendant). The suit also alleges that Margulies had a revered ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Pinchus Scheinberg (also not a defendant), tell the victims that as a matter of Jewish law, Kolko would have had to have more than just fondled them for the acts to qualify as sexual abuse.
The yeshiva—then called Torah Vodaath, now called Torah Temimah—is known today as the Harvard of the Jewish world, educating 1,000 boys at a time in a complex of modern buildings on Ocean Parkway. Kolko is no longer just a first-grade Hebrew teacher but also a school administrator and active in the school's summer camp, Camp Silver Lake. In the past six months, as Framowitz's attorney and other community members attempted to bring Kolko to a beit din, Margulies permitted Kolko to keep teaching. He even stayed on for two days after the lawsuit was announced—until last week, when, as New York was preparing this story, the yeshiva placed him on administrative leave and issued a statement denying "that anyone acting on its behalf took any steps to prevent alleged victims of sexual abuse from seeking redress in rabbinical or civil courts." (Kolko and Margulies would not respond to requests for comment. Scheinberg, 93 and living in Israel, could not be reached.)
What is perhaps most troubling about Framowitz's case is the idea that Kolko, if culpable, could just be the tip of the iceberg. Rabbi-on-child molestation is a widespread problem in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and one that has long been covered up, according to rabbis, former students, parents, social-service workers, sociologists, psychologists, victims' rights advocates, and survivors of abuse interviewed for this story. They argue that sexual repression, the resistance to modernity, and the barriers to outsiders foster an atmosphere conducive to abuse and silence. The most outspoken advocates believe that the secular authorities—the police and the Brooklyn district attorney's office—are intimidated by rabbinic authorities who don't want their community's issues aired publicly and who wield considerable political influence. They are hoping Framowitz's lawsuit—one of just a few of its kind ever filed and the first to allege a high-level cover-up—could be a signal event, encouraging scores of molestation victims to come forward. Already, the Kolko case is said to have influenced plans for an unrelated case against a prominent Jewish summer camp.
The echoes of another insular religious community—one with its own particular set of sexual restrictions and a proven capacity for institutional denial—are, of course, impossible to miss. "This reminds me of where the Catholic Church was fifteen or twenty years ago," says Herman, who just before taking on the Kolko case won a $5 million judgment for abuse victims of a Catholic priest. "What I see are some members of the community turning a blind eye to what's going on in their backyards."
Even before David Framowitz first found himself alone with Rabbi Kolko, the outlines of his young life had seemed like something out of Dickens. His father, Alfred Szmuk, a public-school teacher, had died when David was 7, leaving his mother, Naomi, not yet 30, to care for him and his younger brother, Jeffrey. For a few years, the family stayed in Toronto; Naomi supported them by teaching Hebrew school. Then Naomi was introduced to Saul Framowitz, a highly Orthodox Borough Park man who had recently lost his wife and only son in a traffic accident and was left with three teenage daughters to raise alone. Within months, there was a courtship and a small wedding, and the widow and her two boys moved in with the widower and his three girls, sharing a three-bedroom, third-floor walk-up in Borough Park.
It was the autumn of 1969, and as the rest of the world seemed to be hurtling headlong into the future, 12-year-old David felt as if he'd been flung back in time. He was taken aback by the bobbing sea of black hats, the women with wigs and long, dark dresses, the way the whole place screeched to a halt on Friday night. It was here that thousands of Hasidic refugees from Europe had chosen to repopulate the people, steadfastly preserving the shtetl life that had almost been destroyed. Any sense of the modern world was ferociously held at bay—no movies or TV or pop music, even newspapers were suspect. The community's views on sex were perhaps most jarring. Boys were trained never to lock eyes with a woman who wasn't related; some were taught not to touch their genitals when they washed.
David and his brother were sent to school at a strict Hasidic yeshiva where everyone spoke Yiddish. David stayed through the end of the year, but hated it. "I told my parents that I was not going back there." He'd tried fitting into the ultra-Orthodox mold but hadn't made many friends. The next year, he was enrolled at a new school—Torah Vodaath. The founder, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, had made a name for the school by cherry-picking top talent, paying his teachers more, and working them harder. "He's single-minded," says Rabbi Nosson Scherman, a former teacher there. "He's obsessed with his school."
Torah Vodaath seemed for a time to be a good fit for David. "It was more what I grew up with in Toronto," he says, "a more normal school, where they had Hebrew lessons or Torah, but they also had English, math, and social studies." A few of David's classmates lived on his street. Soon after the start of the school year, Framowitz says, "I met some kids from the school, and they said, `We have a lift,' and I said, `With whom?' and they said, `One of the teachers lives here, and he's gonna give us a ride.' " After the first attack in the Plymouth, Framowitz says, he tried to avoid Kolko. He tried not walking down his block. "But how many blocks can you skip to go around to get to school," he asks, "before other kids started to wonder?" Some days, he'd be late and miss the bus, or it would be freezing, and he couldn't come up with a reason not to get into Kolko's car when the rest of his friends were piling aboard. Sometimes, it would be a Sunday, when the school day ended early, and he was playing with his friends.
"Here, I'm going home," Framowitz says Kolko would say. "I'll give you a ride."
"No, no, no, I'm here. I'm gonna catch the bus with my friends."
"No, come, we'll go for a ride home."
"You're a young boy, and you get scared," Framowitz says. "What happens if you don't go with him? He's a rabbinic authority in the school. He's the teacher. Will something happen that will cause you to get into trouble because of him—because you didn't show up to go with him on the ride?"
The abuse, Framowitz says, became ritualistic: Kolko would coax him into his car, place him on his lap, and fondle him. Kolko would keep his own pants up, ensuring that his genitals would never touch the boy—a line, perhaps, the rabbi was afraid to cross. Facing forward, David had no view of Kolko during the act. "Did he ejaculate? I have no idea. Was he getting there? I have no idea. I was 12 years old." Even avoiding Kolko's car wasn't a solution: Framowitz says Kolko would corner him after recess at school and rub against him.
Framowitz thought the end of the school year would bring an end to the abuse. But that summer, his parents sent him to Camp Agudah—run by Agudath Israel of America, a powerful ultra-Orthodox organization—and Kolko was a counselor. When Framowitz saw him, his heart sank. After one baseball game, "he pulled me into the woods, just past the center field, and pushed me up against a tree and started rubbing against me," Framowitz says. Other times, he says, the incidents were more fleeting—Kolko would wait until he and Framowitz were alone and rub his knee against Framowitz's groin.
Early on, Framowitz says, he tried telling his mother about Kolko, but she didn't know how to respond. The new marriage wasn't going well; his mother had miscarried—a potential replacement son for his stepfather, to help make up for what the accident had taken away. "It was just terrible pressure," Framowitz says. "One time, she picked herself up, with me and my brother, and she took us down to Manhattan and we stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights. With all the problems in the house, I couldn't force myself to make this into a big issue. And my stepfather just couldn't understand it. He couldn't see how a rabbi, a respectable rabbi, would be doing such things, so I must be making up these stories to get attention."
After a while, Framowitz just stopped talking about it. "I wasn't getting anywhere. They weren't defending me. So I said, Okay, I have to suffer. For family harmony. I'd tell myself, I just want to be a normal kid, but I can't. I can't do anything, because I'll get into trouble. I can't get into trouble because I can't cause more upheavals in the house. So just be quiet, and it'll go away."
Yehuda Kolko first caught the attention of religious authorities as early as the mid-eighties, after a major sexual-abuse scandal rocked the ultra-Orthodox world in Brooklyn. A Hasidic psychologist named Avrohom Mondrowitz had been accused of not just molesting but having intercourse with four boys in his care, ages 10 to 16, some of whom he allegedly took away on long weekends. He was indicted in 1985 but decamped for Israel. In the wake of the case, several prominent rabbis in Brooklyn decided to field complaints about rabbis and others accused of molesting kids. The rabbi chosen to look into Borough Park, who spoke to New York on the condition of anonymity, says Kolko's name came up repeatedly.
This rabbi wasted little time empaneling six rabbis to informally hear Kolko's accusers. Kolko's alleged problems, according to this rabbi, stemmed from his summers at a camp not far from Camp Agudah that Kolko apparently had an ownership stake in during the eighties. According to a former counselor at the camp, who also wishes to remain anonymous, it was an open secret among counselors that Kolko was misbehaving with several campers. A dozen kids had individually come to different counselors, the former counselor says, to complain that Kolko woke them at night, offered them rides in a golf cart, and then let them steer if they sat in his lap. Others said he'd visit them at night and touch them in inappropriate places. But these counselors were 18 or 19 years old, unsure of how to handle the claims, the former counselor says. Only after the Mondrowitz case broke a few years later did some of the former campers and counselors come forward. The panel of six rabbis heard the campers' stories and sympathized, according to the rabbi who convened the panel. But, he says, "there was no mechanism in the community to stop Kolko from teaching, except to go to the cops."
As the six-rabbi panel knew, rabbinical-court proceedings have no real power to substantiate abuse claims or punish abusers. Going to the police is largely frowned on in the ultra-Orthodox world; the notion of mesira, dating to the days of the shtetl, equates going to outsiders with treason. So instead, the teenagers and their families decided first to try to persuade Margulies, Kolko's boss at Torah Temimah, to force Kolko to sell his stake in the camp and resign from the school. At a preliminary meeting with some of Kolko's accusers, Margulies asked whom they had as witnesses. "Each name he dismissed: `This one is in a fantasyland, this one is a thief, you can't trust any of them,' " the source recalls Margulies saying. "And he was not going to do anything about it."
The group, along with parents and former campers from Camp Agudah, then tried summoning a beit din to rule on Kolko. They demanded Kolko not be there so the victims would feel comfortable telling their stories. But when the proceeding began, he was there, so they left. Then Margulies is said to have started a second beit din. According to Framowitz's lawsuit, Pinchus Scheinberg, the powerful rabbi who was close to Margulies, contacted several of Kolko's alleged victims, listened to their complaints, and told them that what happened to them was not abuse—that there needed to be penetration and that because there was none, their claims were not actionable. Then, the lawsuit says, threats followed. One father allegedly was told by Margulies over the phone that if his boy continued to complain, the safety of the rest of his children could not be assured. Both beit dins were halted, the victims never went to the police, and for years, Margulies told others who inquired about Kolko that the rabbi and the school had been exonerated.
Is molestation more common in the Orthodox Jewish community than it is elsewhere? There are no reliable statistics on the subject—molestation often goes unreported, even in relatively liberal communities—but there's reason to believe the answer to that question might be yes. "I wasn't even looking for it, and the amazing thing was how often it would just come up," says Hella Winston, whose recent book, Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels, examines ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn through the eyes of some dissident members who struggle with the dictates of the community. "I heard more from men than from women. What was really shocking was how many boys—so many boys—have had this experience. People I've interviewed have told me every Hasidic kid has heard about this happening to someone."
There are some who believe the repression in the ultra-Orthodox community can foster abuse. Sex before marriage in Hasidic life is strictly forbidden (unmarried men and women are barely allowed to look at one another), and even within marriage, sex is tightly regulated (couples aren't allowed to have sex, for instance, during menstruation and the week after). As Winston notes, fathers can't attend their daughters' school plays, "as the sound of women singing can lead to uncontrollable male sexual arousal." In a world of Paris Hilton videos and Victoria's Secret billboards, there are few outlets for an Orthodox man with compulsions the community refuses to acknowledge even exist. The repression, some say, creates a fertile environment for deviance.
Taboos against reporting sexual abuse don't just promote silence—they may also encourage molesters. Besides the general prohibition against talking about sex, there is also the shondah factor—the overwhelming concern with shame (a child who makes an abuse claim can be thought to bring shame on his whole family). Then there's the prohibition against lashon hara, or "evil speech"; the thinking is that virtually any public complaint about another person amounts to slander. There is shalom bayit, or the mandate to maintain peaceful domestic relations; many women and children have been made to feel that it's their responsibility to maintain harmony by not turning in their abusers. There's the notion of Chillul Hashem—desecrating God's name. This can be invoked if you say anything bad about the community at all. Finally, there is mesira, or the suspicion of secular authorities.
The beit dins are hardly an effective mechanism for dealing with abuse. Given the choice between going after sexual abusers and protecting the community from scrutiny by outsiders, victims' advocates say, religious authorities protect the community almost every time. "They don't have investigative bodies," says Rabbi Yosef Blau, a Yeshiva University adviser who has spoken out about other abuse cases. "They don't do DNA evidence." There's one ancient Jewish legal theory that the testimony of a mentally ill man is more highly regarded than the testimony of a woman. And if beit dins fail a victim, there is no appeal. "We're not accountable to anyone," says Mark Dratch, a modern-Orthodox rabbi who chaired a task force on rabbinical improprieties for the Rabbinical Council of America. "Even the Catholic Church supposedly has more of a structure for accountability than us. If we don't have the training to deal with a victim who comes to us for help, we have the potential to make them a victim again."
The Brooklyn district attorney's office insists it aggressively pursues sex-abuse cases in the Orthodox community, and D.A. Charles Hynes has been commended for launching Project Eden, a Hasidic-sanctioned program that reaches out to ultra-Orthodox victims of domestic violence. "There is nothing different about the way we handle cases in any community, whether they be sex abuse, homicide, or any other crime," says Hynes spokesman Jerry Schmetterer. It bears noting, however, that for months, Hynes's office resisted New York's requests for information on Project Eden, and still won't speak in detail about how they handle sex-abuse cases in the Orthodox community. Victims' advocates have long argued that Hynes's office simply doesn't actively go after abusers in the community, and that when complaints do come their way, they're often too quick to defer to the ruling of a beit din. "I've never seen any district attorney do this with the Catholics," says Amy Neustein, perhaps this issue's best-known cause célèbre, who in 1986 claimed that her 6-year-old daughter was being sexually abused by her husband, only to have the child taken out of her custody forever. "The beit dins are hijacking the whole justice system."
Newsday recently uncovered a document, purported to be from the State Department, suggesting that Hynes has all but dropped the Mondrowitz case—ceasing to prod the State Department in its extradition battle. Hynes denies this. "Our position has always been that were Mondrowitz to return to the United States, we would prosecute him for his heinous crimes," says Rhonnie Jaus, chief of Hynes's sex-crimes bureau. Now that there's a civil case against Kolko, are they pursuing a criminal investigation? "We look into cases all the time that are beyond the statute of limitations to see if there are any cases that fall within the statute," Jaus says. "That's what happened with the priest investigations." No Kolko investigation has yet been launched.
What's certain is that much of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish leadership still refuses to acknowledge that sexual abuse is even a problem. Efforts to persuade Orthodox organizations like Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah (the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools) to develop a sex-offender registry have so far been all but ignored. Even Henna White, the Lubavitcher community liaison to Hynes's Project Eden, has complained that she can't get into the yeshivas to be heard on the subject of abuse. "In New York, we're going into the girls' schools," White said at a conference in January. "Unfortunately, we're not going into the boys' schools, and not for lack of trying. Our right-wing yeshivas do not want us there, and there are many people who have tried. The feeling is that this is not a conversation they want to open up."
"The bottom line is that abuse is a universal issue that closed communities hide because it threatens them," says one former Lubavitcher in his thirties who says he was molested by an ultra-Orthodox neighbor, and who wishes to remain anonymous. "Whether it's Jewish or Amish or Mennonite or Catholic or Muslim, it doesn't make a difference. I feel like this is kind of like a fungus. It grows in the dark."
When Framowitz was 14, he began hanging out at the Jewish Defense League in Borough Park. "I needed to get away," he says. "It was more of a showing-off, `Oh, I'm JDL,' like putting up a façade. I was looking for somebody to defend me because I wasn't getting protection at school or at home."
Recognizing how unhappy David was, his parents sent him to yet another yeshiva, in Cleveland, for ninth grade. He lasted a year there, six months at a yeshiva in Toronto, and half a year each in Long Beach and Far Rockaway. In Baltimore, he says, he was molested again, by a rabbi who is now deceased. In retrospect, Framowitz wonders if something about him made him seem vulnerable to pedophiles. "I grew up not wanting to make more trouble than there was already in the house," he says. "Maybe I took everything as it came."
He was 16 when he dropped out of the yeshiva system, moved home to Borough Park, and started working at a computer-services company on Park Avenue while he pursued his GED. He met his future wife, Joyce, in a youth group; he told her about Kolko almost immediately, he says, and she understood. By 1983, he'd become a CPA, and he and his wife had had their first child and decided to make aliyah before their son was old enough to start school in Brooklyn. The whole family, including his parents, eventually moved to Israel.
Three years ago, on a visit to New York, Framowitz was walking down Ocean Parkway when he ran into his seventh- and eighth-grade rebbe. He called out.
"Rabbi Kaufman, Rabbi Kaufman—I don't know if you remember me, but you were my teacher 30 years ago."
The rabbi squinted. "I remember the face, but I don't remember the name."
"David Framowitz."
"Oh," said the rabbi. "David Framowitz. How are you? It's been so long."
"And I told myself, David, say something, tell him that you were molested by Rabbi Kolko. And I said to myself, I can't. It's a different world, you're not there. Forget it—you've made a life for yourself."
Back in Israel, he found himself typing Kolko's name into Google.
Framowitz found what he was looking for on a blog called Un-Orthodox Jew. The site—one anonymous insider's blistering, some say heretical, accusations of hypocrisy and corruption in the community—started about a year ago and took just months to report a half-million hits. Its anonymous Webmaster, who calls himself UOJ, has made the Kolko case his main cause. UOJ has never met with me, but he calls when I e-mail him. When he does, my caller I.D. is blocked. "Being from the family I'm from, I know everybody," he tells me. "They've all been to my home. My family's involved in all aspects of the Jewish community."
UOJ says that he first became disenchanted with the established Jewish leadership when as a young man he attended a beit din with his father and saw the rabbis there behaving in less than honest ways. "They were businessmen, mostly," he says. His earliest postings, in March of last year, reflect what would become his signature cynicism. "By the time I was Bar-Mitzvah, I got the whole picture," he wrote. "The guys with the money got the respect, the final say in the schools and shuls, and were the guests of honor at Jewish functions, period! . . . Give me one truly religious and honorable Jew, and I will give you one hundred thousand who do not have a clue." UOJ's first reference to Kolko came on June 26 of last year, in a broadside against Margulies. In no uncertain terms, he accused Margulies of harboring a pedophile and threatening the parents of victims into silence.
The initial responses were hostile. "You're a bit too bitter, even for my taste," one reader commented. "Maybe you are just a typical extreme left-wing Jew who hates Rabbonim and the Torah."
"You are entitled to your opinion," UOJ replied. "ALL MY POSTS ARE FACTS, AS UGLY AS THEY ARE!!!!"
"FACTS," his critic replied. "Like what, the New York Times?"
But, a day later, on June 27, came another anonymous comment claiming to confirm what UOJ had said. And then another, from someone saying he was molested by Kolko. And another, from someone claiming to be the parent of another victim, and mentioning a failed beit din.
This is the string of posts that Framowitz noticed on Google. On September 23, he told his story in detail as a comment, using only his first name.
"I too was molested by Rabbi Kolko," he wrote, "both while a student in 7th and 8th grades and during those same summers whilst a camper in Camp Agudah. . . . He would insert his hands down the front of my pants and would begin to `search around,' to say the least. At the same time he would pull me closer to himself, or would push himself forward against myself, sometimes even pushing me into the steering wheel, to the point that it hurt. Unfortunately I didn't react or complain. I of course told my parents and tried on several times to explain to them what I was going through, but they didn't want to believe me and my `stories,' etc. So I just shut up and let the molestation and perversion continue. . . . I feel that it is about time that the wall of silence be torn down."
A few months later, after getting dozens of similar comments and e-mails, UOJ listed Jeffrey Herman's name and phone number. He says he hadn't spoken with Herman—he'd just noticed him as a guest on The O'Reilly Factor, talking about a clergy sex-abuse case, and thought that anyone reading his site who wanted confidentiality might consider calling him. "The key for me," UOJ says, "was that on his Website, Herman said that he had strategies for getting around the statute of limitations."
UOJ posted Herman's name and number. When Herman, in turn, sent an e-mail saying he'd be happy to speak with alleged victims confidentially, Framowitz saw the posting and called him. Herman, an observant Jew from Miami, has handled millions of dollars in sex-abuse claims against clergy and school systems, mainly against the Catholic Church. He says he was interested in working on Jewish cases for the same reasons he works on Catholic ones. "People say, `Oh, are you gonna go after a rabbi?' " he says. "That's kind of a funny question to me. I see the kind of work I'm doing as protecting kids. Jewish kids are certainly as worth protecting as Catholic kids."
On February 2, UOJ paid for a bulk mailing to Orthodox homes in Borough Park, Flatbush, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights that might be too observant to have access to the Internet. The mailing accused Kolko of molestation and Margulies of a cover-up and even included their phone numbers. That's when UOJ says he started receiving threats—"We're gonna get your family" and "We know who you are." (Many of these e-mails have been forwarded to Herman.) People accused him of betraying his community and having an ax to grind against Kolko and Margulies. The Jewish Press ran an editorial blasting the mailing. A rival blog called End UOJ was created. But the most shocking responses came from those who believed that accusing Kolko of abuse—true or not—was worse than the abuse itself. "Certainly speaking evil of somebody, truth or otherwise, establishes the most severe of all wrongdoings," one pseudonymous comment on UOJ reads—"far, far worse then [sic] `child sexual abuse,' and the punishment far more severe." The post goes on to claim that having sex with a child is punishable by 39 lashings "at the most," whereas lashon hara is punishable by leprosy—"a far worse penalty."
Now that there's a lawsuit, UOJ feels vindicated. "Molestation is rampant," he says. "It's not a one-in-a-million case. There's at least one in every school. And I'm going to go after them one at a time."
David Framowitz has four adult children of his own now, with careers and graduate degrees. His kids have served in the Israeli Army and lost friends to terror bombings. He lives in a sunny, concrete split-level house near the West Bank, and considers himself a modern-Orthodox Jew now, wrapping the leather straps of tefillin around his arms every morning, praying three times a day, spending Sabbath at shul. He does not wear the black hat or suit or the curls of payes. He has told his children all about Kolko.
For years, he says, he's been happy—but he knows he's been affected by the abuse. "I'd tell myself, It wasn't my fault, I'm not going to let this ruin my life," he says. "You keep yourself busy and go to work and have a normal family life. But it's always there. It's like a nightmare that never goes away. No matter how hard I try to push it away, his face is always there."
Framowitz knows it won't be easy to win the lawsuit. The three-year statute of limitations is the greatest obstacle. Others have tried circumventing it and failed. Most recently, an upstate man named John Zumpano sued a priest for allegedly repeatedly abusing him throughout much of the sixties, arguing that he was too mentally damaged to bring a case until now. The state's highest court refused this argument. But the decision showed others one possible way around the statute: If after the abuse, a defendant keeps his accusers from suing by intimidation, the statute could perhaps be voided. Margulies's alleged threats of reprisals against young victims, Herman argues, meet that standard.
The $20 million price tag ($10 million per plaintiff), Herman says, is an appropriate figure given Framowitz's pain and suffering. (Herman's latest settlement, in a priest case, was $5 million.) But money isn't all Framowitz and Herman are after, they say. They'd like Kolko dismissed from the yeshiva and kept from working with children again. They want the yeshiva to establish a fund for victims who resurface in the future. And they want the yeshiva to publicly accept responsibility for its negligence, which in all likelihood would mean disciplining or dismissing Margulies. While Kolko's chances of returning to the yeshiva are clearly in jeopardy in light of his suspension, people who know Margulies say it's doubtful he'd ever loosen his hold on the institution he created. "Margulies is angry and bitter about this," says one longtime supporter. Like the powers-that-be in the Catholic Church, this source says, Margulies "doesn't get how this crime is viewed by this society with such abhorrence. He still believes the issue can be managed, when the proper response would be to meet it head-on."
The day his lawsuit was announced, David Framowitz visited the street in Borough Park where he and Kolko first met. He hadn't been there in years. In the car, he saw men with black hats and payes, women with forties fashions. He noticed a familiar toy store on a corner and shook his head. "Nothing's changed here," he said. "They're in their own little ghetto. It's hard for them to believe that such things happen."
He was silent for a time, then he turned toward me.
"So, you have pictures?"
At a red light, I handed him three snapshots of the rabbi, taken a few mornings earlier outside his house in Midwood. Framowitz stared at them.
"Huh. Huh. That's him. The face."
The only difference, he said, was the hair—once so red, now all white.
We arrived on the street where Framowitz had lived—57th between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Avenues. He pointed up to the third-floor balcony of a small redbrick building. "Same house, same everything," he said.
But when we got to Kolko's old block, there was new construction where Kolko's house once was. "It's not there anymore," he mumbled, crossing the street. "It's not there."
Framowitz, silent for 35 years, now couldn't stop talking.
"If they've known about this for 20 years or 25 years, why the cover-up? If there's even an iota of people thinking or knowing about Kolko, why is the guy still teaching children? Why hasn't anybody filed a complaint with the police? And why isn't anybody filing a complaint with the D.A.'s office? If they want to take care of it the Jewish way, fine. But why haven't they done that? Why aren't people standing outside the yeshiva demonstrating? For one person getting a ticket in Borough Park, look what they did! They rioted in the streets! Jewish kids are getting harmed, and no one's outside this school demanding an investigation? I don't understand it. I should have done this years ago. But if I can still save some kid . . . "
He trailed off.
"He who saves one life is like saving the world. That's what the Torah says."
By: Our Readers
Jewish Press (NY) - Wednesday, May 31, 2006
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/18329/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
No Redress For Abuse Victim
While you say in your May 26 editorial "Allegations Against a Rabbi" that your position "should in no way imply support for the accused," you seem to strongly disagree with the bringing of the lawsuit and having the plaintiff "publicly accuse another," preferring instead to "have our rabbinic leaders come up with a process that can appropriately deal with these very serious challenges to our community" – with "a course of action compatible with Torah standards."
If you read the article that you refer to in New York magazine carefully, you will note that the victim sought relief from the community some twenty years ago but that the accused rabbi's employer, "a pillar of the ... community, took extraordinary measures to derail a rabbinical court action, or beit din."
It seems it was decided that the appropriate way to deal with the rabbi was to let him continue having his fun with young boys.
At least the Catholic Church transfers offenders to another area.
Gerald Deutsch
Glen Head, NY
Yeshiva In Sex Scandal Pledges More Protection
Torah Temimah, at meeting with parents, admits no wrongdoing in Kolko case.
Jennifer Friedlin - Special To The Jewish Week
Jewish Week (NY) - June 14, 2006
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12593
The yeshiva at the heart of a sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Orthodox community of Flatbush has pledged to take a series of steps to protect children from sexual molestation, including forbidding teachers from being alone with students and hiring a counselor and ombudsman to hear any future complaints.
While not admitting to any wrongdoing in the wake of two lawsuits that allege that Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah knowingly harbored a molester, the school announced the latest moves on Monday night at a forum attended by 150 parents of school-age children.
A number of parents applauded the school's efforts, and there were no critical questions from the audience. But some observers said the event shed light on the inner workings of the insular Brooklyn community in terms of the deference it pays to its leadership.
The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, who allegedly perpetrated a cover-up of the abuse and threatened students who made complaints, called the meeting, he said, to stress the importance of children's safety. However, he declined to address parents' concerns about the allegations, saying the matter was in litigation.
"I'm sure you'll understand, I am precluded because of pending litigation from discussing any of that," Rabbi Margulies said in reference to the claims.
In his only allusion to the past, he noted: "We always have had and always will have zero tolerance for any type of abuse, whether physical or emotional. ... If, however, any member of our yeshiva family was ever subject to abuse by anyone at any time, our hearts go out for them and their families."
The event was the first open forum for parents following the filing of the lawsuits in May. In two complaints, three former students of Torah Temimah alleged that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a longtime rebbe at the school, had sexually molested them in attacks that occurred more than 20 years ago. The lawsuits, which seek $30 million in damages, claim that Rabbi Margulies conducted a rigorous coverup, including the foiling of two beit dins convened in the 1980s to air alleged victims' complaints.
One of the alleged victims, David Framowitz, 48, said that Rabbi Kolko fondled him on multiple occasions in a car as well as in the school and at a summer camp for boys.
After the lawsuit was filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, Rabbi Kolko, who has worked for the yeshiva for four decades, was put on administrative leave. Rabbi Margulies, who appears to have the community's full support, has remained in his position.
None of the named defendants in the two lawsuits — Rabbi Kolko, Torah Temimah and Camp Agudah — have yet responded to the lawsuit. A lawyer for Torah Temimah previously denied the allegations.
In the wake of the charges, Torah Temimah invited Rabbi Aaron Twerski, dean of the Hofstra University Law School, and David Mandel, the executive director of Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, a Jewish social service agency, to speak at the event on Monday night.
Rabbi Twerski, a legal scholar who said he has been working on the issue of abuse for "a long time," dismissed the allegations against Rabbi Margulies.
"I know Rabbi Margulies for many years and know him to be a man of great honor," said Rabbi Twerski. He did not make any comments about Rabbi Kolko.
Rabbi Twerski then outlined a host of steps he said the yeshiva was taking to improve school safety, including agreeing to train employees to recognize signs of abuse. In addition, he said the school would be hiring a counselor and an ombudsman to handle claims of abuse.
One member of the audience was overheard saying under her breath, "It's about time."
In addition, Rabbi Twerski said the school had implemented a number of guidelines, including forbidding teachers to be alone with students and requiring that there be no enclosure without windows "so that a passerby cannot see what is going on."
Rabbi Twerski also said that Torah Temimah was in the process of implementing additional, but undefined, steps recommended by Torah U'Mesorah, the Jewish education arm of Agudath Israel of America.
A call placed to Torah U'Mesorah in search of the guidelines was not returned.
Following Rabbi Twerski, Mandel spoke about ways to engage children in conversations about sex abuse. Mandel noted that it was up to the parents to engage their children because most victims do not come forward due to shame, fear of their abusers, a sense of loyalty to their abusers and/or concern about being stigmatized.
However, when an audience member asked whether sex education could help to strengthen children's knowledge of inappropriate behaviors and empower them to come forward if someone violated them, Mandel responded that sex education was "not something realistic" in a community that stresses modesty.
He told parents that the overwhelming majority of children who have experienced "unwanted touch" would go on to live happy, healthy lives, while only a "small percentage" of individuals would be permanently harmed by the abuse
Mandel also said that abusers could be treated for their perversions.
"An individual who abuses children and who participates in treatment can lead a successful life and be believed that they would no longer hurt children," Mandel said.
When asked, in an interview the following day, whether such people could work with children again, Mandel evaded the question.
Several parents who were in attendance said they were pleased with the information they received and with the school for holding the session.
"A little too late, but better late than never," said one parent following the event.
Another parent, requesting anonymity, said he felt the school was "taking every step humanly possible" to prevent abuse. He added that Rabbi Margulies had his full confidence.
But some Orthodox observers said the event amounted to a whitewash of the allegations.
Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University who has been working to focus communal attention on the problem of rabbinic abuse, said that the community was so "authority oriented" that it prevented members from demanding more accountability from its leadership.
"No one who protected him [Rabbi Kolko] all these years is paying any price," Blau said, adding that Rabbi Margulies "should remove himself for awhile until things can be reviewed objectively."
Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive director of JSafe, an organization that fights abuse in the Jewish community, said the Brooklyn Orthodox community had a somewhat spotty record of taking care of its own.
"Part of the problem with Brooklyn is that it's a very insular community," Rabbi Dratch said. "They look to solve the problems themselves even if it's not in the best interest of the community."
A lawyer who battled the church takes on the Orthodox establishment
By Forrest Norman
July 13, 2006
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/2006-07-13/news/metro2.html
Zipping around his Aventura office on a recent afternoon, Jeffrey Herman doesn't look much like someone who regularly hears real-life horror stories. The young-looking 44-year-old lawyer wears a white Kiss T-shirt with yellow sleeves and answers his cell phone every few seconds. He is simultaneously participating in a conference call and yelling to his assistant about plane tickets to New York.
"At this point, we're nationwide," Herman says. "I'm handling abuse cases from all over the country."
On May 4, Herman sued Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah, an Orthodox school for about 1000 boys in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. His client is David Framowitz, a 48-year-old living in Israel. Framowitz, who attended the yeshiva in the late Sixties and early Seventies, says he was molested at least fifteen times over three years. Herman alleges a coverup by yeshiva elders.
And on May 19, Herman sued Kolko and the yeshiva on behalf of two anonymous plaintiffs who allege abuse in the late Eighties.
Neither Kolko nor Yeshiva Torah Temimah officials would comment on the case. In May the yeshiva issued a statement denying any coverup.
Since the cases became public — mostly in New York newspapers and magazines — Herman contends he's been contacted by about 30 people who say they were abused by Kolko. Indeed Herman claims many families of alleged victims reported the abuse to yeshiva leaders and were rebuffed. "It's similar to some of the really horrifying instances of abuse in the Catholic Church, where the victim or the victim's family did report the abuse to higherups and nothing was done," Herman says, sitting at a gleaming conference table in his freshly painted office.
The alleged abuse by Rabbi Kolko is a new twist in a story familiar to anyone who has read a newspaper in the past five years. In Boston, Los Angeles, and even Miami, the Catholic Church has paid out huge settlements to abuse victims who have claimed their tormentors were church officials more concerned with bad publicity than weeding out pedophiles.
As much as any attorney in America, Herman is responsible for bringing these cases to light.
The Ohio-raised lawyer has practiced in Florida since 1985, but his first headlines came in 1997, when he sued Nova Southeastern University, which runs the Ralph J. Baudhuin Oral School, a Davie facility for autistic children. The school never conducted a background check on a volunteer — Daniel Patrick Donohue — who turned out to be a convicted pedophile. A teacher claims to have seen Donohue molesting one student; it's impossible to tell whether he victimized others because many of the children are unable to speak. Herman successfully sued on behalf of one of the children enrolled at the school, and won a $208,300 settlement. The lawyer is presently representing families of seventeen other students at the Davie institution in a consolidated lawsuit that is pending in Broward Circuit Court.
"That was just such a horrific case," he says. "But for some reason I wanted to keep doing this kind of work. It's corny, but I actually do it for the kids."
Herman, who has four children, insists it's not all about the money (although the new, well-appointed Aventura office of his firm, Herman & Mermelstein, suggests he's doing all right). "I could make money doing other kinds of law and not have to hear these awful stories about adults abusing and destroying the trust these kids have in them," he explains. "Say what you want about attorneys, but for some of these families that have tried to go to the church or the police, I'm the last resort."
In April 2002, Herman sued the Archdiocese of Miami on behalf of the family of a deceased former altar boy, Miguel Chinchilla, whose family claimed he had been molested between 1975 and 1977 by two priests at the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables. Rev. Ricardo Castellanos and Rev. Alvaro Guichard, the alleged molesters, denied the accusations. In May 2002, Herman filed suit on behalf of José Currais Jr., who said the pair had molested him during the early Seventies. The lawsuit also alleged Castellanos organized orgies with Currais and other children. Both priests strongly denied the allegations, although the church settled all the lawsuits against the two men in 2004. The amounts ranged from $75,000 to $500,000.
All told, the church has settled 23 molestation lawsuits with Herman, for a total of $3.4 million.
Framowitz contacted Herman, who is an observant Jew, after the lawyer appeared on The O'Reilly Factor to discuss the Catholic Church's sex-abuse problem. Herman's name and number later showed up on theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com (UOJ), a Website that hosts lengthy discussions of Orthodox Judaism and rabbinical sex abuse.
The case has generated endless bickering on sites like UOJ and chaptzem.blogspot.com, where some people accuse Framowitz and Herman of bringing unwarranted shame on the Orthodox community. Herman shrugs at critics, like an anonymous poster recently accusing him of being "interested in generating more noise than [truthfulness]."
"So I should care less about little Jewish kids being molested than little Catholic kids?" he asks. "It's nonsense. If the yeshiva had done the right thing when they first learned about this man's behavior, none of this would be happening right now."
South Carolina man alleges Brooklyn rabbi sexually abused him 20 years ago; third accuser against Rabbi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
Jennifer Friedlin
The Jewish Week - 08/09/2006
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12833
The alleged molestation did not begin immediately. In fact, it would take at least a year of priming (survivor) before Rabbi Yehuda Kolko allegedly started to sexually abuse the young boy.
The year was 1986 and (survivor), then a sixth grader at Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah in Flatbush, had suddenly become one of Rabbi Kolko's favorite students in the school. Rabbi Kolko, then a teacher at the yeshiva, would call (survivor) out of class to monitor his class or to do small errands, like make photocopies.
The attention felt good.
"I thought I was special because he was taking an interest in me," (survivor) recalled recently in a phone conversation.
Over time, however, Rabbi Kolko's favoritism crossed the line and became abusive, (survivor) alleges. (survivor) says the molestation, which included fondling and groping of his genitals, continued until he completed the eighth grade and graduated middle school.
The scars, however, still remain.
"I hate that he took away my innocence. I blame so much on him," said (survivor), a 31-year-old former U.S. Army soldier who lives in South Carolina.
(survivor) is the third person to bring a lawsuit against Rabbi Kolko and the yeshiva for crimes he allegedly committed in the 1970s and `80s. His story took on a new resonance recently when (survivor) went public in a court filing attaching his name to the claims against Rabbi Kolko; he had been referred to only as John Doe 3.
"The sexual abuse has caused Israel to suffer severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries and the inability to lead a normal life, as well as attendant economic losses," according to the complaint. "Plaintiff's injuries are persistent, permanent and debilitating in nature."
Although the statute of limitations has expired for both a criminal and civil action, the plaintiffs hope that evidence of an alleged cover-up orchestrated by the head of the school, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, will enable them to proceed with the civil action.
Since the lawsuits were filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, Rabbi Kolko has been put on administrative leave. He has declined to comment on the allegations, while the yeshiva has denied any wrongdoing. Calls to Rabbi Kolko's lawyer, Robert Mercurio, were not returned.
Recently, Rabbi Kolko was spotted chaperoning campers from Silver Lake Camp, Torah Temimah's summer camp, at a Connecticut theme park, New York magazine reported this week. Avi Moskowitz, a lawyer for the yeshiva, told the magazine that Rabbi Kolko is not affiliated with the camp, but that "Obviously, the camp has no control over where he goes and what he does."
Reached for comment Moscowitz told The Jewish Week that "[Rabbi Kolko] did not come on [the camp's] behalf and wasn't invited by us."
Moscowitz maintained that the allegations against the yeshiva are "simply not true." He added that he believes that the statute of limitations is such that the case should be dismissed.
(survivor) said he decided to pursue his $10 million lawsuit against the rabbi and the school in order to try and regain a sense of control over the past and to encourage the fervently Orthodox community to which he once belonged to recognize that sexual abuse is a problem in need of attention.
"If the only thing that comes from this case is that the community wakes up and says, `this happens here,' and that they stop it, I'll be happy," said (survivor).
The (survivor)' family ties to Rabbi Margulies go back generations to Hungary, where Israel's grandfather knew him. So, years ago, when the (survivor) family was looking for a school for their young son, the grandfather recommended his friend's yeshiva. Rabbi Kolko was (survivor)' first-grade teacher. But the alleged trouble began several years later.
Throughout his early elementary school years, (survivor) said he was a good student, but a bit of a loner. By sixth grade, he was having more trouble academically and his grades started to slip. His relationship with his parents was also growing strained. At that point (survivor) says that Rabbi Kolko began taking a personal interest in his life. (survivor), meanwhile, started to see Rabbi Kolko as someone he could trust and confide in.
"I didn't have a bad home or upbringing," (survivor) said. "But he was like my father away from home, like a big brother or an uncle. He would tell me I'm special and whenever there was a slight problem in my life he was the first one to take an interest."
By the time (survivor) entered the seventh grade, he said that Rabbi Kolko had his total trust. It was then that Rabbi Kolko allegedly began touching the boy inappropriately. (survivor) said Rabbi Kolko would pull him from class and take him to his private office, where the rabbi would put his hands down the boy's pants and fondle his genitals. On some occasions, Rabbi Kolko would follow (survivor) to his private bathroom to "help" him buckle up his pants. (survivor) said Rabbi Kolko would then grope him.
At the time, (survivor) said that he had no sense that what Rabbi Kolko was doing was wrong. He blames this largely on the fact that neither the yeshiva nor his parents ever discussed the difference between appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior.
"My son and daughter know more about which areas are private than I knew when I was 15," said (survivor), referring to his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. "I felt if this is what he's doing it must be OK."
However, by the time he was a teenager, (survivor)' behavior was getting more out of control, so much so that a psychologist recommended that the teen undergo intensive therapy. While (survivor) was in treatment, the truth of the abuse emerged, he said.
Although he felt a sense of relief, (survivor) said he never fully recovered from the damage of having been abused by a figure of communal authority and personal importance.
"Once I realized that what he did was wrong, my whole life came tumbling down," said (survivor), noting that his parents had a hard time knowing how to deal with their son's situation.
Because of behavioral problems, (survivor) bounced around five high schools in four years. Throughout his teen years, he began hanging out with the wrong crowd. His faith in Judaism was shattered.
"If this guy would do this to me and he represents Judaism, then something was really wrong," said (survivor), who is no longer observant.
After high school, (survivor) said he did a series of odd jobs and bummed around before joining the U.S. Army as a medic at 24 to "get some control back." That same year he also married a woman he had known from Brooklyn. The couple is now separated.
"I have acquaintances but relationships are hard for me," (survivor) said.
In fact, (survivor) said that he has never felt as good as he did when Rabbi Kolko was showering attention on him. "It was the ultimate high," (survivor) said. "I felt important, distinguished from the class."
He said his pull to Rabbi Kolko has remained so great over the years that he has gone back to Brooklyn on several occasions to try and visit him in an effort to recapture that feeling of importance. However, (survivor) said that Rabbi Kolko always seems distracted and uninterested in speaking with him.
"I would continuously go back to him and he would reject me," (survivor) said. "It's sort of like a woman in an abusive relationship. Why does she go back? Because she feels special. I long for that special feeling."
Over the years, (survivor) said he tried to recapture the feeling through other relationships, but
