Shadowy “modesty squads” police ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

In ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities across New York state, women wear long skirts and long-sleeved, high-necked blouses on the street; men wear suits and white collar shirts, buttoned to the neck; and girls are told the precise color and thickness of the stockings they can wear to school.

And these aren't just recommendations -- community modesty codes are strictly enforced. Not just by social custom, but by a self-appointed, shadowy group of men who police a predominantly Hasidic neighborhood in North Brooklyn, according to a report in the New York Times.

“They operate like the Mafia,” Rabbi Allan Nadler, director of the Jewish studies program at Drew University, told the Times. “They walk into a store and say it would be a shame if your window was broken or you lost your clientele,” he said. “They might tell the father of a girl who wears a skirt that’s too short and he’s, say, a store owner: ‘If you ever want to sell a pair of shoes, speak to your daughter.’”

Hasidic counselor accused of molesting teen to testify

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:41:00 +0000

Nechemya Weberman, accused of orally raping and sexually abusing a teenage girl from 2007 to 2010, is expected to take the stand in the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn this week. His accuser, now 17 years old, testified last week against Weberman, a pillar and renowned “counselor” in the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Weberman is accused of 88 accounts of sexual abuse of a minor from the time the girl was 12 until she was 15.

If you haven’t followed this case, one of the few sexual abuse cases in the ultra-orthodox community to be exposed to secular justice, here is a brief timeline. (Allison Yarrow has a thorough run-down of the case at The Daily Beast.)

2007: The accuser, a 12-year-old at the time, begins questioning authority at United Talmudical Academy, her ultra-religious school. Her parents are forced to send her to counseling for her “heretic” behavior.

Salon.com > Hasidim

Shadowy “modesty squads” police ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn

Hasidic counselor accused of molesting teen to testify