AN OPEN LETTER TO HARAV SHRAGA FEIVEL ZIMMERMAN

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman

 

officeoftherov@federation.org.uk

Dear Rabbi Zimmerman,

I saw on the Federation website, the video you recorded about the necessity to report abuse and the hilchot that say it’s our duty to prevent a person being harmed from the person who is harming them. There was no contact address for you so I am sending this email to all the Federation communities in the hope that it will find you. This is not a bad thing, as Rabbi Raphy Garson of Ohr Yisrael in Borehamwood says, “Together everyone achieves more.” By the way, I was moved to see that the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue in Commercial Road is part of the Federation. This shul was founded by my two Great Grandfathers – Reb Abraham Schwalbe and Reb Moshe Koenigsberg.

Perhaps you have heard of the twins Benjamin and Samuel Schlesinger of Vienna, Austria who attend the Lauder Chabad Campus School? After their parents divorced, the courts awarded custody of the then 2-year-old boys, to their father, Dr Michael Schlesinger, a man with a history of violent domestic abuse resulting in a restraining order against him. This happened 10 years ago. We can do little about the fact that both he and Rabbi Jacob Biderman, the Principal of the school, lied to the court about the mother, Beth Alexander’s mental state and her ability to raise her children.

Since then, Schlesinger has done everything he can to deny all contact between Beth and her sons. Unfortunately, he is not a member of your community because the Vienna community has turned a blind eye to the fact that he is more interested in hurting Beth than he is concerned for the welfare of his children. However, Rabbi Biderman is of your profession and also a prominent member of Chabad to which I know many of your Rabbis also belong.

You can do something about the abuse that ensued and that has been ongoing for the past 10 years. Contrary to Austrian law, the Principal of the Lauder Chabad School and Chabad Rabbi, Jacob Biderman, has blocked Beth from all contact with the school and her children’s education. She has been barred from every birthday party, every celebration and school event, and he refuses to give her any information about her sons’ welfare or progress.

Biderman claims that Schlesinger’s lawyers wrote to him and told him to do this. However, the lawyers denied any such letter under oath and no letter has ever been produced. No one made Rabbi Biderman erase their mother from the school lives of two innocent boys. He took it upon himself to go the extra cruel mile and cause 10 years of suffering for the little boys in his “care”. Their mother sent him numerous emails begging him to let her be part of their school lives, emails which he dutifully forwarded to the lawyers of the ex-husband, and then ignored.

Now the boys are coming up to Barmitzvah in June of this year. It is not too late for them to know that their mother loves them and has never stopped fighting for them. It is not too late to stop this abuse of their human rights to their mother’s love.

Chief Rabbis Jonathan Sacks z”l and Ephraim Mirvis, both spoke to Biderman and were assured that changes would be made. He reneged on all his promises. Rabbi Brodie z”l of the Manchester Beth Din wrote of his incredulity that baby boys could be brutally parted from their mother when she is alive and available to give them all her love. Others have remarked that you would need to be an axe wielding murderer to deserve the punishment inflicted upon Beth. Everything is documented and recorded.

In desperation, more than 6,000, mostly Jews, have created a Facebook group – Reuniting Beth With Her Boys - to try to get justice for Benji and Sammy. And for Beth. Maybe you, Rabbi Zimmerman, who understands the despicable nature of child abuse, will be the one Rabbi who can finally help them. Chabad are only interested in global tragedies where they can show, in the words of Rabbi Y.Y. Schochet, “The indomitable spirit of Chabad.” Where is their spirit when two young boys are denied their mother and the perpetrator is within their gates? Why is not one Chabad Rabbi willing to stand up for two children who have no voice?

You can see more background material, interviews and video footage of the boys with their mother on the “Help Beth” You Tube channel.

You are 100% correct that we must report abuse and do everything in our power to stop it. 6,000 of us are looking to you Rabbi Zimmerman, to try to get justice at last for Benji and Sammy Schlesinger. I eagerly await your reply.

Yours respectfully,

Rachel Selby