Domestic Violence in the Austrian Jewish Community

In the Gemeinde magazine issue Nov 2015, the following advert appeared on page 10, to encourage victims of domestic violence in the Vienna Jewish community to contact  ESRA for help. It is likely this was in response to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25th November).

The Gemeinde is a community magazine produced by the IKG, the representatives of the Jewish community in Austria. ESRA is a Jewish Organisation in Vienna which, according to its website, "is also a contact point in all psychosocial questions for Jewish people living in Vienna."

This latest advert is part of a long running campaign by the Jewish Community in Vienna, to make it look as if they care about domestic violence and people with psychological needs. Yet, both the IKG and ESRA have not attained their stated aspirations in regard to the Schlesinger twins and their mother, by their ongoing actions and inactions since 2011. They have failed to meet the standards as set up by their own website and have had an involvement to some degree, contrary to the aims of its supposed existence. Read more ESRA hypocrisy here, translated to English here.

It would appear that the Jewish institutions in Austria that have been set up for victims, are deliberately responsible for ensuring the abuse continues rather than stopped. Many of the names of the people on the committee listed below have been adversely involved, to some degree, in this ongoing persecution, most notably appeal court judge Konstanze Thau, Chabad's head Austrian representative Rabbi Jacob Biderman and Naomi Vorhand.

This hollow awareness campaign first appeared in the September 2009 edition. You can download this edition from their official website here, see page 5.

Here is a translation.

SHALOM BAYIT

Life without violence in the family

PLATFORM AGAINST VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY

Women's and Family Commission of the IKG (Jewish Community) has started a project together with representatives from ESRA and representatives of our community against violence in the family [domestic violence].

We want to know the causes of [domestic] family violence, we want to educate and offer assistance.

Women and children are mostly affected. But the men who become violent due to overburdening, we want to help with our campaign.

Women who are affected by violence often feel alone and are ashamed of what is being done to them. The fear of the violent partner and concern about the reactions of society, frequently leave them with feelings of guilt and powerlessness.

To support affected women and children, ESRA has set up an "anonymous support phone line" offered as a pilot project (as of December 2009). If you or anyone you know is possibly affected, please seek advice and support by phone, anonymously and confidentially. The counselling is done sensitively and with respect to traditional and religious practices.

We work closely with representatives of all Jewish groups. First, we will publish several articles on this topic in the Jewish media. On the 18th November 2009, an event will be held with experts in the community center.

We want to help by education, information and support options that the issue of "family violence" in our community as possible no longer a taboo subject.

Berta Pixner

Chair of the Women and Family Commission

Persons Committee (in alphabetical order without title): 

Judith Adler, 
Edla Biderman, 
Jacob Biderman, 
Agnes Buchegger, 
Rita Dauber, 
Oskar Deutsch, 
Anette Eisenberg, 
Paul Chaim Eisenberg, 
Yvonne Feiger, 
Lydia Fischman,
Yasmin Freyer, 
Rosa Gilkarov, 
Uri Gilkarov, 
Schlomo Hofmeister, 
Lili Kolisch, 
Arlette Leupold-Löwenthal, 
Ariel Muzicant, 
Irma Pani, 
Joseph Pardess, 
Berta Pixner, 
Tamir Pixner, 
Nina Schamunov, 
Susi Shaked, 
[Appeal Court Judge] Konstanze Thau,
Naomi Vorhand.


Sure enough, this was followed by an awareness event publicised in the October 2009 edition on page 5.

Translation:

SHALOM BAYIT

Life without violence in the family

Launch Event

18 November 2009 at 19:00 in the community center of the Jewish Community

The women's and family Commission of the IKG and ESRA invite:


program:

• welcome
• Opening remarks by President Dr. Ariel Muzicant and Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg
• Presentation of the project
• Vienna Jewish Choir
• reading
• refreshments

The project "Shalom Bait" is an information campaign in the Jewish media and various events to make the issue of "violence in the family" discussed and out of the taboo area. Those affected are primarily women and children and will have the option of an anonymous telephone counselling service that will be offered by ESRA from January 2010, to take advantage of. By widespread impact of the information campaign, this topic should be freed from taboos so those concerned can feel able to accept help.

Berta Pixner
Chairman of the Women and Family Commission

Persons Committee (in alphabetical order without title):

KV Judith Adler, 
Edla Biderman, 
Rabbi Jacob Biderman [Head of Chabad in Austria], 
Agnes Buchegger, 
Rita Dauber, 
vice-president Oskar Deutsch, 
Anette Eisenberg, 
Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg, 
KV Yvonne Feiger, 
KV Lydia Fischman, 
KV Yasmin Freyer, 
Rosa Gilkarov, 
vice-president Uri Gilkarov,
Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister,
Lili Kolisch,
Arlette Leupold-Löwenthal,
President Ariel Muzicant,
Irma Pani, 
Rav Pardess [Rabbi of Mizrachi Synagogue in Vienna], 
Berta Pixner, 
Tamir Pixner, 
Nina Schamunov, 
Susi Shaked, 
Konstanze Thau [High court judge]


As promised, some articles were published, for example this one, with a quote from then Chief Rabbi Eisenberg

Says Eisenberg: "But of course it is the task of the rabbi, to try to avoid a divorce and to work towards Shlom Bait. But if you know that there is violence in the family, then it would be an exaggeration to work towards Shlom Bait. Then you have to help. " 

Many of the people who are listed on the "Shalom Bayit Committee" above, will have been personally familiar to those who have been following the case of the Schlesinger twins online. Here are some photographs of those committee members.

Appeal Court Judge Konstanze Thau

Chabad Rabbi Jacob Biderman

Rabbi Joseph Pardess

Naomi Vorhand

 Previous Chief Rabbi Eisenberg

Ariel Muzicant

Oskar Deutsch

Berta Pixner Chairman of the Women and Family Commission

Judith Adler. See her in video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMvRGH3ociU

Yvonne Feiger

Rosa Gilkarov

Lili Kolisch

Arlette Leupold-Löwenthal

Irma Pani

Tamir Pixner

Nina Shimunov

Susie Shaked

Disgraced Dayan Haim Pardes, father to Vienna's Rabbi Josef Pardes

Rabbi Josef Pardes, Vienna's Misrachi Rabbi

Rabbi Josef Pardes has appeared on this blog previously. http://helpbeth.blogspot.co.il/2015/08/where-is-response-from-austria.html

Rabbi Josef Pardes is the Rabbi of the Misrachi Synagogue on Rabensteig in Vienna and is the son of the disgraced late Dayan Chaim Pardes, former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court (Israel).

Many people in Vienna view him as a close mentor of Mr Schlesinger. Rabbi Pardes has to date ignored many invitations to comment on the subject.

Here are some press releases about Dayan Chaim Pardes, father to Vienna's Rabbi Josef Pardes, pictured above, as published on the awareness center website

http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.co.uk/1989/12/case-of-rabbi-haim-pardes.html

More online resources
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/doc/321019557.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+1%2C+1991&author=MICHAEL+ROTEM%2C+Jerusalem+Post+Reporter&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=&desc=RABBI+STARTS+6+MONTHS+IN+JAIL+FOR+SEX+ABUSE

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/doc/320970733.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+22%2C+1990&author=Jerusalem+Post+Reporter&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=&desc=D.A.+GETS+SEX-CASE+FILE+AGAINST+TA+RABBI

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/doc/321025918.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+23%2C+1991&author=&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=&desc=PROSECUTOR+JOINS+MK%27S+PLEA+TO+DISCIPLINE+JUDGE

Case of Rabbi Haim Pardes

Case of Rabbi Haim Pardes

(AKA: Chaim Pardes)

Rehov Frishman synagogue

Former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court - Tel Aviv Israel

Convicted of sexually blackmailing" and performing "licentious acts" with women who sought his counsel in a synagogue. Pardes was sentenced to six months in prison and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500).

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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.

Table of Contents:  

1989

1. Rabbi Named in Sex-For-Divorce Scandal (12/04/1989)
2. Police Interrogate Rabbinical Court Judges About Sex-Bribe Allegations  (12/05/1989)
3. Police and Thieves  (12/15/1989)

1990

1. D.A. Gets Sex-Case File Against TA Rabbi  (01/11/1990)
2. Top Of The News - World  (12/07/1990)

1992

1. Rabbi Starts 6 Months in Jail for Sex Abuse  (01/01/1992)
2. Prosecutors Joins MK's Plea to Discipline Judge (05/23/1992)

2004

1. Chief Rabbi of Ariel accused of rape (08/31/2004)

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Rabbi Named In Sex-For-Divorce Scandal
by Andy Goldberg and Haim Shapiro
The Jerusalem Post - December 4, 1989


TEL AVIV - Rabbi Haim Pardes, head of the local rabbinical court, is facing a police investigation into suspicions that he asked a woman for sexual favour in order to speed up her divorce proceedings.

Police are still waiting for permission from Attorney-General Yosef Harish to interrogate Pardes, as Pardes has the legal standing of a district court judge. The initial finding of the police investigation were transferred to Harish's office late last week.

The national fraud squad has already interrogated people connected with the allegations against Pardes, including two senior clerks of the court and the woman he allegedly approached.

Police believe that Pardes had been dealing with the woman's divorce case for some seven years when he suggested to her that they meet alone in a room at a North Tel Aviv synagogue. In return he promised to speed up the courts' treatment of her divorce proceedings.

The woman apparently recorded her conversations with Pardes and afterwards used the tape to force him to accelerate treatment of her case and to blackmail him.

Rabbinical circles expressed shock over the allegations.

Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, director of the rabbinical courts, told The Jerusalem Post yesterday that no action would be taken against Pardes at this stage. It was not necessary to suspend a rabbinical court judge unless he had actually been charged with a crime, Ben-Dahan said.

According to the daily Yediot Ahronot, which first broke the story, Rabbi David Einhorn, assistant director of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court, was also suspected of accepting bribes.
 

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Police Interrogate Rabbinical Court Judges About Sex-Bribe Allegations
By Andy Goldberg
The Jerusalem Post - December 5, 1989


The rabbinical court judge at the centre of a sex-for-divorce scandal was interrogated for seven hours yesterday by officers of the Jaffa-based National Fraud Division.

Rabbi Haim Pardess, 54, was released on his own recognizance after the interrogation and praised his investigators for "their fair and correct treatment."

The police are investigating allegations that Pardess solicited sexual favours from women in return for speeding up treatment of their divorce proceedings. One woman told officers last month that Pardess had been dealing with her divorce case for about seven years when he suggested that they meet alone in a room he had at his disposal at a local synagogue. In return for such a meeting, he promised to expedite the court's handling of her divorce. The woman apparently recorded her conversations with Pardess and afterwards used the tape to force him to expedite her case and to blackmail him for NIS 20,000.

Officers have already questioned several persons connected with the allegations against Pardess.

Pardess's attorney, Dr. Ya'acov Weinroth, told The Jerusalem Post that his client had cooperated fully with the police. He did not know whether Pardess would be summoned for further questioning. He said that the police did not have in their possession any tape recording that incriminated Pardess.

Rabbinical court judges have the legal standing of district court judges, whose interrogation is permitted only with the approval of the attorney-general. Yosef Harish granted this approval in Pardess's case on Sunday.

"I am very happy that I have had the opportunity to give my version of events and explode the baseless allegations against me," Pardess told Kol Yisrael radio after his interrogation.

He was highly critical of the press for publishing the story and his identity before he had been charged. He told reporters that he planned to continue working as usual despite the allegations and said he hoped that "with God's help the truth will out."

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Police and Thieves 
Jerusalem Post - December 15, 1989

The police probe into suspected corruption at the Tel Aviv rabbinical court has not stopped at the sexual favours allegedly demanded by the court's chief, Rabbi Haim Pardes, in return for the speedy handling of divorce cases. In addition, the Jaffa-based Fraud Division is checking out suspicions that court clerks also accepted bribes related to cases.

To date, three women have lodged complaints against Pardes, two of them claiming that he sexually assaulted them after luring them into a room in a Rehov Frishman synagogue saying that he would expedite their divorce requests.

Police sources say the investigation has yielded indications of corruption on a far wider scale than initially believed, and that numerous court workers would be interrogated.

Details of a daring operation deep in Lebanon by officers of the elite Tel Aviv Central Unit were disclosed this week in a star-studded Mann Auditorium variety show celebrating the unit's 30th anniversary.

In late 1987, Eli Arazi, a top underworld figure, reported to police that he had been hired to transfer some two tons of hashish and heroin from Lebanon to Israel. Despite suspecting a hostage-taking trap by terrorists, detectives of the central unit and the anti-terror group manned the drug-running ship. The drugs were transferred to the ship near Jounieh and brought to Israel where they were transferred to four men who were meant to deliver them to the buyers. On the way from the port, however, the vehicle broke down. Police arrested the couriers but never caught up with the drug's buyers.

A drug-dealer was sentenced to seven years in jail by the Tel Aviv district court after one of his clients turned state's witness and tape-recorded two drug transactions. Every week, for some nine months, the dealer, Yoav Lavi, 29, of Bat Yam, supplied 30-50 grams of cocaine and heroin to a man named Shlomo. The cocaine cost $70 per gram and the heroin $250. When Shlomo was caught by police in possession of 30 grams of the drugs, he agreed to collect evidence in return for having the charges against him dropped.

Police outfitted him with a hidden microphone, and he recorded his next two meetings with Lavi. These recordings later formed the main part of the prosecution's case.

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D.A. Gets Sex-Case File Against TA Rabbi
The Jerusalem Post - January 22, 1990


TEL AVIV - Police have transferred to the District Attorney's Office details of their investigation into complaints of sexual assault against Haim Pardes, the head rabbi of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court. The Jaffa-based National Fraud Division began investigating Pardes late last year after two women complained that he had promised to speed up treatment of their divorce cases in return for sexual favours.

In separate and unrelated complaints, the women charged that Pardes had invited them into a room in the Tel Aviv synagogue where he officiates and then indecently assaulted them. One woman claimed that Pardes had offered her NIS 20,000, if she did not report him to the police. Police investigators said that such an amount had been withdrawn from the rabbi's bank account.

Pardes continues to work as usual after having told police investigators in November that he had not committed the offences attributed to him. Pardes's status in the rabbinical court is equivalent to that of a district court judge and a decision to prosecute him can only be taken by order of the attorney general.

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Top Of The News - World
From Wire Dispatches and Staff Reports

The Washington Times - December 7, 1990


TEL AVIV, Israel - A court jailed a senior rabbi for six months yesterday after finding him guilty of "sexually blackmailing" women who sought his counsel and of having sexual relations in a synagogue, court sources said.

Rabbi Haim Pardes, chief of Tel Aviv's rabbinical tribunal, committed "licentious acts" with women who appeared before him and he confessed to having sexual relations in a synagogue, according to the sources.

He was also given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500) for "shamefully taking advantage of his judicial status and of the distress of the women who appeared before him." Rabbinical tribunals in Israel are charged with marital affairs and conversions to Judaism.

Shulat Aloni, a lawmaker for the Civil Rights Party, argued that the sentence against Rabbi Pardes was too lenient. Mrs. Aloni called for a review by the high court.

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Rabbi Starts 6 Months in Jail for Sex Abuse
By Michael Rotem
The Jerusalem Post - January 1, 1991


TEL AVIV - The former chairman of the local rabbinical court convicted of sexually abusing women is to start his prison term today.

A court here rejected Rabbi Haim Pardes's offer to do community service work, instead of going to prison, as a part of a plea bargain.

Pardes was sentenced on December 6 by a district court here to imprisonment and fined after being convicted of committing obscene sexual acts, fraud and breach of trust.

The sentence was handed down after a plea bargain was accepted. In return for his confessing to having committed the obscene sexual acts, Pardes was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of NIS 25,000.

In its original verdict, the court decided that the rabbi would do community service.

The offer made by the special comissioner of community service to the court was that Pardes would work arranging and translating holy texts in a library for the blind. The judges, however, objected, saying that this work "was suitable for a high school student on vacation."

In one of the cases on which Pardes was convicted, he met with a mother of two daughters in his chamber to discuss her alimony claim. During one of their meetings, he sexually molested her.

A source in the Prison's Authority said yesterday there was no decision on where the rabbi would serve his term.

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Prosecutors Joins MK's Plea to Discipline Judge
PROSECUTOR JOINS MK'S PLEA TO DISCIPLINE JUDGE
The Jerusalem Post - May 23, 1991


In an unusual move, the State Prosecutor's Office yesterday supported MK Yair Tsaban's petition asking the High Court of Justice to order that the pension of Rabbi Haim Pardes, president of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court sentenced to six months in prison for indecent acts, bribery and violating a trust, be stopped and that he be brought before a disciplinary hearing.

After the State Prosecution's move, the High Court issued an order nisi instructing Pardes to show within 30 days why the decision of the judicial appointments committee which awarded him a pension should not be overturned and why the president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court has not fulfilled his responsibility to bring him before a disciplinary hearing.

In his petition, Tsaban said that it was obvious that a judge convicted of such serious offenses should face a disciplinary hearing. Pardes, he noted, managed to avoid this by resigning his position when the charges were brought against him. He also maintained that he should not have been granted any pension, let alone the same one as judges who honorably retired from the bench.

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Chief Rabbi of Ariel accused of rape

Maariv - Hebrew edition

August 31, 2004

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/776/524.html


הרב נעצר בחשד שאנס אישה שהגיעה להתייעץ עמו, ואף הטריד אותה בשיחות טלפון

  טל ימין-וולבוביץ'
31/8/2004  10:54

הרב הראשי של אריאל נעצר הבוקר בחשד למעשה אונס באישה שהגיעה לבקש את עזרתו.

האישה, שנזקקה לעזרת הרב, הגיעה בתקופה האחרונה אל משרדו כדי להתייעץ איתו בנושא אישי. על-פי החשד, הרב ניצל את קרבתו לאישה ולאחר הייעוץ, אנס אותה בכוח. הוא לא הסתפק בכך, ואף הטריד אותה בטלפון לאחר המקרה. האישה, שלא יכלה לעמוד בהטרדות, נשברה והתלוננה במשטרה.

למרות התלונה, משטרת יהודה ושומרון לא יכלה לעצור בתחילה את הרב, מאחר שמדובר באישיות ציבורית. רק בהמשך, לאחר שהוצאו אישורים מיוחדים, פתחה המשטרה בחקירה סמויה שבסופה נעצר הרב בסמוך לביתו.

בשעות הצהריים יובא הרב להארכת מעצרו בבית משפט השלום בכפר-סבא. על כל פרטי החקירה הוטל צו איסור פרסום, ו-NRG מעריב הגיש בקשה לבית המשפט להסיר את הצו.

הרב שלמה עמאר, הרב הראשי הספרדי לישראל אמר: "כל זמן שאין שום הוכחה מוצקה, אנחנו בוחרים שלא להגיב".

לא מדובר במקרה ראשון של מעשה מגונה שמיוחס לרב. הרב זאב קופולוביץ, לשעבר ראש ישיבת "נתיב מאיר", הורשע על- פי הודאתו בהטרדות מיניות שביצע בתלמידיו. ונשלח בעיסקת טיעון לשלוש וחצי שנות מאסר.

בשנת 1999 נידון הרב חיים פרדס לשישה חודשי מאסר בפועל לאחר שהורשע בביצוע מעשים מגונים בנשים, מירמה והפרת אמונים.

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Translated to English using Google Translate

Great city of Ariel suspected of rape

Rabbi arrested for allegedly raping a woman who came to consult him , and harassed her with phone calls


 Phone right - and Mabovich
31/08/2004 10:54


Chief Rabbi Ariel was arrested this morning on suspicion of raping a woman actually came to ask for his help.

The woman , who needed the aid of the rabbi, recently came to his office to consult him on the subject personally. The - allegedly used the proximity to great woman and consultation , raped her by force. Is not satisfied , and harassed her on the phone after the incident . The woman , who could not stand the harassment , broke down and complained to the police.

Despite the complaint, Judea and Samaria police could not stop the rabbi first , since it is a public personality . Only later , after the special permits issued , the police arrested an undercover investigation after which Rabbi near his home.

Afternoon will be great to extend his detention in the village magistrate - Grandpa. The details of the investigations imposed the gag order , and NRG Ma'ariv applied to the court to remove the order.

Rabbi Shlomo Amar , the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel said : "As long as there is no solid proof , we choose not to respond."

This is not the first case of indecent acts attributed to Rabbi . Rabbi Zev Kopolovitz, former head of Yeshivat "Path Meir " , was convicted - though he admits sexual harassment committed by his students . And sent a plea bargain to three and a half years in prison.

In 1999, Rabbi Haim Pardes was sentenced to six months in prison after being convicted of molesting women , fraud and breach of trust.

Daas Torah Blog: Child abuse: Michael Schlesinger refuses to let Beth's twins spend Shabbos with her and must instead spend it with a non-Jewish nanny

As published on the Daas Torah blog http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2016/09/child-abuse-michael-schlesinger-refuses.html

Thursday, September 15, 2016 

Guest Blog Post by Adrian Alexander, brother to Beth Alexander, the mother of the Schlesinger twins in Vienna. Since 2011, following a series of bizarre court rulings, Beth has been denied custody of the twins. Access to her children and her rights are severely restricted.

At the beginning of last week's parsha, which is usually read during the month of Ellul, the Torah teaches us how scrupulous judges must be when it comes to upholding laws. “Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue so that you will live and take possession of the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you.” [Devorim 16:20]. All the commentaries are bothered by the redundancy of “Tzedek Tzedek tirdof”.

Rav Elya Meir Bloch interprets that “the pursuit OF righteousness must also be pursued WITH righteousness”. We are not merely being taught to run AFTER justice. We are told to run AFTER justice WITH justice.

Currently, reports are surfacing that Chareidim in Stamford Hill, London, have set up a £1m fund for child custody cases with the aim being to support the ‘frum’ parent against the ‘modern one’ who intends to take the children outside of their community. These funds are to pay for the legal fees to ensure the parent who wishes to keep the children inside wins custody. You can see those reports here helpbeth.blogspot.co.il/2016/09/chareidim-raise-1m-for-child-custody.html

It is not an issue specific to the Stamford Hill community. The Jewish community of Vienna has demonstrated how far a community will go to protect one of their own. It is not only an unlimited supply of funds that can be brought to a custody battle. Communal shunning, false rumour peddling ( http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2014/04/schlesinger-twins-beths-friend.html ) , influence over Jewish organisations (like ESRA http://www.esra.at/ ), links to the  judiciary ( http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2014/12/schlesinger-twins-who-is-judge.html ) are just some of the tools that were weaponised in the determination to remove the Schlesinger twins from their mother.

This was noted by Rabbi Guttentag back in 2012. helpbeth.blogspot.co.il/p/rabbinic-emails-that-have-been-ignored.html

“From what it appears in this situation, however, and for whatever reason, there is an unfairness and an injustice being perpetrated against Beth, a single woman in a foreign country, without proper support – pitted against a family, in a community with all the connections naturally available to them.”

Child abuse survivors face similar treatment from the moment they first voice allegations. http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2015/07/gateshead-rav-on-child-abuse-it-is-time.html

Rav Zimmerman: “We have to wonder, how is it that there are those who err so much as to provide unlimited support to child molesters and won't instead help the victims.”

It is widely agreed that in a custody case, every effort should be made to find an outcome that is in the best interests of the children. There are many factors that are taken into account when judging a custody case, including the community in which the children live, but that is not the only factor. The reason why courts exist, is because each situation needs to be judged on its own merit, on a case-by-case basis. If such hard-and-fast rules existed, there wouldn't be any need for a court. In a hypothetical situation where one parent is a violent, abusive, criminal, narcissistic sex abuser, but lives inside the Chareidi community, whilst the other parent wishes to live in the “modern orthodox” world, would anyone really claim that it is better for the children to be in the custody of the violent parent? What is the likelihood of a child who grows up in an abusive family environment remaining in that community anyway?

Has anyone in these cases wondered who makes the decision as to which side of a custody battle the community takes? On what basis do they make these decisions? Do they meet with both parents and mediate? Beth grew up in a respected Jewish home, attended only Jewish schools and lived her married life as an active and participating member of the Jewish community in Vienna. At no point had she expressed any interest in living any differently. Myself, Beth and our older brother, all had a strong Jewish upbringing and want the same for our children.

Mr Schlesinger works at a local mental hospital http://www.wienkav.at/kav/ows/ZeigeAnsprech.asp?ID=23618 and regularly works on Shabbos. During those times, the twins are with a Filipino nanny. It is cruel that Mr Schlesinger doesn’t allow the children to spend Shabbos with their mother. On the few occasions that Beth has had the children for a Shabbos (approximately 5 times in the last 5 years), Beth has taken them to Shul (Chazan Barzilai encouraged the twins to join the children’s choir on the Bhimah) and given them a Shabbos or yom tov experience in her home.

A community is a powerful entity. When its capabilities are directed for the good, they can make enormous positive change to people's lives: Hatzalah, Bikur Cholim, Hachnasat Orchim, gemachs, countless tzedaka funds to ensure children don't go hungry, the list goes on. However, when used in the wrong way, a community can become a tyrannical force of destruction causing untold damage to innocent people's lives, men, women and children alike. It is nothing more than a bully throwing its weight behind abusers, child molesters and criminals to re-victimise the vulnerable. When communities descend into a hoarde of savages, they leave the door wide open to anti-Semitism, and no doubt they will be the first to complain about it. http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Austrian-Jewish-leader-Anti-Semitic-attacks-on-rise

Rabbi Arie Folger has recently started his role as the new Chief Rabbi of Vienna following a large media fanfare. Many people will be looking at him to draw on support from the international Rabbinic community and right the wrongs that have disgusted the Jewish world for too long.

“Tzedek Tzedek tirdof”? It is a pertinent and timely lesson for all our communities.

Chareidim Raise £1m for Child Custody War Chest

Chareidim Raise £1m for Child Custody War Chest

 

 Full broadcast can be downloaded from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tqppt

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/162094/charedim-raise-%C2%A31m-child-custody-war-chest

Charedim raise £1m for child custody war chest

By Daniel Sugarman, August 18, 2016

A Charedi wedding in Israel

Stamford Hill Charedim have raised £1 million to fight legal cases where they think children are at risk of being removed from the community by one of their parents.
Over 1,500 people attended a meeting last week to establish a fund to help "rescue the holy children from descending into ruin" in cases where parents are fighting a custody battle and one wants to leave the strictly Orthodox community.
The JC understands that there are four or five ongoing cases involving these children.
Rabbi Ephraim Padwa, the spiritual head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, published a letter in support of the cause. He referred to "17 of our pure and holy children, where one of the parents has chased after a wicked culture and want to drag their children after them."

A representative of Gesher EU, an organisation that helps those who wish to leave the Charedi community, said the move would engender fear.
The spokesperson added that it was one of "the tactics used by the Charedim to try to prevent people leaving the community by denying them access to their children.
"Knowing that the community can draw on unlimited funds to support an ongoing legal battle over custody can be daunting, to say the least."
However, a spokesperson for the Stamford Hill community said the issue was "very serious and sensitive".
He added: "People usually wouldn't give this money for just anything, but this is unique case. We can't dilute Yiddishkeit - we have to keep ourselves strong together."
Over £600,000 was raised at the meeting at the Bobov synagogue, where the crowd was addressed both by local rabbis and the grand rabbis of three Chasidic sects - Vizhnitz, Slonim and Rachmastrivka - who had flown in for the occasion.
Earlier in the day the grand rabbis had met affluent members of the community. It is understood that following the meeting, the £1 million target was reached. Posters advertising the event urged participants to give at least £500, with the option of paying in instalments.

Those who gave £5,000 or more were promised a "certificate of partnership", signed by the visiting dignitaries. Rabbi Padwa's letter also referenced shmad, which is the Hebrew word for "apostasy".
Divorce is frowned upon within the strictly Orthodox community, and custody battles in court are comparatively rare.



Further links on this topic

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ultra-orthodox-jews-launch-million-pound-fundraising-campaign-to-fight-converts-child-custody-cases-a7190281.html

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jews-raise-1m-child-custody-fund-wz5v7xnb2

http://forward.com/news/world/347772/orthodox-jews-are-raising-1-million-to-keep-pure-and-holy-children/

https://www.rt.com/uk/358327-orthodox-jews-custody-fund/

http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2016/08/26/strictly-orthodox-jews-stamford-hill-million-pound-fund-child-custody-battles/

Vienna - Dayan Menachem Gelley Elected Chairman of CER Standing Committee

Vienna - Dayan Menachem Gelley Elected Chairman of CER Standing Committee

From the Hamodia newspaper

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) has elected Dayan Menachem Galley, Rosh Beis Din of the London Beth Din, as chairman of the Standing Committee, the supreme governing body of the CER.

The three-day Standing Committee meeting took place in Vienna last week and looked at many of the issues facing European Jewry. Worryingly, just the previous week, 49% of the Austrian public had voted for a far-right candidate to be president of the country.

During their visit, the Standing Committee met with leading government ministers. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at the Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs hosted breakfast at the Foreign Office, where Secretary Kurz expressed his intention to work with CER to support the Jewish community of Vienna.

The schedule also included a meeting with community leaders hosted by Agudas Israel of Vienna, where issues pertaining to the rise of anti-Semitism and the threat against Jewish practices such as shechitah and bris milah were discussed. There was also a visit to the Jewish Community Campus and amongst other events, a dinner hosted by the World Congress of Georgian Jews in honour of the inauguration of a new Viennese chapter.

The Standing Committee wound up their meeting with a tour of the medieval Vienna Synagogue and Holocaust Memorial site.

During a speech at the Standing Committee, Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt, President of the CER, said, "Europeans are deeply worried about their own security, the security of their children and their future economic prosperity.

"Europeans are worried about the secular democratic space, about their religious freedoms, about losing Europe to extremists. It is for these reasons that Europeans are increasingly giving their votes to far right party candidates, who promise to recreate both a sense of security and a renewed sense of national patriotism by closing the borders and by promising to rein in terrorists.

"We at CER will do everything possible to maintain and strengthen the Jewish communities of Europe. Jewish communities do not have the means to totally secure their institutions without the help of their governments, and governments have the responsibility and obligation to help their various communities. We will help smaller communities garner their resources to sustain Jewish life, even as their numbers dwindle and their resources become more scarce."

Jewish Chronicle 9th Oct 2015 Austrian Scandal Summary

As published in the Jewish Chronicle online and in print.

The case of the Schlesinger Twins was highlighted as an example of the broken, corrupt Austrian system.

See a higher resolution of the print edition here.

Writer jailed for trying to reclaim Nazi-stolen loot

By Toby Axelrod, October 8, 2015

 Outrage is mounting following the jailing of an Austrian Jewish writer who tried to claim compensation from the Austrian state over the theft of his ancestors' home by the Nazis in 1938.
Stephan Templ, who in 2001 published a critical book about restitution in Austria, was incarcerated this week and is to remain in jail for one year, convicted of having defrauded the state.

Mr Templ, 54, was accused of deliberately failing to inform the state about his aunt - a potential claimant - when he initiated his restitution case.

A state prosecutor accused Mr Templ of defrauding Austria on the grounds that had his aunt chosen not to claim her share of the restitution money, it could have gone to the state.

In a statement published on their website, Mr Templ's London-based lawyers, Amsterdam & Partners, said: "[The court claimed that] by not naming his aunt in the application for restitution - something there was no obligation to do and the results of which he could not have foreseen - Templ had aimed to deceive the restitution panel. This argument runs contrary to both the restitution and criminal laws of Austria, as well as universal legal principles."

Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, called the jailing "absolutely outrageous". He was one of 75 historians from around the world who signed a letter protesting against the sentence. The letter was sent to Hans Peter Manz, Austrian ambassador to the US, on September 21. As yet there has been no response.

Ahead of his imprisonment, Mr Templ told Haaretz his case was "Kafkaesque" and "completely absurd".

Mr Templ's crime was "his omission of the name of an estranged relative from his application for the return of his family's seized property", the 75 historians wrote. "This matter could have been resolved by the Templ family in civil court."

The ADL has become involved, with its new national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, appealing to Austrian President Heinz Fischer for a pardon.

According to the BBC, Austrian journalist Karl Pfeifer has said he believed Mr Templ was prosecuted and jailed because "he touched a nerve with his book, which reminded the Austrians of how they stole Jewish property".

The case dates to 2005, when, on behalf of his Shoah-survivor mother, Mr Templ applied for the restitution of a former sanatorium in Vienna that the Nazis had confiscated from their ancestor, Lothar Fürth

Mr Templ's mother, who received €1.1 million, was one of 40 heirs to receive compensation for their part-ownership of the building, which was sold in 2010.

However, in April 2013, the court found Mr Templ guilty of failing to mention another possible heir - his 84-year-old aunt, who was reportedly estranged from his mother.

A regional court in Vienna had sentenced Mr Templ to three years in jail for serious fraud, with the Austrian state as victim. An appeal was rejected, but a regional court reduced the sentence to one year in jail with two years' probation.

●Mother’s Vienna court hell
British mother Beth Alexander first hit the headlines four years ago, after a Viennese court awarded sole custody of her then three-year-old twin sons to her Austrian ex-husband, Dr Michael Schlesinger – in a case that has been labelled "tragic" and "Kafkaesque". 

In 2013, an appeal to overturn the court's decision was rejected. Ms Alexander was granted extremely limited visitation rights with her sons – every Tuesday for six hours and every other Sunday. This was despite the court admitting that a previous judgment denying her custody because she suffered from mental illness was wrong. 

Ms Alexander applied to take the case to Austria's Supreme Court, but was turned down.
Manchester-born Ms Alexander has repeatedly claimed she is facing "corruption" inside the Austrian judicial system. Her case gained international attention and support, with a website set up that charted her struggle to see her sons, and leading figures in the community, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, pledging their support.

But last year, Ms Alexander faced a fresh setback. An injunction issued by an Austrian court ordered her to remove all photos of her sons from her campaign website, as well as any pictures posted on social media accounts. She was also forbidden from publicising details of the case. 

Charlotte Oliver


This was the response from the Austrian Embassy the following week (17th October 2015)

STEPHAN TEMPL’S SERIOUS FRAUD CONVICTION WAS PROPER, NOT ANTISEMITIC

I would like to make the following clarifications to Toby Axelrod’s article Writer jailed for trying to reclaim Nazi-stolen loot, ( JC, Oct 9) concerning the Austrian court case of Mr Stephan Templ, and the piece by Simone Dinah Hartmann, The hate that forced my grandfather to flee Vienna is alive and well in Austria today.

Stephan Templ was convicted by the Vienna Criminal Court for serious fraud, committed during restitution proceedings.

This case has nothing to do with antisemitism or retaliation for having written a book on restitution issues. It is an ordinary criminal case of serious fraud decided by the independent Austrian judiciary. Nothing more, nothing less.

According to the courts, Mr Templ was not convicted for simply omitting the name of an estranged relative in a restitution application. On the contrary, he not only “conveniently forgot” to mention his own aunt (who lives, just like his mother, in Vienna) but he intentionally made a series of false allegations to the restitution panel, as was proven by documents and witnesses in the criminal proceedings, concealing the existence of his aunt in order to increase his mother’s share of property to be restituted.

As a result of Mr Templ’s fraud, his mother was awarded a share worth around € 1.1 million in the restituted property ( ie double the share that she would have received without the fraud).

His aunt, a Holocaust survivor herself who was unaware of her rights, missed the application deadline and thus received nothing. Mr Templ was indicted by the public prosecutor after his aunt had reported the fraudulent conduct of her nephew to the authorities.

Mr Templ was consequently convicted and sentenced to one year of prison and a probation period of two years. He began this prison term on 5th October.

As for National Socialist activities, I would like to stress that, in 1947, Austria introduced a Constitutional Law providing for sanctions for the denying, the trivialisation, the approval or the justification of National Socialist activities and National Socialist crimes against humanity, with imprisonment up to 20 years.

It goes without saying that the Republic of Austria unequivocally rejects all forms of racism, antisemitism, intolerance and other human-rights infringements.

Ridiculing the commemorations of the Holocaust which are carried out in Austria annually as an “obsession in the successor states of the National Socialist empire” is something that a journalist is free to do. We, however, do take these commemorations seriously and will continue to do so.

Martin Eichtinger,
Ambassador Austrian Embassy,
18 Belgrave Mews, SW1