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Federal and local authorities are releasing more details on the arrests of four couples, including a prominent rabbi, in Lakewood Monday morning on charges of failing to report "sizable incomes" so they could allegedly fraudulently collect more than $1.3 million in public assistance benefits.

Rachel Sorotzkin, 32; Mordechai Sorotzkin, 35; Yocheved Nussbaum, 40, and Shimon Nussbaum, 42, are each charged with one count of conspiring to steal government funds, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick said.

Meanwhile, Mordechai Breskin, 37, and Jocheved Breskin, 35, and Zalmen Sorotzkin, 39, and Tzipporah Sorotzkin, 35, were taken to Superior Court in Ocean County to face charges of defrauding state programs, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato and State Comptroller Philip James Degnan said.

The arrests are the first in what are expected to be multiple ongoing arrests in Lakewood, the Ocean County prosecutor's office said. Additional charges, including tax charges, are possible as well, the prosecutor's office said.

Zalmen Sorotkin and his wife and the Breskins were charged in state court because the fraud involved primarily state programs, the prosecutor's office said, while Mordechai Sorotzkin and his wife and the Nussbaums were charged in federal court because the programs they are accused of defrauding are federal ones, prosecutors said.

Mordechai and Jocheved Breskin of Blue Jay Way are charged with second-degree theft by deception, the prosecutor's office said. They are accused of fraudulently collecting at least $585,662 in benefits from Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Section 8 rental assistance and Supplemental Social Security Insurance benefits from January 2009 through December 2014, Coronato's office said.

Zalmen and Tzipporah Sorotzkin of Olive Court also are charged with second-degree theft by deception, accused of fraudulently collecting at least $338,642 in Medicaid, SNAP, HUD and SSI benefits between January 2009 and April 2014, Coronato's office said.

Zalmen Sorotzkin is a rabbi who runs the Bais Medrash Lutzk synagogue on New Egypt Road in Lakewood, according to the Asbury Park Press.

The rabbi, his wife and the Breskins were ordered released by a Superior Court Judge Steven Nameth after the preliminary hearing, according to NJ.com. Rachel and Mordechai Sorotzkin and the Nussbaums were making their appearances Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert in Trenton federal court, Fitzpatrick's office said.

“Financial assistance programs are designed to alleviate family hardships for those truly in need," Coronato said. "My office gave clear guidance and notice to the Lakewood community in 2015 of what is considered financial abuse of these programs. Those who choose to ignore those warnings by seeking to illegally profit on the backs of taxpayers will pay the punitive price of their actions.”

The FBI complaints against Rachel and Mordechai Sorotzkin accuse them of applying for and receiving Medicaid health insurance benefits for themselves and their children but failing to report significant financial windfalls that affected their income, "including a lump sum payment of $1 million from Rachel Sorotzkin’s business in April of 2013," federal prosecutors said. They first were approved for Medicaid benefits in August 2011, and continued to use them despite earning in excess of $1 million in 2012 and in 2013, defrauding the government of approximately $96,000 in taxpayer-funded medical care, authorities said.

In a separate scheme, federal authorities allege, Yocheved and Shimon Nussbaum applied for and received public benefits for themselves and their children from 2011 through 2014, despite their significant income. The Nussbaums created a variety of companies that were nominally run by relatives but were actually controlled by the Nussbaums, authorities said, and they opened various bank accounts in the names of these companies and used funds from these accounts to cover personal expenses.

The Nussbaums' companies included a clothing business in Yocheved Nussbaum's name that generated income used in part for a $100,000 purchase of a piece of property for a real estate business also in their names; a day care business, and a nonprofit autism association.

The autism association's business accounts were used to pay $10,000 in attorney's fees for the Nussbaums in a civil litigation matter, the federal complaint said.

Authorities allege that in applying for Medicaid, Section 8 housing, and SNAP food benefits, the Nussbaums grossly underreported their true income by failing to include the income from these business accounts. Despite annual income of up to as high as approximately $1.8 million in 2013, the Nussbaums continued to receive taxpayer-funded health, housing and food benefits through August 2014, ultimately defrauding the government of approximately $178,000, authorities allege.

The conspiracy counts each carry a maximum potential penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, authorities said.

The investigations initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Red Bank office and the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller's Medicaid Fraud Division were expanded to include the U.S. Social Security Administration, the New Jersey Department of the Treasury's Office of Criminal Investigation, and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office's Economic Crimes Unit.

Fitzpatrick in his news release credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher in Newark; the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato; the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller, under the direction of State Comptroller Philip James Degnan; the New Jersey Department of the Treasury – Office of Criminal Investigation; under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Charles Giblin; Social Security Administration – Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge John Grasso; and criminal investigators of the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the investigation leading to today’s arrests.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly S. Lorber of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/brick/details-released-arrests-lakewood-rabbi-7-others-public-aid-fraud-case
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Bollywood flash mobs are not a feature of your average Birthright group, but the annual Indian group that traveled to Israel this month made sure to share part of their culture with the locals, as well as soaking up Israeli culture and having meaningful first-time experiences of the Holy Land.

Several members of this year’s group will be heading home this week having stayed on after the 10-day heritage trip ended two weeks ago, to spend time with relatives who live in Israel.

The group’s 19 participants hail from various areas of India and were led by Leora Joseph, from Mumbai, who has worked for many years in the Indian-Jewish community and has watched most of the participants grow up. “It was like leading my kids to Israel,” Joseph told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

While the group visited the usual touristic hot-spots which feature on every Birthright schedule, they had a few additions of particular interest to their community.

During a preparatory meeting ahead of the trip in Mumbai, Joseph had revealed to the group that she is related to the famous Indian-Israeli Singer Liora Itzhak, who fuses Bollywood and Israeli culture in her music.

The group, which included many singers and dancers, was keen to meet the celebrity.

Joseph made a phone call to her cousin, who obligingly came to meet the participants during their visit to Israel, where she spoke with them, danced and sang a Hebrew-Hindi duet with one of the participants.

The group also put on performances of their own. They arranged a Bollywood-inspired flash mob in Jerusalem’s bustling Ben-Yehuda Street as well as appearing on Channel 10’s morning show and performed a dance on air.

India is home to an estimated 5,000 Jews, while 4,000 Indian Jews reside in Israel. Members of the latter, living in Ramle, hosted the group for lunch during their visit.

Sisters Margalit, 22, and Sigalit Samuel, 23, of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, stayed on for over a week in Israel to visit their relatives across the country, from Haifa in the North to Ashdod in the South.

They were particularly moved by their visit to Yad Vashem.

“Every Jewish person should visit there at least once,” Margalit remarked, describing her visit to the museum as “very emotional.”

Joseph told the Post that the participants had complained that they didn’t have enough time at Yad Vashem and had wanted to learn more. “I found that interesting because it’s a difficult subject to deal with and they were absorbing so much,” she said. “There is no history of antisemitism in India and we don’t know much about the Holocaust,” she explained, saying that Holocaust education is limited there.

“We learn about it at school as part of WWII history but they (the students) don’t know the extent to which people suffered,” she added, though she noted than in recent years a Holocaust program has been launched, particularly in the Jewish community.

The highlight of the trip for the majority of the group was visiting the Western Wall, finding the experience of Kabbalat Shabbat there extremely spiritual.

“I got goosebumps,” Hebron Bamnolkar, 22, from Mumbai, told the Post.

Bamnolkar said his experiences of Israel exceeded his expectations.

He will remain in the country until the Maccabiah Games, in which he is competing in cricket.

Afterward he will return home to complete his studies, but he hopes to the return to Israel for good with his mother.

Joseph said the group became very tight-knit over the 10 days and felt like an intimate family.

“I told them that it will be life changing and an experience of a lifetime – and that’s what it has been for them,” she said.

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/WATCH-Indian-Jews-bring-Bollywood-flare-to-Jerusalem-497779
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A Jewish star hangs around Hanna Mendez' neck as she tends to business in her Teaneck store.

But Mendez, who recently took over Cedar Lane's Pizzalicious — and added frozen yogurt section Berrylicious to it — is not Jewish: She was born and raised a Christian in Mexico.

Working at the kosher shop and several others like it, though, has become a way for Mendez to live in a community she's long wanted to be a part of.

"People will never understand when you're not Jewish but you feel that you are," said Mendez of White Plains, N.Y. "It's something that pulls so hard."

Mendez was 15 years old when she knew. She moved to the U.S., specifically seeking a Jewish community where she could learn more about Judaism.

She chose Borough Park, Brooklyn, which has the largest Hasidic population in the borough.

Mendez began integrating herself into the culture through learning Torah and abiding by many of the laws.

It wasn't until she attended a friend's wedding that Mendez dove a little bit deeper and began attending synagogue weekly and on high holidays. She dresses modestly in skirts and long-sleeved shirts to be tzniut .

The man she ended up marrying is not Jewish, but Mendez says he respects her desire to convert because it is for God.

Together they have a son, 6, who Mendez says tells his teachers and classmates that he is Jewish — he knows the Hebrew alphabet.

Some rabbis tell Mendez she could never be a "real Jew," she said, because her mother is not Jewish.

"I don't listen to what they say," she said. "I know what I feel. God is happy and accepts anyone who wants to be a part of it."

But Mendez knows what she wants, and her customers at Teaneck's Pizzalicious — along with the others she helped open in Long Island, Queens and White Plains, are just happy for her service.

A couple from New City, N.Y., a grandfather visiting his family and a grandmother hosting her grandchildren — all Orthodox Jews — approached Mendez before leaving to tell her how grateful they are that she took over.

It means more to Mendez than they could ever know.

"It's more than service — it's family," Mendez said. "I feel very connected to them. I'm very happy."

http://bergenfield.dailyvoice.com/business/risks-relent-reward-for-indian-immigrant-in-bergenfield/714808/
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The city of Fort Worth, Texas, ended ties with a kayak rental company that posted Facebook messages ridiculing white women, Jews and Mexico.

Fort Worth Kayak Adventures, which rents kayaks at the Fort Worth Nature Center, wrote the offensive Facebook post while trying to explain why it recently had to double its rates, NBC 5 reported.

One Facebook post read: “To all you broke-ass hateful know-it-all white women and Facebook trolls that think they are going to J** us down …” After readers complained, the owners deleted the most offensive parts but added this: “The price is set in stone so stop wasting your time. This is NOT Mexico.”

The owners apologized in a June 16 interview with NBC 5.

“We’re truly, truly sorry for everything that was said,” said Lori Tenery, who runs the business with her husband, who she said is Jewish, and daughter. “We hope that you will find it in your hearts to forgive us and give us a chance again and make it right.”

Her daughter, 17, also apologized.

“I can understand completely why people are upset and I make a public apology to that,” the daughter said. “The whole Mexico thing was referring to prices, not people.”

On Wednesday, a post on Fort Worth’s Facebook page said the city “is in the process of terminating our agreement” with the kayak rental company. The city said the company uses the city-owned nature center in exchange for sharing its profits.

http://www.jta.org/2017/06/23/default/texas-kayak-company-loses-contract-for-slurring-jews-mexicans
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A Nyack Hospital employee is accused of posting offensive comments about Hasidic women on Facebook.

Deborah Rosario allegedly accused Hasidic women of not working and hiding behind their religion. She also allegedly said that they shop at Lord & Taylor while her tax dollars pay for their children.

Reaction from the Hasidic community was swift, with one community activist meeting Thursday morning with hospital officials.

"The leadership of the hospital told me they have zero tolerance against prejudice.  Workers have a code of conduct and how they cannot express themselves in a disparaging manner,” says Yossi Gestetner, of OJPAC Hudson Valley.

The hospital issued a statement that reads in part, “We are appalled by the Facebook post, which in no way reflects our ideals and care delivered each day."

Nyack Hospital says the incident is under investigation, but declined to release any information about Rosario or the future of her employment.

http://westchester.news12.com/story/35730520/hospital-worker-accused-of-online-posts-trashing-hasidic-women
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You don’t have to be a scholar of Jewish music to enjoy Velvel Pasternak’s new book, Behind the Music: Stories, Anecdotes, Articles & Reflections. You just have to be someone who wants to learn about the adventures of the author — a man who has done more than anyone else in our time to discover, record and transmit the treasures of Hasidic music.

In the book, Velvel, as everyone calls him, tells wonderful stories about his experiences — stories that will make you laugh, but also help you understand what lies behind some of the songs that you think you already know.

How did Velvel get into the work of transcribing and recording Hasidic music? One day, one of the children of the Bobover Rebbe came home from school singing a niggun (tune). When his father asked him where the niggun came from, the child had no idea it was his grandfather’s melody. That was the day when the Bobover Rebbe realized that his family’s musical heritage needed to be recorded, or it would disappear. The job fell to Velvel.

Some of Velvel’s stories are hilarious. Once, while recording a Hasidic song, a religious leader told him not to conduct the singers, since the Hasidim would sing with their eyes closed anyway; they were more concerned with expressing the melody’s spiritual meaning than with paying attention to Velvel’s conducting. The leader also told Velvel that the musicians he had hired to accompany the Hasidim would not be necessary, since the Hasidim would pay no attention to them. Velvel realized he was arguing with an irresistible force, and let the Hasidim sing without trying to conduct them. Then he dubbed in the musicians’ playing after the Hasidim left. The recording came out fine.

Velvel’s first album was a bestseller — much to his surprise, and to the Hasidim’s surprise. He went on to publish many more albums, rescuing treasures of Hasidic music that might otherwise have disappeared.

My favorite story from the book relates to the Hasidim’s request that Velvel’s recordings be “autentic” (how the Hasidim pronounced authentic). Velvel had no idea what “autentic” meant. He gathered a crew of 15 professional cantors to be the choir. The first song he chose was “Siman Tov U’Mazel Tov,” which is sung at many Jewish weddings. He dutifully transliterated it, using the Bobover dialect to please the rebbe, who had come along that night to make sure that the recording would be “autentic.” But when the choir got to the words “yihai looney” — meaning “it will be to us” in English and more commonly pronounced by its Hebrew dialect, “yehei lanu” — they broke up in laughter and could not continue. They told the Bobover Rebbe that they could not sing “looney” without laughing.

The rebbe listened politely and said, “Let me tell you a story.” He recounted how the cultural ambassador of the Ivory Coast once went to his counterpart, the cultural ambassador of Israel, and suggested a cultural exchange. The two nations could send each other their singers and dancers, but with one condition: The Ivory Coast’s dancers would dance naked “from here to here,” said the African nation’s envoy, drawing a line from his shoulders to his waist. The Israeli ambassador was shocked, and refused.

The Israeli ambassador offered a compromise: “You can wear whatever you want in your own country. But when you land at the airport here, I will be there and I will give you shmattes (rags) that you can put on, and that you can wear while you are in my country.” The Ivory Coast ambassador replied that if the dancers were to wear the shmattes, they might be able to dance well, but they would not be authentic.

Then the rebbe told the choir regarding their unwillingness to sing “yihay looney” in the Bobover pronunciation: “If you change the pronunciation of our song, it may sound nice to you, but believe me, it would not be authentic to us. And if the people of the Ivory Coast understand what is authentic, then you should too.” That ended the discussion. The cantors sang “yihay looney,” after all.

The book is full of such stories. It contains fascinating material on some of the songs whose origins you think you know, but don’t. For example, do you know why the French national anthem is sung at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Lag B’Omer? Do you know where Naomi Shemer got the idea for “Jerusalem of Gold?” Or where Naftali Herz Imber got the music for “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem?

Behind the Music is enriched with some wonderful photographs, and tells readers where to find performances of every song that the author discusses. Even if you think you already know Jewish music, this book is worthwhile for the insights that it provides into the worlds of Hasidim, classic Jewish cantorial music and Yiddish theater. And perhaps most importantly, you’ll get to know Velvel, the man who recorded a heritage and saved it for a new generation.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/06/20/new-book-explores-and-preserves-hasidic-musical-heritage/
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Leaders of the Village of Kiryas Joel and the United Monroe citizens group have reached an agreement that could end more than three years of conflict over the Hasidic community’s quest to expand and result in the creation of the first new town in New York in 35 years.

After more than two months of negotiations that intensified in the last couple weeks, the two sides have finalized the terms of a future court settlement that would conclude their battle over Kiryas Joel’s annexation of land and declare their mutual support for the formation of a town that would separate Kiryas Joel from the Town of Monroe. The new town would include additional land outside Kiryas Joel’s current borders, but less than originally proposed in a petition submitted to the Orange County Legislature last year.

A revised map of the proposed town and possibly the court settlement itself will be distributed to county lawmakers for a committee meeting on Wednesday.

For now, the two sides aren’t disclosing the contents of their agreement, which they negotiated in private with some county representatives and in discussions with attorneys. United Monroe leaders Emily Convers and Mike Egan said Friday that the additional land that would be joined with Kiryas Joel in the new town is “considerably less” than the 382 acres in the pending petition, but wouldn’t reveal the amount or discuss any other aspects of the multi-faceted settlement.

Egan, who led negotiations for United Monroe, said the separation of Kiryas Joel and Monroe would be healthy for both sides, enabling each to control its own destiny, and would allow the two communities to “reboot” their relationship.

“I think it’s a testament to everybody’s faith that we hung in through months of negotiations, and a lot of difficulty,” he said.

Convers said she appreciated Kiryas Joel’s willingness to stick with the discussions, and argued the resulting deal is fair and reasonable for both sides.

“I’m very eager and excited for the public to learn the details of this agreement,” she said.

Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin, in an emailed statement, called it “an historic new day” in the relationship between the two communities, praising what he hoped would be “a recipe for living side by side in peace and mutual respect and understanding.”

“We are grateful to all involved parties for the time and effort it took to reach this historic compromise,” Szegedin said. “Now comes the hard part of implementation, and most importantly listening to what the voters have to say; the final word will be theirs.”

The town formation would be subject to approval of both the county Legislature and Monroe voters. If approved by at least 14 of 21 county lawmakers, the proposal would be placed on the Nov. 7 election ballot in Monroe. The proposed town was called North Monroe in the petition but is likely to be given a different name.

The deal could end a pitched battle that began at the end of 2013, when a group of Monroe property owners petitioned for Kiryas Joel to annex 507 acres. The petition provoked fierce opposition, and spawned an alternative request for the village to annex 164 acres after the first petition stalled for a year.

The Monroe Town Board wound up approving the 164-acre petition and rejecting the 507-acre one in 2015. That prompted two court challenges, one by Preserve Hudson Valley - United Monroe’s nonprofit arm - and the other by a coalition of local governments that included Orange County and eight towns and villages. A judge dismissed the cases last year, and both sets of plaintiffs have appealed her ruling.

http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170616/kiryas-joel-united-monroe-agree-on-new-town
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Young Jewish students visiting Chicago did not feel Chicago’s warmth Tuesday night after one of their vans was broken into and some of their luggage taken.

The 32 Orthodox Jewish boys were celebrating their 8th grade graduation from Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, a Southfield, Michigan day school.

While the group was on a Chicago water taxi and seeing downtown sites on Tuesday evening, one of their vans was broken into and the luggage of 10 boys was stolen.

According to Chicago Rabbi Yitzchok Ehrman, a friend of the organizers of the trip, inside the taken luggage were tefillins, used during morning prayer.

Rabbi Ehrman describes tefillins as “a set of small leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah.”

He says each is worth $2,000-$3,000 each.

“It was the most valuable thing financially and emotional,” Rabbi Ehrman said. “There were boys that literally started tearing about this tefillin.”

Rabbi Ehrman said he and a chaperone drove through alleys all night hoping whoever stole the luggage had discarded the religious items. They found nothing. The rabbi was able borrow 10 of them for the boys until the tefillins are replaced.

Rabbi Ehrman is still holding out hope they’ll be found.

The rabbi said the the group had parked at ABM Parking Services at 541 W. Lake Street.

He said he hopes there was security video from the nearby train station in order to track down whoever stole the luggage.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/06/14/jewish-students-belongings-stolen/
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A former journalist from St. Louis accused of threatening Jewish organizations, including some in the tri-state area, as a way to harass his ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Tuesday to cyberstalking.

"For this, I deeply apologize," said Juan Thompson, 32, who also pleaded guilty to a charge of conveying false information and hoaxes.

Federal prosecutors said Thompson sometimes used his girlfriend's name while making threats against Jewish community centers, schools or other facilities. They said one message claimed he had placed two bombs in a Jewish school and was "eager for Jewish Newtown," a reference to the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut.

The government collected evidence from about two dozen laptops, tablets and cellphones seized from his home.

Sentencing was set for Sept. 15. Thompson agreed not to appeal any sentence at or below 46 months — nearly four years — in prison.

Thompson was fired from the online publication The Intercept last year after being accused of fabricating story details.

Since Jan. 9, there have been more than 150 bomb threats against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that battles anti-Semitism.

The threats led to evacuations and sent a chill through local Jewish communities. Acts of vandalism on Jewish targets, including cemeteries, have added to those concerns.

In April, Israel indicted an 18-year-old American-Israeli and called him the primary suspect in a wave of over 2,000 threats against U.S. Jewish centers, airports, malls, police stations and other institutions.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Juan-Thompson-Threats-Jewish-Community-Centers-New-York-Copycat-Guilty-Plea-428223753.html
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When ‘Sarah’ left the ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith, she became embroiled in a custody battle over her 11-year-old daughter. Her family still in the community refused her access to the girl for several months, she says.
“It’s the most heartbreaking thing to not be able to contact your own child and see if she’s okay, to see if she’s happy, just nothing – zero contact,” she told RT.

“For someone to rip that away from you is the most callous, vile, despicable thing that anyone can do. And when it’s actually your own family who have done that … that’s unforgivable, and I won’t forgive them – never.”

‘Sarah,’ whose real name cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, was part of the 20,000-member Hasidic Jewish community in Stamford Hill, north London. The Haredi, strictly ultra-Orthodox Jews, are one of the most impermeable and tight-knit communities in Britain. They practice a 19th century interpretation of the Jewish faith, which includes arranged marriages, wearing old-style European dress and speaking Yiddish.

After suffering violence at the hands of her now ex-husband, who she married by arrangement, and years of questioning her beliefs, Sarah left the Haredi community. She is now ‘Off The Derech’ (OTD) – the term used for those who have broken away.

Following a dispute over whether the 11-year-old would attend a Jewish school, Sarah and her relatives agreed the girl would be educated secularly and go to a summer day camp, on the condition Sarah could see her daughter on weekends.

But her relatives did not keep their side of the deal, Sarah says.

“When [my daughter] went to the summer camp… that was the last conversation I had with her for several months. I had no way of contacting her, they totally alienated me from her.”

Sarah’s family then filed for custody. In court, they made a number of untrue allegations about her, she says.

“I was accused of being a serious alcoholic, I was accused of being a drug addict. I was accused of serious mistreatment, neglect and abuse of my own daughter... For me to be accused of not feeding and not treating my daughter – well, that was just heartbreaking.”

Sarah now has custody of her daughter, who visits relatives on Jewish holidays. She believes she has been lucky, as many other OTD parents have been all denied access to their children.

“The number of people who have lost their kids is heartbreaking to a ridiculous extent. Utterly heartbreaking. I’ve unfortunately seen people who have been driven to suicide over this.

"There are hundreds, if not thousands of parents currently now around the world who have no access to their children – haven’t had for many years sometimes – purely because they’ve left the faith. Not because they are a bad father or mother.”

Last year, the Stamford Hill community was fundraising £1 million (US$1.3 million) to finance legal battles in British family courts against parents who want to take their “pure and holy” children into the “evil culture” of secular society.

In a letter distributed throughout the Hasidic community, Ephraim Padwa, head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, wrote: “To our great pain, and our misfortune, our community finds itself in a terrible situation – 17 of our pure and holy children where one of the parents, God rescue them, have gone out into an evil culture, and want to drag their children after them.

“This is a decree of apostasy and this situation has motivated our rabbis who are in Israel… to come here in a personal capacity to increase prayer and to gather money for legal fees, and to achieve this, a convention has been organized of prayer and also to collect money.”

Sarah says the fund is used to pay for Britain’s “top barristers” to fight legal battles against those who leave the faith. She suspects that money was used to pay for the legal claim against her.

“That money is solely to fight parents who have left the faith and to take their children off them,” Sarah says. “That’s regardless of whether or not that person is a good parent.”

Campaigners say the tactical funding of legal fees unfairly skews child custody battles in favor of those who remain in the faith, not the best interests of the child. Many OTD parents have limited financial resources and are unable to get adequate legal representation.

Sometimes the religious parent is pressured into filing for full custody and even lying in court, so that the OTD parent is seen as being “unfit,”campaigners say.

The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, reportedly behind the fund, did not reply to RT’s requests for comment.

Earlier this year, a transgender parent who left the Charedi community in north Manchester was denied direct contact with her five children on the basis they would be shunned by the ultra-Orthodox sect.

The woman, who brought the case seeking to have contact with the children, has been permitted to send them four letters a year.

https://www.rt.com/uk/391325-hasidic-jew-custody-battle/
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