Victim of Sexual Abuse Booed Out of Satmar Shul in Williamsburg
Image by YOUTUBE
By Anne Cohen September 9, 2013
The young Orthodox woman whose testimony of sexual abuse was the basis for the arrest and conviction of counselor Nechemya Weberman was booed out of synagogue on Rosh Hashana, the New York Post reported Monday.
The 18-year-old victim was praying in a Williamsburg synagogue during the holiday when a man reportedly yelled out: “*Moser *, out of the shul!” — a shaming term for a Jew who betrays their community to secular authorities.
“They stopped the praying until she left,” the victim’s husband, Boorey Deutsch, 26, told the Post. “Some woman tried telling my wife to stay there and not leave. She shouldn’t care what they say. But my wife ended up leaving.”
“She felt horrible and mistreated. They treat survivors as if they are the abusers,” Deutsch added.
Deutsch said that he and his wife have been under constant pressure from the community ever since she first came forward about her abuse at the hands of Weberman, an ultra-Orthodox community counselor in Williamsburg.
According to the Post, a man pleaded guilty last month to offering the couple $500,000 to leave the country and drop the case.
Weberman, 54, is currently serving a 50-year sentence at the Shawagunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
At the time of the trial, the victim explained that she had been reluctant to report the abuse that started when she was first sent to counseling at the age of 12, because of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community’s reluctance to believe stories of abuse.
“Satmar would have kicked me out, and if Satmar kicks you out, nobody accepts you,” she testified last year.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
