June 11, 2012
Orthodox Jewish woman who claims abuse ostracized by own community
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Orthodox counselor to Hasidic community in Nechemya Weberman, is in trial for a sexual abuse case in which the accuser has been ostracized and threatened by her Brooklyn community, according to HuffingtonPost.com.
The abuse went on for nearly three years before the schoolgirl told anyone that her spiritual adviser was molesting her while he was supposed to be mentoring her about her religion, authorities said.
But in Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, 53-year-old Nechemya Weberman has been embraced and defended as wrongly accused. The girl has been called a slut and a troublemaker, her family threatened and spat at on the street.
The rallying around Weberman, who goes on trial this month, and ostracizing of his accuser and her family reflects long-held beliefs in this insular community that problems should be dealt with from within and that elders have far more authority than the young. It also brought to light allegations that the district attorney was too cozy with powerful rabbis, a charge he vehemently denies.
Read more at HuffingtonPost.com.
