Although Nachlaot is only a small neighborhood in Jerusalem, over 60 people have been accused of pedophilia there. The only constant of "facts" there is the moral panic and mass hysteria reminiscent of the Salem witch hunts which took place in the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts. Also reminiscent of the witchhunts that took place in Bakersfield, California in the 1980s. This is brief outline of the chronology of events.
Mother finds bite marks on her child's penis (though from what I heard, it was stated buttocks at the ongoing trial), when her child refuses to take a bath in the Chareidi section of Nachlaot Around Nov. of 2010. (The neighborhood parents called this discovery a miracle.)
Child implicates person in the neighborhood, Benyamin S.
UPDATE(Although this was the incident that started the mass hysteria which led to over a hundred children making claims of abuse, the testimony of this child was thrown out of court in the case in Benyamin S.)
B.S. is arrested.
Under interrogation, B.S. "admits" to child molestation and names other victims (or children who came to his house or to whatever he admitted to).
Parents went around asking other neighbors if their children were also molested.
(This was mostly two mothers who were both American. As I state elsewhere, both these families moved out of the neighborhood when the accusations started to get out of control.)
Talk is that B.S. had an accomplice who moved away from the neighborhood. Parents make an effort to have the accomplice arrested also, but to no avail.
Many children enter therapy for molestation. Therapists are not college trained (or at least the one therapist we met) but rather Cheradim that are trained by a psychologist. This therapy was being lauded as a miracle therapy that was not psychology. Though in truth it was psychology only without a trained psychologist.
January 2011 A lecture is given in Nachlaot about child molestation. The speaker stated that there is an epidemic of child molestation in the Orthodox and ultra Orthodox Jewish world and that the audience of women attending the lecture should be on the lookout to guard their children from potential pedophiles. (Interestingly enough, this lecturer was in the past an ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER FOR VICKI POLIN)
Things quite down in the neighborhood and return to "normal".
Six months later around July 2011, a mother notices that her child is not improving from the "miracle" therapy she in taking him to. She apparently decides that her child is still being molested by someone else.
The mother and another lady go door to door in the neighborhood to talk to other parents to see if their kids are also still being molested.
On Aug. 9, 2011 ( Tisha Be'Av), it is somehow decided who the additional pedophiles are. They are named as Zalman Cohen ,Binyamin P. and one other person, Y.W.
A list is drawn up of other potential molesters.
A few days later after Aug. 9, three people are arrested including B.S. who was arrested in Nov. 2010 and had been released to house arrest in another neighborhood in the interim. (Z.C. was out of the country and was arrested later when he returned.) B.S., B.P., and Z.C. were indicted while Y.W. was released.
Accusations start flying freely in the neighborhood. Rumors start to be spread of a Pedophile Ring
run by S.M. the mastermind.
S.M., the person accused of being the "ringleader" is arrested, and 8 or 10 days later is released for lack of evidence.
Various Jewish Blogs get into the picture from September 2011 or so
In Oct. or November 2011, two families move away from the neighborhood . Both families were involved in the accusations from the beginning. What is interesting is that they did not move away because of the assumed pedophiles but because they both saw that things were getting out of hand with the accusations in the neighborhood which was leading to strife and argument.
Around November, December 2011, a Rabbi prominent in the adjacent Carlebach community becomes very vocal about the problems of a Pedophile ring in Nachlaot.
Money is raised for the prosecution of what is being called the "Most cruel pedophile ring that has ever existed in Israel"
Through public pressure a Knesset subcommittee (governmental) is created in Dec. to "deal with" the Nachlaot Pedophiles.
On the 7th day of Chanuka, a resident of the neighborhood is found hanging in his apt. with his feet and hands bound. Police claim suicide. Many people believe it was murder. (As far as I know he only started to be accused about a week before his death.)
The resident who was found dead was buried in a normal Jewish burial. (A suicide would not have had a normal Jewish burial)
At the same time of the burial, people were busy demonstrating against the lack of police action regarding the supposed pedophiles. Also, two women were busy tearing down his funeral announcements. One of these women Mrs. B. was at the center of the accusations. The second woman was R. C. who claimed she was raped by Z.C. nine years ago. R. C. has also been very active on the internet espousing the rumors of a pedophile ring.
In the beginning of January, 2012, there were 3 more arrests. It is my opinion that these arrests were carried out to appease the public and because of pressure from the Knesset.
By February, over 40 people have been accused, according to a journalist that was investigating the events in Nachlaot.
A number of people were interrogated by the police and are awaiting the possibility of further interrogation or indictment.
Elderly woman is beaten to within inches of death and left for dead. (end of February, 2012)
Various Rabbis, social workers, etc. get involved in investigating matters. (See English translation of Letters from the Rabbis) http://nachlaotchildabuse.blogspot.com/search/label/English%20Translation%20of%20Rabbis%27%20Letters
Police are now viewing the supposed suicide as murder. ( Heard from a 3rd source)(This is incorrect. I heard what the lead investigator said was reasons they thought it was a suicide and why the police have always believed it was a suicide.)
Sept. 12 , 2012 Additional accusations are being made.
(added Feb. 2015) In between Sept. 12 till Feb. 2015, the trail of the 3 people that were indicted has finished. B. S. was found guilty and given a 15 year prison sentence. B.P. was acquitted . Z. C. was found guilty and given a 9 year prison sentence.
A little bit of analysis.
All in all, I can think of 6 families that were the main force behind the accusations. 3 of these families left around Oct. November. This left 3 families. It is my opinion that one of these families Mrs. B. and Mrs C. were the main inciters. Mrs. B befriended a non religious lady R.C. who through her efforts, spread whatever the religious woman told her.
Both women Mrs. C and Mrs. G.that went house to house asking (suggesting?) that children were molested both left the neighborhood. From what I understand, they both left because of the insanity that gripped the neighborhood. After the "fire was started" while the two women were still in the neighborhood, there were basically 3 families that were spreading the rumours. . It seems to me that most of the rumours were started by Mrs. . (Interesting to note that a former friend of Mrs. B. said that Mrs. B. was prone to panic attacks 15 years ago. Mrs. B became friends with a woman outside the neighborhood, R.C., who helped spread the rumours. This seems to coincide with the time that rumors spread to R.C.'s neighborhood. At that point, around Sept. 2011, Mrs. J. W., another woman in that neighborhood started blogging and later appearing on television about the cruelest pedophile ring in Israel history. Also, several bloggers translated articles that were published in Israeli newspapers and tabloids. Interesting to note that much of the content of these articles was based on the 'facts' that the families that were making the accusations fed to them. Around Dec, 2011, things got pushed up to the Knesset. Shortly thereafter in Jan. 2012, the police arrested 3 additional "suspects". 2 were released and one was put in an insane asylum. Additional "suspects" were brought in for interrogation.
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