(Nuchem Rosenberg)

The last we heard from ultra-Orthodox sex abuse whistleblower Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg he was recovering from an assault involving a cup of bleach tossed in his face on a Williamsburg sidewalk. Rosenberg, who was nearly blinded, has become anathema in the tightly-knit Satmar community for exposing perpetrators of sexual abuse. Almost a year after the bleach attack, Vice checks in on Rosenberg, who of course has more horrifying stories to tell:

On a visit to Jerusalem in 2005, Rabbi Rosenberg entered into a mikvah in one of the holiest neighborhoods in the city, Mea She’arim. “I opened a door that entered into a schvitz,” he told me. “Vapors everywhere, I can barely see. My eyes adjust, and I see an old man, my age, long white beard, a holy-looking man, sitting in the vapors. On his lap, facing away from him, is a boy, maybe seven years old. And the old man is having anal sex with this boy.”

Rabbi Rosenberg paused, gathered himself, and went on: “This boy was speared on the man like an animal, like a pig, and the boy was saying nothing. But on his face—fear. The old man [looked at me] without any fear, as if this was common practice. He didn’t stop. I was so angry, I confronted him. He removed the boy from his penis, and I took the boy aside. I told this man, ‘It’s a sin before God, a mishkovzucher. What are you doing to this boy’s soul? You’re destroying this boy!’ He had a sponge on a stick to clean his back, and he hit me across the face with it. ‘How dare you interrupt me!’ he said. I had heard of these things for a long time, but now I had seen.”

Rabbi Rosenberg believes around half of young males in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community have been victims of sexual assault, but Ben Hirsch, director of Survivors for Justice, tells Vice, "From anecdotal evidence, we’re looking at over 50 percent. It has almost become a rite of passage." And yet it's extremely rare that any of the perpetrators are brought to justice, a fact that may have cost Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes his job.

http://gothamist.com/2013/11/12/ultra-orthodox_sex_abuse_whistleblo...