It’s About Taking A Stand

By Vicki Polin
Examiner - August 16, 2013

The attempts at marginalizing the work of The Awareness Center has been one of the most common defense mechanism used by various Jewish community leaders over the last fifteen years. The goal –– deterring those of us who have been pioneering forces of the anti-rape movement in Judaism.

 
I cannot even begin to tell you how many times various Jewish community leaders have said: “You can only take what Vicki Polin says with a grain of salt”; “Vicki Polin is nothing more then a self-hating Jew” or that “Vicki Polin is nothing more than an insane, man hating, angry bitch”.

Susan B. Anthony

These types of tactics are nothing new. They are the exact same bullying techniques used early on and throughout the history of the suffragist movement. Can you just imagine the outrage when back in the early 1840's when women starting joining together globally, demanding they be allowed to have the same civil rights as men –– to be considered their own person, and not just the property of a man. Think about the outrage our society had when Susan B. Anthony came up with the notion that women should also have the right to vote?

 
What those in leadership positions do not want their community members to realize, is that one grain of salt can merge with others and become a mountain –– just as one drop of water when it joins with another, can soon become a Typhoon.

 
In the orthodox Jewish world those who started spewing the hate against those of us who speak out against sex crimes are basically all a part of the culture of disturbed dominance –– and should all basically be considered cowards.

 
With hindsight it should have been expected, that religious community leaders who are afraid of losing their power and control over a society –– by a strong, intelligent, compassionate woman who did not grow up in the Torah observant world –– would be the perfect target for their anger.

 
Whenever there is someone who is an activist for any cause in which it might change the societal views on a topic, it should be expected that if the pioneering force would also be female, that everyone would automatically assumed that what ever they are doing is out of anger -- with all the negative connotations that go along with it.

 
When one shines a light on sex crimes in Jewish communities as brightly as I have for the last fifteen years, you would be surprised how many times various caring individuals have told me that I sound too angry.

 
I should not have been surprised by the number of community leaders who would invest a great deal of time, energy and money using propaganda and the Jewish news media in hopes of “demonizing” those of us passionate individuals who care enough to attempt to protect children and speak out in behalf of adult survivors.

 
When I started my own personal spiritual quest in the male dominated, orthodox Jewish world fifteen years ago –– and then created The Awareness Center, I had not thought about the fact as a woman I was expected to posses qualities in which women were to be seen as vulnerable, passive, incompetent, unable to make decisions for themselves without consulting with their husband or rabbi first –– let alone be child like. It was as if I was in a time warp –– going back to the early days of the suffragist movement. So many believed that outspoken women were nothing more then neurotic victims of penis envy. Let alone frustrated that they were not men that they would want nothing more then to destroy all male dominated practices in an act of bitter revenge.

 
For some strange reason my beliefs clashed with the orthodox world. I believe everyone should be educated consumers, I believe that children have the right to grow up in safe homes and communities. I believe that those who have been harmed have a civil right to speak out and find ways to heal, and that those who offend or cover up sex crimes should be criminally charged. I don’t care if I am a woman or a man speaking out. Each and everyone of us have free will and should use our G-d given abilities to speak the truth and be heard and believed.

Jewish Community Leaders Bullying Vicki Polin

Cyber bullying: The Saul Berman Way

By Vicki Polin

Examiner - August 13, 2013

WATCH VIDEO:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXZlH5PHGbo#at=15

Nearly a decade ago Rabbi Saul Berman rounded up a group of highly respected Jewish religious leaders and began what amounted too a hazing campaign against The Awareness Center, myself, and anyone else who might have been involved in investigating claims that Rabbi Mordechai Winiarz (AKA: Marc Gafni) had sexually abused a few teenage girls back in the 1980s. To this day no one can explain why this orthodox rabbi had so much anger and hate, or why he was so protective of Gafni.

The truth is that Saul Berman’s behavior could be considered status quo for the time, especially when anyone would go up against just about any religious institution from within any faith based group. In this case though this form of cyber bullying appears to have strong ties to Yeshiva University in New York.

Like many others who attempt to extort or bully those who advocate on the behalf of survivors of sex crimes, Saul Berman has an amazing educational and work history. Besides receiving his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, he also has a law degree from New York University.

Berman was also an early leader in the Soviet Jewry movement, along with being an active participant in the Civil Rights movement, in which he was present at demonstrations in Selma, Alabama in 1965.

For at least forty years Rabbi Berman was also known for his activism in the women’s rights movement. In 1971, Rabbi Berman was appointed Chairman of the Department of Judaic Studies of Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University and in 1990 became the Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Stern College, and as an adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of Law, where he currently teaches a seminar in Jewish Law.

In 1997, Rabbi Berman became Director of Edah, an organization he created which is devoted to the invigoration of modern Orthodox ideology and religious life. He has also been an ongoing contributor to the Encyclopedia Judaica and is the author of numerous articles which have been published in journals such as Tradition, Judaism, Journal of Jewish Studies, Dinei Yisrael, and many others. His writings on the subject of women in Halacha (Jewish law) and on issues of halachah and contemporary society have often been reprinted.

For many years I was considered a Baalat Teshuva, (someone who becomes religious and embraces the orthodox Jewish lifestyle). One of the first people I met in the early days of The Awareness Center wasRabbi Yosef Blau, who is still the head spiritual advisor at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Our friendship blossomed as he became an active executive board member of The Awareness Center and also mentored me on the “Who’s who” of the religious world.

Early in 2004, I had been an invited speaker at aJOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance). After my workshop, Rabbi Bob Carroll introduced himself to me and briefly sharing how much he enjoyed my presentation. Rabbi Carroll went on to explain the work he was doing at Edah with Saul Berman. I remember distinctly Rabbi Caroll sharing within the first few sentences that he was divorced. I thought it was odd, and upon returning to the Blau’s home, I asked Rabbi Blau about his comment. Rabbi Blau brushed the comments off by saying Rabbi Carroll wanted to make sure he was single, just in case anything he said might have appeared to be off.

With hindsight I believe the meeting with Rabbi Bob Carroll was a set up of sorts. A few weeks after “the chance meeting”, I received a disturbing e-mail from Rabbi Berman regarding demands he had in how The Awareness Center was run. At the time I had no real idea who Berman was or that he had any connection to the case that was mounting against Rabbi Mordechai Winarz (AKA: Marc Gafni). I was very naive regarding the politics in the modern orthodox world, the discussions Rabbi Berman was having with Rabbi Blau, let alone with the good folks at Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Berman’s chief complaint was that we were looking into past allegations that were over twenty years old. He was also outraged at our policies of listing alleged and convicted sex offenders and his interpretation of Halacha (Jewish law).

My first inclination was to ignore Rabbi Saul Berman’s first letter, yet as time progressed Rabbi Blau thought it was important for our executive board of directors to respond. Our return letter back to Berman addressed each and every issue, which included both statistics and research in the field of treatment along with information regarding legal issues pertaining to both offenders and survivors.

Rabbi Berman was not satisfied with the response of The Awareness Center, so on August 26, 2004 Rabbi Saul Berman wrote a public letter, sending it out to all of his colleagues, reiterating his demands in how our small, grassroots, non-profit organization operated.

When Saul Berman’s attempt at controlling The Awareness Center failed, on September 13, 2004 –– he wrote a disturbing e-mail to Rabbi Yosef Blau in conjunction with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. In the latter he basically described The Awareness Center’s sex offender registry as nothing more then “journalistic pornography”.

Five months after writing the initial letter to Rabbi Blau , Rabbi Berman realized that The Awareness Center's board of directors and halachic advisory board (including Rabbi Yosef Blau) disagreed with him, he then wrote a threatening letter to each individual member of The Awareness Center's board and international advisory board. His claims were that I had been abusive, unethical, unhalachic and libelous ways in the ways I had conducted the organizations efforts. He went on to say:

 “we assume that it is in everyone's best interest for the Awareness Center to operate at the highest level of integrity so that its actions are respected and trusted in the community. Since that is currently not the case, we hope that you will do everything in your power to immediately make the changes which Vicki Polin herself has been unwilling to do, or to shut down the site. The way the site now operates makes the members of the board subject to serious personal liability.”

Berman then attached a letter addressed to Rabbi Blau that was signed by himself, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Rabbi Shefa Gold, Dr. Stephen Marmer, and Naomi Mark.

He went on to say that he “would be contacting several of you by phone in the next day to discuss this further. Unless certain changes are made soon in the way that Vicki Polin operates, we stand ready to take further action.”

Each and every person alive today has something about themselves or someone they love that they would not want to be made public. Rabbi Saul Berman used his sources and found something he could use against every individual connected to The Awareness Center in hopes of getting them to force me to resign from the organization I founded –– or to remove our sex offender registry from the internet.

It was at that point that Rabbi Saul Berman and his friends resorted to a cyber-bullying campaignagainst the founder and director of The Awareness Center. When that didn't work he also started to go after each and every member of The Awareness Center's board and advisory board.

Nearly ten years later, Rabbi Saul Berman has never apologized directly to any member of The Awareness Center or to the survivors of Marc Gafni for the damage he caused, let alone admitted he was wrong.

The tactics employed by Saul Berman were meant to distract from the real issue, that he amongst several others were attempting to defend a confessed sexual predator. Throughout history, it has always been so much easier to blame individuals victimized by sex crimes and those who advocate for truth –– then for it to be known that in any faith based community they experience the same sort of problems as the rest of society.

Rabbi Tovia Singer’s Attempt At Paying Off The Awareness Center

Over the course of the last several weeks, since several civil suits have been filed against Yeshiva University regarding cases involving alleged sex crimes –– The Awareness Center has been inundated by phone calls and e-mails from various Jewish community leaders asking for help to get their names or that of someone they know off of various blogs in which negative things have been written about them.

A few days ago Rabbi Tovia Singer contacted The Awareness Center looking for help. Over the years Rabbi Singer made a name for himself as the director of an international non-profit organization called “Outreach Judaism”, which is dedicated to countering the efforts of Christian groups and cults who specifically target Jews for conversion. For eight years, he also hosted a talk radio show on Arutz Sheva’s Israel National Radio. 

Besides being an ordained rabbi, Tovia Singer also has a bachelors degree in social work.
Rabbi Singer is both loved and hated by his peers within the Jewish outreach community. Even though Singer’s work has been seen as controversial because of the methods he utilizes –– he has been working in the Kiruv industry for several decades. 

Rabbi Tzvi Kilstein (AKA: Harlan Kilstein)

Tovia Singer got his start being mentored by Rabbi Tzvi Kilstein (AKA: Harlan Kilstein) and then moved on working briefly with Jews for Judaism, where he was accused of plagiarism. In 1996 the article “Goy Story” was published “by the New Republic. In it Rabbi Singer was quoted as saying he was the director of “Jews for Judaism of Greater New York”. According to Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, Rabbi Singer was not associated or affiliated with Jews for Judaism in any way. “In fact, he has no right to utilize our federally trademarked name.” For years there have also been unsubstantiated rumors made against this Jewish outreach rabbi of professional sexual misconduct. 

The other day when Rabbi Tovia Singer contacted The Awareness Center, he started out the conversation talking about how he knew The Awareness Center was struggling financially and that he wanted to find a way that he could help in some of the fundraising efforts.
Rabbi Singer proceeded by sharing the fact that there was negative information about him published on a few web pages and was in hopes the organization could assist him in having the information removed. Unlike every other call received, Tovia went on to say that for every site we were successful in removing his name, that he would donate $500. He specifically named a blog entitled Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speaks Out, and also mentioned that if I could help removed the information on Luke Ford’s Blog, a $1000 donation would be made.

Back on October 18, 2006, The Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence blogger put a call out looking for survivors of Rabbi Tovia Singer regarding possible cases of clergy sexual abuse against young adult women with whom Singer might have counseled. 

On December 23, 2009, Luke Ford posted to his blog that “Shannon Orand worked for Tovia Singer before Leib Tropper.” Rabbi Leib Tropper was caught up in a sex scandal a few years ago, when it was learned that he was allegedly forcing potential converts to sleep with him as part of the conditions he made for them to convert to Judaism. 

In Luke Ford’s blog excerpt, he wrote that Rabbi Tovia Singer and Shannon Orand had a close working relationship for years. They had a close personal relationship too. 

“Rabbi Tovia Singer is a mesmerizing speaker. He has piercing blue eyes. He’s active in helping Jews leave Christianity. He’s a caring man and he devotes enormous amounts of time to help people. When he connects with you, he surrounds you with love and creates intimate bonds through his outreach work. Many women have been crazy about him, including, apparently, Shannon Orand.” 

When Singer contacted The Awareness Center for help, he stated he needed the information removed because he had two books which were about to be published. He didn’t want any information on the net that would tarnish his reputation. Perhaps Rabbi Singer didn’t realize that trying to pay off a non-profit organization was not too kosher.

Also see:  Tovia Singer – The Rabbi Predator