 |
|
|
|
|
December 13th, 2012
02:48 AM ET
Police charge man with throwing chemical at rabbiBy Rande Iaboni and Marina Carver, CNN NEW YORK (CNN) - New York police have arrested a man for throwing a chemical, believed to be bleach, on a rabbi who advocates for sexual abuse victims. Meilech Schnitzler, 36, turned himself in to police Wednesday and was charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon. He is accused of attacking Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in Brooklyn's tightknit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg on Tuesday. Schnitzler allegedly threw a chemical on Rosenberg's face, causing his eyes and face to burn. Rosenberg runs a website and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of sexual abuse in the Hasidic community, and he believes this attack was an attempt to "silence" him, according to Abe George, the rabbi's attorney. Police would not comment on Schnitzler's motive. But Rosenberg said earlier he knew who doused him, describing him as the son of a man he had reported on in the past as being allegedly involved in sexual abuse in the community, the lawyer said. The assault happened a day after the conviction of Nechemya Weberman, a prominent community member in the conservative Satmar Hasidic community, was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl over a period of three years. Weberman's conviction has put the spotlight on the insular Satmar Hasidic community, many of whom live in Williamsburg. Joel Engelman, another advocate against sexual abuse among Orthodox Jews, describes himself as a survivor of such abuse. It is rare for respected members of the community to face such allegations in court, he said. In the past, members of the community have intimidated and pressured those who have accused their leaders of sexual abuse, he said. Rosenberg's vision is still blurry, but his attorney said he believes the rabbi will fully recover. |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke and Eric Marrapodi with daily contributions from CNN's worldwide newsgathering team and frequent posts from religion scholar and author Stephen Prothero.  |
|
|
|
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Help | Advertising Practices
all I know is when a man dressed in black goes to jail for molesting children and he is NOT a priest, I am happy
The perpetratior, Meilech Schnitzler, is a damn anti-semite and a holocaust denier.
Then it's a hell of a disguise he wears in the pictures of him that I've seen. Or are you just trying to be funny? Or completely clueless? Maybe both.
Disgusting people.
The extremely insular Hasidic community is as inbred + crazy as any right wing christian fundie holy roller.
They're almost as closed-off as the Amish. And quite insane.
But I hope the old Rabbi is alright.
He was fighting for victims of abuse. That is to be lauded, in any community.
These religious groups no matter who they are that condone abuse of men, women or children should not be tolerated anywhere in America. People are all individuals and have the same civil rights in this country. Such abusers should receive the maximum sentence allowable under the law and be tried by a jury that believes the above, no matter what their religion or nonreligion is. Anyone that welcomes any form of physical or mental abuse is a real soldier, but real stupid. Anyone who goes after the whistle blower should be held accoutable for their actions by our court systems. We have a lot of crazy people committing suicide and taking many people with them. We have a lot of abusers who kill their parents or abuse others because of how they were brought up by abusers and these folks need psychological help before they kill themselves or others. We have a lot of bullies who abuse children and others (kids and adults) and we are startign to look at this as a crime finally, but not before folks are killed. How to be a good parent should be a course in every public and provate school and I don't mean just bring your kids up as a jew, cahtolic, Babtist, or muslim, real parenting skills that provide you with the tools so you don't resore to physical, mental, or emotional abuse like hitting a kid, calling them a mother f---, telling them how worthless they are etc...
Catholic Priests throw Gods Urine (aka/ Holy Water) on people every day for centuries – why are they arrested?
Are you serious or do you just require attention? Please spare us your imbecilic remarks.
Oy gevalt!
slowly but surly the wicked will be expose, why the cover up in other media? are they a shame after blasting muslims, everyone turn will come.
"...charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon. "
How silly is this? One act and four charges. Our justice system and the laws are nuts.
It was the intent of the crime that added the extra charges.
You should be charged with stupidity , foolishness, idiocy and senselessness.
@Da Man
You said, "You should be charged with stupidity , foolishness, idiocy and senselessness."
If stupidity, foolishness, idiocy and senselessness were illegal, we'd have to arrest every believer in this country.
Freedom of speech and religion give everyone the absolute right to be a complete fucking moron. Only when the idiocy leads to harm, especially harm inflicted on others, has the government an obligation to step in.
Did something happend to the bleach ??
It became Kosher!
Scout troops and teachers may have had individuals charged with child abuse, but it seems to take religion to breed a culture of abuse which prompts people to take extreme measures to protect the abusers.
You forgot about Hillary protecting Billy with a "vast right wing conspiracy".
Must be a marriage of maniacal convenience. Maybe she was getting a cut of Monica's profits, so nuthin's fer sure. Only the IRS knows.
@ lol?? – What the fuck does Monica Lewinsky have to do with child abuse? Apparently you really are this stupid.
I love the smell of liberal racism in the morning.
Smells like imagination.
End racism.
Embrace misanthropy.
"1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
A Jewish person attacking another Jewish person because he's advocating for abuse victims is not racism.
Orthodox Jews are not liberal.
Empresstrudy should consider relinquishing the throne.
The stench is coming from you.
I love the smell of little altar boys early in the morning.
Pot, meet Kettle.
A modest proposal: since most violence, and the worst violence in particular, is carried out by males lets replace males with something we can maintain in cell culture. No more male dominated religions or societies.
I don't want all my tax dollars to be spent on shoes and handbags.
The two Tom Toms are twins? Who'd a thunk it? Imagine callin' em for supper, "tom tom tom tom,,,,tom tom tom tom....to tom tom tom tom............... TAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHMMMM!"
Owned. Take that religion.
Shunn them all.
In 2009, a study was published called "The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people" in which the genetic structures. of semitic folk from all over the world were compared.
Of all the groups from the Dispora, one can argue that the Ashkenazi Jews, who settled in Europe (the Rhineland) in the early middle ages, are "white".
Maghrebi Jews from North Africa, however, are not white.
Sephardic Jews from the Iberian peninsula are not white either.
Becuase of the wide and longstanding geographic distribution of the Jewish people, it is nearly impossible to classify each one of the enthnoreligious subsets under a single phylogenomic umbrella.
Actually, there is a particular haplotype associated with some Jews, the Cohains interestingly.
Look, Im a sephardic jew and I am VERY white, you dont know what you are taliking about. Anyhow, what does this have to do with the article? Did you just want to show that you a knew a little bit of nothing significant?
Whoopsy!
This is supposed to be a reply to Keksi, Iorondog and Chick-a-dee
Well, then there was Sammy Davis, Jr.
@Dida
"Sephardic" is a very wide classification.
Originally, it defined those Jews who settled around Spain and Portugal, but these days the term colloquially encompases just about any Jewish person who follows the Sephadic Liturgy.
That is why I added the geographic identifier.
So calm yourself.
Every now and then I see somebody with orange hair and it sticks straight up. SOLOMON!!!!!!
OK then, thanks for your input. Now, back to the article we are discussing...
Ashkenazi Jews are not white. They have significant non-white admixture.
And as a group, they are at war with whites, as evidenced by their use of their immense political, financial and media power to destroy white majorities in western nations.
This could be the most uninformative line of argument I've read here in a long while. Go back far enough, and none of us are "white".
This has nothing to do with religion u idiots.
Yes it does. Most religions want their adherents to do as they say, no questions allowed. The Hasidim are programmed like sheep to follow unquestioningly their "respected leaders". It is especially effective in a community like this, that eschews contact with the outside world, where all adherentsw dress, look, and "think" the same. If one of the "pillars" of their community is threatened they react. Usually the accuser/trouble maker is intimidated and shunned; this guy went further. Look at the treatment of their women when they want a divorce.
Seems to be revenge on a whistle-blower of sorts(or whatever the right term here is), good luck on recovery, though that must have hurt.
You're as idiotic as your statements, feel free to leave to planet anytime soon.
This Nation will; never reach its full potential until ALL religions are debased and debunked.
Misogyny, fraud, chil abuse, a litany of crimes all due to self-serving religious zealots and the corrupt politicians that ggive them whatever they want in exchange for bloc votes.
See you at work on the 24th and 25th! No overtime or holiday pay for you!!
I'm ent.itled to my Yule holidays.
I'll take off for Saturnalia.
IO SATVRNALIA!
@Reasonable Atheist
From the Gutter Twins album "Saturnalia"
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyNKBk5dqMU?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360%5D
(BTW – first attempt at embedding YouTube – hope it works!)
DANGNABBIT!
@abdula Oblongota
See you at work on the 24th and 25th! No overtime or holiday pay for you!!
Actually, December 25th is a national holiday, like President's Day or Memorial Day. Because of this, my employer is closed on that day, so regardless of the fact that I am not Christian, I get the day off.
Conversely, if I want to have my Holy day off, I have to use a vacation day.
"Tax Damned Churches NOW
This Nation will; never reach its full potential........." Dude, your cup of iniquity was only half full and then you reelected the Big O, so it's highly likely to overflow. Have patience.
Is this the one you wanted to post Doc?
God bless our Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Happy Holidaze.
If the attacker wasn't also Jewish, we'd have a "hate crime". Assault is assault, let's stop pretending assault isn't bad enough.
No, some assaults are even worse. Like when they are done not just to injure or kill the person, but the motive was because that person belonged to a particular group, like Asians or caucasians. Often, it is hard to prove that motive, so then it is just prosecuted as a regular assault. It's worse because it tears at the social fabric. It's the same reason that assaults on the police are dealth with more severely than assaults on regular civilians.
Possibly true but you need to understand the definition of a "hate crime" to make that as.sumption.
Hate Crimes are when a person perpetrates a crime that targets an entire community of people based on race, religion, se.xuality, gender, age, or country of origin, this can mean for instance that is say, a sunni as.saults a shiite based on that person being a shiite and yells slurs and makes it very clear that is the reason why he is as.saulting the other person then that is a hate crime.
Same thing with jews, or christians, or pagans, or buddhists. ect....
In this instance, the crime as against a single person and not the jewish community so it was not a hate crime, regardless of who threw the bleach.
Religion is an cancer on society. It makes people do irrational things.
You can cover for me while I take off the 24th and 25th too! Thanks for working on "just another day"...tool.
No, stupidity makes you do stupid things.
Stupidity allows one to believe in gods which allows one to do even stupider things.
Why? What's religion got to do with it. The religion of those involved had nothing to do with the story. It was a tangential fact.
Does it make people go out of their way to be deliberately offensive in anonymous internet forums?
Jerk.
Religion had everything to do with it. These folks are religious fundiot nutters.
Jim Brody:
'Rosenberg runs a website and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of s e x u a l abuse in the Hasidic community, and he believes this attack was an attempt to “silence” him, according to Abe George, the rabbi’s attorney.'
It absolutely has to do with religion, and the habitually chronic cover-up of the cover up of child abuse within those religious communities.
Merry Christmyth!
It's very sad to read about incidents like this, though I'm glad to see that the rabbi is taking an active role in defending the children of his community. It would be nice if the RCC could learn from his example, but we all know that isn't going to happen.