A REPORTER AT LARGE THE OUTCAST

After a Hasidic man exposed child abuse in his tight-knit Brooklyn community, he found himself the target of a criminal investigation. BY RACHEL AVIV

They have their own emergency medical corps, a security patrol, and a rabbinic court system, which can handle criminal allegations. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON

TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 45—133SC.—LIVE ART—R25734—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF—EXTREMELY CRITI- CAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PRESS RUN 4c am Kellner’s reputation in the Ha- sidic community of Borough Park, Brooklyn,S began to suer in 2008, when his teen-age son told him that he had been molested by a man who had prayed at their synagogue. Kell- ner’s first instinct was to run the man over with his van, but he didn’t know if his anger was justified. Molestation was rarely discussed in the community, and it didn’t seem to Kellner that any of the prohibitions in the Ten Com- mandments explicitly related to it. The most relevant sins—adultery and cov- eting a neighbor’s belongings—didn’t capture the depth of the violation. Kellner couldn’t pinpoint what was lost when a child was sexually abused, since the person looked the same af- terward. But he sensed that molesta- tion was damaging, because he knew a few victims, and they had gone o the derech, or religious way. “They became dead-enders, lost souls, outcasts,” he told me. Kellner, a heavyset man with hazel eyes and a long, graying beard, never spoke about sexual matters with his six children. They would take classes about the human body (with a focus on how to get pregnant) only after their mar- riages were arranged. Kellner took his son to a modesty committee, called vaad hatznius, which enforces stan- dards of sexual propriety among Bor- ough Park’s hundred thousand ul - tra-Orthodox Jews, the majority of them Hasidic. Vaad hatznius disciplines residents who freely express their sexu- ality or behave lewdly. In a community where non-procreative sex is consid- ered shameful, molestation tends to be regarded in roughly the same light as having an aair. When children com- plain about being molested, the coun- cil almost never notifies the police. In- stead, it devises its own punishments for oenders: sometimes they are com- pelled to apologize, pay restitution, or move to Israel. Kellner had once been a top admin- istrator at the Munkacz synagogue and yeshiva, in Borough Park, but he had fought with other leaders about financial and educational policies. He had left the job and started a toner business, collecting discarded car- tridges and reselling them. His son’s MAGNUM alleged abuser, Baruch Lebovits, was In exchange for political support, Brooklyn politicians give Hasidim latitude to police themselves.

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 44—133SC—LIVE ART—R25734—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF—EXTREMELY CRITI- CAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PRESS RUN 4c the descendant of a rabbinic dynasty, trusts secular government, it parti- not to think about the incident again. a prominent cantor with twenty-four cipates fully in the democratic process. Litwin found the boy’s “claims to grandchildren. Kellner told vaad hatz- Hasidim typically vote as a bloc, deliv- be extremely credible,” he wrote in an nius that he wanted to report his son’s ering tens of thousands of votes to the a—davit. But he told Kellner that the abuse to the police, because he didn’t politicians their leaders endorse. In crime was a misdemeanor, and that it trust that the issue could be dealt with exchange for the community’s loyalty, was unlikely that Lebovits, a first-time internally. politicians have given Brooklyn’s Hasi- oender, would receive jail time. Disap- The committee granted him per- dim wide latitude to police themselves. pointed, Kellner said that Lebovits had mission, as long he had the approval of They have their own emergency medi- molested other boys, too. “O.K., so help a rabbi. The rabbi would have to make cal corps, a security patrol, and a rab- me find them,” Litwin told him. an exception to the Tal- binic court system, which mudic prohibition against often handles criminal ellner went back to the modesty mesirah, the act of turning allegations. council and was given the name over another Jew to civil Kellner sought counsel ofK another boy, Joshua, who had com- authorities. According to from Rabbi Chaim Flohr, plained about Lebovits. (All victims’ some interpretations of the leader of an institute names have been changed.) Joshua said Talmudic law, a Jew who where rabbinic scholars that, starting in 2000, when he was informs on another Jew study how the teachings twelve, Lebovits sometimes drove along- has committed a capital of the Torah translate to side him while he was walking to school, crime. He is a “wicked man,” who has contemporary dilemmas. After listen- honking his horn and encouraging “blasphemed and rebelled against the ing to Kellner’s story, Flohr called the him to get into the car, where Lebovits law of Moses,” the twelfth-century modesty councils in Borough Park and performed oral sex on him. Joshua Torah scholar Maimonides wrote. The Williamsburg (where there are sixty said that, on other occasions, Lebovits law was meant to protect the commu- thousand Hasidim) to see if other chil- molested him in the mikvah, a ritual nity from anti-Semitic governments. dren had reported being molested by bath that was in the basement of his Kellner said, “The way history tells it is Lebovits. Flohr wrote in an a—davit synagogue. that if a Jew was arrested he was thrown that “numerous complaints and allega- Joshua had gone to a yeshiva for stu- in jail and never heard of again.” tions of a similar nature had been made dents with developmental disabilities. Hasidim, whose movement emerged against Baruch Lebovits dating back His family was poor, and he begged for in the eighteenth century as a mystical, over a long period of time.” Flohr told charity outside synagogues and wed- populist alternative to traditional Juda- Kellner that he was justified in going dings, a common practice in Borough ism, are defined in part by their concern to the police, because Lebovits could Park, where the poorest members of the for self-preservation. Kellner is the be considered a rodef, or pursuer, some- Hasidic community live and pray next son of Hungarian Holocaust survivors one who is endangering the lives of to the wealthiest. They patronize the who re-created in Brooklyn a commu- other Jews. In a letter, Flohr wrote, same businesses on Thirteenth Avenue, nity that had been destroyed by the war. “Behold I make known in the public a commercial strip of kosher restaurants Men dress in black frock coats; married arena: to praise an honest man, namely and shops. Although Kellner had never women wear long skirts and hide their Mr. Shloma Aron Kellner, may his met Joshua, he drove to his house and hair, which is considered alluring, under light shine, that how he acted in re- oered him work helping to plan the shawls or wigs. They speak Yiddish, and gards to the government was based on wedding of a mutual acquaintance. Kell- resist television, the Internet, and other a query before a rabbinic court and was ner gradually steered the conversation secular forms of entertainment. Hasidic done according to our Holy Torah. . . . toward Baruch Lebovits, and urged parents take literally the Lord’s order to It is forbidden to trouble him or hu- Joshua to report his abuse. Joshua be- “be fruitful and multiply”—they intend miliate him.” came jittery and hyper. “Listen, unless to replenish a culture devastated by the With the rabbi’s approval, Kellner you go to the authorities, you’ll never Holocaust—and Hasidim are now the took his son, whom I’ll call Yossel, to feel relaxed,” Kellner told him. “You’ll fastest-growing segment of the Jewish the o—ces of the Brooklyn Special never feel unviolated.” population in New York City. Sixty per Victims Unit, in Crown Heights, to On March 6, 2008, Joshua told De- cent of the city’s Jewish children, many speak with Steven Litwin, the senior tective Litwin that he had been mo- of them Hasidic, live in Orthodox detective. A studious and introspec- lested by Lebovits on more than thirty homes. tive boy, Yossel explained that Lebovits occasions over four years. Once, he Kellner, who was a member of a had oered him a ride home from a said, Lebovits had picked him up on synagogue that is closely a—liated with school outing late at night, then reached his way to school and anally raped him the Satmar sect, the largest Hasidic over to the passenger seat and mo- in a building near his yeshiva. After community in New York, wasn’t sure lested him. He said that Lebovits was each encounter, Lebovits apologized that the prohibition against mesirah soon moaning and grunting. He told and promised he would never do it made sense in a country where, he said, his teacher what had happened, but again. “the justice system is credible enough.” the teacher said that Lebovits was a Five days later, Baruch Lebovits was Although the Satmar community dis- “respected person” and instructed him arrested in front of his house. Although

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 46—133SC—LIVEART—R25727C.—PLEASE USE VIRTUAL PROOF bw Joshua’s name wasn’t publicly released, when Kellner urged him to report his “Don’t be crazy!” Kellner shouted. “I everyone in his neighborhood seemed abuse. Ian Christner, a mental-health could get you two hundred thousand to know that he had gone to the police. advocate who worked with Aron, said dollars!” Kellner, who barely had enough Natalie Hadad, his best friend, said, that Kellner adopted a paternal atti- money to support his family, told me “People would call him and say, ‘If you tude toward Aron, who was often so that he was willing to say anything testify, bad things are going to happen high that he nodded o in the middle to keep the case intact. He asked a to your parents. If you testify, you’re of conversations. “Sam Kellner saw the rabbi, Yisroel Makevetzky, if he had going to get thrown out of Borough way that victims in the community were permission to report Ashkenazi to the Park.’ ” suering,” Christner told me. “He is a police for tampering with a witness. real tough guy, and he has got a sense of Makevetzky held a hearing on the mat- few months later, Kellner spoke fairness. It’s not a high-placed sense of ter in a yeshiva classroom on the edge with Dov Hikind, the assembly- social justice that comes from being a of Borough Park and concluded that manA who represents Borough Park. scholar. It’s simple and straightforward. Aron was a moser, an informer. He Hikind hosts a weekly radio program, If he feels like people have wronged ruled that Ashkenazi was right to dis- and he had recently dedicated three him or his family, he’ll make sure that suade Aron from testifying in criminal shows to the problem of sex abuse they hear about it.” court, “as this is a serious transgression.” among the ultra-Orthodox. Hikind In his ruling, he wrote that Ashkenazi said that, after the show, more than a n October, 2008, a second indictment should “help the young man in follow- hundred victims had called or visited was brought against Lebovits, nam- ing the just path, and will begin in this his o—ce to complain about multiple Iing Aron as a victim. A few weeks later, after the young man removes himself oenders. One of the victims was a Aron was invited to the home of Berel from the jurisdiction of the secular twenty-year-old named Aron, who said Ashkenazi, the spiritual adviser of his courts.” that Lebovits had repeatedly molested former yeshiva, who was a colleague of Aron eventually described the sit- him in his car, beginning when he was Baruch Lebovits’s son. It was a Friday uation to Detective Litwin, who docu- sixteen. A year later, he fell in with a afternoon, a few hours before businesses mented the incident in his notes, and clique of teen-agers who were known closed for Shabbat. Ashkenazi served forbade Aron to accept money from to be O.T.D., or o the derech, and he Aron food, made polite conversation, anyone. Aron’s father, Abe, who owned began using heroin or cocaine almost and then, Aron said, oered him be- a kosher Italian frozen-food company, every day. tween five and ten thousand dollars to lost several customers because of the Aron had tried to leave the Hasidic drop out of the case. (Ashkenazi denied case, but he supported his son’s deci- community, but he struggled to assimi- this, and said that Aron came to him sion to go to trial. Abe told me that the late into the secular world. Many of the seeking compensation.) Mishnah, the first major work of rab- yeshivas in Brooklyn teach in Yiddish Although Aron disliked Ashkenazi, binic literature, says that it is the obliga- and provide less than two hours of sec- he was tempted by the oer. He told tion of the community to stop a rodef ular education a day. Aron had a heavy Kellner that he needed the money. from making his next attack. “It’s in the Yiddish accent, a rudimentary grasp of written English, and no diploma. In a video filmed by a friend, Aron com- plained about his limited education and social skills. He said that he didn’t know how to interact with women—he had been forbidden to mingle with them or look them in the eye—and no one had taught him “what your body is about.” He had struggled to process what was happening when Lebovits, a pious man, put his mouth on Aron’s penis. “My head, like, exploded,” he said. “Call it an epiphany, I guess.” Aron’s schoolmate Boorey Deutsch said that he and his friends had known that Aron was molested by Lebovits. “We saw them together,” Deutsch told me. “And every day we saw Aron break- ing down. He stopped playing with us. He hung out in the corners. Then we started bullying him. I even recall slap- ping him once in the face.” Aron felt that he had little to lose “I feel like my best passwords are already behind me.”

TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 47—133SC—LIVE ART—A18672—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF bw books,” he told critics. “Look it up!” you overdo it—you lose your mind,” a hard time,” Kellner said. “They said, Soon, Aron became the object of he said. ‘Oh, maybe you need special ed for your intimidation and threats. A Hasidic He didn’t dwell on the insults—in child.’ ” In the fall, he sent Yossel and his medical volunteer, who helped Aron response to criticism, he usually shouted younger brother to yeshivas outside the with his addiction, told me that “at that Rabbi Flohr had approved every- city. Kellner never contemplated mov- some point people started reaching out thing—but he worried about the eect ing, because all the major Hasidic com- to me. The messages were never specific, on his children. Yossel found the case munities—in upstate New York, Jerusa- but it was pretty obvious that I need to so embarrassing that he denied his par- lem, London, Montreal, and Antwerp— read between the lines: you need to let ticipation to his brothers and sisters. were connected, and he assumed that him relapse. You need to let him crack.” “There was never talk in my house everyone already knew his story. The The medical volunteer (who, like many about this whole Lebovits thing,” Kell- idea of moving to a non-Hasidic neigh- people I interviewed, requested ano- ner told me. “My other kids heard peo- borhood was too far-fetched to con- nymity, because he didn’t want to be os- ple talking on the street, and they used sider. “What are we going to do—give tracized by his community) met with to have to ask my wife, ‘Which one of up our beliefs, our religion, our every- Litwin. “I tried to explain to him that us was molested?’ ” thing?” he said. there is no way he’s going to get the Kellner worried that the psycholog- type of coöperation he wants,” he said. ical dysfunction he saw in Joshua and n the fall of 2009, Kellner was noti- “Unless you really understand how this Aron could eventually a§ict his son. fied of a summons issued by Rabbi community works—what tactics are He wondered if it was possible that MakevetzkyI to participate in what was used to intimidate these victims, to pre- Lebovits had nothing do with their described as the “case of Mr. Shloma vent them from coming forward, to ma- fragile mental states; maybe it was just Aron Kellner, may his light shine, and nipulate them into feeding the author- a coincidence that, on top of all their the Lebovits family in the matter of ities wrong information—you will problems, they had been molested. “I injury of the son.” Kellner assumed that never deliver.” was hoping to wake up one day and the hearing was a trap, designed to they tell me there’s a new study and force his son out of criminal court. He n holidays, it used to take Kellner we’ve all made a mistake,” he said. “Mo- told the rabbi that he would coöperate an hour to make his way into the lestation doesn’t make any permanent only if someone else paid for the hear- synagogue,O because he had so many damage. It’s no worse than yelling at ing—the rabbi charged a hundred and people to greet. Now only a few people your kid.” fifty dollars an hour—and for the in his prayer group responded when he But Yossel already seemed more cau- cost of being represented by a secular made conversation. Some yelled that he tious and isolated. He was no longer lawyer. An acquaintance of one of was a moser. He began saying his daily welcome at his yeshiva in Borough Lebovits’s sons paid Kellner’s expenses. prayers elsewhere. He also let his interest Park. “They ignored me and my son, Then, Kellner said, the man came back in his toner business lapse. He was too and, when summer was over and the with an oer: Kellner should accept inflamed. “When it comes to your kid, new school year started, they gave me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to drop the criminal case. (Lebovits’s oldest son, Chaim, denied that this happened. He added that Kellner was always looking for money.) Kellner was insulted by the oer. “What would I say to my son?” he said. “That I took money so he could be used as a prostitute?” At a meeting at the dis- trict attorney’s o—ce, he told Detective Litwin and three prosecutors in the sex- crimes division that people were trying to bribe him. According to one o—cial at the meeting, Kellner complained that the only victims who were willing to come forward were already outcasts. He warned, “Stay on top of them, or the other side will buy them o.” Not long after, Kellner drove to the home of one of Lebovits’s sons, Meyer, whom he had known since he was a child, to complain about an invoice that he had received from Rabbi Make- vetzky. He had been charged eigh- “Does this lens flare make me look fat?” teen hundred dollars, even though the

TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 48—133SC—LIVE ART—A18576—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF bw negotiations for the rabbinic court had tor, Miss Gregory, met with Joshua at Aron was a “nervous child” who “didn’t collapsed. Meyer, who surreptitiously her o—ce, and he seemed ready for have patience.” He told the jury that recorded the conversation, didn’t di- trial. Three weeks later, she received Aron was pursuing the charges against rectly address Kellner’s concern about a message from John Lonuzzi, then Lebovits in order to pay for his drugs. who would pay for his expenses. Stand- the president of the Brooklyn Bar As- “It bothers me that he wants to lie about ing on the sidewalk in front of his house sociation. Lonuzzi, a civil attorney, an innocent person,” he said. in Borough Park, he began speaking of said that Joshua would no longer be Gregory, the prosecutor, asked Ash- the shame that his family was endur- coöperating with the prosecution, be- kenazi, “Do you consider Aron to be a ing, and he accused Kellner of vio- cause it was causing him “severe stress” traitor for what he is saying against the lating a law in the Torah. “You cannot and he was “suering from a variety of defendant?” punish a person unless you warn him,” psychological issues.” In an a—davit, “What means the word ‘traitor’?” he told him. Ashkenazi asked. Kellner insisted that the modesty “Let me ask you this,” Gregory con- council had tried to warn his father and tinued. “Do you understand the concept had given him opportunities to coöper- of a mesirah?” ate. “I am not going to justify myself “Mesirah?” now,” he said. “Perhaps it was half right. “Maybe I am not pronouncing it, but Perhaps it was three-quarters right. Per- isn’t that a Jewish person is not sup- haps it was only a quarter right.” posed to perform—” “Didn’t you put together an entire “A Jewish man is not allowed to go case?” Meyer said. “Didn’t you become to court without the permission from God’s police?” He said that, if Kellner his rabbi,” Ashkenazi said. had warned him directly, “I would have Gregory wrote that she made multiple “And if that Jewish person doesn’t go taken care of the problem. We would appointments to meet Lonuzzi and to his rabbi are there any consequences?” have done everything.” Joshua, but all the meetings were can- “I never heard,” he responded. “I “I don’t believe that you will ever un- celled. When Joshua didn’t comply don’t know.” derstand,” Kellner said. “But I cannot go with four subpoenas, she mentioned to “Sir, wouldn’t such a person be stig- to a person and tell the person that his the chief assistant to Charles Hynes, matized in your community?” father did it.” the district attorney, that she was con- “The rabbi will talk to him,” he said. The men began arguing about cerned about the possibility of witness “Isn’t it possible that a consequence whose reputation had been hurt more tampering, but no one followed up. of that could be that this person would by the case. They were both upset that After Joshua dropped out of the case, be stigmatized within the community?” the allegations would prevent their he confided to Detective Litwin that “It depends.” children from marrying well. Kellner he had never retained Lonuzzi and “It depends on what?” begged Meyer to persuade his father to didn’t know who had. Litwin wrote in “Depends on how he did it,” he said. plead guilty, so that his son wouldn’t an a—davit that Joshua said that he The jury found Lebovits guilty on have to testify at a trial. But Meyer said was under pressure and was afraid, but eight counts of sexual abuse. In the that the prosecution wasn’t oering his he wouldn’t elaborate. (Lonuzzi de- month between the conviction and the father the plea deal he wanted: no jail nied this account, and said that he had sentencing, nearly eighty people sent time, just probation. He suggested that, no involvement in witness tampering.) letters to the judge, requesting mercy if Kellner didn’t want his son to be ex- Aron’s trial began in March, 2010. for Lebovits. They described him as posed, he should pull him out of the With no material evidence or eyewit- charitable, kind, blessed with a beauti- case. nesses, it hinged on Aron’s credibility. ful singing voice, and compassionate “I cannot drop it,” Kellner said. Lebovits’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, the toward helpless people. Zalman Te- “But you don’t want to go to trial!” current president-elect of the Brooklyn itelbaum, one of the two Grand Reb- “But after all my child was treated Bar Association, dwelled on Aron’s his- bes of Satmar, the highest authorities unjustly!” tory of sneaking into synagogues late at among the Satmar Hasidim, wrote, “In “ True.” night and stealing cash from charity the name of Almighty God and for “I don’t want to drop it,” Kellner boxes. Aidala told the jury that Aron the sake of compassionate justice, I repeated. had fabricated a story about being appeal to your God-given wisdom to “So you want to settle?” Meyer asked. abused so that he could extort money treat Mr. Lebovits with the utmost “No!” from the Lebovits family. “He disre- understanding.” spects the court and our system,” Aidala The judge, Patricia DiMango, sen- ellner had hoped that all three vic- said. “The whole thing—he made it up tenced Lebovits to the maximum pen- tims would testify at the same to get money. He didn’t get the money, alty on eight counts, to run consecu- Ktrial, but a judge ruled that trying the and now he is stuck.” tively, for a total of up to thirty-two cases together would prejudice the The only witness for the defense was years—a harsher sentence than anyone jury. Joshua’s case was scheduled to go Berel Ashkenazi, the spiritual adviser at had expected. The average sentence first. In November, 2009, the prosecu- Aron’s yeshiva. Ashkenazi testified that given to defendants convicted of similar

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 49—133SC——LIVEART—R25727D.—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF bw crimes is two years. She said, “It is im- perative for courts to send a clear and unequivocal message that abusing and HALF-LIGHT harming children will not be tolerated.” That crazy drunken night I ne of Kellner’s relatives told me maneuvered you out into a field outside of that after the trial “no one talked Oabout the real issue, the victims. Instead, Coachella—I’d never seen a sky they talked about the problem of Sam so full of stars, as if the dirt of our lives Kellner going on a crusade.” He be- lieved that the lengthy sentence “trig- still were sprinkled with glistening gered everything. Now the Lebovits white shells from the ancient seabed family would not let this go down. They were going to spend millions of dollars beneath us that receded long ago. and fight, fight, fight.” Parallel. We lay in parallel furrows. Aidala, Lebovits’s defense attorney, told me that the trial was one of the —That suffocated, fearful worst and most surprising losses of his look on your face. career. Immediately, he began sec- ond-guessing his strategy. A year be- Jim, yesterday I heard your wife on the phone fore, he had given the district attorney’s tell me you died almost nine months ago. o—ce a tape of a recorded conversation that he thought indicated that his cli- Jim, now we cannot ever. Bitter ent’s family was the target of extortion that we cannot ever have by Kellner. After discussing it with sex- crimes prosecutors, Aidala had dropped the conversation that in the subject. nature and alive we never had. Now not ever. Now Aidala wanted to broach the topic of extortion again. He was com- We have not spoken in years. I thought fortable in the district attorney’s o—ce, perhaps at ninety or a hundred, two where he had begun his career. He was close to the D.A., Charles Hynes, who had been in o—ce for twenty years, and with us, you will be home in an hour.” context and understand only that Kell- to his family, and to several top o—cials. They pushed him to implicate Kellner ner is asking for money. An assistant He had volunteered on all of Hynes’s in an extortion plot. Taub said that he district attorney requested that Meyer reëlection campaigns and frequently at- didn’t have the information that the Lebovits be given a polygraph test, to tended his fund-raisers. prosecutors wanted. “To coöperate, I see if he was lying about his family On April 27, 2010, six weeks after had to lie,” he told me. Instead, he being extorted by Kellner, but Vecchi- the trial ended, Aidala went to the dis- pleaded guilty to attempted grand lar- one said no. According to a prosecutor trict attorney’s o—ce and met with the ceny and was sentenced to probation. with knowledge of the case, “There was chief of the rackets bureau, Michael The alleged abuse of his son was never a strong sense that the investigation was Vecchione, who was also a friend. Ini- investigated. a favor that Mike Vecchione did for tially, Aidala didn’t focus on Kellner. He Chaim told me that the crime was a Arty Aidala, a very close friend.” (Vec- spoke about a case that was easier to “miracle,” because it lent legitimacy to chione and Aidala deny that their substantiate: he said that, days before, a his family’s complaints. Soon, they in- friendship aected the case. Vecchione friend of Kellner’s named Simon Taub sisted that Kellner had been after them, disputes many details of this account.) had extorted the Lebovits family. Taub too. They said that Kellner had oered The rackets bureau encouraged the had said that his son had been molested to “make the case go away,” but they had Lebovits family to get information out and threatened to go to the police un- refused. As evidence, they gave the of Aron. Under the guidance of Vecchi- less he was compensated by the family. rackets bureau the audio recording that one, who is now retired, the family paid A few weeks later, in a sting operation, the sex-crimes division had already for one of Aron’s friends, also a drug ad- detectives from the rackets bureau heard. The recording captured a con- dict, to take Aron to a rented house in wired Chaim Lebovits, a businessman versation in Yiddish between Meyer Florida and question him about the who had made a fortune in oil and dia- Lebovits and Kellner about who would case. The friend pretended to be mak- monds. Chaim went to Taub’s home pay the costs of the rabbinic court. The ing a movie of Aron’s life, and enlisted and caught him on tape accepting English translation provided to the dis- two young filmmakers (also from Ha- money. trict attorney’s o—ce was so laden with sidic families) to direct the video. They After he was arrested, Taub said that emotional outbursts and Talmudic ref- urged Aron to open up about his rela- prosecutors told him, “If you coöperate erences that it is possible to miss the tionship with Kellner. “In order for me

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 50—133SC. bw Aron was proud that he had gone through with the trial, unlike Joshua, broken-down old men, we wouldn’t who he said had been pressured and give a damn, and find speech. oered money. “They terrorized him,” he said. “They took real victims, and When I tell you that all the years we were they shot down their lives.” He said that undergraduates I was madly in love with you he had expected Lebovits to call him, beg for forgiveness, and say, “I’m an el- you say you derly man, please don’t do this to me.” knew. I say I knew you He figured that, if Lebovits had apolo- gized, he would have dropped the case. knew. You say “I’d say, O.K., I’m sorry. Whatever. And There was no place in nature we could meet. we forgive each other.”

You say this as if you need me to he video did not produce informa- admit something. No place tion useful to the district attorney’s o—ce,T but the Lebovits family was still in nature, given our natures. Or is this confident that they could prove that warning? I say what is happening now is Kellner was an extortionist. Chaim told me that Hynes specified for his lawyers happening only because one of us is exactly which kinds of evidence they dead. You laugh and say, Or both of us! would need to arrest Kellner. “They said that, if you can provide A, B, C, D, E, Our words and F, then we will move in with the in- will be weirdly jolly. dictment,” Chaim said. (Hynes, through his lawyer, declined to comment for That light I now envy this story.) exists only on this page. The Lebovits family hired a Hasidic private investigator named Joe Levin, —Frank Bidart who runs a company called T.O.T. Consulting—the letters standing for the Yiddish phrase tuchis afn tish, or to build the script of your life, I have to gained. “Kellner told you he was go- “put your ass on the table.” Levin said know the whole twist,” one of the film- ing to give you money?” one of them that at his first meeting with Chaim, at makers says, in the footage. said. the Plaza Hotel, he was instructed to Aron, who was smoking marijuana “This wasn’t the thing—no,” Aron find anything that might cast Kellner in for much of the filming, was less inter- said. a negative light. (He said that he was so ested in talking about the case than “You never got money?” troubled by what he observed that he about his sense of estrangement. Sitting “No, that’s not true, that’s bullshit.” felt justified in telling me about his on a cream-colored sofa, in a T-shirt “What could Kellner sell you?” work for the family.) and black jeans, he looks like a patient “Nothing. That is the joke, that’s Beginning in the fall of 2010, Levin in his first therapy session, relieved that what I want to say.” bugged Kellner’s van, and he and his someone is finally listening to him. “I The filmmakers seemed unhappy employees followed him. He listened to feel like an atheist, but I feel bad feeling with his response. One told Aron, “You hours of Kellner’s conversations each like an atheist,” he told the filmmakers. would never have gone to court if not week. But he came up with little related “I want to live up to the place where I for that jackass Kellner [who] wanted to the case. “It was devastating,” Levin come from, to be Jewish.” He spoke, too, money.” told me. “I really went nowhere.” about his bond with Joshua, who had “No, no, no, no,” Aron said. After he had been working on the disappointed him by dropping out of “That’s how I want to make the case for a few months, he said, he was the case. He said that when Joshua de- movie,” the filmmaker persisted. “He’s a asked to drive to the home of a friend scribed his abuse to the grand jury, be- crazy man, this Kellner.” of Hynes, where a birthday party was fore the indictment, the court reporter “Do you want to hear the truth?” being held. Levin said, “It was a very wept while typing. “If you saw [ Joshua] Aron continued. “He let me go the fancy house, and people just came in speaking, you’d have cried,” he said. truthful way. I proceeded truthfully and and out.” Meyer Lebovits attended The filmmakers tried to direct the honestly.” the party briefly, he said, and was joined conversation away from Aron’s emo- “But why did Kellner have the power by two machers, or “big shots,” who me- tions. They seemed confused by the fact to schlep you?” the filmmakers asked. diate between secular political fig- that Aron had risked his reputation by “Who didn’t have the power to sch- ures and the community. Levin stayed testifying in court, asking what he had lep me?” he said. “I had such a soft heart.” within three hundred feet of the house,

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 51—133SC. bw because he had been asked to record the figure in the community is willing to be ously, but we also have to be very, very machers’ conversations. (It is not un- a moser to get Kellner,” he said. He be- careful about false complaints.” Later, common for Hasidic power brokers to lieved that Friedman got involved be- on a Jewish radio show, Hynes said, record conversations to use as leverage.) cause “Kellner’s behavior was seriously “We’re confident we have the case. . . . I After the party, Levin said, the rela- threatening to the community’s power believe there was a substantial eort by tionship between the Lebovits sons and structure.” Mr. Kellner to gain money, for his own the district attorney’s o—ce immediately Two weeks after Friedman’s testi- benefit, by making up stories.” became much warmer. He was surprised mony, Kellner came home after shop- A day after Kellner’s arrest, Lebo- by how frequently the Lebovits family re- ping in Williamsburg and found a tall vits’s appeals lawyers, Alan Dershowitz ceived updates about the investigations. man in casual clothing standing out- (the former Harvard law professor, who When he overheard phone conversations, side. The man had a companion, who worked on the O. J. Simpson case) and “It did not sound like law enforcement flashed a police badge and instructed his brother, Nathan, persuaded an ap- talking to a criminal’s family. It sounded Kellner to get inside his Jeep. The driver pellate judge to free Lebovits on bail, like two good friends.” Levin said that he took a circuitous route through Bor- pending the determination of his ap- can remember few cases where the pres- ough Park, and Kellner began to worry peal. Alan Dershowitz, who grew up in sure on him was higher. The message he that he was being kidnapped. Yossel, Borough Park, told me that “the Kell- got from the Lebovits sons was “Now we who had watched his father being taken ner information put the government in have the O.K., so anything you bring to away, called the police. “An unmarked a di—cult position: on the one hand, us, we are going to be able to do some- car just picked up my father,” he told a they are proclaiming that my client was thing with it. ” sergeant. “There were no lights, no extorted, and, on the other hand, they nothing.” are claiming that he is guilty of eight n late 2010 and early 2011, Aron was Twenty minutes later, Kellner arrived felonies.” Within a week, Lebovits was summoned to the district attorney’s at a familiar building, the o—ce of the released, after thirteen months in prison. o—ceI a number of times and interro- district attorney, in downtown Brooklyn. He arrived in Borough Park in time for gated about his relationship with Kell- He was placed in a holding cell in a hall- the first night of Passover and led a ner. His father, Abe, told me that Aron, way. His wife brought him his diabetes Seder at his home. after being the key witness for the pros- pills and his prayer book. He fell asleep ecution, now felt as if he were being to the sound of o—cers talking about a ellner was in jail for about thirty- treated as a criminal. Aron had little in- ring of criminals with stolen credit cards. two hours, which he saw as pun- formation to oer. He repeatedly in- He wondered if he was being appre- ishmentK for putting Lebovits in prison sisted, as he had at trial, that he had hended for some sort of violation with for thirty-two years. Although he had never accepted money. his toner business or if he had acciden- acted for what he thought were good Joshua proved a more forthcoming tally got involved in a drug bust. reasons, there was also a part of him witness. After failing to communicate In the morning, he was handcued that had wanted revenge, and it was this with the sex-crimes division for nearly and escorted to Kings County Supreme impulse, he believed, that God was a year, he reappeared with his lawyer, Court, two blocks away. He was greeted punishing. “When you hurt someone, John Lonuzzi, to say that Kellner had by a crowd of local reporters, who took you better make sure your motivations “brainwashed” him. “Lebovits never pictures as he walked down the hallway are pure,” he told his son. “Because if molested me,” he said. “Everything I to court. Kellner’s lawyer, Israel Fried, your intentions aren’t pure, you are said was false.” He said that he made up said that when he handed Kellner the going to pay the price.” the story because Kellner gave him a indictment he appeared “bewildered Yossel’s case against Lebovits had hundred dollars a week and Detective and shell-shocked.” The indictment been dismissed six months earlier, with- Litwin took him out for meals. said that he had made “repeated de- out explanation. No one from the sex- Lebovits’s cousin Moshe Friedman, mands to Meyer Lebovits, the son of crimes bureau had notified him or his the publisher of an influential Yiddish Baruch Lebovits, for payments in excess father. Yossel told me that if he had a newspaper, Der Yid, and the adviser to of $50,000, in return for which the de- friend who was molested he would ad- Zalman Teitelbaum, the Grand Rebbe, fendant Kellner would, through the de- vise him to avoid the secular courts. also accused Kellner of criminal behav- fendant Kellner’s ability to control the “Why would you report to the police if ior. Testifying before a grand jury in coöperation and the content of the tes- you’re just going to shame yourself and March, 2011, he said that Kellner came timony of the complaining victims, open your wounds and be more de- to his o—ce and begged him to per- cause the dismissal of criminal charges.” stroyed?” he said. suade the Lebovits family to hand over He faced up to twenty-one years in Yossel was a “Cadillac of a boy,” one two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. prison. rabbi told me, but he had reached his Yosef Blau, the senior spiritual adviser At a press conference that morning, twenties and had yet to marry. Hasidic at Yeshiva University, said that he was Charles Hynes announced the charges families typically marry o their chil- amazed that Friedman would testify while standing beside an easel with a dren in descending order: the younger before a grand jury, given the commu- large photograph of Kellner’s face on it. siblings wait for the older ones to nity’s rules against informing on other He told a room full of reporters that be matched, ideally around the age Jews. “It’s extraordinary that this major “child abuse has to be prosecuted vigor- of eighteen. Kellner’s four youngest

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 52—133SC bw children had been stalled since 2008, when their father first went to the police. Kellner said that his brothers thought he was crazy for allying himself with loners like Joshua and Aron. “They tell me, ‘You’ve ruined the family,’ ” he said. “And the truth is I’m starting to think maybe they are right. If your job is to protect your child, maybe the best thing to do is keep your mouth shut.” At night, unable to sleep, Kellner paced his house, going over all the de- tails of his indictment. At times, he al- most admired the Lebovits sons for spending so much money to save their father. “They honored their father so much,” he said. “You can’t take that away from anyone.” He described their activities as if recounting the chess moves of an opponent. “They master- fully put this thing together,” he said. “Amazing stu.” His anger was directed largely toward the district attorney’s o—ce. “A thug can only go so far on his own,” he told me. “This is it, Slim. I’m putting you on the next oˆ-peak train outta here.” A Hasidic businessman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me that in parts of the Hasidic community •• there was widespread speculation that Kellner had been framed. He said that the friend who had taken him to Flor- was enough for his son to “build a Kellner had become the prime example ida, and now saw conspiracies in daily house, to build a life.” In exchange, of “how devastated you will be if you go life. When his car broke down, he won- Aron sent a letter to the district attor- against the rabbis.” He said that Flohr, dered if Lebovits’s sons had hired some- ney’s o—ce stating that he was satisfied the rabbi who had granted Kellner per- one to fill the tank with the wrong kind with the punishment that Lebovits had mission to go to the police, was an out- of fuel. When he got in a motorcycle already served. Abe and his son were lier in his approach toward molestation. accident, he suspected that the Lebovits represented by an attorney named Mi- “He’s not a major power broker,” he told family had arranged the collision. chael Ross, who Abe said had been rec- me. “He’s a nobody when it comes to Several weeks after the conviction ommended to him by the Lebovits internal, high-level politics.” The busi- was overturned, one of Baruch Lebo- family and who worked for free. Ross nessman believed that Kellner had vits’s in-laws approached Abe outside met with Hynes and explained that made himself vulnerable as a target, be- his synagogue and said, “Maybe we can Aron did not wish to testify at a second cause he had been sloppy and unin- make a closing to this case.” Abe was trial. Aron wrote to me on Facebook formed in his interactions with law en- exhausted by the case, which had hurt (the only medium through which he forcement. “He didn’t understand the his business and restricted the syna- felt comfortable communicating) that legal system, so he was meddling too gogues where he could pray, so he told the Lebovits family, their lawyers, his much,” he said. the Lebovits family that he would agree father, and Ross handled the details of to negotiate a civil settlement. He asked the civil settlement. “I had no qluo of n the spring of 2012, the guilty ver- for several hundred thousand dollars, anything what wuz going on beind dict against Lebovits was vacated but they said that was too much. They closd doors,” he wrote. (Ross declined becauseI of a prosecutorial violation: two changed their minds after the trial of to comment, except to say, “Any matter pages of Detective Litwin’s notes (about Nechemya Weberman, a Hasidic sex that I’m involved in, the client will al- Berel Ashkenazi, the defense witness) oender who, in early 2013, was sen- ways be fully informed.”) hadn’t been disclosed until halfway tenced to more than a hundred years in By the time the civil settlement was through the trial. The district attorney’s prison. “When Weberman got a guilty finalized, Hynes was deep into a cam- o—ce promised to retry Aron’s case, but verdict, all of a sudden it was hot, hot,” paign for reëlection and was confident Aron, who was now twenty-four, didn’t Abe said. “They were willing to agree to that he had the support of the Hasidic want to go through a second trial. “He my number.” community. In early 2013, in an e-mail can’t take the pressure anymore,” his fa- Abe could not disclose how much to a colleague, he asserted that an oppo- ther, Abe, told me. Aron felt betrayed by money he received except to say that it nent’s “threat about my not getting the

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TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 53—133SC—LIVE ART—A18580—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF bw Satmar vote is pathetic.” Hynes had Frum Follies, which are written by ultra- sons, who were concerned that their been supported by the Hasidic bloc for Orthodox Jews who became disillu- civil agreement was no longer strong two decades and worked diligently to sioned, and by Hella Winston, a con- enough. They now requested a letter maintain an amicable relationship with tributing editor at Jewish Week, who for stating that Aron was not in good leading rabbis in the community. He the past several years has investigated health. “They said they had some infor- had a history of oering unusually light the community’s approach to sex abuse. mation from the higher guys in the plea deals to Hasidic oenders, whose In the months leading up to the elec- D.A. that they need that letter to make names his o—ce kept confidential—a tion, other news outlets exposed the the case go away,” Abe told me. In ex- practice unique to the Hasidic com- Hynes administration’s record of using change for the letter, Abe said, Baruch munity. Der Yid, published by Lebovits’s unreliable or coerced witnesses to secure Lebovits agreed to apologize to Aron in cousin, ran a full-page notice explaining prosecutions: three guilty convictions person—something that Aron had that community leaders had benefitted had been overturned, and a panel was been asking for since the negotiations from an “open door with Charles Hynes reviewing dozens of cases handled by a began. But on the morning of the meet- for the past 20 years” and “know first- discredited detective. There were also ing Aron refused to leave his house. “He hand what happens . . . when they got leaks from within the o—ce, which re- was never convinced that they were not themselves entangled with the law, how vealed that Hynes made little distinc- scheming,” Abe told me. “He didn’t district attorney Hynes worked very tion between the work of the o—ce and want to fool around with these people sensitively and mercifully to avoid send- the goals of his campaign: he used as- anymore.” ing them to jail.” Jews who supported set-forfeiture funds to pay for a politi- Hynes’s opponent, Ken Thompson, cal consultant and sought political ad- or almost three years, as Kellner’s were “informers and accusers from the vice from a judge. extortion case dragged on, the rab- dregs of the Jewish community,” who Hynes lost the election, in Novem- Fbis in his community urged him to take intended to “toss Jews in jail whenever ber, 2013, by fifty percentage points. a plea deal. They warned him that, as a it’s possible!” Minutes after he gave a concession Hasid, he would never get a fair trial. speech, Aidala put his arm around him, “They say you are guilty just by hav- n less religious circles, the policies walked him to his car, and held the door ing the big beard,” he said. His rabbi of the Hynes administration came open for him, according to a privately told him, “If you know you didn’t do it, underI scrutiny. The links between the recorded video. what do you care? It’s between you and Kellner and Lebovits cases were ana- During Hynes’s last weeks in o—ce, God.” lyzed by two blogs, Failed Messiah and Abe said, he got calls from the Lebovits Kellner had a new attorney, Niall MacGiollabhuí, who began working on the case in the spring of 2013. An Irish immigrant, MacGiollabhuí was dismayed that the rackets bureau had relied on evidence with little regard for the culture from which it emerged. “They are lifting things out of that community, dropping it into the wider world, and stripping the things of con- text,” he said. MacGiollabhuí initially assumed that Kellner was exaggerating when he told stories about being fol- lowed and secretly recorded, but then audio recordings of Kellner’s private conversations surfaced on a new Web site called Sam Kellner—Alleged Jew- ish Mob Ringleader Revealed. Mac- Giollabhuí discovered that his own calls, too, were being recorded. He com- plained to the district attorney’s o—ce that Kellner’s van was bugged, but no one investigated. When the new district attorney, Ken Thompson, took o—ce, last Janu- ary, MacGiollabhuí warned two prose- cutors in an e-mail, “At the moment, your o—ce is being openly mocked in his community.” Eric Gonzalez, the chief assistant

TNY—2014_11_10—PAGE 54—133SC—LIVE ART—A18640—PLEASE PULL VIRTUAL PROOF bw to Thompson, told me that the new MacGiollabhuí consented to have children immediately, before I was too administration was skeptical of the the case dismissed only after O’Donnell old—and loud rants about Kellner’s evil Kellner indictment. Four prosecutors told him, last March, that the district strategic intelligence. He told me that I had asked to be removed from the case, attorney’s o—ce would undertake an in- could not rely on the documents that the because they didn’t believe in it. He said vestigation into the circumstances sur- district attorney’s o—ce had compiled, that it seemed as if “the decision had rounding Kellner’s indictment. But an because Kellner “talked a smart lan- been made to prosecute Kellner, and investigation was never announced. guage,” and when it was translated into they were going to go forward with Months later, MacGiollabhuí wrote to English his criminal intentions weren’t that prosecution whether it was the the prosecutor, “I now believe that I was as evident as they were in Yiddish. right thing or the wrong thing to do. lied to.” (A spokeswoman from the And here you had multiple senior peo- D.A.’s o—ce said that an investigation ot long ago, Kellner and I met ple saying it was the wrong thing to do.” near the o—ce in Crown Heights He added that “there’s a lot of money Nwhere Detective Litwin worked before and a lot of votes in that community,” moving to a new unit. Kellner wanted and it appeared to people in the o—ce to talk to me only in public spaces, so that the “Kellner prosecution was done that he did not violate the prohibition politically, to undermine the Lebovits in his community against meeting with conviction.” a woman alone. As o—cers walked in A new prosecutor, Kevin O’Don- and out of the building, they stared at nell, conducted a review of the case in us, apparently confused that a Hasidic early 2014 and determined that Meyer man was chatting with a secular woman. Lebovits was not credible and the re- Kellner was still consumed by the cording of him talking to Kellner was case. It was as though he believed that “ambiguous at best.” “There are mo- was never promised.) Gonzalez would if he recited the details enough times he tives of certain witnesses that go be- not acknowledge whether or not there might figure out exactly what had hap- yond this case,” he said at a hearing in was an ongoing investigation, but he pened. Since his case, he said, the rabbis March. He told the judge that Joshua’s did say that “this district attorney is very had become even less willing to permit statements were “wildly inconsistent” concerned about the amount of money victims to go to the police. Recently, and supported by “no credible evi- and eort used to prevent the Baruch when a father whose daughter had been dence.” In one interview, Joshua said Lebovits case from seeing the court- molested asked for advice, Kellner told that Lebovits might have molested room.” He said that Aron’s civil settle- him, “If you go to the police, you’re him, but he wasn’t sure. “Could be a ment seemed to be a “very calculated probably going to end up with zero.” dierent Lebovits,” he oered. A week way of buying the victim o.” Three o—cers walked past us for the later, he said that he’d never even seen Two months after Kellner’s case was third time, and Kellner, who almost never Lebovits. Joshua had recently moved dismissed, Lebovits pleaded guilty to turns down an opportunity for conversa- to Israel, and he acknowledged that molesting Aron and avoided a second tion, asked them if they knew Steve Lit- whenever he wanted to return to the trial. The prosecution was severely com- win. “Steve and I worked together on a United States he requested permission promised by Aron’s civil settlement. In case,” he said. “Then the D.A. turned from a man named Zalman Ashkenazi, May, Lebovits was sentenced to two against me. And no one stood up for me.” who paid his airfare. Records obtained years in prison. “You wanted to have it “Really,” one of the o—cers said, ca- by the prosecution show that Ashke- your way,” Aron said to Lebovits at the sually. He suddenly seemed less inter- nazi, who is the brother of the defense sentencing hearing. “He still won’t apol- ested in us. witness at Aron’s trial, made monthly ogize to me in person,” he went on. “He “Basically, the D.A. destroyed me.” payments to Joshua’s father. (Ashke- never apologized to me. That’s it.” Lebo- “Well, Steve doesn’t work here any- nazi denied that Joshua needed his per- vits was released after eighty-three days. more,” the o—cer said. mission to travel.) Supporters of both Lebovits and “Yeah, but the question is, Who’s When O’Donnell signalled that he Kellner continue their eorts at intimi- going to come here anymore?” Kellner would submit a motion to dismiss the dation. Two people told me they were asked. case against Kellner, MacGiollabhuí afraid that I had been hired by the Lebo- “None of these guys work here any- said that he wanted to go to trial. He vits family. Others alerted Kellner that I more,” the o—cer said. “They’re all gone.” didn’t understand how a case had been was a secret agent of the district attor- “They ruined me,” Kellner went on. brought against Kellner, and he wanted ney’s o—ce. When I met Chaim Lebo- “This is what is left of me.” to put people on the witness stand. vits, in a suite at the Plaza, he told me “Well, keep fighting the fight,” the “The people in my client’s community that if I continued to work on this arti- o—cer said, as he and his partners are entitled to it,” he told the judge. cle I would make a fool out of myself walked away.  “They are entitled to know why it is and ruin my career. Chaim vacillated be- that victims of pedophiles in my client’s tween lightheartedness—he played the newyorker.com community don’t get the justice that shofar, a musical instrument made out of victims in other communities get.” a ram’s horn, and encouraged me to have A conversation with Rachel Aviv.

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