Brooklyn, NY – “While I was deeply saddened to learn of the sex abuse allegations against Mr. Yegutkin, I was extremely heartened by the courage his alleged victims displayed in choosing to involve the authorities in this matter. Over the course of the last several months, I have been working with a taskforce comprised of prominent therapists, rabbis, and community leaders to tackle this burgeoning issue. Together, we are continuing our vital work to devise a comprehensive plan in the form of education and prevention which we expect will be implemented in our community schools later this year.
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At this time, my thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Yegutkin’s alleged victims and their families. I hope other sex abuse victims who have not yet come forward to relay their stories of anguish and exploitation to law enforcement personnel will now be inspired to do so.”
Wat to go Dov! You are a true godol biyisroel in the ancient sense of the word.
Yeah? Well my thought and prayers are with Mr. Yegutkin and his family. I hope the RSE judges Hikind as he judges others.
dov you’re a traitor!
who is your rav?
who permited you to encourage people to maser other yiden?
please, only go to bes din!
I’m sorry to say Dov, but sometimes you come off sounding like a scmuck!! What ever happend to innocent till proven guilty ? Did you for a second even think that maybe some one is trying to smear his name ? Please dont compare him to Mondrowitz or other well known abusers who were who was convicted of his crimes and ran away like a dog that he is. Take a minute and be DAN LKAF ZECHUS for a wonderful human being
sorry mister hinkind but your zelsness for placing guild on a tzadik as far as he was known up till now before he was proven guilty sugests u are hiding somthing so far its only alegations not yet prooven so I sugest your prayers should be this man should turn out innecent how proud u are of ecusers u should say that unfornetly in our times we have no other recourse and some inocent might get cought up in all of this but to be proud that klal yisrael came to this it’s a rachmunus we are here nebech on us yes I know we have no choice but let’s not pass judgment till judgment has been past
Please, never try to solve predophilia allegation in a bais din.
Absolutely asur and any bais din that agrees to decide the allegations will burn in Hell, no matter how long their beards and how many pairs of tzitzis they wear.
Hikind will never win: either he will not be doing enough for the abused, or he will be doing too much for the abusers.
I applaud Hikind for doing the right thing and at least giving the abused a place where they will be heard & hopefully the abusers will be stopped.
Dov,
You should be ashamed of yourself.In the same breath you mention the alleged perpetrator by name yet state “alleged victims”. If they are only alleged victims you have no right to mention the alleged perpetrator by name. You are adding fuel to the fire. Assuming he’s vindicated, which i sincerely hope he will be, what will you do to clear his name? What CAN you do?
way to go dov. don’t let these commentators who are themselves abusers to try and railroad u .
“While I was deeply saddened to learn of the sex abuse allegations against Mr. Yegutkin, I was extremely heartened by the courage his alleged victims displayed in choosing to involve the authorities in this matter.” Dov Hikind
If the allegations are unfounded which hopefully they are, or the allegations are brought to trial ,in either case with the history of behavior in our communities there will be a new phenomena of abuse ,revenge, manipulation, snitching and blackmail. Unfortunatly it is a double edge sword that has a vicous cycle good and bad.
I would hope the same advocates like Hikind etc.. have the same emphasis and outrage with regard to protecting the innocent children as much as the wrongly acused.
As a father who was falsly acused of child abuse and proven innocent beyond any doubt. I have never fully gotten my good name back and never will. I hope all the torch holders will protect all innocent victims and all wrongly acused with the same frevor.
Dov if it turns out that Emanuel is being smeared ,again he was not convicted at all and is innocent untill proven guilty
how dare you jump to conclusions to further your agenda and get attention we don’t know the facts and as of now due to the allegations the school did the right move by firing him
but that does not mean he is guilty and that you can come out praising the accusers shame on you dov!
DOV, inappropiate – comment should be rephrased ” dov urges victims to seek torah guidance & proffesional help
dov you have good intentions but these knee jerk comments hinder your ability to move forward & only hurt your cause
What “Rov” calls it mesirah not to turn them over?
At no point in his comments does he place guilt on the “rabbi”.
You all need to understand that the sad part is that these abusers appear to be the nicest people. I understand u r all shocked, but your denial is only causing damage to ourselves.
It is great that victims of abuse are not afraid to go to the authorities. But !
Who will protect those wrongly acused who will restore thier life back to normal…answer ?
Nobody!
And the sad thing is that the true victims of child abuse will be back to where they were unfortunatly before hiding in shame and all of the holy rollers will say see!
Mr Hikind, did you check the facts before issuing such a statement? Do you know who is the guilty one in this case? If not, please refrain from adding salt to the wound, and perhaps add Mr Yegutkin to your thoughts and prayers too. At this point, nothing has yet been proven and he is suffering from these allegations as well.
When this matter reaches court, if Mr Yegutkin is guilty, then you can continue your vital work assisting abused children and encouraging those who were molested to come forward, but, until then, please stay quiet and investigate the facts, despite that such a story is great fodder to help you publicize your quest for justice for child abusers.
But there is a time for everything and maybe until conclusive evidence is shown, it is a time to remain silent.
wow. so yagutin is a saint and rabbi lookstein is bad?
you epople are so funny
Look, Mr. Yegutkin may be 100% innocent. But I think Dov’s point is to go to the authorities and hammer this out. Mr. Yegutkin has every right to a fair legal process, so save your smears.
One of my Catholic friends told me a story from his youth. He was hurt really badly playing baseball. But the injuries, had you not known my friend was on a baseball team, were consistent with child abuse. His father was grilled. But since his father had nothing to hide, he thanked those grilling him. Why? Because he knows some sickos are out there getting away with abuse. He felt good knowing there are people who care.
Anyone who defends people who abuse others should stop being a coward and please state their real name on this blogosphere. Thank you.
Rabbosai– A number of years ago. a certain large kehilla and pediatricians covered up child abuse on a ontinuousl joint pattern. Subsequently, the child was murdered by the parent and that very sick parent was wrongfully sentenced to jail(she should have been hospitalized). Most egotisticaL RABBONIM are so self centered and they care more about the yeshiva’s reputation than this very prevalent persistint problem. They should be massered and exposed because they are criminals and the Rabbonim who were told should say their shiur in jail together with this sick people. And those who want to condone this should have your own children molested by your acquiescence to “mesira”..
way 2 go dov! i myself being involved in many cases of child abuse, came 2 a clear conclusion that all therapists hav come 2 as well. most, i repeat, MOST, cases of abuse come from people whom we would least expect it 2 come from.
Dov is not taking sides in this case. It could be that these charges are fabricated and that Mr. Yegutkin will be vindicated. He is merely stating that these cases belong with the authorities and cannot be handled internally. We must learn from the mistakes of the past.
Take it to Tartiokver Bais Din he will take care of this issue
Now that this issue has come out and there is a lot of publicity about it in the frum community, we all have to be on guard about some people on an agenda trying to smear someone else without it being proven. Remember, we are not talking about a Mondrowitz or a Kolko whose allegations have been persistent for many years. Once alleged, a reputation cannot be salvaged again even if the allegations are ultimately proven false. Let’s all be very, very careful with this.
FYI
I know rabbi yagutkin quite well and the two boys who are the accusers as well as their family! I also know what rabbi yegutkin does for these boys and their entire family, who nebech comes from a broken home,take drugs and are off the derech!rabbi yegutkin and his wife host all their siblings in their home almost every shabbas just to give them a little break and to forget their problems! I can only imagine these accusations are false and are a very SICK way these two boys want to punish and get back at their father who tries(albeit probably not in the best way) desperately to help them be in touch with people with good influence on them and not the friends that they are hanging out with now!
There are abuses on both ends – when I was falsely accused because I fired someone who was trying to get someone else fired – the false accuser did not care about my kids, my wife, or my reputation. On the other hand, when there is real abuse it is horrible. You have to follow the shvil hazahav – can’t over do it either way
Dov, if only you knew how many lives have been changed for ever by Emanuel. If you would only know the hundreds of people that will remember Emanuel for the rest of their lives. I’m not talking about the lives of “victims”. I’m talking about the lives he had saved as a Hatzolah member. I’m sure the work you are doing Dov, is also life saving work, but you werent up at 3:30 in the morning when your neighbors baby stopped breathing. You werent there when my neice got hit by a car……….Emanuel was!
With all the time of his life that he has given to our community, we could and must give HIM the benefit of the doubt.
Emanuel stay strong…… we got your back.
A New Jersey Hatzolah Member.
#43 , you’re a knowitall. Either put up or shut up. Blow our minds. You know you know nothing. Loser.
It is about time that our innocent children had their “day in court”!! Who is going to defend them? We cannot sit by idly and do nothing and let people get away with committing crimes against defenseless children!! Put yourself in the child’s place for one minute and you will think twice before you want to defend these “people”!!
all dov is saying is that 1 should not hesitate from going 2 the authorities. he never said anybody did anything
Ill bet that the two accusers are brothers who made these allegations. Emanuel is innocent.
I believe that is truly a ridiculous accusation of Mr. Yegutkin; a man that i know on a personal level who has always been professional and thoughtful to me as well as to all my peers. Mr. Yegutkin handled every situation at the school and in the community very professionally. He had interest in all students, as he believed that all can succeed and everyone deserves a chance to do so. I do not need to mention the names of the individuals that were given a second chance in life by being allowed to attend YDA high school. I have spent plenty of hours with Yegutkin in school and outside the school as he was also the coach of the basketball team and was the director of the extracurricular activities. He is a good man and we should stand against the scum that has done this to him. We should truly feel ashamed for ourselves to allow for people like this to be in distress.
Everyone who knows Rabbi Yegutkin testifies to his rightousness. I happen to know him personally. It is well known that there is an attempt to smear his name. While Dov Hikind may be doing some good work in this area, he totally blew it this time. Enough said.
Dov understands “innocent until proven guilty” too well.
He never said anyone was guilty and always used the word “alleged (accusations).
Dov is simply saying that he is glad that people have courage to go to the authorities if they’re going to make these sort of accusations.
a few people mentioned “rav eliyashuv shlit’a – i find it difficult to believe that rav eliyashuv ruled ON THIS SPECIFIC CASE
so ill assume you mean his letter to the tzadik dr. abraham in nishmas avraham chelek daled
rav eliyashuv shlita nor dr. abraham would allow someone to pasken a life & death issue from a book w/o a thorough “derisha vechakirah”
You talk about innocent people being falsly accused. Well, here’s another side.
An old friend of my father’s, a respected man in our Shul (no further details) was accused of molesting 3 girls. He swore on a Torah (literally!!!, he opened the Aron Kodesh!) that he was innocent. My father stood up for him publicly, and believed him & kept up the friendship. After 2 years the man admitted just before the police were going to indict that he’d lied and was guilty.
My father was zebrochen. He had a fatal heart attack a few months later. This molester never came near us again after his confession, never even wrote a note during Shiva. Does he bear some responsible for a good man’s VERY early death at a young age? You judge, you’re all busy playing judge & jury on this case.
Reading all these comments, one comes away feeling that there is no easy way to go about these types of incidents. As much as I agree that we must protect our children as much as possible, ultimately, a person accused still has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. If we start making exceptions in cases like these, we open a pandora’s box of where and when these types of exceptions will end? To #56 , there will always be people like that and your father did what he thought was the best course at that given time. I’ve learned one thing in life, never, ever take anything for granted because anything and everything is possible no matter what the cicumstances. That’s what bechira is all about.
To all Choshuve Yidden.
Emanuel cannot respond to all of your comments since it would interfere with the investigation. However there are some points that I would like to shed on his behalf.
Please note: None of the comments below were approved by Mr. Yegutkin and they cannot be considered as his personal statements. All comments below are deemed invalid in the court of law.
• Emanuel feels that all accusations of child abuse should be brought to the police. However, each situation should be investigated first by the Rabbonan to see if the allegations have any bases at all.
• Mr. Hikind offered his prayers for the alleged victims but did not seem it necessary to offer prayers for Emanuel.
• Emanuel was never fired from his school as he was not asked to resign from Hatzoloh or Oorah. Mr. Yegutkin took a leave of absence on his own from all of the three organizations so he can fully attend to this matter and his family in this difficult time.
• The bail that was placed by a judge was much more that the DA has requested. The DA did not feel that such bail was necessary.
As a response to # 36. There is no need to publish details for they are not meant for the general public. While the Yegutkin family appreciates your support and pain, the family you are talking about should not be mentioned at all. There are small children in that family that have no part of this and their lives cannot be destroyed either. This also applies to the parents of the two boys; they should not be mentioned at all.
All comments on this blog are pure Loshon Hora no matter who’s side they support. By posting comments you are not helping Emanuel or the alleged victims, you are only further destroying their lives. More so you are destroying the lives of the parents and the siblings of the boys as well as the lives of the wife and two little children of Emanuel. Anyone who met this righteous woman would not dare say anything to hurt her. The Schina rests in her presence. No matter what the outcome of this all will be, everything that is sent to us, comes from Hakodosh Boruch Hu. As Yidden we can fall low and waist our time reading and writing blogs or we can rise to greatness by learning Torah Hakedosha and let the Master of the Universe run the world.
The Yegutkin family is very indebted to all of the Hatzoloh volunteers, their friends, students, and campers of the past 14 years for the strong support. Let us not be over Bitul Torah, let us all Daven that both parties will come out of this with ease. Let us all Daven that this Golus should end that we all welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu Beyameinu Bekorov.
i have one question to all the parents out there
being that there is a ‘mabe’ here, would u allow or want your kids or grandkids anywhere near a person that may or not be a molester??????
wouldn’t u want to know if there was such a person in ur neighborhood? ur shule? ur mikvah??????
open your eyes, everyone is so busy protecting the molesters no one is worried about protecting the children
i think there is one thing we can all agree on, if the rabbis would have done something about this years ago, we would not have so many ‘ off the derech’ people, and not have so many pple on drugs. did anyone ever stop to wonder y there are so many disturbed pple out? ever take the time to speak to them to find out why?????/ u might be in for a big awakening
there is something very wrong when a rabbi can throw a man out of his shule bec he is using drungs, but yet uses the same shule to house and protect a known child molester who is free to keep doing what he is doing
how sick is that?