NEW YORK (VINnews) — In a tweet published Tuesday afternoon, Eichler’s owner Mordy Getz announced that the popular Judaica chain will no longer be selling books by Chaim Walder.
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The announcement comes after allegations surfaced against the author of the wildly popular Kids Speak series, which were widely reported on in the Israeli media.
“The decision was not made lightly,” Getz wrote, adding that the decision was made in spite of the fact that this will undoubtedly cause a heavy financial lost for Eichler’s.
“Given that the access to alleged victims was largely by way of the author’s books and work, we believe that this decision is an essential step in protecting our children and building a safer, healthier community,” the announcement continues.
Read the full announcement below.
Dear customers,
It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that we will no longer carry the books of Chaim Walder in our stores due to shocking allegations recently revealed.
This decision was not made lightly and will no doubt come at a heavy financial cost, pic.twitter.com/mIv2jNPx8z
— Mordy Getz (@MordyGetz) November 16, 2021
Tzvi Gluck of the Amudim organization was quick to praise Getz for coming out and making this statement.
This type of letter would NEVER have been published years ago. For a store owner to do this, publicly supporting victims of abuse, at the risk of losing money and customers, shows what a real person @MordyGetz is.
— Zvi Gluck (@zgluck) November 16, 2021
The Torah says לא תשא שמע שוא. Chaza”l explain אזהרה למקבלי לשון הרע. I have no idea if he’s guilty or not. i know there’s no reason for anyone to believe so until it’s proven. If it’s a safek the Torah forbids one to believe it. למיחש מיהא בעי, but regardless no one should ever violate hilchos yichud with anyone so that doesn’t really matter here.
And that’s if it’s just a safek. Chaim Walder has done incredibly wonderful things for the klal, and is as normal, and fine a gentleman as you can ever hope to meet. I’ve had several interactions with him and i couldn’t be more impressed. True, that doesn’t mean by any means that he’s innocent, but he has a chezkas kashrus and there’s no question about it till now.
For the actual claim: it’s made by two / three anonymous people, published by haaretz, a wildly left wing israeli newspaper who is more than happy to write a disparaging article about a “popular ultra orthodox author”. No details. 20 years after the fact. By girls who according to themselves were in therapy. Again, anything is possible. But to hear the tsk tsking, and people saying, “nu, innocent until proven guilty”….. yep, haaretz accomplished their task.
There are people who still aren’t sure if Trump was really a Russian hack, or if Kavanaugh is actually a rapist. B’kitzur one word on social media and anyone is toast.
To people who follow the Torah, this accusation is absolutely NOTHING unless it’s proven, and anyone who peddles it even as a safek is a רוצח. I would NEVER buy anything in Eichlers, until he apologizes publicly. The one who tweeted that Eichlers is removing Walder’s books from their bookshelves is a רוצח – a mekabal lashon hora and mesapeir lashon hora in the worst possible way. He has to learn that the Frum community is not a democrat / BLM / woke / leftist type of community that if someone screams racist or misogynist or some other dog whistle that everyone jumps to attention and follows the leader. If ch”v the story is true that’s one thing. But until that’s proven, in the Torah’s perspective, it’s nothing, and to act as if it happened without absolute proof is tantamount to retzicha
I think one thing we can learn is the importance of being strict in all aspects of hilchos yichud so that it is harder for someone to accuse falsely or credibly…..
Because we’ve all forgotten that he is a MOISER. I’ll never shop in that store again!
When an orthodox person running an orthodox store in a orthodox neighborhood sells every book, no matter if the author is an non believer, and couldn’t care less what the authors write, all of a sudden, he checks his whatsapp and sees some posts about an alleged …… He takes down the books from the shelves, it sounds more like an attention stunt, or it fits in to his being a so called enlightened chusid aka liberal
Publicity stunt by Eichler just before the Chanukah season. Coincidence ?
Eichler should be ashamed of himself for making public announcements like that. Dont sell the books if you dont want to, but to publiclize it???Oyy!!!. Only Hashem knows the truth. Today it is easy to set someone up, it can happen to anyone. Please let this be a lesson to be super careful with halachot of Yichud etc.
Pulling a book series does not incur “substantial revenue decline”.
C’mon, man!
Eichler gone WOKE. Plenty of lying Judaica books posing as truth which should be banned .
I know 20 at the top of my head.
Just as bad are those frum chevra who should know better than to automatically accept allegations as truth and give everybody else mussar. What good are your shiurim if you don’t talk and think like a like a ben Torah ?
Eichler should be deeply ashamed. The books could have been put aside quietly. There is no excuse to overstep the haloche like this without any proof. He copies the seculars and sells yiddishkeit for pr
Because in Jewish and normal secular law , people are innocent until PROVEN otherwise.
You learn Daf yomi ?
Presumption of innocence he may have, but I still wouldn’t use his books. Fir that you need more then a presumption of innocence, fot that you need a ‘Shem Tov”
You don’t want children afterwards (if there’s a trial etc) that their hero writer is a rapist.
What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Shame on Eichler. The accused has denied the allegations and he’s entitled to due process. Relearn Mesechet Sanhedrin. Eichler now making a big publicity splash before any conviction. Smells like someone/s is behind this in the background.
Shame on you.
Terrible job by Eichler. I know other places to get Judaica more inexpensive.
VIN basically figured out a way to publish the story in a nice way….
Anyway, lets not forget, innocent until proven guilty..
What allegations? Isn’t it innocent until proven guilty?
He (Eichlers) could have pulled it off the shelves without all the publicity. He deliberately caused this ruckus in order to have his ego pumped.. the guy craves attention like a 2 year old!
Typical Mordy Getz, Just seeking to make noise and gain some fame before there were any convictions… Shame on him. its against the Torah, I am Moiche!
To Eichler :
Let’s go Brandon !
Shame on Eichelrs and Amudim. Hashem will judge you the way you judge others. Accusations are not facts. In most civilized countries the name of the accused is not released until proven guilty. in this case the police found him innocent but the anti charedi newspapers chose to destroy him. Shame in Eichlers anc Amudim for not following Halacha and basic decency.
What is the guy charged with for those of us who who no idea what the author is accused of, when, where?
Magenu did a session live on this breaking story. Instead of tenting here listen, learn, and protect our children.
So why is Eichlers selling all the music songs of many singers who flirted with girls as well as books put out by secular tziyonim as well open orthodox heretics. Maybe this accused did tsuvah for his younger years just as rosh lokish did. Otherwise remove all the Gemorahs as well.
It is amazing how many frum people responding to this story in the various news outlets like VIN and The Yeshiva World etc. are supportive of Walder. We have a serious sickness in our community where for many years, sexual abuse of children was accepted and hushed up. It seems that so many good people who are shomer mitzvos still cannot change their views. They continue to believe that it is the Torah way to silently accept sexual crimes against children and not report them. Things are slowly changing, but we still have a long way to go.
He’s just another Chasid of Woke Brandon.
This kind of news always draws blood, because the blood lusty mob hounds jump at an accused and commenters as if it’s settled truth.
Just remember: You or your child or parent can be accused of anything by anybody at any time for any reason.
Banning the book until a decision is in , is wrong.
I was today Thursday in flatbush Eichlers. They were wheeling away the latest book from walder to their basement. I grabbed a copy and bought it for my kids. It was number 13. One worker remarked to me it’s like Book burning.
hard to believe so many people are defending a rapist. clearly no one here actually learns at all. kol, anan sahadi are all real things.
The accusations against Walder are difficult to prove or disprove as it’s unlikely that there are witnesses or evidence.
I don’t understand the line about financial losses. How is that relevant to anyone but his bookkeeper? If he doesn’t want to stock the books for moral reasons, good for him. If a restaurant discovers that a shipment of meat was actually treif, he informs the public and tosses it out – he doesn’t cry about financial losses to the public. He does the right thing. Same with the Ben and Jerry’s issue – shops took a stand and didn’t disclose how it affects their bottom line. The letter shifts the focus to Eichlers’ problem instead of making a moral statement – very disappointing.
Let’s analyze this: here we have 3 individuals (and no there are not more 3 individuals as some people claim there are many more individuals who claim they were abused by Walder but I have not seen one source claiming that) who woke up 20 years later with stories about Walker abusing them week after week in hotels. My question is how Walder could meet with these girls week after week in hotels and people shouldn’t get suspicious? People are not stupid and a high profile man meeting girls week after week in hotels would be extremely suspicious. I can hardly believe Walder met children in hotels, no normal parent would let their kid spend time with an individual locked in an hotel room. Therapists and counselors have offices, they don’t meet in hotel rooms, so these cases would have to be exceptions meeting them in hotels rather than his office. And this was supposed to be week, after week after week. How could a high profile man who people know keep on getting away with meeting girls in hotels and only these girls themselves should know about this? If these stories were true then why come out 20 years later to demand justice when it is almost impossible to prove anything and “justice” would boil down to what kind of political affiliation the judge had.
I would believe anything nowadays, although I find it hard to believe this. My kids listen to his chavurat taryag series and we learn a lot from it. He doesn’t strike me as a molester. But my understanding of this, is that anyone can accuse anyone of anything, and ruin a persons life forever.
Every Jew should be asking of HIMSELF ‘what does Hashem want from ME’.
If you are a sex offender STOP NOW. Enough innocent neshamos tortured and lost at the wretched hands of sick “mechanchim, professionals and those of authority”!
If you are a victim, do whatever you need to heal including reporting and bringing your perp to justice. Get all the support you can from safe sources.
If you are neither, SHUT UP and pray to Hashem that this impossible golus comes to an end. All the publicizing and yapping and drawing preliminary conclusions is an Aveira too. Perhaps not akin to rape and murder, but getting close.
Kudos to Eichlers for putting his money where his mouth is.
Where there is smoke there is usually fire. The presumption of innocence is a legal concept that protects us from punishment by the authorities unless and until proven guilty.
Totally out of place in this conversation.
Thank you Mordy Getz. Taking a stand for the victims is something to respect. I wish it wasn’t necessary.