An open letter to the readers of The Flordia Jewish News

An open letter to the readers of The Flordia Jewish News
Written by Alan Zavodnick
Tuesday, 23 August 2005
Our community of Boynton Beach, Florida has been the target of some damaging press these past few weeks. From our perspective, this negativity is most undeserved, and unfortunately has found its way into the columns of your newspaper as well as a few others around the country.


It was our sincere expectation that a fire which began in Silver Spring, Maryland and had unexpectedly and unfortunately arrived to our community, would have extinguished itself in due time. We never anticipated that individuals and parties to this tragic situation, would find it useful to achieve their respective goals, to serve as accelerants, stoking the flames in an irresponsible manner, to the detriment of our community.

This letter is written with the intent of stating the facts as they occurred. I am an Executive Board Member of Chabad-Lubavitch of Greater Boynton, and was privy to the details of this saga as they unfolded, and I am very much current with the facts as they present themselves today.

The time for our community to defend itself from the damaging claims which have been made against it and our Rabbi, in a premeditated attack by a select few, IS NOW. It is time to make it abundantly clear to all, that what they believed happened, and what really transpired are NOT the same.

All of the published articles, including the ones printed in this paper, were written with the same slanted tenor. Truthfully, the editors cannot be blamed. It was the decision of the board, that the Rabbi, or any other official representative, be precluded from making ANY public comments or granting any interviews regarding this matter. Although the editors requested a response it could not be granted for reasons which will be addressed in a moment. Absent any feedback from our community, they published that which was being promoted as “the truth.”

Our reasons for remaining silent while being attacked were two fold. 1) The ongoing federal multi million dollar lawsuit against the two accusatory families referenced our Rabbi and our Community. Since we became an issue before the courts, our Attorneys strongly advised us to remain silent. 2) Initially, we all empathized with the accused family and did not wish to add more aggravation and hurt, to their already painful situation.

Unfortunately, it has become abundantly clear, that the very victims of the disease of Loshon Harah, have now evolved into being the perpetrators of that very same destructive disease. They and their associates continue to attempt to denigrate, injure and damage the reputation of our blossoming community.

Our Rabbi has received letters and other hate-filled messages from members of the accused family and their associates containing highly derogatory remarks, as well as extortion threats against him and our Community. Their written threats include publishing “the story” in newspapers everywhere. Clearly, this part of their campaign has been borne, in part by this newspaper and others.

What remains puzzling is how our community became the target of this family. One would have expected that their anger, frustration and feelings for retaliation should have been focused on the Community where this issue raised its ugly head. After all, that is where they had their roots and where they had friends and associates to help plead their case. Their contention that this is all a fabrication would have been far easier to prove in an environment where they were a known commodity. Yet, it is Boynton Beach where they are a totally foreign entity, not Silver Spring; it is Rabbi Ciment and not the Silver Spring Community who have become the focus of their anger-filled campaign.

Allow me to focus on some of the more common fundamental issues which are raised in the articles:

1) “At first the family was welcomed with open arms”

It is true; the father and his family found a very sympathetic Chabad Rabbi on that first evening when he brought our Rabbi his dossier of documents which retold the horrific story of Silver Spring. Two pertinent facts are omitted, though, from this “warm welcome”; 1) The Rabbi welcomed him in a private consultation between a potential member, who had suffered tremendously in his past community, and was sharing with a Rabbi his heart-wrenching plight. Our Rabbi obviously did not, nor could he, know the future. The ugly fact that their sordid history followed them to our community, expressing in great detail all of the allegations against these people, triggered a wave of concerned panic and hysteria of extraordinary proportions. The Rabbi, as the community leader, needed to attend to what became a true emergency concern which was ripping through the community. 2) The articles also omit the fact that at the initial meeting, The Rabbi asked the father why all of the community Rabbis were not signed on the Rabbinic proclamation to the Silver Spring Jewish community asking them to cease and desist their activities. Only four of the community’s Rabbis had signed, from amongst many. He was told the others simply didn’t want to take a stand on the issue. Our Rabbi found this troubling, and asked the father to bring back to him a unanimous written decision from all the Rabbonim of the Silver Spring community. The Rabbi’s objective was that in case anyone would ask, he would have in hand this document. Needless to say, until this day, that document has not been procured.

2) “The family was excommunicated from the Boynton Shul...The family was expelled from the community...Rabbi Ciment accused the family of damaging his community.”

After being presented with the very real issue of legitimate concern which led to the panic and hysteria which was overwhelming our new and fledgling community, our Rabbi sought the counsel of a number of veteran Rabbonim, top experts in the Orthodox world in the field of child abuse (outside of any of the “controversial” public figures who are highlighted in these articles), and noted psychiatric and mental health professionals. The panel agreed with one resolution to this very complex dilemma; that an objective, Florida based, amenably chosen, expert psychiatrist should evaluate the alleged perpetrators of these horrible accusations, to make our community members comfortable that there is nothing to be concerned about. This consultation would obviously be kept totally confidential.

This solution was offered and rejected on three occasions by the accused family. Our Rabbi pleaded with them and their friends, to take this offer and allow themselves to be warmly welcomed into our community, in what would be a dignified and seamless transition. If they chose not to, though, the Rabbi cautioned them in writing, that it should never be said that we did not allow them in, rather that this was their own decision not to become a part of our community. It would be on their conscience for not having afforded their family the opportunity to join us.

To label this very professionally handled resolution as “an excommunication or an expelling of the family from our shul and community” is a travesty and a total distortion of the simple truth.

3) Description of Rabbi Ciment using phrases such as “lack of sanity,” "vindictive,” etc.

There have been hundreds of personal attacks leveled against our Rabbi by members of the accused family and their associates, in many forms. I will not use this space to defend our Rabbi against this incredible slander, I will rather “let the record speak for itself.”

Simply put, there are a handful of disgruntled members who “didn’t get their way,” and thus have made it their mission to galvanize their bitterness around this “great humanitarian injustice” and have chosen the media as one of their weapons of attempted assassination.

I invite anyone to come and visit our community and shul and experience first hand our Rabbi, our beloved Kehilla, its array of learning opportunities for the young and old, its forever welcoming institutions of education, outreach and social services and its leadership.

4) “Dr. Arthur Small, the prime candidate for the testing within the community declared no need for evaluations...Rabbi Ciment continually lied to the community saying that Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz of Silver Spring backed his decision to evaluate the children"

In one of the newspapers in NJ which felt compelled to cover this story, Dr. Small himself wrote a letter to the editor to advise them that he was not an expert in pedophilia. As much as the accused family, who are close friends and neighbors of Dr. Small, tries to paint him as “the expert,” anyone close to the case knows clearly that Dr. Small does not fit the criteria of the panel of experts who were guiding our Rabbi on this issue. Particularly because he is not Florida based, has deep personal connections with the accused family, and most importantly he himself admits, does not specialize in this field of psychiatry. This automatically invalidates him as the “expert” which we were seeking.

The Rabbi called Rabbi Breitowitz, a noted scholar and the accused family’s spiritual advisor, as the panic began and told him of the great tumult “his exported Maryland family” was causing in our community. The Rabbi told him of the resolution which was being offered to the family. Rabbi Breitowitz concluded the call with the Rabbi expressing sincere empathy for his very troubling dilemma, and pledging to call the family to impress upon them the idea of the resolution.

This was the extent of the conversation. At the point when The Rabbi heard from a third party that Rabbi Breitowitz said that he only supported the evaluation if it wouldn’t harm the children, but now he needs to defer to Dr. Small, the “expert.” The Rabbi made it a point to immediately stop using Rabbi Breitowitz’s name pertaining to any issue in this saga.

Unlike what the papers report, Rabbi Breitowitz never called our Rabbi to try and persuade him to accede to Dr. Small’s opinion. In fact he never even called our Rabbi to alert him of the reversal of his decision.

It has to be bewildering to any thinking and responsible person, that a private psychological evaluation which would have been the bridge into an unquestioning and forever welcoming community for this family was deemed, “injurious.” Yet, today, and for the rest of their lives these same minor children will find their names and ages printed in newspapers around the country and splashed all over the Internet, as being the alleged perpetrators of very detailed and very sordid, heinous crimes. I can only presume that all of this is being done with the knowledge, compliance and behest of their own parents. Curious.

Enough harm has been done. We never asked or dreamt in our worst nightmare that our community would be the doorstep for this problem. However, when it came to our community, our Rabbi dealt with it responsibly, with great sensitivity and caring, with professionalism, and of course Torah true values. For this, I am sure that our community will continue to grow, now, stronger than ever.

In addition to this bad publicity hurting our community, I cannot help but think that all of this controversy cannot be helping the family in their efforts to relocate into a normal life-setting in a Jewish community, wherever it might be.

In addition, those who might think we mishandled the situation, and have or will express themselves freely on these pages, perhaps they should expend their passionate energies on inviting this family into their communities ASAP and with open arms.

I, in the name of hundreds throughout our community, implore and beseech the press to stop allowing this vicious fire to continue to spread. If you want to educate the public about Loshon Horoh and/or sexual abuse in the Orthodox world, it certainly is your prerogative to do so. But it is simply not befitting any newspaper which calls itself Jewish to allow this very unfortunate saga to affect our community with lies and fabrications being meted out by a few, bitter, disgruntled and destructive people.

May Hashem bless us all with the strength and wisdom which we need to continue doing His holy work of making His world a better and brighter place. May we be able to report only greater and mightier accomplishments, on these very pages, on behalf of Yiddishkeit.