Hassidic rabbi suspected of officiating marriages of underage couples
By Eli Ashkenazi and Vered Levy-Barzilay, Haaretz Correspondents
Police on Monday detained for questioning a Hassidic rabbi suspected of officiating the marriages of minors.
Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Schick, the spiritual leader of the Bratslav Hassidic movement in Yavne'el, near Lake Kinneret, is suspected of officiating the marriages of some 20 underage couples, mostly ages 12 to 16. Tiberias police began investigating the case some two and a half years ago, following complaints from the secular residents of the community.
Police detained Schick for questioning at the Ben Gurion International Airport upon his arrival from New York.
Schick denied all allegations against him and was released after the investigation, though he is currently forbidden from visiting Yavne'el.
The Bratslav community in Yavne'el has also dismissed the allegations made by police, calling them rumors concocted by the secular farmers in the community who they say have embarked on a hate campaign against them.
Followers of rabbi Schick settled in Yavne'el, a farming community, in 1986. The Hassidic residents, who are mostly newly religious, comprise just a few hundred of Yavne'el's 3,000 residents.
The Hassidic residents of the community are known as "Schickim," or devotees of rabbi Schick, who lives in New York and visits the community every few months.
Since the establishment of the Hassidic community in Yavne'el, there have been countless tense incidents between them and the veteran residents of the community.
The veteran residents have accused the Hassidim of assault, threats, arson, sabotage, vandalism, obscense language, spitting and making insulting remarks to the secular residents. The veteran residents also raised their suspicions of widespread underage marriage in an interview with Haaretz two and a half years ago.
Police on Monday detained for questioning a Hassidic rabbi suspected of officiating the marriages of minors.
Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Schick, the spiritual leader of the Bratslav Hassidic movement in Yavne'el, near Lake Kinneret, is suspected of officiating the marriages of some 20 underage couples, mostly ages 12 to 16. Tiberias police began investigating the case some two and a half years ago, following complaints from the secular residents of the community.
Police detained Schick for questioning at the Ben Gurion International Airport upon his arrival from New York.
Schick denied all allegations against him and was released after the investigation, though he is currently forbidden from visiting Yavne'el.
The Bratslav community in Yavne'el has also dismissed the allegations made by police, calling them rumors concocted by the secular farmers in the community who they say have embarked on a hate campaign against them.
Followers of rabbi Schick settled in Yavne'el, a farming community, in 1986. The Hassidic residents, who are mostly newly religious, comprise just a few hundred of Yavne'el's 3,000 residents.
The Hassidic residents of the community are known as "Schickim," or devotees of rabbi Schick, who lives in New York and visits the community every few months.
Since the establishment of the Hassidic community in Yavne'el, there have been countless tense incidents between them and the veteran residents of the community.
The veteran residents have accused the Hassidim of assault, threats, arson, sabotage, vandalism, obscense language, spitting and making insulting remarks to the secular residents. The veteran residents also raised their suspicions of widespread underage marriage in an interview with Haaretz two and a half years ago.
posted by Paul Mendlowitz | 6:30 PM
18 Comments:
strains of Sun Yung Moon
I wish I could marry some underage teenager.
Do you have the rabbi's number?
kjef1 is right. There's no proven truth to this, although I've heard rumours of this happening within certain orthodox circles. It's actually an interesting concept, pairing people off early. What does halacha (Jewish Law) have to say about this? I'd be interested in hearing about it.
ALL secular Jews did not steal yemenite babies, actually the kidnapping was the mastermind of Bernard Bergman of New York, who was a convicted felon for nursing home theft and called himself rabbi.
He wore a big black yarmulke and the whole uniform.(I will do a blog on him).
Shick is a crazy with delusions of grandeur, don't blame the secular kibbutzniks for this story.
He is a Jim Jones type.
Most of the time there is foundation for these type stories, not all.
I discount a lot of the known lies, and publish the ones that are likely to be true based on various sources that i trust.
Btw, NOT ONCE has anyone been able to refute the validity of my blogs, other than calling me names.
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nobody can dispute the validity of these blogs.
But, breslov is meshugeh anyway.
Personally, I think I would have been very satisfied to be married at 15.
Our great grandparents married earlier. It's time to turn the clock back.
un-orth, you also like to bring spoiled and out-dated milk and serve it again just to make a new hoopla.
just a question to you, there are new findings of old saforim shilcon urichs and bais yosefs, rambam and this writings come with different conclusions then the halacha now and practiced for the last few hundred years.do you feel we should change our current excepted (but based on these works wrong) halacha, or should we addapt to the new findings and although it will make for a big mish-mash initally however it is the right thing and toras moishe?
thank you in advance
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Tzvi,
Sometimes I bring older articles to establish a pattern of behavior of people and groups, to demonstrate that their behavior is NOT an abberation but a ongoing life style.
On your second point, We must go with the emes, not to be concerned about temporary mish mash.
The new sforim do demonstrate that we messed up plenty, and that certain seforim and writings, gzairos.... are wrong and that our Mesorah is a hodge podge of outdated stuff that was put together by many times ignorant people.
thank you i had that feeling about your postion and i am happy you came out clear. although most rabonim in eretz yisroel and here are against your view there are some that are very pro your side the biggest i think is r' yechezkel roth on the flip side i think reb. alyashiv and the olter kloizenberger rebbe but this is something that will explode in the next few years
explode?
There were always ta'usei soferim. The Gaon, a rationalist, not a mystic, as I learned here, spent considerable energy correcting mistakes.
Those who cannot face truth are content. Breslov is the answer.
Taus Sofrim applies to an error here and there, not to entire sforim being ridiculed as nonsense.
which sefarim are you refering?gives us more details
Read Haym Soloveitchik on taut soferim (how would you have time?) and you'll get an idea from geonica how many mistakes actually creep.
scary.
but, nothing to fear on this blog.
Hi
I know personally Rabbi Schick.
I was surprised to see questions coming in his direction while he is the almost the only one helping jewish people and espicially the youth.
As you know, Jewish religion forbids the engagement of any sexual pleasure or contact untill official married.
Rabbi Schick is a holy and a lealistic person admiting and being awre of the struggle involved.
I would ask any one the chances of being a boy until 18-24 without performing mesterbation or an even bigger sin (Jewish Law forbids materbating).
Therefore, his advice is, straightforward, to have marriage being in place at an earlier stage.
Rabbi Schick is th,e opposite of a cult, as the writter wants to picture him; he is the one who reveals the jewish reality of earning a jewish life with pride and easieness with happiness.
Rabbi schicks books are available on ebay ( search bu user name " dryr ") or you could email helloebayer@yahoo.com
Thanks
God bless You
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