'Unorthodox' Author’s Claim Of Murder Cover-up Rebutted
Coroner’s report lists 20-year-old’s death in Kiryas Joel as suicide.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Special to the Jewish Week
POSTED THURSDAY, FEB. 16, 4:30 P.M.
With allegations of communal cover-ups involving child sexual abuse dogging the haredi community over the past several years, it may not be much of a stretch for some readers to believe a gruesome story that appears in a new memoir about growing up in, and leaving, the Satmar community.
The story, recounted by Deborah Feldman in “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” (Simon and Schuster), involves the alleged mutilation and murder of a boy by his own father — supposedly for masturbating — and the subsequent cover-up of the crime by Hatzolah, the community’s volunteer ambulance service.
The only problem, however, is that based on information obtained by The Jewish Week, the story seems not be true.
Feldman claims she first learned of the grisly crime from her husband who had, in turn, heard about it from his brother, allegedly a member of Hatzolah at the time, who had been called to the blood-soaked scene. Apparently, the boy’s “penis was cut off with a jig saw and his throat was slit too,” Feldman writes.
Feldman recounts that her husband told her his brother “said the neighbors told him they heard loud arguing coming from the house. When he called the [volunteer ambulance] dispatch, they told him to go home and keep quiet about it, that they would take care of it. He said they buried him in thirty minutes and they didn’t even issue a death certificate.”
In a pre-publication interview with Julie Wiener in The Jewish Week, Feldman was questioned about the veracity of the story. Feldman not only insisted that she was not lying, but asserted that the father was known to be mentally ill and implied that he had escaped justice for his crime.
“I worry about his other children,” Feldman told Wiener, “and I worry about people thinking if he could get away with that, then they can get away with anything.”
This is not the first time Feldman has made this allegation. Indeed, in December of 2008 it appeared on her then anonymous blog, Hasidic-Feminist, where it was described as a “Class A secret.” In the blog post, Feldman recounted the story of a “thirteen year-old boy [who] had been castrated with a jig saw and bled to death.”
The incident, according to Feldman, took place “two years ago on an Erev Shabbos in [Kiryas Joel].” She goes on to elaborate that when Hatzolah arrived at the crime scene (a basement) and tried to question the father, “he refused to cooperate, saying only that his son deserved it and that he was a chazar, a pig, because he touched himself.” Feldman then notes that no police report was ever filed and the boy was “under ground” in 30 minutes. “People of KJ,” she warned, “a murderer walks in your midst.”
While some of the 31 comments on the blog post were credulous of Hasidic-Feminist’s claims, several expressed serious skepticism. At least one claimed knowledge that the death was in fact a suicide and that the young man (who, one commenter noted, was not 13 but 19) was well known to have been mentally ill.
“Our community would not have ignored a murder,” wrote a commenter with the screen name Product, “but anyone familiar with Hasidic culture knows that any mention of a familial disgrace such as suicide would be stifled. This explains why the story is so shrouded in mystery.”
A few commenters even chastised Feldman, in the guise of Hasidic-Feminist, for not reporting her knowledge to the police. “[No] one has gone to the police,” she responded to one of these charges, “because no one wants to be publicly outed as a musser — a tattletale. That’s a sin that merits ‘honor killing.’”
However, The Jewish Week confirmed that the state police do in fact have a record of the incident and its office provided the paper with the names of two of its investigators called to the scene, John Van Der Molen and Michael Colern. Calls to the two officers were not returned Thursday.
Further, a death certificate obtained by The Jewish Week indicates that the death — which it noted occurred in a “storeroom” on a Friday afternoon in Kiryas Joel around the approximate date Feldman’s blog alleged — was ruled a suicide by coroner Thomas A. Murray, and lists the cause of death as “partial decapitation, severed carotid arteries due to circular saw.” The deceased’s age was listed as 20.
Several e-mails to Feldman and her publisher, Simon and Schuster, seeking comment did not receive a response.
Privacy laws prevent Hatzolah from commenting on any case, but Moses Witriol, the director of public safety and chief constable for Kiryas Joel, told The Jewish Week that the story was patently false.
“When the first Hatzolah member showed up on the scene, he cordoned off the area and contacted the public safety office, which in turn immediately contacted the state police. Except for them and the coroner, no other people were in the room [where the boy was found]. The state police conducted a full and thorough investigation and interviewed every member of the family.
“If Mrs. Feldman knows about a crime in the village [of Kiryas Joel],” Witriol continued, “I invite her to come forward to law enforcement.”
Reached by phone, a relative of the deceased told The Jewish Week, “I cannot understand how a person could possibly find it within themselves to fabricate such a gruesome story and slander a completely innocent, grieving and tragedy-stricken family in such a horrific way. The facts are that the boy had a long history of mental illness, and his family and the community did a lot to try and help this individual. It was a very tragic end to a life full of suffering.”
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Thank you Hella Winston for your, as always, accurate reporting and for setting the record straight.
Thank you for taking the time to verify details and expose this lie and slander.
So according to official reports, this death was the self-inflicted “partial decapitation, severed carotid arteries due to circular saw.” Has anyone ever heard of someone killing himself by attempting his own decapitation with a power saw? Outside of Hasidic circles, does this ever occur?
Great article. I just take issue with the title of this article. I can understand that those allegations have not been substantiated through your investigation, but that does not mean it's been proven to be false.
From what I gather, she alleges that it's been covered up. From what I know about the community, they are good at covering up their dirt and they are good at keeping the authorities in the dark. Nothing in this article has discredited that. Fine, she had the boy's age but that's not a big deal.
Keep going, Jewish Week. More lies in this book are waiting to be exposed. Simon and Shuster and Ms. Feldman should both be sued.
This is shocking!
Great investigative work.
Books should be vetted by the publisher, especially when it contains such grandiose accusations (sic, "rumors")
And I thought Simon and Shuster, with a reputation to hold dear, would do some research on a story like this! They both, S&S and Feldman ought to apologize.
Id like to know if feldman's husband really told her what she claimed he did. Perhaps that part was fabricated too.
If this book was published as "non-fiction" Simon & Schuster should withdraw the advance and sue the author for fraud and misrepresentation.
Thank you for being honest enough to spot the liars. Anyone who knows the author, lived in her neighborhood, etc. is amazed at how many lies she packed into one book. Some of them are glaringly obvious -- she claims chassidic women aren't allowed to be in the big world -- but she was supposedly chassidic, with a driver's license (the story of her accident) and in college. It is about time that she is called out on the myriads of lies put into the book.
How does someone partially decapitate himself with a circular saw? How is that even possible? Also, community members have been all over the internet gossiping about this book for weeks, talking about how many lies are in this book. The book was not released until Feb. 14. How did so many people read the book *before* it was published? How did they know it was lies before it was published? Something stinks. There was far too much preemptive damage control being done. This alone suggests a cover-up. How is the story that he partially decapitated himself even *close* to believable?
Ahh, Simon & Schuster, the company that also published Jimmy Carter's anti-Israel polemic. This Feldman book is par for the course for the publisher
Lmao. What investigation? Asking the coroner's office? Asking the family?
A nice lawsuit against her would bring the details to light.
Read again.... If there is a State Police report then she is lying. She claims it was never reported and the truth is otherwise. What's more, if the State Police was on the scene then it is impossible that there was a burial 30 minutes later, don't ya think?
She is a bitter lady who will stop @nothing to discredit her heritage. NO ONE should believe a word of what she says or writes.
The only thing she missed in the book was the fact that Satmar kidnaps a gentile child each year and uses its blood in their matzah.
Ever heard of the midevil concept "gulity until ..." yeh thats what it seems you think when it comes to anyone you dont agree with
Unfortunately yes. I remember that it happened in Lakewood about 30 years ago.
Yes this story is as true as the allegations she gave that passengers in the front seat are not supposed to use seat belts.
nick,
of course it was disproved, was his penis missing or not? was it ruled as a homicide or not?
exactly .... there are many things some communities will never reveal .... my sister in law is a nurse and worked during the 80's in Brooklyn ... in a woman's clinic .... this is when AIDS first came out ... many of the hasidic women were dying of AIDS (chas v'sholom) from husbands who were visiting prostitutes ... on all the medical reports she had to write 'breast cancer' .... a rabbi visited the clinic regularly and the doctor somehow went along with it ... according to the medical reports, all the illnesses were 'breast cancer' ... no one had AIDS ....
You've rebutted nothing. Feldman claimed to HEAR something, that's kind of hard to rebut.
You, however, make substantiatable claims. A police report is often a public record, you do us a disservice by not posting it. Same with the death certificate. (Those are occasionally sealed, I know, is this the case here?) Not knowing the name of the victim makes it difficult for me to do any of my own research into the matter, you'll forgive me for not taking your word on it.
Family privacy is important, I know, but even if this was a suicide, it will be for the benefit of the public for it to be publicized. Talking about suicides can prevent further suicides. (Mental illness has enough of a stigma among Chassidim already...)
Interesting how you don't mention this comment from her blog "Every hatzolah member in Monroe and some in Monsey know of this story. I was able to verify this story within 24 hours of reading it here." Now that doesn't prove anything, but your not including it here is telling. (We all have our agendas. I know mine, what's yours?) [You don't even provide a link to her now defunct blog post, I will: http://web.archive.org/web/20101018062902/http://hasidic-feminist.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-know-things.html]
In conclusion: OH YEAH? PROVE IT!
a simple google search of "suicide by circular saw" yielded the following in only the second site.
http://www.fsijournal.org/article/S0379-0738(08)00371-X/abstract
I do know from personal experience that nobody in the community would ever go to the police even if it were true for in the Hassidic tradition no Jew testifies against another Jew.
What I want to know is -- why doesnt Deborah Feldman talk more about her lesbian mother? I find it really hard to believe a sheltered Satmar girl figures out on her own how to get to Sarah Lawrence, of all schools ... afterall, she claimed to have only a 4th grade education at tops, by the time she graduated high school. And then she gets a full scholarship at Sarah Lawrence (the most expensive college in the country)????
There is no way I will believe she doesn't have someone behind her (as she said, she had the best lawyers money could buy) who was guiding her on how to milk the system on every side she can. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was her own mother who she conveniently never mentions much in her interviews, most likely so she can elicit sympathy that she is a hero breaking free of oppression all on her own. Because otherwise it isn't really much of a story.
Also, how did she end up getting her son into preppy Park East day school? If Sarah Lawrence was her window to the world as she claims, I can assure you those people who were trying to help her escape religion weren't encouraging further religious schooling and arranging scholarships for her son at Park East.
And what about her claim chassidic women aren't allowed to eat out in restaurants???? Have you ever gone to Prime Grill on a Thursday evening and seen the place filled to the brim with chassidic yiddish Williamsburg guys taking their wives out? Who do you think frequents the hundreds of kosher restaurants in NYC enabling them all to stay in business? Certainly not the modern-orthodox who eat out (only fish and vegetarian, no meat) in non-kosher establishments.
And now that Feldman dragged her ex-husband down and he too is marginalized in the community and not too religious-- when asked if there could be a reconciliation, she tugs at your sympathy and says "we were essentially strangers." As if the boyfriend in New Orleans whom she met online isn't more of a stranger and he has more in common with her????
This woman is messed up. Her 15 minutes of fame will pass -- much like those before her... has anyone heard of Pearl Abraham (Romance Reader). No doubt Pearl is fuming (just like Madonna toward Lady Gaga) and saying -- hey, this Feldman girl is a copy-cat and that was my idea, that was my act.
But I just want to know why is the view into the chassidic world always highlighting the sex? Didn't these women have any other enlightening experiences they could share? Guess they were just really boring people with bland lives... and all they had to sell was sex.
hey, I want my comment back. I put in alot of thought to write that, and now it's going to just disappear because I now learn you cant post more than 300 words? At least break it up.
This is only one, albeit one of the most severe, lies in her book. I look forward to Simon & Schuster wiping the mud off their faces. This is far worse then the book Oprah promoted a number of years ago that turned out to be false. Because almost every Orthodox Jew, Hassidic and Misnagdim, have been hurt by her story. We should surely take both her and her publisher to Beis Din for slander.
As far i remember at the time that story happened her brother in law did not join the KJ EMS...
"Has anyone ever heard of someone killing himself by attempting his own decapitation with a power saw?"
Yes - a non-Jewish neighbor of mine who was married to a Jewish woman did exactly that. The mess was indescribable but we worked for many hours to clean it up and bury him with his splattered blood. It was a real tragedy but that is how he chose to die.
Here is an explanation offered by DF. make of it what you will
"The way I related that story in the book was exactly the way it happened to me: in a conversation. I described a dialogue word for word in which my husband told me the story his brother had told him. I made no claims about the story itself, or if it was true, I just described hearing it being told to me and my reaction to that telling. It was more about the conversation than the actual story. Since then I’ve received a lot of messages about that story; some people seem convinced it was a murder, others are inclined to dismiss it as a suicide. Either way it’s tragic, but again, I don’t make any claims as to its veracity. I hope someone does uncover the truth though."
Take it easy! Didn't you read that he was mentally ill.... Why do you have to blame it on chassidic circles?! The only thing I can hear toward that claim is that, according to my understNding chassidim are big into that aveirah, and some stress it a lot, and therefore I can hear that specifically because he grew up in that community he suffered from slot of guilt in that area.
I am also curious as to how one partially decapitates their own self. Seems suspicious to me.
This truly is a cover up. The Satmars of KJ have not only burned each others cars and houses but do cover up as much as they can from the police. So people who can burn each others cars and houses are NOT to be belived
I grew up in KJ, I don't know if its true but I believe it is possible, they are capable of anything.
To those who claim self-decapitation is improbable, I shuddered when I read this as it was strikingly similar to a tragedy that took place some 40-50 years ago in my community. An Orthodox Jewish teenager took his own life in exactly the same manner and yes, we did have power saws in those days! This woman who dropped out of the Satmar community seems quite disturbed, the more you read about her. She illustrates the very sad fact that the worst Jews are the self-haters, of which we have Rachmana Litzlan, way too many.
To David Lener:
I understand you are a friend of Feldman's and want to defend her. However, your logic is so lacking that it is hard to take you seriously. Neither you nor she offers absolutely one shred evidence for her allegations, except that she heard a "story" about it. Well, I know her ex-husband and he says the story she writes in the book about his brother calling their house to tell them about the incident did not happen. Perhaps you should seek him out and ask him about this yourself. It is also the case that his brother was not a member of hatzoloh at the time of the incident. The fact that you don't know the dead man's name is also telling. If "every hatzoloh" member in Monroe knows this story, then surely you can get the name quite easily and request the death certificate yourself. And while you're at it, why don't you also call the state police and the coroner, as their names appear in the story? You have a right to your skepticism, but if you are going to accuse a man of murder and hatzoloh, the state police and the coroner of covering-up for him, you are going to need more than invented gossip to do so without sounding like a silly conspiracy theorist.
So he partially decapitated himself with a circular saw? Makes sense to me. This story has no logic. What's more shocking are the people who think this article makes sense and use it to discredit Feldman. Thank you, I will definitely buy and read her book.
>for in the Hassidic tradition no Jew testifies against another Jew. <
Unless they are leaders of said community like Aaron and Zalman.
Youd think that Deborah Feldman's family, and all Chassidic families, hasve lots of skeletons in their closet. Trust me they dont have any more or any less than the world at large. You wouldnt know it based on Deborah Feldman's fable.
If anything the book should have been titled Un-"Satmar" but believe it or not, among Chassidic people there are highly educated and very worldly and NORMAL individuals.
Are all non- Chassidic people educated and worldly?
Orthodox people are mostly VERY highly educated and VERY worldly.
Bad choice of title, S&S!
He was mentally ill!
I've been wondering all the same things. Not about her mother but about SL. I went to one of the most liberal highschools in NYC. Laguardia HS for Music and Art and I had not heard of SL untill my best friend applied to the school. How did she hear of it? How did they come to except her. I understand she learned a lot on her own. Reading, etc. I am sure the admissions people felt she had a compelling story and much to offer to the diversity of the school. However, something is missing. I would love to be filled in on it.
there is something seriously wrong with this article.
first please read this portion of one of the last paragraphs of this article, I quote, "was ruled a suicide by coroner Thomas A. Murray, and lists the cause of death as “partial decapitation, severed carotid arteries due to circular saw.” The deceased’s age was listed as 20."
now that you have read that, doesnt that prove that Ms. Feldman was NOT indeed fabricating the story?!? to me it does because Ms. Feldman said she heard the story from her husband and her husband said there was a boy who was killed because etc.. etc.. now we dont really know the truth about why he died meaning whether it was suicide or he was killed by someone but, the coroner states, as I quoted to you from this article that he found the guy with partial decapitation and severed carotid arteries due to circular saw, I think the possibility of someone taking a saw to his neck is just as likely as him doing it himself, the is zero proof in this article that Ms. Feldman is fabricating this story!!!!!
again seems people are seeing what they want to see here.
Even I, whom Ms Feldman accuses of having a poor education can spell Accept the right way...
Sorry...had to point out the irony.
Can someone fill in whether Deborah Feldman ever really went to Satmar school. During what years did she go to Public School and why. There is word out there, that she actually went to Vien girls school in Williamsburg. And that she went to Public School but was enrolled under her name Sara Berkowitz. So I imagine Berkowitz is her maiden name? Why would her family send her to public school? Is she learning disabled?
And the lesson in all of this to me, is stay away from people from unstable family backgrounds and women who wish they could be "famous" and will lower their dignity and do whatever they have to, to get their 15 minutes of fame. Not too considerate to drag her nice ex-husband who reportedly is a loving father and who fulfills his duty of child support, into all that.
I have to wonder if the author of this article knows the definition of the word "rebuttal."
Talking to the very people accused of the cover-up and nobody else is just sloppy reporting. This isn't a rebuttal, this just looks like more of the cover-up. Makes me think perhaps there really is something to this story.
"Orthodox people are mostly VERY highly educated and VERY worldly."
I'm sorry, in what fantasy world is this? The only highly educated orthodox people I know are baalei teshuva, or over 55 prior to the college taboo.
I don`t know if Cookie Jar is aware of this, but a lot of things have changed since Leave it to Beaver. There arose a greater need for orthodox subculture when college campus promiscuity reached new levels of shame.
Chaim--
Are you serious? Zero proof she is lying?
There are two issues here. The facts of the case and the veracity of the hearsay Mrs Feldman is repeating.
The hearsay Mrs. Feldman is repeating claims...
1) a 13 year old boy was killed by his father
2) the father severed the boy's penis for masturbating
3) a communal cover-up with no police investigation or death certificate
The article proves all of this to be untrue. Mrs. Feldman might be telling the truth that she did indeed hear this story from her former husband, but the story itself is BOGUS.
So if the story is bogus, why would she repeat it in a book? Why wouldn't Mrs. Feldman or her publisher fact check the details?
Because Mrs. Feldman has a vendetta which you can plainly see in her blog and in her articles and in the book itself. She is convinced without any proof whatsoever (aside from the story she alleges her former husband told her) that there is a conspiracy to cover up this "crime" instead accepting the police report and the coroners report that this was a tragic and gruesome suicide. How can she still believe this was a cover-up when the facts in the case prove otherwise? Again, there was no severed penis, which would be integral to support her alleged story.
Mrs. Feldman wrote "I hope someone does uncover the truth though" which is her way to continue to make the allegation of a conspiracy by denying that the truth has already been revealed.
How would this completely sheltered 19 or 20 year old woman who just discovered 2 years earlier that she had a vagina (and couldn't consummate her marriage for a year) even know what male masturbation is? The bottom line--very little she claims seems to have any validity and her claims about this story are completely non-nonsensical.
"There arose a greater need for orthodox subculture when college campus promiscuity reached new levels of shame."
I'm not saying they should go to college, I'm saying for the most part, they are not well educated. They are also mostly not very worldly.
Many in that community will argue thats a good thing. I'm not arguing either way, just responding to the comment by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/18/2012 - 23:01.
Seriously? Which cave did u just crawl out of that you offer such broad sweeping generalizations. As a person who has worked with all kinds of Jews, I can tell you that the children of Chasidim are often much brighter, kinder and more capable than the children of doctors and lawyers.
Most grownups are aware that intelligence in cross cultural, you obviously are still in the cookie jar.
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