Rabbi Yehuda Kolko
Judaism child abuse
Judaism
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was systematically protected by his fellow rabbis as he
molested a series of young children over a 30 year
span. After years of rampant molestation by Rabbi
Kolko, approximately 10 rabbis met in 1984 to discuss what to do about Rabbi
Kolko’s molestation of young boys at the yeshiva (boys
rabbinical school) where he worked. It was decided to
do nothing, since the yeshiva lawyer told the rabbis that the yeshiva would be
liable for not having reported their knowledge to the
police earlier. Rabbi Kolko was allowed to continue at
the school and his molestation of the children continued unabated.
In 1985 a beit din (a/k/a bais din) was held with 5 more rabbis to
examine the molestation complaints against Rabbi Kolko.
The Rabbi who ran the yeshiva at which Rabbi Kolko
worked was able to end the beit din after hearing only one day of
testimony. A second biet din was set up by the yeshiva
rabbi with the objective of clearing Rabbi Kolko; no molestation
victims appeared before that beit din. Again, no action was taken against
Rabbi Kolko and he was able to continue his
molestation.
Rabbi Kolko continued his molestation until 2006, when
he was finally prosecuted for child molestation.
Through political pressure from the politically powerful orthodox Jewish
community, Rabbi Kolko was allowed to plead to two lesser counts of
misdemeanor child endangerment. The prosecutor claimed
that he allowed the plea to the lesser charges because one
victim was too young and the family would not allow him to testify. The
father of the victim states that was not true; in
fact, he felt it would be a beneficial catharsis for his son to testify.
The father of the other victim stated that he was pressed by the
prosecution to keep his son from testifying.
Both children remain plaintiffs against Rabbi Kolko in a civil suit
and are expected to be witnesses against him in the
civil trial.
All along
the way as charges of child molestation surfaced against Rabbi Kolko, rabbis
threatened victims and their families, publicly
disparaged them, and put pressure on them to
keep quiet. The
response by the orthodox Jewish community to the molestation evidence
against Rabbi Kolko reveals the permissive attitude
toward pedophilia in orthodox Jewry.
[2011] Solving the Mystery of Babylon the
Great by Edward Hendrie Chapter 16: The Common “Preying” of Rabbis and
Priests