Another episode from Limmud 2025! This episode is a recording of a session presented by Asher Lovy at Limmud this past year. In this episode you'll learn the (possibly) real story of why the OU finally declared quinoa kosher for Pesach. The story starts with angry caterers desperate to provide kosher l'pesach sushi to the masses, lingers for a while on the horrific attempts by the late Torah Vodaas Rosh Yeshiva, Yisroel Belsky, to bully the victim of Yossi Kolko into dropping his case, and ends with a mysterious mission to investigate quinoa production in the Andes, and free Jacob Ostreicher from prison. 

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Three victims advocates walk into a conference, stop us if you've heard this one before! In this episode, Asher Lovy is joined by Shana Aaronson, director of Magen, and Yehudis Fletcher, founder and director of Nahamu, to just kibbitz about what life as an advocate is like. We ricochet back and forth from the hilarious to the horrific, and Shana gets serious about what the essence of our work is about. This episode is a little peek behind the curtain into what goes into this kind of work. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

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When we covered the case against Nechemya Weberman before on Outcry we didn't expect to be covering it again so soon, but a recently filed motion in Kings County Supreme Court, supported by District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, seeks to free him from his 50-year sentence. 

Weberman was convicted at trial for the repeated rape and sexual assault of a 12 year old girl over the course of three years who was sent to him for unlicensed counseling by the Satmar Vaad Hatznius. After she came forward to police, the Satmar community pulled out every stop to support Weberman and punish his victim for daring to report him to the authorities. After a harrowing trial, during which several people were arrested for witness intimidation for trying to threaten her, Weberman was convicted and sentenced to 103 years, a sentenced that was later reduced to 50 years. 

Since that time the community has resolutely stood behind him, fundraising for him, disparaging his victim, and pulling every political lever they could to let this dangerous pedophile out of prison. Those efforts culminated in the motion filed in Kings County court, which is what we're covering in this episode. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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SHOW NOTES:

https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/13/brooklyn-eric-gonzalez-nechemya-weberman/ 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/nyregion/judge-nechemya-weberman-resentence.html 

https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/05/09/brooklyn-da-cumo-sentence-commute-request/ 

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/brooklyn-rabbi-accused-of-molesting-girl-since-she-was-12/ 

https://forward.com/news/168172/inside-hasidic-modesty-patrols/ 

https://gothamist.com/news/fundraiser-for-alleged-child-molester-in-south-williamsburg-draws-protest-arrests 

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/nyregion/4-ultra-orthodox-men-charged-with-trying-to-silence-accuser-in-abuse-case.html 

https://www.jta.org/2022/12/15/ny/satmar-grand-rebbe-visits-convicted-sexual-abuser-nechemya-weberman-in-prison 

We're taking a break from our coverage of the Judah Karkowsky trial to cover the case against Yeshiva of Flatbush and Lonny Benamy, a longtime teacher. Lonny was accused in a CVA lawsuit of grooming and sexually abusing a student at Yeshiva of Flatbush. The complaint details a system of grooming that Benamy engaged in to create a group of students who received special favor from him and use that to his advantage. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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SHOW NOTES:

https://www.amazon.com/When-Rabbis-Abuse-Dynamics-Culture/dp/1957712015

In our continuing coverage of the Judah Karkowsky trial we wrap up with the various pretrial motions made by the defense before jury selection. In particular in this episode we get into arguments made by Karkowsky's lawyer about the validity of the case itself, and about whether or not Karkowsky's texts with Aryeh Schulman should be excluded from evidence because Karkowsky believed that he enjoyed attorney client privilege with Schulman. 

If you haven't listened to parts one and two of this series, please listen to those first. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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In this episode we do a deep dive on one of the dumbest, most mind-bending, time-consuming arguments made by Karkowsky's lawyer during pretrial motions: The question of whether or not to allow Karkowsky to introduce a full copy of his forged transcript as evidence. But it was forged, you may ask? Shouldn't that preclude it from being held forth as an authentic piece of evidence? Nevertheless his lawyer persisted. 

If you haven't listened to parts one and two of this series, please listen to those first. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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We are joined this episode by Yehudis Fletcher to discuss her new memoir: Chutzpah: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay. Yehudis is the founder of Nahamu, a UK based research organization focused on the issues of forced and arranged marriage, and sexual and domestic violence. Yehudis leads Nahamu’s analysis of the harms arising from extremism in the Jewish community and shapes our advocacy and policy response.

Yehudis has a background in project management and development. She is a independant sexual violence adviser, and has been battling violence against women and girls for the past decade. 

Confronted with either losing the faith she loved or losing herself, Yehudis made the most daring decision of all: she decided to stay. Wry and exhilarating, Chutzpah is a fearless exploration of what is possible when one person simply refuses to choose between abandoning their roots and abandoning themselves.

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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SHOW NOTES:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/notorious-paedophile-allowed-live-just-31753524

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/convicted-paedophile-todros-grynhaus-owns-31834441

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Chutzpah-by-Yehudis-Fletcher/9780857529954?srsltid=AfmBOopqSA-i_MSOxIYApEPEs40Sfo_Gn5mTznDvCaVa1-iKXYAfVUFK

https://www.audible.com/pd/Chutzpah-Audiobook/B0DY8QNXBM

https://www.instagram.com/yehudisfletcher

https://nahamu.org/

In our continuing coverage of the trial of Judah Karkowsky we do a deep dive on how exactly Karkowsky was caught using a forged transcript of the hearing dismissing his sexual abuse charges to try and con his way back into the Young Israel of Woodmere, and defraud the Woodmere Fire District, and County of Nassau. We also get into some of the pretrial motions that eventually became the basis for Karkowsky's appeal of his guilty verdict. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

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Judah Karkowsky is perhaps the dumbest criminal we've ever covered on this podcast. After getting off on a technicality for the alleged sexual assault of a child while responding to an EMS call at the Young Israel of Woodmere, Judah Karkowsky decided to test his luck even further. Karkowsky used a forged copy of the transcript of the hearing where his charges were dismissed to try and scam his way back into the Young Israel of Woodmere, and also tried using the same transcript to try and scam the Woodmere Fire Department out of $15,000,000 for firing him and reporting the alleged abuse. 

The plan backfired spectacularly and Karkowsky was convicted by a jury for this use of a forged instrument. In this series we're going to break down the particulars of the forgery case, do a deep dive on the trial, and discuss the people who supported his efforts. In this episode we cover what led to the charges in this case: Karkowsky's relationship with Ari Shulman, his attempt to leverage that relationship to get Shulman to unwittingly assist in his fraud against the Young Israel of Woodmere, and the ridiculous and obvious forgery that kicked this whole case off. 

This episode is dedicated l'iluy nishmas Rabbi Eliyahu Fink who tragically passed in a car accident in March, Ariella's aunt, Beth Goldberg, and Miriam Isserow, whose unwavering support of ZA'AKAH and invaluable leadership made ZA'AKAH what it is today. 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

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Show Notes: 

Karkowsky Exhibits: https://imgur.com/a/oqwkgm4

In March of 2011, Rabbi Gavriel Bidany was arrested for groping an IDF soldier on a plane to the United States. While sitting next to her he reached his hand under her blanket to touch her without her consent. 

In this episode we discuss what he did, the details of his case, his trial and conviction, and the many people who came to his defense and wrote sentencing recommendations on his behalf. Many of those letters mentioned his particular interest in the young girls and women in the author's families, and the surprising twist of what one of his defenders was later arrested for will surprise you! 

To learn more about ZA'AKAH or to donate, visit our website at https://zaakah.org

To get in touch with questions, comments, or any other concerns related to Outcry, email us at [email protected]

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