The following is from the NY Post:
A Brooklyn rabbi took a fierce beating from teenage punks after demanding they scram from a yeshiva schoolyard where they were bullying students, police said yesterday.
Several students at the Cheder School in Borough Park told their teacher at around 3 p.m. Wednesday that two teens in the school-owned yard playing handball were refusing to let them use the playground, cops said.
“Many times, strangers come in to use the park, so we put up a sign that no one should come — private property,” said an official at the privately run religious academy, who would not give his name.
“Any time someone comes to play, we say over the [loudspeaker], please leave. These two guys wouldn’t leave. That’s when the Rabbi came. They still wouldn’t leave, so he took out his camera phone to take their picture. That’s when they got angry.”
Police said that one of the teens, 16-year-old Justin Rodriguez, of Bensonhurst, shoved the Rabbi.
The other teen, 17-year-old Shreaf Taha, who lives near the school, picked up a bag containing a teddy bear and water gun and whipped it at him, striking him on the head and leaving him with a cut, cops said.
“They cut him on his face. His forehead was bleeding,” said Avrohom Mitnick, a 10th-grader at the school.
But Rodriguez and Taha — neither of whom has a criminal record — said that they were just killing time before Rodriguez had to go to work and that they were the ones who took a beating.
“They said something over the loudspeaker but it was unclear,” Rodriguez said. “Next thing I know, the rabbi charged at me. He kicked at me from behind.”
Members of a volunteer patrol then joined in, the teens said.
“They were hitting us full force,” Rodriguez said, pointing to bruises on his torso, following his arraignment on assault charges yesterday. Taha had welts on his back and neck.
Both were released without bail.
The Rabbi, 36, refused medical attention and declined to comment.
Students said people from the neighborhood often use the school’s yard, even though it was on private property.
(Source: NY Post)
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10 Responses
We are in galus and so can’t change nations and antisemitism of the masses.
But on an individual level, there is nothing in Torah that says Jews must quietly and passivly take a beating from every bully and thug who decides to use Jews as punching bags.
Jews need to learn to defend themselves.
MMA (mixed martial arts) programs would be
excellent physical training to go along with basket ball, and would go far in keeping kids (and adults) fit and healthy, all the better to be able to focus and learn properly, when sitting in shiurim.
These thugs were clearly tresspassing.
May hashem protect us all.
Edited by Moderator.
Goyim play in that playground every night and make a lot of noise. They often harass yidden walking past. Last night I saw one goy kid screaming at 2 little kids with payos who walked by. The poor little yiddishe kids were terrified. The problem is that we can’t do anything about it.
Maybe the police should have been called first to remove these thugs from private property, rather for the Rebbe to deal with them single handed. One never knows what these kids may have up their sleeve.
Theprof1:
This isn’t Europe pre WWII. Today we hasve Shomrim patrols and we have rights. If you call the police they will arrest the “goy.” I see no reason why there aren’t more Jewish kids who learn some form of self defense (at least the smaller kids should) the non Jewish public school kids pick on our yingelech all he time.
WellInformedYid (#5) – Very well said.
Glad they were found and taken in for questioning. This is a warning for others who have the same plans in mind.
I disagree with some of the ideas mentioned. ‘Self Defense’ is great, but it needs to be reserved for just that – Defense. A rabbi coming out of the Yeshiva building to ask 2 Goyim to leave is not ‘defense’, and he should not do anything to either endanger himself, or give them any excuse to claim that he assaulted them first.
Having Yeshiva boys know Martial Arts without learning self control is very dangerous. Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L would often tell a story about a YU Teenager who was walking in the street as a counseler along with younger boys. A group of Goyim started up with them VERBALLY, and he ‘bravely’ scared them off by demonstrating his great Martial Arts skills. A few minutes later the goyim returned with a hammer and hit him in the head, killing him. R’ Miller concluded by warning – ‘If he had kept his mouth shut, he would still be alive.’ He said we should consider them to be just like barking dogs.
As far as WellInformedYid’s comments about the Police arresting Goyim, and this not being Europe… Read this story that happened to me personally.
I was driving along a street, and suddenly a rock hit my windshield. It didn’t break, but I parked the car to cautiously look around to figure out where it came from. I spotted a rowdy pair of goyim walking down the street, and following them from a little back, I witnessed them throwing rocks at other cars. I called 911, and remaining on the phone, kept reporting their description, location, and activities to the operator. This continued for 15 minutes. At some point they hit a car belonging to another Yid, who stopped the car and screamed at them out of his window. The ran over to his car and hit the car, and one of them punched the Yid in the face through his window. I reported this all to the operator, but still no police came. The other Yid who got hit called shomrim and they came in seconds. The goyim ran across the street to their house, and a second later their father came out, screaming and cursing at all of the Yidden that suddenly appeared. The father then pulled out his cellphone, called 911, and told the operator that some Jews were attacking him (an outright lie) and they better come quick. Seconds later 20 police cars showed up. (By now the operator I had been talking too had hung up.) They questioned only the father, the two boys, and the mother (who had not even seen anything.) They then walked over to the Yid and started filling out AN ACCIDENT REPORT that he had hit one of the boys with his car.
I was fuming, and I told every single shomrim person there that I had called the police about the boys, and they never even questioned me as a witness. Finally, one of the shomrim guys got the attention of a police official, and explained to him what I had said and seen. He warned us repeatedly that lying on an assault complaint is a Federal offence (apparently lying about an accident is fine.) And also that an assault charge (for the boys hitting the Jew) is too much of a hassle because they have to take them all down to the station and take pictures. When I insisted that the accident claim was all a lie, he finally ‘hinted’ that he would make the report disappear. I waited until the very end, and walked over to the mamzeirim cops that were writing the accident report and MADE them put my name down as a witness. As they were leaving they were laughing and High-Fiving those two goyim that started the whole mess. Some lesson they learned!!
What upset me the most was the behavior of the cops. To my view, they never really responded to my call, as they only dealt with a alleged accident. They never asked any of the Jews their side of the story, and they demonstrated that they were much more sympathetic and friendly to low life goyim.
When I told my father the story, he told me that my Grandfather used to say, there were 2 things to stay far away from – Dogs and Cops. When I responded that my Grandfather lived in pre-war Poland, where the cops were anti-semite reshaim, my Father answered, “There is no difference son. Remember that.”
Very scary story Yitzyk, another painful remainder that we are in Golus and only Hashem can save us. BTW, where did this incident take place? In New York!!?? Lakewood??
Boro Park, at the corner of 39th st and 12th ave. A lot of people told me the same comment – “This is a reminder that we are in Golus.”
Remember that Rabbi Meir Kahane Zt”l, one of the biggest proponents of Self Defense for Jews, was himself murdered in public in front of numerous witnesses. The killer would have gotten away with it totally if he hadn’t also shot at (even though he missed) a postal employee!