Chabad of East Brunswick rabbi faces sex charges
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January 8, 2013
The director of Chabad of East Brunswick has been arrested on child molestation charges that allegedly occurred almost 12 years earlier while he was counselor at a Chabad camp in Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 30, was arrested Jan. 3 on a warrant out of the Blooming Grove barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, alleging several counts of indecent assault on a person less than 13 years of age, police spokesperson Trooper Adam Reed told NJJN.
The barracks is in Pikes County, where the assault on the boy is alleged to have occurred at Camp Menachem in Lackawaxen Township on June 1, 2001.
Although reports have said Goodman was taken into custody by the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department and was being held in the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania, a jail spokesperson told NJJN he had never been there. The Pikes County Correctional Facility also said he had never been held there.
Calls and faxed inquiries for further details to the Pikes County Magistrate’s Office, which confirmed it is handling the case, were not returned by press time.
Goodman, the son of Rabbi Boruch and Sarah Goodman, grew up in Highland Park. The elder Goodman is the campus director at Chabad House at Rutgers University.
Chabad of East Brunswick is affiliated with Chabad House-Lubavitch Inc. at Rutgers University; it is not part of the Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn that is represented in New Jersey by the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown and its affiliates.
Goodman and his wife, Ora Malka, took over Chabad of East Brunswick in 2006, focusing on educating children. It operates the Chai Central Hebrew School for children ages six-14, stressing “the inculcation of Jewish values and ethics” and “mutual tolerance and respect for fellow human beings as basic principles of the Jewish faith” It also offers bar and bat mitzva instruction and operates the Chai Early Childhood Center.
It also ran a Friendship Club, providing support for special-needs children, their parents, and siblings that was disbanded last year.
News of the arrest spread quickly via social media, producing shock. Michael Goldstein of East Brunswick, whose 12-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter attend school at the Chabad’s Hebrew school, doesn’t believe the charges. He said others who know Goodman share his sentiments.
“My children love him,” said Goldstein. “I completely trust him with my kids. I think he is a warm, honest, good man and one of the most decent and spiritual people I have ever met. I don’t understand how such horrible charges can be brought against such a wonderful person.”
Added Goldstein: “I truly love him and consider him and the whole Goodman family part of my family. He is my rabbi, and my heart is breaking. I just hope he’s able to clear himself and move on with his life. I still hope he will do my son’s bar mitzva in November.”
Attempts to reach family members and obtain comment were unsuccessful.
Goodman founded the annual Good Deed Awards, honoring teen community service leaders from across the state and bringing together MTV stars, elected officials, and state executives. This year’s ceremony was held in the Assembly chambers of the Statehouse.
Goodman has served as chaplain at Chelsea assisted living in East Brunswick.
Last year, the East Brunswick Township Council allowed the Goodmans to pay $35,000 annually on a 30-year lease to renovate and use the shuttered McGinnis School as a community education center. Several weeks ago Goodman told NJJN he was working with township officials and expected to have the building up to code within the coming weeks.
Soon after taking over in 2006, Goodman had said he began to focus on programming for children, running a sleepover camp the previous summer in Keansburg for 25 children. Over this first winter he took another group of young people snow tobogganing in Pennsylvania.
Statement clarifies Chabad connection
Chabad of East Brunswick is affiliated with Chabad House-Lubavitch Inc. at Rutgers University; it is not part of the Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn that is represented in New Jersey by the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown and its affiliates. The RCA has long considered the Rutgers Chabad and the half dozen or so outreach centers under its auspices, all in New Jersey, of operating outside the Chabad-Lubavitch "mainstream."
Rabbi Mendel Herson of Basking Ridge issued the following statement on behalf of the RCA Jan. 10 regarding Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, the director of Chabad of East Brunswick who was charged on Jan. 4 with indecent assault on a minor:
“With regard to the recent press reports concerning Rabbi Aryeh Goodman of East Brunswick, the worldwide Chabad movement is represented in New Jersey by the Rabbinical College of America (Morristown, N.J.) and its affiliates.
“Rabbi Goodman has never worked under the RCA’s auspices and the RCA has never had oversight on his employment.
“On Chabad.org, one can find a list of authorized Chabad centers, which include neither Rabbi Goodman’s organization nor his parent organization at Rutgers.”
Comments
avi
January 08, 2013
Goodman is NOT a Chabad rabbi and NOT associated with Chabad of NJ. He belongs to a group that represents themselves as Chabad without authority from the umbrella Chabad movement. The Camp belongs to this fringe group as well and is not overseen by the chabad movement.
Mark
January 09, 2013
Avi,
If he is not Chabad then you are not Avi….
Please base what you say on facts.
Yanki
January 09, 2013
@Mark
Log onto Rca.edu which is Chabad of New Jersey official website.
Log onto Chabad.org Chabad worldwide website.
See if either Aryeh Goodman, Baruch Goodman or Rabbi Yosef Carlebach is listed.
None of the above hold any position in Chabad.
And look on Chabad.org website and see if the so called Chabad camp is listed as well.
None of these Rabbis or this camp has anything to do with Chabad, they merely use the name, and have no permission for that.
Yumi Chase
January 09, 2013
I love the quote of people saying if you knew the family. Most molesters are very nice people that don’t set off the radar. No matter how many old ladies you help cross the street, and merits you earn, your molestation still makes you a molester.
The Goodman family has been misappropriating the name Chabad for too long. Something scandalous was bound to happen since worshipping the Rebbe as the Messiah wasn’t it.
Again check Chabad.org and check who the Chabad Rabbis are in the area. They’re not Goodmans.
Michael Lerner
January 09, 2013
Innocent until proven guilty.
Mark
January 09, 2013
rca or chabad .org does not make s/o a chabad rep.
Only the Chabad Grand Rabbi can…
If a website does, then http://www.chabadnj.org has Goodman listed?
Yanky and Yumi how is Morristown dorm doing?
Yumi Chase
January 10, 2013
Dear Mr. Winters, I mean Mark,
You’re the biggest apologist for this nonsense. Chabad politics is screwed up because when the Lubavitcher Rebbe died he left no successor to be another Rebbe. However it’s still an organization with trademarks etc, court rulings aside. Anyhow in the feudal structure of Chabad, the first shaliach to an area is in charge of that area in the US (these areas are states). So, from both standpoints Carlebach and his crew aren’t Chabad because they aren’t in the organization and they didn’t follow the system put in place by their Rebbe.
Further if you actually read deep into the chabadnj.org webpage you can read great articles about how the Rebbe is the Messiah, despite still being dead for close to 20 years. These are the people running the show in central New Jersey!
This post is at 7:30 GMT I’ve never been to Morristown NJ other than to take 287 to the Tappenzee Bridge from Rutgers. Greetings from the Holy Snowy City of Jerusalem.
ROSENBERG
January 13, 2013
The temples were destroyed because of Sinat Chinam, hatred of Jews for one another.
We live in a world of sinat chinum in Judaism. The temples were destroyed because Jews hated each other. I fear another Holocaust is around the corner if we Jews do not unite. Anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe and many countries are becoming Judenrein. Israel faces terrible enemies . Extremist Muslims are the new Nazis AND THEY DO NOT HIDE THEIR DESIRE TO DESTROY ISRAEL AND JEWS WORLDWIDE. Why are we Jews so eager to wash our dirty laundry in public for the entire world to see.
Regarding Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, it does not matter whether he is Chabad or not as long as that is what he considers himself. Regarding whether he believes The Rebbe was the Mashiach, that is his opinion and his right to believe. This does not pertain to his innocence or guilt. There have been enough stories regarding the alleged incident. The same is true regarding the incidents at Yeshiva University. Let the courts decide guilt or innocence. Must we give anti-Semites more ammunition to hate us and want to destroy us. I know there will be those who may disagree with me and attack me using an alias. By now my readers know I say what I believe. I have been attacked in the press by an individual in this community stating I have no following. I speak out because it is the right thing to do.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
mirah becker--for stacey
January 18, 2013
I applaud the young man who came forward to ensure that there will never be more victims. It took unbeleiveable courage and it is clear that given the rabbi’s confession other children could have been abused this summer when the chabad summer camp was scheduled to open off-site. the reality is today one must go outside the synagogue to get one’s charges heard and for an objective and real investigation to occur. It is basically impossible for the victims of sexual harrassmant and pedophilia at the hands of a rabbi or cantor or staff to be treated fairly. There are no sexual harrassment policies and guidelines in place at our synaogues, even though the conservative movement adopted such guidelines in 2004, they are nonbinding, and even egalatarian synagogues do not want them in place. Everyone is in denial that there are sexual predators in our synaogues. And when that happens no one wants to proactive about creating an environment that is crystal clear about what constitutes sexual harrassment and discuss what families need to understand about the warning signs associated with predators that are sexually attracted to children. And when a person comes forward they are treated like garbage. They are intimidated and told to eat their charges or else and if they refuse they are retaliated against and marginalized within the community until they leave. If we have nothing to hide as a people, then why not step up to putting policies in place that ensure that a framework exists for the victim to understand their rights and if they have a case and if so what the process is that is fair to all involved. And why not do sexual harrassment education and sexual predator education to clergy and staff and open it up to members if there is an interest. If you want to keep things in-house then the community, the Jews, need to be real and do the due diligence required to create environments that are not fantasybased. There are bad rabbis and bad cantors but they are less likely to land at a synagogue that is forthright and open about their lack of tolerance for sexual behaviors that are inappropriate and make the target feel scared and uncomfortable or that takes advantage of a members’ vulnerabilites through the counseling relationship. It is so hard to step up and say this happened and it is so hard to get anyone to believe you especially if you are accusing a rabbi, and I say, for all the people who feel threatened by this young man, just imagine that because of him your child may have been saved, and for all the indifferent people who knew that this man was a bad actor for years but chose to look the other way, shame on you, because this idea that it is more shameful to tell the truth and stop the abuse than hiding the truth and trying to hush it up within the community, that is where the real shame sits, with the people who care more about the image of the Jews than the reality that there are predators within our population and saving others from victimization should trump all else.
ROSENBERG
January 23, 2013
Jewish Law and the Tragedy of Sexual Abuse of Children
– The Dilemma within the Orthodox Jewish Community
Steven H. Resnicoff* suggest everyone read this article RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG