Michael Hersh writes (and some of his email was edited into third person before it got to me):
It is also EXTREMELY important to let everyone know the sequence of events PRIOR to [Yeshiva University’s David] Pelcovitz interviewing my son in Jamaica. The fact that we asked him 3 days beforehand to travel to Jamaica on our behalf to do an independent evaluation of the boy AND the school – and he refused to go. Yet 3 days later he traveled there without our knowledge and without having ANY facts about Yitzchok Meir’s psychiatric history or behavior at home; he never even spoke to us or the prior mental health professionals even once. However, he had spoken at length to Wolbe, Rivka Cohen, Yitzchok Meir’s twin brother, and everyone who had an agenda to distort the truth. Pelcovitz even traveled to Jamaica together with Arye Wolbe and his father, so he really just went there with a clear intention to confirm what he had been told. He even refused to look around the school at all.
Also, no mention was ever made that the parents were trying for 8 months to get a team of people from the community to travel to Jamaica and visit the school and their son to provide an objective report; no one was willing to go.
It should also be made clear that Arye Wolbe kicked Yitzchok Meir out of his house prior to his parents sending him to Tranquility Bay; Arye Wolbe’s statement was that he would “bring the kid to New York and leave him in the middle of the street if his parents are not willing to take him in” since he did not want to have him in his own house for even one more day. The parents then called friends in Israel and England to look all over for a school that would accept Yitzchok Meir, but there was no school anywhere in the US, Israel, or England that was willing to accept Yitzchok Meir that he himself was willing to go to.
The embassy was in the process of interviewing Yitzchok Meir only because the parents gave full written permission for the US embassy ( and any other 3rd party official) to interview their son in private any time they wanted to.Last but not least, we gave full permission for the New York ACS (Administrative Child Services) agency to speak directly to our son Yitzchok Meir on a private telephone call while he was in Tranquility Bay. They called him just about 2 weeks before this entire “rescue” happened and the ACS caseworker told me that it was clear from speaking to him that he was calm, relaxed, and not in any danger whatsoever. He wanted to get out of the school but said he was fine, had adequate clothing, food, and a place to sleep, and did not mention anything about abuse whatsoever.
