Luke Ford

Chris Conrad writes:

It could be a year before a fugitive Ashland pedophile returns to the United States, despite his arrest in Israel.

Arthur Samuel Silverman has spent close to eight years on the lam after fleeing the country to avoid prison after he was convicted of sexually abusing two children in August 1997.

Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston has been in contact with U.S. Department of Justice lawyers. They told Huddleston that Silverman is scheduled for a court hearing in Israel on Dec. 17.

"We do not have a lot of experience with international extraditions," Huddleston said. "We’ve done maybe one or two over the years."

Huddleston said if Silverman decides to fight extradition it could take up to a year before he is shipped back to the U.S.

"As of right now, we are still working to decide where we are in this case," Huddleston said.

Silverman pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges in Ashland in 1997. But he fled the country before going to prison, and later made his way to Israel.

Israeli police say Interpol helped them track down Silverman. The international police agency told Israeli police Silverman’s wife was flying to Israel to visit him.

Police followed the woman to his home and arrested him.

Joe emails:

We actually had Friday night dinner with Silverman a few weeks ago, at one of the local Rabbi’s homes. He had been in Israel under an alias, and no one suspected a thing. He gave a wonderful course in caring for the caregiver of the terminally ill locally, and was very well received. A very active and good member of the community and kehilla. I do not say that to negate what occurred in Oregon. As we all know, both sides of the coin coexist in all men, hopefully not to such a socially unacceptable extreme. A tragic story for all involved. The community here is in shock, but mostly in mourning for the very sad fates of all involved.

It is important for Americans to comprehend the Israeli apprehension of handing over Jews to foreign authorities for crimes perpetrated prior to Aliya. First, the vast majority of Israelis come from lands where every Jewish family had a dreadful criminal rap sheet, largely undeserved at all and a function of nothing more than Zionist desires in a corrupt and evil country. It is impossible for Israel to state that all criminal rap sheets of Siberia, Yemen and Ukraine are void but those of Oregon or New Zealand are valid. Where does the Ministry of Interior draw the line? Is Belgium OK? Georgia (the nation, not the state of the US)? Argentina post-junta? How about Argentine during the junta when all the Jews ended up with criminal convictions and smeared reputations? Uruguay? Southern Italy and Sicily? From an Israeli perspective, it is impossible to discern, and they are particularly loath to state that the Anglos and French as OK, but all of you who emigrated from eastern nations, Arab nations and the former Soviet Union will be treated differently as second class citizens. There need be one identical driver’s license test for all citizens and immigrants, as the saying goes in Israel.

Second, much as the history of the American Jews who emigrated from eastern Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century, many a Romanian horse thief proved a very worthy citizen in the Land of Opportunity and Plenty. The US turned a very blind eye to prior nationality rap sheets at the time of mass emigration, just as Israel does today. American Jews today have lost that perspective, and fail to recognize present Israeli policy as near identical that of the US and the UK during the periods of mass emigration from eastern European tyranny.

From DaatTorah:

Rav Sternbuch(Teshuvos v’Hanhagos 5:398):

I received his letter and I was very upset at the outrageous behavior of the principal who refused to listen to the claims against the teacher concerning alleged disgusting deeds – because he said it was lashon harah. Now the accusations against the teacher are increasing and the principal still stubbornly insists that there is not adequate evidence in the matter and therefore it is better to be concerned with the prohibition of lashon harah – then to investigate the matter. The assertions of the principal are total nonsense and they provide an opening for destruction – G?d forbid.

It is a fundamental obligation for a rosh yeshiva or principal to listen to all rumors and suspicions concerning that which occurs in his domain. That is because the first obligation he has is to guard the souls of his students. Therefore he has to be concerned with everything – even if it turns out to be a false alarm. So even though the teacher is presumed to be a good person – nevertheless whatever issues that are related to the protecting of the students – if there is even the slightest possibility that something might harm the children or young students – the principal is obligated to investigate to determine whether the suspicions are valid and/or to make a special effort to keep the suspected teacher under close observation.

It is important to keep in mind that the essential prohibition of speaking or listening to lashon harah is when it is said by a person who is an enemy or is jealous of the person being talked about and thus his motivation is not pure. However when the negative information is from a person who has pure motivation it is necessarily to be concerned with each and every claim or rumor in order to prevent someone being harmed. A suspicion which is suppressed by the prohibition of lashon harah could possibly be critical knowledge that is need to prevent harm to many people.

 

Once I was visiting the Gerrer Rebbe and he asked me about a certain young man. Since he was concerned that I might have objections about revealing the information because of lashon harah he said to me, “You should know that there is no prohibition of lashon harah in this house because everything spoken here is for a beneficial reason. And everything that I hear I use for beneficial purposes and with G?d’s help it will always be done for a beneficial reason.”

I heard about the rabbinical conferences attended by the holy Chofetz Chaim who gave a talk about lashon harah. At the end he asked the rabbis that were present to sign a pledge to be careful from lashon harah. Rav Chaim Ozer refused to sign. There are various versions as to the reason for this. According to what I heard, he replied that the city rabbi has to know and listen to everything – even if there is just a remote possibility that it is true and to investigate whether the assertions and concerns are true. He was afraid that as a consequence of signing the document he would be more strict and more cautious regarding lashon harah than he should be – and that this would cause many to suffer. Therefore he felt that it was better that they make a decree to learn the halachos of lashon harah – than to agree never to speak or hear lashon harah.

From Haaretz:

One-fifth of Israel’s civilian prisoners were arrested on charges of domestic violence, a Knesset think tank found after examining data from the Prison Service. About 400 prisoners behind bars for domestic violence had been jailed five or more previous times, although not all previous convictions were for domestic violence, according to the Knesset’s Research and Information Center.

In early November, over 1,800 prisoners were serving domestic-violence sentences, including 116 convicted of incest. Half of the domestic-violence sentences were between one and five years, though 129 prisoners are serving life sentences for these offenses.

Haaretz reports on Israelis traveling to Thailand to get sex:

Brucker stayed at the "Mai Travel" hotel in the city, which accommodates, almost exclusively, Israeli sex tourists. He visited sex clubs, dined with Israeli sex tourists and played pool with them. In between activities, he interviewed some 60 men.

Amir (not his real name), a 39-year-old bachelor, said "I heard about Pattaya the same way everyone hears about it. But only when you arrive, and you breathe in the atmosphere and live the place, only then do you understand how much everything you were told is nothing, a pathetic tiny nothing of nothings, compared to the amazing and wondrous reality that awaits you here."

"The openness," Amir continued, "the humanity, the smiles of the beautiful sexy and open-minded women. It’s not like the Israeli women, with their nose so far up in the air that it slaps Jumbo planes flying by in the sky."

Brucker, formerly a member of the Sha’ar Ha’amakim kibbutz, currently lives in Ramat Gan. He traveled to Pattaya alone after spending a week in Thailand with his girlfriend, Hila, a clinical psychologist. "I was afraid that Guy would get bored, and wouldn’t be able to last three months," Hila said. "It wasn’t that I was afraid he would do something, but three months seemed like too long to me. When we sat with Israelis and I heard them speak about the Thai women I was disgusted. I thought it was the most vulgar thing. Later, it became apparent that this kind of talk was the acceptable norm."

Do whatever you want

Brucker, an introverted type, overcame his natural shyness and bought a ticket to the infamous city through the Israeli Connection travel agency. "When the Thai driver called out ‘Pattaya’ I got a flashback of seven-year-old Guy breaking a soup bowl in the middle of the kibbutz dining hall during Shabbat dinner and the eyes of half the kibbutz turn to him, asking ‘what’s going on with Shmuel’s son?’" Brucker writes in his report.

The hotel was not very striking, he writes. "You can see pictures of men hugging Thai women on the walls alongside thank you notes from former clients thanking the hotel owners for their hospitality.

Khunrum emails: “Israelis have the worst reputation of any tourists in Thailand. They are known for being loud, obnoxious and stingy. Also, very abusive to the bar girls.”