Luke Ford

Zaakah posts March 18, 2026: In a letter sent to students last week by Oberlin president Ambar, students were informed that Rabbi Scott Shlomo Elkan, co-director of Oberlin’s Chabad, had been banned from campus. Her letter stated that according to a police report Elkan admitted to egregious actions in his personal life, including engaging in online sexual conversations concerning children, and objectionable behavior.
The Forward reported today, based on a copy of the police report that it obtained, that Elkan had allegedly received sexually explicit texts, photos, and videos through Kik concerning three young people, ages 7, 12, and 13. In December, the Forward reported, Elkan allegedly been talking to someone who sent Elkan photos of himself giving a child a bath, alluded to himself touching the child’s genitals, and said he had been aroused when the child was sitting on his lap. The forward further reported that according to the report Elkan had shared photos of girls as part of that conversation.
Elkan, for his part, claimed to the Forward that his messages were not based on real events, but were between him and an adult and based on fantasy. He did not, according to the forward, address the photos.
According to the Forward Elkan resigned from his position with Chabad last Friday, per a Chabad spokesperson.
In her letter, Ambar acknowledged that no charges had been filed against Elkan, but nonetheless acknowledged the violation of basic morality and civil norms that were incompatible with Oberlin’s values. The letter stated that Oberlin had become aware of the matter after Oberlin police had reached out to the college as part of its ongoing investigation, and after filing a public records request with the police department, the college became aware of the precise nature of the allegations.
The letter announced an investigation into Elkan’s behavior and a campus climate assessment to determine the impact, and provided contact information for the investigators.
Below is the full text of the letter:
This is a very difficult message to deliver. I write to you in this moment not only as the President, but also as a member of our community and as an Obie parent. I hold close my commitment to the safety and welfare of our students, faculty, and staff, and the values that make Oberlin the precious place that we love. It is this commitment to the welfare of our community and our shared values that requires this message.
Today, Oberlin College severed its relationship with Rabbi Scott (Shlomo) Elkan, based on information in an Oberlin Police Department report. As many of you are aware, Elkan was a longtime volunteer at our college, certifying our kosher kitchen and sometimes leading Passover services and other religious celebrations. However, in the police report, Elkan admits to egregious actions in his personal life—including engaging in online sexual conversations concerning children and objectionable behavior. This behavior violates Oberlin’s values, shocks the conscience, and makes it clear that we cannot allow him continued access to our campus and community. Consequently, we have banned him from campus, from attending college events, and from representing himself as connected to Oberlin College in any way.
As abrupt and difficult as these measures will be—especially for those who sought spiritual leadership and guidance from Elkan—the seriousness of this matter requires clear and swift action. While no criminal charges have been filed against Elkan, his behavior and the language he acknowledged using violate basic morality and civil norms and are incompatible with the values of our institution.
We became aware of a matter involving Elkan when the Oberlin Police Department reached out to the college as part of an ongoing investigation. Based on this outreach, we filed a public-records request with the Oberlin Police Department to learn the substance of the matter. On March 5, we received the police report revealing that Elkan had engaged in online sexual conversations and behavior concerning children.
While the college has not previously received reports of this nature regarding Elkan’s behavior, we have asked a third party to conduct an inquiry and a campus climate assessment to determine if there are members of our campus who have been impacted. To begin this process, we are asking anyone in the Oberlin community who has concerns or information about Elkan that they wish to disclose to reach out to INCompliance at [email protected] or 216-523-5472.
During this challenging moment, we also want to ensure that our community has the guidance of counseling services and the Multifaith Chaplaincy staff. It is understandable that this news may be upsetting, and I encourage you to seek the support you need.
If it would be helpful to talk, process, or simply be in a supportive space, please stop by to see our campus counselors. Counseling and Psychological Services will offer drop-in sessions in Dascomb from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15, and again on March 21 and 22. Drop-in hours will also continue from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Multifaith Chaplaincy staff also invites those seeking connection and support to join them at Lewis House until 5 p.m. today (Friday) and between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday and Sunday. Other campus resources include the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and Student Support and Outreach.
We have worked hard to build a rich and robust Jewish life at Oberlin, as evidenced by our strong Jewish Studies program, our religious and spiritual student life support, our vibrant and growing engagement with Jewish-centered organizations, the numerous Jewish student groups on campus, and our kosher kitchen. I am committed to maintaining the various programs that our students, faculty, and staff enjoy. To help our students through this time and provide spiritual guidance, we have asked Rabbi Allison B. Vann to work with our community through the remainder of the semester. Rabbi Vann was last on campus to lead High Holy Day services in 2025.
I can appreciate that receiving this message will engender a range of emotions: disbelief, sadness, concern, frustration, and many sentiments in between. I am experiencing this range of emotions myself, but they are tempered because I have been a part of this community for many years, and I can speak directly to our resilience. Be assured that the strength of our community will endure, and I look forward to the day when our current emotions are replaced by trust, joy, reassurance, and peace.

Alex S. Kaufman writes March 11, 2026: Today is a big day—a day that I’ve anticipated for decades. Following the settlement of the lawsuit that I filed in October 2021 against Akiva Roth, the predator who abused me as a child, and against the East Brunswick Jewish Center (EBJC) and its former pulpit rabbi, Chaim Rogoff, who covered for him, I am revealing my identity and telling my story publicly for the first time.

My name is not John Doe. It is Alex Kaufman. And I am a survivor of child sex abuse and a cover-up that spans the Jewish experience.

My settlement represents a milestone in the world of child sex abuse cases because it includes concrete and meaningful restorative steps that EBJC—my childhood synagogue in East Brunswick, New Jersey—agreed to take to make that institution safer for children. Schools, camps and houses of worship can reduce the likelihood that a predator will target or thrive in their community by implementing simple, but often non-obvious, protective measures.

The Canberra Times reports March 19, 2026: The battle is over for a prominent victim advocate after his abuser was sentenced for sexually exploiting him at a Jewish holy festival close to four decades ago.

Manny Waks was aged between 10 and 12 when Zev “Velvel” Serebryanski assaulted him at the Yeshiva Centre in Melbourne’s southeast sometime between 1986 and 1988.

Serebryanski, who was in his early 20s at the time, had developed a sexual interest in the then-child and cornered him upstairs one night during the religious Shavuot festival.

The man sat down on a bench next to the pre-teen and groped at his groin before pulling him into a bathroom and sexually assaulting him.

In sentencing the now-62-year-old to a suspended jail term, Victorian County Court Judge John Kelly described Serebryanski’s actions as transgressive and predatory.

“It is an attack on innocence, an attack on childhood,” he said on Friday.

“You said you were only following your victim’s lead … that is a transparently absurd proposition.”

Zaakah posts April 12, 2026:

In an Instagram post last night, Saul Len has changed his story from claiming that he was innocent of everything he was charged with, to claiming that he did upload all that CSAM to Google Drive – but only by accident – from a porn-filled Telegram group he voluntarily joined. According to his new post he developed an interest in porn from a young age that got out of hand and became an addiction. As time went on, Len wrote, he joined large porn oriented chats on WhatsApp and Telegram where porn was being shared constantly.
According to the complaint filed at the start of his criminal case, there were 15 specific videos found on his Google Drive depicting the rape of children between the ages of 3 and 13. An additional 126 files of a criminal nature were found in his drive by law enforcement, according to the complaint. He was charged with 15 counts of felony possession of CSAM.
He was given a sweetheart plea deal for all that CSAM. He pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts related to CSAM as well as one misdemeanor for Unlawful Modification of a Computer. Adjudication was withheld on the 15 felonies, and he was only convicted of the misdemeanor, and sentenced to 6 months in jail and 10 years of supervised release.
Not satisfied enough with that slap on the wrist, he requested that the entire record of his plea hearing and conditions be sealed by the judge. The prosecutor didn’t object because prosecutors rarely object to such requests. He likely made this request for the express purpose of setting up the lie he immediately told to his community after his plea hearing concluded.
In a WhatsApp message sent widely to members of the community, Len claimed that the State had investigated the initial CSAM charges and had found that they were without basis. He claimed that he was taking a plea to a single misdemeanor that carried a 6 month jail sentence to be rid of the case.
While Len is now admitting that what he said in that message wasn’t true, he never had any intention of coming clean. This statement from Len comes on the heels of him losing a legal battle against ZA’AKAH over the unsealing of his plea transcript.
Immediately following Len’s initial WhatsApp statement, ZA’AKAH challenged the sealing of his plea hearing in court. Len fought hard against the unsealing request, repeatedly claiming throughout the 6 months of initial litigation that ZA’AKAH intended to misrepresent the details of his plea if the record would be unsealed. The judge, however, repeatedly noted that the only party who had ever mischaracterized the plea and expressed an interest in continuing to mischaracterize the plea was Len himself.
He lost, and the records were ordered unsealed in June of 2025. That wasn’t enough for him. He immediately filed an appeal to the unsealing decision which delayed their release for another 10 months until his appeal was finally denied. It was only after ZA’AKAH exposed the truth of his plea – that he had pleaded guilty to 15 CSAM related felonies and a misdemeanor but received a withheld adjudication on the felonies – that Len saw fit to release this statement.
Which brings us back to this new statement. Len claims that the CSAM only wound up on his Google Drive because he accidentally had automatic uploads for WhatsApp and Telegram chats enabled on his phone, but that he never really knew that CSAM was shared in the group, never saw it himself, and didn’t deliberately save it.
Aside from Len’s repeated lies and deliberate attempts to hide the truth of his plea, this new claim is implausible on its face. By his own admission he joined these chats voluntarily. As noted above, the files on his Google Drive included 15 videos of the rape of children as young as 3, and an additional 126 files of a criminal nature. Len is asking us to believe that all of these files went through a porn group that he, a porn addict, deliberately joined, presumably for the purpose of watching and enjoying the content being shared, and that he never noticed all of the videos showing children as young as 3 being raped.
Whether he deliberately uploaded them to his Google Drive or not – which itself is a dubious claim – it strains credulity to claim that he somehow never saw what was being shared in these groups he deliberately joined as a porn addict. As if legal porn is a scarce commodity on the internet and that he never had a real interest in this very specific series of groups he joined.
Saul Len repeatedly lied to hide his crimes, attempted to abuse the legal system to keep his community in the dark about the risk he poses, and now, only when exposed, is spinning another implausible story that admits the barest minimum he can no longer deny while attempting to minimize the severity of what he did.
That such an unrepentant liar wants to start an organization to address men’s mental health is alarming. This isn’t teshuva. It isn’t coming clean. It’s yet another attempt at manipulation by a liar and criminal who got caught lying.

Zaakah posts April 21, 2026:

Yona Lunger is a resident of North Miami Beach. According to News reporting over the years, he is very involved in a number of community organizations, including one that he founded called Chessed of South Florida. He is also a chaplain, and has served on a number of city advisory boards.
According to a criminal complaint filed on March 25th, Lunger entered a teenage girl’s bedroom and closed the door. The complaint alleges that during the interaction he had with her he told the victim to “put away her sexy things” referring to her breasts, and then proceeded to hug and kiss the victim multiple times. He allegedly kissed her multiple times near the lips, asked her to kiss him, and then left the room. The complaint alleges that Lunger, on multiple occasions, expressed a desire for the victim to turn 18. He was arrested and charged with felony lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 16.
While out on $7,500 bail for that alleged offense, Lunger was arrested again yesterday on new felony charges, lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 16 and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 16. Bail was set at $5,000 each but he is currently incarcerated until his next hearing. The complaint is not yet available for the new charges but we will post an update when it becomes available.
According to Local News 10, after his first arrest another victim came forward and accused Lunger of putting his hands on her breasts for a minute when she was a minor. According to the report, Lunger had come to her family’s home and offered to restock grocery items for her family. He then allegedly took the girl to a supermarket where he held her hand. On the drive home, according to the report, Lunger made inappropriate comments toward her, eventually putting his hands on her breasts and trying to kiss her on the lips.

Wikipedia says: “Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School (SAR High School) is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school located in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York. It was founded in 2003 by Rabbi Naftali (Tully) Harcsztark. The school is affiliated with SAR Academy, which is also in Riverdale.”

Zaakah posts May 12, 2026:

SAR High School Fires Teacher Alleged to Have Engaged in Inappropriate Conduct with Teen Outside of School

Until recently Daniel Paul was working as a history teacher at SAR. He has in the past also worked as a humanities teacher at Solomon Schechter NYC, and was involved in Kehillat Hadar on the Upper West Side.
Last week SAR High School sent an email to the parent body informing them that Daniel Paul had been fired from the school because of alleged inappropriate conduct with a non-student teen outside of the school. The letter states that the allegations were reported by SAR to law enforcement. As of now there doesn’t seem to have been an arrest.
Here is the text of the full letter:
Dear SAR High School Community,
We are writing to share important information regarding a member of our high school faculty.
SAR recently received a report alleging that Latin & History teacher, Mr. Daniel Paul, engaged in inappropriate conduct involving an adolescent. The conduct was alleged to have taken place outside of school, during non-school hours, with an adolescent who is not an SAR High School student. If true, the alleged conduct would be a violation of SAR’s Safety & Conduct Policy Manual.
In accordance with our legal obligations, the school reported this matter to the appropriate authorities and placed Mr. Paul on administrative leave while the situation was under review. With the help of our counsel, we conducted a review process and based on our review, determined that a violation of SAR policies took place.
As a result, as of today, Mr. Paul is no longer employed at SAR.
We recognize that this news is upsetting. Although the reported conduct occurred outside of the SAR High School student community, we take all concerns seriously. At SAR, we strive to create an environment where students feel comfortable speaking up when something does not feel right, while maintaining a community built on trust and respect between students and faculty.
We ask that students and parents understand that we are not able to share additional information and respect the privacy of those involved.
A separate communication will be sent to students and parents of classes that Mr. Paul taught regarding class coverage.
If you or your child would benefit from support, our guidance team is available and here to help. Please do not hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for your understanding and discretion.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Tully Harcsztark
Founding Principal
Dean; Machon Siach
Rabbi Jonathan Kroll
Principal

Zaakah posts May 12, 2026:

In 2024 Jake Walden of North Woodmere was arrested by the DOJ and charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count each of receipt and possession of CSAM [child sexual abuse material], and two counts of accessing CSAM with intent to view CSAM. The charges involved Walden’s alleged purchasing of CSAM from a producer and distributor, as well as his alleged direct solicitation of minors online to produce live and recorded CSAM performances for him.
At a subsequent detention hearing the US Attorney alleged that Walden had in fact been in contact with 11 minors in total to solicit sexual performances. Walden had not been charged in connection with all 11 alleged solicitations.
Last week the US Attorney filed a superseding indictment against Walden adding two additional counts of sexual exploitation of a child reflecting two more alleged incidents of Walden engaging with minors to produce live and recorded CSAM performances.
Walden’s trial is currently scheduled for July 20th. He remains in detention.
Indictment.