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| Yossi |
(Scroll down for video) A child sexual abuse victim spoke out to News 12 about the assault committed by New Square rabbi Herschel Taubenfeld.
Yossi agreed to talk about his ordeal with the hope that other victims of sexual abuse will come forward.
Yossi said that Herschel Taubenfeld, a rabbi in his community, inappropriately touched him three times a week for four months.
The young man asked for help from the New Square chief rabbi. He was told to go see a psychiatrist.
That is when Yossi decided to report the abuse to the police in Ramapo, Rockland County, New York. Yossi said that his friends stopped talking to him and treated him as if he didn’t exist.
Yossi said his attacker admitted the crimes, but the religious leaders of the community sent Taubenfeld to Israel to get a rabbinical ordination.
He also said he was offered $100,000 to keep quiet about the situation, which he refused.
Taubenfeld was charged with 30 counts of forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual abuse. However, the rabbi avoided jail in exchange for six years of probation.
Despite admitting to child sexual assault, Taubenfeld is still a rabbi in a New Square religious school.