Rabbi Yechiel (‘Jerry’) Brauner: Jewish Child Molester and Homosexual Sex Pest

Now going back in time to 2002 – since in order to validate the hypothesis that jews have had a problem with child molestation and rape (principally of the homosexual variety) since pretty much records began – lets explore the case of ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Yechiel (‘Jerry’) Brauner – formerly of Satmar Hasidim – of Boro Park, New York.

One of the few sources on this is Yerachmiel Lopin’s excellent and long-running blog ‘Frum Follies’ which has chronicled Rabbi Brauner’s crimes for years and summarizes them well in one of the more recent accounts of him that are to be had from May 2014.

We read how:

‘Repeat offender, sixty-year-old Jerry (Yechiel) Brauner of Boro Park, is set to get a no-jail, five-year probation plea-deal tomorrow (Tuesday, 5/6/14, 9 a.m.) in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Division 2 (120 Schermerhorn St. 11201) on charges of forcible touching (PL 135.52 00) and sexual abuse of a young man (130.55.00). Brauner allegedly committed these acts on December 20, 2013, and police arrested him on January 6, 2014. It is the first orthodox sex abuse prosecution handled from beginning to end during Kenneth Thompson’s term as Brooklyn District Attorney. Had the DA brought the case to trial, Brauner could have been sentenced to a year in prison. The victim objected but the Office of the DA decided to go ahead with the deal.

Twelve years ago in March 2002, Brauner pled guilty to Felony Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree (PL 130.65) and Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse in the 3rd degree (PL 130.55). He evaded a prison sentence and got off with eleven years of probation. He was also classified as a level 3 on the sex offender registry. It was a sweetheart deal but still stiff for DA Joe Hynes who kowtowed to the orthodox community. Hynes probably got the go-ahead for the sex offender registration probation deal by orthodox leadership who considered Brauner a particularly egregious offender.

His probation terms limited him to going to a communal ritual bath (mikvah) once a year because he posed a danger to others, especially children. However, he regularly violated the terms of probation. This is yet another example of the limited value of probation with Haredi offenders. I hope the DA’s office did not fool itself into thinking this new probation agreement accomplished very much.

In 2006, the New York Post reported Brauner, now on the sex offender registry and on probation, lied about his conviction when he applied for a notary license. He then used the license to notarize a document designed to swindle a sick woman. According to the Post:

A devious cabal that included a pedophile rabbi stole a half-million-dollar home from a cancer-stricken woman, using a forged power of attorney to sell it and pocket the profits…Margaret Franklin’s Crown Heights home was stolen in August 2004 after Nathen Farkas, 31, forged a power of attorney, signing Franklin’s name, that effectively handed control of her assets to co-defendant Russell Pitt. The power of attorney was notarized by a third defendant, Jerry Brauner, 53, a rabbi who had been on probation since 2002 for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old boy. Pitt then “sold” the property to the fourth defendant.

Teflon Brauner is a legend in Boro Park for his good fortune with prosecutors and his unstoppable groping in synagogues, catering halls, ritual baths, and everywhere else.’ (1)

In a follow up post from February 2016 Lopin also specifically mentions Rabbi Brauner’s crimes and proclivities:

‘He is a dangerous, uncontrollable, impulse-driven groper with a criminal record going back decades. Hanging out at that pedophile paradise, Congregation Shomer Shabbos in Boro Park, he even groped the genitals of men whose hands were occupied with holding Torah scrolls. And he does worse with minors.’ (2)

So prolific is Rabbi Brauner that he is still featured on ‘Jewish Community Watch’s’ ‘Wall of Shame’ (3) and has been repeatedly banned from different synagogues in the Boro Park area of New York for trying to rape/sexually assault male children and also fondle assorted grown men’s balls whenever he gets the opportunity. (4)

It is worth pointing out despite its undeserved reputation for being anti-homosexual; Judaism has quite the history of being permissive towards homosexuality as long as it is between jews and non-jews (5) which is perhaps a significant part of the outrage in the jewish community about Rabbi Brauner’s disgusting sexual inclinations and habitual predation.

Indeed – as Lopin points out – (6) there has been a long history of the jewish community effectively hiding and if required bribing non-jewish politicians and authorities to ‘look the other way’ as regards their repeated widespread – and often extremely vile – cases of child molestation and rape (7) which appears to also be the case in Rabbi Brauner’s case since he routinely broke his probation/bail conditions in the 2000s with little to no repercussions. (8)

The last mention we have of Rabbi Brauner is from 2016 so I am guessing Rabbi Brauner has either since died, gone to live in Israel or the ultra-Orthodox jewish community of Boro Park has successfully managed to get a handle on the leaks to the religious jewish media about his conduct.

I’ll keep an eye out.

References

(1) https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/da-to-give-serial-groper-jerry-brauner-no-jail-deal-over-objections-of-victim/

(2) https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/jerry-brauner-will-go-to-court-on-probation-violation-22316/#more-9340

(3) https://www.jewishcommunitywatch.org/wall-of-shame/yechiel-brauner

(4) https://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/11/after-years-of-ignoring-the-problem-haredi-synagogue-bans-serial-pedophile-234.html

(5) See my articles: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/male-homosexuality-in-the-written and https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/male-homosexuality-in-the-tanakh

(6) https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/da-to-give-serial-groper-jerry-brauner-no-jail-deal-over-objections-of-victim/

(7) Cf. Michael Lesher, 2014, ‘Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities’, 1st Edition, McFarland: Jefferson, pp. 16-109

(8) For example: https://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2007/08/beware-convicted-child-molester-yechiel.html