Rabbi Yuval Keren: Jewish Child Molester
Simon Rocker has recently published an article in ‘The Jewish Chronicle’ documenting the sentencing of yet another jewish child molester in the form of Rabbi Yuval Keren who was resident in London in the UK.
Rocker tells us how:
‘Yuval Keren, the former rabbi of Southgate Progressive Synagogue, has received a 20-month suspended jail sentence for possession of hundreds of indecent images of children.
The term, imposed by Harrow Crown Court on Wednesday, has been suspended for 24 months.
Keren, who was suspended from his rabbinic post after the National Crime Agency launched an investigation in July 2022, was also ordered to do 180 hours of community service and will be subject a sexual harm order restricting his activities for five years.
NCA officers acted after online storage producer Dropbox reported a user uploading suspicious images.
He was arrested at his home in Pinner and several devices were seized.
A total of 1,694 indecent images of children of which 189 fell in the most extreme category A, the NCA said. The images went back to 2010.
Keren pleaded guilty to all charges in October, which included one count of possession of an "extreme pornographic" image.
Prosecuting counsel said that he had shown “what would appear genuine remorse”.
Holly Triggs, operations manager of NCA, said, “Yuval Keren had accessed images showing the horrific abuse of children for over 10 years.
“The NCA is committed to protecting children and ensuring that individuals who collect this material, and create a demand for abuse content, are held to account.”
In a statement following the sentencing, Liberal Judaism said it found Keren’s crimes “shocking and abhorrent. Our sympathies lie with the victims of his appalling actions, as they do with all victims of child abuse everywhere”.
Within 24 hours of his arrest he had been suspended from his ministerial post. His employment ended at the end of August last year and he was expelled from the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors and disbarred from membership of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Cantors.’ (1)
This is pretty despicable by any standard: particularly the fact that Rabbi Keren had 189 ‘Category A’ child abuse/indecent images of children which is quite frankly: damned horrendous.
The fact that Rabbi Keren was a Reform (i.e., a liberal) Rabbi rather than an Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi is unusual (2) if not unexpected.
What is pretty disgusting is the special treatment Keren has received given that the sentencing guidelines for possessing so many ‘Category A’ images of child abuse/child pornography over a decade – a lengthy term indeed – is a less than 2 year suspended sentence (i.e., he doesn’t actually have to go to prison unless he breaches the terms of his probation) and to do a mere 180 hours of community service.
When the ‘Sentencing Council’ guidelines clearly state that possession of ‘Category A’ images of child pornography and/or abuse has a starting point of a 1 year custodial sentence (i.e., Rabbi Keren should have gone to prison for at least this long) up to a 3 year custodial sentence, which along with the circa 1,500 ‘Category B’ and ‘Category C’ images of child pornography/abuse that Rabbi Keren had on his computer should have meant that Rabbi Keren would be looking at 5-10 years in prison. (3)
Not a less than 2 year suspended sentence.
My guess is that Rabbi Keren’s (jewish) lawyer argued that because Rabbi Keren pleaded guilty and ‘regretted his actions’; he should receive lenient treatment and the presiding judge ruled the way they did in part to keep Rabbi Keren out of prison so that they wouldn’t be targeted by other intimates and attacked because he is both a jew and a child molester and the presiding judge didn’t want to be accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ down the road by Britain’s influential jewish community.
One rule for non-jews and another for jews: no?
References
(1) https://www.thejc.com/news/former-liberal-shul-rabbi-sentenced-for-possessing-indecent-images-of-children-s9ekyqa0
(2) The frightening scale of the problem is discussed by Michael Lesher, 2014, ‘Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities’, 1st Edition, McFarland: Jefferson, pp. 33-52 and implied by David Mandel, 2011, ‘A Communal Safety Plan to Respond to Sexual Abuse’, pp. 97-117 in David Mandel, David Pelcovitz, 2011, ‘Breaking the Silence: Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community’, 1st Edition, Ktav: New York
(3) https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/possession-of-indecent-photograph-of-child/