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Federal judge lets Hasidic abuse whistleblower’s civil-rights lawsuit against NYC move to trial
(New York Jewish Week) — A federal judge in Brooklyn has denied a bid by New York City and the estate of former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes to throw out a civil-rights lawsuit brought by Hasidic sex-abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner, clearing the way for a jury to hear claims that top prosecutors helped engineer his arrest to benefit a convicted child molester.
The 82-page ruling, by Judge Nina R. Morrison of the Eastern District of New York, is significant, as it effectively strips both the district attorney and the city of the legal immunity they would normally enjoy. Typically, absolute immunity protects prosecutors from civil suits over decisions about whether and how to bring criminal charges, while qualified immunity shields government officials from paying damages unless they violate clearly established legal rights.
“Justice for Sam has been a slow train coming. That train is now about to arrive,” said Niall MacGiollabhui, Kellner’s attorney, in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The long saga leading to the judge’s decision began in 2008, when Kellner, a Borough Park resident, defied communal norms and reported his son’s sexual abuse by a prominent community member, Baruch Lebovits, to secular authorities. Working closely with a detective in the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit, Kellner helped locate and bring forward other alleged victims of Lebovits. His cooperation ultimately helped lead to Lebovits’ 2010 conviction on multiple counts involving another boy, identified as Y.R.
The Lebovits prosecution was a rarity in a community where few child sexual abuse cases ever make it to trial, let alone end in a substantial sentence. At the time, Hynes had been under mounting fire for how his office handled sexual abuse in the Hasidic community, with anti-abuse advocates arguing that the DA went easy on Hasidic offenders in deference to a Hasidic leadership capable of reliably delivering campaign contributions and a bloc vote.
For his involvement in the case, Kellner paid a steep price. Even though he obtained rabbinic permission to go to the authorities, community members branded him an informer or “moser,” a label that has serious consequences in Jewish tradition. He often left his house to find his tires slashed and his van papered with flyers calling for his death; people yelled threats at him on the street. He was also forced out of his synagogue and had trouble finding schools that would enroll his children; securing marriage matches for them took years.
Kellner says he also fielded a steady stream of offers of cash if he would just walk away from the case. He refused them all, saying that his son and the other boys were entitled to justice, even as he sank deeper into debt and isolation, becoming a cautionary tale for both supporters of abuse victims and critics who view cooperation with secular authorities as a betrayal.
But things only got worse for Kellner after Lebovits’ conviction. In 2011, he was arrested by the very same district attorney’s office that had used him to help put Lebovits behind bars. Prosecutors charged him with orchestrating an extortion scheme, alleging that he tried to use the very case he had helped build as leverage to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from Lebovits’ family, and also accusing him of paying another witness to give false grand jury testimony against Lebovits.
People who had supported him fell away as he was branded an extortionist, a “crook” who would sell out his own son for money. Friends abandoned him, and even some family members kept their distance. “I wanted to vanish. I wanted that the floor would open up and I would fall into it,” he says.
Over time, however, the criminal case against Kellner unraveled amid mounting questions about the reliability and origins of the evidence against him, and in 2014 a Brooklyn judge dismissed the charges after the newly elected district attorney moved to drop the prosecution. Freed of the threat of prison, but maintaining that he had been framed for doing what the system asked of him, Kellner went on to file a federal civil‑rights lawsuit in 2017, accusing Brooklyn prosecutors of conspiring with allies of Lebovits to retaliate against him and upset Lebovits’ original abuse conviction.
In his filings, Kellner argues that these officials prosecuted him even though the DA’s office already possessed powerful evidence of Lebovits’ guilt and internal records suggesting that key witnesses against Kellner had been pressured — and, in one case, financially supported by Lebovits’ backers — turning the machinery of law enforcement against the father of a sex abuse victim in order to free a well-connected, convicted child molester.
For Kellner, the recent ruling is, in part, a kind of personal vindication.
“Wow, what a revenge. Fourteen years later and you exchange places with Charles Hynes. It is such a good felling that they are going to say ‘plaintiff Sam Kellner, defendant the City of New York and Charles Hynes.’”
But, more important, Kellner believes the judge’s decision offers proof that victims in his community can — and should — trust the justice system, no matter how slowly it moves.
“After my arrest, no rabbi was going to let a kid come forward, and then let that kid go to jail while the DA takes the side of the molester,” Kellner said.
Now, he believes, “these animals, these molesters should start feeling that they can no longer continue to molest in this neighborhood, and threaten the victims and get away with it because the DA will be on their side.”
For some, however, recent actions by the current DA, Eric Gonzalez, belie those sentiments. Just last month, Gonzalez drew sharp criticism from anti-abuse advocates for supporting the resentencing request of another convicted child molester from the Hasidic community, Nechemya Weberman, who has served about 13 years of his term.
Weberman was originally sentenced to more than 100 years for the sustained sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl he was counseling, but that sentence was later reduced to 50 years through an administrative recalculation required by New York sentencing law. Gonzalez has argued that even the 50-year term is “unusually harsh” and out of step with sentences in comparable child-sex-abuse cases. His critics say he has caved to pressure from the same communal and political forces that arrayed themselves against Kellner and that his stance betrays survivors and undermines deterrence.
But Kellner still has faith.
“Until now, I was an example of why not to go to the DA,” he said. “They killed me. I am already 65. I was just over 45 when it started. They killed me. But I knew one thing: They are not going to have the victory that no one is going to come forward. Trust the system.”
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UK threatens sanctions after Israel opens bids for E1 settler homes
(JTA) — JERUSALEM – The United Kingdom threatened to sanction Israelis involved in West Bank settlement expansion after the Jewish state’s Lands Authority opened bids for 1,234 homes in the largely underdeveloped E1 section of the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
Construction in E1 “would cut across the heart of Palestine and risks separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which would endanger the viability of a two-state solution,” the British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said in a special statement he posted on X on Thursday.
Targeted sanctions, Miliband wrote, would be part of a series of measures his government would take. His office also summoned Israel’s charge d’Affaires Thursday to demand a closure of the bidding process, which first opened on Tuesday, and a withdrawal of the construction project altogether.
“Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution,” he wrote. Miliband has held his position for a month and is part of the new leadership Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham appointed when he took office in July.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attacked Miliband on X, stating that Britain’s “decision to damage the relationship between our countries is deeply unfortunate.”
He said that the U.K. government’s “systematic policy of blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism has already contributed to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community.”
The Jewish people have the same right to “live throughout the Land of Israel” just as the British people have a right to live anywhere in the U.K., Sa’ar wrote.
Plans to expand the built-up area of Ma’aleh Adumim settlement by constructing some 3,400 housing units on a largely underdeveloped hilltop within the city’s boundaries have been in place since 1994 when Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister.
Israel mostly froze those plans under pressure from the international community, including the U.S., with many countries warning that building homes in E1 would harm their diplomatic ties with Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to advance the project in earnest in 2012 to protest the United Nations General Assembly decision to grant the Palestinians the status of a non-member state and has since pushed the project forward in spurts, particularly during election seasons.
The publication of the bidding process for the homes was first announced on Tuesday and is set to close on Oct. 19, one week shy of the Israeli elections on Oct. 27. Opening the bids is a move that plays well with Netanyahu’s right-wing voter base, which opposes Palestinian statehood and believes that settlements like Ma’aleh Adumim and the E1 area should be annexed into sovereign Israel.
But the move reverberated globally, with the U.K. signing onto a joint condemnation by France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, in which they warned that settlement building in E1 distanced peace and undermined the country’s international standing.
They also reminded businesses who might bid for E1 construction that they could face legal or reputational consequences, given that such companies could be in breach of international law.
Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh said he welcomed the condemnation, explaining on X that such a position “reflects the importance of the international role in confronting settlement activity and safeguarding the two-state solution.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Argentina removes federal judge over antisemitic remarks in historic first
(JTA) — An Argentine federal judge was removed from office Tuesday for a series of antisemitic posts on his social media accounts that constituted misconduct incompatible with his role, an impeachment panel ruled.
Alfredo Eugenio López, who headed Federal Court No. 4 in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, was removed by Argentina’s Jury of Impeachment, a special panel composed of judges, lawmakers and lawyers.
It is the first time in Argentina’s history that a judge has been removed over antisemitic remarks.
In López’s social media posts, the judge referred to the Jewish people as “a brood of vipers,” Israel as a “fictitious state” and Argentinian Jews as “foreigners.” He has also used such terms as “Zionist” and “gay” as insults.
According to the panel, the judge committed acts of “discrimination and the denial of equal rights against the Argentine Jewish community. For the purposes of these proceedings, it is particularly significant that, by acting in this manner, he shattered public confidence in his continued fitness to administer justice impartially.”The case reached the panel through Argentina’s Council of the Magistracy, based in Buenos Aires, the constitutional body responsible for the selection and discipline of federal judges.
The first complaint against López was filed in February 2025 by the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, which is the umbrella organization representing Argentina’s Jewish community. One month later, the Argentine Forum Against Antisemitism also filed a complaint. In July 2025, attorney Yamil Santoro from Apolo Foundation added another one.
In his defense, López argued that his messages were “ subjective and decontextualized interpretations of exchanges on social media, which in no way affect the administration of justice or his impartiality” as a judge. He added that his remarks were unrelated to any pending case and that he had never been recused or removed from any judicial case.
Neither Lopez nor his attorney were immediately available for further comment.
“He was removed because he simply would not stop engaging in hate speech,” jury member Alberto Maques said during a live interview Tuesday on the A24 news channel. “It is absolutely disgraceful for a federal judge to engage in this kind of conduct.”
Maques said there were 15 social media posts that he acknowledged, but more than 50 posts in which he said “outrageous things that are not worth repeating because they truly constituted hate speech.”
“This is not merely an issue of hate speech against the Jewish community. This is someone who lacks common sense,” he added, interviewed by A24 news channel.
Prosecutors in the impeachment proceedings argued that the messages were not isolated political comments but reflected a pattern of hostility toward Jews, Zionism, and the State of Israel.
“No position of authority can shield hatred. This is not a matter of punishing an opinion. It is about sanctioning repeated conduct involving antisemitism, hostility and dehumanization, conduct incompatible with the impartiality, dignity and public trust required of the judiciary,” DAIA said Tuesday in a statement.
“This case sets a precedent: for the first time in more than a century, DAIA initiated proceedings of this nature against a judge. No office is above democracy.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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California progressive Wahab defeats AIPAC-backed Hernandez in close race
(JTA) — California progressive Aisha Wahab defeated AIPAC-backed moderate Melissa Hernandez in a congressional runoff this week, capping off a contest that had become unexpectedly tight after the pro-Israel lobby entered the fray.
The Associated Press called the race between the Democrats — who were vying to replace a disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell — a full two days after polls closed, when Wahab secured 53.1% of votes to Hernandez’s 46.9%, with 95% of ballots tallied. The gap between them grew by four percentage points from Tuesday evening, when Wahab had held a narrow 51% lead to Hernandez’s 49%.
“We stayed focused on the people, and I will fight for this district that raised me,” Wahab said in a Thursday statement, noting her journey “from foster care to Congress” in her East Bay community.
Although Wahab ended up victorious, the narrow initial margin on Tuesday shocked California’s 14th District, given that she had secured a double-digit lead in preliminary races two months ago.
But in the past few weeks, an unforeseen variable appeared to influence the trajectories of the two campaigns: a massive spending push from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee aimed at turning the tides for Hernandez.
Since the beginning of August alone, AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, and other affiliated groups spent more than $2.5 million on both boosting Hernandez and denigrating Wahab with negative ads and mailers, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
“This was not a landslide for Wahab by any means,” local Democratic strategist Noah Finneburgh, who is not affiliated with either candidate, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“They narrowed the gap for sure,” Finneburgh added, referring to AIPAC. “They spent millions of dollars attacking Wahab very aggressively.”
These attacks, he explained, did not involve Israel and instead focused on divisive issues for the Bay Area, such as public safety and protecting kids.
“Negative advertising with a persuasive message can be very effective,” Finneburgh said.
In her Thursday night statement, Wahab declared that her “district cannot be bought,” describing the race as “one of the ugliest, most expensive elections we’ve ever seen.”
Prior to this influx of cash and related ads, neither AIPAC nor Israel had played a significant role in this short-lived race — which began in April following Swalwell’s resignation over allegations of sexual assault.
When the district held a special primary to seek Swalwell’s replacement on June 16, Wahab and Hernandez finished as the top-two candidates and moved on to this week’s special general runoff election.
California primaries are “nonpartisan” or “top-two” races, in which the two highest ranking candidates move on to the general election, irrespective of their parties. The top-two in this case were both Democrats, like Swalwell, in a district that the Cook Political Report deems solidly blue.
Even though Wahab will now finish the remainder of Swalwell’s term, she will have to compete with Hernandez again in the November general election for a full term that begins on January 3, 2027.
In a June 16 special primary that preceded this week’s runoff, there was still a massive gap between the two candidates, with Wahab accruing 42.8% of the votes, compared to Hernandez’s 16.8%. A separate primary for the November race, which occurred two weeks earlier, placed Wahab at 38.3% and Hernandez at 17.2%.
Wahab, who will be the first Afghan American in Congress, has focused on affordability, civil rights, education and climate change. Her campaign calls for an end to wars and “prolonged occupations” but only specifically calls out U.S. military activity in “Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and elsewhere.”
Though Wahab has been critical of Israel and its operations in Gaza, she has not been as vocal about the issue as many other progressive colleagues nationwide. She responded “yes” when asked if Israel was committing genocide in a primary debate, but she didn’t include Israel or Gaza in her campaign priorities.
During a recent appearance on far-right influencer Hasan Piker’s livestream, Wahab acknowledged that “it’s not a zero-sum game in the Middle East,” adding that “we can care for all people.” She also referenced a resolution she introduced last year in the California legislature, pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza but also condemning Hamas and demanding the release of the hostages.
“We talk about both Palestinians and the Israeli victims there,” Wahab told Piker. “We talk about holding the perpetrators accountable from both sides.”
Asked if she was in favor of “ending all U.S. aid to Israel,” she responded “yes,” while stressing that “humanitarian aid is important to me, too.”
Wahab has earned the backing of multiple labor unions, the California Democratic Party and Our Revolution, the group formed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to advance the progressive movement. The liberal pro-Israel group J Street also recently invested $108,000 in her campaign, according to the FEC. American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian PAC, also spent at least $200,000 on supporting her.
Hernandez has received endorsements from several police and fire unions, as well as Democratic Jewish Reps. Lois Frankel of Florida and Brad Schneider of Illinois.
Come November, Hernandez will gain one additional asset. Due to statewide redistricting, the 14th District will gain about 26,000 new voters from Dublin, where Hernandez previously served as mayor, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
But Finneburgh said he believes that Hernandez has only a minimal chance of winning that race, especially because Wahab will be heading into that election as an incumbent.
He also suggested that if “she plays her card right,” Wahab could even take some endorsements away from Hernandez.
“There’s going to be people who are going to probably move over from the Hernandez camp and back her,” Finneburgh added. “It’s going to be hard to unseat her.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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