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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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A Chabad Jew was stabbed in NYC. He returned the next day to continue wrapping tefillin.
(JTA) — Less than 24 hours after he was stabbed in midtown Manhattan, Yosef, a Chabad-Lubavitch man from Crown Heights, was back on the same street where he’d been assaulted, popping into Diamond District businesses as usual to help employees wrap tefillin.
Yosef, 26, who did not share his last name to maintain his privacy, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he was back on 47th Street on Thursday afternoon, the day after the stabbing, without missing a beat in his Monday-through-Thursday rounds even as police investigate the incident as a possible hate crime.
A number of the people he visited pieced together that the widely circulated footage of a man being stabbed the previous night was of him.
“They were in shock. They were obviously scared for me,” said Yosef, who has been wrapping tefillin and distributing Shabbat candles to Jewish Diamond District employees for about three years. He started that routine when his father, a Chabad Jew who works in the jewelry business, realized he needed his son’s help to handle the demand for those acts. Yosef told Chabad.org that he was “still shaken” by the attack a day later.
Still, he told JTA, “We can’t allow some hate to stop us.”
Yosef said he felt it was important to communicate that message because “we need more mitzvahs in the world, we need more light in the world.”
Yosef was taken to Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday evening around 6 p.m., where medical staff assessed that he had no internal bleeding and would not need stitches. No arrests have been made, but the assailant has been described as a woman in her 40s.
The attack has renewed concerns about security that have faced Chabad adherents and institutions, which often host public events and maintain a visible street presence. But the threat didn’t diminish their presence in midtown Manhattan on Friday.
Multiple Chabad men stood under a bright yellow tent on the sidewalk wrapping tefillin for a steady stream of workers in the heavily Jewish Diamond District.
“The Rebbe says that the way to defeat darkness is only through the addition of light,” said Shmuel Cohen, who was handing out small photographs of the movement’s late leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Cohen told JTA that he had not heard about the attack that took place just down the block two days earlier, though his partner under the sidewalk tent had. Cohen said that the best way to respond is through “the observance of Torah and mitzvot without being ashamed of our Judaism but presenting it to everyone.”
Also on Friday, Chabad officials met with New York Police Department representatives for their annual meeting about security ahead of Chabad’s international conference in Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood where the movement is headquartered. The conference begins on Nov. 5.
Chabad has been targeted in multiple high-profile attacks in the past year, including the deadly Bondi Beach shooting in Australia in December. The following month, a man rammed a car into the doors of the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn, raising further questions over how the movement should balance its commitment to making its events accessible with security.
Meanwhile, Jews have been targeted in more than half of hate crimes committed in New York City in 2026, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
“Security is our top priority. Our goal is to provide an environment where every participant feels safe and can fully experience the purpose and spirit of the gathering,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, a top organizer of the upcoming conference.
In the wake of the attack, Yosef said he is not concerned about going out in public as a visibly Jewish person and doesn’t plan to change how he approaches the world.
“I was wearing the same clothes on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday,” he said. “I didn’t change my routine.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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They met on a Birthright trip then married. Now this American Israeli couple’s internet fame has turned to infamy.
Ethan and Hila Klein first met at Yad Vashem — Israel’s Holocaust museum — in 2007, a meet-cute they recounted, giggling, years later for their millions of YouTube followers.
“I think I went up to her and said something like, ‘They had it coming, don’t you think?’” said Ethan, known for his edgy humor and infamous internet trends, including Vape Nation and Papa Bless. “No I didn’t say that. I wonder if you would have laughed though.”
They were on a Birthright trip, Ethan an American and Hila an Israeli soldier on leave to join the group. Soon after the trip ended, Ethan moved to Israel to be with Hila, and the two began making videos under the name H3H3 Productions (the H for Hila and the 3 standing in as an E for Ethan). They married, moved to America, and started a popular podcast.
A Jewish love story, until Thursday, when Hila, now mother to their three children, accused Ethan publicly of having a months-long affair.
“The betrayal I feel is immeasurable,” Hila said in an Instagram post. “My only family on this side of the world. How do I even begin to make sense of this?”
Ethan reposted her statement.
Their podcast is run by a handful of crew members who often chime in and participate in various skits and bits. The crew also shared a statement saying they stand with Hila and refuse to work with Ethan, though they added they don’t know what this will mean for the future of the show.
A couple roiled by Oct. 7
The left-leaning, secular couple’s videos and podcasts focused primarily on pop culture, internet drama and general politics, not Jewish or Israeli issues.
Both Ethan and Hila would make statements sometimes when tensions in Israel flared, and they would occasionally speak out against IDF actions that upset them.
In 2021, Ethan started a podcast with political commenter Hasan Piker, a controversial left-wing influencer, called Leftovers, a nod to their leftist politics.
Then came Oct. 7.
Ethan, an American Israeli dual citizen like Hila, was horrified by the attacks but quick to call the IDF genocidal in the aftermath. In their first episode together after Oct. 7, Ethan and Piker said the show would continue through their disagreements. The episode was tense, and it was their last.
As Piker’s rhetoric on Israel intensified and became at times antisemitic, the two began a nasty internet feud, culminating in a nearly five-hour livestreamed debate.
Piker posted about the news of the affair on X, sharing a video of Ethan and expressing disgust for men who cheat.
“Now this is a high caliber man [with] good morals,” Piker said sarcastically. He also posted “Judge me by my enemies” after sharing Hila’s statement.
Hila, who owns a makeup and clothing company, increasingly came under scrutiny by Piker and others after Oct. 7 for her service in the IDF. Artists refused to work with her. One model she hired publicly disavowed her after finding out she was Israeli.
The couple was harassed, sometimes online, sometimes in-person, as they attempted to take what they viewed as a nuanced stance in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The united front seemed to fortify their relationship, as Ethan, ever outspoken, routinely came to his wife’s defense.
Their show lost thousands of subscribers, but loyal fans stuck with them — fans who now say they are gutted and confused by the news of the affair. Many in disbelief noted that Ethan had Hila’s face tattooed on his arm less than two years ago as a surprise for her.
“The greatest thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother,” says the quote surrounding the tattoo.
The Forward attempted to contact the Kleins through their work emails and did not immediately hear back.
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These Jewish college students have some ‘nonnegotiables’ for El-Sayed
At the University of Michigan, first-year student Robert Kashan, 18, and sophomore Jacob Reich, 19, sat behind a large blue sign. “Some things are nonnegotiable,” it declared in all caps.
The sign laid out their requirements for any candidate seeking their support: a commitment to Jewish safety, “including for Zionist Jews,” and supporting Jewish statehood in Israel, among other positions.
“Zionism is a legitimate part of the Democratic coalition, and a lot of us are feeling less represented by the Democratic Party,” Kashan told the Forward.
The students are part of a broader “Nonnegotiable” movement in Michigan, a coalition of Jewish Democrats who are spelling out their dealbreakers for candidates ahead of the Senate election between Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
The movement has attracted national attention, with hundreds of rabbis across 34 states signing on to the “Nonnegotiable” demands. Meanwhile, about 20 students at the University of Michigan have publicly signed, while hundreds more offered support anonymously, according to Reich.
The “Nonnegotiable” supporters aren’t saying whom they’ll vote for if their concerns aren’t addressed — or whether they’ll vote at all. But they are pushing back against the assumption that Jewish voters will, as the saying goes, “vote blue no matter who,” urging El-Sayed to engage with their demands if he hopes to earn their support.
That’s in contrast with two other Jewish political camps, including a group called Michigan Jews for Democracy that endorsed El-Sayed. Their petition, which has garnered almost 1,000 signatures, notes that some signatories hold reservations about El-Sayed but are voting for him nonetheless as a check on President Trump.
“We understand that a vote is not a valentine; it’s a strategic chess move,” the petition reads.
A competing petition, dubbed “Michigan Jews Against Extremism,” has drawn hundreds of signatures from Michigan Jews who plan to vote for Rogers. That petition similarly emphasizes that Rogers voters may still have reservations about the candidate: “Our vote for Mike Rogers does not require that we agree with him on every issue or that we support President Trump,” it reads.
“Nonnegotiable,” meanwhile, rejects the idea that Jewish voters would have to choose between Zionist and Democratic values. Some have criticized the nonnegotiable movement for ignoring the reality of the electoral choice at hand. Others have called it “a veiled attempt to excuse the actions of Jewish Democrats who want to feel validated about voting for Mike Rogers.”
But Kashan and Reich, who met at Hillel and plan to major in political science, said the “Nonnegotiable” movement was the only way they could see themselves engaging in the election, as they felt increasingly pulled between their identities as Democrats and as Jews.
Some Michigan Jews have expressed alarm at El-Sayed’s questioning of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state and his decision to campaign alongside controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitic rhetoric. Rogers, who Trump has endorsed, earlier this week called El-Sayed “anti-Jew.”
In a letter to Michigan Jews, El-Sayed has vowed to “stand up against antisemitism and take the threat of violence against our Jewish community incredibly seriously.” He has also hired a Jewish liaison in the final weeks leading up to the election.
This will be the first election when Kashan, who just turned 18, is eligible to vote, and Reich’s first national election after voting in a local primary in his hometown of Palo Alto, California. For both, voting Democratic in their first major election had once seemed like a given.
“I’m a Jewish Democrat, and I want Democrats to take the Senate,” Reich said. “I want to vote for a Democrat in my own state.”
They’re still holding out hope that will happen — and that, with less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 election, El-Sayed will sign on to their petition.
And if he doesn’t? Neither student is ready to say.
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