Most people will never have heard of Baruch Lanner unless you were one of his victims.
Baruch Lanner has for years been considered one of the brilliant and charismatic educators in the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, which is part of the Orthodoxy Union and has within that organization for many years worked with and supervised teenagers. He has also for many years been a teacher and principal in different high schools in New Jersey.
But Baruch Lanner is also a sexual predator who, over the years, has molested many dozens of youth. His employers were well aware of the complaints against him but choose not to act. In 2002, Lanner was finally tried and convicted for child abuse and sentenced to seven years in prison. After serving only three years he was released.
Recently, Lanner and his second wife, decided that apparently life in the U.S. has becoming difficult with his history and they came to Israel with the intention to make Aliya. The usual procedure for new immigrant candidates would be to speak to the Israeli Consul and, after approval, receive Residency status in Israel, which will lead in the end to citizenship. One of the things the Israeli Consul and the Jewish Agency with them, investigates, is the personal history of the Aliya candidate, and a criminal background is usually a reason to deny immigrant status. The Lanners apparently were aware of this hurdle, and with the help of some questionable Law firm, they decided to travel to Israel as tourists and only after arrival in the country to apply for immigrant status. This plot worked well and his wife received immigrant status while Lanner himself was given a temporary residence visa.
While the Interior Ministry now claims that Lanner’s case is “under review”, as is done with all candidates that request to make Aliya but have a criminal record and Lanner’s case will be seriously investigated, the fact that Lanner’s temporary residence status was approved while Arye Deri was Interior Minister, explains a lot.
The Israeli “Law of Return” was intended to allow every Jew, the world over, to make Aliya and become an Israeli citizen if he wanted to and while the law has many problematic issues, the stipulation that people with a criminal background should not be granted Aliya status, is one that cannot be ignored, in particular when it concerns sex offenders. It must be demanded that this man, who has destroyed so many innocent lives, will soon be send on his way, back to where he came from (where by the way, is awaiting him a civil lawsuit).
This man, even at 72 years of age, cannot be trusted not to molest other youngsters and, while in the U.S. a sex offenders registry exists, in Israel, this man would receive a clean bill of behavior and even without that, his status in the Jewish world may cause religious and other institutions to ignore his past.
A man like Arye Deri, may believe that this man, as a Jew should be saved and allowed into Eretz Israel, but, just as a reminder, another multiple sex offender, the Australian “educator” Malka Leifer, was finally sent on her way back home as a result of a High Court decision, but not before religious politician, Yaakov Litzman, did as minister everything possible to allow her to stay, including illegal moves (for which in the end he was only very lightly punished).
We do not need to import multiple Rabbi Sex Offenders. We have more than enough local ones.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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