US investigation: Jewish pedophiles flee to Israel to evade trial

The CBS network revealed a series of cases where Jewish Americans accused of child sex abuse took advantage of the Law of Return and immigrated to Israel. According to a local Jewish organization, there are at least 60 men and women

US investigation: Jewish pedophiles flee to Israel to evade trial

(In the video: A discussion of Queen Leiper's case, in December)

Dozens of American-Jews accused of pedophilia have fled to Israel in recent years to evade trial in the United States, according to a CBS investigation released Wednesday. According to a local Jewish organization that has been following the issue, since 2014, at least 60 men and women who have immigrated to Israel through the Law of Return have fled.

Among those defendants in pedophilia were Jimmy Julius Crow, who was accused of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl in Oregon in 2000, but he fled to Israel before authorities arrested him. Since then, he has escaped law enforcement in the United States, and he has an international arrest warrant against Interpol, and in Israel he has also been convicted of pedophilia and imprisonment. Recently another woman complained to him, claiming he had been sexually abusing her for years, since she was five.

More in Walla! NEWS:

Escaped from US authorities to Israel. Jimmy Julius Crow

Julius Jimmy Crow, an American accused of pedophilia and fleeing to Israel (photo: official website, official website)

According to the Jewish Community Guard (JCW), an American organization that tracks accused pedophiles, it has been working for years to locate Crowe to help prosecute him. The organization said that under the Return Act, since 2014, more than 60 pedophilia defendants fled the United States to Israel. However, the organization emphasizes that due to its limited resources to identify them, their true number is probably higher.

"The same thing that is happening in the Catholic Church around the world right now, the same thing is happening in our community," the organization's founder, Meir Sewald, told CBS. "The rendering is the same, the stigma, the shame."

Australia is promoting a law calling on Israel to extradite Queen Leiper

Sewald argues that sometimes Jewish communities across the United States have a lack of faith in accusations against its members. In this situation, he claims, "everyone is surrounding and supporting the same person because they can't believe he can commit such a crime. They stand by him and the abuse continues." According to him, even after a community member moves to another community, "After a few years, he did the same thing and we hear about more accusations of a person abusing children. Victims don't want to talk when they see it."

The Jewish community guard says most cases stem from enclaves of modern Orthodox to devout ultra-Orthodox in the United States, but this happens throughout the Jewish community. Because the perpetrators of the crimes cannot pay for their actions unless their victims have the courage to speak up against them, it is believed that there are many unreported cases. To try to shed light on it, JCW is conducting awareness raising events across the United States and offering mental health support to victims of sexual abuse.

"I felt trapped"

Mandy Hawk decided to bring the truth to light after receiving the organization's support. The father-of-two said he was only eight when he was attacked by his teacher at a Jewish school in Los Angeles. Hawk claims the abuse began one day when a friend brought cookies for his birthday.

"I went ahead and reached for the biggest cookie and he said, 'Bring it back and come back for a break to get the cookie,'" Hook said. "After he distributed the other cookies to the other students, I had to stay behind if I wanted to get a cookie, which is how I did. He called me to his table, and then he started ... to feel me."

His attacker, Guided Yomtov, who was 35 at the time, taught him Hebrew. "I jumped back a step or two, and he grabbed me by the hair and said, 'It's okay, you can come close. I won't hurt you. There's nothing wrong,' and he did it again," he recalls.

Hawk said the abuse continued throughout the year. He said he felt trapped and had no one to turn to. When the year ended, Hawk rose to grade and that is the stage where Yumtov was caught for his crimes. In 2001, police arrested him and charged him with assaulting three of his other students, ranging in age from eight to ten. But Hawk didn't tell anyone - until years had passed since what happened to him.