Alleged Serial Child Molester Protected By Kensington Yeshiva With $2.1M Settlement, News Outlets Say

A Kensington Yeshiva reached a historic $2.1 million settlement with two former students who accused a teacher of sexual molestation, the NY Post reports this week.

The settlement, originally made in secret, was revealed when families sued Yeshiva Torah Temimah in the Brooklyn Supreme Court for failing to pay $1 million of the total settlement, reports Gothamist.

Rabbi Joel “Yehuda” Kolko, who teaches first-grade at Yeshiva Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway between Ditmas Avenue and 18th Avenue, has been called a serial child sexual abuser by Failed Messiah blog. He’s wracked up several abuse claims dating back to the 1970s, including four reported by The Jewish Week and as many as 20 reported by New York magazine. But those cases could not be prosecuted because they were beyond the statute of limitations for civil or criminal suits, where victims must file a criminal justice case against an individual before age 23.

Kolko allegedly had boys sit on his lap and fondled their genitals, reports the Post.

The accusers’ lawsuit claims that the Yeshiva and its leader, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, had been covering up abuse for decades and failed to report allegations to the police. Instead, the school conducted an internal investigation in 1985 and found Kolko innocent, reports Gothamist.

In some ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, reporting fellow Jews to the secular authorities is considered sinful, a source told Gothamist.

But child sex abusers don’t always go unpunished in the Haredi community. Kolko’s nephew, Yosef Kolko, a 39-year-old Yeshiva teacher in Lakewood, New Jersey, pled guilty to another sexual molestation case in 2013 and is facing 15 to 40 years in prison, writes Ben Hirsch at Jewish Weekly.

But Kensington’s Yehuda Kolko avoided jail time by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment, thanks to a sweetheart plea deal with former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes in 2012, reports Gothamist. Kolko got away with a probation and didn’t have to register as a sex offender.

Kolko’s case marks a precedent as the first known sexual abuse settlement within a New York City Haredi Jewish community, said experts consulted by the Post. It could set an example for other organizations harboring sex criminals and set an example for abuse victims who have been afraid to come forward.

“If word gets out, other schools will think twice if they hear about abuse,” Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual adviser to Yeshiva University and victim rights advocate, told the Post.