A Most Painful Indictment

I am the youngest of four kids and at age 14 I lost my mother to cancer. She was 46 years old, beautiful in body and spirit and the rock of our family. My father, a Holocaust survivor who saw his own father shot dead in front of his eyes has always said that the death of my mother was the greatest tragedy of his life. Needless to say the pain lives with me to this day and I miss my mom beyond any words I can say.

My father did what most widowed people do after the death of a loved one - he found someone to fill the void in his life and remarried. I was 16 years old, the only child living at home and frankly I felt like the odd man out. With the help of good friends and teachers I applied for and was accepted early admission to Yeshiva University. I deferred and at age 16 found myself as a student at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem. At the time Yeshivat Hakotel was a member Yeshiva of Yeshivot Bnei Akiva and the overseas student program was run by Rav Aharon Bina.

I openly admit now as I did back then in 1980, that my reasons for being in Israel at the time had more to do with getting away from home than from learning Torah. Having said that, I was anything but a trouble maker, perhaps not the most studious kid but not a discipline problem either. Well, one day in our Gemara Shiur, we were learning a segment called Chezkat Habatim, apropos of nothing Rav Bina blurts out in his accented English "az your wife die and you remarry - you never love your first wife." Immediately, my hand goes up. Rav Bina shoos me away and says that he knows my story but the bottom line is, if a person remarries after his wife died he never loved his first wife. I walked out of class distraught, hurt and angry.

A few hours later Rav Bina pulls me aside in the Beit Medrash and tells me in these exact words, "Moskowitz, az you took personal what I said az you bigger idiot than I thought you were." My response to him led to my being asked to leave Yeshivat Hakotel. I did tell of the incident to the principals of quite a few prominent Yeshivot at the time, who fed Rav Bina students - apparently, 1980 was not a good year to highlight psychological abuse by rabbis I guess it was not in vogue yet as unacceptable behavior. They did nothing.

Some years later, Yeshivot Bnei Akivah seperated ways from Rav Bina and he was forced to open another Yeshiva called Netiv Aryeh. The circumstances of the split will probably never be known, and I assume Yeshivot Bnei Akivah will never tell the truth because of liability issues they may face. One thing for sure, they didn't split from Rav Bina because of his immense success rate and popularity.

For years I only told my Rav Bina story to some friends and relatives who asked my opinion about him or his Yeshiva. I told the truth but said that perhaps it was me not him who caused this chasm. Then just about 2 or 3 years ago, someone sent me a link to a site called http://www.binaabuse.blogspot.com/ - since taken down I might add. There were tens of stories like mine about verbal and psychological abuse by this man against his students. The problem was that most of these stories were posted anonymously. I chose to post my story and I signed my name to it. For me the shock that some 30 years later this was still going on impelled me to put myself forward as a source and witness to this so called Rav's cruelty.

I was contacted by a number of people who posted on that site. One young man met with me, he looked ragged and older than his 24 years. He had been unable to hold a job or sit through any classes because of the public humiliation he suffered under Aharon Bina. To many, barbs thrown by Rav Bina at students like "you are gay and will be divorced ten times" seem funny. To others it is just another form of humiliation.

Aharon Bina has a great track record of indoctrinating young men from modern Yeshivot and turning them into nice frum Yeshiva bochers. The untold secret to this success is that it comes at the cost of humiliating the weakest links in his classrooms. A friend who went a few years after me, turned prematurely grey, he was also a bit heavy. After seeing a purplish hue in the hair dye he used, Rav Bina called him Barney the Dinosaur in front of the whole class. Funny? Perhaps. Inappropriate for a rabbi and teacher? Definitely.

We tried to get the story out and in fact I was interviewed by Michelle Chabin of the Jewish Week, the story became about gap year students in Israel. Rav Bina was no where to be found in the story. Speak to any educator in the Yeshiva world today and one after one they will tell you that Rav Bina's methods are eccentric and perhaps unconventional. But not one has the guts to say that whatever success he has comes at the evil humiliation he heaps on others.

While his abuse is not sexual in nature, the handling of it by the Yeshivot today is nothing short of the hiding the crimes of Rabbi Balkany at Torah Temimah and Baruch Lanner at NCSY. Every Yeshiva that hosts this man to recruit students is hosting an abusive person who has caused harm to many students. Those who host this man for fundraising in their homes do the same. No one would tolerate similar behavior in a school here it should not be tolerated in Yeshivot in Israel.

I once again am going public. I am a 48 year old man, proud father of three great kids, married 25 years. I belong to an Orthodox Shul and have sent my kids to Yeshiva. I am active in Jewish and religious causes and I am an ardent Zionist. I have no reason to lie or to make this up. But by going public I now have put all you Yeshivot on notice and all you parents who consider his school. Despite his success with some students this man humiliates and embarrass students regularly. He should not be allowed to teach young impressionable boys. Once again the warning bell has been sound - now who has the guts besides me to speak up.