New York – The Jewish Daily Forward profiles Skverer Rebbe, Rabbi David Twersky and the secretive dealings and goings-on in his New Square enclave and the inhabitants that follow the rabbi in a Dec. 3 article.
The Forward article discusses the exclusively Hasidic area in the upstate Town of Ramapo, where Twersky, 74, heads his sect, and the financial dealings, sexual abuse and claims of violence have been reported over the last few years.
Followers of Twersky regard him in the highest level of holiness; he is a revered tzadik, a higher spiritual being with saintly wisdom. But the breaking of silence – particularly that of Laiby Stern, who claims after being rebuffed by Rabbi Twersky after confiding in him that his neighbor had been sexually abusing him, went to authorities and outside the scope of New Square – is starting to show a break in the privacy and solidarity of the sect.