Dear rrmoderator,
I couldn't have said it better...do not expose your kids to this kind of cult stuff.....speak openly and honestly with them about everything...they should be educated as to what abuse is and who perpetrates it...many people think their kids will be sexually abused by a stranger, someone pulls up in a car and offers them something..WRONG!!!!
Majority of children suffer abuse by the boy scout leader, pastor, rabbis, family members,etc anyone who gets close enough to not only gain your children's trust but yours as well...Believe me I've been through it with my daughter who was abused by my nephew, NOT Shoresh related at all...so take a stand, let them take you to court and expose them for what they are.....remember "those who stand by idle and say nothing are as guilty as the perpetrators"..Hang in

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surfer54
.remember "those who stand by idle and say nothing are as guilty as the perpetrators"..Hang in

This is my struggle actually. I want to tell the "friends" that I have made in this cult all about what I now know. I want to send them all the articles I have compiled beginning in 1975 up to a followup in the new york times in 1983. I want to burst this thing apart, but I'm afraid of how much it might shatter the psyche of some of these people. More than the damage done already. People on this site that are "still in it" as they have said, have already mentioned the suicidal thoughts that people have had. I know I personally wouldn't be the root cause of such an action, but i don't know if I could shoulder being a part of that catalyst.

But then there's the children. The innocent little ones born into a 3rd or 4th generation. The ones that would be just like me if they are allowed to continue to breathe in the toxicity of this group into their adult years, when they are trying to form meaningful relationships, get married, have kids someday.

I don't know if I can shoulder that either.

But for myself, I almost feel peaceful now for the first time in my life, knowing that I don't need to be guilty for leaving. Knowing that there is NOTHING wrong with me for leaving. Knowing that I can leave this thing behind fully, and never look back, and never have to wonder if I did the right thing is great. If I am part of exposing them, I'll be wrapped up in it for years at the least. My family will not be free of it. I'll be continually harangued. That leaves a sour pit in my stomach.

Maybe I could do it with help, because I know I can't do it alone, and I think it would take the entire group of us "new" youth that have left/want to leave to blow it wide open. If there are enough of us, each tie that we have to any other member might make them think twice, might make them listen. The people in authority couldn't really suppress us if we had numbers.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Please let me help you. Provide me with all the information and evidence you have and I will be the catalyst on behalf of my daughter. I do not want to harm innocent people either. But, as I have told you next generation children have been harmed. Children can not fight for themselves. We have a moral duty to put their need over the needs of adults and protect them.

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disillusioned1

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surfer54
.remember "those who stand by idle and say nothing are as guilty as the perpetrators"..Hang in

This is my struggle actually. I want to tell the "friends" that I have made in this cult all about what I now know. I want to send them all the articles I have compiled beginning in 1975 up to a followup in the new york times in 1983. I want to burst this thing apart, but I'm afraid of how much it might shatter the psyche of some of these people. More than the damage done already. People on this site that are "still in it" as they have said, have already mentioned the suicidal thoughts that people have had. I know I personally wouldn't be the root cause of such an action, but i don't know if I could shoulder being a part of that catalyst.

But then there's the children. The innocent little ones born into a 3rd or 4th generation. The ones that would be just like me if they are allowed to continue to breathe in the toxicity of this group into their adult years, when they are trying to form meaningful relationships, get married, have kids someday.

I don't know if I can shoulder that either.

But for myself, I almost feel peaceful now for the first time in my life, knowing that I don't need to be guilty for leaving. Knowing that there is NOTHING wrong with me for leaving. Knowing that I can leave this thing behind fully, and never look back, and never have to wonder if I did the right thing is great. If I am part of exposing them, I'll be wrapped up in it for years at the least. My family will not be free of it. I'll be continually harangued. That leaves a sour pit in my stomach.

Maybe I could do it with help, because I know I can't do it alone, and I think it would take the entire group of us "new" youth that have left/want to leave to blow it wide open. If there are enough of us, each tie that we have to any other member might make them think twice, might make them listen. The people in authority couldn't really suppress us if we had numbers.

Anyone have any thoughts?

disillusioned1:

You can post the information publicly here at the message board.

For example, articles can be posted regarding the group.

In this way you can easily share the information.

I can't upload the files that I have, they are all in PDF. I will provide the information on where other people can find them if they want to know the truth. Some of it is just nothing really, only talking about church affliations, but the quotes at the end of some of the articles are interesting little jabs to me.

The most damaging one is The Foibles of Abba August 15, 1982 in Newsday:
link:[www.angelfire.com]
This article is incomplete, but the full article can be found through a google search of Jack hickman, I think the same guy has the full article on picasaweb under the the name sonofwalker.

NY Times, Dec 14, 1975, Charismatics are alive and well on the Island. Its not just about JH, but other preachers on LI that were considered controversial.

NY Times, Nov 7, 1977: 2 LI Churches hold Christian and Jewish Services. If you were in it at all, then this is basically about how they crossed over to being Jewish

NY times, Feb 5, 1987, Accused Churches: again about the dissolve of St john's into Shoresh Yishai. My favorite part is the end where Don Smestad is quoted as saying: anything Pastor Hickman says I would just put quotation marks behind."

Present Tense, The Magazine of World Jewish Affairs, Summer 1977, Vol 4, Num 4, published by the american jewish committee: Onward (hebrew) Christian soldiers: they're out to get your kids.
**I really liked this one, it took the jewish perspective on how the original torah and jewish ancestry was being perverted, and ends with a special box on what someone (the writer) thought of a service they witnessed at St. John's.

Actual Article:
FOLLOW-UP ON THE NEWS
FOLLOW-UP ON THE NEWS; Church in Conflict
By Richard Haitch
New york times, Published: September 18, 1983

In November 1977 they were front- page news - two Lutheran churches on Long Island that were using Hebrew liturgy in their Sunday morning services and, as a result, were threatened with suspension by the American Lutheran Church.
The churches were St. John's of North Massapequa, led then by the Rev. Jack W. Hickman and the Rev. John W. Hove, and Christ Church of East Meadow, led by the Rev. Donald L. Smestad.
All three ministers had attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Paul.
Where are they all today? The two Lutheran congregations no longer exist, having been dropped by the American Lutheran Church in April 1978. The three ministers have been unfrocked as Lutherans. The Christ Church building has been sold to an independent Christian group, the New Covenant Church. At St. John's the traditional cross has been removed, the building remodeled as a synagogue and a new congregation, Shoresh Yishai, has been formed, led by the three former Lutheran clerics. Last week, on the eve of Yom Kippur, which Shoresh Yishai observed, Mr. Hickman explained that the congregation's name means ''the Holy Congregation of the Root of Jesse.'' The Root of Jesse, he said, is Jesus, who ''we believe will be the Messiah of Israel'' but who has not yet fulfilled that role. Mr. Hickman says Shoresh Yishai meets for services ''always on Monday'' but ''never on Sunday.''


Actual Article:
Shoresh Yishai Cult
From "Hedda Linked to Kid-beating Cult," the New York Post, December 2, 1987, p. 14.

New York police are investigating reports that Joel Steinberg and his live-in lover, Hedda Nussbaum, were members of Shoresh Yishai, a Long Island-based cult that advocated strict discipline of children. The pair are accused of beating to death their "adoptive daughter," Lisa, in 1987. Their lawyer said the reports of cult involvement were false.
 
    Law enforcement sources said they found "cult-like things" in the couple's Greenwich Village apartment and are questioning former members of the group. One ex-member recalled seeing Nussbaum at meetings as far back as 1979.
 
    Shoresh Yishai, led by Jack Hickman, once claimed more than 2,000 members who had transformed themselves from traditional Christians to Orthodox-style Jews who believed in Jesus. Many members left the group in 1982 when they learned Hickman was homosexual. More than 50 members still exist on Long Island, according to police.
 
    Former members have reported several cases of men being beaten and humiliated by sect leaders. One former member said she had heard of bizarre sexual incidents involving children, and reported that boys were taken into a separate room to pray and told to unzip their pants because "prayer is sexually arousing."
 
Cult Observer, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1988, p. 8

There's also another where Jack went to a trial for a couple that didn't want to have their children get social security cards that can be found through web search.

disillusioned1:

Thanks for sharing that information.

You now have pre-approved status, which means your posts will go right through without moderation.

You might cut and paste any articles you think are important.

See [forum.culteducation.com]

This is a section within the message board that may be helpful if you encounter and technical issues concerning use of the board.

My story is similar to many of you. I am also, ,or more accurately WAS, consider to be Youth. I remember the commitment mandated from us in 1996. How easy it was to want to belong to something that seemed so important, that was intended to make US feel so important.

I have always been somewhat of a rebel within the 'group'. But also highly regarded. Always a strange mix of reactions I would receive from the older generation. But I know first hand of abuses that are unforgivable. I am hoping to find a way to move forward. I am glad that my child was never fully exposed to this brand of bs.

At the same time I struggle with the concept of losing friends I've had most of my life. The ones that matter will stick, I know that. It is just difficult to rebuild in your thirties when you learn that all you've ever known is a dangerous lie. Can I trust what I "think" or "believe" again??

I am guilty of reaching out to past members and encouraging them to come back, because I was young and truly believed I was doing the right thing. My god, what have I done????

interesting too
[magdalenesegg.blogspot.com]

O.k. so I have sent some private messages to folks that seem to indicate they have facts or proof. I am now reaching out to all on this board who have claimed knowledge of abuses in this cult. I know my child was abused by a former, maybe current member of this cult. I need facts on who is still in, if abuse was or is going on, what the abuses are, who is willing to testify on belhalf of past/current victims. It might seem easy for me to say now, as I have nothing else to lose, I and my daughter have already lost. But, when I was in the position to decide to either keep quiet, ignore what I saw and was being told to avoid a fight OR protect an innocent child, there was NO CHOICE. There is a right and a wrong and perhaps that has been distorted for past members of this cult. Abuse is wrong. Abuse is criminal. There is no debate on that. I am not afraid of these people, my daughter is not afraid. She wants validation, and I am not going to stop until I get it for her. [...] I will keep private the source of any information I am given unless of course you are brave enough to agree to testify.
Thank you in advance to anyone willing to do the RIGHT thing.

[Moderator note: Posting contact information is against the rules you agree to before posting here]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2011 01:57AM by rrmoderator.

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disjointed1
I remember the commitment mandated from us in 1996.

I am glad to see the forum alive and active again. I have asked in the past, and I will ask again now; could the insiders please englighten us outsiders on facts, statements, etc. I am totally unaware of what has been mandated from the youth, and am very curious to know.

Through marriage, I have family that live in Maine. I am very curious as to the goings on of all families up there, mainly because there are so many young ones. My greatest concern is about their safety, both mental and physical. I have heard too many accounts on here to keep on believing "they're some of the normal ones" or "it won't happen to them". I don't exactly know the rules of the moderator so I will slightly change some of the names. But if anyone could add any sort of info as to the Hecks, Vandaventors, Terrentinos, Castellos, Smesteds etc. I would greatly appreciate it. I know members of each of the families and am worried about what their kids may be exposed to. Am I wrong here, or is there reason to worry? Everything up in Maine seems so serene and normal, yet I cannot escape these first hand accounts posted on the boards.

@truthseeker, thank you for your courage