Trigger warning. "Our unique family" in jail—non-Jews

sandyish

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 8:43 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

EXACTLY. I KNEW this was a pedo den from day 1. All my suspicions have come true. its unreal.
I also knew that he is faking being ill. Someone this sick would have lost a ton of weight by now. Red flag.
The only thing that shocked me was that none of the kids are jwish.

How were you able to verify that none of the kids are Jewish?
This is crazy. Do they think they are Jewish?

Blessing1

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:01 pm

Judy wrote:

You wouldn’t really find that by chassidim- the x-mas look.
Here are a few more odd points.
Y are the boys wearing shells under their short sleeve shirts? Boys are allowed to wear short sleeves- another thing he got wrong.
When they taste the jelly bellies he just pops it into his mouth not even occurring to make Bracha.
When he’s explaining the tzitzis he’s wearing them backwards…

Yes, you do see a x-mas look by chassidim on chanukah lately, it became a new vibe. And a chassidish guy converted some x-mas songs in to yiddish/chanuka. So this doesn't strike me as odd.

Angel

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:13 pm

The backwards peyos struck me right away.
Also if you see one of the boys has a plain 13th bday party no mention of bar mitzvah or aliyah etc.

PeanutMama

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:42 pm

Blessing1 wrote:

Yes, you do see a x-mas look by chassidim on chanukah lately, it became a new vibe. And a chassidish guy converted some x-mas songs in to yiddish/chanuka. So this doesn't strike me as odd.

Lol why would he convert xmas songs into Yiddish chanukah songs??
I showed chanukah sameach by this person from the very same album to my friend once and she said “how is this guy not creative”, then later told me her husband told her to shut it off because one of the songs was used for avoda zara in churches and unfortunately found out he was right. I got curious because from what I had listened so far these tunes are secular non religious winter songs. Haneiros halolu has that church hymn. It’s a sacred xmas song that praises yoshka’s birth and how he will (😂💀) bring salvation to the world and yadiyadiya. That’s basically how it’s avodah zara and it just sad the singer doesn’t realize what he’s done!! It’s also like placing a stumbling block before the blind (because Jews are listening to avodah zara music) and I warn my internet friends of this one song (to skip it). If they don’t believe me I tell them the name of the song and urge them to look up the history.

PeanutMama

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:55 pm

Maybe they’re unaware but I know a ger who curls his payos backwards and he’s as genuine as can be.

Regarding this family I remember reading about them way back when they made news on fb that they had adopted a number of children
Immediately I wondered if there was a wife/mother and why weren’t there any girls etc

Last edited by PeanutMama on Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

chestnut

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:55 pm

Blessing1 wrote:

And a chassidish guy converted some x-mas songs in to yiddish/chanuka.

So weird. Do chassidim listen to these?

Mama Bear

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:04 pm

Okay I have a few minutes so I'm going to give you a few more of my takes.
(I've gotten so unused to typing megillahs since I left facebook and prefer whatsapp with voice notes and videos, omg)
I started watching them during covid when I got into tiktok.
It was super bizarre right away. Nothing they were doing Jewishly made sense at all.
But I chalked it up to - okay, he might be a BT or ger, he doesnt live in the heart of chasidishville, I'm not going to put it past them, they might be mixing things up.
But I started asking around locally if anyone knows of a BT or Ger named Chaim Nissim Cohen. No one had any clue who he was.
I thought he might be a sfardi from a latino country; we have some chasidish sfardim from Argentina around Brooklyn. No one on earth had heard of him.
The videos got more and more bizarre. The rapping, the clearly non-Jewish influences on everything. Everything was very culturally Jewish with on real religion to it. They definitely sounded like actors. They seemed way too excited about culturally Jewish things like bamba and grape juice...
It really puzzled me why they never went to shul, never showed videos with tefillin. Never spoke about bar mitzvahs. Why were they never davening with minyan?? Houston is a frum community full of shuls. None of it made any sense whatsoever.
Why would bochurim be homeschooled when there are plenty of yeshivos around? If a frum family homeschools their boys, at least the bochurim learn b'chavrusa part of the time. Not a single thing they were doing made a lick of sense.
As much as this whole story bothers me terribly, it was a bit of a relief actually to discover that they are not Jewish.
The one thing that still galls me and shocks me is that I discovered on their social media, a picture about 5-7 years ago where they are visiting the Kaliver Rebbe in Williamsburg! OMG!! That's how long ago this deception goes!!!
Btw there's a guy in Houston who comments on some of the zaakah posts . They knew this man was trouble since day one. He met him in 2010 where he claimed to be a Yemenite whom Satmar brought here. Um, a yemenite would not have such an american english accent. Yeah right. So he was hatching this sinister plot way before all this started. IN 2009 he changed his name legally from Jeffrey Lujan Vefil to Hayim Nissim Cohen, and he started fostering the first set of boys -- brothers -- in 2012.
This story has been going on for a long long time.
My honest question is - and we can't get into his criminal mind -- is how long did he think he could keep up the charade of being deathly ill? Forever? What kind of life is that? He couldnt very well go back to being healthy and well once the court case about the exchange student was over. So he was basically signing up for a life of house arrest, bound to oxygen tanks and doctors and fake illness, instead of going to jail. He is only 38. Was he going to live like this forever? Or he knew he'd get caught at some point.
At some point, all the boys would become adults, leave the house, and blow the whistle when they realized how abused they were. He couldnt keep them hostage til their old age.
I wonder what he's doing now in prison without his fake oxygen tanks and fake illness. Did he just give up the whole charade? or is he lying in his prison cot 24 hr day pretending to be deathly ill?
I cant wait to hear what happens tomorrow in the hearing.
This is the most fascinating case I've followed in a while. it's mamish fiction.
I really wonder waht all the boys are up to. I miss their updates! They were my favorite fake reality show.

Last edited by Mama Bear on Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

Mama Bear

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:05 pm

chestnut wrote:

So weird. Do chassidim listen to these?

No. THe person who did that is ex chasidish and not really frum. He sings and plays beautifully and did this for shtick. His songs are not accepted by the mainstream.

BusyMom24/7

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:12 pm

Hearing is tomorrow?

Also in the podcast the boy didn't give details. He was very vague and was afraid to say who,what, where.... So how did this story become public? Who figured out that it was this family??

Mama Bear

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:20 pm

BusyMom24/7 wrote:

The lady hosting the podcast made 200 calls in the next 48 hours to locate this family.

Honestly, if it was me listening to the podcast I wouldve caught on right away.

8 brothers, single dad, Texas.

Wouldve taken me 10 seconds.

but I never heard of this podcast.

ra_mom

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:21 pm

Which boys were the first two brothers?

BusyMom24/7

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:22 pm

Oh wow. The lady from the podcast sounded like she really cared.

chestnut

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:37 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

No. THe person who did that is ex chasidish and not really frum. He sings and plays beautifully and did this for shtick. His songs are not accepted by the mainstream.

Oh, ok

Mama Bear

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:41 pm

ra_mom wrote:

Which boys were the first two brothers?

Avshalom and Avichai are brothers who were adopted first, in 2012
Next came Yehuda
Then came Shmariyahu
Then came the 2 little ones, Simcha and Yissachar, about 2016. They were 2 and 4! His nephews.
Lastly in 2017 came the 3 brothers Pesach, Elimelech, and Nachman.

NOTE: THESE ARE NOT THEIR REAL NAMES. Notice that he gave them the most convoluted and difficult to pronounse names.

I might have the 3 brothers names and ages mixed up though. It's hard to keep track.

ETA: obviously I notated this picture. I may have made some mistakes
I color coded the brothers. there are 2 brothers in red, 2 in green, 3 in orange. Yehuda and Shmariyahu were single adoptions.

Blessing1

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 11:47 pm

Hope the verdict won't shock and traumatize me. He better rot in prison forever.
I hope the kids will be able to live a normal life.

Mama Bear

Thu, Feb 23 2023, 12:07 am

just a by the way -- there WAS an article in Ami about a family who adopted a bunch of children but that was a lovely married couple and the kids they adopted WERE Jewish, and are mostly girls. So you might confusing things. This creep was never written up in mishpacha or ami, as far as I know.

Congresswoman

Thu, Feb 23 2023, 1:06 am

This is so bizarre.

ra_mom

Thu, Feb 23 2023, 1:14 am

Mama Bear wrote:

Thank you Mama Bear!

TwinsMommy

Thu, Feb 23 2023, 1:19 am

I'd been following them on tiktok and was noting the strange levush and lack of Yiddishe accent and the pop culture references but I just thought they were really odd. This is horrible.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Feb 23 2023, 1:47 am

I'm glad their names in photo aren't their true names.
Every victim, Jewish or not, deserves to have his identity protected.