Heute A 10 head delegation under the leadership of Community President Oskar Deutsch visited Israel on Tuesday; "We are showing the people that they are not alone." Wounded soldiers were wholeheartedly thanked.
It is not my intention to name and shame people, especially not my own fellow Jews but when I saw this article in yesterday´s Austrian press, I felt so outraged at the hypocrisy of it, I felt compelled to voice my deep hurt and offence.
While the soldiers in Israel deserve all our thanks and praise and it is indeed noble of the Viennese Jewish community to fly a delegation out there, I would like to share my personal experiences of the ´compassionate´ President.
I went to see Mr Oskar Deutsch together with the Vice President, Ariel Muzicant. I was in a pretty desperate state and begged them to help my children who continue to suffer every day they are denied their mother in their lives.
I appealed to them as fathers, and Mr Muzicant as a father and grandfather to understand the daily loss from our lives and tried to communicate to them just a fraction of the grief we live with every day of our lives. I pleaded with them to step in and try to resolve the terrible crisis that has played out in their community the past 4 years and try to halt the terrible chillul hashem that has spread all over the world as a result.
Both men seemed sympathetic, Mr Deutsch even more so and while he insisted they could not interfere in the judicial process or change court decisions, they could certainly try to make the visiting arrangements better and 'more Jewish,' they assured me. Mr Deutsch promised to set up a meeting with Mr Schlesinger and at least try to make him keep to my visits and stop cancelling so frequently on a whim. He also said he would certainly try to do something so that I would no longer need to pay an exorbitant cost just to see my boys.
Mr. Deutsch also said he would find me a good lawyer. He suggested the name of one that had already repeatedly rejected my case and one who would bankrupt my family. He didn´t know her personally and wasn´t offering any kind of personal connection - something that´s taken extremely seriously here. Giving me the telephone number of a lawyer he didn´t know personally and whom he could not help me finance was not really the help I was looking for.
After several weeks when I hadn´t heard from Mr Deutsch, I called him up to see what he had done. He dismissively told me he hadn´t managed to set up a meeting with Mr Schlesinger and neither would he be able to do so. When I asked why not, he simply said, ´Mr Schlesinger refuses to come, there´s nothing more I can do´
When I asked him about the cost of my visits, he stingingly said, ´What´s 50 Euro?! You pay your lawyers more than that!´ I didn´t hear anything from him since then. It feels like the community have simply abandoned us.
Mr Deutsch, you may be kind and generous to children of Israelis far away but can I remind you once again about the suffering children crying out for help in your own community, on your own doorstep? You are fully aware of our pain and suffering. Please don´t keep your back turned on us. The whole world has heard about the plight of the Schlesinger twins, Samuel and Benjamin. Please find it in your heart to spare a thought for us too. Perhaps you can bring some of the kindness and compassion that you demonstrated so publicly in Israel home with you to Vienna. You don´t only have to be Jewish in Israel. In fact, here in the diaspora it is those Jewish values we need all the more.
Ev Meyer wrote the following to Mr. Oskar Deutch
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE COMMENTS THAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT YOU. I WOULD APPRECIATE A RESPONSE AS TO YOUR LACK OF INVOLVEMENT IN THIS CASE OTHERWISE I WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD THIS INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET. THESE COMMENTS WERE COPY AND PASTED FROM DAAS TORAH WEBSITE WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE CREATOR OF THE SITE.
KIND REGARDS
EV MEYER
concerned Australian well connected Jew
Mr. Deutsch's response to Ev Meyer
Dear All,
I have spoken many times to both . Unfortunately not achieving the desired results. A claim I would not care is simply wrong.
Best Regards
Oskar Deutsch
Beth Alexander responder to Mr. Deutsch's letter
Dear Mr Deutsch,
Please don't add salt to our wound. To claim you have 'spoken many times to me' is pure fiction and extremely insulting. Enough untruths have been spread around the Jewish community by Mr Schlesinger and his family without more being added by the people that are supposed to be 'neutral mediators.'
Your response to my supporter is extremely disappointing to say the least. Here we have such a caring, compassionate Jew on the other side of the world who doesn't even know me, taking the trouble to contact you about members of your own community because she truly cares and you cannot even form a truthful response, never mind turn to help?
This only confirms everything people around the world are hearing and seeing about the IKG - you have let us down unforgivably.
When will you begin to care? I just hope your own children and grandchildren will never have to suffer like we have in your midst. You remain blind and deaf to our pain.
Beth Alexander
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