Levy Aron’s confession of the killing of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky has caused a big stir within the tight-knit Jewish Community closest to the boy’s family.
The Borough Park orthodox Jewish community is one that is built on the basis of trust, but the knowledge that this heinous crime was committed by one of their own, has many individuals doubting the trust they had in their “neighbor.”
Police video surveillance shows Kletzky getting into Aron’s car as he was walking home from day camp. Although alarm bells would be ringing for most New Yorkers at this point, this type of apparent hospitality shown by Aron is not uncommon within their close community.
“If you’re in the airport and need help, a Jew will help you…I pick up hitchhikers, boys waiting to go to yeshiva. When I travel and see another Jew, we’ll eyeball each other; there’s a connection. Everywhere you go, all over the world,” says Borough Park resident Yocheved Schachter to the New York Times.
Many citizens of Borough Park now feel that this type of Jewish kinship might in fact be a risk factor and a cause for concern.
Ben Herb, a Borough Park resident tells the New York Times, “Here in the center of Borough Park is where you have to be very careful. Most of your neighbors are Orthodox Jews with which children are comfortable. That, in itself, is a risk.”
Parents like Herb feel that now more than ever, they must emphasize to their children how to react to an unfamiliar person regardless of their racial or religious background.
“My children don’t talk to strangers whether they wear a yarmulke or a do-rag,” Herb said.
The dismembered body of Kletzky was discovered Wednesday morning with parts being in Aron’s freezer and some parts in a suitcase found miles away from the apartment.
