Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes presents the award. Photo: Screenshot.

On Dec. 10, 2012, hours after Nechemya Weberman was convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl he was supposed to be mentoring, the Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes presented an award to Meyer Seewald, the director of a Crown Heights-based Jewish community watchdog group that investigates and exposes claimed predators in Hasidic communities. Seewald’s award of excellence acknowledged Jewish Community Watch’s (JCW) “tireless service and dedication to the community.”

JCW is a grassroots organization dedicated to exposing child predators and educating the public on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. The organization’s website includes a registry of alleged child sex offenders from various Hasidic communities. The list includes convicted sex offenders, those with pending charges and others that have not been arrested but are alleged to have committed sex crimes against children.

During the ceremony, Hynes remarked that the organization’s work exposing child predators and assisting survivors in recovery “has been instrumental” in creating change in the tight-knit Hasidic community of Brooklyn.

The organization’s website highlights a 2011 rabbinical court ruling mandating that suspicion of sexual abuse be reported directly to the police.

A video of the presentation can be viewed below.