At first blush, a case unfolding in Cook County Judge Daniel Gallagher’s courtroom has the hallmarks of a neighbor dispute that’s taken an ugly turn.Two men living in the same North Side neighborhood are at odds.Threatening words may have been exchanged between the men, or their associates.An ar med bodyguard was hired for one of the men and is accused of slashing one of the other man’s tires.The main participants want a “no stalking” order against each other, which Gallagher eventually may rule on.But there are deep undercurrents in the case that speak to how the Orthodox Jewish community the men are part of deal with allegations of child sexual abuse — which often is shrouded in secrecy, with the offenders at times seemingly shown deference over victims.One of the men involved in the court case, Michael Weldler, has alleged that he was sexually abused years ago as a boy at a Jewish school on the North Side by an older student employed there as a book binder.The other man in the case in front of Gallagher, David Sussman, was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting his roommate at a Jewish boarding school in Long Beach, New York, when they were teens, also years ago.Sussman, who is now 38 and a rabbi, and Weldler, 27, don’t know each other.But when Sussman moved to Chicago within the last few years to take a teaching job at another Jewish school called Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, Weldler heard about the allegations and was stunned.Weldler reached out to one or more rabbis he knew who were running the school, which is located on the edge of the Sauganash and Peterson Park neighborhoods, and relayed concerns. Michael Weldler.Provided Unhappy that school leaders apparently didn’t plan any drastic action on Sussman, Weldler made it clear he may distribute leaflets in the community about him.Court records show that one of the rabbis passed along what Weldler contends was a threat to him through Weldler’s father.Weldler is accused in court records of verbally confronting Sussman in the neighborhood, including once while he was walking home with a colleague and Weldler allegedly told him: “Does your family know what you did? Did you tell them yet?” Related A rabbi accused of sexually abusing roommate as a teen is now teaching at Orthodox Jewish school in Chicago At some point, Sussman’s father hired his son an armed guard, who Weldler has accused of saying something to the effect of, “If I ever see you walking around here again, I will break every single bone in your body,” court records show.The guard was accused of slashing one of Weldler’s tires.Weldler was accused of planting leaflets citing the abuse allegations against Sussman on the windshield of his car while it was parked in front of his home.Both sides deny doing anything threatening or illegal. Some of the allegations contained in a lawsuit last year against Rabbi David Sussman and a Jewish school in New York where, as a teenager, he was accused of sexually assaulting his high school dormitory roommate. Both are identified under pseudonyms in the case.Provided Adam Sheppard, an attorney representing Weldler, describes child sex abuse allegations as “obviously an impetus for the dispute.”But Sheppard calls the pending case in front of Gallagher “a classic intersection of the First Amendment and the law and we believe” Weldler “expressed his First Amendment rights within the law.”Sussman’s attorney Hal M. Garfinkel asserted in court: “This is not a case about fliers. This is a case about an individual... who terrorized the Orthodox Jewish community. Mr. Weldler was under the misconception, the mistaken belief, that my client, David Sussman, was a child molester.”Sussman has not been charged with a crime.But a 2021 lawsuit filed by his former boarding school roommate says Sussman repeatedly sexually assaulted him, while the New York school did nothing to protect him.The case was settled for undisclosed terms last year, and the case was sealed.Before that occurred, a 2019 letter between Sussman and his accuser was entered into the court record in which Sussman wrote: “I would like to apologize for what happened when we were together in 11th grade. As I got older, I realized the severity of what I’ve done. My words cannot undo my actions, but I would like to express my deepest regret and apology.” The area where one of the confrontations last year between the men involved in the case in front of Cook County Judge Daniel Gallagher occurred.Robert Herguth / Sun-Times Typically, such settlements come without an admission of wrongdoing by either side.It’s unclear when Yeshiva Eitz Chaim first learned about the allegations against Sussman. But Garfinkel previously said: “Despite the civil claim being unsubstantiated, the School, out of an abundance of caution for the safety of its students, sought legal, rabbinical and professional guidance as to the appropriate next steps.”“After doing extensive independent research, they unanimously advised the School leadership that there is no cause for concern. The School proceeded to notify parents, lay leaders and supporters as to the civil suit along with the School’s reaction and subsequent decision. They all wholeheartedly supported the School in its handling of the situation.”Garfinkel also represented a member of Chicago’s Orthodox community, Avi Levin, who was accused by Weldler of sexually abusing him years ago. Levin was charged criminally with the abuse, but he denied misconduct and the case was dismissed by prosecutors before it went to trial.A lawsuit filed by Weldler against Levin, and the school that employed him, is pending in Cook County.Yet even with some or all of this known in the community, Levin appears to have remained part of the Jewish community’s volunteer security service — giving him an air of respectability, and free movement in a community teeming with children, according to victim advocates.In another case last year, several members of Chicago’s Orthodox community — including a rabbi who runs a Jewish school in West Rogers Park — rallied behind former resident Dovid Akiva Shenkman when he was convicted on child pornography charges.They portrayed his crimes as victimless and asked the judge for leniency. ...read more read less