Accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Oregon in 2000, child sex offender, Jimmy Julius Karow fled to Israel before authorities in the USA could apprehend him or figure out where he went. He is a wanted man and is considered dangerous.
Karow has been running from U.S. law enforcement ever since. Currently INTERPOL, an inter-governmental policing organization that works with 194 countries, has a Red Notice to alert police worldwide that he’s a fugitive.
Two years after he fled the USA, Karow was convicted by an Israeli court of child molestation in a separate case. He served time and was released.
Now another alleged Israeli victim has come forward, saying he began abusing her when she was 5-years-old, and continued for years.
Karow has successfully evaded authorities by moving between communities in Israel for almost two decades, and he is not alone.
A CBS News investigation has found that many accused American pedophiles flee to Israel, and bringing them to justice can be difficult.
Jewish Community Watch (JCW), an American organization that tracks accused pedophiles, has been trying for years to find Karow and help bring him to justice.
JCW says Karow and other wanted men and women have been able to exploit a right known as the Law of Return, whereby any Zionist person can move to Israel and automatically gain citizenship.
Since the small organization started tracking accused pedophiles in 2014, it says more than 60 have fled from the USA to Israel. Given its limited resources to identify these individuals, JCW says the actual number of child sex offenders is likely much larger.
The same thing that is going on in the Catholic Church right now around the world, the exact same thing is happening in our community, JCW’s founder Meyer Seewald told CBS News. The cover-ups are the same, the stigma, the shame.
Seewald says tightly-knit Jewish communities across the USA will sometimes meet accusations against a member with incredulity, and that can have a chilling effect.
One of the girls Karow allegedly abused in Israel is “Amoona.” She asked us not to use her real name, to protect her family.
I was 5, 4 or 5 years old. My mother was on bedrest. My father is a rabbi so he wasn’t home. (Karow) used to come to our house. We used to play games and then it became sexual.
The alleged abuse took place over the course of more than two years. A July 2019, Israeli indictment against him details allegations of severe sexual abuse, including rape and sodomy. She says he would threaten and manipulate her to keep her quiet.
I’m going to give you a cookie because you do it so nicely. It’s all about the cookie it’s all about lying and it’s all about being so evil to a little child, Amoona recalls him telling her. He also threatened and to kill my parents. He would choke me. He would hold me.
Amoona is angry that Karow was allowed to enter Israel in the first place, but JCW’s chief operating officer Shana Aaronson says the failure begins in the USA. She says there are elements of the Jewish community in the U.S. that are willing to help pedophiles escape.
Oftentimes there’s some sort of community incentive, either somebody owes them a favor or someone in the community, let’s say an institution, has covered up for them in the past and they know that if this goes to court there’s a lot of civil liability coming down the line.
While Aaronson puts blame on Jewish communities in the USA and Washington for not aggressively pursuing extraditions, she says Israeli authorities have also failed to prioritize the hunt for suspects.
She tells CBS News it would be easier for the police to locate and arrest Karow, for instance, but it has fallen instead on the JCW to track him down. They don’t even do a Google search.
Israel is known as a nation on the cutting edge of technology, but Shana says that doesn’t trickle down to local law enforcement. Shana says police don’t request background checks of perpetrators arrested in Israel who have recently moved there from other countries.
The general standards and protocols for investigations by local police are poor. JCW says the problem reaches into the upper echelons of Israeli politics as well.
They note that Yaakov Litzman, leader of an ultra-orthodox alliance in Israel’s legislature and the current minister of health, has been accused of preventing the deportation of a Malka Leifer, a former head teacher at a Jewish school in Australia, where she is wanted on multiple charges of child sexual abuse.
CBS News obtained an Israeli police recommendation that says there is enough evidence against Litzman to recommend he be charged himself with fraud and breach of trust for protecting Leifer.
Litzman’s office told CBS News there was not any wrongdoing. It’s now up to Israel’s attorney general to decide whether to indict the lawmaker.
Israeli police wouldn’t comment on specific cases but insist they take the cases seriously, and that they coordinate closely with the Ministry of Justice and worldwide police organizations in order to find suspects overseas.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on specific cases too but praised their relationship with Israel’s law enforcement, adding sex offenders have been successfully extradited in the past.
On the day of the stakeout, JCW received its best tip in months — that Karow was going to be at a clinic in Tel Aviv. They know he is 6’2″ and over 200 pounds, but he could have changed his appearance, and previous attempts to capture him have failed.
An ambulance pulls up and a man steps out with a bandaged right arm. He fits the description of Karow. Aaronson’s team confirms his identity and calls the police. Within five minutes a police officer on a motorcycle arrives and they move in to make the arrest.
Karow is brought out by two officers. He doesn’t look surprised to be in custody. We ask him if he assaulted a girl in the USA. No, he replies.
He denies fleeing to Israel but doesn’t answer when asked if he assaulted girls in that country. He says he knows he’s wanted under an international arrest warrant. Karow now faces charges in both Israel and the USA.
Outside the clinic, Aaronson calls Amoona to share the news of Karow’s capture. In Israel, victims are allowed to confront alleged offenders before trial. Amoona brought a box of the same cookies Karow used to manipulate her, to throw back at him.
It was good to confront him, she says. To have that closure in my derailed life.
CBC / ABC Flash Point News 2022.
Maybe now they rape their own kind?