F.A.C.T. Board Member Mark Postelnek, responds to New Yorker article about Sharon Stern

As a member of the Board of Directors of Families Against Cult Teachings (FACT), the organization established by Tibor Stern after his daughter’s suicide, I read with great personal interest “Dancer in the Dark” by Rachel Aviv.

For the most part, I found the article to be well written and informative. However, Ms. Aviv’s portrayal of Katsura Kan calls into question whether she was unwittingly susceptible to his charismatic appeal, common to cults of personality. To attribute nobility to any aspect of Kan’s character or to suggest that he was an innocent victim of an evil fairy tale or the victim of a witch hunt perpetrated by Sharoni’s father defies reality.

Kan, in his role as Sharoni’s mentor, master, guru and sensei, betrayed his ethical obligations to his protegee. Kan, knew that Sharoni was immature, unstable and vulnerable. There were ample warning signs that she was becoming unhinged. He acknowledged that Butoh was a “bit too much for Sharoni” but he nonetheless subjected her to the disabling forces of darkness while she was in an altered state of consciousness. He led her down the path of depersonalization, only to abandon her as she was falling into emptiness, denying her access to the requisite guidance to get through the ordeal. Kan’s suggestive innuendoes reported by Ms. Aviv (i.e. “Continue your search in another world” and “You must suicide yourself”) constitutes culpable negligence especially when knowingly made to a person experiencing self-disintegration. Sharoni surrendered herself to Kan who exploited his devotee with the misguided expectation that they would “keep seeking together till the end of life, or more?” The potent forces of Butoh, in the hands of a narcissistic master that shrieks his responsibilities of guidance and protection of his student precipitated Sharoni’s descent into psychotic episodes of dread and her ultimate death.

Nor was Kan a victim of the American judicial system. He was afforded appropriate due process. The civil proceedings against him were subject to appellate review on multiple occasions. Kan considered the cultural divide between Japan and the U.S. regarding suicide as placing him above American law that served to hold him accountable for being the proximate cause of Sharoni’s death. The article should celebrate American jurisprudence that encourages the evolution of justice to hold accountable those who undertake the responsibility of the well-being of a person in his(her) charge. And Tibor Stern should be commended for his dedication, at great personal sacrifice and expense, to the pursuit of justice. Referencing the Sterns as a family attracted to the diamond simply has no place in this story as it only conjures up stereotypical ethnic prejudices.

The followers of Butoh would be well advised to study the proscriptions related to the study of the Kabbalah, a potent force of Jewish mysticism. It was with this in mind that the Shach, a 17th century commentator on Jewish Law, suggested that the study of mysticism be deferred until the age of 40 when one is imbued with the requisite wisdom and maturity necessary to comprehend the esoteric aspects of Kabbalah. The purpose was to avoid misguided applications with the potential of disastrous consequences based upon misunderstanding and distortion.

Sharoni came under the sway of Katsuri Kan as an uninitiated neophyte. She was easy prey for a sociopath devoid of respect and regard for the traditional boundaries between teacher and student. He is not the victim: he is the villain.

Marc Postelnek

PO Box 1844 

Boca Raton, FL 33429

(305) 962 7111