Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Reporting abuse is becoming more acceptable


NYTimes (hat tip to Joseph & Efraim)


For decades, prosecutors in Brooklyn routinely pursued child molesters from every major ethnic and religious segment of the borough’s diverse population. Except one.

Of some 700 child sexual abuse cases brought in an average year, few involved members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community — about 180,000 followers of Hasidic and other sects who make up the largest such cluster outside Israel. Some years, there were one or two arrests, or none.

But in the past year, there have been 26. District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has brought charges against a variety of men — yeshiva teachers, rabbis, camp counselors, merchants and relatives of children. Eight have been convicted; 18 await trial. [...]

6 comments:

  1. To his credit, Hynes is working with the Rabbonim rather than against them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. actually, joseph, he has a history of paying off rabonim to support him and his policies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Times article links to UOJ (theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com) and the main post on that blog is about Tropper. It introduces many more people to the Tropper controversy reported in this blog

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if the Times should be cued into the fact that Rabbonim should tell yidn they are mechuyav to go to the police when they know of molestation and have no way of being sure that there is no risk to other children, especially since bizmaneinu, no rav can assure that a molester will not move to other mosdos, neighborhoods, or even countries. I bedavka don't understand what the logic is for a besdin unless the parents want financial compensation or the molester want to accuse the parents of causing him damage. Why would you need a bet din rather than a rav to determine if there are issues of pikuach nefesh. And isnt pikuach nefesh d'oraita, and shouldn't sofek d'oraita be handled l'chumrah?

    Sadly, I also think the Times implies that yidn are going to the police because of weaker yiddishkeit. But actually they are going there because they no longer give their rabbonim a chezkus kashrus when it comes to molesting. So of course they are driven to paskening for themselves.

    I am sure that those rabbonim who develop a reputation as machmirim on pikuach nefesh and masei sodom will be consulted by parents before they go to the police.

    Based on the record to date, a yid who gives frum rabbonim a chezkas kashrus for dealing with molesting is endangering other children. I know these seems harsh. By how else do we explain the serial molesters who stayed in positions for many years in spite of many complaints.

    I heard R. Eisenman urge people no to contribute to Ger because it protects a molester. Does anyone understand why they are doing it and why Litzman is using his position to protect additional molesters?

    [please do not use "anonymous" as an identity]

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll take a Godol Hador like the Gerrer Rebbe over this Rabbi Eisenman any day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'll take a Godol Hador like the Gerrer Rebbe over this Rabbi Eisenman any day.
    ====================================

    I am sure you do not have children.

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED!
please use either your real name or a pseudonym.