Jewish Week by Hella Winston
This is a rather disappointing article which relies on a small amount of hearsay evidence and inferences made from court testimony. I am only posting this because there indeed is a problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed.
This is a rather disappointing article which relies on a small amount of hearsay evidence and inferences made from court testimony. I am only posting this because there indeed is a problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed.
[...] The climate is different in Lakewood, acknowledged as the seat of non-chasidic haredi Judaism in the United States. Home to one of the largest and most prominent yeshivas in the world, Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), and a community of close to 40,000 Orthodox Jews, Lakewood has not been spared the problem of child sexual abuse — an ill that plagues all communities, religious and secular alike.
However, there are no public advocacy groups in Lakewood helping victims and agitating for change. Further, unlike Brooklyn, which is home to myriad haredi groups with no centralized “governing” body, the Lakewood community, dominated by BMG — which boasts over 6,000 students and an annual operating budget approaching $25 million — is something of a company town, residents and observers say. Indeed, the brothers who run BMG, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler and Rabbi Aaron Kotler, exert considerable control over daily life within the community, with the bylaws of the Lakewood Jewish Community Council stating that the “community is centered around [BMG] … and [the council] functions at the pleasure of [the yeshiva heads] as represented by R. Malkiel Kotler.”
This control — bolstered by the geographically bounded and insular nature of the community — means that it can be even harder for Lakewood residents to overcome the communal taboo and report abuse to the authorities than it is for their counterparts in Brooklyn. [...]
OTOH, a child psychologist (non-Jewish, FWIW) who 5 years ago used to work with OHEL counseling sexual abuse victims and young perpetrators moved his private practice to Lakewood after R' Matisyahu Solomon approached him and convinced him that there was a full-time need for his services.
ReplyDeleteThe authority figures in Lakewood know there is a problem, and have been working on it for years.
Perhaps the reason why there is not an abundance of information is the strict regime of intimidation and threats against "informers", ie those who report the crimes to secular aithorities. It is a bit like the Syrian regime under Assad, where no foreign journalists are allowed,and those who do protest are killed, and dumped in the streets.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy or "moshul" is that those who do go to the authorities, have their reputations "assassinated"...
Micha: Rav Matisyahu is not one of the authority figures in Lakewood.
ReplyDeleteMore precisely, he is a figure, but all authority (power) is in the hands of the Kotler family and those who control the yeshiva.
Rav Matisyahu is their employee.
Once they take a stand, he cannot fight them.
The problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed is people who have never been in Lakewood, that know nothing about Lakewood, who are despised by the people in Lakewood, who have no idea about the goings on in Lakewood- trying to fix what they decided is a problem.
ReplyDeleteMr. Eidenson it has been said that The Mashgiach has been openly against you and your blog.
mordechai said...
ReplyDeleteThe problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed is people who have never been in Lakewood, that know nothing about Lakewood, who are despised by the people in Lakewood, who have no idea about the goings on in Lakewood- trying to fix what they decided is a problem.
Mr. Eidenson it has been said that The Mashgiach has been openly against you and your blog.
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quite a speech - which turns the issue into a serious of ad hominem arguments.
There are serious issues - some of which are not being handled well. For example I was told that there is not a single rabbi of stature in Lakewood who would permit calling the police.
What happened to the beis din that Lakewood had to deal with these issues - why was it disbanded?
The Aguda has announced that one can go to the police after consultation with a rabbi. What rabbi in Lakewood would you go to that would consider calling the police as an option?
I am not sure what Rabbi Solomon actually thinks of me or my blog and I don't know why you think it matters.
Whatever R. Solomon did, clearly has the impeteur and approval of Are. Kotler.
ReplyDeletemordechai said...
ReplyDeleteThe problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed is people who have never been in Lakewood, that know nothing about Lakewood, who are despised by the people in Lakewood, who have no idea about the goings on in Lakewood- trying to fix what they decided is a problem.
Mr. Eidenson it has been said that The Mashgiach has been openly against you and your blog.
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Mordecai, you make a fundamental error. Child sex abuse has no borders. Its not a Lakewood problem; nor a Flatbush problem, which is what Rabbi Yaakov Perlow reportedly said about Yudi Kolko, and that he, Rabbi Perlow, a Borough Park resident, didn't need to deal with it. Child sex abuse is, at a minimum, a Jewish problem, and even better, a human rights problem. The Jews in Hungary, in 1944, didn't think Nazism was their problem either.
So, SD, you would be forced to conclude that since RMS is pushing to get help, even from outside the community if need be, that the Kotlers must have initiated it.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I agree that there are no independent parties, but who is behind the effort isn't as relevant as knowing the effort is there.
Of course, people who simply have a need to believe that the Orthodox community is going to hell in a handbasket, except for "me, my friends, and a few enlightened bloggers", won't listen to me anyway. A test to see if you're being constructive or cynical: What have you done to actually make the community a better place, to fix the problems under discussion, rather than just complain about it? If the answer is "shining light on the problem", then odds are this is more about feeling superior to the benighted masses than any clearheaded thinking. Think about it -- who are you talking to when you comment on a blog? The movers and shakers? Or those people you already excepted from the problem?