Father-of-10 Todros Grynhaus, 50, is alleged to have molested the
girls when they were between the ages of 13 and 15 then relied on the
Orthodox Jewish community’s "resentment" of reporting matters to the
police to keep the allegations secret.
The son of a rabbi, Mr Grynhaus breached his bail conditions and flew
to Israel when the allegations first surfaced – only returning when he
was re-arrested and deported after almost two years, Manchester Crown
Court has heard. [...]
The judge told the jury that Mr Grynhaus had said the allegations
were made against him out of "revenge" and to obtain money from him.
Mr Grynhaus had tried to explain to the jury why he fled to Israel.
Summing up his evidence, Mr Justice Turner added: “He wanted to avoid
shame and disgrace being brought on his family.
Just to correct a few facts in the above, Todros Grynhaus is a recognised Rabbi, not Mr. Also, his father is not a Rabbi, he is a Dayan.
ReplyDeleteTo summarise:
The accused: Rabbi Todros Grynhaus
Father of the Accused: Dayan Dovid Grynhaus
Please can you take care when reporting on people to attribute their correct titles however shameful it may be to their institution.
The choice of Mr is correct simply because of what he really is regardless of the very serious allegations. What makes him a Rabbi in your opinion?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the father, considering his court appearance it is quite possible that he needs to resign from his position, hence Rabbi would be suitable.
Recognised by whom. Who gave him semicha.
ReplyDeleteHis father is a kashrus supervisor does that make him a dayan?
Has he ever paskened choshem mishpat or for that matter ever looked at it.
It seems I didn't make my point clear in my previous comment. My aim was to highlight that if someone is a Rabbi or Dayan, they can't conveniently be called "Mr" in an embarrassing situation to avoid shame on the Rabbinate. They should be referred to by their commonly known titles and if that causes discomfort towards other Rabbis or Dayanim so be it. If other Rabbis feel someone is bringing their institution into disgrace then they should consider permanently removing this title from those individuals.
ReplyDeleteIt is wrong to try and protect the respect that is attributed to the titles of "Rabbi" or "Dayan" by hiding it in situations like these. The better solution would be to give these persons permanent titles that would more accurately represent their true position. It would seem "Mr" is appropriate if that person was stripped of his title, which is what should happen if he is found to be guilty of the allegations.
I am in full agreement with both replies to my comment below.
As there is no authority that gives titles to people and even more true does not take them away so I guess it is up to you and me to make our own judgment
ReplyDeleteTodros clearly does not behave like an innocent man who is being extorted so we do need to protect (minimally) the title of a rabbi etc.
I would welcome the day when there is an international public register of Rabbanim and Dayanim where only recognised institutions can award those titles. Any institution that abuses this trust would be struck off and anyone who behaves inappropriately (whatever that means) should be de-listed from this register.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I dislike Chabad, they do have every Shliach listed on Chabad.org and have the ability to delist people when they cause enough embarrassment to the rest of the movement: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.643715
Maybe the rest of us need to take up this idea with a similar Rabbinic register.