Monday, May 23, 2016

Child abuse and [no] Rabbinic Coverup

As a sign of significant improvement in rabbinic dealings with child abuse, I received a letter from a child abuse advocate which states:

Subject: Ultra-Orthodox leadership group in Israel defends senior colleague
Outrageously - but unsurprisingly - a senior ultra Orthodox leadership group in Israel has today issued a public statement in support of their colleague, Rabbi M[****]., who has been indicted for a 'series of rapes carried against a number of female relatives over the course of several years
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Shortly after I received a follow up letter

Dear colleagues,
 I have recently heard from [****] that after further research, it has been determined that the letter is bogus.

[The letter was removed from the Facebook page of the advocate.]

In fact in this case of the Jerusalem mashgiach - I have heard that the rabbonim have fully cooperated with the police - there was no cover up. The knee-jerk reaction of the above advocate needs to be tempered with the reality that awareness of the problem of abuse and how to properly handle it - has been penetrating the world of rabbis. So while there is still clearly room for improvement - it is time to acknowledge that things have changed and are getting better.

It would be nice for the advocates to at least acknowledge this change - instead of merely silently removing bogus letters from their Facebook accounts.

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