The Urgent Need to Upgrade Israel's Child Safety Laws by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Times of Israel

Are Israeli Children Less Worthy of Protection? 

The Urgent Need to Upgrade Israel's Child Safety Laws

 by:  Rabbi Yakov Horowitz 

Israel's has a richly deserved reputation as the world's "Start-Up Nation," brimming with innovation, start-up companies and venture capital investment.

For the sake of its children, Israel desperately needs to apply this creativity and energy to upgrade its child safety laws which are inexplicably far behind those of other advanced countries.

A 2015 Forward article points out gaping holes in the safety net that ought to be protecting Israel's children from sex offenders. "In the United States, sex offenders must contact the sex offender registry when they move (so that the community they're entering into can be notified) and not registering is a felony. The same is not true in Israel, where only the police have access to a list of offenders."

This is separate and aside from the fact that Israel far too often provides safe haven for (Jewish) sex offenders escaping to Israel from abroad under the Law of Return, and hardly ever deports them.

Both of these weaknesses converged recently when Yona Weinberg, a registered, sex offender moved from his apartment in Har Nof, Jerusalem according to the popularKikar HaShabbat Website. Weinberg fled to Israel to avoid being arrested by New York City police for an alleged assault on an 11-year-old boy, which occurred after he served time for his initial sex crimes. 

To be perfectly honest, many Har Nof residents who were very anxious about the threat Weinberg posed to their kids when I gave a child safety class there last month, are breathing a sigh of relief now that Weinberg is no longer a neighbor of theirs.  

But where did he move? Shouldn't the parents of that community be warned of his presence?

This scenario would be unthinkable in the United States, where registered sex offenders are carefully monitored, 

must notify authorities when they move, and are not permitted to live near schools. In fact, it is common practice for American School Districts to issue email warnings when a registered sex offender relocates within the boundaries of their District.

Those of us who advocate for child safety and abuse prevention spent weeks, maybe months warning Har Nof residents of Weinberg's presence and training them in effective child safety education. This task is a challenging one anywhere, but in our Charedi community, where many families limit their Internet access for religious reasons, it is all the more vital and doubly difficult.

Just do give you an idea of how critical - and lifesaving - it is to notify parents when a sex offender moves into town, here is an email I received from a mother of young children in Har Nof on July 13^th, 2016:

Dear Rabbi Horowitz:

I am a mother and very active member of the HAR NOF community. Within a

month of the Weinbergs arrival I was already inviting the whole family to our home. Thank G-d I was told, to be aware of the allegations! 

I need to protect my children and deserve to know if someone in my neighborhood was prosecuted for such horrible offenses. We have a right to know! 

I shudder to think of Weinberg getting "acclimated" in his new neighborhood under the radar, and horrified that Israel's child safety laws are so woefully inadequate.

In today's interconnected world, why isn't there a simple sex offender registry in Israel? Why are (Jewish) convicted sex offenders welcomed with open arms in Israel, and why aren't sex offenders carefully monitored?

Are Israeli children less worthy of protection than American kids?