https://mishpacha.com/inbox-issue-896/
Approximately 35 years ago, I called this need to the attention of the then-president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, after which he invited me to make a presentation to the Moetzes Gedolei Torah on the matter, which I did. Following some deliberation, to which I was not privy, the Moetzes decided to create a special beis din for cases of child abuse, with HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky shlita serving as the av beis din and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, then director of government affairs, as the coordinator.
It took two years for the beis din to work out all of the many procedural and policy details in consultation with mental health professionals before it was prepared to hear its first case. About 12 cases were eventually brought to that beis din, which sensitively, discreetly, and successfully adjudicated each one.
Unfortunately, after a little over a year, the beis din abruptly disbanded as a result of more than one of the distinguished dayanim receiving death threats from a suspected perpetrator.
Meir Wikler, DSW
In diaspora, Beis Din has no authority to deal with criminal matters.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the legality of the issue in Israel. They tell the perpetrator to do teshuva, but it is a criminal matter.
Letting beis din handle this problem is like letting the foxes police the hen house.
ReplyDelete