Rape: Trauma to victim or simply sexual violence, a power struggle, a financial issue - or family shame?

While trying to understand the Torah view of rape and sexual abuse, it is important to be aware that these same questions apply in the secular world. Furthermore the current understanding of rape and sexual abuse as primarily psychological abuse and trauma to the victim - is only about 30 years old. The following are some of  many articles on the topic.

Views which grate on modern sensiblities

Wikipedia about Rape

Statutory Rape - In History Context

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Guardian   In 1862 the US physician Dr Edmund Arnold testified in court that it was "very improbable" that pregnancy could result from rape, because "in truly forcible violations … the uterine organs cannot well be in a condition favourable to impregnation". Before dismissing such comments as a relic of the 19th century, fast forward to last year, when Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association claimed that trauma from a "genuine case of forcible rape" would make it "difficult" for a woman to conceive a child.

That rape has long been contested ground is perfectly illustrated by a new book, Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation. Written by the feminist historian Estelle B Freedman, the book covers key moments in the history of rape, and includes more recent controversies – such as the speech by US Senate candidate Todd Akin last year in which he used the term "legitimate rape" to argue against abortion in cases of rape and incest.

In British law, which provided the basis for many American statutes, the term "rape" originally referred to the nonsexual crime of violent theft (from the Latin raptus or rapere). It was not until the 12th-century Codex of Gratian that a clear distinction was made between abduction and rape, with the latter defined as "forced sexual intercourse".

In the 15th century, the father or husband of a raped woman pressed criminal charges because the legal definition of rape in England had narrowed to apply to the theft of a woman's virtue, either a daughter's virginity or a married woman's honour.[...]

Former "hilltop youth" saves Arab's life at Damascus Gate

Times of Israel   In Jerusalem, a city too often divided among religious and nationalist lines, unusual heartwarming encounters do take place from time to time.

Haim Attias, a resident of the Mitzpe Yericho settlement and volunteer at the “Hatzala” emergency medical organization, and Haitham Azloni, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, met Thursday for the first time since Attias saved Azloni’s life last week. 

Azloni was somehow electrocuted while sitting next to a stall in the Arab bazaar near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. His heart had stopped beating and “he was dead,” a local Arab man who witnessed the scene recalled. “I couldn’t bear to look. I walked away.” [...]

No one came to help me, none of the brothers, no Arabs. Only one Orthodox Jewish man came to help me,” Azloni’s brother recounted him as saying upon his awakening. “I want to meet the man that saved me.” [...]

Attias, who described himself as a former rebellious “hilltop youth,” said that when it comes to helping others, nationalities and religious affiliation must never stand in the way. [...]

Kashrut supervisor arrested for molesting children

YNet   Border police arrested a 45-year-old kashrut supervisor at the airport earlier this week, on suspicion of child sex offenses committed in the south of the country. The suspect, whose name is under gag order, fled the country in 2001 and has lived in Brooklyn ever since. He was arrested shortly before he boarded a flight to the United States. [...]

The arrest took place after the young man complained that the suspect sexually harassed him 12 years ago. Since then, police received three more complaints from members of the Chabad community, who told of sexual offenses the suspect had allegedly committed against them during their childhoods. Police believe there are others who are afraid to file complaints.


The same victim told of “an instance in which the suspect went to one of the mothers and told her he wanted to bring her son closer to religion, he took him once a week to the mikve, took him to slaughter houses in the nearby towns, and every one of these times, he assaulted him sexually. [...]

Stop and Frisk: Police must ignore that minorities are more likely to be commit crime

NY Times   The long-awaited decision declaring the New York Police Department’s use of stop-and-frisk tactics unconstitutional was mostly expected; even the staunchest defenders of the practice anticipated that Judge Shira A. Scheindlin would find the stops violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. 

But it was her other finding — that the police had violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in racial profiling in carrying out those stops — that drew blood. 

The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said he found the racial profiling characterization “most disturbing and offensive,” as well as “recklessly untrue.” 

There is little precedent for a local police force to go to trial in such a case, or for a judge to issue such a verdict. In the process, Judge Scheindlin coined a term, “indirect racial profiling,” to explain how the department’s reliance on data indicating that black men committed a disproportionate amount of crime led to what she saw as violations of the Constitution.[...]

The “city’s highest officials,” Judge Scheindlin wrote, “have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting ‘the right people’ is racially discriminatory.”

D.A. Hynes Silent on false claim that his opponent will target Jewish community

NYTimes   Silence does not become Charles J. Hynes. [...]

But when he took an endorsement from Councilman David G. Greenfield last week, Mr. Hynes, who is up for re-election, chose silence where the Hynes of long ago might have spoken up. 

Mr. Greenfield, who represents Midwood, Borough Park and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, attacked Kenneth P. Thompson, who is black and the opponent of Mr. Hynes in the Democratic primary. He “should scare you,” the councilman said at a news conference. 

“He said he’s going to target the Jewish community,” Mr. Greenfield said as Mr. Hynes stood next to him, barely blinking. “That’s something that quite frankly is shocking. It’s outrageous, and it’s unacceptable.” 

No doubt that would be outrageous, if it were true. It was not. 

In January, NY1 interviewed Mr. Thompson, and he promised one standard of justice for every community.[...]

Grandfather serving 35 years for abusing granddaughter - Granted New Trial

NY Times     A federal judge this week threw out the conviction of a 66-year-old Long Island man found guilty in 2008 of molesting his granddaughter and two of her friends after defense lawyers investigated a serial number on the back of a photograph that refuted a key portion of the prosecution’s case. 

Judge Arthur D. Spatt of Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., ruled on Monday, after five years of litigation in three different courts, that the convicted man, Thomas F. Green of Selden, had been deprived of a fair trial because of ineffective assistance by his lawyer at the time. In a 44-page order, Judge Spatt wrote that the evidence introduced by prosecutors at Mr. Green’s trial in Suffolk County had been poorly investigated by Mr. Green’s defense lawyer and sent the case back to the state court for a new trial. 

Mr. Green, a construction contractor, was initially accused of molesting his granddaughter when she was 7 years old, along with four of her friends, each of whom was younger than 10 when the abuse was said to have begun. According to the prosecution, the abuse began in 1998 and continued intermittently for the next few years at Mr. Green’s home during sleepovers and outside the home at local eateries like a Carvel ice cream shop. 

The main witness for the prosecution, one of the four friends, identified as B.M., said that she had waited until 2006 to accuse Mr. Green, in part, because she had learned from watching the television show “Law & Order: SVU” that appearing in court was “a big responsibility,” especially for a young girl, according to court records. She said not only that had Mr. Green abused her, but also that she was present when he tried to molest his granddaughter. 

Although Mr. Green’s granddaughter testified that she herself had not been abused — and, in fact, had not known the other girls until at least 2000 — the prosecution introduced evidence corroborating B.M.’s account, including two photographs. One was of the granddaughter and B.M. sitting on Mr. Green’s front porch in Halloween costumes and was said to have been taken in October 1998. The other was of the two at Coney Island, and was still housed in a souvenir frame bearing the date June 1998. 

The friend, in her testimony, said Mr. Green had given her an educational toy she called a Turbo Twister Speller as a gift in 1999.[...]

After his conviction, Mr. Green hired Ronald L. Kuby, the well-known Manhattan defense lawyer who for years has been trying to exonerate another defendant, Jesse Friedman, in another child sexual abuse case on Long Island. Mr. Kuby in turn hired a private detective, Jay Salpeter, who within a few months’ time — and “with very little effort,” as Judge Spatt noted — made a few discoveries that upended the case. 

First, Mr. Salpeter found a serial number on the back of the Coney Island photo and learned from Polaroid, which manufactured the film, that it had been taken in 2000, despite B.M.’s testimony and the date on the souvenir frame. In the Halloween photo, one of the girls was wearing a sweatshirt with a logo reading “Princess University.” Mr. Salpeter determined that the brand had not been trademarked until 2000. 

Moreover, Mr. Salpeter figured out that the educational toy, Turbo Twister Spelling, was not produced until at least a year after B.M. had claimed to have received one from Mr. Green. He finally determined, with a simple phone call to the show’s producers, that “Law & Order: SVU” was not on the air when B.M. claimed to have seen it.[...]

Science Is Not the Enemy vs It doesn't have all the answers

New Republic - Science is not the Enemy - Steven Pinker

The great thinkers of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment were scientists. Not only did many of them contribute to mathematics, physics, and physiology, but all of them were avid theorists in the sciences of human nature. They were cognitive neuroscientists, who tried to explain thought and emotion in terms of physical mechanisms of the nervous system. They were evolutionary psychologists, who speculated on life in a state of nature and on animal instincts that are “infused into our bosoms.” And they were social psychologists, who wrote of the moral sentiments that draw us together, the selfish passions that inflame us, and the foibles of shortsightedness that frustrate our best-laid plans. [...]

Science doesn't have all the answers  -  Leon Wieseltier

ואללה חדשות בחשיפה דרמטית על מה המאבק של אתרא קדישא בבית שמש, כסף, כבוד, ושליטה

bhol        ;מאחורי המאבק ההלכתי נגד הבנייה על קברי יהודים בעיר עומד מאבק גדול יותר על השליטה בעדה החרדית בין שני הפלגים של    סאטמר, ומאבק שתי עמותות על ה"שוק" של הגנה על קברים

(צפו בהפגנות החרדים בבית שמש, אתמול)
מאבק נגד חילול קברים או מאבקי שליטה פנים חרדיים: ביום השני להפגנות במתחם גולובנציץ' ברמת בית שמש לא נעצר איש, אך המפגינים הגיעו מוכנים כדי להילחם על הפסקת עבודות הבנייה. המפגינים מוחים על חילול קברי יהודים שנמצאים באתר. לדבריהם, מדובר בעבירה חמורה ביותר שעלולה לפגוע בעם ישראל והם ימחו וילחמו בעבודות בשטח עד לביטולן. הנושא עבר לטיפולו של הרב חיים קנייבסקי ועד שיכריע בעניין הופסקה העבודה במקום. עם זאת, מבדיקת וואלה! חדשות עולה כי המאבק לא עוסק בהכרח בשמירה על קברי יהודים, אלא נסוב על כסף ושליטה בעדה החרדית.

נושא השמירה על קברי יהודים נמצא תחת אחריות ה"אתרא קדישה" - ארגון הפועל תחת אחריות העדה החרדית. חברי הארגון ניהלו מאבקים רבים נגד פרויקטים של בניה ואתרים ארכאולוגיים. הארגון נשען על תרומות גדולות מארה"ב לצורך פעילות הפיקוח ומקבל תרומות למאבקים לשמירה על הקברים.

לפני כשנה נכנסה עמותה חדשה לפעול בנושא - "ארץ החיים". העמותה לא שייכת לעדה החרדית והיא פועלת תחת אישורם של הרב חיים קנייבסקי, שאינו מזוהה עם העדה החרדית, והרב משה שטרנבוך, המשמש כראש בית הדין של העדה החרדית. באתר ברמת בית שמש נבנים שני פרויקטים. מלאכת הפיקוח הוטלה על עמותת ארץ החיים, והבונים קיבלו את אישורו של הרב שטרנבוך לצאת לדרך.

Maccabi basketball coach jailed for 8 years for sex abuse

The Age   A [non-Jewish] basketball coach who abused his position of trust to form sexual relationships with two teenage girls, and offend against two others, has been jailed for eight years.

Shannon Charles Francis, 37, will spend a minimum five years and six months in prison for his offending in 1999 and 2000, which involved the sisters of a boy he coached and two others from a girls' team.

The victims were aged between 13 and 16 at the time and were involved with basketball clubs in the Oakleigh area. [...]

He was aged between 22 and 24 when he took advantage of the girls.

Judge Sexton said Francis had breached the trust of a family that considered him a male role model and family friend, when he maintained a sexual relationship with one girl and twice had sex with the girl's younger sister.

Francis also manipulated the trust of two girls from another basketball club, by forming a relationship with one and encouraging another girl to leave her family home with the intention of having sex, the court head.

At one point he told one girl he would commit suicide unless she maintained their relationship, a threat Judge Sexton described as "particularly heinous".

Judge Sexton said Francis had taken advantage of four vulnerable girls, and acknowledged their bravery in coming forward. She assured them they had done nothing wrong.[...]

   DPP v Francis 140813

Sri Lanka faces a growing epidemic of child abuse

Time   Every day, three to five children are raped in the island nation. Police statistics show the total number of child rapes in 2011 as 1,463; the figure jumped to 1,759 cases in 2012, according to a parliamentary report. Police records also give a total of just over 2,000 sexual offenses against children, besides rape, in 2011; child-molestation cases in 2012 soared to over 5,000, according to parliamentary figures. The total number of all crimes against children — which besides sex crimes include crimes of violence, abduction, trafficking and other offenses — increased by a dramatic 64% between 2011 and 2012. 

 Some of the increases can be explained by growing awareness of child rights leading to increased reporting of incidents, but Sri Lanka remains a country where “the family unit is extremely tight-knit and the honor of the individual reflects on the entire family,” says Alia Whitney-Johnson, the founder of an NGO working with survivors of sexual abuse in Sri Lanka, who was interviewed by TIME via e-mail. “It is extremely difficult to report abuse, particularly incest.” [...]

But a more important factor may be the growing number of Sri Lankan women who seek to alleviate poverty at home by taking jobs overseas as domestic helpers. The children they leave behind are often defenseless against abusive fathers and predatory male relatives. (Even so, a comparison with the Philippines — another country where large numbers of women have been obliged to find work overseas — is disconcerting. Based on available official statistics, there are roughly 17 cases of child abuse for every 100,000 people in Sri Lanka; in the Philippines, there are just six cases per 100,000 head of population.) [...]

Rabbi Chaim Druckman continues to support Mutti Elon despite conviction for child molesting

YNET   Less a week after he was found guilty of indecent assault by force on a minor, Rabbi Mordechai Elon is receiving significant support from one of the most prominent religious Zionist rabbis. Ynet has learned that Rabbi Chaim Druckman, one of the leaders of the national-religious public, invited the convicted rabbi to deliver his weekly Torah lesson at his yeshiva of Or Etzion.

In the past few days, Rabbi Druckman has avoided voicing a public opinion in regards to Rabbi Elon or repeating his past statements in favor of the man or against those who accused him of committing sex offenses – likely for fear of creating a public row

Druckman has been criticized in the past for innocently backing Ze'ev Kopolevitch, the former head of Jerusalem's Netiv Meir Yeshiva, who was convicted of indecent acts against his students, thus hurting the victims once again.  [...]

National Archives Unveils Iraqi Jewish Artifacts in Exhibit Opening October 11

National Archives Press Release

On Friday, October 11, 2013, the National Archives will unveil a new exhibition, “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage.” The exhibit details the dramatic recovery of historic materials relating to the Jewish community in Iraq from a flooded basement in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters, and the National Archives’ ongoing work in support of U.S. Government efforts to preserve these materials. Located in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, “Discovery and Recovery” is free and open to the public and runs through January 5, 2014. 

In both English and Arabic, the 2,000 square foot exhibit features 24 recovered items and a “behind the scenes” video of the fascinating yet painstaking preservation process. This exhibit marks the first time these items have been on public display.

Satmar attack: "The man called Rab"d - rebellious elder"

BHOL [update with English translation]  The struggle of the Eida Haredis factors against the Av Beis Din Hagaon Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, for his strong stand against the decision of his fellow rabbis - most members of the Beis Din - not to excavate at Golovenzitz construction site in Beit Shemesh, a decision made at the initiative of Gab"d Eida Haredis, Hgri"t Weiss, who is president of the organization Asra Kadisha, crosses borders and this week recorded far-reaching developments. 

One notable scribe in the newspaper Der Yid, the journal of the Satmar Rebbe Mahrz"l, is Rabbi Menashe Philip, Rav of Kehal Mahari T"v and brother of Dayan Association of Rabbis and one of the community leaders, Hagaon Rabbi Zalman Leib Philip.

Last Thursday, Rabbi Philip stood at the podium in the Beis Midrash Haredim in Kiryat Yoel, Monroe, and addressed the most pressing issue in the corridors of kanoim: the Golovenzitz compound in Beit Shemesh, and the controversy around the issue between the Rosh Av Beis Din and Gab"d about the excavations.

After relating the chain of events, Rabbi Philip let down the leash of his mouth, opened with slander against Hagaon Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and called him "crazy" and 'Zaken Mamre'.

"The man who is known as Rab"d'" Rabbi Philip opened his mouth, "writes a letter permeated with leitzanus. Just unthinkable! The man called Rab"d, is shrouded with suppressed hatred against 'Asra Kadisha', since the period of works in the old cemetery in the holy city of Safed, and he is willing to do anything against this organization, G-d forbid.[...]      

Beit Shemesh: Facts about the graves

Kikar Shabbat