'NY Times' slammed for refusal to acknowledge Black anti-Semitic attacks in Crown Heights 20 years ago

JPost reporting on Jewish Week Article

A former New York Times religion reporter has written a blistering attack on the newspaper’s failure to attribute a riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 20 years ago to anti-Semitism. The violence resulted in the murder of Australian Yankel Rosenbaum, a Lubavitch hassid, on August 19, 1991.

Ari L. Goldman, who covered the story for the Times in 1991, wrote in the current issue of New York Jewish Week: “Over those three days I also saw journalism go terribly wrong. The city’s newspapers, so dedicated to telling both sides of the story in the name of objectivity and balance, often missed what was really going on. Journalists initially framed the story as a ‘racial’ conflict and failed to see the anti-Semitism inherent in the riots.”

Philadelphia Mayor strongly criticizes black teenage violence

Flash mobs in American cities - organized by internet

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R' S. Z. Auerbach:Embarrassing others viewed as rodef/murder in halacha

UK violence raises questions about American unrest

AP

A black man killed by police. Mobs of looters. Cities charred and shaken. The riots in London mirror some of the worst uprisings in modern U.S. history.

And there are more parallels: Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet. And finally, there are a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.

As Americans look across the Atlantic, a natural question arises: Could the flames and violence that erupted in Britain scar this country, too?

Police, elected officials, activists and regular citizens offer varied answers, reflecting the unsettled mix of race, class, lawlessness, and the chasm between haves and have-nots that may lie behind the unrest. [...]

Autistic spectrum kids & their love of trains

NYTimes

Like many children with autism spectrum disorders, Ravi is fascinated by trains and buses, entranced by their motion and predictability. And for years, these children crowded the exhibitions of the modest New York Transit Museum, chattering about schedules and engine components and old subway maps.

“This is really their element,” said Ravi’s mother, Juliana Boehm, who brings Ravi and Oliver, his 8-year-old brother, who is also on the autism spectrum, to the museum almost weekly. “If I suggested another activity,” she added, “it may have provoked anxiety.”

Now, the museum, and others like it, are moving beyond accommodating the enthusiasm for trains and buses among children with autism and trying to use it to teach them how to connect with other people — and the world. [...]

Rabbinic leadership lives in constant fear of being labeled too lenient

The Sifi (Devarim 17) says on Devarim (1:16) Don't be afraid of any man. Perhaps a judge will say I am afraid that the defendant will kill my son or burn down my barn...Therefore the Torah says not to be afraid of any man because judgment is for G-d.

This is cited by Chinuch #415, Rambam(Sanhedrin 22:1). Aruch HaShulchan (C.M 12) cites the Rema that today the practice is that if a ruling might cause danger to a judge he can withraw from the case even if has already poskened. But if there is no danger just verbal abuse he can not withdraw.

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I recently had a conversation with a rabbi who is a major talmid chachom and involved in the community i.e he fully knows  reality. He also has strong connection to many of the gedolim. He is widely respected and is viewed as an establishment figure. He never rocks the boat in public but follows the standard chareidi viewpoint.

Someone had just given him a copy of my book on child abuse.He had called me to express gratitude for my book to let me know  that he felt it was necessary and that it was well done.

We talked a while  about the issue of child abuse. I mentioned to him the Aguda position and the nasty editorial in Ami magazine. I said that I felt that their requirement that rabbis had to moderate going to police - even at the expense of the welfare of the children - has no justification in halacha. He agreed without any hesitation. He added that he did not think abuse was being handled properly by the rabbis.

I was surprised at his candor on the issue, so I asked the obvious question - so why aren't the rabbinic leaders following halacha. Why are they taking positions which are against the halacha? 

His answer was simply and blunt- they were afraid.  they were worried about being labeled a shaygetz - a liberal who is lenient regarding mesira - by other rabbis

Then he added - it is necessary for the rabbinic leadership to be pressured by the masses to do the right thing. They are not going to do it on their own and but they would welcome being pressured to do the right thing.

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Thus despite the denunciation of bloggers, advocates and the press - it seems there is some recognition not only of the good that they do but also the indispensable role they play in necessary change.