How Lakewood deals with child abuse

Jewish Week by Hella Winston 

This is a rather disappointing article which relies on a small amount of hearsay evidence and inferences made from court testimony. I am only posting this because there indeed is a problem in Lakewood that needs to be addressed.

[...] The climate is different in Lakewood, acknowledged as the seat of non-chasidic haredi Judaism in the United States. Home to one of the largest and most prominent yeshivas in the world, Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), and a community of close to 40,000 Orthodox Jews, Lakewood has not been spared the problem of child sexual abuse — an ill that plagues all communities, religious and secular alike.

However, there are no public advocacy groups in Lakewood helping victims and agitating for change. Further, unlike Brooklyn, which is home to myriad haredi groups with no centralized “governing” body, the Lakewood community, dominated by BMG — which boasts over 6,000 students and an annual operating budget approaching $25 million — is something of a company town, residents and observers say. Indeed, the brothers who run BMG, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler and Rabbi Aaron Kotler, exert considerable control over daily life within the community, with the bylaws of the Lakewood Jewish Community Council stating that the “community is centered around [BMG] … and [the council] functions at the pleasure of [the yeshiva heads] as represented by R. Malkiel Kotler.”

This control — bolstered by the geographically bounded and insular nature of the community — means that it can be even harder for Lakewood residents to overcome the communal taboo and report abuse to the authorities than it is for their counterparts in Brooklyn. [...]

Trial of Rabbi Mordechai Elon for indecent acts starts in Jerusalem

YNET

The trial of prominent Religious Zionism figure Rabbi Mordechai Elon commenced at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Wednesday with a reading of the indictment.

Elon was indicted last November for indecent acts against two minors. The Jerusalem District Prosecution claims that the rabbi took advantage of his position as an educator and molested two teenagers on various occasions in 2003 and 2005. [...]

Rav Sternbuch 2 457 Whether to teach Tanach before Gemora

Science & Torah: Debate between Rabbi Meiselman & Rabbi Slifkin

Five Towns Jewish Times  This is a followup to Rabbi Meiselman's article in the 5 Towns Jewish Times posted here Daas Torah Blog. Further discussion is found on  Rabbi Slikfin's Blog and rebuttal by  Rabbi Dovid Kornreich's Blog Additional material is found in the recent cover article on Rabbi Meiselman in the English Mishpacha and rebutal on  Rabbi Slifkin's Blog

Rav Sternbuch 2:140 - DaasTorah regarding Jewish state

Epidemic of abuse: Child actors & Hollywood pedophiles

Fox News

If a spate of recent allegations proves true, Hollywood may have a hideous epidemic on its hands. The past two weeks have brought three separate reports of alleged child sexual abuse in the entertainment industry.

Martin Weiss, a 47-year-old Hollywood manager who represented child actors, was charged in Los Angeles on Dec. 1 with sexually abusing a former client. His accuser, who was under 12 years old during the time of the alleged abuse, reported to authorities that Weiss told him "what they were doing was common practice in the entertainment industry." Weiss has pleaded not guilty.

Revelations of this sort come as no surprise to former child star Corey Feldman. 

Feldman, 40, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, unflinchingly warned of the world of pedophiles who are drawn to the entertainment industry last August. "I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,” Feldman told ABC’s Nightline. “That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... It's the big secret.”

Link between strep throat & mental illness

Los Angeles Times

a week after Brody became ill, he awoke one morning to find his world was no longer safe. Paranoid about germs and obsessed with cleanliness, he refused to touch things and showered several times a day. His fear prevented him from attending school, and he insisted on wearing nothing but a sheet or demanding that his mother microwave his clothes or heat them in the dryer before dressing.

So began a horrific battle with a sudden-onset mental illness that was diagnosed as pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus, or PANDAS. The puzzling name describes children who have obsessive-compulsive disorder that occurs suddenly — and often dramatically — within days or weeks of a simple infection, such as strep throat.[...]