Meyer Seewald criticized Yehuda Pogrow's competence as an advocate - Why wasn't this criticism defended or rejected by any of the known blogs or advocates?

Yehuda Pogrow appeared out of nowhere in the aftermath of the shock of the revelations of the abuse of his brother - and shot to the top level of advocates in revealing how he had been abused by his brother and mother and attacking the yeshivas and rabbis - and then plummeted down today with his apology to the public and survivors of abuse that he might have harmed by his actions. 

I wish to apologize to the Public, and particularly to Survivors of abuse, for any harm my actions have caused. My actions did not make me deserving of the public shaming I experienced. Nonetheless, I hold myself to a higher standard in both my personal and professional lives, and I am disappointed in myself for not living up to those standards. I intend to use this as a learning opportunity so that I do not make the same mistakes again.

Should anyone wish to share this, they may feel free to do so. Sincerely, Yehuda Pogrow

As detailed in a previous post, Meyer Seewald (founder of Jewish Community Watch) had strongly criticized Yehuda who in turn threatened to reveal confidential information to defend himself. Yehuda also threatened me with legal action for posting the Facebook information about the dispute. (This despite that I was careful to cite accurately -including noting that the original Facebook pages had been taken down )

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Meyer Seewald

 Yehuda, I will not apologise for warning victims to stay away from you. After I posted the updated post explaining things that may have come out wrong. You threatened the survivors you will expose private things so I removed it. I do not consider you a advocate, nor will I ever work with you. I personally think you need help and until you get the right help you should stay away from working with victims. Please stop tagging me in your comments. I wish you luck on your healing process. 

Yehuda Pogrow Per his request, I will not tag Meyer. However, to shed some context around his remarks, I will explain what really happened behind the scenes yesterday. I possess evidence that proved that the allegations that supported Meyer's defamatory post were outrageously false. The quickest way for me to have proven that the post was defamatory would have been to publicly release this information. I did not do that because I did not want to cause pain to the individuals who promoted my defamation. Rather, I reached out through intermediaries to notify these individuals that if they did not bring their influence to bear on Meyer to delete the post I would feel forced to prove my innocence by releasing the exculpatory evidence. Thankfully, no such release of information was necessary.

Meyer Seewald

You are such a good manipulator it shocks me. Your version of the events are mind boggling. But if that is what makes you and the Ceo of עמותת מגן MAGEN sleep at night then continue on. This is not the first problem they had like this.

Now please just go away. You have caused nothing but havoc for people in the advocacy world. And I think I gave you enough attention. So going forward I will not be responding to your comments.

So now that the issue seems resolved - why am I making a new post rehashing some of the details?

The issue I want discussed is the total silence about Meyer Seewald's warning of potential harm to victims - on the blogs and webpages of advocates dealing with child abuse.

For example, one of Yehuda's advisors and strong advocates is Yerachmiel Lopin of Frum Follies. He not only featured Yehuda's long essay on his Frum Follies Blog  but stated that he was one of those who provided assistance to Yehuda in the writing of the essay. In addition, from Lopin's and other's comments on the Frum Follies blog - it is clear that Yehuda is viewed as a hero and a worthy advocate for victims. There is absolutely no discussion of the validity of Seewald's claims on this blog. While there is one comment that asks "Any input into this disagreement (to put it mildly) between Pogrow and Seewald?" But there is no response. Why not?  [update - FF when anti-abuse activists are wrong is what I  was looking for] 

Similarly a Google search of Yehuda Pogrow - does not provide any evidence for a discussion of Seewald's charges and Yehuda's defense - except on my blog! There is no discussion on the website of Magen, nor of Amudim nor of even Seewald's own organization Jewish Community Watch. I did not find any comment from Manny Waks either. There are a number of of other websites and blogs that deal with child abuse - I could find no mention of this issue.

So what this seems to mean is that when dealing with an agenda - criticizing yeshivas and rabbis for not going to the police or not being more transparent which are therefore considered to be strong legitimate targets to attack. Why? The answer is obvious the advocates answer - because it is needed to protect the victims.  However, if one of their own might be doing something in their advocacy and attacks on the establishment that is harming victims - well that should be handled privately. We don't want the reputation of the movement tarnished by lashon harah about squabbles and questions of personal integrity. We don't want to be a moser concerning a fellow advocate.

This unfortunately is very similar to the item I posted recently posted about the loud publicity against bias and discrimination against Blacks by the police. I have no doubt that there is bias and discrimination against Blacks and that something needs to be done about as President Obama has repeated stated. But at the same time - the far worse problem of Black on Black crimes not only is not discussed but it is viewed as a private internal issue of the Black community. Sound familiar?

Another example of this dual standard. The World community is very concerned about the alleged mistreatment and war crimes of Israelis against the Palestinians. There are protests around the world at every claim of the Arab press against Israel. There are calls to boycott and imprison Israelis for alleged war-crimes. However the vastly greater numbers of Arabs being killed, tortured raped and repressed by their fellow Arabs - well that is an internal matter for Arabs and it is not for public discussion. see Haaretz

Lest any of my readers think that this is only a problem for goyim or secular Jews. My efforts to publicize the perversions of halacha by the Kaminetsky's and Rav Greenblatt are treated the same way. The report of a Reform or Conservative Rabbi typing up some document of separation is greeted with scorn. There are campaigns against the Modern Orthodox use of prenuptial agreements. There are harsh words hurled at the Open Orthodox. But if a hareidi gadol does something much worse - well that is an internal matter for rabbis to solve. The failure to deal properly with child abuse was justified by - "This in an internal matters for the gedolim." Bloggers who pointed out the obvious are are being still vilified. Every non-Orthodox person instantly recognizes the hypocrisy  of the double standard - but very few frum Yidden did.

Black can kill blacks - but not policemen can't kill Blacks in the line of duty risking their lives to help the Black Community. Arabs can kill Arabs - but Israelis can't kill Arabs in the line of protecting themselves against terrorist attacks against bus loads of people or against defenseless women and children. Chareidi Jews can coverup the abuse done by other Chareid Jews - but not the evil bloggers. Advocates who claim to be protecting the victims of child abuse - can attack educational institutions, communities and rabbis for protecting abusers or for coverups. They can crucify anyone that are charged or even  that there are merely rumors that he committed abuse But they can't criticize one of their own whose actions are possibly harming victims.

It is time to acknowledge the cruelty of this approach in which only certain victims need to be protected and that other victims are off limited because their attacker is one of us. It is time to recognize that that we have met the enemy and he is US.