Who is Rabbi Avi Shafran? : An interview with Baruch Pelta

 On the Mainline

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

An interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran about Moses Mendelssohn, Torah im Derech Eretz, Da'as Torah, Science and Torah and the Slifkin affair.

Here's a guest post consisting of a very interesting interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran conducted by Baruch Pelta. Below is the interview transcript. I will post another post shortly which will give some of the background info regarding the Mendelssohn article published in the Jewish Observer nearly 25 years ago, which may or may not be known to readers (update: see this post for some of that background, as well as links to the relevant articles).

This interview was conducted in Rabbi Shafran’s office at Agudath Israel of America’s Rabbi Moshe Sherer Headquarters on August 28, 2009. Rabbi Avi Shafran is the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America. At the time of this interview, Baruch Pelta was an undergraduate student in Judaic Studies at Touro College. He is currently a graduate student in the same subject at Brandeis University. He blogs at Baruch's Thoughts.

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'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

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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.

Prayer, & Bug Juice, at a Summer Camp for Jews of Color

  Be’chol Lashon's Goals

Vision: A Global Jewish People

Imagine a new global Judaism that transcends differences in geography, ethnicity, class, race, ritual practice, and beliefs. Discussions about “who-is-a-real-Jew” will be replaced with celebration of the rich, multi-dimensional character of the Jewish people.

Jews around the world face serious demographic challenges. Worldwide, the number of Jews is stagnant. Decimated by the Holocaust, Jews now comprise only 0.2% of the world's people. We believe the Jewish population, through pro-active efforts, could grow to 20 million by 2020, and 40 million by 2060.

We seek to overcome the significant organizational, cultural and ideological barriers to growth in the Jewish community. A more expansive Judaism is particularly engaging for younger and unaffiliated Jews who want Judaism to reflect the global community in which they live.

Mission
Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) grows and strengthens the Jewish people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. We advocate for the diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption. We foster an expanding Jewish community that embraces its differences.

NYTimes

 Such is the mission of Camp Be’chol Lashon (“In Every Tongue”) here in the hills of Marin County about 35 miles north of San Francisco. For the past two years, it has provided the commonplaces of Jewish summer camp, right down to poison oak and bug juice, to an emerging population of Jews of color.

“If there’s Christians of all colors and all kinds, and Muslims of all colors and all kinds,” Amalia, 11, said over Shabbat lunch, “then why would Jewishness be any different?”

One of her fellow campers, Josh Rowen-Keran, 14, who was born to black and Korean parents and then adopted by an interracial couple in the Bay Area, sounded similarly nonchalant. “Being Jewish isn’t looking a certain way,” he said. “I could look at anyone and not know if they are or aren’t Jewish. You can’t know till you know the person.”

Yet what strikes these children as the same old same old, an American-Jewish community of multiple hues and heritages, has arrived as a seismic change. Religiously and historically, Judaism has generally placed little emphasis on evangelism and conversion.[...]        

How did child abuser Avraham Mondrowitz escape justice?

Tablet Magazine

Most people have never heard the story of Avrohom Mondrowitz, which has received only a smattering ^[1] of headlines ^[2] in the Jewish media. A charismatic and eloquent member of the Ger Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, the 63-year-old claimed to be both a rabbi and a Columbia-trained psychologist. Though he was neither, for years he ran a psychology practice out of his basement, as well as a school for troubled youth. He is also alleged to be one of the worst sexual predators in Brooklyn history.

In 1984, Mondrowitz was accused of sexually abusing four Italian boys. Since then, the number of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims has been estimated at close to a hundred—making him, shockingly, an average pedophile. But given the shame and secrecy surrounding sexual abuse, and his broad network of contacts, the number of alleged victims could actually be much higher. Moshe Rosenbaum, one of the activists who first aired concerns about Mondrowitz in the late 1980s, estimates the number to be 300. If Mondrowitz were to be convicted of so many crimes, he would be the worst sexual predator in the Orthodox community on record.

But that would require a case to be brought against him—which, for a variety of troubling reasons, has never happened.

This fall, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, will hear ^[3] oral arguments pertaining to the release of documents about Mondrowitz. Michael Lesher, an attorney representing several of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims, asked the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for the documents under New York’s Freedom of Information Law in 2007. A trial court initially ruled in favor of Lesher’s clients, but that verdict was overturned unanimously last year on appeal.[...]

Judge sentenced to 28 years for jailing youths for kickbacks

Forbes

Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Judge Mark Ciavarella has been spending his time doing odd jobs for a car towing service while he awaited sentencing since being found guilty on felony corruption charges.  Well his painting days are over and 61 year old judge is heading to federal prison for 28 years…a life sentence.

His sentencing brings to closure a dark time in the history of the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA, which is in Luzerne County.  He was found guilty back in February of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for juveniles.  Ciavarella who left the bench over two years ago after he and another judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of sentencing youngsters to prisons they had a hand in building.  Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing, and Ciavarella received kick-backs from the private company that built and maintained the new youth detention facility that replaced the older county-run center.[...]

Police arrest 4 orthodox men on suspicion of paedophilia

JPost

Four ultra-Orthodox men were arrested by Jerusalem police in the past week on suspicion of sexually abusing children in their neighborhood between the ages of three and 13 over the past two to three years. According to the police, the men would lure the children into their apartments using promises of candy, money, or movies, and then would abuse the children.

Ami Magazine trashes critics of having submission to rabbinic control as the paramount value - in reporting abuse - rather than the safety of our children

Editorial by the publisher of Ami Magazine - R' Yitzchok Frankfurter July 27, 2011 page 6

 [Bold text was added for emphasis]

The unspeakable tragedy of Leiby Kletzkys murder united humankind as few things recently have. People of every race and creed expressed their heartfelt pain over what happened to that innocent, angelic child. However, as Rabbi Avi Shafran rightly points out in his columns this week, while it may have united people far and wide, an all-too-public exception found its way into the Jewish world. 

The New York Jewish Week, a publication that has long been viewed by many as anti-Orthodox, saw in the tragedy an opportunity for slander. In its editorial entitled "Lessons from Leiby," dated July 19, 2011, it seems to fault Leiby's parents for reaching out immediately to Shomrim, and goes on to state: 

"While many rabbinic authorities encourage their constituents to contact police immediately in cases of suspected abuse ... or other crises, there is still a stigma in some Orthodox communities to seek help from the authorities.

"Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union, has often noted that when your house is on fire, you call the fire department, not your rabbi. Similarly, he maintains, when there is a suspected crime, the first call should be to the police. 

"But that logic has been slow to take hold in some neighborhoods, sometimes with unfortunate results.

"In the meantime, attention should be focused on strengthening legislation for mandated reporting in New York to emulate states like New Jersey, where any person having reasonable cause to suspect abuse is required to report. Such legal action would prevent neighborhood watchdog groups from withholding from the police potentially vital information about suspects. This is particularly timely in light of reports that several neighbors of the accused killer say he had tried to abduct other boys in the neighborhood. Such incidents need to be reported." 

No one else, from governmental authorities to major media, found any connection between the horrific crime perpetrated by a fiend named Levi Aron and this prejudiced publication's pet issue: the alleged failure by the Orthodox community to report abusers to the police. In addition to the weekly's gross insensitivity in raising such accusations during a period of mourning, the charge is false. Just this very week, Agudath Israel of America publicized once again the ruling of gedolei Yisrael "that when certain standards have been met it is not only permitted but in fact obligatory to report suspicions of abuse .... Where there is 'raglayim la'davar' (roughly, reason to believe) that a child has been abused ... the matter should be reported to the authorities.... " 

The only caveat: "Because the question of reporting has serious implications for all parties, and raises sensitive halachic issues, the individual should not rely exclusively on his own judgment to determine the presence or absence of raglayim la’davar. Rather, he should present the facts of the case to a rabbi who is an expert in halacha and who also has experience in the area of abuse - someone who is fully sensitive both to the gravity of the halachic considerations and the urgent need to protect children." 

Some were upset by the directive to consult with a rabbi. What is wrong, though with seeking rabbinical guidance before going to the police? This is but the Orthodox way of life. Yet this halachic ruling of leading decisors has been distorted not only by The Jewish Week, but by a gaggle of "activist” groups, falsely contending that the Orthodox people are obligated to go to a rabbi instead of the police, when that is not what the rabbinic ruling said at all. 

While The Jewish Week claims that it seeking to help our community, when was the last time it reached out to assist challenged Orthodox children who are not victims of a crime? There is virtually no reportage about our children who may be learning disabled or suffering from serious disease. These poor souls, too, need our compassion and help. But, to The Jewish Week, crimeless victims seem of limited interest. Apparently, when an issue that affects the Orthodox community does not provide an opportunity to criticize or misrepresent, is ignored. 

It is true that there are Jewish people, even within our own community, who have come to distrust rabbonim on the issue of abuse. Perhaps that is why some have joined the chorus of condemnation of the ruling that a rabbi should be consulted prior to reporting to governmental authorities. But instead of denouncing the rabbonim, it would be more constructive to assist rabbis in becoming more aware of the dangers and signs of abuse. Seminars for rabbis on this issue, perhaps sponsored by the Agudah, would certainly be a step in the right direction. 

Despite the detractors, at the same time that we seek to protect our children, respect for our rabbinic leadership is paramount. Protecting our children and respecting our leaders are our solemn duties that will also lead to a more promising future.